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Blackwell Publishers Oxford
Journal of Archaeology Covering the whole range of archaeology, from Palaeolithic to medieval times, the Oxford Journal of Archaeology is the premier English language journal of European and Mediterranean archaeology. Publishing four issues a year, it provides topical coverage of current research in Prehistoric, Classical and later European archaeology, with contributions from an international cast of academics and field workers. It encourages debate and is essential reading for anyone studying European archaeology. Quarterly: February, May, August, November Development-driven archaeology: bane or boon for bioarchaeology?
Summary. Through much of the world there is a move towards policies of in situ preservation of the buried archaeological heritage, typically supported by small-scale investigative excavations (often called 'evaluations'). In this review we attempt to judge the success of these policies in England and Wales, from the standpoint of bioarchaeology. We consider particularly the value of data for plant and insect macrofossils from trial excavations associated with development (a) in producing information which contributes towards research agendas, and (b) as a guide to the preservational condition of organic archaeological deposits. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 213-224 More than one way to study a building: approaches to prehistoric household and settlement space
Summary. This article reviews a number of research methodologies used to record household and settlement architecture and assesses their value in the investigation of the human use of prehistoric built space. It exemplifies, through case studies, five broad approaches to, and research techniques associated with, the investigation of such architecture. These approaches are: architectural form; the spatial distribution of activities; continuity and standardization; the relationship between built and non-built space; and human patterns of movement. Then, drawing mainly on Near Eastern, and particularly Anatolian, material, it shows how a sixth approach, the use of ethnographic observation and analogy, provides insights into functional and seasonal variations in spatial use, patterns of movement and social organization. It identifies seven categories of data collection and nine observations drawn from the ethnographic material which together provide an investigative and interpretative framework for the study of early farming communities in the Near East and elsewhere. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 225-246 Exploring the significance of beaker pottery through residue analyses
Summary. Unlike other components of the Bell Beaker assemblage, Beaker pottery itself lacks an intrinsic value since fabric analyses have demonstrated that it was locally produced. It is thought, therefore, that it was the contents, rather than the container, which were valuable. Traditionally, Bell Beakers have been said to contain alcoholic beverages which were consumed in the course of male feasting ceremonies. However, whilst beer and mead have been identified from certain examples, not all Beakers were drinking cups. Some were used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores, others have some organic residues associated with food, and still others were employed as funerary urns. It is suggested here that a symbolic connection can, however, be observed, since these activities all imply some kind of transformation. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 247-259 Early bronze age metal trade in the eastern mediterranean. New compositional and lead isotope evidence from cyprus
Summary. This paper presents the results of chemical and lead isotope analyses of 17 Early and Middle Bronze Age artefacts from Cyprus. These suggest that a number of objects are of non-Cypriot copper and lead to the identification of several as imports, a new explanation for some artefact types as ingots and a discussion of the nature of deposits at the key Cypriot site of Vasilia. This in turn allows a reconsideration of the role of Cyprus in an Aegean/eastern Mediterranean metals trade in the early years of the second half of the third millennium BC and of the development of metalworking on the island. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 261-288 Fixed-point retail location in the major towns of roman britain
Summary. Although it has not generally been recognized, tabernae (shops and workshops) were an important part of the process of urbanization and the urban form of the towns of Roman Britain. The objective of this paper is to examine the location of fixed-point retailing establishments within the urban landscape. Workshops (also known as officinae) and retail activity probably constitute the largest and perhaps one of the most distinct aspects of any urban settlement. Based upon the discussion presented below, this paper will seek to show that there were important contests for retail space in the major settlements of Roman Britain. This paper also considers some of the factors that influence retail location to show that the towns of Roman Britain were complex socio-economic environments. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 289-309 An anglo-saxon disc brooch from bletchingdon, oxfordshire, with style ii animal art
Summary. The brooch was found in 2003 near Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire.1 Its gilt Style II animal ornament and garnet setting indicate that it is a high status dress-fastener, datable to the period AD 575-610. Analysis of its form and ornament suggests that it was a local experiment in the application of a new animal style. Volume 25 - Issue 3 - August 2006 - pp. 311-316 Pit-Digging, Occupation And Structured Deposition On Rudston Wold, Eastern Yorkshire
Excavated Neolithic pit clusters, like those found on Rudston Wold in eastern Yorkshire, have often been seen as the remains of occupation sites. The features are interpreted as possessing practical roles, including their use for storing grain, and the incorporated material culture regarded as casually discarded waste. More recent interpretations, however, have emphasized these features' functional unsuitability, rather seeing pit-digging, and the deposition of ideologically-charged objects, as a deliberate attempt to inscribe meaning across a landscape. These two different approaches are considered by a detailed examination of the Peterborough Ware and Grooved Ware associated pits, dug-out swallow-holes and hollows of Rudston Wold. It is argued that their lithic assemblage demonstrates a conventionality best understood as representing occupation at and around the features, themselves once part of small-scale dwellings, but that this material nonetheless resulted from deliberate and purposeful acts which changed during the later Neolithic. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 Pots, Houses And Metal: Technological Relations At The Bronze Age Tell At Százhalombatta, Hungary
At the Bronze Age tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary, techniques used for making pottery echo those used in other media. Pottery and architecture have a close relationship. Not only were both made of clay, but methods of making pots echo those used for building. Similarly, pottery and metalwork share common themes and technologies for working with clay and bronze. Since choices made by potters are not solely confined to the environment, raw materials and tools, but are also socially and culturally defined, by implication the transfer of know-how must be situated within social networks between people. This paper considers how the identification of technical relationships between different media at Százhalombatta can be used to explore social relations in Bronze Age society, thereby suggesting relationships that work on both technical and social levels. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 Wealth And Status In Iron Age Knossos
