The present work is the result of the First International Chariot Conference, jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) (30 November to 2 December 2012). The intention of the conference was to make a broad assessment of the current state of knowledge about chariots in Egypt and the Near East, and to provide a forum for discussion.A wide variety of papers are included, ranging from overviews to more detailed studies focusing on a specific topic. These include philology, iconography, archaeology, engineering, history, and conservation. The book is of interest to scholars as well as anyone with an interest in ancient technology, transportation, or warfare.Dr. André J. Veldmeijer is Assistant Director for Egyptology of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo and has worked as archaeologist in Egypt since 1995 as specialist in, among others, leatherwork and footwear. He (co-) directs several projects, such as the Ancient Egyptian Leatherwork Project, which includes the Egyptian Museum Chariot Project, and the Tutankhamun Sticks & Staves Project. He has published extensively, both scientifically as popular.Dr. Salima Ikram is Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, and has worked as an archaeologist in Egypt since 1986, directing the Animal Mummy Project, and co-directing the Predynastic Gallery project, the Egyptian Museum Chariot Project, and the North Kharga Oasis Survey. Dr. Ikram has lectured and published extensively, both for children and adults.

The TAESP Landscape, the second of two volumes, presents an area-by-area analysis of the fieldwork and research undertaken by the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP) in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. Covering four regions of the survey area (The Plains, Karkotis Valley, Upper Lagoudhera Valley and The Mountains) the volume focuses on explicit research questions appropriate to each region. Organised geographically, chronologically and thematically, each region is investigated from the Neolithic to the present day and, through ‘Intensive Survey Zones’ – selected to give a representative range of the physical and cultural terrain – many notable new discoveries are made. These include the pattern of Bronze Age Settlement in the Plains, Archaic rural sanctuaries and cemeteries, the scope of Late Roman copper-mining and isolated Medieval mountain settlements. The TAESP Landscape provides a fully integrated and data-rich analysis of the material from a wide range of contrasting archaeological perspectives. Taken together, these wide-ranging and interdisciplinary perspectives give a nuanced and sensitive approach to a strikingly multi-faceted landscape.

The Troodos Mountain range in central Cyprus is a region of great physical and cultural diversity. The landscapes range from fertile, cultivated plains to narrow, dry valleys and forested mountain regions and this physical topography is overlain by a rich human cultural landscape of farming, mining, industry, settlement, burial and ritual behaviour. Over six field seasons, a team of specialists and fieldwalkers from the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP) investigated the northern edge of this region and explored the complex and dynamic relationship between landscape and people over 12,000 years. The results of their integrated and interpretative approach are presented here, in the first of two volumes. Beginning with a considered overview of the context, research aims and methodology of the project, Volume 1 provides detailed accounts of the archaeology, material culture, geography and environmental record of the entire survey area. This wealth of information is then bought together to produce a series of chronological and thematic analyses of the interaction between people and landscape in this region of Cyprus from the Prehistoric through to the Modern period.

Querns are special artefacts as they are concerned with subsistence and supporting life in a manner which few other artefacts can emulate: they transform raw material into a usable consumable commodity. Their association with women, the production of food and the movement of the upper stone, suggests symbolical links between querns and life cycles - agricultural, human and building. They can also be read in terms of gender relations and the turning of the heavens. It is not surprising therefore that they have a special symbolic role in early societies.In 1995 JD Hill published his seminal thesis that many of the rubbish pits commonly found on Wessex Iron Age sites, were carefully ‘structured’ deposits, with meaning reaching far beyond the mere disposal of refuse. He mentioned the special role of querns, but as his thesis focussed on animal bones this idea was not followed up – until now. This book analyses the deposition of querns in prehistoric south-western England, cataloguing how and where they are buried, the associated artefacts and their possible significance. The discussion is broader, however, exploring the object biography and symbolism of querns, taking the reader to unfamiliar territories around the world. This is a new ground-breaking work, which with its full bibliography will stimulate fresh studies and at the same time set the agenda for a new field of investigation. A long standing interest in querns led to the author taking a degree in archaeology as a mature student at the University of Exeter. This was followed by the in-depth research presented in this book, which formed the basis of a thesis for which she was awarded her doctorate at Exeter in 2012. She has studied and reported on querns from a wide range of sites, from Wharram Percy in Yorkshire to Dichin in Bulgaria, and has presented papers at both national and international conferences on the object biography and the function and symbolism of querns and millstones. She compiled the Data Sheet on querns for the Finds Research Group and has written and co-authored several articles. She lives in Devon with her husband, Martin, a leading molinologist, and two black cats.

