Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe
Ritual and Domestic Life in Prehistoric Europe

Author: Richard Bradley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1134282567

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This fascinating study explores how our prehistoric ancestors developed rituals from everyday life and domestic activities. Richard Bradley contends that for much of the prehistoric period, ritual was not a distinct sphere of activity. Rather it was the way in which different features of the domestic world were played out until they took on qualities of theatrical performance. With extensive illustrated case-studies, this book examines farming, craft production and the occupation of houses, all of which were ritualized in prehistoric Europe. Successive chapters discuss the ways in which ritual has been studied, drawing on a series of examples that range from Greece to Norway and from Romania to Portugal. They consider practices that extend from the Mesolithic period to the Early Middle Ages and discuss the ways in which ritual and domestic life were intertwined.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Author: Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez

Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781842179857

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner examines how specific types of food were prepared and eaten during feasting rituals in prehistoric Europe and the Near East. Such rituals allowed people to build and maintain their power and prestige and to maintain or contest the status quo. At the same time, they also contributed to the inner cohesion and sense of community of a group. When eating and drinking together, people share thoughts and beliefs and perceive the world and human relationships in a certain way. The twelve contributions to this book reflect the main theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of food and feasting in prehistoric Europe and the Near East. The book is introduced by Ferrán Adrià, considered to be the world's greatest chef. Famed for his "molecular gastronomy", he invented the technique of reducing foods to their essence and then changing how they are presented, for example in the form of foam. In 2010, he was named Best Chef of the Decade by the prestigious Restaurant magazine.

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland
The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland

Author: Richard Bradley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-03-05

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 1139462016

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Sited at the furthest limits of the Neolithic revolution and standing at the confluence of the two great sea routes of prehistory, Britain and Ireland are distinct from continental Europe for much of the prehistoric sequence. In this landmark 2007 study - the first significant survey of the archaeology of Britain and Ireland for twenty years - Richard Bradley offers an interpretation of the unique archaeological record of these islands based on a wealth of current and largely unpublished data. Bradley surveys the entire archaeological sequence over a 4,000 year period, from the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic period to the discovery of Britain and Ireland by travellers from the Mediterranean during the later pre-Roman Iron Age. Significantly, this is the first modern account to treat Britain and Ireland on equal terms, offering a detailed interpretation of the prehistory of both islands.

Between Worlds
Between Worlds

Author: Lindsey Büster

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-12-18

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 3319990225

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The recent resurgence of academic interest in caves has demonstrated the central roles they played as arenas for ritual, ceremony and performance, and their importance within later prehistoric cosmologies. Caves represent very particular types of archaeological site and require novel approaches to their recording, interpretation and presentation. This is especially true in understanding the ritual use of caves, when the less tangible aspects of these environments would have been fundamental to the practices taking place within them. Between Worlds explores new theoretical frameworks that examine the agency of these enduring 'natural' places and the complex interplay between environment, taphonomy and human activity. It also showcases the application of innovative technologies, such as 3D laser-scanning and acoustic modelling, which provide new and exciting ways of capturing the experiential qualities of these enigmatic sites. Together, these developments offer more nuanced understandings of the role of caves in prehistoric ritual, and allow for more effective communication, management and presentation of cave archaeology to a wide range of audiences.

Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe
Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe

Author: Jane McIntosh

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0195384768

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For most of Europe's long past we have no writing, no named individuals, no recorded deeds. This means that its history is almost entirely that of the ordinary individual--the hunger-gatherer, farmer, or metallurgist--rather than the king. Evidence of privileged elites and material splendor is not lacking, however. The skills and expertise of prehistoric Europeans were often employed in the production of exquisite jewelry, elaborately woven cloth, beautifully made tools, and finely wrought weapons. Though the palaces that have attracted excavators in other lands are absent, there are few monuments elsewhere in the world to rival Europe's massive megalithic tombs or great stone circles. And though individuals preserve their anonymity and many of their secrets, modern technology has made it possible to reveal parts of their life history in astonishing detail. Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe gathers the results of recent archaeological discoveries and scholarly research into a single accessible volume. Organized thematically, the handbook covers all aspects of life in prehistoric Europe, including the geography of the continent, settlement, trade and transport, industry and crafts, religion, death and burial, warfare, language, the arts, and more. Complemented with more than 75 illustrations and maps, the result is a fascinating introduction to the 7,000-year period that immediately preceded the Roman Empire.

