Liguria, North-West Italy, is a region sited between the Mediterranean and the Alps. Between XVI and XIII c. BC the region experienced continuity and discontinuity in material culture and land occupation strategy. That chronological period, known as Middle and Late Bronze Age, coincided with movements throughout the Central Mediterranean (Aegean Sea to Sardinia-Sicily-Southern Italy) and in Central Europe (Danube Valley until Eastern France and Eastern Italy). Indirect consequences of this movement can be seen in a marginal region like Liguria. A regional panorama of settlements and material culture is presented. Pottery continuity and discontinuity is analyzed and granted new perspectives by applying a techno-typological analytical model.

This volume focuses on the beginning and development of the Neolithic in the territories near the final section of the Vinalopo river, and deals with the following matters through several chapters. The book presents in detail new information generated in the final section of the Vinalopo river. It studies the Neolithic materials from La Alcudia (Elche), their location, and makes a comparative analysis about the catchment area. This study shows that, both in this case and in Limoneros II and Cova de les Aranyes, the location was chosen according to the way of life of these first farmers. Regarding Limoneros II, it presents an initial preview of the urgent excavation carried out by the company Alebus Patrimonio Historico S.L., which has allowed the documentation of a new settlement from the Early Neolithic. The book also presents the results of the excavation carried out in Cova de les Aranyes by M.S. Hernandez Perez and A. Guilabert Mas in the first years of the 21st century, and the study of the documented materials in this excavation and some previous ones. Next, it presentd the information collected from El Alteron, a site that was discovered as the result of an urgent excavation, made of different negative structures that suggest a settlement in the 5th millennium cal BC at the foot of the sierra of Crevillente. On the other hand, the surveys carried out in the sierra of Santa Pola discovered several sites and excavated activity areas located near the coastline, linked to the use of marine resources. Finally, also as the result of an urgent excavation campaign, it was possible to document in Galanet a wide amount of negative structures. The palynological and carpological studies, the datings, and the analysis of the materiality of artefacts, suggest a site similar to a field of silos dating from the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal BC, located in the Barranco of San Anton, which runs parallel to the Vinalopo river.

Thesymposiumdedicatedtothepresentationofthe currentresearchontheofNeolithicfuneralritualsintheUpperRhineValley heldattheUniversityofStrasbourginJune, 2011belongstoacycleofannualmeetingsofthearchaeologistsfromAlsaceandthenearbyregions.Thethemewasdictatedbythespectacularincreaseoftheneolithicgraves corpuslastyears.ThisvolumepresentsninecontributionsaboutunpublishedgravesandgraveyardsfromtheearlytothelateNeolithic, especiallythefirstLBKcremationsfoundinFranceandthefirstCordedwaregravesgroupdiscoveredinAlsace.Thesepapers, whichcoveredalltheregionalneolithicsequence, offeracompleteviewofthefuneraltraditionsoftheUpperRhineValleyfrom5300to2200BC."

ThisbookisastudyaboutfunerarypracticesofprehistoriccommunitiesinJarama sregion(CentralIberia)duringthe3rdand2ndmillenniaBC.Itsaimistodefinethedifferentwaysofburialanddetectitschangesandvariationsinordertoidentifyandexplainpossiblesocialandideologicaltransformations.ThisstudyshowsthatrelevantsocioeconomictransformationshappenedintheLatePrehistoryofCentralIberiaandthesechangesaredetectedaswellasfarasritualideologyisconcerned.Asamatteroffact, thechangeinitemsandtypeofofferingsinthegravegoodsisverysignificantbetweentheCopperandBronzeAges, showingtransformationsaswellintheideologicalconceptionofburialsandtheafterlife."

This work deals with Neanderthal subsistence behaviours during the Middle Palaeolithic in Hungary, through the example of Erd site. Very discreet, hunting and mainly scavenging, activities are shown by zooarchaeological study for meat procurement. This is different for carnivores, except for cave bears. The latter, using the place for hibernation, meant a high number of their remains are associated with "Charentian" lithic industry and with those of cave hyena. This carnivore has a significant impact on bone accumulations, herbivores and bears, and shows signs of cannibalism on its congener's remains. Human activities are visible only on a few bones belonging to large ungulates and cave bear. However, no proof supports the proposition of a clear specialization in cave bear hunting on acquiring meat resources (as written by V. Gabori Csank in the monography on Erd published in 1968); a contrario, on scavenging carcasses and/or visiting (actively?) dens for weakened wintering/hibernating bears. These results attest the contemporaneity of a part of the bear carcasses with human installation or presence on the site.

