11 papers from a session on Stone Age (Magdalenian) Europe presented at the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liege, in 2001. The contributions include: Reindeer and Red Deer populations in Central and Eastern Europe during the Magdalenian; Reconsidering hunting specialisation in the German Magdalenian faunal record; Acquisition and processing of reindeer in the Paris Basin; L'exploitation du cheval a la fin du Tardiglaciaire dans le Bassin parisien; Horse hunting and the utilization of horse carcasses during the Magdalenian in Europe; L'exploitation de la faune au Magdalenien en Suisse et dans les regions limitrophes; L' exploitation des Ongules au Magdalenien dans le Sud de la France; Technologie et strategies alimentaires des groupes humains du Cantabrique Occidental: le magdalenien superieur de la Grotte de Las Caldas (Priorio, Oviedo, Nord de l'Espagne); Characterization and exploitation of the Arctic Hare (Lepus timidus) during the Magdalenian: Surprising data from Gazel Cave (Aude, France); Des Magdaleniens et des Poissons; Exploitation des Oiseaux au Magdalenien en France: Etat des lieux.

Two major issues feature in this collection of papers which derives from two conference symposia held at the XIVth UISPP congress in Liege in 2001: how to identify Upper Palaeolithic domestic structures from structural features and archaeological finds, and how to classify and compare usefully these domestic structures. These seventeen papers present raw data and provide interpretation on a range of Upper Palaeolithic sites from across Eurasia, including Spain and Portugal, France, Alpine regions, the Levant and Siberia. Papers in French and English.

In the wealth of literature concerning Bell Beakers, the present volume is the first broad treatment of issues relating to their northeast frontier. The book has grown from papers read at the symposium Northeast Frontier of Bell Beakers held in the Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, in Poznan on 26-29 May 2002. The 22 papers include: Economic continuity and political discontinuity in central Europe during the third millennium BC; Competing cosmos. On the relationships between corded ware and bell beaker mortuary practices; Bell beakers in the sequence of the cultural changes in south-western Baltic area; Bell beaker pottery in Denmark: its typology and internal chronology; Einfluesse der Glockenbecherkultur in Norddeutschland; Ein Siedlungsplatz der Glockenbecherkultur in Hamburg-Boberg?; Glockenbechereinfluesse und Regionale Gliederung Nordostdeutschlands im Spatneolithikum; Die Glockenbecherkultur in Mitteldeutschland ein Zwischenbericht; The north-eastern border of the influence of bell beakers; Reception of some bell beakers cultural patterns by corded ware societies in southeastern Baltic area; The Lubans, North Belarusian and Sagara cultures as an eastern phenomenon of an Eneolithic cultural unit; Northern and southern bell beakers in Poland; Bell beaker culture in south-eastern Poland; Archaeology of beaker settlements in Bohemia and Moravia: an outline of the current state of knowledge; Bell beaker and Unetice burial rites: continuity and change in funerary practices at the beginning of the Bronze Age; Contribution to the question of chipped stone industry of the Moravian bell beaker culture; A cemetery of the bell beaker culture in Marefy and its contribution: to the studies on the chipped stone industry of the Moravian late Eneolithic period; Glockenbecher in Ostosterreich - andere Fragen andere Antworten?; Die Glockenbecherkultur im Kontext der Kulturhistorischen Entwicklung in der Sudwestslowakei; The late phase of the bell beaker Csepel group in Hungary; Archaeobotanical remains and environment of bell-beaker Csepel-group; The northeast frontier of bell beakers - first step to outline.

Fourteen papers plus four posters from the Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress held at the University of Liege in 2001. The contributors cover a series of subjects including technology in archaeology, statistical approaches to hominid evolution, palaeolithic cognition, analysing lithic tool use, the use of GIS and survey techniques, with case studies from Italy, France, Romania, Belgium and the United States.

The theme of this 15th seminar of research by the Unite Mixte de Recherches 154 du CNRS de Lattes, held in Lattes-Montpellier in 2000, is the archaeology of animals. The thirteen French and two English papers represent the work of groups of specialist individuals and projects working in the field of archaeozoology during the Holocene. Subjects include: the movement and displacement of animals in the Mediterranean, animals at altitude in the southern Alps, extinctions on Sardinia, bovine populations in France, pastoral specialisation, fish populations in the Iron Age.

