Related Guides
Background Sources
- The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany This volume compromises a collection of essays in English by leading scholars working in Germany, presenting the latest developments in current research as well as situating their work within wider international scholarship through a series of critical responses from other, very different, national perspectives. In doing so, this book aims to reveal the riches of the archaeology of Roman Germany, promote the achievements of German scholars in the area, and help facilitate continued English and German language discourses on the Roman era.
- The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. This book is a wide-ranging survey of a crucial period in prehistory during which many social, economic, and technological changes took place. Written by expert specialists in the field, the book provides coverage both of the themes that characterize the period, and of the specific developments that took place in the various countries of Europe.
- Europe before Rome – A Site-by-Site Tour of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages In Europe before Rome, T. Douglas Price takes readers on a guided tour through dozens of the most important prehistoric sites on the continent, from very recent discoveries to some of the most famous and puzzling places in the world, like Chauvet, Stonehenge, and Knossos. This volume focuses on more than 60 sites, organized chronologically according to their archaeological time period and accompanied by 200 illustrations, including numerous color photographs, maps, and drawings.
- The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe This book offers a comprehensive and detailed study of the European Neolithic from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta. Drawing on contributions representing different archaeological traditions and perspectives, it covers the period from c. 6500 BC, when a Neolithic lifestyle is identified in parts of Greece, to c. 2500 BC, when it reaches northernmost Europe.
- Handbook of Paleolithic Typology : Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe This book presents the major tool types of European Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Building on the typelist of the late Francois Bordes, with many forms that have been recognized since, it presents working definitions of the types with illustrations and discussions of the variability inherent to lithic typologies. The authors combine classic typological views with current notions of lithic typological variation.
- Medieval Archaeology : An Encyclopedia Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia is the first reference work to examine the archaeology of all medieval Europe, from Ireland in the west to Russia in the east, and from Scandinavia in the north to Italy in the south. Its comprehensive coverage spans from A.D. 500 through the end of the High Middle Ages (c. 1500).
- Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.--A.D. 1000 : Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World This detailed encyclopedia explores the many peoples of early European civilization. Viewed as barbarian through the lens of ancient Greece and Rome, these civilizations were responsible for such accomplishments as the rise of farming in the Neolithic era and the building of Stonehenge. Coverage extends from prehistoric origins through the early Middle Ages (8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000) when tribal movements helped define the end of ancient culture and the rise of the modern European world.
Regional Databases
- American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES) This link opens in a new window Covers North American scholarship on East-Central Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union. Contains bibliographic records for journal articles, books and book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, online resources, and selected government publications.
- International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new window IMB (International Medieval Bibliography) indexes articles in journals, Festschriften, conference proceedings, and collected essays, covering all aspects of medieval studies within the period 450 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Date coverage: 1967 - present.
Featured Films
- Meeting Neanderthal (streaming, Academic Video Online) Long before the arrival of Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals wander the vast European plains, regularly drowned into the Ice Ages. Several discoveries in France and England, and especially on the island of Jersey, now allow the archaeologists to understand the lifestyle of those first great nomads of Europe, that lasted 300,000 years.
- The Search For Alfred The Great (streaming, Academic Video Online) Inside the churchyard of St. Bartholomew's in Winchester there is a mysterious unmarked grave, a grave that has long been thought to contain the remains of King Alfred and his family. Now a team of archaeologists are exhuming these bones and, using the latest scientific techniques and DNA sampling, combined with an informed history of the site seek to find out if this really is the last resting place of King Alfred the Great.
- The Iceman Cometh (streaming, Academic Video Online) In 1991, a pair of vacationing German hikers stumbled onto one of the most remarkable finds in the history of archaeology: the perfectly preserved body of a 5,000-year old man. What made the discovery so important was more than just his state of physical preservation, but also the period of time from which he came--the very cusp of the age between stone and steel. Host and adventurer Josh Bernstein heads for the high Alps on the Austrian-Italian border to discover the latest secrets revealed by
- The Enigma of the Great Menhir (streaming, Academic Video Online) Seven thousand years ago, peoples living on the Atlantic shores erected thousands of gigantic stones in Western Europe. A millennium before the first cuneiform alphabets of Mesopotamia or Egyptian hieroglyphics, they engraved stylized signs that has long remained a mystery. An international team has been able to decipher this original language, shared by all the Atlantic cultures during the Neolithic. Based on new techniques of aerial and underwater surveys, as well as on spectacular 3D
- Mummies Trilogy. Episode 1, Bog Bodies (streaming, Academic Video Online) An investigation into the watery world of the peat bog corpses. Under dark peaty waters lie buried the secrets of history. Tales of sacrifice, murder, religion and ancient lives. In Bog Bodies we travel around this world to bring the most amazing examples of preserved humanity back to life, through their corpses and the stories that they tell. Over the last few hundred years, the remains of ancient humans have been discovered during peat cutting operations across Europe.