The Archaeology of Ritual
The Archaeology of Ritual

Author: Evangelos Kyriakidis

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Published: 2007-12-31

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1938770390

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A wide spectrum of scholars, historians, art historians, anthropologists, students of performance, students of religion, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and linguists were all asked to think and comment on how ritual can be traced in archaeology and which ways ritual research can go in that discipline. The product is a fairly accurate representation of research on ritual and the archaeology of ritual: scholars from various disciplines, backgrounds and agendas, arguing mostly in the most logical fashion, yet with little agreement between them. So this book should not be seen as presenting one unified attitude towards ritual and its study in archaeology. It should rather be seen as a reflection of what the discourse in the archaeology of ritual is today. The outcome has been extremely thought-provoking, often controversial, but always of extremely high quality.

Drinking Against Death
Drinking Against Death

Author: Louis D. Nebelsick

Publisher: Archeobooks

Published: 2016-12-31

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 9788380901575

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The nine interrelated chapters in this book aim to identify and describe the iconographies and trace fossils of ritual and religion in late prehistoric Europe - to infuse them with meaning, celebrate their complexity and integrate the ideas, which they evoke into the rich tapestry of historically transmitted ancient European and Mediterranean ideology, mythology and ritual. This book explores libation and feasting, engendered patterns of communication, ritual drama and iconographic creativity. Case studies range from 13th century BC Bavarian ostentatious graves, 9th century Scandinavian bog hoards, 8th century Austrian women's chambered tombs, 7th century Lusatian children's graves to 6th century BC Scythian kurgans from the Ukraine. A thick description of ancient European ideology emerges demonstrating that non-literate communities were developing surprisingly vibrant and sophisticated solutions to the problems posed by transcending death, revering the ancestors and communicating between earth and eternity.

Prehistoric Europe
Prehistoric Europe

Author: Andrew Jones

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-11-10

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1405125977

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Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to the range of critical contemporary thinking in the study of European prehistory. Presents essays by some of the most dynamic researchers and leading European scholars in the field today Ranges from the Neolithic period to the early stages of the Iron Age, and from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Urals and the Iberian Peninsula

The Idea of Order
The Idea of Order

Author: Richard Bradley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-10-11

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0191626163

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Richard Bradley investigates the idea of circular buildings - whether houses or public architecture - which, though unfamiliar in the modern West, were a feature of many parts of prehistoric Europe. Why did so many people build circular monuments? Why did they choose to live in circular houses, when other communities rejected them? Why was it that those who preferred to inhabit a world of rectangular dwellings often buried their dead in round mounds and worshipped their gods in circular temples? Why did people who lived in roundhouses decorate their pottery and metalwork with rectilinear motifs, and why was it that the inhabitants of longhouses placed so much emphasis on curvilinear designs? Although their distinctive character has engaged the interest of alternative archaeologists, the significance of circular structures has rarely been discussed in a rigorous manner. The Idea of Order uses archaeological evidence, combined with insights from anthropology, to investigate the creation, use, and ultimate demise of circular architecture in prehistoric Europe. Concerned mainly with the prehistoric period from the origins of farming to the early first millennium AD, but extending to the medieval period, the volume considers the role of circular features from Turkey to the Iberian Peninsula and from Sardinia through Central Europe to Sweden. It places emphasis on the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic coastline, where circular dwellings were particularly important, and discusses the significance of prehistoric enclosures, fortifications, and burial mounds in regions where longhouse structures were dominant.