Knossos Tekke tomb 2 is one of the richest tombs in the Iron Age Aegean, renowned for its deposits of gold. The tomb is widely attributed to a family of goldsmiths, who migrated to Knossos from the Near East. This article, however, questions this attribution. An alternative interpretation is pursued through surveys of the distribution of some luxury materials, amply represented in the Tekke tomb, in all known Knossian tombs. By setting the Tekke find against the large corpus of Knossian burial material, I identify the Tekke occupants as members of a local élite. This group is shown to have had privileged access to the products of a goldsmith's workshop, as well as to the sources of some lavish, mostly imported, raw materials, and to have regulated their distribution within Knossian society during the eighth century. The means through which the Tekke élite claimed and defended their wealth and status are assessed and their possible Late Bronze Age pedigree is conjectured. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 The Cultural Biography Of A Phoenician Mushroom-Lipped Jug
Summary. This paper is the biography of a single piece of pottery found in a tomb in Sardinia. The form is one that is common in Levantine sites in the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age, but this single vessel, its history, context, and form, allows a greater story to be told: it points to a second wave of Levantine exploration and colonization - probably Tyrian - that built upon a Euboean-northern Phoenician initial phase in the eighth century BC. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 Early Euboean Settlements In The Carthage Area
There is growing archaeological evidence that Greeks and Phoenicians cooperated, or at least were not serious rivals in early days of exploration of the western Mediterranean, before the sixth-century trade wars, even to the point of settling side-by-side. The geographical, textual and material evidence for Greek presence close to, and at Carthage in early days is here reviewed. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 Romano-British People And The Language Of Sociology
Despite the vast amount of work and the huge database for Roman Britain, the people of the province remain very difficult to discern. There are many reasons for this, but one is that we have not yet learned to look behind the disjecta membra of archaeology in order to understand the structure and nature of society, and how the Roman Conquest may have impacted upon it. The language of sociology offers scope for thought, especially when combined with examples drawn from historically documented societies in later periods. Whilst models drawn from the classical world are important, attention also needs to be focused on the local, and on the factors that determined the shape of people's lives and influenced their daily activities. Not all these are archaeologically detectable; nevertheless an appreciation of their existence is an important pre-requisite in attempting explanations of patterns in the data. Volume 25 - Issue 2 - May 2006 'Why They Came'; The Colonization Of The Coast Of Western Sweden And Its Environmental Context At The End Of The Last Glaciation
In this paper we will bring into view new aspects of Late Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic research on the west coast of Sweden. In doing so, we make use of oceanography and tidal modelling, in conjunction with basic research in the fields of archaeology and palynology. The focus of research concerns the Hensbacka culture group in central Bohuslän, a group of hunter-gatherers which visited the area between c.10,300-9300 bp (10,200/10,000-8500 cal BC). Recent investigations indicate that the frequency of Hensbacka sites in the archipelago of central Bohuslän, which at that time had a total land area of c.500 sq km, might well represent the highest site density area in northern Europe during a c.1000-year period of time at the close of the Late Glacial and beginning of the early Post Glacial. In the pages that follow, we will discuss how, and why, this 'seasonal colonization' was possible. Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 Preseli Dolerite Bluestones: Axe-Heads, Stonehenge Monoliths, And Outcrop Sources
Chemical compositions and magnetic susceptibility data were compared for 12 dolerite bluestone implements including axes, axe-hammers and battle-axes, 11 Stonehenge monoliths (chemical data only), and potential source outcrops in Preseli, South Wales. Most of the studied artefacts are of spotted dolerite, a small number being unspotted dolerite. Bivariate graphs, discriminant analysis and t-tests were used singly and in combination to show, respectively, that the implements found at sites in England are mainly similar to Stonehenge monoliths, while the implements found in Wales have a variety of compositions and are much less similar to Stonehenge monoliths. The dichotomy between English and Welsh dolerite bluestone implements could be explained by exploitation of different Preseli outcrops or erratic assemblages derived from them. A small number of spotted dolerite implements have previously been shown to have chemical compositions atypical of and marginal to Preseli, suggesting the possibility of a source of spotted dolerite outside Preseli. Previously published analytical data in combination with the new implement/outcrop comparisons presented in this paper support derivation of the majority of analysed Stonehenge monoliths at one particular outcrop within the group of four identified by Thorpe et al. 15 years ago. Analysis of all the extant bluestone monoliths at Stonehenge (now possible using non-destructive methods) would allow progress in identifying monolith outcrop sources, and in understanding the links with the bluestone axe trade. Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 Wealth And Power In The Bronze Age Of The South-East Of The Iberian Peninsula: The Funerary Record Of Cerro De La Encina
As a result of recent fieldwork undertaken at the archaeological site of Cerro de la Encina, our knowledge of the funerary ritual has increased considerably. The funerary record shows a significant concentration of wealth in burials corresponding to the family groups of the highest social status. Dramatic social differences can also be found in the internal organization of the settlement. The locations of burials within the settlement area, under the floors of dwellings, allow us to establish that the settlement space was closely related to the social identity of the families. The high number of burials with double and triple inhumations, in contrast to other Argaric necropolis, also stands out as an important feature of Cerro de la Encina, suggesting that familial relationships seem to be more marked here than at other Argaric sites. All these data are discussed in relation to the funerary ritual of the Argaric Culture. Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 Redefining The Northern British Iron Age
