Europe's first farmers.

Europe's first farmers. T. DOUGLAS PRICE (ed.). Europe's first farmers, xv+395 pages,67 figures, 4 tables. 2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). ;0-521-66203-6 hardback 55 [pounds sterling] & US$90, 0-521-66572-8paperback 19.95 [pounds sterling] & US$31.95. Dr PRICE presents 10 papers based on a meeting, in 1995, ofarchaeologists from five countries assessing the roles of immigration immigration,entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important . and indigenous responses or creativity during the earlier Neolithic. Toindicate the interest in this book, suffice it to mention R.Tringham's argument that, in the southeast, `successful complexforagers could ... have been ... seduced ... quickly' into farming(p. 55) alongside P. Bogucki's argument for colonization in CentralEurope, based on the rate at which a homogenous pattern was established(`the "metabolism" of the household developmental cycleresulted in sudden ... dispersal' (p. 218)), and P. Woodman'sthorough review of data on `transitions ... in Ireland and Britain'(including an appraisal of [sup.14.C] dates from Ferriter's Coveand other Irish sites). Dr PRICE concludes that `the Neolithicrevolution ... had less to do with subsistence and technology' than`with social and economic organization and ideology' (p. 318). Colloquia col¡¤lo¡¤qui¡¤a?n.A plural of colloquium. Pontica 3 comprises an introduction and 20 papers byarchaeologists from eight countries (plus rev iews of books from aroundthe world). Along with two or three on the early Neolithic, the articlesrange from the Mesolithic to the Greek settlement of the Ukraine andfrom palaeobotany to the archaeology of Slavic worship. Dr CHAPMAN opensthe proceedings with a homily homily(hŏm`əlē), type of oral religious instruction delivered to a church congregation. In the patristic period through the Middle Ages the focus of the homily was on the explanation and application of texts read or sung during the on archaeologists' `creation ofhomogeneous similitude and abstract, objectified spaces' (p. 17 --Bogucki beware?) but M. Zvelebil & J. Benes follow with observationson structural continuities, elaboration, and what is often now called`contestation'. See too the next title.