This paper discusses the chronology of the Järrestad rock-art site in south-east Sweden. Drawing on recent developments in ship chronology, it argues that images were produced from the very beginning of the Scandinavian Bronze Age, c. 1700 BC, to the earliest Iron Age, c. 200 BC. The images are not randomly spread, however, but cluster in two phases: c. 1700–1100 BC and c. 900–200 BC, each with its different characteristics. It is argued that the later phase should be viewed against the background of central and western European Hallstatt cultures which affected not only the iconography of the Järrestad panel but also the organization of the surrounding cultural landscape.

The polycentric nature of Neolithic developments in the Middle East has prompted several discussions related to the processes driving regional diversification in the emergence of agglomerate societies. Archaeologists have recognized how diverse social, environmental, and material landscapes shaped various communities, resulting in a heterogenous Neolithic world. In this paper, we use portable x-ray fluorescence analysis to determine the use of different chert resources at the site of Çatalhöyük, Turkey, and question how their consumption affected, and was affected by, different social and material practices enacted within the community. We adopt a network perspective to examine the range of behaviours that consumed particular resources, and trace how alterations in these networks impacted the social fabric of Çatalhöyük. Ultimately, we conclude that different investments involved in the consumption of each resource either promoted or restricted their use through time. A more complete picture of Neolithic life, we suggest, takes note of the varied relationships that communities developed with nearby social and environmental landscapes, including nuances in the ways in which resources were incorporated into different facets of each community.

This article presents the results of multi-scalar investigations into the Later Bronze Age (LBA; 1500–600 bc) landscape of Inishark in County Galway, Ireland. The European LBA along the Atlantic coast was characterized by the development of long-distance maritime exchange systems that transformed environmentally marginal seascapes into a corridor of human interaction and movement of goods and people. Archaeological survey, test excavation, and radiocarbon analysis documented the LBA occupation on Inishark. The communities living on Inishark and other small islands on the western Irish coast were on the periphery of both the European continent and of the elite spheres of influence at hillforts in Ireland; yet they were connected to the Atlantic maritime exchange routes. A focus on small coastal islands contributes to a better understanding of LBA socioeconomic systems and the development of social complexity in Bronze Age societies.

In this article I explore different ways archaeologists can contribute to and learn from theorizing the digital world beyond the traditional functionalistic means of applying computational methods. I argue that current digital technologies can be a very constructive tool to create non-human experience and awareness. I pursue this argument by presenting ideas from a work-in-progress project experimenting with the post-human and the virtual, and by exploring significant otherness in Roman religion and the dark spots in human perception, through the analysis of an absent temple in Rome. Applying post-human philosophies and an expanded concept of virtuality beyond the digital makes it possible to change our approach to object/human/divine relations in Roman cults and how we present Roman heritage towards a post-humanist framework. Through this, digital archaeology can become one of the ways of re-examining and reinventing our ideas of the human, the past and the digital.

There is a wealth of archaeological evidence, from bones excavated in prehistoric middens, piles of fruit stones and sea shells, that give us concrete indications of food consumed at various prehistoric sites around Europe. In addition to this information, we have pollen analysis from settlement sites and charred plant macrofossils. Wetland archaeology informs us in much more detail about not only the types of foods that were being eaten in prehistory but also, in some cases, their cooking techniques. This paper will explore whether or not a popular misconception about the daily diet in prehistory has its roots in the analysis of stomach contents of various bog bodies found in Europe.

This study discusses the changing trends in the supply of wine, olive oil, fish sauce and domestic pottery in Pompeii over a period of more than two centuries through the examination of a pottery assemblage excavated recently in the House of the Vestals. The ceramic evidence is viewed in the light of broader political and economic trends that affected production and trade over the course of time. A clear shift from regional self-sufficiency to a heavier reliance upon extra-regional goods, particularly from the Roman provinces of Africa and Spain, is observed. The authors point out that while the ceramic record is a useful indicator of general supply trends, conclusions must be drawn with caution and scholars need to consider what is not apparent in the archaeological record in order to gain a more complete picture of the past.

Epistemology and research history significantly shape scientific understandings, debates, and publication strategies, albeit often implicitly. In Palaeolithic archaeology in particular, these factors are rarely examined in depth. Here, we present a historiographic analysis of how research history has influenced the debate concerning the possible Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia. We provide a qualitative discussion of this contentious research field as well as a citation network analysis that visualizes, quantifies, and hence clarifies some of the underlying conceptual, geographic, and temporal patterns in the development of the debate. Our results show significant regionalism as a structuring principle driving this debate as well as a basic rift between professional and avocational archaeologists in how they interpret and publish the available data. We also identify a troubling lack of cross-referencing, even when taking language barriers into account. We argue that the debate about Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia has been shaped (negatively) by the following phenomena: regionalism, nationalism, lack of research and researchers, non-cumulative work, publication in Nordic languages, science by press release/sensationalism, and a lamentable trend towards arguments ad hominem. In order to take this research field forward, we propose an epistemological turn towards a cumulative, international, and hypothesis-driven agenda based on renewed research efforts and novel citizen science tools.

