This volume presents the Greek and Roman pottery collected and analyzed by the Sphakia Survey project and provides a ceramic model for a large section of western Crete, where ceramic traditions, both domestic and imported, are little known. This research integrates two approaches. It first presents a morphological and functional study of a body of pottery from a sizable part of Crete with little known archaeological evidence. Second, fabric analysis identifies and defines clays and clay mixtures, with macroscopic and petrographic analyses providing results from two perspectives. The rigorous application of fabric analysis, combined with the morphological examination, contribute to reconstructions of sites and areas within Sphakia. This data provides information about the history of individual sites, but then more broadly about that of Sphakia itself.Elements like site chronology, activities undertaken in particular areas, available landscape resources and their exploitation, and contact within the region, with other parts of Crete, and the wider Greek and Roman worlds are explored.

Monasticism is a form of religious life in which participants renounce worldly activities to dedicate themselves primarily to spiritual matters, living in small communities subject to a set of rules and isolated from the secular world. Christian monasticism, which originated at the end of the 3rd century in Egypt and North Africa, spread to different parts of Europe in the 6th century. However, it was not until the Middle Ages that monastic communities became one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. Monasteries and convents played a very important role not only as centers of spirituality but also as focal points of economic, technological and cultural activity. This multiplicity of activities carried out alongside their religious, social and political roles make monasteries spaces that can be studied from very different perspectives and that unfailingly provide essential information about our history.This first of two titles originates from an international conference that took place in Barcelona in January 2024, which sought to examine different aspects related to monastic life in the past and to promote and disseminate the results obtained in the latest studies undertaken within the framework of monastic complexes and their environments. These include contributions and multidisciplinary studies from archaeological, bioanthropological and/or documentary perspectives. Specialists from different disciplines present developments on the topic of monasticism from different fields of study, such as zooarchaeology, bioanthropology, palaeopathology, archaeology, history, documentary disciplines, archives, cultural heritage, etc.Volume 1 concentrates on health and lifeways within monastic communities, focusing on palaeopathological information providing insights into physical wellbeing and, in particular, the presence and significance of disabled individuals and evidence for longterm health and dental issues. A variety of scientific methods of analysis are applied to cemetery populations from monasteries and nunneries of different periods to examine both causes of and contributions to the death of individuals, the composition of communities and the treatment of the dead. Studies of assemblages of faunal remains from monastic complexes consider how faunal analysis can help interpret the role of domestic species.

Monasticism is a form of religious life in which participants renounce worldly activities to dedicate themselves primarily to spiritual matters, living in small communities subject to a set of rules and isolated from the secular world. Christian monasticism, which originated at the end of the 3rd century in Egypt and North Africa, spread to different parts of Europe in the 6th century. However, it was not until the Middle Ages that monastic communities became one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. Monasteries and convents played a very important role not only as centers of spirituality but also as focal points of economic, technological and cultural activity. This multiplicity of activities carried out alongside their religious, social and political roles make monasteries spaces that can be studied from very different perspectives and that unfailingly provide essential information about our history.This second of two titles originates from an international conference that took place in Barcelona in January 2024, which sought to examine different aspects related to monastic life in the past and to promote and disseminate the results obtained in the latest studies undertaken within the framework of monastic complexes and their environments. These include contributions and multidisciplinary studies from archaeological, bioanthropological and/or documentary perspectives. Specialists from different disciplines present developments on the topic of monasticism from different fields of study, such as zooarchaeology, bioanthropology, palaeopathology, archaeology, history, documentary disciplines, archives, cultural heritage, etc.Volume 2 focuses on diet, food practices, water management, and the organization and use of space within monastic complexes and landscapes.

