The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant is a user-friendly exploration of basic concepts within archaeology, with particular attention to the region of the southern Levant. This volume is intended for students and lay readers alike, and would be an excellent reader for introductory level courses on archaeology in college and university settings. Topics range from basic archaeological concepts to various types of archaeology, written by specialists in those particular fields. Chapters are informal and relaxed - more like a chat or discussion that will help answer some of the basic questions that archaeologists are often asked.

This book is a fully updated and revised edition of William Andrefsky Jr's ground-breaking manual on lithic analysis. Designed for students and professional archaeologists, this highly illustrated book explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, it comprehensively explores methods and techniques, presenting detailed case studies of lithic analysis from around the world. It examines new emerging techniques, such as the advances being made in lithic debitage analysis and lithic tool analysis, and includes a new section on stone tool functional studies. An extensive and expanded glossary makes this book an invaluable reference for archaeologists at all levels.

Innovative Approaches and Explorations in Ceramic Studies celebrates thirty years of Ceramic Ecology, an international symposium initiated at the 1986 American Anthropological Association meeting at the suggestion of Frederick R. Matson. For almost twenty-five years, Dr. Charles Kolb organized the symposium to discuss multiple theoretical and methodological approaches to ceramic studies around the world. By fostering interdisciplinary interactions, the symposium has pushed the boundaries of what can be understood about the human experience through the creative and systematic study of ceramics. Contributions in this volume explore the application of instrumental techniques and experimental studies to analyze ceramics and follow innovative approaches to evaluate our methods and theories in our quest to learn about the societies we dedicate our studies to.

Human remains and identification presents a pioneering investigation into the practices and methodologies used in the search for and exhumation of dead bodies resulting from mass violence. Previously absent from forensic debate, social scientists and historians here confront historical and contemporary exhumations with the application of social context to create an innovative and interdisciplinary dialogue, enlightening the political, social and legal aspects of mass crime and its aftermaths. Through a ground-breaking selection of international case studies, Human remains and identification argues that the emergence of new technologies to facilitate the identification of dead bodies has led to a "forensic turn", normalising exhumations as a method of dealing with human remains en masse. However, are these exhumations always made for legitimate reasons? Multidisciplinary in scope, this book will appeal to readers interested in understanding this crucial phase of mass violence's aftermath, including researchers in history, anthropology, sociology, forensic science, law, politics and modern warfare. The research program leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n Degrees 283-617. -- .

Tooth enamel and dentin are the most studied hard tissues used to explore hominin evolution, life history, diet, health, and culture. Surprisingly, cementum (the interface between the alveolar bone and the root dentin) remains the least studied dental tissue even though its unique growth, which is continuous throughout life, has been acknowledged since the 1950s. This interdisciplinary volume presents state-of-the-art studies in cementum analysis and its broad interpretative potential in anthropology. The first section focuses on cementum biology; the second section presents optimized multi-species and standardized protocols to estimate age and season at death precisely. The final section highlights innovative applications in zooarchaeology, paleodemography, bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology, and forensic anthropology, demonstrating how cementochronology can profoundly affect anthropological theories. With a wealth of illustrations of cementum histology and accompanying online resources, this book provides the perfect toolkit for scholars interested in studying past and current human and animal populations.

This book outlines for the first time in a single volume the theoretical and methodological tools for a study of human remains resulting from episodes of mass violence and genocide. Despite the highly innovative and contemporary research into both mass violence and the body, the most significant consequence of conflict - the corpse - remains absent from the scope of existing research. Why have human remains hitherto remained absent from our investigation, and how do historians, anthropologists and legal scholars, including specialists in criminology and political science, confront these difficult issues? By drawing on international case studies including genocides in Rwanda, the Khmer Rouge, Argentina, Russia and the context of post-World War II Europe, this ground-breaking edited collection opens new avenues of research. Multidisciplinary in scope, this volume will appeal to readers interested in an understanding of mass violence's aftermath, including researchers in history, anthropology, sociology, law, politics and modern warfare. The research program leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n Degrees 283-617. -- .

The Viking Age in Scotland: Studies in Scottish Scandinavian Archaeology brings the study of Scottish Scandinavian archaeology into the new century. Following a brief history reviewing 25 years of research that has taken place since the last archaeological survey of the Vikings in Scotland, this book updates researchers on the latest finds and theories. It examines key themes including the arrival and settlement of the Vikings, death and burial, economy and exchange, power and politics, and environmental impact. Fully illustrated with photographs and maps, this is a key resource for anyone studying Viking Scotland.

