A new narrative history of the Viking Age, interwoven with exploration of the physical remains and landscapes that the Vikings fashioned and walked: their rune-stones and ship burials, settlements and battlefields. To many, the word 'Viking' brings to mind red scenes of rape and pillage, of marauders from beyond the sea rampaging around the British coastline in the last gloomy centuries before the Norman Conquest. It is true that Britain in the Viking Age was a turbulent, violent place. The kings and warlords who have impressed their memories on the period revel in names that fire the blood and stir the imagination: Svein Forkbeard and Edmund Ironside, Ivar the Boneless and Alfred the Great, Erik Bloodaxe and Edgar the Pacifier amongst many others. Evidence for their brutality, their dominance, their avarice and their pride is still unearthed from British soil with stunning regularity. But this is not the whole story. In Viking Britain, Thomas Williams has drawn on his experience as project curator of the British Museum exhibition of Vikings: Life and Legend to show how the people we call Vikings came not just to raid and plunder, but to settle, to colonize and to rule. The impact on these islands was profound and enduring, shaping British social, cultural and political development for hundreds of years. Indeed, in language, literature, place-names and folklore, the presence of Scandinavian settlers can still be felt, and their memory - filtered and refashioned through the writings of people like J.R.R. Tolkien, William Morris and G.K.Chesterton - has transformed the western imagination. This remarkable book makes use of new academic research and first-hand experience, drawing deeply from the relics and landscapes that the Vikings and their contemporaries fashioned and walked: their runestones and ship burials, settlements and battlefields, poems and chronicles. The book offers a vital evocation of a forgotten world, its echoes in later history and its implications for the present.

Research for and the writing of this book was funded by the award of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. The period c. AD300—1050, spanning the collapse of Roman rule to the coming of the Normans, was formative in the development of Wales. Life in Early Medieval Wales considers how people lived in late Roman and early medieval Wales, and how their lives and communities changed over the course of this period. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the growing body of archaeological evidence set alongside the early medieval written sources together with place-names and personal names. It begins by analysing earlier research and the range of sources, the significance of the environment and climate change, and ways of calculating time. Discussion of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries focuses on the disintegration of the Roman market economy, fragmentation of power, and the emergence of new kingdoms and elites alongside evidence for changing identities, as well as important threads of continuity, notably Latin literacy, Christianity, and the continuation of small-scale farming communities. Early medieval Wales was an entirely rural society. Analysis of the settlement archaeology includes key sites such as hillforts, including Dinas Powys, the royal crannog at Llangorse, and the Viking Age and earlier estate centre at Llanbedrgoch alongside the development, from the seventh century onwards, of new farming and other rural settlements. Consideration is given to changes in the mixed farming economy reflecting climate deterioration and a need for food security, as well as craft working and the roles of exchange, display, and trade reflecting changing outside contacts. At the same time cemeteries and inscribed stones, stone sculpture and early church sites chart the course of conversion to Christianity, the rise of monasticism, and the increasing power of the Church. Finally, discussion of power and authority analyses emerging evidence for sites of assembly, the rise of Mercia, and increasing English infiltration, together with the significance of Offa's and Wat's Dykes, and the Viking impact. Throughout the evidence is placed within a wider context enabling comparison with other parts of Britain and Ireland and, where appropriate, with other parts of Europe to see broader trends, including the impacts of climate, economic, and religious change.

The development of complex cultural behaviour in our own species is perhaps the most significant research issue in modern archaeology. Until recently, it was believed that our capacity for language and art only developed after some of our ancestors reached Europe around 40,000 years ago. Archaeological discoveries in Africa now show that modern humans were practicing symbolic behaviours prior to their dispersal from that continent, and more recent discoveries in Indonesia and Australia are once again challenging ideas about human cultural development. Despite these significant discoveries and exciting potentials, there is a curious absence of published information about Asia-Pacific region, and consequently, global narratives of our most celebrated cognitive accomplishment - art - has consistently underrepresented the contribution of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. This volume provides the first outline of what this region has to offer to the world of art in archaeology. Readers undertaking tertiary archaeology courses interested in the art of the Asia-Pacific region or human behavioural evolution, along with anyone who is fascinated by the development of our modern ability to decorate ourselves and our world, should find this book a good addition to their library.

Hundreds of pilgrims set out from Europe to the Holy Land between 385 and 1099 AD, but of these only eighteen wrote descriptions which have survived. They provide essential background material for the history of Christianity in the Holy Land, as well as for all archaeologists and geographers of the Byzantine and Early Arab period. In this companion volume to Wilkinson's Egeria's Travels , these texts are translated and wherever possible related to archaeological work. With maps and indexes, the reader is provided with a vivid picture of the physical conditions of travel and the development of Christian prayer in the Holy Places. This second edition is updated and expanded.