By examining the stunning stone buildings and dynamic spaces of the royal estate of Chinchero, Nair brings to light the rich complexity of Inca architecture. This investigation ranges from the paradigms of Inca scholarship and a summary of Inca cultural practices to the key events of Topa Inca's reign and the many individual elements of Chinchero's extraordinary built environment. What emerges are the subtle, often sophisticated ways in which the Inca manipulated space and architecture in order to impose their authority, identity, and agenda. The remains of grand buildings, as well as a series of deft architectural gestures in the landscape, reveal the unique places that were created within the royal estate and how one space deeply informed the other. These dynamic settings created private places for an aging ruler to spend time with a preferred wife and son, while also providing impressive spaces for imperial theatrics that reiterated the power of Topa Inca, the choice of his preferred heir, and the ruler's close relationship with sacred forces. This careful study of architectural details also exposes several false paradigms that have profoundly misguided how we understand Inca architecture, including the belief that it ended with the arrival of Spaniards in the Andes. Instead, Nair reveals how, amidst the entanglement and violence of the European encounter, an indigenous town emerged that was rooted in Inca ways of understanding space, place, and architecture and that paid homage to a landscape that defined home for Topa Inca.

Excavations at Cerro Palenque, a hilltop site in the Ulua Valley of northwest Honduras, revolutionized scholars' ideas about the Terminal Classic period (roughly ad 850-1050) of Maya history and about the way in which cultures of the southeast Maya periphery related to the Lowland Maya. In this pathfinding study, Rosemary Joyce combines archaeological data gleaned from site research in 1980-1983 with anthropological theory about the evolution of social power to reconstruct something of the culture and lifeways of the prehispanic inhabitants of Cerro Palenque. Joyce organizes her study in a novel way. Rather than presenting each category of excavated material (ceramics, lithics, etc.) in a separate chapter, she integrates this data in discussions of what people did and where they did it, resulting in a reconstruction of social activity more than in a description of material culture. Joyce's findings indicate that the precolumbian elites of the Ulua Valley had very strong and diversified contacts with Lowland Maya culture, primarily through the Bay of Honduras, with far less contact with Copan in the Highlands. The elites used their contacts with these distant, powerful cultures to reinforce their difference from the people they ruled and the legitimacy of their privileged status. Indeed, their dependence on foreign contacts ultimately led to their downfall when their foreign partners reorganized their economic and social order during the Terminal Classic period. Although archaeological research in the region has been undertaken since the 1890s, Cerro Palenque is the first full-length study of an Ulua Valley site ever published. Joyce's pioneering approach-archaeological ethnography-will be of interest to scholars dealing with any prehistoric people whose material remains provide the only clues to their culture.

Thisbookdiscussestherelationshipbetweenmobilityand/orarchaeologicalsitesfunctionalityandlithicartifacts.Theproblemsencounteredwhendealingwithsuchissuesarepresentedfromdifferenttheoreticaland/ormethodologicalperspectivesandfromdifferentspatialandtemporalscales.Thereisaconsensusthat, fromtechno typologicalanalysis, itispossibletoinferdifferentialmobilitystrategiesandsitefunctionality.Inthisregard, thevariouscasestudiesthatareincludedinthebookallowatourofdifferentwaystoapproachtheseissuesfromlithicartifactsinArgentina, sothisbookisareferencecontributionforbothspecialistsandgeneralpublic."

Eastern North America has one of the largest inventories of Paleoindian sites anywhere in the Americas. Despite this rich record of early human settlement during the late Pleistocene, there are few widely published reports or summaries of Paleoindian research in the region. The contributors to this volume present more than four decades of Early Paleoindian research in eastern North America, including previously unpublished site reports and updates on recent research. Their work helps create a more cohesive picture of the early human occupation of North America.

This data-rich volume provides specific information on artifacts and basic site descriptions which will allow for more thorough comparisons of eastern fluted point sites. Divided into four sections--chronology and environment, reinvestigations of classic sites, new sites and perspectives, and synthesis and conclusions--the volume will encourage further consideration of the sites included and their role in shaping our understanding of huntergatherer lifeways during the late Pleistocene. "In the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition "is a must read for scholars of Paleoindian archaeology and those generally interested in the prehistory of North America.

