Mesolithic on the Move

Mesolithic on the Move PDF Author: Lars Larsson
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Book Description
What do we know about the Mesolithic? What distinguishes the Mesolithic from earlier and later periods of human history? What do the Mesolithic cultures of Europe have in common, and what differentiates them from one another? This comprehensive volume contains 89 papers which attempt to answer the questions of the Mesolithic; the papers were presented at the Sixth International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe held in Stockholm, 2000.

Mesolithic on the Move

Mesolithic on the Move PDF Author: Lars Larsson
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Book Description
What do we know about the Mesolithic? What distinguishes the Mesolithic from earlier and later periods of human history? What do the Mesolithic cultures of Europe have in common, and what differentiates them from one another? This comprehensive volume contains 89 papers which attempt to answer the questions of the Mesolithic; the papers were presented at the Sixth International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe held in Stockholm, 2000.

The Mesolithic in Britain

The Mesolithic in Britain PDF Author: Chantal Conneller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000475158
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
The Mesolithic in Britain proposes a new division of the Mesolithic period into four parts, each with its distinct character. The Mesolithic has previously been seen as timeless, where little changed over thousands of years. This new synthesis draws on advances in scientific dating to understand the Mesolithic inhabitation of Britain as a historical process. The period was, in fact, a time of profound change: houses, monuments, middens, long-term use of sites and regions, manipulation of the environment and the symbolic deposition of human and animal remains all emerged as significant practices in Britain for the first time. The book describes the lives of the first pioneers in the Early Mesolithic; the emergence of new modes of inhabitation in the Middle Mesolithic; the regionally diverse settlement of the Late Mesolithic; and the radical changes of the final millennium of the period. The first synthesis of Mesolithic Britain since 1932, it takes both a chronological and a regional approach. This book will serve as an essential text for anyone studying the period: undergraduate and graduate students, specialists in the field and community archaeology groups.

Coastal Landscapes of the Mesolithic

Coastal Landscapes of the Mesolithic PDF Author: Almut Schülke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351398814
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Coastal Landscapes of the Mesolithic: Human Engagement with the Coast from the Atlantic to the Baltic Sea explores the character and significance of coastal landscapes in the Mesolithic – on different scales and with various theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Mesolithic people were strongly connected to the sea, with coastal areas vital for subsistence and communication across the water. This anthology includes case studies from Scandinavia, western Europe and the Baltic area, presented by key international researchers. Topics addressed include large-scale analyses of the archaeological and geological development of coastal areas, the exploration of coastal environments with interdisciplinary methods, the discussion of the character of coastal settlements and of their possible networks, social and economic practices along the coast, as well as perceptions and cosmological aspects of coastal areas. Together, these topics and approaches contribute in an innovative way to the understanding of the complexity of topographically changing coastal areas as both border zones between land and sea and as connecting landscapes. Providing novel insights into the study of the Mesolithic as well as coastal areas and landscapes in general, the book is an important resource for researchers of the Mesolithic and coastal archaeology.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion PDF Author: Timothy Insoll
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191617385
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1135

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion provides a comprehensive overview by period and region of the relevant archaeological material in relation to theory, methodology, definition, and practice. Although, as the title indicates, the focus is upon archaeological investigations of ritual and religion, by necessity ideas and evidence from other disciplines are also included, among them anthropology, ethnography, religious studies, and history. The Handbook covers a global span - Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Americas - and reaches from the earliest prehistory (the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic) to modern times. In addition, chapters focus upon relevant themes, ranging from landscape to death, from taboo to water, from gender to rites of passage, from ritual to fasting and feasting. Written by over sixty specialists, renowned in their respective fields, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will serve both as a comprehensive introduction to its subject and as a stimulus to further research.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-gatherers

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-gatherers PDF Author: Vicki Cummings
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199551227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1361

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies, undertaking detailed regional and thematic case-studies that span the archaeology, history and anthropology of hunter gatherers, concluding with an in-depth review of the main opportunities, research questions, and moral obligations that lie ahead.

Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers

Violence and Warfare among Hunter-Gatherers PDF Author: Mark W Allen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315415968
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
How did warfare originate? Was it human genetics? Social competition? The rise of complexity? Intensive study of the long-term hunter-gatherer past brings us closer to an answer. The original chapters in this volume examine cultural areas on five continents where there is archaeological, ethnographic, and historical evidence for hunter-gatherer conflict despite high degrees of mobility, small populations, and relatively egalitarian social structures. Their controversial conclusions will elicit interest among anthropologists, archaeologists, and those in conflict studies.

