Walter Benjamin observed that it is precisely the modern which conjures up prehistory. From Yanagita's 'mountain people' to Umehara's 'Jomon civilisation', Japan has been an especially resonant site of prehistories imagined in response to modernity. Conjuring Up Prehistory: Landscape and the Archaic in Japanese Nationalism looks at how archaeology and landscapes of the archaic have been used in Japanese nationalism since the early twentieth century, focusing on the writings of cultural historian Tetsuro Watsuji, philosopher Takeshi Umehara and environmental archaeologist Yoshinori Yasuda. It is argued that the Japanese nationalist project has been mirrored by the continuing influence of broader Romantic ideas in Japanese archaeology, especially in Jomon studies.

Archaeological excavation has been widely used in the recovery of human remains and other evidence in the service of legal cases for many years. However, established approaches will in future be subject to closer scrutiny following the announcement by the Law Commission in 2011 that expert evidence will in future be subject to a new reliability-based admissibility test in criminal proceedings. This book evaluates current archaeological excavation methods and recording systems - focusing on those used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australasia, and North America - in relation to their use in providing forensic evidence, and their ability to satisfy the admissibility tests introduced by the Law Commission, and other internationally recognised bodies. In order to achieve this aim, two analyses were undertaken. First, attention was directed to understanding the origins, development, underpinning philosophies, and current use of archaeological excavation methods and recording systems in the regions selected for study. A total of 153 archaeological manuals/guidelines were examined from archaeological organisations operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This research indicated that the Stratigraphic Excavation method and Single Context Recording system, the Demirant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, and the Arbitrary Level Excavation method and Unit Level Recording system were the approaches most often used to excavate and record graves. Second, the four defined methodological approaches were assessed experimentally, using a grave simulation of known properties to test the excavation, recording, and interpretation of material evidence, the definition of stratigraphic contexts, and understanding of stratigraphic relationships. The grave simulation also provided opportunities to measure archaeologists' narratives of the grave formation process against the known properties of the grave simulation, and to assess whether archaeological experience had any impact on evidence recovery rates. Fifty repeat excavations were conducted. The results obtained from this experimental study show that the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system was the most consistent, efficient, and reliable archaeological approach to use to excavate and record clandestine burials and to formulate interpretation-based narratives of a grave's formation sequence. In terms of the impact that archaeological experience had on evidence recovery rates, archaeological experience was found to have little bearing upon the recovery of evidence from the grave simulation. It is suggested that forensic archaeologists use the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system to excavate and record clandestine burials. If this approach is unable to be used, the Demirant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, or the Stratigraphic Excavation method and Single Context Recording system should be used. Both of these aforementioned techniques proved to be productive in terms of material evidence recovery and the identification and definition of stratigraphic contexts. The Arbitrary Level Excavation method and Unit Level Recording system should not be used, as this method proved to have an extremely poor evidence recovery rate and destroyed the deposition sequence present within the simulated grave.

The King's Dyke and Bradley Fen excavations occurred within the brick pits of the Fenland town of Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. The investigations straddled the south-eastern contours of the Flag Fen Basin, a small peat-filled embayment located between Peterborough and the western limits of Whittlesey 'island'. Renowned principally for its Bronze Age discoveries at sites such as Fengate and Flag Fen, the Flag Fen Basin also marked the point where the prehistoric River Nene debouched into the greater Fenland Basin. A henge, two round barrows, an early fieldsystem, metalwork deposition and patterns of sustained settlement along with metalworking evidence helped produce a plan similar in its configuration to that revealed at Fengate. In addition, unambiguous evidence of earlier second millennium BC settlement was identified together with large watering holes and the first burnt stone mounds to be found along Fenland's western edge. Genuine settlement structures included three of Early Bronze Age date, one Late Bronze Age, ten Early Iron Age and three Middle Iron Age. Later Bronze Age metalwork, including single spears and a weapon hoard, was deposited in indirect association with the earlier land divisions and consistently within ground that was becoming increasingly wet. The large-scale exposure of the base of the Flag Fen Basin at Bradley Fen revealed a beneath-the-peat or pre-basin landscape related to the buried floodplain of an early River Nene. Above all, the revelation of sub-fen occupation means we can now situate the Flag Fen Basin in time as well as space.

