Download or read book The Roundhouses Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland C 700 BC AD 500 The Orkney and Shetland Isles written by Euan Wallace MacKie and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2002 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brochs, roundhouses and wheelhouses are an ill-understood part of Scotland's archaeological heritage even though they are a fairly widespread phenomenon across northern and north-west Sotland and the western and northern islands. This volume is the first part of a project attempting to collate information on these structures and presents a large corpus of data on the buildings and the artefacts that have been found in association with them. The data is presented on an island-by-island and site-by-site basis. Two further sections on the best preserved example, a tower on Mousa in Shetland, and a discussion on the development of broch studies since the 16th century, are also given.

Download or read book The Roundhouses Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland C 700 BC AD 500 written by Euan Wallace MacKie and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2007 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scottish broch ¿ symbolized by the lonely tower on Mousa island in Shetland ¿ has, since the early years of the 18th century, excited the curiosity of archaeologists, antiquaries, and lay persons alike. The great piles of rubble, or the green mounds covering their massive ruins (dated c.700 BC ¿ AD 500), are everywhere to be seen in the western and northern islands and in the north-eastern counties of Caithness and Sutherland, often in upland places where there are few other signs of dynamic human habitation. Indeed, part of the fascination of the brochs is that these abundant signs of about 1200 years of human dynamic human energy and organization are concentrated in the maritime region of the far north and west of Scotland which, until the discovery of oil focused attention on the importance of the sea again, seemed remote in every sense from the centres of population of the modern UK. Most writers about brochs in the past have tended to rely for their conclusions on a relatively small number of well-known sites. Apart from the from the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland there has never been a systematic attempt to collate all the available data about brochs everywhere, and the finds made in them. This is one of the tasks the author set himself in 1961, soon after arriving in Scotland, and this volume is the first half of the result. This thorough study includes 329 illustrations, plans, photographs and maps, as well as an Index of site names and an Appendix of over 400 Iron Age artefacts drawn by author.

Download or read book The Iron Age Round House written by D. W. Harding and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-11-19 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully illustrated study of Iron Age round-houses, which explores not just their architectural aspects but more importantly their role in the social, economic and ritual structure of their communities, and their significance as symbols of Iron Age society in the face of Romanization.

Download or read book The Iron Age in Northern Britain written by Dennis W. Harding and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-24 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iron Age in Northern Britain examines the archaeological evidence for earlier Iron Age communities from the southern Pennines to the Northern and Western Isles and the impact of Roman expansion on local populations, through to the emergence of historically-recorded communities in the post-Roman period. The text has been comprehensively revised and expanded to include new discoveries and to take account of advanced techniques, with many new and updated illustrations. The volume presents a comprehensive picture of the ‘long Iron Age’, allowing readers to appreciate how perceptions of Iron Age societies have changed significantly in recent years. New material in this second edition also addresses the key issues of social reconstruction, gender, and identity, as well as assessing the impact of developer-funded archaeology on the discipline. Drawing on recent excavation and research and interpreting evidence from key studies across Scotland and northern England, The Iron Age in Northern Britain continues to be an accessible and authoritative study of later prehistory in the region.

Download or read book CLACHTOLL written by and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Archaeology of Roman Britain written by Adam Rogers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the colonial history of the British Empire there are difficulties in reconstructing the lives of people that came from very different traditions of experience. The Archaeology of Roman Britain argues that a similar critical approach to the lives of people in Roman Britain needs to be developed, not only for the study of the local population but also those coming into Britain from elsewhere in the Empire who developed distinctive colonial lives. This critical, biographical approach can be extended and applied to places, structures, and things which developed in these provincial contexts as they were used and experienced over time. This book uniquely combines the study of all of these elements to access the character of Roman Britain and the lives, experiences, and identities of people living there through four centuries of occupation. Drawing on the concept of the biography and using it as an analytical tool, author Adam Rogers situates the archaeological material of Roman Britain within the within the political, geographical, and temporal context of the Roman Empire. This study will be of interest to scholars of Roman archaeology, as well as those working in biographical themes, issues of colonialism, identity, ancient history, and classics.

