Archaeology by period / region Books

Book SynopsisAlthough 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. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen SeriesTable of Contents Introduction—Heather A. Lapham Chapter 1 Ethnohistorical and Ethnographic Overview of Bear-Human Relationships in Native Eastern North America—Gregory A. Waselkov Chapter 2 "Dear, Honored Guest": Bear Ceremonialism in Minnesota—David Mather Chapter 3 The Great White Bear in Cosmology, Myth, Imagery, and Ritual—Thomas E. Berres Chapter 4 The Multifaceted Bear: Spiritual and Economic Roles of Bears in Meskwaki Society—Ralph Koziarski Chapter 5 Use of Black Bears in the Western Great Lakes Region, and the Riddle of the Perforated Bear Mandibles—Terrance J. Martin Chapter 6 Black Bears and the Iroquoians: Food, Stories, and Symbols—Christian Gates St-Pierre, Claire St-Germain, and Louis-Vincent Laperrière-Désorcy Chapter 7 In Feast and Famine: New Perspectives on Black Bear in the Southern Appalachians and Piedmont, AD 1000–1800—Heather A. Lapham Chapter 8 Better than Butter: Yona Go'i‚ Bear Grease in Cherokee Culture—Heidi M. Altman, Tanya M. Peres, and J. Matthew Compton Chapter 9 Bears, Bear-Grounds, and Bovines in the Lower Southeast—Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman Chapter 10 Re-Examining the Evidence for Bear Ceremonialism in the Lower Mississippi Valley—Ashley Peles and Megan C. Kassabaum Chapter 11 Menageries and Bearskin Caps: Experiencing North American Bears in Post-Medieval Britain—Hannah J. O'Regan Chapter 12 Bear-Human Relationships in Eastern Native North America: An Overview of Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Evidence—Gregory A. Waselkov and J. Lynn Funkhouser Contributors

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Book SynopsisGun-guwelamagapa: Gun-nerranga gun-nerranga rrawa, An-barra gun-nika describes the An-barra Archaeological Project, which investigated the archaeological sites around the mouth of the Blyth River (An-gartcha Wana literally Big River) in central Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. This volume delves into the pre-colonial settlement patterns and subsistence strategies of the An-barra community, set against the backdrop of significant environmental changes during the mid to late Holocene. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the archaeological findings, comparing them with ethnographic evidence to uncover the history and cultural heritage of the An-barra people. The Traditional Owners, including Betty Ngurrpangurrpa and other community members, actively participated in the research, providing invaluable knowledge and insights. Their support enabled the collection of archaeological assemblages and facilitated the interpretation of findings through the lens of their cultural heritage. This volume is a companion piece to Betty Meehan's earlier work, Shell Bed to Shell Midden (1982), and extends the narrative by integrating archaeological data with ethnographic insights. Gun-guwelamagapa reveals the relationships between the An-barra community and their environment, highlighting the role of shell middens, earth mounds, and other archaeological features in understanding the past. The authors discuss the significance of these sites, the methods used in their investigation, and the broader implications for interpreting the archaeological record of northern Australia. Gun-guwelamagapa emphasises the importance of integrating ethnographic and archaeological data to provide a holistic understanding of past human behaviours. It also showcases the contributions of the An-barra community to the preservation and interpretation of their cultural heritage, offering new perspectives on the history and culture of the An-barra people.

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Book SynopsisSince then new texts have appeared (such as the Artemidoros palimpsest), and new editions of existing texts (by geographical authorities who include Agatharchides, Eratosthenes, Pseudo-Skylax and Strabo) have been produced. There has been much archaeological research, especially at the perimeters of the Greek world, and a more accurate understanding of ancient geography and geographers has emerged. The topic is therefore overdue a fresh and sustained treatment. In offering precisely that, Duane Roller explores important topics like knowledge of the world in the Bronze Age and Archaic periods; Greek expansion into the Black Sea and the West; the Pythagorean concept of the earth as a globe; the invention of geography as a discipline by Eratosthenes; Polybios the explorer; Strabo's famous Geographica; the travels of Alexander the Great; Roman geography; Ptolemy and late antiquity; and the cultural reawakening of antique geographical knowledge in the Renaissance, including Columbus' use of ancient sources.Trade Review'For the first time in several generations, Duane Roller offers readers a clear, comprehensive and authoritative survey of ancient geographical thought from its mythic origins in Homer right through to the fall of the Roman Empire. Ancient Geography is the distillation of decades of work on the subject by Roller, who is also a distinguished translator of the key books he discusses here. Ancient Geography immediately eclipses the introductions to the subject offered by previous scholars and should hold its place as the single key treatment of the topic for generations to come for classicists, geographers and historians alike.' -Robert Mayhew, Professor of Historical Geography and Intellectual History, University of Bristol, 'In this elegant and readable narrative, Duane Roller adroitly recreates the sense of wonder, excitement, and adventure that permeated Greek and Roman geographical initiatives. The result is a vivid tapestry of the many threads of ancient geographical thought that have been untangled from myriad layers of discord, transmission, redaction, and (mis)interpretation in the ancient sources. The book will be warmly and appreciatively welcomed by students of classical history and geography and indeed by anyone with an interest in how antiquity conceived of the world and its features.' - Georgia L Irby, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, 'What Duane Roller has achieved in this book is impressive and invaluable. The Greek and Roman grasp of geography, from both spatial and scientific perspectives, developed remarkably over more than half a millennium. So while the approach taken here of explaining this growth chronologically might seem a straightforward task, in fact it is no such thing. Most of the relevant geographical writings and maps are lost. Even some fundamentally important Greek ideas have to be reconstructed from references by later authors who did not always agree with them, let alone perhaps fully understand them. Roller's earlier studies of such giants in this story as Pytheas, Eratosthenes and Strabo make him uniquely qualified to craft an informed, balanced, up-to-date synthesis in defiance of the never-ending obstacles. He writes in a concise, accessible style. Anyone whose imagination is fired by the absorbing puzzle of how the Greeks and Romans envisioned and recorded their surroundings both near and far should read this important book.' - Richard J A Talbert, William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History and Classics, University of North Carolina, editor of Ancient Perspectives: Maps and Their Place in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome

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Book SynopsisThere is a long-held feeling in Russia that Moscow is the true heir to the Christian Byzantine Empire. In 1894, Imperial Russia opened one of the world’s leading centres for Byzantine archaeology in Istanbul, the Russian Archaeological Institute – its purpose was to stake the claim that Russia was the correct heir to ‘Tsargrad’ (as Istanbul was referred to in Russian circles). This then is the history of that institute, and the history of Russia’s efforts to reclaim its Middle East – events since in the Crimea, Syria and Georgia are all, to some extent, wrapped up in this historical framework. Ure looks at the founding of the Russian Archaeological Institute, its aims, and its place in the ‘digging-race’ which characterised the late Imperial phase of modern history. Above all, she shows how the practise of history has been used as a political tool, a form of "soft power".Trade ReviewReclaiming Byzantium is a compelling and sophisticated book. Pinar Üre examines how both imperial Russia and the Ottoman empire approached the archaeological past, in an age of imperial competition and nationalist mobilization. This book is a model of entangled history, examining not only the relationship between the Russian and Ottoman empires over the Byzantine and Slavic past in Ottoman territories, but equally how both states and their scholarly communities had also to confront, on the one hand, the challenge of Western empires and knowledge projects (the British and French empires and their archaeological endeavors)—but also the growing claims of nationalizing states in the Balkans: Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. It is a nuanced study of the relationships between power and knowledge, one conducted on several planes: inter-imperial competition; the relationship between the Russians and the Ottomans; and finally the role of emerging national states. Üre’s ability to tell this story from both the Russian and the Ottoman perspective provides unexpected and important insights into how both states sought to mobilize the past for political and scholarly ends—and how both had to contend with unexpected and unwelcome challenges. This well-written, well-argued book will be of interest to scholars of both late imperial Russia and the Ottoman empire, people interested in the political roles archaeology played in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and anyone interested in the interplay of power and knowledge. * Peter Holquist, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, USA *The book offers a thoroughly researched, well organized, and highly readable examination of imperial Russia’s involvements in recovering the material culture of Byzantium during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Thee ideological motivations and cultural biases that influenced and guided these scientific endeavors, especially evident in the mission of the RAIC in the Balkans, are treated as matters of fact, and there is no hint of interpretation or judgment on the part of the author. Thee book exemplifies the highest quality scholarship in carrying out exactly what it sets out to do. * Review of Ecumenical Studies, Sciendo *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Regenerating Distant Past: Nationalist and Imperialist Uses of Ancient History in the 19th Century Chapter 1: Double-Headed Eagle Over Russia: Russian Appreciation of the Byzantine Heritage 1.1. Fyodor Ivanovich Uspenskii: The Making of a Russian Byzantinist 1.2. The Development of Archaeology and Byzantine Studies in the Russian Empire 1.3. From Russian to Ottoman Shores: The Attraction of the Black Sea as a Repository of Byzantine Monuments 1.4. The Image of Byzantium in Russian Thought in the Late 19th Century Chapter 2: Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire: Cultural Property as a Symbol of Sovereignty 2.1. Byzantine Studies in the Ottoman Empire Chapter 3: At the Intersection of Science and Politics: Russian Archaeological Institute in the Ottoman Empire 3.1. Russians in the Holy Land: Imperial Palestinian Orthodox Society (IPPO) 3.2. The Establishment of the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople (RAIK) Chapter 4: Expeditions of the Russian Archaeological Institute and Contacts with Ottoman Authorities 4.1. Studies in Istanbul Chapter 5: On the Eve of the Balkan Wars: Archaeology in the Midst of Political Unrest 5.1. The Establishment of the Slavic Department within RAIK Chapter 6: The Doom of Empires: The Fate of the Russian Archaeological Institute After 1914 Conclusion Suggestions for Further Reading Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 56 Series Editors: John Alexander and Lawrence Smith

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