Overview

From fire-lit beacons to sweeping lines of sight, this book uncovers the hidden infrastructure of pre-modern warfare. It is the first archaeological study to trace how military signalling systems shaped landscapes and societies from antiquity to the early modern period. Spanning ancient Greece, Viking Age Scandinavia, and medieval North Africa, the book investigates how visual communication enabled mobilisation, defence, and control. Through case studies and new interpretations of archaeological and historical data, it reveals a world where ordinary people, not just armies, played a central role in responding to the threat of war. A major contribution to military and landscape archaeology. Contributors are Jørgen Bakke, Alexandre Ausonius Bertaud, Stuart Brookes, Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, Martin Malcolm Elbl, Andreu Galera Pedrosa, Frode Iversen†, Andrew Johnson, Christian Juel, Thorsten Lemm, Lucas R. McMahon, Mette Stauersbøl Mogensen, Marie Ødegaard, Ainhoa Pancorbo Picó, Mads Ravn, Mads Runge, Andreas Thiel, and Joey L. Williams.

Full Product Details

9789004749696

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Marie Ødegaard, Ph.D. (2016), is Associate Professor at the Museum of Archaeology–University of Stavanger. Her research focuses on legal and military landscapes, and settlement archaeology in the Iron Age and Middle Ages. She leads the project Viking Beacons, funded by the Research Council of Norway (no. 324454). Stuart Brookes, Ph.D. (2003), is Associate Professor at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. His publications on the archaeology of early medieval Europe include Beyond the Burghal Hidage (2013), Peasant Perceptions of Landscape (2021) and Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia (2024). Thorsten Lemm, Ph.D. (2013), works as a senior researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie in Mainz/Schleswig. He specialises in settlement and landscape archaeology as well as military and power-political aspects in Central and Northern Europe in the late Iron Age and early medieval period.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available