The study examines the Italian legislation on the cultural heritage and the environment, and points out the cultural gaps from the point of view of the definition and comprehension of these matters, and the delays surrounding the management of the cultural heritage in the territory. While theoretical debate on the environment in Italy has received a strong impulse in recent years, the cultural heritage continues to be governed by generally outdated laws of an essentially restrictive and punitive nature. The environment and cultural heritage are also seen by the Italian legislation as two separate entities, with negative consequences at the level of the protection, safeguarding and evaluation of the heritage. The study also puts forward a unified, dynamic view of the human environment (the interaction between human beings and the environment), which includes both the visible and invisible landscapes, the latter existing concealed beneath the surface. The proposed concept of the subsoil is that of a structured universe, in whose understanding and interpretation archaeology plays a determining role. By protecting and safeguarding only what ‘we can see’, i.e. the environmental and historic landscape above the soil, the law forgets that this is nothing other than the product of a series of partial landscapes fossilized and stratified in the course of time. By seeking out a new definition of the human environment, the study advances a conception that takes into account continuing transformations while not excluding an intuitive and emotional approach.

Over a period of 14 years, and as part of the Polish Archaeological Record research project, the author directed a field survey of the whole of the Lega river basin (NE Poland) – an area of over 850 km2. As a result of the survey of this hitherto poorly investigated area, almost 1100 archaeological sites were discovered, 748 of which contained lithic materials. The most interesting sites were initially studied by detailed mapping of surface-find distribution and later by excavation. A complete study of the whole drainage basin was very important for settlement research. The large number of the surface lithic assemblages enables reliable statistical analyses and accurate cartographic studies supported by palaeo-environmental reconstructions. Lithic assemblages were analysed from the point of production techniques and typology, dispelling some doubts about chronological-cultural affiliations of flint inventories from north-east Poland and neighbouring countries, but also raising new questions. It was possible to observe clear and changing settlement preferences in the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in the zone of late Glacial lakes and their adjacent outwash territories to the south. Six concentrations of sites were discovered, associated with communication routes and zones of economic activity.

Dans le cadre de programmes de recherches portant, d'une part, sur le processus d'apparition du Néolithique dans l'Quest de la France, et, d'autre part, sur les échanges de lames polies alpines, une réflexion particulière s'attache actuellement aux biens de prestige qui semblent accompagner l'accroissement des échanges économiques et sans doute matrimoniaux entre sociétés d'agriculteurs et sociétés sédentaires ‘Mésolithiques’ des régions cotières de l'Armorique. Les lames de haches polies non fonctionnelles, concernées par cette étude, sont un des éléments participant de cette nouvelle compétition sociale située dans la première moltié du Vème millénaire av. J.-C.

Significance evaluation plays a central role in archaeological heritage management. In this paper, a practical approach is presented based on experiences and recent discussions in the Netherlands. A restricted number of values (perception, physical quality and intrinsic quality) are operationalized as criteria in order to evaluate archaeological phenomena. In this manner, a more transparent framework is created to help determine if a monument is worth preserving. In the process of selection, monuments worth preserving are scrutinized from the viewpoints of policy considerations and priorities in archaeological heritage management in order to select monuments deserving of sustained preservation. The form of this system of significance evaluation is such that it can be used by all government levels, that the process is understandable for non-archaeologists, and that its results remain relevant from a research perspective.

This paper argues that the conception of ritual employed in both archaeology and anthropology is a product of post-Enlightenment rationalism. Because it does not meet modern western criteria for practical action, ritual is frequently described as non-functional and irrational; furthermore, this designation is employed as the primary way of identifying ritual archaeologically. However, this evaluation of ritual action must be questioned. Contemporary modes of categorizing human practice are not untainted by socio-political interest but enable the reproduction of certain forms of power. It is argued that many other societies do not distinguish ritual from secular action. In fact, what anthropologists identify as ritual is generally considered practical and effective action by its practitioners. This is because different conceptions of instrumentality and causation inform such activities. For archaeologists, use of the concept of ritual has resulted in a serious misapprehension of prehistoric rationality such that ‘secular’ activities (for example subsistence practices) are assumed to be governed by a universally-applicable functionalist logic. In order to address this problem, what is required is an approach that explores the essential difference between prehistoric rationality and our own notions of what is effective action. A discussion of some finds from middle Bronze Age settlements in southern England will provide a working example of how one might begin to move towards this goal.

