Bücher der Reihe British Archaeological Reports International Series

Archaeology of Maya, Volume 3En esta obra se abarca de manera amplia los diversos tipos de caminos que construyeron los Mayas Antiguos, específicamente los caminos pavimentados conocidos como calzadas mayas o sacbeob. Como estudio de caso se analizan once sacbeob que se localizan en los sitios de Ichmul, San Felipe y Yo'okop, ubicados en el centro de la península de Yucatán. El libro se compone de una amplia investigación bibliográfica, complementada con datos obtenidos durante reconocimientos de superficie, mapas topográficos, excavaciones de pozos de prueba y excavaciones extensivas. Este trabajo plantea que las calzadas tuvieron funciones y significados específicos, las cuales se pueden conocer si se analiza a estas construcciones en conjunto con sus áreas de inicio/término y no de manera aislada. La interpretación se realiza desde una perspectiva basada en la semántica, además de que se emplean conceptos de la antropología simbólica y la teoría de la metáfora para realizar las conclusiones.This work comprehensively examines the types of roads built by the Ancient Maya, with a specific focus on the paved roads known as Maya causeways, or sacbeob. As a case study, it analyses eleven sacbeob located at the sites of Ichmul, San Felipe and Yo'okop, in the centre of the Yucatan peninsula. The analysis draws upon impressive bibliographical research, complemented by survey data, maps, test pits and extensive excavations. The author proposes that roadways have specific functions and meanings, which can be understood if these constructions are analysed in conjunction with their termini, rather than in isolation. These conclusions are reached from a perspective based on semantics, as well as on concepts drawn from symbolic anthropology and metaphor theory.

Archaeology of Prehistoric Art, Volume 1Atlantic Rock Art is a rock art tradition which includes emblematic motifs such as cup-marks, cup-and-rings and lines, known to several countries on the Atlantic seaboard. Design and Connectivity springs from an inter-regional study of this tradition, based on an original and innovative methodology applied to an empirical dataset. The project builds on Richard Bradley's work, investigating differences and similarities in Atlantic Art over study areas in five countries: Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. It applies a multi-scalar methodology developed under the principles of Relational Ontology and Assemblage Theory, providing a dynamic perspective on the empirical data. A thorough categorical scheme was scrutinised using a Presence/Absence Matrix, spatial analysis (fieldwork and GIS) and the development of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to relate and explore the relationships and connectivity between study areas. Concepts of developmental psychology support the idea of intentional teaching and cultural transmission.

The book explores settlement and burial patterns across the southeastern corner of the Balkan Peninsula during the second millennium BC and offers a new, detailed cross-border examination of the local pottery data. The volume offers a comprehensive analysis based on the existing cultural-historical framework and calls into question established constructs such as the 'Plovdiv-Zimnicea' culture. The work offers a chronologically structured analysis of pottery sequences and is methodologically innovative in the way it applies a rare combination of settlement-scale analysis using advanced spatial-statistical methods alongside artefact-scale typological and stylistic study on local ceramics also subjected to spatial-statistical mapping. As a result, the research highlights clusters of attributes and cycles of micro-regional interaction. On that basis it also addresses the formation, development and decline of the Late Bronze Age tradition(s) in Thrace and examines the degree to which this trajectory was influenced by wider patterns of regional development.

African Archaeology, Volume 91This book is an original study of very large pots in parts of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria. Found in excavations and surface fieldwork, they have been attributed to the So, a group of pre-Islamic inhabitants of the area before the sixteenth century AD, who have become mythologised as giants. Originally for burial, in some cases the pots have been dug up by villagers and reused: for brewing beer or as dye pits for indigo cloth. The book focuses on a group of these pots that survived until the late twentieth century in villages in a small part of Borno, north-eastern Nigeria. With the passage of time and terrorist activities in the region, their fate is now unknown and the photographs from 1963 to 1993 reproduced in this book have become a major archive of an unusual pottery group.

