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This book addresses the application of Raman spectroscopic techniques to a range of diverse problems which arise in the study, conservation and restoration of artefacts and sites closely related to our cultural heritage as well as in authentication. These themes are naturally wider than what at first might be considered as artworks and archaeological artefacts and the topics include pigments, paintings, ceramics, glass, sculpture and patination / corrosion, textiles, industrial archaeology, the degradation and preservation of biomaterials, mummies and human skeletal remains. An interesting feature is the inclusion of modern case studies which describe specific problems and approaches to the Raman spectral analysis of items important to our cultural heritage. The text is prefaced with an introduction to the important parameters used in nondestructive Raman measurements and also highlights some future applications based upon novel miniaturised instrumentation for in-field studies andpotential screening work which will identify specimens which would repay further studies in the laboratory. An attempt is made to give a snapshot of the state-of-the-art evolution since the beginning of the technique (1970s) and to point out potential further development. The book is co-edited by three international experts with many years'experience in the application of Raman spectroscopy to artworks, archaeological artefacts and in the investigation of materials and sites for cultural heritage preservation and each editor has undertaken to write individual chapters and different topics personally. The adopted approach is designed to convey the sort of information which has become available from the adoption of analytical Raman spectroscopy to different problems in the field of cultural heritage preservation through the spectral interrogation of artefacts and how the interpretation of the spectral data can assist museum curators, archaeologists and cultural heritage historians in the preservation and conservation of ancient materials and sites : a particular advantage in this respect is the ability of Raman spectroscopy to determine –generally in a strictly noninvasive procedure - at the laboratory or on-site with mobile instruments, the presence of both organic and inorganic components in a particular specimen together nondestructively without any chemical and mechanical pretreatment being undertaken, which is an essential requirement for rare and valuable samples. An important aside from this work is the means of spectral identification of ongoing biodeterioration and biological colonisation in specimens in storage and the effects of environmental deterioration such as humidity and temperature upon their integrity.

Dogs, Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Perspective gathers contributions from scholars from a variety of disciplines to provide a comprehensive assessment of the importance of dogs through history. Over the last decades, countless studies have examined the lives of dogs and their current place in our societies as well as their crucial part in human life and history. Data and hypotheses have progressively increased, sometimes controversially, in each field of investigation. The domestication of dogs and its success during prehistory is a fascinating theme that scholars of various disciplines are involved with. However, there has not been a real exchange between those approaches and it is extremely complex to reach a complete view of the thousands of texts which are published every year. By contrast, this volume is entirely dedicated to dogs and it is focused on the necessity of an ‘interdisciplinary perspective'to fully understand the fundamental role that dogs have played in our past. When, where, how and why were dogs domesticated? What is their story? What was their role in the history of humankind? What is their role in traditional and non-traditional societies today? The book originated from the conference ‘Dogs, Past and Present – an Interdisciplinary Perspective'held at CNR (National Scientific Council) and at Sapienza University in Rome (14–17 November 2018), promoted by the Italian Association for Ethnoarchaeology and organised by the editors.

Global Perspectives for the Conservation and Management of Open-Air Rock Art Sites responds to the growth in known rock art sites across the globe and addresses the need to investigate natural and human-originated threats to them as well as propose solutions to mitigate resulting deterioration.Bringing together perspectives of international research teams from across five continents, the chapters in this book are divided into four discrete parts that best reflect the worldwide scenarios where conservation and management of open-air rock art sites unfolds: 1) ethics, community and collaborative approaches; 2) methodological tools to support assessment and monitoring; 3) scientific examination and interventions; and 4) global community and collaborative case studies innovating methodologies for ongoing monitoring and management. The diverse origin of contributions results in a holistic and interdisciplinary approach that conciliates perceived intervention necessity, community and stakeholders'interests, and rigorous scientific analysis regarding open-air rock art conservation and management. The book unites the voices of the global community in tackling a significant challenge: to ensure a better future for open-air rock art.Moving conservation and management of open-air rock art sites in from the periphery of conservation science, this volume is an indispensable guide for archaeologists, conservators and heritage professionals involved in rock art and its preservation.