This book travels the world to explore over 60 archaeological sites that enshrine the remarkable achievements of ancient astronomers. In many cultures an early understanding of the cosmos is expressed through architecture - stone circles that act as giant computers for the timing of eclipses; apertures that offer sightlines to the rising or setting sun at one of the solstices; or connections with the rising or setting of planets - as well as a host of allusions to sky gods and goddesses in carvings and wall paintings. The author's focus ranges broadly - from the great stone circles of Europe (Stonehenge, Ring of Brodgar, Carnac) to the pyramids of Egypt and the pyramid-temples of Central America, from the medicine wheels of North America to the carved monoliths of Easter Island. In part, however, the book's value lies in its revelation of astronomical alignments in lesser-known structures, such as the vast sun clock of Goseck in Germany, the mysterious standing stones of the Basque Country and the ancient rock art of Australia.
The book is organised by key celestial events including lunar and solar eclipses, and features original artwork showing key alignments and the movements of the planets and stars. This is a beautiful and fascinating insight into the mysteries of the ancient world - and a convincing vision of mankind's efforts to integrate our sense of spiritual belonging with the mysteries of space and time.

On a remote mountainside 2,000 meters above sea level in the northern Sierra Madre Oriental, the rockshelter at La Calsada has yielded basic archaeological data for one of the least understood regions of prehistoric North America, the state of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico. This comprehensive site report, with detailed information on artifacts and stratigraphy, provides baseline data for further explorations in the region and comparisons with other North American hunter-gatherer groups. Radiocarbon dating traces the earliest component at the site to 8600-7500 B.C., giving La Calsada arguably the earliest well-dated lithic complex in Mexico. Nance describes some 1,140 recovered stone tools, with comparisons to the archaeology of southern and southwestern Texas, as well as reported sites in Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon, Mexico. From the lithic and stratigraphic analysis, Nance deduces occupational patterns at the site, beginning with Paleo-Indian cultures that lived in the area until about 7500 B.C. Through changes in tool technology, he follows the rise of the Abasolo tradition around 3000 B.C. and the appearance of a new culture with a radically different lithic industry around 1000 A.D.

Islands in Time explores the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies. It considers the prehistory of the Mediterranean and offers an explanation of the effects of isolation on the development of human communities. Evidence is drawn from a broad range of Mediterranean islands including Cyprus, Crete and the Cyclades, Malta, Lipari, Corsica and Sardinia.

Early Human Behaviour in a Global Context will be of use to students and professionals who are interested in prehistory, Paleolithic archaeology, and paleoanthropology. Those interested in our ancestors and their place in the natural world will also benefit from the information presented in this book. Chapters focus on: * the nature of archaeological evidence * stone tool technology * subsistence practices * settlement distributions.

A study of prehistoric mining and metallurgy in the Prehistoric south west Iberian Peninsula. Spanish text.

The extensive work presented here takes a new look at the prehistoric art preserved on various megalithic monuments from the northwestern Iberian Peninsular. The initial chapters (1-3) deal with the objectives of the study, the history of research of megalithic art in the Iberian Peninsula, and the discussion on the area of study. In chapter 4, the research methodologies applied are described in detail: fieldwork (identification, cataloguing and diagnosis), the analysis of stone and paint samples (including radiocarbon dating), and the systems used for the recording of the images. In chapter 5, the most extensive of the book, each of the megalithic sites studied is described, with special emphasis on the description and recording of megalithic art, its state of preservation and the need for conservation actions that would stop its degradation. Chapter 6 deals with the information obtained on this kind of megalithic art. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the degradation processes and the proposal for preservation measures, not only for the prehistoric art itself, but also for the megalithic sites. Chapter 9 contains the discussion on the main findings.

The adoption of agriculture is often described as one of the most fundamental revolutions in human history, the starting point for urbanisation and specialisation. More recently the structure of the Neolithic mind has been proposed as a new cognitive revolution, separating us fundamentally from preceding hunter-gatherers. Without doubting that the so-called Neolithic Revolution was significant, it is important to question how we conceptualise it. This book focuses on two themes central to creating a rounded understanding of the transition: our understandings of hunter-gatherer diversity and change over time, with emphasis on the adoption of agriculture; and the relationships between our understandings of the modern world, and ourselves, and the models we impose on prehistory. The broad geographical perspective adopted here allows important comparisons to be made between two primary study areas, the Near East and Europe.

This volume is a study of later Iberian prehistory and contributes to our understanding of the range of religious beliefs and practices present in the Celtic-speaking world. There is an overview of earlier perceptions of sacrificial stones and altars presented in the context of developing visions of Celts and Druids beginning in the seventeenth century. There follows an in-depth study of one of the most extensively excavated hill top settlements Numancia a site which presents a microcosm of the issues involved in attempting to use raw archaeological evidence to interpret human behaviour. In addition there is a detailed assessment of urban and domestic sanctuaries and votive deposits; a detailed consideration of cave sanctuaries; and studies of votive metalwork, of the enigmatic verracos, of epigraphy from sanctuaries and or ritual artefacts. Spanish text.