Unlike Southern Britain, the Iron Age in Northern Britain spans two millennia from the introduction of iron technology to the Norse settlements. Northern Britain is divided into a series of geographical and archaeological regions, including for the pre-Roman Earlier Iron Age the whole of aceramic and non-coin-using northern England. Despite a wealth of settlement evidence, the Earlier Iron Age lacks diagnostic material assemblages, even in the ceramic Atlantic regions, where radiocarbon dating is now confirming the origins of Atlantic Roundhouses in the mid-first millennium BC. External connections may have been long-distance, reflecting a complex variety of selective connections. For the Later Iron Age, interpretation based upon historical sources has inhibited a proper archaeological evaluation of the 'Picts' and of the traditional view of Dalriadic settlement in Argyll, both of which are now under review. Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 'Roman' Or 'Native' Bodies In Britain: The Evidence Of Late Roman Nail-Cleaner Strap-Ends
This paper reviews late Roman 'nail-cleaner strap-ends', a group of objects first discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961). The precise function of these objects is unclear as their shape suggests use as toilet instruments but the split socket suggests that they were part of belt-fittings. We suggest a detailed typology and discuss the dating evidence and the spatial distribution of the type. Regardless of their precise function, it is argued in this paper that nail-cleaner strap-ends of this type are unique to late Roman Britain and thus represent a distinct regional type. The use of nail-cleaner strap-ends can be viewed in the context of gender associations, military status and religious beliefs. Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 Neither Baths Nor Baptisteries
(No abstract available.) Volume 25 - Issue 1 - February 2006 Steps To The Steppe: Or, How The North Pontic Region Was Colonised
The occupation of the steppe region north of the Black Sea by farming or herding groups in the fifth and fourth millennia BC has been a controversial question. At the core of the problem is the changing relationship between Cucuteni-Tripole farming groups in the forest-steppe zone and their neighbours in the true steppe zone. Three phases of this relationship are discussed, in the Early Copper Age, Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age (c.5000-3000 BC), during which different forms of exchange and acculturation took place, each with its own social and economic characteristics. The role of environmental change, and the significance of burial monuments in the process of cultural convergence, are evaluated. The process is discussed both in terms of general models of social transformation, and by comparison with other areas of Europe where similar processes of interaction were taking place. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 The Anatolian Trade Network And The Izmir Region During The Early Bronze Age
The monumental Early Bronze Age settlement at Liman Tepe (Levels VI-IV) (predecessor of the classical site of Klazomenai), on the southern shore of the Gulf of Izmir, is a good indication of the emergence of settlements with centralised organisation on the west coast of Anatolia. Similar developments can also be followed in Troy at the northernmost limit of the western coastline, on the islands of the north and east Aegean, and at the inland site of Küllüoba in north-west Anatolia. Over a much wider geographical area, extending from south-eastern Anatolia via central and western Anatolia, the islands of the east Aegean, the Cyclades, and mainland Greece, a distinctive set of cultural features emerged at the end of Early Bronze Age II. An explanation of the cultural changes taking place along the west Anatolian coastline at this time should thus be sought in the perspective of this wider sphere. These features can be summarised as follows: organised settlement structures indicating the presence of a central authority; monumental fortification systems; large settlements with citadels and lower towns; first introduction of wheel-made pottery (mass production); first appearance of certain new pottery shapes such as depas, tankard, two-handled cup, wheel-made plate, incised pyxis, cutaway-spouted jug and 'Syrian bottles'; first examples of tin bronzes. These cultural changes, appearing suddenly in a wide geographical range at approximately the same time, can only be explained by the presence of wide international contacts. The character and the nature of these relations are becoming clearer as recent excavations yield new information. This paper aims to shed new light on the nature of the Anatolian Trade Network (ATN) period in the light of new archaeological data from Liman Tepe and Bakla Tepe located on the west Anatolian coastline. The importance of the Izmir region as a bridge between the land trade routes of Anatolia and the sea trade routes of the Aegean and various effects of this unique location on the region's cultural development are discussed. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 House Urns And Etruscan Tomb Painting: Tradition Versus Innovation In The Ninth-Seventh Centuries Bc
The first painted tombs in Etruria date to about 675-650 BC, as attested by a few examples at Veii and Caere, which pre-date those of Tarquinia (mainly sixth-third centuries BC). At first glance, tomb painting has no obvious connection with the Early Iron Age or Villanovan period (tenth/ninth-eighth centuries BC), when burial in shaft or trench graves predominated. Nevertheless, some links can be suggested with Villanovan house urns, which reinforce the point that indigenous traditions merit greater consideration than is usual in discussions of Etruscan artistic and cultural development. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 The First Lake-Dwellers Of Lithuania: Late Bronze Age Pile Settlements On Lake Luokesas
Lake Luokesas in Lithuania has become the centre of attention in northern European wetland archaeological research after the discovery of two Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pile dwellings. Their unique location, chronology and building techniques have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of important aspects of wetland communities in later prehistoric Europe. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 Soldier, Civilian And Military Brick Production
Occasional claims have been made that some of the names on Roman military brick stamps could be those of civilian entrepreneurs tiling for the Roman army, most recently in the case of a stamp of Legio XX Valeria Victrix from Tarbock (Liverpool). This paper analyses these claims and investigates the evidence for interaction between the Roman army and civilians in brick production. The texts of the stamps and the archaeological context of the bricks and literary sources, which give information about the role of the army and civilian bodies in Roman provincial building, are taken into consideration. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 The Orientation Of Roman Camps And Forts
The angles of orientation of 67 Roman camps were determined from their published plans. There was a marked tendency for them to be aligned close to the cardinal points but they were offset from those points by only 28 of a possible 45 angles and of these six occurred in 29 camps, probably because they were set out by making right-angled triangles whose non-hypotenuse sides were in whole number ratios. Twenty-seven forts on the British frontier walls were similarly orientated by only 12 angles, one of which occurred six times. The apparent accuracy of the layouts suggested that the directions of the meridian and latitude were first carefully determined. The use of a limited number of offset angles was probably due to a religious regard for celestial geometry. Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 An Instance Of Dental Modification On A Human Skeleton From Niger, West Africa