"Forbidden Archaeology's Impact" offers readers an inside look at how mainstream science reacts with ridicule, threats, and intimidation to any challenge to its deeply held beliefs. Since 1993 the controversial book "Forbidden Archaeology" has shocked the scientific world with its extensive evidence for extreme human antiquity. "Forbidden Archaeology's" Impact documents the explosive reactions to this underground classic. It includes proactive compilation of reviews, correspondence, and media interviews.

The reaction against archaeological explanations relying on invasion and migration was part of the processualist critique in the 1960s. Only recently have archaeologists like Kristiansen argued that as migrations can be traced in the historical record, some archaeological method of identifying them must be found. This volume comes from a 1993 TAG session and pursues this issue. Contents: On the Move Again: Migrations and Invasions in Archaeological Explanation (John Chapman and Helena Hamerow); The Impact of Modern Invasions and Migrations on Archaeological Explanation (John Chapman); Prehistoric Migration as a Social Process (David Anthony); Migration Theory and the Anglo-Saxon 'Identity Crisis' (Helena Hamerow); Britons, Anglo-Saxons and the Germanic Burial Ritual (Sally Crawford); Social Network and Pattern of Language Change (James Milroy and Lesley Milroy).

""Archaeological Oceanography" is a must-have book for anyone interested in this emerging field. Never has there been a collection of articles as comprehensive as this one. For the first time in a single source are authoritative articles on the technology, field techniques, and even the preservation of these irreplaceable deep-water cultural resources with discussions on ways to bring them to the public's eye. The contributors are experts in their fields and present readable, data-packed overviews. The book will be the standard for many years to come."--Donny Hamilton, Texas A&M University

"An excellent and accessible introduction to the work that Robert Ballard and his colleagues have done in the pioneering field of archaeology in the deep sea. This challenging new domain requires a mix of oceanography, archaeology, and engineering, and this volume shows how the best research seamlessly interweaves the three. A must-read for anyone interested in exploring our sunken past."--David Mindell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"A significant and major contribution. This is a valuable work that will have relevance and importance to professional audiences in the fields of oceanography, deep-sea technology, and public policy in regard to ocean science, robotics, and various subdisciplines of archaeology. This work will be viewed as an essential read, and will become the standard reference."--James P. Delgado, executive director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology

"This book addresses a subject of very widespread interest among the general public as well as for professional archaeologists and oceanographers. Moreover, the authors are all firsthand experts with considerableexperience in the subject matter they describe and discuss."--Patty Jo Watson, professor emerita, Washington University in St. Louis

"There is nothing else like this book. Dr. Ballard and his coauthors have led the way in exploring deep shipwrecks. They are the world leaders in deepwater archaeology. Their credentials are unquestioned. The book will be a significant contribution to the field."--George F. Bass, professor emeritus, Texas A&M University

"There is no doubt that when it comes to the investigation of very deepwater sites, this group has been at the forefront of the technological developments to prospect for and then map such archaeology. A very useful anthology of their work."--Justin Dix, University of Southampton

In the past, Bronze Age painted plaster in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean has been studied from a range of different but isolated viewpoints. One of the current questions about this material is its direction of transfer. This volume brings both technological and iconographic (and other) approaches closer together: 1) by completing certain gaps in the literature on technology and 2) by investigating how and why technological transfer has developed and what broader impact this had on the wider social dynamics of the late Middle and Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. This study approaches the topic of painted plaster by a multidisciplinary methodology. Moreover, when human actors and their interactions are placed in the centre of the scene, it demonstrates the human forces through which transfer was enabled and how multiple social identities and the inter-relationships of these actors with each other and their material world were expressed through their craft production and organization. The investigated data from sixteen sites has been contextualized within a wider framework of Bronze Age interconnections both in time and space because studying painted plaster in the Aegean cannot be considered separate from similar traditions both in Egypt and in the Near East. This study makes clear that it is not possible to deduce a one-way directional transfer of this painting tradition. Furthermore, by integrating both technology and iconography with its hybrid character, a clear technological style was defined in the predominant al fresco work found on these specific sites. The author suggests that the technological transfer most likely moved from west to east. This has important implications in the broader politico-economic and social dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean during the LBA. Since this art/craft was very much elite-owned, it shows how the smaller states in the LBA, such as the regions of the Aegean, were capable of staying within the large trade and exchange network that comprised the large powers of the East and Egypt. The painted plaster reflects a very visible presence in the archaeological record and, because it cannot be transported without its artisans, it suggests specific interactions of royal courts in the East with the Aegean peoples. The painted plaster as an immovable feature required at least temporary presence of a small team of painters and plasterers. Exactly this factor forms an argument in support of travelling artisans, who, in turn, shed light onto broader aspects of contact, trade and exchange mechanisms during the late MBA and LBA.

