Sensory archaeology

Die Hohlwulstringe der Stufe Hallstatt C stellen eine spannende Art von bronzenem Schmuck dar, der in Oberösterreich und Salzburg in Österreich sowie Bayern und Baden-Württemberg in Deutschland in Frauengräbern im unteren Oberkörper- beziehungsweise Hüftbereich vorkommt und wohl auch zu Lebzeiten getragen wurden. Diese sind oft mit anderen Kleidungs- und Schmuckbestandteilen vergesellschaftet, die womöglich auf eine Ringsymbolik hinweisen, und scheinen einen akustischen Effekt gehabt zu haben. In diesem Beitrag wird vor allem die Trageweise betrachtet anhand eines Beispiels aus Traunkirchen, Oberösterreich, wobei diverse Vergleichsfunde herangezogen und Trageexperimente durchgeführt werden. Es werden zwei Tragevarianten mit zwei verschiedenen Kleidungsensembles vorgestellt. Hinweisgebend für die Trageweise der Ringe sind textile Reste von vermutlichen Ripsbändern aus Süddeutschland, die auf eine Befestigung als Gürtel hindeuten. Die Experimente mit rekreierter hallstattzeitlicher Kleidung haben interessante Ergebnisse hervorgebracht: Die Ringe wirken ähnlich wie ein Korsett. Somit machten die Hohlwulstringe nicht nur an sich einen optischen Eindruck, sondern wirkten auch physisch auf die Trägerin, was einen Einfluss auf die Haltung hatte.

The hollow rings of the Hallstatt C period represent an interesting type of bronze jewellery that can be found in women's graves in the lower upper body or hip area in Upper Austria and Salzburg in Austria as well as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany and were probably also worn during their lifetime. These are often associated with other items of clothing and jewellery that may indicate ring symbolism, and also seem to have had an acoustic effect. This article focuses on the way they were worn using an example from Traunkirchen, Upper Austria, using various comparable finds and experiments wearing them. Two variations of wearing the rings will be presented, using two different clothing ensembles. The textile remains of presumed repp bands on hollow rings from Southern Germany indicate that they were attached to a belt. The experiments with recreated clothing from the Hallstatt period produced interesting results: The rings act similar to a corset. This means that the hollow rings not only made a visual impression in and of themselves, but also had a physical effect on the wearer, which influenced her posture.

References in ancient literary texts refer to the use of pierced teeth as amulets used for the prevention and reduction of teething pains in infants. In this paper, I explore some of the sensory aspects of this phenomenon by centralising pain as a sensory experience. I draw on a dataset of these objects from Roman Britain in order to contextualise the types and use of these objects within the Roman world. These two facets, linking the sensory experiences of teething pain to real, material objects, allows for a discussion of the lived and embodied experience of wearing this amulet in the ancient world, through which a greater appreciation of its sensory importance is gained.

https://traj.openlibhums.org/article/id/9314/

Despite the clear divisions in current archaeological theories, in the last 30 years a 'new consensus' is emerging; this is the recognition that materials can actively shape human behaviour and cognition. While this recognition offers major opportunities for explaining changes in the archaeological record without just succumbing to individual simplistic modelssuch as migration or diffusion, or acculturation or convergencethere is still a need to formulate a framework that allows schematising this new consensus into our classifications and analyses of archaeological materials. Our paper aims to take a first step in this direction by formalising some mechanisms through which human behaviour and cognition can be modified by the material world. Operating at the interstices between theories about material engagement, cognition, and practice, three mechanisms of transformation are formalised, i.e., visual enchantment, mechanical degradation and obtrusion. As a further step to integrate these mechanisms, we stress the need to factor in human expectations, the changing states of materials and contingent situations into our schematisations and reconstructions of human-material relations.

Elaborate murals identified in the assembly hall of the Dura-Europos synagogue dominate scholarship of the building, partly because no other decorated walls survive from other ancient synagogues. Disproportionate attention to the appearances of these paintings, however, has borne unintended consequences, rein scribing the primacy of the visual and the power of visuality for ancient visitors. This chapter takes a distinct approach.  Using scholarship from the history of the senses and the history of experience to differently interpret the remnants of visitors' tactile encounters with the synagogue, which include markings of graffiti and gouging they applied to its surfaces, it theorizes anew abut relationships--not just between ancient visitors to the synagogue and the paintings they regarded--but also between those visitors and the vibrant tactility, physicality, and plasticity of the spaces that surrounded them.

August 2025 There begins, within the modern ruin, an emotional, even hauntological, outlet for the 'archaeological imagination (cf. Shanks 2012) to create and process other ways of being in the world, other forms of becoming present, other time-honored performance practices, and still other entanglements between cultural and material memory.

Until recently, the impact of material culture on the interpretation of the metaphor ‘set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm’ in Song 8.6 has been centred on the protective and adorning functions of seals. However, wearing and using seals produced embodied experiences engaging the senses. Hence, the intersection of Cognitive Linguistics and Sensory Archaeology provides a deeper understanding of embodiment and the embodied experiences of ancient people and their transformation into language, particularly metaphor. Consequently, this essay inquires: First, which sensory domains are related to seal wear and use? Secondly, how are these sensory domains transferred into metaphor in Song 8.6? This reconstruction of the sensory system of ancient seal use first engages archaeological evidence concerning seal use, particularly in the ancient southern Levant. In a second step, Song 8.6 is contextualised within biblical and ancient Near Eastern seal and body adornment metaphors. This suggests a cross-cultural conceptual metaphor, A SEAL IS EMBODYING A PERSON, based on human-material interaction and existing over vast temporal and spatial contexts in the ancient world. Therefore, this essay enhances our understanding of long-lasting metaphors based on sensory experiences with material culture.

