These objects do not have a single purpose. This is the central premise that guides the research within this book. Throughout the volume the reader will follow a representation of a marine hunter-gatherer society, a projection deriving from one of its iconic and most important material assets, the harpoon. This very technical object will be studied not only for its most evident function - hunting at sea - and the work delves into the structural, symbolic, technological and world-building aspects of the human societies that used them. To achieve this goal the text begins with a judgment about the role of marine hunting, its prey, and the agents involved in different coastal societies on the American continent, in order to create a comprehensive framework of reference for the subject. It continues by focussing on clarifying, defining and discussing the concept of harponage from technology compared with other historical and ethnographic cases of marine hunters across the globe. A typology of harpoon points from the Atacama Desert is presented, with classification based on their technical attributes, constituent units, composition features and articulation mechanisms, in order to evaluate the chronological scope and geographical distribution of each one of the types of harpoon heads from the last 7000 years of coastal history. The text then explores the multiple values and meanings of the harpoons of the Atacama Desert. The book finally examines the social reasons that influenced the development of an incredibly sophisticated and complex technology of marine hunting. Inferences that take it out of the sea and away from hunting, towards hypotheses that seek answers in the cultural determinism stemming from technical decisions, to utilise technology as another mechanism to establish and strengthen social bonds in the construction of worlds between different agents and collectives, and no longer as a simple tool to satisfy subsistence needs. | Les objets n'ont pas un seul objectif. Premisse centrale qui guide le denouement de ce livre. Dans les pages suivantes le lecteur trouvera une reflexion sur une societe des chasseurs-collecteurs marins a partir d'un de ces biens materiaux iconiques et un des plus importantes, le harpon. Cet objet technique sera etudie hors de sa fonction la plus evidente, au-dela de la chasse marine, pour penetrer les aspects structurels, symboliques, technologiques et de construction du monde de ces collectifs humains. Pour entreprendre ce defi, le texte nous submerge dans un premier temps dans une revision critique sur le role de la chasse marine, leurs proies et les agents impliques dans ces activites et dans differentes societes cotieres du continent americain, afin de pourvoir un cadre de reference adequate sur cette thematique. Dans un deuxieme moment, nous nous centrons dans l'eclaircissement, la definition et la concretisation du concept de harponnage depuis la technologie comparee avec d'autres cas historiques et ethnographiques de chasseurs-cueilleurs du monde. Une typologie de tetes de harpon pour le desert d'Atacama est ensuite presentee, fondee sur leurs solutions techniques, leurs unites constitutives, leurs normes de composition et leurs mecanismes d'articulation, pour evaluer ensuite la portee chronologique et la distribution geographique de chaque type au cours des dernieres 7000 annees d'histoire littorale. Par la suite, le texte tente d'explorer les multiples valeurs et significations des harpons du desert d'Atacama. Dans sa partie finale, notre recit aborde les raisons sociales qui ont permis le developpement d'une technologie de chasse marine aussi sophistiquee et complexe. Interpretations qui nous emmenent hors de la mer et loin de la chasse, vers des hypotheses qui cherchent des reponses sur les contraintes culturelles qui se trouvent derriere les decisions techniques, pour concevoir a la technologie comme un mecanisme employe afin d'etablir les liens sociaux dans la construction des mondes et rapprocher differents agents sociaux et collectifs, plus que comme un simple outil destine a satisfaire des besoins de subsistance. | Los objetos no tienen un solo objetivo. Esta es la premisa central que guia el desenlace de este libro. A lo largo de sus paginas el lector conocera una reflexion acerca de una sociedad cazadora-recolectora marina a partir de uno de sus bienes materiales iconicos y mas importantes, el arpon. Este objeto tecnico sera estudiado fuera de su funcion mas evidente, mas alla de la caza en el mar, para adentrarse en aspectos estructurales, simbolicos, tecnologicos y de construccion de mundo de estos colectivos humanos. Para llevar a cabo este programa, el texto se sumerge en una primera instancia en un juicio acerca del rol de la caza marina, sus presas y los agentes involucrados en diferentes sociedades costeras del continente americano, con tal de crear un marco de referencia comprensivo y adecuado sobre el tema. En segundo lugar, se aboca a clarificar, definir y concretizar el concepto de arponaje desde la tecnologia comparada con otros casos historicos y etnograficos de cazadores marinos del planeta. Se presenta una tipologia de cabezales para el desierto de Atacama fundada en sus soluciones tecnicas, unidades constitutivas, normas de composicion y mecanismos de articulacion, para luego evaluar el alcance cronologico y la distribucion geografica de cada uno de los tipos de cabezales de arpon definidos para los ultimos 7000 anos de historia litoral. Posteriormente, el texto intenta explorar en torno a los multiples valores y significados de los arpones del desierto de Atacama. El libro indaga en su desenlace final acerca de las razones sociales que dieron cabida al desarrollo de una tecnologia de caza marina tan sofisticada y compleja. Inferencias que lo llevan fuera del mar y lejos de la caza, hacia hipotesis que buscan respuestas en las condicionantes culturales tras las decisiones tecnicas, para concebir a la tecnologia como un mecanismo mas para entablar y estrechar lazos sociales en la construccion de mundos entre distintos agentes y colectivos, y ya no como una simple herramienta para satisfacer necesidades de subsistencia.

