Colourful surface treatments form an integral element of vernacular and élite architecture of ancient societies. This is also true for the various regions of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium B.C.E., where elaborate wall paintings furnished temples, tombs, palatial buildings, and in general more elaborate houses. From a present-day perspective, these rich images provide invaluable insights into past realities as well as interconnections between different visual systems. However...

Excavations at Chalk Hill, Ramsgate in south-eastern Britain were primarily aimed at investigating the remains of a possible early Neolithic causewayed enclosure visible on aerial photographs. However, the monument could not in fact be categorised as a causewayed enclosure, but instead represented a type of early Neolithic ritual monument unique to the British Isles.The earliest significant features recorded on the site dated to the early Neolithic (roughly 3700-3600 cal BC). They took the fo...

Das Buch bietet eine detaillierte Darstellung des Jüngeren Neolithikums (ca. 2850 - 2250 v.Chr.) in Schleswig-Holstein (SH). Neben der Vorlage aller bisher bekannter Funde und Befunde der Einzelgrabkultur wird ein besonderer Fokus auf deren Hammeräxte gelegt. Sie sind das meist vorkommende Artefakt und bieten in ihren Kontexten eine Möglichkeit, soziale Praktiken des Jungneolithikums zu analysieren.

Grundsätzlich nimmt die Variationsbreite der Hammeräxte mit der Zeit zu, was - ähnlich wi...

Papyrus Leiden I 343 + 345 is one of the most extraordinary manuscripts providing a deeper insight into magic and medicine in Ancient Egypt.The main part of the papyrus deals with the ancient Near Eastern disease demon Sāmānu, who is well known from Sumerian and Akkadian incantations and medical texts. In addition, a broad range of other conjurations and spells against any pain and feet swelling are included. The papyrus also contains two curious spells dealing with 'falling water from the ...

Jan Herman Insinger was a well-known character in the history of Egyptology, mainly because his name has been linked forever with a famous demotic wisdom papyrus now in Leiden. Although he is mentioned by many of his contemporaries, biographical notes on Insinger rarely surpass a few lines and can be quite inaccurate. However, a lot of information can be gathered from the Archives of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and other sources, both published and unpublished ones. These doc...

A mosaic is the only image which can do justice to museums in the Caribbean. They are as diverse and plentiful as the many communities which form the cores of their organizations and the hearts of their missions. These profoundly social museums adopt participatory practices and embark on community engagement processes in order to embed themselves firmly in contemporary Caribbean societies.

This dissertation presents a mosaic of 195 Caribbean museums and the results of a unique research project...

As reflected in the title "From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Individual households and cities in Ancient Egypt and Nubia", both a micro-approach introducing microhistories of individual sites according to recent archaeological fieldwork incorporating interdisciplinary methods as well as general patterns and regional developments in Northeast Africa are discussed.This combination of research questions on the micro-level with the macro-level provides new information about cities and households in An...

Het oostelijk deel van West-Friesland was in de midden- en late bronstijd (ca. 1600-800 v. Chr.) een dicht bevolkt gebied met vele boerendorpjes. Door de uitzonderlijk goede conserveringsomstandigheden in dit voormalig kwelderlandschap is de regio een unieke schatkamer voor de overblijfselen daarvan. Vanaf de jaren 60 van de vorige eeuw zijn omvangrijke delen van het cultuurlandschap uit de bronstijd opgegraven, maar nooit gepubliceerd. In deze studie zijn oude opgravingsgegevens uitgewerkt e...

The picture of the Palaeolithic adaptations in the Italian Peninsula has always been coarse-grained compared to various well-researched regional hotspots in central and western Europe, as a result of historical research bias preventing the application of new research methodologies. Nonetheless, discoveries regarding Neanderthal extinction and behavioural complexity, the dispersal of Anatomically Modern Humans as well as the origin and diffusion of modern technologies and symbolic behaviour in...

Cultural heritage, which includes archaeology, is recognized as serving an increasingly important role in European societal development. But what exactly is the relevance of archaeology to present day citizens? Imprint of Action investigates the sociocultural impact of archaeology through public activities. These activities provide an ideal setting for research, as they represent a structured point of encounter between the public and archaeological heritage; in analysing them, aspects of peop...