Archaeological theory Books

Book SynopsisIndo-European Fire Rituals is a comparative study of Indo-European fire rituals from modern folklore and ethnography in Scandinavia and archaeological material in Europe from the Bronze Age onwards to the Vedic origins of cosmos in India and today's cremations on open pyres in Hinduism.Exploring Indo-European fire rituals and sacrifices throughout history and fire in its fundamental role in rites and religious practices, this book analyses fire rituals as the unifying structure in time and space in Indo-European cultures from the Bronze Age onwards. It asks the question how and why was fire the ultimate power in culture and cosmology? Fire as an agent and divinity was fundamental in all major sacrifices. In Europe, ritual fires in relation to agriculture and fertility may also explain the enigma of cremation. Cremated remains were ground and used in fertility rituals, and ancestral fires played an essential role in metallurgy and the creation of cosmos. Thus, the rolTable of Contents1: Fire rituals and the Indo-European Heritage; 2: Hearts in hearths – ancestors and deities; 3: Seasonality and fire festivals; 4. Cremation and cultivation in the North; 5. Fires from heaven – The links between East and West; 6. The Indo-Iranian culture and its rituals of fire; 7. Cremation, sacrifice and cosmogony in Hinduism

Read more less

Book SynopsisBroken Bodies, Places and Objects demonstrates the breadth of fragmentation and fragment use in prehistory and history and provides an up-to-date insight into current archaeological thinking around the topic.A seal broken and shared by two trade parties, dog jaws accompanying the dead in Mesolithic burials, fragments of ancient warships commodified as souvenirs, parts of an ancient dynastic throne split up between different colonial collections Pieces of the past are everywhere around us. Fragments have a special potential precisely because of their incomplete format as a new matter that can reference its original whole but can also live on with new, unrelated meanings. Deliberate breakage of bodies, places and objects for the use of fragments has been attested from all time periods in the past. It has now been over 20 years since John Chapman's major publication introducing fragmentation studies, and the topic is more present than ever in archaeology. This volume oTable of ContentsChapter 1 - Fragmentation in Archaeological Context - Studying the Incomplete; Part I – Fragmentation and Funerary Practices; Chapter 2 - Marking Boundaries, Making Connections: Fragmenting the Body in Bronze Age Britain; Chapter 3 - Breaking and Making the Ancestors. Fragmentation as a Key Funerary Practice in the Creation of Urnfield Graves; Chapter 4 - Bonded by Pieces: Fragments as Means of Affirming Kinship in Iron Age Finland; Chapter 5 - Revisiting, Selecting, Breaking and Removing: Incomplete and Fragmented Merovingian Reopened Graves in Western Europe; Chapter 6 - Parted Pairs: Viking Age Oval Brooches in Britain, Ireland, and Iceland; Part II – Fragmentation and Archaeological Methods; Chapter 7 - There is Method in the Madness – or how to Approach Fragmentation in Archaeology; Chapter 8 - Four Problems for Archaeological Refitting Studies; Chapter 9 - Describing Identity: The Individual and the Collective in Zooarchaeology; Chapter 10 - Fragmented Reindeer of Stállo Foundations; Chapter 11 - House to House – Fragmentation and Deceptive Memory-Making at an Early Modern Swedish Country House; Part III – Fragmentation and the Manipulation of Objects; Chapter 12 - Multiple Objects: Fragmentation and Process in the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland; Chapter 13 - Breaking, Making, Dismantling and Reassembling: Fragmentation in Iron Age Britain; Chapter 14 - Fusing Fragments: Repaired Objects, Refitted Parts and Upcycled Pieces in the Late Bronze Age Metalwork of Southern Scandinavia; Chapter 15 - Selective Fragmentation: Exploring the Treatment of Metalwork across Time and Space in Bronze Age Britain; Chapter 16 - Pieces of the Past, Fragments for the Future - Broken Metalwork in Nordic Late Bronze Age Hoards as Memorabilia?; Chapter 17 - A Man-of-War in Pieces. Fragmenting the Rikswasa of 1599; Concluding Essay; Chapter 18 - Fragmentation Research and the Fetichization of Independence.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMuseums as Assemblage offers a new way of thinking about the dynamism of art museums. Using the concept of assemblage, this book unpacks relations between visitors, artists, museum staff, and the museum's nonhuman components, providing an analytical framework that celebrates the complexity of museums today. It takes the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Tasmania as its primary case study but situates it in global trends by drawing on a range of examples from art museums across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and East Asia. It provides insight into how perceptions around engagement are enabled and constrained in the context of different museums and highlights the necessity of an analytical framework that accommodates the complexity and multiplicity of the contemporary museum landscape. With an emphasis on visitor experience and curatorial strategy, the book is valuable for students and researchers in museum studies, art history, curatorial studiTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Contemporary Museum Practice: The Museum of Old and New Art; 2. Museums as Assemblage: Practice and Potential; 3. The Normative Museum: The authoritative voice of the museum and the visitor-as-spectator; 4. The Responsive Museum: Community and Constituents; 5. The Affective Museum: Atmospherics, aesthesis, and the sensorial’ 6. The Emergent Museum: Dynamic, hospitable, disruptive

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe second edition of An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era explores the period between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries and reflects on the archaeological theory and practice of the recent past.This book argues that the materiality of our times, and particularly its ruins and rubbish, reveals something profound and disturbing about modern societies. It examines the political, ethical, aesthetic, and epistemological foundations of contemporary archaeology and characterizes the excess of the contemporary period through its material traces. This book remains the first attempt at describing the contemporary era from an archaeological point of view. Global in scope, the book brings together case studies from every continent and considers sources from peripheral and rarely considered traditions, meanwhile engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue with philosophy, anthropology, history, and geography. This new edition includes the latest developments in the fiel

Read more less

Book SynopsisMutualist Archaeology proposes that the theory of mutualism can transform archaeology from what someconsider to be a discipline in crisis.This book argues that the methodological and practical applications of mutualism can transform both the practice of archaeology and the way that interpretations of the past are created. Nineteenth-century theories of capitalism and Darwinism led many to assume that competition, both in the present and the past, was the most natural process in the world. Despite the tenacity of the competitive argument, this book highlights another way of seeing the natural and human world, beneficial association, or mutualism. Chapters set out how mutualist theory can offer differing perspectives on the many historical contexts archaeologists investigate, such as exchange and social complexity, as well as how archaeologists work together. Until now, no archaeologist has explicitly explored the richness that exists within mutualism, and in addition to

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume expands perspectives on infrastructure that are rooted in archaeological discourse and material evidence.The compiled chapters represent new and emerging ideas within archaeology about what infrastructure is, how it can materialize, and how it impacts and reflects human behavior, social organization, and identity in the past as well as the present. Three goals central to the work include: (1) expand the definition of infrastructure using archaeological frameworks and evidence from a wide range of social, historical, and geographic contexts; (2) explore how new archaeological perspectives on infrastructure can help answer anthropological questions pertaining to social organization, group collaboration, and community consensus and negotiation; and (3) examine the broader implications of an archaeological engagement with infrastructure and contributions to contemporary infrastructural studies. Chapters explore important aspects of infrastructure, including its relati

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis textbook offers a reasoned and accessible introduction to the philosophy of the environment and the current environmental crisis, designed for scholars and students in both philosophy and the natural and environmental sciences.The volume addresses the history and meanings of the concept of environment, provides a theory of the relation between living beings and their environments, and tackles a wide spectrum of key philosophical issues related to the environment and the environmental crisis in a straightforward framework and accessible style. The bookâs unique approach to environmental philosophy addresses the environment of all living beings and extends beyond environmental ethics to include conceptual history and analysis together with insights from evolutionary and developmental biology, ecology, and environmental and conservation sciences. The book consists of five chapters, each built around a specific thesis drawing upon philosophers and concepts including George C

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume brings together perspectives from different parts of the world that showcase the wide variety of practices, institutions, and ideologies that allowed for shared identities and coordinated actions across broad collectives. It shows that there are many ways that people can work together.How did the worldâs first large-scale collectives come into being? For much of our disciplineâs history, the answer was the state. People learned how to be part of a larger community via political, economic, and social scaffolding that tended to build from earlier ways of living in a region. This scaffolding was often wobbly and always under constructionâits flexibility often a design strength rather than a flaw. This book demonstrate that violence and rulers often played pivotal roles in large-scale collectives, but so did gender complementarity, markets, ritual centers, fictive kinship, and egalitarianism. Earlier evolutionary approaches tended to obscure both the variability and m

Read more less

Book SynopsisWeirding Civilization examines the irrational foundations of civilization, from the Bronze Age to the Anthropocene. Inspired by Twin Peaks and Lovecraftian horror, it reveals how weirdness â disorienting, monstrous, and ambivalent â has shaped human society since the rise of the first complex civilizations.Taking âweirdingâ as its conceptual lens, the book examines hallmarks of civilization such as urbanism, money, and writing, uncovering their layered and often non-rational nature. While the concept of weirding has gained traction across disciplines, from literature studies to climate science, this book applies it systematically to early civilizations for the first time. Weirdness emerges as ruptures in experienced reality, arising from the complex interplay between humans and non-humans. The book explores how civilization has unfolded in relation to hidden, invisible, and unknown dimensions of reality. Accessible and thought-provoking, it broadens conceptual h

