Hoard finds appear throughout the European Bronze Age with distinct chronological and chorological peaks. While there is some consensus on seeing hoards as an expression of cultic behaviour, the large ‘scrap metal' hoards in particular still provoke interpretations as raw material collected for recycling. With socketed axes whose sockets were intentionally filled with deliberately fragmented metalwork, Hansen (1996–1998) has pointed out a group of finds that could be crucial to a better understanding of ‘scrap’ hoards. Using the finds from the Carpathian Basin as a case study, a dual biographical approach is applied to this group. A close look at the complex use-life of the objects themselves, as well as an attempt at re-integrating them into the local history of hoarding, leads to the conclusion that they constitute single acts of dedication in larger contexts. “Scrap hoards’” can thus be understood as long-term accumulations of votive objects and can be integrated into the social practice of Bronze Age hoarding.

The study of the Bom Santo Cave (central Portugal), a Neolithic cemetery, indicates a complex social, palaeoeconomic, and population scenario. With isotope, aDNA, and provenance analyses of raw materials coupled with stylistic variability of material culture items and palaeogeographical data, light is shed on the territory and social organization of a population dated to 3800–3400 cal BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic. Results indicate an itinerant farming, segmentary society, where exogamic practices were the norm. Its lifeway may be that of the earliest megalithic builders of the region, but further research is needed to correctly evaluate the degree of this community's participation in such a phenomenon.

This study presents the first 87Sr/ 86Sr isotope results obtained on Neolithic humans from Southern France. These analyses aimed at exploring patterns of mobility in the Languedoc and Garonne areas, at sites dated to the Middle Neolithic (c. 4500–3500 cal BC). Strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel and bone are a useful geochemical tracer to investigate the origin and residential mobility of ancient people. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/ 86Sr) of material from five sites located in two geographic areas were measured. Results obtained do not support our hypothesis of mobility for a number of individuals considered as outsiders in a previous study. On the other hand, the difference recorded between teeth and bone suggests mobility of other individuals between childhood and the last years of adult life. This preliminary study highlights the importance of combining multi-isotope analysis to discuss human subsistence economy and mobility.

Current knowledge of the beginnings of crop cultivation in Lithuania is based mainly on Cerealia-type pollen data supplemented by other indirect evidence such as agricultural tools. We argue that these records, predating carbonized remains of cultivated plants, are not substantial enough indicators of the early stages of agriculture in Lithuania. Here, we demonstrate that the macroremains of cultural plants that were previously reported from two Neolithic settlements in Lithuania were either mistakenly identified as domestic crops or incorrectly ascribed to the Neolithic period due to movement through the stratigraphic sequence and the absence of direct dating of cereal grains. Furthermore, we present a charred Hordeum vulgare grain from the Bronze Age settlement of Kvietiniai in western Lithuania. It was AMS-dated to 1392–1123 cal bc, and at present represents the earliest definite evidence for a crop in the eastern Baltic region. We conclude that, presently, there are no grounds to suggest that crop cultivation took place in Lithuania during the Neolithic.

The Hansa formed the principal agent of trade and cultural exchange in northern Europe and the Baltic during the late medieval to early modern periods. Hanseatic urban settlements in northern Europe shared many things in common. Their cultural ‘signature’ was articulated physically through a shared vocabulary of built heritage and domestic goods, from step-gabled brick architecture to clothing, diet, and domestic utensils. The redevelopment of towns on the Baltic littoral over the past 20+ years offers an archaeological opportunity to investigate key attributes of late medieval society on the micro-scale. Such attributes include the development of mercantile capitalism, colonialism, and proto-globalization. For instance, distributions of artefacts now point to the Hansa as an agent of the Reformation movement in northern and western Europe. Where they were once almost exclusively regarded as material evidence for long-distance commercial activity, domestic artefacts, such as table and heating ceramics, are now subject to scrutiny as media for social, cultural, ethnic, and confessional relationships, and combine to create a distinctive Hanseatic material signature. Ceramic case studies illustrate how the archaeology of the Hansa now intersects with the wider historical debate about Europeanisation and proto-globalization arising from the development of long-distance maritime trade from the thirteenth century onwards.

