The modelling and representation of prehistoric hunter-gatherer behaviours is largely influenced by the investigation of sites with high archaeological visibility, due to the presence of large amounts of knapped lithics, which generally survive the ravages of time. As a consequence, behaviours which were not, or to a limited extent, associated with stone tools are underrepresented in archaeological narratives about hunter-gatherer lifestyles, which, however, have characterised most of the human past. Occasionally, at sites where preservation conditions are good, archaeological finds point to the importance of organic resources for tools and the manufacturing of a broad range of use items, such as clothing, footwear, containers, as well as tent covers and mats. In fact, it is highly likely that organic materials – e.g. wood, bark, bone, antler, hide – were dominant in the creation of material culture, and possibly played a pivotal role in sociocultural communication. The lack of attention for sites and phenomena associated with no or few lithics causes several problems with regard to archaeological insights into the variability in landscape use, technological traditions, and sociocultural interaction. This book presents a collection of articles which address these problems from several angles, with an emphasis on the Mesolithic of NW Europe: dwellings and activities associated with no or few lithics; variability in site location and landscape use, notably in relation to hunting and ethology of game species; and technological aspects of non-lithic material culture. The book intends to increase awareness of the consequences of the issues addressed for our understanding of the past, and boost research and heritage management initiatives in this field.

Seeufersiedlungen mit Feuchtbodenerhaltung sind für die Erforschung des Neolithikums des Alpenvorlandes von herausragender Bedeutung. Die ausserordentlich gute Erhaltung der Siedlungsschichten lässt weitgehende Einblicke in die Lebensweise der prähistorischen Menschen zu. Das Hinterland der grossen Seen ist im Gegensatz dazu weniger gut untersucht. Eine Schlüsselrolle bei dessen Erforschung nehmen die zahlreichen Kleinseen des Schweizerischen Mittellandes ein. Auch an deren Ufern finden sich prähistorische Siedlungsspuren mit Feuchtbodenerhaltung.Der Burgäschisee, gelegen auf der Kantonsgrenze zwischen Bern und Solothurn, ist ein solcher Kleinsee. Die Umgebung weist bereits Siedlungsspuren aus dem Paläolithikum und dem Mesolithikum auf, bedeutend sind aber vor allem die gut erhaltenen Ufersiedlungen des Neolithikums. Seit 170 Jahren wird am Burgäschisee archäologisch geforscht. Seine Erforschung machte nicht nur die Entwicklung zur modernen Archäologie durch, sondern prägte den heute üblichen interdisziplinären Ansatz in der Prähistorischen Archäologie mit.Zwischen 2015 und 2017 wurde der Burgäschisee im Rahmen des vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds geförderten Forschungsprojektes «Beyond Lake Villages» erneut erforscht. Unter Leitung der Universität Bern wurden Grabungen und Sondierungen an verschiedenen Orten rund um den See vorgenommen. Es war wichtig, die bereits bekannten Fundstellen mit modernen Datierungsmethoden präziser chronologisch einordnen zu können. Darüber hinaus wurden auch neue Fundstellen entdeckt. Die Analyse der Befunde aus den alten und neuen Grabungen ergab neue Einblicke in das Siedlungsverhalten an diesem Kleinsee im Neolithikum. Eingehende und unter Einbezug naturwissenschaftlicher Methoden durchgeführte Untersuchungen der verschiedenen Artefaktkategorien lieferten neue Erkenntnisse zu Subsistenz, Mobilität, Vernetzung und Landnutzung der neolithischen Siedler. Der vorliegende Band schliesst ein lange währendes Desiderat und kombiniert neue Forschungsergebnisse mit älteren Daten zu einer umfassenden Synthese.English abstractLake Burgäschi is a small lake on the Swiss Plateau, which has been inhabited since the Mesolithic, but is best known for its Neolithic lakeside settlements. Archaeological research has been conducted at Lake Burgäschi for the last 170 years, undergoing all the developments to modern archaeology. Recently, Lake Burgäschi has been re-explored as part of an interdisciplinary research project under the direction of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern. Excavations were carried out at various sites around Lake Burgäschi, allowing for a new precise chronological classification of already known sites, but also revealing previously unknown settlement sites on the lakeshore. Furthermore, by means of interdisciplinary investigations on the pottery, animal and human bones as well as flint artefacts, previous knowledge on subsistence, mobility and land-use has been substantially extended. The present volume closes a long lasting research gap and combines new results with ancient data to a comprehensive synthesis.

