Routledge Library Editions: Archaeology – serie

There has long been controversy about the nature and pace of the transformation from Roman Britain to Saxon England. Some scholars argue that there were few instances of major conflict and that the transition took place relatively peacefully over a long period of time. Others argue that the Romano-Britains and the early Anglo-Saxon invaders lived side by side for a century or more with little contact.This book, based largely on archaeological evidence, presents an interpretive history of the transition period and demonstrates how Roman Britain evolved into Anglo-Saxon England over the fourth and fifth centuries. The emphasis is on the archaeological evidence because this is the physical and material legacy of man’s activities and, unlike the scanty written sources, is not a reflection of political events. The author argues that much of the past uncertainty about this crucial period stems from the sharply conflicting interpretations of the chronicles.

During the years before this book was first published in 1946, and re-editioned in 1953, much had been written on the results of archaeological research, but no account had been published of the methods by which those results are obtained. This book provides a simple introduction to the principles and practice of out-of-doors research in archaeology. It covers in detail all the main procedures with which the student should be familiar, including the use of maps and air-photographs, excavation, the drawing of plans, photography, the recording and interpretation of evidence, and the final publication of results. The bibliographies, glossary and appendices summarise much information not easily available elsewhere.

The analysis of tree-ring patterns, or dendrochronology, is a very exact science and an important dating technique. The basis of the method is misleadingly simple: that overlap of successive older ring patterns can generate a master chronology and samples of unknown age can then be checked against this.This book, published originally in 1982, traces the development of a specific project from its inception to the successful completion of some of the longest chronologies in Europe. In doing so it looks at some of the problems associated with the subject and at the levels of precision possible. After outlining the techniques associated with the measurement and processing of tree-ring patterns, the author traces an attempt to construct such an independent chronology in a new area.The book breaks naturally into sections conditioned by the availability of timbers and these can be listed as modern, late medieval, medieval, early medieval and prehistoric. As far as possible the results are presented in the order in which things happened, thus preserving the sense of a developing subject.

Most practising archaeologists have preferred to leave the deep theories of what lies behind their methods and perceptions on one side. Now archaeologists have faced up to the difficult task of making (or not making) the connections between the past, interpretation and the present. The writers of this volumes address the problems of archaeology, sometimes warily and sometimes with enthusiasm. The connections are not easy to accomplish: a great deal of theory seems of little relevance to the everyday practice of archaeology, and much of post-structuralism refers exclusively back to itself rather than to the more specific concerns of a historical discipline. But where the junction between post-structuralism and archaeology can be made, the results are innovative and enriching. Originally published in 1990.

The essays collected together in this volume were written in honour of Professor Christopher Hawkes, in recognition of his stature as an international scholar and his generosity in encouraging the work of others. The collection consists of a closely-knit group of studies, and includes contributions from continental scholars. The topics covered range from links between the Mycenaean and Greek worlds, European body-armour, firedogs in Iron Age Britain to Bronzes in Hungary. Originally published in 1971.

This study, first published in 1978, explores the evidence for pre-Roman settlement in Britain. Four aspects of the prehistoric economy are described by the author – colonisation and clearance; arable and pastoral farming; transhumance and nomadism; and hunting, gathering and fishing. These aspects have been brought together to formulate a structure which contains the evidence more naturally than chronological schemes that depend on assumed changes in population or technology.The book draws upon environmental evidence and recent developments in archaeological fieldwork. It also provides an extensive exploration of the published literature on the subject and the scope of the evidence. Originally conceived as an ‘ideas book’ rather than a final synthesis, the author’s intention throughout is to stimulate argument and research, and not to replace one dogma with another.

Originally published in 1956, this collection features chapters by well-known archaeologists on various archaeological sites explored in the previous decade, as examples of the techniques being used and finds being made. Mostly from the lowland zone of Britain, the chapters nonetheless offer a spread of location and site types; while the periods being investigated range from prehistoric to Romano-British to later fields. This detailed work exemplifies the steady progress of study in archaeology and a final chapter on air reconnaissance deals with one of the most revolutionary additions to archaeology in the post-war period.Contributors include: J.G.D. Clark, R. Rainbird Clarke, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, I.A. Richmond, G.W. Meates, W.F. Grimes, C.W. Phillips, J.R.C. Hamilton, Brian Hope-Taylor, J.G. Hurst, J.K.S. St. Joseph.

