"A cornucopia of our weirdest and most wonderful archaeological sites and artefacts. They make you feel proud to be a citizen of these gloriously intriguing isles." Sir Tony Robinson An Ice Age cannibal’s skull cup, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold, a seventeenth century witch bottle… anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota unearths more than 70 of Britain's most intriguing ancient places and artefacts and explores the mysteries behind them. Britain is full of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but small, strange places and objects that hint at a deep and enduring relationship with the mystic. Secret Britain offers an expertly guided tour of Britain’s most fascinating mysteries: archaeological sites and artefacts that take us deep into the lives of the many different peoples who have inhabited the island over the millennia. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wonders include buried treasure, stone circles and geoglyphs, outdoor places of worship, caves filled with medieval carvings, and enigmatic tools to divine the future. Explore famous sites such as Stonehenge and Glastonbury, but also discover: The Lindow Man bog body, showing neatly trimmed hair and manicured fingernails despite having been killed 2,000 years ago The Uffington White Horse, a horse-shaped geoglyph maintained by an unbroken chain of people for 3,000 years A roman baby’s bronze cockerel, an underworld companion for a two-year-old who died sometime between AD 100–200 St Leonard’s Ossuary, home to 1,200 skulls and a vast stack of human bones made up of around 2,000 people who died from the 1200s to the 1500s The Wenhaston Doom painting, an extraordinary medieval depiction of the Last Judgement painted on a chancel arch Explore Britain’s secret history and discover why these places still resonate today.

Roman Reflections uses a series of detailed and deeply researched case studies to explore how Roman society connected with and influenced Northern Europe during the Iron and Viking Ages. In an original way, the book brings late prehistoric Denmark - best known for its so-called 'bog bodies' - into a world dominated by textual histories, principally that of Tacitus. The studies include a new examination of the bog-bodies of the late first millennium BC, a classical archaeological puzzle: men, women and children murdered yet respected in death and adorned with items of fine clothing. A second essay challenges traditionally held ideas about the Cimbri by exploring the textual and archaeological evidence, including the startling and famous European artefact, the Gundestrup silver cauldron. The other studies comprise an archaeologically founded modernist discussion of the ethnography of Tacitus' Germania, in particular considering the character of ancient Germanic Bronze and Iron Age societies; a linguistic exploration of the Latin inheritance in northern European names and places, much of which seems to have been invented by the Romans; and an analysis of the origins of the Danes. Throughout, traditional sources and history are presented in conjunction with new archaeological observations and interpretations. In an accessible way, Roman Reflections assesses Denmark's part on a larger stage, showing how foundations were laid for its zenith in Viking times.

The nucleus of society is situated at the local level: in the village, the neighborhood, the city district. This is where a community first develops collective rules that are intended to ensure its continued existence. The contributors look at such configurations in geographical areas and time periods that lie outside of the modern Western world with its particular development of society and statehood: in Antiquity and in the Global South of the present. Here states tend to be weak, with obvious challenges and opportunities for local communities. How does governance in this context work? Scholars from various disciplines (Classics, Theology, Political Science, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Human Geography, Sinology) analyze different kinds of local arrangements in case studies, and they do so with a comparative approach. The sixteen papers examine the scope and spatial contingency of forms of self-governance; its legitimization and the collective identity of the groups behind them; the relations to different levels of state governance as well as to other local groups. Overall, this volume makes an interdisciplinary contribution to a better understanding of fundamental elements of local governance and statehood.

This book is the first-ever monograph on clustering patterns in prehistoric settlements. It not only theoretically explains the difference between natural settlement communities and organizational forms for the first time, but also demonstrates the importance of understanding this difference in practical research. Based on extensive archaeological data from China and focusing on the evolution of prehistoric settlements and changing social relations, the book completely breaks with the globally popular research mode which is based on the assumption that settlement archaeology has nothing to do with prehistoric social organization. In terms of research methods, the book also abandons the globally popular method of measuring the grade and importance of settlements according to their size and the value of the unearthed objects. Instead, it focuses on understanding settlements' attributes from the combined perspective of the group and individuals. On the one hand, the book proves that the clustering patterns in prehistoric settlement sites reflect the organizational forms of the time; on the other, it demonstrates that historical research focusing on the organizational forms of prehistoric societies is closer to the historical reality and of more scientific value. The intended readership includes graduates and researchers in the field of archaeology, or those who are interested in cultural relics and prehistoric settlements.