Download or read book The Atlantic Iron Age written by Jon Henderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It may be surprising to learn that this book is the first ever survey of the Atlantic Iron Age: this tradition is cited in archaeology frequently enough to seem firmly established, yet has never been clearly defined.With this book, Jon Henderson provides an important and much-needed exploration of the archaeology of western areas of Britain, Ireland, France and Spain to consider how far Atlantic Iron Age communities were in contact with each other. By examining the evidence for settlement and maritime trade, as well as aspects of the material culture of each area, Henderson identifies distinct Atlantic social identities through time. He also pinpoints areas of similarity: the possibility of cultural 'cross-pollination' caused by maritime links and to what extent these contacts influenced and altered the distinctive character of local communities. A major theme running through the book is the role of the Atlantic seaboard itself and what impact this unique environment had on the ways Atlantic communities perceived themselves and their place in the world. As a history of these communities unfolds, a general archaeological Atlantic identity breaks down into a range of regional identities which compare interestingly with each other and with traditional models of Celtic identity. Bringing together the Iron Age settlement evidence for the Atlantic regions in one place for the first time, this excellent and original book is certain to establish itself as the definitive study of the Atlantic Iron Age.

Download or read book An Imperial Possession written by David Mattingly and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Penguin History of Britain series, An Imperial Possession is the first major narrative history of Roman Britain for a generation. David Mattingly draws on a wealth of new findings and knowledge to cut through the myths and misunderstandings that so commonly surround our beliefs about this period. From the rebellious chiefs and druids who led native British resistance, to the experiences of the Roman military leaders in this remote, dangerous outpost of Europe, this book explores the reality of life in occupied Britain within the context of the shifting fortunes of the Roman Empire.

Download or read book Excavations at Milla Skerra Sandwick Unst written by Olivia Lelong and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the late 1st millennium BC into the early 1st millennium AD, the small island of Unst in the far north of the Shetland (and British) Isles was home to well-established and connected farming and fishing communities. The Iron Age settlement at Milla Skerra was occupied for at least 500 years before it was covered with storm-blown sand and abandoned. Although part of it had been lost to the sea, excavation revealed many details of the life of the settlement and how it was reused over many generations. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC people were constructing stone-walled yards and filling them with hearth waste and midden material. Later inhabitants built a house on top, with a paved floor and successive hearths, and more domestic rubbish accumulated inside it. Outside were new yards and workshops for crafts and metalworking, which were remodelled several times. The buildings fell into disrepair and became a dumping ground for domestic waste until the 2nd or 3rd century AD, when sand buried the settlement. Within a few generations, a man was buried beside the ruins along with some striking objects. Thousands of artefacts and environmental remains from Milla Skerra reveal the everyday practices and seasonal rhythms of the people that lived in this windswept and remote island settlement and their connections to both land and sea.

Download or read book Playing with Things The archaeology anthropology and ethnography of human object interactions in Atlantic Scotland written by Graeme Wilson and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-12-31 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study represents a reappraisal of the relationship between play — an activity which is most often understood in terms of something ‘set apart’ — and everyday life. Via a series of archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic investigations, it leads towards the conclusion that play is not in fact so separate as is often assumed.

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 Viking Law and Order written by Sanmark Alexandra Sanmark and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until very recently Viking and Norse assembly sites were essentially unknown, apart from a few select sites, such as Thingvellir in Iceland. The Vikings are well-known for their violence and pillage, but they also had a well-organised system for political decision-making, legal cases and conflict resolution. Using archaeological evidence, written sources and place-names, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of their legal system and assembly sites, showing that this formed an integral part of Norse culture and identity, to the extent that the assembly institution was brought to all Norse settlements.Sites are analysed through surveys and case studies across Scandinavia, Scotland and the North Atlantic region. The author moves the view of assembly sites away from a functional one to an understanding of the symbolic meaning of these highly ritualised sites, and shows how they were constructed to signify power through monuments and natural features. This original and stimulating study is set not only in the context of the Viking and Norse periods, but also in the wider continental histories of place, assembly and the rhetoric of power.

