This monograph aims to shed light on just one facet of the comparatively understudied field of Minoan religion - that of animal sacrifice. As such it is a detailed disucussion and analysis of faunal remains, and takes issue with much of the methodology of what has gone before it. Robert Cromarty points out that other ritual practices such as libations and votive offerings have a far wider distribution and that faunal remains occur only at a limited number of specific sites. Indeed he goes as far, given the nature of the sites, as to question whether the remains are evidence of sacrifice at all in the classical thusia sense, preferring the term 'commensal meat ritual'.

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.

Two reports are published in this volume: Prehistoric and Early Historic Activity, Settlement and Burial at Walton Cardiff, near Tewkesbury: Excavations at Rudgeway Lane 2004-2005 (by Jonathan Hart and E.R. McSloy), and Romano-British Agriculture at the former St James's Railway Station, Cheltenham: Excavations in 2000-2001 (by Laurent Coleman and Martin Watts). Significant remains from Rudgeway Lane include two Middle Bronze Age parallel ditches (the remains of an enclosure, or possibly a long barrow), and a Middle Iron Age enclosure superseded by 1st century AD unenclosed settlement, that was in turn replaced by a 2nd to late 3rd-century AD enclosed rectilinear settlement featuring a roundhouse, a well, several burials and an associated trackway. Two 6th-century burials, one with grave goods, were later made within the abandoned farmstead. At the St James's site in Cheltenham, excavation revealed a field system that was used and developed throughout the Roman period, together with a number of pits and postholes, with two late 4th century AD burials.

The study investigates why the scientific construction of knowledge about the prehistoric inhabitants of Lancastria has focused so much on individual artefacts and single sites removed from their landscape context. It asks why the knowledge and understanding assembled by archaeologists has had so little to do with studies of change over the long term. It examines some of the circumstances that shaped these approaches over the past 400 years tracing the parting of the ways between scientific and popular knowledge of the past. Specific research objectives of the study are to recontextualise the interrelationships between objects, monuments and landscape to facilitate a diachronic study of change in later prehistoric Lancastria; to explore the influence of local and regional contexts on strategies of exploitation, interaction, connectivity and interdependence amongst the prehistoric inhabitants of the region; to explore the changing role of technology and material culture in ordering and representing changing social identity; and to develop a model for the social reproduction of small-scale society through time within the region.

Explores the pre-historical defensive architecture in Crete by discerning four types of architectural feature: enclosure walls, tower-like structures; 'guard houses' and guardrooms.

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.

As the editors point out, "rock art is the oldest archive of human activity," and its interpretation, although fraught with difficulty is thus of prime importance. This collection of papers, taken from the 15th UISPP congress, mainly look at specific symbols and their interpretation. Thus there are papers on faceless anthropomorphic symbols, the pentagram, spirals and lozenges, bulls horn symbols, footprint and handprint symbols, cupmarks and triangles, and net patterns and ruled rectangles. The volume is completed by two essays on particular rock art sites in Portugal and Galicia.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 15th World Congress of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences. The theme of the conference was subsistence strategies in the Palaeolithic, and an attempt was made to integrate lithic studies, zooarchaeology and archaeobotany to produce a more interdisciplinary approach. Essays range from site-specific reports to more general discussions, with a focus on the environmental factors which influenced human behaviour. Essays mostly in French with a few in English.

Winner, Association for Latin American Art Book Award, 2010 The Maya of Mexico and Central America have performed ritual dances for more than two millennia. Dance is still an essential component of religious experience today, serving as a medium for communication with the supernatural. During the Late Classic period (AD 600-900), dance assumed additional importance in Maya royal courts through an association with feasting and gift exchange. These performances allowed rulers to forge political alliances and demonstrate their control of trade in luxury goods. The aesthetic values embodied in these performances were closely tied to Maya social structure, expressing notions of gender, rank, and status. Dance was thus not simply entertainment, but was fundamental to ancient Maya notions of social, religious, and political identity. Using an innovative interdisciplinary approach, Matthew Looper examines several types of data relevant to ancient Maya dance, including hieroglyphic texts, pictorial images in diverse media, and architecture. A series of case studies illustrates the application of various analytical methodologies and offers interpretations of the form, meaning, and social significance of dance performance. Although the nuances of movement in Maya dances are impossible to recover, Looper demonstrates that a wealth of other data survives which allows a detailed consideration of many aspects of performance. To Be Like Gods thus provides the first comprehensive interpretation of the role of dance in ancient Maya society and also serves as a model for comparative research in the archaeology of performance.