Known for his curly red hair, day-old stubble, and uncannily preserved two-thousand-year-old physique, Grauballe Man - a mummified body discovered in 1950s Denmark - was an instant archaeological sensation. But he was not the first of his kind: recent history has resurrected from northern Europe's bogs several men, women, and children who were deposited there as sacrifices in the early Iron Age and kept startlingly intact by the chemical properties of peat. In this remarkable account of their modern afterlives, Karin Sanders argues that the discovery of bog bodies began an extraordinary - and ongoing - cultural journey. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Sanders shows, these eerily preserved remains came alive in art and science as material metaphors for such concepts as trauma, nostalgia, and identity. Sigmund Freud, Joseph Beuys, Serge Vandercam, Seamus Heaney, and other major figures have used them to reconsider fundamental philosophical, literary, aesthetic, and scientific concerns. Exploring this intellectual spectrum, Sanders contends that the power of bog bodies to provoke such a wide range of responses is rooted in their unique status as both archaeological artifacts and human beings. They emerge as corporeal time capsules that transcend archaeology to challenge our assumptions about what we can know about the past. By restoring them to the roster of cultural phenomena that force us to confront our ethical and aesthetic boundaries, "Bodies in the Bog" excavates anew the question of what it means to be human.

This study focuses on the evolution of dry-stone techniques applied to the construction of enclosures in Corsica and Tuscany from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. It examines the evidence for dry-stone walled enclosures in Corsica and Tuscany, presented in a substantial catalogue, and seeks to determine the lower incidence of such features in Tuscany. It also notes different construction techniques present in northern and southern Corsica and evaluates the social and technological reasons for them. French text.

The Stone Age occupations of Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bugt) are among the most thoroughly surveyed and best known in Greenland. This volume presents the results of the author's research on a regional scale as well as on the scale of a single camp site. It focuses on the horizontal dimensions rather than stratigraphies. The principal objectives are descrip-tions of settlement patterns, dwelling types and the spatial organisation of dwellings. Saqqaq and Dorset culture sites are presented and the results are synthesised and discussed in rela-tion to earlier research in the same region as well as in relation to the Palaeo-Eskimo settle-ments in other parts of Greenland.

Given the need for systematic research into the prehistory of the southwest region of Andalucia in the south of Spain, a comprehensive research proposal has been designed, based on the concept of initial class societies. In this historical dynamic, the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the southwest and the province of Huelva, prove to be the ideal spatial context, as they allow, for the first time, an evaluation of the formation mechanisms of the first stable asymmetric forms of organization by studying the mining-metallurgical activity and the social organization that came with it. The sequential development of this work begins with the definition of its general objectives, in Chapter II, from an archaeometric and archaeometallurgical point of view, supported by the application of metallographic studies within a spatial, chronological and contextual framework and on very specific evidence - metal products and remains - specified in Chapter III. In Chapter IV the conceptual definitions of metallurgy, archaeometallurgy and metallography are discussed, as well as the role played in the development of our discipline by the specific studies here presented and whose application is evaluated in Chapter V, both in the different areas of the specific peninsular geography and, particularly, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. In Chapter VI, through the so-called oHuelva caseo, the main features of the archaeological practice and its scientific production in the southwest are evaluated. Chapter VII presents the compositional and metallographic analyses. The results of the tests carried out are given in Chapter VIII. Chapter IX contains a reflection on the assessment of the metallurgical activity in the third millennium B.C.E. as regards the definition of its model of historical interpretation.

This study deals with the ceramic repertoire of the Aeolian Middle Bronze Age culture, the so called Milazzese facies. The aim of this work is twofold: to devise a formalized typology for the Milazzese ceramic repertoire (to be used as a basis for the chrono-typological analysis of the pottery assemblages) and to assess the chronological and typological achievements in an historical and, broadly speaking, cultural perspective. Italian text.

This is the first major study on bell beaker pottery in the Middle and Lower Guadiana basin (south-western Iberian Peninsula). Recent archaeological excavations in the area, because of the construction of the Alqueva dam, have provided new and substantial information relating to the 3rd millennium BC, with 54 sites with bell-beaker pottery now identified (43 settlements and 11 funerary sites). Identifying the pots as high-status items, and mapping their distibution through the region and chronologically, Garcia Rivero is able to draw conlclusions about changing social structure in the third millennium BC. Spanish text.