Europe (Geographic Keyword)
176-200 (1,158 Records)
Funerary landscapes, as places where all fractions of society meet to honour the rituals of social and identity-building importance, can be used to attain an insight into group-specific attitudes towards spatiality. These attitudes allowed for people's engagement with various elements of their environment as a means of deliberate creation of lasting ritual landscapes. However, social spatiality in funerary contexts is not static, but subject to changes in the group's perception of both their...
Changing the Picture – 1000 Hectare High Resolution Magnetometry on the Protected Zone of a World Heritage Site at Avebury, UK (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Avebury and Stonehenge, two iconic prehistoric sites in the heart of England, both listed on UNESCO’s list of world heritage have undergone intensive research during the past century. Nevertheless, evolving technologies open access to new data on a landscape scale, thus adding more and surprising information helping to...
Changing weapons in a mutable landscape: exploring the relationship between Upper Paleolithic weaponry variability and drastic environmental changes in Western Europe (2016)
Lithic industries from the European Late Pleistocene archaeological record are marked by the presence of one of the most numerous and diverse set of artifacts identified as projectile weaponry tips. Variability in the morphology and technology of these tools has long been used for organizing the Upper Paleolithic archaeological record into distinct cultural and chronological units – the so-called techno-complexes – validating a direct association between transformations in projectile technology...
Changing with the times: An exploration of shifting attitudes and funerary treatment of children from the Roman to early medieval period in Britain (2016)
Throughout Britain, archaeological cemeteries and settlements are being increasingly subjected to in-depth site analyses. Large scale excavations and subsequent post-excavation work result in large bodies of osteological and artefactual data which, in turn, allow archaeologists to glean an insight into the social identity of past populations. Biocultural studies that specifically focus on the treatment and attitudes towards children living in Romano-Britain (1st-5th century A.D.) and early...
A characterization study of some of the earliest ceramic building materials from sites in Rome and its surrounding area (2015)
Roman roof tiles and architectural terracottas constitute an important resource for the study of the architectural development of early Rome, through the detection of different sources and perhaps workshops in the region of the Roman capital. Unfortunately, the location of possible clay sources available to the Roman tile-makers has been obscured due to the city’s extensive urbanization. However, a drilling project in the area of the Roman Forum and other sites offers important evidence of...
Characterizing Ephemeral Paleolithic Occupations at Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy) (2017)
This paper presents a description of recently studied assemblages from Middle and Upper Paleolithic levels at the site of Arma Veirana, a large cave located in the mountainous hinterland of Liguria. While one Mousterian level shows an intense occupation, all other levels indicate rather short-lived, low intensity occupations. Beyond technological and typological analyses of these assemblages undertaken to characterize them, we also report preliminary data on raw material procurement patterns...
Charcoal analyses unraveling Cabeço da Amoreira Muge shell midden (Portugal) (2016)
Cabeço da Amoreira is a Mesolithic shell midden located near the Tagus river, 60 km from Lisbon, central Portugal. Charcoal analyses are an important tool to identify the wood used for fuel and therefore, understand the relationships between human societies and their landscape. Charcoal is abundant in the Cabeço da Amoreira shell midden. It is present in every context of the site, being part of its occupation horizons and formation processes. Here we present the results from charcoal analyses...
Chert vs quartzite edge reduction using a mechanical device and its relevance to lithic raw material variability, selection and use (2017)
Lithic raw materials diversity in archaeological assemblages is used to address a multiplicity of fundamental questions concerning the evolution of human behavior. Technological systems are considered to be the result of conscious human choices, likely related to different types of rocks characteristics, performance and effectiveness. To test this model, we developed an experimental program using hand-knapped standardized blades on quartzite and chert in an upgraded version of a mechanical...
