Title search results
Showing 161 - 180 of 3071 items
Pathways to Power
By Gary M. Feinman, T. Douglas Price. 1996
There are few questions more central to understanding the prehistory of our species than those regarding the institutionalization of social…
inequality. Social inequality is manifested in unequal access to goods, information, decision-making, and power. This structure is essential to higher orders of social organization and basic to the operation of more complex societies. An understanding of the transformation from relatively egalitarian societies to a hierarchical organization and socioeconomic stratification is fundamental to our knowledge about the human condition. In a follow-up to their 1995 book Foundations of Social Inequality, the Editors of this volume have compiled a new and comprehensive group of studies concerning these central questions. When and where does hierarchy appear in human society, and how does it operate? With numerous case studies from the Old and New World, spanning foraging societies to agricultural groups, and complex states, Pathways to Power provides key historical insights into current social and cultural questions.The Archaeology and History of Colonial Mexico
By Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría. 2016
This is an archaeological and historical study of Mexico City and Xaltocan, focusing on the early years after the Spanish…
conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521. The study of households excavated in Mexico City and the probate inventories of 39 colonizers provide a vivid view of the material and social lives of the Spanish in what was once the capital of the Aztec empire. Decades of archaeological and ethnohistorical research in Xaltocan, a town north of Mexico City, offers a long-term perspective of daily life, technology, the economy, and the adoption of Spanish material culture among indigenous people. Through these case studies, this book examines interpretive strategies used when working with historical documents and archaeological data. Focusing on the use of metaphors to guide interpretation, this volume explores the possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists working on this pivotal period in Latin American history.Mediterranean Islands, Fragile Communities and Persistent Landscapes
By Andrew Bevan, James Conolly. 2013
Mediterranean landscape ecology, island cultures and long-term human history have all emerged as major research agendas over the past half-century,…
engaging large swathes of the social and natural sciences. This book brings these traditions together in considering Antikythera, a tiny island perched on the edge of the Aegean and Ionian seas, over the full course of its human history. Small islands are particularly interesting because their human, plant and animal populations often experience abrupt demographic changes, including periods of near-complete abandonment and recolonization, and Antikythera proves to be one of the best-documented examples of these shifts over time. Small islands also play eccentric but revealing roles in wider social, economic and political networks, serving as places for refugees, hunters, modern eco-tourists, political exiles, hermits and pirates. Antikythera is a rare case of an island that has been investigated in its entirety from several systematic fieldwork and disciplinary perspectives, not least of which is an intensive archaeological survey. The authors use the resulting evidence to offer a unique vantage on settlement and land use histories.Engaged Anthropology
By Tone Bringa, Synnøve Bendixsen. 2017
In this volume, leading public anthropologists examine paths towards public engagement and discuss their experiences with engaged anthropology in arenas…
such as the media, international organizations, courtrooms, and halls of government, on topics ranging from migration to cultural understanding, justice, development aid, ethnic conflict, war, and climate change. Using hands-on experiences and case studies, this book illustrates the potential efficacy of an anthropology that engages with critical social and political issues.Cave Art, Perception and Knowledge
By Mats Rosengren. 2012
Using the example of prehistoric paintings discovered in the late 19th century in Spain and France Cave Art, Perception and…
Knowledge inquires into epistemic questions related to images, depicting and perception that this rich material has given rise to. The book traces the outline of the doxa of cave art studies.Cities of God
By David Gange, Michael Ledger-Lomas. 2013
The history of archaeology is generally told as the making of a secular discipline. In nineteenth-century Britain, however, archaeology was…
enmeshed with questions of biblical authority and so with religious as well as narrowly scholarly concerns. In unearthing the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, travellers, archaeologists and their popularisers transformed thinking on the truth of Christianity and its place in modern cities. This happened at a time when anxieties over the unprecedented rate of urbanisation in Britain coincided with critical challenges to biblical truth. In this context, cities from Jerusalem to Rome became contested models for the adaptation of Christianity to modern urban life. Using sites from across the biblical world, this book evokes the appeal of the ancient city to diverse groups of British Protestants in their arguments with one another and with their secular and Catholic rivals about the vitality of their faith in urban Britain.The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes
By Kevin Walsh. 2014
Funded by the European Union, the Populus project is a major study of long-term change in Mediterranean Europe involving a…
multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, palaeoscientists and historians. Each volume focuses on a different methodological or theoretical aspect of Mediterranean archaeology. Environmental specialists participating in regional archaeology projects have contributed much to our understanding of both local and global ecological changes. More than any other area of archaeology, the patterns of long-term change revealed from studying the past have sobering lessons for our human present and future.Case Studies in Early Societies: Ancient Teotihuacan
By George L. Cowgill. 2015
First comprehensive English-language book on the largest city in the Americas before the 1400s. Teotihuacan is a UNESCO world heritage…
