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This study highlights a range of theoretical problems concerning Levantine Iron Age archaeology. Following the introduction, Chapter 2 provides the background for the study as a whole, tracing the archaeological study of the Iron Age southern Levant from the early nineteenth century to the present day. This highlights how and why archaeologists have changed their ideas about the narrative in question through time whilst also retaining a number of key ideas. Chapter 3 traces the archaeological study of 'Edomite' archaeology in the southern Levant in particular. Chapter 4 begins the critique of the key ideas and assumptions that underpin 'Edomite' archaeology by demonstrating that the individual historical sources used as evidence when discussing the 'Edomites' are not simply sources of factual information about the Iron Age. Chapter 5 takes a similarly critical approach to the methods of archaeological excavation, interpretation, and analysis used in south Levantine Iron Age archaeology. Chapter 6 completes the critique of the central ideas that form the basis of 'Edomite' archaeology by discussing the central tenets of archaeological theory concerning the relationship between material culture and identity that are required to support this idea. Chapter 7 outlines the methodology used in this study, which was designed to test whether specific ceramic types do in fact support the present interpretation of the late Iron Age southern Levant. The results of the analysis using this methodology are presented in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9 the implications of the preceding chapters are discussed and an interpretation of the evidence which does not rely on traditional problematic assumptions will be presented. Final conclusions are drawn in Chapter 10.

Limina/Limites: Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365-1556) 1Volume 1 of a new BAR series entitled 'Limina/Limites: Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365-1556)' which seeks to invite editors of proceedings of conferences and workshops, authors of individual monographs and collective studies which, regardless of their discipline, are targeted at the integration of diverse data sources and systems oriented at a global reconstruction, and geared to long-term trends and to Mediterranean-wide spatial dimensions. This first volume in the 'Limina/Limites' presents the proceedings of the conference 'Transjordan in 12-13th Centuries and the Frontiers of the Medieval Mediterranean', held in Florence between 6-8 November 2008.

This work investigates the contribution of economic activity to Chinese early urbanization, through a case study of the lithic production at the Neolithic Taosi site in Shanxi, China (c. 2500-1900BCE). The analysis is based on information collected from fieldwork experiments with replicating stone tool manufacture. Lithic production played an important role in the urbanization at Taosi, which developed into the primary political, economic and ceremonial centre in the Linfen Basin. Due to its central position in the region, a high level of social complexity, and its spatial layout with a rammed-earth enclosure, Taosi represents a milestone in the process of early urbanism in ancient China.

Archaeological excavation of about 11ha of land at Tower's Fen, Thorney, Peterborough (England), investigated part of an extensive pattern of ditched enclosures and fields associated with several waterholes and two ponds. One large pit, which may have been a waterhole, yielded Early Bronze Age pottery and is radiocarbon dated to the terminal 3rd millennium BC. Two other dates from the ponds came out at around 1500-1300 BC. The other features were probably also Middle to Late Bronze Age although the limited quantity of pottery was not datable precisely. Waterlogged material recovered from the deeper features included most of an unusual wooden tub or bucket, as well as other pieces of worked wood. The palaeo-environmental evidence from pollen, plant macro-fossils, insects and charred plant remains indicated that the land supported a mosaic of woodland, scrub, arable fields, meadow and short grazed grassland. A wide variety of trees was present, particularly wet-loving species such as willow and alder, and there was abundant evidence for coppicing. Nearby excavations at Pode Hole, and the wider picture provided by plotted cropmarks, indicate that the site formed part of an extensive prehistoric landscape. It is suggested that the Bronze Age agricultural landscape developed piecemeal and was based upon a mixed arable and pastoral economy. This contrasts with Fengate and other landscapes of this period where large-scale land divisions have been related to intensive livestock management. The sparse evidence for contemporaneous settlement is typical of many sites of this period.Written by Andrew Mudd and Ben Pears.Edited by Andy Richmond, Gary Coates, Andy Chapman and Pat ChapmanWith contributions from Maisie Taylor, Nick Branch, Barbara Silva, Christopher Green, Scott Elias, Alys Vaughan-Williams, Iñaki Valcarcel, Imogen Poole, Karen Deighton, Stuart Needham, Andy Chapman, Pat Chapman and Steve Critchley.Illustrations by Jacqueline Harding and Pat Walsh with Steven J. Allen.