(No abstract available.) Volume 24 - Issue 4 - November 2005 The Life Of Buildings: Minoan Building Deposits In An Ecological Perspective
This paper discusses the interpretation of the objects deliberately hidden and sealed up in the structure of Minoan buildings. These building deposits are usually interpreted in terms of religion and ritual but this conventional view may actually be based on fallacious assumptions about the nature of human-environment relations in Bronze Age Crete. The present paper outlines an alternative ecological approach, which allows a degree of sociality between humans and non-human entities, and treats building deposits as an essentially practical means of manipulating the relations between humans and the (built) environment in situations of potential stress. It will be argued that buildings and other artefacts can, in some respects, be understood to live and grow similarly as organisms. Thus, in order to appreciate their significance, Minoan building deposits need to be related to the life-cycle of buildings. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 The Archaeological Urban Survey Of Sagalassos (South-West Turkey): The Possibilities And Limitations Of Surveying A 'Non-Typical' Classical Site
The merits of surface survey as a non-destructive method of investigating ancient regions and towns are widely acknowledged, as is the lack of 'cookbook strategies' for this type of research. For the urban survey of the Roman town of Sagalassos (South-West Turkey), a site-specific field strategy was developed to study the functional organization and spatial evolution of the urban area. The location of the town on a steeply sloping and uncultivated site presented a totally different situation from any dealt with in other Mediterranean urban surveys. This paper outlines the development of a survey strategy for the town through a process of trial and error. Reliable results were obtained by combining research techniques and acknowledging the impact of site formation processes and post-depositional disturbances upon the surface record. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 Master And Apprentice, Knight And Squire: Education In The 'Celtic' Iron Age
The role of education and agency of children as factors in the formation of Iron Age culture is addressed. Historical sources on education from Iron Age Gaul are compared with later 'medieval Celtic' practices. Fosterage, common Celtic *altros, may have been the evolutionary precursor of apprenticeships and knight-squire relationships, as developed in the feudal states of medieval Europe. Fosterage establishes artificial kinship, strengthens kinship alliances by providing hostages, helps to forge strong emotional bonds between foster parents, children and siblings, and helps to confirm social hierarchies, while providing specialized education. Professional specialists gain increased security outside their own group. It gives children a role in the tradition of culture, and allows them to blend artistic styles and create unique adaptations combining 'local' traditions with 'external' innovations. Fosterage can thus be established as an important method of peer polity interaction in Iron Age and medieval 'Celtic' societies. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 Woad, Tattooing And Identity In Later Iron Age And Early Roman Britain
This paper explores the archaeological evidence for the practice of facial and corporeal dyeing, painting and tattooing in the later Iron Age and early Roman period. The aim is to construct a hypothesis which explains how, why, when and by whom such pigments were worn. Although this hypothesis discusses woad-derived indigo, this is used mainly, although not exclusively, as an experimental tool, as no conclusive archaeological evidence exists which reveals the identity of the 'real' pigment(s). Woad has also long held a place in the popular imagination as the source of the dye which the ancient Britons used to paint themselves. This paper explores the possibility that the cosmetic grinder was the focal artefact used in body painting or tattooing, and was used for grinding and mixing body and face paint. It is suggested that, rather than being a 'Roman'-style tool for cosmetic application from the start, it may have begun life as an artefact first used by the later Iron Age Britons for body painting and expressing indigenous identities. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 Roman Cirencester And Gloucester Compared
Roman Cirencester and Roman Gloucester have in the past been seen as examples of success and (relative) failure in the urbanization of Roman Britain, but they seem better understood as expressions of different urban ideas. Cirencester actively remoulded itself as a model Roman city, although there may be allusions to its earlier past in its layout. Gloucester, perhaps deliberately, did not, with the result that its earlier history is expressed physically within the Roman city plan. The two communities may also have presented their collective identities differently. Other aspects of their urban expression are also explored. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 Baths Or Baptisteries? Holcombe, Lufton And Their Analogues
Prominent octagonal buildings in the fourth-century villas at Holcombe (Devon) and Lufton (Somerset) have usually been interpreted as bath-suites. This paper questions this view and suggests that they were linked with early Christian ritual, probably baptism. The exceptional character of these structures in the context of bathing is underlined. Their analogues are most evident in early Christian baptisteries of fourth- and fifth-century date in Gaul and Italy, offering support for linkage between Christian communities in late Roman Britain and those in the adjacent western provinces. Other possible sites of baptisteries in Britain are noted. Volume 24 - Issue 3 - August 2005 Whale Bones And Shell Purple-Dye At Motya (Western Sicily, Italy)
Excavations 30 years ago at sixth-fifth century BC Motya in western Sicily produced a unique assemblage of four Sperm whale vertebrae, crushed purple-dye shells, and stone tools. The whale vertebrae were the platforms for breaking the shells. Here I discuss recent sightings of Sperm whales in the Mediterranean, the archaeological evidence for whaling in the Mediterranean, and possible whale products available, as well as Italian shell purple-dye evidence. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 Dead Men Tell No Tales: Ethnic Diversity In Sicilian Colonies And The Evidence Of The Cemeteries
There have been recent suggestions that an indigenous element in ancient Greek settlements in Sicily can be detected through funerary customs. This paper reviews the evidence for 'indigenous' burial methods in Greek cemeteries, concentrating on multiple, contracted and acephalous burials. It argues that such evidence is limited and open to various interpretations and that while it is highly likely that Greek settlements did incorporate an indigenous population, the funerary record cannot be used as a reliable identifier of such groups. The paper also briefly assesses the evidence for the presence of Greeks deriving from areas other than the historical mother-cities and suggests that such individuals are also very difficult to detect. It concludes that the general impression given by Sicilian Greek cemeteries is one of overall subscription to coherent burial systems, which may be viewed as part of an attempt to forge a unified and independent cultural identity. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 A Punic Jug From The Museum Of St Agatha, Rabat, Malta: A Glance At Punic Everyday Life
