People in the Mountains: Current Approaches to the Archaeology of Mountainous Landscapes

This book studies current approaches to the archaeology of mountainous landscapes, presenting research results from different scientific contexts. To discuss these issues, and to study different aspects of human activity in the mountains and adjacent regions it incorporates archaeological, botanical, zooarchaeological and ethnological information.

Mountain landscapes were first exploited by farming populations at the very beginning of the Neolithic. However, there are controversies regarding when and where these specific types of human behaviour developed as a result of adaptation processes to these special environments. The aim of People in the Mountains: Current Approaches to the Archaeology of Mountainous Landscapes is to present research results from different scientific contexts. To discuss these issues, and to study different aspects of human activity in the mountains and adjacent regions we incorporate archaeological, botanical, zooarchaeological and ethnological information. The chapters explore, among many other themes, several principal areas of research: environmental history and human impact in mountain environments; specificities of different mountain landscape zones; long-term changes of human activity in different mountain regions, and the origins of such changes; seasonal herding, and short and long-distance transhumance; exploitation of different raw materials e.g. siliceous raw material, salt etc.; mountains as borders, roads and zones of contact; creation of new customs, rights and social relations; symbolic and ritual locations in the mountains; dialogue between different methodological perspectives and analytical methods. The book consists of 15 chapters prepared by 27 authors from 10 countries. The chapter topics cover mountains located in Europe, America and Asia.

"Introduction - by Andrzej Pelisiak, Marek Nowak and Ciprian Astalos
The mountainous landscape as a viable alternative for the Neolithic - by Pawel Valde-Nowak
From people to landscapes. The Fluturnum Project: Archaeology and anthropology in the Tasso-Upper Sagittarius valley (Italy, The Province of L'Aquila - AQ) - by Francesca Romana Del Fattore, Anna Rizzo and Alessandro Felici
Long-range versus short-range prehistoric pastoralism. Potential of palaeoecological proxies and a new record from western Emilia, northern Apennines, Italy - by Lionello F. Morandi and Nicholas P. Branch
An archaeology of the mountains in Maramure?, Romania: the beginning of a long-term project - by Radu-Alexandru Dragoman, Dan Pop, Bogdan Bobina, Marius Ardeleanu, Calin Suteu and Ciprian Astalos
Carpathians: barrier or border? Tiszapolgar, Bodrogkeresztur, Petresti and Trypillia-Cucuteni Cultures - by Taras Tkachuk
The settlement and economy of the prehistoric communities of the Zvolen Basin and surrounding areas in the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) - by Noemi Beljak Pazinova
Recent discoveries in the High Bieszczady Mts. - by Andrzej Pelisiak
Pollen indications of human activity in the Polish Western Carpathians during the Neolithic period - by Marek Nowak
The settlement of the Corded Ware Culture and early phases of the Mierzanowice culture in the Carpathian Mountains - by Pawel Jarosz
Re-fitting the Past - Urn Graveyards in the Carpathian Foothills - by Marta Korczynska and Klaus Cappenberg
The Sudetic resource base in the economy of early medieval societies - by Ewa Lisowska
Beginnings of mountain settlement in Czech Republic - a case study from the Bohemian Forest - by Katarina Kapustka, Matthew Walls and Jan Eigner
An Approach to understand the significance of the Cultural landscape of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India - by Bina Gandhi Deori
Fog, mountain and desert: human-environment interactions in Lomas de Lachay, Peru - by Piotr Kalicki, Tomasz Kalicki and Piotr Kittel "

ANDRZEJ PELISIAK specialises in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Central Europe. He gained his PhD in 1989. In 2001 he joined the University of Rzeszów and from 2005 he has been an associate professor at the UR Institute of Archaeology. He is an author or co-author of seven books and more than 150 papers. His archaeological interests are as follows: the exploitation and distribution of siliceous rocks during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age; production of lithic tools from Early Neolithic onwards; environmental and climatic changes during the Holocene and their connections with changes of human activity; Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and economy; the archaeology of mountains. He has directed, co-directed or participated in several Polish and international multidisciplinary projects, i.e. Climate and environment changes recorded in the annually laminated sediment of Lake Gościąż (Central Poland) and Human activity in the High Bieszczady Mountains from the Neolithic onwards; MAREK NOWAK obtained his PhD degree in Archaeology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland). Currently he is associate professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University. He writes and teaches on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition and on the Neolithic of Central Europe (particularly on the Funnel Beaker culture). His research interests also include environmental archaeology. He has participated in a number of projects in Poland and abroad and has some 90 publications, including three books. Recent publications include co-editing Early Farmers of the Eastern Slovak Lowland: The Settlement of the Eastern Linear Pottery Culture at Moravany (edited by J. K. Kozłowski, M. Nowak, and M. Vizdal, Kraków 2015). Currently he is working on the book about Polish territories in the 6th, 5th and 4th millennia BC; CIPRIAN ASTALOȘ obtained his BA degree in History at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania (1998) and a MSc degree in Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology at University College London (2010). Since 1999, he has been working at the Satu Mare County Museum, Satu Mare, Romania. His main research interests relate to the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic of the Carpathian Basin. Currently, he is working on a doctoral thesis at University College London on ground stones in the Neolithic of Western Romania.

• Edited by Andrzej Pelisiak
• Edited by Marek Nowak
• Edited by Ciprian Astalos