This paper suggests that recent studies of the beginning of the Bronze Age and the growth of a bronze ‘industry’ have placed too much emphasis on the importance of social ranking and the control of resources by elites. Copper had been in demand for over 2000 years before the beginning of the Bronze Age. What changed at this time was the emergence of a technology that gave access to virtually unlimited copper supplies and contributed to a process of economic growth. Circulating metal took on the role of a proto-currency in certain areas and had a significant effect on local patterns of social organisation. It was not centrally controlled. Eventually, the end of the growth process led to increased competition and warfare. Studies of these processes are illuminated by looking at the circulation of metal and money in medieval Europe and by thinking of the social changes in terms of Douglas's’ grid’ and ‘group’ dimensions.

Domestic livestock were a crucial part of Mediterranean communities throughout later prehistory. In the first millennium BC, livestock mangement changed, and was changed by, the rise of cities in Italy. Italian prehistory has a rich zooarchaeological tradition, but investigation of the Iron Age has been regionally divided and synthetic works on the Po valley comparatively few. This article presents a pan-regional review of late prehistoric and protohistoric livestock exploitation that considers Northern and Central Italy together for the first time. Zooarchaeological comparison reveals an increase in the use of sheep/goat for secondary products, while cattle and caprines were subject to size changes that distinguish their management from that of pigs. A marked increase in pig husbandry is visible in both regions, but this shift took place earlier and more emphatically in Northern Etruscan centres than in Central Italy. After defining the main changes in animal management during the period under review, this article looks beyond population density to explore the wider environmental, economic, and cultural context of pork consumption and its relation to the development of urbanism in Etruria padana.

Burial of horses and horse-elements occurred throughout Europe during the first millennium AD. These burials are prevalent in northwest Europe and are perhaps more significant in Britain than previously realised. This article explores the position and value of the horse within Britain during this period and why the burials are likely to represent ritual deposition. Both horse and human-horse burials, are linked to non-Christian burial and sacrificial practices of the Iron Age and Early Medieval period and are particularly associated with Anglo- Saxon and Viking Britain. Some of the traditions appear to reflect the culture described in the Icelandic Sagas, Beowulf, and other legends and chronicles. Archaeologically, the human-horse burials are also linked with high status individuals and ‘warrior graves’, while complete-horse and horse-element burials may represent ritual feasting and/or sacrificial rites which are probably linked with fertility, luck, and the ancestors.

This study presents an overview of the development of gender archaeologies in local academies across Europe, from the initial efforts in Norway in the early 1970s, to the founding of the multinational Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) working group in 2009. In addition, the study seeks to show the scope of gender archaeology once contributions from different traditions in different languages are included, and to provide comparative historiographies for those European countries where gender archaeology is now a major strand of research. We hope that innovative approaches to the study of gender in the past will emerge in the future thanks to fruitful encounters between regional trends and developments.

In the context of unanswered questions about the nature and development of the Late Neolithic in Orkney, we present a summary of research up to 2015 on the major site at the Ness of Brodgar, Mainland Orkney, concentrating on the impressive buildings. Finding sufficient samples for radiocarbon dating was a considerable challenge. There are indications, from both features and finds, of activity pre-dating the main set of buildings exposed so far by excavation. Forty-six dates on thirty-nine samples are presented and are interpreted in a formal chronological framework. Two models are presented, reflecting different possible readings of the sequence. Both indicate that piered architecture was in use by the thirtieth century cal bc and that the massive Structure 10, not the first building in the sequence, was also in existence by the thirtieth century cal bc. Activity associated with piered architecture came to an end (in Model 2) around 2800 cal bc. Midden and rubble infill followed. After an appreciable interval, the hearth at the centre of Structure 10 was last used around 2500 cal bc, perhaps the only activity in an otherwise abandoned site. The remains of some 400 or more cattle were deposited over the ruins of Structure 10: in Model 2, in the mid-twenty-fifth century cal bc, but in Model 1 in the late twenty-fourth or twenty-third century cal bc. The chronologies invite comparison with the near-neighbour of Barnhouse, in use from the later thirty-second to the earlier twenty-ninth century cal bc, and the Stones of Stenness, probably erected by the thirtieth century cal bc. The Ness, including Structure 10, appears to have outlasted Barnhouse, but probably did not endure as long in its primary form as previously envisaged. The decay and decommissioning of the Ness may have coincided with the further development of the sacred landscape around it; but precise chronologies for other sites in the surrounding landscape are urgently required. The spectacular feasting remains of several hundred cattle deposited above Structure 10 may belong to a radically changing world, coinciding (in Model 2) with the appearance of Beakers nationally, but it was arguably the, by now, mythic status of that building which drew people back to it.

