Europe (Geographic Keyword)
951-975 (1,158 Records)
This paper describes the lesions identified in the skeletal remains of a 9 year-old girl who died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Lisbon, Portugal, in the 1940s. This individual is housed in the skeletal collection at the National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon. These remains show a variety of lytic lesions on the ribs and thoracic vertebra, with complete destruction of the bodies and fusion of the vertebral arches of 4 vertebrae at a 60 angle. The individual was likely bedridden for...
Sex differences in pre- vs. post-Black Death trends in developmental stress markers (2017)
Previous research revealed trends in periosteal new bone formation in medieval London that are consistent with improvements in health following the Black Death (c. 1347-1351). However, periosteal lesions can occur in response to a wide variety of factors at any age, so it remains unclear how the epidemic affected patterns of physiological stress specifically among subadults. To further our understanding of changes in physiological stress before and after the Black Death, this study examines...
Sexual dimorphism and morphological variability with regard to the socio-economic structure of the Early Medieval European Population (6th – 9th century). (2015)
The socio-economic conditions of past societies can be studied with the help of the biological characteristics of human skeletons. We intend to focus on the early medieval Central and West European populations. The subject of our contribution is a study of the sexual dimorphism and biological diversity on the basis of non-metric and metric traits in relation to socio-economic conditions. We focused primarily on the traits associated with the locomotor apparatus. The aims were to establish :...
The Shaman in the Cave? Testing for entoptic imagery in Upper Paleolithic geometric rock art. (2017)
It has been proposed that much of the rock art of Upper Paleolithic (UP) Europe can be interpreted as the result of shamanistic visions and related spiritual practices (e.g., Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1998; Clottes and Lewis-Williams 2001; Lewis-Williams 2002; Whitley 2005). This theory is based on a combination of analogy with modern hunter-gatherer groups, and recent neuroscience studies on the universality of human physiological response when in a trance state. Specific geometric signs found...
Shared Heritage: World War II American Military Loss Sites in Europe (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historic archaeological sites associated with World War II American military losses on foreign lands represent the physical remains of a shared cultural heritage. Such sites are irreplaceable phenomena of significance to the past of both nations and for the knowledge and understanding of our shared cultural...
Sharing the teapot and the science: Challenges and Contributions in shaping 21st century island heritage in Ireland (2015)
Crucial to heritage management in the 21st century is developing and maintaining cooperative relationships among archaeologists, local community and decent communities. Different stakeholders have varied views of how to define the past, the cultural and historical relevance of people, places and objects and the extent to which this should be shared when creating multivocal histories. Focusing on the islands of Inishark and Inishbofin, Co. Galway, Ireland, located five miles into the Atlantic...
Ships and feet in Scandinavian prehistoric rock art (2017)
Scandinavian rock art was created from the Late Neolithic through the Early Iron Age. The majority of these images were produced in the Bronze Age – a period when postglacial isostatic uplift altered much of the Scandinavian coastline. Although the lexicon of rock art motifs is diverse in Scandinavia, this paper will focus on two key figurative motifs: ships and human feet. It presents results from two different studies. The first is a Scandinavian-wide GIS-based analysis that explores the...
The Shipwrecks of Pisa: Management, Professional Optimism, and Bureaucratic Myopia (2015)
Between 1998 and 2000 archaeologists discovered nine well-preserved Roman shipwrecks at San Rossore, Pisa, 500m from the leaning tower. Shortly afterward a grand vision for a "museum with three vertices" was articulated: a public excavation area plus a conservation laboratory and museum of Mediterranean navigation, to be constructed in a underused 16th century barracks nearby. But despite urgent conservation needs, neither the public excavation nor the laboratory opened until 2005, while the...
Short-term Neanderthal Occupations and Carnivores in the North-East of Iberian Peninsula (2017)
Short-term human occupations can be developed in very distinct places and be related to very diverse functions. The low number of items left by the human groups in these sites usually generates discrete assemblages, which often adds difficulties to the subsequent archaeological interpretations. In the European Middle Paleolithic, are common short-term human occupations in caves and rock-shelters frequented by carnivores as well (bears, hyenas, large felids, canids and other small carnivores) as...
Sighting sites: viewshed analysis and site boundaries in archaeological survey (2015)
The identification, designation, and definition of the ubiquitous archaeological "site" are foundational to archaeological survey. These standard classificatory practices frequently emplace rigid spatial and temporal boundaries around human activities and portray past landscapes as simply consisting of "sites" and the unoccupied spaces outside of "sites". However, the people, places, and material things that constitute physical and social landscapes are dynamic, and the boundaries between them...
Signaling Entitlement: the Behavioral Ecology of Conspicuous Consumption (2015)
Everyone agrees that conspicuous consumption is some kind of social display, but what kind of display is it? I argue that conspicuous consumption is (or is like) a territorial display in social space, wherein social space is defined as a kind of virtual territory in which resources produced by collective action with a social group are allocated and defended. There is general agreement that conspicuous consumption involves the expenditure of surplus production, but there is continuing debate over...
Significance of Agricultural Dispersal into Europe and Northern Africa. In: Prehistoric Agriculture (1971)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Simple Non-Destructive Extraction of Biomolecules from Human Skeletal Remains (2017)
Opportunities for the biomolecular study of archaeological human skeletal remains (HSR) can often be limited by museum regulations that only permit non-destructive analyses. This restriction, coupled with the fairly common practice in England of quick reburial (due mainly to a lack of storage space), can result in a wealth of information being lost. It is therefore important that bioarchaeologists work to establish successful non-destructive methods for the biomolecular analysis of...
