The Nuragic 'civilization' of Bronze and Iron Age Sardinia, known for its monumental stone towers, sacred wells and peculiar bronze votive figurines, has long fascinated travellers and archaeologists. Yet only recently have scholars outside the island recognized the potential significance of these unique island societies in the development of broader ancient Mediterranean cultural patterns. One reason has been the relative inaccessibility of recent reference works on the Nuragic evidence. The present Prehistory attempts to remedy the need for a complete and up-to-date synthesis of all extant evidence on Nuragic settlement, technology, economy, trade and ritual. This original interpretation of archaeological, historical and iconographic data constitutes the first modern study of the origins and development of these societies to appear in English.

The Archaeology of Nuragic Sardinia is a comprehensive synthesis of evidence bearing on current understandings of Sardinian prehistory from the 23rd through the 8th centuries BC. It is a study of the material traces left by those insular societies known famously for their unique megalithic 'Giants' tombs and intricate water-temples, as well as for the remarkable cyclopean edifices or nuraghi for which this singular 'civilization' takes its name. Following introductory discussions of the history of Nuragic research up to the present, as well as the island's natural setting, individual chapters are given over to detailed examinations of findings on chronology, settlement, subsistence, industries, trade, external relations and cult practices for successive chronological periods from the Early Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age. For each period, issues of interpretation are addressed with regard to what might be reasonably inferred about Nuragic social institutions, normative codes, cognitive orientations, identity formations, cultural hybridity and entanglements, and the role of indigenous and exogenous factors in cultural continuity and discontinuity. While the focus throughout is on the Sardinian record, due consideration is also paid to potentially related developments on the neighboring island of Corsica. A postscript features a glimpse of life at the great Iron Age sanctuary of Santa Vittoria di Serri as imagined by the late 'father of Sardinian archaeology' Giovanni Lilliu.

With one of the richest archaeological records and most complicated histories in the Mediterranean, Sardinia provides an important laboratory for studying the interaction of indigenous societies and outside forces in a partly isolated geographical context. Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, Jr. use both material culture and written documents to reconstruct the social and economic processes of an island society that showed both cultural creativity and continuity but responded to invasions from the Phoenicians through the Romans to the Aragonese. This first accessible reconstruction of island archaeology provides a balanced picture of the sweep of Sardinian history.

Figurines dating from prehistory have been found across the world but have never before been considered globally. The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines is the first book to offer a comparative survey of this kind, bringing together approaches from across the landscape of contemporary research into a definitive resource in the field. The volume is comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible, with dedicated and fully illustrated chapters covering figurines from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia and the Pacific laid out by geographical location and written by the foremost scholars in figurine studies; wherever prehistoric figurines are found they have been expertly described and examined in relation to their subject matter, form, function, context, chronology, meaning, and interpretation. Specific themes that are discussed by contributors include, for example, theories of figurine interpretation, meaning in processes and contexts of figurine production, use, destruction and disposal, and the cognitive and social implications of representation. Chronologically, the coverage ranges from the Middle Palaeolithic through to areas and periods where an absence of historical sources renders figurines 'prehistoric' even though they might have been produced in the mid-2nd millennium AD, as in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The result is a synthesis of invaluable insights into past thinking on the human body, gender, identity, and how the figurines might have been used, either practically, ritually, or even playfully.

Material Connections eschews outdated theory, tainted by colonialist attitudes, and develops a new cultural and historical understanding of how factors such as mobility, materiality, conflict and co-presence impacted on the formation of identity in the ancient Mediterranean. Fighting against ‘hyper-specialisation’ within the subject area, it explores the multiple ways that material culture was used to establish, maintain and alter identities, especially during periods of transition, culture encounter and change. A new perspective is adopted, one that perceives the use of material culture by prehistoric and historic Mediterranean peoples in formulating and changing their identities. It considers how objects and social identities are entangled in various cultural encounters and interconnections. The movement of people as well as objects has always stood at the heart of attempts to understand the courses and process of human history. The Mediterranean offers a wealth of such information and Material Connections, expanding on this base, offers a dynamic, new subject of enquiry – the social identify of prehistoric and historic Mediterranean people – and considers how migration, colonial encounters, and connectivity or insularity influence social identities. The volume includes a series of innovative, closely related case studies that examine the contacts amongst various Mediterranean islands – Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete, Cyprus, the Balearics – and the nearby shores of Italy, Greece, North Africa, Spain and the Levant to explore the social and cultural impact of migratory, colonial and exchange encounters. Material Connections forges a new path in understanding the material culture of the Mediterranean and will be essential for those wishing to develop their understanding of material culture and identity in the Mediterranean.

The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean offers new insights into the material and social practices of many different Mediterranean peoples during the Bronze and Iron Ages, presenting in particular those features that both connect and distinguish them. Contributors discuss in depth a range of topics that motivate and structure Mediterranean archaeology today, including insularity and connectivity; mobility, migration, and colonization; hybridization and cultural encounters; materiality, memory, and identity; community and household; life and death; and ritual and ideology. The volume's broad coverage of different approaches and contemporary archaeological practices will help practitioners of Mediterranean archaeology to move the subject forward in new and dynamic ways. Together, the essays in this volume shed new light on the people, ideas, and materials that make up the world of Mediterranean archaeology today, beyond the borders that separate Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

A Research Guide to the Ancient World: Print and Electronic Sources is a partially annotated bibliography that covers the study of the ancient world, and closes the traditional subject gap between the humanities and the social sciences in this area of study. This book is the only bibliographic resource available for such holistic coverage.