Esta investigación se desarrolla como una exploración crítica de los principios de la Economía y el Estado en el fundamento de las sociedades humanas. Transita, así, a través de una multiplicidad de tradiciones disciplinares, casos de estudio y debates que van desde las reflexiones aristotélicas sobre la casa y la ciudad hasta las de los pensadores contemporáneos sobre lo que es una sociedad de consumo; sobre la semiosis del dinero y lo sagrado, en los márgenes operativos de la identidad política; o sobre el poder de los cazadores de cabezas melanesios, y el no-poder de los reyes divinos del África central. Por este camino irá perfilándose un nuevo utillaje teórico basado en una comprensión praxeológica de la historia, en un intento por recomponer, más allá de la obcecada oposición entre modos de producción y narrativas, la unidad de nuestra especie biológica también en la interpretación de su radical variabilidad cultural.This research constitutes a critical exploration of the onset of Economics and the State in the foundations of human societies. It thus moves through a multiplicity of disciplinary traditions, case studies and debates. From Aristotle's reflections on the household and the city to those of contemporary authors on what a 'consumer society' is; on the semiosis of money and the sacred, towards the operative margins of political identity; or on the power of Melanesian headhunters, and the non-power of the 'divine kings' of Central Africa. On this path a new theoretical toolkit based on a praxeological understanding of history will be outlined, as an attempt to reset, beyond the obtuse opposition between modes of production and narratives, the unity of our biological species also in the interpretation of its radical cultural variability.

Grotta dei Cervi di Porto Badisco venne scoperta nel 1970 dal Gruppo Speleologico "De Lorentiis". Lo stesso anno iniziarono gli scavi dell'allora Soprintendente Felice Gino Lo Porto, che in due successive campagne, 1970 e 1971, indagò quelli che oggi sono conosciuti come "Ingresso Est" e "Ingresso Ovest". Grotta dei Cervi fu un santuario di richiamo internazionale per tutto il Neolitico e l'età dei Metalli. La frequentazione della Grotta fu continuativa dagli inizi del VI sino alla fine del II millennio a. C. La presenza di manufatti particolari testimonia contatti con regioni distanti, che vanno dall'area tirrenica ligure alle zone del Mediterraneo orientale e che rimandano a un patrimonio simbolico comune. In questo lavoro si presentano i dati emersi dallo studio dei manufatti ottenuti su materia dura animale, provenienti dagli scavi 1970-1971. Oggetti di vita quotidiana e oggetti di culto che permettono di avere un quadro più ampio delle antiche civiltà.Grotta dei Cervi was discovered in 1970 by the Speleological Group "De Lorentiis". The first investigations date back to 1970 and 1971 and were carried out by the then Superintendent to the Antiquities F. G. Lo Porto. He excavated the eastern and western cavities. Grotta dei Cervi represented an important sanctuary during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The cave was uninterruptedly frequented from the beginning of the 6th millennium to the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The occurrence of exotic material testifies to relationships with distant countries, among them the Tyrrhenian coast of Liguria and the eastern Mediterranean area, suggesting the use of a common symbolic heritage. In this book the study of bone tools found during the 1970-71 excavations is presented. They represent daily life and cultural objects that allow us to have a broader picture of ancient civilisations.

Resting in Peace or in Pieces? studies Tomb I, a tholos type structure found in the Perdigões Archaeological Complex (Évora, Portugal) from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. The human bone sample (61926 bone fragments and 1579 teeth) found in Tomb I was highly fragmented and skeletonised elements were found completely disarticulated. This book takes a twofold approach to the study of the skeletal sample from Tomb I. The monument is studied according to the archaeological phases defined during field work, which explains the possible differentiated uses of the tomb through time. The skeletal sample is then studied as a whole, regardless of phases of use. Lucy Shaw Evangelista uses the data obtained to paleodemographically reconstruct the individuals buried in the tomb, comparing them with other funerary structures inside and outside the Perdigões ditched enclosures. This research broadens our understanding of mortuary practices and collective burials in Chalcolithic Portugal, situating it within the wider European Copper Age context.