Cultural evolution, much like general evolution, works from the assumption that cultures are descendent from much earlier ancestors. Human culture manifests itself in forms ranging from the small bands of hunters, through intermediate scale complex hunter-gatherers and farmers, to the high density urban settlements and complex polities that characterize much of today's world. The chapters in the volume examine the dynamic interaction between the micro- and macro-scales of cultural evolution, developing a theoretical approach to the archaeological record that has been termed evolutionary processual archaeology. The contributions in this volume integrate positive elements of both evolutionary and processualist schools of thought. The approach, as explicated by the contributors in this work, offers novel insights into topics that include the emergence, stasis, collapse and extinction of cultural patterns, and development of social inequalities. Consequently, these contributions form a stepping off point for a significant new range of cultural evolutionary studies.

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

This volume examines prehistoric copper mining in Europe, from the first use of the metal eight thousand years ago in the Balkans to its widespread adoption during the Bronze Age. The history of research is examined, as is the survival of this mining archaeology in different geological settings. There is information on the technological processes of mineral prospecting, ore extraction, and metal production, as well as the logistics and organization of this activity and its environmental impact. The analysis is broadened to consider the economic and societal context of prehistoric copper mining and the nature of the distinctive communities involved. The study is based on a review of field data and research produced over many decades by the collaboration of archaeologists and geologists in a number of different countries, and covers such famous mining centres as the Mitterberg in Austria, Kargaly in Russia, the Great Orme in Wales, and those in Cyprus, from where the name of this metal derives. These regional studies are brought together for the first time to present a remarkable story of human endeavour and innovation, which marks a new stage in the mastery of our natural resources.

Since the eighteenth century, the concept of prehistory was exported by colonialism to far parts of the globe and applied to populations lacking written records. Prehistory in these settings came to represent primitive people still living in a state without civilization and its foremost index, literacy. Yet, many societies outside the Western world had developed complex methods of history making and documentation, including epic poetry and the use of physical and mental mnemonic devices. Even so, the deeply engrained concept of prehistory-deeply entrenched in European minds up to the beginning of the twenty-first century-continues to deny history and historical identify to peoples throughout the world. The fourteen essays, by notable archaeologists of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia, provide authoritative examples of how the concept of prehistory has diminished histories of other cultures outside the West and how archaeologists can reclaim more inclusive histories set within the idiom of deep histories-accepting ancient pre-literate histories as an integral part of the flow of human history.

This is an account of the Neolithic period in Scotland from its earliest traces around 4000 BC to the transformation of Neolithic society in the Early Bronze Age fifteen hundred years later. Gordon Noble inteprets Scottish material in the context of debates and issues in European archaeology, comparing sites and practices identified in Scotland to those found elsewhere in Britain and beyond. He considers the nature and effects of memory, sea and land travel, ritualisation, island identities, mortuary practice, symbolism and environmental impact. He synthesises excavations and research conducted over the last century and more, bringing together the evidence for understanding what happened in Scotland during this long period. His long-term and regionally based analysis suggests new directions for the interpretation of the Neolithic more generally. After outlining the chronology of the Neolithic in Europe Dr Noble considers its origins in Scotland. He investigates why the Earlier Neolithic in Scotland is characterised by regionally-distinct monumental traditions and asks if these reflect different conceptions of the world. He uses a long-term perspective to explain the nature of monumental landscapes in the Later Neolithic and considers whether Neolithic society as a whole might have been created and maintained through interactions at places where large-scale monuments were built. He ends by considering how the Neolithic was transformed in the Early Bronze Age through the manipulation of the material remains of the past. Neolithic Scotland provides a comprehensive, approachable and up-to-date account of the Scottish Neolithic. Such a book has not been available for many years. It will be widely welcomed.

