Livet i Hallen.

Livet i Hallen. FRANDS HERSCHEND. (OPIA OPIA Ontario Printing and Imaging AssociationOPIA Optical Precision Instrument Associates 14). 96 pages. 1997. Uppsala: UppsalaUniversity Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden, 64 kilometres (40 miles) north-northwest of Stockholm.[1] Founded in 1477, it claims to be the oldest university in Scandinavia, outdating the University of Copenhagen Department of Archaeology & Ancient History;91-506-1251-4 paperback. The OPIA (Occasional Papers in Archaeology) series comprisesthoughtful but pithy pith��y?adj. pith��i��er, pith��i��est1. Precisely meaningful; forceful and brief: a pithy comment.2. Consisting of or resembling pith. books which must be a boon for students, althoughthe readership is limited since, other than their short Englishabstracts, most of them are in Swedish. The three covered here probablywork particularly well together. Another of the titles is reviewed below('Reference'). Livet i Hallen, 'Life in the hall', considers thesymbolic role of Late Iron Age Scandinavian aristocrats in providinglinks between our world and the hereafter. It is arranged in three mainparts. The first and longest assesses the evidence of the myth ofBeowulf for the hall of Finnsburg. The authors make some reference toother sources, including archaeological finds and the Bayeux Tapestry.The second part briefly considers the Valsgarde boat grave as the imageof a lord's hall. The third part is a structural analysis ofmetaphor in a verse account of a ritual at Trondheim. The idea of thegood (which is in English) develops the related theme of thearistocratic image in reference to the archaeology of halls (in southernScandinavia, at Yeavering, Northampton, Norwich and Cowage Farm, and atFeddersen Wierde) and to Saxon and Scandinavian literature of the time(including runes; two sets of the poetic texts are appended, also inEnglish). It includes a discussion of formal sociolinguistic so��ci��o��lin��guis��tics?n. (used with a sing. verb)The study of language and linguistic behavior as influenced by social and cultural factors.so patterns indifferent parts of the halls. A list of hall sites is provided and thereis a long and quite excellent bibliography. ANDERSSON & HERSCHEND summarize the main political, economic,technological and ideological effects of Rome in Germany andScandinavia. They intend this volume to be used as a textbook(let), andit is provided with an ample bibliography that looks well selected. Biscke is a Neolithic settlement (including longhouses - see ourpicture review of ARHEM - and graves) in Hungary. A report on theearlier levels was published in 1978. The new volume (MAKKAY et al.)provides further data on the features excavated and descriptions andanalysis of the pottery, stone and bone tools. There are reports ofpetrographic pe��trog��ra��phy?n.The description and classification of rocks.pe��trogra��pher n. analysis of inclusions in the pottery and of the stonetools, and of the analysis of plant impressions in the pottery (almostno water sieving was carried out). The volume concludes with anassessment of the relation of Sopot-Bickse culture to Vinca Vin��can.A genus of evergreens usually found in the Eastern hemisphere.Vincaplant genus of Apocynaceae family; contains cardiac glycoside; causes diarrhea; includes V. major (blue periwinkle), V. and Butmirand the succeeding - perhaps invading - Lengyel culture. HARRISON et al. report on the excavation of an Early Bronze Agesettlement in eastern Spain, where they sought to elucidate the cycle ofcolonisation that Prof. HARRISON had earlier identified. The economy wasmixed farming. Considering (a) the small size of the site, (b) theregular distribution of domestic features and (c) sources of materialsbrought in from elsewhere, the authors argue that the settlement waspart of a regional segmentary social structure. This concept from socialanthropology is not explained but it has been used by archaeologistselsewhere to explain patterns of colonization. Those whose Spanish isslow may note that three of the chapters are in English; and there is anEnglish summary.