One of the first interdisciplinary discussions of taphonomy (the study of how fossil assemblages are formed) and paleoecology (the reconstruction of ancient ecosystems), this volume helped establish these relatively new disciplines. It was originally published as part of the influential Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology series. Taphonomy is plainly here to stay, and this book makes a first class introduction to its range and appeal.--Anthony Smith, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

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.

This volume presents the proceedings of the session 'Intellectual and Spiritual Expression of Non-literate Peoples' part of the XVII World UISPP Congress, held in Burgos (Spain), the 4th September 2014. The session brought together experts from various disciplines to share experience and scientific approaches for a better understanding of human creativity and behaviour in prehistory.

Among Mesoamericanists, the agricultural basis of the ancient Maya civilization of the Yucatan Peninsula has been an important topic of research—and controversy. Interest in the agricultural system of the Maya greatly increased as new discoveries showed that the lowland Maya were not limited to slash-and-burn technology, as had been previously believed, but used a variety of more sophisticated agricultural techniques and practices, including terracing, raised fields, and, perhaps, irrigation. Because of the nature of the data and because this form of agricultural technology had been key to explanations of state formation elsewhere in Mesoamerica, raised-field agriculture became a particular focus of investigation. Pulltrouser Swamp conclusively demonstrates the existence of hydraulic, raised-field agriculture in the Maya lowlands between 150 B.C. and A.D. 850. It presents the findings of the University of Oklahoma's Pulltrouser SwampProject, an NSF-supported interdisciplinary study that combined the talents of archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, paleobotanists, biologists, and zoologists to investigate the remains of the Maya agricultural system in the swampy region of northern Belize. By examining soils, fossil pollen and other plant remains, gastropods, relic settlements, ceramics, lithics, and other important evidence, the Pulltrouser Swamp team has clearly demonstrated that the features under investigation are relics of Maya-made raised and channelized fields and associated canals. Other data suggest the nature of the swamps in which the fields were constructed, the tools used for construction and cultivation, the possible crops cultivated, and at least one type of settlement near the fields, with its chronology. This verification of raised fields provides dramatic evidence of a large and probably organized workforce engaged in sophisticated and complex agricultural technology. As record of this evidence, Pulltrouser Swamp is a work of seminal importance for all students and scholars of New World prehistory.

The earliest finds of wheeled vehicles in northern and central Europe date to 3900-3600 BC. However finds (3400-3300 BC) from the Boleraz sites of Arbon/Bleiche 3 and Bad Buchau/Torwiesen II, linked to pile-dwelling settlements, indicate methods of transport typical for higher altitudes (slides, sleds, etc.). The Boleraz and Baden cultures overlap in the Carpathian Basin between 3300-3000 BC and this period seems to have produced transport models that parallel finds in today's Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and other regions. These suggest that generally the Boleraz settlers inside the Carpathian Basin did not know, or use, the wheel in the fullest sense. Cart and wheel forms are indicated only from Grave 177 at Budakalasz (2800-2600 BC). The Hungarian Baden finds follow the Danube and to the East there are no certain vehicle remains. It is difficult to tell whether the Boleraz finds are linked to the wider Alpine zone, and the Baden finds are perhaps associated with the mixed-culture sites along the eastern slopes of the Carpathians. The four-wheeled wagon was a development linked to the plains and the Steppes (Cucuteni-Tripolje, Pre-Yamnaja, Yamnaja). The nature of the finds relating to vehicles associated with lake and riverine settlements reveal technical and material features: there is evidence of a high degree of carving, if not decoration, and these communities pointed the way for future skills and developments in wheel and cart/wagon manufacture.

