Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximizing the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease.

Excavations (Archaeology) --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Waterlands: Prehistoric Life at Bar Pasture, Pode Hole Quarry, Peterborough recounts a decade-long archaeological investigation at Bar Pasture Farm, Pode Hole Quarry, Peterborough, and represents one of the most significant landscape excavations carried out in recent years. The 55-hectare archaeological dig was the scene of human activity on the fenland edge from the Mesolithic through to the Late Iron Age, although the majority of the evidence covered the period from the Early Neolithic through to the Middle Bronze Age. Throughout prehistory, the fen edge has represented a landscape at the margins of human habitation and exploitation. During the Early Neolithic, a substantial waterhole complex with signs of later visitation was established on the fen edge. Traces of several Beaker buildings provided elusive evidence of slightly later activity further inland, whilst during the Early Bronze Age proper, a number of impressive burial mounds were constructed within a dedicated 'Barrow Field'. One barrow contained the nationally significant remains of an infant burial on a birch bark mat with associated grave goods. The Middle Bronze Age saw the entire re-organisation of the surrounding landscape by the creation of an extensive, rectilinear field system, served by multiple droveways and associated with a classic enclosed farmstead. The placement of later Middle Bronze Age cremation burials within the remains of earlier burial monuments bears witness to the intimate connection of this small community to their ancestors' sacred landscape. By the 4th century BC, settlement was all but abandoned due to marine inundations, although one slightly elevated part of the landscape formed an area of refuge for an Iron Age smith and his family, who created an isolated and significant smithy.

Excavations (Archaeology) --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Excavations (Archaeology) --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Excavations (Archaeology) --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This is the final definitive publication of the excavations that were conducted by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem on the site of the Crusader castle of Belmont (Suba), in the Judaean hills west of Jerusalem, between 1986 and 1989. The excavations and associated documentary research indicate that Belmont began its existence as a manor house or maison-forte in the first half of the twelfth century; at that time it probably represented the country seat of a fief-holding knight on the royal domain. By the 1140s, however, the areain which Belmont lay had been acquired by the Hospital of St John, which subsequently developed nearby Abu Ghosh (identified as biblical Emmaus) as the centre for an extensive estate. Following the Hospitallers takeover, while another former maison-forte, Aqua Bella, was converted into a priory orinfirmary building, Belmont was extended and developed as a concentric castle, dominating the landscape round about. A polygonal outer ward was added to the original rectangular maison-forte on the top of the hill, and ranges of vaulted buildings were constructed within it. This castle fell toSaladin in 1187, and was slighted by the Ayyubids in 1191. After this, the site was occupied by a village until 1948. The account of the excavation is preceded by a historical introduction and a discussion of the castles archaeological setting. It is followed by specialist reports on the coins and tokens, pottery, ceramic lamps, Persian seal impressions, glass, metalwork, clay tobacco pipes, and objects of stone,bone and terracotta. A detailed analysis and discussion is provided of the faunal remains; and a concluding chapter discusses the castles architecture and planning, its military functions, and its economic role within an agricultural estate that developed in the the later twelfth century to producefood and revenue for the Hospital in Jerusalem.

Excavations (Archaeology) --- Archaeological digs --- Archaeological excavations --- Digs (Archaeology) --- Excavation sites (Archaeology) --- Ruins --- Sites, Excavation (Archaeology) --- Archaeology