Principally through the use of landscape archaeology, this work explores the medieval landscape of west Wales, particularly the 'cwmwd' of Gwinionydd in the central Teifi valley, Ceredigion. The main focus of the study is to recreate the 'cwmwd-maenor-tref', territorial system administered by a pre-conquest Welsh aristocracy and locate native tenures along with their specific agricultural regimes. A retroactive analysis of estate structures, such as those at Llanfair and Llanllyr, establishes their medieval antecedence and they are considered alongside the monastic granges of Whitland, Strata Florida and Talley abbeys. This project draws upon techniques including field survey, remote sensing, geophysics, mapping and terrain modelling using Geographic Information Systems and Lidar data. These are complemented by excavation to target and clarify the interpretation of the survey results. The work can be viewed as a trans-disciplinary landscape analysis that has implications for future approaches to the study of rural Wales: this successful study of an apparently inscrutable rural landscape is relevant for research and curatorial disciplines alike.

Following on from his earlier 2006 work on the suburban villas of Campania, Geoff Adams here turns his attention to the villas of the suburban environs of Rome itself. He uses both literary and archaeological evidence, but his principal method of enquiry is via a statistical survey of the architecture of the villas. Of particular interest are the ratio's of public to private space, and the percentages of space set aside for leisure and entertainment. Other types of villas (rural, urban, coastal) are also assessed, in order that the particular social functions of the suburban villa may be discerned.

Nine essays use landscape and placename studies, the survival of oral traditions and material culture to examine medieval folklore, ritual practises and the survival of pagan traditions into the Christian era. The book is the result of a conference held in COrk and there is thus a corresponding concentration on Irish evidence, although there are also essays on the medieval functions of prehistoric monuments in Spain, Estonia and Russia.

In March 2001 the world watched in disbelief as explosives of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban reduced the gigantic Buddha statues at Bamiyan to stone powder. Yet few realise that such religious zeal to 'free' the world from 'pagan' art follows an old tradition. What role did it play in transforming the colourful world of Roman paganism into medieval Christianity? All over the ancient world images have been found which bear deep scar marks from iconoclastic attacks. Beheaded statues and mutilated fragments of images, once the objects of veneration and awe, speak a language as clear as words. As Ebehard Sauer shows in this important new work, the sad material remains of what survived the onslaught of the image-haters form a powerful complement to eyewitness accounts. Archaeology helps us to understand one of the most radical changes in world history. Why was it that Christianity achieved sole domination in the West but remained a minority religion in much of Asia? Can the past help us to put the outrages of the present into context?

This study makes use of computer technology and statistical techniques to show how multivariate analysis can be of use in the study of coin hoards. Rather than attempting to answer specific questions through the use of statistics, Kris Lockyear instead tries to identifying patterns as a whole within the datasets to draw conclusions about coin supply and circulation.

This work explores the contribution of the peoples of the Barbaricum to the shaping of early medieval technology in Europe, with a particular reference to iron-making. Within this general cultural framework, the case of Lombards is analyzed in more detail, tracing the way their iron-making technological heritage developed: first, during their settlement on the Lower Elbe (first centuries AD) characterized by a Western Germanic technical culture, then, in Central Europe (AD 3rd/4th-6th), where they came into contact with a Celtic and provincial Roman substratum, and finally in Italy (second half of AD 6th to 8th). At this stage, Lombard craftsmen, who possessed the full range of technical-artisanal skills of iron-production that were integral to western Germanic culture, would have come into contact with practitioners embodying the technical knowledge of the Mediterranean heritage. This encountering of material cultures seems to have resulted in reshaping of the entire economic structure of the peninsula, with local markets becoming of primary importance.

This volume, the proceedings of a 2005 conference looks at long-distance contacts and exchange and the collapse and creation of international systems during late antiquity. Broadly the papers posit that the decay of the Roman state lead to more not less long distance contact, with the spread of world relgions and new technologies both indicators of, and causes of this process. There is a theoretical paper from Ken Dark, then a series of more specialised studies which look at trade with China, Ethiopia and India and at the use of bracteates and pottery ampullae as evidence of long-distance exchange.