Human settlement has often centered around coastal areas and waterways. Until recently, however, archaeologists believed that marine economies did not develop until the end of the Pleistocene, when the archaeological record begins to have evidence of marine life as part of the human diet. This has long been interpreted as a postglacial adaptation, due to the rise in sea level and subsequent decrease in terrestrial resources. Coastal resources, particularly mollusks, were viewed as fallback resources, which people resorted to only when terrestrial resources were scarce, included only as part of a more complex diet.

Recent research has significantly altered this understanding, known as the Broad Spectrum Revolution (BSR) model. The contributions to this volume revise the BSR model, with evidence that coastal resources were an important part of human economies and subsistence much earlier than previously thought, and even the main focus of diets for some Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherer societies.

With evidence from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, this volume comprehensively lends a new understanding to coastal settlement from the Middle Paleolithic to the Middle Holocene.

While the study of networks has grown exponentially in the past decade and is now having an impact on how archaeologists study ancient societies, its emergence in the field has been dislocated. This volume provides a coherent framework on network analysis in current archaeological practice by pulling together its main themes and approaches to show how it is changing the way archaeologists face the key questions of regional interaction. Working with the term 'network' as a collection of nodes and links, as used in network science and social network analysis, it juxtaposes a range of case studies and investigates the positives and negatives of network analysis. With contributions by leading experts in the field, the volume covers a broad range: from Japan to America, from the Palaeolithic to the Precolumbian.

European Prehistory: A Survey traces humans from their earliest appearance on the continent to the Rise of the Roman Empire, drawing on archaeological research from all over Europe. It includes the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Throughout these periods, the major developments are explored using a wide range of archaeological data that emphasizes aspects of agricultural practices, gender, mortuary practices, population genetics, ritual, settlement patterns, technology, trade, and warfare.

Using new methods and theories, recent discoveries and arguments are presented and previous discoveries reevaluated. This work includes chapters on European geography and the chronology of European prehistory. A new chapter has been added on the historical development of European archaeology. The remaining chapters have been contributed by archaeologists specializing in different periods.

Thesecond edition of European Prehistory: A Survey is enhanced by a glossary, three indices and a comprehensive bibliography, as well as an extensive collection of maps, chronological tables and photographs."

This book provides the reader with the latest archaeological discoveries of Liangzhu culture for its sophisticated jade artifacts. The structure and contents systematically present that large-scale ritual vessels such as jade cong and bi were originally regarded as the embodiment of Zhou and Han dynasties have been proved as burial accessories of Liangzhu culture. This confirmation urges archaeologists to renew an earlier interpretation of societal development dimension in Liangzhu culture. The book discussed the compatibilities between types and function of Liangzhu jades vividly displayed. It provides archaeological researchers and students by gaining an in-depth perspective of aesthetic appreciation of jade while understanding of the spiritual world of people in Liangzhu as well as the transition between the functions of power and belief.

If the real Wessex, with its counties, towns, villages and topography, was no mere readily available template upon which Hardy could carve a fictional pattern, Dorchester provided a very different model, though at the level of local colour and detail, Casterbridge really is Dorchester 'by any other name.'' In this study, Martin Davies examines the role which Thomas Hardy's involvement with the past plays in his life and literary work. Hardy's life encompasses the transformation of archaeology out of mere antiquarianism into a fully scientific discipline. Hardy - once described as 'a born archaeologist' - observed this process at first hand, and its impact on his aesthetic and philosophical scheme was profound. Dr Davies' study offers a different route to a fuller understanding of Hardy's novels, poems, and short stories. How much was Hardy concerned with archaeology per se amongst his plethora of interests? How much did he actually know about it? Did his Classical education, architectural training, and visit to Italy impinge on his perception of the mysterious traces of British prehistory and the Roman occupation with which he had grown up? How does reference to archaeology fit in with his overall narrative, aesthetic, and philosophical scheme? These are the questions posed by Martin Davies in his study of the role played by archaeology and the past in the life and works of Thomas Hardy. The answers are far reaching and profound.

