The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
Author: Chris Fowler
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 1303
Release: 2015-03-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0191666890

The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe

The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe
Author: Maria Pilar Prieto Martínez
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782979301

Could the circulation of objects or ideas and the mobility of artisans explain the unprecedented uniformity of the material culture observed throughout the whole of Europe? The 17 papers presented here offer a range of new and different perspectives on the Beaker phenomenon across Europe. The focus is not on Bell Beaker pottery but on social groups (craft specialists, warriors, chiefs, extended or nuclear families), using technological studies and physical anthropology to understand mobility patterns during the 3rd millennium BC. Chronological evolution is used to reconstruct the rhythm of Bell Beaker diffusion and the environmental background that could explain this mobility and the socioeconomic changes observed during this period of transition toward Bronze Age societies. The chapters are mainly organized geographically, covering Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean shores and the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, includes some areas that are traditionally studied and well known, such as France, the British Isles or Central Europe, but also others that have so far been considered peripheral, such as Norway, Denmark or Galicia. This journey not only offers a complex and diverse image of Bell Beaker societies but also of a supra-regional structure that articulated a new type of society on an unprecedented scale.

The Bell Beaker Culture in All Its Forms

The Bell Beaker Culture in All Its Forms
Author: Claudine Abegg
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2022-09-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 180327364X

Proceedings of the 22nd meeting of the ‘Archéologie et Gobelets’ Association which took place in Geneva, Switzerland in January 2021. The book is structured in three parts: Archaeological Material, Funerary Archaeology and Anthropology, and Reconstructing Bell Beaker Society.

Is There a British Chalcolithic?

Is There a British Chalcolithic?
Author: Michael J. Allen
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2012-06-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1842178970

The Chalcolithic, the phase in prehistory when the important technical development of adding tin to copper to produce bronze had not yet taken place, is not a term generally used by British prehistorians and whether there is even a definable phase is debated. Is There a British Chalcolithic? brings together many leading authorities in 20 papers that address this question. Papers are grouped under several headings. 'Definitions, Issues, and Debate' considers whether appropriate criteria apply that define a distinctive period (c. 2450 - 2150 cal BC) in cultural, social, and temporal terms with particular emphasis on the role and status of metal artifacts and Beaker pottery. 'Continental Perspectives' addresses various aspects of comparative regions of Europe where a Chalcolithic has been defined. 'Around Britain and Ireland' presents a series of large-scale regional case studies where authors argue for and against the adoption of the term. The final section, 'Economy, Landscapes, and Monuments', looks at aspects of economy, land-use and burial tradition and provides a detailed consideration of the Stonehenge and Avebury landscapes during the period in question. The volume contains much detailed information on sites and artifacts, and comprehensive radiocarbon datasets that will be invaluable to scholars and students studying this enigmatic but pivotal episode of British Prehistory. Additional information originally found on included CD ROM can be downloaded here: https://books.casematepublishers.com/Is_There_a_British_Chalcolithic.pdf

Flint Daggers in Prehistoric Europe

Flint Daggers in Prehistoric Europe
Author: Catherine J. Frieman
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2015-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785700219

For more than a century flint daggers have been among the most closely studied and most heavily published later prehistoric lithic tools. It is well established that they are found across Europe and beyond, and that many were widely circulated over many generations. Yet, few researchers have attempted to discuss the entirety of the flint dagger phenomenon. The present volume brings together papers that address questions of the regional variability and socio-technical complexity of flint daggers and their production. It focuses on the typology, chronology, technology, functionality and meaning of flint and other lithic daggers produced primarily in Europe, but also in the Eastern Mediterranean and East Asia, in prehistory. The 14 papers by leading researchers provide a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge concerning various flint dagger corpora as well as potential avenues for the development of a research agenda across national, regional and disciplinary boundaries. The volume originates from a session held at the 2011 meeting of the European Association of Archaeology but includes additional commissioned contributions.

