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Mortuary Landscapes of North Africa
By David L. Stone, Lea Stirling. 2007
Cemetery and landscape studies have been hallmarks of North African archaeology for more than one hundred years. Mortuary Landscapes of…
North Africa is the first book to combine these two fields by considering North African cemeteries within the context of their wider landscapes. This unique perspective allows for new interpretations of notions of identity, community, imperial influence, and sacred space. Based on a wealth of material research from current fieldwork, this collection of essays investigates how North African funerary monuments acted as regional boundaries, markers of identity and status, and barometers of cultural change. The essays cover a broad range in terms of space and time - from southern Libya to eastern Algeria, and from the seventh century BCE to the seventh century CE. A comprehensive introduction explains the importance of the 'landscape perspective' that these studies bring to North African funerary monuments, while individual case-studies address such topics as the African way of death among the Garamantes, the ritual reasons for the location of certain Early Christian tombs, Punic burials, Roman cupula tombs, and the effects of rapid state formation and imperial incorporation on tomb builders. Unique in both scope and perspective, this volume will prove invaluable to a cross-section of archaeological scholars.Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis in Archaeological Computational Modeling
By Marieka Brouwer Burg, Hans Peeters, William A. Lovis. 2016
Thisvolume deals with the pressing issue of uncertainty in archaeological modeling Detecting where and when uncertainty is introduced to…
the modeling process iscritical as are strategies for minimizing reconciling or accommodating suchuncertainty Included chapters provide unique perspectives on uncertainty inarchaeological modeling ranging in both theoretical and methodologicalorientation The strengths and weaknesses of various identification andmitigation techniques are discussed in particular sensitivity analysis Thechapters demonstrate that for archaeological modeling purposes there is noquick fix for uncertainty indeed each archaeological model requires intensiveconsideration of uncertainty and specific applications for calibration andvalidation As very few such techniques have been problematized in a systematicmanner or published in the archaeological literature this volume aims toprovide guidance and direction to other modelers in the field by distillingsome basic principles for model testing derived from insight gathered in thecase studies presented Additionally model applications and their attendantuncertainties are presented from distinct spatio-temporal contexts and willappeal to a broad range of archaeological modelers This volume will also be ofinterest to non-modeling archaeologists as consideration of uncertainty wheninterpreting the archaeological record is also a vital concern for thedevelopment of non-formal or implicit models of human behavior in the pastThe Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty
By Gideon Shelach-Lavi. 2015
This volume aims to satisfy a pressing need for an updated account of Chinese archaeology. It covers an extended time…
period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago. The geographical coverage includes the traditional focus on the Yellow River basin but also covers China's many other regions. Among the topics covered are the emergence of agricultural communities; the establishment of a sedentary way of life; the development of sociopolitical complexity; advances in lithic technology, ceramics, and metallurgy; and the appearance of writing, large-scale public works, cities, and states. Particular emphasis is placed on the great cultural variations that existed among the different regions and the development of interregional contacts among those societies.Intangible Heritage Embodied
By Helaine Silverman, D. Fairchild Ruggles. 2009
Archaeological research has long focused on studying tangible artifacts to build a picture of the cultures it examines. Equally important…
to understanding a culture, however, are the intangible elements that become part of its heritage. In 2003, UNESCO adopted a convention specifically to protect intangible heritage, including the following: oral traditions and expressions, including language; performing arts (such as traditional music, dance, and theater); social practices, rituals, and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; and traditional craftsmanship. Since this convention was adopted, scholars and preservationists have struggled with how to best approach intangible heritage. This volume specifically focuses on embodied intangible heritage, or the human body as a vehicle for memory, movement, and sound. The contributors to this work examine ritual and artistic movement, theater, music, oral literature, as well as the role of the internet in cultural transmission. Globalization and particularly the internet, has a complex effect on the transmission of intangible heritage: while music, dance, and other expressions are now shared easily, the performances often lack context and may be shared with a group that does not fully understand what they are seeing or hearing. This volume draws on case studies from around the world to examine the problems and possibilities of implementing the new UNESCO convention. The findings in this volume will be vital to both professionals and academics in anthropology, archaeology, history, museum studies, architecture, and anyone else who deals with issues of cultural heritage and preservation.Forgotten Islands of Indonesia
By Joss Van Dijk, Nico Dejonge. 1995
This beautiful book contains over 170 unique photographs and pictures of one of the most interesting but least well known…