Prehistoric rock art in Northern Europe repeatedly shows people standing, jumping, and dancing in a boat. Especially in Finland, rock paintings and the related offerings were made specifically from a boat. In 2023, dancer Arttu Peltoniemi conducted an artistic-scientific experiment called Dug Boat Dance to explore whether it is possible to dance in a boat, and what kind of movements and bodily sensations this might generate. The three-month-long experiment was carried out in a Stone Age-style dugout canoe, using the dancer's body and somaesthetic experiences as research tools. According to our interviews with Peltoniemi, the dugout boat affected dancing in many ways. As a moving and rocking platform, it kept the dancer's ankles, knees, and spine in constant motion, provoking undulating snake-like movements throughout the body. It responded to jumps, steps, and falls by springing down and up again, which created a sense of flying. The multi-sensory experience, which also included rhythmic body sounds, the rattling of bone pendants in the reconstructed Stone Age outfit, as well as echoes bouncing off the painted rock, brought Peltoniemi into a state of trance during the public performances. Altogether, this reimagination of prehistoric dance provides insight into the sensory world of the past, especially its little-explored bodily sensations. The unique project proves that dancing in a dugout boat is not only possible but also an impressive experience for both the dancer and the audience.

Prehistoric rock art in Northern Europe repeatedly shows people standing, jumping, and dancing in a boat. Especially in Finland, rock paintings and the related offerings were made specifically from a boat. In 2023, dancer Arttu Peltoniemi conducted an artistic-scientific experiment called Dug Boat Dance to explore whether it is possible to dance in a boat, and what kind of movements and bodily sensations this might generate. The three-month-long experiment was carried out in a Stone Age-style dugout canoe, using the dancer's body and somaesthetic experiences as research tools. According to our interviews with Peltoniemi, the dugout boat affected dancing in many ways. As a moving and rocking platform, it kept the dancer's ankles, knees, and spine in constant motion, provoking undulating snake-like movements throughout the body. It responded to jumps, steps, and falls by springing down and up again, which created a sense of flying. The multi-sensory experience, which also included rhythmic body sounds, the rattling of bone pendants in the reconstructed Stone Age outfit, as well as echoes bouncing off the painted rock, brought Peltoniemi into a state of trance during the public performances. Altogether, this reimagination of prehistoric dance provides insight into the sensory world of the past, especially its little-explored bodily sensations. The unique project proves that dancing in a dugout boat is not only possible but also an impressive experience for both the dancer and the audience.

This illustrated study explores the manifold dimensions of mystery, fear, and the supernatural in ancient Roman culture. Through a detailed analysis of material artifacts—such as defixiones, lararia, apotropaic amulets, and votive offerings—the work examines how Romans coped with the inexplicable through ritual practices, magical beliefs, and religious symbolism. The essay combines archaeological evidence, literary sources, and epigraphic materials to reconstruct the emotional and spiritual landscape of a civilization deeply concerned with divine signs, curses, and protective gestures. An extensive Latin glossary and an annotated bibliography accompany the text, providing tools for further scholarly inquiry.

The end of the Iron Age in Mallorca, known as the Post-Talayotic period (ca. 550-123 bc), was a time of significant change among the island's indigenous population, including in their funerary world. The topic of funerary practices most usually has been examined through studies that focus predominantly on burial types, grave goods and funerary spaces. With this article, however, I suggest a new direction: sensory archaeology, here used to explore individual experiences and to identify the activities surrounding the death of a group member. Sixteen burial sites across Mallorca show that Post-Talayotic funerary practices extend beyond variations in body treatment to include a series of activities shaped by multisensory experiences that have hitherto been overlooked or underexamined. These activities comprise body ornamentation, ritual consumption, funerary music and ritual movement, and encounters between different groups likely played a pivotal role in shaping changes and continuities of funerary practices at this time. The nuanced perspective of sensory archaeology offers valuable insights into understanding the social dynamics of the period, with broad implications for our comprehension of this transformative era. The research reevaluates the archaeological narrative of the Post-Talayotic funerary world, emphasizing a groundbreaking, dynamic and multisensory approach that moves beyond static archaeological documentation.

In the ancient Mediterranean, fragrance played a central role in rituals, helping to define sacred space and make the presence of supernatural forces tangible. Incense, ointments, and aromatic plants not only accompanied liturgical gestures but also created a multisensory experience that deeply engaged participants, strengthening communal cohesion. Scent was a privileged means of communication with the "divine": odors and essences evoked and invoked supernatural presence, shaping both the ritual and the sacred space. Through David Howes' concept of "cultural synesthesia", we can understand how olfactory perception in rituals was influenced by social and cultural contexts. Moreover, as evidenced by discoveries at San Casciano, in Italic sanctuaries the ritual dimension intertwined with medical practice: aromatic herbs, balms, and thermal waters were used for physical healing. This intersection between religion and medicine shows that fragrance was not only a means of contact with the "divine" but also a therapeutic tool. Analyzing its role in ancient rituals allows us to highlight these connections and offer insights that resonate with contemporary perspectives on the use of smell in medicine.

