Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 3753 items

Through a presentation of the oldest rock art dated in the Americas, located in Monte Alegre, Brazil, this book analyzes…
an ancient ecological-astronomy strategy that theoretically made the rapid human migration in the Americas successful. It helps answer two vital questions long held by scholars and the general public alike: How did humans survive the rapid and massive climate changes at the end of the ice age? And how did founding populations (especially in the Americas) manage successful settlement, relatively rapidly, in ecosystems entirely foreign to them? It further initiates questions about the universal role that astronomy (and even astrology) might have played in cognitive human evolution and the success of burgeoning sedentism and eventual "civilization" throughout the world. The book makes a substantial contribution because of the wealth of cultural information it provides from Monte Alegre. It explains the author's analysis of pictographs, lithics, and landscape modifications that were excavated there and provides novel findings on the chronology and archaeoastronomy of the art. This book is indispensable for courses about Paleoindians, peopling of the Americas, environmental anthropology, cosmology, rock art studies, archeoastronomy, paleoecology, paleoethnobotany, and Amazonia. The pan-American indications of this work will appeal to archaeologists, historians, art historians, folklorists, Native American and Indigenous scholars, evolutionists, cognitive scientists, geographers, and the general public.
Gender Trouble and Current Archaeological Debates (Themes in Contemporary Archaeology)
By Bisserka Gaydarska, Uroš Matić, Marta Díaz-Guardamino, Laura Coltofean. 2024
This volume challenges the status quo by addressing a selection of intensely discussed themes in contemporary archaeological practice from a…
gender perspective. It aims to demonstrate that gender is intrinsic to archaeology and that gender archaeology can enrich our studies, irrespective of the discipline’s possible future directions and so-called paradigm shifts. The scholarly contributions commissioned for this volume critically discuss and reflect on a wide range of concepts, ideas, principles and theories presently applied in archaeology within the framework of gender. The chapters included in the first part deal with themes in world archaeology that have little or no focus on gender, such as the Third Science Revolution (e.g. ancient DNA, stable isotopes analyses, big data), posthumanism (e.g. new materialism, symmetrical archaeology and the ontological turn) and digital archaeology and heritage. The second part focuses on themes in which gender archaeology has made serious advances (intersectionality, social inequality, violence, mobility). The third part deals with themes crucial for contemporary archaeology and society, namely, gender education, gender representation in museum exhibitions and the future of gender archaeology. The volume concludes with a coda chapter that critically assesses the preceding contributions and the volume as a whole. The book offers a gender-balanced and inclusive authorship consisting of both well-established and early career researchers closely connected to the EAA, whose professionally, culturally and geographically diverse backgrounds and experiences enrich the viewpoints discussed in the chapters. The targeted audience is archaeologists from all theoretical and scientific backgrounds at all stages of their career.
Limpopo Life: The Heritage, Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Limpopo National Park (Routledge Studies in African Archaeology and Cultural Heritage)
By Anneli Ekblom, Michel Notelid. 2025
Limpopo Life introduces the reader to the material culture, oral histories, and the negotiation of conservation and landscape in an…
area now known as Limpopo National Park.Introducing the archaeology of a region that has not been surveyed or discussed, this book connects to the archaeology, history, heritage and conservation discussions in the southern African region as a whole. Vegetation history and paleoecology are combined with archaeological surveys and excavations, written sources, oral histories and travelogues to draw a picture of the diverse landscape of the Limpopo region. Intermixed within this narrative are sections that focus on an individual species, a life history, or an event providing a view of the complex and dynamic interactions. The role of humans in this diverse environment and how they have co-evolved with other species, shaping each other's destinies in a consequential and accidental way, is outlined.This book will be of interest to researchers and students interested in the archaeology, heritage and conservation of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and northern South Africa. It will also be of relevance to readers interested in the social history of the Limpopo and Kruger National Parks and this cross-border area.