This work represents the archaeological investigation of a distinctive zone of the Three Rivers Region (TRR) of far northwestern Belize. The zone is dominated by the Alacranes Bajo, a seasonally inundated karstic depression bordered by the settlements of Nojol Nah and Tulix Mul. Understanding the relationship of the settlements to the bajo and to the wider political landscape of the TRR contributes to the knowledge of land use by the ancient Maya. This book investigates whether the settlements on the eastern edge of the Alacranes Bajo could be described as bajo-centric. Were they specifically located with the purpose of utilising the bajo's resources? Or, do the settlements fit a wider pattern characteristic of the TRR? To address these questions, excavations were undertaken of households, monumental structures, and landscape features associated with the sites in question. The results of the excavations are described and assessed within the local, regional and inter-regional context.

Foreign-run excavations are a significant component of archaeological research in Turkey, however, conservation work carried out at these excavations has never been examined holistically. B. Nilgün Öz investigates archaeological conservation at foreign-run excavations at 19 sites across Turkey to identify the scale and nature of differing contributions, determining changing approaches and issues impacting conservation practices, as well as possible catalysts, influences and driving forces. Through a systematic appraisal of the variety of conservation work between 1979 and 2014, this research contributes to a wider understanding of the dynamics of archaeological heritage management and archaeological conservation as it is practiced in Turkey at foreign-run projects. This thought-provoking and timely book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of archaeology, architecture, conservation, heritage and history.

El objetivo principal de este libro es brindar una aproximación al modo de vida y muerte de la gente común de la bahía de Ancón, ubicada en la Costa Central del Perú, quiénes vivieron y murieron bajo el dominio del imperio Wari e Inca, como también bajo el grupo local autónomo Chancay (800-1532d.C). Para esta investigación se propuso una metodología multidisciplinaria que integra información desde las primeras excavaciones llevadas a cabo por Reiss y Stübel al final del siglo XIX, las excavaciones de Julio C.Tello a inicios del siglo XX, análisis de material de lo excavado por el Dr. Kauffman y reconstruciones 3D de fardos funerarios. Mediante el estudio del patrón funerario de las tumbas y fardos, como también de indicadores de salud encontrados en el esqueleto tales como marcas de actividad y nutricionales, entre otros se concluye que el imperio Wari y el grupo local Chancay impactó sobre la población de Ancón, no así durante el Imperio Inca.The main goal of this book is to reconstruct the lifestyle and death of the dwellers of Ancon bay, located on the Central Coast of Peru. These people lived and died under Wari and Inca Imperial rule, as well as during the occupation of the site by a local autonomous group named Chancay (800-1532AD). For this investigation, a multidisciplinary methodology is proposed that combines information from the first excavations carried out by Reiss and Stübel at the end of the XIXth century, from excavations of Julio C. Tello at the beginning of the XXth century, with material analysis from Dr. Kauffman's excavations and 3D reconstructions of funerary bundles. By studying both funerary patterns from tombs and bundles, as well as health indicators found on the skeletons such us activity and nutritional markers, among others, we concluded that the health of the people of Ancon was impacted strongly by the different occupations.

Cattle (Bos taurus), domesticated from the extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius), has been an important animal to many human societies since prehistoric times. Cattle provides not only meat for subsistence, but also hide, blood, dung, milk and traction that contribute to the organization of human beliefs, cultural attitudes and social complexity. This book provides the widest range of cattle bone biometrical information from the Early Neolithic period to the Early Bronze Age (10000 to 3600 years ago) and investigates the morphological variation of this animal from a biological point of view: the main indicator for tracing domestication. The results suggest that cattle in ancient China was imported from the Near East around 4,300 years ago and made their first appearance in the Yellow River Valley. Once they had arrived in central China, these small-sized domesticated cattle soon spread and was exploited intensively from then on.

