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Throughout the millennia and all over the world people have been killed by others, not only in wars and as a result of murders, but also in a ritualised way, often called human sacrifice. Much has been written about this, and research and discussion about ritual killing continue. This book offers contributions to this on-going discussion, by a re-evaluation of the term human sacrifice, arguing that not all forms of ritual killing can be considered to be sacrificial.Experts from different disciplines present new insights into the subject of ritual homicide in various regions of the ancient world. Various aspects of the phenomenon are discussed, such as offering humans to gods, making servants accompany their masters into the hereafter, and ritual killing in connection with execution of criminals and captives.While in some cultures ritual killing was accepted, others would consider it a symptom of barbarism and would use it as a reason or pretext for hostility, war, or genocide. Thus the Romans justified the violence against Carthage partly because of this, early Christians were accused of infanticide, while in turn they accused Jews of the same. The Spanish conquistadores used the argument to justify the genocide on indigenous Americans. The last chapter concerns one of the last surviving forms of ritual killing in recent history: headhunting among the Asmat.ContentsHuman sacrifice and ritual killing, defining the fieldKarel C. InneméeRitual killing of humans in ancient MesopotamiaTheo KrispijnRitual Homicide in ancient EgyptJacobus van DijkSacrifice and ritual killing of humans in the Etruscan world?Bouke van der MeerPhoenician synthesis: patterns of human sacrifice and problems with ritual killingBrien GarnandHuman sacrifice from ancient Israel to early ChristianityKarel C. InneméeDeconstructing the Aztec human sacrificeMaarten JansenDeath and new life: an intimate relationshipPieter ter KeursBibliographyList of authors

Many new results on Middle and Late Bronze Age Laconia are presented in this volume, stemming from recent excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service as well as ongoing excavations, surveys and material studies by foreign schools and individual scholars. Among discussed settlements are the sites of Pellana, Palaiopyrgi, Geraki, Pavlopetri and Vrysika and also the island Kythera. The newly discovered palatial site at Ayios Vasileios is also elaborately discussed in various papers, including discussions of its North Cemetery, early Mycenaean pottery deposits, the West Stoa, and an outline of the habitation history and size of Ayios Vasileios compared to other palatial settlements.More than 25 years have passed since the publication of a paper by Oliver Dickinson in which he wrote about central Late Helladic Laconia that he had an impression of "competing and unstable principalities in the early period and perhaps centrifugal tendencies". In this volume we explore to what extent this impression is still justified. Especially considering the recent discovery of a palatial site at Ayios Vasileios. Indeed, this volume shows that in the past decades much has happened in Laconia with respect to what we know about the Bronze Age. We are therefore extra pleased that Oliver Dickinson has agreed to write an Afterword to this volume.Written by academics and those working in the fields of Bronze Age Greece, Laconia, ceramic analyses, architecture, survey, and photogrammetry this volume will be invaluable to students and practitioners with similar interests.

This book offers the first overview of the Later Stone Age of North-western Libya through the detailed analysis of lithic production, use and discard.

Broomcorn/common/proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) is a cereal crop that originated in East Asia and was transferred westward to Europe, where it was introduced in the mid-2nd millennium BCE, at the height of the Bronze Age. Archaeobotanists from the Collaborative Research Centre 1266, supported by many colleagues, conducted a large-scale programme of radiocarbon dating of millet grains from prehistoric Europe. They discovered that the spread of this crop on the continent happened quickly, extending far and wide.What do we know about the (pre)history of this crop in Europe? The workshop organised by the CRC 1266 at Kiel University in 2019 encouraged the discussion on the circumstances and consequences of early broomcorn millet cultivation in Europe. This book brings together many of the workshop papers and reflects the diverse topics and research areas covered. The contributions inform us on the range of cultivated and collected plants from the time before and after the start of millet cultivation in Europe; present the cultural setting in which millet arrived; discuss possible reasons driving the acceptance of this innovation; and reconstruct possible uses of millet and the methods of its cultivation, processing and storage. Not just the plant economy, but also the animal economy is represented, since millet was and is grown for both humans and animals. Techniques used to trace millet archaeologically are continually being developed or improved, and this book describes the application of a few of them.This broad-based compilation of papers adds another layer to the dynamic picture of the Bronze Age and the interconnected continent. It also illustrates the complexity of the research on the diffusion of agricultural innovations.