Registro Arqueológico y Evolución Social Antes de la Edad del Hierro / Archaeological Record and Social Evolution before the Iron AgeA study of the prehistory of the Balearic Islands, Spain, with regard to the archaeological record of the region and its social evolution before the Iron Age.Authors: Víctor M. Guerrero Ayuso, Manuel Calvo Trias, Jaume García Rosselló and Simón Gornés Hachero

This study is primarily concerned with computer-generated reconstruction models of architecture. It offers a collection of possible methodologies for dealing with individual problems concerning visualisation aims and highlights methods of adding value to virtual models in archaeology. Several avenues of enquiry are therefore explored, such as: What use have virtual models in archaeology?; How are they perceived?; Who is the intended audience?; Which applied ethical issues exist?; How can ethical awareness lead to added value? How are these models created? There is no easy answer to any of these but this work approaches the issues through a series of projects. These are international, but exhibit a European focus, which is also mirrored by the three case studies. The three case studies were selected because of their differences but they also have two properties in common: they were all begun at approximately the same time (2001) and they all pay attention to ethical issues. Otherwise an effort was made to find projects which were produced and concerning sites in three different countries: Casa del Centenario in Pompeii (Italy), Ename (Belgium) and Avebury (U.K.). The projects are concerned with architecture from three different periods, i.e. a Roman house, a medieval settlement (with the focus on St. Lawrence's church) and a Neolithic monument complex. The projects also had different aims: while the Casa del Centenario was primarily intended as a museum application and as a visualisation tool for the restorers, in the Ename 974 project the reconstructions were to illustrate the work and interpretation in progress for the local population while the church was closed due to excavation and building research. The model of Avebury was designed for research purposes and not intended for public display. So far, no comprehensive synopsis of different approaches with a critical stance on computer-generated visualisations has ever been attempted and this work provides a detailed and stimulating overview and analysis and serves as a foundation for further research.

Pottery Workshop or Pottery Style?Recent excavations in the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese (Greece) have brought to light new evidence on the Thapsos-class of vases. Their identification amongst the grave goods as well as the dedications in the two important sanctuary sites of the area provide a starting point for reassessing the question of this particular ware's identity and its main production centre. After a brief introduction on the aims and scope of the study, the history of the research, the distribution of Thapsos-class ware in Achaea, its technical features and a short discussion on chronological issues, the various fabrics of the Thapsos-class ware attested in Achaea are first presented and analyzed, and then examined and discussed with particular respect to their resemblance with the Achaean Late Geometric workshops producing the impressed and fine painted wares. Next the similarities, as well as the differences, of vases of this class recovered mainly from Ithaca, Delphi and Thera but also from other areas of mainland Greece are set out. A full catalogue of the Thapsos class ware data derived so far from Achaea is submitted with photographs and drawings of almost every sherd and vase. Finally the results of a non destructive elemental ceramic analysis using micro X-RAY fluorescence spectroscopy (m-XRF) applied to various fabrics and wares from Achaean pottery of the Late Geometric period is published in the Appendix. A more fundamental aim of the present study is to bring forward new aspects for investigation concerning this ceramic group, so closely associated as it is with the foundation and life of the Greek colonies in the west.With a contribution by A. Sakalis, D. Tsiafakis and N. Tsirliganis titled 'Non destructive elemental ceramic analysis from Achaea using X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy (m-XRF)'.