Persistent Traditions

Persistent Traditions PDF Author: Luc W.S.W. Amkreutz
Publisher: Sidestone Press
ISBN: 9088902038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
The adoption of agriculture is one of the major developments in human history. Archaeological studies have demonstrated that the trajectories of Neolithisation in Northwest Europe were diverse. This book presents a study into the archaeology of the communities involved in the process of Neolithisation in the Lower Rhine Area (5500-2500 cal BC). It elucidates the role played by the indigenous communities in relation to their environmental context and in view of the changes that becoming Neolithic brought about. This work brings together a comprehensive array of excavated archaeological sites in the Lower Rhine Area. Their analysis shows that the succession of Late Mesolithic, Swifterbant culture, Hazendonk group and Vlaardingen culture societies represents a continuous long-term tradition of inhabitation of the wetlands and wetland margins of this area, forming a culturally continuous record of communities in the transition to agriculture. After demonstrating the diversity of the Mesolithic, the subsequent developments regarding Neolithisation are studied from an indigenous perspective. Foregrounding the relationship between local communities and the dynamic wetland landscape, the study shows that the archaeological evidence of regional inhabitation points to long-term flexible behaviour and pragmatic decisions being made concerning livelihood, food economy and mobility. This disposition also influenced how the novel elements of Neolithisation were incorporated. Animal husbandry, crop cultivation and sedentism were an addition to the existing broad spectrum economy but were incorporated within a set of integrative strategies. For the interpretation of Neolithisation this study offers a complementary approach to existing research. Instead of arguing for a short transition based on the economic importance of domesticates and cultigens at sites, this study emphasises the persistent traditions of the communities involved. New elements, instead of bringing about radical changes, are shown to be attuned to existing hunter-gatherer practices. By documenting indications of the mentalité of the inhabitants of the wetlands, it is demonstrated that their mindset remained essentially ‘Mesolithic’ for millennia. This book is accompanied by a separate 422 page volume containing the appendices. These constitute a comprehensive inventory of 159, mostly excavated archaeological sites in the Lower Rhine Area.

Ancient Scandinavia

Ancient Scandinavia PDF Author: T. Douglas Price
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190231998
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
Scandinavia, a land mass comprising the modern countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, was the last part of Europe to be inhabited by humans. Not until the end of the last Ice Age when the melting of huge ice sheets left behind a fresh, barren land surface, about 13,000 BC, did the first humans arrive and settle in the region. The archaeological record of these prehistoric cultures, much of it remarkably preserved in Scandinavia's bogs, lakes, and fjords, has given us a detailed portrait of the evolution of human society at the edge of the inhabitable world. In this book, distinguished archaeologist T. Douglas Price provides a history of Scandinavia from the arrival of the first humans to the end of the Viking period, ca. AD 1050. The first book of its kind in English in many years, Ancient Scandinavia features overviews of each prehistoric epoch followed by illustrative examples from the region's rich archaeology. An engrossing and comprehensive picture of change across the millennia emerges, showing how human society evolved from small bands of hunter-gatherers to large farming communities to the complex warrior cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, cultures which culminated in the spectacular rise of the Vikings at the end of the prehistoric period. The material evidence of these past societies--arrowheads from reindeer hunts, megalithic tombs, rock art, beautifully wrought weaponry, Viking warships--give vivid testimony to the ancient peoples of Scandinavia and to their extensive contacts with the remote cultures of the Arctic Circle, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology PDF Author: Francesco Menotti
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199573492
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 970

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Book Description
This Handbook sets out the key issues and debates in the theory and practice of wetland archaeology which has played a crucial role in studies of our past. Due to the high quantity of preserved organic materials found in humid environments, the study of wetlands has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct people's everyday lives in great detail.

