In this volume, Odell presents a detailed comparative analysis of standardized lithic data from 10 Illinois Valley components spanning 7500 years from the Early Archaic through the Mississippian perhaps the first time that such a comprehensive set of lithic variables has been analyzed for the entire Holocene of a region. A major part of this study constitutes the most extensive application of low-power lithic use-wear analysis to be found in the literature, accompanied by full discussion of the technique and a suite of new experimental data. The results provide significant information on prehistoric mobility and technological organization in mid-continental North America, revealing clearly for the first time a number of significant behavioral trends: e.g., an increase in the hafting of tools, economizing behavior in chert-poor areas, apparent change in projectile technology, changes in tool use intensity, and symboling behavior. These trends are supported by a massive set of easily accessible tables of data located in the appendix."

This book provides a general self-reflexive review and critical analysis of Scandinavian rock art from the standpoint of Chris Tilley’s research in this area over the last thirty years. It offers a novel alternative theoretical perspective stressing the significance of visual narrative structure and rhythm, using musical analogies, putting particular emphasis on the embodied perception of images in a landscape context. Part I reviews the major theories and interpretative perspectives put forward to understand the images, in historical perspective, and provides a critique discussing each of the main types of motifs occurring on the rocks. Part II outlines an innovative theoretical and methodological perspective for their study stressing sequence and relationality in bodily movement from rock to rock. Part III is a detailed case study and analysis of a series of rocks from northern Bohuslän in western Sweden. The conclusions reflect on the theoretical and methodological approach being taken in relation to the disciplinary practices involved in rock art research, and its future.

Upon this Foundation. - The 'Ubaid Reconsidered

A system for the hierarchical Classification of Lithic Artefacts from the British Late Glacial and Holocene Periods is offered in this book. It is hoped that it may find use as a guide book for archaeology students, museum staff, non-specialist archaeologists, local archaeology groups and lay enthusiasts. To allow the individual categories of lithic objects to be classified and characterised in detail, it was necessary to first define a number of descriptive terms, which forms the first part of this guide. The main part of the book is the lithic classification section, which offers definitions of the individual formal debitage, core and tool types. The basic questions asked are: what defines Object X as a tool and not a piece of debitage or a core; what defines a microlith as a microlith and not a knife or a piercer; and what defines a specific implement as a scalene triangle and not an isosceles one? As shown in the book, there are disagreements within the lithics community as to the specific definition of some types, demonstrating the need for all lithics reports to define which typological framework they are based on. The eBook edition of this publication is available in Open Access, supported by Historic Environment Scotland.

Neolithic and Bronze Age Studies in Europe: from material culture to territories presents eight papers from the 2018 UISPP Congress. Topics include the neolithisation process in the Iberian Peninsula; faunal exploitation in early Neolithic Italy; the economic and symbolic role of animals in eastern Germany; Copper Age human remains in central Italy; animal figurines; spatula-idols; territories and schematic art in the Iberian Neolithic; and finally Bronze age hoards at a European scale. The diversity of the papers reflects contemporary approaches and questions in those periods.

Practice - The Social, Space, and Materiality forms the second part of Bronze Age Tell Communities in Context: An exploration into culture, society, and the study of European prehistory. It studies Bronze Age tells and our approaches towards an understanding of this fascinating way of life, drawing on the material remains of long-term architectural stability and references back to ancestral place. While the first volume challenged Neo-Diffusionist models of the influence of Mediterranean palatial centres on the development of tell communities in the Carpathians and an attendant focus on social stratification, the second part sets out an alternative theoretical approach, which foregrounds architecture and the social use of space. Unlike the reductionist macro perspective of mainstream social modelling, inspired by aspects of practice theory outlined in this book, the account given seeks to allow for what is truly remarkable about these sites, and what we can infer from them about the way of life they once framed and enabled. The stability seen on tells, and their apparent lack of change on a macro scale, are specific features of the social field, in a given region and for a specific period of time. Both stability and change are contingent upon specific historical contexts, including traditional practices, their material setting and human intentionality. They are not an inherent, given property of this or that 'type' of society or social structure. For our tells, it is argued here, underneath the specific manifestation of sociality maintained, we clearly do see social practices and corresponding material arrangements being negotiated and adjusted. Echoing the argument laid out in the first part of this study, it is suggested that archaeology should take an interest in such processes on the micro scale, rather than succumb to the temptation of neat macro history and great narratives existing aloof from the material remains of past lives.

