1,721,000 research outputs found
Rock art: a marker of concepts and practices
No full textRock art is found across the globe and has been used, with varying levels of success, as evidence of cultural connections between different communities. In this paper, we discuss some of the methods used to analyse rock art and cultural connectivity, drawing on examples from three regions: Northern Europe, the Eurasian Steppe, and East Asia. We present ideas for how existing methods for this type of analysis could be reworked, specifically discussing multi-media comparison within archaeological contexts
Rethinking migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia: an introduction
Full text linkMobility has always been a defining feature of the human journey, from prehistory to the present. This chapter serves as an introduction to our volume on population movements in late prehistoric Eurasia, outlining the background, scope, and aims of the book. It provides definitions for key terms such as mobility, migration, colonisation, and diaspora, as well as a discussion of specific modalities such as forced migration and return migration. The history of research is outlined in order to understand the main trends, methodologies, and shifts over time, and their interconnection with the wider intellectual and political context. Finally, the chapter offers insights into the current state of research, and concludes by summarising the different contributions contained in the volume
Introduction:
Full text linkAround 500 BC a new mode of visual expression emerged in Europe. To the north of the Alps, craftspeople began to decorate objects in ways that were strikingly different from the long-standing traditions of the preceding millennia (e.g. Garrow & Gosden 2012, 40–41; Jacobsthal 1944, 155–58; Wells 2008; 2012; Chapter 3, this volume). Whereas the artistic styles of the Bronze Age had been built around repetitive arrangements of geometric motifs, this new style was founded on swirling patterns and imagery where the boundaries between individuals (both human and animal) and objects are blurred. It also presented an increasingly sharp..
Collecting Iron Age art
Full text linkThis paper introduces the process of creating the database of objects for the European Celtic Art in Context Project. It gives the details of the data included highlighting their benefits and weaknesses. Through a series of distribution maps and tables, we provide an introduction to some of the general patterns seen in the data and suggest directions for future research
Community recording and monitoring of vulnerable sites in England
Full text linkSignifi cant archaeological sites along England’s sinuous coast and on the foreshores of tidal estuaries are continually eroded by winds, waves and tidal scour. Alarmed by the rate of loss, the location of many of these sites has been noted during the national ‘Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey’ programme initiated by English Heritage (now Historic England) and also by archaeological groups around the country. But until recently there had been no national standardised system in place to record these vulnerable sites in detail or to regularly monitor their fate over the longer term. CITiZAN: the Coastal and InterTidal Zone Archaeological Network provides a systematic national response to natural and anthropogenic forces threatening coastal and intertidal archaeology in England. The project employs similar methodologies to the recording and monitoring of fragile intertidal archaeology as its sister project, the Thames Discovery Programme, which has for the last decade monitored the archaeology of the Greater London Thames foreshore.
Both projects employ a system of community-based training and outreach programmes, creating an infrastructure to support a network of volunteers with the skills and systems in place to enable them to monitor and survey the highly significant but threatened archaeological sites around England’s coast and foreshores. This paper looks at the evolution of the methodologies employed by these projects, both archaeological and educational, as well as the implementation of standardised recording and monitoring using crowd-sourced data, and presents key findings from this ‘citizen science’ programme. Coastal erosion can rarely be halted, but the hope of TDP and CITiZAN is to involve the public in such a way that will help ensure archaeological sites can be recorded before they are destroyed.No Full Tex
Landscape and connections: petroglyphs of the Altai in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BCE
Full text linkThis thesis presents a holistic study of connections in the Altai Mountains of the eastern Eurasian Steppe, as shown by rock-art. Currently divided by four countries, pecked images (petroglyphs) and painted images from the 2ndâ1st millennium BCE have been subjected to very separate research traditions, exacerbated by language barriers. This thesis focusses on the entire Altai Mountain range as a study area, integrating research published in Chinese and Russian, with supplementary literature in Kazakh and Mongolian consulted.
To demonstrate the potential for connectivity and, consequently, movement, a map of accessibility was generated, showing that there are various optimal routes for movement throughout the Altai. The locations of rock-art sites relative to these routes indicate that movement was a key feature contributing to the creation of rock-art. Examining topographic features in the vicinity of rock-art sites of three regions (Mongolia, Russia, PRC) highlighted an association between watercourses and sites, whilst studying the micro-landscape within panels found that the creators of rock-art were not representing the tangible spatial relationship of figures to the landscape. More broadly, similarities between motifs at rock-art sites, as well as on portable art, demonstrate that the people making them, regardless of whether they were aware of it or not, were part of a wider understanding of how to depict subjects. Evidence of this understanding can be found even in regions with very different cultural backgrounds to the Steppe, such as the Chinese Central Plains, demonstrating that groups outside of the Steppe were aware of and using this way of representing. By combining analysis of motifs with that of the landscape, this thesis demonstrates that rock-art as a practice was inherently linked with to the landscape, whereas content and style are more indicative of a wide-ranging belief system amongst Steppe pastoralists, which was expressed aesthetically.</p
Sentient archaeologies: global perspectives on places, objects and practice: Essays in honour of Professor Chris Gosden
No full textArchaeology in the past century has seen a major shift from theoretical frameworks that treat the remains of past societies as static snapshots of particular moments in time to interpretations that prioritize change and variability. Though established analytical concepts, such as typology, remain key parts of the archaeologist’s investigative toolkit, data-gathering strategies and interpretative frameworks have become infused progressively with the concept that archaeology is living, in the sense of both the objects of study and the discipline as a whole. The significance for the field is that researchers across the world are integrating ideas informed by relational epistemologies and mutually constructive ontologies into their work from the initial stage of project design all the way down to post-excavation interpretation.
This volume showcases examples of such work, highlighting the utility of these ideas to exploring material both old and new. The illuminating research and novel explanations presented contribute to resolving long-standing problems in regional archaeologies across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Oceania. In this way, this volume reinvigorates approaches taken towards older material but also acts as a springboard for future innovative discussions of theory in archaeology and related disciplines.
This volume showcases examples of such work, highlighting the utility of these ideas to exploring material both old and new. The illuminating research and novel explanations presented contribute to resolving long-standing problems in regional archaeologies across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Oceania. In this way, this volume reinvigorates approaches taken towards older material but also acts as a springboard for future innovative discussions of theory in archaeology and related disciplines
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