This work broadens the current interpretative framework about communities living in the North- East of the Iberian Peninsula around the turn of the fifth and fourth millennia BC. The empirical foundation of this research is the analysis of polished and bevelled stone artefacts, found both in funerary and domestic contexts. The new data provides fresh insight into the technical choices and the productive processes in which the tools were employed by the Neolithic groups. The results of this enquiry, together with the data concerning the age and sexual determination of the buried individuals as well as the artefact distribution across the graves, constitutes an unprecedented opportunity to understand and explain the archaeological record variability in terms of gender and other social hierarchies.

During the Renaissance period, Mediterranean shipbuilding-particularly Italian-was renowned for its quality. But it is largely unappreciated today due to the scarcity of written sources and the lack of archaeological documentation. The discovery of the Mortella wrecks in Saint-Florent, Corsica, in 2005-2006, and the 2010-2019 excavation of the 16th century Mortella III, helps to fill these gaps. The main objective of this archaeological study is to identify 'technical fingerprints' and 'architectural traits' that could contribute to the formulation of an Italo-Mediterranean shipbuilding model from the early modern period. The analysis is based on comparisons with archaeological data from other wrecks of the period as well as written sources. Finally, literature research allows us to link the Mortella wrecks to their history, that of Genoese 'navis' sunk during the Italian wars of 1527, complementing the archaeological study with historical research.

Published in memory of Prof. Claudia Barsanti, Archaeology of a World of Changes provides a selection of papers presented in sessions on Late Roman and Early Byzantine archaeology, architecture, sculpture and landscapes of the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, "Byzantium - A World of Changes" (Belgrade, 22-27 August 2016). The variety of topics in archaeology and art history that are discussed in this volume illustrates the richness of material culture in the Roman East and the Eastern Mediterranean during the transition to the Middle Ages, especially in Greece and the Balkans. Christian buildings, not only churches but also episcopal palaces, along with their architecture and decoration, receive special attention. Indeed, the volume includes the complete proceedings of a round table on the historical development, the architectural typologies and the domestic spaces of bishops' residences which took place at the Congress.

This study adopts a transregional approach that focuses on connectivity dynamics in order to present a wider picture of artistic, cultural and political phenomena in the Mediterranean. It examines dynastic funerary art at the end of the fifth century and in the fourth century BC by focusing - through a wide range of evidence - on what funerary images can reveal about the societies that produced them. It analyses renowned dynastic tombs from south-western Anatolia (present-day Turkey) such as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Nereid Monument of Xanthos, but also from Phoenicia (present-day Lebanon). A common element among the similarities displayed by these tombs is the nearly constant presence of the multiple-quarry hunt iconography, which consists of prey from different species depicted in one figurative programme. The Eastern Mediterranean under Persian Achaemenid rule is portrayed as an interconnected cultural and political area with specific features instead of merely being an area between the Greek and Persian worlds.

L'ouvrage présente une analyse morphométrique et biométrique des Caprinae (Ovibovini et Caprini) actuels et du plio-pléistocène d'Europe occidentale provenant de 200 sites. De nouvelles interprétations et propositions taxonomiques et phylogénétiques y sont développées. La création d'une nouvelle tribu, Ovini, est proposée pour Ovis et Budorcas. Capra walie est repositionné en tant que sous-espèce de C. nubiana. La monophylie de C. ibex et C. pyrenaica, révélée par les analyses moléculaires, n'est pas confirmée par l'anatomie et la parasitologie. Une proximité entre C. pyrenaica et C. caucasica est révélée. L'influence de la loi de Bergmann et des isolats géographiques est mise en avant. Les modalités de l'origine et de l'évolution des Caprinae du Plio-Pléistocène résultent de l'analyse de sept genres et de seize espèces. Des néodiagnoses et des rectifications de déterminations sont proposées. Deux phases principales d'immigration sont reconnues ainsi qu'un appauvrissement progressif de la diversité des taxons. Une nouvelle répartition chronologique et géographique en découle. Ce volume fait partie d'un ensemble de deux volumes: ISBN 9781407357089 (Volume I); ISBN 9781407357096 (Volume II); ISBN 9781407354248 (Ensemble des deux volumes).This book proposes a morphological and biometric analysis of current Caprinae (Ovibovini and Caprini tribes) and Plio-Pleistocene Caprinae from Western Europe. New taxonomic and phylogenetical interpretations and propositions are developed. This volume is part of a two volume set: ISBN 9781407357089 (Volume I); ISBN 9781407357096 (Volume II); ISBN 9781407354248 (Set of both volumes).