The climax of the Stone Age in Britain, the Neolithic period (4700-2000BC), was a period of startling achievement. The British Isles are rich in Neolithic sites, which give us evidence of a complex and surprisingly developed archaic society. The author surveys 1100 secular and ceremonial sites in Britain, selecting some for detailed explanation; from these a sense of the diversity and dynamism of the living Neolithic communities emerges. He presents a comprehensive, profusely illustrated and up-to-date view of the Neolithic, organised by county.Archaeologists and prehistorians will find this book of interest and it should prove indispensable to students of archaeology as a source of information about the British Neolithic.

Originally published in 1956, this concise book brought together wisdom from V. Gordon Childe based upon 10 years of his lectures on the principles of archaeological classification, terminology and interpretive concepts. It examines meanings of technical terms and methodologies used in prehistoric archaeology, for those new to the area.

This volume, originally published in 1935, sought to reveal the significance of Scottish prehistory for the development of understanding of European prehistory. Written at a time of rapid accumulation of new relics and monuments and the insights from them, Professor Childe presented some important new data and made tentative conclusions for the future results from these finds. After an introduction to the geography of Scotland the book looks at evidence from cairns, tombs and stone circles and then addresses chronologically the evidence from Early Bronze Age to Late and onto the Iron Age, with a chapter devoted to forts, towns and castles. It ends with a discussion of what happened in the Dark Ages and addresses questions about the Celts and the Picts and the diversity of the peoples in Scotland.

This book offers a detailed survey on major archaeological discoveries in the Near and Middle East. This classic account focuses on the findings in three great centers of ancient civilization: Egypt, Sumer, and the Indus valley.Professor Childe discusses the excavation of the three cities of Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro on the Indus and Harappa on the Ravi, and what these sites have revealed about Indian civilization in the third millennium B.C. He describes the findings at the numerous tells between Mesopotamia and the Indus basin, and in the three provinces of the Fertile Crescent; the succession of cultures in pre-dynastic Egypt and the rise of the Pharaohs; the findings at Ur and Kish and the development of an urban civilization in Mesopotamia. Throughout the text, the author sets forth the step-by-step gathering of precise archaeological evidence, relating these findings both to the context of their particular culture and to the larger context of the origins of European history.

This reissue of the 1957 3rd edition of this book describes how archaeologists go about their work, how ancient sites are found, what methods are used to explore them, how finds are dated, and within what limits archaeological evidence is able to tell us how people lived before the dawn of recorded history.

This study was well-established as a pioneer work on archaeological methodology, the theoretical basis of all archaeological analysis whatever the period or era. The first edition of the book presented and evaluated the radical changes in methodology which derived from developments in other disciplines, such as cybernetics, computer science and geography, during the 1950s and ‘60s. It argued that archaeology was a coherent discipline with its own methods and procedures and attempted to define the entities (attributes, artefacts, types, assemblages, cultures and culture groups) rigorously and consistently so that they could be applied to archaeological data. The later edition continued the same general theory, which is unparalleled in its scope and depth, adding notes to help understanding of the advances in method and theory to support the student and professional archaeologist.Review of the original publication:"One might venture that this is the most important archaeological work for twenty or thirty years, and it will undoubtedly influence several future generations of archaeologists." The Times Literary Supplement

Experimental archaeology is a new approach to the study of early man. By reconstructing and testing models of ancient equipment with the techniques available to early man, we learn how he lived, hunted, fought and built.What did early man eat? How did he store and cook his food? How did he make his tools and weapons and pottery? Such everyday questions, besides the more dramatic mysteries associated with the monuments of Easter Island and Stonehenge and the colonization of Polynesia, can all be explored by experiment.

A practical guide to the various modern methods of discovery, excavation and recording of the remains left by prehistoric man in Britain. It stresses the vital role played by the amateur rescuing evidence of man’s past behaviour in these islands, and is illustrated by maps, site plans and sections, and drawings of equipment and surveying procedures. Originally published in 1972.