The aim of this paper is to locate in the emergence and elaboration of Sardinia's Nuragic society, a narrative of cultural identity formation. The Nuragic period is typically defined in terms of economic, social, and demographic characteristics, and a Nuragic identity is implicitly taken to be a passive byproduct of these material circumstances. Such an account overlooks the role of identity in enabling and characterizing human action. The disjointed and contradictory Nuragic period transition preceded the formation of a coherent cultural identity. This identity, it will be argued, underwent a retrospective rearticulation to establish a distinct boundary between the Nuragic society and its antecedents. The material record illustrates clearly that the history of the Nuragic identity is implicated in social development on Sardinia in the second millennium BC.

Although much has been written about the use of information technologies for the management of archaeological resources at a national level, there has been little published discussion of the problems and opportunities that are apparent at the supra-national scale. In this paper, we consider the historical development and current state of database management systems and, more recently, geographic information systems in the management of archaeological information at a European scale. We review the development of archaeological inventories, from paper-based records to complex computer-based systems, and then consider the situation throughout Europe, taking account of archaeological needs as well as the administrative, social and political context. Our study reveals that, despite widespread acknowledgement of the advantages of such technologies, GIS has not been rapidly or consistently deployed. A very wide variety of systems and standards currently exists throughout the community, a situation which is explained through reference to the separate historical development of archaeological management structures in the different countries. We identify a number of common issues that recur wherever GIS has been applied to the management of archaeological inventories. Particular attention is drawn to historical and logistical issues, the availability of technological skills, geo-referencing, the spatial definition of the archaeological evidence and the definition of analytical concepts within archaeological management.

A cremation and subsequent burial can be analysed as a set of technological, social and ritual transformations. It consists of three parts: first, the place where the body was burnt or cremated; secondly, the intermediary period in time and space, where the cleaned bones are often transported somewhere else; this interval increases the room for manoeuvre in those aspects which are concerned with the renewal, reorganization and re-legitimization of relations between the living; and, finally, the place where the ashes or the bones were deposited or buried, which may be the same place where the body was cremated, but normally it is not. Thus the urn represents the place where the deceased died, the cremated bones are from the rite of cremation, whereas the burial of the urn and the deposition of undamaged artefacts are from the final burial site, where other rituals were performed by the descendants, relatives and others. The distribution of urns may illuminate the notion that distance has hardly been a barrier and that people from, the ‘northern margins’ have travelled all over Europe from the late Bronze Age to the Viking period. This approach attacks the dual cultural hypothesis and some elements of core–periphery models.

In this paper, I discuss the importance of fossil fields and traces of ancient agriculture as archaeological source material. Examples from excavations in the Väderstad area in Östergötland, Sweden are given. In the article, I describe and contrast two different methods of excavation: (A) The digging of long trenches through visible features, a method here used as a means of trial excavation but previously often the only method used in the excavation of ancient fields. This method gives at the best a framework for interpretation. Though it does enable dating, the intensity, extent and content of different phases cannot be established with any degree of certainty. (B) The removal of the ancient plough soil over the full extent of the ancient field, a method here used for final excavations. With this method, enough information was acquired for the derivation of a detailed interpretation. The results will be detailed enough to allow comparison of the excavated fields with other categories of excavated monuments and thus give a new perspective on general archaeological problems. The RAÄ 166 site at Hogstads socken is given as an example of this approach.