It seems that, over recent years, the term landscape has received much discussion, albeit based on the mechanics of landscape. What has been omitted is the construction of landscape in terms of aesthetics, knowledge, emotion, interpretation and application. Although landscape is 'there', we control the imagination and cognitive construction of it. Fundamentally, landscape can be defined as a series of 'spaces' that become 'places', and, within this volume (the product of a number of conference sessions run between 1997-99 by the Theoretical Archaeology Group), 17 contributors re-address the importance of space/place and suggest both may be considered as part of an archaeological assemblage. Some chapters also attempt to place rock art into a narrative, placing its historical value into a prehistoric context.

An environmental and archaeological multiproxy study of burial mounds in the Eurasian steppe zoneThis volume presents a series of archaeological and scientific studies focusing on Kurgans in Hungary and Russia. Kurgans are the burial mounds of Bronze and Copper Age societies that can be traced back to the 4th Millennium cal BC. The Kurgans of the Eurasian steppe zone preserve palaeosoils and represent a fantastic resource for investigating Holocene environmental changes. The studies presented in this volume principally focus on the Lyukas-halom and Csíp?-halom kurgans in Hungary and the Skvortsovsky and Labazovsky kurgans in Russia, though there are also several papers that explore the 'wider world' of the Kurgans. On the whole, this volume brings together papers on a multi- and interdisciplinary scale, and sheds light on the current status and state-of-art of kurgan studies.

Despite the great fascination that the collapse of past civilizations holds for the public, the process of decreasing social complexity has received surprisingly little attention from archaeologists, especially when compared to the voluminous research on increasing complexity. And most studies of the process have been oriented toward understanding complexity by seeing how it fails, not toward understanding how a different, "simpler" society emerged from a more complex society. But if there are specific motivations and particular processes for decreasing complexity - if "collapse" is a solution rather than a problem - then clearly there is much to be learned from examining the societies that develop during periods of seeming decline. This research study examines how one complex society reorganized to a relatively simple society, recognizing the simultaneously constructive and destructive aspects of the process. The study focuses on the developments during the late Roman Empire through late Antiquity, a time of decreasing social complexity in the ancient Mediterranean world beginning in the late 2nd and continuing to the mid 6th centuries AD, on the basis of a detailed archaeological study of one city and its territory, Volterra, in Tuscany, Italy.

The chronological and geographical focus of this volume is medieval northern Europe, from the 6th to the 15th centuries. The contributors examine the sometimes arbitrary social factors which resulted in people being deliberately, accidentally or temporarily categorised as 'disabled' within their society, in ways that are peculiar to the medieval period. Health and disease are not static and unchanging; they are subject to cultural construction, manipulation and definition. Medieval ideas of healthy and unhealthy, as these papers show, were not necessarily - or even usually - comparable to modern approaches. Each of the papers represented in this volume assesses social constructs of health and ill-health in different guises within the medieval period.

Central Asia is a wide subject of research in the archaeological and historical studies of the Ancient World. Scholars have usually focused on the complex and diverse questions that resulted from the analysis of the historical realities of this key region during Antiquity. The purpose of this book is to undertake an approach to the polymorphic and multiple aspects of Central Asia in Antiquity from several points of view. The starting point is the confidence in an interdisciplinary perspective as the mainway to understand the different aspects of the region in a very wide chronology: from the emergence of the cities and their relation with the nomadic populations, to the expansion of models and practices from Central Asia to the West during the campaigns and conquests led by Islam. Through subjects like warfare, gender studies and historiography, mainly from an archaeological point of view, the chapters analyze concrete sites like Mes Aynak, Uch Kulakh or Vardanzeh, but also models of interaction among the historical peoples living in Asia Central, like the Bactrians and the Persians, the Persians and Macedonians, the Greeks and the Indians, the Sassanid and the Romans, or even the Sassanid and the Steppe peoples. The result is a very clear example of the richness of starting an interdisciplinary dialogue with the intention of improving our perspectives and understandings of the complex relationships that, through Antiquity, the people living in Central Asia had developed and how scholars can, through archaeology and other related disciplines, approach the historical questions that arise in a close study of the subjects.