This article presents the different types of pendant crosses found in the burials of a Middle Byzantine graveyard at the Pisidian settlement of Sagalassos in south-western Turkey. The aim is to study both the chronology and function of these pectoral crosses. A variety of sources are used, ranging from stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates to contextual information and skeletal data. The crosses could be broadly dated to between the eleventh and thirteenth century AD, thus providing an indication of the lifespan of the cemetery. Moreover, the typological evolution, which was corroborated by parallels from other sites in the Byzantine Empire, allowed us to establish a horizontal stratigraphy for the graveyard. The pectoral crosses discussed here shed light on the funerary practices in this part of the Byzantine world. These generally proved to belong to very young children. They constitute a category of material culture that not only provides insights into the lives of the Byzantine population, especially in early childhood, but are also the material manifestation of the intersection between popular religion, magic, and funerary rites.

The last fifteen years have seen in France a rapid increase of Iron-Age archaeological studies, both as part of the development of ‘National Archaeology’ and of political changes. This neo-structural analysis aims to make Iron-Age archaeological studies objective. It underlines how the need for a national identity influences Iron-Age archaeological constructions and strategies. After describing the ‘total’ context of French archaeology, the analysis unveils the symbols underlying Iron-Age studies in France which fit familiar archetypes – including a common ancestor – contained in the collective memory, and enables one to apprehend how the permanence of archetypes may contaminate archaeological constructions, thereby reinforcing the original ideological/archaeological strategy.

This paper looks at conventional views of Dark-Age towns: abandoned or underpopulated and lacking economic vitality. Archaeological and textual evidence is used to suggest that numerous urban churches were required to hold a large population, that so many were outside the town walls because inside was heavily built up. The paper suggests archaeology can often accurately document the demise of Roman urban structures, but survival and upkeep leaves little archaeological record, and this ‘negative’ evidence requires especially careful evaluation.

It suggests that archaeologists regularly assume that towns cannot exist without trade, that towns must provide ‘functions’ to the countryside to exist. Moses Finley's view of the ancient economy is followed, and towns are seen as fuelled by the widespread exploitation of peasants by secular nobility and the Church. Much of that rural wealth was consumed in urban centres, indeed big monasteries formed the cores of many of our present towns.

Excavations at the small Chalcolithic site of Politiko-Kokkinorotsos in central Cyprus show that it was occupied around 2880–2670 cal BC. Fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) form the major component of the substantial faunal assemblage. The structure of the animal population suggests a seasonal hunting site, an interpretation consistent with the lack of formal architecture and the range of stone tools. In this study, independent odontochronological analyses of deer and caprine are used to test and confirm the model of seasonal culling in spring and summer based on more general indicators. The results suggest a pattern of varied, specialized site-types and activities in different parts of the island and in different ecological zones, and add considerably to our understanding of cultural systems on the island in the early third millennium BC.

This paper focuses on how the human body, and the dead body in particular, was used to create social categories and identities in prehistoric Cyprus. Specifically, it explores how a particular condition, such as death, was integrated into social processes, and how the treatment of dead bodies both created and reinforced social categories and identities. The material the paper focuses on is the mortuary evidence from Chalcolithic Cyprus (3800–2300 BC). In particular, it argues that the extensive, intentional manipulation of dead bodies and human remains visible in Cypriot Chalcolithic cemeteries was aimed at integrating the individual to communal, collective wholes on the occasion of death and during the time period that followed.

This study explores the impact of recent discoveries on our understanding of the transition from the Roman to early medieval periods in northern England. Using the Tees Valley as a case study, it shows how modern interpretations of this process have focused primarily on the afterlife of the military sites in the region. However, the increased identification of significant Roman civilian settlements forces us to reconsider the dominant narratives and rethink the underlying processes that influenced the move from Roman-controlled frontier society in the fourth century to a fifth century society comprising both culturally Anglo-Saxon social groups and sub-Roman successor polities. A wider consideration is also given to how the changing patterns in the use of space and in refuse disposal strategies can be used to shed light on wider patterns of changing social identity in the later fourth century AD.

