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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > European archaeology
In Mikulcice and Its Hinterland, Marek Hladik presents an archaeological model of social and economic relations in Great Moravia, which is built on an analysis of the settlement structure near one of the most significant centres of Great Moravia, the Mikulcice-Valy agglomeration. The book offers the first systematic and conceptual view of Mikulcice's relations with its economic hinterland. The author uses multidisciplinary research to interpret and understand the importance of the natural environment for the landscape settlement strategy, and to understand the relations between the fortified centre and its rural surroundings. Important methodological tools used by the author to answer the examined questions include non-destructive archaeological research, statistical modelling, and spatial analyses in the GIS environment.
In this book Michael Morris presents a detailed study of the prehistoric landscape in three regions of Crete. He examines the development, stability, and physio-chemical composition of selected soils near three archaeological sites: Karphi, a Late Minoan IIIC "Refuge Site"; Chrysokamino, a Final Neolithic to Late Minoan IIIB Farmhouse; Vronda and Kastro near Kavousi, two Late Minoan IIIC to Geometric Sites. Morris offers conclusions on the history of the Cretan landscape and its formation processes, and how those processes contribute to our understanding of the human use of the landscape. The book will interest anyone involved with the archaeology of Minoan Crete, as well as those who study the pedological history of other regions.
A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor's past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing animals to different pastures. In the Middle Ages, intensive practical use was made of Dartmoor's resources. Its extensive moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time, the social organisation and farming practices associated with this annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the moor. Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.
A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor's past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing animals to different pastures. In the Middle Ages, intensive practical use was made of Dartmoor's resources. Its extensive moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time, the social organisation and farming practices associated with this annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the moor. Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.
The Viking ship is one of the most iconic images of the Viking Age. As well as including well-known vessels such as the spectacular ship-burials from Gokstad and Oseberg in southern Norway, Viking Ships introduces the newly-conserved Roskilde 6 ship from Denmark. Measuring at over 37 metres, this is the longest Viking ship ever discovered and will form the core of the touring exhibition Vikings: life and legend. The Vikings used their shipbuilding skills to command the sea; their famous ships permitted the exploration, colonization and the raids for which they are best known. This book will explore the evolution of their sea-going vessels and celebrate this outstanding feature of the Viking Age.
This monograph is the definitive survey of iron tools and other fittings in use during the period c1066 to 1540AD. Exceptional in a north-western European context for its range and coverage of artefacts from both rural and urban excavations, much of the material described here was recovered during 'rescue' projects in the 1960s and 1970s funded by the State through the Ministry of Public Works and Buildings and their successors. The text contains almost everything necessary to identify, date and understand medieval iron objects. In scope and detail there is still no published parallel and, as such, it will be essential for almost any archaeologist working in later medieval archaeology, particularly in the fields of excavation, finds study, museums and research.
From Caria to English country houses and iconography to architectural reconstruction, over the past 40 years Geoffrey Waywell has transformed our understanding of Greek sculpture and opened the way for new generations of scholars. In this volume, a celebration of his career on the occasion of his retirement, past and present students, friends and colleagues explore ideas, monuments and regions which reflect the great breadth of his research interests. Essays range from iconographical studies of Myron's Discobolos, to the reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, an exploration of the role of attribution, and a celebration of one of the works saved for the nation on Geoffrey Waywell's advice, the Jennings dog now in the British Museum.
Made from Bronze with eyes inlaid with glass pupils set in metal rings, the 'Meroe Head' is a magnificent portrait of Julius Caesar's great nephew and adopted heir Augustus (63 BC-AD 14). Once forming part of a statue of Rome's revered first true emperor - one of many such statues that were erected in Egyptian towns - the head was violently separated from the body and carried away in triumph by ancient Meroitic tribesman shortly after its creation. For nearly two millennia it remained buried in front of a temple in their capital city of Meroe (modern Sudan), so that worshippers ritually had to trample the face of the supreme leader of Rome. The head was recovered in 1910 and remarkably well preserved, is one of the British Museum's most treasured objects. This book reveals the significance of the head in light of Augustus' rise to power and the role of portraits in the Roman world. Accompanied by a series of new photographs that highlight the wonderful, dramatic qualities of the head, this is an absorbing introduction about a portrait which was made as a continuous reminder of the all-embracing power of Rome, yet whose fate is a graphic illustration of resistance to its rule.