Ireland is a country rich in archaeological sites. Ireland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide provides the ultimate handbook to this fascinating heritage. Covering the entire island of Ireland, from Antrim to Wexford, Dublin to Sligo, the book contains over 250 plans and illustrations of Ireland's major archaeological treasures and covers sites dating from the time of the first settlers in prehistoric times right up to the seventeenth century. The book opens with a useful introduction to the history of Ireland, setting the archaeological material in its wider historical context, and then takes the reader on an unparalleled journey through the major sites and places of interest. Each chapter focuses on a particular geographical region and is introduced by a useful survey of the history and geography of the region in question. This is followed by detailed descriptions of the major archaeological sites within each region, arranged alphabetically and including travel directions, historical overview of the site, and details of the site's major features and the latest available archaeological evidence. As the most comprehensive and detailed compact guide to the archaeological sites of Ireland, this new volume will prove invaluable to archaeologists, students of Irish history, and tourists alike.

This book offers an in-depth description and analysis of Chinese coin-like charms, which date back to the second century CE and which continued to be used until mid 20th century. This work is unique in that it provides an archaeological and analytical interpretation of the content of these metallic objects: inscriptive, pictorial or both. As the component chapters show, these coin-like objects represent a wealth of Chinese traditional folk beliefs, including but not limited to family values, social obligations and religious desires. The book presents a collection of contributed chapters, gathering a diverse range of perspectives and expertise from some of the world's leading scholars in the fields of archaeology, religious studies, art history, language and museology. The background of the cover image is a page from Guang jin shi yun fu , a rhyming dictionary first published in the ninth year of the Kangxi Reign (1652 CE). The metal charm dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), depicting two deities traditionally believed to possess the majic power of suppressing evil spirits. The stich-bound book in the foreground is a collection of seal impressions from the beginning of the 20th century. Its wooden press board is inscribed da ji xiang by Fang Zhi-bin in the year of bing yin (1926 CE).

Many modern cats are descendants of the cats of ancient Egypt. These beautiful creatures thus represent a living link between the modern world and the ancient Egyptian civilization. Cats in Egypt were probably domesticated by around 4,000 BC, from wild ancestors. Over the following centuries, they became popular household pets; they are regularly shown in tomb paintings of family life. They were also seen as manifestations of the goddess Bastet, and Dr Malek draws on a vast range of artistic and written sources to show how they became one of the most widely-esteemed and revered animals in Egypt. In the Late Period, enormous numbers of mummified cats were buried with honours, and bronze statuettes of cats were dedicated to temples during religious festivals. Dr Malek ends by describing how cats fared in Egypt in the post-pharaonic period. Cats remain popular in Egypt today; the contract between cats and humans, entered into in Egyptian villages thousands of years ago, is still very much in action.

Nearly 13,000 years ago millions of people and animals were wiped out, and the world plunged abruptly into a new ice-age. It was more than a thousand years before the climate, and mankind, recovered. The people of Gobekli Tepe in present-day southern Turkey, whose ancestors witnessed this catastrophe, built a megalithic monument formed of many hammer-shaped pillars decorated with symbols as a memorial to this terrible event. Before long, they also invented agriculture, and their new farming culture spread rapidly across the continent, signalling the arrival of civilisation. Before abandoning Gobekli Tepe thousands of years later, they covered it completely with rubble to preserve the greatest and most important story ever told for future generations. Archaeological excavations began at the site in 1994, and we are now able to read their story, more amazing than any Hollywood plot, again for the first time in over 10,000 years. It is a story of survival and resurgence that allows one of the world's greatest scientific puzzles - the meaning of ancient artworks, from the 40,000 year-old Lion-man figurine of Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany to the Great Sphinx of Giza - to be solved. We now know what happened to these people. It probably had happened many times before and since, and it could happen again, to us. The conventional view of prehistory is a sham; we have been duped by centuries of misguided scholarship. The world is actually a much more dangerous place than we have been led to believe. The old myths and legends, of cataclysm and conflagration, are surprisingly accurate. We know this because, at last, we can read an extremely ancient code assumed by scholars to be nothing more than depictions of wild animals. A code hiding in plain sight that reveals we have hardly changed in 40,000 years. A code that changes everything.