Oxbow says: A detailed study, based on the author's doctoral research, of portal tombs in Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, including a synthesis of previous work on this type of megalithic monument, and original fieldwork. The chapters examine tomb morphology, issues of classification and variants from the 'ideal' portal tomb, finds (lithics, pottery and human bone), and radiocarbon dates. Finally, Kytmannow places the tombs within the context of the landscape, exploring links with other monuments and settlements. Further data, including a catalogue of 225 sites, can be found on a CD.

This volume focuses on the phenomenon of the Transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, with special reference to the site of Abric Romani (Capellades, Barcelona), more broadly the northern Iberian sites, and the theoretical and typological systematics that have been used hitherto in the study of the transitional process. The core of the study is the development of the Transition from the latest Mousterian facies, to the appearance of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic. A secondary focus concentrates on the methods used until now to conduct similar studies.

Analysis of Lithic Artefact Microdebitage for Chronological Determination of Archaeologica Aby George J Susino This study explores several different techniques to isolate and determine the age of lithic microdebitage in relation to archaeological deposits and sedimentation. This research proposes the integration of techniques available in archaeology and geomorphology to ascertain the shape and features of quartz microdebitage, and the use of OSL for direct dating of the artefacts and sediments. In this research, sedimentary samples from two archaeological sites in northern Australia are analysed using experimental methodologies to isolate and date quartz microdebitage, derived from the process of manufacturing stone tools. The central aim of this research is to apply the OSL dating technique for direct dating of quartz artefactual material.

Archaeologists across the Midwest have pooled their data and perspectives to produce this indispensable volume on the Native cultures of the Late Woodland period (approximately A.D. 300-1000). Sandwiched between the well-known Hopewellian and Mississippian eras of monumental mound construction, the Late Woodland period has received insufficient attention from archaeologists, who have frequently characterized it as consisting of relatively drab artifact assemblages. The close connections between this period and subsequent Mississippian and Fort Ancient societies, however, make it especially valuable for cross-cultural researchers. Understanding the cultural processes at work during the Late Woodland period will yield important clues about the long-term forces that stimulate and enhance social inequality.

"Late Woodland Societies" is notable for its comprehensive geographic coverage; exhaustive presentation and discussion of sites, artifacts, and prehistoric cultural practices; and critical summaries of interpretive perspectives and trends in scholarship. The vast amount of information and theory brought together, examined, and synthesized by the contributors produces a detailed, coherent, and systematic picture of Late Woodland lifestyles across the Midwest. The Late Woodland can now be seen as a dynamic time in its own right and instrumental to the emergence of complex late prehistoric cultures across the Midwest and Southeast.

In October 2004 over 70 delegates met in the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford for the second International Conference on Prehistoric Ceramics. The conference was the second major biannual conference to be organised by the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group. It is hoped that in the papers presented in this volume, readers will find much to stimulate the mind and their own directions of study even if the subject matter is not directly relevant to their own specific fields. This is the unifying beauty of ceramic research.

Explores the possibilities of using coarse stone assemblages from the Northern Isles of Scotland to observe aspects of social change throughout the prehistoric period. This report draws together the available data on coarse stone artefacts, much of which is rather disparate, with a view to providing a standard work of reference for use to those excavators in the Northern Isles who, faced with a large coarse stone assemblage, require a description of the types of artefacts which occur as well as background information on their context and chronology. This is in part a synthesis as it combines proposals for standardised definitions of the various artefact types together with a record of occurrence. Of greater interest, however, is the use to which this information can then be put. By comparing the various artefacts with reference to their form, manufacture, use and deposition it is possible to perceive certain aspects of continuity and change within and between assemblages. This variability within the artefactual record is interpreted at a broader organisational level in order to assess the social implications that these patterns may represent. The period under investigation is from the Neolithic to the end of the Iron Age: from the beginning of the fourth millennium cal BC to 800 cal AD. The main part of this work is concerned with the Neolithic and Bronze Age, particularly the transition period between the two as, during this time, the use of stone for tools and other objects was at its peak.