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.

Au large des cotes atlantiques vendeennes (France), l'ile d'Yeu est un territoire occupe depuis la Prehistoire. Les sites a vocations domestiques, artisanales, funeraires ou encore symboliques dates du Neolithique sont nombreux. Leur etat de conservation est exceptionnel car les architectures baties en pierre sont preservees en elevation pour beaucoup d'entre eux. C'est le cas, par exemple, sur les habitats du IVeme millenaire avant J.-C., qui ont fait l'objet de plusieurs programmes de recherche depuis 2010. Cet ouvrage regroupe la documentation, les informations inedites et les principaux resultats des etudes, prospections, fouilles et releves realises sur les habitats, les monuments funeraires, les carrieres et les sites symboliques. Les premiers travaux tentent de proposer un etat des lieux de l'environnement mineral ainsi que les principales formes d'exploitation, les strategies d'approvisionnement et les usages des roches. Le coeur de l'ouvrage est consacre a la fouille des deux principaux habitats dates du Neolithique recent, la pointe de la Tranche et Ker Daniaud. L'accent est mis sur les architectures de pierre de ces eperons barres directement ouverts sur l'Ocean mais dont I'occupation semble non permanente. Enfin, les releves (plan, photogrammetrie, microtopographie) et la modelisation numerique des sepultures megalithiques des Tabernaudes, de la Planche a Puare et des Petits Fradets autorisent une restitution tridimensionnelle des architectures funeraires neolithiques. Pour les rochers marques de cupules, dont la concentration actuelle est une des plus importantes, une premiere analyse du corpus des signes est proposee; en depit de leur datation encore mal assuree. Cette contribution est l'occasion d'offrir les resultats de l'observation du reel et de l'imaginaire, percus par I'analyse des temoignages et expressions, physiques et symboliques, des populations de la fin de la Prehistoire installees - et non piegees - sur un territoire restreint battu par les vents et cerne par les flots.

The long Palaeolithic sequence of Karain (Antalya, Turkey) began around 500,000 years ago and continued until the final Palaeolithic around 10,000 BC. This volume presents all the cultural and technical variations during this immense period, situated in a context which joins Africa, Asia, and Europe. In brief, the assemblage of tools appears to belong to Asian traditions; no Acheulian bifaces were observed. The earlier half of the sequence (stages 9 and 10) corresponds to centripetal industries with thick flakes and with denticulates and racloirs, classified as 'Proto-Charentian'. 'Modern archaic' human remains were sporadically discovered there. The upper phase is by far the most important: stages 8 to 5. These are superb Levallois industries with good quality exogenous materials. The tools are made from elongated flakes and transformed into racloirs with very elegant points. They have been termed 'Karain Mousterian'. Human remains are also associated with this phase (mandible and phalanges). The final phase (stage 4) is classically Mousterian with Neanderthal human remains.

Ceramic technology is a topic widely explored in archaeology, especially for its social inferences. This volume addresses the social aspects of production and the role of potters within prehistoric communities. The book focusses on the Copper Age when social complexity was incipient rather than developed, and ceramic production was not considered a formalised activity. Household and funerary pottery dated from the second half of the 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium BC unearthed from eight archaeological contexts located in the current area of Rome were analysed through a multidisciplinary study. An integrated approach of archaeometric investigation, trace analysis and experimental archaeology provided a framework of empirical data reflecting the transmission of technological choices among diverse ceramic traditions and the coexistence of different levels of expertise within productions related to household or funerary activities. Petrographic analyses, XRF and XRD, led to an understanding of the ceramic recipes, their use and the firing technology used by Copper Age potters. The reference collection of technological traces relating to forming techniques, surface treatments and comb decorations allowed characterization of the craftspeople's expertise. A potter's skill is inferred in terms of the technical investment required at each stage of production or in shaping specific ceramic vessels. In light of these data, the pottery from the Copper Age contexts of central Italy suggests a recurring association between skilled productions and socially valued goods, as the vessels used in funerary contexts demonstrate.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