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis collection of essays brings together several different evolutionary perspectives to demonstrate how lithic technological systems are a by-product of human behavior. The essays cover a range of topics, including human behavioral ecology, cultural transmission, phylogenetic analysis, macroevolution, and various applications of evolutionary ecology.Trade Review'Like a biface, this useful book about stone tool analysis has three sides, describing three evolutionary approaches to lithic assemblages: selectionist, human behavioral ecology and cultural transmission. Those lithic analysts interested in the application of evolutionary theory must read this book, and all the others should read it.' Robert L. Kelly, University of Wyoming'The case studies in Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory apply a diverse array of evolutionary theory and methods to lithic technology, making a strong case for the value of evolutionary approaches to lithics. This is a useful book for teaching the uses of evolutionary theory in archaeology.' Kenneth M. Ames, Portland State University'Is it evolution yet? In lithic technology studies, the answer is yes. Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory is a timely compendium of the latest developments in the application of evolutionary theory to lithic technology - incorporating and integrating both cultural transmission and behavioral ecology approaches to a full range of topics in the field of stone tool technology.' James L. Boone, University of New MexicoTable of ContentsPart I. Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory: 1. Interpreting lithic technology under the evolutionary tent William Andrefsky, Jr and Nathan Goodale; Part II. Culture History and Phylogenetic Evolution: 2. Graphing evolutionary pattern in stone tools to reveal evolutionary process R. Lee Lyman; 3. Theory in archaeology: morphometric approaches to the study of fluted points Michael Shott; 4. Innovation and natural selection in Paleoindian projectile points from the American Southwest Todd L. VanPool, Michael J. O'Brien and R. Lee Lyman; Part III. Applications of Behavioral Ecology to Lithic Studies: 5. A case of extinction in Paleoindian archaeology Charlotte Beck and George T. Jones; 6. The North China Nanolithic Robert L. Bettinger, Christopher Morgan and Loukas Barton; 7. When to retouch, haft, or discard? Modeling optimal use/maintenance schedules in lithic tool use Chris Clarkson, Michael Haslam and Clair Harris; 8. Procurement costs and tool performance requirements: determining constraints on lithic toolstone selection in Baja California Sur Jennifer Ferris; 9. A model of lithic raw material procurement Raven Garvey; 10. Artifacts as patches: the marginal value theorem and stone tool life histories Steven L. Kuhn and D. Shane Miller; 11. Signals in stone: exploring the role of social information exchange, conspicuous consumption, and costly signaling theory in lithic analysis Colin P. Quinn; Part IV. Cultural Transmission and Morphology: 12. An analysis of stylistic variability of stemmed obsidian tools (mata'a) on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt and Brooke Hundtoft; 13. Cultural transmission and the production of material goods: evolutionary pattern through measuring morphology Nathan Goodale, William Andrefsky, Jr, Curtis Osterhoudt, Lara Cueni and Ian Kuijt; 14. What Steward got right: technology, work organization, and cultural evolution Nathan E. Stevens; 15. Evolution of the slate tool industry at Bridge River, British Columbia Anna M. Prentiss, Nathan Goodale, Lucille E. Harris and Nicole Crossland.

Read more less

Book SynopsisQuantitative Methods in Archaeology Using R is the first hands-on guide to using the R statistical computing system written specifically for archaeologists. It shows how to use the system to analyze many types of archaeological data. Part I includes tutorials on R, with applications to real archaeological data showing how to compute descriptive statistics, create tables, and produce a wide variety of charts and graphs. Part II addresses the major multivariate approaches used by archaeologists, including multiple regression (and the generalized linear model); multiple analysis of variance and discriminant analysis; principal components analysis; correspondence analysis; distances and scaling; and cluster analysis. Part III covers specialized topics in archaeology, including intra-site spatial analysis, seriation, and assemblage diversity.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Organization of the book; Part I. R and Basic Statistics: 2. Introduction to R; 3. Looking at data – numerical summaries; 4. Looking at data – tables; 5. Looking at data – graphs; 6. Transformations; 7. Missing values; 8. Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing; 9. Relating variables; Part II. Multivariate Methods: 10. Multiple regression and generalized linear models; 11. MANOVA and canonical and predictive discriminant analysis; 12. Principal components analysis; 13. Correspondence analysis; 14. Distances and scaling; 15. Cluster analysis; Part III. Archaeological Approaches to Data: 16. Spatial analysis; 17. Seriation; 18. Assemblage diversity; 19. Conclusions; 20. References.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThomas Young (1773â1829) was an English physician who was one of the first modern scholars to attempt to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and made significant contributions to a variety of other academic disciplines. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1794 and in 1803 published an article establishing the wave theory of light. Young became interested in hieroglyphs in 1814, when he was sent a fragment of papyrus from Egypt. After acquiring a copy of the Rosetta Stone inscriptions Young made rapid progress, publishing his results in 1816 and 1819. When Champollion published his groundbreaking work on hieroglyphs in 1822 Young believed that Champollion had based that work on his earlier translations without acknowledgement, which Champollion denied. This book was published in 1823 in an attempt by Young to lay 'public claim to whatever credit be my due', and provides a summary of his hieroglyphic research.Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Introductory sketch of the prevalent opinions respecting hieroglyphics; 2. Investigations founded on the Pillar of Rosetta; 3. Additional inferences, deduced from the Egyptian manuscripts, and from other monuments; 4. Collections of the French; 5. Illustrations of the manuscripts brought from Egypt by Mr. Grey; 6. Extracts from Diodorus and Herodotus; relating to mummies; 7. Extracts from Strabo; Alphabet of Champollion; Hieroglyphical and Enchorial names; 8. Chronological history of the Ptolemies, extracted from various authors; Appendix 1. Greek text of the manuscripts and registries; Appendix 2. Specimens of hieroglyphics.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHANDBOOK OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCES A modern and comprehensive introduction to methods and techniques in archaeology In the newly revised Second Edition of the Handbook of Archaeological Sciences, a team of more than 100 researchers delivers a comprehensive and accessible overview of modern methods used in the archaeological sciences. The book covers all relevant approaches to obtaining and analyzing archaeological data, including dating methods, quaternary paleoenvironments, human bioarchaeology, biomolecular archaeology and archaeogenetics, resource exploitation, archaeological prospection, and assessing the decay and conservation of specimens. Overview chapters introduce readers to the relevance of each area, followed by contributions from leading experts that provide detailed technical knowledge and application examples. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to human bioarchaeology, including hominin evolution and paleopathologyThe use of biomolecular analysis to characterize past environments Novel approaches to the analysis of archaeological materials that shed new light on early human lifestyles and societiesIn-depth explorations of the statistical and computational methods relevant to archaeology Perfect for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of archaeology, the Handbook of Archaeological Sciences will also earn a prominent place in the libraries of researchers and professionals with an interest in the geological, biological, and genetic basis of archaeological studies.Table of ContentsSection 1. Dating Overview Quaternary geochronological frameworks New developments in Radiocarbon dating Dendrochronology and archaeology Trapped charge dating and archaeology U-series dating Archaeomagnetic dating Obsidian hydration dating with SIMS Amino acid dating An introduction to tephrochronology and the correlation of sedimentary sequences using volcanic ash layers Section 2. Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Overview Modelling Quaternary Palaeoclimates Ice core and marine sediment records of Quaternary environmental change Insects as palaeoenvironmental and archaeological indicators Non-marine molluscs as palaeoenvironmental indicators Mammals as palaeoenvironmental indicators Lake and peat records of climate change and archaeology Archaeological soil micromorphology Pollen and macroscopic plant remains as indicators of local and regional environments Environmental controls on human dispersal and adaptation Holocene climate changes and human consequences Section 3. Human Bioarchaeology Overview Hominin evolution Biological distance (normal variation/non-metrical and metrical analysis) Palaeopathology Integrating bioarchaeology and palaeodemography Palaeodiet through stable isotope analysis Palaeomobility through stable isotopes Preserved human bodies Cremated bone Section 4. Biomolecular Archaeology Overview Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) Archaeological proteomics The use of immunological methods in archaeology Lipids in archaeology Archaeological microbiology Dental calculus The biomolecular archaeology of psychoactive substances Section 5. Archaeogenetics Overview Sex and kinship typing of human archaeological remains Human populations – origins and movement Palaeogenomics of extinct and archaic humans Palaeogenetics and palaeogenomics to study the domestication of animals Domestication of plants Palaeomicrobiology of human infectious diseases Section 6. Biological Resource Exploitation Overview Archaeobotany Human impact on vegetation Zooarchaeology Coprolites/intestinal contents Invertebrates Secondary animal and plant products Section 7. Inorganic Resource Exploitation Overview Lithic exploitation and usewear analysis Ancient binders and pigments Materials analysis of ceramics The archaeometry of glass Mining and resource procurement: methods and approaches to the appropriation of mineral raw materials in past societies Making and using metals Provenancing inorganic materials: biography and mutability Section 8. Archaeological Prospection Overview Approaches to archaeological surface survey Geophysical survey techniques Remote sensing/LIDAR Geochemical prospecting Integrating survey data Section 9. Burial, Decay and Archaeological Conservation Overview Defining the burial environment Metallic corrosion processes and information from corrosion products Post-depositional changes in archaeological ceramics and glass Deterioration of organic materials Diagenetic alterations to vertebrate mineralized tissues Forensic taphonomy Section 10. Statistical and Computational Methods Overview Spatial information in archaeology Multivariate analysis in archaeology The Bayesian inferential paradigm in archaeology Quantification in zooarchaeology and palaeoethno(archaeo)botany The use of kernel density estimates on chemical and isotopic data in archaeology Modelling/Simulations in archaeology Big data in archaeology

