A study of the prehistory of the Balearic Islands, Spain, with regard to the archaeological record of the region and its social evolution before the Iron Age. Spanish text.

The Khirokitian Culture (Late Aceramic Neolithic period; from the 7th millennium to the middle of the 6th millennium cal. BC), which forms the core of this study, can be considered as the result of a colonizing process which started in Cyprus at the end of the 9th millennium BC. This study of the bone industries of Khirokitia, in the south of the island, and of Cap Andreas-Kastros, at its eastern extremity yielded a total of 2451 artefacts. The data is analysed to determine the extent of external influence on the development of settled agricultural communities in what is a relatively isolated environment. French text.

The analysis in this volume is the result of 25 years of research into the later prehistory of the international Tagus. In particular the contributors examine the spectacular rock art, paintings and engravings of the area, and how they relate to megaliths in a landscape context. They conclude that the area saw far greater occupation and activity than has often been assumed. Papers in English and Spanish.

While excavating the protohistoric settlement of Mas Castellar (Pontos-Alt Emporda, eastern Spain), an interesting pit was found that contained many samples of food remains mammals, birds and fish as well as various pottery fragments. This study details all the materials collected and provides an insight into the dietary habits of the Catalan-Iberian world between 500-300 BC. The upper layers sealing the pit contained plentiful remains of wrought iron, enabling the investigators to study the level of ironwork development at the period. The quantity and quality of the materials found suggest that a banquet or special feast may have taken place within a fortified settlement, where a festive event associated with the blacksmiths trade might have been celebrated. The work also reviews the historiography of the time, the handling of foods, the utensils and vessels used, as well as food and midden sites found at Catalan-Iberian settlements. Spanish text.

This volume, subtitled The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in the East Balkans: A taphonomic and techo-economic analysis of Bacho Kiro (level 11), Temnata (levels VI and 4) and Kozarnika (layer VII), presents a thorough documentation and critical analysis of these three important sites located in northern Bulgaria. The archaeological assemblages studied have been at the core of discussions concerning the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition which witnessed the disappearance of the Neanderthals and the dispersal of the first anatomically modern humans into Europe. French text.

An in-depth study of Neolithic material and sites from western France that answers many questions in terms of the neolithization of Europe and future developments in the British Isles. This volume presents a new perspective on the neolithisation of the Armorican Massif, based on an examination of lithic material and its spatial ordering. The emphasis is on the detection of sites where raw material was extracted, and of workshops where bangles and stone axeheads (especially those of fibrolite) were manufactured; this allows the author to investigate the 'chaines operatoires' involved and their spatial organisation. The author places the conclusions of this research within a broader consideration of the evidence relating to the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition process in Armorica, and considers ways in which aspects of this process correlate wiht, and others diverge from, the cultural dynamics of the fifth millennium BC in the northern half of France. The approach adopted here, with its emphasis on the propduction and modes of diffusion of bangles and axeheads has the potential for more general application to the study of 'socially valorised artefacts' elsewhere in Continental Europe. French text.

The hunting of horses by Magdalenians and Early Aziliens in the Paris Basin has never before been the object of a detailed study. This work thus brings to light the interactions between these human societies and the populations of horses within the palaeo-environmental framework of the Late Glacial. The original approach developed here is based on the elaboration of palaeo-ecological models concerning hunting practices in terms of tactics and strategies of hunting. Analysis of the exploitation of horses allows the author to highlight socio-economic patterns of Magdalenian and Early Azilian groups, and their integration within the Late Glacial regional landscape of the Paris Basin. French text.

This book presents a wealth of information on the rock art of the dales that straddle the ridge of the Northern Pennines and Cumbria fells, the authors present details of their new discoveries together with an up to date account of the known archaeology of the area in a comprehensive gazetteer of sites and locations. Hand drawn three-dimensional illustrations highlight the major panels of rock art in the key Northern valleys and Dales that span the three counties of North Yorkshire, Durham and Cumbria including Swaledale, Wensleydale and Great Langdale. Rock art, its situation within the prehistoric landscape and relationship to other archaeological features is clearly discussed broadening perceptions of our predecessors' life within these celebrated northern dales. Independent archaeologists Paul and Barbara Brown have been researching and studying British rock art over three decades and contributed a considerable number of new sites to the archaeological record. The landscape of the Northern Dales and Cumbria is familiar home territory, their dedication and commitment to the subject has been acknowledged in the world of amateur and professional archaeology.