This book is the first in the multi-author series Maritime Encounters, outputs of the major six-year (2022–2028) international research initiative, funded by Sweden’s central bank. Our programme is based on a maritime perspective, a counterpoint to prevailing land-based vantages on Europe’s prehistory. In the Maritime Encounters project a highly international cross-disciplinary team has embarked on a diverse range of research goals to provide a more detailed and nuanced story of how prehistoric societies realised major and minor sea crossings, organised long-distance exchange, and adapted to ways of life by the sea in prehistory. Recent advances with ancient DNA have brought migration back into archaeological explanation, but little attention has been paid to maritime aspects of these movements or the maritime legacies inherited from indigenous cultures. The formation of the populations, cultures and languages of Europe are now seen largely as consequences of three great prehistoric migrations: hunter-gatherers repopulating the post-glacial landscape, followed by farmers spreading from Anatolia, and then Indo-European-speaking pastoralists from the steppe.There is a significant gap in this current model that we sense most acutely in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Unanswered questions include: How these groups reached the islands and peninsulas of Atlantic Europe? What types of boats were used? How many people and animals could they carry? To what extent did indigenous coastal peoples contribute traditions and knowledge of boats, boat building, seaways, navigation, and subsistence in coastal environments. How was the long-distance trade in metals organised during the European Bronze Age? And what was the impact of this sea-crossing network on the cultures, languages, and populations of the producers and consumers of bronze?

From the first steps taken into the darkness of High Pasture Cave, it was clear that this complex site would challenge current thinking on cave use and function in prehistory, and wider understanding of Iron Age cultural practice and beliefs. Situated in a dramatic location under the slopes of the Cuillin Mountains on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, this cave and its monumentalised environs were a focus for specific and special activities throughout the Iron Age – a venue for spectacular and extensive ceremonies featuring feasts, fire, crafts and the symbolic deposition of a plethora of artefacts and environmental materials, as well as human remains. This volume sets out the results of fieldwork carried out at High Pastures between 2004 and 2010, presents results from the extensive post-excavation analysis, and provides a biography of the High Pasture Cave complex from the early Bronze Age through 900 years of Iron Age activity. Recent research has led to a resurgence of interest in caves, in particular the place of these enigmatic sites in the worldviews of later prehistoric communities. Their investigation in the past has generally attributed a domestic function, comprising temporary homes and shelter for hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists, and as workshops and places of refuge. However, it is now proposed that many caves, including High Pasture, were used for rituals involving the preparation and display of human remains, the deposition of material culture and other types of organic materials. These were clearly performative acts and the recurrent use of caves as the arenas for such performances, tells us much about their role in the cosmology of later prehistoric communities.

This edited volume brings together an international group of scholars to address the lives, roles, myths, mythology, and lived experiences of Viking women as well as the impacts of change on women during the turbulent period of the Viking Age. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, this is a book dedicated to the lesserknown aspects of women’s lives as active members of society. It provides an innovative way of bringing together work from archaeological, anthropological, historical, and literary perspectives to address questions about women in trade, in war, in magic, in the household and activities that provided women with power and respect in their communities.

The authors explore multifaceted aspects of the competing cultural landscapes that comprise the northeast of Scotland. This interdisciplinary collection uses a deep temporal perspective at a range of scales, from microlandscape studies to largescale geological and archaeological environments. It presents collaborative research carried out by a local conservation group, the Bailies of Bennachie, and the University of Aberdeen across a twelveyear period – the ‘Bennachie Landscapes Project’. Far from being a cultural backwater, the book shows how key physical and social processes have interacted in the landscape of northeast Scotland since prehistory. Authors present new understandings of glacial geology, Mesolithic settlements, Roman, Viking and medieval settlements and environments, and recent crofting landscapes. Today’s landscape is shown to be an extraordinarily rich resource for cultural and environmental history that is well worthy of continued protection and care. The research is itself used as a means of reaching into the wider community and engaging in a twoway process of education that connects the various participants.This book, therefore, explores ways of ‘doing’ environmental archaeology and cultural landscape studies that are not mainstream. All of the studies have a greater or lesser degree of community input. Some are communitydriven, others more academically oriented. But all add value to the others and help to create a better understanding of the cultural landscapes of northeast Scotland. The narrative flows from late glacial times, through prehistoric and historic periods forward, through the actions of the present engaging communities, seamlessly on and into the future.