Heritage and Legitimacy: Cultural Governance in Modern Iraq
By Madison Leeson. 2025
This book offers cultural governance as a theoretical framework for the exploration of 20th-century Iraqi political history, from the foundation…
of the Imperial Tribal School in Constantinople in 1892 until 1992, the end of the Iraq-Kuwait crisis. Case studies investigate the diversity of cultural governance as an analytical tool for historical heritage management, from the protection of antiquities and guardianship of holy shrines to the use of heritage for corporate legitimacy, the dissemination of conservation expertise throughout the Arab world, and management of heritage in times of conflict. This material explores negotiations of power and sovereignty between local caretakers, officials of the Mandate administration, members of the Iraqi and Arab intelligentsia, UNESCO consultants, and Iraqi state officials, among others, underlining the ideological pluralism of governance efforts throughout the period. This research offers a historical analysis of cultural projects and programs in Iraq to consider the sociopolitical conditions that shaped their governance. The material included this book is based on previously unpublished archives from the Ottoman Prime Ministry Archives, Middle East and North African Newspapers Collection, and UNESCO Archives, among other repositories. The work addresses a gap in scholarship which has neglected the role of cultural governance in heritage management and development in Iraq. The primary audience is academic scholars, historians, and educational institutions although the book will also be of interest to individuals in Iraq, in the Iraqi diaspora abroad, and those with a general interest in modern Middle East studies.
The World of Homer: Archaeology, Social Memory, and the Emergence of Greek Epic Poetry
By Michael B. Cosmopoulos. 2025
Epic poetry, notably the Iliad and the Odyssey, stands as one of the most enduring legacies of ancient Greece. Although…
the impact of these epics on Western civilization is widely recognized, their origins remain the subject of heated debate. Were they composed in a single era or over the course of centuries? Were they crafted by one or by many poets? Do they reflect historical reality? These and other important questions are answered in this book. Using a fresh, dynamic approach, Michael Cosmopoulos reconstructs the world of the Homeric poems and explores the interplay between poetry, social memory, and material culture. By integrating key insights from archaeology, philology, anthropology, and oral tradition, he offers a nuanced perspective of the emergence and early development of Greek epic. His wide-canvas approach enables readers to appreciate the complexity of the Homeric world and gain a deeper understanding of the intricate factors that shaped these magnificent poems.
No place for a lady: the life story of archaeologist Marjorie F. Lambert
By Shelby J Tisdale. 2023
Marjorie Lambert's life story is intricately involved in the development of archaeology and institutional building in the American Southwest. She…
became a professional archaeologist and museum curator and was successful at both when relatively few women were able to enter either of these professions. Adult
This volume from the SAA Press examines the impact of looting and the use of artifacts of unknown provenance in…
the humanities and social sciences, ranging from the impact of amnesty laws for reporting stolen cultural property to the use of Google Earth to assess the scale of illicit excavations, and from the impact of poorly sourced artifacts on early Mycenaean and Minoan studies to the structure of the growing commercial trade in ancient coins.
Hell Creek, Montana: America's key to the prehistoric past
By Lowell Dingus. 2004
Hell Creek, Montana, is one of the most windswept, hardcrabble locales in the American West-a quiet town of ranchers, farmers,…
and others who seek the beauty of the open spaces. It is also the unlikely setting of some of the most fascinating events in the history of the United States and North America. From the first-ever discovery of a Tyrannosuarus Rex to Lewis and Clark's landmark expedition; for the Freeman compound standoff to Sitting Bull and Little Big Horn, Hell Creek has been a central player in the events of the last tow hundred years-and the last 200 million. Adult
Bronze Trend in East Asia: Millennial Changes in the Pre-Oracle Age
By Hong Xu. 2025
This book outlines the preface of bronze civilization in East Asia, and traces back to the beginning of &“Bronze China&”.…
Dating back from more than 6,000 years ago to 3,000 years ago, this book sorts out the archaeological discoveries in China from primitive copper alloys to red copper and bronze, clarifying the development of bronze techniques 1,000 years before the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions. It examines the archaeological materials from the late Longshan Period to the early Shang Dynasty to explain how bronze was discovered in China and how bronze ritual vessel influenced the ceremony system as the carrier and symbol of Chinese ritual civilization.
Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series)
By Albert C. Goodyear and Christopher R. Moore. 2021
Bringing together major archaeological research projects from Virginia to Alabama, this volume explores the rich prehistory of the Southeastern Coastal…
Plain. Contributors consider how the region’s warm weather, abundant water, and geography have long been optimal for the habitation of people beginning 50,000 years ago. They highlight demographic changes and cultural connections across this wide span of time and space. New data are provided here for many sites, including evidence for human settlement before the Clovis period at the famous Topper site in South Carolina. Contributors track the progression of sea level rise that gradually submerged shorelines and landscapes, and they discuss the possibility of a comet collision that triggered the Younger Dryas cold reversion and contributed to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna like mastodons and mammoths. Essays also examine the various stone materials used by prehistoric foragers, the location of chert quarries, and the details stone tools reveal about social interaction and mobility. This volume synthesizes more than fifty years of research and addresses many of today’s controversial questions in the archaeology of the early Southeast, such as the sudden demise of the Clovis technoculture and the recognition of the mysterious "Middle Paleoindian" period. Contributors: Robert J. Austin | Mark J. Brooks |Christopher R. Moore | I. Randolph Daniel, Jr. | Joseph E. Wilkinson | Joseph Schuldenrein | Allen West | David K. Thulman | James K. Feathers | Terry E. Barbour II | Douglas Sain | Thomas A. Jennings | Albert C. Goodyear | Andrew H. Ivester | Dr. Malcolm A. LeCompte | Adam M. Burke | James S. Dunbar | Jon Endonino | Richard Estabrook | H. Blaine Ensor | A. Victor Adedeji | Douglas J. Kennett | Ashley M. Smallwood | Kara Bridgman Sweeney | Sam Upchurch | James P. Kennett | Wendy S. Wolbach | M. Scott Harris | Ted Bunch | David G. Anderson | C. Andrew Hemmings | James. M. Adovasio | Dr. Frank J. Vento | Dr. Anthony J. Vega
Archaeology of Domestic Landscapes of the Enslaved in the Caribbean (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series)
By James A. Delle and Elizabeth C. Clay. 2019
While previous research on household archaeology in the colonial Caribbean has drawn heavily on artifact analysis, this volume provides the…
first in-depth examination of the architecture of slave housing during this period. It examines the considerations that went into constructing and inhabiting living spaces for the enslaved and reveals the diversity of people and practices in these settings. Contributors present case studies using written descriptions, period illustrations, and standing architecture, in addition to archaeological evidence to illustrate the wide variety of built environments for enslaved populations in places including Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the islands of the Lesser Antilles. They investigate how the enslaved defined their social positions and identities through house, yard, and garden space; they explore what daily life was like for slaves on military compounds; they compare the spatial arrangements of slave villages on plantations based on type of labor; and they show how the style of traditional laborer houses became a form of vernacular architecture still in use today. This volume expands our understanding of the wide range of enslaved experiences across British, French, Dutch, and Danish colonies. Contributors: Elizabeth C. Clay | James A. Delle | Todd M. Ahlman | Marco Meniketti | Kenneth Kelly | Hayden Bassett | James A. Delle | Kristen R. Fellows | Allan D. Meyers | Elizabeth C. Clay | Alicia Odewale | Meredith D. Hardy | Zachary J. M. Beier | Mark W. Hauser A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dogs: Archaeology beyond Domestication
By Brandi Bethke, Amanda Burtt. 2020
This volume offers a rich archaeological portrait of the human-canine connection. Contributors investigate the ways people have viewed and valued…