The Iron Age settlements excavated by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton lie within the rich later prehistoric landscape of the Northumberland coastal plain. This monograph presents the results of the excavation, specialist analyses and provides a key dataset upon which to discuss regionally and nationally important later prehistoric research themes. The excavations at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton offer two large-scale new datasets to compare within the corpus of enclosed Iron Age settlement sites across the region, allowing for an increased understanding of settlement patterns, architectural forms and farming practices. These include settlement development, longevity and tempo; the relationship between lowland and upland sites; settlement organisation and identity; roundhouse architecture and the impact of contact with the Roman world. At Morley Hill, work revealed two later Iron Age settlements defined by rectilinear enclosures surrounding groups of roundhouses with evidence for earlier phases of activity. The settlements at Morley Hill are comparable to many such distinctive settlements identified across the region and explored in recent years largely through developer-funded excavations. Lower Callerton represents a less explored form of extensive settlement with the excavation revealing evidence of earlier prehistoric activity overlain by a large Iron Age enclosure with over 53 structures, multiple sub-enclosures and boundaries. Comprehensive Bayesian modelling at Lower Callerton has provided a robust chronological framework indicating complex and continual settlement development from the middle Iron Age. The implications of this in terms of wider settlement development, tempo and longevity are explored. While the volume focuses on the Iron Age, the identification and influence of earlier prehistoric activity is also explored. The discussion is again enhanced by the programme of radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis of cereal grains from Neolithic pits at Lower Callerton.

The First Stones brings together the results of recent research on the Neolithic long cairns lying in the shadow of the Black Mountains in south-east Wales, focusing upon Penywyrlod and Gwernvale, the two best known tombs within the group, previously excavated in the 1970s. Important results lie in both new site detail and reassessment of the wider context. Small-scale excavation, geophysical survey and geological assessment at Penywyrlod – the largest of the Welsh long cairns – gave further information about the distinctive external and internal architecture of the monument. In turn, this opened the opportunity to reassess the pre-monument sequence at Gwernvale, with re-examination of both Mesolithic and Neolithic occupations, including a timber structure and midden, lithic and pottery assemblages, and cereal remains. The frame for wider reassessment is given by fresh chronological modelling both of the monuments themselves, suggesting a sequence from Penywyrlod and Pipton to Ty Isaf and Gwernvale, probably spanning the 38th to the 36th or 35th centuries cal BC, and of early Neolithic activity in south Wales and the Marches, probably beginning in the 39th century cal BC. A detailed study of the major assemblages of human remains from the Black Mountains tombs includes evidence for diet, trauma and lifestyles of the populations represented. Recent isotope analysis of human remains from the tombs is also reviewed, implying social mobility and migration within local populations during the early Neolithic. The First Stones makes a significant contribution to the study of tomb building, treatment of the dead, place making, the relationship of monuments to landscape, local and regional identities, connections and affiliations across southern Britain and the adjacent continent, and Neolithisation in western Britain. Viewed within the context of tombs within the Cotswold-Severn tradition as a whole, it leads to an appreciation of the local and regional distinctiveness of architecture and mortuary practice exhibited by the tombs in this area of south-east Wales, emerging as part of the intake of a significant inland area in the early centuries of the Neolithic.

Pile dwellings have been explored over a vast region for a number of decades now. This has led to the development of different ways, methods, and even schools of under-water and peat-bog excavation practices and data analysis techniques under the influence of different research traditions in individual countries. On the one hand, these and other factors can limit our understanding of the past, whilst on the other hand they can also open up further avenues of interpretation. By collecting the papers presented at the 2016 session of the EAA in Vilnius, this book aims to take this diversity as an opportunity. The geographical scope extends from the Baltic to Russia, Belarus, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to France. The volume thus provides a current insight into international research into life in and around a vast array of prehistoric waterscapes. Extensive multidisciplinary research carried out in recent years has provided new data with regard to the anthropogenic influence on the landscapes around Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings, which allows us to characterise in more detail the lifestyles of the settlements’ inhabitants, the peculiarities of the ecological niche and the interaction between humans and their environment. The volume also contains various case studies that demonstrate the importance of scientific analyses for the study of settlements between land and water.Overall, the volume presents an important new body of data and international perspectives on the settlement of European waterscapes.

