Pottery was at the heart of the ‘Neolithic package’ appearing in Britain with the first farmers around 4000 BC. It arrived as a mature technology and was essential to the new, largely sedentary, lifestyle and economy. It transformed storage and cooking practices, and the earliest ceramics seem to have been essential equipment in the new practice of dairying. The pottery changed over time and, as a result, ceramics have been fundamental to the construction of relative chronologies since the early days of modern archaeology. Even with the development of absolute dating techniques, the role of pottery as a dating tool has not diminished but instead has become refined and more accurate.But pottery is not just a tool to dating the past – it also represents a facet of prehistoric art and expression. Starting simply, ceramics became arguably the main medium for display with designs often of great complexity. Simple techniques, motifs and panels are combined to create highly decorated vessels often of great individuality. The use of inlays, pastes and slips added contrasting colors to these vibrant designs.By the end of the Neolithic, ceramics became one of the major grave goods of British Prehistory, acting as accompaniments to those that warranted formal burial whether by inhumation or cremation. This practice continued throughout the Early Bronze Age to the extents that, lacking contemporary domestic sites, most of the corpora of Early Bronze Age ceramics are largely sepulchral in context. As we increasingly realize that burial rituals may have been varied and complex, so the roles of these ceramics are becoming increasingly questioned.This book traces the 3000 years of ceramic use and development in Britain, charting the changing forms and decorative techniques and the differing and changing roles that pottery played within its contemporary society.

The valley of the western Rother lies within the South Downs National Park but has a special character based on its Cretaceous geology of sandstones and clays. These give rise to soils that are ideal for agriculture but are extremely erodible. Over the centuries the area has been exploited by humans and partially cleared of forest. In this book, the archaeological history of the Rother Valley is summarized, with particular emphasis on the evidence for Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman occupation. Analysis of sediments in ponds adds to the evidence for changes that have happened over the last few hundred years. A notable feature of the cultural landscape is the network of sunken lanes.The Rother Valley contains unique chalk-aquifer fed streams with rare and protected species, such as sea trout and otter. Heathland, floodplain, wet meadows and woodlands are interspersed with agriculture, linked together by hedgerows and ditches. The health of the river is threatened by polluting inputs from farming and sewage. Past weather and hydrological records show the potential impact of climate change on the functioning of the river. The impact of recent changes on water availability for irrigation and human consumption are explored in relation to ecosystem requirements. Soil erosion is a significant problem, with the resulting high river sediment concentrations requiring expensive cleaning for the water to be fit for human consumption and the runoff often causes flooding of roads and properties. Mitigation measures aim to reduce the loss of soil on fields and interrupt connectivity between fields and the river system. We identify sediment sources contributing eroded soil to the river, the function of field-edge sediment traps, in-stream weirs and major reservoirs on sediment storage and connectivity.Finally, the book considers the future of the unique landscape that is the Rother Valley, including plans for restoration of the flood plain. Contributors include planners, researchers and managers of the large estates that are an integral part of the Rother landscape.

The date of the Cerne Giant has long been a matter for debate, as exemplified by a public and televised debate of March 1996, published as The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial (1999, Oxbow Books). Excavations were conducted in 2020 by the National Trust in the centenary year of its ownership of the Giant. The excavations were limited and targeted in extent and scope, the aim was to date the actual construction of the iconic figure by absolute dating methods (OSL). As the 1999 publication explained, the jury was still out – with advocates for a prehistoric origin, one connected to the period of the Civil War or a more modern one. In the event, the dates were a complete surprise, falling within the Anglo-Saxon period.The research has provided an accurate, scientifically verified date for the Cerne Giant. These unexpected results, together with the land-use history and ominous ‘disappearance’ of the Giant for six centuries, provide the platform for reconsideration and new discussion and debate.Part 1 deals with new research: the historical background and aims, the excavation results, stratigraphic finds, geoarchaeological interpretation, land-use history (environmental/land snails), and discussion. Part 2 is the wider discussion and implications derived from the results and places the Giant in his local and Saxon context. Part 3 begins with summaries of the other two excavated hill figures (the Long Man of Wilmington and the Uffington White Horse) followed by a series of essays from leading archaeologists, historians and experts in early medieval iconography.

Forsaken Relics examines the intricate mechanisms of ritualistic appropriation of ruined and/or abandoned assets and artifacts. It explores how this process occurs in situations where there is legislation to regulate the appropriation of ownerless property, as well as in cases where such rules are either absent or contested, leading to disputes and conflicts.Every society has developed its unique ways of managing the re-appropriation of ‘ownerless things’, such as places and houses abandoned after conflicts, crises, or natural disasters, forsaken cemeteries, tombs, and forgotten goods. These practices often involve the use of ritualistic methods to mask the intent to appropriate abandoned artifacts. The book aims to stimulate comparative analysis of this topic in both ancient and modern societies, profiling the identity of the ‘actors’ of appropriation, examining the definition of abandonment, and exploring the ritual aspects such as inventorying material, dedication to ancestors, and prayers to gods that legitimize the re-appropriation of places and goods classified as abandoned.