Istanbul, Europe's largest city, became an urban centre of exceptional size when it was chosen by Constantine the Great as a new Roman capital city. Named ‘Constantinople' after him, the city has been studied through its rich textual sources and surviving buildings, but its archaeology remains relatively little known compared to other great urban centres of the ancient and medieval worlds. Constantinople: Archaeology of a Byzantine Megapolis is a major archaeological assessment of a key period in the development of this historic city. It uses material evidence, contemporary developments in urban archaeology and archaeological theory to explore over a thousand years of the city’s development. Moving away from the scholarly emphasis on the monumental core or city defences, the volume investigates the inter-mural area between the fifth-century land walls and the Constantinian city wall - a zone which encompasses half of the walled area but which has received little archaeological attention. Utilizing data from a variety of sources, including the 'Istanbul Rescue Archaeology Project' created to record material threatened with destruction, the analysis proposes a new model of Byzantine Constantinople. A range of themes are explored including the social, economic and cognitive development, Byzantine perceptions of the city, the consequences of imperial ideology and the impact of ‘self-organization’ brought about by many minor decisions. Constantinople casts new light on the transformation of an ancient Roman capital to an Orthodox Christian holy city and will be of great importance to archaeologists and historians.

Excavations at the Eton Rowing Course and along the Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Channel revealed extensive evidence for occupation in an evolving landscape of floodplains and gravel terraces set amidst the shifting channels of the Thames.The most significant evidence was a series of early Neolithic midden deposits, preserved in hollows left by infilled palaeochannels. These deposits contained dense concentrations of pottery, worked flint, animal bone and other finds, and are put into context by other artefact scatters from the floodplain, pits on the gravel terrace and waterlogged environmental deposits from palaeochannels. Early Mesolithic lakeside occupation, later Mesolithic flint scatters along a former channel of the Thames, pits from the middle and late Neolithic and activity areas of the Beaker and Early Bronze Age, demonstrate longer term changes in patterns of occupation.The excavations also revealed early, middle and late Neolithic human remains in palaeochannels, middle Neolithic crouched inhumation burials and early Neolithic cremated remains. An oval barrow may have first been cut in the early Neolithic. Other ring ditches date from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age; one contained a central cremation burial in a Collared Urn together with pyre material and the remains of a bier.

Between 1999-2006 Addyman Archaeology carried out extensive archaeological excavations on the peninsular site of Kirk Ness, North Berwick, during the building, landscaping and extension of the Scottish Seabird Centre. This book presents the results of these works but its scope is much broader. Against the background of important new discoveries made at the site it brings together and re-examines all the evidence for early North Berwick – archaeological, historical, documentary, pictorial and cartographic – and includes much previously unpublished material. An essential new resource, it opens a fascinating window on the history of the ancient burgh. Kirk Ness is well known as the site of the medieval church of the parish and later royal burgh of North Berwick but it has long been suggested that it was also a centre of early Christian activity. The dedication of the church to St Andrew was speculatively linked to the translation of the Saint's relics to St Andrews in Fife in the 8th century. An early medieval component of the site was indeed confirmed by the excavation, with structural remains, individual finds and an important new series of radiocarbon dates. Occupation of a domestic character may possibly reflect a monastic community associated with an early church. Individual finds included stone tools, lead objects, ceramic material and a faunal assemblage that included bones of butchered seals, fish and seabirds such as the now-extinct Great Auk. The site continued in use as the medieval and early post-medieval parish and burgh church of St Andrew. In this period Kirk Ness and its harbour was an important staging point for pilgrims on route to the shrine of St Andrew in Fife. Domestic occupation discovered in the excavations is likely to be associated with a pilgrims’ hospice, also suggested in historical sources. This publication also provides a new analysis of the church ruin and an account of the major unpublished excavation of the site carried out in 1951-52 by the scholar and antiquary Dr James Richardson, Scotland's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments and resident of North Berwick. The excavations also revealed areas of the cemetery associated with the church, dating to the 12th–17th centuries, where inhumations presented notable contrasts in burial practice. Osteological study shed much light upon the health and demographics of North Berwick’s early population and identified one individual who met with a particularly violent death.