Signalling and Performance: Ancient Rock Art in Britain and Ireland presents a state of the art survey of the ancient rock art of Britain and Ireland, bringing together new discoveries and new interpretations. Ancient rock art offers unique insights into the mindsets of its makers and the landscapes in which they lived. The making of rock art was not just an aesthetic practice, but an activity informed by deep social and cultural meanings held by its makers - meanings that they were compelled to express on rocks in Britain and Ireland, through mostly abstract images, for thousands of years. For a long time, ancient rock art remained a topic on the fringes of Archaeology. Since the 1960s, however, there has been sustained recording and research into ancient rock art. Increased publicity has evoked growing interest in British and Irish rock art, with professional and amateur archaeologists and the public, with the latter being responsible for many discoveries. In 2007, Aron Mazel, George Nash and Clive Waddington published the first edited volume focusing on ancient British rock art, entitled Art as Metaphor. Since then, there have been a number of publications covering this topic. Building on the increased interest in rock art, this lavishly illustrated volume constructed of thirteen thought-provoking chapters and an Introduction will do much to further enhance of understanding of this fascinating and meaningful resource. It will further establish ancient British and Irish rock art as a significant archaeological assemblage worthy of attention and additional study.

Les mégalithes du département du Morbihan aims at a better understanding of megalithism, or more precisely megalithisms, and presents a new approach to the relationship between standing stones (menhirs) and tombs (dolmens). The architectural analyses developed raise questions about their complementarity. They are based on a corpus of architectural plans comprising 1413 megalithic monuments from the Department of Morbihan, including 13,200 vertical slabs, the result of thirty years of research and field observations, and including more than 250 unpublished monuments. Two main approaches are discussed: descriptive architectural analysis of the plans on the one hand, and analysis of landscape and environmental elements on the other. The parallels between the stones erected in the open air and those, sometimes identical in their dimensions, their morphology and their geology, which constitute the rooms, the corridors, and the facings of the funerary monuments, consolidate and develop observations already made by other archaeologists on the reuse of these Neolithic standing stones. The observation that these parallels extend to the symmetry and aestheticism of the structures is quite new. These unprecedented and convincing results brought by this analysis of the alignments of standing stones and funerary architectures demonstrate how a subject that has been explored since the nineteenth century by many researchers can still reveal hidden truths.

The Dolmen de Soto is considered one of the premier Neolithic passage graves in the Iberian Peninsula. Set within a flat fertile plain and c. 8.5km south-east of the town of Trigueros in Andalucía, this monument was in use some 5000 years ago and was part of a unique pan-Atlantic European cultural revolution that included ornamentation of the internal spaces of many passage grave monuments. The site was discovered in 1923 by Armando de Soto Morillas and subsequently excavated over three consecutive seasons by the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier. The passage and chamber are constructed within a low circular mound that measures 75m in diameter, making it one of the largest passage graves in Europe. The Dolmen de Soto has recently undergone a significant restoration programme and as part of this project, engraved and painted images upon the upright stones within the passage and chamber areas were investigated and recorded by a team of international scientists between 2016 and 2017 using a variety of photogrammetric methods. This publication tells the fascinating story of the archaeological and historical context of the site, along with the methods employed and stunning results the project yielded.

Megaliths of the World brings together the latest research on megalithic monuments throughout the world. Many of these sites are well known, others less familiar, yet equally deserving of close attention. Megalithic monuments in different regions of the world are far from being a single unified phenomenon, having varied chronologies, and diverse origins, but they all share a certain family resemblance through their common characteristic: the deployment of large stones. No fewer than 150 researchers have contributed 72 articles and inserts, providing a vital region-by region account of the megalithic monuments in their specialist areas, and the current state of knowledge. The insights offered in these volumes emphasize the particular character and significance of these apparently inanimate stones. The use of such large blocks must surely have been an expression of power or prestige, yet the size and materiality of the stones themselves opens up new perspectives into the meaning and symbolism of these monuments, the places from which the blocks were derived, and the way they were manipulated and shaped. Megaliths of the World takes the reader on a fascinating journey, offering new insights through encounters with megaliths and megalithic traditions that will often be new and unfamiliar. Highlighting salient themes, it provides a compendium of detailed information that will be vital to anyone interested in the phenomenon of megalithic monumentality.

This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the El Mirador cave located on the Atapuerca karstic system, one of the longest Pleistocene and Holocene archaeopaleontological deposits in Iberia. This book presents the results including new unpublished and published data to discuss different aspects related to the prehistoric herders and farmers that occupied this territory. Divided into four parts, the book covers site presentation and the paleoenvironmental reconstruction covering a chronological span between 7060 ± 40-3040 ± 40 yrs. The history of the excavation and the excavation methodology is detailed in this part including new unpublished recording techniques using 3D scanning and photogrammetry and a very meticulous sampling strategy. The book presents formation processes of the deposit which are key to understanding the successive occupations of the caves regarding its use as sheepfold cave as well as human remains that are part ofdifferent funerary contexts in the cave. In the last section, the book covers material culture found in the cave including lithic tools and pottery. This interdisciplinary work is of interest to scholars in anthracology, zooarchaeology, paleoanthropology, lithic technology, and experimental archaeology.