El volumen Arqueología de la Guerra Civil y la Dictadura Española recoge contribuciones de diferentes equipos de investigación que han trabajado en este tema en los últimos quince años. La aplicación de la arqueología a los estudios de la contienda ha sido relativamente reciente y empezaron de forma paralela en el año 2000, con la excavación de la segunda línea de defensa de Madrid en Villa de Vallecas y la fosa común de Priaranza en el Bierzo -León-. Las dos intervenciones se llevaron a cabo de forma consciente, por vez primera, aunque con objetivos muy diferentes. La primera, la de documentar un frente de guerra y, la segunda, la de exhumar a los represaliados en la localidad. Sin embargo, ambas arrojaban luz sobre momentos históricos que no aparecían recogidos en las fuentes... la historia NO escrita.Arqueología de la Guerra Civil y la Dictadura Española collects contributions from different research teams that have worked on this topic in the last fifteen years. The application of archaeology to the studies of the contest has been relatively recent and began simultaneously in the year 2000, with the excavation of the second line of defense of Madrid in Villa de Vallecas and the mass grave of Priaranza in El Bierzo - León -.

This book comprises a study of ceramic tableware and teaware remains from the outback pastoral homestead, The Old Kinchega Homestead, in western NSW, Australia, occupied from 1870 until 1955. This homestead is on the Kinchega Pastoral Estate which was a major player in Australia's important wool industry. These objects were excavated from the homestead and collected from its refuse area by the Kinchega Archaeological Research Project. The book includes detailed analyses of these artefacts, and of the tableware and teaware sets they constitute, for information on the changing dining and tea-drinking practices at this homestead. The micro-histories of these objects and these practices provides fresh perspectives on the changing social networks, social aspirations and social values of the inhabitants of this homestead. The research focuses particularly on the women who lived in this male-dominated outback pastoral context, in this remote region of the British colonial and post-colonial world, during this important period in Australia's history.

Yachay Wasi celebrates the remarkable career of Ian S. Farrington in archaeological research. Due to Ian's dedication and passion as an educator, this volume represents a wide range of topics within the disciplines of history and archaeology across three regions: Australia, Europe and South America. The disparate range of articles in this volume, ranging from Australian historical archaeology to Inka archaeology to sacred landscape archaeology in Britain, represent the principal and eclectic interests of Ian's career: Inka archaeology; landscape archaeology; the sacred landscape; and the intersection of history and archaeology. This volume is a fitting tribute to the 50-year career of Ian S. Farrington displaying the generous and warm characteristics of this steadfast teacher, mentor and friend.

This volume gathers papers presented at the Maritime Archaeology Graduate Symposium, held in Oxford in 2018. The event was an Honor Frost Foundation initiative dedicated to new and upcoming research focused on eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and realised by a committee from the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Southampton, and the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Oxford. These essays represent the proceedings of this conference and contain some of the latest research and fieldwork in the Mediterranean and beyond. Topics include ships, ports and port systems, maritime economics, chemical analysis of archaeological remains and legislation inmaritime archaeology. This publication is the product of an endeavour to promote early career research for maritime archaeologists with unique foci, and to establish a platform for them to discuss their findings with the wider community.With an introduction by Lucy Blue and Naseem Raad.