cultures in the Indonesian Archipelago.The traditional art of Maluku Tenggara, the Southeast Moluccas, is among the most sophisticated and expressive in the world. Simple tools were used to create masterpieces in wood, stone, textiles and precious metals, while the plaited work and earthenware of these islands are also of the very highest quality.the colonial period plunged the region into hopeless isolation. During the harsh rule of the Dutch many traditional woks of art, especially ancestor statues, were destroyed. Later, collectors stripped the islands of their masterpieces and the culture of Maluka Tenggara was forgotten.Forgotten Islands of Indonesia presents a unique survey of the finest examples of Southeast Moluccan art. This volume contains many photographs and descriptions which have never before been published. Set against the cultural background and supplemented by rare photographs taken in the field, the material culture of Maluku Tenggara, which is regarded as one of the most fascinating areas of Indonesia, is presented here comprehensively for the first time.Trade and Exchange
By Carolyn L. White, Carolyn D. Dillian. 2010
Long before the advent of the global economy, foreign goods were transported, traded, and exchanged through myriad means, over short…
and long distances. Archaeological tools for identifying foreign objects, such as provenance studies, stylistic analyses, and economic documentary sources reveal non-local materials in historic and prehistoric assemblages. Trade and exchange represent more than mere production and consumption. Exchange of goods also led to an exchange of cultural and social experiences. Discoveries of the sources of alien objects surpass archaeological expectations of exchange and geographic distance, revealing important technological advances. With thirteen case studies from around the world, this comprehensive work provides a fresh perspective on material culture studies. Evidence of ongoing negotiation between individuals, villages, and nations provides insight into the impact of trade on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level. Covering a wide array of time periods and areas, this work will be of interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, and anyone working in cultural studies.Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca
By Brian S Bauer. 2004
The Cuzco Valley of Peru was both the sacred and the political center of the largest state in the prehistoric…
Americas-the Inca Empire. From the city of Cuzco, the Incas ruled at least eight million people in a realm that stretched from modern-day Colombia to Chile. Yet, despite its great importance in the cultural development of the Americas, the Cuzco Valley has only recently received the same kind of systematic archaeological survey long since conducted at other New World centers of civilization. Drawing on the results of the Cuzco Valley Archaeological Project that Brian Bauer directed from 1994 to 2000, this landmark book undertakes the first general overview of the prehistory of the Cuzco region from the arrival of the first hunter-gatherers (ca. 7000 B. C. ) to the fall of the Inca Empire in A. D. 1532. Combining archaeological survey and excavation data with historical records, the book addresses both the specific patterns of settlement in the Cuzco Valley and the larger processes of cultural development. With its wealth of new information, this book will become the baseline for research on the Inca and the Cuzco Valley for years to come.Pre-Columbian Foodways
By John Staller, Michael Carrasco. 2010
The significance of food and feasting to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures has been extensively studied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians.…
Foodways studies have been critical to our understanding of early agriculture, political economies, and the domestication and management of plants and animals. Scholars from diverse fields have explored the symbolic complexity of food and its preparation, as well as the social importance of feasting in contemporary and historical societies. This book unites these disciplinary perspectives -- from the social and biological sciences to art history and epigraphy -- creating a work comprehensive in scope, which reveals our increasing understanding of the various roles of foods and cuisines in Mesoamerican cultures. The volume is organized thematically into three sections. Part 1 gives an overview of food and feasting practices as well as ancient economies in Mesoamerica. Part 2 details ethnographic, epigraphic and isotopic evidence of these practices. Finally, Part 3 presents the metaphoric value of food in Mesoamerican symbolism, ritual, and mythology. The resulting volume provides a thorough, interdisciplinary resource for understanding, food, feasting, and cultural practices in Mesoamerica.Statistics for Archaeologists
By Robert D. Drennan. 2009
In the decade since its publication, the first edition of Statistics for Archaeologists has become a staple in the classroom.…
Taking a jargon-free approach, this teaching tool introduces the basic principles of statistics to archaeologists. The author covers the necessary techniques for analyzing data collected in the field and laboratory as well as for evaluating the significance of the relationships between variables. In addition, chapters discuss the special concerns of working with samples. This well-illustrated guide features several practice problems making it an ideal text for students in archaeology and anthropology. Using feedback from students and teachers who have been using the first edition, as well as another ten years of personal experience with the text, the author has provided an updated and revised second edition with a number of important changes. New topics covered include: -Proportions and Densities -Error Ranges for Medians -Resampling Approaches -Residuals from Regression -Point Sampling -Multivariate Analysis -Similarity Measures -Multidimensional Scaling -Principal Components Analysis -Cluster Analysis Those already familiar with the clear and useful format of Statistics for Archaeologists will find this new edition a welcome update, and the new sections will make this seminal textbook an indispensible resource for a whole new group of students, professors, and practitioners.Historical Archeology of Tourism in Yellowstone National Park