Ten years after the first volume, this book highlights the important contribution Raman spectroscopy makes as a non-destructive method for characterising the chemical composition of objects with archaeological and historical importance. The original book was ground-breaking in its concept, but the past ten years have seen some advancement into new areas, consolidation of some of the older ones and novel applications involving portable instrumentation, on site in museums and in the field. This new volume maintains the topic at the cutting edge, the Editors have approached prominent contributors to provide case-studies sorted into themes. Starting with a Foreword from the British Museum Director of Scientific Research and an Introduction from the Editors, which offer general background information and theoretical context, the contributions then provide global perspectives on this powerful analytical tool. Aimed at scientists involved in conservation, conservators and curators who want to better understand their collections at a material level and researchers of cultural heritage.

Documentation, analysis, and explanation of culture change have long been goals of archaeology. Scientific graphs facilitate the visual thinking that allow archaeologists to determine the relationship between variables, and, if well designed, comprehend the processes implied by the relationship. Different graph types suggest different ontologies and theories of change, and particular techniques of parsing temporally continuous morphological variation of artefacts into types influence graph form. North American archaeologists have grappled with finding a graph that effectively and efficiently displays culture change over time. Line graphs, bar graphs, and numerous one-off graph types were used between 1910 and 1950, after which spindle graphs displaying temporal frequency distributions of specimens within each of multiple artefact types emerged as the most readily deciphered diagram. The variety of graph types used over the twentieth century indicate archaeologists often mixed elements of both Darwinian variational evolutionary change and Midas-touch like transformational change. Today, there is minimal discussion of graph theory or graph grammar in introductory archaeology textbooks or advanced texts, and elements of the two theories of evolution are still mixed. Culture has changed, and archaeology provides unique access to the totality of humankind's cultural past. It is therefore crucial that graph theory, construction, and decipherment are revived in archaeological discussion.

Two of the questions most frequently asked by archaeologists of sites and the objects that populate them are 'How old are you?' and 'Where are you from?' These questions can often be answered through archaeometric dating and provenance analyses. As both archaeological sites and objects, shipwrecks pose a special problem in archaeometric dating and provenance because when they sailed, they often accumulated new construction material as timbers were repaired and replaced. Additionally, during periods of globalization, such as the so-called Age of Discovery, the provenance of construction materials may not reflect where the ship was built due to long-distance timber trade networks and the global nature of these ships' sailing routes. Accepting these special challenges, nautical archaeologists must piece together the nuanced relationship between the ship, its timbers, and the shipwreck, and to do so, wood samples must be removed from the assemblage. Besides the provenance of the vessel's wooden components, selective removal and analysis of timber samples can also provide researchers with unique insights relating to environmental history. For this period, wood samples could help produce information on the emergent global economy; networks of timber trade; forestry and carpentry practices; climate patterns and anomalies; forest reconstruction; repairs made to ships and when, why, and where those occurred; and much more. This book is a set of protocols to establish the need for wood samples from shipwrecks and to guide archaeologists in the removal of samples for a suite of archaeometric techniques currently available to provenance the timbers used to construct wooden ships and boats. While these protocols will prove helpful to archaeologists working on shipwreck assemblages from any time period and in any place, this book uses Iberian ships of the 16th to 18th centuries as its case studies because their global mobility poses additional challenges to the problem at hand. At the same time, their prolificacy and ubiquity make the wreckage of these ships a uniquely global phenomenon.

Combining historical research with a lucid explication of archaeological methodology and reasoning, "Measuring Time with Artifacts" examines the origins and changing use of fundamental chronometric techniques and procedures and analyzes the different ways American archaeologists have studied changes in artifacts, sites, and peoples over time.