Between 491 and 1191 AD, Cyprus was influenced by various political and cultural centres that vied for dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. This collection of essays primarily focuses on the island's archaeology when it was governed by the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Greek and Orthodox Christian identity was cultivated during this period, which provided a sense of unity among the various provinces; and yet, the surviving historical and archaeological data concerning Cyprus is unique in that it expresses both local and regional characteristics. By investigating the various threads, whether textual, numismatic, architectural, or artistic, narrative has emerged that challenges our past assumptions. The themes covered in this volume developed from a conference held in Nicosia, organized by the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus. An international group of experts explored several themes such as: the impact of recent archaeological discoveries; the shift from studying Late Antique urbanism to rural development; indicators of Cypriot identity; shifts in population settlement, production and trade; cultural interaction between Islam and Christianity; the significance of ceramic and numismatic evidence; monumental figural arts and their iconographical interpretation. The resulting chapters provide new and previously unpublished data, and should be considered a major contribution to Late Antique and Medieval studies. 151 colour and black & white illustrations included.

The twenty-five papers in this volume arise from a conference jointly organised by the British Archaeological Association and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. They explore the making of art and architecture in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and c. 1250, with a particular focus on questions of patronage, design and instrumentality. No previous studies of patterns of artistic production during the Romanesque period rival the breadth of coverage encompassed by this volume - both in terms of geographical origin and media, and in terms of historical approach. Topics range from case studies on Santiago de Compostela, the Armenian Cathedral in Jerusalem and the Winchester Bible to reflections on textuality and donor literacy, the culture of abbatial patronage at Saint-Michel de Cuxa and the re-invention of slab relief sculpture around 1100. The volume also includes papers that attempt to recover the procedures that coloured interaction between artists and patrons - a serious theme in a collection that opens with 'Function, condition and process in eleventh-century Anglo-Norman church architecture' and ends with a consideration of 'The death of the patron'.

Rock art in South America is as diverse as the continent itself. In this vast territory, different peoples produced engravings, paintings, and massive earthworks, from the Atacama to the Amazon. These marks on the landscape were made by all different kinds of peoples, from some of the earliest hunter-gatherers in the continent, to the very complex societies within the Inca Empire. This book brings together the work of specialists from throughout the continent, addressing this diversity, as well as the variety of approaches that the Archaeology of rock art has taken in South America. Constructed of eleven thought-provoking chapters and arranged in three thematic sections, the book presents different theoretical approaches that are currently being used to understand the roles rock art played in prehistoric communities. The editors have skillfully crafted a book that presents the contribution the study of South American rock art can offer to the global research of this materiality, both theoretically and methodologically. This book will interest a broad range of scholars researching in archaeology, anthropology, history of art, heritage and conservation, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students who will find interesting case studies showcasing the diverse ways in which rock art can be approached. Despite its focus on South America, the book is intended as a contribution towards the global study of rock art.

This lexical index will provide a useful aid for locating Middle Egyptian textual material.

"African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction" fills a crucial gap by providing a multi-authored introduction to the archaeology of Africa that challenges misconceptions and claims about Africa's past, and teaches students how to evaluate these claims. Ann Stahl's thoughtful introduction explores the contexts that have shaped archaeological knowledge of Africa's past and asks readers to consider for whom Africa's past matters and why. African Archaeology comprises unique contributions by prominent archaeologists with regional and topical expertise. They explore the preoccupations and assumptions that have framed research, assess the quality and reliability of evidence, and chart emerging research directions and questions that can help build on the strengths of earlier work, while finally setting aside long-held misperceptions.

"African Archaeology" is a landmark volume and an indispensable tool for students, instructors, and researchers.

Kennewick Man, known as the Ancient One to Native Americans, has been the lightning rod for conflict between archaeologists and indigenous peoples in the United States. A decade-long legal case pitted scientists against Native American communities and highlighted the shortcomings of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), designed to protect Native remains. In this volume, we hear from the many sides of this issue--archaeologists, tribal leaders, and others--as well as views from the international community. The wider implications of the case and its resolution is explored. Comparisons are made to similar cases in other countries and how they have been handled. Appendixes provide the legal decisions, appeals, and chronology to allow full exploration of this landmark legal struggle. An ideal starting point for discussion of this case in anthropology, archaeology, Native American studies, and cultural property law courses. Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress.

This volume brings together renowned global scholars to provide insight on Rapa Nui's past and present, examining the islnad's ecology, environment, landscape, historical documents, cultural traditions, and material culture.