In France, the post-World War II period corresponds to a second golden age of prehistory and protohistory, thanks to the development of the CNRS and the creation of the first university chairs. Historiographie de prehistoriens et de protohistoriens francais du XX Degrees siecle presents the biographies of a wide selection of French archaeologists whose scientific work has particularly marked this period.

This volume focuses on the main methodological perspectives currently existing in studies on Iron Age fortified settlements. Current investigations can be characterised according to three methodological approaches: analytic, landscape and componential analysis. These approaches can be traced since the 70s and are found all around Europe from the Baltic regions to the Mediterranean coast. They are examples of diachronic and versatile methodological procedures in use today and applicable to different contexts of the European Iron Age. We introduce digital archaeology at the end of this paper. In each one of the chapters we shall focus not only on the theoretical perspective of the approach but also on its practical application to the study of actual fortified settlements from different geographic contexts. In conclusion, and despite the difficulties of using these methods when investigating Iron Age settlements, they seem to be as versatile as they are adaptable and they have evolved adopting new methods of tele-detection and geographic information systems which update and refresh them as current methodological approaches.

Le site neolithique de Tinqueux " la Haubette " (Marne) date du " Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain " (5000-4700 cal. BC) a livre cinq maisons, ainsi que des fosses et une structure de combustion. Les elements de la culture materielle abondants ont permis d'approfondir differentes problematiques. La premiere traite de la singularite du site en raison de sa position tres orientale dans l'aire d'extension du BVSG et sa place dans la sequence chronologique. Le second sujet porte sur la nature de l'habitat dans le reseau des sites " producteurs " ou " receveurs " qui caracterise le BVSG. Le troisieme theme aborde est celui de la provenance des matieres premieres et le quatrieme est celui des caracteristiques chronologiques internes au village. Les analyses menees sur la structuration du village et sur le mobilier archeologique ont permis de reveler un pan encore inconnu de la culture BVSG. Ainsi, la sequence chronologique fine de cette periode dans son facies regional a pu etre etablie ; comme que la periodisation interne du village. La comparaison avec des sites proches ou eloignes a ete determinante pour comprendre le rapport de cet habitat avec les sites contemporains. Elle revele une ouverture vers l'est et une forte dynamique culturelle qui se traduit par des reseaux d'influences et de circulations variees, notamment pour l'approvisionnement en matieres premieres et en produits finis.

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.

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 Development of an Iron Age and Roman Settlement Complex at The Park and Bowsings, near Guiting Power, Gloucestershire outlines the excavation of a small Iron Age and Roman settlement complex near Guiting Power in the Cotswolds. A relatively undefended farmstead of middle Iron Age date was abandoned, to be followed by an adjacent, more substantial, ditched enclosure of the mid to later Iron Age, which appears to have been a stronghold of higher status, with less directly agrarian associations. This latter site became dilapidated or was perhaps slighted during the latest Iron Age or early Roman period, with a Romanised farmstead developing over the traditional habitation area, thus providing evidence for occupation until the late 4th century AD. The sequence of settlement indicates social, economic, and environmental changes occurring in the area from the 'proto-Dobunnic' to late Roman periods. Excavation of pits at the site has provided the basis for experimental investigation of grain storage.

The subject of this book is the man of that new hemisphere which was revealed to Europe in 1492. There through all historic centuries he had lived apart, absolutely uninfluenced by any reflex of the civilisation of the Ancient World; and yet, as it appears, pursuing a course in many respects strikingly analogous to that by means of which the civilisation of Europe originated. The recognition of this is not only of value as an aid to the realisation of the necessary conditions through which man passed in reaching the stage at which he is found at the dawn of history; but it seems to point to the significant conclusion that civilisation is the development of capacities inherent in man.

