This book presents the results and discussion of archaeofaunal studies which took place in the northern San Matias Gulf (Rio Negro Province) during the last six years, focussing on terrestrial mammals and birds. The general objective of this research is to determine what was the mode of operation of terrestrial vertebrates (small and big), and the importance that they had in the survival of human populations that occupied the coastline during the late Holocene (last 3000 years).

Of all the great kingdoms that flourished in Africa, the Kongo is one of the most famous. It remains an important historical and cultural reference for Africans and their diaspora. The KongoKing inter-university project (2012-2016), funded by the European Research Council, aimed, through an interdisciplinary approach, to understand the origin of the kingdom and to shed light on the phenomena of political centralization, economic integration and linguistic evolution that took place there. This book presents in detail the results of archaeological research carried out by the KongoKing project in the former northern provinces of the Kongo Kingdom, currently located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. | De tous les grands royaumes qui fleurirent en Afrique, le royaume Kongo est l'un des plus celebres. Il reste une reference historique et culturelle importante pour les Africains et leur diaspora. Entraines tres tot dans le commerce de traite, les esclaves originaires de la region font que du Bresil a New York, en passant par les Caraibes, la culture Kongo a laisse de nombreuses traces. Le projet interuniversitaire KongoKing (2012-2016), finance par le Conseil Europeen de la Recherche a ete coordonne par Koen Bostoen, tandis que Bernard Clist et Pierre de Maret en ont dirige le volet archeologique. Ce projet visait par une approche interdisciplinaire a comprendre l'origine du royaume et a eclairer les phenomenes de la centralisation politique, d'integration economique et d'evolution linguistique qui s'y sont deroules . Cet ouvrage presente de facon detaillee les resultats des recherches archeologiques menees par le projet KongoKing dans les anciennes provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo, situees actuellement en Republique Democratique du Congo. Dans une premiere partie on presente le contexte general, l'evolution du milieu, l'histoire du groupe linguistique kikongo et ce que l'on sait des periodes qui precedent le royaume, ainsi que des informations recoltees dans diverses sources historiques sur ces provinces. Les prospections et fouilles des differents sites etudies sont ensuite presentees. Puis vient le bilan des recherches archeologiques avec une synthese des datations, une esquisse de la sequence chrono-culturelle de la poterie kongo et les etudes systematiques des differents types de vestiges recoltes. Pour conclure, on presente la synthese de l'ensemble de ces decouvertes et la facon dont celles-ci viennent completer les donnees issues des autres disciplines pour eclairer d'un jour nouveau l'histoire du royaume Kongo.

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.

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.

Beginning over 10,000 years ago and continuing until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, hunter and gatherer societies occupied the Edwards Plateau of central Texas. Archaeological studies over the past eighty years have reconstructed their subsistence, technology, and settlement patterns, but until now little information has been available on their burial practices, due to the scarcity of known burial sites. This detailed archaeological report describes the human skeletal remains, burial furnishings, and fauna recovered from Bering Sinkhole in Kerr County, the first carefully excavated hunter-gatherer burial site in central Texas.

The remains in Bering Sinkhole were deposited from 7,500 to 2,000 years ago. Leland Bement's analysis reveals a growing elaboration in burial rituals during the period and also uncovers important data on the diet and health of the hunter-gatherers. He discusses climate change based on faunal remains and compares burial goods such as bone, antler, freshwater shell, marine shell, turtle, and stone artifacts with those found at other Texas mortuary sites and with deposits at hunter-gatherer habitation sites in Central Texas.

The objective of this book is the reconsideration of the practices of personal adornment during the Neolithic period in Greece, through the assemblage, extensive bibliographic documentation, and critical evaluation of all the available data deriving from more than a hundred sites in the mainland and the Aegean islands -an archaeological archive of wide geographical and chronological scope. In addition, a thorough study of the personal ornament corpus from the Middle-Late Neolithic Dispilio in Kastoria, an important lakeside settlement in north-western Greece, was conducted. The book begins with an overview of the anthropological and archaeological literature on theoretical and methodological issues concerning practices of personal adornment. Then follows an examination of the problems and key points of study regarding personal adornment in Neolithic Greece, as well as a critical evaluation of the methodological approaches and classification schemes that have been applied in previous archaeological works. Subsequently, the technologies and processes of production, consumption, recycling, deposition, and distribution of personal ornaments in Neolithic Greece are discussed. Finally, the social correlates of personal adornment are explored, as they are reflected in the choice of different raw materials (shell, clay, bone, stone, and metal) and ornament types (beads, pendants, annulets, and so forth).