The British Archaeological Association's 2007 conference celebrated the material culture of medieval Coventry, the fourth wealthiest English city of the later middle ages. The nineteen papers collected in this volume set out to remedy the relative neglect in modern scholarship of the city's art, architecture and archaeology, as well as to encompass recent research on monuments in the vicinity. The scene is set by two papers on archaeological excavations in the historic city centre, especially since the 1970s, and a paper investigating the relationships between Coventry's building boom and economic conditions in the city in the later middle ages. Three papers on the Cathedral Priory of St Mary bring together new insights into the Romanesque cathedral church, the monastic buildings and the post-Dissolution history of the precinct, derived mainly from the results of the Phoenix Initiative excavations (19992003). Three more papers provide new architectural histories of the spectacular former parish church of St Michael, the fine Guildhall of St Mary and the remarkable surviving west range of the Coventry Charterhouse. The high-quality monumental art of the later medieval city is represented by papers on wall-painting (featuring the recently conserved Doom in Holy Trinity church), on the little-known Crucifixion mural at the Charterhouse, and on a reassessment of the working practices of the famous master-glazier, John Thornton. Two papers on a guild seal and on the glazing at Stanford on Avon parish church consider the evidence for Coventry as a regional workshop centre for high quality metalwork and glass-painting. Beyond the city, three papers deal with the development of Combe Abbey from Cistercian monastery to country house, with the Beauchamp family's hermitage at Guy's Cliffe, and with a newly identified stonemasons' workshop in the 'barn' at Kenilworth Abbey. Two further papers concern the architectural patronage of the earls and dukes of Lancaster in the 14th century at Kenilworth Castle and in the Newarke at Leicester Castle.
Across the Roman Empire, ubiquitous archaeological, art historical, and literary evidence attests to the significance of bathing for Romans' routines and relationships. Public baths were popularly viewed as necessities of daily life and important social venues. Given the importance of bathing to the Roman style of living, by endowing eight magnificent baths (the so-called imperial thermae) in the city of Rome between 25 BCE - 315 CE, imperial patrons greatly enhanced their popular and political stature. Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae presents a detailed analysis of the extensive decoration of the best preserved of these bathing complexes, the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE). Maryl B. Gensheimer takes an interdisciplinary approach to existing archaeological data, textual and visual sources, and anthropological theories in order to generate a new understanding of the visual experience of the Baths of Caracalla and show how the decoration played a critical role in advancing imperial agendas. This reassessment of one of the most ambitious and sophisticated examples of large-scale architectural patronage in Classical antiquity examines the specific mechanisms through which an imperial patron could use architectural decoration to emphasize his own unique sociopolitical position relative to the thousands of people who enjoyed his benefaction. The case studies addressed herein-ranging from architectural to freestanding sculpture and mosaic-demonstrate that sponsoring monumental baths was hardly an act of altruism. Rather, even while they provided recreation for elite and sub-altern Romans alike, such buildings were concerned primarily with dynastic legitimacy and imperial largess. Decorative programs articulated these themes by consistently drawing analogies between the subjects of the decoration and the emperor who had paid for it. The unified decorative program-and the messages of imperial power therein-adroitly honored the emperor and consolidated his reputation.
The essays in this volume are devoted to the art and architecture of Munster, one of the four ancient provinces of Ireland. A major theme underpinning many of the essays is the degree to which Irish craftsmen and builders engaged with the rest of Europe, and the nature of their relationship with English practice. The extent to which the advent of Gothic was a colonial phenomenon, an inevitable consequence of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland after 1170, is likewise considered, so too the extent to which Ireland developed its own identity in architecture and sculpture in the later middle ages. While travellers from abroad regarded Ireland as one of the most remote regions of the western world, situated at the end of the earth, these essays make it clear that the province of Munster was still very much an integral part of Christian Europe.
