Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia

Migrations constitute one of the most defining features of human history from the very beginning to the present. In recent years, the increasing application of ancient DNA and isotope studies has been revolutionising our understanding of past population movements, although the interpretation of the results is often still controversial. Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia provides an insight into cutting-edge research on late prehistoric migrations in Eurasia, integrating different strands of evidence and emphasising the need for combining bioarchaeological analyses with a solid theoretical and methodological background. The 15 chapters within the book range from the 3rd to the 1st millennia BC, with a geographical scope extending from Atlantic Europe to Central Asia. Case studies include a reassessment of large-scale migrations, but also high-resolution studies from micro-regions. Overall, the results offered in the volume reveal the extraordinary diversity of migrations in ancient Eurasia and the ways in which archaeology can contribute to wider discussions on past and present mobility.

Manuel Fernandez-Gotz, University of Edinburgh,Courtney Nimura, University of Oxford,Philipp W. Stockhammer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,Rachel Cartwright, University of Minnesota

Manuel Fernández-Götz is Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. His main research interests are Iron Age and Roman societies in Europe, the archaeology of identities, and conflict archaeology. He has authored over 200 publications and directed fieldwork projects in Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Croatia. His research has been recognised with the award of the Philip Leverhulme Prize and the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Thomas Reid Medal. He is currently directing the Leverhulme-funded project “Beyond Walls: Reassessing Iron Age and Roman Encounters in Northern Britain”.


Dr Nimura is currently a Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Curator for Later European Prehistory at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Lecturer for Archaeology at Magdalen College, and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the European Bronze and Iron Ages, about which she has published widely on a variety of topics, most notably on rock art and portable art in Europe, and coastal and intertidal archaeology. She holds a PhD, MA, MFA and BFA from universities in the UK and USA.


Philipp W. Stockhammer is Professor for prehistoric archaeology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich and Co-director of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. After his PhD in Heidelberg in 2008, he worked as a Post-doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Universities of Heidelberg and Basel. He leads several collaborative research projects on the Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, among them an ERC Starting Grant (2015) and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2020). His research focuses on intercultural encounter, social practices, bioarchaeology, mobility, food, and health.


Rachel Cartwright is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. Previously, she studied Archaeology, History, and Classics at the University of Texas at Austin and Durham University. Her research is centred on the Viking Age migrations in the North Atlantic, with a particular focus on Iceland and northern Scotland. She has carried out fieldwork in the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, and Croatia.

1. Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia: An Introduction, MANUEL FERNANDEZ-GOTZ, COURTNEY NIMURA, PHILIPP W. STOCKHAMMER, AND RACHEL CARTWRIGHT
2. Comparing Apples and Oranges? Confronting Social Science and Natural Science Approaches to Migration in Archaeology, MAJA GORI AND AYDIN ABAR
3. The Mobility and Migration Revolution in Third Millennium BC Europe, VOLKER HEYD
4. Bell Beaker Mobility: Marriage, Migration, and Mortality, ANDREW P. FITZPATRICK
5. Bronze Age Travellers, KRISTIAN KRISTIANSEN
6. Andronovo Mobility Revisited: New Research on Bronze Age Mining and Metallurgical Communities in Central Asia, THOMAS STÖLLNER, HANDE ÖZYARKENT, AND ANTON GONTSCHAROV
7. Rethinking Material Culture Markers for Mobility and Migration in the Globalising European Later Bronze Age: A Comparative View from the Po Valley and Pannonian Plain, BARRY MOLLOY, CAROLINE BRUYÈRE, AND DRAGAN JOVANOVI
8. Mobility at the Onset of the Bronze Age: A Bioarchaeological Perspective, PHILIPP W. STOCKHAMMER AND KEN MASSY
9. Marriage, Motherhood, and Mobility in Bronze and Iron Age Central Europe, KATHARINA REBAY-SALISBURY
10. Migration in Archaeological Discourse: Two Case Studies from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, CAROLA METZNER-NEBELSICK
11. The Scale of Population Movements: A Model for Later Prehistory, PETER S. WELLS
12. Alpine Connections: Iron Age Mobility in the Po Valley and the Circum-Alpine Regions, VERONICA CICOLANI AND LORENZO ZAMBONI
13. Mobility and Migration in Bronze and Iron Age Britain: The COMMIOS Project, IAN ARMIT
14. Migration and Ethnic Dynamics in the Lower Rhine Frontier Zone of the Expanding Roman Empire (60 BC-AD 20): A Historical-Anthropological Perspective, NICO ROYMANS AND DIEDERICK HABERMEHL
15. On the Move: Relating Past and Present Human Mobility, COURTNEY NIMURA, RACHEL CARTWRIGHT, PHILIPP W. STOCKHAMMER, AND MANUEL FERNANDEZ-GOTZ