Beacons and Military Communication from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-74969-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 157, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: History of Warfare

From fire-lit beacons to sweeping lines of sight, this book uncovers the hidden infrastructure of pre-modern warfare. It is the first archaeological study to trace how military signalling systems shaped landscapes and societies from antiquity to the early modern period. Spanning ancient Greece, Viking Age Scandinavia, and medieval North Africa, the book investigates how visual communication enabled mobilisation, defence, and control. Through case studies and new interpretations of archaeological and historical data, it reveals a world where ordinary people, not just armies, played a central role in responding to the threat of war. A major contribution to military and landscape archaeology.

Contributors are Jørgen Bakke, Alexandre Ausonius Bertaud, Stuart Brookes, Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, Martin Malcolm Elbl, Andreu Galera Pedrosa, Frode Iversen†, Andrew Johnson, Christian Juel, Thorsten Lemm, Lucas R. McMahon, Mette Stauersbøl Mogensen, Marie Ødegaard,

Ainhoa Pancorbo Picó, Mads Ravn, Mads Runge, Andreas Thiel, and Joey L. Williams.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Ødegaard, Marie

Brookes, Stuart

Lemm, Thorsten

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Über Autor(innen)

Marie Ødegaard, Ph.D. (2016), is Associate Professor at Museum of Archaeology-University of Stavanger. Her research focuses on legal and military landscapes, and settlement archaeology in the Iron Age and Middle Ages. She leads the project Viking Beacons, funded by the Research Council of Norway (no. 324454).

Stuart Brookes, Ph.D (2003), is Associate Professor at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. His publications on the archaeology of early medieval Europe include Beyond the Burghal Hidage (2013), Peasant Perceptions of Landscape (2021) and Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia (2024).

Thorsten Lemm, Ph.D. (2013), works as senior researcher for the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie in Mainz/Schleswig. He specialises in settlement and landscape archaeology as well as military and power-political aspects in Central and Northern Europe in the late Iron Age and early medieval period.