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn recent years scholars have re-evaluated the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity, reaching new understandings of the ways shared origins gave way to two distinct and sometimes inimical religious traditions. But this has been a profoundly textual task, relying on the writings of rabbis, bishops, and other text-producing elites to map the terrain of the parting. This book takes up the question of the divergence of Judaism and Christianity in terms of material--the stuff made, used, and left behind by the persons that lived in and between these religions as they were developing. Considering the glass, clay, stone, paint, vellum, and papyrus of ancient Jews and Christians, this book maps the parting in new ways, and argues for a greater role for material and materialism in our reconstructions of the past. Trade Review"This well-written and stimulating book fills a significant gap in current scholarship by focusing on material evidence for the relationships between Jews and Christians in late antiquity... Smith makes an excellent case for the inclusion of materiality in any consideration of the parting of the ways and other issues in the study of Jews and Christians in antiquity... The interaction with contemporary thinkers outside the field of biblical studies, archaeology, or ancient history demonstrates persuasively and concretely the ways in which the study of the ancient world is relevant to and also inflected by the currents of contemporary society." - Adele Reinhartz, Review of Biblical Literature 2019"In this creative and groundbreaking study, Smith places material culture front and center as he explores the rich contact zone of the figurative "valley" between the "mountain peaks" that represent late Roman Judaism and Christianity as clearly distinct religions. Building on the recognition that modern concepts of religion, and with it understandings of Judaism and Christianity, distort our understanding of the Roman world, Smith rethinks early Christian/Jewish "relations" through a deep engagement with critical race theory, hybridity, and intersectionality. This accessible and engaging book contributes significantly to the study of early Christianity, Roman Judaism, identity-construction, and religion, and demonstrates clearly the value of the materialist turn." - Christina Shepardson, University of Tennessee, USA"What can the physical remains of the past teach us about religion and community in antiquity? In this exquisitely crafted materialist reexamination of the so-called Parting of the Ways between Judaism and Christianity, Eric Smith reorients our thinking about the "raucous reality" of ancient lives on the ground. Stripping away the modern colonialist imposiTable of ContentsPreface: The Geographies of Identity1: Mountains, Valleys, and Stones2: Mountains: The Construction of World Religions3: Valley: Intersectional, Material Antiquity4: Glass: The Identities of Things5: Clay: The Economics of Belonging6: Marble: Stories in Stone7: Paint: The Hollowness of Symbols8: Vellum: ‘Relations’ in Miniature9: Papyrus: The Practice of Text10: The Mountains from the Valley

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe future of humanity is urban, and knowledge of urbanism's deep past is critical for us all to navigate that future. The time has come for archaeologists to rethink this global phenomenon by asking what urbanism is and, more to the point, was. Can we truly understand ancient urbanism by only asking after the human element, or are the properties and qualities of landscapes, materials, and atmospheres equally causal? The nine authors of New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms seek less anthropocentric answers to questions about the historical relationships between urbanism and humanity in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They analyze the movements and flows of materials, things, phenomena, and beingshuman and otherwiseas these were assembled to produce the kinds of complex, dense, and stratified relationships that we today label urban. In so doing, the book emerges as a work of both theory and historical anthropology. It breaks new ground in the archaeology of urbanisTrade Review"The writers have produced an outstanding overview of the flow of antiquities, moving from the source of the looting or excavation, through transit states, and culminating in museums, showrooms, and private collections. This book stands as an excellent summary of the work being done on this illicit trade, and will be an invaluable resource for those familiar with the subject, and for those new to it." - Prof. Derek Fincham, South Texas College of Law Houston, USA"This fascinating book will become the go-to resource on the global market in illicit antiquities. The authors’ in-depth investigations into this devastating global crime problem highlight the importance of collecting and analysing evidence to counter the justifications that can exist in the often grey worlds that thrive around illicit antiquities. Highly accessible, the book engages with theory, research methods and international policy in a manner that provides a valuable counterpoint to much work on the area that is based on conjecture. In presenting their hugely significant Trafficking Culture research, the authors also promote an important future policy approach. The book will inspire future research into the global market in illicit antiquities and serve as an example of how it should be undertaken." - John Kerr, University of Roehampton, UK"Inspired by Deleuzian and other realist philosophies, this provocative book synthesizes New Materialist theories and relational approaches to tackle a mainstay of traditional archaeological research, urbanism and city life in ancient societies. The authors demonstrate that cities defy reduction to essentialized types but must be understood as dense but fluid assemblages of peoples, infrastructures, substances, formless matter, phenomena and objects. The case studies, ranging from across the globe, reveal the fundamental importance of ontology and religion to urban historical process, one mediated by diverse assemblages of non-human entities. The edited volume presents a radically new approach to the analysis of urbanism that stands to revolutionize archaeological approaches to ancient landscapes." - Edward Swenson, University of Toronto, CanadaTable of Contents1. Introducing New Materialisms, Rethinking Ancient Urbanisms; 2. From Weeping Hills to Lost Caves: A Search for Vibrant Matter in Greater Cahokia; 3. Chaco Gathers: Experience and Assemblage in the Ancient Southwest; 4. Assembling the City: Monte Albán as a Mountain of Creation and Sustenance; 5. Assembling Tiwanaku: Water and Stone, Humans and Monoliths; 6. Immanence and the Spirit of Ancient Urbanism at Paquimé and Liangzhu; 7. The Gathering of Swahili Religious Practice: Mosques-as-Assemblages at 1000 CE Swahili Towns; 8. Urbanism and the Temporality of Materiality on the Medieval Deccan: Beyond the Cosmograms of Social and Political Space; 9. Cities, the Underworld, and the Infrastructure: The Ecology of Water in the Hittite World; 10. Commentary: The City and the City

Read more less

Book SynopsisCultural Heritage and the Future brings together an international group of scholars and experts to consider the relationship between cultural heritage and the future.Drawing on case studies from around the world, the contributing authors insist that cultural heritage and the future are intimately linked and that the development of futures thinking should be a priority for academics, students and those working in the wider professional heritage sector. Until recently, the future has never attracted substantial research and debate within heritage studies and heritage management, and this book addresses this gap by offering a balance of theoretical and empirical content that will stimulate multidisciplinary debate in the burgeoning field of critical heritage studies.Cultural Heritage and the Future questions the role of heritage in future making and will be of great relevance to academics and students working in the fields of museum and heritage Trade Review"This book is … about the various ways to engage with cultural heritage in the light of ‘futures thinking’. Through its carefully selected mix of theoretical and practical case studies, it will undoubtedly become a flagship text for anyone interested in exploring the interconnections between cultural heritage and the future." - Antiquity"The book is illuminating and provides a valuable compendium and a fascinating timeline for the last decade of thinking." - News in Conservation, International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic WorksTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction: Cultural heritage as a futuristic field; Section 1: The future in heritage studies and heritage management; 2. Heritage practices as future-making practices; 3. Heritage, thrift, and our children’s children; 4. Perceptions of the future in preservation strategies (Or: Why Eyssl von Eysselsberg’s body is no longer taken across the lake); 5. The future and management of ICH in China from a legal perspective; Section 2: The future in cultural heritage; 6. Decolonizing the future. Folk art environments and the temporality of heritage; 7. The spectre of non-completion: An archaeological approach to half-built buildings; 8. An archaeology of Cold War armageddonism through the lens of Scientology; 9. Future visions and the heritage of space: Nostalgia for infinity; Section 3: Re-thinking heritage futures; 10. What lies ahead? Nuclear waste as cultural heritage of the future; 11. The future in the past, the past in the future; 12. Radioactive heritage of the future: A legacy of risk; Section 4: Heritage and future-making; 13. Sustainability, intergenerational equity, and pluralism: Can heritage conservation create alternative futures?; 14. Palliative curation and future persistence: Life after death; 15. The future, atemporality, and heritage: "Yesterday´s tomorrow is not today"; 16. Heritages of futures thinking: Strategic foresight and critical futures; 17. Final reflections: The future of heritage

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas spans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas considers the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a Great Tradition focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contesTable of Contents1. New directions in the archaeology of religion and politics in the Americas by Arthur A. Joyce 2. The mobile house: religious leadership at Chacoan and Chacoan revival centers by Erina Gruner 3. The elements of Cahokian shrine complexes and basis of Mississippian religion by Susan M. Alt and Timothy R. Pauketat 4. Cherokee religion and European contact in southeastern North America by Christopher B. Rodning 5. Unsettled gods: religion and politics in the Early Formative Soconusco by Sarah B. Barber 6. Religion, urbanism, and inequality in ancient central Mexico by David M. Carballo 7. Religion in a material world by Rosemary A. Joyce 8. Political engagement in household ritual among the Maya of Yucatan by Scott R. Hutson, Céline C. Lamb, and David Medina Arona9. Ritual is power? Religion as a possible base of power for early political actors in ancient Peru by Matthew Piscitelli 10. Timing is everything: religion and the regulation of temporalities in precolumbian Peru by Edward Swenson 11. From landscape to ontology in Amazonia: the Llanos de Mojos as a middle ground by John H. Walker 12. The multivalent mollusk: spondylus, ritual, and politics in the prehispanic Andes by Jerry D. Moore 13. Power at the crossroads of politics and religion: a commentary by María Nieves Zedeño

