Caught between the poles of remembering and forgetting, glorification and neglect, the abandoned mudbrick settlements (ḥārāt) of Oman are a vital object of conflicting processes of interpretation and negotiation. Adopting a diachronic perspective, the multi-disciplinary book’s chapters examine their past, present and future. The book presents approaches and results of archaeological, ethnographic, historical and sociological research on abandoned ḥārāt.

Oman’s landscape is dotted ...

This volume collects papers on the pre-Corded Ware horizon in central Europe and adjacent areas (i.e. from c. 3500 – 2800 BC). This phase is very patchily researched, partly also because certain kinds of evidence, notably domestic architecture and burials, are rare or absent in many regions. This has occasionally been interpreted as signs of a major crisis and population bottleneck, which in turn facilitated the migration of new populations from the steppe, bringing with them amongst others...

The Winthir Collection is one of the few identified skeletal collections from the 19th century, offering a rare insight into the lives of 245 individuals recovered from a long-forgotten section of Winthir Cemetery in Munich, southern Germany. Now housed in the State Collection for Anthropology in Munich, these remains have been analysed through an interdisciplinary project that combines historical and osteological research.

For each individual, historical data such as demographics, cause of ...

This collection of papers was compiled in celebration of the remarkable academic career of Professor Wil Roebroeks, who has established himself as one of Europe’s leading figures in Palaeolithic archaeology over the past three decades and founded the Human origins research group at Leiden University. The volume features a diverse array of chapters contributed by close colleagues, as well as former and current students, providing a thorough overview of the flourishing field of Palaeolithic a...

Heinrich Schliemann, a successful trader and amateur archaeologist who excavated Troy and Mycenae, kept multilingual diaries during his many travels around the world. In 1864, he set aside his trading business and embarked upon a year-long trip around the globe. This volume contains the portion of this trip in China and Japan, from April 1st to June 30th, 1865. Schliemann’s visit came at a curious time, when both China and Japan were going through tectonic shifts, very recently begun to ope...

During a considerable part of prehistory stone tools were indispensable. Flint in particular had properties that made it very suitable for making razor-sharp implements and could often, but not always, be collected locally. Hunters, gatherers and fishers mostly used small tools but with the transition to an agricultural way of living this situation changed, as larger implements became necessary, to cut down trees and work wood for instance.

The raw material suitable for this was often not av...

Deze bundel vormt de neerslag van de 12e Nederlandse metaaltijdendag, gehouden op 18 oktober 2024 in Leiden. Het congres werd dit jaar gecombineerd met een bezoek aan de zojuist geopende tentoonstelling ‘Bronstijd. Vuur van verandering’ in het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. In de ochtend werden er lezingen gehouden rondom het thema ‘bronstijd’. In de middag was er een parallelle sessie en plenaire sessie waarin ruimte was voor een breed scala aan onderwerpen die de gehele periode van de me...

Ancient Egyptian animal mummies can be found in almost every Egyptological museum collection. These mummified bodies of animals—from cats and falcons to scarabs and fish—played a role in animal cults and religion, but could also represent a favourite pet or serve as food for the deceased. Especially in Graeco-Roman Egypt, large numbers of animal mummies were deposited as votive offerings related to animal cults, thus playing a significant role in local economies. Studying their remains he...

Archaeological research on early villages has repeatedly shown that despite their small size these settlements were anything but simple. Excavations at the Late Neolithic and early Aeneolithic village of Monjukli Depe in the Kopet Dag foothills of Turkmenistan contribute to a picture of this complexity. General uniformities in house plans and material culture conceal underlying variability in material and social practices. Small-scale analyses of the preparation and use of space in buildings,...