Trajan's Column, set up in the heart of Rome, was completed in 113 CE to commemorate the emperor Trajan's wars across the Danube. Its reliefs provide a uniquely detailed picture of the army at war in perfect harmony with Trajan who in his own lifetime and forever after was accounted 'The Best of Emperors'. The sculptures are a panegyric to military achievement of the troops and to leadership by their emperor, but, much more than this, they have exerted an enormous influence on modern perceptions of Roman art, architecture, warfare, politics, religion, ethnography and geography. The author's research answers questions which have been asked about Trajan's Column since the first studies of the 16th century. How were the reliefs planned and executed? Can they be used as a reliable historical source for Trajan's reign? How accurate is their depiction of the Roman army at war? What does the Column reveal about the political balance between emperor and army, and about Rome's attitude to the 'barbarian'?The Column's pedestal reliefs depicted more than 600 captured barbarian trophies, and its 200m helical frieze represents 2600 human figures engaged in frontier warfare. Never before has this vast mass of material been studied in detail, in its entirety, using modern methods of recording, comparison and analysis. The author was granted unprecedented access by the Rome authorities to scaffolding erected around the Column for conservation studies, allowing detailed photographic evidence to be collected as well as the chance to study the whole monument at close hand. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of Roman imperial history, art, and the city of Rome.

The large American Indian city of Cahokia sits amidst a diverse natural landscape within the larger central Mississippi river valley. Well positioned on the rich agricultural soils of the Mississippi river bottomlands of the Amercan Bottom it is at the core of a cultural landscape that its residents helped shape. In this volume the editors and authors attempt to not just focus on Cahokia and its configuration but also the other towns and settlements dispersed throughout the region extant for nearly four centuries. The importance of Cahokia to native peoples and to the world community as a UNESCO World Heritage site resides in its creation as a ‘Cosmological Center of the Universe’. In order to begin comprehending where we are today in an interpretation that respects and pays homage to those that were instrumental in its conception and the implementation of a vision, one must understand the principles that underlie the Indigenous cosmology and rituals of Eastern North America. Mapping the mounds began as early as the late 18th century and thus represents the first efforts to depict what was readily seen. Over 300 sites with earthen mounds have been documented in the region and range from isolated mounds honoring the dead thousands of years ago to an array of over 100 mounds in the case of Cahokia that in some instances honored the ancestors individually and collectively. The editor’s investigations over nearly 25 years have helped elucidate the significance of Cahokia as an urban center and the processes leading to its creation. The history of this sacred place is highlighted by a number of major discontinuities that represent intellectual ‘axis mundi’ of this discussion. However, it is the broader landscape perspectives over the centuries that serve to illuminate the vibrant colors of this narrative.

Strøby Toftegård: Halls, Hierarchies and Social Dynamics in Late Iron Age and Viking Age Denmark presents and considers the archaeological material from the site of Strøby Toftegård in the eastern part of Zealand, Denmark, where comprehensive excavations took place between 1994 and 2013. The book seeks to qualify the interpretation of Farm 1 as the residence of a magnate from c. AD 650 to c. AD 1000 and of the whole settlement consisting of at least nine farm units as a magnate settlement. This is done by means of a detailed survey and analysis of buildings and features, structures, various groups of objects, and a discussion of the landscape, the social context and the creation of social hierarchies that the site fitted into while it was in use.Detailed analyses of pits, wells, a latrine, bone material, macrofossils, pollen, the sherds of glass vessels, sherds of windowpanes, beads, jewelry, tools and pottery all substantiate that Farm 1 was something extraordinary. Its inhabitants appear to have had better access to resources, been in charge of certain activities, had access to knowledge that was not available to everyone and, finally, to have been part of larger social and political networks. It is likewise argued that the rest of the settlement was home to the magnate’s retinue in the form of, inter alia, mounted warriors. Strøby Toftegård’s placement within the hierarchy of power in relation to the other known magnate localities is also discussed. The argument here is that there were close connections between Strøby Toftegård and the royal seat in Lejre, although the material simultaneously indicates that Strøby Toftegård was not quite on the same political level as Lejre.The interpretation of Strøby Toftegård is considered in relation to the surrounding landscape, place names and other archaeological evidence from excavations and metal-detector surveys. The last chapter is a concluding discussion of those elements within the archaeological material that justify interpreting the settlement at Strøby Toftegård as a magnate settlement, what such an interpretation entails and what questions it raises for future treatment of the archaeological material.