FROM HUNTER-GATHERERS TO FARMERS

FROM HUNTER-GATHERERS TO FARMERS PDF Author: Monica Mărgărit
Publisher: Editura Cetatea de Scaun
ISBN: 6065377252
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
It is difficult to capture one’s life in a few words, a few photographs or even a book. The papers in the present volume will hopefully reflect a part of Clive Bonsall’s scientific interests during a career that has started some 45 years ago. Their diversity is impressive: from radiocarbon dating, environmental changes, human-environment interactions, funerary behaviour, to paleogenetics and stable isotopes, reconstruction of ancient diets and obsidian sourcing, most of them in close connection to the hunter-gatherer and first farmer communities of Europe. His studies stretched over a large geographical area, focusing recently mainly around the Balkans and the neighbouring regions. He has conducted fieldwork in Britain, Scotland, Romania and Slovenia, edited 9 books and published over 160 papers, book-chapters, notes, as well as book and paper reviews. His main publications include: “The Mesolithic in Europe” (1989), “The Human Use of Caves” (1997), “The Iron Gates in Prehistory” (2008), “Submerged Prehistory” (2011) and “Not Just for Show: The Archaeology of Beads, Beadwork and Personal Ornaments” (2017). His substantial work in southeastern Europe is reflected by his long-standing collaboration and friendship with many Romanian and Bulgarian archaeologists, and has received due recognition: Clive Bonsall is an Honorary Member of both the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest and the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum in Sofia. His contribution to the archaeology of the Iron Gates has earned him the recognition of the Serbian archaeologists working in the area. His many other research interests and personal collaborations are also reflected in the present volume. We are grateful to all our contributors: colleagues and friends, new and old, former students and collaborators whose archaeological interests met Clive’s if only briefly. We were happy to see that so many of us were able to mobilize in such a short time. We would like to thank all those who answered our call and at a time when every minute of our professional lives is carefully planned in advance, helped us put together this volume in less than a year. They have endured and complied with our constant deadline reminders and requests, checked and re-checked their manuscripts in record times, gracefully complying with the comments and suggestions from the reviewers, and were most patient with our editorial work. Each paper was submitted to a double reviewing. We would like to also thank our colleagues from various disciplines who accepted to anonymously review the contributions. Their hard and serious work significantly improved the overall content of the volume. The outcome has exceeded our most optimistic expectation: a volume that geographically covers almost the entire European continent, from Britain to Russia and Greece and touches on most important issues of hunter-gather adaptions through time. A volume brought together by chronological landmarks (the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene) and geographical areas but also by common approaches to issues such as human-animal interactions, exploitation and use of raw materials, and subsistence strategies. We chose to organize the papers on three main sections, while within the respective theme they follow in chronological succession. The archaeology of the Iron Gates opens the volume, given Clive Bonsall’s substantial contribution to the local early prehistory. The eight contributions cover a large range of subjects, from physical anthropology (Andrei Soficaru), re-interpretation of earlier excavations and the subsequent collections (Adina Boroneanț), stone artefacts (Dragana Antonović, Vidan Dimić, Andrej Starović and Dušan Borić) to the study of faunal remains and subsequent paleo-dietary issues (Adrian Bălășescu, Adina Boroneanț and Valentin Radu; Dragana Filipović, Jelena Jovanović and Dragana Rančić; Ivana Živaljević, Vesna Dimitrijević and Sofija Stefanović), and osseous industries (Monica Mărgărit and Adina Boroneanț; Selena Vitezović). These studies illustrate the still immense research potential of the Iron Gates region despite the fact that most of the sites have been flooded many decades ago. During the editing of the volume it became obvious that while some of the contributions focused on the evidence from a certain site, others were more of a regional synthesis. This latter section begins with a most interesting paper bringing together world history and underwater archaeology (Jonathan Benjamin and Geoff Bailey). The following nine articles deal with subjects such as social inequalities seen through the study of burial practices (Judith M. Grünberg), lifeways, adaptations and subsistence strategies of the early prehistoric communities (Agathe Reingruber; Mihael Budja; Annie Brown and Haskel Greenfield; Kenneth Ritchie), raw materials acquisition and exploitation (Tomasz Płonka, Maria Gurova, Eva David), exploitation, management and trade of “exotic” goods (Vassil Nikolov). The nine papers focusing on individual sites present case studies that illustrate the nature of the current research, the rich opportunities offered by the growing range of scientific techniques and their applications to existing collections. This series of papers starts at Zemunica Cave on the coast of the Eastern Adriatic (Siniša Radović and Ankica Oros Sršen), explores the Mesolithic occupations at Malga Rondenetto (Paolo Biagi, Elisabetta Starnini and Renato Nisbet) and Grotta dell’Edera (Barbara Voytek) in Italy, the Mesolithic ornamented weapons of Motala in Sweden (Lars Larsson and Fredrik Molin), ending this Mesolithic journey among the shell middens on the western coast of Scotland (Catriona Pickard). The transition to the Neolithic happens among the beaver tools at Zamojste 2 in Russia (Olga Lozovskaya, Charlotte Leduc and Louis Chaix). The Neolithic Age finds us further south into Bulgaria, exploring the pitfields of Sarnevo (Krum Bacvarov and John Gorczyk) and the gold of Varna (Tanya Dzhanfezova), while during the Bronze Age roe deer hunting is resurrected at Paks-Gyapa in Hungary (László Bartosiewicz and Erika Gál). The volume presents altogether new results in recent research and new information resulted from the study of old collections. We also hope it points out directions for future research. It is with great joy that we present Clive Bonsall this volume, as a token of both our appreciation and friendship, for his contributions to the Early Prehistory of Europe in general, and of Southeastern Europe in special. The Editors