A short history of work at Göbekli Tepe and an overview of the UNESCO Worls Heritage List nomination process.

Hoard finds appear throughout the European Bronze Age with distinct chronological and chorological peaks. While there is some consensus on seeing hoards as an expression of cultic behaviour, especially the large ‘scrap metal’ hoards still provoke interpretations as raw material collected for recycling. With socketed axes whose sockets were int…[Read more]

Although their early evolution is largely obscure, socketed axes are among the most numerous artefacts of
the Southeastern European Late Bronze Age. They seem to appear all at once in a horizon of hoards conventionally
parallelized with the Central European Bz D phase. Some researchers have tried to explain this sudden occurrence as
the result…[Read more]

An extensive preliminary report on Göbekli Tepe´s Enclosure H – in German.

En este artículo, tras analizar el sistema de transcripción electrónico semipaleográfi- co del Hispanic Seminar of Medieval Studies (HSMS) de la Universidad de Madison, diseñado para un fin específico, la redacción de un diccionario del español medieval, se presenta el lenguaje XML y sus posibilidades para la codificación digital de texto…[Read more]

In 2011 a special object was discovered at Göbekli Tepe in one of the excavation trenches in the tell´s northwestern depression. The artefact was described preliminarily as a ‘spatula’ made from a rib bone. It measures 5.3 x 1.9 x 0.3 cm and carries a carved depiction that is only partially preserved. The image is unclear, however the upper part…[Read more]

The text discusses reuse and modifications of older graves in southern Sweden during the Late Iron Age and early medieval period (c. 9th to 12th centuries AD). Post-burial practices in the Late Iron Age have in general been interpreted as means to negotiate status, identity and rights to land, while in the later part of the period they are…[Read more]

The conceptualization of a group of “medieval English mystics” has caused significant controversy in recent decades. A product of scholarly accounts of the Reformation dominated by confessional bias, the concept of a group of uniquely English authors who existed outside of their wider English and continental contexts has been steadily eroded by…[Read more]

The Austrian Denkmalschutzgesetz (heritage protection law) aims to give total protection to all archaeological heritage. To achieve this, it takes a ‘finds-centred’ approach: chance finds are protected by some provisions in the law, searching for archaeology is restricted severely, and exclusively to archaeology graduates, by others. Yet, what has…[Read more]

Archaeologists like to think that heritage protection laws serve the purpose to protect all archaeology from damage. Thus, provisions like that of § 11 (1) Austrian Denkmalschutzgesetz or Art. 3 i-ii of the Valetta convention are interpreted as a blanket ban on archaeological fieldwork ‘unauthorised’ by national heritage agencies, and a gene…[Read more]

I investigate the organization of urban activities in Early Bronze Age cities of Northern Mesopotamia. I combine evidence from archaeological survey, magnetometry, and excavations to demonstrate that cities were broadly integrated in terms of function and use of space: inhabitants in outer cities, lower towns, and extramural areas all pursued a…[Read more]

El Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid (ARCHV) ha formado una colección facticia de pergaminos con un triple origen: 1) documentos aportados durante los pleitos; 2) membra disiecta –pergamino viejo– procedentes de códices considerados inútiles y utilizados para encuadernar y proteger legajos de papel y 3) documentos propios de la Real Ch…[Read more]

La primera edición de Libro de la caza de las aves (1869) fue encomendada a Lafuente Alcántara pero fue finalizada, con dificultades, por Gayangos. Más de un siglo después aparecen las primeras ediciones críticas. Aunque los estudios de Cummins (1986) y Montoto Delgado (1999) son de indudable valía, se han detectado errores tanto en su metod…[Read more]

Published in the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015. This contribution was part of FORUM Investing in the Future of the Past: Alternative Careers for Mediterranean Archaeologists.

A draft version of the 2016 Pollard Prize article to be published in Historical Review in 2017.

The lines between death and life were neither fixed nor finite to the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. For most, death was a passageway into a new and uncertain existence. The dead were not so much extinguished as understood to be elsewhere, and many perceived the deceased to continue to exercise agency among the living. Even for those more…[Read more]

The story of the Philistines as Mycenaean or Aegean migrants, refugees who fled the Aegean after the collapse of the palace societies c.1200 BC, bringing an Aegean culture and practices to the Eastern Mediterranean, is well known. Accepted as essentially true by some, yet rejected as little more than a modern myth by others, the migration…[Read more]

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition…[Read more]

The collapse of palatial society at the end of the Greek Bronze Age in c.1200 BC has long been a subject of fascination and contention. This monograph re-evaluates the different theories on this collapse and possible areas of continuity, making full use of recent archaeological data as well as the latest theoretical work on collapse in the…[Read more]

A case study in how small projects use digital tools.