Frontiers were an integral feature of every medieval polity, and their spaces were defined by opposing spheres of influence, contact and connectivity. As these polities expanded and contracted, often as a result of military conquest and territorial annexation, their permeable edges became defined by transformative cultural landscapes. Here, the encounters between native or resident and incoming populations, from small elite groups through to larger numbers of migrants from diverse social backgrounds, resulted in varying degrees of cultural hybridity. This came to define frontier societies, and left an enduring impact even as borderlands continued to move. They also saw the reconfiguration of political, economic and religious landscapes as frontier authorities invested in both old and new centers, with varying degrees of continuity. Today, the remains of their fortified residences represent the most striking monuments associated with former frontiers. They remain at the center of public narratives regarding state formation and cultural conflict.Adopting the definition of frontiers as both the spaces at the edges of polities and the composite societies resulting from their territorial expansion, this book presents a multi-disciplinary study of their dynamics. Focusing on the western Mediterranean, it draws on case studies of cultural landscapes shaped by two contrasting periods of conquest, regime change and state formation: the Castilian and Aragonese conquests of al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) and the French annexation of Occitania following the Albigensian Crusade. Integrating perspectives from settlement and landscape archaeology, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, archaeometallurgy and isotopic analyses, this book provides a new framework for the study of the transformative spaces of medieval frontier societies.

This volume highlights the excellent, wide-ranging work of a diverse collection of Iranian archaeologists, the new voices in Iranian archaeology. Archaeology in Iran has developed in lockstep with the discipline of archaeology itself, in part due to the colonial endeavors that provided impetus for Europeans to travel to distant lands and extract antiquities and other commodities. But centuries before western archaeologists broke ground on excavations in the lands that would in 1935 be called Iran, a deep and meaningful engagement with and reverence for the past was a thread running through Iranian culture since antiquity. For millennia, the residents and rulers of ancient Iranian lands have admired, interacted with, inscribed, invented stories about, and imitated the visible, often ruined, monuments of their ancestors that dotted the landscape.Following numerous interruptions in the twentieth century occasioned by revolution, war, and the geopolitical climate, Iranian archaeology has experienced a resurgence, and these papers offer case studies on the archaeological and scientific sophistication of the work currently being done in Iran by Iranian archaeologists. As a collection, these papers show the chronological and geographical breadth of archaeology in Iran, with papers analyzing the earliest evidence for human-object interaction in the Paleolithic era, the bustling medieval cities and their hinterlands, and many stages in between. The case studies deliberately highlight archaeological work across the entirety of the vast and varied geography of Iran, from the fertile plains of Fars in the southwest, to the rugged Zagros Mountains in the northwest, from the peaks of the Elburz Mountains south of the Caspian Sea, across the broad expanse of the Plateau, to the eastern regions bordering Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.This volume also features the work of many women in Iranian archaeology, a testament to the expansion and evolution of the field and its participants in Iran. In sum, these papers demonstrate the commitment of a new generation of Iranian archeologists to their land’s diverse and complex past.

The end of the 3rd millennium was a time of significant transformation in Southeast Arabia (the United Arab Emirates and Northern Oman). The cultural homogeneity of the preceding Early Bronze Age, Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700–2000 BC) came to an end and gave way to the Middle Bronze Age, Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC). Settlements changed, and possibly began to decline in size and number; the economy changed for many; and the important trade in copper ore seems to have declined. In addition, there was a marked change in funerary practices as new types of tombs appeared – both collective and individual burials. All of this took place within the context of a climatic shift that led to a decline in rainfall across many parts of the region. Much of the countryside of Southeastern Iran was abandoned and the urban period of the Indus Valley was weakening. In the midst of this turmoil, the limited agricultural plains of Northern Ras al-Khaimah appear to have developed into an island where there was greater continuity than elsewhere. This book reports on the excavation of a number of monumental collective tombs that were built there and used through the early part of the 2nd millennium. The way that they were constructed and used as well as the burial goods that they contain throw light on the population of this area, and give some indication of how and why it was that life continued in this small pocket in a way that was different way to surrounding regions.

