This is an Element about some of the largest sites known in prehistoric Europe - sites so vast that they often remain undiscussed for lack of the theoretical or methodological tools required for their understanding. Here, the authors use a relational, comparative approach to identify not only what made megasites but also what made megasites so special and so large. They have selected a sample of megasites in each major period of prehistory - Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages - with a detailed examination of a single representative megasite for each period. The relational approach makes explicit comparisons between smaller, more 'normal' sites and the megasites using six criteria - scale, temporality, deposition / monumentality, formal open spaces, performance and congregational catchment. The authors argue that many of the largest European prehistoric megasites were congregational places.

The communities who lived in the Balkans between 7000 and 4000 Cal. BC have now been the focus of intensive and increasingly inter-disciplinary research for the last forty years. Dwelling between the warm, dry Mediterranean zones of the Aegean and Anatolia and the cooler and snowier Central European heartlands, these communities created distinctive social formations that left enduring marks on today's landscapes. One of the key trends in these millennia concerned the high value attributed to the exotic, especially if that was represented by objects of striking colour and brilliance. Thus, the preference, wherever possible, for long-term sedentary lifeways was often in counterpoise with strategies for bringing distinctive objects from remote places back to the settlement for local 'domestication'. The prehistoric site of Orlovo has been investigated neither by excavation nor by systematic field walking but by repeated field visits, over many years, and the collection of objects exposed by the plough. The result is an extraordinarily rich and diverse collection of objects whose contexts are poorly known but whose diversity reminds us not so much of an excavated settlement as an excavated Chalcolithic cemetery. This collection has challenged us to develop an approach in which theory was integrated with methodology to propose as complete an interpretation of the site as could be done from an unstructured surface collection. The collection studied in this book is significant for the prehistory not only of South East Bulgaria but also for European prehistory as a whole and its study and publication therefore, sheds light on the worlds of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities of the Balkans through the prism of a single site.

Field practice in archaeology varies greatly throughout the world, mainly because archaeological sites survive in very different ways in different counties. Many manuals see this as a problem - to be defeated by the imposition of standardised procedures. In this book we relish the variety of field practice, seeing it rather as the way the best archaeologists have responded creatively to the challenges of terrain, research objectives and the communities within which they work. While insisting on the highest levels of investigation, we celebrate the different designs, concepts, scientific detection methods and recording systems applied - so embracing standards, but not standardisation. The book is organised in four parts: Part 1 offers a summary of field procedures. Part 2 reviews the principal methods applied, above and below ground, and how the results are analysed. Part 3 illustrates the huge variety confronted by field workers with a series of exemplary commercial and academic projects enacted in downland, jungle, desert, permafrost, road schemes and towns. Approaches also differ according to the traditional methodologies that have evolved in particular countries. In Part 4 we give examples of some the strongest and oldest of those practised on four continents.

The Neolithic and Copper age monuments in Europe, consisting of stone temples and circles, standing stones, henge monuments, long barrows, megalithic graves, buildings and pyramids, are the most impressive remains of past societies and present striking features of the prehistoric landscape. This volume is concerned with these monuments and offers a broad and up-to-date discussion on their emergence and function, their situation in the landscapes and the reconstruction of the prehistoric societies in diverse archaeological contexts and regions in Europe and in one area of the Near East. It brings together new data and methodological approaches, as well as current discussions and interpretations.

Book 5 in the reports series on the Upper Tisza Project, north-eastern Hungary. This volume covers the summer 1995 excavations at the multi-period site of Regec 95, located in an upland basin in the South Zemplen Mountains. Contents: 1) Introduction to the archaeology of the South Zemplen Mountains and the Regec Basin (John Chapman & Magdolna Vicze); 2) Site environment and land use (Robert Shiel, David Passmore & Eniko Magyari); 3) Surface collection, phosphate analysis and sampling strategy (John Chapman, Keri Brown & Alan Biggins); 4) The stratigraphic sequence (John Chapman, Robert Shiel & Magdolna Vicze); 5) The pottery (Magdolna Vicze & John Chapman); 6) The chipped stone (Steve Cousins & John Chapman); 7 The small finds (Denise Telford & John Chapman); 8) The plant remains (Ferenc Gyula & Edina Rudner); 9) Absolute dating (John Chapman & Sarah Krywicky); 10) Interpretation and summary (John Chapman & Magdolna Vicze)."

Book 4 in the reports series on the Upper Tisza Project, north-eastern Hungary. This volume covers the summer 1995 excavations at the Neolithic site of Polgar-10. Contents: 1) Introduction (John Chapman et al.); 2) Sequence, zone and context type at Polgar-10 (John Chapman & Robert Shiel); 3) Context descriptions and interpretations (John Chapman); 4) Phases (John Chapman); 5) Zones (John Chapman); 6) Context Types (John Chapman); 7) Pottery (John Chapman, Ian Lumley, Rhodri Jones & Jerome Edwards); 8) Lithics (Karen Hardy, Leanne Stowe, Denise Telford & John Chapman); 9) Small finds (Denise Telford & John Chapman); 10) Faunal remains (David Brighton, with Keith Dobney and John Chapman); 11) Plant remains (Ferenc Gyulai and Edina Rudner, with John Chapman); 12) The burials (Beth Rega & Keri Brown); 13) The AMS radiocarbon dates (Tom Higham with John Chapman; 14) Interpretation and summary (John Chapman).

Book 3 in the reports series on the Upper Tisza Project, north-eastern Hungary. This volume investigates the settlement patterns in the Zemplen Block. Contents: 1) Introduction to the Upper Tisza Project (John Chapman); 2) The environment of the Zemplen Block (Robert Shiel & Eniko Magyari); 3) Land use potential of the Zemplen Block (Robert Shiel); 4) The Gazetteer (John Chapman, Mark Gillings, Denise Telford & Steve Cousins); 5) Interpretation of prehistoric field survey data (John Chapman, Mark Gillings, Katalin Biro & Karen Hardy); 6) Interpretation of Early Modern forest prospection (John Chapman & Mark Gillings); 7) Summary of main results, Zemplen Block (John Chapman & Mark Gillings).

Book 2 in the reports series on the Upper Tisza Project, north-eastern Hungary. This volume investigates the settlement patterns in the Bodrogkoz Block. Contents: 1) Introduction to the Upper Tisza Project (John Chapman & Jozsef Laszlovszky); 2) The environment of the Bodrogkoz Block (Robert Shiel, Eniko Magyari, Basil Davis & John Chapman); 3) Land use potential of the Bodrogkoz Block (Robert Shiel); 4) The Gazetteer (John Chapman, Mark Gillings, Steve Leyland, Leanne Stowe & Denise Telford); 5) Analysis and interpretation of field survey data (John Chapman, Mark Gillings, Robert Shiel & Steve Leyland); 6) Summary of main results, Bodrogkoz Block (John Chapman, Mark Gillings & Steve Leyland).

For over 60 years, the accepted view of cultural evolution was that the world's first cities developed in the Fertile Crescent in the 4th millennium BC. This view overlooks the emergence of a much neglected class of sites-the Trypillia megasites of the Ukrainian forest-steppe. The megasites were in fact larger and earlier than the Mesopotamian cities and demonstrate an alternative pathway towards cities without strong central administration and any later urban legacy. In this book, a team of international authors examines the hypothesis of independent Eastern European urbanism using the evidence gathered from the multi-disciplinary investigation of the megasite of Nebelivka.