Competition Between Humans and Large Carnivores presents Late Pleistocene archaeozoological material from Late Mousterian and Gravettian contexts in the Central Balkans. The results answer some important questions about Late Pleistocene Neanderthal and modern human ecology and their animal exploitation in this region. Most importantly it deals with the high presence of large carnivores in the Central Balkans at the sites located in different ecological settings, discuss human subsistence choices, and identifies the Central Balkans as a refugium during the MIS5-2 Late Glacial period.

Ce livre propose de réexaminer l'étude de l'occupation du basin lacustre du lac Titicaca durant la période Tiwanaku (500-1150 PCN) en développant le concept de paysage culturel lacustre. Souvent considérées comme des 'cultures de la terre' (agriculture, pastoralisme, etc.), les sociétés préhispaniques du lac Titicaca ont, en réalité, développé, de nombreuses pratiques propres aux 'cultures de la mer' (navigation, offrandes, etc.). Que ce soit sur le plan politique, socioculturel ou rituel, le lac a eu une incidence sur l'évolution de ces populations et a favorisé l'émergence de pratiques indissociables à un espace lacustre. Les discussions proposent une nouvelle 'vision' de l'archéologie au lac Titicaca en intégrant le facteur lacustre dans l'interprétation des cultures Tiwanaku, et en conciliant nos connaissances actuelles des 'archéologies' du lac Titicaca, qu'elles soient 'terrestres' ou 'subaquatiques'.This book re-examines the occupation of the lake basin at Lake Titicaca during the Tiwanaku period (500-1150 AD) using the concept of 'lacustrine cultural landscape'. Considered as 'cultures of the land' (agriculture, pastoralism, etc.), the pre-Hispanic societies of Lake Titicaca developed many practices specific to 'cultures of the sea' (navigation, offerings, etc.). Whether politically, socio-culturally or ritually, the lake has had an impact on the evolution of these populations and has encouraged the emergence of practices that are inseparable from a lake area. Delaere proposes a new 'vision' of archaeology at Lake Titicaca by integrating the lacustrine factor into the interpretation of Tiwanaku cultures, and by reconciling our present knowledge of both terrestrial and underwater 'archaeologies'.

The Newcastle-led Bronze Age Combat project presents its results from innovative combat experiments with replica Bronze Age swords, spears and shields. The original experimental methodologies used authentic replica weapons in extensive rigorous field experiments, and actualistic combat based on historical manuscripts. These allowed for replicate combat-related wear marks as found on original Bronze Age specimens. Bronze Age Combat provides a full account of the methodologies, replicas, experiments and results in unprecedented detail. By bringing together a range of experimental techniques, materials and expertise, this book is designed as a starting point and reference collection for further studies into Bronze Age combat research, metalwork wear analysis and experimental archaeology.

As landscape art, the rock art of the central Andes offers clues regarding relationships between ancestor veneration and the negotiation of rights to water. To understand these relationships this book focuses on a large complement of rock art situated in highland Ancash, Peru, (3400 - 4250 m.a.s.l.). Regional survey excavation data from key rock art sites are synthesised to identify diachronic changes in imagery, production techniques and location, and to develop a typology and a spatio-temporal map for the rock art of the region that spans nearly 4,000 years (1800 BCE - CE 1820). These data are paired with 17th century Spanish Colonial accounts to trace back in time when specific, named groups socialised this landscape. A semiotic model, informed by interdisciplinary approaches, is applied to answer questions regarding the agency of these rock art places in socialising the land through establishing ancestral relations to water and rock features.

