Today the number of pitchstone-bearing sites in northern Britain has multiplied several times and approximately 20,300 worked pieces from c. 350 sites have been found; pitchstone artefacts have been reported from practically all parts of Scotland (apart from Shetland), as well as from northern England, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man. This report collates this information and reinterprets the distribution of pitchstone finds and the social context of pitchstone use.

In Scandinavia as elsewhere, cryptocrystalline rocks such as flint were an integral part of peoples lives during prehistory. Knowledge about flint, its properties, its uses, and its many names, was no doubt transmitted through the generations as part of everyday life. As archaeologists, we are interested in how prehistoric people dealt with flint and what they might have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the various kinds of flint available. But in order to answer such questions it is necessary that we are able to talk to each other about flint in an informed and informative manner. Scandinavian Flint proposes a classification into 17 types for use by archaeologists. Flint types are described and evaluated in terms of knappability, limitations posed by nodule size, and prehistoric availability, rather than in terms of morphogenesis or chemical composition. Flint formation, geographic distribution of flint sources in Scandinavia, provenience studies, and patination are discussed in detail. Scandinavian Flint is a useful guide for archaeologists working with flint.

Eighteen essays from the 15th uispp congress which look at the iconography and symbolism of prehistoric art, focusing in the main on rock art. Papers include reports on new discoveries, such as some schematic Neolithic and Chalcothic engravingson the Ibor River in Spain, on particular symbols, such as Neolithic cruciform designs, and broader theoretical papers on issues such as the interplay between art and shamanism or the use of new techniques such as optical 3D measurements in the interpretation of rock art. Papers in English, Spanish and French.

This study aims to reconsider current reconstructions of the Iron Age Northern Levant and the role that ceramics studies have played in these interpretations. The author presents a regional ceramic typology for the Iron Age (including the Persian period) and undertakes an analysis of the distribution patterns of this typology across the Northern Levant. An alternative interpretation of the ceramic data is offered, before being compared with the conventional historical model. This alternative reconstruction focuses on theories of practice, and foodways, whilst appreciating the dynamic manner by which material culture is used to constantly negotiate and consolidate social structures.

This volume, the result of a symposium held at the University of Edinburgh in 2002, presents new research and new perspectives on prehistoric settlement in the Iron Gates region which straddles the Danube between Serbia and Romania. Although comparatively little recent fieldwork in the region has been undertaken, the contributors show how much more can be gained from existing results by using new scientific techniques.

This volume, containing a selection of nineteen papersfrom a session at the 15th UISPP congress, tries to approach some of the building techniques, methods, and spatial organization of early architecture in Eurasia. Its goal is not to present this subject as a grand narrative of an evolutionary process of Eurasian architecture, but as a series of semiotic case studies of the building process (i.e. as studies of the geometrical forms, in two dimensions or spatial, and of the materials employed), to help the readerunderstand the importance of the materiality of the geographic formative contexts, together with the influence of social changes upon the built forms.

Rock Art Studies: News of the World VI, like the previous editions in the series, covers rock art research and management all over the world over a five-year period, in this case, the years 2015 to 2019 inclusive. The current volume once again shows the wide variety of approaches that have been taken in different parts of the world and reflects the expansion and diversification of perspectives and research questions. One constant has been the impact of new techniques of recording rock art. This is especially evident in the realm of computer enhancement of the frequently faded and weathered rock imagery. As has been the case in past volumes, this collection of papers includes all of the latest discoveries, including in areas hitherto not known to contain rock art. While relatively little has happened in some areas, a great deal has occurred in others. Rock art studies continue to go through a period of intense scientific and technological development, but at the same time - due to the problems of preservation and vandalism - it is crucial to educate local people and the young about the importance of this fragile heritage.

This volume contains papers from a session of the 2006 uispp congress in Lisbon. The contributors ask what we can learn from prehistoric art about cultural change, and what art can convey the ideological and cognitive sphere of prehistoric societies. Essays cover a variety of art forms (rock art, jewellery, lithics, ceramics etc) in mostly European contexts, although including material on the Near East, Egypt and Africa.