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe second edition of Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: The New Pragmatism, has been thoroughly updated and revised, and features top scholars who redefine the theoretical and political agendas of the field, and challenge the usual distinctions between time, space, processes, and people. Defines the relevance of archaeology and the social sciences more generally to the modern world Challenges the traditional boundaries between prehistoric and historical archaeologies Discusses how archaeology articulates such contemporary topics and issues as landscape and natures; agency, meaning and practice; sexuality, embodiment and personhood; race, class, and ethnicity; materiality, memory, and historical silence; colonialism, nationalism, and empire; heritage, patrimony, and social justice; media, museums, and publics Examines the influence of American pragmatism on archaeology Offers 32 new chapters by leading archaeologists and cultural anTable of ContentsList of Tables and Figures x List of Contributors xiii Preface xv Acknowledgments xvii Part I The New Pragmatism 1 Part II Landscapes, Spaces, and Natures 51 1 The Temporality of the Landscape 59 Tim Ingold 2 Identifying Ancient Sacred Landscapes in Australia: From Physical to Social 77 Paul S. C. Tacon 3 Landscapes of Punishment and Resistance: A Female Convict Settlement in Tasmania, Australia 92 Eleanor Conlin Casella 4 Amazonia: The Historical Ecology of a Domesticated Landscape 104 Clark L. Erickson Part III Agency, Meaning, and Practice 129 5 Practice and History in Archaeology: An Emerging Paradigm 137 Timothy R. Pauketat 6 Technology's Links and Chaınes: The Processual Unfolding of Technique and Technician 156 Marcia-Anne Dobres 7 Structure and Practice in the Archaic Southeast 170 Kenneth E. Sassaman 8 Daily Practice and Material Culture in Pluralistic Social Settings: An Archaeological Study of Culture Change and Persistence from Fort Ross, California 191 Kent G. Lightfoot, Antoinette Martinez, and Ann M. Schiff Part IV Sexuality, Embodiment, and Personhood 217 9 Good Science, Bad Science, or Science as Usual? Feminist Critiques of Science 226 Alison Wylie 10 On Personhood: An Anthropological Perspective from Africa 244 John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff 11 Girling the Girl and Boying the Boy: The Production of Adulthood in Ancient Mesoamerica 256 Rosemary A. Joyce 12 Domesticating Imperialism: Sexual Politics and the Archaeology of Empire 265 Barbara L. Voss Part V Race, Class, and Ethnicity 281 13 The Politics of Ethnicity in Prehistoric Korea 290 Sarah M. Nelson 14 Historical Categories and the Praxis of Identity: The Interpretation of Ethnicity in Historical Archaeology 301 Sian Jones 15 Beyond Racism: Some Opinions about Racialism and American Archaeology 311 Roger Echo-Hawk and Larry J. Zimmerman 16 A Class All Its Own: Explorations of Class Formation and Conflict 325 LouAnn Wurst Part VI Materiality, Memory, and Historical Silence 339 17 Money Is No Object: Materiality, Desire, and Modernity in an Indonesian Society 347 Webb Keane 18 Remembering while Forgetting: Depositional Practices and Social Memory at Chaco 362 Barbara J. Mills 19 Public Memory and the Search for Power in American Historical Archaeology 385 Paul A. Shackel 20 Re-Representing African Pasts through Historical Archaeology 404 Peter R. Schmidt and Jonathan R. Walz Part VII Colonialism, Empire, and Nationalism 423 21 Archaeology and Nationalism in Spain 432 Margarita Dı´az-Andreu 22 Echoes of Empire: Vijayanagara and Historical Memory, Vijayanagara as Historical Memory 445 Carla M. Sinopoli 23 Conjuring Mesopotamia: Imaginative Geography and a World Past 459 Zainab Bahrani 24 Confronting Colonialism: The Mahican and Schaghticoke Peoples and Us 470 Russell G. Handsman and Trudie Lamb Richmond Part VIII Heritage, Patrimony, and Social Justice 491 25 The Globalization of Archaeology and Heritage A Discussion with Arjun Appadurai 498 26 Sites of Violence: Terrorism, Tourism, and Heritage in the Archaeological Present 508 Lynn Meskell 27 An Ethical Epistemology of Publicly Engaged Biocultural Research 525 Michael L. Blakey 28 Cultures of Contact, Cultures of Conflict? Identity Construction, Colonialist Discourse, and the Ethics of Archaeological Practice in Northern Ireland 534 Audrey Horning Part IX Media, Museums, and Publics 551 29 No Sense of the Struggle: Creating a Context for Survivance at the NMAI 558 Sonya Atalay 30 The Past as Commodity: Archaeological Images in Modern Advertising 571 Lauren E. Talalay 31 The Past as Passion and Play: Catalhoyuk as a Site of Conflict in the Construction of Multiple Pasts 582 Ian Hodder 32 Copyrighting the Past? Emerging Intellectual Property Rights Issues in Archaeology 593 George P. Nicholas and Kelly P. Bannister Index 618