Understanding how cities evolve is crucial for creating sustainable and culturally sensitive urban futures. Yet, this evolution never happens by leaving the old forms totally behind. New types of buildings and settlements always appear beside the older ones, resulting in urban morphologies that contain multiple layers of urban forms simultaneously, very much unlike what modern utopians wished for. Even though almost all futuristic visions tend to ignore the past and the present and choose to focus on just an indefinite future, cities must both inhabit existing forms and generate future visions for further development. If cities could be considered as the most complex artefact of cultures they belong to, it should also be accepted that the evolution of any urban form cannot happen as a complete rupture from the existing bodies. Thus, it is vital to perceive today as the future of the past, understand the dynamics of urban evolution case by case, and construct a future for the cities by depending on such comprehension. comparing those past expectations and the present realities. The research examines the advantages and disadvantages of previous urban planning efforts through the analysis of urban plans, architectural documents, and historical records. It also explores the cultural and socioeconomic factors that have influenced urban form, such as social and political order, rituals, and cultural practices. Historical records, cultural beliefs, and cultural heritage that have influenced the spatial layout, building typology, architectural identity, and street patterns of the city will also be studied in this research. This research aims to rethink the future of historical cities like Mombasa in order to create more realistic and adaptable future visions by encouraging the integration of cultural sensitivity, adaptive reuse of heritage spaces, and sustainable urban development.

With increasing urbanisation, understanding the variety of historical experience with water in the urban context becomes all the more relevant. Apart from representing an economic and environmental necessity, the physical and sensory access to freshwater is universally understood as socially desirable, pleasing and valued. The history of the East African coast is especially relevant as water scarcity is not a modern phenomenon in the region-in fact, precolonial towns situated on the oceanfront flourished in relatively arid environments too. This paper presents the insights achieved with a 3D scanning survey of the preserved heritage in the now-deserted town of Jumba la Mtwana, located 20 km north of Mombasa, Kenya. Although all of the buildings are partially collapsed, various wells, cisterns and reservoirs have been documented. Considering this archaeological site and other examples of (pre)colonial Swahili towns, this paper adopts multidisciplinary perspectives in analysing and interpreting the distribution of constructed features associated with water, with particular focus on their design, density and spatial context, as well as social and sensory connotations. Its results highlight the socio-spatial role of the element of water in the precolonial built environment, which may be contrasted with later periods and potentially carry broader implications for current urban development.

The paper addresses the current need for expanding ways to understand and research aspects of urban sustainability, which are related to the social environment. Sustainability of living historic cities is related to, among other factors, their socio-spatial structure and relationships. For past urban contexts, these mostly intangible characteristics can be studied by analyses of the material aspects of urban space, which have been shaped over the long term. Shifting our focus from the preserved buildings and collections of finds onto space and spatial configurations in their own right may bring new revelations about the dynamics of the urban layouts, street networks and sensory environment. Urban streets and open spaces, specifically, may be analysed as a record of past preferences for movement patterns that are part of the sensory environment in each settlement. In this paper, urban kinesthetics are viewed as a component of social traditions and cultural heritage, and it is analysed how materially constituted networks and characteristics of the sensory environment may have contributed to the long-term social sustainability of urban settlements. As case studies, the East African towns of Mombasa, Kenya and Mozambique Island, Mozambique, represent living historical towns and sites of cultural heritage, and symbolise urban growth on a historical background reaching to the precolonial era. It is shown how the built environment of these towns have affected capacity for movement in the urban space and how movement was channelled in the urban environment. It is argued that while it is more common to understand urban architectural heritage as a collection of preserved buildings with a certain set of characteristics, adding a spatial dimension to archaeological interpretations of the built environment can aid producing relevant considerations for shaping the future of cities. This paper studies social sustainability by tracing movement in an urban environment over a long-term chronological perspective. I propose that constructed capacity for movement and congregation reflect on social organisation and hence affect the possibilities of a society to

This contribution explores the use of sensory archaeology and neuroarchitecture in the study of the earthen built environment. First, the paper discusses multi-sensory experiences focusing on earth as a building material. Second, I look at the archaeological remains of building materials to consider the sensory perception of earthen architecture manufacturers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. In this latter endeavour I draw on Material Engagement Theory (MET), archaeological earthen remains, and ethnoarchaeological data to investigate the sensory aspects of working with earthen building materials. The main goal is to understand interactions between brain, mind, and culture by studying how people contributed to the manufacturing and construction of earthen architecture. While archaeology is quite visual, I argue that material culture, specifically the production of earthen architecture, shaped a multi-layered sensory experience that included all senses, rather than just visual stimulation.

Letter protesting the City's action in blocking final stage of excavation to identify Confederate soldiers buried under a cemetery road. Also City's failure to mark soldiers' graves that have been identified. Headstones provided by the US Govt were obtained by fraud.

Esta introducción, en formato de cómic, ofrece una alternativa a las narrativas tradicionales en arqueología, brindando una herramienta que puede resultar útil y atractiva a la hora de difundir la labor de los arqueólogos entre un público amplio. El guión y las imágenes ayudan a reflexionar sobre las formas en que la sensorialidad puede ser empleada por los arqueólogos como medio de aproximarse a la materialidad del mundo que estudian, al mismo tiempo que considera cómo los regímenes sensoriales de diferentes grupos en el pasado pudieron encontrarse íntimamente relacionados con sus experiencias, prácticas, relaciones y sentidos culturales. Para ilustrar todo ello, los autores efectúan un recorrido imaginario por algunos de sus contextos de estudio, discutiendo algunas de sus ideas, impresiones e interpretaciones fundadas en sus experiencias de campo, y la recolección de evidencia arqueológica y documental.

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The introduction, presented in comic format, offers an innovative alternative to traditional archaeological narratives, providing an engaging and accessible tool for communicating the work of archaeologists to a broad audience. Through a combination of script and imagery, it invites reflection on how sensory perception can serve as a means for archaeologists to engage with the materiality of the past. At the same time, it explores how the sensory regimes of different historical groups may have been deeply intertwined with their experiences, practices, relationships, and cultural meanings. To illustrate these ideas, the authors take readers on an imaginative journey through key study sites, discussing their insights, impressions, and interpretations shaped by fieldwork experiences and the collection of archaeological and documentary evidence.