Child Disability and Prostheses in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2018)
Introduction of dedicated paediatric medicine, was an advancement arriving in Britain late compared to its neighbours such as France’s ‘Enfant Malades’ in 1802. Paediatric hospitals were a consequence of physicians' financial aspirations rather than falsely portrayed ‘community need’ (Lomax, 1998). Their establishment contradicted longstanding attitudes surrounding children as ‘incomplete beings…whom it was wasteful to devote attention to’ (Porter, 1989). Oddly, amputation saw children harness...
Childhood and Adulthood Mobility at Medieval (1240s AD) Solt-Tételhegy, Hungary Reconstructed from Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis (2016)
Between 2005 and 2009, archaeologists excavated more than 100 skeletons from the medieval (1240s AD) Hungarian site of Solt-Tételhegy. Little has been published about this archaeological settlement, and although previous stable isotopic research has described the migration patterns of medieval European peoples, here we present the first such study performed on a medieval Hungarian population. Stable oxygen isotope analysis was conducted on dental enamel from 23 individuals and on bone apatite...
Children and the ceramic industry in medieval England (2016)
This paper discusses the role of children in the ceramic industry in medieval England, using the work of medieval ceramics specialists Maureen Mellor and Stephen Moorhouse as a starting point from which new evidence relating to this subject can be assessed. Children’s involvement in pottery production manifests itself in a variety of ways, including fingerprints on ceramic sherds, decorative qualities on pots and tiles, and documentary references. Similar studies relating to pottery production...
"Children in a ragged state": Seeking a bioarchaeological narrative of childhood in Ireland during the Great Famine (1845–52) (2016)
More than half of all victims of the Great Famine in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 were children, but despite this fact relatively little attention, amongst a vast body of famine research undertaken to date, has been undertaken to explore their experiences and what realities they endured during this period. Following the archaeological discovery and bioarchaeological study of a large famine-period mass burial ground adjacent to the former workhouse in Kilkenny City, the physical experience of this...
Children of the Revolution: the rise of rickets in urban societies in 19th-century England (2016)
In the late 18th- to early 19th-century England, the impact of the Industrial Revolution on health was experienced by both manufacturers and workers alike, as it both changed the roles played by workers and the environment of urban living. Many of these workers would have been children, often as young as 9 years old, who found employment in factories to supplement the family income. The impact of industrialisation on the nutritional health of adults has been found in evidence such as shrinking...
The Chronological and Liturgical Context of Charnel Practice in Medieval England: Manipulations of the Skeletonized Body at Rothwell Charnel Chapel, Northamptonshire (2017)
The rare survival of a charnel chapel and the commingled remains of more than 2,500 individuals it houses at Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell, England provides a unique opportunity to investigate the postmortem manipulation of human remains in the medieval period. The apparent paucity of charnel chapel sites in England has led to the dismissal of charnelling as a marginal practice with little liturgical significance, a pragmatic solution to the need for storage of disturbed bones. Yet the evidence...
Chronology and Social Process in Bronze Age Spain (2017)
This research presents an evaluation of the use of morphometrics of ceramic vessels for organizing site chronologies and social interaction. The object of morphometric analysis is to study how changes in artifact shape covary with time and space. This particular method is tested against Bronze Age ceramics from the Valencian region in Spain along the Western Mediterranean. The characteristic stylistic homogeneity of these ceramics has proven especially resistant to chronological fine-tuning...
A chronology of generations? A site-based study from the 6-5th Mill. settlement and cemetery of Alsónyék, South Western Hungary (2015)
The Alsónyék Neolithic site was found in the course of a motorway project. The earliest occupants were the first farmers arriving from the North Balkans. After a short gap two later Neolithic occupations were followed by an immense settlement and cemetery of the Lengyel culture: 120 robust houses and in sum 2400 burials could be excavated alone on the motorway track, and this size, completed with geomagnetic surveys, is left without any parallels in Central European Neolithic. In this key area,...