The beautiful site the Romans called Vindolanda lies in south-west Northumberland, in the district of Tynedale, more or less half way between the North Sea east of Newcastle and the Irish Sea to the west of Carlisle. It is just within the boundary of the Northumberland National Park, and is a part of the World Heritage Site of Hadrian's Wall. The Wall itself was built on the whinstone ridge a mile to the north, with the fort of Housesteads two miles to the north-east, and that of Great Chesters five miles to the north-west. This book follows the site throughout its many phases of use and occupation. It explores the everyday life of those who lived and worked on the site and provides valuable new insight into the larger context of Rome's Northern Frontier: Hadrian's Wall. The translations of the Vindolanda Scrolls ('send fresh socks' etc) are also a treat!

Pottery Production, Landscape and Economy of Roman Dalmatia: Interdisciplinary approaches' offers results of work undertaken as part of the RED project - Roman Economy in Dalmatia: production, distribution and demand in the light of pottery workshops (IP-11-2013-3973). It presents interdisciplinary research carried out on the Roman sites of pottery workshops active within the coastal area of the province of Dalmatia as well as on material recovered during the excavations. The presentation revolves around three thematic units: workshops and their products together with their role in the local provincial economy, location of workshops within the landscape, and archaeometric research which connects the two. These combined approaches contribute to the study of ceramic production in the area whereas new methodological approaches to the subject allow for the placement of pottery workshops in the broader context of Roman economy and landscape and natural resources of the eastern Adriatic.

10 papers from a 2005 conference in Xanten look at issues relating to the interaction between women and the Roman army. Essays discuss the evidence for women and children around forts and whether in fact it were even permitted for women to enter a Roman fort, as well as the lives of women left at home while the husbands served in the military. Archaeological work and inscriptions are both used and geographically the collection covers both the Rhine frontier and Hadrian's wall. Papers in German and English.

This study brings a variety of approaches to bear on problems realting to fish eating, its prevalence and economic and cultural significance in classical Greece. Archaeological work is used to determine how widespread fishing was, and in which regions fishing was particularly intensive. Although the scale of fishing appears highly variable there appears to be little link between this and environmental factors. Accordingly, much of the book is given over to literary and anthropological research to determine the reasons for fish consumption, looking at the ancient classification of fish, their use in cultic practices, processes of distribution and marketing, and the relationship between fish consumption and social class.

One of the odder (and uglier or cuter dependent on your point of view) styles of Roman pottery is clearly the face pot - literally pots with facial features attatched in relief. This study creates a type series for such pots in the western provinces of the empire, and in doing so attempts to answer questions such as - What were their origins, Who or what did they represent and how were they used. The study also examines the distribution and dissemination across Europe and investigates their links with the army.

In Unwritten Rome, a new book by the author of Myths of Rome, T.P. Wiseman presents us with an imaginative and appealing picture of the early society of pre-literary Rome-as a free and uninhibited world in which the arts and popular entertainments flourished. This original angle allows the voice of the Roman people to be retrieved empathetically from contemporary artefacts and figured monuments, and from selected passages of later literature.How do you understand a society that didn't write down its own history? That is the problem with early Rome, from the Bronze Age down to the conquest of Italy around 300 BC. The texts we have to use were all written centuries later, and their view of early Rome is impossibly anachronistic. But some possibly authentic evidence may survive, if we can only tease it out - like the old story of a Roman king acting as a magician, or the traditional custom that may originate in the practice of ritual prostitution. This book consists of eighteen attempts to find such material and make sense of it.

A large collection of 33 papers which cover a wide range of topics relating to the Late Roman military. Essays look at aspects of military reforms, of military strategy, from the broad picture to individual campaigns, at the administration and economic realties of the army, and at military architecture and particularly at the excavation of several military sites. Ultimately a picture is built up of change from Roman to Byzantine. Essays mostly in English with 5 in French and 2 in Italian.

