This book presents 19 papers from the International Colloquium ‘FortMetalAges’ (Portugal, 2017); they discuss different interpretive ideas for defensive structures whose construction had necessitated large investment, present new case studies, and conduct comparative analysis between different regions and periods (Chalcolithic to Iron Age).

This collection of essays by leading researchers in the archaeology of the European Iron Age pays tribute to Professor John Collis who, since the 1960s, has been involved in investigating and enriching our understanding of Iron Age society and, crucially, questioning the status quo of our narratives about the past.

The Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland project (2012-2016) compiled a massive database on hillforts by a team drawn from the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Cork. This volume outlines the history of the project, offers preliminary assessments of the online digital Atlas and presents initial research studies using Atlas data.

The Prehistoric Rock Art of Portugal presents significant interpretive perspectives in Portuguese rock art research and offers an excellent representation of core rock art areas, along with current thinking and interpretations. The various chapters deliver a personal approach to the many issues, themes and approaches that are embedded within the rock art of the outpost of western Atlantic Europe. Ethnographical perspectives have often dominated the study of rock art but unlike other well-studied regions, the western Iberian Peninsula is absent of an ethnographical or ethno-historical past and therefore the production of rock art can only be archaeologically assessed. Thus, the work promotes interpretive perspectives on Portuguese rock art, illustrating the richness, chronology and context of these unique artistic expressions and explores the variability of rock art imagery and the diversity of landscapes and social contexts in which it was produced. Although focusing on Portuguese rock art the book includes a number of universal themes that will appeal to a broad range of scholars researching in archaeology and anthropology, history of art, as well as professionals engaged in rock art heritage and conservation.

Enclosures are among the most widely distributed features of the European Iron Age. From fortifications to field systems, they demarcate territories and settlements, sanctuaries and central places, burials and ancestral grounds. This dividing of the physical and the mental landscape between an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’ is investigated anew in a series of essays by some of the leading scholars on the topic. The contributions cover new ground, from Scotland to Spain, between France and the Eurasian steppe, on how concepts and communities were created as well as exploring specific aspects and broader notions of how humans marked, bounded and guarded landscapes in order to connect across space and time. A recurring theme considers how Iron Age enclosures created, curated, formed or deconstructed memory and identity, and how by enclosing space, these communities opened links to an earlier past in order to understand or express their Iron Age presence. In this way, the contributions examine perspectives that are of wider relevance for related themes in different periods.

The essays in this collection examine the life-histories of carefully chosen megalithic monuments, stelae and statue-menhirs, and rock art sites of various European and Mediterranean regions during the Iron Age and Roman and Medieval times. By focusing on the concrete interaction between people, monuments, and places, the volume offers an innovative outlook on a variety of debated issues. Prominent among these is the role of ancient remains in the creation, institutionalization, contestation, and negotiation of social identities and memories, as well as their relationship with political economy in early historic European societies.

During HaA-HaB, many settlements were established in Silesia and in the central part of Poland, and their stability seems to be confirmed by the existence of regional groups and subgroups, by long-lasting colonies, and by long-used burial grounds, located at large settlements. At the end of HaB, many pre-Scythian elements occurred in this area, only partly influenced by the Cimmerians . During that period the peoples living north of the Carpathian and Sudeten Mountains remained very dependent on the productive and cultural circle south of the Carpathians, with which they maintained strong connections . The Lusatian settlement zone , apart from its increasing internal stability, also tended to extend its range . A partition of the Lusatian Culture, which had appeared earlier , became more pronounced under the strong influence of the East Hallstatt cultural and productive center in the eastern Alpine region , and the so-called amber route . The eastern zone of the Lusatian Culture remained under the influence of the Carpathian center, while the western zone was strongly influenced by the pre-Celtic (Bylanska or Horakowska) and northern Illyrian (Calon denberian) cultures. In HaD2' ca. 520-500 B.C., this latter area was the site of an armed incursion of Scythian groups coming from the east through the Karpacka Valley. The most characteristic features of the western zone include its own varieties of more general Hallstatt traits , such as fortified settlements (which date from HaA in the Lusatian Culture) , production of iron (done domestically since HaD), and decorated pottery.

Dedicated to the investigation of fortifications as important and integral elements of ancient built space, the present volume results from the activity of the German based international research network Fokus Fortifikation. Ancient Fortifications in the Eastern Mediterranean and is intended as a guide to research on ancient fortifications and a source of inspiration for new research. Ancient city walls and other fortification structures have long been underestimated. Since the early years of the 21st century, research on ancient fortifications has experienced an international boom, particularly amongst young researchers. They approached the study of fortifications with fresh ideas and new aims, and felt the need to discuss the problems and potentials of these monuments and to develop harmonized research methods and objectives. The outcome is the present bilingual (English and German) book, which offers a condensed view of the network’s extended conversations. The goal is not so much to offer an overview on the development of ancient fortifications, but rather to present versatile and diverse approaches to their research and interpretation and to serve as a kickoff for a new understanding of this category of ancient buildings. The book is divided into two parts: the first part includes 12 chapters on methods of interpretation, documentation, and field project organization; the systematic description and presentation of fortifications; the ‘building experience’; masonry forms and techniques; defensive, symbolic, and urbanistic functions and aspects; on fortifications in written sources, the visual arts, and as a historical source; and on regional and rural fortifications, and regionally confined phenomena. Part two is a catalogue that offers exemplary presentations of fortifications studied by network members; it is arranged in four sections: regions, sites, architectural elements and architectural details. The book is Volume 1 in the new series Fokus Fortifikation Studies. Volume 2 in the series, Focus on Fortification: New Research on Fortifications in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East (Oxbow Books), the proceedings of an international conference held in Athens in December 2012, will also appear in 2015.

Many sites in prehistoric Europe consist of densely occupied settlements, sometimes with potentially large populations. The question is whether or not these show incipient urbanism (proto-urbanism). This article looks at four cultural phenomena where this might be claimed: the mega-sites of the Trypillia culture in Ukraine and Moldova, the palatial centres of Bronze Age Crete and mainland Greece, tells in Hungary, and Late Bronze Age forts in various parts of Europe. While some of these certainly show complex social organization and (in the case of Aegean palace sites) administrative and religious elements, in temperate Europe there is little or nothing on which to base an assertion that the sites were urban in nature.