Old Oswestry is considered to be one of England's most precious archaeological jewels, described by Sir Cyril Fox in the 1930s as 'the outstanding work of the Early Iron Age type on the Marches of Wales', and its design is unique amongst hillforts in the UK. Located on the edge of the Shropshire Plain and just a kilometre north of the market town of Oswestry, the hillfort (and its hinterland landscape) can trace activity through artefactual evidence back at least 5000 years, with the last 3000 years evident as earthworks. The reader will notice that little in the way of archaeological investigation has occurred within the hillfort, and indeed, more excavation took place when its internal space became a training ground for trench warfare during World War I than through any academic endeavour. Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I when, between 1915 and 1918, over 4000 troops (including Oswestry's own great war poet Wilfrid Owen), were being trained at any one time for the Western Front. This book also discusses in detail the recent threats to the monument's special landscape from insensitive development and its alternative potential to act as a heritage gateway for the recreational and economic benefit of Oswestry and surrounding communities.

Places of Memory takes a new look at spatialised practices of remembrance and its role in reshaping societies from prehistory to today, gathering researchers representing diverse but complementary fields of expertise. This diachronic outlook provides important insights into the great variety of human and social reactions examining memory, encompassing aspects of remembering, the loss of memory, reclaiming memories, and remembering things that may not have happened. The contributions to this volume expand upon Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux des memoire (places of memory) and the notion that memory is not just stored in these places but activated through human engagement. The volume presents a reflection on the creation of memories through the organisation and use of landscapes and spaces that explicitly considers the multiplicity of meanings of the past. Thus, social identities were created, reaffirmed, strengthened, and transformed through the founding, change, and reorganization of places and spaces of memory in the cultural landscape.

The MegaGeo project, under the direction of the late Rui Boaventura, aimed to analyse the raw material economy in the construction of megalithic tombs in multiple territories, showing the representation of several prehistoric communities that raised them and their relationship with the surrounding areas. Following the meeting of the previous year, it was decided to hold Mega-Talks 2, which brought together national and international experts who have developed work related to Megalithism and Geology, in its various perspectives, from the funerary depositions to the raw material construction of the tombs, as indicators of mobility and interaction with the surrounding physical environment. Megaliths and Geology: Megalitos e Geologia presents contributions from Mega-Talks 2, held in Redondo, Portugal, on 19-20 November 2015.

The area corresponding to the modern city of Rome is usually known for the magnificent remains of the Roman civilization and the myths of its foundation in 753 BC. Less known is evidence of the prehistoric occupation occurring until the Bronze Age along the territory corresponding to the city of Rome and the surrounding area, called "Campagna Romana". Indeed, until a few years ago, the archaeological evidence relating to the phases of recent prehistory, from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Bronze Age, were completely, or almost completely, unknown. Recent excavations, mainly related to preventive archaeology, led to the identification of settlements and necropolises associated with a complex cultural scenario and shed light on the social and cultural aspects of daily life of the human groups who occupied this territory before the Latium civilization.