This publication is the volume is the proceedings of the ICAZ Archaeomalacology Working Group which took place at the 11th International Conference of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ), held in Paris, France 23rd-28th August 2010. Twenty-three papers are published with evidences of human collection and modification of shells from all over the world and over a large scale of chronology (from Prehistory to Antiquity). The papers are organized in three sub-sessions. The section "Acquisition and use of shell raw materials in prehistory" focuses on patterns of acquisition and use of shell raw materials as well as on the production sequences of shell items in time and space. Specific themes of interest include the exploitation of shells as raw materials in relation to their dietary functions, or choices made to use particular shells along with or as opposed to other raw materials.The section "Shell middens and shells as a food resource" provides a venue to explore the relationships between human groups and molluscan resources and especially encourages the combination of information derived from multiple disciplines, as well as studies that seek to contextualise shell-gathering in a wider socio-economic context. The section "Shells as indicators of palaeoenvironment, site formation and transformation" aims to investigate the potential of the archaeological shell to answer questions not directly related to subsistence or material culture and especially welcomes contributions which mobilise the study of the archaeological shell in relation to modern resource management and environmental change.

The Neolithic Çatalhöyük (c. 7400-6000 cal. BC), in the Konya Plain of Central Anatolia, was made famous by the excavations of James Mellaart in 1960s, who uncovered remains of a large, pueblo-like agglomeration of houses ('the world's first city'). Renewed excavations at the site over the past twenty years have used a range of current recovery techniques, including systematic sampling of archaeological deposits for archaeobotanical remains. The archaeobotanical recovery programme represents a unique opportunity to directly investigate the socio-economic underpinnings of an early 'town' community through the lens of crop husbandry and plant use. In this book, new archaeobotanical evidence from the early-mid Neolithic sequence of Çatalhöyük (c. 7400- 6500cal BC) is presented and used as a basis for investigations into the nature and scale of crop cultivation at the site. The results shed light on the economic and social role of agricultural production at a large long-lived Neolithic village, and its implications for issues such as settlement location, residents' mobility, crop cultivation productivity and long-term sustainability.

Held at the Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, 8th-9th March 2012This volume comprises 15 articles - the result of presentations made at the first International Conference on Zooarchaeology which took place in Lisbon in 2012. This meeting was attended by researchers - PhD students, archaeologists, biologists and zooarchaeologists - studying animal remains from Portugal's past. The papers in this book comprise a wide range of themes and include material from various periods; the common denominator being their Lusitanian origin. The articles describe faunal remains dating from the Paleolithic to modern times and from various aspects, some purely zooarchaeological, others archaeological and combine a spectrum of methods of study, classical osteology/zooarchaeology, ancient DNA, and even written sources. The volume starts with an article about Paleolithic artefacts, followed by articles about Mesolithic Muge and Algarve and ends the prehistoric period with a discussion about Bronze age animal remains. The Roman period is also well represented as the Medieval and Modern periods, both with specific site-studies and other more wide-ranging ones that summarize work carried out in specific geographical areas. The volume finishes with an article about the situation of Zooarchaeology as a profession and scientific area of study in present-day Portugal. Here we are presented with the latest results from the younger generation of Portuguese zooarchaeologists as well as several more experienced in this field. With this small volume it is hoped to put Portuguese zooarchaeology 'onthe map'.