This book is a definitive architectural study of Roman theatre architecture. In nine chapters it brings together a massive amount of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic information under one cover. It also contains a full catalogue of all known Roman theatres, including a number of odea (concert halls) and bouleuteria (council chambers) which are relevant to the architectural discussion, about 1,000 entries in all. Inscriptional or literary evidence relating to each theatre is listed and there is an up-to-date bibliography for each building. Most importantly the book contains plans of over 500 theatres or buildings of theatrical type, as well as numerous text figures and nearly 200 figures and plates.

This book brings together our present-day knowledge about textile terminology in the Akkadian language of the first-millennium BC. In fact, the progress in the study of the Assyrian dialect and its grammar and lexicon has shown the increasing importance of studying the language as well as cataloging and analysing the terminology of material culture in the documentation of the first world empire. The book analyses the terms for raw materials, textile procedures, and textile end products consumed in first-millennium BC Assyria. In addition, a new edition of a number of written records from Neo-Assyrian administrative archives completes the work. The book also contains a number of tables, a glossary with all the discussed terms, and a catalogue of illustrations. In light of the recent development of textile research in ancient languages, the book is aimed at providing scholars of Ancient Near Eastern studies and ancient textile studies with a comprehensive work on the Assyrian textiles.

Describing the natural state of eight important lakes in Asia and the human impact on these lake ecosystems, this book offers a valuable reference guide. Over the past several decades the Aral Sea, Dead Sea, Lake Balkhash and other major lakes in Asia have undergone significant changes with regard to their size, water level, chemical composition, and flora and fauna. Most of these changes resulted from the loss of water from tributaries (now used for irrigation farming) or increasing consumption in local industries and households. However, significant human impacts may have begun as early as 2000 years ago. In addition to the three lakes mentioned above, Lake Sevan (Armenia), the Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan), Lake Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan), and Lake Lop Nur (China) are discussed as the most prominent examples of changing lake ecosystems. In contrast, an example of an almost pristine lake ecosystem is included with the report on Lake Uvs Nuur (Mongolia). For each lake, the book summarizes its origin and early geological history, and reconstructs its natural state and variability on the basis of proxy records from drilled or exposed lake sediments that have accumulated since the last ice age. The frequently observed reductions in lake level and size during most recent decades led often to significant environmental impacts in the respective lake catchments including vegetation deterioration, soil erosion and badland formation, soil salinization or the formation of sinkholes.

This book elaborates on the distinctive characteristics as well as the archaeological, historical and artistic value of Liangzhu pottery, welcoming readers to the wonderful world of Liangzhu by introducing them to its origin, type, design, decoration, evolution and processing technology. It also presents the types of pottery that people in Liangzhu used daily to eat, drink, and bury their dead. Thanks to a wealth of photos taken at the archaeological site, readers can admire the color, decorative patterns, types and shapes of unearthed pottery. The book vividly reveals the lifestyle, aesthetics and level of scientific-technical development in Liangzhu society 5000 years ago.

"If you have ever wondered about the Indian tribes who lived in the American Southeast at the time of European settlement, this book is for you. . . . Eleven of the nation's top historical archaeologists tackle eleven of the Indian nations that occupied the territory from Florida to Texas. They include some of the best known but little-understood American tribes--the Cherokee, the Natchez, and the Caddo."--"American Archaeology"

"A critically needed summary of current knowledge of southeastern Native Americans during the colonial encounter. . . . For historians, archaeologists, and ethnohistorians, this is a valuable source of information which was previously hard to find."--Elizabeth J. Reitz, University of Georgia

"This important volume will be of interest to anyone, whether scholar or layman, who wants to learn about the Indians of the southeastern United States. The authors are among the most respected authorities on the Indian societies chosen for inclusion."--Chester B. DePratter, University of South Carolina

This volume brings together a stellar group of scholars to summarize what we know of the development of native American cultures in the southeastern United States after 1500. The authors integrate archaeological, documentary, and ethnohistorical evidence in the most comprehensive examination of diverse southeastern Indian cultures published in decades.

