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Water and the Law investigates water resource law in the statutory legislation codified by commune, oligarchic and seigneurial governments of cities and smaller municipalities in Northern and Central Italy from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries. It aims to shed light on the relationship between water management norms and the local environment, that is how urban governments planned the use and distribution of water, and the protection of inhabited areas from the danger of flooding. Through a careful analysis of just two hundred statutory regulations that deal with water resources, the text compares the solutions adopted in Northern Italy, presenting a relatively large water supply and a dense network of tributaries of the river Po, with the situation in central areas of the peninsula (including Rome), where smaller watercourses with torrential characteristics - such as the Arno and the Tiber - interact with important cities and manufacturing centres like Florence. From this point of view, the book highlights the existence of a border between Continental Italy (north of the Tuscan-Emilian and Tuscany-Romagna Apennines) and the Peninsular Italy (south of it). In fact, when it came to building the necessary infrastructure for the supply of water and its distribution for irrigation purposes, municipal authorities in the Po area made provision for private-sector initiatives, whereas in the central regions of the country, such initiatives were largely the result of public works and projects pursued by the Popular governments at the helm of numerous cities. Lastly, the text relativises the awareness of legislators concerning the health and hygiene risks associated with the use and improper disposal of polluted and infected water, preferring to speak about a normative defence of the semantically broader category of decorum.

From Wilderness to Paradise presents an in-depth study of the large mosaic pavement in the East Church at Qasr el-Lebia in Cyrenaica, Libya. The pavement, which survives almost in its entirety, consists of fifty panels, each containing a different image. Despite being described as 'the finest and most interesting set of Christian mosaics yet found in Libya' (Illustrated London News, December 1957), subsequent studies have generally dismissed the pavement as a random selection of images with no symbolic meaning and no overarching scheme. This book argues that the remarkably rich and complex mosaic should be understood as a coherent whole. A discussion about reading imagery in Late Antiquity precedes a meticulous iconographical study. Within the pavement's overall coherence, the grid layout allows the panels to be read in different directions, rather like a crossword puzzle, their meaning shifting with each change of focus. Particular attention is paid to small groups of images related either by subject matter or location, and the discussion shows how the placement of certain panels impacts the surrounding imagery, giving meaning over and above the significance of individual motifs. The iconographical study concludes by considering the mosaic from the viewpoint of those moving across the pavement and the phenomenological responses this interaction may have elicited. It suggests that as the images passed fleetingly underfoot, a journey unfurled and one was led from a chaotic oceanic wilderness in the east, to a more orderly paradisiacal world further west.

Archaeology of Body and Thought explores what we as people can do with our bodies, what we can use them for, and how we can alter and understand them. It considers the ways in which individual human groups from the Neolithic to the Migration Period have perceived and treated the body. The analysis is based on artefacts found in graves, anthropomorphic images, and written sources, with an underlying assumption that principles of aesthetics or a canon of beauty express a way of understanding and evaluating corporality commonly adopted in a given culture. From this perspective, the human body is also an archaeological artefact and a specific kind of material culture (indeed, the most important one). The book investigates the extent to which ideology shapes our bodies and how our bodies create our world outlook. To that end, it compares bodies with other contemporary spheres of material culture and technology. Geographically, the study concentrates on central and eastern Europe, a region where various cultural trends have always intersected. Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, and Eurasian steppes are also included in the analysis.

The seventh issue of Groma publishes the research endeavours of young researchers strongly believing that methodological and technological evolution in archaeological research (and not only) should be based on strong ethical ground, i.e., on the paradigm of Open Science and on the free and open-source software and processes. Domizia D'Erasmo (LAD, Sapienza University of Rome), Cristina Gonzalez-Esteban (University of Southampton), Paolo Rosati (LAD, Sapienza University of Rome), Matteo Serpetti (Univertsita degli Studi della Tuscia) and Livia Tirabassi (University of Ghent) are the organisers of the 15th edition of the ArcheoFOSS International conference on open software, hardware, processes, data and formats in archaeological research (https: //archeofoss.org) and the editors of the papers collected in this volume. As editors of Groma, we look with great interest and gratitude to their work, for their competencies and most importantly for their enthusiasm which is by far the most important factor of the success of Groma.