South American Archaeology Series No 21This book attempts to historize the construction of the dichotomy between "public" and "private" in Spanish colonial territories during the late 18th - early 19th centuries, when this opposition assumed some of the characteristics that today seem completely natural. It is usually acknowledged that these changes began at the level of everyday experiences that took place in a material world and while interacting with other people. Here we study these everyday experiences, particularly those structured around food habits within the domestic sphere in colonial non-elite domestic contexts. The first case study is the port of Buenos Aires while it was the head of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776-1810). Analysis of a sample of probate records each of them representing a single domestic unit. The second case study was the Nueva Colonia y Fuerte de Floridablanca, a small agricultural settlement in Patagonia (1780-1784). Here, several archaelogical lines of inquiry were followed: zooarchaeological, ceramic and glass remains and the analysis of architecture and spatial arrangement and distribution within four dwelling units excavated at the site. In every domestic context of both cases it could be observed that sociability affected the way food habits were organized in different ways, but always re-enforcing domestic group identities. It could also be assessed that none of the identified ways of organizing food habits indicate that these colonial societies were on the margins of the "novelties" that took place in other contexts. On the contrary, having full knowledge of these tendencies, each domestic unit negotiated on a daily basis the way they ate, taking their own, very individual preferences, as the main rule.

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 36This book analyzes the places of worship used during the eighteen feasts of the Nahua solar calendar, called "veintenas", and the ceremonial paths of the participants in the ceremonies in the Aztec capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The work is based on the study of written sources of the sixteenth century, the pictographic manuscripts of pre-Hispanic times and their copies of the first colonial era, as well as archaeological data. In this way a comprehensive overview of the buildings and open spaces used during the monthly rites is presented. Each chapter is devoted to the study of a month and its ceremonies and is divided in two parts. As the first part describes the sacred spaces, the second one examines the ceremonial paths, its participants and the moments of realization. This investigation is enriched by the study of their localization in the sacred geography of the city. The conclusions obtained help to understand some of the new aspects of Aztec religious life: the symbolic significance of places of worship, the geographical distribution of the centers of supernatural power in the urban space and their usage. In this way, these data reflect the worldview of the ancient Nahuas.

Archaeology of Mounds clusters in West Africa aims to understand the dynamics that enhanced and sustained the settlement systems made of distinct but close mounds. Most of the mounds-clusters are found in low-lying and flat areas in West Africa sahel and savanna. It has been suggested that West-Africa mound-clustering resulted from patterns of residential segregation articulated on ethnicity, specialized occupation, and/or both. However, most of the archaeological research conducted so far on this kind of settlement has failed to test this hypothesis, and does not address the very issues of their processes of formation and patterns of development. The methodology adopted - single mound sampling approach - does not allow for such explorations. The comprehensive approach presented in this book is articulated on the implementation of complementary excavation strategies. This involves the test excavation of all the mounds of two of the largest mounds clusters found in the study area, and the sampling of a third one, located in a different environmental context. The fine-grained chronology obtained allows the probing of the patterns of growth and diversification of mounds clusters through time, showing the operations of a broad range of settlement location decisions. Bio-anthropological data points clearly to warfare during the scramble for land that took place during the first quarter of the second millenium AD. Depending on time-sequences, special purpose mounds - iron producers, weavers, karité-oil producers - are differentially integrated in each of the tested mounds-clusters. No single settlement strategy fits all.

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the UISPP Commission on Flint Mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Times (Paris 10-11 September 2012)The Union Internationale des Sciences Pré- et Protohistoriques (UISPP) commission on "Flint Mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Times" was created at the 12th meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (Cracow, Poland, 19th-24th September 2006). The aim was to perpetuate the tradition of organizing international symposia on flint, established by the Limburg Branch of the Dutch Geological Society in 1969 at Maastricht. The commission intends to maintain cooperation in archaeological research on siliceous rock mining (flint, chert, hornstone, radiolarite, jasper and obsidian), by presenting and discussing methods and results. Major fields of interest include the different stages of chaînes opératoires of manufacture, specialisation of labour and circulation of raw materials, as well as the study of flint mining sites in relation to pre- and protohistoric settlement patterns. The objective of the commission is to promote these lines of research into flint mining and its methods, thus enabling a better understanding of the various phenomena and processes taking place in pre- and protohistoric times. This volume contains the papers of the Paris conference held on 10th-11th September 2012, together with some additional papers presented at Vienna 2010 and Florianópolis 2011. A first set of contributions concerns the main topic of the conference, which was lithothèques and reference collections. A further group of papers concerns the second conference theme: workshops, from excavation to chaînes opératoires reconstruction.