By Matthew Russell, Annalies Corbin. 2010
This volume contains three studies that trace the history of tourism in Yellowstone National Park through material remains discovered in…
both terrestrial and underwater archeological sites. A research approach with an archeological foundation opens new avenues of inquiry not available by using historical documents alone. Incorporating archeological materials into our interpretations of historical tourism in Yellowstone can help counter research biases that hamper use of a sometimes-fragmentary archival record. Archeology gives voice to people otherwise missing from written history, and therefore give us the broadest view of the past. These chapters draw together the fascinating historical archeology of Yellowstone National Park into a single volume linked by a common research framework, the archeology of tourism. While oftentimes treated as separate and unrelated resources, historical archeological sites on land, underwater, and in the liminal zone in between, connect in Yellowstone through a shared history and a universal purpose. Situating these sites within the context of a larger tourist infrastructure allows us to broaden our interpretation and enriches the stories the sites have to tell.Memories from Darkness
By Andres Zarankin, Melissa Salerno, Pedro Funari. 2010
The study of Archaeology in Latin America has been strongly affected by the socio-political setting of the region. The history…
of military repression in Latin America in the 1960s-1980s has been particularly challenging to study, with many holes in the historic accounts. Several Latin American dictatorships emerged during this period, particularly during the Cold War and the Cuban Revolution. Military regimes remained in power for decades, until internal and international changes allowed democracy to take over a firm hold. Due to military and governmental upheaval, written sources on clandestine repression are scarce and fragmentary, with many of these sources destroyed deliberately by repressive governments. New archaeological methods must be employed to reconstruct the true history of this period, helping shed light on repressive mechanisms, to recover missing history. Not only will the contributions of this important volume shed light on the specific case of Repression in Latin America, but the techniques described will be a valuable resources of information for archaeologists working to reconstruct other historical periods without reliable written sources, and shed light on the nature of political repression worldwide.Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany
By Amber Vanderwarker, Tanya M. Peres. 2010
In recent years, scholars have emphasized the need for more holistic subsistence analyses, and collaborative publications towards this endeavor have…
become more numerous in the literature. However, there are relatively few attempts to qualitatively integrate zooarchaeological (animal) and paleoethnobotanical (plant) data, and even fewer attempts to quantitatively integrate these two types of subsistence evidence. Given the vastly different methods used in recovering and quantifying these data, not to mention their different preservational histories, it is no wonder that so few have undertaken this problem. Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany takes the lead in tackling this important issue by addressing the methodological limitations of data integration, proposing new methods and innovative ways of using established methods, and highlighting case studies that successfully employ these methods to shed new light on ancient foodways. The volume challenges the perception that plant and animal foodways are distinct and contends that the separation of the analysis of archaeological plant and animal remains sets up a false dichotomy between these portions of the diet. In advocating qualitative and quantitative data integration, the volume establishes a clear set of methods for (1) determining the suitability of data integration in any particular case, and (2) carrying out an integrated qualitative or quantitative approach.The Materiality of Individuality
By Carolyn L. White. 2009
Generally individuals in history are known for a particular reason - they somehow influenced history. Very little is known about…
the ordinary person who lived in the past. But historical archaeologists - through their interpretation of the material culture and historic record - can study the past on an individual level. This brings archaeological interpretation from a micro to a macro level - as opposed to the traditional level of society to community to individual interpretation. The cases presented in this volume engage material culture that is owned or used by a single person and is thus associated with an individual at some point in its uselife. The volume takes bodkins, shoes, beads, cloth, religious items, grave goods, as well as subassemblages from well-defined contexts from New England, the Chesapeake, New Orleans, Hawaii, Spanish colonial America, and London in the pursuit of the individual and the textured interpretation this analytical scale provides. This volume promises to present innovative approaches to a host of archaeological materials, drawing widely on the range of archaeological research for the historical period today. Capitalizing on several topics and research threads with great currency, such as the examination of material culture and interest in various and intersecting lines of identity construction, as well as presenting an international and multiregional approach to these topics, this volume will be of interest to archaeologists, anthropologists, material culture scholars, and social historians interested in a wide variety of time periods and subfields.Te Puna - A New Zealand Mission Station
By Angela Middleton. 2008
Evangelical missionary societies have been associated with the processes of colonisation throughout the globe, from India to Africa and into…
