This book is about the archaeology querns and mills, simple stone instruments which are vital to survival in a society which adopts bread as its staple. They become the ‘stones of life', an essential ingredient in the subsistence strategy of settled agriculturalists. It might be expected that as querns and mills are commonplace in archaeology, they would be key artefacts, studied exhaustively. Alas, this is far from the case. They have been woefully neglected, although in the last decade there has been burgeoning interest throughout much of Europe and because of this, it is timely to survey the subject, adopting a broad viewpoint. A study on this scale has not been attempted since the late nineteenth century when Bennett and Elton published their magisterial work on the History of corn milling. The author is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton and a Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries. He was awarded the Kenyon Medal of the British Academy in 2011 and the Pommerance Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America in 2012. He has had a lifelong interest in querns and mills on which he has published widely. His work includes the discovery of key mill quarries in the Mediterranean - Orvieto in Umbria and Mulargia in Sardinia, while in Britain the Lodsworth quarries remain the only ones to be found by a deliberate search strategy. The reader will be grateful to Chris Green, also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, for the clear and elegant illustrations which enhance the book and elucidate the text.

The Stone of Life: Querns, Mills and Flour Production in Europe up to c. 500 AD (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology New Series)

History

Peacock, David

Ancient Civilizations

The Highfield Press

Querns are special artefacts as they are concerned with subsistence and supporting life in a manner which few other artefacts can emulate: they transform raw material into a usable consumable commodity. Their association with women, the production of food and the movement of the upper stone, suggests symbolical links between querns and life cycles - agricultural, human and building. They can also be read in terms of gender relations and the turning of the heavens. It is not surprising therefore that they have a special symbolic role in early societies.In 1995 JD Hill published his seminal thesis that many of the rubbish pits commonly found on Wessex Iron Age sites, were carefully'structured' deposits, with meaning reaching far beyond the mere disposal of refuse. He mentioned the special role of querns, but as his thesis focussed on animal bones this idea was not followed up - until now. This book analyses the deposition of querns in prehistoric south-western England, cataloguing how and where they are buried, the associated artefacts and their possible significance. The discussion is broader, however, exploring the object biography and symbolism of querns, taking the reader to unfamiliar territories around the world. This is a new ground-breaking work, which with its full bibliography will stimulate fresh studies and at the same time set the agenda for a new field of investigation. A long standing interest in querns led to the author taking a degree in archaeology as a mature student at the University of Exeter. This was followed by the in-depth research presented in this book, which formed the basis of a thesis for which she was awarded her doctorate at Exeter in 2012. She has studied and reported on querns from a wide range of sites, from Wharram Percy in Yorkshire to Dichin in Bulgaria, and has presented papers at both national and international conferences on the object biography and the function and symbolism of querns and millstones. She compiled the Data Sheet on querns for the Finds Research Group and has written and co-authored several articles. She lives in Devon with her husband, Martin, a leading molinologist, and two black cats.

The Life and Death of Querns: The Deposition and Use-Contexts of Querns in South-Western England from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology New Series)

Watts, Susan R.

Europe

Shipwrecks are a key site-type for maritime archaeological research and their investigations have been prominent in the subject’s development over the last sixty years. At one time their value was often squandered, with anything from cursory surveys to total excavations being undertaken for the same reason George Mallory suggested that mountains were climbed: because they were there. Today it is recognised that the remains of wrecked ships, through their distribution in time and space, their variety and their complexity, comprise one of the richest forms of archaeological source material. This volume brings together researchers who explore the ways in which ships can be understood and interpreted as material culture through their wreck sites, focusing on ships as artefacts, as agents, as technology, as society, as ideology and as symbols, as well as on what they carried and the people who sailed on them. Collectively they show that shipwrecks are not just the preserve of nautical specialists but have wider implications for the understanding of human action and past societies. The editors: Jon Adams is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton and the founding Director of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology (CMA). Johan Rönnby is Professor of Archaeology at Södertörn University and Director of the Maritime Archaeological Research Institute at Södertörn (MARIS).

Interpreting Shipwrecks: Maritime Archaeology Approaches (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology New Series)

Politics & Social Sciences

Archaeology

This collection of papers is presented in honour of Professor David Peacock’s many and lasting contributions to archaeological ceramic studies. Building on Professor Peacock’s legacy of inventive approaches, the volume contains some of the most exciting developments currently taking place within archaeological ceramic studies, including cutting-edge provenanceing techniques, computer-aided visualizations, and contemporary craft and design perspectives. Pottery is approached not as an end to itself but as a vehicle for addressing a wide range of archaeological questions, and the papers thereby demonstrate that ceramic studies represent one of the frontiers in modern-day archaeology. Developing new techniques and finding new uses for old ones open up avenues for research which will enrich our understanding of past societies across the world and through all periods. The volume closes with two thought-provoking papers; one from a ceramic artist and the other reflecting upon the role of ceramic studies in the various sectors of contemporary archaeological practice.