The ancient Near East is known as the "cradle of civilization" - and for good reason. Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia were home to an extraordinarily rich and successful culture. Indeed, it was a time and place of earth-shaking changes for humankind: the beginnings of writing and law, kingship and bureaucracy, diplomacy and state-sponsored warfare, mathematics and literature. This Very Short Introduction offers a fascinating account of this momentous time in human history. The three thousand years covered here - from around 3500 BCE, with the founding of the first Mesopotamian cities, to the conquest of the Near East by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE-represent a period of incredible innovation, from the invention of the wheel and the plow, to early achievements in astronomy, law, and diplomacy. As historian Amanda Podany explores this era, she overturns the popular image of the ancient world as a primitive, violent place. We discover that women had many rights and freedoms: they could own property, run businesses, and represent themselves in court. Diplomats traveled between the capital cities of major powers ensuring peace and friendship between the kings. Scribes and scholars studied the stars and could predict eclipses and the movements of the planets. Every chapter introduces the reader to a particular moment in ancient Near Eastern history, illuminating such aspects as trade, religion, diplomacy, law, warfare, kingship, and agriculture. Each discussion focuses on evidence provided in two or three cuneiform texts from that time. These documents, the cities in which they were found, the people and gods named in them, the events they recount or reflect, all provide vivid testimony of the era in which they were written. About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects-from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative-yet always balanced and complete-discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A total area of 3.1ha, taking in much of a settlement largely of the earlier Middle Iron Age (c.450 to c.150BC), was excavated in 1998 in advance of development. Two small pit groups, radiocarbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age, produced a bronze dagger and a small pottery assemblage. The Iron Age settlement comprised several groups of roundhouse ring ditches and associated small enclosures forming an open settlement set alongside a linear boundary ditch. Its origin lay in the 5th century BC with a single small roundhouse group. Through the 4th and 3rd centuries BC the settlement expanded with the original structures replaced by a principal roundhouse group accompanied by at least a further two groups of roundhouses and enclosures and minor outlying structures. A group of structures and enclosures set apart from the main domestic area was the focus for copper alloy casting, producing an assemblage of crucibles and fragments from investment moulds for the production of horse fittings, as well as bone, antler and horn working debris. The site also produced good assemblages of pottery and animal bone, an assemblage of saddle querns and a potin coin. The settlement had been abandoned by the middle of the 2nd century BC, although the main boundary ditch survived at least as an earthwork. By the early 1st century AD a series of ditched enclosures were created to the north of the boundary ditch, perhaps a small ladder settlement, which fell out of use soon after the Roman conquest. One enclosure contained two small roundhouses and other curvilinear gullies may have formed animal pens in the corners of two enclosures. This final phase is dated by some Late Iron Age pottery, an Iron Age and a Roman rotary quern, and a small quantity of Roman roof tile. The discussion considers the physical, social and economic structure of the settlement. The distribution of finds around the ring ditches is examined as well as the size of enclosed roundhouses. There is an overview of the Iron Age roundhouse in the Midlands, using well preserved sites as exemplars for the range of evidence that can survive. A typology and chronology for Iron Age pottery is provided, and the date of introduction of the rotary quern is discussed, and the consequent effect on the size of storage jars is examined. Middle Bronze Age pits and a small cremation cemetery, and Late Iron Age to early Roman settlement on the site of the nearby deserted medieval village of Coton are also described. With contributions by Trevor Anderson, Paul Blinkhorn, Pat Chapman, Steve Critchley, Karen Deighton, Tora Hylton, Dennis Jackson, Ivan Mack, Anthony Maull, Gerry McDonnell, Matthew Ponting and Jane Timby. Illustrations by Andy Chapman, Pat Walsh and Mark Roughley.

Late Prehistoric Fortifications in Europe: Defensive, Symbolic and Territorial Aspects from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age presents the contributions to the International Colloquium ‘FortMetalAges’ (10th–12th November 2017, Guimarães, Portugal), The Colloquium was organised by the Scientific Commission ‘Metal Ages in Europe’ of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP/ IUSPP) and by the Martin Sarmento Society of Guimarães. Nineteen papers discuss different interpretive ideas for defensive structures whose construction had necessitated large investment, present new case studies, and conduct comparative analysis between different regions and chronological periods from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.

This book explores the Mesolithic period in the central-eastern area of Cantabria (Spain) as a manifestation of sociocultural evolution and change of the societies that lived in the area between the ninth and sixth millennia cal BC, until the introduction of farming. It analyses the subsistence and sociocultural transformations made by hunter-gatherer societies in their adaptation to the environment that emerged from the climate change seen during the Holocene. It also considers the evolutionary processes undergone by social groups based on their experiences and cognitive processes.

Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) stone carved tombs were constructed from carved stone slabs or a combination of moulded bricks and carved stones, and were distributed in Central and Eastern China. Such multi-chambered stone tombs were very popular among the Han people, but they were entirely new, and were a result of outside stimuli rather than an independent development within China. The stone carved tombs were a result of imitating royal rock-cut tombs, while the rock-cut tombs were stimulated by foreign examples. Moreover, many details of stone carved tombs also had Western features. These exotic elements reflected the desire to assimilate exotica within Chinese traditions. Some details within stone carved tombs showed high level of stone working technologies with Western influences. But in general the level of stone construction of the Han period was relatively low. The methods of construction showed how unfamiliar the Western system was to the Han artisans. Han Dynasty stone carved tombs were hybrids of different techniques, including timber, brick and stone works. From these variations, Han people could choose certain types of tombs to satisfy their specific ritual and economic needs. Not only structures, but also pictorial decorations of stone carved tombs were innovations. The range of image motifs was quite limited. Similar motifs can be found in almost every tomb. Such similarities were partly due to the artisans, who worked in workshops and used repertoires for the carving of images. But these also suggest that the tombs were decorated for certain purposes with a given functional template. Together with different patterns of burial objects and their settings, such images formed a way through which the Han people gave meaning to the afterworld. As the Han Empire collapsed, stone carved tombs ceased being constructed in the Central Plains. However, they set a model for later tombs. The idea of building horizontal stone chamber tombs spread to Han borderlands, and gradually went further east to the Korean Peninsula. In this book, the origins, meanings and influences of Han Dynasty stone carved tombs are presented as a part of the history of interactions between different parts of Eurasia.

Bronze ornaments of the Nordic Bronze Age (neck collars, belt plates, pins and tutuli) were elaborate objects that served as status symbols to communicate social hierarchy. The magnificent metalwork studied here dates from 1500-1100 BC. An interdisciplinary investigation of the artefacts was adopted to elucidate their manufacture and origin, resulting in new insights into metal craft in northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Based on the habitus concept, which situates the craftsmen within their social and technological framework, individual artefact characteristics and metalworking techniques can be used to identify different craft practices, even to identify individual craftsmen. The conclusions drawn from this offer new insights into the complex organisation of metalcraft in the production of prestige goods across different workshops. Several kinship-based workshops on Jutland, in the Luneburg Heath and Mecklenburg, allow us to conclude that the bronze objects were a display of social status and hierarchy controlled by, and produced for, the elite - as is also seen in the workshops on Zealand. Within the two main metalworking regions, Zealand and central Lower Saxony, workshops can be defined as communities of practice that existed with an extended market and relations with the local elite. Attached craft, in the sense that the craftspeople fully depended on a governing institution and produced artefacts as a manifestation of political expression, was only detected on Zealand between 1500-1300 BC. The investigation presented here showed that overall results could not be achieved when concentrating only on one aspect of metalwork. Highly skilled craft is to be found in every kind of workshop, as well as an intensive labour input. Only when considering skill in relation to labour input and also taking into account signs of apprenticeship and cross-craft techniques, as well as the different categories of mistakes in crafting, can a stable image of craft organisation be created.