This book examines the social role of castles in late-medieval and early modern Ireland. It uses a multidisciplinary methodology to uncover the lived experience of this historic culture, demonstrating the interconnectedness of society, economics and the environment. Of particular interest is the revelation of how concerned pre-modern people were with participation in the economy and the exploitation of the natural environment for economic gain. Material culture can shed light on how individuals shaped spaces around themselves, and tower houses, thanks to their pervasiveness in medieval and modern landscapes, represent a unique resource. Castles are the definitive building of the European Middle Ages, meaning that this book will be of great interest to scholars of both history and archaeology. -- .
This volume is dedicated to the remarkable flourishing of art and architecture in Bohemia, and Prague in particular, as it became the political centre of Charles IV's Holy Roman Empire. A focus is on cultural exchange, and the links which can be traced through the artwork across Europe. Topics and buildings under discussion include Prague Cathedral, St Bartholomew's in Kyje, Karlstein Castle, St Stephen's Vienna, aristocratic patronage, chasuble iconography and the Zderad column in Brno.
This investigation relies on a rash bet: to write the biography of two of the most famous statues in Antiquity, the Tyrannicides. Representing the murderers of the tyrant Hipparchus in full action, these statues erected on the Agora of Athens have been in turn worshipped, outraged, and imitated. They have known hours of glory and moments of hardships, which have transformed them into true icons of Athenian democracy. The subject of this book is the remarkable story of this group statue and the ever-changing significance of its tyrant-slaying subjects. The first part of this book, in six chapters, tells the story of the murder of Hipparchus and of the statues of the two tyrannicides from the end of the sixth century to the aftermath of the restoration of democracy in 403. The second part, in three chapters, chronicles the fate and influence of the statues from the fourth century to the end of the Roman Empire. These chapters are followed by an epilogue that reveals new life for the statues in modern art and culture, including how Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union made use of their iconography. By tracing the long trajectory of the tyrannicides - in deed and art - Azoulay provides a rich and fascinating microhistory that will be of interest to readers of classical art and history.
The Temple of Athena at Sounion has long been recognized as one of the most unusual buildings in the architectural history of Greece. Its plan, with columns uniquely on the front and only one side, is unparalleled in the Greek world. Excavations of the temple and other buildings there, however, were complicated by the fact that many architectural pieces from the site had been reused in a Roman temple in the Athenian Agora. Here, Barletta provides a fascinating examination of the early excavations at Sounion, the debate over who was worshipped at the so-called Small Temple within the sanctuary, the varied architectural influences on the Temple of Athena, and the later use of its architectural pieces in the Athenian Agora. Building on unpublished work by William B. Dinsmoor Jr. and Homer A. Thompson, this study represents the first comprehensive view of the temple and its sanctuary.
The fourteen papers collected in this volume explore the medieval art, architecture and archaeology of King's Lynn and the Fens. They arise out of the Association's 2005 conference, and reflect its concern to engage with a broad range of monuments and themes, rather than focusing on a single major building. Within King's Lynn contributors consider the superb 14th-century enamelled drinking vessel popularly known as 'King John's Cup', the former Hanseatic 'Steelyard', the Red Mount Chapel, and the oak furnishings of the chapel of St Nicholas, while the pine standard chest from St Margaret's church is assessed in terms of the importation and distribution of similar chest across England as a whole.Outside King's Lynn there are articles on the historical manipulation of landscapes and buildings at Kirkstead, the 13th-century architecture and sculpture of Croyland Abbey, the 14th-century parish church of St Mary at Snettisham, the tomb of Sir Humphrey de Littlebury at All Saints, Holbeach, the overlooked medieval wall paintings in the Prior's Chapel at Castle Acre, and the late medieval stained glass at Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen. Finally, there are three papers that look at particular aspects of the ways in which parish churches were financed, embellished and used across the region - in terms of late-12th and early-13th-century patronage, their 12th-century deployment of architectural sculpture, and the types and arrangements of choir stalls that appeared at a parochial level during the later Middle Ages.
