The Oxford Handbook of the European Iron Age

by Haselgrove, Colin; Rebay-Salisbury, Katharina; Wells, Peter S.

• ISBN13: 9780199696826
• ISBN10: 0199696829
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-12-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Oxford Handbook of the European Iron Age presents a broad overview of current understanding of the archaeology of Europe from 1000 BC through to the early historic periods, exploiting the large quantities of new evidence yielded by the upsurge in archaeological research and excavation on this period over the last thirty years. Three introductory chapters situate the reader in the times and the environments of Iron Age Europe. Fourteen regional chapters provide accessible syntheses of developments in different parts of the continent, from Ireland and Spain in the west to the borders with Asia in the east, from Scandinavia in the north to the Mediterranean shores in the south. Twenty-six thematic chapters examine different aspects of Iron Age archaeology in greater depth, from lifeways, economy, and complexity to identity, ritual, and expression. Among the many topics explored are agricultural systems, settlements, landscape monuments, iron smelting and forging, production of textiles, politics, demography, gender, migration, funerary practices, social and religious rituals, coinage and literacy, and art and design.

Author Biography

Colin Haselgrove, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester,Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Group Leader, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Science,Peter S. Wells, Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota

Colin Haselgrove is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Leicester. He lectured at Durham University from 1977-2004 and was Professor at Leicester University from 2005 until he retired in 2021. His main interests are in Iron Age studies, settlement landscapes, early coinage, and Roman impact on indigenous societies. He has conducted fieldwork in France, England and Scotland. He is currently working on developing chronologies for Iron Age sites in Wessex, on rural settlement in northern France in the first millennia BC and AD, and on south-east Britain at the time of Julius Caesar's invasions. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury is an archaeologist with a research focus on the European Bronze and Iron Ages. After completing her PhD in 2005, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Universities of Cambridge and Leicester in the UK, where she participated in research programmes on the human body and networks. In 2015, she was awarded the ERC Starting Grant for her project 'The value of mothers to society: responses to motherhood and child rearing practices in prehistoric Europe'. She directs the research group 'Prehistoric Identities' at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences and teaches at the University of Vienna.

Peter S. Wells is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He has directed excavations at three settlement sites in southern Germany, recovering materials ranging in time from the Early Bronze Age through the Late Iron Age. His principal interests include interactions between communities, art and visuality, and ritual practices. His recent works include The Battle that Stopped Rome (2003) and Beyond Celts, Germans, and Scythians (2001).

Table of Contents

I: INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction: the Iron Age in Europe, Colin Haselgrove, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, and Peter S. Wells
2. Europe in the Iron Age: landscapes, regions, climate, and people, Colin Haselgrove, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, and Peter S. Wells
3. Chronology in Iron Age Europe: current approaches and challenges, Colin Haselgrove, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, and Peter S. Wells
II: REGIONAL SYNTHESES
4. The British Isles and the near Continent, Colin Haselgrove and Sophie Krausz
5. Scandinavia and northern Germany, Frands Herschend
6. The eastern Baltic, Valter Lang
7. Eastern central Europe: between the Elbe and the Dnieper, Wojciech Nowakowski
8. Central Europe, Carola Metzner-Nebelsick
9. Southern France, Dominique Garcia
10. The Iberian Peninsula, Xosé-Lois Armada and Ignacio Grau Mira
11. The northern Adriatic, Raffaele de Marinis and Biba Terzan
12. The central Mediterranean and the Aegean, Lin Foxhall
13. Northern Greece and the central, Stefanos Gimatzidis
14. The Carpathian and Danubian area, Aurel Rustoiu
15. The northern Black Sea and north Caucasus, Sabine Reinhold and Valentina Mordvintseva
16. Europe to Asia, Ludmila Koryakova
17. Edges and interactions beyond Europe, Naoise Mac Sweeney and Peter S. Wells
III: THEMES IN IRON AGE ARCHAEOLOGY
18. Food, foodways, and subsistence, Hansjörg Küster
19. Animals and animal husbandry, Maaike Groot
20. Households and communities, Leo Webley
21. Urbanization and oppida, Stephan Fichtl
22. Building landscapes and monuments, Holger Wendling and Manfred K. H. Eggert
23. Iron and iron technology, Timothy Champion
24. Raw materials, technology, and innovation, Rupert Gebhard
25. Material worlds, Fraser Hunter
26. Textiles and clothing, Johanna Banck-Burgess
27. Trade and exchange, Chris Gosden
28. Coinage and coin use, Colin Haselgrove
29. Politics and power, John Collis and Raimund Karl
30. Warriors, war, and weapons; or arms, the armed, and armed violence, Simon James
31. Wealth, status, and occupation groups, Tom Moore
32. Horses, wagons, and chariots, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
33. Demographic aspects of Iron Age societies, Michael Gebühr and Stefan Burmeister
34. Gender and society, Rachel Pope
35. Regions, groups, and identity: an intellectual history, T. L. Thurston
36. Writing, writers, and Iron Age Europe, Daphne Nash Briggs
37. Migration, Andrew Fitzpatrick
38. Indigenous communities under Rome, Adam Rogers
39. Feasting and commensal rituals, Jody Joy
40. Funerary practices, Patrice Brun
41. Ritual sites, offerings, and sacrifice, Ian Armit
42. Formal religion, Miranda Aldhouse-Green
43. Art on the northern edge of the Mediterranean world, Martin Guggisberg