Destruction is an element of human behaviour that is universally present throughout our history. But what are the driving forces behind these violent acts? Can an underlying motivation be recognised in the archaeological record? This article focuses on the destruction and mutilation of monumental architecture and figurative works, and puts them…[Read more]

Art forms in Troy’s city walls, and Schliemann’s awareness thereof.

This chapter describes the International Space Station Archaeological Project and the importance of photography as a source of evidence for life and society on ISS.

This paper investigates the material culture of icons on the International Space Station as part of a complex web of interactions between cosmonauts and the Russian Orthodox Church, reflecting contemporary terrestrial political and social aairs. An analysis of photographs from the International Space Station (ISS) demonstrated that a particular…[Read more]

Niğde-Kınık Höyük: Excavation Report of Season 2017

Report of excavation at Kınık Höyük (Turkey), season 2016 (specifically, paragraph “Operation B”, together with L. d’Alfonso, pp. 591-592).

The paper presents the report about the excavation campaign at Qumran cave 11Q, carried out from 9th to 19th March 2017 by the Istituto di cultura e archeologia delle terre bibliche of the Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano (ISCAB-FTL) and by the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). Previous archaeological excavations, undertaken by Roland de V…[Read more]

R. Schreg, Feld-, Wald- und Wiesenarchäologie. In: W. Brassat (Hrsg.), Komplexität und Diversität des kulturellen Erbes. Forschungen des Instituts für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Denkmalwissenschaften und Kunstgeschichte 10 (Bamberg 2020) 11–34.
The paper reflects the role of archaeological research on past land management systems, but also t…[Read more]

This paper discusses a letter found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which contains the earliest documented reference to the Artaxerxes phialai first published by Ernst Herzfeld in 1935.

In response to the challenge set by one of us (Williams this volume), this chapter explores new avenues for a public archaeology of Wat’s Dyke. A host of digital and real-world initiatives for public and community engagement are suggested, but the focus is upon one new initiative: the What’s Wat’s Dyke? Heritage Trail which aims to envision Wat’s…[Read more]

Linear monuments offer special challenges in the context of the public archaeology of frontiers and borderlands. This chapter tackles the interpretive neglect of Britain’s second-longest early medieval earthwork, Wat’s Dyke, showing how its sparse and sporadic archaeological attention is reflected in poor and out-dated public archaeology and her…[Read more]

In 2010, the zombie horror genre gained even greater popularity than the huge following it had previously enjoyed when AMC’s The Walking Dead (TWD) first aired. The chapter surveys the archaeology of this fictional post-apocalyptic material world in the show’s seasons 1–9, focusing on its mural practices and environments which draw upon ancie…[Read more]

Responding to the recently published edited collection exploring the hillfort and landscape context of Old Oswestry (Shropshire, England) by heritage professionals connected to the Hands off Old Oswestry Hillfort heritage protection campaign (Malim and Nash 2020), this chapter reviews and reflects on the significance of the overall…[Read more]

The chapter serves to introduce the first-ever book dedicated to public archaeologies of frontiers and borderlands. We identify the hitherto neglect of this critical field which seeks to explore the heritage, public engagements, popular cultures and politics of frontiers and borderlands past and present. We review the 2019 conference organised by…[Read more]

How are linear monuments perceived in the contemporary landscape and how do they operate as memoryscapes for today’s borderland communities? When considering Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke in today’s world, we must take into account the generations who have long lived in these monuments’ shadows and interacted with them. Even if perhaps only being dim…[Read more]

Introducing the second volume of the Offa’s Dyke Journal (ODJ), this five-part article sets the scene by reviewing: (i) key recent research augmenting last year’s Introduction (Williams and Delaney 2019); (ii) the key activities of the Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory in 2020; (iii) the political mobilisation of Offa’s Dyke in the context of the COVID-1…[Read more]

The interview is based on the lecture „Überlegungen zum historischen Potential des Materiellen oder Können Dinge der Vergangenheit redundant sein?“ given by Manfred K. H. Eggert and Stefanie Samida during the conference “Massendinghaltung in der Archäologie” (2013).

In recent years, molecular genetics has opened up an entirely new approach to human histo- ry. DNA evidence is now being used not only in studies of early human evolution (molecular anthropology), but is increasingly helping to solve the puzzles of history. This emergent re- search field has become known as »genetic history«.

The paper gives a…[Read more]

Historical and archaeological topics have been very popular for many years. This is witnessed by a variety of events and developments: well- attended exhibitions, so-called “medieval mar- kets”, an ongoing success of historical documentaries, a booming market of specialised books and magazines, as well as star-studded historical movies. The pap…[Read more]