site, located in highland central Mexico, about twenty-five miles from Mexico City, visited by millions of tourists every year. The book begins with Cuicuilco, a predecessor that arose around 400 BCE, then traces Teotihuacan from its founding in approximately 150 BCE to its collapse around 600 CE. It describes the city's immense pyramids and other elite structures. It also discusses the dwellings and daily lives of commoners, including men, women, and children, and the craft activities of artisans. George L. Cowgill discusses politics, economics, technology, art, religion, and possible reasons for Teotihuacan's rise and fall. Long before the Aztecs and 800 miles from Classic Maya centers, Teotihuacan was part of a broad Mesoamerican tradition but had a distinctive personality that invites comparison with other states and empires of the ancient world.Roman Phrygia
By Peter Thonemann. 2013
The bleak steppe and rolling highlands of inner Anatolia were one of the most remote and underdeveloped parts of the…
Roman empire. Still today, for most historians of the Roman world, ancient Phrygia largely remains terra incognita. Yet thanks to a startling abundance of Greek and Latin inscriptions on stone, the cultural history of the villages and small towns of Roman Phrygia is known to us in vivid and unexpected detail. Few parts of the Mediterranean world offer so rich a body of evidence for rural society in the Roman Imperial and late antique periods, and for the flourishing of ancient Christianity within this landscape. The eleven essays in this book offer new perspectives on the remarkable culture, lifestyles, art and institutions of the Anatolian uplands in antiquity.Animal Teeth and Human Tools
By Christy G. Turner II Nicolai D. Ovodov, Olga V. Pavlova, Christy G. Turner, Nicolai D. Ovodov. 2013
The culmination of more than a decade of fieldwork and related study, this unique book uses analyses of perimortem taphonomy…
in Ice Age Siberia to propose a new hypothesis for the peopling of the New World. The authors present evidence based on examinations of more than 9000 pieces of human and carnivore bone from 30 late Pleistocene archaeological and palaeontological sites, including cave and open locations, which span more than 2000 miles from the Ob River in the West to the Sea of Japan in the East. The observed bone damage signatures suggest that the conventional prehistory of Siberia needs revision and, in particular, that cave hyenas had a significant influence on the lives of Ice Age Siberians. The findings are supported by more than 250 photographs, which illustrate the bone damage described and provide a valuable insight into the context and landscape of the fieldwork for those unfamiliar with Siberia.Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries
By Michael B. Cosmopoulos. 2015
For more than one thousand years, people from every corner of the Greco-Roman world sought the hope for a blessed…
afterlife through initiation into the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis. In antiquity itself and in our memory of antiquity, the Eleusinian Mysteries stand out as the oldest and most venerable mystery cult. Despite the tremendous popularity of the Eleusinian Mysteries, their origins are unknown. Because they are lost in an era without written records, they can only be reconstructed with the help of archaeology. This book provides a much-needed synthesis of the archaeology of Eleusis during the Bronze Age and reconstructs the formation and early development of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The discussion of the origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries is complemented with discussions of the theology of Demeter and an update on the state of research in the archaeology of Eleusis from the Bronze Age to the end of antiquity.Civic Monuments and the Augustales in Roman Italy
By Margaret L. Laird. 2015
The combination of portrait statue, monumental support, and public lettering was considered emblematic of Roman public space even in antiquity.…
This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels commemorating gifts of civic beneficence made by the Augustales, civic groups composed primarily of wealthy ex-slaves. Margaret L. Laird examines how these monuments functioned as protagonists in their built and social environments by focusing on archaeologically attested commissions made by the Augustales in Roman Italian towns. Integrating methodologies from art history, architectural history, social history, and epigraphy with archaeological and sociological theories of community, she considers how dedications and their accompanying inscriptions created webs of association and transformed places of display into sites of local history. Understanding how these objects functioned in ancient cities, the book argues, illuminates how ordinary Romans combined public lettering, honorific portraits, emperor worship, and civic philanthropy to express their communal identities.Viewing Inscriptions in the Late Antique and Medieval World
By Antony Eastmond. 2015
Inscriptions convey meaning not just by their contents but also by other means, such as choice of script, location, scale,…
spatial organisation, letterform, legibility and clarity. The essays in this book consider these visual qualities of inscriptions, ranging across the Mediterranean and the Near East from Spain to Iran and beyond, including Norman Sicily, Islamic North Africa, Byzantium, medieval Italy, Georgia and Armenia. While most essays focus on Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, they also look back at Achaemenid Iran and forward to Mughal India. Topics discussed include real and pseudo-writing, multilingual inscriptions, graffiti, writing disguised as images and images disguised as words. From public texts set up on mountainsides or on church and madrasa walls to intimate craftsmen's signatures, barely visible on the undersides of precious objects, the inscriptions discussed in this volume reveal their meanings as textual and visual devices.Egypt in Italy
By Molly Swetnam-Burland. 2015
This book examines the appetite for Egyptian and Egyptian-looking artwork in Italy during the century following Rome's annexation of Aegyptus…