In this article we present a comparative study of pig and cattle morphologies, and stable isotope analysis relating to pig demographic management at Levroux Les Arènes (Indre, France), to evaluate changes in husbandry practices between the Iron Age and the Roman period in Gallic societies. Results indicate the establishment of new production and distribution structures, probably before the second century bc, along with the implementation of a specific size/weight selection for the specialized production of pork. Pig and cattle size evolves progressively from the end of the third century bc. These changes are likely to be the result of an internal evolution within Gallic societies, based on local herds, but possibly they are a response to a broader changing economic climate. Within the Western Roman Empire, each province, and Italy, follows its own evolutionary pattern, which also differs between pig and cattle, suggesting that each region adapted its husbandry strategies according to its agro-pastoral characteristics, capacities, or ambitions.

Inclusive approaches to archaeology (including queer, feminist, black, indigenous, etc. perspectives) have increasingly intersected with coding, maker, and hacker cultures to develop a uniquely ‘Do-It-Yourself’ style of disruption and activism. Digital technology provides opportunities to challenge conventional representations of people past and present in creative ways, but at what cost? As a critical appraisal of transhumanism and the era of digital scholarship, this article outlines compelling applications in inclusive digital practice but also the pervasive structures of privilege, inequity, inaccessibility, and abuse that are facilitated by open, web-based heritage projects. In particular, it evaluates possible means of creating a balance between individual-focused translational storytelling and public profiles, and the personal and professional risks that accompany these approaches, with efforts to foster, support, and protect traditionally marginalized archaeologists and communities.

Discussions of pre-Viking trade and production have for many decades focused on products made of precious metals, glass and, to some degree, iron. This is hardly surprising considering the difficulties in finding and provenancing products made of organic matter. In this article we examine gaming pieces made from bone and antler, which are not unusual in Scandinavian burials in the Vendel and Viking period (c. ad 550–1050). A special emphasis is placed on whalebone pieces that appear to dominate after around ad 550, signalling a large-scale production and exploitation of North Atlantic whale products. In combination with other goods such as bear furs, birds of prey, and an increased iron and tar production, whalebone products are part of an intensified large-scale outland exploitation and indicate strong, pre-urban trading routes across Scandinavia and Europe some 200 years before the Viking period and well before the age of the emporia.

The incorporation of the region north of the Alpine divide and its foreland into the Imperium Romanum initiated major changes in economic and social structure and in everyday life in the newly-founded province of Raetia. Controversy exists, however, about the continuity of local La Tène traditions into early Roman times, since the archaeological evidence recorded to date tends to give the impression that the northern Alpine foreland was largely unpopulated at the time of the Roman conquest in 15 bc. However, ongoing excavations in this region are gradually enhancing the archaeological visibility of this transitional phase. Compared to early Roman provincial populations settled along the Via Claudia Augusta and its hinterland, a culturally unique community stands out: the Heimstetten group. This group is located in the eastern Raetian hinterlands and dates to around 30–60 ad. Its building tradition, settlement structure, and burial customs show close affinities with the La Tène culture, thus suggesting continuity in autochthonous culture at the time of the early Roman occupation. Since faunal remains can potentially act as cultural markers, additional insights can be gained from a spatial-temporal analysis of livestock composition and breeding practices. The results presented here clearly show that, during the Iron Age, marked regional differences in species composition are visible, implying the possibility of distinct developments during early Romanization. In addition to evaluating faunal developments in the study area between c. 100 bc–100 ad, the issue of cattle breeding—traditionally the mainstay of livestock economies in many regions and especially in the Munich Gravel Plain at least since the Bronze Age—is addressed in greater detail.

From Neolithic Malta, there is evidence of increasing population size accompanied by increasingly elaborate material culture, including the famous megalithic architecture. Stoddart et al. (1993) argued that social tensions and controls increased as food resources diminished. One important requirement of this argument is that the Neolithic inhabitants of Malta depended entirely on domesticated plants and animals for subsistence and therefore, with increased population sizes, the poor agricultural potential of these islands was stretched. However, it is possible that the consumption of wild foods, particularly marine resources, in the Neolithic would make up any shortfall in the agricultural foods. A direct way of measuring the amounts of marine protein in human diets is through chemical analysis of human bone. Stable isotope analyses undertaken on seven Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dated humans from the Neolithic at the Brochtorff Circle indicated that there is no evidence for the significant use of marine foods by these Neolithic individuals. These new data indicate that agricultural foods were the dietary staple for this sample of the Maltese Neolithic population and therefore support the argument that increasing population during the Neolithic could have resulted in increasing resource stress.