The aim of this session is to bring together researchers from the humanities and hard sciences to present current research on approaches to sensation and perception of the human body in understading the past. From a humanities perspective, sensory archaeology came to attention in the 1990s notably through Chris Tilley's 'Phenomenology of Landscape' (1994) and Costance Classen's 'Worlds of Sense in history and across cultures' (1993). Today archaeologists, historians and museum professionals use the sensorium as a tool for the analysis, presentation and interpretation of a plethora of actions/performances, things (stone, metals, textiles, houses, musical instruments), animals, plants, landscapes, spaces, monuments and periods in time (e.g. Gosden et al 2006, Howes 2006, Skeates 2010, Hamilakis 2013, Day 2013, Skeates and Day 2020; Landeschi and Betts 2023). From a hard science perspective, the senses are focused on the brain and nervous system as neural network, perceiving and responding to sensation. Developing out of Colin Renfrew’s cognitive archaeology of the 1990s, neuroarchaeology is used to apply to approaches for understanding the past through human cognition (Stout 2015). This includes the role of the mind as an organ processing human experience, and had been applied to making tools, complex decisions, language and understanding the evolution of humanity (e.g. Malafouris & Koukouti 2022, Malafouris 2019). Archaeologists have debated the tension between these approaches as treating the past (and present) body as a universal, with biological capacities that enable and restrict sensations, and the human as the centre of culturally ordered experiences, where biological capacities are interpreted according to ways of knowing. We invite archaeologists to present innovative methods and datasets exploring sensation from across the spectrum of humanities and hard sciences to address the question: what is the significance of human sensation for understanding the past, and present, of humanity?

"Carl Haller von Hallerstein : visiteur et interprète des grottes-sanctuaires en Italie méridionale et en Grèce continentale au début du xixe siècle", in Lefèvre-Novaro D., Voisin C. (dir.), Sanctuaires et paysages : la découverte des lieux de culte en Italie méridionale, en Sicile et dans le bassin égéen, actes du colloque de Strasbourg, 21-23 novembre 2023, Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg-ITI HiSAAR, 2025, p. 180‑203.

This dissertation has explored the range and role of different flavours that would have characterised Prehistoric meals and focused on answering questions about the potential sources of flavour in Prehistoric meals in temperate Europe and if it can be demonstrated that Prehistoric people cared about flavour. As well as how modern audiences react to the flavours of Prehistoric food. This was carried out through experimental recreations of Ötzi the Icemans last meal which were presented to a modern audience who were also asked to complete a questionnaire alongside the meals. The experiment found that modern audiences, despite any preconceptions they may have, react positively to the flavours of Prehistoric food and by use of a sensory experience they can engage meaningfully with archaeology. It has also been found that there has been a significant oversight of the element of flavour when it comes to the archaeology of Prehistoric food and diets which has significantly affected how the Prehistoric human experience has been investigated. These findings have highlighted the importance of creating engagement experiences in order to educate and involve the public with archaeological research. This dissertation has also shown that there needs to be a change in archaeological research in order to include considerations of the senses which will allow a better investigation into the full human experience.

Ceramic sound tools using clay as a raw material have been produced since the very beginning of human history. This was also the case for the cultures that inhabited the area comprised by pre­sent-day Poland. So far, over 1,200 ceramic rattles or their fragments have been discovered in this area. They are the subject of interdisciplinary research, using various methods from archaeology, musicology, acoustics, and even mechanical engineering. The state of preservation of the artefacts is often unsatisfactory, and thus important information about their original behavior has been lost. Traditional reconstructions of ceramic rattles restored their appearance only, without recon­structing the basic function of sound production. In order for the sound to be reliably recon­structed, the shape of the rattle, the material from which it was originally made, as well as the entire technological process must be precisely recreated. This is an extremely difficult task, espe­cially in the case of poorly preserved objects. In these cases, reverse engineering methods using numerical modeling are often of use, because they allow the determination of the frequency struc­ture of the rattle sound spectrum. Using reverse engineering techniques, it is possible to build a model that will allow us to recreate at least some of the sound characteristics of the reconstructed ceramic rattles.

