This paper argues that the conception of ritual employed in both archaeology and anthropology is a product of post-Enlightenment rationalism. Because it does not meet modern western criteria for practical action, ritual is frequently described as non-functional and irrational; furthermore, this designation is employed as the primary way of identifying ritual archaeologically. However, this evaluation of ritual action must be questioned. Contemporary modes of categorizing human practice are not untainted by socio-political interest but enable the reproduction of certain forms of power. It is argued that many other societies do not distinguish ritual from secular action. In fact, what anthropologists identify as ritual is generally considered practical and effective action by its practitioners. This is because different conceptions of instrumentality and causation inform such activities. For archaeologists, use of the concept of ritual has resulted in a serious misapprehension of prehistoric rationality such that ‘secular’ activities (for example subsistence practices) are assumed to be governed by a universally-applicable functionalist logic. In order to address this problem, what is required is an approach that explores the essential difference between prehistoric rationality and our own notions of what is effective action. A discussion of some finds from middle Bronze Age settlements in southern England will provide a working example of how one might begin to move towards this goal.

Empirical studies increasingly testify to the capacity for archaeological and cultural heritage sites to engender wonder, transformation, attachment, and community bonding amongst diverse individuals. Following political theorist Jane Bennett, these sites have the power to ‘enchant’ and, in so doing, they are seedbeds of human generosity, ethical mindfulness, and care for the world at large. However, the means by which such enchantment is created, and the extent to which these intimate encounters with the prehistoric or historic record can be deliberately crafted, are little understood. Worsening the predicament, professional practices commonly thwart the potential for archaeology to provoke ethical action amongst humans. Here, I propose a multi-stranded conceptual model for generating enchantment with the archaeological record across both professional audiences and broader publics. With reference to the European Commission-funded EMOTIVE Project, I articulate one particular strand of this model: facilitated dialogue. Alongside exploring the role of digital culture in its advancement, I argue that an enchantment-led approach is imperative for achieving a truly socially-beneficial archaeological discipline.

This paper presents the results of the use of a minimally destructive biomolecular technique to explore the resource networks behind one of the first specialized urban crafts in early mediaeval northern Europe: the manufacture of composite combs of deer antler. The research incorporates the largest application of species identification by peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) to a mediaeval artefact assemblage: specifically to collections of antler combs, comb manufacturing waste, and raw antler from Ribe, Aarhus, and Aggersborg. It documents the early use of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler, from the 780s AD at the latest, presenting the earliest unambiguous evidence for exchange-links between urban markets in the southern North Sea region and the Scandinavian Peninsula. The results demonstrate that the common conceptual distinction between urban hinterlands and long-distance trade conceals a vital continuity. Long-range networks were vital to urban activities from the first appearance of towns in this part of the world, preceding the historically documented maritime expansion of the Viking Age. We consequently suggest that urbanism is more appropriately defined and researched in terms of network dynamics than as a function of circumscribed catchment areas or hinterlands.

This article reviews the potential of archives of historic aerial photographs for European archaeology. Their roles in primary site discovery, in monitoring condition and material change, and in understanding landscape development with particular reference to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention are discussed. The major sources are briefly described and their characteristics outlined. The impacts that differing national and regional research traditions and heritage policy have on the use of these archival collections is discussed in the framework of issues of variable accessibility and approaches to ensuring appropriate uses, including identifying limitations.

Multiple isotopic systems (C, N, O, S, Sr, Pb) are applied to investigate diet and mobility amongst the Middle Neolithic populations at Schipluiden and Swifterbant (Netherlands). A review of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of European Mesolithic and Neolithic populations shows a shift in diet from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, but also great variety in Neolithic diets, several of which incorporate fish. At Swifterbant (c. 4300–4000 BC) the population had a diet largely based on terrestrial and freshwater resources, despite proximity to tidal waters. Only one individual (of 10) showed evidence for migration. In contrast at Schipluiden (c. 3600–3400 BC) there were migrants who had a diet lower in marine resources than those without evidence for migration. The faunal spectrum and isotopic similarities with sites in the Iron Gates Gorge suggest that sturgeon may have been important. There is some evidence that migrants at Schipluiden were not accorded the formal burial given to locally born people.

