Description
Book SynopsisThirteen leading archaeologists have contributed to this innovative study of the socio-political processes - notably imitation, competition, warfare, and the exchange of material goods and information - that can be observed within early complex societies, particularly those just emerging into statehood. The common aim is to explain the remarkable formal similarities that exist between institutions, ideologies and material remains in a variety of cultures characterised by independent political centres yet to be brought under the control of a single, unified jurisdiction. A major statement of the conceptual approach is followed by ten case studies from a wide variety of times and places, including Minoan Crete, early historic Greece and Japan, the classic Maya, the American Mid - west in the Hopewellian period, Europe in the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, and the British Isles in the late Neolithic.
Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction: peer polity interaction and socio-political change Colin Renfrew; 2. Polities and palaces: some problems in Minoan state formation John F. Cherry; 3. Interaction by design: the Greek city state Anthony Snodgrass; 4. Peer polity interaction in the European Iron Age Timothy and Sara Champion; 5. Peer polity interaction and socio-political change in Anglo-Saxon England Richard Hodges; 6. Jiehao, tonghao: peer relations in East Asia Gina L. Barnes; 7. Maya warfare: an example of peer polity interaction David A. Freidel; 8. Interaction among Classic Maya policies: a preliminary examination Jeremy A. Sabloff; 9. Midwestern Hopewellian exchange and supralocal interaction David P. Braun; 10. The nature and development of long-distance relations in Later Neolithic Britain and Ireland Richard Bradley and Robert Chapman; 11. Interaction and change in third millennium BC western and central Europe Stephen Shennan; 12. Epilogue and prospect John F. Cherry and Colin Renfrew; Bibliography; Index.