In 2015 at Dalfsen (the Netherlands) archaeologists made an amazing discovery. They found a burial ground dating from the TRB-period (3000-2750 BC) comprising 141 burial pits. The TRB is dated in the last phase of the Middle Neolithic period and is well known for its megalithic monuments which are widespread through large parts of northern Europe.Until recently few non-megalithic burial grounds were known and the find of the Dalfsen burials created new opportunities to study the mortuary ritual in more detail. It sheds light on the social organisation of local TRB communities in this part of the world. The results not only provide evidence for the existence of large multi-person burial mounds during the TRB-period, but also provide intriguing evidence of continuity from this period to the period of the Corded Ware culture ¿ a transition now often interpreted in terms of migration.This volume is a full catalogue of the site. It contains a detailed description of the graves and finds. A volume containing the interpretation of the burial ground is available separately.ContentsThis volume contains the catalogue of the site. It contains a detailed description of the graves and finds, with over 250 colour images.A volume containing the interpretation of the burial ground is available separately.

Cet ouvrage est la traduction d¿Archaeology and Celtic Myth, livre paru à Dublin en 2014. La littérature médiévale irlandaise constitue de loin le plus vaste corpus de textes rédigés en langue vernaculaire dont dispose l¿Europe occidentale. Bien que composée entre le VIIe et le XIIe siècle de notre ère, cette littérature véhicule des éléments provenant de la mythologie celtique préchrétienne. Elle permet ainsi d¿entrevoir certaines traditions et croyances fort anciennes qui avaient cours dans l¿Europe préhistorique.Les références mythologiques présentes dans ces textes, juxtaposées aux traces matérielles subsistant dans divers sites archéologiques majeurs, tels que Navan (comté d¿Armagh), Tara (comté de Meath) et Newgrange dans la vallée de la Boyne, met en lumière certains thèmes et figures privilégiés. Parmi les plus significatifs sont le caractère sacré de la royauté, la notion de la souveraineté octroyée par une déesse, la thématique de la cosmologie solaire, et des tentatives pour rendre compte d¿un Autre Monde.L¿importance de ces concepts est soulignée par leur survie textuelle. Leur analyse offre la possibilité d¿approcher de plus près l¿organisation et la pensée d¿un monde prélittéraire. On peut considérer, par exemple, que l¿institution de la royauté sacrée devrait être prise en compte dans tout débat sur la nature des différentes structures socio-politiques de l¿Europe d¿alors, tandis que symbolisme solaire, rituels équins, rites de boisson, et divers autres indices nous révèlent la préoccupation de nos ancêtres concernant l¿Autre Monde, avec leur désir de comprendre la mort et de concevoir une vie au-delà.

In 2015 at Dalfsen (the Netherlands) archaeologists made an amazing discovery. They found a burial ground dating from the TRB-period (3000-2750 BC) comprising 141 burial pits. The TRB is dated in the last phase of the Middle Neolithic period and is well known for its megalithic monuments which are widespread through large parts of northern Europe.Until recently few non-megalithic burial grounds were known and the find of the Dalfsen burials created new opportunities to study the mortuary ritual in more detail. It sheds light on the social organisation of local TRB communities in this part of the world. The results not only provide evidence for the existence of large multi-person burial mounds during the TRB-period, but also provide intriguing evidence of continuity from this period to the period of the Corded Ware culture ¿ a transition now often interpreted in terms of migration.This volume is the first scientific publication dealing with this unique site. It contains a detailed description and interpretation of the site. A catalogue in which all graves and finds are described in detail, is available separately.Contents1 IntroductionH.M. van der Velde, N. Bouma and D.C.M. Raemaekers2 The TRB West Group in the Netherlands and the archaeology of non-megalithic burialsH.M. van der Velde and D.C.M. Raemaekers3 Dalfsen: Excavating a burial ground from the TRB periodN. Bouma and H.M. van der Velde4 PotteryA.L. Brindley5 Geochemical analyses of the ceramicsK. Struckmeyer and B. Van Os6 Flint, stone and amberJ. Beuker, J. Lanting and H.M. van der Velde7 The Palaeoecological evidenceH. Bos, M. Dijkshoorn, C. Moolhuizen and T. Oudemans8 The Dalfsen burial ground as a means of reconstructing TRB local social organisationD.C.M. Raemaekers and H.M. van der Velde9 The cultural biography of the burial ground: The long-term history of the siteH.M. van der VeldeLiteratureA catalogue in which all graves and finds are described in detail, is available separately.