In highlighting the underpinning ontology and epistemology of artifact-based chronometers--cultural transmission and how to measure it archaeologically--this volume covers issues such as why archaeologists used the cultural evolutionism of L. H. Morgan, E. B. Tylor, L. A. White, and others instead of biological evolutionism; why artifact classification played a critical role in the adoption of stratigraphic excavation; how the direct historical approach accomplished three analytical tasks at once; why cultural traits were important analytical units; why paleontological and archaeological methods sometimes mirror one another; how artifact classification influences chronometric method; and how graphs illustrate change in artifacts over time.

An understanding of the history of artifact-based chronometers enables us to understand how we know what we think we know about the past, ensures against modern misapplication of the methods, and sheds light on the reasoning behind archaeologists' actions during the first half of the twentieth century.

Echoes of the Middle Ages are all around us in Britain. Sites like the Tower of London, Hampton Court, and the castles of Scotland and Wales are mainstays of cultural tourism, Medieval institutions like the monarchy, monasteries, and universities are familiar to us, and we come into contact with the remnants of Britain's medieval past every day we drive past a castle on a hill or visit a local church. People today can come into direct contact with their medieval predecessors through the inspiring cross-section of later medieval finds that can now be found on display in museums across the country. In many ways, the medieval past has never been so present. The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between AD 1066 and 1550. Sixty-one entries, divided into ten thematic sections, cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive. This is a rich and exciting period of the past and most of what we know about the material culture of the medieval period has been discovered in the past two generations. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research and describes the major projects and concepts that are changing our understanding of the later Middle Ages.

European expansion into the New World fundamentally altered Indigenous populations. The collision between East and West led to the most recent human adaptive transition that spread around the world. Paradoxically, these are some of the least scientifically understood processes of the human past. Representing a new generation of contact and colonialism studies, this volume expands on the traditional focus on the health of conquered peoples by considering how extraordinary biological and cultural transformations were incorporated into the human body and reflected in behavior, identity, and adaptation.By examining changes in diet, mortuary practices, and diseases, these globally diverse case studies demonstrate that the effects of conquest reach further than was ever thought before-to both the colonized and the colonizers. People on all sides of colonial contact became entangled in cultural and biological transformations of social identities, foodways, social structures, and gene pools at points of contact and beyond. Contributors to this volume illustrate previously unknown and variable effects of colonialism by analyzing skeletal remains and burial patterns from never-before-studied regions in the Americas to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The result is the first step toward a new synthesis of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Contributors: Rosabella Alvarez-Calderon, Elliot H. Blair, Maria Fernanda Boza, Michele R. Buzon, Romina Casali, Mark N. Cohen, Danielle N. Cook, Marie Elaine Danforth, J. Lynn Funkhouser, Catherine Gaither, Pamela Garcia Laborde| Ricardo A. Guichon, Rocio Guichon Fernandez, Heather Guzik, Amanda R. Harvey, Barbara T. Hester, Dale L. Hutchinson, Kristina Killgrove | Haagen D. Klaus | Clark Spencer Larsen | Alan G. Morris | Melissa S. Murphy, Alejandra Ortiz, Megan A. Perry, Emily S. Renschler, Isabelle Ribot, Melisa A. Salerno, Matthew C. Sanger, Paul W. Sciulli, Stuart Tyson Smith, Christopher M. Stojanowski, David Hurst Thomas, Victor D. Thompson, Vera Tiesler, Jason Toohey, Lauren A. Winkler, Pilar Zabala

The Roman Town at Silchester, Calleva Atrebatum, was a working archaeological dig - the University of Reading Field School - which took place every summer for eighteen years. Taking advantage of the last opportunity to record 'life on the dig' in 2014, artist Jenny Halstead spent the summer creating and collating material for a beautiful and historic book. Jenny's superior draughtsmanship, her eye for colour and her wide variety of techniques produce evocative, lively images. The resulting book is a fitting and enduring record of this historic episode in the life of an ancient city.