Based on the author's thesis, this detailed study analyses lithic assemblages from epipalaeolithic and mesolithic sites in southern and south-west France - sites such as Fontfaures, de la Balma de la Margineda and de Buholoup et de l'Abeurador. Philibert presents much of the data in tabular form and uses this to interpret patterns of use and human behaviour such as the equipment used for hunting, the different subsistence strategies practised and the role of certain sites in the exploitation of regions as a whole. French text.

A study of the symbolism and iconography of anthropomorphic coroplastic art from Neolithic Italy. A discussion of the history of research, and of the background to the subject as a whole, precedes a catalogue of examples. Although there is great variety in the forms and styles represented, Giannitrapani links certain examples to a system of divinities.

This new series presents innovative titles pertaining to human origins, evolution, and behavior from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Subject areas include but are not limited to biological and physical anthropology, prehistoric archaeology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology. The series volumes will be of interest primarily to students and scholars in these fields.

Ice-Age Eastern Europe was an inhospitable place isolated from the moderating influence of oceans. Unlike Western Europe, which was settled over half a million years ago, Eastern Europe remained largely unoccupied until the appearance of the cold-adapted Neanderthals. When modern humans arrived from southern latitudes, they were anatomically less suited to colder climates, but successfully colonized Eastern Europe with the aid of innovative technology that their Neanderthal predecessors lacked.

John F. Hoffecker provides an overview of Pleistocene or Ice-Age settlement in Eastern Europe with a heavy focus on the adaptations of Neanderthals and modern humans to this harsh environmental setting. Hoffecker argues that the Eastern European record reveals a stark contrast between Neanderthals and modern humans with respect to technology and social organization, both of which are tied to the development of language and the use of symbols. Desolate Landscapes will bring readers up to date with the rich archaeological record in this significant region and its significance to our understanding of one of the most important events in human evolution -- the rise of modern humans and the extinction of the Neanderthals.

The Northeastern Trans-Pecos region of Texas is an unforgiving environment for anyone living off the land, yet nomadic hunters and gatherers roamed its deserts and mountains and sheltered in caves and sinkholes from around AD 200 to 1450. This book provides detailed insights into the lifeways of these little-known prehistoric peoples. It places their occupation of the region in a wider temporal and cultural framework through a comprehensive description and analysis of the archaeological remains excavated by Donny L. Hamilton at Granado Cave in 1978. Hamilton begins with a brief overview of the geology and environment of the Granado Cave area and reviews previous archaeological investigations. Then he and other researchers present detailed analyses of the burials and other material remains found in the cave, as well as the results of radiocarbon dating. From these findings, he reconstructs the subsistence patterns and burial practices of these Native Americans, whom he identifies as a distinct group that was pushed into the environment by surrounding peoples. He proposes that they should be represented by a new archaeological phase, thus helping to clarify the poorly understood late prehistory of the Trans-Pecos.

This book employs contemporary theoretical perspectives to investigate the Neolithic period in southern britain. It is a fully reworked edition of the author's Rethinking the Neolithic (1991).

This major work, the result of collaboration among scholars who worked at dozens of sites from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, is the first volume in English to summarize the massive quantity of archaeological data on the Paleolithic occupation of Siberia. Written by leading Russian experts and edited by scholars including the late Demitri Shimkin, the book presents the results of field studies conducted over some twenty-five years. It traces the routes of human migration throughout Eurasia, shows Siberian lithic industries as they evolved from the Early through the Middle and Late Paleolithic, and correlates them with reports from Mongolia, China, Japan, and America. "A major, singular contribution. . . . Several more geographically or temporally restricted texts exist, but none I've seen can match the breadth or depth of this massive work." -- John W. Olsen, coeditor of Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People's Republic of China "A much needed work marked by uniformly high scholarship and clear writing, this will be a standard reference of value for years to come." -- J. M. Adovasio, Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute and Archaeology Research Program, Mercyhurst College

At last a paperback edition of this standard work on marine archaeology. Sean McGrail's study received exceptional critical acclaim when it was first published in hardback in 1987 and it is now revised and published in paperback for the first time. Professor McGrail provides an authoritative survey of water transport across Northern Europe from the Late Palaeolithic to the later Middle Ages, using evidence of excavations, but also documentary sources, iconographic and ethnographic evidence. In the process he answers such key questions as How were these boats built? What sort of environment were they used in? What speeds could they achieve? and how were they navigated?

