How can we study the impact of rules on the lives of past people using archaeological evidence? To answer this question, Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation presents case studies drawn from across Europe and the United States. Covering areas as diverse as the use of space in a nineteenth-century U.S. Army camp, the deposition of waste in medieval towns, the experiences of Swedish migrants to North America, the relationship between people and animals in Anglo-Saxon England, these case studies explore the use of archaeological evidence in understanding the relationship between rules, lived experience, and social identity.

The papers given at this conference range over many historic and prehistoric periods as well as regions. Great strides have been made in recent decades in the various forms of botanical and physical analysis of archaeological finds which have enabled students to gain greater insight into diet and cooking technologies than was possible when all they had to go on was the survival of artefacts. These papers emanate from the cutting edge of archaeological research, among postgraduates and young lecturers from here and overseas. The main articles cover the following topics: Cookery in the Ertebolle Culture in Southern Scandinavia (5th millennium BC); Lifestyles in Early Iron Age Corinthia (1200-680 BC), Greece; Provisioning and Diet in Anglo-Saxon Southampton; Food and Drink in the London Playhouses of the 16th and 17th centuries; Honey and Bees in British Prehistory; Contextualising the Animal Remains from the Kabeirion Sanctuary at Thebes; The Exploitation of Hares in British Prehistory; Malting grains; Evidence of Roman diet from the sewer at Herculaneum; Nutritional Analysis of Medieval Skeletons from Durres, Albania.

The first book to focus specifically on introducing archaeologists to the concept of assemblage.

The first book to focus specifically on introducing archaeologists to the concept of assemblage.

This volume derives from a session held at the 2010 Theoretical Archaeology Group conference (Bristol University). The aims of this session were to explore occurrences of compromise (or making do) and repair (mending) in the past, with a particular focus on material culture. This original scope broadened to encompass reuse - inextricably linked to the central themes, particularly when considered through a biographical approach. Contents: Introduction: Archaeologies of Compromise, Repair and Reuse (Ben Jervis and Alison Kyle); 1) What did the apocrypha know? Glued pottery vessels from Springhead and other Romano-British sites in south and eastern England (Kayt Marter Brown and Rachael Seager Smith); 2) Modifying Material: Social biographies of Roman material culture (Lousia Campbell); 3) Reuse, Repair and Reconstruction. Functioning aqueducts in post-Roman Spain (Javier Martinez Jimenez); 4) A Hole for the Soul? Possible functions of post-firing perforations and lead plugs in early Anglo-Saxon cremation urns (Gareth Perry); 5) Riveting Biographies. The theoretical implications of early Anglo-Saxon brooch repair, customisation and use adaptation (Toby Martin); 6) Making-do or Making the World? Tempering choices in Anglo-Saxon pottery manufacture (Ben Jervis); 7) More Than Just a Quick Fix? Repair Holes on Early Medieval Souterrain Ware (Alison Kyle); 8) Beyond a 'Make-do and Mend' Mentality. Repair and reuse of objects from two medieval village sites in Buckinghamshire (Carole Wheeler); 9) When is a Pot Still a Pot? (Duncan H Brown); 10) Survival and Significance: Some Concluding Remarks on Reuse as an Aspect of Cultural Biography (Mark A Hall).