This work helps provide a better understanding, in particular for the coastal part of central south Lazio, Italy, of the development of new socio-economic forms. Rooted in the ancient Bronze Age, these would, in the relatively short period of protohistory, lead from a society functioning on an essentially kinship basis to one dominated by true hegemonic aristocracies. The study area includes the Tiber Delta, the co-called Latial Volcano, and the Pontine Plain. Italian text.

A stylistic study of the Chassey Culture (4th/5th millennium BC) ceramics from the famous settlement of Villeneuve-Tolosane, near Toulouse, south-western France.

Over the last thirty years, the multiplication of human remains discovered out of sepulchral context leads Jean-Gabriel Pariat to consider different methods of funerary practices for the period between the 6th and 3rd millennia BC in temperate Europe. The authors approach takes into account techniques developed by anthropological fieldwork, to create a systematic approach to examining non-sepulchral burial sites. He tries to establish whether such remains are accidental or whether patterns, both chronological and geographical can be discerned in the distribution of non-sepulchral burial practice. French text.

This work is one of the first in-depth mollusc studies of the French coastal regions. It has direct implications for our understanding of the way of life of early Atlantic (France and adjacent countries) cultures. French text.

Who built Avebury and Stonehenge? Why and when were more than 600 stone circles, and thousands of barrows and cairns, erected in prehistoric Britain? What were they used for and what do they tell us about the beliefs and culture of their builders? Riddles in Stone is a history of the extraordinary variety of answers that have been given to those questions, by amateurs and professionals, archaeologists and astronomers, mystics and system theorists. While modern excavation and radiocarbon dating has undoubtedly advanced our knowledge of the sequence and date of the monuments, their purpose and meaning is still today hotly debated . Indeed no previous century has changed its mind so often as the twentieth - or provided such a welteer of conflicting opinions. Each theory has as much to say about its own time as it has about prehistory. The stones have been used to enhance the authority of the Bible, to endorse the civilizing mission of the British Empire - and to argue that the Ancient Britons could work a computer. In a reaction to modern industrial society, they have been credited with spiritual powers and natural energies.Even the views of modern archaeologists often reflect the latest adademic fad, rathen than a lasting solution. Riddles in Stone: Myths, Archaeology and the Ancient Britons is an entertaining and instructive account of a debate on a subject of endless fascination. Richard Hayman is an archaeologist. He read archaeology at University College, Cardiff, and has subsequently specialised in post-medieval archaeology, while maintaining his early interest in prehistoric monuments. He has also worked as a photographer.

This work describes the technology and typology of stone industries in Corsica from the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic, and is the first major synthesis on this material. French text.

Britain's leading expert on stone circles turns his attention to the greatest example of them all - Stonehenge. Every aspect of Stonehenge is re-considered in Aubrey Burl's new analysis. He explains for the first time how the outlying Heel Stone long predates Stonehenge itself, serving as a trackway marker in the prehistoric Harroway. He uncovers new evidence that the Welsh bluestones were brought to Stonehenge by glaciation rather than by man. And he reveals just how far the design of Stonehenge was influenced by Breton styles and by Breton cults of the dead. Meticulously research sets the record straight on the matter of Stonehenge's astronomical alignments. Although the existence of a sightline to the midsummer sunrise is well known, the alignment and the viewing-position are different from popular belief. And the existence of an earlier alignment to the moon and a later one to the midwinter sunset has been largely unrealized. One almost unexplained puzzle remains. The site of Stonehenge lies at the heart of a vast six-mile wide graveyard, but before it was built there appears to have been a mysterious gap two miles across on that site.Burl argues that earlier totem-pole style constructions served a ceremonial purpose for the living - to celebrate success in the hunt.

This study comprises a highly innovative body of research on the supply of raw materials in prehistoric Iberia. The archaeological assemblages from recently excavated sites in north-eastern Spain are clearly presented, as are the various methods for the characterisation of flints and the determination of geological origins. The study is important in terms of the new data provided on raw material supply at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic in Iberia and a reconstruction of mobility patterns and resource exploitation of hunter-gatherer groups during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Spanish text.