In this fascinating and authoritative work, acclaimed science writer Virginia Morell brings to vivid life the famous and infamous Leakey family, pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology: Louis Leakey, the patriarch, who persisted through initial scientific failures and scandal-ridden divorce to achieve spectacular success in digs throughout East Africa; Mary, his second wife, who worked alongside Louis as they made their outstanding discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere; and Richard, their son, who ascended to the top of the field in his parents' wake, only to be threatened with both near-fatal illness and fierce professional rivalry. Morell transports us into the world of these compelling personalities, demonstrating how a small clan of highly talented and fiercely competitive people came to dominate an entire field of science and to contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the origins of humanity.

An illustrated introduction to the prehistory of Japan, treated in its own right and not as a minor part of East Asia in general.

Bringing together the latest work on the Mesolithic in Scotland and Northern England, this is a fundamental re-assessment of early prehistory from the key researchers in the area. Based firmly on archaeological evidence from recent excavations, this important book also includes work on the environmental background.

This volume presents for the first time in the archaeological history of Greece a full and detailed analysis of the artifacts discovered in the course of a large-scale and intensive regional survey. It sets out the results of a ten-year study of tens of thousands of ceramic and lithic artifacts recovered in the course of the Argolid Exploration Project, an environmental and archaeological survey of the Argolid peninsula in southern Greece conducted by Stanford University.

The aim of this book is to explore the changing character and social roles of stone tools of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Britain, examining the changing material and social conditions under which tools were produced, acquired, used and deposited.

The year 1066 has been regarded traditionally as a great divide in English history, an apparent break with the past which has gained even greater status recently as historians have pushed back the origins of English society to earlier and earlier medieval generations. Further than 1066 it is difficult to go, for this marks the point beyond which the English peasantry cannot be identified from written sources. Archaeology, however, concerned as it is mainly with small farms and simple town dwellings, has yielded a wealth of data on life in pre-Conquest England, opening a vista on the Anglo-Saxon peasantry, the Anglo-Saxon state and the Anglo-Saxon social and economic structure as a whole which alters radically our perspective of England's past. In this book Dr Hodges draws on the growing archaeological record to trace the genesis of English Culture right back to King Alfred, and even to the Anglo-Saxon migrations that followed the end of Roman occupation. In a profound analysis of what gave the English their individuality he offers a new assessment of the achievements of the first millennium, showing that a more of less continuous line connects the age of Bede with the Industrial Revolution.

It was in the second half of the first millennium A.D. that northern Europe took on the basic configuration that it now presents. Recently a wealth of new archaeological evidence has emerged to enable historians to assess the growth of international trade and the evolution of towns in this crucial period. This book analyses models of economic evelopment in the light of this new evidence to evaluate not only the changing character of the first post-Roman urban centers but also the organization of the countryside which supported them. Boat remains, coins and trade artifacts are all examined. Finally, a general account is offered of the role of towns and trade in the creation of Western Europe. This is the first synthesis of its kind for the medieval period, and confirms the importance of archaeology as a major source of evidence for an understanding of the economic history of the Dark Ages.

When the Spaniards conquered the Yucatan Peninsula in the early 1500s, they made a great effort to destroy or Christianize the native cultures flourishing there. That they were in large part unsuccessful is evidenced by the survival of a number of documents written in Maya and preserved and added to by literate Mayas up to the 1830s. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel is such a document, literally the history of Yucatan written by and for Mayas, and it contains much information not available from Spanish sources because it was part of an underground resistance movement of which the Spanish were largely unaware.

Well known to Mayanists, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel is presented here in Munro S. Edmonson's English translation, extensively annotated. Edmonson reinterprets the book as literature and as history, placing it in chronological order and translating it as poetry. The ritual nature of Mayan history clearly emerges and casts new light on Mexican and Spanish acculturation of the Yucatecan Maya in the post-Classic and colonial periods.

