This book investigates relations between humans and animals over several centuries with a focus on the Middle Ages, since important features of our perceptions regarding animals have been rooted in that period. Elucidating various aspects of medieval human-animal relationships requires transdisciplinary discourse, and so this book aims to reconcile the materiality of animals with complex cultural systems illustrating their subtle transitions 'between body and mind'.

This book investigates relations between humans and animals over several centuries with a focus on the Middle Ages, since important features of our perceptions regarding animals have been rooted in that period. Elucidating various aspects of medieval human-animal relationships requires transdisciplinary discourse, and so this book aims to reconcile the materiality of animals with complex cultural systems illustrating their subtle transitions 'between body and mind'.

The papers in this collection consider the ways in which material culture has been deployed in different societies to construct and support social memory. A range of topics are discussed including Neolithic monumental culture, memory and material culture in Aquincum, the Roman capital of Pannonia Inferior, early medieval burial rites in Central Europe, ritual memory and Carolingian kingship, as well as in Pavia, the Lombard capital, the use of relics in combatting the Hussite Reformation, the holy "Sanjak" peacock object in Yezidi religion, and Olvera Street in L.A., an attempt to recreate an idealised Mexican past.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the Horses and Humans Symposium, held in 2000 at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Powdermill Nature Preserve, in Rector, Pennsylvania, USA, in honor of Mary Aiken Littauer. The four-day symposium brought together 35 academics from Eurasia and America from the disciplines of archaeology, art history, history, paleontology, biology, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, and other fields for presented papers, round-table discussions, demonstrations and much lively debate in the evenings. The culmination was a one-day public event at the St. Clair Showgrounds called the Celebration of the Horse that involved a wide range of equestrian performances by over 50 horses and riders for a public audience of over 500. In addition to the production of this volume, the symposium introduced many equine scholars to each other and initiated both collaboration and communication amongst this active community.

Thirty-six papers, from the 2nd meeting of the (ICAZ) worked Bone Research Group held in Budapest in 1999, written by archaeologists and archaozoologists, report on material from North and Central America, Europe and South West Asia. The collection is divided into six thematic sections (general theory, raw material exploitation, manufacturing technology, function, social context and special assemblages) and include reports on bone materials, objects and tools that date from the Neolithic to the Viking and medieval periods.

Beads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities' past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind's technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs. Papers discuss the social narratives behind bead and beadwork manufacture, use and disposal; the way beads work visually, audibly and even tactilely to cue wearers and audience to their social message(s). Understanding the entangled social and technical aspects of beads require a broad spectrum of technical and methodological approaches including the identification of the sources for the raw material of beads. These scientific approaches are also combined in some instances with experimentation to clarify the manner in which beads were produced and used in past societies.