Download or read book The Use and reuse of stone circles written by Courtney Nimura and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-09-30 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of stone circles has long played a major role in British and Irish archaeology, and for Scotland most attention has been focused on the large monuments of Orkney and the Western Isles. Several decades of fieldwork have shown how these major structures are likely to be of early date and recognized that that smaller settings of monoliths had a more extended history. Many of the structures in Northern Britain were reused during the later Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the early medieval period. A series of problems demand further investigation including: when were the last stone circles built? How did they differ from earlier constructions? How were they related to henge monuments, especially those of Bronze Age date? How frequently were these places reused, and did this secondary activity change the character of those sites? This major new assessment first presents the results of fieldwork undertaken at the Scottish recumbent stone circle of Hillhead; the stone circles of Waulkmill and Croftmoraig, the stone circle and henge at Hill of Tuach at Kintore; and the small ring cairn at Laikenbuie in Inverness-shire. Part 2 brings together the results of these five projects and puts forward a chronology for the construction and primary use of stone circles, particularly the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age examples. It considers the reuse of stone circles, long after they were built, and discusses four neighboring stone circles in Aberdeenshire which display both similarities and contrasts in their architecture, use of raw materials, associated artefacts and structural sequences. Finally, a reassessment and reinterpretation of Croftmoraig and its sequence is presented: the new interpretation drawing attention to ways of thinking about these monuments which have still to fulfill their potential.
Download or read book Stone Circles written by Colin Richards and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2024-08-27 with total page 719 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive guide to the stone circles of Britain and Ireland From Stonehenge and the Ring of Brogdar to the Rollright Stones and Avebury, the British and Irish Isles are scattered with the stone circles of our prehistoric ancestors. Although there have been many theories to explain them, to this day there is no consensus about their purpose. Colin Richards and Vicki Cummings provide a clear and illuminating field guide to 424 key stone circle sites in Britain and Ireland. Organised by region, this handy volume sets out the features of these megalithic monuments, including their landscape position, construction, and physical properties. The authors take stock of cutting-edge research and recent excavations stone circles that were previously lost to time. They present new insights on the chronology, composition, and roles of different circles to transform our understanding the sites. Beautifully illustrated with photographs, maps, and plans, this is an essential guide to Britain and Ireland’s most mysterious prehistoric monuments.
Download or read book The Circular Archetype in Microcosm The Carved Stone Balls of Late Neolithic Scotland written by Chris L. Stewart-Moffitt and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-07-14 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is the culmination of seven years research into the Carved Stone Balls of Late Neolithic Scotland. It is the first study of these enigmatic artefacts since that undertaken by Dorothy Marshall in 1977 and includes all currently known examples in both museums and private hands, described and analysed in considerable detail.
Download or read book Anthropomorphism Anthropogenesis Cognition written by Dragoş Gheorghiu and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-06-27 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropomorphism could be described as a production of analogies generated by human cognition. It is present in the imaginary, mythologies, religions, and material culture of all ages. This book approaches anthropomorphism from the moment of anthropogenesis, tracing its presence in nature and material culture in prehistory and Antiquity.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology written by Costas Papadopoulos and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Light has a fundamental role to play in our perception of the world. Natural or artificial lightscapes orchestrate uses and experiences of space and, in turn, influence how people construct and negotiate their identities, form social relationships, and attribute meaning to (im)material practices. Archaeological practice seeks to analyse the material culture of past societies by examining the interaction between people, things, and spaces. As light is a crucial factor that mediates these relationships, understanding its principles and addressing illumination's impact on sensory experience and perception should be a fundamental pursuit in archaeology. However, in archaeological reasoning, studies of lightscapes have remained largely neglected and understudied. This volume provides a comprehensive and accessible consideration of light in archaeology and beyond by including dedicated and fully illustrated chapters covering diverse aspects of illumination in different spatial and temporal contexts, from prehistory to the present. Written by leading international scholars, it interrogates the qualities and affordances of light in different contexts and (im)material environments, explores its manipulation, and problematises its elusive properties. The result is a synthesis of invaluable insights into sensory experience and perception, demonstrating illumination's vital impact on social, cultural, and artistic contexts.
