Bernstein.

Bernstein.

The archaeological site of Smakkerup Huse is located at the headwaters of a former fjord known as the SaltbAek Vig on the northwest coast of the island of Zealand, Denmark. Excavations took place in 1989 and again from 1995 to 1997 by a team of Danish and American archaeologists. The site is important for a number of reasons, including the 1000-year record of cultural deposits and the preservation of abundant subsistence remains and wooden objects. Smakkerup Huse documents some of the oldest domestic cattle in Denmark and a new artifact type, a painted pebble, from the Mesolithic. While the settlement area of the site on land had been eroded, the waterlain deposits adjacent to the site preserved a submerged midden and an in situ fishing and boat landing area. The report on the site includes background on the Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia, a history of research at the site, the geology and topography of the site and its environment, the layout and sequence of the excavations, stratigraphy, the finds, dating, interpretation and significance. T. Douglas Price is Weinstein Professor of European Archaeology and Director of the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Ancient Scandinavia provides a comprehensive overview of the archaeological history of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Scandinavia is home to prolific and varied rock art images among which the ship motif is prominent. Because of this, the rock art of Scandinavia has often been interpreted in terms of social ritual, cosmology, and religion associated with the maritime sphere. This comprehensive review is based on the creation of a Scandinavia-wide GIS database for prehistoric rock art and reexamines theoretical approaches and interpretations, in particular with regard to the significance of the ship and its relationship to a maritime landscape Discussion focuses on material agency as a means to understanding the role of rock art within society. Two main theories are developed. The first is that the sea was fundamental to the purpose and meaning of rock art, especially in the Bronze Age and, therefore, that sea-level/shoreline changes would have inspired a renegotiation of the relationship between the rock art sites and their intended purpose. The fundamental question posed is: would such changes to the landscape have affected the purpose and meaning of rock art for the communities that made and used these sites? Various theories from within and outside of archaeology are drawn on to examine environmental change and analyze the rock art, led to second theory: that the purpose of rock art might have been altered to have an effect on the disappearing sea. The general theory that rock art would have been affected by environmental change was discussed in tandem with existing interpretations of the meaning and purpose of rock art. Imbuing rock art with agency means that it could be intertwined in an active web of relations involving maritime landscapes, shoreline displacement and communities. Though created in stone and fixed in time and place, rock art images have propagated belief systems that would have changed over time as they were re-carved, abandoned and used by different groups of inhabitants. In the thousands of years rock art was created, it is likely that shoreline displacement would have inspired a renegotiation of the purpose and meaning of the imagery situated alongside the Scandinavian seas. This journey through a prehistoric Scandinavian landscape will lead us into a world of ancient beliefs and traditions revolving around this extraordinary art form.

This book’s aim is to go beyond the limits of the contemporary scientific paradigm of “material culture” by presenting some of the issues confronting archaeology, as it attempts to approach the spirituality of the past. It brings together archaeologists from Western and Eastern Europe, and the USA who, more or less obviously, have used their experientiality to approach the world view and mystic experience of ancient peoples. The book intends to present several arguments in support of an archaeology of spirituality through a series of seven case studies. What method should we use to approach spirituality? Are we still dependent on quantitative methods? Is phenomenology an appropriate instrument? Can experientiality approach a spiritual experience? Is the emic approach efficient enough to approach the spiritual side of a studied phenomenon? Are the analogous ethnographic models suitable instruments for this task? How much of the spirituality of the past is still accessible today? Could we build artificial contexts that would allow the recreation of the phenomenological condition analogous to the originals? Archaeology Experiences Spirituality? goes beyond the archaeological study of material culture, offering a fascinating lecture for the reader of the twenty-first century.

Combines a survey of world art with maps showing the associations and dissemination of culture across the globe.