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A study with catalogue of the 'ushabti' (funerary figurines) from the Egyptian Museum, Florence.

Archaeological excavation at the Brayford Centre 2000In June 2000, a small excavation was carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology on land on the north bank of Brayford Pool, Lincoln (eastern England), in the area of medieval Baxtergate. The earliest horizons were identified in two cores taken from deposits in the base of the trench. Environmental analysis of the cores, assisted by two radiocarbon dates, showed that peat began to accumulate along the Pool margins in the late Bronze Age, probably developing into a fen carr type habitat. A change from woody to fibrous peat in the late prehistoric or Roman period implies a significant change in the local environment, possibly associated with the use of the foreshore as a 'hard' to serve the Roman military and then the colonia in the 1st century AD. Peat continued to accumulate until around the late 7th century AD, when the ground appears to have dried out sufficiently to encourage marginal settlement in the area. Within the trench, archaeological remains, broadly dating to the 11th and 12th centuries AD, were found beneath a thick layer of modern demolition rubble. The medieval remains comprised features typical of 'backyard' activity, such as cess and general refuse pits, and ditches and gullies which probably functioned as plot boundaries and drains. Thetentative remains of a partitioned timber building, possibly used as a latrine and/or an animal byre, were also found. This activity was interspersed with a series of layers, probably associated with attempts to reclaim land along the northern edge of Brayford Pool or placed to protect the bank of the Pool from erosion. Environmental evidence was used to characterize the medieval deposits in order to assist in determining the function of the features, as well as providing information about the local environment at this time. Later medieval and post-medieval horizons had been totally destroyed by 19th and 20th-century development.With contributions from John Carrott, Margaret J. Darling, Karen Deighton, Rowena Gale, John Giorgi, Alison Locker, Michelle Morris, James Rackham, David Smith and Jane YoungIllustrations by Jacqueline Harding and Pat Walsh

Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 78The primary aim of this study of The Luangwa Valley (eastern Zambia), is to assess the integrity of the archaeological record in reference to geomorphological effects to determine what remains of the human behavioural record. To achieve the primary aim of this research an archaeological landscape survey was conducted, and a geomorphological survey built into the project design.

This study focuses on Qasr al-Buleida ('the countryside castle [or] palace' in Arabic), a small hamlet located six kilometres to the northeast of the modern village of Ghor al-Mazra'a on the Dead Sea Plain. The hamlet comprises the archaeological remains of five free-standing, fortified architectural complexes, as well as a number of agricultural features that include two aqueducts, a dam or reservoir and terracing. Together, these structures form the 'Qasr al-Buleida settlement', an entity which has not been previously studied nor published in entirety. Through survey and excavation conducted over two field seasons (2002 and 2004), the aim of this investigation of Qasr al-Buleida has been to determine the chronology, cultural history and function of the settlement as a network of fortifications that served a defensive and economic purpose, augmenting the Roman-Byzantine limes Arabicus, as well as an agricultural one. Analysis of the radiocarbon, numismatic and ceramic material recovered from the stratified deposits of excavations carried out at the five QB sites has now revealed that they were occupied between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E., a period when all evidentiary classes overlap.

In this work the author describes the animal husbandry practices and the use of wild resources in early modern Tornio (northern Finland) based on zooarchaeological evidence. The animal bone assemblages from Tornio have not previously been published or reported, and the urban animal husbandry practices and the use of wild resources have not been analysed archaeologically, apart from a preliminary analysis of the seventeenth-century faunal materials from two plots. The author uses these results to consider the connections between animals and urban social interaction, and the changing human-animal and human-environmental relationships in early modern Tornio. In this sense, the study also contributes to the understanding of the emerging modern worldview and social order in the northern European periphery during the early modern period.

Baldassarre Giardina's book is the fruit of many years of research. Since the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century and the historical and archaeological studies of E. Allard, L.A. Veitmeyer and He. Thiersch, little work has been done on the subject of lighthouses. No up-to-date or systematic scholarly research has been produced until now. Drawing on the rich accumulation of existing research, the author has in addition brought together evidence from historical and literary sources from the ancient, medieval and modern periods. Together with this, he has researched new evidence, data and scientific discoveries, and from these he has assembled a framework that sheds light on hitherto unpublished aspects of these structures, identifying their archaeological and typological characteristics. With this book, the author has given us a systematic exploration of the subject, its results arranged in such a way as to demonstrate the earliest form of these structures and their evolution in time.