This book combines the latest studies of Near Eastern Neolithic lithics by leading international archaeologists to develop their analytical potential and advance our understanding of the world oldest farming societies of the Near East in human history. This volume presents the proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Near East, hosted at the University of Tokyo, Japan, from November 12 to 16, 2019 (PPN9-Tokyo). A unique point of the volume, while referring to the origins and development as in the proceedings of the previous conferences, is a greater emphasis on regional perspectives to evaluate the Near Eastern Neolithic. The current research indicates that the earliest farming societies of the Near East developed in interaction with neighbouring hunter-gatherer societies, that either coexisted with them for long periods or soon assimilated to the Near Eastern farmers. Understanding these contrasting processes would shed new light on identifying the Neolithisation practices of the “core” regions in the Near East itself. A similar attempt was made at the PPN2-Warsaw in 1995, but the present volume provides the most up-to-date discoveries and perspectives after a quarter century. The 39 papers in this volume include contributions on the Iranian Zagros, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, a region whose Neolithic archaeological records are far less well understood but that we believe will enrich our understanding of the first farming societies of the Near East.

Mountains contain a rich and diverse set of remnants left by human societies. They have been inhabited since prehistory and have been transformed by human activity during prehistorical and historical times, and that history defines mountain landscapes as we know them today. Archaeology of Mountain Landscapes contains twenty contributions by forty-one specialists currently researching mountain areas in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The different case studies address the subject diachronically, ranging from prehistory to modern times, and employ a variety of methodological strategies, including archaeological surveys and excavation, paleoenvironmental studies, and historical and ethnographical research.This volume demonstrates how multidisciplinary archaeological fieldwork is radically changing our vision of mountain landscapes. Viewing mountain landscapes as archaeological documents contributes to our understanding of the history of mountain environments and offers new archaeological datasets to use in the interpretation of human societies. Taken together, the essays collected here offer a comprehensive view of current research and suggest new directions for future study.

This is an introductory textbook for the study of human evolution, and covers all major topics of human origins taught under paleoanthropology, anthropology, archaeology, and evolutionary biology courses. This book differs from the existing selection of textbooks in the following ways:•It incorporates the most recent fossil discoveries and interpretations.•It balances the discussion between descriptions of fossils and interpretations of behavior of hominins in different time periods. •It includes current findings of genomics into understanding the more recent stages of human evolution. This important subdiscipline is badly underserved by current texts.•It consistently addresses the relationship of evidence to our current hypotheses and interpretations.The book has an engaging and lucid style suitable for those entering the field. Students will find ample case studies, illustrations and examples helpful in understanding difficult concepts. Tables, timelines, and maps in every chapter include data summaries and key points. The book highlights peripheral points and background concepts in side boxes for easy reference and lists key ideas at the end of each chapter. This up-to-date and easy to read text is suitable for both classroom study and self-learning.

Rock Art Studies: News of the World VI, like the previous editions in the series, covers rock art research and management all over the world over a five-year period, in this case, the years 2015 to 2019 inclusive. The current volume once again shows the wide variety of approaches that have been taken in different parts of the world and reflects the expansion and diversification of perspectives and research questions. One constant has been the impact of new techniques of recording rock art. This is especially evident in the realm of computer enhancement of the frequently faded and weathered rock imagery. As has been the case in past volumes, this collection of papers includes all of the latest discoveries, including in areas hitherto not known to contain rock art. While relatively little has happened in some areas, a great deal has occurred in others. Rock art studies continue to go through a period of intense scientific and technological development, but at the same time – due to the problems of preservation and vandalism – it is crucial to educate local people and the young about the importance of this fragile heritage.

The Archaeology of ‘Underdog Sites'in the Douro Valley brings together the best presentations from the eighth and ninth meetings of Archaeology of the Douro Valley, held in Ávila and Astorga (Spain), respectively in 2018 and 2019. However, instead of a simple collection of articles, the aim of this publication is to show the importance of projects that have been left in the background despite obtaining interesting archaeological data about the occupation of this valley and its evolution. Moreover, we must take into account that many of these projects support new activity in a rural territory that is increasingly neglected politically and economically. Hence the use of the term ‘underdog', defined as a person or group of people with less power or money than the rest of society. Overall, the volume provides a general and interdisciplinary view of the different types of occupation in the territory of the Douro Valley. The chapters are divided into four sections, three of them chronological: Prehistory and Protohistory; Antiquity and Late Antiquity; and the medieval and modern ages. The last section is thematic and includes diachronic studies, museology, and the archaeology of mining. Therefore, the present volume is a medium to showcase the latest research carried out in this important territory and to contribute to knowledge of its history, updating the archaeological state of the art in the valley and presenting results that may be used in the most diverse types of comparative studies.