During 1992/3 nine Later Stone Age (LSA) coastal midden sites ranging in age from 6960 BP to 290 BP, and representing 28 depositional units were excavated in the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve and in the directly adjacent Blombos Estates, situated 20 km to the west of Still Bay, southern Cape, South Africa. This monograph is based on the results derived from the author's research of these sites, including more recent data. In this monograph the term Blombosfontein i s used to cover both the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve and the Blombos Estates. The original excavations of 1992 revealed Middle Stone Age deposits but excavation in these levels was limited and the age of the deposits could not be determined. Subsequent excavations of the MSA levels show that the BBC deposits range in age from over 140 000 years to less than 300 years. Excavation of these MSA levels is continuing . The primary objectives of the initial research at Blombosfontein were to examine the economic and cultural diversity present within and across these nine coastal middens. The core of the project revolved around the excavation of the 9 sites and the subsequent analysis and interpretation of the recovered data. Contents: Chapter 1. Introduction; Chapter 2. Environment and Palaeoenvironment; Chapter 3. Ethnohistory of the Southern Cape; Chapter 4. Holocene Archaeology of the Southern Cape; Chapter 5. Site Descriptions and Radiocarbon Dates; Chapter 6. Shellfish Analysis; Chapter 7. Fauna: Mammals, Reptiles & Fish; Chapter 8. Cultural Artefacts; Chapter 9. Seasonality and Oxygen Isotope Analysis; Chapter 10. Summary & Discussion.

Papers from the session 'The Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula Regional and transregional components' held at the XV UISPP World Congress, September 2006. Contents: 1) The Portalon at Cueva Mayor (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain): a new archaeological sequence (Ortega, A. I.; Juez, L.; Carretero, J. M.; Arsuaga, J. L.; Perez-Gonzalez, A.; Ortega, M. C.; Perez, R.; Perez, A.; Rodriguez, A. D.; Santos, E.; Garcia, R.; Gomez, A.; Rodriguez, L.; Martinez de Pinillos, M. & Martinez, I.); 2) Torca l'Arroyu: A new holocene site in the centre of Asturias (North of Spain) (Rogelio Estrada Garcia, Jesus F. Jorda Pardo, Joan S. Mestres Torres and Jose Yravedra Sainz de los Terreros); 3) From "Inland Neolithic" to "Neolithic dwelling in the inland": the role of homogeneous and heterogeneous elements on the explanation of earlier agricultural stages in Central Spain (Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca); 4) Neolithisation et structure sociale: donnees et discussion dans le nord-est de l'Espagne pour (Clop, Xavier; Gibaja, Juan Francisco); 5) El Valle de Ambrona (Soria, Espana): un referente cronologico para la primera ocupacion neolitica del interior peninsular (Manuel A. Rojo-Guerra, Rafael Garrido-Pena e Inigo Garcia-Martinez-de-Lagran); 6) Neolithisation process in lower Tagus valley left bank: old perspectives and new data (Cesar Neves, Filipa Rodrigues, Mariana Diniz); 7) Early Neolithic at the Serpis Valley, Alicante, Spain (J. Bernabeu Auban, LL. Molina Balaguer, T. Orozco Kohler, A. Diez Castillo, C.M. Barton); 8) Sources of monumentality: standing stones in context (Fontainhas, Alentejo Central, Portugal) (Manuel Calado, Leonor Rocha); Castelo Belinho (Algarve, Portugal) and the first Southwest Iberian Villages (Mario Varela Gomes).

Excavation, Analysis and Interpretation of Early Bronze Age Barrows at Guiting Power, Gloucestershire covers the full excavation, analysis and interpretation of two early Bronze Age round barrows at Guiting Power in the Cotswolds, a region where investigation and protection of such sites have been extremely poor, with many barrows unnecessarily lost to erosion, and with most existing excavation partial, and of low quality. One monument, Guiting Power 1, typical of many others in the region in terms of general form, was investigated to assess how far surviving evidence could be used to indicate original structure, as a basis for discussion of function as a funerary and ritual site. The project is paired with the full excavation of a larger round barrow, of similar date, nearby, at Guiting Power 3 in the valley below. Both sites have been considered within their local environment and as part of the general pattern of settlement. The monuments have also provided data for a programme of experimental investigation of prehistoric cremation. Discovery of a post ring with well-preserved basal structures, sealed under an early bronze age round barrow at Guiting Power 3, enables detailed analysis of its structure, associations, and place in the sequence. This review of a sample of other post rings from southern and western Britain places the example from Guiting Power within its archaeological context.