The existence of an opposition between rural and urban spaces is an important question for our societies, and one that has been posed since the radical transformations of the 20th century and the so-called 'end of the peasants'. In this context it becomes also a question for archaeologists and historians. This book assembles contributions on the place of agricultural production in the context of urbanization in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean. The contributions concentrate on the second-millennium Aegean and the protohistoric northwestern Mediterranean. They offer a reflection on the nature of urbanization and its consequences for rural spaces near cities and on the many ways in which rural spaces and agricultural activities may be intertwined with urban spaces - a reconsideration of the very nature of urbanism. A deliberate accent is laid on the comparative perspectives between different regions and periods of Mediterranean protohistory, and on the integration of all kinds of sources and research methods, from texts to survey to environmental archaeology. Highlighted throughout are the original paths followed in the Peloponnese or in the Troad with regard to the Minoan model of urbanization, and the many aspects and periods of Minoan urbanization (as in development in Languedoc vis-a-vis Catalonia). Thus a new perspective on Mediterranean urbanization is offered.

Presenting the most current research and thinking on prehistoric archaeology in the Southeast, this volume reexamines some of Florida's most important Paleoindian sites and discusses emerging technologies and methods that are necessary knowledge for archaeologists working in the region today. Using new analytical methods, contributors explore fresh perspectives on sites including Old Vero, Guest Mammoth, Page-Ladson, and Ray Hole Spring. They discuss the role of hydrology?rivers, springs, and coastal plain drainages?in the history of Florida's earliest inhabitants. They address both the research challenges and the unique preservation capacity of the state's many underwater sites, suggesting solutions for analyzing corroded lithic artifacts and submerged midden deposits. Looking towards future research, archaeologists discuss strategies for finding additional pre-Clovis and Clovis-era sites offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The search is important, these essays show, because Florida's prehistoric sites hold critical data for the debate over the nature and timing of the first human colonization of the Western Hemisphere. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide surveys the lithic record for the East Mediterranean Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and adjacent territories) from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago. It is intended both as an introduction to this lithic evidence for students and as a resource for researchers working with Paleolithic and Neolithic stone tool evidence. Written by a lithic analyst and professional flintknapper, this book systematically examines variation in technology, typology, and industries for the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic; the Epipaleolithic; and Neolithic periods in the Near East. It is extensively illustrated with drawings of stone tools. In addition to surveying the lithic evidence, the book also considers ways in which archaeological treatment of this evidence could be changed to make it more relevant to major issues in human origins research. A final chapter shows how change in stone tool designs points to increasing human dependence on stone tools across the long sweep of Stone Age prehistory.

The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of agricultural production, it is seen as the precursor and origin-point for significant aspects of the modern world. This book presents a very different image of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Drawing on the wealth of material from recent excavations, as well as a long history of research, it explores the impact of the post-Enlightenment 'othering' of the non-human on our understanding of Bronze Age society. There is much to suggest that the conceptual boundary between the active human subject and the passive world of objects, so familiar from our own cultural context, was not drawn in this categorical way in the Bronze Age; the self was constructed in relational rather than individualistic terms, and aspects of the non-human world such as pots, houses, and mountains were considered animate entities with their own spirit or soul. In a series of thematic chapters on the human body, artefacts, settlements, and landscapes, this book considers the character of Bronze Age personhood, the relationship between individual and society, and ideas around agency and social power. The treatment and deposition of things such as querns, axes, and human remains provides insights into the meanings and values ascribed to objects and places, and the ways in which such items acted as social agents in the Bronze Age world.

The publication of the Hagia Photia Cemetery is planned in three volumes. The first volume, which has already been published (Davaras and Betancourt 2004), presented the tomb groups and the architecture. The second volume about the excavation of the Hagia Photia cemetery focuses on the pottery. The third volume will present the obsidian, stone finds, metal objects, and other discoveries. The Early Minoan I tombs at Hagia Photia included the largest assemblage of vessels in Cycladic style known from Crete as well as vases from production workshops in Crete. The pottery is extremely important for several reasons, including the definition of the EM I ceramic styles that were being used as funerary offerings in this part of Crete, the establishment of the chronological synchronisms between Crete and the Cyclades, and information on the history of the Minoan pottery industry. When compared with other deposits from EM I Crete, the pottery helps to establish a better understanding of the ceramic development within the first Minoan time period.