Download or read book Exploring Prehistoric Europe written by Christopher Scarre and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part travel guide, part survey of Europe's prehistory,Exploring Prehistoric Europedelves into fifteen of the most famous, most important, and most exciting archaeological sites in Europe. The first volume in the Places in Time series, this beautiful book takes us to locales both famous and obscure, from Ireland to Poland to Malta, ranging chronologically from Terra Amata, a site in southern France occupied some 380,000 years ago, to Borremose, a Danish settlement that dates to Roman times. The author, archaeologist Chris Scarre, examines the haunting cave paintings of Lascaux, France; the stone circle and ritual complexes of Avebury, England; and the ever mysterious Stonehenge--as well as lesser known but no less intriguing sites around Europe. For each location, he conducts a careful tour of the existing remains, describes the history of its excavation, and then interprets how the site might have been built, used, or occupied. Readers will explore a variety of cultures and monuments, from megalithic stone circles to Neolithic villages to Bronze Age tombs, and see intimate portraits of the daily life of Europe's prehistoric ancestors. Perhaps equally important, Scarre has selected the sites with accessibility in mind--all can be easily reached by the modern tourist--and he also highlights local museums and visitor centers where further artifacts and information can be found. Beautifully illustrated with maps and full-color photographs,Exploring Prehistoric Europemakes the perfect companion for the historically minded traveler--or the reader who wants to curl up at home and wander at leisure through the distant past.

Download or read book Exploring Prehistoric Europe written by Christopher Scarre and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part travel guide, part survey of Europe's prehistory,Exploring Prehistoric Europedelves into fifteen of the most famous, most important, and most exciting archaeological sites in Europe. The first volume in the Places in Time series, this beautiful book takes us to locales both famous and obscure, from Ireland to Poland to Malta, ranging chronologically from Terra Amata, a site in southern France occupied some 380,000 years ago, to Borremose, a Danish settlement that dates to Roman times. The author, archaeologist Chris Scarre, examines the haunting cave paintings of Lascaux, France; the stone circle and ritual complexes of Avebury, England; and the ever mysterious Stonehenge--as well as lesser known but no less intriguing sites around Europe. For each location, he conducts a careful tour of the existing remains, describes the history of its excavation, and then interprets how the site might have been built, used, or occupied. Readers will explore a variety of cultures and monuments, from megalithic stone circles to Neolithic villages to Bronze Age tombs, and see intimate portraits of the daily life of Europe's prehistoric ancestors. Perhaps equally important, Scarre has selected the sites with accessibility in mind--all can be easily reached by the modern tourist--and he also highlights local museums and visitor centers where further artifacts and information can be found. Beautifully illustrated with maps and full-color photographs,Exploring Prehistoric Europemakes the perfect companion for the historically minded traveler--or the reader who wants to curl up at home and wander at leisure through the distant past.

Download or read book Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe written by Victoria Ginn and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-03-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identity is relational and a construct, and is expressed in a myriad of ways. For example, material culture and its pluralist meanings have been readily manipulated by humans in a prehistoric context in order to construct personal and group identities. Artefacts were often from or reminiscent of far-flung places and were used to demonstrate membership of an (imagined) regional, or European community. Earthworks frequently archive maximum visual impact through elaborate ramparts and entrances with the minimum amount of effort, indicating that the construction of identities were as much in the eye of the perceivor, as of the perceived. Variations in domestic architectural style also demonstrate the malleability of identity, and the prolonged, intermittent use of particular places for specific functions indicates that the identity of place is just as important in our archaeological understanding as the identity of people. By using a wide range of case studies, both temporally and spatially, these thought processes may be explored further and diachronic and geographic patterns in expressions of identity investigated.

Download or read book The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe written by Barry Cunliffe and published by Oxford Illustrated History. This book was released on 2001 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive account of prehistoric Europe from the coming of the Stone Age to the fall of the Roman Empire, providing information on the changing landscape of Europe and responses and adaptations to these changes.

Download or read book Prehistoric Europe written by Andrew Jones and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-11-10 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to the range of critical contemporary thinking in the study of European prehistory. Presents essays by some of the most dynamic researchers and leading European scholars in the field today Ranges from the Neolithic period to the early stages of the Iron Age, and from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Urals and the Iberian Peninsula

Download or read book Prehistoric Art in Europe written by Nancy K. Sandars and published by Puffin Books. This book was released on 1985 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Until around 10,000 B.C. art in Europe appears to have been in advance of the rest of the world, and throws a valuable if intermittent, light on the total history of early man. The great masterpieces of cave-painting at Lascaux are well known, and one tradition of early sculpture is from the first surprisingly classical. With the shelter paintings of the Spanish Levant and the clay modelling and painted pottery of eastern Europe in the fourth and third millennia B.C. fresh artistic problems were tackled. Later still evolved the high technical accomplishment of the metal-workers, and this masterly study concludes with an account of the original and exciting new departures of Celtic La Tene art of the last four centuries B.C."--BOOK COVER.

