Download or read book Wilsford Shaft written by Paul Ashbee and published by English Heritage. This book was released on 1989 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The excavation of the presumed pond barrow, Wilsford 33a, in 1960, led to the baring of a weathering cone and the top of a shaft 6ft (1.8m) in diameter. Subsequent work during 1961 and 1962 revealed that is was of the order of 100ft (30m) in depth. At the bottom of the shaft waterlogging had preserved a range of objects and material in a manner not normally encountered upon the chalklands of Wiltshire. The remains of wooden containers and other wooden objects were discovered, accompanied by quantities of environmental material, domestic animal bones and fibres, small vertebrate remains, roundwood fragments, bud scales, insect remains, molluscs, pollen, seeds, fungi, moss, plant fibres, dung, and pieces of rope. The wide range of environmental evidence from the depths of the shaft provides the most detailed picture that we have at present of the natural history of a Bronze Age site. The conclusion to the report marks the different interpretations that have been reached in the light of the archaeological and environmental evidence.
Download or read book Breaking the Surface written by Doug Bailey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Breaking the Surface, Doug Bailey offers a radical alternative for understanding Neolithic houses, providing much-needed insight not just into prehistoric practice, but into another way of doing archaeology. Using his years of fieldwork experience excavating the early Neolithic pit-houses of southeastern Europe, Bailey exposes and elucidates a previously under-theorized aspect of prehistoric pit construction: the actions and consequences of digging defined as breaking the surface of the ground. Breaking the Surface works through the consequences of this redefinition in order to redirect scholarship on the excavation and interpretation of pit-houses in Neolithic Europe, offering detailed critiques of current interpretations of these earliest European architectural constructions. The work of the book is performed by juxtaposing richly detailed discussions of archaeological sites (Etton and The Wilsford Shaft in the UK, and Magura in Romania), with the work of three artists-who-cut (Ron Athey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Lucio Fontana), with deep and detailed examinations of the philosophy of holes, the perceptual psychology of shapes, and the linguistic anthropology of cutting and breaking words, as well as with cultural diversity in framing spatial reference and through an examination of pre-modern ungrounded ways of living. Breaking the Surface is as much a creative act on its own-in its mixture of work from disparate periods and regions, its use of radical text interruption, and its juxtaposition of text and imagery-as it is an interpretive statement about prehistoric architecture. Unflinching and exhilarating, it is a major development in the growing subdiscipline of art/archaeology.
Download or read book Magic in Britain written by Robin Melrose and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic, both benevolent (white) and malign (black), has been practiced in the British Isles since at least the Iron Age (800 BCE-CE 43). "Curse tablets"--metal plates inscribed with curses intended to harm specific people--date from the Roman Empire. The Anglo-Saxons who settled in England in the fifth and sixth centuries used ritual curses in documents, and wrote spells and charms. When they became Christians in the seventh century, the new "magicians" were saints, who performed miracles. When William of Normandy became king in 1066, there was a resurgence of belief in magic. The Church was able to quell the fear of magicians, but the Reformation saw its revival, with numerous witchcraft trials in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
Download or read book Climate Present Past and Future Routledge Revivals written by H. H. Lamb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 1192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1977, the second volume of Climate: Present, Past and Future covers parts 3 and 4 of Professor Hubert Lamb’s seminal and pioneering study of climatology. Part 3 provides a survey of evidence of types of climates over the last million years, and of methods of dating that evidence. Through the earlier stages of the Earth’s development the book traces what is known of the various geographies presented by the drifting continents and indicates what can be learnt about climatic regimes and the causes of climatic change. From the last ice age to the present our knowledge of the succession of climates is summarized, indicating prevailing temperatures, rainfalls, wind and ocean current patterns where possible. Part 4 considers events during the fifteen years prior to the book’s initial publication, leading on to the problems of estimating the most probable future course of climatic development, and the influence of Man’s activities on climate. Alongside the reissue of volume 1, this Routledge Revival will be essential reading for anyone interested in both the causes and workings of climate and in the history of climatology itself.