One day, sometime around 1700 BC, a bronzesmith made the first sword. This marked a technological turning point, giving rise to an arms race that has never since ceased. Soon, over a vast area between the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of weapons were manufactured. They were used in combat, then laid to rest, whole or broken, often during complex rituals that are still hard for us to understand. Through the sword, the Bronze Age brought war into being. The warrior became an important figure. Societies were transformed, and came to revolve politically and economically around warfare. Western Europe developed new social structures, a new kind of civilisation involving neither towns, nor writing. By tackling the subject ‘a call to arms’, Anne Lehoërff investigates war’s long-term development. She focusses on oral societies which have for a long while remained poorly understood, passed over by a historical tradition that saw the world of Classical Antiquity in a different light to that of ‘primitive’ peoples. But our European ancestors have their own history, and this book tells it. The French edition of A CALL TO ARMS was awarded the Verdun World Peace Center History Prize in 2018.

The study of the human societies of the Final Pleistocene of North Africa requires an in-depth analysis of the techno-typological characteristics of the microlithic industries that were widespread in the whole Mediterranean area during the period between 24000 and 10000 years ago. Most of the research projects in Maghreb and Libya were carried out decades ago. At the time sediments were rarely sieved and the small lithic tools, so characteristic of this period, were often lost. Also, little attention was paid to the raw material sourcing, which is an exceptional tool for understanding technology, human behavior and land management. It is thus of great importance to focus on new research, that has the potential to delineate a more detailed picture of the North-African Later Stone Age. Based on more recent research in the Jebel Gharbi (Libya), this book offers a high-resolution description and documentation of the LSA lithic complexes of North-Western Libya, applying an approach that integrates up-to-date techno-typological studies with geochemistry and functional analysis. This research aims to define the characteristics of the human occupation of the Jebel Gharbi during the Late Pleistocene, with specific reference to the period from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene transition, delineating a picture of the human occupation of the area through about ten millennia. This volume represents an exhaustive overview on the Prehistory of Northern Libya in areas that aren’t, nowadays, accessible to researchers.

This popular-science book tells the story of one of the most important, but least known major archaeological sites in Europe: Doggerland. Few people know that the beaches along the North Sea lie on the edge of a vast lost world. A prehistoric landscape that documents almost a million years of human habitation and lay dry for most of that time. Doggerland is where early hominids left the first footprints in northern Europe, more than 900,000 years ago. Later, for hundreds of thousands of years, it was the scene of ice ages. A world of woolly mammoths and rhinoceroses, horses and reindeer and the successful Neanderthals who hunted them, including Krijn: the first Neanderthal from Doggerland. At the end of the last Ice Age, the first modern humans also left their traces here, including the famous Leman-and-Ower-Banks spearhead – the first documented Doggerland find – and some of the oldest art in the region. With the onset of the Holocene, our current era, Doggerland’s inhabitants were increasingly confronted with climate change and rising sea levels, just as we are today. The Mesolithic hunter-gatherers lived in a rich, but constantly changing world – to which they successfully adapted. Ongoing submergence and a huge tsunami around 6150 BC marked the beginning of the end. A few centuries later, the last islands disappeared under the waves and with them the story of Doggerland was lost in time. This book brings this vanished world back to the surface.

Excavation of a Scheduled burial mound on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor revealed an unexpected, intact burial deposit of Early Bronze Age date associated with an unparalleled range of artefacts. The cremated remains of a young person had been placed within a bearskin pelt and provided with a basketry container, from which a braided band with tin studs had spilled out. Within the container were beads of shale, amber, clay and tin; wo pairs of turned wooden studs and a worked flint flake. A unique item, possibly a sash or band, made from textile and animal skin was found beneath the container. Beneath this, the basal stone of the cist had been covered by a layer of purple moor grass which had been collected in summer. Analysis of environmental material from the site has revealed important insights into the pyre material used to burn the body, as well as providing important information about the environment in which the cist was constructed. The unparalleled assemblage of organic objects has yielded insights into a range of materials which have not survived from the earlier Bronze Age elsewhere in southern Britain.