As it appears in diverse guises - and notably as a founding narrative - the past is at the core of every functioning human society. The idea that the past can be known through scientific research has long been a fundamental challenge for western societies and for European researchers, from all disciplines concerned. Through more than four decades of outward-looking archaeological practice, the scholar, teacher and intellectual Jean-Paul Demoule has elaborated a truly global approach to European cultures and their transformations, spanning from the social inequality in Neolithic times to Indo European research to contemporary links between heritage and politics. His colleagues - British, Bulgarians, Czechs, Danes, Dutch, French, Germans, North-Americans, Spaniards, Swiss and Russians - seek to extend and enrich his vision. With contributions (written in French and in English) spanning from prehistory to the modern world, they bring in this volume new insights and data to such issues as the processes of identity construction at different scales, migratory movements in Europe, the status of gender, the role of prestige objects and megalithic monuments in the emergence of social hierarchy and in the semiology of power... without forgetting the myths and realities surrounding the Indo-European phenomenon. - Le passe sous diverses formes - et notamment celle d'un recit fondateur - est au coeur du fonctionnement de toute societe humaine. L'idee que le passe puisse etre connaissable par une recherche scientifique est un enjeu essentiel, particulierement aborde par les societes occidentales et notamment par des chercheurs europeens, toutes disciplines confondues. Par sa pratique de l'archeologie et son erudition, le chercheur et le professeur Jean-Paul Demoule a su elaborer un tableau global des cultures europeennes et de leurs transformations, incluant autant les origines neolithiques des inegalites sociales que l'emergence du mythe indo-europeen ou encore les rapports entre patrimoine et politique. Dans cet ouvrage, ses collegues allemands, britanniques, bulgares, danois, espagnols, francais, neerlandais, nord-americains, russes, suisses et tcheques prolongent et enrichissent - en anglais ou en francais - sa vision. Ils y apportent leurs reflexions et leurs donnees concernant les perspectives de l'archeologie du XXIe siecle, les processus de la construction identitaire a differentes echelles, les mouvements migratoires de l'Europe, le statut du genre, le role des objets de prestige et des monuments megalithiques dans l'emergence de la hierarchisation sociale et de la semiologie du pouvoir... sans oublier la mythologie et les realites du phenomene indo-europeen.

The transition from foragers to farmers and the role of intensive rice agriculture have been among the most controversial subjects in Korean archaeology. However, the relatively high acidity of sediment in the Korean peninsula has made it impossible to examine faunal/floral remains directly for tracing the subsistence change. For this reason, many of the studies on the transition heavily relied on the shell middens in coastal areas, which reflect only a small portion of the overall subsistence in the Korean Peninsula. The subsistence behaviors recorded in numerous large-scale inland habitation sites have been obscured by the overall separation between hunter-gatherer and intensive rice farmer. This research investigates the role of intensive rice farming as a subsistence strategy in the central part of the prehistoric Korean peninsula using organic geochemical analysis and luminescence dating on potsherds. The central hypothesis of this research is that there was a wide range of resource utilization along with rice farming around 3,400-2,600 BP. This hypothesis contrasts with prevailing rice-based models, where climatically driven intensive rice agriculture from 3,400 BP is thought to be the dominant subsistence strategy that drove social complexity. This research focuses on four large-scale inland habitation sites that contain abundant pottery collections to evaluate the central hypothesis as well the prevailing rice-centred model. This research produced critical data for addressing prehistoric subsistence in the Korean peninsula and established a detailed chronology of subsistence during 3,400-1,800 BP.

At the confluence of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Mississippi Rivers lies the "American Bottom," a broad floodplain that prehistoric peoples inhabited for millennia. Precisely how did they live? What were their ties to the natural world around them? In this study, based upon some six years of intensive archeological and geological research at Labras Lake in St. Clair County, Illinois, Richard W. Yerkes interprets a wealth of important new data in a stimulating and original fashion.
With a fine-tuned control of the data, Yerkes challenges prevailing theories based on simple classifications of stone tools according to shape or on simple models of diffuse and focal economies. He views environment as a dynamic factor in economic and cultural life, rather than as merely a backdrop to it. Using incident light microscopy, he examines wear patterns on stone tools to determine what activities were performed during each period the site was inhabited--the Late Archaic, the Late Woodland, and the Mississippian. As he documents environmental change at Labras Lake, he analyzes plant and animal remains in context to explore diet and seasonal patterns of subsistence and settlement.
The result is a more accurate and detailed picture than ever before what prehistoric life on the Mississippi floodplain was like. Yerkes shows how to assess the duration and size of occupations and how to determine where and when true permanent settlements arose. What others call "sedentary encampments" he reveals as sequences of small residental occupations for a narrow range of activities during shorter, seasonal periods. His contribution to the study of the development of sedentism is potentiallyfar-reaching and will interest many North American anthropologists and archeologists.

