Working in landscape archaeology: the social and territorial significance of the agricultural revolution in al‐Andalus

The agrarian transformations which took place in the Iberian Peninsula between the eighth and the tenth century are essential for an understanding of how al‐Andalus came into being. These developments provided the basis of a social formation which developed into a tributary mode of production. This study is part of a research project that draws inspiration from the tenets of landscape archaeology. Studying historic landscapes as part of the material culture of past societies provides valuable information about cultures and the ways they express themselves in space.     

BEAR-CLAWS IN GERMANIC GRAVES

Summary. The remains of bear-skins for cremation burials of the late pre-Roman and early Roman Iron Age are a long neglected 'grave-good'. This is because of their scattered occurrence in graves on the continent in Sweden, north Germany, Bohemia and in the Celto-Germanic 'contact-zone' as far west as England. Their distribution and connection with many high-status graves marks them as Germanic'prestige goods'. This raises the question of ethnicity in these graves.