Read more less

Book SynopsisJohn Carman is Senior Lecturer in Heritage Value, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham, UK, Co-Director of the Bloody Meadows Project, and convenor of ESTOC: European Studies of Terrains of Conflict. He is the author of Against Cultural Property: Archaeology, Heritage and Ownership in this series.Table of ContentsIntroduction Archaeology and Conflict Studies Prehistoric Conflict Historic Battlefields Modern Conflict The Potential for Conflict Archaeology Conclusions Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Living Inca Town presents a rich case study of tourism in Ollantaytambo, a rapidly developing destination in the southern Peruvian Andes and the starting point for many popular treks to Machu Picchu. Tourism is generally welcomed in Ollantaytambo, as it provides a steady stream of work for local businesses, particularly those run by women. However, the obvious material inequalities between locals and tourists affect many interactions and have contributed to conflict and aggression throughout the tourist zones. Based on a number of research visits over the course of fifteen years, The Living Inca Town examines the experiences and interactions of locals, visitors, and tourism brokers. The book makes room for unique perspectives and uses innovative visual methods, including photovoice images and pen and ink drawings, to represent different viewpoints of day-to-day tourist encounters. The Living Inca Town vividly illustrates how tourism can perpetuate gTable of ContentsList of Illustrations and Tables Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Tourist Encounters and Perceptions 3. Negotiating Gender and Ethnicity 4. Negotiating Material Inequalities 5. Conflict, Resistance, and Witchcraft 6. Marketing Spirituality and Romance 7. Conclusion References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Living Inca Town presents a rich case study of tourism in Ollantaytambo, a rapidly developing destination in the southern Peruvian Andes and the starting point for many popular treks to Machu Picchu. Tourism is generally welcomed in Ollantaytambo, as it provides a steady stream of work for local businesses, particularly those run by women. However, the obvious material inequalities between locals and tourists affect many interactions and have contributed to conflict and aggression throughout the tourist zones. Based on a number of research visits over the course of fifteen years, The Living Inca Town examines the experiences and interactions of locals, visitors, and tourism brokers. The book makes room for unique perspectives and uses innovative visual methods, including photovoice images and pen and ink drawings, to represent different viewpoints of day-to-day tourist encounters. The Living Inca Town vividly illustrates how tourism can perpetuate gTable of ContentsList of Illustrations and Tables Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Tourist Encounters and Perceptions 3. Negotiating Gender and Ethnicity 4. Negotiating Material Inequalities 5. Conflict, Resistance, and Witchcraft 6. Marketing Spirituality and Romance 7. Conclusion References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWho were the Vikings, and do they deserve their unsavoury reputation? Through over 100 primary source documents, this fascinating collection weighs the cultural importance and lasting influence of the Vikings.Trade Review"The third edition of [The Viking Age] is a substantial enlargement and update." -- D.J. Shepherd * CHOICE *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: The Scandinavian Homelands 1. The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan 2. A Description of the Islands of the North Chapter Two: Scandinavian Society 3. The Lay of Rig (Rígsþula) 4. Politics in Harald Finehair’s Norway 5. Hoskuld Buys a Slave 6. Slave Revolts (a) Hjorleif's Slaves Revolt (b) A Slave Revolt in Egil's Saga 7. How the Hersir Erling Treated His Slaves Chapter Three: Early Religion and Belief 8. The Norse Creation-Myth 9. Ragnarok: The Doom of the Gods 10. Odin Welcomes Eirik Bloodax to Valhalla 11. Odin Hangs on Yggdrasil 12. Odin and Human Sacrifice (a) The Death of King Vikar (b) The Deaths of Domaldi and Olaf Tretelgja 13. Sigurd, the Earl of Lade, Sacrifices to the Gods 14. The Temple at Uppsala 15. A Temple in Iceland 16. Norse Funeral Practices (a) Snorri’s History of Burial Practices (b) Odin Orders Cremation and Becomes a God (c) The Death of Baldur the Good (d) Gunnar’s Burial Mound 17. The Living Dead (a) Gunnar’s Posthumous Poem (b) Grettir’s Fight with Glam Chapter Four: Gender in the Viking Age 18. Manly Men (a) Gunnar Weeps (b) The Death of Gunnar (c) Egil and Armod 19. Unmanly Men (a) Deadly Insults from Grágás (b) A Flyting between Sinfjotli and Gudmund (c) Egil in Old Age 20. Strong Women (a) Unn the Deep-Minded Takes Control of Her Life (b) The Goading of Hildigunn (c) The Prowess of Freydis, Daughter of Eirik the Red 21. Mothers and Sons (a) Gudrun Drives Her Sons to Take Revenge (b) Gudrun Osvifrsdottir's Incitement of Her Sons 22. Making and Breaking Marriages (a) Betrothals from the Sagas (i) The Betrothal of Olaf Hoskuldsson (ii) How Unn Mordsdottir Found Herself Betrothed (b) Divorces from the Sagas (i) How Gudrun Divorced Thorvald (ii) Vigdis Divorces Thord Goddi 23. Women's Work (a) Housework in Laxdale Saga (b) Magical Women (i) The Greenland Prophetess (ii) A Phallic Ritual: Passing the Penis 24. Men and Women Behaving Badly (a) Queen Gunnhild Has Her Way with Hrut (b) Gisli Sursson Defends the Family Honor (c) On the Penalties for Poetry (d) Hallfred the Troublesome Poet and Kolfinna (e) Grettir the Strong Puts a Woman in Her Place 25. Same-Sex Encounters (a) Penitential of Saint Thorlak (b) Civil Penalties in Early Norwegian Law (c) Njal Gives a Garment to Flosi (d) King Harold Formsson and the Land-Spirits (e) Gisli Sursson Fights Skeggi the Berserk 26. Gender Instability: Trans-Gender and Gender-Shifting (a) From Gulathing Law: On Seriously Insulting Speech (b) Odin's Wisdom and Arts (c) From Loki's Flyting (Lokasenna) (d) Loki and Svadilfari: loki's Adventure as a Mare 27. Cross-Dressing (a) Thor as a Bride (b) How Aud Dealt wih Her Humiliating Divorce Chapter Five: Viking Warriors and Their Weapons 28. The Accomplishments of a Viking Warrior (a) Earl Rognvald Kali on Being a Gentleman (b) Gunnar Hamundarson, the Ideal Warrior (c) Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway 29. Warrior Women (a) A Warrior Woman (b) The Waking of Angantýr (The Lay of Hervor, Hervarakviða) 30. Valkyries (a) Helgi and Sigrun I (b) Helgi and Sigrun II (c) Brynhild's Helride 31. Berserkers and the Berserk Rage (a) Odin’s Berserks (b) Egil Skallagrimsson Fights a Berserk 32. Weapons (a) King Magnus Barelegs Dresses to Kill (b) The Sword Skofnung (i) Hrolf Kraki and Skofnung (ii) Skeggi and Skofnung (iii) Kormak and Skofnung (iv) Thorkel Eyolfsson and Skofnung (v) Gellir Thorkelsson and Skofnung (c) Saint Olaf’s Sword, Hneitir Chapter Six: Fjord-Serpents: Viking Ships 33. King Olaf Tryggvason Builds the Long Serpent 34. Harald Sigurdarson’s Splendid Ship 35. Animal Heads on the Prows of Ships 36. A Sea-Battles from the Sagas: Olaf Tryggvason at the Battle of Svold Chapter Seven: “Sudden and Unforeseen Attacks of Northmen” 37. On the Causes of the Viking Expansion 38. Viking Raids on England, 789–850/1 39. Alcuin’s Letter to King Athelred, 793 40. An English Gospel Book Ransomed from the Vikings 41. Viking Raids on Ireland, 795–842 42. The Martyrdom of Blathmac, 825 43. The Life of Saint Findan 44. Irish Resistance to the Norsemen 45. Franks and Vikings, 800–829 46. The Northmen in France, 843–865 47. An Account of the Siege of Paris, 885–886 48. Vikings in the Iberian Peninsula (a) Ibn al-Kutia. Year 230 (17 September 844 - 1 October 845) (b) Ibn Adhari. Year 229 (30 September 843 - 17 September 844) Chapter Eight: “The Heathens Stayed”: From Raiding To Settlement 49. Viking Activities in England, 851–900 50. The Martyrdom of Saint Edmund 51. The Vikings in Ireland, 845–917 52. Ketil Flatnose and His Descendants in the Hebrides 53. Earl Sigurd and the Establishment of the Earldom of Orkney 54. Runic Inscriptions from Maes Howe, Mainland, Orkney 55. Runic Inscriptions from the Isle of Man 56. Rollo Obtains Normandy from the King of the Franks Chapter Nine: Austrveg: The Viking Road To The East 57. The Ru¯s 58. The Ru¯s Attack Constantinople 59. On the Arrival of the Varangians 60. A Muslim Diplomat Meets Ru¯ s Merchants on the Volga River 61. River Routes to Constantinople 62. A Norwegian Soldier of Fortune in the East 63. Ru¯ s Expeditions to the Middle East 64. The Yngvar Runestones Chapter Ten: Into the Western Ocean: The Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland 65. The Islands in the Northern Ocean, c. 825 66. Sailing Directions and Distances in the North Atlantic 67. The Western Ocean 68. Adam of Bremen on Iceland 69. Icelandic Accounts of the Discovery and Settlement of Iceland (a) The Book of the Icelanders (b) The Book of Settlements 70. Skallagrim’s Land-Take in Iceland 71. The Settlement of Greenland (a) The Book of the Icelanders (b) The Book of Settlements 72. The King’s Mirror on Greenland 73. Adam of Bremen on Vinland 74. The Norse Discovery of Vinland 75. Thorfin Karlsefni in Vinland Chapter Eleven: Viking Life and Death 76. Advice for Sailors and Merchants 77. Svein Asleifarson’s Viking Life 78. Children (a) Young Grettir Helps around the Farm (b) Children Mimic Adults (c) The Child is Mother of the Woman (d) Young Egil Plays for Keeps 79. Games and Entertainment (a) A Horse-fight from Njal’s Saga (b) Skallagrim's Rough Play (c) Ball Games and Scraper-Games at Sand from Hord's Saga (d) Entertainment at a Wedding Feast at Reykjaholar from The Saga of Thorgils and Haflidi (e ) Mock Lawsuits from The Saga of the People of Ljosavatn 80. The Jomsvikings Meet Their End 81. The Burning of Njal Chapter Twelve: From Odin to Christ 82. Early Missions to the North: The Life of Saint Anskar 83. The Conversion of the Danes under Harald Bluetooth 84. Olaf Tryggvason and the Conversion of Norway 85. A Poet Abandons the Old Gods 86. The Christianization of Norway under Saint Olaf 87. The Conversion of the Icelanders 88. The Conversion of Greenland 89. The Conversion of Orkney 90. Christianity in Sweden 91. Christianity and the Church in Norway 92. The Travels of King Sigurd, Jerusalem-Farer 93. The Journey of Abbot Nikolas Bergsson from Iceland to Jerusalem Chapter Thirteen: State-Building at Home and Abroad 94. Harald Finehair and the Unification of Norway 95. Denmark: The Jelling Stone 96. State-Making in Denmark: Unification and Expansion 97. The Martyrdom of Alfeah (Saint Alphege) 98. Knut the Great and the North Sea Empire 99. The England Runestones 100. The Earldom of Orkney at Its Zenith Chapter Fourteen: The End of the Viking Age 101. The Battle of Clontarf, 1014 102. The Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066 103. The Battle of Largs, 1263 Chapter Fifteen: Reawakening Angantýr, or Viking Revivals 104. The First Revival (a) Snorri Sturlson (1179-1241) and Norse Poetics (b) Saxo Grammaticus and Icelandic Sources 105. Romantic Vikings (a) The Fatal Sisters: An Ode, from the Norse Tongue (b) The Vegtam's (Odin's) Kvitha (poem); or The Descent of Odin: An Ode, from the Norse Tongue 106. Operatic Vikings: Richard Wagner (1818-1883), from Das Rheingold, Scene Two 107. Aryan Anthropology: Vikings in Politics (a) Halfdan Bryn: Methodology (b) Hans F.K. Günther on Nordic Man (c) Alfred Rosenberg: Creative Men and Beautiful, Motherly Women 108. The Gods Reborn (a) Carl Jung: "Wotanism" (b) Odin Lives (c) Odinism in America (d) Versions of Ásatrú (i) The Icelandic Forn Sed Norge / The Society of the Ancient Faith in Norway 109. Plundering the Vikings, from The Irish Times 110. The Vikings in the Courtroom of History: Terrorists, Tourists, Others (a) Savage Warriors (b) Piracy and Commerce (c) Intruders of a Recognizable Type? (d) Revisiting the Revisionists (e) The Viking Diaspora Epilogue 111. Advice from Odin Sources Index of Topics Index of Authors and Sources