This volume features papers dealing with particular aspects of the material culture of the prehistoric periods, and others that consider the evidence for social and economic change within the Neolithic period, such as increased complexity in the settlement layout and the intensified exploitation of domesticated plants and animals. As such, the present volume aims to go beyond the detailed studies of the archaeological finds to examine the wider picture of human cultural evolution.

This second edition of the multi-volume work goes beyond the comprehensive and systematic coverage of archaeology that appears in the first edition. The field of archaeology continues to grow and the collaborations between archaeologists and researchers in other areas - environmental studies, landscape studies, art history, demography, biomedicine, chemistry, museum specialists, etc. - continues to grow. This second edition builds on the massive collection of information and research from the first edition by adding new entries as well as updating the existing entries.The entries in this encyclopedia range from succinct summaries of specific sites and the scientific aspects of archaeological enquiry to detailed discussions of archaeological concepts, theories and methods, and from investigations into the social, ethical and political dimensions of archaeological practice to biographies of leading archaeologists from throughout the world. The different forms of archaeology are explored, along with the techniques used for each and the challenges, concerns and issues that face archaeologists today.This compendium is both a print reference and an online reference work. One of the encyclopedia's major innovations is that it harnesses the capabilities of an online environment, enhancing both the presentation and dissemination of information. Most particularly, the continuous updating allowed by an online environment should ensure that the Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology is a definitive reference work for archaeology and archaeologists.

In this book, Katina Lillios provides an up-to-date synthesis of the rich histories of the peoples who lived on the Iberian Peninsula between 1,400,000 (the Paleolithic) and 3,500 years ago (the Bronze Age) as revealed in their art, burials, tools, and monuments. She highlights the exciting new discoveries on the Peninsula, including the evidence for some of the earliest hominins in Europe, Neanderthal art, interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, and relationships to peoples living in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Western Europe. This is the first book to relate the ancient history of the Peninsula to broader debates in anthropology and archaeology. Amply illustrated and written in an accessible style, it will be of interest to archaeologists and students of prehistoric Spain and Portugal.

The objective of this book is the reconsideration of the practices of personal adornment during the Neolithic period in Greece, through the assemblage, extensive bibliographic documentation, and critical evaluation of all the available data deriving from more than a hundred sites in the mainland and the Aegean islands –an archaeological archive of wide geographical and chronological scope. In addition, a thorough study of the personal ornament corpus from the Middle-Late Neolithic Dispilio in Kastoria, an important lakeside settlement in north-western Greece, was conducted. The book begins with an overview of the anthropological and archaeological literature on theoretical and methodological issues concerning practices of personal adornment. Then follows an examination of the problems and key points of study regarding personal adornment in Neolithic Greece, as well as a critical evaluation of the methodological approaches and classification schemes that have been applied in previous archaeological works. Subsequently, the technologies and processes of production, consumption, recycling, deposition, and distribution of personal ornaments in Neolithic Greece are discussed. Finally, the social correlates of personal adornment are explored, as they are reflected in the choice of different raw materials (shell, clay, bone, stone, and metal) and ornament types (beads, pendants, annulets, and so forth).

This book explores the Mesolithic period in the central-eastern area of Cantabria (Spain) as a manifestation of sociocultural evolution and change of the societies that lived in the area between the ninth and sixth millennia cal BC, until the introduction of farming. It analyses the subsistence and sociocultural transformations made by hunter-gatherer societies in their adaptation to the environment that emerged from the climate change seen during the Holocene. It also considers the evolutionary processes undergone by social groups based on their experiences and cognitive processes.

‘Stone Tools in the Ancient Near East and Egypt: Ground stone tools, rock-cut installations and stone vessels from Prehistory to Late Antiquity'is about groundstone tools, stone vessels, and devices carved into rock throughout the Near East and Egypt from Prehistory to the late periods. These categories of objects have too often been overlooked by archaeologists, despite their frequent occurrence in the archaeological record. Most importantly, a careful study of these tools reveals crucial insights into ancient societies. From the procuring of raw materials to patterns of use and discard, they provide us with a wealth of information about the activities they were involved in and how these activities were organised. These tools reveal patterns in the trade of both raw materials and finished products, inform us about economic aspects of food production and consumption, cast light on industrial activities, help establish intercultural connections, and offer hints about the relationship between sites and their environment. The aim of this book is to explore all aspects of these ubiquitous tools and to stimulate debate about the new methodologies needed to approach this material.