This volume concerns the bioanthropological analysis and the investigation of Second Iron Age (also known as the La Tene period: 470-25 BC) funerary practices in central Valais. More precisely, it deals with the study of two necropolises lately discovered in this mountainous region of southern Switzerland: Randogne-Bluche (excavated between 2001 and 2005) and Sion-Parking des Remparts (excavated in 2006). The matter of Second Iron Age funeral practices has been investigated since the late 19th century in Switzerland and has ever since yielded many exceptional finds. In archaeological terms, the research presented in this work introduces a consistent summary of the current archaeological and historiographical state of knowledge regarding Second Iron Age funeral practices in southern Switzerland. | Etude paleoanthropologique et analyse des rituels funeraires de deux sites lateniens valaisans : Randogne - Bluche et Sion - Parking des Remparts porte sur l'analyse bioanthropologique et l'etude des rituels funeraires lateniens en Valais central. Plus precisement, elle traite des ensembles funeraires de Randogne - Bluche (fouille entre 2001 et 2005) et de Sion - Parking des Remparts (fouille en 2006). Le premier objectif de cette etude a consiste a attribuer une identite et des caracteristiques biologiques aux individus inhumes au sein de ces deux ensembles. Ensuite, il s'est agi de caracteriser ces deux ensembles funeraires par leur insertion au cadre geographique et archeologique, de s'interesser a leur organisation chronologique et spatiale et a l'architecture des sepultures, ainsi qu'aux positions d'inhumation, de meme qu'au mobilier funeraire present. Par la suite, nous avons developpe une vision comparative de ces deux ensembles funeraires, avant de finalement les confronter a l'integralite du corpus funeraire latenien actuellement connu pour le Valais central et ainsi chercher a proposer une vision synthetique de la question.

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.

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.

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.

This book provides an overview of the sites of Mycenaean pottery finds in Egypt and Nubia. Data from thirty-six sites in Egypt and twelve sites in Nubia are presented. The context of the vessels and sherds dates from the reign of Akhenaten (18th Dynasty) to that of Ramesses VI (20th Dynasty). The imported vessels were found in the capital cities as well as in fortresses, other cities and tombs. Stirrup jars and flasks came to light frequently. Copies of Mycenaean stirrup jars made from clay, faience and stone were also found. The oldest sherd of an imitation vessel was found in Amarna; hence, the Mycenaean vessel shape (stirrup jar prevailing) was copied outside of Mycenaean Greece in the 18th Dynasty and filled with local liquids-possibly oil-and traded with Egypt. Egyptians not only imported vessels from the Levant but also produced imitation vessels themselves. Apparently, these vessels circulated only within Egypt. Chemical analyses of sherds from different sites reveal that the vessels found in 18th Dynasty contexts were made on the Mycenaean mainland. During the Ramesside period (19th-20th Dynasty) trading contacts with Mycenaean Greece shifted to Cyprus, where high quality Mycenaean pottery was produced.

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.

Salento is a peninsula in Southern Italy, the heel of the Italian boot, characterised both by an abundance of Middle Palaeolithic sites and a scarcity of raw material suitable for knapping. The research question at the basis of this book concerns the managing of raw materials by Neanderthals, through both the procurement and use of the locally available raw materials and the exploitation of possibly more distant sources. | Le Salento est une peninsule du sud de l'Italie, le talon de la botte italienne, caracterisee a la fois par l'abondance des sites du Paleolithique moyen et par une penurie des matieres premieres propres a la taille. La question de recherche a la base de ce livre concerne la gestion des matieres premieres par les Neandertaliens, a travers l'approvisionnement et l'utilisation des matieres premieres disponibles localement et l'exploitation eventuelle de sources plus eloignees.

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.

This volume focuses on the pottery classes of the 'Entangled Tradition', recovered at the settlement of the 'Serraglio' on Kos during the early Late Bronze Age period. The results reveal new information on the chronology, typology, and decoration of Koan Painted Fine (PF) and Painted Medium-Coarse to Coarse (PMC-C) ceramics. Moreover, the analysis of manufacturing processes and consumption patterns contributes to a better comprehension of the socio-cultural and political context in which Koan entangled classes were produced. The data presented in this volume indicate that PF and PMC-C ceramics represent a unique case of fully entangled classes in the Aegean, which merge features of the Koan 'Local Tradition' with characteristics of the Minoan potting tradition into a new technological and stylistic language. Contacts between these different cultures are explained based on the theoretical model provided by 'human mobility'. The specific Koan cultural synthesis was endorsed and promoted by the local elites of the 'Serraglio', who aimed to participate in the 'new environment' determined by the economic and cultural expansion of Neopalatial Crete. In this respect, the manufacture of Koan entangled classes served a dual role. On the one hand, using transport containers made in the PMC-C class, Koan products were exported and exchanged throughout the Aegean. In addition, the finer vessels of the Koan 'Entangled Tradition' were utilized for promoting Minoan-type social practices at the 'Serraglio'. Through these practices, Koan elites reshaped their identity and portrayed an image of higher status within the local social arena.