This volume contains papers from two sessions at the 15th uispp congress - The creation of 'significant places' and 'landscapes' in the Northwestern half of the Iberia, during Pre and Proto-historic times. Theoretical, recording and interpretation issues from cases in this region; and Space, Memory and Identity in the European Bronze Age' . Papers come from a wide range of theoretical perspectives including neo-marxist, processualist, phenomenological and contextual.

This work focuses on three important British travellers to Crete during the 18th and 19th centuries to establish whether or not they made any significant contribution to the field of research with regard to the archaeological heritage of Bronze Age Crete. It brings these 'lost pioneers' of antiquity to the fore and to recognize their efforts as part of the foundation of the discovery of the island's Bronze Age archaeology prior to the groundbreaking excavations of Sir Arthur Evans. They are Richard Pococke (1704-65), Robert Pashley (1805-59) and Thomas Spratt (1811-88). Having dealt with the terms that these travellers used in describing ancient remains, the work looks briefly at the background to Bronze Age Crete itself. Thereafter the development from antiquarianism into archaeology is followed to establish the motives behind these travellers' wanderings in Crete.

The principal aim of this research was to examine the scientific basis and methodology of incremental analysis in order to arrive at increased understanding of the British Mesolithic. The approach includes an examination of every aspect of incremental analysis: the scientific basis, the methodology of thin section production, microscopical techniques, and interpretation, in order to obtain the greatest possible amount of information from a rather specialised technique. The species chosen was Red deer, a common animal on archaeological sites in British prehistory.

21 papers from a session at the 15th USIPP congress, which examine the burial of infants mainly from archaeological and bioarchaeological perspectives, but also including work on wider issues of ritual and symbolism. The papers centre on the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in Southeastern Europe Anatolia and the Levant, although for comparative purposes some look back to the Gravettian and forward as far as the Anglo-Saxons, as well as much further afield to Vietnam, for example.

