Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe

Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe
Author: Daniela Hofmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2012-12-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1461452899

The Neolithic period is noted primarily for the change from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture, domestication and sedentism. This change has been studied in the past by archaeologists observing the movements of plants, animals and people. But has not been examined by looking at the domestic architecture of the time. Along with tracking the movement of sedentism, Neolithic houses are also able to show researchers the beginnings of cultural identity, group representation through the construction and decoration of these structures. Additionally as agriculture moved west and north in this era, the architecture and material culture shows this change and its significance. Chapters are arranged chronologically so that authors can address differences and similarities of their region to neighboring ones. To ensure continuity, authors have framed the chapters around the following considerations: construction materials and architectural characteristics; how houses facilitated or perpetua

Ancient Scandinavia

Ancient Scandinavia
Author: T. Douglas Price
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2015-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 019023198X

Scandinavia, a land mass comprising the modern countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, was the last part of Europe to be inhabited by humans. Not until the end of the last Ice Age when the melting of huge ice sheets left behind a fresh, barren land surface, about 13,000 BC, did the first humans arrive and settle in the region. The archaeological record of these prehistoric cultures, much of it remarkably preserved in Scandinavia's bogs, lakes, and fjords, has given us a detailed portrait of the evolution of human society at the edge of the inhabitable world. In this book, distinguished archaeologist T. Douglas Price provides a history of Scandinavia from the arrival of the first humans to the end of the Viking period, ca. AD 1050. The first book of its kind in English in many years, Ancient Scandinavia features overviews of each prehistoric epoch followed by illustrative examples from the region's rich archaeology. An engrossing and comprehensive picture of change across the millennia emerges, showing how human society evolved from small bands of hunter-gatherers to large farming communities to the complex warrior cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, cultures which culminated in the spectacular rise of the Vikings at the end of the prehistoric period. The material evidence of these past societies--arrowheads from reindeer hunts, megalithic tombs, rock art, beautifully wrought weaponry, Viking warships--give vivid testimony to the ancient peoples of Scandinavia and to their extensive contacts with the remote cultures of the Arctic Circle, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean

The Viking World

The Viking World
Author: Stefan Brink
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 742
Release: 2008-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 113431826X

Filling a gap in the literature for an academically oriented volume on the Viking period, this unique book is a one-stop authoritative introduction to all the latest research in the field, and the most comprehensive book of its kind ever attempted.

VAengeso and Holmegard

VAengeso and Holmegard
Author: Soren H Andersen
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2018-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 8771845933

This volume presents the collated results of a number of archaeological investigations undertaken on the Danish peninsula Djursland over a period of almost 40 years. It begins with the findings of the excavations carried out around the former marine lagoon of VAengeso in the northeastern part of the HelgenAes peninsula. Then follows an overview of an excavation undertaken at the site of Holmegaard, located on the former Stubbe Fjord complex. One of the sites (VAengeso I) has been published previously in 1975, but the interpretation of this locality has been revised in the light of research and the results of other investigations undertaken over the intervening four decades.

Lapps and Labyrinths

Lapps and Labyrinths
Author: Noel D. Broadbent
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Total Pages: 584
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1935623362

Professor Noel D. Broadbent is one of Sweden's foremost experts on north Swedish archaeology and literally wrote the book on the prehistory of the SkellefteƄ region on the North Bothnian coast. This knowledge is now brought to bear on the issue of Saami origins. The focus is on the successful adaptive strategies of Saami societies over thousands of years - a testimony to Saami resiliency, of relevance to the survival of indigenous societies worldwide today.

Medieval Farming and Technology

Medieval Farming and Technology
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2023-07-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004617833

This is the first of three planned volumes which deal with the techniques and technology of agriculture in Europe in the period from 600 A.D. down to the 17th century. The focus of this first volume is Scandinavia, the British Isles, Northern Germany, the Low Countries and Northern France. The volume discusses methodological approaches and their limitations, the development of medieval agriculture in terms of the transmission of technological ideas, improvements in productivity, regional variations, social responses to agricultural technology, and those common trends that unite the Northwest European region. The volume integrates material derived from the great advances made in medieval archaeology and the historical study of landscapes during the past 30 years and has a supranational character. It will be of interest to all those working on the social, economic and political history of Northwest Europe in the medieval and early modern periods as well as to those undertaking research in the specific field of the history of technology.

Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints

Arms and Armour of the Warrior Saints
Author: Piotr Grotowski
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 625
Release: 2010-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004190457

The question of the independence of Byzantine iconography continues to draw attention. Following extensive research on the persistence of Classical motifs in Byzantine art, interest has recently turned to the originality of the latter and its reliability as a historical source. This study examines whether military equipment (armour, weapons, insignia and costume) shown in images of the warrior saints reflects items actually used in the mid-Byzantine Army or merely repeats Classical forms. Such representations are compared with documentary evidence gathered chiefly from Byzantine military manuals. The author demonstrates that military equipment, being a vital branch of material culture subject to constant evolution, provides a good indicator of iconographic innovation in the art of Byzantium.

European Landscapes of Rock-Art

European Landscapes of Rock-Art
Author: Christopher Chippindale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134517335

Rock-art - the ancient images which still scatter the rocky landscapes of Europe - is a singular kind of archaeological evidence. Fixed in place, it does not move about as artefacts as trade objects do. Enigmatic in its meaning, it uniquely offers a direct record of how prehistoric Europeans saw and envisioned their own worlds. European Landscapes of Rock-Art provides a number of case studies, covering arange of European locations including Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, Scotland and Spain, which collectively address the chronology and geography of rock-art as well as providing an essential series of methodologies for future debate. Each author provides a synthesis that focuses on landscape as an essential part of rock-art construction. From the paintings and carved images of prehistoric Scandinavia to Second World War grafitti on the German Reichstag, this volume looks beyond the art to the society that made it. The papers in this volume also challenge the traditional views of how rock-art is recorded. Throughout, there is an emphasis on informal and informed methodologies. The authors skilfully discuss subjectivity and its relationship with landscape since personal experience, from prehistoric times to the present day, plays an essential role in the interpretation of art itself. The emphasis is on location, on the intentionality of the artist, and on the needs of the audience. This exciting volume is a crucial addition to rock-art literature and landscape archaeology. It will provide new material for a lively and greatly debated subject and as such will be essential for academics, non-academics and commentators of rock art in general.