This contribution, in memory of the Cambridge archaeologist and cultural theorist, David Clarke (1938–76), investigates the possibility of a coherent description of long-term change on an archaeological time scale. It rejects an earlier (‘processualist’) synthesis based on ecology; but, rather than retreat into an introverted and fragmented post-modernism, it asserts the continuing value of a ‘grand narrative’. It identifies the problems of the neo-evolutionary conception prevalent in the 1960s and early 1970s, and in particular a division into stages, and emphasis on autonomous development, and the priority given to production. In contrast, this presentation emphasises the importance of social interaction and cultural encounter. This interactionist approach is exemplified in new descriptions of the ‘Neolithic’, ‘Urban’, and ‘Industrial’ Revolutions, and discussed as a means of conceptualising some general properties of long-term change.

Stable isotope analyses were conducted on faunal remains from the site of Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş with the objective of characterizing the environments and seasonality of husbandry in the earliest Neolithic (Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Starčevo-Criş I) of southern Romania. Results from bone collagen analysis indicate extensive herding strategies for cattle and pigs. However, sequential analysis in tooth enamel also provides evidence for winter leaf foddering in one bovine, potentially kept by the settlement over winter. In some instances, sheep were fed a 13C-enriched resource in late winter, which may have also coincided with lactation. It could not be determined whether this contribution was from C3 or C4 plants. Although isolated, these findings may be important in evaluating how early agricultural communities dealt with environmental constraints. These results are also interpreted with reference to the models of intensive mixed farming systems recently proposed by Bogaard (2004) and Halstead (2006).

This article examines the character and role of exchange in Bronze Age Britain. It critiques anachronistic models of competitive individualism, arguing instead that the circulation of both artefacts and the remains of the dead constructed the self in terms of enduring interpersonal ties. It is suggested that the conceptual divide between people and things that typifies post-Enlightenment rationalism has resulted in an understanding of Bronze Age exchange that implicitly characterizes objects as commodities. This article re-evaluates the relationship between people and things in Bronze Age Britain. It explores the role of objects as active social agents; the exchange of artefacts and of human remains facilitated the production of the self and the reproduction of society through cyclical processes of fragmentation, dispersal and reincorporation. As such, Bronze Age concepts of personhood were relational, not individual.

The study of landscape as social construction implies considering its economic and territorial dimensions, as much as its symbolic ones. A major topic in such kinds of studies is the reconstruction of the ways in which natural and social space was perceived by past societies. We ought to approach the project of building an archaeology of perception. One of the aims of such a research programme would be the evaluation of the effects of natural and artificial landscape features on past human observers. This paper will argue that a possible strategy for studying these dimensions of past landscapes could be based on the systematic analysis of the visual features of prehistoric monuments and in the characterization of the scenic effects and vistas related to them. A detailed analysis of the pattern of location of megalithic monuments and of their visibility and intervisibility allows us to recognize certain regularities which display an intention to take account of monuments by provoking dramatic artificial effects. In such a way, we could approach a phenomenology of prehistoric perception without falling into merely subjective solutions. This study is based on a systematic review of the megalithic monuments from Sierra de Barbanza (north-west Iberia). Its main aims are: (1) the proposal for a theoretical and methodological study of these phenomena, combined with; (2) a case-study to reconstruct those monumental strategies used to shape cultural landscapes in Neolithic Europe, and; (3) the explanation of continuities and changes of these traditions.