16 papers presented from an EAA session held at Krakow in 2006, exploring various aspects of the archaeology of death. Contents: Chapter 1. The Materiality of Death: Bodies, Burials, Beliefs (Fredrik Fahlander & Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 2. More than Metaphor: Approaching the Human Cadaver in Archaeology (Liv Nilsson Stutz); Chapter 3. A Piece of the Mesolithic. Horizontal Stratigraphy and Bodily Manipulations at Skateholm (Fredrik Fahlander); Chapter 4. Excavating the KingsAe Bones: The Materiality of Death in Practice and Ethics Today 9Anders Kaliff & Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 5. From Corpse to Ancestor: The Role of Tombside Dining in the Transformation of the Body in Ancient Rome (Regina Gee); Chapter 6. Cremations, Conjecture and Contextual Taphonomies: Material Strategies during the 4th to 2nd Millennia BC in Scotland (Paul R J Duffy and Gavin MacGregor); Chapter 7. Ritual and Remembrance at Archaic Crustumerium. The Transformations of Past and Modern Materialities in the Cemetery of Cisterna Grande (Rome, Italy) (Ulla Rajala); Chapter 8. Reuse in Finnish Cremation Cemeteries under Level Ground - Examples of Collective Memory (Anna Wickholm); Chapter 9. Life and Death in the Bronze Age of the NW of Iberian Peninsula (Ana M. S. Bettencourt); Chapter 10. Norwegian Face-Urns: Local Context and Interregional Contacts (Malin Aasbe); Chapter 11. The Use of Ochre in Stone Age Burials of the East Baltic (Ilga Zagorska); Chapter 12. oDeath Mythso: Performing of Rituals and Variation in Corpse Treatment during the Migration Period in Norway (Siv Kristoffersen and Terje Oestigaard); Chapter 13. Reproduction and Relocation of Death in Iron Age Scandinavia (Terje Gansum); Chapter 14. A Road for the VikingAes Soul (Ake Johansson); Chapter 15. A Road to the Other Side (Camilla Gr); Chapter 16. Stones and Bones: The Myth of Ymer and Mortuary Practises with an Example from the Migration Period in Uppland, Central Sweden (Christina Lindgren).

An important collection of papers taken from a session of the 2005 EAA in Cork. The contributors ask how far the functions of hoard deposits, and the codification of the arrangement of objects can be compared from one period to another. Aspects such as the symbolic space of deposits and the state of the objects involved (were they intact or deliberately broken) are also discussed, all within the context of the more technical statistical and scientific modes of analysis which have emerged in recent years.

This study centres upon a database of some 50,000 examples of imported material in the Italian peninsula, Sardinia, and Sicily dating from approximately 800 to 500 BC, which has been constructed in order to study the beginnings of trade with this region. Fletcher's conclusions tackle a few sacred cows - that metals were the items which lured people westward to trade, and that primacy in this early trade fell to the Phoenicians.

This work defines Neolithic Near East Dark Faced Burnished Ware (DFBW), on the basis of new data, taking into account areas of production, analyses of architectural, economic and environmental information, and the verification of the existence of a specific DFBW region and its characteristics. The distribution of DFBW to external areas is also investigated, with the goal of explaining relations between these regions during this Neolithic phase. This research was prompted by the renewed excavations at Yumuktepe-Mersin, one of the central sites of the so-called Syro-Cilician culture, and by the possibility of analyzing two of the main contexts of DFBW Judaidah, in the Amuq and Ain el-Kerkh, in the Rouj Basin. The study is presented in three main phases: the technical and typological definition of the DFBW; its distribution and characteristics within the horizon of DFBW producers; and its external distribution. A chapter is devoted to a chronological summary of the analyzed developments, as reconstructed from comparisons in the ceramic assemblages from all the sites, and in correlation with available radiocarbon dates.