This volume presents the results of 35 years of archaeological research at the Maya site of Pacbitun, located in west central Belize. The site was continuously occupied from 900 BC to AD 800/900. Excavations focused on both the site core and periphery, with investigations centred around housemounds, workshops, causeways, caves, and other karst features. In the site core, we excavated at areas ranging from small domestic houses dating to the Middle Preclassic to large ceremonial architecture (e.g. courtyards, palaces, temples) and complexes (e.g. E Groups) dating to the Late/Terminal Classic periods. From a material culture perspective, we conducted extensive research on ancient Maya use of plants, animals, ground stone tools, musical instruments, and ceramics. Tying all of these aspects together, our project has routinely utilised spatial technologies and 3D modelling (aerial and terrestrial LiDAR, photogrammetry) that help to capture our research efforts, from architecture to material remains, over the long-term.

El paisaje urbano maya: del Preclásico al Virreinato lleva a cabo una reflexión en torno a ese término en el ámbito de la cultura maya. El volumen se aproxima desde diferentes perspectivas: urbano, contextual, arquitectónico e iconográfico, es decir, todos aquellos aspectos que inciden en la configuración del entorno en el que las diferentes comunidades mayas se desarrollaron. Las contribuciones ofrecen nuevas interpretaciones sobre el funcionamiento urbano y las dinámicas cotidianas que en muchos de ellos ocurrieron desde el preclásico tardío, a lo largo del clásico y hasta época colonial. Esa mezcla entre versiones actualizadas de espacios clásicos en la bibliografía y nuevos espacios hasta la fecha desconocidos otorga al libro un valor importante que permite transformarse en referencia para colegas y estudiantes, tanto del ámbito de la cultura maya, como de aquellos que se interesan por el análisis del paisaje cultural como simbiosis entre lo natural y la acción humana como binomio a lo largo del tiempo y del espacio.This series of essays reflects on the concept of the Maya Cultural Landscape, using, amongst other things, the archaeological record, urban and architectural models, and the study of iconography.

Inspired by a session held at the EAA conference in Vilnius in 2016, The Life Biography of Artefacts and Ritual Practice focuses on creating biographies from material culture as a means of understanding the relationship between the life of an artefact, the temporality of ritual practices and an object's final deposition. The temporal and geographic scope of these chapters range from Mesolithic Scandinavia, Neolithic practices found across Eastern, Central, Northern and Western Europe and stretches into the Eneolithic, Copper Age and early Bronze Age of central Europe. This volume explores the idea that one can create a narrative of an artefacts' life-biography by engaging various scientific methods and theoretical approaches. With a foreword by Joshua Pollard.

Over 40,000 lethal bronze weapons were discovered with thousands of terracotta warriors in the tomb complex of the Qin First Emperor (259-210 BC). This book carries out the first systematic and comprehensive study on these weapons to investigate the mass production and labour organisation in early imperial China. The research draws upon extensive measurements, typological analysis and related statistical treatment, as well as a study of the spatial distribution of the bronze weapons. A combination of metrical and spatial data is used to assess the degree of standardisation of the weapons' production, and to evaluate the spatial patterns in the array of the Terracotta Army. This provides further information about the labour organisation behind the production, transportation and placement of weapons as they were moved from the workshop and/or arsenal to the funeral pits. Integrating these insights with inscriptions, tool marks, and chemical analysis, this book fills a gap in the study of mass production, the behaviour of craftspeople, and related imperial logistical organisation in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), marking the most crucial early stage in Chinese political unification.

Drawn and Written in Stone explores the religious history of the highest part of the Tibetan Plateau through its rock art and inscriptions. It is focused on facsimiles of ritual and ceremonial monuments carved and painted on stone surfaces and rock inscriptions in the Tibetan language, vital archaeological and historical materials for appraising the development of religion in Tibet, ca. 100 BCE to 1400 CE. By probing the complexion of figures and letters in stone, this work considers how early cult traditions contributed to the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism and a rival faith known as Yungdrung Bon. Outside of the Indian cultural context, relatively little has been written about the historical antecedents of these popular Tibetan religions for a want of sources. This monograph helps remedy this large gap in Tibetan studies by drawing upon the author's surveys of rock art and rock inscriptions conducted in upmost Tibet between 1995 and 2013.