This volume presents the latest research on Iberian post-Palaeolithic rock art, using innovative methodologies and analyses. With six appendices of data and extensive site gazetteers, the work is essential for those specialists and general readers needing an up-to-the-minute account of this archaeological phenomenon. 6 appendices of data and sites. Spanish text.

This is the first monograph to focus on the study of Early Neolithic groups along the Tagus river basin, in Central Spain. The author presents the first archaeological results on the Neolithic communities in the province of Caceres, Central Spain, establishing a theoretical and methodological framework to analyse the archaeological record. A large part of the work gathers together previous archaeological research on the area and presents new data obtained from a review of museum collections, surveys, and the excavation of the site of Los Barruecos, the main archaeological reference for the Early Neolithic in the region. Other chapters cover the Early Neolithic material culture, the archaeobotanical data and an analysis of faunal remains, among other data.

Aims at synthesizing the available archaeological evidence for the Bell Beaker phenomenon. The core of the work consists of chapters which respectively offer synthetic regional accounts of the Bell Beaker material expressions. These chapters first deal with north-western and central Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland), second with western Europe (France, Italy, Iberian Peninsula) and last with the British Isles. For the sake of comparison, which remains the ultimate goal of this research, all chapters are organized along the same lines and start with an examination of the various local substrata. Includes appendix of C14 dates. In French with English abstract.

The ways in which the Hominids of the Middle Palaeolithic acquired megaherbivores is still a point of controversy. Did Neanderthals have sufficient intellectual and technological capacities to hunt these huge mammals? This volume presents methods relating to the acquisition and treatment of prey. These are applied directly to the study of three European sites marked by an important population of very large mammals: Hanhoffen (Bas-Rhin), Biache-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais) and le Mont-Dol (Ille-et-Vilaine). In addition, 73 archeological levels presenting more or less remains of very large herbivores, dated from Middle Palaeolithic of North-Western Europe, are compared. In French with English abstract.

A detailed study of the exploitation of small bovine species based on faunal assemblages from eight sites in the east Pyrenees, the Languedoc region of France, southern Turkey and the Caucasus. Four main species are identified ( Ovis, Hermitragus, Capra and Rupicapri ) and analysed, with comparisons drawn between the sites in the study, and with a view to investigating the subsistence behaviour of people living in these areas during the Pleistocene. Consideration of the effects of changing environmental conditions on species levels and human behaviour is also acknowledged. French text.

This study focuses on a number of important prehistoric sites in the Mediterranean area. The primary objective of the study is to provide a chronology for these sites based on finds from the rhinoceros fossil record. The first section of the book presents the sites (mostly from southern France and including the major locations at Vallonnet, la Pineta a Isernia and la Caune de l'Arago) and the detailed paleontological study follows in the second section. The work concludes with a number of Appendices presenting the data records. French text.

These twenty-seven papers result from a conference held in Rome in 2002, organised by the American Academy in Rome and the Ecole Francaise de Rome. The conference brought together prehistorians, classical archaeologists and medievalists with the aim of discussing the archaeological methodology behind the analysis of industry and commerce in ancient Italy. Arranged thematically, the papers discuss: textile production, the supply of foodstuffs, commercial systems, the production and exchange of pottery, the production of glass and metal, the organisation of the building industry and historiographic studies. The temporal scope of the volume is large, covering the 2nd millennium BC to the medieval period. The case studies are well-illustrated and all begin with an English abstract. One paper in English, six in French, the rest in Italian. The introduction is in English.

A translation of the rather long subtitle reveals the subject of this study as an analysis of the community interred in the prehistoric cemetery of Cova des Carritx on the island of Menora, which dates to c.1450-800 Cal BC. A description of the discovery of the site and the aims and methodology of the recovery of material from it are followed by detailed analyses of the human remains and other artefacts deposited as grave goods. Issues of taphonomy, funerary ritual, demography, biological characteristics of the population represented (also compared with other populations), stress indicators, diet and palaeopathology, and the possible representation of social inequalities at the site, are all discussed. Spanish text.

This study of Neolithic tool assemblages from three sites in Syria addresses the question of transformations in lithic debitage from the 10th to 8th millennium BP. The changes witnessed are placed within the context of the economy and subsistence systems to reveal links between debitage development, especially blade variability, and hunting, husbandry and herding practices. Abbes argues that developments in blade debitages were geared towards the production of projectile points which has implications in terms of hunting and warfare. French text.