This book brings together for the first time scholars working on the Bronze Age settlement patterns and material culture of the southern Ierapetra Isthmus, a region that actively participated in the coastal and maritime trade networks of East Crete. During the past few decades, while various archaeological projects focused on the northern isthmus, the Ierapetra area remained largely neglected and unknown, a terra incognita. Yet, new excavations at Gaidourophas, Anatoli Stavromenos, Chryssi Island, Bramiana, and the ongoing research at the site of Myrtos Pyrgos are showing that the coastal area of Ierapetra was a vibrant and thriving settlement landscape during the Bronze Age. Far from being simply on the periphery of the major Minoan centers, the southern Ierapetra Isthmus played important roles in the cultural dynamics of Crete. Aiming to be the first building block in the development of an archaeological understanding of the region of the southern Ierapetra Isthmus, this book presents the status of the discipline and indicates future research trajectories.

In this book, Katina Lillios provides an up-to-date synthesis of the rich histories of the peoples who lived on the Iberian Peninsula between 1,400,000 (the Paleolithic) and 3,500 years ago (the Bronze Age) as revealed in their art, burials, tools, and monuments. She highlights the exciting new discoveries on the Peninsula, including the evidence for some of the earliest hominins in Europe, Neanderthal art, interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, and relationships to peoples living in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Western Europe. This is the first book to relate the ancient history of the Peninsula to broader debates in anthropology and archaeology. Amply illustrated and written in an accessible style, it will be of interest to archaeologists and students of prehistoric Spain and Portugal.

The Archaeology of Food explains how archaeologists reconstruct what people ate, and how such reconstructions reveal ancient political struggles, religious practices, ethnic identities, gender norms, and more. Balancing deep research with accessible writing, Katheryn Twiss familiarizes readers with archaeological data, methods, and intellectual approaches as they explore topics ranging from urban commerce to military provisioning to ritual feasting. Along the way, Twiss examines a range of primary evidence, including Roman bars, Aztec statues, Philistine pig remains, Nubian cooking pots, Mississippian squash seeds, and the bones of a medieval king. Her book introduces both archaeologists and non-archaeologists to the study of prehistoric and historic foodways, and illuminates how those foodways shaped and were shaped by past cultures.

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britaina s history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano--British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

Proceedings of the 20th symposium: Suyanggae and Her Neighbours. The 20th symposium took place across two meetings, the first in Haifa, Israel and the second in Danyang, Republic of Korea. This proceedings volume gathers papers, abstracts and posters from the meeting in Haifa, which took place from 21-28 June 2015.

This book examines the settlement patterns and intersite variability in lithic assemblages of Early Jomon (ca 5000 bp) hunter-gatherers in Japan. A model is proposed which links regional settlement patterns and intersite lithic assemblage variability to residential mobility. The results of this study suggest that the Early Jomon people were not sedentary, as previously assumed, but instead moved their residential basis seasonally. The implications of this result are discussed in the context of the development of hunter-gatherer cultural complexity in general and the course of Japanese prehistory in particular.

The origins of religion and ritual in humans have been the focus of centuries of thought in archaeology, anthropology, theology, evolutionary psychology and more. Play and ritual have many aspects in common, and ritual is a key component of the early cult practices that underlie the religious systems of the first complex societies in all parts of the world. This book examines the formative cults and the roots of religious practice from the earliest times until the development of early religion in the Near East, in China, in Peru, in Mesoamerica and beyond. Here, leading prehistorians and other specialists bring a fresh approach to the early practices that underlie the faiths and religions of the world. They demonstrate the profound role of play ritual and belief systems and offer powerful new insights into the emergence of early civilization.

Gender in African Prehistory provides methods and theories for delineating and discussing prehistoric gender relations and their change through time. Sites studied range from Egypt to South Africa and Ghana to Tanzania, while time periods span the Stone Age to the period just prior to colonialization.