Read more less

Book SynopsisBritish literature and archaeology, 1880-1930 reveals how British writers and artists across the long turn of the twentieth century engaged with archaeological discourse—its artefacts, landscapes, bodies, and methods—uncovering the materials of the past to envision radical possibilities for the present and future. This project traces how archaeology shaped major late-Victorian and modern discussions: informing debates over shifting gender roles; facilitating the development of queer iconography and the recovery of silenced or neglected histories; inspiring artefactual forgery and transforming modern conceptions of authenticity; and helping writers and artists historicise the traumas of the First World War. Ultimately unearthing archaeology at the centre of these major discourses, this book simultaneously positions literary and artistic engagements with the archaeological imagination as forms of archaeological knowledge in themselves.Table of ContentsIntroduction: 'Our real life in tombs'1 Queer archaeologies2 Archaeology and Decadent prose3 Archaeology and authenticity4 Our real life in tombs: Great War archaeologyCODA: Archaeology from a distanceIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTHE PERFECT READ FOR TROUBLED TIMESFrom the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places comes this inspiring and beautifully written meditation on the wisdom inherited from our ancestors.For all we have gained in the modern world, simple peace of mind is hard to find. In a time that is increasingly fraught with complexity and conflict, we are told that our wellbeing relies on remaining as present as possible. But what if the key to being present lies in the past? In Wisdom of the Ancients, Neil Oliver takes us back in time, to grab hold of the ideas buried in forgotten cultures and early civilizations. From Laetoli footprints in Tanzania to Keralan rituals, stone circles and cave paintings, Oliver takes us on a global journey through antiquity. A master storyteller, drawing on immense knowledge of our ancient past, he distils this wisdom into twelve messages that have endured the test of time, and invites us to consider how these might apply to our lives today. The result is powerful and inspirational, moving and profound.Trade ReviewReading Wisdom of the Ancients is like putting on the finest headphones ever made. Here, cutting out the background noise of a society fevered by consumption and sensation...is a book that really makes you think and offers up the excitement of discovering things that when you read them make you fizz like understanding a foreign language you never realised you knew. This book is the equivalent of diving into a cool sea on a baking hot day, you emerge smiley and refreshed. I wish I had written this. * Tim Smit *Neil Oliver writes beautifully - bringing the past to life and letting us see ourselves in a new light. * Alice Roberts *A fascinating fact-laden expedition through the ages. Oliver's erudition shines off every page. * Anna Pasternak *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA down-to-earth look at the spiritual power of sexSex and the Sacred examines the spiritual dimension of human sexuality in a way that is free of religious affiliation but still open to traditional religion and belief in God. Dr. Daniel Helminiak, author of the best-selling What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality, looks at the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, first, from a humanistic perspective and, then, a more familiar Christian point of view. In particular, he encourages LGBTI people to reclaim their spiritual heritage without apology. This unique book emphasizes spiritual commitment as an essential facet of LGBTI/queer consciousness and addresses such burning themes as coming out, the importance of self-acceptance, gay marriage, gay bashing, and the ethics of gay sex. Sex and the Sacred combines a psychological approach to spirituality with common sense and compassion, inspiring a break from moralistic religion and an understanding of what true spirituality means. The book applies this understanding to Christian topics such as the Bible, Fundamentalism, and the future of Christianity, and shows how coming out was an issue for Jesus, how homosexual experience relates to the Christian Trinity, and how Western Civilization became so sex-negative.Sex and the Sacred presents in the end a radical vision of Christianity open to all people. Religious leaders of all denominations, educators, counselors, members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community, non-religious spiritual seekers, and anyone interested in the relationship between spirituality and sexuality will find this book enlightening and uplifting. Sex and the Sacred examines: the spiritual drive that is built into human sexuality the standard religious arguments against gay marriage a sustained argument that Biblical Fundamentalism is not Christian spiritual lessons from the AIDS epidemic the right and wrong of sexqueer and otherwise homosexuality in Catholic teaching and practice sexual ethics without religion a vision for a renewed Christianity within a global community Table of Contents The Cover Art: A Gay Spiritual Journey (Heather L. Marrs) Foreword (Moderator Troy D. Perry) Preface and Acknowledgments Chapter 1. The Spiritual Dimension of the Lesbian and Gay Experience The Senseless Burden of a Bad Conscience The Meaning of Spiritual The Inner Push Toward Spiritual Growth Coming Out As a Spiritual Exercise Love As a Spiritual Exercise Gay Strength, Virtue, Wisdom, and Spiritual Growth Detours from the Spiritual Path The Tug-of-War Between Religion and Spirituality Spirituality Without God or Religion Chapter 2. A Spiritual Lesson from the AIDS Epidemic A Humanist Spirituality The Spiritual Dimension of the Gay and Lesbian Experience Nontheist Gay Spirituality in the Face of Death Final Considerations Chapter 3. Sexuality and Spirituality: Friends, Not Foes Positive Attitudes Negative Attitudes Reemerging Positive Attitudes Renewed Interest in Spirituality Integration of Body, Psyche, and Spirit Embodied Spirituality Means of Integration Conclusion Chapter 4. Sexual Self-Acceptance and Spiritual Growth Spiritual Development and Human Development Sexual Self-Acceptance and Self-Esteem Sexuality and the Handicapped Acceptance of One’s Homosexuality and Self-Esteem Conclusion Chapter 5. Sexual Pathways to Spiritual Growth Sexual Arousal and Orgasm: Focus on the Individual Loving Another Person: Focus on the Couple The Pollyanna Effect: Focus on the Human Family and the Cosmos Loneliness, That Endless Yearning: Focus on the Infinite The Goodness of Creation: Enter Belief in God Sexual Fulfillment in God: Enter Concern for Union with God Summary About Sexuality and Spirituality Chapter 6. Sexual Ethics Without Religion The True Nature of Ethics Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Dimensions of Human Sexuality Ethical Guidelines The Personal and Interpersonal Nature of Human Sexuality The Social Implications of Human Sexuality The Promise of Ethical Living Chapter 7. The Right and Wrong of Sex, Queer and Otherwise The Challenge of Ethics for the Gay Community Reasons to Consider Sexual Ethics Gay Is Good Science-Based Ethics One’s Personal Best Ethical Guidelines The Ethical Attitude Chapter 8. The Spiritual Crisis in Religion and Society The Sad Record of Religion and Violence The Political Side of Religion Religion, Spirituality, and the Current Dilemma Humanity As Inherently Spiritual Built-In Requirements of Spiritual Fulfillment Science That Is Open to God A Spiritual Response to Religiously Motivated Violence Chapter 9. Jesus: A Model for Coming Out Mark’s Picture of Jesus Jesus As God Incarnate in Later Christianity Jesus’ Self-Understanding Jesus’ Claim to Unprecedented Authority Jesus’ Crisis of Identity Jesus’ Experience of Being Himself Jesus As Everymanand Everywoman The Lesson of Mark and Jesus Chapter 10. The Trinitarian Vocation of the Gay Community Christian Belief About the Trinity Human Relationships Within the Gay Community The Gay Community As Trinitarian The Vocation of Gay Christians Chapter 11. Homosexuality in Catholic Teaching and Practice The Heterosexual Issue: Birth Control The Nature of Sex Comple

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs religious fervor grows, Dr. Fishwick, a recipient of the Ray and Pat Browne Award for Lifetime Achievement from The American Culture Association, takes a sweeping look at religion in the United States--the country with the highest church attendance in the Western world. Popular religion can take many shapes and forms. It can wax and wane, but it cannot be eliminated or ignored. That is what prompted him to write Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture.He ponders how religion affects American life and popular culture, and why religion has become a major force in contemporary politics. How has the Electronic Revolution furthered the religious right? What does popular religion tell us about popular culture? And about our faith?He identifies and explores five great religious revivals or “Great Awakenings:” the Atlantic Seaboard Awakening the Urban Awakening the Modernist Awakening the Celebrity Preacher Awakening the Electronic AwakeningFishwick explores the current events preceding and during each awakening, its leaders, followers, and critics. Great Awakenings gives a new understanding of the American religious past and leaves us with an anticipation for the next great awakening. Table of ContentsContents Preface Introduction The Atlantic Seaboard Awakening The Appalachian Awakening The Urban Awakening The New American Gospel Confronting the Serpent The Modernist Awakening Civil Religion Secular Salvation Religion on the Airwaves Star to the Stars The Aging Eagle The Electronic Awakening Dixie’s Holy Warriors The Chicken Little Panic Big Mac and Big Jesus: Brave New McWorld Some Final Thoughts Further Information Further Reading Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPast archaeological literature on Cupertino theory has emphasised competition's role in cultural evolution. As a result, bottom-up possibilities for group co-operation have been under theorised in favour of models stressing top-down leadership, while evidence from a range of disciplines has demonstrated humans to effectively sustain co-operative undertakings through a number of social norms and institutions. This is the first volume to focus on the use of archaeological evidence to understand co-operation and collective action. Disentangling the motivations and institutions that foster group co-operation among competitive individuals remains one of the few great conundrums within evolutionary theory. The breadth and material focus of archaeology provide a much needed complement to existing research on co-operation and collective action, which thus far has relied largely on game-theoretic modelling, surveys of college students from affluent countries, brief ethnographic experiments, and limited historic cases. In this book diverse case studies address the evolution of the emergence of norms, institutions, and symbols of complex societies through the last 10,000 years. This book is an important contribution to the literature on co-operation in human societies that will appeal to archaeologists and other scholars interested in co-operation research.Trade Review[Cooperation research] is one of the busiest and most exciting areas of transdisciplinary science right now, linking evolution, ecology and social science... this is the first major work or collection to address linkages between archaeology and cooperation research. Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University

Read more less

Book SynopsisBehavioral archaeology, defined as the study of people-object interactions in all times and places, emerged in the 1970s, in large part because of the innovative work of Michael Schiffer and colleagues. This volume provides an overview of how behavioral archaeology has evolved and how it has affected the field of archaeology at large.The contributors to this volume are Schiffer’s former students, from his first doctoral student to his most recent. This generational span has allowed for chapters that reflect Schiffer’s research from the 1970s to 2012. They are iconoclastic and creative and approach behavioral archaeology from varied perspectives, including archaeological inference and chronology, site formation processes, prehistoric cultures and migration, modern material culture variability, the study of technology, object agency, and art and cultural resources. Broader questions addressed include models of inference and definitions of behavior, study of technology and the causal performances of artifacts, and the implications of artifact causality in human communication and the flow of behavioral history.Trade Review“Well written, accessible, and current. The papers included here attest to the fact that behavioral archaeology is still very much alive and well. A welcome contribution to the general field of archaeology.”—Michael J. O’Brien, professor of anthropology, University of Missouri; coauthor of I’ll Have What She’s Having: Mapping Social Behavior

Read more less

Book SynopsisTracing the Relational examines the recent emergence of relational ontologies in archaeological interpretation and how using this perspective can help archaeologists better understand the past. Traditional representational approaches reflect modern or Western perspectives, which focus on the individual and see the world in terms of dichotomies that separate culture and nature, human and object, sacred and secular. In contrast, ancient societies saw themselves as connected to and entangled with other human and nonhuman entities.Contributors argue that in order to gain deeper insight into how people in the ancient world lived, experienced, and negotiated their lives archaeologists must explore the myriad relationships and entanglements between humans and other beings, places, and things. As contributors unravel these relationships, they demonstrate that movement is an inherent feature of these relational webs and is the driving force behind a continually shifting reality. Chapters focus on various regions and time periods throughout the Americas, tracing how movements between other-worldly dimensions, spirits and deities, and temporalities were integral to everyday life.Trade Review“This is an excellent collection of essays that are timely, empirically rich, well written, and that engage with current theoretical debates within archaeology, as well as a range of other humanities disciplines. This volume will offer a significant contribution to archaeological research and anthropological scholarship more broadly, aligning itself with current theoretical trends while also pushing such scholarship in new and productive directions.” —Darryl Wilkinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison “This edited volume presents fascinating case studies of the material immanence of spirits and otherworldly forces in the ancient Americas. . . .The book makes an important contribution to archaeological theory.”—American Antiquity “All of the articles are interesting in their pursuit of novel questions, consideration of previously overlooked kinds of data, and analysis of these data using new approaches.”—Journal of Anthropological Research “The methods and interpretations within these pages are bold and original…. This book is a valuable contribution to archaeological theory and helps to restore the feasibility of postprocessual ambitions regarding inquiry into symbolic and cosmological realms of human past.”—Canadian Journal of Archaeology