There are hardly any written sources on Christianization in southwestern Germany during early Medieval times. From its beginning in the nineteenth century, archaeological research was concerned with the question of whether the interpretation of material culture is helpful in the study of Christianization. This article first deals with the history of research. It focuses on the question of how the main archaeological sources of Merovingian times – the Reihengräberfelder – were interpreted in terms of Christianization. Obviously several aspects were and still are the main focus of research: special objects with Christian symbols (brooches, belt buckles or the so-called Goldblattkreuze) are often vaguely interpreted as symbols of early Christianity or in some cases as a sign for the buried person being Christian. This results in the process of Christianization being dated to the seventh century. These explanations are influenced by a direct social-historical interpretation of the Reihengräberfelder. They are strongly influenced by the results of historical research. A basic discussion about the character and the significance of objects from graves in the context of debates about Christianization has not yet taken place. Thus, in the second part of the article, questions derived from contextual archaeology are raised which may enrich the discussion about the interpretation of Christianization on the basis of graves: what importance may objects with Christian symbols have, if considered in the context of their ritual deposition and their associated finds? Do the Medieval graves provide information about the world of the living at all? Or how is ideology manifested within them? Is it at all, therefore, possible to describe them as testimonies of a process of Christianization? The use of carefully chosen sociological, ethnographical or historical analogies is crucial for the future development of the discussion. Furthermore, it is important to view the topic from the perspective of two analogies: analogies of the archaeological context as well as of processes of Christianization.

Authenticity is frequently seen as crucial in archaeology. In this paper, we examine the nature of authenticity and question by implication whether so much attention should be given to determining the actual age and thus the genuineness of archaeological objects. We show that numbers of authenticated objects are potentially fakes. There is an acceptance that many archaeological sites and reconstructions are not actually really old, although the acceptability of this view depends on one's flexibility towards the concept of authenticity. It is clear that the public does not necessarily put the same value on genuineness as do archaeologists. We suggest that certain aspects of the past have always been a potentially renewable resource. We suggest that a more relaxed approach to genuineness and authenticity is acceptable today and is already accepted by the public as consumers of the past.

Recent improvements in archaeomagnetism applied to archaeological baked clay, in France and Bulgaria, are presented in this paper. After reviewing the historical development of the method in France and Bulgaria, and the principles of the method, we present sampling techniques for in situ structures (kilns and hearths) and sets of displaced materials (bricks or tiles). In the analysis protocol, we stress the importance of correcting the magnetic anisotropic effects especially for bricks. We also show how the problem of brittle specimens can be solved by induration. After a review of the published archaeomagnetic data currently available for France and Bulgaria, we present different smoothing techniques applied to data obtained in these countries. Finally, we present the usage of the variation curves of the geomagnetic elements in the past to calculate the archaeomagnetic dates. One of these techniques is based on a Bayesian approach, similar to the case of the dendro-chronological calibration of radiocarbon ages. The main goal of the paper is to highlight for the archaeologists the possibilities of archaeomagnetism for dating purposes and for other problems in archaeology, on the basis of the experience of the laboratories in France and Bulgaria. The developments of selected archaeomagnetic studies in other European countries are quoted and referenced.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the neglected role of archaeological archives in Cultural Resource Management in particular and in the discipline of archaeology in general. Through reference to a major recent survey of the size, condition, usage and future prospects of archaeological archives in England, it is argued that the neglect of archives leads to fundamental questions regarding the purpose of archaeology in general. Why are archaeological archives generated and kept ‘for posterity’? If they are worthy of retention, how can they be better used and integrated into the discipline? It is argued that there is a need to recognize the ‘ex situ’ archaeological resource as a concept and that archaeology should recognize that the study of this resource should be a major area of activity alongside the generation of new information through fieldwork.

Accurate mapping of the 78-ha Roman town of Viroconium (modern-day Wroxeter in Shropshire, UK) in preparation for detailed research and site management proved a task that requires the use of modern information techniques. This article describes the creation of high spatial accuracy maps by the use of GPS-located gradiometer survey data in order to georeference available aerial photographs, and the use of digital processing of aerial photographs to obtain additional information invisible to the unaided eye. A GIS is being used to build a vectorized interpreted map of the town with a spatial error typically less than one metre. The results compare favourably with previous mapping efforts based on traditional methods.