Centered in the city of Merida, the Chumayel provides the western (Xiu) perspective on Yucatecan history, as Edmonson's earlier book The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin presented the eastern (Itza) viewpoint. Both document the changing calendar of the colonial period and the continuing vitality of pre-Columbian ritual thought down to the nineteenth century. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the survival of the long-count dating system down to the Baktun Ceremonial of 1618 (12.0.0.0.0). But there are others: the use of rebus writing, the survival of the tun until 1752, graphic if oblique accounts of Mayan ceremonial drama, and the depiction of the Spanish conquest as a long-term inter-Mayan civil war.

Scientists have long speculated on the impact of extreme natural catastrophes on human societies. Archeology and Volcanism in Central America provides dramatic evidence of the effects of several volcanic disasters on a major civilization of the Western Hemisphere, that of the Maya. During the past 2,000 years, four volcanic eruptions have taken place in the Zapotitan Valley of southern El Salvador. One, the devastating eruption of Ilopango around A.D. 300, forced a major migration, pushing the Mayan people north to the Yucatan Peninsula. Although later eruptions did not have long-range implications for cultural change, one of the subsequent eruptions preserved the Ceren site-a Mesoamerican Pompeii where the bodies of the villagers, the palm-thatched roofs of their houses, the pots of food in their pantries, even the corn plants in their fields were preserved with remarkable fidelity. Throughout 1978, a multidisciplinary team of anthropologists, archeologists, geologists, biologists, and others sponsored by the University of Colorado's Protoclassic Project researched and excavated the results of volcanism in the Zapotitan Valley-a key Mesoamerican site that contemporary political strife has since rendered inaccessible. The result is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the impact of volcanic eruptions on early Mayan civilization. These investigations clearly demonstrate that the Maya inhabited this volcanically hazardous valley in order to reap the short-term benefits that the volcanic ash produced-fertile soil, fine clays, and obsidian deposits.

The title of Edmonson's work refers to the Mayan custom of first predicting their history and then living it, and it may be that no other peoples have ever gone so far in this direction. The Book of Chilam Balam was a sacred text prepared by generations of Mayan priests to record the past and to predict the future. The official prophet of each twenty-year rule was the Chilam Balam, or Spokesman of the Jaguar--the Jaguar being the supreme authority charged with converting the prophet's words into fact.

This is a literal but poetic translation of one of fourteen known manuscripts in Yucatecan Maya on ritual and history. It pictures a world of all but incredible numerological order, slowly yielding to Christianity and Spanish political pressure but never surrendering. In fact, it demonstrates the surprising truth of a secret Mayan government during the Spanish rule, which continued to collect tribute in the names of the ruined Classic cities and preserved the essence of the Mayan calendar as a legacy for the tradition's modern inheritors.

The history of the Yucatecan Maya from the seventh to the nineteenth century is revealed. And this is history as the Maya saw it--of a people concerned with lords and priests, with the cosmology which justified their rule, and with the civil war which they perceived as the real dimension of the colonial period.

A work of both history and literature, the Tizimin presents a great deal of Mayan thought, some of which has been suspected but not previously documented. Edmonson's skillful reordering of the text not only makes perfect historical sense but also resolves the long-standing problem of correlating the two colonial Mayan calendars. The book includes both interpretative and literal translations, as well as the Maya parallel couplets and extensive annotations on each page. The beauty of the sacred text is illuminated by the literal translation, while both versions unveil the magnificent historical, philosophical, and social traditions of the most sophisticated native culture in the New World.

The prophetic history of the Tizimin creates a portrait of the continuity and vitality, of the ancient past and the foreordained future of the Maya.

A major problem confronting archeologists is how to determine the function of ancient stone tools. In this important work, Lawrence H. Keeley reports on his own highly successful course of research into the uses of British Paleolithic flint implements. His principal method of investigation, known as "microwear analysis," was the microscopic examination of traces of use left on flint implements in the form of polishes, striations, and breakage patterns.
The most important discovery arising from Keeley's research was that, at magnifications of 100x to 400x, there was a high correlation between the detailed appearance of microwear polishes formed on tool edges and the general category of material worked by that edge. For example, different and distinctive types of microwear polish were formed during use on wood, bone, hide, meat, and soft plant material. These correlations between microwear polish and worked material were independent of the method of use (cutting, sawing, scraping, and so on). In combining evidence of polish type with other traces of use, Keeley was able to make precise reconstructions of tool functions. This book includes the results of a "blind test" of Keeley's functional interpretations which revealed remarkable agreement between the actual and inferred use of the tools tested.
Keeley applied his method of microwear analysis to artifacts from three excavation sites in Britain--Clacton-on-the-sea, Swanscombe, and Hoxne. His research suggests new hypotheses concerning such Paleolithic problems as inter-assemblage variability, the function of Acheulean hand axes, sidescrapers, and chopper-cores and points the way to future research in Stone Age studies.