The assumption of a long-term overlapping or co-existence of cultures there has been confirmed by a very small inscription which came to my attention during research for my doctoral thesis 'From Expansion to Isolation. A study on the development of the Phoenician-Punic culture on the islands of Malta and Gozo'. Pottery chronology and the use of epigraphy and palaeography illustrate that at a time when Malta and Gozo had long been under Roman rule, the harmonious co-existence of the Punic, Greek and Roman cultures was manifested in one vessel and in one inscription. The Maltese archipelago assumes a special status owing to its isolation. There is hardly any comparable area of 246 sq km in which the phenomenon of cultural overlapping and cultural parallels can be found in such density. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 Pots And Pits: Drinking And Deposition In Late Iron Age South-East Britain
This paper considers the role of pottery in the Late Iron Age to Roman transition in south-east Britain. Traditional concern with the significance of Continental imports is rejected in favour of a more holistic and bottom-up approach giving equal emphasis to locally made forms and imports in complete assemblages. Several stages of inter-site correspondence analysis are conducted on a range of sites and assemblages in the region. Patterning pertaining to the use and deposition of both imported and local pottery vessels can be seen to contradict simplistic models for 'Romanization before conquest'. The main conclusions include evidence for the selective disposal of drinking vessels and table wares in pits, the likely widespread consumption of beer as opposed to wine, and the implied importance of indigenous social practices such as feasting and communal drinking. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 The Roman Denarius Under The Julio-Claudian Emperors: Mints, Metallurgy And Technology
The results of the chemical analysis of 78 silver denarii issued by the Julio-Claudian emperors are presented and interpreted against the available numismatic, archaeological and historical information. Earlier surface analyses are found to be incorrect, especially for the coinage of Nero, and the reasons for this are investigated. The new elemental data are augmented by a subset of coins being subjected to lead isotope analysis and the results of this are found to complement these data in unexpected ways. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 Forum Germanorum In North-West Italy: The Home Community And Life Of Arguably The Earliest Known Legionary Veteran In Britain
Excavations at Alchester in Oxfordshire in 2003 yielded the remains of a Roman inscription, smashed into fragments and reused in the foundations of the town wall. It proved to be a tombstone of a veteran of the Second Augustan Legion and it is argued that Alchester was probably the main base of this legion and its famous first commander in Britain, Vespasian. However, the emphasis in this paper is on the home community of the veteran, Forum Germanorum in north-west Italy, for which the inscription provides the earliest testimony, as well as on the ex-soldier's career. The precise dating of the monument is of particular significance; it suggests that the deceased was the earliest known legionary veteran to settle in Britain. He is, incidentally, also the only inhabitant of pre-medieval Oxfordshire (other than, temporarily, Vespasian and some officers of the Second Augustan Legion, if the above theory is accepted) whose life story we know. Volume 24 - Issue 2 - May 2005 Pattern Without A Plan: Rethinking The Bronze Age Coaxial Field Systems On Dartmoor, South-West England
The coaxial field systems on Dartmoor are widely interpreted as the result of a relatively rapid period of planned land division during the middle centuries of the second millennium BC. This article seeks to challenge this notion of a 'planned landscape'. Using examples from southern (Shaugh Moor) and north-eastern (Kestor and Shovel Down) Dartmoor, it is demonstrated that the boundaries materialized existing structures in the landscape which had emerged through patterns of dwelling and long histories of tenure. In seeking to present a new narrative for the enclosure of the Dartmoor landscape, it is argued that tenure was articulated at a local level through the relationship between occupancy and ancestral ties to the land, and that land division was only possible because the forms of tenure and perceptions of landscape were already in place. The coaxial pattern emerged in a reflexive tradition of boundary construction rather than as part of a transformative plan or a conscious strategy to reorganize and enclose the moor. Volume 24 - Issue 1 - February 2005 Last Orders: Choosing Pottery For Funerals In Roman Essex
This paper examines ceramic vessels from Roman-period funerary contexts in Essex. Using correspondence analysis, it charts changes in the choice of funerary pottery and isolates the elements in pottery assemblages that unite or differentiate sites. The paper finds that the status of sites can be distinguished on ceramic grounds, reflecting cultural differences in life. Jars and beakers are characteristic of settlement cemeteries, while cups are more typical of high-status burials. Flagons and samian ware are common between them. Underlying funerary traditions are rooted in continuity from the Late Iron Age, rather than post-conquest change. The study also suggests that funerary pottery was selected out of the supply intended for domestic use. Volume 24 - Issue 1 - February 2005 Social Dynamics On The Northern Frontier Of Roman Britain
Despite much work on the frontier of Roman Britain, major questions concerned with society and settlement archaeology remain underinvestigated. Salient details of two major urban sites, Carlisle and Corbridge, both of which may shed further light on processes of settlement growth and decline, and which may ultimately contribute to a greater understanding of how the frontier worked, are summarized. At Carlisle, and probably also at Corbridge, settlement growth associated with forts was rapid and multi-tracked, but from the later second century AD changes took place associated, perhaps, with enhanced status and a growing sense of community. Volume 24 - Issue 1 - February 2005 Barbarian Piracy And The Saxon Shore: A Reappraisal
The tradition of Saxon and other Continental piracy is one of the longest standing tenets of Romano-British studies. It may also be one of its greatest myths, which owes more to its considerable antiquarian pedigree than to any firm basis in fact. This paper reassesses Roman military strategy around the British coast, and suggests that the 'Saxon Shore Forts' and other coastal installations played a more significant economic and logistical role than is often appreciated. Moreover, the idea that each monument fulfilled a single, dedicated function is argued to be too simplistic: instead it is proposed that individual forts served in various capacities during their operational lifetime, and quite possibly not those for which they were originally conceived. Volume 24 - Issue 1 - February 2005 The Granite Column In Modon: How To Make A Stone Say What You Want It To Say!