Norway and Sweden are among the biggest consumers of energy per capita, yet the Nordic nations also lead the world in clean power production and have ambitious goals of decarbonizing their energy systems by 2050. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland vary drastically in geography and the availability of natural resources, but each consistently generates electricity from renewable sources at multiple times the average rate of other high-income countries. Mogens Rüdiger and Anna Åberg present a concise and timely history of energy production, trade, and consumption in Norden, starting with a review of the regional energy mix—from wind, solar, tide and wave, geothermal, biomass, nuclear, coal, and gas sources. Brief chapters describe the diversity of Nordic energy markets, assess how far the green transition has come, and explore what comes next as global crises, domestic politics, and technological developments present novel challenges and opportunities. Energy infrastructures and economic activities, Rüdiger and Åberg argue, serve as unique cultural focal points in the region. The coauthors summarise the national policy frameworks for the sector as well as the key energy and economic indicators used in infrastructure planning, regulation, and the opening of the electricity and gas markets to free competition. Energy in the Nordic World is the essential primer to the power markets at the heart of Europe’s energy transition.

This book, written in German, presents an interdisciplinary study of the south-eastern part of Denmark – South Zealand and the islands Lolland, Falster and Møn – as a border area between Danes, Saxons and Slavs from the 9th to the 13th century. In the archaeological evidence it is evident that the Slavic-inspired Baltic ware completely displaces the local ceramic tradition on the islands. In the period concerned, there is evidence of dynastic connections between Slavs and Danes at the same time as violent conflicts were taking place across the Baltic Sea. On Lolland, Falster and Møn there are Slavic place names, and in written sources the contours of Slavic noble families on Lolland and Falster can be traced through several hundred years, but otherwise the Slavs who lived on the Danish islands into the 13th century were completely assimilated within a short time.

Northwold Manor is a multi-period listed building (grade II*), about which almost nothing was known. Uninhabited since 1955, it had fallen into a state of extreme dereliction, and was beyond economic repair when the author purchased the property in 2014. He and his wife, Diane Gibbs, embarked on a major restoration that ran for nine years. The restoration was carried out as a quasi-archaeological operation, revealing that the building complex had Tudor origins, followed by the construction of a Stuart house, with Georgian improvements, and a new entertaining suite added in 1814. The Manor, with its fine drawing room, ballroom and orangery, was the grandest house in Northwold, and research into the families that occupied it revealed unexpected connections to the French Bourbon Court. From the 17th to the 20th century, the Carters were the principal owners, and a local branch of the family included Howard Carter, discoverer of Tutankhamen’s tomb.This account begins with a topographical study of Northwold and its three medieval manors, followed by an exploration of the decline of the Carter family in the late 19th century. That triggered the break-up of the Northwold Estate in 1919. Passing through several ownerships, the Manor was earmarked for demolition in 1961; reprieved, it became a furniture store in the 1970s, and every room was solidly packed. As the roofs failed and water poured in, ceilings and floors collapsed, carrying with them the stacks of rotting furniture. By the late 1990s, walls and gables were collapsing too, and the local authority attempted to intervene. A long struggle to save the Manor ensued, finally ending with compulsory purchase in 2013.Although manor houses occur in most English parishes, they have received surprisingly little archaeological study. Every year, hundreds are restored or altered, but rarely accompanied by detailed recording or scholarly research; and popular television programs reveal the shameful level of destruction that takes place in the name of ‘restoration’. This is a book like no other: the holistic approach to the rehabilitation of Northwold’s derelict manor house – involving history, archaeology, architecture and genealogy – demonstrates how much can be learned about a building that had never before been studied. The project has received several awards.

Pilgrims in Place, Pilgrims in Motion: Sacred Travel in the Ancient Mediterranean brings together exciting interdisciplinary scholarship on the connected poles of pilgrimage: the sanctuaries being visited, and the journeys to get there. Contributions investigate different concepts of place, community, social tensions and expectations of pilgrim behaviour; long-term meanings of place as embodied in memory and topography; mobility, migration and place-making; connectivity and its relationship to pilgrimage. Individual chapters discuss shrines, sanctuaries and sacred places as well as journeys and mobility across Greek, Roman and late antique contexts, framed as part of a key debate within the study of pilgrimage, the central tension between place and motion.