Download or read book Exploring Megalithic Europe written by Julian Heath and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-11-07 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abundant prehistoric remains survive in the wide landscapes of Europe, but none are arguably as fascinating or awe-inspiring as the “megalithic” (after the Greek megas: great, and lithos: stone) monuments built by the people who lived here during the three hugely important periods of European prehistory known respectively as the Neolithic, the Copper Age, and the Bronze Age. These huge, prehistoric stone structures can still be found scattered in their thousands across Europe and provide a tentative but evocative link to their builders, and to Europe’s distant past. From the Mediterranean islands to the colder climes of Scandinavia, Exploring Megalithic Europe takes readers to many European countries, examining both famous and lesser-known megalithic monuments and looking at what insights these remarkable reminders of prehistoric life may provide into the ancient communities responsible for their construction.

Download or read book Europe before Rome written by T. Douglas Price and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-09 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Werner Herzog's 2011 film Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about the painted caves at Chauvet, France brought a glimpse of Europe's extraordinary prehistory to a popular audience. But paleolithic cave paintings, stunning as they are, form just a part of a story that begins with the arrival of the first humans to Europe 1.3 million years ago, and culminates in the achievements of Greece and Rome. In Europe before Rome, T. Douglas Price takes readers on a guided tour through dozens of the most important prehistoric sites on the continent, from very recent discoveries to some of the most famous and puzzling places in the world, like Chauvet, Stonehenge, and Knossos. This volume focuses on more than 60 sites, organized chronologically according to their archaeological time period and accompanied by 200 illustrations, including numerous color photographs, maps, and drawings. Our understanding of prehistoric European archaeology has been almost completely rewritten in the last 25 years with a series of major findings from virtually every time period, such as Ötzi the Iceman, the discoveries at Atapuerca, and evidence of a much earlier eruption at Mt. Vesuvius. Many of the sites explored in the book offer the earliest European evidence we have of the typical features of human society--tool making, hunting, cooking, burial practices, agriculture, and warfare. Introductory prologues to each chapter provide context for the wider changes in human behavior and society in the time period, while the author's concluding remarks offer expert reflections on the enduring significance of these places. Tracing the evolution of human society in Europe across more than a million years, Europe before Rome gives readers a vivid portrait of life for prehistoric man and woman.

Download or read book The Caves of Perigord written by Martin Walker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-04-10 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a brilliant and ambitious thriller that combines elements of Jean Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear and Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth into a riveting, multifaceted tale of love, art, courage, and war, Martin Walker brings to life the creation of an extraordinary work of prehistoric cave art and the struggle to possess it in our own time. Martin Walker’s richly interwoven novel opens with the arrival of a mysterious package for a young American woman working in a London auction house. Brought by a British officer, it contains a 17,000-year-old fragment of a cave painting left to him by his father, a former World War II hero. The fragment, significant and stunning in itself, is also the key to the existence of an un-known cave that may be more important in the history of art and human creation than the world-famous one at Lascaux. It triggers a storm of publicity and commands the attention of the French authorities all the way up to the President of the Republic, who seems to know more about the painting's origins than anyone else... As the young American woman, the British officer, and a French government art historian explore the ancient province of Périgord to determine the painting’s origins, their search serves as backdrop for three compelling stories. There is the tale of the British officer’s father who lands in Nazi-occupied France in 1944 to organize the Resistance, culminating in a series of battles to prevent the SS Das Reich Panzer Division from reaching the Normandy beaches in time to repel the D-Day invasion, which leads to an account of the subsequent discovery—and cover-up—of the lost cave and its paintings. And there is also the moving story of the young artist who painted them, the woman he loved, and the ancient culture that produced the first recognizable human art but required the sacrifice of its own creators. Filled with vivid, historically accurate details and imaginative re-creations of prehistoric life, The Caves of Périgord blends a complex plot and richly diverse characters into a seamless narrative of romance, tragedy, and heroism from past to present.

Download or read book Decolonizing Indigenous Histories written by Maxine Oland and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decolonizing Indigenous Histories makes a vital contribution to the decolonization of archaeology by recasting colonialism within long-term indigenous histories. Showcasing case studies from Africa, Australia, Mesoamerica, and North and South America, this edited volume highlights the work of archaeologists who study indigenous peoples and histories at multiple scales. The contributors explore how the inclusion of indigenous histories, and collaboration with contemporary communities and scholars across the subfields of anthropology, can reframe archaeologies of colonialism. The cross-cultural case studies employ a broad range of methodological strategies—archaeology, ethnohistory, archival research, oral histories, and descendant perspectives—to better appreciate processes of colonialism. The authors argue that these more complicated histories of colonialism contribute not only to understandings of past contexts but also to contemporary social justice projects. In each chapter, authors move beyond an academic artifice of “prehistoric” and “colonial” and instead focus on longer sequences of indigenous histories to better understand colonial contexts. Throughout, each author explores and clarifies the complexities of indigenous daily practices that shape, and are shaped by, long-term indigenous and local histories by employing an array of theoretical tools, including theories of practice, agency, materiality, and temporality. Included are larger integrative chapters by Kent Lightfoot and Patricia Rubertone, foremost North American colonialism scholars who argue that an expanded global perspective is essential to understanding processes of indigenous-colonial interactions and transitions.