This work is a study of plant macro remains from the Late Neolithic site of Opovo. Opovo is dated from 4700 to 4500 B.C., and culturally to the late phase of the Vinca culture, which is considered one of the most prominent Neolithic cultures of the Balkans. The author provides information on such important issues as vegetation reconstruction, plant use, subsistence, husbandry, wild plant procurement, and intra-site plant distribution at this late Vinca culture site.

Papers from The Third International Meeting of Anthracology, entitled Charcoals from the Past. Cultural and palaeoenvironmental implications, organized at Cavallino (Lecce) from 28th June to 1st July 2004. Contents: 1) Special techniques for the anatomical study of charcoal (G. Angeles, F. Ortega-Escalona, C. Madero Vega); 2) Archaeo-environmental studies of cultivation terraces in the Enveig Mountain (Cerdagne) in Eastern Pyrenees (France). Use of pedo-anthracology (M.C. Bal, R. Harfouche, P. Poupet, P. Campmajo, C. Rendu); 3) Did calcareous grasslands exist in prehistoric times? An archaeobotanical research on the surroundings of the prehistoric settlement above Kallmunz (Bavaria, Germany) (A. Baumann, P. Poschlod); 4) Charcoals in context: anthracological analysis at Muro Tenente, south-eastern Italy (G.J. Burgers, D. Lentjes); 5) Wood in arid zones prehistoric architecture (I. Caneva); 6) A fuoco lento: strutture di combustione nellabitato delleta del Bronzo di Coppa Nevigata (Manfredonia - FG) (A. Cazzella, G. Recchia); 7) An approach to Holocene vegetation history in the middle Rhone valley (France): anthracological data from the TGV-Mediterranee excavations (C. Delhon, S. Thiebault); 8) Environment and ritual in a late Iron Age context: an example from Raffin Fort, Co. Meath, Ireland (M. Dillon, C. Newman, K. Molloy, M. OConnell); 9) Charred organic matter and phosphorus in black soils in the Lower Rhine Basin (Northwest Germany) indicate prehistoric agricultural burning (E. Eckmeier, R. Gerlach, U. Tegtmeier, M.W.I. Schmidt); 10) Charcoal as environmental and ethnological evidence from medieval archaeological sites in NW-Italy (I. Ferrari Fontana, B.I. Menozzi, C. Montanari); 11) Pollen and micro-charcoal evidence of vegetation dynamics and human impact along the southern Bulgarian Black sea coast (M. Filipova Marinova, H. Angelova); 12) Rapid and accurate estimates of microcharcoal content in pollen slides (W. Finsinger, W. Tinner, F.S. Hu); 13) Arts du feu et du forgeron en Mauritanie (C. Fortier); 14) Metallurgy in ancient Lecce: new evidence from the excavations of Piazzetta Epulione and Piazzetta Castromediano (C. Giardino, A. Quercia); 15) La capanna rituale di Serra Cicora (Nardo-LE) (E. Ingravallo); 16) Recenti ricerche sulla produzione di utensili lignei a Karatepe-Aslantas, Turchia (M.R. Iovino, C. Altinbilek); 17) Experimental charcoal-burning with special regard to anthracological wood diameter analysis (T. Ludemann); 18) Gli accampamenti invernali e primaverili dei nomadi dellArkhangai e dellOvorkhangai settentrionale: i ricoveri per gli animali (Mongolia centro-occidentale) (F. Lugli); 19) Two long micro-charcoal records from central Italy (D. Magri); 20) The fires of Aeolian villages at the end of Middle Bronze Age: the case of Portella site in the Salina island (ME - Italy) (M.C. Martinelli, G. Fiorentino); 21) Combining charcoal and pollen analysis: Holocene vegetation dynamics, tree species composition and woodland use in the Bavarian Forest (O. Nelle); 22) Environment and agriculture in the early Neolithic of the Arene Candide (Liguria) (R. Nisbet); 23) A contribution to the forest history of the Markstein area in the southern Vosges (France) (W. Nolken); 24) Il controllo delle alte temperature e linizio della metallurgia nel Vicino Oriente (A. Palmieri); 25) Food Processing in the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age. Fire installations cooking pots and grinding tools at Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Syria)-Two Case Studies (L. Peyronel, G. Spreafico); 26) High resolution AMS radiocarbon dating of archaeological charcoals (G. Quarta, M. DElia, L.Calcagnile); 27) Environmental history in the Mediterranean basin: microcharcoal as a tool to disentangle human impact and climate change (L. Sadori, M. Giardini); 28) Collapsed beams and wooden remains from a 3200 BC temple and palace at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) (L. Sadori, F. Susanna, F. Balossi Restelli); 29) The Use of Wood: Traditional Building Techniques in the Swat Valley (Pakistan). An Ethno-Archaeological Research (I.E. Scerrato); 30) Environmental and cultural history of South American temperate forests: an interdisciplinary approach (M.E. Solari); 31) A critical assessment and experimental comparison of microscopic charcoal extraction methods (R. Turner, A. Kelly, N. Roberts); 32) Domestic fires and vegetation cover among Neanderthalians and Anatomically Modern Human Groups (>53-30 kyr BP) in the Cantabrian Region (Cantabria, Northern Spain) (P. Uzquiano); 33) Fuel Supplies for Pompeii. Pre-Roman and Roman charcoals of the Casa delle Vestali (R. Veal, G. Thompson); 34) Anthracology and Mediterranean landscape, classical and new approaches (J.L. Vernet); 35) Solar influence on Holocene fire history (K.J. Willis, K.D. Bennett, S.G. Haberle).