This book presents the results obtained during geoarchaeological studies carried out in the locality of Touro Passo, municipality of Uruguaiana, Brazil. There, the Paleoindian sites studied by the team of the PRONAPA-National Archaeological Research Program in the 1960s and 1970s were relocated and others with excellent study potential have been recognized. The archaeological sites are located in the alluvial plains of the Uruguay River and the Touro Passo Stream and correspond to the late Pleistocene-early Holocene transition. The geoarchaeological approach allowed the understanding of the stratigraphic sequence and the processes of formation and post-depositional disturbance of the archaeological sites in a fluvial environment. Archaeological excavations, soundings, stratigraphic profile surveys, sequence correlations and numerical dates were carried out. The dispersion of artifacts on the surface and cave erosion was recorded, and a lithic taphonomy study was carried out. Four Paleoindian sites located in the Touro Passo Formation were analyzed: Barranca Grande, RS-I-66: Milton Almeida, RS-I-69: Laranjito and Casualidade. The new chronologies obtained for the initial period of human occupation in the region represent a scientific advance for the study of hunter-gatherer occupations during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene in the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. | Este libro presenta los resultados obtenidos durante los estudios geoarqueologicos realizados en la localidad Touro Passo, municipio de Uruguaiana, Brasil. Alli se reubicaron los sitios paleoindios estudiados por el equipo del PRONAPA-Programa Nacional de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en las decadas de 1960 y 1970 y han sido reconocidos otros con excelente potencial de estudio. Los sitios arqueologicos estan situados en las planicies aluviales del Rio Uruguay y del Arroyo Touro Passo y corresponden a la transicion Pleistoceno tardio-Holoceno temprano. El enfoque geoarqueologico permitio la comprension de la secuencia estratigrafica y los procesos de formacion y perturbacion postdepositacional de los sitios arqueologicos en ambiente fluvial. Fueron realizadas excavaciones arqueologicas, sondeos, relevamiento de perfiles-estratigraficos, correlaciones de secuencias y fechados numericos. Se registro la dispersion de los artefactos en superficie y en las carvavas de erosion, y se realizo, un estudio de tafonomia litica. Se analizaron 4 sitios paleoindios situados en la Formacion Touro Passo: Barranca Grande, RS-I-66:Milton Almeida, RS-I-69: Laranjito y Casualidade. Las nuevas cronologias obtenidas para el periodo inicial de ocupacion humana en la region, representan un avance cientifico para el estudio de las ocupaciones cazadoras-recolectoras durante el Pleistoceno tardio-Holoceno temprano en la triple frontera Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay.

The area of Kymissala on the southwest coast of Rhodes is of great archaeological interest, as it conceals a large number of important archaeological sites belonging to the lesser known ancient deme of the Rhodian countryside, the deme of Kymissaleis. The region is also of exceptional environmental and ecological importance, as it has a particular biodiversity and is protected by the European 'Natura 2000' network of nature protection areas. Kymissala has systematically been researched during the past 10 years by the Kymissala Archaeological Research Project (KARP) inaugurated by the Department of Mediterranean Studies and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese in 2006. The research, escaping from its narrow academic and archaeological context and exploiting the comparative advantage of the region, may -and should- inter alia, intervene in a mild and sustainable manner in the promotion of the archaeological site of Kymissala. Its ultimate goal is to promote the antiquities of the area, its educational value and its historical and cultural continuity within a protected natural environment, in the context of an ecological-archaeological park. Under the title Kymissala: Archaeology - Education - Sustainability, fourteen original studies have been published, constituting the first complete presentation of the area of Kymissala and the work in progress, after ten years of systematic research, in terms of Archaeology, Education and Sustainable Development.