This book is the first of three planned volumes from the project Gokstad Revitalised, which is an archaeological revisit at the famous Viking Age ship grave originally excavated in 1880. The volume collect experiences from other archaeological revisits over the last decades, including the ship grave sites from Hedeby, Ladby and Sutton Hoo, as well as the royal monument at Jelling. It also reports on the research history of the Gokstad find and on a number of methodological feasibility studies carried out as preparation of the project. These include iron provenancing, aDNA, isotope analyses, osteology and new dendrochronological results. The final part of the volume discusses the paradox of planning a multi-year, frontrunner project in a field where methodological development is rapid and uncertainty abound, and share the project's experiences so far.

Six years of excavations in Tell F3 have uncovered several occupation phases belonging to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, Failaka period 3B (c. 1600 BC). Though the material culture of Dilmun was heavily influenced by South Mesopotamia, this was a period where Dilmun regained its former importance after the economic and political collapse around 1700 BC, perhaps leading up to a final conquest by the Sealand Dynasty. The end stages of the development of Dilmun stamp seals are documented, e.g. the first find of a Style III Dilmun seal in a safe period 3B context. The renaissance in stamp seal Style III is paralleled in stone vessels decorated in the Failaka Figurative Style.

Excavations in advance of gravel extraction on a 10ha site revealed a landscape occupied from the Later Bronze Age to the early Roman period, with later use in the Medieval period. The site published here complements a significant excavation to the south which had produced evidence for the earliest iron working in Britain. The results help to set the south site into its local landscape context, and also cover a longer timespan. A single Middle Bronze Age pit was followed by numerous Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pits, best classed as a dispersed open settlement. Finds of smelting slag from this period confirm the early dating for the iron working found to the south. Middle and Later Iron Age features also mostly comprised pits and postholes with no clear structural associations, although a ring ditch and up to a dozen post-built roundhouses can be projected and the continuation of a large enclosure from the earlier site. An area of industrial activity included more iron production from the 6th century BC onwards. Three pit alignments were also identified, one containing a density of iron slag. One pit also contained a quantity of acorns, a rarity on British sites.Two late Iron Age urned cremations were identified, and one Roman, and several deposits of pyre debris may be of either period. Late Iron Age to early Roman ditches represented three phases of an enclosure, likely part of a wider organization of the landscape at this time. Two iron-smelting hearths were identified, one of which contained in situ slag from the last firing of the furnace. All of the Roman deposits dated from the mid-1st to 2nd century AD. This early abandonment is in contrast to the later Roman date for the few Roman features to the south, so that a southwards shift in the focus of activity seems to be indicated rather than outright abandonment.The Medieval period was represented by a small isolated farm dated to the 11th to 12th centuries AD, although economic evidence was very sparse.The site's chronology is supported by an extensive radiocarbon dating programme and this volume includes reports on substantial assemblages of pottery (mostly prehistoric), metallurgical residues, and charred plant remains, but soil conditions were not favourable to the survival of most other classes of finds.

The archaeological excavations in advance of A14 Road Improvement Scheme in Cambridgeshire are among the biggest and most complex ever undertaken in the UK, revealing important archaeology of prehistoric, Roman, early medieval and medieval date.The fifty finds in this book have been chosen for the stories they tell us. These artefacts are often the only evidence for many of the thousands of people who lived here before us. Some stand out as beautiful or rare, treasured heirlooms left as grave goods for the dead. Others tell us about ancient industry, and the lives of ordinary people from prehistory to today. Between them, we get a glimpse into the diversity of Cambridgeshire’s ancient past, and the vast scale of the A14 scheme.

In the second millennium BC, mining for copper ore on the Great Orme, Wales, created one of Europe’s largest surviving prehistoric copper mines. The ore from the mine was smelted into metal that was cast and worked into the rich variety of copper and bronze objects synonymous with the Bronze Age in Britain and Europe.This book presents an original synthesis and reinterpretation of the complex prehistoric archaeology of the Great Orme mine. It uses previously unpublished data in a novel and comprehensive analysis to determine where, when and how mining took place at this landmark site during the Bronze Age.The author draws on a wealth of information on the archaeology of the contemporary landscape and practices of metal production and working to examine the social nature of prehistoric mining. Observations are offered and conclusions drawn about who participated in mining; the character of social relations at the mine; the relationship between mining and identity; and how mining for copper ore shaped the miners’ worldview.Well supported by the evidence and embedded in contemporary theoretical discussions of Bronze Age social life, this significant study establishes an important research agenda for ongoing work at the Great Orme mine and makes a substantial contribution to broader debates about the nature of Bronze Age society. It offers for the first time a fully contextualised interpretation of Bronze Age mining in Britain from the perspective that it was a fundamentally social activity. Community, Technology and Tradition is for anyone interested in prehistoric mining and metallurgy, the British Bronze Age and the archaeology of past lives.