Download or read book Experimentation and Reconstruction in Environmental Archaeology written by David Robinson and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen papers and six abstracts from the ninth symposium of the Association of Environmental Archaeology held at Roskilde, Denmark, in 1988.
Download or read book Issues in Environmental Archaeology written by Nicholas Balaam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of original research articles by European scholars assessing the state of environmental archaeology and its relationship to the field; along with discussions on how to present environmental issues in prehistory to the public.
Download or read book Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur written by Robin Melrose and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-03-11 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Druids and the Arthurian legends are all most of us know about early Britain, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (4500 BC-AD 43). Drawing on archaeological discoveries and medieval Welsh texts like the Mabinogion, this book explores the religious beliefs of the ancient Britons before the coming of Christianity, beginning with the megaliths--structures like Stonehenge--and the role they played in prehistoric astronomy. Topics include the mysterious Beaker people of the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age evidence of the Druids, the Roman period and the Dark Ages. The author discusses the myths of King Arthur and what they tell us about paganism, as well as what early churches and monasteries reveal about the enigmatic Druids.
Download or read book Advances in Quaternary Entomology written by Scott A. Elias and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2009-08-18 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in Quaternary Entomology addresses the science of fossil insects by demonstrating their immense contribution to our knowledge of the paleoenvironmental and climatological record of the past 2.6 million years. In this comprehensive survey of the field, Scott A. Elias recounts development of scholarship, reviews the fossil insect record from Quaternary deposits throughout the world, and points to rewarding areas for future research. The study of Quaternary entomology is becoming an important tool in understanding past environmental changes. Most insects are quite specific as to habitat requirements, and those in non-island environments have undergone almost no evolutionary change in the Quaternary period. We therefore can use their modern ecological requirements as a basis for interpreting what past environments must have been like. - Describes and identifies principal characteristics of fossil insect groups of the Quaternary period - Ties Quaternary insect studies to the larger field of paleoecology - Offers global coverage of the subject with specific regional examples - Illustrates specific methods and procedures for conducting research in Quaternary Entomology - Offers unique insight into overlying trends and broader implications of Quaternary climate change based on insect life of the period
Download or read book The Twelve Gates The Road to Redemption written by Terence A. McSweeney and published by BookLocker.com, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trapped by the creature Thadnelius J. Gromfort, Cillian McGonegal must find the missing pieces of an ancient artifact to free his friends who have been sent on a journey of their own into the afterworld. Time is running out. Together with his brother Patrick, Mary his assistant and Liam his good friend he must navigate time itself and time can be very unforgiving. Time is also running out for Susanne McKinnon and Nathan McPhee as they travel through the Twelve Gates of Judgement. The weight of his responsibility for their rescue falls squarely on Cillian’s shoulders, but he is bound by the whims of the stone which grows more powerful with each moment. Find the missing pieces or all is lost. Into time’s void, they step. The Twelve Gates: The Road to Redemption is book two of the McGonegal Chronicles. It explores events in ancient history and what the future may hold. Time is not linear. Time is bendable and with many dimensions as Cillian, his assistant Mary, his brother Patrick, and Liam his good friend will quickly discover. The origin of the artifact is a mystery, but its power is immense. Where will it take them and what about their trapped friends? Will they survive the Road to Redemption as they navigate The Twelve Gates? Time will tell. In this book the author uses actual historical events combined with ancient myth and highlighted with science fiction and adventure to weave a story of love, sacrifice, and obligation. The main character, Cillian McGonegal must navigate an impossible situation and failure is not an option. Throughout the story the reader is beset with numerous examples of bravery and cleverness as the characters face their greatest fears and most menacing challenges. It is a wild ride.
