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can be gathered from the Archives of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and other sources, both published and unpublished ones.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...

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...

This book looks at how archaeologists in the early 21st century are dealing with the challenges and opportunities presented by development in archaeologically sensitive urban centres. Based on a session held at the 2017 EAA conference in Maastricht, the volume features case studies from across Europe and beyond - including Norway, Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Israel. The chapters look both at individual projects and large...

This book presents a group of small and inconspicuous barrows that were recently discovered in the forest of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. They are part of an extensive barrow landscape of which little was yet known. Fieldwork carried out in and around them yielded a wealth of new data. It was discovered that even the most inconspicuous and heavily damaged mound of this group still contained many special features.This special place was anchored around a site that probably had a particular signi...

Zo'n 3000 tot 3500 jaar geleden werden, in een gebied dat we nu kennen als de Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.), een aantal grafheuvels opgericht door de toenmalige bewoners. Gedurende de daaropvolgende eeuwen werden hier regelmatig mensen begraven. Tussen circa 800 en 500 v. Chr. ontstond een zogenaamd urnenveld wat uiteindelijk meer dan honderd kleine heuvels op de heide omvatte, grafmonumenten waaronder de crematieresten van overleden veelal in aardewerken urnen waren begraven.Uit deze perio...