The contribution of Neandertals to the biological and cultural emergence of early modern humans remains highly debated in anthropology. Particularly controversial is the long-held view that Neandertals in Western Europe were replaced 30,000 to 40,000 years ago by early modern humans expanding out of Africa. This book contributes to this debate by exploring the diets and foraging patterns of both Neandertals and early modern humans. Eugene Morin examines the faunal remains from Saint-Cesaire in France, which contains an exceptionally long and detailed chronological sequence, as well as genetic, anatomical and other archaeological evidence to shed new light on the problem of modern human origins.

Ground Stone Tools and Past Foodways brings together a selection of papers presented at the 3rd meeting of the Association of Ground Stone Tools Research, which was held at the University of Copenhagen in 2019. Ground stone artefacts are one of the most enduring classes of material culture: first used by Palaeolithic gatherer-hunters, they are still used regularly by people in many parts of the world to grind, mash and pulverize plants, meat and minerals. As such, ground stone artefacts provide a well preserved record at the nexus of interaction between humans, plants and animals. The papers in this volume focus especially on the relationship between ground stone artefacts and foodways and include archaeological and ethnographic case studies ranging from the Palaeolithic to the current era, and geographically from Africa to Europe and Asia. They reflect the current state of the art in ground stone tool research and highlight the many ways in which foodways can be studied through holistic examinations of ground stone artefacts.

The book draws on the evidence of landscape archaeology, palaeoenvironmental studies, ethnohistory and animal tracking to address the neglected topic of how we identify and interpret past patterns of movement in the landscape. It challenges the pessimism of previous generations which regarded prehistoric routes such as hollow ways as generally undatable. The premise is that archaeologists tend to focus on 'sites' while neglecting the patterns of habitual movement that made them part of living landscapes. Evidence of past movement is considered in a multi-scalar way from the individual footprint to the long distance path including the traces created in vegetation by animal and human movement. It is argued that routes may be perpetuated over long timescales creating landscape structures which influence the activities of subsequent generations. In other instances radical changes of axes of communication and landscape structures provide evidence of upheaval and social change. Palaeoenvironmental and ethnohistorical evidence from the American North West coast sets the scene with evidence for the effects of burning, animal movement, faeces deposition and transplantation which can create readable routes along which are favoured resources. Evidence from European hunter-gatherer sites hints at similar practices of niche construction on a range of spatial scales. On a local scale, footprints help to establish axes of movement, the locations of lost settlements and activity areas. Wood trackways likewise provide evidence of favoured patterns of movement and past settlement location. Among early farming communities alignments of burial mounds, enclosure entrances and other monuments indicate axes of communication. From the middle Bronze Age in Europe there is more clearly defined evidence of trackways flanked by ditches and fields. Landscape scale survey and excavation enables the dating of trackways using spatial relationships with dated features and many examples indicate long-term continuity of routeways. Where fields flank routeways a range of methods, including scientific approaches, provide dates. Prehistorians have often assumed that Ridgeways provided the main axes of early movement but there is little evidence for their early origins and rather better evidence for early routes crossing topography and providing connections between different environmental zones. The book concludes with a case study of the Weald of South East England which demonstrates that some axes of cross topographic movement used as droveways, and generally considered as early medieval, can be shown to be of prehistoric origin. One reason that dryland routes have proved difficult to recognise is that insufficient attention has been paid to the parts played by riverine and maritime longer distance communication. It is argued that understanding the origins of the paths we use today contributes to appreciation of the distinctive qualities of landscapes. Appreciation will help to bring about effective strategies for conservation of mutual benefit to people and wildlife by maintaining and enhancing corridors of connectivity between different landscape zones including fragmented nature reserves and valued places. In these ways an understanding of past routeways can contribute to sustainable landscapes, communities and quality of life.

Hunebedden are the megalithic tombs of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture in the Netherlands. Jan Albert Bakker is one of the few archaeologists in Holland to have excavated a Dutch megalithic tomb, and here he not only draws on and presents the knowledge acquired through excavations, but gives also an overview of the history of Dutch megalithic tomb investigations and an abundantly illustrated compendium of data on all the known megalithic tombs in Holland.