Both the JMP and the World Heritage listing noted the potential for future conflicts between energy development and site protection. See Appendix II. For 40 years, the NPS and other agencies, Tribes, and industry have attempted to address potential conflicts between energy development and the expanding understanding of the Chaco world and landscape, in and beyond the energy-rich San Juan Basin. Indeed, one of the first comprehensive "outlier" surveys was sponsored by the Public Service Company of New Mexico in cooperation with the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division (Marshall, Stein, Loose and Novotny 1979), to identify outlier great houses for future management of energy development. Another early extensive "outlier" survey was sponsored by the National Park Service (Powers, Gillespie and Lekson 1983). One of the few comprehensive excavations of an "outlier" in modern times was at Bis sa'ani, in advance of a coal mine that was never developed (Breternitz, Doyel, and Marshall 1982). In the following decades, numerous studies in the San Juan Basin have addressed the impacts of energy development on Chacoan archaeology, but never on the scale of the landscape studies of the 1980s. Given (1) the significant growth of knowledge about the Chaco world since the 1980s, (2) the increasing sophistication in both archaeology and historic preservation regarding landscapes, and (3) the renewed interest in energy development in the Chaco region, a new management philosophies seems warranted. III. Landscape: Theoretical Background Over the past two decades, landscape has emerged as a unifying concept for the archaeological study of place and social reality (e.g., Ashmore and Knapp 1999). Prior to 1980 (when Chaco was made a National Park) the term was seldom used in American archaeology. Indeed, Chaco and its region was one of the first places southwestern archaeology seriously considered landscape (Stein and Lekson 1992); and since that time, southwestern archaeology has lead the field in developing new methods and concepts, which now form a recognized "southwestern school" of landscape studies (Fowles 2010). We now have a broad range of concepts, theories, methods and tools which were unavailable in 1980s and 1990s. Many current areas of archaeological and anthropological interest, including identity, ethnicity, ritual, power, and ideology intersect at the nexus of landscape. In the Southwest U.S., the term landscape is invoked by archaeologists straddling a wide range of epistemological positions. Some equate landscape with settlement patterns, examining the changing and variable distributions of people and resources across space. GIS analyses have figured prominently for these researchers. Some IV. Defining the Chaco Landscape : Part I-Material Expressions Archaeologists have long recognized that Chaco reaches well beyond the confines of Chaco Canyon (Gladwin 1945; Martin 1936; Morris 1939; Roberts 1932). Canyon great houses provide the archetype through which outlier great houses have been identified. Until the 1970s, these "outliers" were investigated in a piecemeal fashion. Oil and gas developments in the 1970s and 80s led to the first major attempts to locate and record outliers and associated features across the Chaco World (Marshall et al. 1979). During this period, the Chaco Project and the BLM sponsored large-scale, landscape-level investigations (Fowler et al. 1987; Kincaid 1983; Nials et al. 1987; Powers et al. 1983). The application of large-scale pedestrian surveys and aerial reconnaissance in the 1970s revealed the existence of ancient roads associated with Chacoan structures. At least eight road segments, three of them major, extend into the San Juan Basin from Chaco Canyon. More recent uses of aerial thermography, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and other geophysical methods continue to reveal additional sites and features but have, as yet, only been applied to relatively small areas of the Chaco landscape. Marshall and Sofaer (1988) continued to investigate outliers with a focus on road-related features, shrines, and archaeoastronomy. In 1983-84, Powers directed a fullcoverage survey of new lands around Kin Bineola, Kin Klizhin, Chacra Mesa, Upper Kin Klizhin, and the South Addition (Powers and Van Dyke 2015). Most of the information compiled by these authors is located in government documents or grey literature (exceptions include Doyel 1992; Kantner and Mahoney 2000, Chaco Project survey data, and Additional Lands survey data). Kantner (2003; Kantner and Kintigh 2006) collated a "Chaco World" database of known outliers for the Chaco Synthesis (Lekson ed. 2006). These data are available through the Chaco Research Archive (chacoarchive.org). In recent years, the Chaco World database has been updated and expanded by Van Dyke et al. (2016) and Matt Peeples, working with Archaeology Southwest. Efforts are currently underway as part of the current Chaco Landscapes project to reconcile the three disparate geospatial datasets and share those data with land managers and researchers. The process of reconciling these three data sources has also brought to light some of the major gaps in our knowledge about many of these great house communities. Our understanding has evolved dramatically in recent decades-bringing to light new dimensions of the Chaco landscape and locations for further study. Features and attributes of the greater Chaco landscape have been catalogued in different ways by researchers. A short list of material signatures found on the Chaco landscape includes the following: (1) monumental architecture

Τhe Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace has long drawn our attention; the adjacent city, not so much. The story of the Sanctuary is largely written in terms of external influences, with little credit given to the role the Samothracians played in maximizing their most valuable asset. And yet within the largely unexcavated city, a magnificent fortification wall as well as marble spolia in the Gattilusi towers bear witness to a powerful and vibrant polis. Our current research aims to better understand the relationship of the ancient city to the Sanctuary of the Great Gods by investigating the gates and passages connecting city to sanctuary and the evidence for human activity on the land in between. The kinetic and sensorial aspects that shaped religious encounter on Samothrace likely began well before the prospective initiate reached the Propylon of Ptolemy II. Between 2022-2024, we explored the fortification wall with the aim of identifying the path ancient pilgrims followed from city to sanctuary. Key features of the structure we have named the West Gate strongly suggest it served as the main passage. Located just to the northeast of the Propylon of Ptolemy II, its two chambers were separated by a monumental doorway and adorned on all sides with tiers of cuttings for stelai. This level of communication and display is unparalleled elsewhere on the island and would be fitting for the primary sacred gate. In a second initiative, systematic field survey of the land between the city wall and the Sanctuary has provided a further body of evidence for understanding the dynamic relationship between the city and sanctuary. Evidence for dense habitation, as well as burial and industry in this interstitial zone, speak to the close interaction between city and sanctuary. The seminar takes place Tuesday, October 8, 2024, 17.00 (Athens) with live presence at the Swedish Institute and online via Zoom. To participate, please register at: https://www.sia.gr/en/events.php?eid=434#ParticipationForm

Within archaeoastronomy, phenomenological approaches including landscape archaeology, actualization studies, use of GIS modeling, and operational sequence analysis inform our understanding of prehistoric practices. Monumental earthworks in Ohio (US) dating to 2000 BP - the Hopewell geometric enclosures – are examined by these means. The matrix of landscape viewshed and celestial dome shape human production of local cosmogonies, becoming encoded across the terrain by indexical
sightlines and functional and ritual architectures. The resultant array of calendrical alignments defines a suite of horizon foresights on the surrounding skyline, whose premised archaeological presence /
absence provides a hypothetico-deductive test in a field of study where such evidence is often lacking. While accurate calendrical sightlines were likely used for subsistence and other scheduling, a spectrum
of sensory stimuli would accompany observations and associated ritual performances. Light, color, an temperature - the compelling sensory phenomena experienced during the sunrises and sunsets indexed
at these earthworks - augment the in situ observations at the sightlines: for the prehistoric Hopewell calendrical specialists, for a present day field researcher, or for the interested public at future interpretive events