Recent anatomical analyses of a human maxilla found in 1927 in the Vestibule at Kent's Cavern, Devon, UK, have been interpreted as confirming its taxonomic status as Homo sapiens, while Bayesian modelling of dated fauna apparently ‘associated’ with it has been interpreted as suggesting a calendar age for the maxilla of around 44,200–41,500 years BP, rendering it the earliest fossil evidence for modern human presence in Northern Europe. In this paper, we examine fully the circumstances of the maxilla's discovery, data not previously considered. Based mostly on archival and limited published materials, as well as knowledge of the cave's stratigraphy, we provide a detailed examination of the context of the maxilla and associated finds. We urge caution over using a small selected sample of fauna from an old and poorly executed excavation in Kent's Cavern to provide a radiocarbon stratigraphy and age for a human fossil that cannot be dated directly, and we suggest that the recent dating should be rejected. We place our evaluation in the wider context of the dating of European early anatomically modern humans.

We review the evidence for the earliest agriculture in Finland. The claims are all based on pollen analysis. Some claims go back to the Neolithic period. We contest these claims critically and argue that the ‘early cereal-type’ pollen grains may in fact come from large-grained wild grasses, and cannot be taken as clear evidence for cultivation in the absence of other lines of evidence. Cultivation of cereals in Finland may have started as late as the start of the Iron Age in c. 500 BC.

This special issue of the European Journal of Archaeology discusses aspects of animal husbandry in a number of provinces of the Western Roman Empire. In this introduction, we describe the general characteristics of animal husbandry in pre-Roman and Roman times to assess any changes that may have occurred after the Roman conquest. The results suggest that the territoriality typifying the first millennium bc had a significant impact on production, resulting in a decrease in cattle size and frequencies across Europe. Nevertheless, not all the regions reacted in the same way, and regional communities that focused their animal production on pigs implemented more sustainable husbandry practices over time. By bringing together studies carried out across Europe, this journal issue highlights the existence of cases of both change and continuity across the Empire, and the (uneven) impact of the market economy on animal husbandry and dietary practices in climatically different regions.

The mass grave found near Talheim in southern Germany dates to approximately 7000 years ago and contains the skeletal remains of 34 individuals from the Early Neolithic period, associated with what is known as the Linearbandkeramik culture. These individuals appear to have been the victims of a massacre, based on the presence of numerous lethal head wounds, several arrow wounds, and the placement of all of these individuals in the same burial pit. The burials are considered to likely represent members of the same community attacked and executed by another group. In this study we examine the remains from the mass grave at Talheim for information on migration and community structure using strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel. In essence, strontium isotope ratios are signatures of different rock types. The food chain moves these atoms into the human skeleton from bedrock through water, soils, plants, and herbivores. Because human tooth enamel does not change after formation, it provides a stored signal of the strontium isotopes of the place of birth. If the strontium isotope ratio of the place of death is different, the individual under study must have moved from one geology to another during his or her lifetime. Isotopic provenancing shows that several of the individuals in the group at Talheim were born in a different geological location. We discuss the results of the analysis and its significance in terms of questions of migration and community structure in the Early Neolithic of prehistoric Europe.

The widespread employment and acceptance of use-wear analysis on materials such as flint and bone has not been accompanied by a parallel development in archaeometallurgy. This article explores its potential and problems through the investigation of socketed axes in eastern Yorkshire, in England and south-east Scotland during the late Bronze Age. Experimental work on modern replications of socketed axes was compared with wear traces on prehistoric socketed axes. The results indicate that prehistoric socketed axes had been used as multi-purpose tools, but that the nature and extent of their uses before deposition varied considerably. By combining use-wear analysis with contextual information on socketed axes in the late Bronze Age landscape, ideas concerning their significance can be explored.

This article attempts an interpretation of an unusual assemblage of cattle skulls recovered from recent excavations at the Viking Age monumental hall of Hofstaðir in Iceland. Osteological analysis of the skulls indicates ritual decapitation and display of cattle heads, and this article seeks to explore the meanings of this practice in relation to the context of the site and the wider historical and ethnographic literature. It is argued that the beheading of cattle and display of their heads was a part of sacrificial acts conducted on a seasonal basis at the site, and primarily in the context of feasting and socio-political gatherings. The gatherings acted simultaneously as a means of both dissipating social tension and enhancing political status.

