Inhaltsangabe
For many years now, the main thrust of European prehistory has followed a fundamentally terrestrial plot line. This terrestrial paradigm has undervalued the story of Europe as a peninsula between the Baltic, Mediterranean and Atlantic, and likewise downplayed that of many navigable rivers that reach deeply inland and the large lakes important for travel and subsistence. In vast areas of Europe the survival of incoming groups depended on coping and interacting with a seascape as much as a landscape. From the late Mesolithic onwards, in regions such as Scandinavia, the British Isles and the Mediterranean, most occupation was coastal; seas or rivers provided the most important infrastructure for transport, exchange and communication. Know-how about seascapes, boatbuilding, navigation and maritime networks had a profound impact on social organisation, ritual monuments and iconography, and the spread of materials and ideas, enabled by the adaptation of languages to these new environments. Given these facts the time is long overdue to critique the dominant terrestrial paradigm of European prehistory. This book is the first in the multi-author series Maritime Encounters, outputs of the major six-year (2022–2028) international research initiative funded by Sweden’s central bank. Our programme is based on a maritime perspective, a counterpoint to prevailing land-based vantages on Europe’s prehistory. In the Maritime Encounters project a highly international cross-disciplinary team has embarked on a diverse range of research goals to provide a more detailed and nuanced story of how prehistoric societies realised major and minor sea crossings, organised long-distance exchange, and adapted to ways of life by the sea in prehistory.
Über die Autorinnen und Autoren
John T. Koch is Research Professor at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth. A historical linguist specialising in early Celtic languages with a unique multidisciplinary profile, Koch’s research includes Indo-European origins of Celtic names, words, and grammar.
Mikael Fauvelle is a researcher in the department of archaeology and ancient history at Lund University. He is an anthropological archaeologist specialising in early complex economic systems and the emergence of maritime trade networks. His research has focused on topics including the origins of money, the innovation of ancient watercraft, and the formation of early chiefdoms. He has directed archaeological field projects in North America, Central America, and Scandinavia.
Sir Barry Cunliffe is Professor Emeritus of European Prehistory in the University of Oxford. A phenomenally prolific author and excavator, his publications include highly readable synthetic overviews that encompass long chronological sweeps of the archaeology of Britain, Eurasia, the Celtic world, and the Atlantic façade.
Johan Ling is Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Historical Studies, Gothenburg University and is Director of the Rock Art research Archives (SHFA). He is a specialist in Bronze Age archaeology with a focus on Scandinavian rock art and maritime trade.
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