Bücher der Reihe British Archaeological Reports International Series

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Funerary Anthropology, 5-8 June 2011 '1 Decembrie 1918' University (Alba Iulia, Romania)Edited by Raluca Kog¿lniceanu, Roxana-Gabriela Curc¿', Mihai Gligor and Susan StrattonThe study of burial practices, of human attitudes and behaviour in the face of death, has been an important part of archaeological research from its very beginnings. Some funerary discoveries have achieved sensational fame. Yet beyond this the archaeological community quickly came to understand that it is possible to gain as much information about the lives of past people from studying their funerary behaviour as it is from studying their daily activities and the resultant artefacts. This volume gathers together the majority of the papers presented at the International Symposium on Funerary Anthropology, 'Homines, Funera, Astra', which took place at '1 Decembrie 1918' University of Alba Iulia, 5-8 June 2011. The theme of the conference, aimed to address the investigation of human osteological remains and burial practices specific to the prehistory and history in Central and Eastern Europe.

Among other important considerations, South America offers scientists an outstanding biodiversity, an excellent preservation in some particular areas and taphonomic challenges in others, a relatively long temporal depth, and a great variety of bio-cultural themes to investigate. This volume presents 12 contributions that takes the reader on a journey through a vast continent; a journey that starts at the Equator and reaches its southern tip. One in which, over great periods of time, humans and other animals have participated together in a variety of processes and particular histories.

This work isolates the nature of indigenous worship in the north-west of Roman Spain and establish to what degree it altered during the period of Roman domination. Through the various chapters the inhabitants of the Conventus Bracaraugustanus, Asturum and Lucense are shown to have worshipped a bewildering array of different divinities - Mountain, Aquatic, Protector, Warrior and other. That over half of the native divinities from the region were only recorded on one occasion suggests a religion quite different from the formalized Roman pantheon. Clearly the divinities of the north-west of Iberia were most often intimately linked to certain peoples, places or topographical phenomenon. The author illustrates her work with inscriptions and a Gazetteer of inscription sites.

'Given the competing demands of routine museum life, the tackling of a project in the nature of the present volume is not to be lightly undertaken. Many hours of painstaking transcription are demanded, followed by the incorporation of innumerable revisions and refinements as broad structure, essential detail and shades of nuance all emerge.' Thus begins the second part of editor Arthur MacGregor's publication of the Ashmolean Museum's Manuscript Catalogues of the Early Museum Collections. The Vice-Chancellor's Consolidated Catalogue (1695) includes an introduction and Inventory of the Visitors' catalogues, including The Book of the Vice-Chancellor; The Book of the Dean of Christ Church; The Book of the Principal of Brasenose; The Book of the Regius Professor of Medicine; Book of the Senior Proctor; and The Book of the Junior Proctor. There are also Glossaries of Latin terms used for natural specimens and Brazilian, Mexican, Nahuatl and other American Indian terms used for natural specimens in the catalogues. Indices are provided of English terms, Latin terms, and Brazilian, Mexican, Nahuatl and other American Indian terms.Written by Arthur MacGregor and Moira Hook with John Davies, Stephen Harris, Chris Howgego, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Philip Powell and Donald Sykes

Compiled by a group of scholars from various Spanish universities, this is a comprehensive manual on experimental lithic technology. It is a tool for analysis of lithic materials found in archaeological contexts, based on experimental replication.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 3Present-day Mayan villages, their houses and spatial organization are examined in this book, with the aim of gaining better understanding of pre-Colombian Maya domestic establishments. Ethno-archaeological work, carried out on Yucatan is compared to archaeological evidence.

The study of secondary centres is crucial to understanding how a state functions, as they are important points of interaction between state authorities and ordinary households. In this work the author focuses on the nature of the political organization of the lower-level centres of the Early Classic Period (A.D. 200- 500) in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. A previous comparative analysis of architectural arrangements at secondary centers between the Valley of Oaxaca and the Mixteca Alta indicated that single plaza groups were the major form of public architecture. The author interprets these enclosed plaza groups as the residences of elite governing households suggesting dominance of secondary centres by single households in the Mixteca Alta. Conversely, in the Valley of Oaxaca secondary centres show a pattern of multiple enclosed plaza groups, indicating that multiple households shared administrative functions. The main questions addressed by the author are whether Mixteca Alta centres are characterized by a single plaza pattern, politically less centralized, or is there a broader span of control at the secondary level? Alternatively, do these single plaza groups suggest that the state vested power in single households? The focus of the research is on four secondary centres of the Mixteca Alta. Using intensive site survey and systematic random collection as the main methods of data recovery, the author has collected artefacts over whole site areas in relation to public buildings. By comparing the distribution of various artefact categories within the site limits, including costly goods, in relation to zones of the site containing public architecture, the author evaluates the degree of political centralization.