Read more less

Book SynopsisConfronting national, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries, contributors to African Archaeology Without Frontiers argue against artificial limits and divisions created through the study of ‘ages’ that in reality overlap and cannot and should not be understood in isolation. Papers are drawn from the proceedings of the landmark 14th PanAfrican Archaeological Association Congress held in Johannesburg in 2014, nearly seven decades after the conference planned for 1951 was relocated to Algiers following the National Party’s rise to power in South Africa. Contributions by keynote speakers Chapurukha Kusimba and AkinOgundiran encourage African archaeologists to practise an archaeology that collaborates across many related fields of study to enrich our understanding of the past. The nine papers cover a broad geographical sweep by incorporating material on ongoing projects throughout the continent, including South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon, Togo, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. Thematically, the papers included in the volume address issues of identity and interaction, and the need to balance cultural heritage management and sustainable development derived from a continent racked by social inequalities and crippling poverty. Edited by three leading archaeologists, the collection covers many aspects of African archaeology, and a range of periods from the earliest hominins to the historical period.Trade Review"This set of conference proceedings will be a classic, like all the others, and consulted long after its immediate applicability has waned ... It captures the depth and breadth of archaeological research on the African continent and refl ects the state of archaeology at a particular point in time". - Natalie Swanepoel, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, University of South AfricaTable of ContentsKeynote Address 1 Imagining an African Archaeology Without Frontiers Chapurukha M. Kusimba; Keynote Address 2 Collapsing Boundaries: A Continental Vision for African Archaeology Akin Ogundiran; Chapter 1 The 'Useable' Archaeology Of Recent African Farming Systems: Comparative and Collaborative Perspectives from East (Marakwet), West (Tiv) and South (Bokoni) Africa- Matthew Davies, Caleb Adebayo Folorunso, Timothy Kipkeu Kipruto, Freda M'Mbogori, Henrietta L. Moore, Emuobosa Orijemie and Alex Schoeman; Chapter 2: What Is It? - Cultural Heritage Resources among the Makonde Community of Mtwara Region of Tanzania - Festo W. Gabriel; Chapter 3: The Indigenous Roots of Swahili Culture in Pangani Bay, Tanzania: Continuity and Change in an Archaeological Assemblage - Elinaza Mjema; Chapter 4; Is this an anvil? The multi-functionality of iron bloom crushing (Likumanjool) sites in the Bassar region of Northern Togo - Philip de Barros and Gabriella Lucidi; Chapter 5: Rock Art in Cameroon, Knowledge, New Discoveries and Sub-Regional Extension - Narcisse Santores Tchandeu; Chapter 6: Archaeological Studies on Iron Age Settlement History in the Northwestern Congo Basin - Dirk Seidensticker; Chapter 7: Glass Trade Beads at Thabadimasego, Botswana: Analytical Results and Some Implications - Adrianne Daggett, Marilee Wood and Laure Dussubieux; Chapter 8: Blurring Boundaries: Forager-Farmer Interactions and Settlement Change on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape, Southern Africa - Tim Forssman; Chapter 9: Challenges Facing Heritage Management in South Africa: Implementation of a Web-Based National Heritage Management System - Kate Smuts and Nick Wiltshire.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe present volume reunites most of the papers that were presented at the second meeting of the Homines, Funera, Astra Symposium on Funerary Anthropology that took place at ‘1 Decembrie 1918’ University, Alba Iulia, between 23rd and 26th September 2012. The theme of the volume is Life beyond Death in Ancient Times. The intention was to create a forum for discussing Prehistoric, Roman and Migration Period burial practices from Central and South-Eastern Europe, focusing on elements that might suggest belief in afterlife. The interdisciplinary character of the volume is provided by the varied approaches to the archaeology by the contributors, resulting in exploring the subject from multiple perspectives: archaeological, anthropological, geological, architectural, landscape, and epigraphic. Seven studies are dedicated to prehistoric burial practices, discussing discoveries dating from the Palaeolithic (one study), Neolithic and Copper Age (four studies), and Bronze Age (one study). A study focusing on methodology proposes a non-invasive method of analysis for burial mounds, with examples from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Two studies focusing on the Roman Period and another on the Migration Period complete our vision of funerary archaeology for this part of Europe. The editor’s wish to express their joy that the editorial project, which started with the publication of the first HFA volume (R. Kogălniceanu, R.-G. Curcă, M. Gligor and S. Stratton (eds.), Homines, Funera, Astra. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Funerary Anthropology, 5-8 June 2011, ‘1 Decembrie 1918’ University, Alba Iulia, Romania. Oxford, Archaeopress, BAR International Series 2410), is followed by the present book. The basis for the series dedicated to burial archaeology with the intention to be a useful, modern, interdisciplinary instrument, is thus laid.Table of ContentsVivre et mourir dans le Paléolithique de l’Europe. Les communautés humaines et leur environnement (Valentin-Codrin Chirica and Vasile Chirica) Neolithic cremation graves and grave goods from Porţ – Corău (Sălaj County, Romania) (Sanda Băcueţ Crişan) Disposal of the dead. Uncommon mortuary practices from Alba Iulia – Lumea Nouă 2003 excavation (Mihai Gligor and Kirsty McLeod) Polished stone tools as grave goods in the Hamangia cemetery from Cernavodă – Columbia D. Typological and contextual analysis (Raluca Kogălniceanu and Constantin Haită) The distortion of archaeological realities through objects: a case study (Cătălin Lazăr and Mădălina Voicu) Funerary constructions characteristic to the Komariv (Middle Bronze Age) communities of the Suceava Plateau (Bogdan Petru Niculică and Dumitru Boghian) Identifying disturbances in the case of burial mounds. Case studies (Alexandru S. Morintz) A few notes on the emergence and distribution of variously shaped ditched enclosures in the Sarmatian environment, with or without graves inside (Vitalie Bârcă) Récit de vie behind funerary texts. A few remarks on CIL VI 3419 (= IDRE 27) (Violeta-Maria Răileanu) An eques romanus and his slave in a new funerary inscription from Troesmis (Lucreţiu Mihailescu-Bîrliba)

Read more less

Book SynopsisCopper is the first metal to play a large part in human history. This work is devoted to the history of metallurgical production in Northern Eurasia during the Bronze Age, based on experiments carried out by the author and analyses of ancient slag, ore and metal. It should be noted that archaeometallurgical studies include a huge range of works reflecting different fields of activity of ancient metallurgists. Often, all that unites these is the term 'metallurgy'. This work considers the problems of proper metallurgy, i.e. extracting metal from ore. A number of accompanying operations are closely connected with it, such as charcoal-burning, ore dressing, furnace constructing, and preparation of crucibles. In some instances the author touches upon these operations; however the main topic of the work is the smelting process. The closing stage of the metallurgical production is metalworking including various casting and forging operations, and also auxiliary operations: making of crucibles, casting molds, stone tools for metal forging. These problems are, as a rule, out of frameworks of this research.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Chapter 1. Experiments with Ancient Copper Smelting Technologies; Chapter 2. Production in the Eneolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age; Chapter 3. Metallurgical Furnaces of Sintashta Culture; Chapter 4. Copper Ores of Sintashta and Petrovka Sites in the Transurals; Chapter 5. Mineralogical and Chemical Composition of Sintashta Slag; Chapter 6. Sintashta metalworking; Chapter 7. Chronology, Genesis and Structure of Sintashta Metallurgy; Chapter 8. Metallurgical Production in the Bashkirian Urals; Chapter 9. Metallurgy of the Late Bronze Age in the Volga and Orenburg Regions; Chapter 10. Mining and Metallurgical Production in the Don and Donets Areas; Chapter 11. Metallurgical Production in the Asian Part of the Eurasian Metallurgical Province in the Bronze Age; Chapter 12. Metallurgical Production in the Kyzyl-Kum; Chapter 13. The Problem of Iron in the Bronze Age of Northern Eurasia; Chapter 14. Metallurgical Production in the Early Iron Age; Conclusions; BibliographyRedevelopment Choices of Carian Benefactors in the Roman Age (Guray Unver); A Byzantine Monastery South-East of Jerusalem (Yehiel Zelinger); Local and Imported Art in the Byzantine Monastery Newly Discovered Near Jerusalem, Israel (Lihi Habas)

Read more less

Book SynopsisMirrors of Salt publishes the proceedings of the First International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt, which took place at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi (Romania). The impact of salt on the development of human communities, from the Neolithic to the present, has generated a huge number of specialized studies. However, scientific research has become so atomized that the primordial importance of the mineral has been lost, creating a need for a holistic, comprehensive vision of the dimensions generated by salt. This can only be achieved through anthropology. The anthropology of salt encompasses the entirety of human behavior, i.e. cognitive, spiritual, pragmatic, and social reactions to salt, and provides a holistic view of its role in the evolution of human communities. The anthropology of salt thus brings salt studies from an ancillary position to an autonomous discipline. The papers in this volume are organized into six sections: theory, archaeology, history, ethnography/ ethnoarchaeology/ethnohistory, linguistics, and literature. Topics include salt in Greek and Roman antiquity, as well as from Cameroon, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, the USA and Venezuela. The congress was organized within the project The Ethnoarchaeology of the Salt Springs and Salt Mountains from the Extra-Carpathian Areas of Romania, financed by the Government of Romania (CNCS UEFISCDI) (2011-2016). Its theoretical novelty and geographical range render Mirrors of Salt a unique study of the world's most-used non-metallic mineral.