Moravia played a very important role in the Palaeolithic migration of ancient Homo sapiens as it made a natural corridor between the south and the north of the central Europe, which allowed for shifting of both humans and animals in times of glaciations; a fact amply evidenced by the dense network of Palaeolithic settlements. This study looks again at the material from Upper Palaeolithic Czech sites using the most recent use-wear techniques, equipment and analysis.

In 1957, preliminary investigations revealed a major Late Neolithic settlement mound, which also happened to be the northernmost tell settlement on the Great Hungarian Plain. Although the trial was limited to a small trench, the several meters thick deposits yielded exciting finds and several richly furnished burials. The brief preliminary report and the various references to the excavation made it quite obvious that the tell was one of the key sites of the Hungarian Neolithic and thus the full publication of the tell and its finds was, quite understandably, eagerly awaited by prehistorians. Investigations resumed in 1989 as part of the excavations preceding the construction of the M3 motorway. This excavation was preceded by various geophysical surveys and palaeoenvironmental sampling in order to reconstruct the settlement's one-time environment and to determine the exact date of its occupation. However, until the results of the new excavation are published in detail, this monograph will be the single available study on the Polgar-Csoszhalom site, the eponymous site of a Late Neolithic culture."

9 papers from the session on Mesolithic/Neolithic Interactions in the Balkans and in the Middle Danube Basin held at the 15th UISPP Congress in Lisbon in September 2006. Contents: 1) Mesolithic/Neolithic interactions in the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Basin: an introduction (Marek Nowak); 2) The chipped stone assemblages of Mentese and the problem of the earliest occupation of Marmara region (Ivan Gatsov, Petranka Nedelcheva); 3) Late Mesolithic of Serbia and Montenegro (Duan Mihailoviae); 4) Mesolithic-Neolithic interactions in the Danube Gorges (Duan Boric); 5) Palaeogeographical background of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic settlement in the Carpathian Basin (Pal Suemegi); 6) Mesolithic foragers and the spread of agriculture in Western Hungary by (Eszter Banffy, William J. Eichmann, Tibor Marton); 7) Early Neolithic raw material economies in the Carpathian Basin (Katalin T. Biro); 8) Neolithisation of the upper Tisza basin (Janusz K. Kozlowski, Marek Nowak); 9) Problems in reading MesolithicNeolithic relations in South-Eastern Europe (Janusz K. Kozlowski, Marek Nowak)."