Although it has received much attention, Minoan religion has never been fully reconstructed, understood or analysed. In this study, with reference to major sites, the author concentrates on the role of sacrificial ritual in the religious organisation of Crete in the Bronze Age. The work points out some of the major problems with previous studies of Minoan religion and goes some way toward indicating possible routes of investigation.

Proceedings of a Nordic Research Training Seminar in Syria, May 2004The papers of a Nordic research training seminar that took place during a NorFA (currently NordForsk) PhD course in Syria in May 2004. These papers offer an introduction to anyone interested in archaeology, history, art history and ethnography of the neighbourhood of Jebel Bishri. They are written so that they are also approachable by a general reader or a non-specialist of a particular period. They are not scientific reports but contribute as a reference source to the previous and forthcoming archaeological publications concerning Jebel Bishri under the study by SYGIS (the Syrian GIS). The papers bring new insights, points of views, and methodological approaches to the already known sites in the vicinity of Jebel Bishri, as well as contexts to the newly studied sites in the area.

This collection of papers is dedicated to Dr Ina Plug to celebrate her tremendous contributions to archaeozoology (or zooarchaeology) in a career that has so far spanned more than three decades.

The main goal of this research is the study of the strategies of provisioning and utilization of lithic raw materials within the Pali Aike volcanic field, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina (South America). The work includes an analysis of the land-use patterns and home ranges of the human populations that inhabited this region during the Late Holocene (ca. last 4000 years BP). The case-study presented here employs a methodology of lithic analysis that is regional and non-typological, which has the potential to be of value in other areas of the world and with other specific research goals.

In 2001, the Gadara Region Project was started, and the tell in the centre of Wadi al-Arab, Tall Zar'a was chosen as an initial focus of research. During previous visits to the site, it had been established that this tell had been inhabited almost continuously from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Ottoman Period. Tall Zar¿a is situated in the western sector of Wadi al-'Arab, which runs from the Transjordanian highlands near the city of Irbid to the Jordan Valley near northern Shunah. Contents: Introduction; Sondage and Stratigraphy; Architectural Remains; The Pottery; Small Finds; Stone Artefacts; Iron Age Cooking Vessels; Tall Zar¿a as 'Gadara' in the Later Bronze and Early Iron Age.

This work discusses in depth the series of changes involving human communities that took place in the strip of land between the rivers Júcar and Segura (south-eastern Iberian Peninsular) over a period of nearly 3,000 years, ca. 5600 - 2600 cal BC, from the Ancient Neolithic Cardial period up to the Chalcolithic age.

This study examines, through a variety of evidence, Late Classic (c. 250-900 AD) Maya political organization, specifically the existence of large-scale political structures as evidenced through specific patterns of city plans and architectural similarities. This particular exercise draws upon such interconnected aspects of current and past Maya scholarship as epigraphic reconstructions of political history, elite architecture, the nature of the ancient Maya state, and research into the less tangible aspects of the ancient Maya civilization, such as the cosmological and ideological frameworks within which such issues were conceived, negotiated, and imbued with meaning.

Among other objectives, this collection of papers investigates the role that settlements surrounding necropolises have played in the evolution of megalithic and hypogean graves and their relationship to the development of collective burial ritual through consideration of collective burial ritual as a means of masking social differences. The intention here is to explore the relationship between collectivism and concealment in relation to other forms of non-funerary ritualism.

The aim of this research is two-fold: using aspects of London, Berlin and Beirut as templates, firstly it aims to examine the wider historical context of urban archaeological conservation in the post-war situation, and secondly to identify more clearly the reasons and values behind the conservation of archaeological sites within the modern city. From this a clear criteria may be drawn as to why such sites should or should not be conserved, and how they may best be considered and used in order that they may play an active and valuable role within the city. It is important to have such criteria relating to the valuing and decision-making regarding the conservation of sites so that the reasons for keeping such sites are more comprehensible to non-archaeologists, especially to the urban development professions, so that the sites' values may be better represented in their presentation. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of this research and the on-going nature of, for example, redevelopment in Beirut, a variety of qualitative research methods were employed. These included desk-based research of urban planning and development history and theories; of the history, practice and theories of archaeology and conservation as they relate to the subject matter of this research; and also in a number of other subjects including history and cultural studies. In relation to the sites themselves, fieldwork was carried out in London, Berlin and Beirut; the author lives in London; Berlin was visited in March 2004, Beirut in April 2005, and both cities were visited again in 2007. There are six chapters. Chapter Two comprises a general historical and theoretical background of the urban context, and the practices of archaeology and conservation, along with a literature review. Chapter Two is followed by individual chapters on London, Berlin and Beirut. The case study chapters are each divided up into sections comprising the urban context, conservation and archaeology before and after the respective wars, the sites including how each site came to be conserved, and then a discussion. The final chapter draws together all the ideas and discoveries of Chapter Two and the case studies for the main discussion and analysis. It highlights the wide range of issues encountered in the cities concerned, demonstrating both similarities and differences of urban development and conservation of archaeological sites from post-World War II London, through post-World War II and then post-Cold War Berlin to post-war Beirut.