Agradeço a todo o curso de Arqueologia da Universidade Federal de Sergipe pelos anos de estudos e conhecimentos, que entre tantos acertos e erros, está me formando e formando outros iguais a mim para melhor contribuir com a Arqueologia e a Sociedade. Agradeço ao meu orientador, Dr. José Roberto Pellini, ou como prefere ser chamado apenas de Zé, por encontrar em sua área um caminho para que minha pesquisa ganhasse vida, além de todas as orientações pelos corredores da UFS que deram certo, pelo visto. Agradeço aos meus pais, Neide e Neris, porque se a universidade é um choque cultural grande para os jovens que saem direto do ensino médio, se eu não tivesse sido criado por esses dois não sei como teria sido. Vocês sempre estarão na primeira fila do meu coração para qualquer conquista minha, assim como meus irmãos Nay e Neto, também estarão. Agradeço pela família que criei com o passar dos anos acadêmicos, que foram prendendo aqui e ali laços que sustentaram as dificuldades que a Academia pode nos proporcionar. Nanny, obrigado por ser a irmã de não-sangue que o curso me trouxe e que mais parece que veio antes da arqueologia; Joseph, Diogo e Geovan, é aquele ditado né, se não for para amar eu nem grito o nome de vocês, né non?; e tantos amigos que ouviram todos os lamentos e vitórias com o temido nome do tcc e deram toda sua força até o fim: Thaissa (é na necessidade que encontramos os verdadeiros, além de sermos irmãos de cemitério agora), Luana (minha grandona, finalmente né?), Lycia; Keltom e Ana Lúcia (sempre vou agradecer por estarem na didática 2 e me acolherem até hoje), Girlene, Sam, Rúbia, Wand, Aline, Tel, Ale, Domingas, Lina; Hiago meu irmão mais antigo, Mille e Theus, melhor quarteto que poderia ter na minha vida; Vanessa, Raimunda, Danilo e todo o pessoal da formatura que se empenhou para um momento tão importante; Fernanda Libório e Luiz Felipe, grandes arqueólogos que sempre serão modelo do que quero ser na minha vida. Agradeço ao Grupo Xenite, vocês são a família virtual que mais respeito, até parece que posso tocar em cada um de vocês a cada vez que corria para vocês ouvirem meus problemas, meu choro acadêmico e também para contar minhas conquistas e vitórias. Letícia, Moni, Len, Sarita, Marylinda, Jaci, Jen. Todo o amor do mundo para vocês e que a Arqueologia continue a me colocar cada vez mais perto de onde vocês estão espalhadas pelo Brasil. Agradeço imensamente a Márcia Jamille por todas as vezes que mandei mensagem em todas as redes sociais na madrugada com minhas dúvidas, desde o início das minhas pretensões acadêmicas em que até na mesa de bar tu me dava umas dicas, o que me rendeu o título de "seu orientando querido". É bom saber que isso vai além dos muros da universidade e hoje somos amigos, eu até faço ponta no seu canal. Todas as ligações por skype valeram a pena e estão por toda extensão desse trabalho, agradeço mesmo. Agradeço, mais uma vez, a Joseph Christopher, nossa ligação deu resultado no acervo fotográfico presente nessa pesquisa, agradeço por todas as patrulhas que executamos nos cemitérios, que mesmo em finais de semana estava lá. Agradeço a Iran Jr. por todo o companheirismo nessa jornada, que cruza nosso tempo de relacionamento com os anos de curso, você foi muitas vezes a única sustentação em que pude me apoiar. Apenas obrigado. E por fim, agradeço a essa força superior que costumamos chamar de Deus, e que bem possivelmente enviou todas as energias positivas para que esse caminho fosse trilhado até aqui. Este trabalho busca debater as relações entre percepção sensorial, memórias e paisagem dentro de diferentes ambientes mortuários da cidade de Aracaju, Sergipe. Com base na Arqueologia Sensorial e na ideia que as memórias fazem parte de uma relação comunicativa e dinâmica com nossa percepção dos lugares, tomamos como objeto da pesquisa o Cemitério Santa Isabel (secularizado e de morfologia tradicional) e o Cemitério Colina da Saudade (modelo de cemitério-jardim). Adentrando esses cemitérios, percebemos que as performances que executamos neles são diferenciadas a partir dos aspectos sensoriais que a morfologia de cada paisagem nos dá, além dos eventos mortuários que alteram nossos encontros com essa materialidade. Desse modo, as memórias e os conceitos quanto a morte podem ser também moldados e influenciados a partir das características sensoriais, e nossa análise deles também.

Book synopsis: Modern Conflict and the Senses investigates the sensual worlds created by modern war, focusing on the sensorial responses embodied in and provoked by the materiality of conflict and its aftermath. The volume positions the industrialized nature of twentieth-century war as a unique cultural phenomenon, in possession of a material and psychological intensity that embodies the extremes of human behaviour, from total economic mobilization to the unbearable sadness of individual loss. Adopting a coherent and integrated hybrid approach to the complexities of modern conflict, the book considers issues of memory, identity, and emotion through wartime experiences of tangible sensations and bodily requirements. This comprehensive and interdisciplinary collection draws upon archaeology, anthropology, military and cultural history, art history, cultural geography, and museum and heritage studies in order to revitalize our understandings of the role of the senses in conflict.

Moilanen, U., & Sahramaa, J. 2024. Exploring materiality and sensory experience through Viking Age reenactment. Time and Mind, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696X.2024.2354831


Sensory archaeology explores how past individuals engaged with their world through all their senses. The use of senses is also a cornerstone in Viking Age reenactment. We argue that research on Viking Age material culture can benefit from the knowledge and experience of Viking Age reenactors, particularly when studying the sensory dimension of using and crafting objects. The traditional dichotomy between archaeologists and reenactors can also be challenged, as many individuals can be professional archaeologists but also reenactors. The application of reenactment in archaeological research is nevertheless situated on the boundary between subjective experiences and objective academic research. For this kind of research to work, methodological rigour and a theoretical framework is required to ensure the reliability and validity of interpretations. By applying a relevant theoretical framework, for example one that embraces the theories of sensory archaeology, while acknowledging the nuanced interplay of authenticity and subjectivity, Viking Age reenactment can provide a unique tool to study Viking Age material culture.