The analysis of animal bone assemblages from archaeological sites provides much valuable data concerning economic and husbandry practices in the past, as well as insights into cultural and symbolic or ritual activity. Animal palaeopathology can identify diseases in archaeozoological assemblages but little interest has been expressed in investigating and understanding the cultural aspects of the diseases identified. Such assemblages represent the cumulative effects of human attitudes, decisions and influences regarding the keeping, care, treatment, neglect and exploitation of animals which result in a range of conditions, non-infectious diseases and injuries that can be recognised on ancient skeletal material. Additionally, ever since the domestication of a handful of animal species around 10,000 years ago, close physical proximity has been a mutual source of infectious disease and traumatic injury for humans and animals alike. Shuffling Nags, Lame Ducks provides an invaluable guide to the investigation of trauma and disease in archaeozoological assemblages. It provides a clear methodological approach, and describes and explains the wide range of traumatic lesions, infections, diseases, inherited disorders and other pathological changes and anomalies that can be identified. In so doing, it explores the impact that “man-made” decisions have had on animals, including special aspects of culture that may be reflected in the treatment of diseased or injured animals often incorporating powerful symbolic or religious roles, and seeks to enhance our understanding of the relationship between man and beast in the past. Chapters include:· History of studying pathological animal remains· Differences between human and animal palaeopathology· Methodology· Growth, development and ageing· Traumatic lesions· Inflammatory diseases and bone· Pathological lesions in working animals· Diseases connected to the environment

Experimental Archaeology is a volume which aims to bridge the gap in archaeology between empirical testing and humanistic approaches to understanding the material record. The contributors explore a wide variety of different fields including how a phenomenological methodology can be used to increase our understanding of how a Bronze Age temple was ‘experienced’ by people in the past; how experimentation in the production of materials such as rawhide, glass and wine-making can be used to test theories or written sources and the possibilities of studying the three-dimensional morphology of Acheulian handaxes to search for possible idiosyncratic indicators during the Lower Palaeolithic. The papers in the volume reflect the continued diversity of work that experimental archaeology is able to produce and show how experimentation can be integrated with theory to substantiate a variety of hypotheses, whether validating information from written sources or testing the inferences of more recent theoretical ideology. Experimental Archaeology will set a new precedent for the role of experimentation in future archaeological research.

The site of La Grava (or Grove Priory) in Bedfordshire, excavated in advance of quarrying between 1973 and 1985, was one of the most extensive monastic/manorial projects of the 20th century in the UK. Excavated originally as a medieval religious house, identified as an alien priory of the Order of Fontevrault in Anjou, the site was to reveal settlement from the Romano-British period to the 16th century.Granted to the Order of Fontevrault in 1164, the priory became the home of the Procurator of the Order in England. From the later 14th century the site reverted to a lay establishment and was held by high-ranking royal women. The excavations were notable for several reasons, including their extent, the stratification in the remains, and the continuity of settlement from the late Saxon period onwards. Post-excavation analysis and reconstruction of building plans has led the author to suggest detailed sequences of spatial planning across the site.The royal and ecclesiastic connections to the site provided excellent documentary sources, enabling recorded events to be linked to building works. When combined with the large finds assemblage, and detailed reconstruction drawings, a vivid picture of life at La Grava over several centuries can be painted.

Archaeological fieldwork in the inter-tidal zone of the Severn Estuary over the past twenty years has revealed a rich landscape of prehistoric settlement. This latest volume by Professor Martin Bell presents the evidence for the Bronze Age, focusing on sites at Redwick and Peterstone in the Gwent Levels.At Redwick, a settlement of four rectangular buildings, defined by well-preserved timber posts dating to the middle Bronze Age (1600–940 cal BC), is surrounded by footprint-tracks of animals and humans. Peterstone and other locations in the estuary have revealed a variety of wood artefacts and structures, and features such as fish traps, trackways and sites of seasonal encampments.The relationship between the wetland and dry ground settlements around the estuary is explored in detail, through artefacts, pollen and stable isotope analysis. The author concludes that there is clear evidence for transhumance throughout the Bronze Age. In the final chapters the author compares the Severn Estuary with other coastal sites of the Bronze Age in Britain and continental Europe.

Textile production is an economic necessity that has confronted all societies in the past. While most textiles were manufactured at a household level, valued textiles were traded over long distances and these trade networks were influenced by raw material supply, labour skills, costs, as well as by regional traditions. This was true in the Mediterranean regions and Making Textiles in pre-Roman and Roman times explores the abundant archaeological and written evidence to understand the typological and geographical diversity of textile commodities. Beginning in the Iron Age, the volume examines the foundations of the textile trade in Italy and the emergence of specialist textile production in Austria, the impact of new Roman markets on regional traditions and the role that gender played in the production of textiles. Trade networks from far beyond the frontiers of the Empire are traced, whilst the role of specialized merchants dealing in particular types of garment and the influence of Roman collegia on how textiles were produced and distributed are explored. Of these collegia, that of the fullers appears to have been particularly influential at a local level and how cloth was cleaned and treated is examined in detail, using archaeological evidence from Pompeii and provincial contexts to understand the processes behind this area of the textile trade.