This paper focusses on animal remains associated with archaeological contexts dated to the middle and later phases of the Scandinavian Iron Age, which corresponds to the first millennium AD. The main question to be addressed is whether this record can be used for identifying human impact on certain animal populations for modelling faunal exploitation and interregional trade. In the first part of the paper, we undertake a detailed inventory of animal finds recorded in published excavation reports, research catalogues, and in existing databases maintained primarily by the Historical Museum in Stockholm. We compare the chronological pattern identified in the burial assemblages with a chronological sequence retrieved from pitfall hunting systems located in the Scandinavian inland region. The chronologies of the animal finds from burials and the pitfall systems are then compared with dated pollen-analytical sequences retrieved in the inland region and additional archaeological assemblages, such as graves and hoards of Roman coins. In our discussion, we outline an interregional model of faunal exploitation between AD 300 and 1200, including the possible location of hunting grounds and end-distribution areas for animal products. The paper provides deeper insights into the burial record of the middle Iron Age, arguing for the need for broader interregional approaches, and focussed archaeological research in the inland regions of Scandinavia.

This paper presents a new approach to analysing and interpreting the Neolithic and Chalcolithic clay figurines of Southeastern Europe. Using an example from the Gradešnica-Krivodol culture complex, a contextual approach based on attribute analysis is discussed. This new approach has the potential to replace earlier approaches, all of which were based on form-typology and analogy. The interpretation of the figurines as representations of ‘acting human beings’ rather than of mother-goddesses, deceased villagers etc., is demonstrated by analysing decoration, gender, gesture, masks and the breakage of the figurines. A contextual analysis of the decoration of the figurines in relation to all these attributes indicates that a known system with rules of creation existed, that the makers were aware of it and that they conformed to it. Decoration represents much more than clothing, jewellery or aesthetic ornaments. Seen as a combination of elaborate symbols, it can be a first step in uncovering a communication system. When understood, even if only in part, such a communication system can provide great insight into the figurines’ functions through time and place.

Significance evaluation plays a central role in archaeological heritage management. In this paper, a practical approach is presented based on experiences and recent discussions in the Netherlands. A restricted number of values (perception, physical quality and intrinsic quality) are operationalized as criteria in order to evaluate archaeological phenomena. In this manner, a more transparent framework is created to help determine if a monument is worth preserving. In the process of selection, monuments worth preserving are scrutinized from the viewpoints of policy considerations and priorities in archaeological heritage management in order to select monuments deserving of sustained preservation. The form of this system of significance evaluation is such that it can be used by all government levels, that the process is understandable for non-archaeologists, and that its results remain relevant from a research perspective.

In the context of northern Europe, copper use started early in eastern Fennoscandia (Finland and the Republic of Karelia, Russia), sometime after 4000 BC. This article explores this Stone Age copper use in eastern Fennoscandia in relation to broader cultural developments in the region between the adoption of pottery (c. 5500 BC) and the end of the Stone Age (c. 1800 BC). Stone Age copper use in north-eastern Europe has conventionally been understood in terms of technology or exchange, whereas this article suggests that the beginning of copper use was linked to more fundamental changes in the perception of, and engagement with, the material world. These changes were associated with the Neolithization of eastern Fennoscandia, which started earlier than has traditionally been thought. It is also argued that the adoption, use, and manipulation of new materials played an active role in the emergence of the Neolithic world in north-eastern Europe and beyond. Also, issues related to the Finno–Russian border dividing up eastern Fennoscandia and its effects on the study of early metal use and other prehistoric cultural processes are discussed.

Traditionally, research on late Iron Age societies of Central Europe has to some degree focused on large fortified settlements or oppida, presumably ranking at the top of the Celtic settlement hierarchy. The oppidum of Manching in Upper Bavaria has in the past been seen as a paradigmatic example of pre-Roman transalpine urbanization, in both chronological and functional terms. However, both its dating and its topographical position in a shallow flood plain of the Danube justify a distinction from contemporaneous or successive fortified ‘towns'. Recent studies have identified another particular type of settlement – large unfortified centres of crafts and trade – as a major feature of prehistoric urbanization. Again, Manching and its pre-fortified stages of urban development reveal a characteristic scheme of eastern Celtic settlement evolution that eventually breaks with a standard development when a massive rampart is constructed. Based on recent research at Manching and its hinterland, and taking into account the dynamic character of urbanization, a flexible model of urban evolution is developed here. This model allows for a comparative and quantifiable notion of variable degrees of local and supra-regional urban status.