In 1979, a pipe trench at the military airbase RAF Lakenheath in the historic parish of Eriswell, Suffolk, revealed the presence of possible inhumation graves of the Early Anglo-Saxon period not far from the group of 33 burials excavated in the 1950s and published as the cemetery of Little Eriswell. Extensive redevelopment starting in the late 1990s led to the excavation of what appears to be a remarkable group of three discrete but contemporary burial grounds in close proximity, here labelled the West, Central and East sites — the latter including the Little Eriswell graves. While it is not certain that the Central and East burial grounds are fully separate, these two areas do differ markedly in layout and focus and in aspects of grave furnishing. Burial began in the West site with cremation around the middle of the 5th century. All three burial grounds were used for inhumation from the second half of the 5th to the late 6th century. For a further century, only the West site remained in use; this site was abandoned in the late 7th century when burial commenced at a ‘Middle Anglo-Saxon’ cemetery 300m to the south at Lord’s Walk. By the late 6th century the size of the burying population had apparently fallen by as much as 80%, from a hundred or more to maybe only twenty. The quality of the archaeological evidence allows for detailed examination and reconstruction of burial practice in terms of grave structure and how the bodies were laid in them. Soil conditions create some variance in skeletal preservation, but generally good survival reveals a naturally structured community, and allows for observation of its pathologies. Isotope and pioneering aDNA analyses identify an essentially local population but with one early female grave that is credibly that of a 5th-century immigrant from across the North Sea, and also demonstrating cross-generational descent within the community. The grave goods illustrate social differentiation, primarily by sex and age although exceptionally richly furnished and elaborately constructed graves such as the horse and ‘warrior’ burial embody additional status differentials. A series of expert scientific analyses have been targeted at revealing how this community made use of the principal resources available to it; how it could live and function in this topographical niche at this period. It is clearly demonstrated that there is a very solid foundation in all of the evidence from this site for continuing specialised research, not least as new techniques of analysis and research perspectives develop.

Des spécialistes de l’ensemble de l’Europe décrivent les enjeux politiques et scientifiques auxquelles a présidé la fondation des musées d’archéologie entre 1848 et 1914. Au travers de personnalités éminentes, le livre restitue un tour d’horizon européen des institutions muséales abritant les vestiges issus du sol. Au-delà d’une histoire de l’institution, il s’agit de montrer comment une pensée politique et des conceptions historiques se sont retrouvées reflétées dans les musées, en retraçant aussi bien une histoire scientifique que toute une société savante et l’esprit d’une époque. Entre hier et aujourd’hui, quels musées au sein d’une même nation, quelles réalités et quelles politiques ? Les musées d’archéologie doivent-ils toujours raconter l’histoire de la nation, et quelle histoire ? Comment gèrent-ils la contradiction qui pèse entre la recherche scientifique, en perpétuelle interrogation, et le désir de se rattacher à des racines ancrées dans un socle identitaire stable ? Aujourd’hui au cœur d’un nouveau paysage des musées d’archéologie, réel ou idéal, ces questions sont également abordées.English abstractSpecialists from across Europe describe the political and scientific challenges that accompanied the foundation of archaeological museums between 1848 and 1914. Through eminent personalities, the book provides a European overview of museum institutions housing artifacts derived from the ground. Beyond the history of the institution, the aim is to demonstrate how political thought and historical conceptions found reflection in museums, tracing not only a scientific history but also an entire scholarly society and the spirit of an era.Between the past and the present, which museums exist within a nation, what realities, and what policies? Should archaeological museums always narrate the history of the nation, and which history should that be? How do they manage the contradiction that arises from the perpetual questioning of scientific research and the desire to connect with roots firmly entrenched in a stable identity? Today, at the heart of a new landscape of archaeological museums, whether real or ideal, these questions are also addressed.

The research presented in this book results from an international interdisciplinary research program in Hayonim cave (Israel) from 1992 to 2000, directed by Prof O. Bar-Yosef (Harvard University) and L. Meignen (CNRS, France), and focusing on a long archaeological sequence dated to circa 300-140 000 years ago. The intensive fieldwork and research following it allowed us to document an essential period of human history in the Levant: the end of the Lower Palaeolithic and Early Middle Palaeolithic, during which recent discoveries showed that the early H. sapiens, expanding out of Africa, reached SW Asia around 180-190 000 y ago.This book brings together the impressive findings of nine years of excavations and analysis by an interdisciplinary team of well-known scholars from US universities (Harvard, Boston, University of Arizona), Weizmann Institute (Israel) as well as from the French CNRS.Several complementary approaches are implemented to understand early human economic, cultural and behavioral changes observed at this crucial period. It is based on detailed studies of lithic artifact technology, the remains of systematic fire use and cave occupation by early humans, and foraging strategies that include the early development of human adaptations for hunting large prey. In the context of the highly debated cultural break observed at the end of the Lower Palaeolithic, we propose new interpretations based on these innovative results.This volume will provide a cornerstone for the history of humankind in a critical geographic region, at the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia.