Textile research has become an important field of archaeology. Although the established analytical methods are often viewed as specialized, their integration with other interdisciplinary approaches allows us to deal with broader archaeological issues and provides the interpretational base for a much more comprehensive investigation of textiles in ancient times. Analyses of fibres, dyes, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological remains, as well as palaeoenvironmental and geochemical investigations, provide information about available resources, while tool studies, experimental testing, and visual grouping are approaches that explore the technology and techniques. Together, these approaches can provide new knowledge about textile production and consumption and, thereby, about people and society in ancient times.

Multiple isotopic systems (C, N, O, S, Sr, Pb) are applied to investigate diet and mobility amongst the Middle Neolithic populations at Schipluiden and Swifterbant (Netherlands). A review of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of European Mesolithic and Neolithic populations shows a shift in diet from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, but also great variety in Neolithic diets, several of which incorporate fish. At Swifterbant (c. 4300–4000 BC) the population had a diet largely based on terrestrial and freshwater resources, despite proximity to tidal waters. Only one individual (of 10) showed evidence for migration. In contrast at Schipluiden (c. 3600–3400 BC) there were migrants who had a diet lower in marine resources than those without evidence for migration. The faunal spectrum and isotopic similarities with sites in the Iron Gates Gorge suggest that sturgeon may have been important. There is some evidence that migrants at Schipluiden were not accorded the formal burial given to locally born people.

The latter half of the nineteenth century witnessed the establishment of prehistoric archaeology as a scientific discipline in Italy, as well as the founding of the Italian nation state. Evolutionism, positivism, and a sense of national identity informed prehistoric research and the activities of individuals, such as Strobel, Pigorini, and Chierici, who are regarded today as the founding fathers of Italian prehistory. It is in this dynamic cultural and political climate that the civic museums of Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Bologna were created, both as a response to intense local archaeological activity and in reaction to the centralizing structure of the newly formed kingdom of Italy. These civic museums were among the first museums of prehistory in Italy and the products of the cultural and political climate of late nineteenth-century Europe. This article explores the circumstances surrounding the foundation of these museums and considers how the work of the first prehistorians and the museums' own histories, as civic and cultural institutions, continues to affect their role and management in the present.

The case study presents completely different interpretations of the same archaeological evidence. Reasons for that are not only the state of knowledge and the possibilities of research, but also the impact of changes in the socio-political climate and varying theoretical traditions. The examples are taken from the Late La Tène settlement Basel-Gasfabrik, which has been excavated for almost 100 years. The study focuses on a number of more or less complete human skeletons from sunken features inside the settlement. This phenomenon prompted the archaeologists to find explanations for this apparent exception to the ancient rule of burying the dead outside the settlements. The interpretations of this ‘abnormal' burial practice range from victims of war to burials of the members of the élite. The discussion continues on the basis of the synopsis of all verifiable options of dealing with the dead and includes evidence from similar sites elsewhere.

This article examines the role of a range of large settlements in late Iron Age and early Roman southern Britain (c. 100 BC–AD 70) conventionally described as oppida. After reviewing current perspectives on the function and chronology of British oppida, new insights are provided through the statistical analysis of assemblages of brooches and imported ceramics at a broad sample of sites. Analysis of material culture reveals distinct similarities and differences between several groups of sites, often transcending regional traditions and supposed tribal boundaries. This patterning is primarily explained by the emergence of new forms of political organization prior to Roman annexation, particularly the creation of the Southern and Eastern Kingdoms.

Chronology remains a problematic area in prehistoric archaeology but the increasing number and precision of radiometric dates begin to suggest patterns that can be resolved down to the scale of individual lifetimes. The study of megalithic monuments has benefited from these developments but remains hampered by the indirect relationship between the materials that are dated and the structures themselves. Drawing on evidence from France, Scandinavia, and Iberia, it is nonetheless arguable that available patterns of dates suggest an event-like tempo to the construction of megalithic monuments, with large numbers being built within relatively short periods of time. This has implications for typological models and for the social context in which such monuments were designed and built.

The mining complex of Braçal and Malhada was the chief lead exploration site in Portugal in Roman times. This article outlines the type of mining conducted on site and discusses the associated findings, which point to a date in the mid-first century AD. Some aspects of the findings offer a new perspective on the relationship between mining sites and places of entertainment, in other words, the likelihood of temporary amphitheatres for gladiator games. This relationship may also apply to other locations in northern Portugal where gold was mined.

This article aims to provide an interpretation of the structure and spatial patterning of the non-ceramic refuse from the Neolithic site of Bylany. The data are considered at three levels: tackling questions of refuse management and deposition in the vicinity of houses; the spatial distribution of refuse within the settlement area as a whole; and the quantity and structure of non-ceramic refuse from a long-term settlement perspective. The analysed assemblage of non-ceramic finds is divided into five categories: chipped stone, polished stone, whetstones, manos/metates, and other stones without use-wear traces. The analysis is based on GIS and multivariate statistics. The spatial distribution and quantity of refuse are analysed with respect to space (in terms of proximity to Neolithic houses and the whole of the excavated settlement area) and time (the duration of settlement in six chronological stages). No deliberate pattern of refuse management was identified in the vicinity of the houses, but the refuse was found to have a tendency towards peripheral grouping within the settled area as a whole. Refuse quantity depends on the number of houses and settlement duration. The negative correlation between the mean density of non-ceramic artefacts per house and the number of houses in corresponding chronological stages may be explained by the interpretation that refuse was commonly deposited within abandoned houses, which would be consistent with ethnoarchaeological observations.

The traditional explanation for the presence of Roman artefacts beyond the Roman Empire's frontiers is that these were objects of trade, but this view has been modified in two studies published around the same time. Although they both referred to areas north of the Rhine, each was based on different theoretical premises and presented a different explanation for the presence of Roman artefacts in these areas. One study, based on the concept of world systems theory, concluded that there were uninterrupted and mutually beneficial trade relations across the frontier. The other study was based on a linear culture-historical approach, and it concluded that there were no trade relations between the Empire and the ‘barbarians’, but that Roman artefacts were the result of specific historical events of brief duration. The present article analyses these apparently conflicting outcomes. It focuses on Roman artefacts from the Netherlands, specifically those from the modern province of Friesland, about 150 km north of the Rhine/the Limes.

The relationship between heritage management and nature conservation in Sweden has changed over time, from an earlier division between the two sectors – with nature conservation attached to the growing movement of environmental politics – towards more integrated ways of working under the umbrella of sustainable development. As forests have been associated with nature, the earlier divide has been more evident with forested areas than agricultural areas, a view that has contributed to the marginalization of such landscapes and their inhabitants. With the more integrated policy, heritage management is drawn into the societal discourse of ecological modernization, where environmental and sustainability issues have become new business ideas and sources of further economic growth. From an ecological modernization perspective, nature and cultural heritage are today (touristic) commodities, enforcing the power of the urban world over the rural world and thus risk contributing to further marginalization of the inhabitants. However, heritage sites appear to function as boundary objects in local communities, and may thus function as meeting places and sources of enhancement of community pride. Therefore, we argue for community participation and public communication within the heritage sector, especially concerning marginalized, forested landscapes in order to contribute to an increased knowledge and understanding of the local heritage and history, thus opening the way for creative local processes.

The major production centres of lustreware in Renaissance Italy (Deruta and Cafaggiolo) have been chosen as a case study to prove the importance of combining archaeological and written evidence, with production in Montelupo and Faenza also taken into account. The focus is on the relationship between different production centres and the movement of potters from one centre to the next as a unique means of transmitting technical knowledge. Written sources such as ‘recipes’ were not created by potters, but were usually collected by others decades after the actual transmission of skills occurred. In this respect the influence of models in the form of ‘fashionable’ objects circulating in the Mediterranean area, together with the movements of people, prove vital. The first appearance and transmission of lustreware are summarized, underlining the importance of the contacts with Spain. If the Italian tin-glazed pottery known as italo-moresca can be regarded as the result of imitated models, lustreware production requires skills that could not have been acquired by chance.

Using the case study of the Council of Europe's European Cultural Routes Project, this article examines if and how far supra-national rhetorics of cultural openness, inclusivity, and diversity become reality in terms of actual cultural heritage projects. Against this background, it conducts a critical examination of what is considered one of the flagships of European supranational cultural heritage projects, the Council of Europe's Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim Routes. It focuses on the specific implementation of the Council of Europe's supra-national message of cultural heritage in this project and in its accompanying guidebook. By placing the project in its historical context and comparing it to later additions to the European Cultural Routes Project, this article reflects on the development of a pan-European cultural identity paradigm over the last two decades.