Western Iberia has one of the richest inventories of Neolithic chambered tombs in Atlantic Europe, with particular concentrations in Galicia, northern Portugal and the Alentejo. Less well known is the major concentration of tombs along the Tagus valley, straddling the Portuguese-Spanish frontier. Within this cluster is the Anta da Lajinha, a small megalithic tomb in the hill-country north of the River Tagus. Badly damaged by forest fire and stone removal, it was the subject of joint British-Portuguese excavations in 2006-2008, accompanied by environmental investigations and OSL dating.This volume takes the recent excavations at Lajinha and the adjacent site of Cabeço dos Pendentes as the starting point for a broader consideration of the megalithic tombs of western Iberia. Key themes addressed are relevant to megalithic tombs more generally, including landscape, chronology, settlement and interregional relationships. Over what period of time were these tombs built and used? Do they form a horizon of intensive monument construction, or were the tombs the product of a persistent, long-lived tradition? How do they relate to the famous rock art of the Tagus valley, and to the cave burials and open-air settlements of the region, in terms of chronology and landscape? A final section considers the Iberian tombs within the broader family of west European megalithic monuments, focusing on chronologies, parallels and patterns of contact. Did the Iberian tombs emerge through connections with older established megalithic traditions in other regions such as Brittany, or were they are the outcome of more general processes operating among Atlantic Neolithic societies?

The aim of this work is to analyze Late Prehistoric graphical markers, comprising paintings, engravings, Megalithic elements, and other portable objects. All of them can be described as post-paleolithic or Schematic Art over various surfaces. The chosen area, the inland region of the Tajo inner basin (Spain), was especially appealing for several reasons, such as the lack of scholarship on the subject, the lack of information on the geographical location of the archaeological sites, and the extended ignorance about the sites'materials and relationships. The methodology is based on systematic registration of all archaeological sites. This is studied from an Archaeology Landscape perspective through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis. It tests geographical markers according to their strategic location (pre-eminence and visibility) and their relationship with other funerary, habitable and resources sites. This has allowed parietal surfaces (megaliths, caves, shelters) and mobile pieces to be given coordinate position for the first time in the region, which has demonstrated abundant and complex prehistoric graphical markers. The results achieved allow the extrapolation of settlement models, explained in chapter VI. Generally, shelters divide the territory by geographical units where the settlers have access to a variety of economic resources and transit networks. SPANISH DESCRIPTION: El objetivo de este trabajo es el estudio de los marcadores gráficos de la Prehistoria Reciente, entre los que se incluyen pinturas, grabados, elementos megalíticos y elementos mobiliares que responden a la descripción de Arte Esquemático o Postpaleolítico sobre diferentes soportes. Se eligió como zona de estudio la cuenca interior del Tajo a su paso por las provincias interiores (España), de especial interés por su carencia de valoraciones conjuntas y desde luego, por la escasa información acerca del posicionamiento geográfico de estos yacimientos y el desconocimiento bastante generalizado de sus contenidos y relaciones contextuales. El método de trabajo se ha fundamentado en la recogida sistemática de todos los yacimientos registrados. El estudio se ha llevado a cabo con nuevas tecnologías como los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), desde una perspectiva de la Arqueología del Paisaje. Se han efectuado diversos análisis establecidos sobre su posición estratégica (preeminencia y visibilidad) y su relación con otros yacimientos de carácter funerario, habitacional y recursos de explotación. Esto ha permitido que los soportes parietales (abrigos, cuevas y megalitos), así como piezas mobiliares, se hayan georreferenciado por primera vez en la región, dando muestras de la abundancia y complejidad de estas grafías prehistóricas. Los resultados nos han permitido extrapolar modelos de implantación en el territorio, expuestos en el capítulo VI. En general, existe una tendencia a delimitar el territorio en unidades geográficas caracterizadas, en las que las sociedades productoras tienen acceso a una variedad de recursos económicos y redes de tránsito.

The subject of ‘Molluscs in Archaeology'has not been dealt with collectively for several decades. This new volume in Oxbow's Studying Scientific Archaeology series addresses many aspects of mollusks in archaeology. It will give the reader an overview of the whole topic; methods of analysis and approaches to interpretation. It aims to be a broad based text book giving readers an insight of how to apply analysis to different present and past landscapes and how to interpret those landscapes.It includes Marine, Freshwater and land snails studies, and examines topics such as diet, economy, climate, environmental and land-use, isotopes and mollusks as artifacts. It aims to provide archaeologists and students with the first port of call giving them a) methods and principles, and b) the potential information mollusks can provide.It concentrates on analysis and interpretation most archaeologists and students can undertake and understand, and to'review'the'heavier'science in terms of potential, application and interpretational value.