This volume offers a valuable resource by compiling and interpreting high-resolution satellite images of all Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid sites in Egypt. The sites included in this Atlas represent to a large degree the principal sites of the third- through the thirteenth-Dynasty. Their particular characteristics mirror the specific periods of Egyptian history, providing a fascinating window into the incredible story of ancient Egypt. Sites covered include (starting in the north): Abu Rawash, Giza, Zawiyet el-Aryan, Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur, Mazghuna, Lisht, Meidum, Lahun, Hawara and Abydos. Also featured is the site of Abu Ghurob, with the two sun temples of Userkaf and Nyuserra of the fifth-Dynasty and the so-called minor step pyramids dating from the late third- to the early fourth-Dynasty. These start in Seila at the northeastern edge of the Faiyum Oasis and include – proceeding those of Zawyet Sultan – Nubt (Naqada), Abydos (Sinki), Hierakonpolis (el-Kula), Edfu (Ghonemeia) and Elephantine. The individual sites are characterised on the background of their local topography and changing nature of their development over time as reflected by the position of individual monuments, including the principal pyramids of the Old and Middle Kingdom. Each each site provides a different story in terms of its structure and content, reflecting the simple fact that every site developed under different conditions, in different local setting, had its own internal logics, its pace and its genuine characteristics. Each site also reflects a specific historical situation and tells a different story of its development and rediscovery. Most pyramid fields are increasingly more intensively endangered by modern development and locally-dominated neglect of the need for their preservation. It is strongly believed that the latest technological advances, including the satellite imaging in Egyptology, will ultimately translate into their systematic use in sites’ protection and management, site and landscape analysis and long-term strategies for both ongoing and future excavation and survey projects in Egypt.

Clachtoll broch is one of the most spectacular Iron Age settlements on the northern mainland of Scotland. When it became clear that the structure was threatened by coastal erosion, community heritage group Historic Assynt launched a major programme of conservation and excavation works designed to secure the vulnerable structure and recover the archaeological evidence of its occupation and use. The resulting excavation provided evidence of a long and complex history of construction and rebuilding, with the final, middle Iron Age occupation phase ending in a catastrophic fire and collapse of the tower by the early years of the first century AD. The internal deposits span perhaps 50 years of the broch’s final occupation and were remarkably well preserved, with no evidence for secondary re-use or disturbance after the fire. As a result, the excavation provides a remarkable snapshot of life in Iron Age Scotland, with an artefact assemblage attesting to daily agricultural life as well as long-range contacts that sets the broch within a wider Atlantic community. Specialist analysis of the artefactual and palaeoenvironmental evidence coupled with detailed analysis of the structure in its local geographical context combine to provide a major new contribution to the archaeology of north-west Scotland, with wider implications for our understanding of late prehistoric society in northern Britain. This report comprises the results of the archaeological investigations at Clachtoll, compiled by a team of archaeologists and specialists from AOC Archaeology Group, and brings together evidence from a range of specialist analyses as well as environmental and landscape investigations.

This book discusses the lithic technology of the neighboring sites of Ruien and Kerkhove (Belgium). The Final-Palaeolithic occupation of Ruien took place during the harsh climatic conditions of the Younger Dryas. The Early and Middle Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Kerkhove on the other hand lived in the temperate and forested environments of the subsequent Early Holocene period. The aim of this work is more precisely to gain a better understanding of how the practice of flintknapping evolved throughout this time period. Should we describe it as a period of long-term stability or as a period of technological rupture and innovation? Can we pinpoint precise moments of change and how are these changes expressed? In the raw material procurement strategies? In the knapping methods or knapping techniques? Or even in the spatial organization of technological behavior at the sites? To provide an answer to some of these questions, the lithic artefacts of Ruien and Kerkhove have been subjected to a detailed analysis, among others by means of lithic refitting. For Ruien, the refitting demonstrates an early adoption of some of the knapping procedures considered typical for lithic industries occurring at the end of the Younger Dryas and the beginning of the Holocene. For the Early Mesolithic of Kerkhove, based on the presence of more elaborate chaînes opératoires, the refitting results advocate a greater affinity with Final-Palaeolithic traditions than often acknowledged. Finally, the analysis also yielded important new results for the Middle Mesolithic, that remained poorly known at a technological level until now. During the latter, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt (RMS) area sees the introduction of new knapping methods, knapping techniques and knapping objectives marking a clear rupture with the preceding periods.