This book provides an account of the development of European culture and society during the Bronze Age, the time span between c. 2000 and 700 BC. It was a period of remarkable innovation, seen for instance in the development and growth of metallurgy as a major industry, the spread of trading contacts, the origins of urbanism and the beginnings of social stratification.The study is divided chronologically into two, the earlier and later Bronze Age, giving a clear picture of the nature of the radical changes which occurred in the period as a whole. The geographical area covered, from the Atlantic shores across Europe into the Soviet Union and from northern Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, is too vast to be taken as one unit, and has been broken down into five regions; each is discussed in terms of settlement form, burial practices, ritual and religious sites, material culture, economic and social background, and trading patterns. The book describes and develops common themes that link together the different areas and cultural groups, rather than taking the typographical approach often adopted by Bronze Age specialists, and uses the results of radiocarbon dating to establish an objective chronology for the period. The text is generously illustrated and fully documented with radiocarbon dating tables and extensive bibliography.Our understanding of Bronze Age Europe is still increasing, but no other book of this scope had been written before this, in 1979. It is a major study of its time of interest to anyone looking beyond popular accounts of the day.

This book covers the whole range of West African archaeology to the arrival of the Portugese on the Guinea coast. Parts of this territory are very ill-explored, and emphasis is accordingly laid on the better-known regions: Ghana, Nigeria, the middle Niger valley and Western Senegal. After introducing the geographical background and chronology, subsequent chapters deal with the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and early iron ages, ending with a brief account of the protohistoric period. Published in 1967. Includes map and topographical index.

Archaeologists from many different European countries here explore the very varied relationship between nationalistic ideas and archaeological activity through the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The resurgence of nationalism was one of the most prominent features of the European political scene in the 1990s, when this book was originally published. The past provides a large supply of ideas and images to support the claims of national identity deeply rooted in remote generations. The remote past revealed by archaeology also plays a part – heroes, heroines, golden ages long disappeared, objects to admire, and sites to provoke the memory, all called on to further the cause of nationalism. Drawing on the authoritative insights of the indigenous contributors, this book examines the issues throughout modern Europe. All of the chapters share a concern to see archaeology and the study of the past as intimately related to contemporary social and political questions. The present shapes the way we think about the past but the past also provides us with evidence for thinking about the present. These issues are timeless and this comprehensive examination of a host of issues remains important for historians and those pursuing nationalistic politics.

Medieval archaeology is a relatively young discipline. It relies heavily on and contributes to the neighbouring disciplines of history and geography as well as certain of the natural sciences. The kinds of sources investigated in the context of medieval archaeology also cast light on many aspects of life in later centuries. The main sources used are: graveyards, churches and churchyards; castles and fortifications; rural and urban settlements; technical production sites and routes of communication. Closely allied to these are the numerous finds of small objects of everyday life, from cutlery and tools to animal remains and grain. This book is a comprehensive discussion of what can be established from the use of such materials about the culture and daily life of medieval Germany. Each subject is augmented with the use of many illustrations. Besides methodological questions, the author considers what can be learnt about the history of settlement and architecture, of technology, of economic and social matters, of churches and missions, and of population, diet and vegetation.

This book provides an introduction to the Mediterranean world in which the early Christian apostles moved. Drawing on the geographic setting and available archaeological materials to create a sense of the contemporary environment, the book traces the 15,000 mile travels of Paul, whose world was also the world of Peter, John, and many other early Christians. The author presents a complete chronology for the major apostles based on his integration of existing histories, literary accounts, and archaeological information with new discoveries and new theories on dating New Testament events and documents. The text is lavishly illustrated and as fascinating now as when originally published in 1981.

This volume is based on lectures given when the British Summer School of Archaeology was held at Bangor in August 1959. It is a summary account of current knowledge then about ancient Wales written for archaeologists, historians and others, covering the Old Stone Age, Neolithic Wales, the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Roman Wales and Wales in the fifth to seventh centuries A.D.

This is a great work by one of the pioneers of modern archaeology. The period covered is from 1700 to 700 B.C. and is mainly concerned with the author’s field work in western Britain. It deals with burial ritual – dances, processions, "houses of the dead", the objects deposited, the building of the barrow; and it shows by line drawings and photographs how scientific excavation nowadays is planned and executed.The book gathers together an immense amount of research completed over a long span of years on burials and the ceremonial which attended them. Originally published in 1959.