The intention of this work is to explain how bone was used as a raw material on the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Three main lines of research are followed by the author: 1) The determination of the mechanical properties of bones used for tools; 2) the proposal and evaluation of a model derived from a Darwinian Evolutionary Theory; 3) metric and morphological analysis of Fueguian bone tools. The temporal scale chosen for this work is from the earliest arrival of humans on the island - archaeologically recorded as some 10,000 years bp, up to the 19th century. As a way of approaching this work, and in order to be able to discuss the model which will be proposed in Chapter 6, a history of Bone tool research (with a special focus on Europe, where the main trend in such studies was developed) is presented in Chapter 2. The following chapters are devoted to specifying and analyzing the way in which these factors appear in Tierra del Fuego. Firstly (Chapter 3), the mechanical properties of bone material are referred to. In Chapter 4 the environmental and geological setting of Isla Grande is presented. In Chapter 5 a synthesis of all that is known about the Fuegian populations from an archaeological point of view is presented. Chapter 6 develops the theoretical framework used for the study. A bone raw material model is discussed and methods and materials employed are discussed in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 gives results of the determination of mechanical properties of Tierra del Fuego bones. Chapter 9 gives the results of tool morphological analysis, and Chapter 10 discusses these results. Conclusions and further paths for research follow in Chapter 11.

Proceedings of the International Round-Table Conference, June 2005, St-Petersburg, RussiaThis book presents the proceedings of the international round-table conference held from 23-25 June 2005 at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The topics related to the culture, history and archaeology of Archaic Greece. Attention was also devoted to questions of exhibiting ancient Greek monuments in museums.

A study of the plans and architectural details of the important 5th - 9th century Cappadocian churches.

Though many small archaeological investigations have been made within the town in the last 35 years, it is only with the present Wallingford Burh to Borough Project that Wallingford has become the subject of an in-depth archaeological study. The Project recognized that the town still has many large undeveloped open spaces, which give it a unique archaeological potential. The organization of the Origins of Wallingford conference in May 2008 was to enable a formal coming together of academic expertise on Wallingford's past for the first time and to provide a platform for broader based questions on early urban development. The papers collected here embody the discussions that ensued. Together, they represent interestingly disparate disciplinary approaches and it should be borne in mind that they reflect the coming together of expertise in the initial stages of this project. They are a fascinating convergence of archaeological and historical scholarship which it is hoped will raise questions that will stimulate further consideration of the fundamental question of the origins and development of medieval towns.

This work looks at basic questions pertaining to sacred space and applies them to several well documented archaeological sites with strong material remains, interpreting the meanings and causes of the changes in spatial patterns that occurred within the late Antique polis in the East. The study is based on both physical and abstract spatial dimensions (the 'real' and metaphysical) of civic and sacred landscapes that defined the Classical and Early Christian city 'types'. The archaeological sites of Gerasa of Jordan and Dura Europos of Syria were selected as interpretive models due to their strong archaeological records and architectural representations. While the main aim of the work is to explain the end of the classical city in the East, Dura remains frozen in time for us depicting the pre-Christian, pagan city sitting on the historical razor edge just prior to the events initiating monumental civic change.

This work deals with the collapse of Teotihuacan and the period 650-900 AD. Teotihuacan was the most important urban centre in Central Mexico before the rise of Tula. The study develops a new view of the cultural changes adopted by the new society. This is the first work that attempts to reconcile the archaeological complexities of the transition.

With contributions on the flintwork by Daryl Garton.On behalf of Trent & Peak Archaeology, University of Nottingham.