Contents
Introduction by Bonnie G. McEwan
1. The Timucua Indians of Northern Florida and Southern Georgia, by Jerald T. Milanich
2. The Guale Indians of the Lower Atlantic Coast: Change and Continuity, by Rebecca Saunders
3. The Apalachee Indians of Northwest Florida, by Bonnie G. McEwan
4. The Chickasaws, by Jay K. Johnson
5. The Caddo of the Trans-Mississippi South, by Ann M. Early
6. The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, by Karl G. Lorenz
7. The Quapaw Indians of Arkansas, 1673-1803, by George Sabo III
8. Cherokee Ethnohistory and Archaeology, by Gerald F. Schroedl
9. Upper Creek Archaeology, by Gregory A. Waselkov and Marvin T. Smith
10. The Lower Creeks: Origins and Early History, by John E. Worth
11. Archaeological Perspectives on Florida Seminole Ethnogenesis, by Brent R. Weisman
This title is published in conjunction with the Society for Historical Archaeology
Bonnie G. McEwan is director of archaeology at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee, Florida. Her publications include "The Spanish Missions of La Florida, The Apalachee Indians and Mission San Luis" (with John H. Hann), and numerous monographs and journal articles.

This is the first synthesis on Egyptian enigmatic writing (also referred to as "cryptography") in the New Kingdom (c.1550-1070 BCE). Enigmatic writing is an extended practice of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, set against immediate decoding and towards revealing additional levels of meaning. This first volume consists of studies by the main specialists in the field. The second volume is a lexicon of all attested enigmatic signs and values.

This book proposes a new model and scheme of analysis for complex burial material and applies it to the prehistoric archaeological record of the Liangshan region in Southwest China that other archaeologists have commonly given a wide berth, regarding it as too patchy, too inhomogeneous, and overall too unwieldy to work with. The model treats burials as composite objects, considering the various elements separately in their respective life histories. The application of this approach to the rich and diverse archaeological record of the Liangshan region serves as a test of this new form of analysis. This volume thus pursues two main aims: to advance the understanding of the archaeology of the immediate study area which has been little examined, and to present and test a new scheme of analysis that can be applied to other bodies of material.

This study presents the first comprehensive reconstruction of the 'New Jerusalem' Scroll from the Dead Sea, through integration of all the known fragments into a single entity. Secret ceremonies in the temple are discussed; an architectural reconstruction of the elements described in the scroll is presented, accompanied by computerized plans; a consideration of the tradition of planning the ideal city leads to an examination of the use of metrology, mathematics; and a number mysticism in the plan of the 'New Jerusalem'. A comparison is also made with the traditions of building orthogonal cities in Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Holy Land, as manifested in archaeological findings.>

This book surveys four thousand years of pottery production and presents totally unexpected fresh information, using technical and analytical methods. It provides a study of ancient pottery of Jerusalem, from the earliest settlement to the medieval city and brings to light important aspects that cannot be discovered by the commonly accepted morphological pottery descriptions. Thus, third millennium BCE pottery appears to have been produced by nomadic families, mb ceramics were made by professional potters in the Wadi Refaim, the pottery market of the IA.II pottery cannot be closely dated and is still produced during the first centuries after the exile. The new shapes are made by Greek immigrant potters. The book contains a chapter on the systematics of ceramic studies and numerous notes about the potters themselves. H. J. Franken is Emeritus Professor at the State University Leiden, The Netherlands.