dogs in different cultures around the world and across the ages. Case studies from North and South America, the Arctic, Australia, and Eurasia present evidence for dogs in roles including pets, guards, hunters, and herders. In these chapters, faunal analysis from the Ancient Near East suggests that dogs contributed to public health by scavenging garbage, and remains from a Roman temple indicate that dogs were offered as sacrifices in purification rites. Essays also chronicle the complex partnership between Aboriginal peoples and the dingo and describe how the hunting abilities of dogs made them valuable assets for Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest. The volume draws on multidisciplinary methods that include zooarchaeological analysis; scientific techniques such as dental microwear, isotopic, and DNA analyses; and the integration of history, ethnography, multispecies scholarship, and traditional cultural knowledge to provide an in-depth account of dogs’ lives. Showing that dogs have been a critical ally for humankind through cooperation and companionship over thousands of years, this volume broadens discussions about how relationships between people and animals have shaped our world. Contributors: Brandi Bethke | Kate Britton | Amanda Burtt | Larisa R.G. DeSantis | Melanie Fillios | Emily Lena Jones | Loukas Koungoulos | Robert Losey | Edouard Masson-Maclean | Ellen McManus-Fry | Victoria Monagle | Victoria Moses | Angela R. Perri | Nerissa Russell | Peter W. Stahl
Dead Man's Chest: Exploring the Archaeology of Piracy
By Russell K. Skowronek, Charles R. Ewen. 2023
A global approach to better understanding piracy through archaeology Featuring discussions of newly discovered evidence from South America,…
England, New England, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and the Indian Ocean, Dead Man’s Chest presents diverse approaches to better understanding piracy through archaeological investigations, landscape studies, material culture analyses, and documentary and cartographic evidence. The case studies in this volume include medieval and postmedieval piracy in the Bristol Channel, illicit trade in seventeenth-century fishing stations in Maine, and the guerrilla tactics of nineteenth-century privateers and coastal bandits off the Gulf of Mexico Coast. Contributors reveal the story of a Dutch privateer who saved a ship from a storm only to take control of it, partnerships between pirates and Indigenous inhabitants along the Miskito coast, and new findings on the Speaker—one of the first pirate ships to be archaeologically investigated—in Madagascar. As well as covering shipwrecks and other topics traditionally associated with piracy, several chapters look at pirate facilities on land and cultural interactions with nearby communities as reflected through archival documentation. As a whole, the volume highlights various ways to identify piracy and smuggling in the archaeological record, while encouraging readers to question what they think they know about pirates.Contributors: Dr. Charles R. Ewen | Russell K. Skowronek | Yann von Arnim | Martijn van den Bel | Patrick J. Boyle | John de Bry | Alexandre Coulaud | Jessie Cragg | Lynn B. Harris | Geraldo J. S. Hostin | Coy Jacob Idol | Kimberly P. Kenyon | Patrick Lizé | Laurent Pavlidis| Jason T. Raupp | Bradley Rodgers | Nathalie Sellier-Ségard | Jean Soulat | Katherine D. Thomas | Michael Thomin | Megan Rhodes Victor | Kenneth S. Wild
Archaeology in a Living Landscape: Envisioning Nonhuman Persons in the Indigenous Americas
By Brent K. S. Woodfill, Lucia R. Henderson. 2024
Recognizing and incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems in archaeological studies of the Americas This book explores the diverse range of…
other-than-human persons that inhabited and affected the landscape of the ancient Americas. These case studies acknowledge what is often dismissed by Western scholars: that Indigenous communities have long recognized degrees of personhood in mountains, volcanoes, caves, springs, rivers, rocks, plants, archaeological sites, trees, and animals and that this worldview should be taken seriously in archaeological investigations, community relations, and interpretations. In Archaeology in a Living Landscape, contributors examine the role of nonhuman agents in the ancient world, from land management and tenure to economics, politics, migration, pilgrimage, trade routes, conquest, ethics, and philosophy. Chapters describe Tlingit cosmology, lightning beings and magnetism in the Minnesota River Region, linguistic approaches to animacy in the United States Southeast, nonhuman persons in the ancient Maya economy, and Lacandon Maya ritual landscapes. They investigate the role of quarries in the building of Inka huacas (sacred spaces or objects), clay procurement and Andean apus (powerful mountains), Amazonian animism in polychrome ceramics, and the built and unbuilt landscape of the Mapuche. An epilogue by Dakota elder James Rock highlights how Western academic discourse often diverges from the viewpoints of Indigenous subjects. The contributors to