Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects the Prehistory of South Eastern Europe

A revolutionary study of material culture, this volume argues that the deliberate physical fragmentation and deposition of objects lies at the core of the archaeology of Mesolithic, Neo- lithic and Copper Age of East and Central Europe. Fragmentation in Archaeology revolutionises archaeological studies of material culture, by arguing that the deliberate physical fragmentation of objects, and their (often structured) deposition, lies at the core of the archaeology of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age of Central and Eastern Europe. John Chapman draws on detailed evidence from the Balkans to explain such phenomena as the mass sherd deposition in pits and the wealth of artefacts found in the Varna cemetery to place the significance of fragmentation within a broad anthropological context.