Experimental Archaeology as an hypothesis contrast method, focusing on technological studies, is not new in archaeological research procedures. Since the early 1970s, as a consequence of the application of châine-operatoire/reduction sequence concepts within the framework of Palaeoethnological investigation, or within the actualistics studies highly developed in the framework of Processual Archaeology, the experimentation and utilization of artefact replicas have been used in the search for answers regarding technological procedures and their functional aspects. However, since the 1990s the research interface between technology and experimentation, worldwide, has increased, resulting in a renewal of procedures and interest in the incorporation of such studies particularly in the field of techno-functional analysis of prehistoric artefacts. Nevertheless the criticisms on experimental procedures are abundant, questioning its theoretical fundamentals and explanation validity. These remarks result both from the morphotypological approaches to artefact assemblages, but also from a lack of understanding on the range and goals of such studies. Stefano Grimaldi discusses the epistemological implications of experimental approaches. Experimentation on lithics are discussed in the papers of S. Cura, P. Cura, S. Grimaldi and E. Cristiani; G. N. de Souza and Â. P. Lima; B. de S. Barreto and M. P. Cabral; M. J. Rodet, A. Prous, J. Machado and L. F. Bass; G. N. Poplevko. Other papers discuss experimentation in the production of beads (M. Gurova, C. Bonsall, B. Bradley, E. Anastassova and P. Cura), new protocols on ceramics experimentation (J. F. Cerezer), ethnographic ceramic technology (R. T. Bortolin and V. Fróis), bone industry (B. Santander; C. Costa, N. Almeida, H. Gomes, S. Cura and P. Cura) and rock art engravings (N. S. da Rosa, S. Cura, S. Garcês and P. Cura).

The organization of the UISPP XVI world congress in Florianópolis was the occasion to focus a certain number of themes that are preferably dealt with at a transcontinental scale. Several sessions discussed the issue of transition mechanism (technological, social, economic, and their climatic and environmental contexts). Marcel Otte opens the volume, focusing on the specific role of straits, a topic that is also at the foundation of Judith Carlin's et al. paper. Contributions by Fabio Parenti et al., Gustavo Wagner and Mercedes Okumura et al., discuss the human adaptations in different contexts in Brazil, during the early and middle Holocene. First farming societies in Southern America and in Europe are approached in the papers by Marcel Otte and Jorge Oliveira et al., while the transition into more complex societies, bearing metallurgical knowledge, is the focus of papers by Leonor Rocha et al., C¿t¿lin Laz¿r. Finally, classic contexts on both sides of the Atlantic are revisited by Erika Gómez andby Carolina Dias.

Proceedings of the XVI World Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Florianopolis, Brazil, 4-10 September 2011) Volume 11This volume brings together several papers delivered in different sessions that, for various reasons, were not completely published. Four major themes are involved: cultural interactions, rock art, theory and heritage. Papers by A. Meza and F. Vergara discuss intercultural issues in archaeological and ethnoarchaeological contexts. The paper by Albuquerque and Almeida on cognitive archaeology opens a sequence of five papers dedicated to rock art issues, including pigments studies (Gomes, Rosina and Santos), landscape analysis (Oliveira and Oliveira; Basille and Ratto) and methodology (G. Muñoz). The relations between New Archaeology and modern Russian research are the focus of discussion by I. Shucteleva. Urban and modern archaeology in the context of heritage management of contact are discussed in the papers by D. Costa, F. Borba and D. Bandeira, D. Pereiosta and R. Godoy.