The present study focuses on the ancient architectural decoration of a particular form uncovered on the excavation site of modern Marina which lies on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, about 6 km east of el-Alamein. Also known as el-Bahrein, it is located 96 km west of Alexandria, 40 km west of ancient Taposiris Magna (Abu Sir), and 185 km east of Paraetonium (Marsa Matruh). For the past twenty years, Polish and Egyptian missions have been conducting archaeological research and preservation of the remains of the Hellenistic-Roman town and necropolis found on this spot and tentatively identified on the basis of descriptions of ancient destruction on the Mediterranean coast. The excavations occupy a section of the lagoon coast more than 1000 m long E-W andabout 550 m wide N-S. The layout of the ancient town has been reconstructed on the basis of results of investigations conducted to date. The harbour infrastructure, including warehouses of which ruins have survived, lay immediately on the coast. Directlyto the south of the port and commercial quarter, was the city centre which included baths, a civic basilica and other public buildings around a porticoed main square. Surrounding the centre were densely occupied habitation quarters. Remains of more than 50 different architectural structures have been discovered in the town and necropolis. On the basis of archaeological evidence, the town functioned from the 2nd century BC to the beginning of the 7th century AD. The earliest remains, some even from the mid 2nd century BC, were found in the necropolis. A very specific type of architectural decoration characterized by simplification and decorative geometrization appears in Marina where it also seems to have been prevalent. This kind of stylization has been associated mainly with Petra where a similar architectural decoration was commonly applied. Having been recognized first in Petra, it came to be known as Nabatean. The stylized architectural decoration discovered at Petra and Hegra is so specific and dissimilar from any of the Classical orders that it has even been described on occasion as a separate architectural order.

Pre-Columbian pottery figurines from Peru occur in astonishingly large numbers in museum and private collections. However in the published literature they generally occupy a place of 'also ran'. The reason for this may be that -because of their scarcity in controlled excavations -their potential importance has been undervalued. The main purpose of this work therefore has been to fill this gap in the archaeological record by presenting a Corpus of Peruvian pottery figurines. This volume analyses material from the north coast of Peru and two subsequent volumes are planned to cover the central coast and the southern coast. For each geographic area the figurine groups are presented in chronological order. The periods covered are: The Preceramic Period; The Formative Period (subdivided into: The Lower or Early Formative, also known as Initial Period, The Middle Formative, incorporating the Early Horizon, The Epiformative, straddling Lumbreras's Upper Formative and the beginning of the Early Intermediate Period); The Early Intermediate Period; The Middle Horizon; The Late Intermediate Period; The Late Horizon or Inca Period. Each figurine is listed on a Table, containing all the relevant data (collection, site provenance, sex, measurements, surface colour, manufacturing technique, special features and reference to publications) and illustrated on a Plate. The analytical part lists the group characteristics and discusses special features, links with other groups, context, geographic distribution and chronology of each group or sub-group. Additional data are presented in four Appendices: Appendix 1: Gives details about specific museum collections (acquisition of figurines, reliability of given provenances, etc.). Appendix 2: Describes some of the sites, with the location of successive excavations, dating of features etc. Appendix 3: Lists and briefly describes all the recorded gravelots containing figurines. Appendix 4: Quotes references to idols found in the chroniclers.

Edited by Pierre Allard, Françoise Bostyn, François Giligny and Jacek LechThis book includes papers from the Flint Mining in Prehistoric Europe session held at European Association of Archaeologists 12th Annual Meeting Cracow, Poland, 19th-24th September 2006.

This book explores the origins and development of museums and heritage sites in Bulgaria (1856-2006) in relation to societal change and major historic events. It seeks to determine the key factors that promoted museum building, and pinpoint the key individuals who were involved. Original and archival sources, interviews, observations and field visits have provided a rich dataset which has been analysed to reveal how systems of power, politics and social control affected how museums were created and subsequently managed. Furthermore the Bulgarian case is situated within a broader European context and comparisons are made with the museum institutions in different countries in order to determine any specifics and particularities of Bulgarian museum building and operation. The book demonstrates how different administrations have used museums to promote their own political views of the nation's cultural identity, and in particular how the strategies employed by the Communist regime continue to influence the museum sector today. The major contribution of this book lies in its use of archival documents. This has resulted in a different account of the formation of Bulgarian museums, on some occasions contradicting accepted histories. It also introduces the little known Bulgarian museology to a wider audience, which is seen to be important at a point in time when Bulgaria has become part of the European Union.

The stratigraphic surveys periodically done since the 1980s within the Neolithic settlement of Montedoro (Grottaglie, Taranto, southern Italy), the north-eastern slope of the basin of the 'Small Sea' of Taranto, have highlighted aspects and problems about the process of neolithization in an area insufficiently studied. In this work the author has made a detailed analysis of the archaeological and topographic stratigraphy, including the recovery of the geo-paleoenvironmental data and of the archaeozoological data for historic and cultural reconstructions. The documentation includes ceramic and lithic objects, as well as faunal and palinological finds. The contextualized data provide a significant contribution to an area little known from the preclassical viewpoint.

This study is concerned with how the Postclassic Mexica people developed their unique perspective of history and environment in a dynamic cultural context. By focusing on the process of conceptualization of the Nahuatl word 'xihuitl', the author analyzes the way the Mexica expressed their cognition. Xihuitl covers a range of meanings: 'turquoise', 'grass', 'solar year', 'comet', 'preciousness', 'blue-green' and 'fire'. The correlations of the meanings of xihuitl can be explained from a structural point of view. However, structural analysis does not reveal the dynamic experiential processes that produced such correlations in the minds of the Mexica. In order to account for this dynamic aspect of the concept, the author employs a theory drawn from cognitive science. This theory argues that the meanings and representations of a concept are metaphoric extensions that derive from the central sense of the concept. Applying this theory, the author examines the metaphoric extension of each xihuitl representation from the central sense. The author also analyzes the four media of expression-linguistic, iconographic, material and ritual-in which representations of xihuitl occur. The representations of xihuitl in each medium embody a particular aspect of the concept. At the same time, the concept as a whole was affected by the Mexica conceptual system-the way the Mexica saw their world-rooted in the connections they believed existed between themselves and those who established earlier Central Mexican civilizations.

This work analyses prehistoric stone production in the key area of South Bulgaria and Northwest Turkey for the period 7th-5th millenia BC. It presents a technological and typological analysis of chipped stone assemblages and considers raw material procurement and supply systems.

The beginning of the Late Bronze Age on Cyprus saw a range of dramatic changes occurring in the settlement patterns and material culture of the island, accompanied by evidence for increased interaction with the surrounding region. These include population movements from small inland to larger, nucleated coastal settlements, an increase in social stratification and copper production, the first evidence for literacy, and Cyprus becoming increasingly involved in the complex exchange networks of the eastern Mediterranean. Central to any study of the island's prehistory is the coastal settlement of Enkomi, often considered to be the first state-like entity on the island and identified with the Alashiya of contemporary textual. The author's main goal in this volume is to examine the archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the transformation of Cypriot society as it stands, to seek to understand the individual aspects of the process and to separate this from the later LCIIC outcomes. The author utilises the Enkomi pottery assemblage to examine the introduction of wheelmade pottery and thereby investigate the processes through which Cypriot society became highly complex, including whether the evidence points to early centralized control or independent regional developments. However, in order to understand the pottery, it was necessary to investigate all types of archaeological evidence pertaining to the early history of the site and this volume also includes discussion of architecture, tombs and other aspects of material culture. Part 1 provides the theoretical background to investigations of social complexity and discusses the applications. Part 2 addresses the evidence for both settlement and ceramics during the Cypriot Bronze Age. Part 3 is devoted to the analysis of the Enkomi data. Part 4 presents the author's conclusions.

This volume reports on excavations conducted in advance of the construction of a campus of Cornwall University. In addition to the expected linear field systems and Romano-British settlement activity, Early and Later Neolithic pits were uncovered as well as 5 circular post-ring structures and other features dating to Early to Middle Bronze Age.With contributions by Paul Bidwell, Wendy Carruthers, Rowena Gale, Anna Lawson-Jones, Joanna Mattingly, Henrietta Quinnell, Roger Taylor, Carl Thorpe and Rachel Tyson

Burial is a particularly visible witness of the funerary practices within a group, but does not necessarily make up the most representative vestige of these practices. Over the last thirty years, the multiplication of human remains discovered out of sepulchral context leads the author of this study to consider different methods of funerary practices for the period between the 6th and 3rd millennia BC in temperate Europe. What part do the remains play? Is their presence on the final burial site the result of deliberate handling, or, on the contrary, from accidental circumstances independent of human control? On the other hand, does the phenomenon of human remains out of sepulchral context mean going back to a unique reality in time? Or, could it have a different significance according to the period in question? The author's approach takes into account techniques developed by anthropological fieldwork to question these contexts. It calls on the elaboration of a solid analysis grid aimed at examining the sites systematically with the same approach. Through the results obtained he defines the criterion of inspection destined to determine the conditions of the human remains on arrival at the final burial site. In conclusion, the study aims to reveal the eventual evolution of these customs in terms of time and space.

Reading Medieval Studies Volume 32This volume comprises the publication of a one-day conference held at the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies) on 19th November 2005. The title of this volume is borrowed from Jan Aarte Scholte, who uses 'incipient globalization' to describe what he sees as the second historic stage of globalization: the period between the 1850s and 1950s, when means and modes of communication such as the telegraph, radio, television, aeroplanes and cars were developed.