This book provides the exciting results of a long-term project examining Bronze Age round barrow construction and burial practices in Orkney, Scotland. A main focus of this research is on the act of cremation; a technology of bodily metamorphosis as articulated through complex mortuary practices, which produced a distinctive form of funerary architecture. This, and other topical themes, are explored through the results of extensive excavations at several barrow cemeteries including Linga Fiold, Gitterpitten, Varme Dale, Vestrafiold and the Knowes of Trotty, the latter being famous for rich grave goods including gold discs and amber beads. In this context, in being built on the ruins of an early Neolithic settlement, Knowes of Trotty provides an intersection of relational fields, fusing local tradition with faraway places.At Linga Fiold, the barrow cemetery was almost entirely excavated, and by employing sophisticated recovery techniques and analyses, unique evidence is presented for a complex sequence of barrow building and mortuary practices. This enables the reconstruction of an extraordinary ritual journey of the deceased from cremation pyre to final interment.Additionally, several cist excavations are published here for the first time. This evidence allows an appraisal of the developing cist burial tradition in Orkney through the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, from the insertion of remains into chambered tombs and large re-enterable unobtrusive cists, to the development of imposing linear barrow cemeteries, to the drawing in of the dead closer to home.Overall, the new findings presented here allow a reconsideration of the chronology and specifics of changing Orcadian burial technologies and traditions: clearly, such results have significance beyond Orkney for understanding the complexities of Bronze Age cremation and burial practices across Britain and north-west Europe.

For ambitious late antique homeowners seeking to demonstrate their status and taste, water and its display offered almost infinite possibilities. Water Displays in Domestic Spaces across the Late Roman West: Cultivating Living Buildings presents the first synthesis of the archaeological evidence for late antique water features in both urban houses and extra-urban villas across the western Empire. Ginny Wheeler examines a wide and varied range of examples: from decorative basins and pools to fountains of all forms to water-equipped dining couches. Through careful analysis and evocative reconstruction of the water displays in their diverse contexts, this book explores how they were incorporated into late antique residences, the different ways that they enhanced domestic spaces, and the potential motives behind their insertion. To assess the great efforts to which homeowners, particularly in urban settings, went to ensure their installation and continued operation, one case study focuses on the best-preserved cityscape of Ostia. While the roles of water features ranged from practical to aesthetic, to social and symbolic, this book highlights their previously under-considered contributions to thermal comfort and sensory experience through in-depth analyses of two Iberian villas. Wheeler identifies broad patterns and regional distinctions in form and decor before reflecting on the multifaceted significance of water in the domestic sphere, informed by literary, epigraphic, and iconographic sources. Beyond contributing to the ongoing debate over fountains’ utility versus aesthetics, this research offers new insights into the organization of life at household and neighborhood levels, the social relations between homeowners occasioned by water installations, and the understanding and application of environmental design in Antiquity.

Archaeoacoustics, the study of sound in the past, is increasingly attracting attention. Although some work, particularly in musical archaeology, had been conducted previously, the field received a significant boost when the term itself was coined by Scarre and Lawson in their 2006 volume of that name, which brought together two major distinct strands: archaeomusicology and the acoustics of archaeological spaces. Since 2006, the number of publications has steadily been growing, yet the field remains in its infancy. This is partly due to the complexity inherent in the analysis of sound, which requires multidisciplinary collaboration across various disciplines. This complexity is reflected in the approaches followed and the contributors from diverse academic fields, including not only archaeology but also anthropology, architecture, classics, history, art history, and sound engineering.The aim is to provide an overview of a selection of the different topics covered by the field of archaeoacoustics. Contributors aspire to advancing the field through innovative approaches, including those stemming from psychology, a field not commonly associated with archaeology. Additionally, the book seeks to expand the field by developing a number of new ideas based on novel case studies. It presents some of the results derived from major research projects, such as the ERC funded Artsoundscapes and the Soundspace projects led by DíazAndreu and Knighton, respectively. The book will cover a wide range of topics, including a synthetic history of research provided in the introduction, theories about the origins of music in early humans, experimental archaeomusicology, approaches from the fields of neuroacoustics and psychoacoustics, experimental studies of portable and fixed lithophones and other musical instruments, explorations of soundscapes, representations of sound in early medieval frescoes, late medieval urbanscapes, and postmedieval proxemics. Case studies are located in America, Asia, and Europe.