Proceedings of the XVI World Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Florianopolis, Brazil, 4-10 September 2011), Volume 7, Session XVIAfrican Prehistory is at the core of UISPP concerns, namely due to its crucial role to understand the origins and evolution of humans, but also for the complexity of its cultural diversity, in all major issues that are focused by the Union: cultures, economy and environments; specific environmental contexts like deserts or coastal areas, artistic expressions, prehistoric technologies, related methods and theories, history of research or the interaction between archaeology and current society. This volume presents eight papers that cover some of the major debates in African contexts: the lower Palaeolithic of Western Africa (A. Camara), the interaction between human cultures and environment in the late Holocene (S. Ozainne), the rock art in western central and austral Africa (C. Martins, L. Oosterbeek and G. Heimlich), metallurgy (H. Kienon Kaboret and K.S. Kouassi), pottery (M. Sall) and archaeological knowledge socialization (S. Fonseca and E. Gil).

The book focuses on the conservation of iron and copper objects that mostly belong to the Iron Age sites of K2 and Mapungubwe (AD 825-1290), the two most prominent archaeological settlements in the middle Limpopo valley area of northern South Africa. For the purpose of conservation three main objectives were considered: revealing the material and methods of fabrication; evaluating physical and chemical stability; and preservation. Chapter 1 provides a short introduction to the study and presents its objectives. Chapter 2 then sets out the analytical methods and principles used in gathering and managing the data obtained. Next, Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the methods of manufacture of the selected artefacts as well as their physical stability. In these chapters the artefacts were respectively studied by the use of non-destructive methods such as neutron tomography and microscopy. Here, a new quantitative technique for estimating the corrosion percentage by using neutron tomograms and IMAGEJ software was introduced. Some of the objects with ambiguities as to their fabrication, were sampled destructively for metallographical examination and further chemical analyses. The native objects were manufactured by hot forging or cold working followed by annealing only in the case of copper, strip twisting and casting of molten copper in one piece mould. Meanwhile, new light was shed regarding signs of a new technique used in the production of some types of round wire on Mapungubwe Hill (strip-drawing). Chapter 5 examines the chemical stability of the artefacts and the deterioration processes affecting them, considering both the composition of corrosion products and the effects of environmental conditions on their formation. This information was gathered using analytical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, XRD and SEM-EDS. Chapter 6 then presents suitable and practical conservation methods for the objects in question. These methods consist of both interventive and preventive conservation. The thesis concludes (in Chapter 7) with a summary of the results obtained.

Written by Finbar McCormick, Thomas R. Kerr, Meriel McClatchie and Aidan O'SullivanThis book describes, collates and analyses the archaeological, zooarchaeological and palaeobotanical evidence for agriculture, livestock and cereal production in early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100, particularly as revealed through archaeological excavations in Ireland since 1930. It is based on the research of the Heritage Council-funded Early Medieval Archaeology Project (EMAP), a collaborative research project between University College Dublin and Queens University Belfast, supported by the Irish government Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Providing a range of insights into farmsteads and field enclosures, livestock management (particularly of cattle) and crop cultivation, along with a series of datasets presented in tables and gazetteer descriptions, it is arguably amongst the most detailed, focused and comprehensive analyses of early agricultural practice in its social and economic contexts in Europe, and the wider world.

