LEIZA Publications – serie

The study of Ground Stone Tools (GST) is a key topic of research to understand major processes related to the evolution of human behaviour across time and space. These artefacts associated with different tasks such as percussive activities are the direct evidence for past human daily tasks and the oldest and most persistent durable technological strategy in human evolution. In this book, we explore the use of Ground Stone Tools during the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant, during which this technology developed and diversified. The study presents three distinct case studies and shows the application of functional analysis using a high-resolution multi-scale approach, combined with de development of dedicated controlled experiments.

Seats of power were among the most important pillars of dominion in the Middle Ages. They were at the centre of diplomatic exchange and confrontation, shaped the transfer of knowledge, and acted as control centres of the economy. Between these pillars of power like Nijmegen, Köln, Trier, Frankfurt am Main, Mainz, Aachen or Ingelheim and the respective sites of the North, such as, most prominently, Hedeby, there was a circulation of persons, innovative ideas, and goods. As regards the North, wooden magnates’ farms have seen large-scale excavations in recent times. This is particularly the case for the late first millennium AD, notably in Lejre and Tissø (Denmark), Uppåkra and Uppsala (Sweden), and Kaupang and Borg (Norway). It is only now, after excavations at those locations, that Northern and Central European research can be brought together for further discussion.Proceedings of the International Conference on »Frankish Seats of Power and the North«, Aachen, November 8th to 11th 2022.

Human-Animal studies are gaining more and more momentum in archaeo(zoo)logy, for good reasons. It is time to have yet another look at animal-human relations that is less anthropocentric than it was before. Such an approach could come in different forms: from the study of single species and their relation to humans to a so-called multispecies archaeology. However, it could also include imaginary animals, such as dragons and unicorns, or half-animal, half-human beings.This book is intended as a contribution to Human-Animal studies in archaeo(zoo)logy and also as a first step towards a multispecies archaeology, being a broader look at different species, including non-human and human actors but, for the time being, excluding plants.With some alterations, the studies in this volume go back to a session at the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Kiel (Germany) in September 2021 entitled ‘Beast and Human’. The lectures and papers presented here are arranged as a narrative which ranges, geographically, from the United Kingdom to Russia and, chronologically, from the late hunter and gatherers to early modern times.