Bronze Age Connections

Bronze Age Connections
Author: Peter Clark
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2009-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1782973168

New and exciting discoveries on either side of the English Channel in recent years have begun to show that people living in the coastal zones of Belgium, southern Britain, northern France and the Netherlands shared a common material culture during the Bronze Age, between three and four thousand years ago. They used similar styles of pottery and metalwork, lived in the same kind of houses and buried their dead in the same kind of tombs, often quite different to those used by their neighbours further inland. The sea did not appear to be a barrier to these people but rather a highway, connecting communities in a unique cultural identity; the 'People of La Manche'. Symbolic of these maritime Bronze Age Connections is the iconic Dover Bronze Age boat, one of Europe's greatest prehistoric discoveries and testament to the skill and technical sophistication of our Bronze Age ancestors. This monograph presents papers from a conference held in Dover in 2006 organised by the Dover Bronze Age Boat Trust, which brought together scholars from many different countries to explore and celebrate these ancient seaborne contacts. Twelve wide-ranging chapters explore themes of travel, exchange, production, magic and ritual that throw new light on our understanding of the seafaring peoples of the second millennium BC.

http://admin.mtp.hum.ku.dk/m/editbook.asp?eln=203591

http://admin.mtp.hum.ku.dk/m/editbook.asp?eln=203591
Author: Robert Mailhammer
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2015-11-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 8763542099

Most of us know of the Indo-European roots of European languages, but how did this precursor language take hold and what did Europe look like before it did so? This book explores the continent before the spread of the Indo-Europeans, examines its indigenous population and the contacts it had with Indo-European and Uralic immigrants, and, ultimately, asks how these origins led to the development of that crucial singularity for Europe’s languages. Drawing on archaeology, religious studies, and palaeography, the contributors offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of Europe’s linguistic and, in turn, cultural prehistory.

Practice and Prestige: An Exploration of Neolithic Warfare, Bell Beaker Archery, and Social Stratification from an Anthropological Perspective

Practice and Prestige: An Exploration of Neolithic Warfare, Bell Beaker Archery, and Social Stratification from an Anthropological Perspective
Author: Jessica Ryan-Despraz
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2022-03-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1803270535

Drawing on the author's recent study that assessed the bone morphology of skeletons in Bell Beaker burials for signs of specialised archery activity, this book contextualises the osteological findings and explores the evidence for warfare and archery throughout the Neolithic period in general and the Bell Beaker period in particular.

Similar but Different

Similar but Different
Author: Janusz Czebreszuk
Publisher: Sidestone Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 9088902224

The book “Similar but Different. Bell Beakers in Europe” deals with a cultural phenomenon, known as the Bell Beaker culture, that during the 3rd millennium B.C. was present throughout Western and Central Europe. This development played an important role in the formation of the Bronze Age at the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC. This book consists of 10 chapters – in each a specific issue is discussed connected with Bell Beakers. The chapters are divided into three parts concerning consecutively: general problems, issues of the so-called common ware and the character of the Bell Beakers in particular places in Europe. The reader can become acquainted with interpretations of the whole phenomenon, based on inter-regional similarities – the works of H. Case, M. Vander Linden, L. Salanova, and R. Furestier. The second part consist of the chapters by Ch. Strahm, M. Besse and V. Leonini that focus on the matter of the so-called common ware: some ceramic vessels, which are not part of the ‘beaker set’, but accompany it in many regions. That is one of the Bell Beakers’ analytical problems, which is still argued about. The three last chapters show the specific features of some regional centers, where Bell Beakers developed, the attention was focused on the Bell Beakers’ localities’. These are the works of A Gibson (Britain), O. Lemercier (Mediterranean France) and L. Sarti (central Italy). The book shows the basic features of the Bell Beaker culture in Europe. These however are still a challenge for researchers, because the phenomenon had two faces. On the one hand it is characterized by a set of material culture which is occurring in many places Western and Central Europe. On the other hand, in specific areas, these features were relatively easily influenced by the local environment, they got some sort of regional particularities. That is the essence of the Bell Beakers, hence the title of this book: ‘similar but different’. This book is a reprint, the first edition was published in 2004 by the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań.