Archaeology

The current paradigm-changing ancient DNA revolution is offering unparalleled insights into central problems within archaeology relating to the movement of populations and individuals, patterns of descent, relationships and aspects of identity – at many scales and of many different kinds. The impact of recent ancient DNA results can be seen particularly clearly in studies of the European Neolithic, the subject of contributions presented in this volume. We now have new evidence for the movement and mixture of people at the start of the Neolithic, as farming spread from the east, and at its end, when the first metals as well as novel styles of pottery and burial practices arrived in the Chalcolithic. In addition, there has been a wealth of new data to inform complex questions of identities and relationships. The terms of archaeological debate for this period have been permanently altered, leaving us with many issues.

This volume stems from the online day conference of the Neolithic Studies Group held in November 2021, which aimed to bring geneticists and archaeologists together in the same forum, and to enable critical but constructive inter-disciplinary debate about key themes arising from the application of advanced ancient DNA analysis to the study of the European Neolithic. The resulting papers gathered here are by both geneticists and archaeologists. Individually, they form a series of significant, up-to-date, period and regional syntheses of various manifestations of the Neolithic across the Near East and Europe, including particularly Britain and Ireland. Together, they offer wide-ranging reflections on the progress of ancient DNA studies, and on their future reach and character.

Visit Dr Greaney's Profile »

Purchase from Oxbow Books »

This volume comprises thirteen reports detailing fieldwork undertaken by a research project which sought to assess the archaeological evidence of the period of conflict that took place in mid-twelfth-century England popularly known as ‘the Anarchy’. The reign of King Stephen (ad 1135– 54) was characterised by a protracted struggle for power between forces loyal to the crown and those who supported the Angevin claim of his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda. Alongside a succession of bitter rebellions the war also saw large-scale Scottish invasions into, and occupation of, large parts of northern England as well as border warfare on the marches between England and Wales and a struggle for control of Normandy. While the period is infamous for the proliferation of conflict, castle-building and siege warfare, and for a breakdown of royal government, its characterisation as ‘the Anarchy’ is now challenged by historians, however. As previous understanding of this tumultuous period had rested almost entirely upon interpretation of written sources, Anarchy? War and Status in Twelfth-Century Landscapes of Conflict was a programme of research which systematically studied the archaeology of mid-twelfth century England for the first time. A major component of the project was the targeted archaeological investigation of selected case study locations across England. Geophysical and topographic surveys were supplemented with archival, documentary and cartographic analyses in order to reveal the character and chronological development of a sample of potential Anarchy-period sites and landscapes. The current volume represents the product of these endeavours, presenting self-contained reports of the sites where these investigations took place, arranged alphabetically.

Visit Professor Creighton's Profile »

Purchase from Archaeopress »

This book explores the distinctive landscape and society of South-West England that had emerged by the Iron Age and which continued to develop during the Roman and medieval periods. A focus of the research was the long-term programme of survey and excavation on the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval settlement at Dainton Elms Cross, in Ipplepen (Devon), which included the only Roman roadside settlement to have seen extensive excavation to the south and west of Exeter on the very edge of the Roman empire, as well as a substantial early medieval cemetery. First discovered through the reporting of an unusual concentration of Roman finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the site was investigated through a joint university and community project led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the British Museum/PAS, Devon County Council, and Cotswold Archaeology. What for the South-West of England was exceptional preservation meant that large amounts of animal bone, charred cereals, and human remains were preserved, alongside a regionally important material culture assemblage. The site – which had been occupied for c. 1200 years – was abandoned around the 8th century AD. A programme of documentary, place-name, and historic landscape research across a study area extending from the coast up onto Dartmoor explores the context of this major landscape change, which appears to have been associated with the appearance of hamlets and open fields, and the fragmentation of an ‘early folk territory’. Together, the excavations in Ipplepen and the wider contextual research reveal how communities living in South-West England developed a distinctive identity that reflects a well-developed understanding of their region’s natural environment alongside a degree of ambivalence to outside cultural influences.