The 3 km long ramparts of the castle of Modon survive remarkably unscathed despite the attacks of Man and Nature over the centuries. The most interesting monument which remains, a column of red granite, crowned with a capital and a stone slab, has escaped the looters of antiquities who often passed by Modon. It has also escaped the scholars who have failed to give a reliable interpretation of the monument. This paper seeks to deal with this question and to set the monument in its proper historical context. Volume 24 - Issue 1 - February 2005 Mesolithic And Neolithic (Dis)Continuities In The Danube Gorges: New Ams Dates From Padina And Hajducka Vodenica (Serbia)
In this paper we present 17 new AMS dates from the Mesolithic-Early Neolithic sites of Padina and Hajducka Vodenica and discuss the continuity and nature of occupation at them in the context of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transformations in the Danube Gorges region (north-central Balkans), c.10000-5500 Cal BC. The dates indicate long occupation sequences and help refine the stratigraphies of the two sites. They, also enable us to date architectural features, burial positions and bone/antler tools, and to further our understanding of the impact of the noted aquatic reservoir effect on radiocarbon dating of human and dog remains from this region. Finally, these dates suggest continuity of occupation at sites other than Lepenski Vir in the Danube Gorges at the time of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, c.6300-5950 Cal BC. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Authority, Polity, And Tenuous Elites In Iron Age Edom (Jordan)
The strategies political elites implement to garner political authority and legitimacy in emergent polities are scrutinized in a case study from Iron Age Edom, located in modern southern Jordan and the south-east corner of the State of Israel. Edom provides a productive context in which to conduct this investigation as local elites managed a fractious polity consisting of unstable segmentary identities, while at the same time, remaining loyal to the successive Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires that dominated them. This tenuous position required elites to maintain a flexible elite identity while promoting broader metaphors of attachment (e.g. Edomite) among their disparate constituents. This case study ultimately moves toward an understanding of political polities, not as disembodied entities (e.g. States), but as embedded phenomena within the societies they comprise. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Casting The Riace Bronzes (2): A Sculptor's Discovery
The discovery presented in this paper may reshape the stylistic history of Greek art. It is that the torso and limbs of the Riace Bronzes were cast from life, rather than having been previously modelled in clay. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Ancient Workshops And Ancient 'Art'
There is a tension between the understanding of the term 'workshop' in art historical scholarship and the actual locations of production unearthed by archaeology. Yet countless ancient works of art bear traces of their own production, and many working sites have produced unfinished products. The differing approaches can be combined, to a greater extent than they have been, to attain a more comprehensive understanding of ancient art production. A first step is an exhaustive analysis of the interactions between the provenance, processing, inherent quality, logistics, presentation and preservation of any material used in art production. But the products themselves also have much to reveal about their conditions of production. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Granaries And Garrisons In Roman Forts
A statistical investigation into the relationship between granary floor area and garrison in Roman forts suggested that for a year's corn an auxiliary infantry cohort was typically allotted 2,500 sq. feet of granary area, or 5 sq. feet each for 500 men. Cavalry fort granaries were insufficient for a year's corn but each cavalryman probably had 7.5 sq. feet of granary area which gave 3,600 sq. feet for 480 men. Information from Polybius suggested that legionary and auxiliary infantrymen had 16 cu. feet of corn per year, an auxiliary cavalryman 152 cu. feet and the legionary cavalryman 216 cu. feet. This paradigm facilitated the issue of corn by the modius and the granary model allowed ten modii per sq. foot of floor area so that the input for an infantryman was 50 modii per year. This allowed for a 4 per cent loss during storage so 48 modii per man could be withdrawn. But granary areas varied and some forts appear to have been depots for others. A simple algorithm is given to list the possible options for known granaries in terms of the numbers of men and duration of supply. With two floors, the Chester granaries would hold a year's corn for a legionary establishment, while the wooden granaries at Inchtuthil would have held a year's corn for some 6,800 infantry on one floor. The Severan base at South Shields could have held a year's corn for about 11,000 infantry. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Potted Histories - Cremation, Ceramics And Social Memory In Early Roman Britain
Archaeologists have identified the adoption of new forms of cremation ritual during the early Roman period in south-east Britain. Cremation may have been widely used by communities in the Iron Age, but the distinctive nature of these new rites was their frequent placing of the dead within, and associated with, ceramic vessels. This paper suggests an interpretation for the social meaning of these cremation burial rites that involved the burial of ashes with and within pots as a means of commemoration. In this light, the link between cremation and pottery in early Roman Britain can be seen as a means of promoting the selective remembering and forgetting of the dead. Volume 23 - Issue 4 - November 2004 Site function and the 'ibex-site
phenomenon': myth or reality? This paper focuses on ibex hunting in Italy during the Upper Palaeolithic. The faunal assemblages from five ibex-dominated sites (Dalmeri, Arene Candide, Fumane, Villabruna and Soman) are examined with the aim of assessing the role of the sites and people's activities in the wider settlement system. These sites will be placed in their wider context of the Italian Upper Palaeolithic so as to explore the nature of variability in ibex exploitation. The importance of these considerations is to examine aspects of specialized hunting, increased intensity of resource exploitation during the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, and methodological considerations of the relationship between faunal remains and the human activities that produced them. Volume 23 - Issue 3 - August 2004
Volume 23 - Issue 3 - August 2004
Babbroic clay sources in Cornwall: a petrographic study of prehistoric pottery and clay samples Lucy Harrad This analysis of prehistoric pottery and clay samples from Cornwall demonstrates that the clay used to make Cornish gabbroic pottery in prehistory originated around the gabbro rock outcrop in a small area of the Lizard peninsula. The research uses petrographic and chemical analysis to subdivide the prehistoric pottery into six groups. Owing to the unusual geology of the Lizard these groups can be attributed to specific locations. The most abundant pottery fabric, Typical Gabbroic, was made using coarse clay which is mainly found in a 1 km2 area near Zoar. A finer version of this clay, found higher in the soil profile or slightly transported and redeposited, was used to make Fine Gabbroic pottery and an even finer variant called FNS (Fine Non-Sandy) Gabbroic. We identify for the first time here a Loessic/Gabbroic pottery fabric which can be matched exactly to clay found at Lowland Point. Serpentinitic/Gabbroic pottery was made using clay from the gabbro/serpentinite border zone. Pottery made from the Granitic/Gabbroic fabric did not match any clay from the Lizard, showing that gabbroic clay was sometimes removed and made into pottery elsewhere in Cornwall. The main clay source near Zoar was used for clay extraction throughout the Bronze Age and Iron Age for pottery which was traded all over Cornwall. Other gabbroic clay sources produced pottery only during certain periods and exclusively supplied particular settlements, such as the Loessic/Gabbroic fabric which was found only at Gear and Caer Vallack. The results suggest that pottery was produced by several small-scale cottage industries, which may have operated on a seasonal, part-time basis and probably formed only part of a wide range of activities located around the Lizard area. Volume 23 - Issue 3 - August 2004