- The Twilight of the Celts (streaming, Academic Video Online) French-speaking Switzerland is the scene of an extraordinary discovery. On Mormont Hill, diggers have unearthed a huge Celtic sanctuary, the largest known to date. 2,000 years ago, the Helvetians dug hundreds of shafts in this isolated spot to deposit offerings to their gods: objects, animals, and fragments of human bodies. The discovery enables archaeologists to inquire into the religious practice of our ancestors.
- Stories from the Dark Earth : Meet the Ancestors Revisited. Episode 1, Pagans of Roman Britain (streaming, Academic Video Online) Series in which archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation and new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history. Julian goes back to the excavation of two burials from Roman Britain - a wealthy man from Roman Winchester and a lavishly-appointed grave of a woman from the heart of London that holds a special and unexpected secret only recently unlocked.
- Stories from the Dark Earth : Meet the Ancestors Revisited. Episode 2, Families of the Stone Age (streaming, Academic Video Online) Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two burials from the Stone Age - the grave of an entire Neolithic family in Dorset and a tomb on Orkney that is helping to reveal some strange and unexpected burial rites from over 5,000 years ago.
- Stories from the Dark Earth : Meet the Ancestors Revisited. Episode 3, Sacred Women of the Iron Age (streaming, Academic Video Online) Archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation, and brand new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history. Tonight Julian goes back to the excavation of two very different Iron Age woman - the possible sacrifice of a teenage girl from the Cotswold's, and the extraordinary Chariot Queen whose well preserved possessions are leading to some astonishing new conclusions about Iron Age belief, all because
- Stories from the Dark Earth : Meet the Ancestors Revisited. Episode 4, The First Anglo-Saxons (streaming, Academic Video Online) Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries to explore the mystery of the Anglo-Saxon invasions that began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In particular, the rich burial of a warrior and his horse offers up fresh clues to some of the very first pioneers.
- WW1 Tunnels of Death. Episode 1, The Killing Fields (streaming, Academic Video Online) Messines is among World War One's most iconic and dramatic battlefields; now for the first time in almost a century, the secrets long buried under its scarred fields have been rediscovered, in the exciting and dramatic World War One's Tunnels of Death: The Big Dig. Archaeologists have opened up a vast 1.5-mile trench straight through the battlefield on a scale of military excavation that comes up only once in a decade. Unearthing the fighting trenches, unexploded bombs and grenades and even the bodies of the men and horses who fought and died there, this extraordinary dig reveals a first hand insight into this pivotal battle of World War One.
- WW1 Tunnels of Death. Episode 2, Earthquaking the Ridge (streaming, Academic Video Online) Messines is among World War One's most iconic and dramatic battlefields; now for the first time in almost a century, the secrets long buried under its scarred fields have been rediscovered, in the exciting and dramatic World War One's Tunnels of Death: The Big Dig. Archaeologists have opened up a vast 1.5-mile trench straight through the battlefield on a scale of military excavation that comes up only once in a decade. Unearthing the fighting trenches, unexploded bombs and grenades and even the bodies of the men and horses who fought and died there, this extraordinary dig reveals a first hand insight into this pivotal battle of World War One.
- Horizon. First Britons (streaming, Academic Video Online) Horizon meets the scientists at the forefront of Stone Age exploration. New technologies are helping them to see the Earth during a previous age. Ancient DNA from the seabed reveals landscapes that in the prehistoric past were joined to continents, linking hunter-gatherer groups together. And chemical analysis of bones offers evidence of where these lost people came from. The results are controversial - who were the real bringers of civilisation?
- Unearthing Evil (streaming, Academic Video Online) Even in times of war there has to be limits. But sometimes all boundaries are crossed and crimes of war are committed. These constitute crimes against humanity. Unearthing Evil is a confronting program that explores the work of Australian archaeologist Richard Wright, who led the teams that evacuated mass graves in the Ukraine and Bosnia. The evidence was used to reconstruct the chilling events that took place and to support the prosecution of the perpetrators.
- Finding Altamira (Kanopy) In 1879, Spanish archaeologist Marcelino and his daughter Maria discover seemingly impossible paintings of galloping bison adorning the walls of a hidden cave. The cave of Altamira brings the world together in amazement, drawing people of all types to see the paintings in person. But, Marcelino soon realizes that the art on the walls must be 10,000 years old, earlier than anyone believes possible.