Wessex is famous for its coasts, heaths, woodlands, chalk downland, limestone hills and gorges, settlements and farmed vales. This book provides an account of the physical form, development and operation of its landscape as it was shaped by our ancestors. Constituting no modern political entity, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and archaeological province of 'Wessex' may be defined by its natural resources and connectivity by both land and sea, for its borders include the English Channel and Severn Estuary. Following the tundra environments that dominated south of the ice sheets during the past two million years, the Wessex area experienced dramatic changes in climate, something reflected in its soils and vegetation cover. Humans hunted in the 'wildwood' established after the Ice Age, then cleared the land for agriculture and settlement in a 6,000 year old process. In more recent times, areas of cultural importance and nature conservation have been established as well as a thriving economy based largely on natural resources, trade and manufactures. The region comprises the counties of Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight), Dorset, Wiltshire, historic Somerset, and Berkshire. Whether through Thomas Hardy, a water company service area, or a royal title, Wessex has lingered in the imagination and secured its place in the construction of English history. The reader is taken through not only the physical landscape, but also the human institutions that have affected its evolution, including manors, great estates, monasteries and hunting forests; major themes include the development of agriculture, settlements, industry and transport.

Ajanta's Evolution: From Savakayana to Bodhisatvayana amid Hunnic Turmoil offers a new scholarly exploration of the rock-cut caves, their sculpture and paintings, meticulously tracing the rise, transformation, and legacy of these architectural marvels. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining elements of historical, archaeological, artistic and Buddhist studies. Part I treats the grand epoch of Sravakayana, discussing archaeological contexts, cave classification methodologies, and the emergence of rock-cut monasteries under the influence of King Hari Sena. Against the backdrop of Hunnic upheaval and societal transformations, Part II delves into the Bodhisatvayana era, chronicling the impact of Alchon or Alkhan Hun raids, migrations, and the evolution of the rock-cut monuments. The principle aim is to contextualize the site of Ajanta within a new historical setting. It seeks to address the paradox of how the Early Alchon or Alkhan Hunnic invasions, despite causing significant challenges to the development of the fifth-century cave temples, also provided opportunities for innovation. Another noteworthy aspect is the introduction of a novel taxonomical approach to the monuments. A revised chart for the taxonomy and typological classification of Buddhist rock-cut monuments is presented, mapping the evolutionary trajectory of architectural development over time.

Etudes Mesopotamiennes - Mesopotamian Studies 4 provides the first complete presentation of the ceramic vessels from the levels associated with the Neo-Assyrian occupation of Tell Masaikh, excavated by a French-Syrian archaeological mission between 1996 and 2010. Located in the valley of the Middle Euphrates in Syria, at a crossroads for encounters and on a key axis for communications and trade from Assyria to the Mediterranean, as well as from Anatolia to Babylonia, Tell Masaikh corresponds to the ancient city of Kar-Assurnasirpal, founded on the left bank of the Euphrates by Assurnasirpal II during his military conquests, and later becoming one of the residences of the Assyrian governor Nergal-eresh. But rather than showing the imposition of a material culture that only conforms to the models of the Assyrian Empire, the ceramic production of Tell Masaikh bears witness to an open cultural horizon, where Assyrian, Babylonian, Kassite and Levantine traditions blend and interact. In light of data documenting Syria's archaeological heritage in a region whose ancient history is still relatively obscure, this book not only presents a catalogue of previously unpublished finds, but also anchors the study of this material in a broader historical reflection on the ways Assyrian power interplayed in a specific regional context.

In 2014-2016 the Finnish-Swedish Archaeological Project in Mesopotamia (FSAPM) initiated a pilot study of an unexplored area in the Tur Abdin region in Northern Mesopotamia (present-day Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey). FSAPM is reliant on satellite image data sources for prospecting, identifying, recording, and mapping largely unknown archaeological sites as well as studying their landscapes in the region. The purpose is to record and document sites in this endangered area for saving its cultural heritage. The sites in question consist of fortified architectural remains in an ancient border zone between the Graeco-Roman/Byzantine world and Parthia/Persia. The location of the archaeological sites in the terrain and the visible archaeological remains, as well as their dimensions and sizes were determined from the ortorectified satellite images, which also provided coordinates. In addition, field documentation was carried out in situ with photographs and notes. The prospecting of sites in the Tur 'Abdin satellite imagery surpassed many of the expectations. In the first directory of archaeological sites identified, 40% are new and previously unknown, which is a small token of the huge research potential still hidden in northern Mesopotamia. Some variation appeared in the number of sites in each of the arbitrarily defined regions, and their characters appear to be quite different, too. The project has located new, important archaeological remains of the Roman military presence on the eastern border against Persia in late antiquity, and had also been able to suggest new border arrangements.

South Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment is a multidisciplinary collection of 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. The authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras. The manifold powers of the Devi, whether nurturing or destructive, could be constructed as companions to the unstoppable forces of Nature. This binary paradigm, however, is misleading. For millions of South Asian people, the Devi is Nature and Nature is She. Amongst scholars, the connections between the South Asian Goddesses and the natural environment have been debated and contested for centuries. This collection of essays, the last of a trilogy on the Devi or iconic female by Australian scholars and their collaborators, interrogates the paradoxes of worshipping the feminine divine and yet ignoring the natural environment that validates Her existence. Historical and cultural sources, many of them in Sanskrit, point to the Devi-Nature complex but in ignoring the role of human agency, appear to exonerate society from taking responsibility for the ecological devastation manifested throughout the South Asian region. The Devi is omnipotent but in the role of the nurturing Mother she will not intervene if we remain passive. South Asian deities teach us to respect the environment, a necessary but insufficient condition for compelling us to behave in a manner that respects the wonders of the universe.

Ce livre reunit une vingtaine de contributions regroupees dans cinq parties: - De l'atelier a l'objet: artisanats, productions et instrumentum; - Croyances et cultes; - Iconographie, epigraphie et archeologie funeraire; - Habiter et organiser un territoire; - Decorer un edifice, qui refletent une grande partie des themes de recherche de Jean-Claude Beal a qui ces etudes sont offertes. Elles sont essentiellement centrees sur la Gaule romaine, et plus marginalement sur les provinces romaines occidentales, a l'image des aires geographiques sur lesquelles il travaille.

Reconstructing the Development of Somerset's Early Medieval Church uses Somerset as a case study in order to contribute to a broader understanding of how the Church developed across the British Isles during the transition from the post-Roman Church to that in existence in the 11th century. To facilitate this a large retrogressive data set was constructed which enabled new patterns of development to be identified; this has pushed forward understanding of how Somerset and the South-West evolved, including the reconstruction of Somerset's early great estates and early medieval parochiae. Crucially, it demonstrates how the medieval archdeaconries and deaneries correlate with Somerset's early great estates. This book identifies the pastorally pre-eminent early medieval churches across Somerset by using a weighting system which enables comparative assessments of different types of evidence, including both historical and topographical, to enable the changing significance of individual churches to be assessed. The two most important conclusions are that the development of the Church in Somerset varied from parochia to parochia; there is no one trajectory of Church development and that there is only a weak link between early medieval minster settlements and later urbanisation. The book collates and cross-references all the earlier research into Somerset's early medieval Church and in so doing becomes the most up-to-date study of Somerset's post-Roman churches. The retrogressive systematic approach to the collection and collating of data provides a methodology for understanding the development of the early medieval Church in other regions.

This book provides a comprehensive and detailed review of the evidence for Early Bronze Age mortuary rituals on the Oman Peninsula, describing the research conducted, synthesizing the resulting data, and presenting a complete view of the state of knowledge on the topic. The author demonstrates that the construction, use, and location of mortuary cairns in the ancient landscape is no simple question in the Early Bronze Age archaeology of the region. This book explores the characteristics of ancient funerary monuments and rituals, demonstrating variations in these practices, as well as evidence for continued cairn use during this period and how some communities elaborated mortuary rituals. This book will serve as an invaluable reference volume for scholars working in the region, as an introduction for students to mortuary archaeology and to models that can be used to explore this aspect of prehistoric life on the Oman Peninsula, and as a valuable repository of currently available data. The book features extensive demonstrative illustrations and appendices summarizing the architecture, interments, and material culture found in all published Early Bronze Age mortuary monuments in the region.

Matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete: A Perspective from Archaeomythology and Modern Matriarchal Studies offers a very different perspective of Crete than is usually found in academic writing; making a compelling case for a matriarchal Bronze Age Crete. Bronze Age Crete evokes for many the image of an exceptionally sophisticated civilization: peaceful, artistic, and refined; a society in which women were highly visible and important, and the supreme deity was a Goddess. Yet, despite the fact that authorities acknowledge that the preeminent deity of Crete was a Female Divine, and that women played a major role in Cretan society, there is a gap in the scholarly literature, and a lively, ongoing debate regarding the centrality of women and the existence of matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete. The purpose of this work is to fill that gap, and to advance the debate over whether or not ancient Crete was a woman-centered and matriarchal society toward a more complex, detailed, and certain conclusion. To that end this publication utilises the field of modern matriarchal studies, with its carefully elucidated definition of the term matriarchy, and employs the methodology of archaeomythology - the use of historical, mythological, linguistic, and folkloric as well as archaeological sources. Given its scope, the volume will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields encompassed by archaeomythology, as well as the fields of women's studies, women's history, women's spirituality, and modern matriarchal studies.

Gallaecia Gothica offers a new interpretation of the Argimundus rebellion, one of the most difficult challenges of Reccared's reign. There are no specific details of how the conspiracy came about, but the throne was seriously threatened. The Chronicle of John of Biclaro underlined the gravity of this menace in his description of the punishment suffered by the rebel and his collaborators. His categorical condemnation of the attempted overthrow of the monarch is unlike that given to any other uprising narrated in the Chronicle, and it shows the importance that the abbot of Biclaro gave it in his narration. The fact that the Chronicle notes that Argimundus was not only a member of the Aula Regia but also a dux prouinciae (duke of a province), combined with the status of Gallaecia as a newly conquered province, suggests that this was not just a palace conspiracy, but a genuine provincial revolt which could have ruined the political settlement established by Leovigild and Reccared. However, it is difficult to prove Argimundus' ultimate aim: to replace Reccared on the Visigothic throne or, on the contrary, to restore the old Suevic kingdom in Gallaecia. This book uses numismatic and archaeological evidence seems to suggest the latter view.

Vol. 20 of Antiguo Oriente for 2022. AntOr is the annual, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published by the Center of Studies of Ancient Near Eastern History (CEHAO). The journal publishes manuscripts related to the history of societies of the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean from the Paleolithic to the Early Islamic Period. Antiguo Oriente publishes articles and book reviews in Spanish, English and French.

Roman Ceramic and Glass Manufactures: Production and trade in the Adriatic region and beyond presents thirty-one papers read at the 4th International Archaeological Colloquium held in Crikvenica, Croatia, 8-9 November 2017. The papers deal with issues of pottery production in relation to landscape and communication features, ceramic building materials, as well as general studies on ceramic production, pottery and glass finds. Additionally, an invited contribution explores finds relating to clothing from the Roman pottery workshop at Crikvenica. Several papers are devoted to restoration and archaeological experimentation. Although the majority of papers tackle research conducted in the wider Adriatic area, several contributions deal with other provinces of the Roman world.

(Trans)missions: Monasteries as Sites of Cultural Transfers focuses on the Catholic tradition of consecrated life (vita religiosa) from the High Middle Ages to the present. It gathers papers by authors from various disciplinary backgrounds, in particular art history, history, anthropology and translation studies. Finally, it includes two short reports on Czech projects on monastic topics. The chronological and geographical scope of the book is focused on the Western tradition from the High Middle Ages up to the present, specifically in the territory of Central Europe and Spain along with its overseas colonies. The region of Central Europe was interconnected with the Spanish Empire through the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, allowing the given topic to be studied in a broader international context, and to involve the Central European and Spanish territories in the global flow of information, thus incorporating the regional and national histories of individual European countries into global history. This involvement is also enabled by the study of interconnecting themes, such as cultural transfers within and between the Old and the New World, information flows between the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, the processes of individual and social identity formation, representation and othering of women, and the missionary activities of mendicant orders in the New World, together with their translation practices; and by the contextualization of monastic history and related themes within the processes of European internal and external colonization and evangelization.