Papers from the session aSpace and Time: Which Diachronies, which Synchronies, which Scales? / Typology vs Technologya held at the XV UISPP World Congress, Lisbon, September 2006. Contents: 1) Caracterisation et discontinuites des registres pedo-sedimentaires de laoccident peninsulaire entre 30.000 et 10.000 BP: Implications sur lainterpretation archeologique (Thierry Aubry, Miguel Almeida, Luca Dimuccio, Cristina Gameiro, Maria JoAo Neves, Laurent Klari); 2) Approche pluridisciplinare pour la reconstitution de processus pedo-sedimentaires et anthropiques pendant le pleniglaciaire superieur: Application au occupations solutreennes du site des maitreaux (France) (Thierry Aubry, Miguel Almeida, Morgane Liard, Bertrand Walter, Maria JoAo Neves); 3) Le gisement paleolithique moyen et superieur de Combemenue (Brignac-la-Plaine, Correze). Du microvestige au territoire, reflexions sur les perspectives daune approche multiscalaire (M. Brenet, C. Cretin); 4) Du silex, de laos et des coquillages: matieres et espaces geographiques dans le Gravettien Pyreneen (Pascal Foucher, Cristina San Juan-Foucher); 5) Laexploitation des matieres premieres lithiques au Magdalenien final en Estremadure Portugaise: donnees sur les sites de Lapa dos Coelhos et de laabri 1 de Vale dos CovAaees (Cristina Gameiro, Thierry Aubry, Francisco Almeida); 6) Big puzzles, short stories: advantages of refitting for micro-scale spatial analysis of lithic scatters from Gravettian occupations in Portuguese Estremadura (Francisco Almeida); 7) Laapport de la methode des remontages dans laevaluation des processus de formation et daalteration des depots archeologiques: le cas de Barca do Xerez de Baixo (Portugal) (Ana Cristina AraAjo, Francisco Almeida); 8) Les structures de combustion de LaEssart (Poitiers, Vienne, France): des epandages de pierres au fonctionnement daun habitat mesolithique (GrAgor Marchand, SylvAne Michel, Laurent Quesnel, Farid Sellami); 9) Le "bagage" des magdalAniens: indices d'arrivAes et de dAparts a partir du materiel en silex des campements de Monruz et Champreveyres (Suisse) (Marie-Isabelle Cattin); 10) Typologie et technologie: alliees ou opposees? (Michel Lenoir); 11) Technology vs. Typology: the case for and against a transition from the MSA to the LSA at Mumba Cave, Tanzania (Anthony E. Marks, Nicholas Conard); 12) Technology vs Typology? The Cantabrian Archaic Aurignacian/Protoaurignacian example (Aulvaro Arrizabalaga Valbuena, JosA Manuel MaAllo-FernAndez); 13) Gravettian and Solutrean stone tools from Vale Boi (Algarve, Portugal): Techno-Typology vs. Function (Juan Francisco Gibaja, Nuno Bicho); 14) Interpretation techno-economique des presences et absences dans les registres archeologiques Solutreens du centre de la France (Thierry Aubry, Miguel Almeida, Javier Mangado Llach, Maria JoAo Neves, Jean-Baptiste Peyrouse, Bertrand Walter); 15) Typologie et technologie apres le Solutreen / avant le Magdalenien. Reflexions sur la nature des deux approches et sur leur utilisation dans la definition daune A Phase de transition A (Catherine Cretin); 16) Le Badegoulien du Bassin parisien presente-T-Il des A caracteres regressifs A ? Reflexions a partir de laetude du gisement de plein air du Mont-St-Aubin a Oisy (Nievre, France) (Pierre Bodu, Lucie Chehmana); 17) Les industries lithiques de la fin du Solutreen et du Salpetrien ancien: apports de l'etude technologique a la comprehension de l'evolution culturelle au pleniglaciaire en Languedoc (France) (Guillaume Boccaccio, FrAdAric Bazile); 18) Typologie vs Typologie (SIC ). Comment la technologie contribue a raffiner la typologie des armatures lithiques (Boris Valentin); 19) Which blanks for which tools? Techno-typological analysis of retouched Sauveterrian artefacts at GalgenbAhel (Italy) (Ursula Wierer); 20) Human occupation at the Southern Po Plain margin in the Early Mesolithic: the contribution of technological and typological studies (Federica Fontana, Maria Giovanna Cremona); 21) Palimpsests, assemblages, phases & facies: the conundrum of taxonomic generalizations from particular archeological cases (Lawrence Guy Straus).

This collection showcases current research on the use of non-flint raw materials in prehistory, with an overwhelmingly European focus. Materials under discussion include obsidian, rhyolite, sandstone, gabbro, quartzite, Yellow Silicified Wood, Black Stone, quartz and chert, and the essays are divided into three sections: terminology and methodology; experimental archaeology and use wear studies; and the socio-economic implications of non-flint raw material use.

Paul G. Bahn provides a richly illustrated overview of prehistoric rock art and cave art from around the world. Summarizing the recent advances in our understanding of this extraordinary visual record, he discusses new discoveries, new approaches to recording and interpretation, and current problems in conservation. Bahn focuses in particular on current issues in the interpretation of rock art, notably the 'shamanic' interpretation that has been influential in recent years and that he refutes. This book is based on the Rhind Lectures that the author delivered for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2006.

This volume publishes papers from a session at the 15th uispp congress which examined prehistoric fuel management. Several papers combine anthracological study with findings from modern anthropological surveys, whilst there are also two experimental papers investigating the use of bone as a fuel source, as well as one offering prehistoric evidence for this possibility. Other papers review the evidence for the management of wood as a fuel sources from excavations at Kebara and Hayonim caves in Israel and from various sites in the south of France.

This collection of papers from the 15th UISPP congress seek to integrate perspectives from cognitive evolution and from the study of palaeoart, bringing together the latest key evidence from both disciplines. Different approaches include a study of the geometry of palaeoart, positing highly sophisticated spatial awareness among early hominins, neurovisual connections, behavioural studies, through the analysis of tools used in rock art production, semiotics, and two more conventional reports from excavations in India.