Circles and Circuits: A Computational Social Science Approach to Neolithic Circular Enclosures (2017)
Through the combination of Social Network Analysis (SNA), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this paper will examine the relationship between physical and social networks in the Middle Neolithic of Central Europe. This Computational Social Science approach will provide insight into social aspects of the archaeological phenomenon of circular enclosures.
CITiZAN’s Digital Toolkit: Citizen Scientists Recording England’s At-Risk Coastal Archaeology (2018)
England’s coastal and intertidal archaeology is increasingly at risk from winds, waves, rising sea levels and winter storms exacerbated by climate change and can be revealed suddenly and disappear just as suddenly. However there is no statutorily informed intervention for this heritage outside of the national planning framework for this at-risk archaeology and so no infrastructure in place to systematically record these freshly exposed sites before the next storm potentially washes them away....
Climate change and societal change in the western Mediterranean area 4.2 ka BP (2016)
In the eastern Mediterranean area, coherent patterns and synchronous events around 4.2 kaBP suggest an obvious link between cultural upheaval in urban societies and climate forcing. Here, the 4.2 kaBP aridification event is thought the cause of severe economic consequences and social unrest. The picture for the central and western Mediterranean regions, at the interface of North Atlantic (Bond event 3) and monsoon-influenced climate, is different. It remains unclear whether supra-regional...
Coastal Erosion as an Arena for Change (2017)
The problem facing archaeological heritage through loss and damage caused by rising sea levels and increased storminess requires responses that are multi-facetted and creative. Sufficient resources to deal with exposed archaeological sites and deposits through established ‘preservation by record’ methodologies are not available anywhere. In the Scottish archipelago of Orkney the combination of sand and low lying shores and extremely rich archaeological heritage make the problems of coastal...
Cod, Sand & Stone: Proto-Industrial Scale, Medieval, Commercial Fishing at Gufuskalar in Western Iceland (2015)
At the start of the 15th century a major commercial fishing was built on the far western coast of Iceland at a farm called Gufuskalar. During the winter months cod fish were caught, processed and dried on site for trade with continental European merchants. This paper details the rescue excavations at the site and discusses some of our preliminary results. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative...
Coins of the McGhee Collection (2016)
Coins in the ancient world provided a medium for the propaganda of rulers and other influential individuals. Analysis of coins alongside an understanding of their historical context can reveal their significance. In 2014 the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History received a donation of assorted Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coins from Ambassador George C. McGhee. This project analyzes and catalogues these coins by translating their inscriptions and interpreting their images to determine...
Collaboration, collaborators, and conflict: ethics, engagement, and archaeological practice (2017)
Collaboration in contemporary archaeological parlance principally refers to active engagement with one or more selected groups of stakeholders and co-producers of knowledge. But knowledge is always produced for a purpose, and collaboration, or to be a ‘collaborator’ in conflict settings implies an allegiance, often deceitful, to one cause or another. When embedding archaeology in conflict transformation activities, being seen as a ‘collaborator’, or partisan, can actively work against the aims...
Collective Action in Iron Age Europe: Public Assemblies as Arenas for Participatory Government (2017)
Public assemblies were a common phenomenon in Iron Age and Early Medieval Europe. In these large collective meetings, important decisions concerning war, peace, the choice of military leaders, legislation and the administration of justice were taken. Together with their political role, they also fulfilled other simultaneous functions, including religious festivals and the holding of fairs. Once believed to be archaeologically invisible, recent research has identified the remains of a large...
Collective Memory and the Mycenaeans: The Argolid, Messenia, and the Mani Compared (2016)
The concept of collective memory has received some attention in archaeology, but has not been systematically applied to processes of state formation and sociopolitical change. In this paper I model the evolution of collective memory systems in Greece from the Neolithic to Iron Age, with a focus on Mycenaean regions. The Argolid, Messenia, and the Mani – using The Diros Project’s excavations of a Mycenaean “ossuary” at Ksagounaki as a primary example – vary in terms of how collective memories...