ABSTRACT

In the past two decades, conflict archaeology has become firmly established as a promising field of research, as reflected in publications, symposia, conference sessions and fieldwork projects. It has its origins in the study of battlefields and other conflict-related phenomena in the modern Era, but numerous studies show that this theme, and at least some of its methods, techniques and theories, are also relevant for older historical and even prehistoric periods.

This book presents a series of case-studies on conflict archaeology in ancient Europe, based on the results of both recent fieldwork and a reassessment of older excavations. The chronological framework spans from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity, and the geographical scope from Iberia to Scandinavia.

Along key battlefields such as the Tollense Valley, Baecula, Alesia, Kalkriese and Harzhorn, the volume also incorporates many other sources of evidence that can be directly related to past conflict scenarios, including defensive works, military camps, battle-related ritual deposits, and symbolic representations of violence in iconography and grave goods. The aim is to explore the material evidence for the study of warfare, and to provide new theoretical and methodological insights into the archaeology of mass violence in ancient Europe and beyond.

part 1|23 pages

New forms of collective violence in the Neolithic period?

chapter 3|11 pages

Spanish Levantine rock art

A graphic trace of violence and warfare in Iberian prehistory

part 2|67 pages

Tribal warfare in Bronze and Iron Age Europe

chapter 5|10 pages

Die by the sword … or the spear?

Early bronze weapons in Scandinavia

chapter 8|9 pages

A battle between Gauls in Picardy

The tropaion of Ribemont-sur-Ancre

chapter 9|13 pages

Singing the deeds of the ancestors

The memory of battle in Late Iron Age Gaul and Iberia 1

part 3|49 pages

Mass violence and imperial expansion (1)

chapter 10|10 pages

Rome versus Carthage

The Second Punic War battlefield of Baecula and the siege of Iliturgi 1

chapter 11|12 pages

Archaeological perspectives on the siege of Numantia

The new fieldwork project at the Roman camps at Renieblas (Spain, 2nd–1st centuries BC)

part 4|77 pages

Mass violence and imperial expansion (2)

chapter 14|12 pages

Cimbri and Teutones against Rome

First research results concerning the battle of Arausio (105 BC)

chapter 15|15 pages

A Roman massacre in the far north

Caesar’s annihilation of the Tencteri and Usipetes in the Dutch river area

chapter 16|9 pages

The battlefield of Alesia

chapter 17|11 pages

Tracing Julius Caesar

The Late Republican military camp at Hermeskeil and its historical context

chapter 18|13 pages

The Germanic-Roman battlefields of Kalkriese and Harzhorn

A methodological comparison