Overview
In many regions of Europe and beyond fortifications belong to the most impressive of archaeological remains. Their study has a long tradition and today a multitude of aspects about architecture, function or symbolism has been explored. However, fortifications are generally examined in a temporally, regionally or culturally limited context. Going a step further, this volume aims to bring into focus concepts of fortifications, which can be socially, symbolically or functionally, but also chronologically and supra-regionally aligned. An important question is to determine which fortification elements are culture-specific, and which can be regarded as convergence or even universal phenomena. Adopting a comparative view, the central aim of the volume is to highlight the diversity and the structural similarities of ancient fortifications. The chronological framework goes from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, and the geographical scope from the Ural steppes to the Iberian Peninsula.
Full Product Details
Author: Ariane Ballmer ,
Manuel Fernandez-Götz ,
Dirk P. Mielke
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Imprint: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 9781785707483
ISBN 10: 1785707485
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 03 January 2018
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
The wide scope is a great asset to this volume. The phenomenon of fortification is often studied on scales limited by chronological periods or certain regions. The total renunciation of these borders limiting most studies opens up a welcome opportunity to compare and investigate fortifications in a new light. [...] These are developments that are most welcome and have long been necessary. * Germania *
.. .the work offers a magnificent example of the diversity and variety prevailing in current research on prehistoric and ancient fortification systems, in addition to allowing the reader access to some of its most novel results and recent interpretations. --Gallaecia
Author Information
Ariane Ballmer is a scientific staff member and lecturer at the University of Heidelberg where she specialises in European prehistory. Her research interests encompass Alpine Bronze Age, landscape archaeology, ritual practices and Early Iron Age fortifications. She is author of the monograph Topografie bronzezeitlicher Deponierungen: Fallstudie Alpenrheintal (Bonn 2016). Manuel Fernández-Götz is Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, Executive Board Member of the European Association of Archaeologists, and winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology 2016. His research focuses on Iron Age societies in Central and Western Europe, the archaeology of identities, and the archaeology of the Roman conquest. Dirk Paul Mielke is a pre- and protohistorian and Ancient Near Eastern archaeologist working at the Freie Universität Berlin and at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany. He has excavated in Germany, Spain, Morocco and Turkey, especially as leading member of the long-time excavations in the Hittite cities of Kuşaklı-Sarissa and Oymaağaç Höyük-Nerik. He has authored numerous fundamental articles on Hittite archaeology, archaeometry, Phoenicians in the West and fortifications.