Download or read book The Origins of Britain written by Lloyd and Jennifer Laing and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-10 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Origins of Britain (1980) follows the path of man’s occupation of Britain from the scattered pockets of habitation in the earliest Palaeolithic period through to his growing domination of the landscape and his capacity to mould his environment evident in the late Bronze Age. Among the many subjects which the book discusses in detail are the extent of knowledge of astronomy and mathematics in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, and the extent to which the pattern of life in the Iron Age was already set by the end of the preceding Bronze Age.
Download or read book Celtic Britain written by Lloyd Laing and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-10 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celtic Britain (1979) traces the history of the Celts and Celtic culture from the arrival of the first scattered groups of settlers in Britain in the seventh century BC to the development of the kingdoms of medieval Scotland and Wales. Although a Celtic culture continued to flourish independently throughout the Roman and Saxon periods, influences from outside began to permeate Celtic society, particularly that of Christianity.
Download or read book Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave Goods written by John Hunter and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ‘Wessex Culture’ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain the how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body. Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.
Download or read book The Druids and King Arthur written by Robin Melrose and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration into the beliefs and origins of the Druids, this book examines the role the Druids may have played in the story of King Arthur and the founding of Britain. It explains how the Druids originated in eastern Europe around 850 B.C., bringing to early Britain a cult of an underworld deity, a belief in reincarnation, and a keen interest in astronomy. The work concludes that Arthur was originally a Druid cult figure and that the descendants of the Druids may have founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The research draws upon a number of sources, including medieval Welsh tales, the archaeology of Stonehenge's Salisbury Plain, the legends surrounding the founding of Britain, the cult of the Thracian Horseman, the oracle of Dodona, popular Arthurian mythology, and the basic principles of prehistoric astronomy.
Download or read book European Societies in the Bronze Age written by A. F. Harding and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-05-18 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bronze Age, roughly 2500 to 750 BC, was the last fully prehistoric period in Europe and a crucial element in the formation of the Europe that emerged into history in the later first millennium BC. This book focuses on the material culture remains of the period, and through them provides an interpretation of the main trends in human development that occurred during this timespan. It pays particular attention to the discoveries and theoretical advances of the last twenty years that have necessitated a major revision of received opinions about many aspects of the Bronze Age. Arranged thematically, it reviews the evidence for a range of topics in cross-cultural fashion, defining which major characteristics of the period were universal and which culture and area-specific. The result is a comprehensive study that will be of value to specialists and students, while remaining accessible to the non-specialist.
Download or read book Environment Archaeology and Landscape Papers in honour of Professor Martin Bell written by Catherine Barnett and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dedicated to Martin Bell (University of Reading), this book outlines how wetland and inland environments can be related and investigated using multi-method approaches. Papers fall under three themes: coastal and intertidal archaeology; mobility and human-environment relationships; heritage resource management, nature conservation and rewilding.
Download or read book Stonehenge written by Mike Parker Pearson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-04-06 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous monuments. Who built it, how and why are questions that have endured for at least 900 years, but modern methods of investigation are now able to offer up a completely new understanding of this iconic stone circle. Stonehenge's history straddles the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, though its story began long before it was built. Serving initially as a burial ground, it evolved over time into a sacred place for gathering, feasting and building, and was remodelled several times as different peoples arrived in the area along with new technologies and customs. In more recent centuries it has found itself the centre of excavations, political protests and even conspiracy theories, embedding itself in the consciousness of the modern world. In this book Mike Parker Pearson draws on two decades of research, the results of recent excavations and cutting-edge scientific analyses to uncover many of the secrets that this prehistoric stone circle has kept for 5,000 years. In doing so, he paints the most comprehensive picture yet of the history of Stonehenge, from its origins up to the 21st century, and reveals how in some ways trying to explain its power of attraction in the present is harder than explaining its purpose in the ancient past.
Download or read book The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland written by Richard Bradley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlights the achievements of prehistoric people in Britain and Ireland over a 5,000 year period.