this volume use language accessible to readers of diverse backgrounds. They focus on the centrality of nonhuman persons in the lives of Indigenous communities, working to move away from Western biases to embrace and integrate Indigenous belief frameworks in their studies. Archaeology in a Living Landscape highlights the value of Indigenous knowledge systems not just as archaeological evidence but as a body of theory. Contributors: Steve J. Langdon | Lisa J. Lucero | Alexei Vranich | James Rock | Eleanor Harrison-Buck | Lucia R. Henderson | Nicola Sharratt | Patrick Ryan Williams | Bill Sillar | Brent K.S. Woodfill | Jacob J. Sauer | Margaret Spivey-Faulkner | Sigrid Arnott | Dianne Desrosiers | Joshua Feinberg | David Maki | Carolyn Dean | Alice Balsanelli | Joel W. Palka | A.C. Roosevelt | Dennis Ogburn
Bears: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives in Native Eastern North America (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series)
By Gregory A. Waselkov, Heather A. Lapham. 2020
Highlighting the role of bears in Indigenous societies of North America Although scholars have long recognized the mythic status of bears…
in Indigenous North American societies of the past, this is the first volume to synthesize the vast amount of archaeological and historical research on the topic. Bears charts the special relationship between the American black bear and humans in eastern Native American cultures across thousands of years. These essays draw on zooarchaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence from nearly 300 archaeological sites from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico. Contributors explore the ways bears have been treated as something akin to another kind of human—in the words of anthropologist Irving Hallowell, “other than human persons”—in Algonquian, Cherokee, Iroquois, Meskwaki, Creek, and many other Native cultures. Case studies focus on bear imagery in Native art and artifacts; the religious and economic significance of bears and bear products such as meat, fat, oil, and pelts; bears in Native worldviews, kinship systems, and cosmologies; and the use of bears as commodities in transatlantic trade. The case studies in Bears demonstrate that bears were not only a source of food, but were also religious, economic, and political icons within Indigenous cultures. This volume convincingly portrays the black bear as one of the most socially significant species in Native eastern North America. Contributors: Ralph Koziarski | Megan C. Kassabaum | Louis-Vincent Laperrière-Désorcy | J. Lynn Funkhouser | Heather A. Lapham | Hannah O’Regan | Christian St-Pierre | David Mather | DR Tanya M. Peres | Claire St-Germain | Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman | Heather Altman | Terrance Joseph Martin | Thomas Berres | J. Matthew Compton | Ashley Peles | Gregory A. Waselkov A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series
Quilcapampa: A Wari Enclave in Southern Peru
By Justin Jennings, Willy Yépez Álvarez and Stefanie L. Bautista. 2021
In the ninth century AD, settlers from the heartland of the Wari Empire founded Quilcapampa, a short-lived site overlooking the…
Sihuas River in southern Peru. The contributors to this volume present excavation and survey data from in and around Quilcapampa that challenge long-held models of both Wari statecraft and the mechanisms that engendered the widespread societal changes of the era. Quilcapampa and other peripheral Wari settlements have generally been seen as local administrative centers that siphoned resources from conquered regions to the Wari capital. This volume demonstrates that Quilcapampa was likely founded not by Wari officials but by families looking for a new home amid the turmoil caused by increasing Wari political centralization. Botanical, faunal, ceramic, lithic, and other data sets are used to reconstruct lifeways at the site and show how the settlers interacted with others locally and across greater distances. Featuring extensive illustrations in the print edition and multimedia components in the digital edition, Quilcapampa offers an abundance of archaeological data on the site as well as new theoretical considerations of Wari expansion, laying the foundation for a better understanding of how Andean political economy and social complexity changed over time. Contributors: Aleksa Alaica | Stefanie Bautista | Stephen Berquist | Matthew E. Biwer | Luis Manuel González La Rosa | Felipe Gonzalez-Macqueen | Oscar Huamán López| Justin Jennings | Mallory A. Melton | Patricia Quiñonez Cuzcano | David Reid | Branden Rizzuto | Giles Spence-Morrow | Willy Yépez Álvarez