Pursuing lived ancient religion * With the conclusion of the project, we wish to thank the European Research Council for its generous "Advanced Grant" within the 7th Framework Programme (2011-16, contract no. 295555), which financed the preceding research of the editors as much as the conference itself and its Open Access publication. Ursula Birtel-Koltes had been most helpful throughout the project; we wish to thank her for her continuous, efficient and friendly support. Thanks go also to the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies of the University of Erfurt, which hosted the project from 2012 to 2017, and its directors Wolfgang Spickermann and Hartmut Rosa as well as its general secretary Bettina Hollstein. In addition, we were repeatedly guests at Aarhus University and from 2015 at the Danish National Research Foundation's centre of excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (also Aarhus University) and enjoyed the hospitality immensely. The team at Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, was helpful in every respect in the final phase of publication.

Humans inhabit rich social and physical worlds and archaeology is increasingly engaging with the multi-sensory experience of life in the past. In this article, the authors model the soundscapes of five Chacoan communities on the Colorado Plateau, where habitation sites cluster around monumental great houses. The work demonstrates that the audible range of a conch-shell trumpet blown from atop these great houses consistently maps the distribution of associated habitation sites. Staying within the audible reach of great houses may have helped maintain the social cohesion of communities in the past which, the authors argue, also has implications for the management of archaeological landscapes in the modern world.

During the Mesolithic and Neolithic, foragers dwelling in the
Eastern Baltic, Scandinavia and Fennoscandia regions buried
some of their dead on lake islands or other coastal sites.
Based on ethnographic accounts, these sites are often under-
stood as liminal places where water separates the lands of
the dead and the living. In this paper, we take a more rela-
tional view of place and suggest that a particular combina-
tion of spatial perception of landscape and the dynamic
nature of coastal sites might have contributed to the social
agency of these places, resulting in their use as places for
ritual activity. By exploring two Mesolithic–Neolithic burial
places, Donkalnis and Spiginas (western Lithuania), with sen-
sory archaeological and artistic approaches, we suggest that
the ancient foragers of this region buried human bodies in
these locations to be part of the place itself. Similar to other
depositional acts, this could have been done to mark the
location or communicate with the surrounding world.

This article evaluates the progression in the lives of Black residents in Washington, D.C., from 1862 to 2022 by analyzing diverse aspects such as education, economic opportunities, political representation, social equity, and quality of life. It employs a scoring system to earmark improvements, reflecting on both achievements and ongoing challenges. Education and political representation have seen substantial advancements, with notable progress in the establishment of educational institutions and the election of Black officials. However, economic opportunities and social equity continue to face significant hurdles, marked by persistent income inequality and social disparities. Emancipation in D.C. has many opportunities that should not be left unaddressed.

The senses were functionally significant to all aspects of Roman life and played a central role in private and public events, from religious ceremonies to gladiatorial fights. However, to date, these studies primarily focus on archaeological sites from Italy. The scope of this Special Issue, however, was on the sensory implications of archaeological material from a region so far neglected by sensory studies: the ‘Roman North’ (including modern France, western Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and immediately adjacent areas), from the earliest interactions with Roman civilization to Late Antiquity. The contributing authors to this Special Issue come from several different sectors but they all have something in common: they use Roman material from the north to tell stories about Roman lived experience.

This editorial is a piece underscoring the present ‘state of the discipline’. At this stage, however, it would be very generous to designate the research theme as a ‘discipline’. We hope that this editorial and the excellent papers in this Special Issue contribute to addressing this disparity and will encourage others to explore these themes in their own work.

One long-term development the author does accept is a shift from a fourteenth-century concern that was primarily with learned and courtly magic (clerical necromancy, astral magic in princely circles, and so forth) to greater concern in the fifteenth century with "superstition among the common laity," especially women. Here we find practices that might be labeled "superstitious" in the usual modern sense: one could not go blind on a day when one had heard Mass; encountering a hare is bad luck. If one does not believe in such things, they appear as anxious or compulsive reflexes based on false ideas of cause and effect. They are foolish rather than demonic. But defining these superstitions and demarcating them from acceptable Christian rituals and beliefs was not easy. Denis the Carthusian thought that it was acceptable to sprinkle holy water on crops to protect them from storms, but that it was superstitious to use holy water as a defense against wolves. And Bailey quotes Daniel Hobbins's eloquent description of Gerson's guidelines for distinguishing licit and illicit practices: "like lines drawn in blowing sands." Bailey writes clearly, without jargon (postmodernism gets one footnote), and is excellent at noting changes in emphasis over time and differences between his sources without overplaying them. He knows that medieval theologians often repeated earlier medieval theologians, even to the extent of their catalogs of superstitions. Not every suspect practice they listed takes us directly to the peasant folklore of late-medieval France or Germany. Yet he is far from being unreflective and concludes with a chapter explicitly pondering the trope of "modernity" and the role the concept of superstition has played in its construction. A recurrent theme is the way that superstition was defined by authorities, by those "in a position to judge." Many of these theologians were also inquisitors. Eymerich describes his confiscation of necromantic texts from magicians, noting that "he had burned the books along with the men." By the end of the period covered in Bailey's careful and well-researched study, the fires of the great witch hunt were already ablaze.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval devices or systems, without the prior written permission from the publisher, except the quotation of brief passages for review purposes. Die Reihe Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis veröffentlicht Monographien, thematische Sammelbände und Tagungsbände im Bereich der orientalischen Altertumswissenschaften: Bibelwissenschaften (Hebräische Bibel und Septuaginta), Ägyptologie, Altorientalistik, Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Ikonographie und Religionsgeschichte. Herausgeberkreis und Partnerinstitutionen bürgen für ihre akademische Qualität und interdisziplinäre Anlage. Manuskripte können einem Mitglied des Herausgeberkreises unterbreitet werden. Ihre Prüfung obliegt dem Herausgeberkreis, der weitere, unabhängige Gutachten einholen kann. Verbreitung, Subskriptionen und Leserschaft sind weltweit; neue Bände werden, wenn immer möglich, open access (Gold oder Green) veröffentlicht. Ältere Bände sind auf dem digitalen Repository der Universität Zürich archiviert (www.zora.uzh.ch).

