This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the historical archaeology of Venezuela, marking the first time such a detailed study is available in both English and Spanish. It compiles the work of leading Venezuelan archaeologists and includes recent fieldwork and unpublished research, covering a wide range of case studies from precolonial times to the republican period.

Structured in five parts, the book starts with a thorough review of the history of Venezuelan historical archaeological r...

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...

This work is an intensive study of the Neolithic deposition of copper objects from Neuenkirchen in North-East Germany. This unique ensemble represents one of the very rare hoard finds from the early Early Neolithic, and is the first of its kind for nearly 100 years, matched only by the famous younger hoard find from Bygholm (Denmark).

The beginning of neolithization at the end of the fifth millennium is not only characterised by a change in the subsistence strategy, but also by the developmen...

Bei einer Ausgrabung im havelländischen Lietzow in Brandenburg wurden jungsteinzeitliche Siedlungsbefunde entdeckt. Sie gehören zu zwei Hofstellen der jüngeren Linienbandkeramik, die um 5100-5000 v. u. Z. datiert. Die in der äußersten Peripherie des damaligen bäuerlichen Siedlungsgebiets gelegene Siedlung Lietzow 10 bestand über ungefähr zwei Generationen. Die von dichtem Eichen-Kiefernwald umgebene Siedlung lag wie eine kleine Insel auf einer Grundmoränenplatte, die mit relativ fruc...

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...

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...

For the first time seasonality is placed at the centre of the study of rural settlement. Using a Europe-wide approach, it provides a primer of examples, of techniques and of ideas for the identification and understanding of seasonal settlement. As such, it marks an important new step in the interpretation of the use of the countryside by historic communities linked to the annual passage of the year. The particular studies are introduced by an opening essay which draws wider conclusions about ...

Broomcorn/common/proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a cereal crop that originated in East Asia and was transferred westward to Europe, where it was introduced in the mid-2nd millennium BCE, at the height of the Bronze Age. Archaeobotanists from the Collaborative Research Centre 1266, supported by many colleagues, conducted a large-scale programme of radiocarbon dating of millet grains from prehistoric Europe. They discovered that the spread of this crop on the continent happened quickly, ext...