This book, a lavishly illustrated guide and companion to the prehistoric archaeology of Greece, is written in an informal style free of scientific jargon. It can be used in the classroom or as a ...guide for the traveler, or read simply for pleasure by anyone with a curiosity about the earliest ages of this fascinating region.
The now familiar Three Age System, the archaeological partitioning of the past into Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, was conceived in Denmark in the 1830s. Peter Rowley-Conwy investigates the reasons ...why the system was adopted without demur in Scandinavia, yet was the subject of a bitter and protracted contest in Britain and Ireland up to the 1870s.
The Saqqaq Culture site Qeqertasussuk (2400-1400 BC) is situated in the south eastern corner of Disko Bay, West Greenland. The site was excavated between 1983 and 1987 by Qasigiannguit Museum. The ...stratified cultural deposits are exceptionally well preserved by permafrost and yielded hundreds of thousands of animal bones, feathers, plant remains, insect remains, wooden implements, and a wealth of other organic refuse as well as stone tools, house ruins, stone set fireplaces and other traces of habitation. In order to understand the life conditions of the inhabitants at Qeqertasussuk, a comparative survey of the historic distribution, density and availability of the living resources in the area is undertaken. This resource model is then evaluated against the paleo-environmental data. Also, comparative ethnohistorical and ethnographic data on the exploitation of the living resources in the area is presented. Subsistence and subsistence change at Qeqertasussuk is studied through a comprehensive analysis of the faunal material that consists of more than 200,000 animal bones. Quantitative methods are supplemented by detailed studies of seasonality and age composition of the hunting bag. Forty three species of animals are represented. Harp seal and ringed seal represent the most important game, but sea birds such as fulmar, Brünnich’s guillemot, and little auk also play a significant role in the subsistence economy. Fish, especially Atlantic Cod, have been caught and remains of large whales indicate that these animals were utilized, but it can not be decided whether they were actively hunted. Most of the game was taken close by the site, however finds of caribou indicate that inland caribou hunting was undertaken and that Qeqertasussuk was part of a larger subsistence-settlement-system. Several species of plants were also utilized. Temporal changes in the composition of the faunal material indicate that significant changes occur in the subsistence at Qeqertasusuk. Four phases are identified: (1) Basecamp period I (2400-2100 BC). A pioneer phase where the site is used as a year-round base camp with more than 90% of the biomass being harvested within an area of approximately 80 km2, (2) Base-camp period II (2100-1900 BC), which seems to be the period of most intensive use and where new methods (probably netting) of harp seal hunting are introduced, (3) Hunting camp period (1900-1700 BC), where the site becomes more specialized and more seasonal with a focus on spring-summer hunting for harp seals, (4) high activity period (1700-1400 BC) indications of continued heavy sea mammal hunting. The site was abandoned around 1400 BC. The causes of the abandonment of Qeqertasussuk is discussed and the impact of the general cooling around 1500 BC on key resources such as harp seal and capelin is highlighted.
First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
'Whether your interest is in the prehistoric or late Roman archaeology of Sicily this book provides ...interesting information about all the historical periods of pagan Sicily in a concise and easily accessible form.' – Art Matters
This book deals with the prehistory of the region encompassed by the present state of Alabama and spans a period of some 11,000 years—from 9000 B.C. and the earliest documented appearance of ...human beings in the area to A.D. 1750, when the early European settlements were well established. Only within the last five decades have remains of these prehistoric peoples been scientifically investigated. This volume is the product of intensive archaeological investigations in Alabama by scores of amateur and professional researchers. It represents no end product but rather is an initial step in our ongoing study of Alabama's prehistoric past. The extent of current industrial development and highway construction within Alabama and the damming of more and more rivers and streams underscore the necessity that an unprecedented effort be made to preserve the traces of prehistoric human beings that are destroyed every day by our own progress.  
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