The Mycenaean Greek Bronze Age is a relatively new field of study, if one takes the long view of historical enquiry, but it has managed to ca pture the imaginations of scholars and amateurs more than any ot her field of Classical studies. Mycenae was always known to the ancient world; nearly 25 centuries ago an exiled Athenian general turned historian, Thucydides, speculated about its size and the nature of its power. But not until a mere century ago did a German entrepreneur turned archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, begin recovering the material remains of Mycenae, Tiryns and other fortified citadels that dominated mainland Greece in the late second millennium OC: (Schliemann 1878; 1886; Schuchhardt 1891: Bennet, Figure 2). As a result of his discoveries, the term 'Mycenaeans' has been applied by archaeologists to all the Late Bronze Age inhabitants of Greece. Since Sehl iemann's time exploration has continued, and the material remains recovered suggest a sophisti ca ted, cosmopolitan culture, which reached its floruit in the 14th-13th centuries BC (summaries in: Vermeule 1972; Mylonas 1966; Stubbings 1973; 1975a; 1975b; Hooker 1977). Monumental bui !ding complexes-the term 'palaces' is convenient, so long as we resist its modern political and social connotations-have been excavated in different parts of Greece, and surveys have located sites of various sizes in the regions around the palaces. Mycenae is the focal point of one such grouping, or 'kingdom' ; others exist at Pylos and at Thebes (Bennet, Figure 2).

As Jonathan Marion and Julia Offen note below, "more than just ways of thinking and being, cultures are also fields of sensation," and both cultural transmission and cultural understanding depend on experiential engagement. Recognizing this, many contemporary anthropologists seek to explore the variety of media through which multisensory experiences and knowledges can be communicated ethnographically by making use of emergent and established technologies. AN staff thank Jonathan Marion for his assistance in developing both In Focus series in this issue.

Neste artigo, busca-se relatar a experiência de uma pesquisa que se debruçou sobre as memórias invisibilizadas de um cemitério da cidade de Joinville, Estado de Santa Catarina, cuja história de seu território está ligada àexistência, no passado, de duas instituições de confinamento de sujeitos infames: um Abrigo de Alienados (1923-1942) e um Presídio Político (1942-1945). A escuta dos personagens que narram suas experiências com esse local e as estratégias do flâneur como forma de deixar-se levar na busca pelas memórias por aquilo em que se configuram sentidos foram os fundamentos do exercício de “ficcionar” sobre esse determinado objeto de estudo, a partir de uma relação sensível com esse campo, uma “Cidade dos Mortos”, onde foi possível escutar as vozes que nele ainda pulsam e tensionam a história desse local e seu aparente estado de silêncio na cidade.

Hands-on archaeological experiences within the National Park Service (NPS) and throughout the USA are almost exclusively available through universitylevel courses and field schools. NPS youth employment opportunities tend to be limited to physical labour or office work. For decades, archaeologists have sought a more inclusive work experience for youth, but still face challenges. The Urban Archaeology Corps (UAC) works to make archaeological employment accessible to youth from racial and ethnic minority groups, urban neighbourhoods, and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Hands-on archaeological experiences within the National Park Service (NPS) and throughout the USA are almost exclusively available through universitylevel courses and field schools. NPS youth employment opportunities tend to be limited to physical labour or office work. For decades, archaeologists have sought a more inclusive work experience for youth, but still face challenges. The Urban Archaeology Corps (UAC) works to make archaeological employment accessible to youth from racial and ethnic minority groups, urban neighbourhoods, and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

This article is an introductory contribution to our Special Issue Reconsidering the Chaîne Opératoire: Towards a Multifaceted Approach to the Archaeology of Techniques. The chaîne opératoire is a central and fundamental concept for archaeological studies that has been fully appropriated and repurposed by several generations of researchers. In this paper, we would like to present some of the points discussed and illustrated by the various articles in this special issue. The aim is to highlight theoretical and practical considerations in various fields, with a diachronic focus. From the biographical approach to the study of artefacts to the challenges of interdisciplinarity through cognitive and sensory approaches, the theoretical discussion is rich and innovative, acknowledging that the chaîne opératoire can be used as a tool for deciphering the complex network of artefacts, environments, and societies of the past and present.

Over 103 samples of stucco reliefs from the archaeological site of Palenque, Chiapas were studied by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffractometry, in order to characterize the constituent materials and the techniques employed to make the lime plasters. The results lead us to propose a sequence for the execution of the reliefs based on technological differences in the preparation of the plasters located in buildings belonging to different periods.

On the occasion of Iconographica's 20th anniversary  a special volume has just come out under the general title: Images in Premodern Societies. A Dialogue about the State of the Field on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary, ed. by M. Bacci, F. Crivello and V. Scepanovic. In this pdf, you'll find my answers to a questionnaire addressed to a number of art historians on this occasion.