Archaeologists often seem either sceptical of science-based archaeology or baffled by its results. The underpinnings of science-based archaeology may conflict with social or behavioural factors unsuited to quantification and grouping procedures. Thus, the interaction between archaeologists and their science-based colleagues has been less profitable than it might have been. The main point I consider in this study, and exemplify by considering metals provenance studies in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, is the relevance and application of the stated aims of science-based archaeology to the contemporary discipline of archaeology. Whereas most practitioners today recognize that science-based archaeology has the potential to contribute positively to the resolution of problems stemming from our field's inadequate and incomplete data resource, I contend that science and scientific analyses alone cannot adjudicate between cultural possibilities. Rather they provide analytical data which are likely to be open-ended, subject to multiple social interpretations, and in need of evaluation by collaborating archaeologists using social theory.

In much of Europe, the advent of low-input cereal farming regimes between c.ad 800 and 1200 enabled landowners—lords—to amass wealth by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation and exploiting the labour of others. Scientific analysis of plant remains and animal bones from archaeological contexts is generating the first direct evidence for the development of such low-input regimes. This article outlines the methods used by the FeedSax project to resolve key questions regarding the ‘cerealization’ of the medieval countryside and presents preliminary results using the town of Stafford as a worked example. These indicate an increase in the scale of cultivation in the Mid-Saxon period, while the Late Saxon period saw a shift to a low-input cultivation regime and probably an expansion onto heavier soils. Crop rotation appears to have been practised from at least the mid-tenth century.

Since the early 1980s, metal detector surveying conducted by amateur archaeologists has contributed significantly to archaeological research and heritage practice in Denmark. Here, metal detecting has always been legal, and official stakeholders pursue a liberal model, focusing on cooperation and inclusion rather than confrontation and criminalization. Like no other surveying method since the invention of the shovel, the metal detector has contributed to increasing enormously the amount of data and sites from metal-rich periods. Virtually all of the spectacular and ground-breaking discoveries of the past decades are owed to metal detectors in the hands of amateur archaeologists. And it is these finds and sites that today constitute one of the very foci of archaeological research. This article provides an overview of the current status of liberal metal detector archaeology in Denmark 30 years after its inception, and attempts to identify the reasons why this popular hobby never developed into the problem it has become in other parts of the world. It concludes that the success of the liberal model in Denmark is the result of a very complex interplay of legislative, historical, cultural, and social factors. On this basis, it is discussed whether the Danish experience can be used as a source of inspiration in the necessary progression towards a new legal agenda for responsible metal detector archaeology.

This paper is concerned with the impact of ancient DNA data on our models of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in central Europe. Beginning with a brief overview of how genetic data have been received by archaeologists working in this area, it outlines the potential and remaining problems of this kind of evidence. As a migration around the beginning of the Neolithic now seems certain, new research foci are then suggested. One is renewed attention to the motivations and modalities of the migration process. The second is a fundamental change in attitude towards the capabilities of immigrant Neolithic populations to behave in novel and creative ways, abilities which in our transition models were long exclusively associated with hunter-gatherers.

Cutmarks on the bones of ten individuals from Körtik Tepe, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Southeastern Anatolia, were analysed using a bioarchaeological approach. Half of the ten individuals possess cutmarks on their crania only while the other five have cutmarks on both their cranial and postcranial bones. Diagnoses of these cutmarks suggest they were made on fresh cadavers, while skeletal data and burial customs reveal that the individuals with cutmarks were subject to human intervention in the decomposition process, understood as post-burial practices rather than secondary burials. This conclusion is supported by the application of plaster and paint as part of the burial customs. The process of defleshing is interpreted as an attempt to purify the corpse and to separate death from life.