Download or read book Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe written by Jane McIntosh and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of Europe's long past we have no writing, no named individuals, no recorded deeds. This means that its history is almost entirely that of the ordinary individual--the hunger-gatherer, farmer, or metallurgist--rather than the king. Evidence of privileged elites and material splendor is not lacking, however. The skills and expertise of prehistoric Europeans were often employed in the production of exquisite jewelry, elaborately woven cloth, beautifully made tools, and finely wrought weapons. Though the palaces that have attracted excavators in other lands are absent, there are few monuments elsewhere in the world to rival Europe's massive megalithic tombs or great stone circles. And though individuals preserve their anonymity and many of their secrets, modern technology has made it possible to reveal parts of their life history in astonishing detail. Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe gathers the results of recent archaeological discoveries and scholarly research into a single accessible volume. Organized thematically, the handbook covers all aspects of life in prehistoric Europe, including the geography of the continent, settlement, trade and transport, industry and crafts, religion, death and burial, warfare, language, the arts, and more. Complemented with more than 75 illustrations and maps, the result is a fascinating introduction to the 7,000-year period that immediately preceded the Roman Empire.

Download or read book Between the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC Exploring Cultural Diversity and Change in Late Prehistoric Communities written by Susana Soares Lopes and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of studies on the cultural reconfigurations that occurred in western Europe between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE focuses on the evidence from the West of the Iberian Peninsula, and one on the South of England. They explore regional diversity and challenge grand narratives regarding Chalcolithic and Bronze Age communities.

Download or read book Before Civilization written by Lord Colin Renfrew and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The refinement of radiocarbon dating using the information form tree-ring counts has raised serious doubts about the accepted theoretical frameowkr of European prehistory. Monuments in Central and Western Europe have proved to be considerably older than their supposed Near-Eastern forerunners, and the record must be almost completely rewritten in the light of these new dates. Before Civilsation is a preliminary attempt to do this with the help of analogies from more recent and well-documented primitive societies. The more glaring inconsistencies in the old theory are re-examined and Professor Renfrew shows convincingly how the baffling monuments of prehistoric Europe, like Stonehenge, could have been built without recourse to help from the 'more civilized' Near East.

Download or read book How Ancient Europeans Saw the World written by Peter S. Wells and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revolutionary approach to how we view Europe's prehistoric culture The peoples who inhabited Europe during the two millennia before the Roman conquests had established urban centers, large-scale production of goods such as pottery and iron tools, a money economy, and elaborate rituals and ceremonies. Yet as Peter Wells argues here, the visual world of these late prehistoric communities was profoundly different from those of ancient Rome's literate civilization and today's industrialized societies. Drawing on startling new research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Wells reconstructs how the peoples of pre-Roman Europe saw the world and their place in it. He sheds new light on how they communicated their thoughts, feelings, and visual perceptions through the everyday tools they shaped, the pottery and metal ornaments they decorated, and the arrangements of objects they made in their ritual places—and how these forms and patterns in turn shaped their experience. How Ancient Europeans Saw the World offers a completely new approach to the study of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, and represents a major challenge to existing views about prehistoric cultures. The book demonstrates why we cannot interpret the structures that Europe's pre-Roman inhabitants built in the landscape, the ways they arranged their settlements and burial sites, or the complex patterning of their art on the basis of what these things look like to us. Rather, we must view these objects and visual patterns as they were meant to be seen by the ancient peoples who fashioned them.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe written by Chris Fowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 1303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Download or read book Europe in the Neolithic written by A. W. R. Whittle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-05-23 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Whittle reviews the latest archaeological evidence on Neolithic Europe from 7000 to 2500 BC. Describing important areas, sites and problems, he addresses the major themes that have engaged the attention of scholars: the transition from a forager lifestyle; the rate and dynamics of change; and the nature of Neolithic society. He challenges conventional views, arguing that Neolithic society was rooted in the values and practices of its forager, predecessors right across the continent. The processes of settling down and adopting farming were piecemeal and slow. Only gradually did new attitudes emerge, to time and the past, to the sacred realms of ancestors and the dead, to nature and to the concept of community. Unique in its broad and up-to-date coverage of long-term processes of change on a continental scale, this completely rewritten and revised version of Whittle's Neolithic Europe: a survey reflects radical changes in the evidence and in interpretative approaches over the past decade.

Download or read book Ice Age Art written by Jill Cook and published by British Museum Publications Limited. This book was released on 2013 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique and remarkable work explores the extraordinary creative explosion that happened during the last European Ice Age, between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, when the very first figurative art was created.