This book contributes to the ongoing shift in perspective in the study of human-animal relations with its growing recognition of their central role in the shaping of prehistoric societies.

Bone tool studies are at a crossroads. A current path is to go beyond the concatenation of methods or concepts borrowed from other disciplines and aim instead at a truly integrated approach that is more in line with the objectives of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.The papers in this volume follow this direction by adopting various forms of dialogue and integration between old and new methods and approaches, including technological analysis, usewear analysis, typology, zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis, experimental archaeology or spatial analysis. They represent a mixture of methodological issues, case studies, and discussions of larger cultural and historical phenomena that span thousands of years and many parts of the World, from South Asia to the Near East and Europe, and from North to South America. The synergies deriving from these multi-perspective approaches lead to the repeated identification of diverse social aspects of past societies, including the identification of general social contexts of bone tool production and use, transmission of knowledge, the symbolic dimensions of artifacts, and intergroup relations as well as warfare and state formation processes.All these papers grew out of communications presented at the 13th meeting of the Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG) on October 7th¿13th, 2019, at the Département d¿anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Canada. The WBRG is an official working group of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) dealing with the study of worked faunal remains from archaeological sites.ContentsOsseous arrowheads in the Iron Age of the Upper Ganga PlainsVinayakUncovering some aspects of the worked bone assemblages from Periods I-III (Neolithic to Pre-Northern Black Polished Ware with Iron Cultures) of Agiabir, IndiaRavi Shankar, Pramod P. Joglekar, Sharada Channarayapatna, and Ashok Kumar SinghMagnifying the differences: Investigating variability in Dorset Paleo-Inuit organic material culture using microscopic analysisMatilda I. Siebrecht, Sean P. A. Desjardins, Sarah M. Hazell, Susan Lofthouse, Elsa Cencig, Katie Kotar, Peter D. Jordan, and Annelou van GijnAntler as raw material among hunter-gatherer groups from the Pampean Region (Argentina)Natacha Buc, Alejandro A. Acosta, and Lucía T. RomboláOsseous artifacts from the Maros-culture necropolis at Ostoji¿evo (northern Serbia)Selena Vitezovi¿An antler workshop in a Germanic settlement in Nitra, SlovakiaGertrúda B¿ezinová and Erik Hrn¿iarikThe worked bone and tooth assemblage from Piaçaguera: Insights and challengesDaniela KloklerTraceological evaluation of bone instruments as an indirect indicator: Rebuilding textile technology during the Ceramic period on Mocha Island (Chile)Helga Inostroza RojasA microscopic view of Maya needle and perforator production at Ucanal, GuatemalaCarolyn Freiwald, Christina Halperin, Camille Dubois-Francoeur, Caroline Schlinsog, and Kimberly A. BauerWarm it up! Using experimental archaeology to test shark teeth extraction hypothesesSimon-Pierre Gilson and Andrea LessaCrafting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) bone and antler at Cerro Juan Díaz (LS-3), Greater Coclé Culture Area, PanamaMaría Fernanda Martínez-Polanco, Luis Alberto Sánchez-Herrera, Máximo Jiménez-Acosta, and Richard G. CookePreliminary spatial analysis of the morphologically identifiable bone tools from an Early Bronze Age III domestic building in a residential neighborhood house at Tell e¿-¿âfi/Gath (Stratum E5c)Sarah J. Richardson, Haskel J. Greenfield, Tina L. Greenfield, and Aren M. MaeirA Woodland-period bone tool industry on the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal plainGregory A. Waselkov, Sarah E. Price, Alexandra Stenson, Carla S. Hadden, and Long DinhThe many dimensions of a boneMarie-Ève Boisvert, Claire St-Germain, and Christian Gates St-Pierre