Southern Anthropological Society James Mooney Award As Native American history is primarily studied through the lens of European contact, the…
story of Virginia's Powhatans has traditionally focused on the English arrival in the Chesapeake. This has left a deeper indigenous history largely unexplored--a longer narrative beginning with the Algonquians' construction of places, communities, and the connections in between. The Powhatan Landscape breaks new ground by tracing Native placemaking in the Chesapeake from the Algonquian arrival to the Powhatan's clashes with the English. Martin Gallivan details how Virginia Algonquians constructed riverine communities alongside fishing grounds and collective burials and later within horticultural towns. Ceremonial spaces, including earthwork enclosures within the center place of Werowocomoco, gathered people for centuries prior to 1607. Even after the violent ruptures of the colonial era, Native people returned to riverine towns for pilgrimages commemorating the enduring power of place. For today's American Indian communities in the Chesapeake, this reexamination of landscape and history represents a powerful basis from which to contest narratives and policies that have previously denied their existence. A volume in the series Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology, edited by Victor D. Thompson
Rethinking Colonialism: Comparative Archaeological Approaches
By Craig N. Cipolla; Katherine Howlett Hayes. 2015
Historical archaeology studies once relied upon a binary view of colonialism: colonizers and colonized, the colonial period and the postcolonial…
period. The contributors to this volume scrutinize imperialism and expansionism through an alternative lens that rejects simple dualities and explores the variously gendered, racialized, and occupied peoples of a multitude of faiths, desires, associations, and constraints. Colonialism is not a phase in the chronology of a people but a continuous phenomenon that spans the Old and New Worlds. Most important, the contributors argue that its impacts—and, in some instances, even the same processes set in place by the likes of Columbus—are ongoing. Inciting a critical examination of the lasting consequences of ancient and modern colonialism on descendant communities, this wide-ranging volume includes essays on Roman Britain, slavery in Brazil, and contemporary Native Americans. In its efforts to define the scope of colonialism and the comparability of its features, this collection challenges the field to go beyond familiar geographical and historical boundaries and draws attention to unfolding colonial futures.
The Temple of Artemis at Sardis: The Hellenistic Temple Tradition in Asia Minor
By Diane Favro, Fikret Yegul. 2025
Nestled beneath the 'pointed peaks' of the legendary Tmolos Mountains, the temple and sanctuary of Artemis at Sardis is one…
of the most impressive monuments of classical antiquity. Dating to the Hellenistic period, it was undertaken, not by a king, but by Stratonike, a 'fiery' Hellenistic queen, and redesigned under the Roman emperor Hadrian, when it became the center of an imperial cult. In this volume, Fikret Yegül and Diane Favro explore the Temple of Sardis from multiple perspectives. Offering a close archaeological analysis of the temple, they also provides new insights into its unique design; the changing nature of religious and cult practices at the temple; the relationship to its setting; and its benefactors. Attention is paid to place this extraordinary temple in the larger context of Greek and Roman religious architecture in Asia Minor. Richly illustrated with over 200 color images, including historical paintings and drawings, it also includes digital reconstructions of the temple are published here for the first time.
American Journal of Archaeology, volume 129 number 3 (July 2025)
By American Journal of Archaeology. 2025
This is volume 129 issue 3 of American Journal of Archaeology. The American Journal of Archaeology, the journal of the…
Archaeological Institute of America, was founded in 1885 and is one of the world's most distinguished and widely distributed peer-reviewed archaeological journals. The AJA reaches more than 40 countries and approximately 700 universities, learned societies, departments of antiquities, and museums. The AJA publishes original research on the diverse peoples and material cultures of the Mediterranean and related areas, including North Africa (with Egypt and Sudan), Western Asia (with the Caucasus), and Europe, from prehistory through late antiquity.