This article discusses the construction details of the mounds erected over large Viking ship burials in Norway and shows that they form an integral part of mortuary practice. Moreover, elements of the construction that are potentially unique to this type of monument are repeated, suggesting a knowledge of the properties of materials and their inter-relationships within the mounds. Here, referencing between and within the mounds is considered alongside the connections these soils, sediments, and other earth-sourced materials contained in relation to the cultural landscape. The selection of such materials and the location of the burials in the landscape were fundamental to the creation of a performative scene for the burial rites, and for establishing a desired, interlinked, social memory.

A civil case is being tried in central Sweden today, centring on disputed reindeer grazing rights between Saamis with rights to use land since time immemorial and Swedish landowners. Expert reports from both sides utilise statements by historians and archaeologists, who are called on to interpret the ‘Swedish’ or ‘Saami’ nature of prehistoric and medieval settlement The paper shows how the ‘old school’ of scholars consistently minimise past Saami presence and depict Saami culture as ‘stagnant’ while the ‘new school’ accepts the implications of medieval texts that Saamis formerly occupied territories much further south than they presently do, that the hunting-gathering tradition that still existed in central Sweden in the Middle Ages was most probably Saami, and that their adoption of Nordic words and material culture for their own use is testimony of a long process of the extention of Swedish/agricultural impact on an alien culture.

This paper ‘engenders’ the prehistory of south-eastern Europe for the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. It discusses theoretical aspects of a gender archaeology, including three prehistoric case studies, and applies the ‘theory of mutedness’ and the ‘theory of sexual insult’ - subordinate groups using alternative methods of expression - to the female figurines of the fifth-millennium south-eastern Europe. Archaeology reveals that males were dominant in the public sphere of funerary ritual, expressed in the amount and types of grave-goods; females dominated the domestic sphere, where figurines abound. An engendered tension existed between domestic and mortuary spaces. A third, asexual gender also existed at this time (documented by asexual figurines and cenotaph burials). The third gender transcended the existing bi-gender tension and strategies of spatial restriction. The sexual imagery in the figurines is interpreted as evidence of gender tensions, rather than as evidence of matriarchical societies.

The archaeological study of recent periods in Malta is in its infancy. Despite the high potential for an historical archaeology of Malta contributing to broader issues, such as an understanding of Mediterranean trade and colonialism, as well as the cultural history of Malta, the archaeological resource has remained under-explored. The aim of this article is to address the situation and offer an initial classification and interpretation of local and imported red earthenware ceramics. It will demonstrate the need for such work in relation to answering questions relating to local production, international trade, and foodways.

From the late second century AD to the end of the fourth century AD, black, shiny materials were popular in Britain and the Rhineland for the production of jewellery. In the past, in the absence of accurate, detailed analysis, all these products, irrespective of composition, have invariably been described as being made of ‘jet’. A project at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, has used the non-destructive technique of reflected light microscopy to identify the various black materials used by the Roman craftsmen. Long used for petrographic studies of coals and fossil fuels, this technique has proved very suitable for the analysis of small artefacts. The project initially focused on black objects from the area of Hadrian's Wall but was extended to look at objects from Rhineland sites as well as finds from other parts of Britain and the Continent. The project has revealed that a wide range of ‘jets’ and shales and varieties of coal from a diversity of geographical sources were used, and that the Rhineland objects were not carved from Whitby jet but from an unidentified source.

South-west Britain—Cornwall, Devon and west Somerset—has featured little in discussions of British rock art. However, although it lacks the complex motifs found in northern Britain or the rich ornamentation of the Irish passage graves, it has a growing number of sites with simple cup-marks and stands at a pivotal location in the wider distribution of this form of rock art within north-west Europe. This paper considers the cup-mark tradition in south-west Britain and its wider European context, drawing attention to comparable traditions in western France, Wales, and south-west Ireland where simple cup-marks occur in analogous contexts. We propose a chronology for cup-marks in the south-west, from suggested Neolithic origins associated with rock outcrops and chambered tombs through to their use in Bronze Age barrows and subsequently roundhouses in the second millennium BC.

This article suggests that the common appearance of cultural (‘midden’) material under barrows of the Trichterbecher culture is interpreted as the purposeful metaphor of continuity of the small-scale society that has just suffered the loss of one or more of its actors. The three stages of rites de passage as outlined by van Gennep are used to explain the mortuary rituals further. Separation was signified by the enclosure (ditch or palisade) around the future barrow site and a ‘facade’. The liminal stage may be marked archaeologically by the ‘cleansing’ of fire or dismantling of facades at the barrow entrance, and sometimes by ploughing, which destroyed the cultural material on the site. Reintegration was the ‘planting’ of the deceased under soil and the erection of the barrow. The paper concludes with implications for the growth of a lineage organisation of society.