This title reveals a new approach to one of the most exciting but poorly understood artefacts from our prehistoric past. Studying their roles and functions in society from past to present day, archaeology students should find this a helpful asset.

The book benefits from the author's close understanding of the material culture and the prehistory of the Balkans and from recent developments in the fields of visual culture studies and social and cultural anthropology. Douglass Bailey is Head of Archaeology at Cardiff University and a world authority on the prehistory of eastern Europe. He has conducted fieldwork in Romania and Bulgaria and written on a wide range of topics including art, architecture, and the politics of archaeology. His Balkan Prehistory (Routledge 2000) is the standard text on the southeast European Neolithic.

1. Introduction 2. Miniaturism and dimensionality 3. Hamangia 4. Anthropomorphism: dolls, portraits and body parts 5. Cucuteni-Tripolye 6. Visual rhetoric, truth and the body 7. Thessalian 8. Subverting and manipulating reality 9. Conclusions