Based on a major research programme, and originally published in 1985, this book looked to provide an economic foundation for reinterpreting the Neolithic-Bronze Age sequence of South-east Spain in terms of emergent social complexity. The cultural evolution of the area had already been considered in terms of influence from the eastern Mediterranean but this book uses site catchment analysis to give an economic baseline for all thirty-five of the better-known prehistoric settlements of the region.Site catchment analysis assumes that people minimised transport costs in production and that ancient and modern resource spaces correspond systematically. This research therefore studied modern land use and combined it with evidence from historical, archaeological and geomorphological investigation. The book shows the increasing social complexity evident in the archaeological record emerging as a result of progressive intensification of agricultural technique. Offering a complete coherent evolutionary model for the archaeological sequence of the region’s prehistory, this book is a worthy in-depth study for prehistorians, geographers and anyone interested in the history of the western Mediterranean.

This is an immensely fascinating work, published originally in 1968, which is of great value in understanding London’s past. The immediate background to the excavations was the bombing of London during the Second World War, which led to the destruction of more than fifty of the three hundred and fifty or so acres that make up the walled city. The interval before rebuilding was a magnificent opportunity for archaeological excavation. The Royal Society of Antiquaries of London established the Roman and Mediaeval London Excavation Council to organise an extended programme which began in July 1947 and went on until 1962. This volume reports on the major series of excavations and deals in detail with Cripplegate, the Temple of Mithras and many mediaeval churches including St Bride’s, Fleet Street.

First published in 1936 and rewritten in 1953, this book embodies the results of the author’s extensive researches and fieldwork. Part one considers types of barrows and dating, their building and the cult of the dead from Palaeolithic to Saxon times. A chapter is dedicated to maps and another to fieldwork in particular, while the final bit of the introductory material discussed barrow-digging from the time of the Romans to the twentieth century. Part two is the regional surveys, from Cornwall to Kent and northwards to the Scottish border.

This classic work from 1930 describes the archaeological mission to Iraq which was a huge leap in the understanding of Mesopotamian history. It chronicles the journey, the excavations and the findings in a personalised account, heavily illustrated with maps, photographs of the locations and the findings, offering great insight into a special investigation of its time.

This book was written at a time when the older conventional diffusionist view of prehistory, largely associated with the work of V. Gordon Childe, was under rigorous scrutiny from British prehistorians, who still nevertheless regarded the ‘Arras’ culture of eastern Yorkshire and the ‘Belgic’ cemeteries of south-eastern Britain as the product of immigrants from continental Europe. Sympathetic to the idea of population mobility as one mechanism for cultural innovation, as widely recognized historically, it nevertheless attempted a critical re-appraisal of the southern British Iron Age in its continental context. Subsequent fashion in later prehistoric studies has favoured economic, social and cognitive approaches, and the cultural-historical framework has largely been superseded. Routine use of radiocarbon dating and other science-based applications, and new field data resulting from developer-led archaeology have revolutionized understanding of the British Iron Age, and once again raised issues of its relationship to continental Europe.

First published in 1940, this is a classic work by one of the most well-regarded archaeological scholars. European archaeology had made remarkable progress in the early twentieth century and this volume offers a clear impression of the understanding of European prehistory as a whole. Broken into six topics with additional prologue and epilogue, the text traces out the early foundations of human culture in Europe, covering the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages, as well as offering specific focuses on trade routes, and migration and conflict.

Although the preparation of plans is an essential part of the work of a field archaeologist or excavator, many University Departments of Archaeology give very little attention to surveying, regarding it as a subject which should either be left to technicians or picked up during work in the field. As a result, some archaeologists do not even realise that their survey techniques are unsatisfactory. Others, driven by the requirements of their work, devise idiosyncratic methods which are inherently liable to inaccuracy and unnecessarily laborious.The object of this book is to enable archaeologists, even without relevant training, to deal with any problem in surveying. The book is arranged by technique for ease of reference. Thus one part is devoted to Chain Surveying, which has evolved over centuries into the simplest and quickest way of making accurate plans for most types of site; but methods of reconnaissance and of rough survey are also described. Since instrumental work is sometimes necessary, details are given of the construction and use of the Level and of the Theodolite and Tacheometer. Simple but accurate methods – those not requiring a computer – are described for plotting from oblique aerial photographs, and although numerical calculations are seldom needed in archaeological surveys, there are occasions when they can save considerable time and labour, so fully worked examples are given of all relevant calculations, with alternatives according to whether logarithms or an electronic calculator are available.