The Phaistos Disc is one of the most studied documents of Minoan civilization, enticing scholars and simple enthusiasts with the mysterious aura that envelops it and with its singularity among Minoan scriptures. It has entered the collective imagination, both at academic and popular levels. Archaeologists digging at Phaistos are often asked 'Where was the Disc found?' Representations of the Disc can be found abundantly in popular culture, from appearances in Mickey Mouse comics to props amidst the curios on the tables of television magicians. It is this very overexposure that risks undermining the understanding of an object that is, first and foremost, an archaeological artefact found in a chronological and cultural context. Much has been said and much has been written about the Disc. Collet brings a new approach. It is not a deciphering but an interpretation, a depiction of the Minoan Weltanschauung through the symbols on the Disc and their connections with reality. This begins with the spiral-shaped construction of the inscription and its possible temporal allusions, and moves on to a structuralist view of use of the signs, in which the repetitions take on almost ritual significance. Hence it is a pictorial interpretation rather than syllabic, whereby the pictograph is not intended as a rigid reproduction of logical discourse, but rather a path.

This investigation exhaustively gathers the archaeological evidence of the Palaeolithic human settlement in the Guadalteba river region (Malaga, Spain) during the Pleistocene. The main objective is to show the direct relationship between the reservoirs and the sources of raw materials, located in the fluvial terraces, in the geological outcrops and in the surface deposits. An important part of the work has been the geoarchaeological and archeometric surveys and the analysis of new lithic collections from surface archaeological surveys and recent systematic archaeological excavations in the Ardales Cave and Las Palomas de Teba Sima. In this sense, the methodological tools of other disciplines were used. Geoarchaeology enabled an understanding of the sedimentary and Post -depositional processes affecting the deposits and consequently its lithic industry. Archaeometry helped to see the petrographic features of lithic assemblies of deposits. These disciplines have been fundamental to propose a settlement pattern and mobility of these groups of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers during the Pleistocene period in the interior of the province of Malaga, laying down a basic structure for future prehistoric investigations in the area. Spanish Description: Una investigacion que recoge de manera exhaustiva las evidencias arqueologicas del poblamiento humano Paleolitico en la comarca del rio Guadalteba (Malaga, Espana) durante el Pleistoceno. El objetivo principal es mostrar la relacion directa entre los yacimientos y las fuentes de materias primas, localizadas en las terrazas fluviales, en los afloramientos geologicos y en los propios yacimientos. Destacar la importancia del analisis del registro arqueologico de superficie, donde la prospeccion se convierte en la herramienta mas efectiva para detectar yacimientos que han permanecido al aire libre, sobre todo del Paleolitico inferior y medio. De igual forma cobra especial relevancia el reconocimiento y la caracterizacion espacial y territorial, donde el artefacto se convierte en la unidad basica de investigacion. Parte importante del trabajo han sido los muestreos geoarqueologicos y arqueometricos y el analisis de los nuevos conjuntos liticos procedentes de las prospecciones arqueologicas superficiales y de las recientes excavaciones arqueologicas sistematicas, realizadas en la Cueva de Ardales y en la Sima de Las Palomas de Teba. En este sentido, hemos utilizado herramientas metodologicas de otras disciplinas, como la Geoarqueologia, para comprender los procesos sedimentarios y postdeposicionales que afectan a los yacimientos y en consecuencia a su industria litica, y la Arqueometria, para ver las caracteristicas petrograficas de los conjuntos liticos, disciplinas fundamentales para proponer un patron de asentamiento y movilidad de estos grupos de cazadores-recolectores del Pleistoceno. Este trabajo constituye un hito en la investigacion del Paleolitico en el interior de la provincia de Malaga, convirtiendose en una estructura basica para futuras investigaciones prehistoricas en la zona.