Rock art is one of the most visible and geographically widespread of cultural expressions, and it spans much of the period of our species'existence. Rock art also provides rare and often unique insights into the minds and visually creative capacities of our ancestors and how selected rock outcrops with distinctive images were used to construct symbolic landscapes and shape worldviews. Equally important, rock art is often central to the expression of and engagement with spiritual entities and forces, and in all these dimensions it signals the diversity of cultural practices, across place and through time. Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have studied ancient arts on rock surfaces, both out in the open and within caves and rock shelters, and social anthropologists have revealed how people today use art in their daily lives. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art showcases examples of such research from around the world and across a broad range of cultural contexts, giving a sense of the art's regional variability, its antiquity, and how it is meaningful to people in the recent past and today - including how we have ourselves tended to make sense of the art of others, replete with our own preconceptions. It reviews past, present, and emerging theoretical approaches to rock art investigation and presents new, cutting-edge methods of rock art analysis for the student and professional researcher alike.

The study of the Neolithic transition constitutes a major theme in prehistoric research. The process of economic change, from foraging to farming, involved one of the main transformations in human behavior patterns. This volume focuses on investigating the neolithization process at the periphery of one of the main routes in the expansion of the Neolithic in Europe: the Western Mediterranean region. Recent advances in radiocarbon dating, mathematical and computational models, archaeometric analysis and biomolecular techniques, together with new archaeological discoveries, provide novel insights into this topic. This volume is organized into five sections: · new discoveries and new ideas about the Mediterranean Neolithic · reconstructing times and modeling processes · landscape interaction: farming and herding· dietary subsistence of early farming communities · human dispersal mechanisms and cultural transmission This volume will also provide new empirical data to help readers assess different theoretical frameworks and narratives which underlie the models proposed to explain the expansion of farming from the Middle East into Europe.

This is the fifth volume in the series Rock Art Studies: News of the World. Like the previous editions, it covers rock art research and management across the globe over a five-year period, in this case the years 2010 to 2014 inclusive. The current volume once again shows the wide variety of approaches that have been taken in different parts of the world, although one constant has been the impact of new techniques of recording rock art. This is especially evident in the realm of computer enhancement of the frequently faded and weathered rock imagery that is the subject of our study. As has been the case in past volumes, this collection of papers includes all of the latest discoveries, including in areas hitherto not known to contain rock art. The latest dating research reported in this fifth volume, sometimes returning surprisingly early results, serves to extend our knowledge of the age of rock art as well as highlight the limits of current models for its development around the world.

Megalithic monuments are among the most striking remains of the Neolithic period of northern and western Europe and are scattered across landscapes from Pomerania to Portugal. Antiquarians and archaeologists early recognized the family resemblance of the different groups of tombs, attributing them to maritime peoples moving along the western seaways. More recent research sees them rather as the product of established early farming communities in their individual regions. Yet the diversity of the tombs, their chronologies and their varied cultural contexts complicates any straightforward understanding of their origins and distribution.Megalithic Architectures provides new insight by focusing on the construction and design of European megalithic tombs – on the tomb as an architectural project. It shows how much is to be learned from detailed attention to the stages and the techniques through which tombs were built, modified and enlarged, and often intentionally dismantled or decommissioned. The large slabs that were employed, often unshaped, may suggest an opportunistic approach by the Neolithic builders, but this was clearly far from the case. Each building project was unique, and detailed study of individual sites exposes the way in which tombs were built as architectural, social and symbolic undertakings. Alongside the manner in which the materials were used, it reveals a store of knowledge that sometimes differed considerably from one structure to another, even between contemporary monuments within a single region.The volume brings together regional specialists from Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Iberia to offer a series of uniquely authoritative studies. Results of recent fieldwork are fully incorporated and much of the material is published here for the first time in English. It provides an invaluable overview of the current state of research on European megalithic tombs.

Professor Rodrigo de Balbín has played a major role in advancing our knowledge of Palaeolithic art, and the occasion of his retirement provides an excellent opportunity to assess the value of prehistoric art studies as a factor in the study of the culture of those human groups which produced this imagery. The diverse papers in this volume, published in Professor de Balbín's honour, cover a wide variety of the decorated caves which traditionally defined Palaeolithic art, as well as the open-air art of the period, a subject in which he has done pioneering work at Siega Verde and elsewhere. The result is a new and more realistic assessment of the social and symbolic framework of human groups from 40,000 BP onwards.

Recently, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology has been breaking boundaries worldwide. Finds such as the Mesolithic house at Howick, the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, and the recently discovered footprints at Happisburgh all serve to indicate how archaeologists in these fields are truly at the cutting edge of understanding humanity's past. This volume celebrates this trend by focusing on recent advances in the study of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. With contributors from a diverse range of backgrounds, it allows for a greater degree of interdisciplinary discourse than is often the case, as the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic are generally split apart. Wild Things brings together contributions from major researchers and early career specialists, detailing research taking place across the British Isles, France, Portugal, Russia, the Levant and Europe as a whole, providing a cross-section of the exciting range of research being conducted. By combining papers from both these periods, it is hoped that dialogue between practitioners of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology can be further encouraged. Topics include: the chronology of the Mid-Upper Palaeolithic of European Russia; territorial use of Alpine high altitude areas by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer; discussing the feasibility of reconstructing Neanderthal demography to examine their extinction; the funerary contexts from the Mesolithic burials at Muge; the discovery of further British Upper Palaeolithic parietal art at Cathole Cave; exploitation of both lithics and fauna in Palaeolithic France; and an analysis of Mesolithic/Neolithic trade in Europe.

This first monograph in the EARTH series, The dynamics of non-industrial agriculture: 8,000 years of resilience and innovation, approaches the great variety of agricultural practices in human terms. It focuses on the relationship between plants and people, the complexity of agricultural processes and their organisation within particular communities and societies. Collaborative European research among archaeologists, archaeobotanists, ethnographers, historians and agronomists using a broad analytical scale of investigation seeks to establish new common ground for integrating different approaches. By means of interdisciplinary examples, this book showcases the relationship between people and plants across wide ranging and diverse spatial and temporal milieus, including crop diversity, the use of wild foodstuffs, social context, status and choices of food plants.

This proceedings volume contains selected papers presented at the Workshop on the Conservation of the Subterranean Cultural Heritage, held 25-27 March 2014, in Seville, Spain. The workshop was organized by the Spanish Network of Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (TechnoHeritage). Contributions cover the following fields: archaeology, history, conservation, maintenance and restoration, architectural sciences and engineering.

Daniel Albero Santacreu presents a wide overview of certain aspects of the pottery analysis and summarizes most of the methodological and theoretical information currently applied in archaeology in order to develop wide and deep analysis of ceramic pastes. The book provides an adequate framework for understanding the way pottery production is organised and clarifies the meaning and role of the pottery in archaeological and traditional societies. The goal of this book is to encourage reflection, especially by those researchers who face the analysis of ceramics for the first time, by providing a background for the generation of their own research and to formulate their own questions depending on their concerns and interests. The three-part structure of the book allows readers to move easily from the analysis of the reality and ceramic material culture to the world of the ideas and theories and to develop a dialogue between data and their interpretation. Daniel Albero Santacreu is a Lecturer Assistant in the University of the Balearic Islands, member of the Research Group Arqueo UIB and the Ceramic Petrology Group. He has carried out the analysis of ceramics from several prehistoric societies placed in the Western Mediterranean, as well as the study of handmade pottery from contemporary ethnic groups in Northeast Ghana.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial reviews the current state of mortuary archaeology and its practice, highlighting its often contentious place in the modern socio-politics of archaeology. It contains forty-four chapters which focus on the history of the discipline and its current scientific techniques and methods. Written by leading, international scholars in the field, it derives its examples and case studies from a wide range of time periods, such as the middle palaeolithic to the twentieth century, and geographical areas which include Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Combining up-to-date knowledge of relevant archaeological research with critical assessments of the theme and an evaluation of future research trajectories, it draws attention to the social, symbolic, and theoretical aspects of interpreting mortuary archaeology. The volume is well-illustrated with maps, plans, photographs, and illustrations and is ideally suited for students and researchers.

Recent genetic data showing that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans have made it clear that deeper insight into the behavioral differences between these populations will be critical to understanding the rapid spread of modern humans and the demise of the Neanderthals. This volume, which brings together scholars who have worked with faunal assemblages from Europe, the Near East, and Africa, makes an important contribution to our broader understanding of Neanderthal extinction and modern human origins through its focus on variability in human hunting behavior between 70-25,000 years ago—a critical period in the later evolution of our species.​

The beginning of the Neolithic in Britain is a topic of perennial interest in archaeology, marking the end of a hunter-gatherer way of life with the introduction of domesticated plants and animals, pottery, polished stone tools, and a range of new kinds of monuments, including earthen long barrows and megalithic tombs. Every year, numerous new articles are published on different aspects of the topic, ranging from diet and subsistence economy to population movement, architecture, and seafaring. Thomas offers a treatment that synthesizes all of this material, presenting a coherent argument to explain the process of transition between the Mesolithic-Neolithic periods. Necessarily, the developments in Britain are put into the context of broader debates about the origins of agriculture in Europe, and the diversity of processes of change in different parts of the continent are explored. These are followed by a historiographic treatment of debates on the transition in Britain. Chapters cover the Mesolithic background, processes of contact and interaction, monumental architecture and timber halls, portable artefacts, and plants and animals. The concluding argument is that developments in the economy and material culture must be understood as being related to fundamental social transformations.