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This fifth and final volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea completes the work of bringing these ostraca together in a single publication. Volumes 1–4 published some 1,600 ostraca that gave us insight into agriculture, economics, politics, onomastics, and scribal practices from fourth/third-century BCE Idumea and Judah. The ostraca in volume 5 come from the same milieu, but the information they provide is entirely new and different. This volume presents 485 ostraca, including 99 land descriptions, 168 uncertain texts, and 218 assorted remains, scribal exercises, and forgeries, along with useful indexes and tables and a comparative list of entries. The land descriptions—which record local landmarks, ownership boundaries, and land registration—provide rich complementary material to the rest of the Idumean ostraca. The “uncertain texts” are fragmentary, in poor condition, or contain other abnormalities. As the TAO corpus becomes better understood and as imaging techniques improve, these texts will help to fill gaps in knowledge. The final section includes the remains of scribal practices and forgeries, important because they help to show the authenticity of the other two thousand pieces. A unique collection of documentary sources for fourth/third-century BCE Idumea—and, by extension, Judah—this multivolume work will be a powerful resource for those interested in onomastics and social and economic history.

An Archaeology of the Cosmos seeks answers to two fundamental questions of humanity and human history. The first question concerns that which some use as a defining element of humanity: religious beliefs. Why do so many people believe in supreme beings and holy spirits? The second question concerns changes in those beliefs. What causes beliefs to change? Using archaeological evidence gathered from ancient America, especially case material from the Great Plains and the pre-Columbian American Indian city of Cahokia, Timothy Pauketat explores the logical consequences of these two fundamental questions. Religious beliefs are not more resilient than other aspects of culture and society, and people are not the only causes of historical change. An Archaeology of the Cosmos examines the intimate association of agency and religion by studying how relationships between people, places, and things were bundled together and positioned in ways that constituted the fields of human experience. This rethinking theories of agency and religion provides readers with challenging and thought provoking conclusions that will lead them to reassess the way they approach the past.

Archaeology Under Fire addresses archaeology's role in current political issues, whether it be the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the division of Cyprus, or the continued destruction of Beirut.

Alte geographische Namen geben oftmals Auskunft uber die sprachlichen und kulturellen Verhaltnisse "dunkler Jahrhunderte" und sind somit von hohem Wert fur die Altertumskunde. Mit dieser erstmals publizierten Studie aus dem Jahr 1950 liegt eine sorgfaltige Sammlung aller bei den griechischen und lateinischen Schriftstellern des Altertums genannten Namen (v.a. Orts- und Flussnamen) vor. Die sprachwissenschaftliche Untersuchung ist fur Althistoriker, Germanisten und Sprachwissenschaftler ein auch heute noch unverzichtbares Referenzwerk. Hermann Reichert veranschaulicht in seinem Beitrag die Leistungen des alexandrinischen Geographen Klaudios Ptolemaios (2. Jh.).

This is the first comprehensive linguistic study for 50 years of the stones from western Britain and Brittany, inscribed in the Roman and Irish Ogam alphabets.

The stones are a major source for the history of the Celtic-speakers of post-Roman Britain and for the development and divergence of their languages, yet the dating of the 370 inscriptions remains uncertain. Now, through a new study of the phonological development of the Brittonic and Irish branches of Celtic, Patrick Sims-Williams places the chronology of the inscriptions on a surer footing.

The book will be of interest to archaeologists, historians and art historians, as well as to philologists interested in the methods and problems of historical phonology and onomastics.

How to Make a New Spain presents an unprecedented view of the material worlds of Mexico City in the sixteenth century, drawing from a combination of sources and methodologies. It presents the author's original analysis of over 11,000 items in the probate inventories of thirty-nine Spanish colonizers. It also synthesizes information from archaeological excavations of Spanish houses at the center of Mexico City. The book begins with a critique of theories of materiality, in which scholars emphasize the agency of things at the expense of an investigation of social relationships. Rodriguez-Alegria argues that now that scholars have shown that the descendants of the Mexica (often known as the Aztecs) maintained social and political power in the colonial period, we should reexamine how Indigenous people, colonizers, and Black people together created the material and social worlds of colonial Mexico. The book assimilates information on architecture, money, clothing, furniture, pottery, slaves, livestock, and tools to provide a new vision of daily life in colonial Mexico City. It shows that colonialism was based on the recognition of people of similar classes across ethnic boundaries, and on the forging of relationships with powerful Indigenous people. Even colonizers who sought to display distinction from Indigenous people with their material culture depended on Indigenous products and technology to achieve that distinction. The complex history of materiality and power that emerges from this book compels us to reimagine colonial Mexico and the people who created it.

A CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE The earliest rock art - in the Americas as elsewhere - is geometric or abstract. Until Early Rock Art in the American West, however, no book-length study has been devoted to the deep antiquity and amazing range of geometrics and the fascinating questions that arise from their ubiquity and variety. Why did they precede representational marks? What is known about their origins and functions? Why and how did humans begin to make marks, and what does this practice tell us about the early human mind? With some two hundred striking color images and discussions of chronology, dating, sites, and styles, this pioneering investigation of abstract geometrics on stone (as well as bone, ivory, and shell) explores its wide-ranging subject from the perspectives of ethology, evolutionary biology, cognitive archaeology, and the psychology of artmaking. The authors' unique approach instills a greater respect for a largely unknown and underappreciated form of paleoart, suggesting that before humans became Homo symbolicus or even Homo religiosus, they were mark-makers - Homo aestheticus.

This book is a study of the Lapita Cultural Complex, a region spanning both Melanesia and Western Polynesia. The Lapita culture has been interpreted as the archaeological manifestation of a diaspora of Austronesian-speaking people (specifically of Proto-Oceanic language) who rapidly expanded from the New Guinea region into Remote Oceania. The Lapita Cultural Complex--first uncovered in the mid-20th century as a widespread archaeological complex spanning both Melanesia and Western Polynesia--has subsequently become recognized as of fundamental importance to Oceanic prehistory. Notable for its highly distinctive, elaborate, dentate-stamped pottery, Lapita sites date to between 3500-2700 BP, spanning the geographic range from the Bismarck Archipelago to Tonga and Samoa. The Lapita culture has been interpreted as the archaeological manifestation of a diaspora of Austronesian-speaking people (specifically of Proto-Oceanic language) who rapidly expanded from Near Oceania (the New Guinea-Bismarcks region) into Remote Oceania, where no humans had previously ventured. Lapita is thus a foundational culture throughout much of the southwestern Pacific, ancestral to much of the later, ethnographically-attested cultural diversity of the region.

This text deals with Chinese art during the Tang Dynasty, from 618 to 907. It presents the artistic findings from the last ten years of archaeological excavation in China-findings that have never before been published in the West. Court Art of the Tang reveals the magnificence of Tang art through the presentation of ceramics, wall paintings, and utensils made of gold, silver, bronze, and porcelain. The book aims to place these new materials in their artistic and historical context. It structures the new findings in chronological order, using culture and history as a background. The study treats each class of art separately and distinctly, exploring the aesthetic evolution of both secular and religious art. Relevant literary expressions incorporated into the discussions make Court Art of the Tang an especially unique work. The book gives readers a comprehensive and diverse look at the glorious and extraordinary achievements of a ruling family. The book consists of 233 pages of text, a bibliography and an index, a glossary, and 117 illustrations. Court Art of the Tang will provide insightful reading for art collectors and museum-goers and serve as an important text in Asian Studies Departments and in courses in the arts of China.Contents: List of Illustrations; Preface; Ackowledgements; Introduction; Early Tang 618-712; Middle Tang 712-805; Late Tang 805-907; Conclusion; Illustrations; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Since 2007 the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project has endeavored to bring to light the vast archaeological and historical record of the site of Jaffa in Israel. Continuing the effort begun with The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 1, this volume is a collection of independent studies and final reports on smaller excavations that do not require individual book-length treatments. These include overviews of archaeological research in Jaffa, historical and archaeological studies of Medieval and Ottoman Jaffa, reports on excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority at both the Postal Compound between 2009 and 2011 and the Armenian Compound in 2006 and 2007, and studies of the excavations of Jacob Kaplan and Haya Ritter-Kaplan in Jaffa on behalf of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums from 1955 to 1974.

A sweeping account of Medieval North America when Indigenous peoples confronted climate change. Few Americans today are aware of one of the most consequential periods in North American history-the Medieval Warm Period of seven to twelve centuries ago (AD 800-1300 CE)-which resulted in the warmest temperatures in the northern hemisphere since the "Roman Warm Period," a half millennium earlier. Reconstructing these climatic events and the cultural transformations they wrought, Timothy Pauketat guides readers down ancient American paths walked by Indigenous people a millennium ago, some trod by Spanish conquistadors just a few centuries later. The book follows the footsteps of priests, pilgrims, traders, and farmers who took great journeys, made remarkable pilgrimages, and migrated long distances to new lands. Along the way, readers will discover a new history of a continent that, like today, was being shaped by climate change-or controlled by ancient gods of wind and water. Through such elemental powers, the history of Medieval America was a physical narrative, a long-term natural and cultural experience in which Native people were entwined long before Christopher Columbus arrived or Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs. Spanning most of the North American continent, Gods of Thunder focuses on remarkable parallels between pre-contact American civilizations separated by a thousand miles or more. Key archaeological sites are featured in every chapter, leading us down an evidentiary trail toward the book's conclusion that a great religious movement swept Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, sometimes because of worsening living conditions and sometimes by improved agricultural yields thanks to global warming a thousand years ago. The author also includes a guide to visiting the archaeological sites discussed in the book.