Archaeology is fundamentally concerned with both space and time: dates, chronologies, stratigraphy, plans and maps are all routinely used by archaeologists in their work. To aid in their analysis of this material, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by archaeologists has become widespread. However, GIS are conventionally ignorant of time. Thus, if archaeologists are to achieve the fullest potential in the application of GIS to their studies, GIS are needed that properly take into account timeas well as space. A GIS capable of dealing with temporal data is referred to as a temporal-GIS (TGIS), and commercial TGIS systems currently exist. However, these are locked into a model of modern clock time. Archaeological time does not sit well within that model, being altogether fuzzier and less precise. Nor are commercial TGIS able to address the questions that archaeologists ask of their spatio-temporal data. Thus, a TGIS is needed that deals with the types of time that we encounter as archaeologists, lest we end up shaping our data and questions to the inherent capabilities of non-archaeological TGIS. The creation of that new TGIS is the subject of this book: a fuzzy TGIS built specifically for the study of archaeological data that also takes into account recent developments in the theory of temporality within the discipline. The new TGIS needs to be flexible and powerful, yet to ensure that it is actually used it must remain within the software horizons of GIS-literate archaeologists. The new TGIS has been applied to two case studies, one in prehistoric Derbyshire and one in Roman Northamptonshire, producing informative and interesting new results. It is hoped that others will fruitfully use the TGIS and that, as a result, new forms of spatio-temporal analysis might come to be applied to archaeological studies.

The painters of Sicyon were rulers of a τ¿χνη in their artistic creation that allowed them to combine their natural talent for painting with a scientific method. The main objective of this book is to place Sicyon at the centre of an aesthetic conflict between Plato and Aristotle. The Sicyonian school of painting has always been identified as one of the main enemies of Plato for various reasons, in particular for the use of scientific disciplines that for Plato should be reserved for the study of philosophy or dialectics. By contrast, Aristotle shared many of the aesthetic ideals of the school of Sicyon: his love of nature as a teacher of art and the maximum value offered through drawing within the liberal arts education. This book demonstrates the importance of the Sicyonian school of painting in Antiquity. For the first time painting and drawing were taught in Sicyon as subjects worthy of being learned. In this cultural context of artistic and theoretical reflection, some of the greatest artists of the Greek world were fostered, such as Apelles, Lysippus, Pamphilus, and Pausias. Sicyonian works of art were admired, imitated, and even taken to Rome as paradigms of Greek art and as examples of how best to understand art and culture: attributes that were still in evidence at the time of the Renaissance.

This research aims to better understand Maya ritual practices associated with the burning of aromatic substances and the use of incense burners in the southern Maya lowlands during the Classic (A.D. 250 - 900) to Postclassic (A.D. 900 - A.D. 1200) transition. Incense burners are considered as important components of Maya ritual and religious paraphernalia through which communication with supernatural beings was enacted. Their forms and decoration were the products of specific principles of design and iconography that were commonly imbued with symbolic and religious meaning. The study involves an analysis of the form and decoration of these vessels as well as their contexts of recovery and use through time. The changes and continuities in the forms and decoration of incense burners, their contexts and their use sheds light into the continuation and/or innovation of ritual and religious ideas which are linked to broader social, economic and political factors in Maya society during the end of the Classic period. The study is based on a sample of incense burner materials excavated in Guatemala and from various museum collections.

A collection of papers focusing on questions of Copper Age metallurgical contexts, outlining the importance of an integrated analysis of artefacts, considering pottery, metal, stone and osseous productions as inseparable aspects of economic and social choices.

This book includes papers from a session on 'Mother Earth' sites presented at the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Valetta, Malta, in September 2008. The papers discussed the various forms of evidence not only from definite 'Mother Earth' sites but from others for which an expression of a divine feminine principle, personified as belief in an Earth Mother or other female deity, may be inferred as possible or sometimes likely-especially where the work is based on new discoveries.