This volume focuses on the beginning and development of the Neolithic in the territories near the final section of the Vinalopó river, and deals with the following matters through several chapters. The book presents in detail new information generated in the final section of the Vinalopó river. It studies the Neolithic materials from La Alcudia (Elche), their location, and makes a comparative analysis about the catchment area. This study shows that, both in this case and in Limoneros II and Cova de les Aranyes, the location was chosen according to the way of life of these first farmers. Regarding Limoneros II, it presents an initial preview of the urgent excavation carried out by the company Alebus Patrimonio Histórico S.L., which has allowed the documentation of a new settlement from the Early Neolithic. The book also presents the results of the excavation carried out in Cova de les Aranyes by M.S. Hernández Pérez and A. Guilabert Mas in the first years of the 21st century, and the study of the documented materials in this excavation and some previous ones. Next, it presents the information collected from El Alterón, a site that was discovered as the result of an urgent excavation, made of different negative structures that suggest a settlement in the 5th millennium cal BC at the foot of the sierra of Crevillente. On the other hand, the surveys carried out in the sierra of Santa Pola discovered several sites and excavated activity areas located near the coastline, linked to the use of marine resources. Finally, also as the result of an urgent excavation campaign, it was possible to document in Galanet a wide amount of negative structures. The palynological and carpological studies, the datings, and the analysis of the materiality of artefacts, suggest a site similar to a field of silos dating from the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal BC, located in the Barranco of San Antón, which runs parallel to the Vinalopó river.

Research at the Northeast Group explores how the malleability of commoner identity is crucial to interpretations of ancient Maya society. This volume has two main aims: first to demonstrate how residents of the Northeast Group used materials and architecture to distinguish themselves from others in the neighborhood, and second to examine the implications of commoners as agents of history. Fundamental to this is the deconstruction of what archaeologists mean by commoner and the theoretical and methodological assumptions built into these definitions. Regardless of extensive research in settlement and household studies, interpretations of ancient Maya society continued to be framed with reference to elites. As elites are defined as the motor of change within civilization, commoners, in contrast, are characterized as static and passive. This books seeks to demonstrate that these models do not accurately reflect who commoners were and their impact in the construction of ancient Maya society as a whole.

This book synthesizes the last 25 years of research on the prehistoric inhabitants of an intermontane basin located at elevations above 11,000 ft. This research is centered in the region of Antofagasta de la Sierra, which has yielded stimulating data on human occupations and paleoenvironmental conditions during the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary and continuously throughout the Holocene, including the very arid Middle Holocene -a time when the Atacama Desert to the west and the North Puna witnessed low intensity human occupations. The archaeological studies presented in this volume take on different aspects of human adaptation, from the earliest hunter-gatherers in the region to the transition toward food producing societies. Authors examine animal bones and fleece fibres, macro and micro-botanical remains, chipped and ground stone tools, and human burials from exceptionally well-preserved contexts in remarkable stratigraphic sequences from several rock-shelters, and discuss the relevance of their resultsin relation to hunter-gatherer settlement, subsistence and mobility strategies. This book aims at presenting the research to non-Spanish speaking audiences and at promoting a dialogue between archaeologists who study hunter-gatherers in deserts around the world. It is hoped that the research will contribute to a better understanding of the wide array of human adaptations in South America as well as to high altitude environments.

Notebooks on Military Archaeology and Architecture 9The presence of the British Army in Sicily during the years of the Napoleonic Wars has deeply marked the history of the island. There are many fortifications still visible, testifying to the British effort to defend Sicily against any possible military aggression. The present work is the result of various studies and research, with the specific objective of documenting and cataloguing the large fortified heritage of the city of Messina, currently undervalued and usable. In particular, the focus is on 1810, an important year for the central project of building fortifications around the Piazza of Messina, as well as the vain attempt to make an amphibious landing on the coast of Sicily, organised by Joachim Murat. The Martello Towers still exist, perhaps the most visible evidence of the work done in that time from the body of the Royal Engineers. A series of surveys on the territory, in conjunction with documentary evidence, have identified other military structures from that period, as well as tracing the precise location of those fortifications that no longer exist. This research therefore sets the stage for a more in-depth study about the interventions of the British for the fortification of the square of Messina.

Dehesas, espacios irrigados, torres, cigarrales y trincherasThe need to protect the physical and cultural environment in which we operate is the logical consequence of the dramatic transformations witnessed in recent years due to rapid urban development. This book seeks new ways to understand the natural and historic patrimony, increasing the evidences that we use to define our cultural heritage.