The papers in this collection explore the medieval art, architecture, and archaeology of the city of Mainz and of the middle Rhine valley. They were delivered in 2003, at the first annual conference the Association held in Germany. The contributors embrace a wide range of subjects. Some consider the architecture and archaeology of the early medieval and Romanesque period, including the Carolingian monastery of Lorsch and the cathedrals of Mainz, Speyer, and Worms. Other authors look at high and late Gothic architecture in the region, such as the collegiate church at Oppenheim and the Wernerkapelle at Bacherach. There are, moreover, papers on castle architecture, sculpture, panel painting, liturgical furnishings, and medieval inscriptions. At the centre of discussion stand questions of cult, patronage, iconography, and style. New light is shed particularly on the relationship between the art and architecture in the Rhine valley and France. This collection brings together British, German, and French scholars to discuss the art and architecture of this major centre of artistic creation in medieval Europe and will hopefully be of lasting value to scholarship.
The Shapwick Project began in 1989 as a ten-year, multi-disciplinary landscape investigation of the evolution of early and late medieval settlement patterns. This volume sets out the methods used in the exploration of this wetland-edge landscape and summarises the long term micro-history of a community and its lands from early prehistory to the present day. Shapwick was granted to the abbey at Glastonbury in the first half of the 8th century and, as a consequence, there are numerous later medieval surveys, demesne accounts and court rolls. Together with an unusually long sequence of post-medieval and modern maps, these sources illuminate themes as diverse as building history and farming practice. At the same time, aerial photography, fieldwalking, shovel-pitting and topographical survey create a picture of the distribution and date of archaeological monuments across the parish while garden bed collections and test pitting are used to evaluate the archaeology underlying the modern village. Other innovative techniques described here include large-scale geophysical survey and the geochemical techniques of heavy metal analysis together with detailed surveys of historic buildings, botany and hedgerow invertebrates. The results from these surveys are at least as important as the excavations undertaken at sites of prehistoric-to-19th-century date. Stratigraphies, chronologies and features are all detailed in this volume, with important collections of objects from prehistory to the end of the 19th century and accompanying specialist reports which illuminate environment and diet. Highlights include a combination of pollen analysis and lithic distributions which add significantly to our understanding of the context of prehistoric waterlogged trackways within the peat zone, and striking evidence for the intensification of settlement and land use in the later pre-Roman Iron Age and later Roman period. The modern village was in existence by the 10th century when a dispersed population was apparently re-housed in a compact, nucleated village with open field systems to east and west and various models for this process are debated. Among the later medieval sites excavated are two manorial centres of Glastonbury Abbey, industrial evidence, and well-preserved palaeoenvironmental material. In the 18th and 19th centuries outlying farms were built and the housing stock transformed at the same time as parts of the village were emparked. This post-medieval and early modern evidence is given equal weight in the volume.
The huge changes in the landscape as a result of the Christian conversion of East Anglia are examined in this multi-disciplinary study. The conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia left huge marks on the area, both metaphorical and literal. Drawing on both the surviving documentary sources, and on the eastern region's rich archaeological record, this book presents the first multi-disciplinary synthesis of the process. It begins with an analysis of the historical framework, followed by an examination of the archaeological evidence for the establishment of missionary stations within the region's ruinous Roman forts and earthwork enclosures. It argues that the effectiveness of the Christian mission is clearly visible in the region's burial record, which exhibits a number of significant changes, including the cessation of cremation. The conversion can also be seen in the dramatic upheavals which occurred in the East Anglian landscape, including changes in the relationship between settlements and cemeteries, and thefoundation of a number of different types of Christian cemetery. Ultimately, it shows that far from being the preserve of kings, the East Anglian conversion was widespread at a grassroots level, changing the nature of the Anglo-Saxon landscape forever. Dr RICHARD HOGGETT is currently Coastal Heritage Officer with Norfolk County Council.