Simulating the past - The use of 3D technologies in archaeology (2015)
To deal with the destructive nature of archaeological excavations, today’s archaeologists are using new technologies to create 3D records of not only the archaeological sites, but also the archaeological process. This project explores how photogrammetry and 3D modelling can support theoretical approaches to the phenomena and processes by which Palaeolithic out-of-context imagery, especially that which is engraved, is produced. Using 3D technologies can allow researchers to simulate a variety of...
Site-Based Survey at S'Urachi: Deep History, Thick Shrubs and Historical Connections in West Central Sardinia (2016)
The nurage of S’Urachi is a Bronze Age stone monument that has served a central place in the landscape of west-Central Sardinia for millennia. Since 2013, the archaeological site has been the subject of an ongoing investigation into the daily lives of local inhabitants living around the nuraghe from the Bronze Age through the Roman period. The project—a joint effort of an international team funded by Brown Universtiy and the Comune di San Vero Milis—has investigated the immediate surroundings of...
Situating Syrian-ness in France: Asylum and Diaspora in Paris (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant) (2019)
This resource is an application for the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. To answer the question of how exiled Syrians forge their own lifeworlds in Paris, France, this study employs ethnographic methods to explore the unique conception of Syrian-ness that emerges from biographies shaped by the legacy of French colonialism, Syrian nationalism, and the ongoing violence in Syria. While categories such as "refugee," "asylum seeker," and "French citizen of Syrian...
The size and character of Viking armies in the light of Viking camps from England and Ireland (2017)
In the 9th century, Viking 'armies' are recorded raiding (and in some cases conquering) in Britain, Ireland and the Frankish kingdoms. Contemporary sources indicate that the largest of these were comprised of hundreds of ships and, by inference, thousands of men. Many of these accounts give round numbers, and historical opinion is divided between those who accept that the figures may represent approximations rather than absolute historical fact, but are nevertheless representative of very...
Size isn't everything: are our data good enough to be big? (2017)
Archaeological data may not yet meet the criteria for Big Data, but the growth of archaeological cyber-infrastructures is providing the foundations for ‘big data’ research. Using digital repositories such as the ADS in the UK and tDAR in the USA, we have access to millions of records, from multiple resources. Data and text mining tools allow us to extract information from published and unpublished fieldwork reports, whilst the ability to create Linked Open Data or to integrate metadata via...
Skeletal evidence suggesting biological continuity in the ruling lineage throughout the Late Helladic, Sub-Mycenaean and into the Dark Ages on the Greek Island of Kefalonia. (2017)
The cluster of sites on Borzi Hill near the village of Tzannata on the island of Kefalonia includes several habitation areas and various tombs. The evidence suggests an extensive occupation during the Mycenaean (Late Helladic) Period, including the largest tholos or "beehive" tomb in the Ionian Islands. The tomb was built around 1350 BC at the same location as an older tomb that had collapsed. Although the tomb was looted in antiquity, excavations have yielded a number of notable finds including...
Skuggi and Siglunes: Two Icelandic Settlement Sites (2017)
This paper presents results from multidisciplinary investigations at two Icelandic sites from the same region: Skuggi and Siglunes. The small subsidiary farm at Skuggi was likely settled during the earliest stages of Icelandic colonization and was located on a steep mountain slope, about 150 m above the valley bottom. Ideas on its occupation history and causes of abandonment will be discussed, as well as the possibility that the decision to abandon the settlement was heavily influenced by...
Slavery and the subaltern: bioarchaeological analyses of Viking Age Swedish populations (2016)
The definition of slavery during the long Scandinavian Viking Age (AD c.750–1100) is far from simple. In recent years scholars have pointed out that the terminology for slaves, and the attitudes towards unfree labourers, found in Icelandic Sagas, on rune stones or in law codes, actually reflect a significant variation in social rank. Even though slaves and the slave trade constituted an important and determining element in the Scandinavian economy during this time, a material culture clearly...
Slavery and the Vikings: archaeological perspectives (2016)
The cultures of the Viking Age in Scandinavia (AD c. 750-1100) were economically dependent on widespread, complex and deeply rooted systems of slavery. However, this aspect of the period was long neglected by scholars, partly due to the diluting influence of contemporary terminology. A Viking slave was a träl, producing the rather weaker English word 'thrall', and the nationalistic approaches to the period that dominated Viking studies far into the twentieth century often tended to subsume an...
The Slow Revolution: Chronological and Geographic Variability in Ornament Assemblages of the Early Upper Paleolithic in France (2016)
The gradual, mosaic nature of the development of symbolic material culture has become increasingly apparent due to discoveries outside of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic. Even so, much remains unclear about the mechanisms and circumstances surrounding the production and use of personal ornaments in early societies. The idea that the intensification of symbolic behavior was the result of some sudden cognitive/behavioral shift is not well supported by current evidence, and finding more complex...
Social Bioarchaelogy of Forager-Farmer Transition in the Balkans (2017)
In Europe, Greece and the Balkans were the first areas to be reached by expanding Neolithic, agricultural lifestyles. The Danube Gorges of the central Balkans represents one of the best case studies in Europe for studying bioarchaeological consequences of the change from foraging to farming thanks to abundant settlement and mortuary record found here. It also provides a good regional anchor point for the contextualization of other contemporaneous sites across the Balkans. A large number of...
Social complexity and wealth inequality in middle-range society: A complex systems and network science approach to the Prehistoric Bronze Age on Cyprus (2017)
Economic and social leaders create and maintain unequal or dominance relationships within and between communities by controlling labor, and limiting access to technological, material and ideological resources, and trade networks. Through these kinds of actions and interactions, social networks are structured and restructured altering the flow of goods, services and information. From this bottom-up process, social complexity emerges. To understand how the structure of underlying social networks...