This book explores the cost, expressed in labour, of constructing fortifications during the Late Bronze Age in Greece (ca. 1600 – 1050 BCE). The underlying question for this study is whether the cost of large scale constructions, built with large, unwieldy blocks, may have overstretched the (economic) capabilities of communities, leading to their collapse.

In order to determine the labour costs, the building process is deconstructed and for each sub-process, the costs are determined. The co...

The first ever large-scale synthesis on identity and social dynamics across archaic Macedonia (600-400 BC), Christos Giamakis’s book provides a detailed narrative exploring the role of power as displayed through material culture in the formation of group identities across the region. Giamakis focuses on data from nine cemeteries in the region combining multiple datasets including grave goods, osteological evidence, burial rites, tomb types and the organisation of the cemetery space in orde...

The famous 'Silk Roads' have long evoked a romantic picture of travel through colourful civilizations that connected the western and eastern poles of Eurasia, facilitating the exchange of exotic luxury goods, peoples, pathogens and ideas. But how far back can we trace such interaction? Increasing evidence suggests considerable time-depth for Trans-Eurasian exchange, with the expanding urban networks of the Bronze Age at times anticipating later caravan routes. Tying the Threads of Eurasia app...

Barkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This ...

5,000 years ago, a migration shaped Europe’s future. Migrating communities spread across Europe within two centuries, leaving lasting changes in interconnectivity, language, and ancestry. Yet these migrating communities did not enter an empty continent. Across Europe, they encountered indigenous communities with millennia-old roots. What interactions between migrating and indigenous communities gave rise to those lasting changes?

This study sheds new light on this question with an innovativ...

La mort d'autrui est une épreuve que les communautés humaines ont dû apprendre à surmonter dès les premiers temps de l'Humanité. Ce travail est une exploration des différentes réponses proposées par l'homme face au problème de la perte de l'autre à travers les gestes effectués sur le corps mort, depuis les soins thanatopraxiques jusqu'aux funérailles en plusieurs temps ou la création de reliques.La manipulation post-mortem des corps fournit régulièrement à l'archéologue des ...

Para las poblaciones indígenas la llegada de Colon al Caribe en 1492 significó una transformación y reestructuración de su mundo, incluyendo cambios a niveles culturales, sociales, económicos y políticos. En este trabajo se proponen modelos interpretativos sobre la transformación del paisaje indígena al colonial, a través de la aplicación de una investigación arqueológica regional que integró los conceptos de taskscape y paisajes en conflicto con análisis estadísticos y de Sist...

There is little evidence of the routes connecting Amerindian communities in the Caribbean prior to and just after 1492. Uncovering possible canoe routes between these communities can help to explain the structure, capabilities, and limitations of the physical links in their social and material networks. This book evaluates how routes connecting islands indicate the structure of past inter-island networks, by using computer modeling.Computer modeling and least-cost pathway analysis is a popula...

This book deals with the question how communities across Europe during the later 3rd millennium BC adopt and transform the Bell Beaker phenomenon differently. By looking at these processes of change from the perspective of settlements and settlement material culture, an interpretation is given to the development of this phenomenon that is alternative to the currently prevailing migration models.

Instead, the author uses social theories on the spread of innovations, the development and functio...

Welche Bedeutung griechische Münzbilder in der Antike hatten, ist in der Forschung vielfach hinterfragt und äußerst divergent beantwortet worden. Selten sind Münzen und deren Bildmotive zeitlich und regional übergreifend untersucht worden, denn meist stehen ikonografische Betrachtungen von einzelnen Münztypen innerhalb eines eng umrissenen Zeitraums im Vordergrund.

Ulrike Wolf legt mit ihrer Dissertationsschrift „Vernetzte Bilder“ eine Arbeit vor, bei der die Diskussion der Rolle vo...