This is the first study of ancient theatre and performance around the coasts of the Black Sea. It brings together key specialists around the region with well-established international scholars on theatre and the Black Sea, from a wide range of disciplines, especially archaeology, drama and history. In that way the wealth of material found around these great coasts is brought together with the best methodology in all fields of study. This landmark book broadens the whole concept and range of theatre outside Athens. It shows ways in which the colonial world of the Black Sea may be compared importantly with Southern Italy and Sicily in terms of theatre and performance. At the same time, it shows too how the Black Sea world itself can be better understood through a focus on the development of theatre and performance there, both among Greeks and among their local neighbours.

Ex Asia Minor et Syria: Religions in the Roman Central Balkans investigates the cults of Asia Minor and Syrian origin in the Roman provinces of the Central Balkans. The author presents, analyzes and interprets all hitherto known epigraphical and archaeological material which attests to the presence of Asia Minor and Syrian cults in that region, a subject which is yet to be the object of a serious scholarly study. Thus the book both reviews previously known monuments and artefacts, many of which are now missing or are destroyed, and adds new finds, exploring their social and geographical context from all possible angles, and focusing on the thoughts and beliefs of the dedicants and devotees of the particular cult in question. New conclusions are presented in a scientific framework, taking account of the latest theoretical developments.

'For weeks after his Christian baptism and confirmation into the Church of England Martin presented a vivid sight as he walked briskly along the Oxford streets. Dressed in white trousers and white open neck shirt (no jersey or jacket in even the coldest weather) and long white hair, it was a striking statement of a new life that would easily have been recognised by those early Christians who were clothed in white robes after their baptism in font or riverMartin is especially well placed, by virtue of his long-standing academic interests and his personal convictions, to build a picture of Christianity in Roman Britain. He has, after all, written about many of the crucial pieces of evidence. He can give us a clear and comprehensive survey of art in the age of Constantine. He can also identify and trace the difference that Christianity made to that art. Religion in the Roman world was highly diverse, but there were elements within it which lent themselves to a later, Christian interpretation, such as the myth of Bellerophon and the Chimera. There was also an implicit longing as expressed in Sol Invictus, which found its fulfillment in Christ the unconquered victor over sin and death, the sun which will never set. The classical heritage of myth and story was part of the education of a Roman gentlemen, the paidea, even when the empire became Christian, but a Christian could see in at least some of it a pointer and foreshadowing of Christ. Martin is able to see it in this way too. There are some in the modern world who like to stress the great gulf, the sharp difference between Christianity and other faiths. Martin shows that for the church in the fourth century the continuities and fulfillments were just as important. The 44-page bibliography of his writings is substantial evidence to the range and depth of Martin's work: a scholar's scholar indeed. So I feel specially honoured to have been invited to write this short preface to these essays honouring him.' (Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford). Contents: R. Bradley: Roman Interpretations of the Prehistoric Past; M. Aldhouse-Green: Monsters on the Rocks: Iconography of Transformation at Camonica Valley; E. Sauer: Native deities in southern Germany in the Roman period; C. Clay: Before there were Angles, Saxons and Jutes: an epigraphic study of the Germanic social, religious and linguistic relations on Hadrian's Wall; A. B. Marsden: Some sing of Alexander and some of Hercules: artistic echoes of Hercules and Alexander the Great on coins and medallions, A.D. 260-269; J. Boardman: Roman Gems: Problems of Date and Identity; J. Bagnall Smith: Four Miniature Swords from Harlow and others known from Roman Britain; V. Platt Burning Butterflies: Seals, Symbols and the Soul in Antiquity; L. Gilmour: The Face of an Angel; M. Darling: A Depiction of the Organ from Roman Britain; C. Johns; The Wroxeter Isis gem: an update; C. Thomas A curious piece of Granite; D. M. Bailey: A Collar for a God: an Egyptianising scene on a fragment of Roman cameo glass; C. Sparey-Green: Foot Impressions on a House Floor in Dorchester: a Divine Presence in Durnovaria?; K. Sutton and S. Worrell: Roman religious objects recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Oxfordshire and elsewhere; A. Cruse: Dioscorides of Anazarbus (fl . A.D. 70): from Mithridates to the Middle Ages; R. Isserlin: Some leaves from the invisible archive; G. Seidmann: Greville Chester? - Who was he?; D. Howlett: Continuities from Roman Britain; M. Biddle and B. Kjbye-Biddle: Winchester: from Venta to Wintancaestir; J. Onians: The Romsey roods: Christ, rods, and the geography of religion; J. Bertram From Duccius to Daubernoun: Ancient Antecedents of Monumental Brass Design: B. Gilmour Sub-Roman or Saxon, Pagan or Christian: who was buried in the early cemetery at St. Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln?; M. J. Florence: 'Le Conte du Graal' by Chretien de Troyes; G. Soffe: The Romanesque Font at Portchester; J. Blair: The 13th-century seal-matrix of Henley rural deanery; S. Watney: The Lily-Crucifi xion in Late Medieval English Art; K. Heard: Image and Identity in English Episcopal Seals, 1450-1550; M. Vickers: Saints Martin of Tours and Thomas of Canterbury in Urbino; L. Keen: Christ Crucified, Christ Risen: medieval ceramic tiles; L. Golden: A fantasia of Pagan myth in the Villa Farnesina: Agostino Chigi's homage to his lover, Imperia; A. MacGregor: The Cult of Master John Shorne; M. Campbell: An eagle lectern of the Gothic Revival at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; J. Munby: Two Oxford Engravings: Archaeology and the University in the 18th century; N. Ramsay: An English Monastic Profession-Vow; J. M. Steane: Chests, Cupboards and Boxes: a study of some of the methods used by Magdalen College, Oxford to store and retrieve information in the Late Medieval Period; C. Finn A Roman Pilgrimage.

