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...

Technology refers to any set of standardised procedures for transforming raw materials into finished products. Innovation consists of any change in technology which has tangible and lasting effect on human practices, whether or not it provides utilitarian advantages. Prehistoric societies were never static, but the tempo of innovation occasionally increased to the point that we can refer to transformation taking place. Prehistorians must therefore identify factors promoting or hindering innov...

Throughout northern Europe, thousands of burial mounds were erected in the third millennium BCE. Starting in the Corded Ware culture, individual people were being buried underneath these mounds, often equipped with an almost rigid set of grave goods. This practice continued in the second half of the third millennium BCE with the start of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. In large parts of Europe, a ‘typical’ set of objects was placed in graves, known as the ‘Bell Beaker package’.

This book ...

The study of kinship from archaeology has been fluctuating. At the end of the 20th century archaeologists were reluctant or skeptical about its relevance and viability. However, in recent decades it has gained prominence and today it is experiencing a sweet moment, although not without problems. Its recent impulse has been due to the methodological development of bioscience techniques (aDNA and isotope studies) and to the profound revision and updating of other inference strategies from house...

Hailing from academic training in fine and performing arts, Honor Frost learned to dive in the 1950s and within a decade began earning a reputation as a pioneering maritime archaeologist. She held unparalleled expertise in the study of ancient anchors, harbours, and shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean, where she helped to develop new archaeological applications for technologies like aerial photography and photogrammetry, which today are standard field practices. Over a career spanning fiv...

This volume brings together innovative research to explore the profound impact of resources on the development of early societies. Divided into three major themes – lifeworlds in resource landscapes, skill and embodied knowledge, and the role of resources within complex systems – the volume draws on diverse case studies, from Bronze Age Chinese mining to Iron Age preurban resource management and the metallurgy-pastoralism nexus. Contributors reveal how materials were not merely extracted ...

During the Bronze Age the new, eponymous, highly-desired metal spread widely across Europe. It changed labour sectors, networks, worldviews and societies, and brought with it different transformations in diverse areas of life and death. With this book, all changes from the Bronze Age for the area of Schleswig-Holstein were put under the spotlight.

In this framework of research, the Mang de Bargen site near Bornhöved (district of Segeberg), once the target of gravel works, developed into one ...

The early Neolithic site of Vráble (5250-4950 cal BCE) is among the largest LBK settlement agglomerations in Central Europe, and exceptional within the southwest Slovakian area. Geophysical surveys revealed more than 300 houses, grouped into three contemporary neighbourhoods, one of which is delineated by a complex ditched enclosure system. This enclosure is associated with a large number of human remains, which reveal new patterns of burial and deposition practices. This volume presents the...

The terracotta figurines from Akragas (Agrigento) with their chubby faces, splendid furniture, and rich adornments, depict a prosperous life in the late sixth and early fifth century BCE. The extensive jewellery on the figurines contains strikingly large fibulae appliques fastening pectoral chains with several sorts of pendants. They are modelled after existing items. The form of the jewellery items changed fast, influenced by different peoples and changing fashions, which can be compared wit...