Download or read book Visualising Skyscapes written by Liz Henty and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Above the land and its horizon lies the celestial sphere, that great dome of the sky which governs light and darkness, critical to life itself, yet its influence is often neglected in the archaeological narrative. Visualising Skyscapes captures a growing interest in the emerging field of skyscape archaeology. This powerful and innovative book returns the sky to its rightful place as a central consideration in archaeological thought and can be regarded as a handbook for further research. Bookended by a foreword by archaeologist Gabriel Cooney and an afterword by astronomer Andrew Newsam, its contents have a wide-reaching relevance for the fields of archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, archaeoastronomy, astronomy, heritage and cultural studies. The volume balances six chapters on theory and methodology which elaborate on the history and practice of the field with six other chapters focused on case studies from around the world. Visualising Skyscapes captures the growing interest in the multidisciplinary study of skyscapes and will be of interest to academics, students and the general public, as well as having international appeal. It is topical, timely and relevant to current debates and will hopefully stimulate further interest in this exciting and relatively new area of investigation. The contributions showcase the work of distinguished academics in the field and the chapters are all enhanced by numerous photographs and images.
Download or read book Material Evidence written by Robert Chapman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do archaeologists make effective use of physical traces and material culture as repositories of evidence? Material Evidence takes a resolutely case-based approach to this question, exploring instances of exemplary practice, key challenges, instructive failures, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. The goal is to bring to the surface the wisdom of practice, teasing out norms of archaeological reasoning from evidence. Archaeologists make compelling use of an enormously diverse range of material evidence, from garbage dumps to monuments, from finely crafted artifacts rich with cultural significance to the detritus of everyday life and the inadvertent transformation of landscapes over the long term. Each contributor to Material Evidence identifies a particular type of evidence with which they grapple and considers, with reference to concrete examples, how archaeologists construct evidential claims, critically assess them, and bring them to bear on pivotal questions about the cultural past. Historians, cultural anthropologists, philosophers, and science studies scholars are increasingly interested in working with material things as objects of inquiry and as evidence – and they acknowledge on all sides just how challenging this is. One of the central messages of the book is that close analysis of archaeological best practice can yield constructive guidelines for practice that have much to offer archaeologists and those in related fields.
Download or read book Bronze Age Worlds written by Robert Johnston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bronze Age Worlds brings a new way of thinking about kinship to the task of explaining the formation of social life in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Britain and Ireland’s diverse landscapes and societies experienced varied and profound transformations during the twenty-fifth to eighth centuries BC. People’s lives were shaped by migrations, changing beliefs about death, making and thinking with metals, and living in houses and field systems. This book offers accounts of how these processes emerged from social life, from events, places and landscapes, informed by a novel theory of kinship. Kinship was a rich and inventive sphere of culture that incorporated biological relations but was not determined by them. Kinship formed personhood and collective belonging, and associated people with nonhuman beings, things and places. The differences in kinship and kinwork across Ireland and Britain brought textures to social life and the formation of Bronze Age worlds. Bronze Age Worlds offers new perspectives to archaeologists and anthropologists interested in the place of kinship in Bronze Age societies and cultural development.
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 Abstractions Based on Circles Papers on prehistoric rock art presented to Stan Beckensall on his 90th birthday written by Paul Frodsham and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-09-22 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stan Beckensall is renowned for his work, done on an entirely amateur basis, discovering, recording and interpreting Atlantic rock art in his home county of Northumberland and beyond. Presented on his 90th birthday, this diverse and stimulating collection of papers celebrates his crucial contribution to rock art studies, and looks to the future.
Download or read book Great Crowns of Stone written by Adam Welfare and published by Royal Commission. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stone circles always excite the imagination, and nowhere more so than in the north-east of Scotland, which holds one of the most dense concentrations to be found anywhere in the British Isles. Illustrated with unique plans, this volume examines the facts, myths and mysteries surrounding some of Scotland's most evocative ancient monuments.