Facing two seas: Mediterranean and Atlantic contacts in the north-west of Iberia in the first millennium BC Alfredo González-Ruibal Despite the marginality of the region, the Later Bronze Age and Iron Age communities of the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula were engaged in active relationships with both Atlantic and Mediterranean peoples. Unlike other Atlantic regions, the area maintained direct contacts both with Mediterranean sailors and with the communities of the British Isles and north-western France simultaneously. The social relevance of these interactions and the range of imported goods transported varied throughout the first millennium BC. New evidence shows an intense involvement in Mediterranean trade from the fifth century BC onwards, while Atlantic contacts increased from the late second century BC, to reach a climax under Roman rule (first–second centuries AD). Volume 23 - Issue 3 - August 2004
Chaining and shaming: images of defeat, from Llyn Cerrig Bach to Sarmitzegetusa Miranda Aldhouse-Green This paper seeks to address issues relating to physical restraint, disempowerment and the symbolisms of humiliation, particularly within the contexts of warfare and conquest in Iron Age and Roman Britain and Europe, although the enormous topic of ancient slavery per se is beyond the scope of the present study. The enquiry is based upon evidence from iconography, human remains, the physical paraphernalia of restraint and, for the latest Iron Age onwards, the testimony of such ancient authors as Tacitus. The subject is approached from the perspective not only of empirical material but also from that of social and symbolic theory. Furthermore, in seeking to interpret the relevant material culture, I have deemed it useful to draw broad analogies with other periods and contexts, including the iconography of the ancient Nile Valley and aspects of the nineteenth century French penal system. The material under discussion is scrutinized within contexts of ritual practice and performance, together with presentations of degradation and attitudes to foreignness, subjugation, supremacy and inferiority. Accordingly, questions are raised concerning the symbolic meaning of gang-chains and chain-gangs, grammars of victory-imagery (including somatic position, dimorphism and hair-grasping) and issues associated with shaming the body, whether by means of binding and shackling, violence, head-shaving or sensory deprivation. Volume 23 - Issue 3 - August 2004
Copper Age ditched enclosures
in central Iberia The interpretation of European Neolithic enclosures must take account of their wide variability in chronology, size, shape, topographical position and material. Such interpretations should rely on the comparative analysis of the processes at work in particular regions. Newly recovered data from small early third millennium cal BC ditched enclosures in central Iberia, with high densities of features and domestic refuse, support the hypothesis of permanent habitation. This paper argues that the variability in late Neolithic–Chalcolithic enclosures throughout Iberia is a result of the cycling of fission and fusion characteristic of segmentary social dynamics. Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
The High-water mark: the siting of megalithic tombs on the Swedish island of Tjorn Richard Bradley and Tim Phillips In 1977 Grahame Clark suggested that the siting of megalithic tombs along the west coast of Scandinavia reflected the distribution of productive fishing grounds. Unlike the situation in other parts of Europe, these monuments were not associated with agriculture. Opinions have varied over the last quarter century, but enough is now known about changes of sea-level for his interpretation to be investigated on the ground. There seems to have been considerable diversity. On the large island of Örust some of the tombs located near to the sea appear to be associated with small natural enclosures defined by rock outcrops and may have been associated with grazing land. On the neighbouring island of Tjörn, however, the tombs were associated with small islands and important sea channels. During the Bronze Age the same areas included carvings of ships. Recent fieldwork in western Norway suggests that such locations were especially important in a maritime economy. Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
Pigs for the Gods: burnt animal sacrifices as embodied rituals at a Mycenaean sanctuary Yannis Hamilakis and Eleni Konsolaki The archaeology of animal sacrifice has attracted considerable attention, although discussions on the meanings and social effects of the practice in different contexts are rather under-developed. In the Aegean, classical antiquity has provided abundant literary, zooarchaeological and iconographic evidence (and has inspired some excellent studies) but it has also overshadowed discussion on sacrifice in other periods. Until recently, it was assumed that burnt animal sacrifices (i.e. the ritual burning of bones or parts of the carcass, often taken to be offerings to the deities) were absent from the pre-classical contexts. Recent studies have shown this not to be the case. This article reports and discusses evidence for burnt animal sacrifices from the sanctuary of Ayios Konstantinos at Methana, north-east Peloponnese. It constitutes the first, zooarchaeologically verified such evidence from a sanctuary context. The main sacrificial animals seem to have been juvenile pigs, which were transported as whole carcasses into the main cultic room; non-meaty parts were selected for burning whereas their meaty parts were first consumed by humans and then thrown into the fire (some neonatal pigs may have been thrown into the fire whole). The article integrates zooarchaeological, other contextual, and comparative archaeological evidence and explores the social roles and meanings of sacrifice in the Mycenaean context and more broadly. It is suggested that, rather than focusing on possible continuities of the practice through to the classical period (an issue which remains ambiguous), sacrifice should be meaningfully discussed within the broader framework of the archaeology of feasting, and more generally food consumption, as a socially important, sensory embodied experience. The evidence from Ayios Konstantinos may reveal a hitherto eluding phenomenon: small-scale, sacrificial-feasting ritual in a religious context, conferring cosmological and ideological powers on few individuals, through the participation in an intense, embodied, transcendental experience. Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
The rise and decline of the Tutankhamun-class chariot Bela I. Sandor The Tutankhamun-class chariot, the earliest high-performance machine, existed in its refined form for about five centuries. Eight complete vehicles have survived and support the argument that they surpass all monumental structures of the pharaohs in engineering sophistication. There is no evidence of chariot racing from that era, but these chariots have many technical features that imply a pedigree based on racing. Several elements hint of thoughtful invention, advanced physical modelling and experimentation, with results that sometimes drastically and favourably differ from our concepts of vehicle design. It is difficult for us to envision a substantially better chariot made with the ancient materials of construction even if we were to apply our most advanced formulas and methods. There are two major areas of chariot analysis from an engineering standpoint, and both are accessible to non-specialists. The complex suspension system of springs and shock absorbers has advantages in structural dynamics, ride quality and safety. An example of the latter is a dual-purpose anti-roll device. The chariots' wheels have aircraft-like damage tolerance, and have fundamentally more perfect spokes and joints for carrying multi-axial loads than the wooden spokes of any classic car. This paper covers the essential technical features and historical perspectives of these chariots for archaeologists.I was obliged to do a job which the ancestors had not had done . . . I became great beyond words.Ineni, Chief Engineer, c.1500 BC( , 95) Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
