Understanding Ancient Fortifications: Between Regionality and Connectivity

In many regions of Europe and beyond fortifications belong to the most impressive of archaeological remains. Their study has a long tradition and today a multitude of aspects about architecture, function or symbolism has been explored. However, fortifications are generally examined in a temporally, regionally or culturally limited context. Going a step further, this volume aims to bring into focus concepts of fortifications, which can be socially, symbolically or functionally, but also chronologically and supra-regionally aligned. An important question is to determine which fortification elements are culture-specific, and which can be regarded as convergence or even universal phenomena. Adopting a comparative view, the central aim of the volume is to highlight the diversity and the structural similarities of ancient fortifications. The chronological framework goes from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, and the geographical scope from the Ural steppes to the Iberian Peninsula.

Table of Contents:
1. Understanding Ancient Fortifications: Between Regionality and Connectivity – An Introduction Ariane Ballmer, Manuel Fernandez-Götz and Dirk Paul Mielke   2. Environmental and cultural factors in the development of Chalcolithic fortifications in Bulgaria Kamen Boyadzhiev   3. Fortifications and violence in the Mediterranean during the 3rd millennium BC Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete and Roberto Risch   4. Pharaoh’s Mighty Walls – Egypt’s fortification system in the third and second millennium BC Carola Vogel   5. Fortification systems of the Aegean Bronze Age Walter Gauss    6. Hittite Fortifications between Function and Symbolism Dirk P. Mielke   7. Protecting Civilisation. Cosmological and Ideological Concepts behind City Walls in Assyria Simon Halama   8. Greek fortifications before the Persian Wars. An overview Oliver Hülden   9. Fortifications in and around Rome, 950–300 BC Albert J. Nijboer   10. The Iron Age Fortifications of Gabii/Latium (Italy) Sophie Helas   11. The introduction of the ‘Pfostenschlitz’ concept in the fortification architecture of the north-west Alpine Hallstatt circle Ariane Ballmer   12. Agency in Architectural Choice: The Heuneburg Hillfort as Monument and Metaphor Bettina Arnold and Manuel Fernández-Götz   13. The purpose of Gallic oppida ramparts: a reappraisal Pierre Moret   14. Defences or defenders? New interpretations on upright-stone bands in European Late Prehistory Luis Berrocal-Rangel    

About the Author :
Ariane Ballmer is a scientific staff member and lecturer at the University of Heidelberg where she specialises in European prehistory. Her research interests encompass Alpine Bronze Age, landscape archaeology, ritual practices and Early Iron Age fortifications. She is author of the monograph Topografie bronzezeitlicher Deponierungen: Fallstudie Alpenrheintal (Bonn 2016). Manuel Fernández-Götz is Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, Executive Board Member of the European Association of Archaeologists, and winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology 2016. His research focuses on Iron Age societies in Central and Western Europe, the archaeology of identities, and the archaeology of the Roman conquest. Dirk Paul Mielke is a pre- and protohistorian and Ancient Near Eastern archaeologist working at the Freie Universität Berlin and at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany. He has excavated in Germany, Spain, Morocco and Turkey, especially as leading member of the long-time excavations in the Hittite cities of Kuşaklı-Sarissa and Oymaağaç Höyük-Nerik. He has authored numerous fundamental articles on Hittite archaeology, archaeometry, Phoenicians in the West and fortifications.

Review :
The volume moves beyond the physical/archaeological remains to a more conceptual consideration of fortifications, socially, symbolically and functionally and the consideration of which aspects are specific to a given ‘culture’ and which are more universal (albeit with some degree of variation) in a time-frame from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age between the Near East and the Iberian peninsula. Well illustrated. The wide scope is a great asset to this volume. The phenomenon of fortification is often studied on scales limited by chronological periods or certain regions. The total renunciation of these “borders” limiting most studies opens up a welcome opportunity to compare and investigate fortifications in a new light. [...] These are developments that are most welcome and have long been necessary.