This book clarifies the advent of Liangzhu Culture and analyses the morphology, structure and internal social organization of grass-root settlements, medium-size settlements and the ancient city of Liangzhu, as well as the religious beliefs, ideology and power mechanisms represented by jade. Further, the book explains how the low-lying location and humid environment in the water-net plain area prompted the creation of man-made platforms or pillars, forming small and densely settled residential areas, and ultimately the water villages of southern China. Developments between man and nature accelerated the process of civilization, leading to the polarization of social classes and pyramid-shaped residential structures containing cities, towns and villages. Offering unique insights into the social vitality and structure of Liangzhu society, the book is one of the most important academic works on interpreting the origins of Liangzhu Civilization and investigating Chinese Civilization.

Correcting the notion that French influence in the Americas was confined mostly to Quebec and New Orleans, this collection reveals a wide range of vibrant French-speaking communities in the Americas both during and long after the end of French colonial rule. Analyzing artifacts including clay pipes, colonoware, and food remains alongside a rich body of historical records, contributors focus on how French descendants impacted North America, the Caribbean, and South America even after 1763. They argue that communities do not need to be located in French colonies or contain French artifacts to be considered Francophone, and they show that many Francophone groups were composed of a complex mix of ethnic French, Metis, Native Americans, and African Americans. This volume emphasizes that French colonists and their descendants have played an important role in New World histories.

Most of the literature dealing with the origins of modern humans concentrates on the European sequence, where the Levant is referred to in passing as being problematic because it does not fit with the sequence of events documented in Europe. This is the first book that attempts to examine the issues specifically from the Levant, viewing it as central rather than peripheral to the problem. It also discusses in some depth the ramifications of possible interactions between the different hominids in the region.

Rather than viewing the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic as the time at which fully modern adaptive systems came to the forefront, emphasis is placed on the Middle Paleolithic itself in order to test hypotheses that hominids of this period were culturally archaic. Through an analysis of the archaeological evidence, it is concluded that by at least 100,000 years ago people of the period, usually regarded as being somewhat less than human were, on the contrary, fully modern in terms of their behavioral and cultural systems. This conclusion applies to both the Neanderthals and their anatomically modern contemporaries. The author further concludes that the cultural and behavioral differences between the two types were minimal and that there was a potential for interaction and acculturation between them. The possibility is raised that the Near East is the region in which modern human cultural adaptation arose and then dispersed to other regions.

“This is the most important of my books, and the one by which I most hope to be remembered – if I may hope to be remembered at all!� Amelia B Edwards, 1877. A chance visit to Egypt in 1873 by Amelia Edwards changed the future of British Egyptology forever. Her travelogue, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, would inspire generations to take up her cause to support and promote Egyptian cultural heritage. This modern reprint is accompanied by a new introduction by Carl Graves (the Egypt Exploration Society) and Anna Garnett (The Petrie Museum, UCL) reflecting on Amelia’s life and its legacy in Egyptology today. The original text is complimented by colour images of Amelia’s artwork made during or shortly after her travels, which have only previously been reproduced as black and white engravings. This is no ordinary reprint, but an essential companion to the best-seller.

Relying heavily on primary literary sources and archaeological scholarship, this study sheds new light on the development of towns in early England from late Roman to late Anglo-Saxon times. After a discussion of the problems of urban definition and typology, Russo examines the background of Romano-British urbanism in its prime and in its late Roman transformations. He demonstrates that late Roman towns were virtually abandoned before the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The emporia--new types of Anglo-Saxon towns--are analyzed on the basis of written and archaeological evidence and are compared with continental emporia. Finally, the origin and growth of the Anglo-Saxon burgh is considered from its eighth-century Mercian beginnings to the better known cases of King Alfred and his successors.

This book presents selected academic papers addressing five key research areas - archaeology, history, language, culture and arts - related to the Malay Civilisation. It outlines new findings, interpretations, policies, methodologies and theories that were presented at the International Seminar on Archaeology, History, and Language in the Malay Civilisation (ASBAM5) in 2016. Further, it provides new perspectives and serves as a vital point of reference for all researchers, students, policymakers and legislators who have an interest in the Malay Civilisation.