The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory addresses one of the most debated and least understood revolutions in the history of our species, the change from hunting and gathering to farming. Graeme Barker takes a global view, and integrates a massive array of information from archaeology and many other disciplines, including anthropology, botany, climatology, genetics, linguistics, and zoology. Against current orthodoxy, Barker develops a strong case for the development of agricultural systems in many areas as transformations in the life-ways of the indigenous forager societies, and argues that these were as much changes in social norms and ideologies as in ways of obtaining food. With a large number of helpful line drawings and photographs as well as a comprehensive bibliography, this authoritative study will appeal to a wide general readership as well as to specialists in a variety of fields.

High Pasture Cave, located on the island of Skye, Scotland, occupies a liminal location on the very edge of a settlement, and appears to have been a focus for specific and special activities. Its extended period of use is indicated by ephemeral signs of Neolithic Activity, limited Bronze Age usage, and vast artefactual and environmental assemblages recovered dating to the Early to Middle Scottish Iron Age, c. 800 BC to AD 150. High Pasture Cave details the research-led excavations at the cave and its context in the landscape, including geology and stratigraphy, the use and transformation of the cave from the Neolithic, post-Medieval activity after the site’s closure, chronology and radiocarbon dating, the human remains, and stable isotope analysis. The examination of the site indicates that the High Pasture Cave Complex was a special place, a focus for significant communal events, for undertaking ritual and special activities, and a place for deposition of significant objects – a place whose significance remained embedded in social memory long after active use ceased. These findings challenge our current understanding with regards to cave use and function, and with relation to the wider understanding of Iron Age cultural and religious beliefs.

This book undertakes a thorough study of Reindeer in the Upper Pleniglacial and Tardiglacial societies in France. It addresses two main topics - the economy of animal resources within the societies and the exploitation of Reindeer organized within the annual cycle, in terms of space and time, between 30,000 and 14,000 cal BP in France. The author proposes an analysis and hypothesis regarding the economy of animal resources and the nomadic cycle of the last Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies, in order to identify a "Reindeer system."The author discusses the relationship between Reindeer and human mobility and offers some conclusions regarding the annual cycles of nomadism. The volume scrutinizes the distinct eco systems in three regions and its effects on the movements of both human and animal. This book is of interest to zooarchaeologists and prehistorians.

Ancient People of the Arctic traces the lives of the Palaeo-Eskimos, the bold first explorers of the Arctic. Four thousand years ago, these people entered the far northern extremes of the North American continent, carving a living out of their bleak new homeland. From the hints they left behind, accessible only through the fragmented archaeological record, Robert McGhee ingeniously reconstructs a picture of this life at the margins. He discusses how the Palaeo-Eskimos spread across the entire Arctic, explains how they dealt with sharp climate changes that drastically altered their environment, offers glimpses into their spiritual practices and world view, and speculates about their eventual demise.

Interaction and mobility have attracted much interest in research within scholarly fields as different as archaeology, history, and more broadly the humanities. Critically assessing some of the most widespread views on interaction and its social impact, this book proposes an innovative perspective which combines radical social theory and currently burgeoning network methodologies. Through an in-depth analysis of a wealth of data often difficult to access, and illustrated by many diagrams and maps, the book highlights connections and their social implications at different scales ranging from the individual settlement to the Mediterranean. The resulting diachronic narrative explores social and economic trajectories over some seven centuries and sheds new light on the broad historical trends affecting the life of people living around the Middle Sea. The Bronze Age is the first period of intense interaction between early state societies of the Eastern Mediterranean and the small-scale communities to the west of Greece, with people and goods moving at a scale previously unprecedented. This encounter is explored from the vantage point of one of its main foci: Apulia, located in the southern Adriatic, at the junction between East and West and the entryway of one of the major routes for the resource-rich European continent.

Presenting studies in Andean archaeology and iconography by leading specialists in the field, this volume tackles the question of how researchers can come to understand the intangible, intellectual worlds of ancient peoples. Archaeological Interpretations is a fascinating ontological journey through Andean cultures from the fourth millennium BC to the sixteenth century, A.D.Through evidence-based case studies, theoretical models, and methodological reflections, contributors discuss the various interpretations that can be derived from the traces of ritual activity that remain in the material record. They discuss how to accurately comprehend the social significance of artifacts beyond their practical use and how to decode the symbolism of sacred images. Addressing topics including the earliest evidence of shamanism in Ecuador, the meaning of masks among the Mochicas in Peru, the value of metal in the Recuay culture, and ceremonies of voluntary abandonment among the Incas, contributors propose original and innovative ways of interpreting the rich Andean archaeological heritage.