Visit Professor Rippon's Profile »

Purchase at Oxbow Books»

The image of the armoured knight mounted on his charging warhorse is one of the most evocative of the Middle Ages. As distinctive symbols of social status, horses were central to the medieval aristocratic image and closely bound up with concepts of knighthood and chivalry, while as weapons of war bred for size, strength and stamina, they changed the face of battle.

Drawing upon new interdisciplinary research, this volume presents a fresh perspective on warhorses, and medieval horses generally, in Britain, understood within its wider European context. It adopts an integrated approach that covers the full array of evidence for medieval horses, from their physical remains (bones, teeth and DNA), equipment and armour, through to visual sources such as sculpture and wall paintings, and documentary and landscape evidence for the environments in which they were bred and trained. Analyses of these sources of information are first presented individually, and then integrated and cross-compared with the historical record to present a new chronology of horse stature, conformation and appearance and to generate new understandings of the changing place of the horse in the medieval world.

Visit Professor Creighton's Profile »

Visit Professor Outram's Profile »

Visit Dr Kanne's Profile »

Visit Dr Ameen's Profile »

Purchase at Liverpool University Press »

This open access book examines the untold human history of the Amazon rainforest, from the arrival of the earliest humans to the present. A spate of recent discoveries in unexplored regions and technological breakthroughs have allowed us to peer through the forest canopy to the earth below, revealing an entirely new picture of Amazonian past, which overturns the long-held assumption of a virgin rainforest.

This book demonstrates how Amazonia’s current diversity of landscapes and people are deeply rooted in prehistory with lasting repercussions on today’s rainforests. Among the major achievements of ancient Amazonian peoples were the domestication of globally important crops, including manioc, cacao, rice, yams and sweet potato, manufactured America’s first ceramics, engineered the landscape for sustainable food production, built massive geometric ceremonial structures, and had distinctively complex, early urban polities that can rival any civilization of antiquity.

Amazonia is currently facing a crisis and lessons from its traditional peoples are more urgent than ever. The extraordinary archaeological discoveries of recent years are not just spectacle, but represent the history of a way of life that is rapidly disappearing, and on which the Amazonian rainforest as a major reservoir of biodiversity, and in turn all humanity, depends. By connecting the past to the present and bringing to light the critical role of today’s indigenous and traditional lands in providing a barrier to deforestation under current climate and political pressures, The Archaeology of Amazonia lays out the way ahead to a more socially responsible future of rainforest management.

Visit Professor Iriarte's Profile »

Purchase at Bloomsbury »

Later prehistoric remains included Bronze Age burnt mounds, boundary ditches, a Late Bronze Age enclosure, Iron Age and Roman activity, including a seasonally occupied linear settlement with evidence of salt-making. On another site a sequence of occupation from the Late Iron Age to modern eras was examined.

Early Neolithic occupation (from about 3600 BC) was represented by small groups of pits which were partly contemporary with a well-known round barrow – a protected monument called Wick Barrow or Pixies’ Mound – lying just outside the development site. Later prehistoric remains included Bronze Age burnt mounds, boundary ditches, a Late Bronze Age enclosure, and an Early Iron Age midden. There was more widespread Late Iron Age and Roman settlement, including a seasonally occupied linear settlement with evidence of salt-making. Contemporary activity included a nearby late Roman settlement. On another site a sequence of occupation from the late Iron Age to modern eras was examined. Here historical documents add to the account of the site and preserved the names of some of the farm’s recent inhabitants.

Visit Professor Rippon's Profile »

Purchase at Archaeopress »

The three-volume publication of the results of archaeological excavations at the UNESCO heritage site of El-Zuma in Sudan, investigated by PCMA University of Warsaw and the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums in Khartoum, presents an Early Makurian elite tumuli cemetery from the 5th–6th centuries AD. This period in ancient Nubian history, preceding the rise of the Christian kingdoms, has long been understudied. Informed analyses by an array of specialists on the team cover the archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence from the tombs (Volume 1) as well as the abundant ceramics (Volume 2) and small finds, especially jewellery, weaponry and personal accessories (Volume 3). The outcome is a people-oriented view of an elite community in ancient Nubia at the dawn of a new age in its history.

Visit Dr Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin's Profile »

Purchase at De Gruyter Brill »