Caves in Context provides the thriving inter-disciplinary field of cave studies with a European-scale survey of current research in cave archaeology. It is unified by a contemporary theoretical emphasis on the cultural significance and diversity of caves over space and time. Caves and rockshelters are found all over Europe, and have frequently been occupied by human groups, from prehistory right up to the present day. Some appear to have only traces of short occupations, while others contain deep cultural deposits, indicating longer and multiple occupations. Above all, there is great variability in their human use, both secular and sacred. The aim of this book is to explore the multiple significances of these natural places in a range of chronological, spatial, and cultural contexts across Europe. The volume demonstrates, through a diversity of archaeological approaches and examples, that cave studies, whist necessarily focussed, can also be of significance to wider, contemporary, archaeological research agendas, particularly when a contextual approach is adopted. The book is also of relevance to other scholars working in the related fields of speleology, earth sciences, landscape studies, and anthropology, which together comprise the inter-disciplinary field of cave studies.

Though known as a site since 1903, El Mirón Cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain remained unexcavated until a team from the universities of New Mexico and Cantabria began ongoing excavations in 1996. This large, deeply stratified cave allowed the team to apply cutting-edge techniques of excavation, recording, and multidisciplinary analysis in the meticulous study of a site that has become a new reference sequence for the classic Cantabrian region. The excavations uncovered the long history of human occupation of the cave, extending from the end of the Middle Paleolithic, through the Upper Paleolithic, up to the modern era. This volume comprehensively describes the background information on the setting, the site, the chronology, and the sedimentology. It then focuses on the biological and archaeological records of the Holocene levels pertaining to Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age. Archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians will be drawn to this study and its extensive findings, dated by some seventy-five radiocarbon assays.

The aim of this book is to provide a new insight on Neanderthal behaviour using the data recovered in level J of Romaní rockshelter (north-eastern Spain). Due to the sedimentary dynamics that formed the Romaní deposit, the occupation layers are characterized by a high temporal resolution, which makes it easier to interprete the archaeological data in behavioural terms. In addition, the different analytical domains (geoarchaeology, lithic technology, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, anthracology, palaeontology) are addressed from a spatial perspective that is basic to understand human behaviour, but also to evaluate the behavioural inferences in the framework of the archaeological formation processes.​

Since the Western world first became aware of the existence of Neanderthals, this Pleistocene human has been a regular focus of interest among specialists and also among the general public. In fact, we know far more about Neanderthals than we do about any other extinct human population. Furthermore, over the past 150 years no other palaeospecies has been such a constant source of discussion and fierce debate among palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists. This book presents the status of our knowledge as well as the methods and techniques used to study this extinct population and it suggests perspectives for future research.

In this major new volume, leading scholars demonstrate the importance of archaeobotanical evidence in the understanding of the spread of agriculture in southwest Asia and Europe. Whereas previous overviews have focused either on Europe or on southwest Asia, this volume considers the transition from a pan-regional perspective, thus making a significant contribution to our understanding of the processes and dynamics in the transition to food production on both continents. It will be relevant to students, researchers, practitioners and instructors in archaeology, archaeobotany, agrobotany, agricultural history, anthropology, area studies, economic history and cultural development.

As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective. As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies particularly showcasing these new techniques. Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.

The study of phytoliths—inorganic silica remnants plants leave behind when they die and decay—has developed dramatically over the last twenty years. New publications have documented a diverse array of phytoliths from many regions around the globe, while new understandings have emerged as to how and why plants produce phytoliths. Together, these developments make phytoliths a powerful tool in reconstructing past environments and human uses of plants. In Phytoliths, Dolores Piperno makes sense of the discipline for both those working directly with phytoliths in the field or the lab as well as for those who rely on the results of phytolith studies for their own research. Including over a hundred images, Piperno's book will be of great benefit to archaeologists and paleobotanists in the classroom or the lab.

Hunter-Gatherer Archaeobotany shows how archaeobotanical investigations can broaden our understanding of the much wider range of plants that have been of use to people in the recent and more distant past. The book compromises sixteen papers covering aspects of the archaeobotany of wild plants ranging across the northern hemisphere from Japan, across America, Europe and into the Near East. Sites examined span the Upper Palaeolithic to the recent past and demonstrate how such studies can extend our understanding of human interaction with plants throughout our history.