Insight from Innovation: New Light on Archaeological Ceramics (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology)

Millstone quarries are the sites where hard and abrasive stones were extracted to be fashioned into the querns or millstones to grind flour for bread, the staple food of our ancestors. These stones equipped the different grinding mechanisms, from the Prehistoric hand-driven saddle quern to the sophisticated industrial mills driven by wind and water. These little known extraction sites, ubiquitous throughout the European landscape, have been largely neglected. This study, focusing on the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, attempts to draw attention to these often spectacular sites that merge so well with nature.

Turning Stone to Bread: A Diachronic Study of Millstone Making in Southern Spain (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology)

Anderson, Timothy J.

This edited volume sets out the work of a team of scholars from Northwestern University and the University of Southampton led by Matthew Johnson, in collaboration with the National Trust. Between 2010 and 2014, different members of the group carried out topographical, geophysical and building survey at four different late medieval sites and landscapes in southeastern England, all owned and managed by the National Trust: Bodiam, Scotney, Knole and Ightham. Studies were also undertaken into documentary, map and other evidence. A particularly important element of the research was to synthesize and re-present the 'grey literature' at all four sites. This volume seeks to present this work and discuss its archaeological and historical importance. It places the four sites and their landscapes in their setting, as part of the wider landscape of southeast England. It discusses the importance of these places in understanding later medieval elite sites and landscapes in general, and in terms of their long-term biographies and contexts. Central to the volume are the linked ideas of lived experience and political economy and ecology in presenting a new understanding of late medieval sites and landscapes.

Lived Experience in the Later Middle Ages: Studies of Bodiam and Other Elite Landscapes in South-Eastern England

This is an edited volume drawing on the last sixty years of underwater cave research, the vast majority of which has never been published previously. Underwater caves are foreboding places, but they hold great potential for archaeology due to the excellent preservation of organic artifacts found in caves. Chapters are authored by the principle researchers responsible for the development of this emerging sub-field. The volume’s scope is international and spans the Paleolithic through the modern era. It will interest many archaeologists as it touches on human origins, sea level and climate change, ritual and religion, and subsistence in many different cultures. Fields outside archaeology, such as geology and paleo-environmental studies, will find aspects relevant to their research. With authors who have published popular books such as Dan Lenihan, Jean Clottes, and Nic Flemming, the book will interest divers and other members of the public as well.

The Archaeology of Underwater Caves

Prehistoric Britain has generated an enormous number and wide variety of stone objects, but few books deal specifically with stone tools that are not flint. This book brings together papers from 22 of the UK’s archaeologists investigating the stone objects that were fundamental to the daily lives of prehistoric people. The book is divided into four sections. Part 1 is a short section designed to introduce the reader to the range of stone objects used in prehistory. Part 2 contains papers that deal with the petrology and typology of axeheads, maceheads, battle axes and felsite tools. Papers in Part 3 are about function, form and dating of querns. Part 4 is a broad ranging section dealing with ‘other’ types of artifacts and materials, from considerations of the form and function of bracers, loomweights, Bronze Age jewelry and polissoirs, to the use of materials such as beach resources and chalk. The book will appeal to scholars of prehistory, and to anyone with an interest in the exploitation of stone resources and the function and form of the resulting objects. It is intended as a tribute to Fiona Roe, FSA. Fiona worked tirelessly on all aspects of stone artifacts and encouraged, supported and inspired many scholars to embark on studies of them. This book would not have been possible without the groundwork that she laid during the last five decades.

Written in Stone: Papers on the function, form, and provenancing of prehistoric stone objects in memory of Fiona Roe (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology)

The prehistoric, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon periods were all represented in an excavation carried out in the centre of a Worcestershire village some time ago, but with results that can now be seen in new light because of all the archaeological work that has taken place since. A deep Iron Age ditch can be set in the context of enclosures revealed, mainly by air photography, of the gravel terraces in the river valleys of the Severn and Avon. The Romano-British skeletons form a small, elderly and hard-worked group, providing a contrast to the better-known large urban cemeteries. The growing of crops on an increasingly large scale has been demonstrated for the seventh to ninth centuries A.D., and at Fladbury the complex arrangements made to dry grain on what is known to have been a large and important estate show the resources put into feeding royal, aristocratic, and ecclesiastical households.

Impinging on the Past: A Rescue Excavation at Fladbury, Worcestershire, 1967 (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology)

Hinton, David

Peacock, D.P.S.

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