This paper was conceived as a keynote lecture for the Medieval Europe Research Congress (MERC) 2012 in Helsinki. The author himself has gone a long way from the more or less exclusively ship-functionalist perspective he presented at the first conference of this kind, Medieval Europe in 1992 in York. The intention here is to inspire other maritime archaeologists who may be stuck in studying ship technologies to apply their knowledge in contextual and cross-disciplinary approaches to ships, landscapes, and the human mind of the Middle Ages. A few examples of possible ways are discussed, albeit admittedly incompletely. These include a number of examples from the author's own research, which were strongly under the influence of a functionalist and techno-practical perspective in the 1990s.

Poggio Civitate has made an important contribution to the understanding of domestic architecture in pre-Roman central Italy since excavations commenced in 1966 uncovering two phases of monumental architecture. Interpretations of the site have been varied, with suggestions that it was the seat of a north Etruscan league or the base of a local élite family. This study argues that it was the latter, based upon an analysis of the famous ‘cowboy’ statue acroteria from the Archaic period complex. It is argued that the statues, as ancestral figures of the élite inhabitants, personified their wealth and power. The complex, and acroteria more generally, had a powerful psychological effect on those living within it, but more importantly those living in the surrounding territory. In addition the building is placed within its physical and socio-political landscape of north inland Etruria

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.

In this paper, we examine the strategies used by early Mesolithic people as they moved into the karstic uplands of north-eastern Istria, Croatia. These strategies are inferred from detailed analyses of the lithic and faunal assemblages from Šebrn, a small upland rock-shelter occupied for a relatively short period of time in the early Holocene. We conclude that Šebrn's lithic assemblages are in technology and typology relatively homogeneous and can be treated as a single unit (related to the Sauveterrian and Epigravettian, sensu lato). The faunal remains, in contrast, reveal a dynamic situation of temporal changes in the scope and focus of activities on site. Drawing on several lines of evidence from the lithic and faunal assemblages, we suggest that the initial use of the site was intermittent and people who pursued a generalized subsistence strategy visited it. With the passage of time and as people learned about upland environments, they turned to a specialized procurement of red deer. Šebrn became part of a settlement system that related lowlands to uplands and the site gained significance in the cultural landscape as people brought to it expectations about what they would do and how long they would stay.

This article attempts an interpretation of an unusual assemblage of cattle skulls recovered from recent excavations at the Viking Age monumental hall of Hofstaðir in Iceland. Osteological analysis of the skulls indicates ritual decapitation and display of cattle heads, and this article seeks to explore the meanings of this practice in relation to the context of the site and the wider historical and ethnographic literature. It is argued that the beheading of cattle and display of their heads was a part of sacrificial acts conducted on a seasonal basis at the site, and primarily in the context of feasting and socio-political gatherings. The gatherings acted simultaneously as a means of both dissipating social tension and enhancing political status.

The use of amber is documented in the Iberian peninsula since the Palaeolithic. The procurement and trade of this fossil resin has often been considered in discussions of long-distance trade and the emergence of social complexity, but so far no comprehensive view of the Iberian evidence has been produced to allow a more overarching interpretive model. This paper presents the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization of archaeological amber from three Iberian prehistoric sites: a necklace recovered from the megalithic site of Palacio III (Almadén de la Plata, Sevilla), a pommel from PP4 Montelirio (Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla), and a necklace from the Muricecs de Cellers cave (Llimiana, Pallars Jussà, Lleida). Based on these new data and a review of the literature, we present an overview that outlines fluctuations in the use of amber since the Upper Palaeolithic and demonstrates long-distance amber exchange connecting Iberia with northern Europe and the Mediterranean region since the Chalcolithic period at least. We discuss changes in the origins and cultural use of amber and their implications for the consolidation of trade networks.

We review the evidence for the earliest agriculture in Finland. The claims are all based on pollen analysis. Some claims go back to the Neolithic period. We contest these claims critically and argue that the ‘early cereal-type’ pollen grains may in fact come from large-grained wild grasses, and cannot be taken as clear evidence for cultivation in the absence of other lines of evidence. Cultivation of cereals in Finland may have started as late as the start of the Iron Age in c. 500 BC.

This study discusses the changing trends in the supply of wine, olive oil, fish sauce and domestic pottery in Pompeii over a period of more than two centuries through the examination of a pottery assemblage excavated recently in the House of the Vestals. The ceramic evidence is viewed in the light of broader political and economic trends that affected production and trade over the course of time. A clear shift from regional self-sufficiency to a heavier reliance upon extra-regional goods, particularly from the Roman provinces of Africa and Spain, is observed. The authors point out that while the ceramic record is a useful indicator of general supply trends, conclusions must be drawn with caution and scholars need to consider what is not apparent in the archaeological record in order to gain a more complete picture of the past.

John Evans was a key actor in the establishment of high human antiquity in 1859, and his pioneering role in launching the study of ancient stone implements is still celebrated today. However, scholars have overlooked the fact that Evans actually forged this contribution by shifting practices and preoccupations from coins to flint, from one well-established antiquarian domain in which he excelled, to another, new and as yet untested, domain. While providing relevant information on Evans' numismatics, this article shows how these transfers bear successively on the documentation of stone implements (terminology, descriptions, illustrations), their authentication (with regards to frauds and experimentation) and indeed their interpretation (the identification and explanation of their formal variability). Besides serving as an instructive historical case in ‘trans-disciplinarity’, the recognition of this initial numismatic imprint on the study of stone tools also has several consequences for current practices and interpretations in Palaeolithic archaeology.