Download or read book Landscapes Revealed written by Amanda Brend and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, Current Archaeology 2023 Book of the Year 2023 This volume brings together several years of work devoted to the wider landscape of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. It documents the results of a program of geophysical and related survey across an area of c. 285 hectares between Skara Brae on the west Orkney coast and Maeshowe, by the Loch of Stenness. The project has made it possible to talk for the first time about the landscape context of some of the most remarkable and renowned prehistoric monuments in Western Europe. The aims are to synthesize the data from different forms of survey and to document the changing character and development of this landscape over time. The results are genuinely remarkable are presented in a manner which makes the material of interest and value to a relatively wide readership, with an array of images which fully document and interpret the evidence. Survey work at a landscape scale tends to deal with palimpsests. Here descriptive sections are set within a thematic structure designed to explore the changing use and significance of different areas over time. The results shed important new light on the character and extent of known prehistoric sites and ceremonial monuments. But they also document the afterlives of these and other places and their relation to the lived landscapes of the historic and more recent past. In tracing the changing configuration of the World Heritage Area, we can begin appreciate this landscape as an artifact of several millennia of dwelling, working land, attending to wider worlds and to the past itself.

Download or read book Staircases written by James W. P. Campbell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The staircase dates back to the very beginning of architectural history. Virtually every significant building from the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia to the present day, has not only contained one or more staircases, but has celebrated them. For such an apparently simple part of a building they have been made in a bewildering variety of forms and from a wide range of materials. Every age has sought to out-perform the previous to produce ever more spectacular and gravity-defying designs. 'Staircases: History, Repair and Conservation' is the first major reference volume devoted entirely to the understanding of staircases and the issues surrounding their repair and conservation. Each chapter has been especially written by experts in their respective fields. The book is essential reading for professionals and anyone with an interest in staircases. It deals with the history; dating; archaeology; surveying and recording; engineering; curating; repair and conservation of the staircase in a single volume. No other book offers such a wide range of detail. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 covers the history, development, identification and dating of staircases, providing detailed drawings and photographs and an introduction to the scientific techniques available to enable the accurate dating of staircases. Part 2 covers the design, engineering and maintenance of the staircase, giving a clear guide to the latest research into the design of safe staircases and their structural stability. Part 3 focuses on the materials commonly used to make stairs, detailing the appropriate techniques for their conservation and repair. The result is a comprehensive study encompassing considerable and far reaching research which aims to inform our understanding and advance the scholarship of the subject for years to come.

Download or read book Exploring Archaeoastronomy written by Liz Henty and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeoastronomy and archaeology are two distinct fields of study which examine the cultural aspect of societies, but from different perspectives. Archaeoastronomy seeks to discover how the impact of the skyscape is materialized in culture, by alignments to celestial events or sky-based symbolism; yet by contrast, archaeology's approach examines all aspects of culture, but rarely considers the sky. Despite this omission, archaeology is the dominant discipline while archaeoastronomy is relegated to the sidelines. The reasons for archaeoastronomy’s marginalized status may be found by assessing its history. For such an exploration to be useful, archaeoastronomy cannot just be investigated in a vacuum but must be contextualized by exploring other contemporaneous developments, particularly in archaeology. On the periphery of both, there are various strands of esoteric thought and pseudoscientific theories which paint an alternative view of monumental remains and these also play a part in the background. The discipline of archaeology has had an unbroken lineage from the late 19th century to the present. On the other hand, archaeoastronomy has not been consistently titled, having adopted various different names such as alignment studies, orientation theory, astro-archaeology, megalithic science, archaeotopography, archaeoastronomy and cultural astronomy: names which depict variants of its methods and theory, sometimes in tandem with those of archaeology and sometimes in opposition. Similarly, its academic status has always been unclear so to bring it closer to archaeology there was a proposal in 2015 to integrate archaeoastronomy research with that of archaeology and call it skyscape archaeology. This volume will examine how all these different variants came about and consider archaeoastronomy's often troubled relationship with archaeology and its appropriation by esotericism to shed light on its position today.

Download or read book Revealing Trimontium written by Donald Gordon and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Roman fort of Trimontium is renowned internationally thanks to the work of James Curle (1862–1944) who led the excavations of 1905–1910. This volume brings together key sets of his correspondence which cast fresh light on the intellectual networks of the early 20th century, when professional archaeology was still in its infancy.

Download or read book The Social Context of Technology written by Leo Webley and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.