Newcastle upon Tyne is one of England’s great cities. Many think of it mainly as a product of the Industrial Revolution when abundant resources of coal, iron ore and water came together to create a Victorian industrial powerhouse. In fact, Newcastle’s long and proud history began in Roman times when Hadrian’s Wall marked the northernmost point of the Roman Empire. Newcastle became a thriving medieval port, with trading connections around the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Baltic countries and the Mediterranean. By the mid-17th century, Newcastle was not only a major European port, but was also becoming the pre-eminent exporter of coal fuelling the incipient industrial revolution. This volume brings together the archaeological evidence for occupation in the historic core of Newcastle between the prehistoric period and 1650. It places the evidence in the context of the evolving historical communities who made and occupied the site, and in the wider context of medieval and early modern European urban life.The volume synthesizes archaeological and historical evidence, highlighting material only known through excavation – like the early medieval use of the decaying Roman fort for a cemetery and probable church – as well as throwing new light on documented activities – like the way in which the waterfront was physically extended and consolidated to support trade from the 12th century onwards. Taking its name from a castle of national significance, planted after the Norman Conquest as a bulwark against Northern rebels and Scottish aggression, Newcastle was established as the king’s ‘Eye of the North’.

The Settlement at Dhaskalio is the first volume in the series The Sanctuary on Keros: Excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, 2006-2008, edited by Colin Renfrew, Olga Philaniotou, Neil Brodie, Giorgos Gavalas and Michael Boyd. Here the findings are presented from the well-stratified settlement of Dhaskalio, today an islet near the Cycladic island of Keros, Greece. A series of radiocarbon dates situates the duration of the settlement from around 2750 to 2300 BC. The volume begins with a discussion of the geological setting of Keros and of sea-level change, concluding that Dhaskalio was in the third millennium BC linked to Keros by a narrow causeway. The excavation and finds (excluding the pottery, discussed in later volumes) are fully documented, with consideration of stratigraphy, geomorphology, organic remains, and the evidence for metallurgy. It is concluded that there was a small permanent population of around 20, increased periodically by up to 400 visitors who would have participated in the rituals of deposition occurring at the Sanctuary at Kavos, situated opposite, on Keros itself, for which the detailed evidence (including abundant fragmented pottery, marble vessels and sculptures) will be presented in Volumes II and III.

Written sources from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean, from the third to the first millennia BC, provide a wealth of terms for textiles. The twenty-two chapters in the present volume offer the first comprehensive survey of this important material, with special attention to evidence for significant interconnections in textile terminology among languages and cultures, across space and time. For example, the Greek word for a long shirt, khiton , ki-to in Linear B, derives from a Semitic root, ktn . But the same root in Akkadian means linen, in Old Assyrian a garment made of wool, and perhaps cotton, in many modern languages. These and numerous other instances underscore the need for detailed studies of both individual cases and the common threads that link them. This example illustrates on the one hand how connected some textiles terms are across time and space, but it also shows how very carefully we must conduct the etymological and terminological enquiry with constantly changing semantics as the common thread. The survey of textile terminologies in 22 chapters presented in this volume demonstrates the interconnections between languages and cultures via textiles.

Global Ancestors is a collection of papers which reflect on modern museological responses to the often complex and emotive relationship that people have with the ancestors and objects which they created. Set out in three broad themes, the first collection of papers explore how indigenous peoples are represented in museums in Panama and China and how more can be gained by working with indigenous communities to further our understanding of the ancestors. The second section examines changes in British and American museological thinking regarding the repatriation of human remains and objects to indigenous peoples, focusing in particular on the impact of legislation on western institutions and the expectations of indigenous communities and alternative religious groups. These issues are explored through case studies involving material from the British Museum and Glasgow Museum. The final section explores the ways in which archaeologists and indigenous communities interact. These chapters illustrate, through case studies from South Africa, Finland and Canada, how both groups have worked together for their mutual benefit or to change the majority viewpoint. Global Ancestors represents the beginnings of a more inclusive and shared understanding between different constituencies and points the way forward to a time when we can consider the ancestors truly ‘global’.