With the right methods, studying the ancient world can be as engaging as it is informative. Many K-12 teachers, university instructors, and museum educators use hands-on, project-based, and experiential activities in their classes to increase student engagement and learning. This book aims to bring together such pedagogical methods and teaching activities about the ancient world for any educator to use. The teaching activities in this book are designed in a cookbook format so that educators can replicate these teaching "recipes" (which include materials, budget, preparation time, levels of students) in their ancient art, archaeology, social studies, and history classes. They can be implemented online or in-person, in schools, universities, libraries, museums, or at home. Find out more about the book and the contributors at: https://pinardurgunpd.wixsite.com/teachancient

Architectures of Fire attempts to present the entanglement between the physical phenomenon of fire, the pyro-technological instrument that it is, its material supports, and the human being. In this perspective, the physical process of combustion, material culture, as well as the development of human action in space, are addressed together. Fire is located at the centre of all pre-modern architecture. It creates the living or technological space. Fire creates architectures since it imposes geometry, from the simple circles of stone or clay, which control its spread (and which are the geometrical figures of its optimal efficiency), to cone trunks, cylinders, half-spheres, half-cylinders or parallelepipeds, circular geometric figures that efficiently control the air-draught process required for combustion. All these forms involving the circle are determined by the control and conservation of thermal energy. We should not imagine that the term 'architecture' evokes only constructed objects that delimit human action. Architecture means not only the built space, but also the experienced space, in the present case around the pyro-instruments. Pyro-instruments involve an ergonomic, kinesthetic and visual relationship, as well as the rhythmic actions of feeding or maintaining fire at a certain technological tempo. The technological agency is structured both by the physics of the combustion phenomenon, and by the type of operation to be performed.

This is the definitive account of the ground-breaking conservation project to conserve the cave paintings of the Mogao Grottoes in China. The Mogao Grottoes, a World Heritage Site in northwestern China, are located along the ancient caravan routes, collectively known as the Silk Road, that once linked China with the West. Founded by a Buddhist monk in the late fourth century, Mogao flourished over the following millennium, as monks, local rulers, and travellers commissioned hundreds of cave temples cut into a mile-long rock cliff and adorned them with vibrant murals. More than 490 decorated grottoes remain, containing thousands of sculptures and some 45,000 square metres of wall paintings, making Mogao one of the world's most significant sites of Buddhist art. In 1997 the Getty Conservation Institute, which had been working with the Dunhuang Academy since 1989, began a case study using the Late-Tang dynasty Cave 85 to develop a methodology that would stabilize the deteriorating wall paintings. This abundantly illustrated volume is the definitive report on the project, which was completed in 2010.

This unique workbook provides the opportunity for students to complete a variety of labs using items found on hand. It is perfectly suited for teaching beyond the traditional classroom, in remote learning environments and with large class sizes. From creating complex stratigraphy with piles of clothes, to illustrating optimal forging theory with nothing more than a handful of coins, as well as activities based on writing, drawing, and provided cutout sheets, there are many ways to use this book for online 'at home' lab classes. Today, many general-education archaeology courses are large, lecture-style class formats that present a challenge to providing students, particularly non-majors, with opportunities to learn experientially. This laboratory-style manual compiles a wide variety of uniquely designed, hands-on classroom activities to acquaint advanced high school and introductory college students to the field of archaeology. Ranging in length from five to thirty minutes, activities created by archaeologists are designed to break up traditional classroom lectures, engage students of all learning styles, and easily integrate into large classes and/or short class periods that do not easily accommodate traditional laboratory work.

Homeless Heritage describes the process of using archaeological methodologies to collaboratively document how contemporary homeless people use and experience the city. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Bristol and York, the book first describes the way in which archaeological methods and theory have come to be usefully applied to the contemporary world, before exploring the historical development of the concept of homelessness. Working with homeless people, the author undertook surveys and two excavations of contemporary homeless sites, and the team co-curated two public heritage exhibitions - with surprising results. Complementing a growing body of literature that details how collaborative and participatory heritage projects can give voice to marginalised groups, Homeless Heritage details what it means to be homeless in the twenty first century.

Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling is based on the proceedings of a two-day workshop on experimental archaeology at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens in 2017, in collaboration with UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture. Scholars, artists and craftspeople explore how people in the past made things, used and discarded them, from prehistory to the Middle Ages. The papers include discussions of the experimental archaeological reconstruction and likely past experience of medieval houses, and also about how people cast medieval bronze brooches, or sharpened Bronze Age swords, made gold ornaments, or produced fresco wall paintings using their knowledge, skills and practices. The production of ceramics is explored through a description of the links between Neolithic pottery and textiles, through the building and testing of a Bronze Age Cretan pottery kiln, and through the replication and experience of Minoan figurines. The papers in this volume show that experimental archaeology can be about making, understanding, and storytelling about the past, in the present.