Download or read book Building the Great Stone Circles of the North written by Colin Richards and published by Windgather Press. This book was released on 2013-11-30 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all prehistoric monuments, few are more emotive than the great stone circles that were built throughout Britain and Ireland. From the tall, elegant, pointed monoliths of the Stones of Stenness to the grandeur of Stonehenge and the sarsen blocks at Avebury, circles of stone exert a magnetic fascination to those who venture into their sphere. In Britain today, more people visit these structures than any other form of prehistoric monument and visitors stand in awe at their scale and question how and why they were erected. Building the Great Stone Circles of the North looks at the enigmatic stone structures of Scotland and investigates the background of their construction and their cultural significance.
Download or read book The Good Stones written by Richard Bradley and published by Society Antiquaries Scotland. This book was released on 2000 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report documents Richard Bradley's meticulous survey and excavation of the core monuments of the group at Balnuaran of Clava. It also presents data drawn from records of early survey and excavation, together with information from newly discovered, remnant and lesser-known Clava sites.
Download or read book Hidden Histories A Spotter s Guide to the British Landscape written by Mary-Ann Ochota and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the times when you’re driving past a lumpy, bumpy field and you wonder what made the lumps and bumps; for when you’re walking between two lines of grand trees, wondering when and why they were planted; for when you see a brown heritage sign pointing to a ‘tumulus’ but you don’t know what to look for… Entertaining and factually rigorous, Hidden Histories will help you decipher the story of our landscape through the features you can see around you. This Spotter’s Guide arms the amateur explorer with the crucial information needed to ‘read’ the landscape and spot the human activities that have shaped our green and pleasant land. Photographs and diagrams point out specific details and typical examples to help the curious Spotter ‘get their eye in’ and understand what they’re looking at, or looking for. Specially commissioned illustrations bring to life the processes that shaped the landscape - from medieval ploughing to Roman road building - and stand-alone capsules explore interesting aspects of history such as the Highland Clearances or the coming of Christianity. This unique guide uncovers the hidden stories behind the country's landscape, making it the perfect companion for an exploration of our green and pleasant land.
Download or read book New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom Southern Jordan written by Erez Ben-Yosef and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2014-12-31 with total page 1079 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated south of the Dead Sea, near the famous Nabatean capital of Petra, the Faynan region in Jordan contains the largest deposits of copper ore in the southern Levant. The Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP) takes an anthropological-archaeology approach to the deep-time study of culture change in one of the Old World's most important locales for studying technological development. Using innovative digital tools for data recording, curation, analyses, and dissemination, the researchers focused on ancient mining and metallurgy as the subject of surveys and excavations related to the Iron Age (ca. 1200-500 BCE), when the first local, historical state-level societies appeared in this part of the eastern Mediterranean basin. This comprehensive and important volume challenges the current scholarly consensus concerning the emergence and historicity of the Iron Age polity of biblical Edom and some of its neighbors, such as ancient Israel. Excavations and radiometric dating establish a new chronology for Edom, adding almost 500 more years to the Iron Age, including key periods of biblical history when David, Solomon, and the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I are alleged to have interacted with Edom. Included is a 7 gigabyte DVD with over 55,000 files of additional data and photographs from the project.
Download or read book Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo Saxon England written by Sarah Semple and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Represents an unparalleled exploration of the place of prehistoric monuments in the Anglo-Saxon psyche, and examines how Anglo-Saxon communities perceived and used these monuments during the period AD 400-1100.
Download or read book Churches in Early Medieval Ireland written by Tomás Ó Carragáin and published by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. This book was released on 2010 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book devoted to churches in Ireland dating from the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century to the early stages of the Romanesque around 1100, including those built to house treasures of the golden age of Irish art, such as the Book of Kells and the Ardagh chalice. � Carrag�in's comprehensive survey of the surviving examples forms the basis for a far-reaching analysis of why these buildings looked as they did, and what they meant in the context of early Irish society. � Carrag�in also identifies a clear political and ideological context for the first Romanesque churches in Ireland and shows that, to a considerable extent, the Irish Romanesque represents the perpetuation of a long-established architectural tradition.
