This volume offers a selection of case studies on the interface between linguistics and archaeology. These case studies were presented at a session titled ‘Archaeology and Language’ at the XV Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference, held at the University of Copenhagen in April 2015. The main goal of the session was to present new and ongoing studies that combine aspects of archaeology and linguistics and theoretical perspectives on the field of archaeolinguistics, and to encourage new, fruitful studies on archaeology and language. The questions raised in this session concern the future of archaeolinguistic research. What can archaeologists and linguists learn from each other’s disciplines? What kind of research questions are particularly suitable for future integrated studies?

AUTHOR
Rune Iversen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology, SAXO Institute, at the University of Copenhagen. His research interests centre on the European Neolithic and Bronze Age, with a special focus on the third millennium BCE, cultural diversity, sociocultural transformation processes and archaeolinguistics.

Guus Kroonen is an Associate Research Professor at the Institute for Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen and an Assistant Professor at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. He is a historical linguist specialising in the Indo-European languages, and his research focuses on etymology and prehistoric language contact.

Contributors: Kate Bellamy, Jeff Benjamin, Anna Berge, Annukka Debenjak, John S. Henderson, Kathryn M. Hudson, Rune Iversen, Guus Kroonen, Marika Luhtala, Deborah Moretti, Johanna Nichols, Paula Kouki, Birgit Anette Olsen, Richard A. Rhodes

REVIEWS
‘This is an extremely well-conceived and well-crafted collection of articles. It could well turn out to become a reference for how to integrate archaeology and historical linguistics.’ Prof. Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg

‘Will invoke deeper thinking on broader yet important anthropological questions, such as the relationship between material culture and speech communities, as well as the expansion of populations and the interactions between them.’ Dr Tao Li, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (The Eurasia3angle Project)