The Periegesis Hellados (Description of Greece) by Pausanias is the most important example of non-fictional travel literature in ancient Greek. With this work Professor Hutton examines Pausanias' arrangement and expression of his material and evaluates his authorial choices in light of the contemporary literary currents of the day and in light of the cultural milieu of the Roman empire in the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. The descriptions offered in the Periegesis Hellados are also examined in the context of the archaeological evidence available for the places Pausanias visited. This study reveals Pausanias to be a surprisingly sophisticated literary craftsman and a unique witness to Greek identity at a time when that identity was never more conflicted.
In this new edition of Greek and Roman Technology, the authors translate and annotate key passages from ancient texts to provide a history and analysis of the origins and development of technology in the classical world. Sherwood and Nikolic, with Humphrey and Oleson, provide a comprehensive and accessible collection of rich and varied sources to illustrate and elucidate the beginnings of technology. Among the topics covered are energy, basic mechanical devices, hydraulic engineering, household industry, medicine and health, transport and trade, and military technology. This fully revised Sourcebook collects more than 1,300 passages from over 200 ancient sources and a diverse range of literary genres, such as the encyclopaedic Natural History of Pliny the Elder, the poetry of Homer and Hesiod, the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Lucretius, the agricultural treatises of Varro, Columella, and Cato, the military texts of Philo of Byzantium and Aeneas Tacticus, as well as the medical texts of Galen, Celsus, and the Hippocratic Corpus. Almost 100 line drawings, indexes of authors and subjects, introductions outlining the general significance of the evidence, notes to explain the specific details, and current bibliographies are included. This new and revised edition of Greek and Roman Technology will remain an important and vital resource for students of technology in the ancient world, as well as those studying the impact of technological change on classical society.
This book contains papers by archaeologists and numismatists from six countries concerned with different aspects of how silver was used in both Scandinavia and the wider Viking world during the 8th to 11th centuries AD. The volume brings together a combination of recent summaries and new work on silver and gold coinage, rings and bullion, which allow a better appreciation of the broader socioeconomic conditions of the Viking world. This is an indispensable source for all archaeologists, historians and numismatists involved in Viking Studies.
This book explores social cohesion in rural settlements in western Europe from 700-1050, asking to what extent settlements, or districts, constituted units of social organisation. It focuses on the interactions, interconnections and networks of people who lived side by side - neighbours. Drawing evidence from most of the current western European countries, the book plots and interrogates the very different practices of this wide range of regions in a systematically comparative framework. It considers the variety of local responses to the supra-local agents of landlords and rulers and the impact, such as it was, of those agents on the small-scale residential group. It also assesses the impact on local societies of the values, instructions and demands of the wider literate world of Christianity, as delivered by local priests. -- .
*** Winner of the PROSE Award (2019) for Classics *** This major new work on Roman London brings together the many new discoveries of the last generation and provides a detailed overview of the city from before its foundation in the first century to the fifth century AD. Richard Hingley explores the archaeological and historical evidence for London under the Romans, assessing the city in the context of its province and the wider empire. He explores the multiple functions of Londinium over time, considering economy, industry, trade, status and urban infrastructure, but also looking at how power, status, gender and identity are reflected through the materiality of the terrain and waterscape of the evolving city. A particular focus of the book is the ritual and religious context in which these activities occurred. Hingley looks at how places within the developing urban landscape were inherited and considers how the history and meanings of Londinium built upon earlier associations from its recent and ancient past. As well as drawing together a much-needed synthesis of recent scholarship and material evidence, Hingley offers new perspectives that will inspire future debate and research for years to come. This volume not only provides an accessible introduction for undergraduate students and anyone interested in the ancient city of London, but also an essential account for more advanced students and scholars.
This source book offers a comprehensive treatment of solitary religious lives in England in the late Middle Ages. It covers both enclosed recluses (anchorites) and free-wandering hermits, and explores the relationship between them. Although there has been a recent surge of interest in the solitary vocations, especially anchorites, this has focused almost exclusively on a small number of examples. The field is in need of reinvigoration, and this book provides it. Featuring translated extracts from a wide range of Latin, Middle English and Old French sources, as well as a scholarly introduction and commentary from one of the foremost experts in the field, Hermits and anchorites in England is an invaluable resource for students and lecturers alike. -- . |
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