This volume presents the proceedings of the conference "L'arte rupestre dell'eta dei metalli nella penisola italiana: localizzazione dei siti in rapporto al territorio, simbologie e possibilita interpretative" that took place in Pisa at the Cantiere delle Navi di Pisa under the aegis of the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana and of the University of Pisa on 15th June 2015. The addressed issues were related to the Post-Pleistocene rock art along the Apennine ridge; in recent years more and more evidence has been identified, which is different from the magnificent evidence found in the Alps such as, for example, the well-known Monte Bego and Val Camonica. This evidence, despite various and peculiar features, can be all related to the iconographic field whose main expressions are anthropomorphic figures, weapons, daggers, halberds and several other symbols, all similarly stylised. A peculiarity of these manifestations is their location in small shelters inappropriate for habitation or in places suitable for supervising mountain and territory roads, bearing comparison to evidence from Western Mediterranean coastal areas. An interpretative possibility has emerged: these sites could have been not only ceremonial places, but also spaces linked to the socio-economic fields or perhaps to the power of communities that occupied these territories.

Eastern Sudan, like other regions far away from the Nile valley, has often been overlooked historically on account of a kind of prejudice towards areas lacking in monumental or urban remains or evidence of any literary production. Despite the relevance of the deserts and marginal areas becoming increasingly evident in the last year or so, in Sudan only few research projects have been conducted in these regions. The ongoing research project in Eastern Sudan by the University 'L'Orientale' has provided a preliminary reconstruction of the history of the region from c. 6000 BC to AD 1500. This publication outlines this reconstruction and also considers the more general setting known for the other regions of northeastern Africa. Several issues remain to be clarified and understanding of some phases is still limited, nevertheless it can be safely stated that Eastern Sudan, was in ancient times, as it is now, a crossroads between the Nile basin, Eastern Desert, the Ethio-Eritrean highlands and the Red Sea, represented a crucial region in several respects: the spread of domestic crops and animals towards the Ethio-Eritrean highlands, the spread of the Sahelian crops towards India via the Red Sea and Arabia, as well as the long-distance trade network characterizing northeastern Africa in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC.

Studies of Iron Age artefacts from Britain tend to be dominated either by the study of metalwork, or pottery. This book presents a study not only of a different material, but also a different type of object: glass beads. These are found in a range of different sizes, shapes, colours, and employ a variety of different decorative motifs. Through an analysis of glass beads from four key study regions in Britain, the book aims not only to address regional differences in appearance and chronology, but also to explore the role that this object played within the networks and relationships that constructed Iron Age society. It seeks to understand how they were used during their lives and how they came to be deposited within the archaeological record, in order to establish the social processes that glass beads were bound within. The results indicate that glass beads were a strongly regionalised artefact, potentially reflecting differing local preferences for colour and motif. In addition, glass beads, in combination with several other types of object, were integral to Middle Iron Age dress. Given that the first century BC is often seen as a turning point in terms of settlements and material culture, this supports the possibility of strong continental exchange during an earlier period for either glass beads or raw materials. However, by the Late Iron Age in the first century BC and early first century AD, their use had severely diminished.

Rather than considering the myths supposedly depicted in the world's rock art, this book examines the myths archaeologists and others have created about the meanings and significance of rock art. This vast body of opinions dominates our concepts of the principal surviving cultural manifestations of early worldviews. Here these constructs are subjected to detailed analysis and are found to consist largely of misinterpretations. From the misidentification of natural rock markings as rock art to mistaken interpretations, from sensationalist claims to pareidolic elucidations of iconographies, the book presents numerous examples of myths researchers have created about pre-Historic 'art'. The claims about a connection between rock art and the neuropathologies of its producers are assessed, and the neuroscience of rock art interpretation is reviewed. The book presents a comprehensive catalogue of falsities claimed about palaeoart, and it endeavours to explain how these arose, and how they can be guarded against by recourse to basic principles of science. It therefore represents a key resource in the scientific study of rock art.