This study looks at the Iron Age fortress at Tell el-Hesi as a borderlands site between Judah and Philistia in order to understand the cultural and political role of the site and the role it may have played in state formation in the southern Levant. I analyzed the pottery found in the construction and earliest occupation phases of the Iron Age fortress at Tell el-Hesi in an attempt to date the phases. The results of the pottery analysis and its implications are then compared with recent scholarship on the site.

No / The Chalcolithic tell of Ghabristan in northwest Iran is now buried by alluvium and a magnetometer survey of the tell and its surroundings was undertaken to reveal any features under this cover. After the abandonment of the tell in the late third millennium BC it was used as an Iron Age cemetery by inhabitants of the neighbouring tell of Sagzabad. The magnetometer data show a related irregularly shaped channel that is also considered to be of Iron Age date.Its shallow burial depth, compared with the thick sedimentary layers underneath, indicates a considerable slowdown of alluviation rates in the second millennium BC, possibly related to environmental changes. The survey also found evidence for undisturbed buried building remains, most likely associated with copper workshops.

No / Excavations were carried out on the tidal islet settlement of Eilean Maleit, previously excavated by Erskine Beveridge in the early part of this century, to test the hypothesis that the site represented a wheelhouse built into an earlier Atlantic roundhouse or broch. It is clear from the re-excavation that the wheelhouse was indeed set into an earlier massive-walled dry stone structure, probably an Atlantic roundhouse but almost certainly not a classic broch tower. The denuded condition of this early structure when the wheelhouse was built suggests that a significant period of time may have elapsed between the occupation of the two structures. Publication of this work is sponsored by Historic Scotland.

No / When tidal erosion on Cnip beach uncovered a well-preserved wheelhouse complex, it presented a rare opportunity to shed new light on this architectural phenomenon. This title sets out the results of the excavations, placing them in the wider context of the British and European Iron Age.

No / This volume grew out of an interdisciplinary discussion held in the context of the Leverhulme-funded project 'Changing Beliefs in the Human Body', through which the image of the body in pieces soon emerged as a potent site of attitudes about the body and associated practices in many periods. Archaeologists routinely encounter parts of human and animal bodies in their excavations. Such fragmentary evidence has often been created through accidental damage and the passage of time - nevertheless, it can also signify a deliberate and meaningful act of fragmentation. As a fragment, a part may acquire a distinct meaning through its enchained relationship to the whole or alternatively it may be used in a more straightforward manner to represent the whole or even act as stand-in for other variables. This collection of papers puts bodily fragmentation into a long-term historical perspective. The temporal spread of the papers collected here indicates both the consistent importance and the varied perception of body parts in the archaeological record of Europe and the Near East. By bringing case studies together from a range of locations and time periods, each chapter brings a different insight to the role of body parts and body wholes and explores the status of the body in different cultural contexts. Many of the papers deal directly with the physical remains of the dead body, but the range of practices and representations covered in this volume confirm the sheer variability of treatments of the body throughout human history. Every one of the contributions shows how looking at how the human body is divided into pieces or parts can give us deeper insights into the beliefs of the particular society which produced these practices and representations.

No / The discovery of the extraordinary Hirschlanden figure was reported in this journal in 1964. Since then the statue has featured in numerous discussions of Iron Age art and society, to the extent that it has become one of the iconic images of the European Iron Age. It has become almost taken for granted that the Hirschlanden figure is an `intensely masculine¿ warrior statue representing the heroised dead. However, certain aspects of the figure suggest a rather deeper, more ambiguous symbolism. The authors use their up-to-date critique to raise questions about the eclectic character of Iron Age spirituality.

No / The promontory site of Eilean Olabhat, North Uist was excavated between 1986 and 1990 as part of the Loch Olabhat Research Project. It was shown to be a complex enclosed settlement and industrial site with several distinct episodes of occupation. The earliest remains comprise a small Iron Age building dating to the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, which was modified on several occasions prior to its abandonment. Much later, the Early Historic remains comprise a small cellular building, latterly used as a small workshop within which fine bronze and silverwork was produced in the fifth to seventh centuries AD. Evidence of this activity is represented by quantities of mould and crucible fragments as well as tuyère and other industrial waste products. The site subsequently fell into decay for a second time prior to its medieval reoccupation probably in the 14th to 16th centuries AD. Eilean Olabhat has produced a well-stratified, though discontinuous, structural and artefactual sequence from the mid-first millennium BC to the later second millennium AD, and has important implications for ceramic development in the Western Isles over that period, as well as providing significant evidence for the nature and social context of Early Historic metalworking.

No

No / Cultural encounters form a dominant theme in the study of Iron Age Europe. This was particularly acute in regions where urbanising Mediterranean civilisations came into contact with ‘barbarian’ worlds. This volume presents preliminary work from the ENTRANS Project, which explores the nature and impact of such encounters in south-east Europe, alongside a series of papers on analogous European regions. A range of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches are offered in an effort to promote dialogue around these central issues in European protohistory.

No / This paper introduces stable light isotope analysis as a method of investigating the homogeneity and heterogeneity of communities inhabiting areas of the East Alpine region during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. It will present a short review on the use of carbon and nitrogen light isotope values, and discuss how they provide insight into the diet and health of past populations. A pilot study of results obtained from the bone collagen of 14 individuals, from 6 sites located in modern-day Slovenia and northern Croatia, will also be presented. This small dataset provides an example of the values that will be collected throughout the ENTRANS Project, and how they can be used as a tool to investigate the lives of people in the past. / HERA joint research programme