Read more less

Book SynopsisRecycling is a basic anthropological process of humankind. The reutilization of materials or of ideas from the Past is a process determined by various natural or cultural causes. Recycling can be motivated by a crisis or by a complex symbolic cause like the incorporation of the Past into the Present. What archaeology has not insisted upon is the dimensional scale of the process, which operates from the micro-scale of the recycling of the ancestors’ material, up to the macro-scale of the landscape. It is well known that there are direct relations between artefacts and landscapes in what concerns the materiality and mobility of objects. An additional relation between artefact and landscape may be the process of recycling. In many ways artefact and landscape can be considered as one aspect of material culture, perceived at a different scale, since both have the same materiality and suffer the same process of reutilisation. This book invites archaeologists to approach the significant process of recycling within the archaeological record at two different levels: of artefacts and of landscape.Table of ContentsThe Never Ending Journey: Cycling and Recycling Seen through a Critical Assessment of the Taphonomic Process (Roberta Robin Dods); Sustainability, Health, and Society: Prehistoric Artefacts as Sustainable Materials (Lolita Nikolova); Recycling Power and Place: The Many Lives of Traprain Law, SE Scotland (Ian Armit, Andrew Dunwell, Fraser Hunter); Tells as Recycled Places. Experimenting the Chalcolithic Ritual Technologies of Construction and Deconstruction (Dragoş Gheorghiu); Copper and Bronzes: The Birth of Complete Recycling in The Bronze Age (Davide Delfino); Rock Art Recycled? On the Use of Bronze Age Rock Art Sites during the Iron Age in Southern Scandinavia (Per Nilsson); Recycled Memories: The Past and Present in Early Iron Age Landscapes of Southern Germany (Matthew L. Murray); Ancestral Places: The Creation and Recycling of Monumental Landscapes in South-Eastern Slovenia in The 1st Millennium BC and the 1st Millennium AD (Phil Mason); Recycling Pots, Places and Practices: The Roman Cemetery at Podlipoglav (Bernarda Županek and Irena Sivec); Secondary Use of Storage Vessels and Household Pottery During the Late Middle Ages: Pottery in Vaults as a Case Study (Marta Caroscio); The Reuse of Materials during the Medieval and Post-Medieval Periods: A Case Study of Recycling Building Materials in Rothwell, near Leeds, England (George Nash)

Read more less

Book SynopsisJames Douglas (1753-1819) was a polymath, well ahead of his time in both the fields of archaeology and earth-sciences. His examinations of fossils from the London Clay and other geological formations caused him to conclude that the Earth was much older than the 4004 BC allotted to it by his contemporaries. He had come to this conclusion by 1785 and published these findings in that year, long before other researchers in the same field. His Nenia Britannica, published in 1793, reveals a remarkably accurate grasp of the dating of Anglo- Saxon burials; further illuminated by the contents of his common-place book for 1814-16, discovered by the author in a second-hand bookshop. This common-place book, correspondence with his contemporaries and other sources resulted in the present publication recounting his archaeological and other activities in Sussex during the first two decades of the 19th century.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The Excavations; 3. Megaliths in the Brighton area; 4. Sussex Placename derivations and miscellania.; 5. Epilogue; Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Iron Age copper smelting site situated near the Cypriot village Agia Varvara is of particular importance among the ancient copper processing places in the Near East because it has revealed spatial as well as technological aspects of copper production in a hitherto rarely-seen depth of detail. Agia Varvara-Almyras: an Iron Age Copper Smelting Site in Cyprus presents the results of a comprehensive post-excavation analysis of the stratigraphy (part I), also of the geology, metallurgical materials (furnaces, tuyeres), finds (pottery, furnace lining, stone tools), as well as a synthesis of the copper smelting technology at Agia Varvara-Almyras (part II). The excavation analysis not only focuses on pyrotechnical information from individual furnaces, but also provides a detailed study of the spatial organisation as well as of the living conditions on the smelting site. An elaborate reconstruction of the features in a 3D model allows the visualisation of formerly-dispersed loci of copper production. Based on this virtual rebuilding of the hillock named Almyras, it becomes clear that archaeometallurgy must be unchained, and the idea of an ‘operational chain’ must be replaced by a more multidimensional research strategy labelled as an ‘operational web’. The present volume aims to stimulate future excavations which pay attention to the reasons behind the exploitation of the riches of the island, as well as to the needs of the markets where the final product was very likely to have been appreciated as a strategic commodity, by power players operating on the island as well as by ordinary people in need of a repair to an everyday commodity which had broken.Table of ContentsForeword: Agia Varvara-Almyras, an Exceptional Case Study ; Part I – Archaeological Situation, Stratigraphy, and Chronology ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Extractive Copper Metallurgy in Cyprus: A Concise Retrospective on Methods and Approaches ; 3. Archaeological Research in Agia Varvara-Almyras ; 4. Stratigraphy ; 5. Age Determination ; 6. The Features ; 7. Spatial Organization ; 8. Conclusions and Outlook ; 9. Lists ; Part II – Materials and Processes ; 1. Geology and Mineralogy of Agia Varvara-Almyras – Iphigenia Gavriel ; 2. Agia Varvara-Almyras Ceramics Report – Robert Morris ; 3. Classification of Ore Beneficiation Stone Tools from Agia Varvara–Almyras – Anne Carey ; 4. Furnace Lining – Aleksandra Mistireki ; 5. Considerations on the Process Flow of Copper Production – Walter Fasnacht ; 6. Technology of Copper Smelting at Agia Varvara-Almyras – Martina Renzi, Myrto Georgakopoulou, Christina Peege, Walter Fasnacht and Thilo Rehren

Read more less

Book SynopsisBuildings in Society: International Studies in the Historic Era presents a series of papers reflecting the latest approaches to the study of buildings from the historic period. This volume does not examine buildings as architecture, but adopts an archaeological perspective to consider them as artefacts, reflecting the needs of those who commissioned them. Studies have often failed to consider the historical contexts in which the buildings were constructed and how they were subsequently used and interpreted. The papers in this volume situate their interpretation in their social context. Buildings can inform us about past cultures as they are responsive and evolve to meet people’s needs over time. The buildings examined in this volume range from the twelfth to the twenty-first century and cross continents including case-studies from America, Australia and Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. Themes include: Approaches to the study of buildings, Buildings of Power, Buildings in Identity, Domestic Space and Urban and Village Spaces. The essays consider building design, role, and how the buildings were altered as their function changed to coincide with the needs and aspirations of those who owned or used the buildings. This collection of papers emphasizes the need for further international multidisciplinary approaches including archaeology, architectural history and art history in order to understand how ideas, styles, approaches and designs spread over time and space. Together, these papers generate valuable new insights into the study of buildings in the historic period.Table of ContentsBuildings in Society International Introduction – Liz Thomas and Jill Campbell ; What is Building History? Emergence and Practice in Britain and Ireland – Mark Gardiner ; The Domestic, Ritual Use of ‘Salt Niches’ in Southern and Eastern England, c.1500 to 1700 AD – Jonathan Duck ; Architecture and Community at Hummingbird Pueblo, New Mexico – Evangelia Tsesmeli ; Houses and Buildings – on Physical and Social Space in Early Modern Swedish Towns – Andrine Nilsen and Göran Tagesson ; Structures and Social Order in a Medieval Italian Monastery and Village: Architecture and Experience in Villamagna – Caroline Goodson ; Ethnic Buildways: Phenomenology in the Architectural Grammar of Later Medieval Córdoba (Spain). – D.A. Lenton ; Hybrid Vernacular: Houses and the Colonial Process in the West of Ireland in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries – Eve Campbell ; The Development of the Apartment Building in 18th century Vienna – Paul Mitchell ; Store Heddinge Church – a Mystery Solved? – Leif Plith Lauritsen ; Creating a Choreographed Space: English Anglo-Norman Keeps in the Twelfth Century – Katherine Weikert ; A Convict History: The Tale of Two Asylums – Susan Piddock

Read more less

Book SynopsisProfessor Challenger and his Lost Neolithic World combines the two great passions of the author’s life: reconstructing the Neolithic mind and constructively challenging consensus in his professional domain. The book is semi-autobiographical, charting the author’s investigation of Alexander Thom’s theories, in particular regarding the alignment of prehistoric monuments in the landscape, across a number of key Neolithic sites from Kintraw to Stonehenge and finally Orkney. It maps his own perspective of the changing reception to Thom’s ideas by the archaeological profession from initial curiosity and acceptance to increasing scepticism. The text presents historical summaries of the various strands of evidence from key Neolithic sites across the UK and Ireland with the compelling evidence from the Ness of Brodgar added as an appendix in final justification of his approach to the subject.Trade Review'...a richly illustrated account of an important, but much marginalised debate within archaeology and, as such, of great historiographical value.'—Kenneth Brophy (2021): Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.22278Table of ContentsForeword – Dr Doug MacKie ; Preface ; Chapter 1 The origins of the controversy ; Chapter 2 Early hypothesis-testing in western Scotland ; Chapter 3 Decisive tests in Orkney and Ireland ; Chapter 4 Research into Alexander Thom’s fieldwork ; Chapter 5 The probable astronomy and geometry of Stonehenge ; Chapter 6 The Neolithic solar calendar, as seen on a kerb stone at Knowth, Ireland ; Chapter 7 Current aspects of the research situation ; Appendix Is there plausible evidence that the Ness of Brodgar priesthood had any esoteric knowledge? ; Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book deals with the documentation and interpretation of the rock sites located in La Mancha center (Spain), from the detailed study of the symbols that have been engraved in the rock. These sites, from historical times, can provide valuable information for the study of the mentalities and beliefs of the popular classes during the Modern Age, strongly influenced by the atmosphere created after the Counter-Reformation. Crosses, calvaries, orbs, human and animal representations, letters, cup-marks and game boards make up an authentic symbolic universe, of clear Christian roots, whose understanding is possible to achieve even though it requires collaboration between multiple fields of knowledge such as archaeology, theology, numismatics, heraldry, architecture, sculpture, painting... Unfortunately, researchers have paid scant attention to the issue at hand, assuming paradigms that from our point of view should be reviewed, such as the authorship of the petroglyphs or their chrono-cultural affiliation. The study of the rock formations located in La Mancha center can shed light on these and other subjects, providing a good starting point in order to improve the documentation and interpretation of historical rock engravings in other parts of the world.Table of ContentsResumen ; English Abstract ; Capítulo 1: Introducción ; Capítulo 2: Estaciones rupestres de La Mancha centro: contexto y estado de la cuestión ; Capítulo 3: Metodología ; Capítulo 4: Temática e iconografía de los grabados manchegos ; Capítulo 5: Conclusiones ; Bibliografía ; Anexo I Inventario de petroglifos de La Mancha centro

Read more less