The frontiers of the Roman empire together form the largest monument of one of the world's greatest states. They stretch for some 7,500km through 20 countries which encircle the Mediterranean Sea. The remains of these frontiers have been studied by visitors and later by archaeologists for several centuries. Many of the inscriptions and sculpture, weapons, pottery and artefacts created and used by the soldiers and civilians who lived on the frontier can be seen in museums. Equally evocative of the lost might of Rome are the physical remains of the frontiers themselves. The aim of this series of books is not only to inform the interested visitor about the history of the frontiers but to act as a guidebook as well. The province of Dacia had a relatively short life being abandoned due to economic and strategic reasons in the 260s. It was heavily militarized and therefore the role of the army was crucial in Its development and life. The Roman frontier In Dacia combined several elements, each relating to the landscape: there were riverain and mountain borders, some supplemented by linear barriers, and all connected by roads. Everywhere, the complex system of the border consisted primarily of a network of watchtowers, smaller or larger forts and artificial earthen ramparts or stone walls.

The frontiers of the Roman empire together form the largest monument of one of the world's greatest states. They stretch for some 7,500km through 20 countries which encircle the Mediterranean Sea. The remains of these frontiers have been studied by visitors and later by archaeologists for several centuries. Many of the inscriptions and sculpture, weapons, pottery and artefacts created and used by the soldiers and civilians who lived on the frontier can be seen in museums. Equally evocative of the lost might of Rome are the physical remains of the frontiers themselves. The aim of this series of books is not only to inform the interested visitor about the history of the frontiers but to act as a guidebook as well. The aim of this publication is not only to inform about historical and archaeological facts on the Limes in Serbia but also to act as a guidebook as well through the Danubian Limes.

Edited by Martin Biddle with a catalogue of the known coins of the mint by Yvonne Harvey, this volume records and illustrates the minting of silver pennies in Winchester between the reigns of Alfred the Great and Henry III, a period of three and a half centuries. At the Mint, which was situated in the area of the High Street to the east of where the city's cross now stands, at least 24 million silver pennies (possibly as many as 50 million) were struck. Five and a half thousand survive in museums and collections all over the world. These have been sought out and photographed (some 3200 coins in 6400 images detailing both sides), and minutely catalogued by Yvonne Harvey for this volume. During the period from late in the reign of Alfred to the time of Henry III, dies for striking the coins were produced centrally under royal authority in the most sophisticated system of monetary control at the time in the western world. In this first account of a major English mint to have been made in forty years, a team of leading authorities have studied and analysed the use the Winchester moneyers made of the dies, and together with the size, weight, and the surviving number of coins from each pair of dies, have produced a detailed account of the varying fortunes of the mint over this period. Their results are critical for the economic history of England and the changing status of Winchester over this long period, and provide the richest available source for the history of the name of the city and the personal names of its citizens in the later Anglo-Saxon period.

The sixth issue of Ex Novo explores how 'peripheral' regions currently approach both the practice and theory of public archaeology placing particular emphasis on Eastern and Southern Europe and extending the analysis to usually underrepresented regions of the Mediterranean.

Growing Up in the Cis-Baikal Region of Siberia, Russia analyses the dietary life histories of prehistoric hunter-gatherers from six cemeteries in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, Russia. The overarching goal was to better understand how they lived by examining what they ate, how they utilized the landscape, and how this changed over time. Recent archaeological advances offer new ways to gain insight into the lives of people who died many years ago. With the application of biochemistry, archaeologists can study an individual's dietary choices from the time they were born up until the last few months of life, providing a fuller picture of how people lived, the challenges they may have faced, and the choices they made. This study tests the application of a technique known as dentine micro-sampling, in which the inner part of a tooth is sectioned into thin strips, each representing roughly nine months of development. These strips were subjected to stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, unveiling the chemical markers of different foods. The results show that the dietary contribution of terrestrial and aquatic food sources varied within and between cemeteries and cultural periods, which can be viewed as evidence of dietary independence among groups occupying the same area. The results also show that the movement of these individuals around the Lake Baikal region is observable in the chemical markers from their teeth. In conjunction with other methods, dentine micro-sampling helps us understand the interplay of personal choice and ecological constraint that makes up the dietary behaviour of these prehistoric peoples.