This book includes papers from N-TAG TEN, the Proceedings of the 10th Nordic TAG conference at Stiklestad, Norway 2009.

This work considers the female body in ancient and medieval societies as seen through the eyes of doctors. In their writings on gynaecology, the medieval authors that are studied here have made clear their thoughts on women, which are grounded in the texts of their predecessors (Greek and Latin doctors) but conditioned by their own religious beliefs - Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Their works were written not only to educate or inform other doctors and midwives, but also to aid medical students and to provide guidance for women who might seek it. These texts also reflect popular opinion when it comes to such issues, as in many instances they are closer to popular belief than to science. Our selected authors wrote in order to gain recognition and prestige. They based their advice on texts written by earlier, widely recognized specialists and, in turn, their work became references for future doctors who, in their own writings, would cite them or recreate their work. From this point of view, it may be said that none of these doctors pursued an objective relative to our own current medical practices, but this does not necessarily mean that their texts are any less important. The texts studied in this work span almost twenty centuries, from the fifth century BC to the fifteenth century AD.

South American Archaeology Series No 18A collection of 14 recent studies on archaeological GIS applications from contributors in Argentina, Brazil and Chile in South America. The subjects covered include predictive modeling and analysis of site location and distribution, settlement patterns, lithic raw material availability, regional archaeological visibility, intrasite material distributions and zooarchaeological collections as well as heritage management and risk assessment. The time periods analyzed include cases from the Holocene up until present day and the papers are written in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

A detailed catalogue of 417 seals belonging to the Tablets & Cylinder Seals Collection in the Near Eastern Department of the National Museum of Aleppo. The collection dates from the 7th millennium BC to the Sasanian period. All pieces are illustrated.

A collection of papers from the Romanian conference (with two from the CAA meeting held in Glasgow). The 19 papers consider different approaches to site evaluation and site analysis, the study of artefacts, dating and the role of GIS and the web in archaeology.

Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, 2-8 September 2001SECTION 3 : PALEOECOLOGIE / PALEOECOLOGYColloque / Symposium C3.1The 17 papers in this volume represent the XIVth UISPP Liège Congress session on the dietary behaviours of prehistoric hunter-gatherers from as far afield as Poland and Israel, Spain and Croatia. The subsistence strategies of prehistoric hunters were dependent on the dietary resources available in the environment and within this range the prehistoric populations were obliged to make certain choices. The contributors to this volume explore the theme, and among the many questions addressed are the issue of linkage between changes of palaeoecological contexts and variations in subsistence behaviour, and the relationship between the results from palaeoethnographical and biogeochemical studies; the palaeoecological reconstructions they propose provide valuable insights into the answers.

The principal focus of this study is an analysis of "independent animal burials", as they are most often indiscriminately interpreted as early evidence for a religiously symbolic significance of the species that occur. Such a cultic interpretation only rarely is offered for the other category of burial, that of animals interred in or, in its later developed form, directly associated with human graves. These animals have generally been considered merely another form of grave goods. However, this type of animal burial, in the form of subsidiary burials, can be tracked into the early First Dynasty and beyond. Thus the diachronic development of this particular category of burial exhibits an uninterrupted continuity between the predynastic and early historic periods. The geographical scope extends from Upper Egypt (Badarian and Naqada Cultures), to Lower Egypt (Neolithic and Maadi-Buto Culture), and Lower Nubia (A-Group), and detailed appendices cover a Gazetteer of independent animal burials, animals in human graves; elite cemeteries; food offerings; and cemetery maps.

This study analyses the military architecture of Middle Bronze Age (MBA) Jordan. Although military architecture is one of the defining features of urban development in the MBA Levant, the military architecture of Jordan has never been adequately assessed. The study aims to redress this imbalance and to consider the military architecture of MBA Jordan within the trends of urban and regional developments. The result will be a greater understanding of the relationship between Jordan and the Greater Levant during the MBA. The core data for the study was excavated at Pella and Rukeis under the supervision of the author and is complemented by data from other sites in Jordan. Chapter 1 maps out the background to the military architecture of MBA Jordan; the geography, chronological framework and historical background; the textual, iconographic and archaeological evidence. Chapters 2 and 3 explore Pella and Rukeis respectively. Chapter 4 makes a comparative study of walls, towers, gates, ramparts, and related features. Chapter 5 presents the authors conclusions and the five Appendices detail the comparative pottery analyses.