This book examines archaeological and historical evidence for the socio-economic organization of the kingdom of East Kent, England, as a territorial and social system during the Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon period (AD 400-900). Explicit archaeological and theoretical frameworks are considered to propose a hierarchical model of the spatial organization of communities as a way of providing a micro-economic casestudy of state formation.

This study, a revisiting of the author's PhD thesis, looks at Royal landholding in the Wessex shires of Hampshire and Dorset in the later Anglo-Saxon period. It analyses the techniques used for estate management across the different categories of landholding and examines the role of role agents. Of primary importance is evidence from Domesday Book backed up with other charters and wills. Ultimately conclusions are drawn about the nature of Royal power and the development of the Anglo-Saxon state.

This short monograph surveys the current state of archaeological thinking on the early medieval town, using case studies from northern Italy. Topics under discussion include the extent of de-urbanisation, the continuity or otherwise of trade and commerce, Christianisation and its effect on town layout and the wider landscape, increased fortifications and differences in construction techniques. Overall Gonella concludes that the evidence points very much to an 'age of transition'.

The idea of organised mass travel is one that does not really come about until the High Middle Ages, and this study looks at the mechanics of travel before then. It asks questions such as who travelled and why and examines the principle routes between England and Rome and the problems experienced by travellers over land during this period. The appendices contain lists of the known travellers to Rome and their routes, and a documentary appendix of sources which describe such travel.

Subtitled "Hungarian noble residences and their social context from the thirteenth through to the sixteenth century: an outline for methodology." This work aims to set up a research agenda to show how archaeology can contribute to an interdisciplinary study of society in the later Middle Ages, in this case in terms of a survey of the possibilities of using archaeology to study Hungarian nobility from the point of view of their living conditions and the functions of their residences. The author, drawn to this theme through an excavation in Pomaz (west of Budapest) in 1995, investigates the co-existence of various settlement types from the point of view of manorial buildings.