as a province. In the early imperial period, Roman interest in Egyptian culture was widespread, as evidenced by works ranging from the monumental obelisks, brought to the capital over the Mediterranean Sea by the emperors, to locally made emulations of Egyptian artifacts found in private homes and in temples to Egyptian gods. Although the foreign appearance of these artworks was central to their appeal, this book situates them within their social, political, and artistic contexts in Roman Italy. Swetnam-Burland focuses on what these works meant to their owners and their viewers in their new settings, by exploring evidence for the artists who produced them and by examining their relationship to the contemporary literature that informed Roman perceptions of Egyptian history, customs, and myths.Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, c. AD 600-1150
By Christopher Loveluck. 2013
Christopher Loveluck's study explores the transformation of Northwest Europe (primarily Britain, France and Belgium) from the era of the first…
post-Roman 'European Union' under the Carolingian Frankish kings to the so-called 'feudal' age, between c. AD 600 and 1150. During these centuries radical changes occurred in the organisation of the rural world. Towns and complex communities of artisans and merchant-traders emerged and networks of contact between northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle and Far East were redefined, with long-lasting consequences into the present day. Loveluck provides the most comprehensive comparative analysis of the rural and urban archaeological remains in this area for twenty-five years. Supported by evidence from architecture, relics, manuscript illuminations and texts, this book explains how the power and intentions of elites were confronted by the aspirations and actions of the diverse rural peasantry, artisans and merchants, producing both intended and unforeseen social changes.The Archaeology of Sanitation in Roman Italy: Toilets, Sewers, and Water Systems (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome)
By Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow. 2015
The Romans developed sophisticated methods for managing hygiene, including aqueducts for moving water from one place to another, sewers for…
removing used water from baths and runoff from walkways and roads, and public and private latrines. Through the archeological record, graffiti, sanitation-related paintings, and literature, Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow explores this little-known world of bathrooms and sewers, offering unique insights into Roman sanitation, engineering, urban planning and development, hygiene, and public health. Focusing on the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, and Rome, Koloski-Ostrow's work challenges common perceptions of Romans' social customs, beliefs about health, tolerance for filth in their cities, and attitudes toward privacy. In charting the complex history of sanitary customs from the late republic to the early empire, Koloski-Ostrow reveals the origins of waste removal technologies and their implications for urban health, past and present.Architecture and the Origins of Preclassic Maya Politics
By James Doyle. 2016
Architecture and the Origins of Preclassic Maya Politics highlights the dramatic changes in the relationship of ancient Maya peoples to…
the landscape and to each other in the Preclassical period (ca. 2000 BC-250 AD). Offering a comprehensive history of Preclassic Maya society, James Doyle focuses on recent discoveries of early writing, mural painting, stone monuments, and evidence of divine kingship that have reshaped our understanding of cultural developments in the first millennium BC. He also addresses one of the crucial concerns of contemporary archaeology: the emergence of political authorities and their subjects in early complex polities. Doyle shows how architectural trends in the Maya Lowlands in the Preclassic period exhibit the widespread cross-cultural link between monumental architecture of imposing intent, human collaboration, and urbanism.Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe
By Ian Armit. 2012
Across Iron Age Europe the human head carried symbolic associations with power, fertility status, gender, and more. Evidence for the…
removal, curation and display of heads ranges from classical literary references to iconography and skeletal remains. Traditionally, this material has been associated with a Europe-wide 'head-cult', and used to support the idea of a unified Celtic culture in prehistory. This book demonstrates instead how headhunting and head-veneration were practised across a range of diverse and fragmented Iron Age societies. Using case studies from France, Britain and elsewhere, it explores the complex and subtle relationships between power, religion, warfare and violence in Iron Age Europe.The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology
By Arthur C. Aufderheide, Conrado Rodríguez-Martín. 1998
This book was first published in 1998. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology is a major reference work for all…
those interested in identification of disease in human remains. Many diseases leave characteristic lesions and deformities on human bones, teeth and soft tissues that can be identified many years after death. This comprehensive volume includes most conditions producing effects recognizable with the unaided eye. Detailed lesion descriptions and over 300 photographs facilitate disease recognition and each condition is placed in context with discussion of its history, antiquity, etiology, epidemiology, geography, and natural history. Diseases affecting the soft tissues are also included as these are commonly present in mummified remains. This book will be an indispensable resource for paleopathologists, anthropologists, physicians, archaeologists, demographers, and medical historians alike.The World's Oldest Church
By Michael Peppard. 2016
Michael Peppard provides a historical and theological reassessment of the oldest Christian building ever discovered, the third-century house-church at Dura-Europos.…
Contrary to commonly held assumptions about Christian initiation, Peppard contends that rituals here did not primarily embody notions of death and resurrection. Rather, he portrays the motifs of the church's wall paintings as those of empowerment, healing, marriage, and incarnation, while boldly reidentifying the figure of a woman formerly believed to be a repentant sinner as the Virgin Mary. This richly illustrated volume is a breakthrough work that enhances our understanding of early Christianity at the nexus of Bible, art, and ritual.