Contextualising the Larnax: tradition, innovation and regionalism in coffin use on late Minoan II-IIIB Crete Laura Preston This paper analyses coffin use in the tombs of Late Bronze Age Crete in terms of both mortuary traditions on the island and regional variations in cultural practices. It argues that the revival of coffin use in the Final and Post-palatial periods (in ceramic terms, Late Minoan II–IIIB) constituted a recourse to an earlier burial custom within negotiations of rapidly changing mortuary practices across the island. However, this 're-invention' involved significant modifications to the form and significance of the coffin. The paper then explores spatial variations in choices of coffin types, as one potential window onto the issue of intra-island regionalism in social and cultural practices. Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
Towards realising the full
archaeoenvironmental potential of raised (ombrotrophic) mires in
the British Isles Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
A Greek metrological koine: A lead weight from the western Black Sea region in the Ashmolean museum, Oxford H. C. Meyer and A. Moreno A unique commercial lead weight from the western Black Sea region is examined in its metrological and historical context. The style and combination of relief symbols on the object (Athenian owl and Kyzikene tunny) suggest a quarter mina in a market weight system used equivalently at Athens and Kyzikos by the last quarter of the fifth century BC, and developed within a long-term process of broad commercial integration of the Aegean and Black Seas in Classical times. The authors consider such a process to have been caused by the economic motivations of individual city-states, not the direct Athenian imperialism expressed in the so-called Standards Decree. Volume 23 - Issue 2 - May 2004
Rock-art and the transition
to farming. The Neolithic landscape of the central Mediterranean
coast of Spain This paper deals with the analysis of stylistic
variation between the different rock-art traditions that coexisted
in the central Mediterranean coastal area of Spain in the Neolithic
period – the Macro Schematic tradition, the Schematic tradition
and the Levantine tradition. The stylistic variation is analyzed
in different scales from the panel with its compositions and superimpositions,
to the shelter – shared or exclusive – and the landscape,
focussing on patterns of distribution and relationships with settlement
sites. This stylistic analysis enables us to study the chronological
aspects of the process of Neolithization; while the symbolic character
of these marks on the landscape offers an insight into the perception
and use of space by the communities who made them. Volume 23 - Issue 1 - February 2004
Tool hoards and Neolithic use of the landscape in north-eastern Ireland Douglas B. Bamforth and Peter C. Woodman Archaeologists frequently suggest that the Neolithic occupants of Ireland and Britain may not have been fully settled farmers, but were, instead, at least partially nomadic pastoralists. However, human use of any landscape is more complex than the current debate suggests, and this debate has included few systematic studies designed to evaluate this issue in detail. This paper examines hoards (or 'caches') of flaked stone tools in County Antrim, Ireland, to consider the links between anticipatory tool storage and human land-use patterns. Our data imply regular human movements over the study area, possibly linked to transhumant use of different altitudinal zones, with functionally and, sometimes, technologically specific classes of tools stored in different areas. However, the larger context of data on the Irish Neolithic clearly indicates that these movements were part of a way of life centred on permanent horticultural homesteads. Volume 23 - Issue 1 - February 2004
Land use in prehistoric Malta. A re-examination of the Maltese 'cart ruts' Claudia Sagona This paper explores the manufacture and function of the so-called 'cart ruts' within the harsh environment of Malta and proposes that they were deliberately constructed in order to push the boundaries of available arable land and are better identified as field furrows. Using comparative ethnographic evidence as well as archaeological data from European contexts, it is argued that the driving force, which necessitated their manufacture in Malta, lay in socio-economic pressures. It is argued that the ruts are of high antiquity, products of Temple Period intensification and marginalism in land use. Volume 23 - Issue 1 - February 2004
Wessex cowboys? Barry Cunliffe Recent excavations in Wessex, and the full publication of many of them, have produced a rich variety of evidence reflecting on the dramatic economic and social changes which were taking place in the period c.1300–600 BC. The underlying trajectory is increased agro-pastoral production, the development of secondary products and the acceptance of new consumption practices. The evidence is presented and a series of scenarios are offered to explain the observed changes. Volume 23 - Issue 1 - February 2004
Genes, language, and culture: an example from the Tarim Basin Christopher P. Thornton and Theodore G. Schurr The Tarim Basin 'mummies' of western China continue to fascinate scholars and the general public alike due to their 'Caucasoid' features, well-preserved material culture, and putative 'European' origins. However, there have been some uncritical efforts to link these archaeological cultures to those of other ancient Eurasian groups (e.g. the Celts) by applying syllogistic reasoning to multi-disciplinary evidence. In an attempt to provide a more cautious synthesis of the prehistory of the Tarim Basin, this paper will briefly summarize the archaeological, physical, and linguistic evidence that has been used to model human settlement of this region. These data will then be related to recent molecular anthropology research on modern populations of Central Asia, focusing especially on the Uighur in relation to their neighbours. While the genetic history of the modern peoples of a particular region is not necessarily related to their prehistoric antecedents, it is argued that the Tarim Basin experienced a surprising cultural and biological continuity despite immigration from both east and west into Xinjiang Province. This conclusion has a number of possible political ramifications in the present day that must be addressed in future literature on the subject. Volume 23 - Issue 1 - February 2004
Bronze Age Textiles from
the North Caucasus: New Evidence of Fourth Millennium BC Fibres
and Fabrics Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003
Rudston ‘Cursus A’– Engaging with a Neolithic Monument in Its Landscape Setting Using GIS Henry P. Chapman Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003
Evidence of Iberian Bronze Age ‘Boquique’ Pottery in the Balearic Islands: Trade, Marriage or Culture? W. Waldren Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003
Cultural Response to Environmental Change in the Alpine Lacustrine Regions: The Displacement Model Francesco Menotti Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003
The Emergence of Chariots and Riding in the South Caucasus Maria Pogrebova Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003
The Achaian Vapheio Cup and Its Afterlife in Archaic South Italy John K. Papadopoulos Volume 22 - Issue 4 - November 2003 September 2006 |
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