This work sets out to examine four taxa of birds from the Quaternary of Europe that exhibit interesting morphological anomalies - cranes (Grus), grouse/ptarmigans (Lagopus), ravens (Corvus corax) and starlings (Sturnus) - to address whether these were the result of inter- or intraspecific processes. Modern skeletal material of these taxa from a wide geographical area was examined so as to make a more realistic assessment of the fossils than had previously been achieved. Similarly, fossils were studied from a wider geographical and temporal range than before. The study of the four chosen taxa was carried out with an acknowledgement of a variety of theoretical issues in biology, which affect the interpretation of such fossils.

Proceedings of a conference held at the University of York 20-21st May 2005This book includes papers from a conference on interpretations of the treatment of the past, held at the University of York in May 2005.

This study investigates the symbolic role of the domestic dog in Iron Age and Roman Britain through contextual analysis of their faunal remains and interpretation of their representations in iconography. Previous studies have highlighted linkages between the species and ideas about death, healing and regeneration. Although these connections clearly did exist in the cosmologies of Britain and the Western provinces of Rome, this detailed examination of the evidence seeks to identify reasons why this might have been so. The work also highlights previously unnoticed patterns in the dataset that might add a further dimension to our understanding of how the domestic dog was perceived at a symbolic level. It has been established for some time that dogs appear instatistically significant numbers, compared to other species, in the special animal deposits that are a feature of certain Iron Age pits. Dramatic evidence for ritual practice involving animals found at a Romano-British temple complex in Springhead, Kent, and comparable finds from both sacred and secular sites, suggest that domestic dogs were also a favoured sacrifice during this period. As well as analysing such archaeological evidence, this study draws on anthropological, psychological and historical writings about human relationships with the domestic dog in an attempt to forward our understanding of religious expression during antiquity.

Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001Colloque / Symposium 15.1, Commission XXVThis book includes 9 papers from session 15.1 of the UISPP Congress held in Liège in 2001: Hunters vs. Pastoralists in the Sahara: Material Culture and Symbolic Aspects.

This study relates the significant bronze coinage of the usurper Carausius, 286-93, to the archaeological and historical evidence from the period. Since the publication of Roman Imperial Coinage. Volume V(ii) in 1933, many new and significant coin types have appeared. Several important hoards have been published in the intervening years which throw a new light on discussions of the chronology of the coinage, enabling a modified sequence of issues to be postulated. Part of an important hoard discovered inthe 1980's has been reconstituted. Much information regarding the archaeology of Roman Britain in the latter half of the third century has been published during the last three decades, and this is discussed in conjunction with the coin evidence of site finds. Consideration is made of the probable methods employed in the striking of the coinage, and a new mathematical method is invoked to yield a more accurate picture of the supply of coinage under the Carausian administration. A study of the metrology ofthe bronze coinage is made and this includes the illustration of the metrology with a three-dimensional surface using computer graphics. Consideration of the geographical distribution of the index-marked coinage has enabled a new interpretation of the location of the minting centres to be forwarded. The older historical sources have been reconsidered and importantnew interpretations have been made. Certain aspects of the coinage which relate to the history have been examined in the light of newly discovered coin types. The study involved the examination of approximately seven thousand specimens of the coinage from both public and private collections and excavations.

Many scholars have examined the building of Hadrian's Wall from the viewpoints of the order of construction and the responsibility of each legion for particular structures and lengths of curtain wall. Others have examined the design of the Wall and its structural elements. This book is concerned largely with the practical aspects of the physical construction of the Wall. Its purpose is to examine all of the processes necessary to build the Wall, rather than simply the work of putting one stone on another. The line had to be surveyed and the infrastructure and support services had to be set up; the principal relevant operations included quarrying, stone dressing, and lime burning, with the subsidiary operations of sand and water supply, scaffolding, and transport. Each is treated separately before consideration of the techniques of actually building the Wall. The digging of the Vallum and the ditch is discussed, and the addition of the forts and other changes to the programme are included. Organisational aspects arising from the study, such as the hours of work, the potential labour force, and a theoretical rate of working are grouped together in a later chapter. The study is confined to the curtain wall and turrets, and the defences of the milecastles and forts, on Hadrian's Stone Wall, and so far as possible all examples of Roman techniques are taken from the Wall and its immediate locality.