the Pacific. In late 18th-century Britain, the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East (CMS) began its missionary ventures, and in the first decade of the 19th-century, sent three of its members to New South Wales, Australia, and then on to New Zealand, an unknown, little-explored part of the world. Across the globe, a common material culture travelled with its evangelizing (and later colonizing) settlers, with artefacts appearing as cultural markers from Cape Town in South Africa, to Tasmania in Australia and the even more remote Bay of Islands in New Zealand. After missionization, colonization occurred. Additionally, common themes of interaction with indigenous peoples, household economy, the development of commerce, and social and gender relations also played out in these communities. This work is unique in that it provides the first archaeological examination of a New Zealand mission station, and as such, makes an important contribution to New Zealand historical archaeology and history. It also situates the case study in a global context, making a significant contribution to the international field of mission archaeology. It informs a wider audience about the processes of colonization and culture contact in New Zealand, along with the details of the material culture of the country's first European settlers, providing a point of comparison with other outposts of British colonization.The Architecture of the Roman Triumph
By Maggie L. Popkin. 2016
This book offers the first critical study of the architecture of the Roman triumph, ancient Rome's most important victory ritual.…
Through case studies ranging from the republican to imperial periods, it demonstrates how powerfully monuments shaped how Romans performed, experienced, and remembered triumphs and, consequently, how Romans conceived of an urban identity for their city. Monuments highlighted Roman conquests of foreign peoples, enabled Romans to envision future triumphs, made triumphs more memorable through emotional arousal of spectators, and even generated distorted memories of triumphs that might never have occurred. This book illustrates the far-reaching impact of the architecture of the triumph on how Romans thought about this ritual and, ultimately, their own place within the Mediterranean world. In doing so, it offers a new model for historicizing the interrelations between monuments, individual and shared memory, and collective identities.Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions
By Parth Chauhan, Marta Camps. 2009
As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural…
framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective. As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies particularly showcasing these new techniques. Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.Interpreting the Early Modern World
By Mary C. Beaudry, James Symonds. 2011
This volume is based on a session at a 2005 Society for Historical Archaeology meeting. The organizers assembled historical archaeologists…
from the UK and the US, whose work arises out of differing intellectual traditions. The authors exchange ideas about what their colleagues have written, and construct dialogues about theories and practices that inform interpretive archaeology on either side of the Atlantic, ending with commentary by two well-known names in interpretive archaeology.Sacred Darkness
By Holley Moyes. 2012
Caves have been used in various ways across human society but despite the persistence within popular culture of the iconic…
caveman, deep caves were never used primarily as habitation sites for early humans. Rather, in both ancient and contemporary contexts, caves have served primarily as ritual spaces. In Sacred Darkness, contributors use archaeological evidence as well as ethnographic studies of modern ritual practices to envision the cave as place of spiritual and ideological power and a potent venue for ritual practice. Covering the ritual use of caves in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, Mesoamerica, and the US Southwest and Eastern woodlands, this book brings together case studies by prominent scholars whose research spans from the Paleolithic period to the present day. These contributions demonstrate that cave sites are as fruitful as surface contexts in promoting the understanding of both ancient and modern religious beliefs and practices. This state-of-the-art survey of ritual cave use will be one of the most valuable resources for understanding the role of caves in studies of religion, sacred landscape, or cosmology and a must-read for any archaeologist interested in caves.Seals, Craft and Community in Bronze Age Crete
By Anderson, Emily S. K.. 2016
Generations of scholars have grappled with the origins of palace society on Minoan Crete seeking to explain…
when and how life on the island altered monumentally Emily Anderson turns light on the moment just before the palaces recognizing it as a remarkably vibrant phase of socio-cultural innovation Exploring the role of craftspersons travelers and powerful objects she argues that social change resulted from creative work that forged connections at new scales and in novel ways This study focuses on an extraordinary corpus of sealstones which have been excavated across Crete Fashioned of imported ivory and engraved with images of dashing lions these distinctive objects linked the identities of their distant owners Anderson argues that it was the repeated but pioneering actions of such diverse figures people and objects alike that dramatically changed the shape of social life in the Aegean at the turn of the second millennium BCENew Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society
By Andrea Cucina, Vera Tiesler. 2007
This book examines Maya sacrifice and related posthumous body manipulation. The editors bring together an international group of contributors from…
the area studied: archaeologists as well as anthropologists, forensic anthropologists, art historians and bioarchaeologists. This interdisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive perspective on these sites as well as the material culture and biological evidence found there