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This book provides the exciting results of a long-term project examining Bronze Age round barrow construction and burial practices in Orkney, Scotland. A main focus of this research is on the act of cremation; a technology of bodily metamorphosis as articulated through complex mortuary practices, which produced a distinctive form of funerary architecture. This, and other topical themes, are explored through the results of extensive excavations at several barrow cemeteries including Linga Fiold, Gitterpitten, Varme Dale, Vestrafiold and the Knowes of Trotty, the latter being famous for rich grave goods including gold discs and amber beads. In this context, in being built on the ruins of an early Neolithic settlement, Knowes of Trotty provides an intersection of relational fields, fusing local tradition with faraway places.At Linga Fiold, the barrow cemetery was almost entirely excavated, and by employing sophisticated recovery techniques and analyses, unique evidence is presented for a complex sequence of barrow building and mortuary practices. This enables the reconstruction of an extraordinary ritual journey of the deceased from cremation pyre to final interment.Additionally, several cist excavations are published here for the first time. This evidence allows an appraisal of the developing cist burial tradition in Orkney through the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, from the insertion of remains into chambered tombs and large re-enterable unobtrusive cists, to the development of imposing linear barrow cemeteries, to the drawing in of the dead closer to home.Overall, the new findings presented here allow a reconsideration of the chronology and specifics of changing Orcadian burial technologies and traditions: clearly, such results have significance beyond Orkney for understanding the complexities of Bronze Age cremation and burial practices across Britain and north-west Europe.

This volume comprises published papers from the Ninth International Insular Art Conference held in Durham in 2022. It brings together the latest scholarship on early medieval (AD 400-1100) art in Britain, Ireland and beyond. Perspectives taken include classical art historical analysis of form, style and design, but also a close attention to the materials used and the complex process of production and artisan skill required to create these objects. This volume focuses on stone sculpture and carving, with research on manuscripts, metalwork and other media appearing in Volume 1.

This volume comprises published papers from the Ninth International Insular Art Conference held in Durham in 2022. It brings together the latest scholarship on early medieval (AD 400-1100) art in Britain, Ireland and beyond. Perspectives taken include classical art historical analysis of form, style and design, but also a close attention to the materials used and the complex process of production and artisan skill required to create these objects. This volume focuses on manuscripts, metalwork and other media, with research on stone sculpture appearing in Volume 2.

Case studies from Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia reconsider through evidence from archaeology, art, and history, assumptions about island identity and isolation and interaction, commerce and mobility involving other islands and the Mediterranean mainland

Critical examination of similarities in Late Bronze Age Iberian 'warrior' stelae and Scandinavian rock art, focusing on socio-economic and linguistic contexts in which this iconography emerged.

First English publication of key recent archaeological research and excavations in Iran by, mainly female, Iranian scholars and their collaborators.

An interesting new approach to the subject which looks beyond pure military-religious conflict to look at the societies affected, their involvement and responses and the complex allegiances involved over several centuries of shifting frontiers and territorial development.

Presents details of the remarkable structures and material culture of Strøby Toftegård, Zealand, revealing it to be a high status, Viking period magnate farm settlement

The Beaker People: isotopes, mobility and diet in prehistoric Britain presents the results of a major project that sought to address a century-old question about the people who were buried with Beakers a - the distinctive pottery of Continental origin that was current, predominantly in equally distinctive burials, in Britain from around 2450 BC.

The Celtic languages and groups called Keltoi (i.e. 'Celts') emerge into our written records at the pre-Roman Iron Age. The impetus for this book is to explore from the perspectives of three disciplines--archaeology, genetics, and linguistics--the background in later European prehistory to these developments. There is a traditional scenario, according to which, Celtic speech and the associated group identity came in to being during the Early Iron Age in the north Alpine zone and then rapidly spread across central and western Europe. This idea of 'Celtogenesis' remains deeply entrenched in scholarly and popular thought. But it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with recent discoveries pointing towards origins in the deeper past. It should no longer be taken for granted that Atlantic Europe during the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC were pre-Celtic or even pre-Indo-European. The explorations in Celtic from the West 3 are drawn together in this spirit, continuing two earlier volumes in the influential series.

Land was the ideal store of wealth in the ancient Mediterranean world. It brought social respectability, and its possession allowed participation in the politics of the cities governed by landowning elites. Crucial defense of the interests of a given polity through armed services often involved the distribution of lands to laborers still not integrated in these societies. Mediterranean urban dynamics also involved paid labor and were always in need of short-contract manpower, including skilled soldiers and warriors. For short-time military services, lands were not always available so soldiers and warriors were paid with coins and riches.Because of their superior development, urban economies in the Mediterranean were able to attract migrant paid labor. When returning home, the migrant warriors carried coins and riches that would enable them to maximize the return that a homecoming entailed. Although difficult to prove whether these men were paid in advance or when discharged, it is an important issue as it shows the strength of one contractor over another and helps to better understand the construction of statehood in ancient and early medieval times.This collection of papers sheds light on how coins, riches, and lands were gained and distributed among soldiers, warriors, and mercenaries. Contributions cover a wide chronological span from Late Pharaonic to early medieval times, linking a well-defined core area, the Mediterranean basin, with its peripheries: Central Europe and Scandinavia to the north and the margins of the Sahara Desert and the Fertile Crescent to the south and the east.

Detailed, illustrated, examination of the system of proportion used in Egyptian art, based on standardisation of the natural relations of various parts of human anatomy.

Uses case studies to examine the intricate mechanisms of ritualistic appropriation of ruined and/or abandoned assets and artifacts in the ancient and medieval worlds.

Explores the change from totalitarian states of the Minoan Bronze Age to the flourishing monetary economies of the Greeks and Romans and the development of free trade.

Presents the first synthesis of surviving archaeological remains of domestic water displays from pools to dining couches across the late Roman West (3rd-6th centuries).

Recent fieldwork provided new, unexpected Anglo-Saxon, dates for the Cerne Giant which are discussed in the wider context of British hill figures and early medieval iconography.

New, fully illustrated, comprehensive examination of the development, chronology, manufacture, context and use of British Neolithic and Bronze pottery by the country's leading expert.

Facsimile reissue detailed and fully illustrated description of the surviving structure, decoration and inscriptions of the tomb of the Vizier Rē'-wer at Saqqara.

Facsimile reissue of 1999 description of the wall paintings and inscriptions within the tomb of Amenemhab, priest of Amon in the Qurnah cemetery at Thebes.

Facsimile edition of invaluable, fully illustrated, introduction to the key elements of form, purpose and decoration of Egyptian tombs, demonstrating how these changed through time.

Facsimile reissue of detailed genealogy and chronology for the principal royal and priestly families of the 19th-25th Dynasties of the Late New Kingdom in Egypt.

Facsimile reissue of Flinders Petrie's account of the excavation of Egyptian tomb cemeteries at Gizeh and Dier Rifeh and the ruins of two Coptic monasteries.

Fully illustrated, comprehensive analysis and discussion of the plants and domestic animals exploited by the Ancient Egyptians.

Multi-disciplined reassessment of the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb, its impact on modern representations of Egypt, categories of hitherto overlooked objects, and the importance of his reign.

First comprehensive study and catalogue of over 150 obsidian vessels made and used c. 5400-1500 BC in the Near East.

This book casts light on a much neglected phase of the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra, namely the period between the fall of the Palmyrene 'Empire' (AD 272) and the end of the Umayyad dominion (AD 750).