13 papers from the fifth in an annual series of conferences designed as a forum for postgraduate archaeologists working on Cyprus to present their research. Essays cover a diverse range of topics from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. Contents: Script in Context: The Cypro-Minoan Script and its Place in Late Bronze Age Cypriot Society (Daisy Knox); The Demographic Minorities of Cyprus during the 12th century (Eleni Christou); Cyprus at the Crossroads: Intercultural Contact on Frankish Cyprus (Jimmy Schryver); Manifestations of Royalty in Cypriot Sculpture (Anna Satraki); Sacred Landscapes from Basileis to Strategos: Methodological and Interpretative Approaches (Giorgos Papantoniou); Female Representation in Hellenistic Cyprus: The Ptolemaic Court (Celine Marquaille-Telliez); Aegean Origin of Aniconic Cult of Aphrodite in Paphos (Katarzyna Zeman); The Wild Goat-and-Tree Icon and its Special Significance for Ancient Cyprus (Lesley Bushnell); The Fish and its Symbolism in the Early Christian Mosaics of Cyprus (Doria Nicolaou and Evi Karyda); Music in Medieval Cypriot Iconography: Evidence from Nativity Representations (Savvas Neocleous); Agios Georgios, Pegeia Cape Drepanon: Integrating an Excavation Site into an Archaeological Landscape (Konstantinos Raptis and Olga-Maria Bakirtzis); A Comparative Study of Heritage Management in Israel and Cyprus (Deirdre Stritch); An Analytical Approach to the Study of Middle Bronze Age Pottery from Deneia, Cyprus (Maria Dikomitou).

This study applies recent theoretical work on landscape and experience to the Aceramic Neolithic of Cyprus, looking at the interrelationship of memory, death and the landscape. Interpretative chapters look at the migration of peoples to Cyprus, the developments through the Aceramic Neolithic, and the ways in which they created and managed their worlds specifically through the remembering of the dead.

This second interim report contains the latest research on the Walou Cave at Trooz. Excavations have revealed rich material dating from the Middle Palaeolithic up to the Neolithic. The chapters here focus on the avifauna, the Creswello-Tjongerian flint, the Gravettian flint, micromammals, ichtyology, malacology, animal palaeopathology, and the Gravettian assegai point from the cave of Fronds-de-Foret. Further volumes will focus on the Neolithic finds. French text.

This volume is the first geomorphological multi-discplinary work carried out on Cyprus, and aims to reconstruct environmental development during the Holocene period. The study also compares the processes shaping the semi-arid environment of the Giulas River basin with other eastern Mediterranean environments, as well as the interaction of human populations.

Burials and Society in Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Ireland describes and analyses the increasing complexity of later Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age burial in Ireland, using burial complexity as a proxy for increasing social complexity, and as a tool for examining social structure. The book commences with a discussion of theoretical approaches to the study of burials in both anthropology and archaeology and continues with a summary of the archaeological and environmental background to the Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. Then a set of criteria for identifying different types of social organisation is proposed, before an in-depth examination of the radiocarbon chronology of Irish Single Burials, which leads to a multifaceted statistical analysis of the Single Burial Tradition burial utilising descriptive and multivariate statistical approaches. A chronological model of the Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age is then presented which provides the basis for a discussion of increasing burial and social complexity in Ireland over this period, proposing an evolution from an egalitarian society in the later Chalcolithic Period through to a prestige goods chiefdom emerging around 1900 BC. It is suggested that the decline of copper production at Ross Island, Co. Cork after 2000 BC may have led to a 'copper crisis' which would have been a profoundly disrupting event, destroying the influence of copper miners and shifting power to copper workers, and those who controlled them. This would have provided a stimulus towards the centralisation of power and the emergence of a ranked social hierarchy. The effects of this 'copper crisis' would have been felt in Britain also, where much Ross Island copper was consumed and may have led to similar developments, with the emergence of the Wessex Culture a similar response in Britain to the same stimulus.