Dieses Buch bietet eine umfassende Studie zum Jungneolithikum (JN, auch Einzelgrabkultur, ca. 2850 - 2250 v. Chr.) in Schleswig-Holstein. Neben einer detaillierten Darstellung aller Funde und Befunde dieser Epoche, liegt ein besonderer Fokus auf Analysen zu den charakteristischen Streitaxten. Diese eignen sich in hervorragender Weise dazu, einen gesellschaftlichen Wandel zu erkennen, da die morphologische Variationsbreite im Laufe des JN zunimmt. So existieren im spaten JN neben sehr elaboriert gestalteten Stucken auch plump wirkende Exemplare. Dies spiegelt vermutlich ein komplexer werdendes Gesellschaftssystem wider und deutet einen Bedeutungswandel der AExte an. Die Streitaxte werden im Spatneolithikum (SN) durch die Silexdolche abgeloest, die durch ahnliche Variationsunterschiede gekennzeichnet sind. Dies deutet eine Kontinuitat in der sozialen Organisation an der Wende zum SN an. Viele Streitaxte liegen im fragmentierten Zustand vor, wobei Schneiden- weitaus haufiger als Nackenhalften belegt sind. Da viele dieser Fragmente weiterhin im Besitz von Applikationen (Schalchen, pars pro toto Schaftloecher) sind, ist anzunehmen, dass die Fragmente - und darauf aufbauend vermutlich ein Grossteil aller Streitaxte aus Einzelfundkontexten - intentionale Deponierungen darstellen. Ein weiterer Fokus wurde auf die Transformation zum JN gelegt, die sich besonders im profanen Bereich als Phase kontinuierlicher Entwicklungen zeigt. Weiterhin wurde ein Unterschied zwischen dem Westen und Osten des Arbeitsgebietes aufgedeckt, der entgegen langlaufiger Meinung keine chronologischen Ursachen besitzt. Vielmehr zeigt sich darin eine strukturell unterschiedliche soziale Orientierung der beteiligten Gruppen. Sowohl im JN als auch im SN ist es im Westen gangige Praxis, dem Verstorbenen Statusobjekte (Streitaxte, Silexdolche und fruhe Bronzeartefakte) als Grabbeigabe mitzugeben, wahrend diese Objekte im Osten des Landes ausserst selten Eingang in Bestattungen fanden, jedoch als Einzel- und im Falle der Bronzeobjekte auch als Depotfunde regelmassig anzutreffen sind. English abstract This book offers a comprehensive study of the Younger Neolithic period ([YN], c. 2850 - 2250 BC) of Schleswig-Holstein (SH). Apart from presenting all currently known artefacts and contexts of that period in detail, a particular focus was placed on the examination of YN battle axes. They appear to be the most common artefact that is preserved from the YN, and they are very well suited for investigating social phenomena. These artefacts furthermore changed diachronically. While battle axes of the early stage are shaped more or less equally elaborately, late specimens exhibit significant morphological variation and difference, as some specimens were shaped very elaborately whereas others were quite simple. The same difference has been observed for the subsequently used flint daggers. It is suggested that this difference reflects the emergence of a more stratified society. Many battle axes appear to have been deposited as broken pieces. As the ratio of cutting edges to butt ends is unequal (2:1) both in SH and in a wider region and as many pieces have "decorations" (Applikationen, pars pro toto shaft holes), battle axes are regarded as intentionally deposited. Accordingly, a large proportion of single finds are regarded as intentional depositions. Another focus was set on examining the transition to the YN. It is argued that many aspects that are said to characterize the YN are rooted in the preceding Middle Neolithic. A novelty is that social role becomes marked in funerary contexts. Thus, the transformation to the YN marks a certain point where already initiated societal changes become visible for first time. The examination of certain attributes revealed furthermore that there are differences between western and eastern SH which are not determined by chronological changes only. Rather, general differences appear between western and eastern regions, an in a wider geographical as well as temporal frame, which might be linked to different social orientations - either collectively or individually acting groups. Scales of Transformation Series This is the publication series of the Kiel University research project "CRC 1266" which takes a long-term perspective, from 15,000 BCE to 1 BCE, to investigate processes of transformation in a crucial period of human history, from late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers to early state societies. Funded by the German Research Foundation, the CRC combines research of around 60 scientists from eight institutions and the Johanna-Mestorf-Academy of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel as well as the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) and the Archaeological State Museum Schloss Gottdorf.