In 2015 at Dalfsen (the Netherlands) archaeologists made an amazing discovery. They found a burial ground dating from the TRB-period (3000-2750 BC) comprising 141 burial pits. The TRB is dated in the last phase of the Middle Neolithic period and is well known for its megalithic monuments which are widespread through large parts of northern Europe. Until recently few non-megalithic burial grounds were known and the find of the Dalfsen burials created new opportunities to study the mortuary ritual in more detail. It sheds light on the social organisation of local TRB communities in this part of the world. The results not only provide evidence for the existence of large multi-person burial mounds during the TRB-period, but also provide intriguing evidence of continuity from this period to the period of the Corded Ware culture – a transition now often interpreted in terms of migration.This volume is the first scientific publication dealing with this unique site. It contains a detailed description and interpretation of the site. A catalogue in which all graves and finds are described in detail, is available separately.

In 2015 at Dalfsen (the Netherlands) archaeologists made an amazing discovery. They found a burial ground dating from the TRB-period (3000-2750 BC) comprising 141 burial pits. The TRB is dated in the last phase of the Middle Neolithic period and is well known for its megalithic monuments which are widespread through large parts of northern Europe. Until recently few non-megalithic burial grounds were known and the find of the Dalfsen burials created new opportunities to study the mortuary ritual in more detail. It sheds light on the social organisation of local TRB communities in this part of the world. The results not only provide evidence for the existence of large multi-person burial mounds during the TRB-period, but also provide intriguing evidence of continuity from this period to the period of the Corded Ware culture – a transition now often interpreted in terms of migration.This volume is a full catalogue of the site. It contains a detailed description of the graves and finds. A volume containing the interpretation of the burial ground is available separately.

This volume presents a complete study of the architecture and finds from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos, a Neopalatial building uncovered by Sir Arthur Evans and Duncan Mackenzie in 1923 and 1926. Located in a prominent position, a few meters south of the Royal Road and close to both the Theatral Area and the north-west corner of the Palace, the House of the Frescoes owes its name to the large deposit of painted plaster discovered within its ruins. Reinvestigation of the House took place in 2016–2019 and included: on-site cleaning of the remains in 2018; detailed analysis of the pottery and other finds; and study of archival material from the original excavations (excerpts presented in this volume). The results offer new insights into the architecture and finds’ contexts, as well as fresh perspectives on the building’s occupation, purpose and abandonment. They suggest that the House of the Frescoes was a non-residential building, and instead had a public role with strong ritual connotations. Its memory survived for a while after its abandonment, as demonstrated by the structured depositions – including the frescoes – found within. Finally, this analysis highlights the urban context of the House of the Frescoes and its connections with the Royal Road area, where much archaeological work has been carried out after Evans. The emerging picture helps to shed further light on the character of Knossos, pre-eminent centre of Minoan Crete at the height of the Bronze Age.

Megalithic monuments are among the most striking remains of the Neolithic period of northern and western Europe and are scattered across landscapes from Pomerania to Portugal. Antiquarians and archaeologists early recognised the family resemblance of the different groups of tombs, attributing them to maritime peoples moving along the western seaways. More recent research sees them rather as the product of established early farming communities in their individual regions. Yet the diversity of the tombs, their chronologies and their varied cultural contexts complicates any straightforward understanding of their origins and distribution. Megalithic Architectures provides new insight by focusing on the construction and design of European megalithic tombs – on the tomb as an architectural project. It shows how much is to be learned from detailed attention to the stages and the techniques through which tombs were built, modified and enlarged, and often intentionally dismantled or decommissioned. The large slabs that were employed, often unshaped, may suggest an opportunistic approach by the Neolithic builders, but this was clearly far from the case. Each building project was unique, and detailed study of individual sites exposes the way in which tombs were built as architectural, social and symbolic undertakings. Alongside the manner in which the materials were used, it reveals a store of knowledge that sometimes differed considerably from one structure to another, even between contemporary monuments within a single region. The volume brings together regional specialists from Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Iberia to offer a series of uniquely authoritative studies. Results of recent fieldwork are fully incorporated and much of the material is published here for the first time in English. It provides an invaluable overview of the current state of research on European megalithic tombs.