Depuis 2001, des recherches archeologiques sont menees dans l'archipel de Molene. Ce secteur s'avere particulierement riche en vestiges du Neolithique et de l'Age du Bronze. Une concentration exceptionnelle de monuments megalithiques y a ete mise en evidence. Plusieurs habitats sont attestes par la presence de depotoirs domestiques. A la pointe de Beg ar Loued (ile Molene), l'un de ses amas coquilliers fit l'objet d'un premier sondage en 2003 marquant le debut d'une serie de campagnes de fouilles. Des la deuxieme annee, celle-ci prit un tournant decisif avec la reconnaissance des premiers murs en pierres seches, correspondant a un batiment conserve sous la dune. Pendant pres d'une decennie, ce site fit l'objet de fouilles par une equipe interdisciplinaire. Les donnees obtenues par l'etude de l'habitat renseignent sur la chronologie des differentes occupations du site et permettent de documenter la transition IIIe-IIe millenaire avant notre ere, fourchette chronologique encore tres mal connue dans la moitie nord de la France. Outre l'apport d'une chronologie relative, l'approche architecturale donne une meilleure comprehension des choix ayant preside aux differentes phases de construction du batiment occupe pendant plus de trois siecles. Les elements de la culture materielle (ceramique, lithique, metallurgie) viennent aussi soulever le voile sur une periode essentiellement connue en Bretagne a travers les monuments funeraires. Pour la premiere fois dans cette region, grace a la conservation des vestiges organiques, il est permis d'esquisser l'economie (elevage, agriculture peche, collecte des coquillages, etc.) des hommes ayant occupe les rivages de la mer d'Iroise. Leur mode de vie suggere une communaute sedentaire a economie vivriere, exploitant l'ensemble des ressources insulaires sans pour autant etre coupee du continent (style ceramique, metallurgie). Afin de mieux comprendre l'evolution globale de cet environnement insulaire, de nouvelles recherches ont ete menees sur les variations du niveau marin correlees a l'etude du paysage vegetal, de la geomorphologie, de la geologie et de la faune. English abstract Since 2001, archaeological research has been conducted in the Molene Archipelago, an area that is particularly rich in remains from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, with an exceptional concentration of megalithic monuments. Several settlements are attested by the presence of domestic refuse dumps. At the point of Beg ar Loued (Molene Island), one of those shell middens was the object of an initial sondage in 2003, and that marked the beginning of a long series of excavations. Fieldwork took a decisive turn during the second year with the recognition of the first dry stone walls, belonging to a building preserved within the sand dunes. For nearly a decade, this site has been excavated by an interdisciplinary team. The data that have been obtained from this fieldwork provide information on the chronology of the various periods of occupation of the site and help to document the 3rd-2nd millennium BC transition, a period still largely unknown in the northern half of France. In addition to providing a relative chronology, the architectural approach gives us a better understanding of the choices that governed the different construction phases of the building, which was occupied for over three centuries. The elements of material culture (pottery, lithics, metalwork) also shed light on a period essentially known in Brittany through its funerary monuments. For the first time in this region, thanks to the preservation of organic remains, it is possible to sketch the lifestyle (livestock management, agriculture, fishing, shell gathering, etc.) of the people who occupied the shores of the Iroise Sea. In order to understand better the overall trends in this insular environment, new researches have been carried out on sea level changes in tandem with the study of the palaeoenvironment, geomorphology, geology and wildlife.