This book explores the sociopolitical contexts of heritage landscapes, paying special attention to sites with deep indigenous histories - Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Burrup Peninsula along the Pilbara Coast in Australia, the Altai Mountains of northwestern Mongolia, and Prince William Sound in Alaska. For many communities, landscapes such as these have long been associated with cultural identity and memories of important and difficult events, as well as political struggles related to nation-state boundaries, sovereignty, and knowledge claims. ,br> Drawing on the emerging field of critical heritage theory and the concept of "resource frontiers," Melissa Baird shows how these landscapes are sites of power and control and are increasingly used in development and extractive projects. As a result, heritage landscapes face social and ecological crises such as environmental degradation, ecological disasters, and structural violence. She describes how heritage experts, industries, government representatives, and descendant groups negotiate the contours and boundaries of these contested sites, and recommends ways such conversations can better incorporate a critical engagement with indigenous knowledge and agency.

The ancient Mesoptamian city of Ur was a Sumerian city state which flourished as a centre of trade and civilisation between 2025-1738 BCE. However, in the recent past it suffered from the disastrous Gulf war and from neglect. It still remains a potent symbol for people of all faiths and will have an important role to play in the future This account of Ur's past looks at both the ancient city and its evolution over centuries, and its archaeological interpretation in more recent times. From the nineteenth century explorers and their identification of the site of Mukayyar as the Biblical city of Ur, the study proceeds to look in detail at the archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his key discoveries during the 1920s and 30s. Using the findings as a framework and utilising the latest evidence from environmental, historical and archaeological studies, the volume explores the site's past in chronological order from the Ubaid period in the 5th millennium to the death of Alexander. It looks in detail at the architectural remains: the sacred buildings, royal graves and also the private housing which provides a unique record of life four thousand years ago.The volume also describes the part played by Ur in the Gulf war and discusses the problems raised for archaeologists in the war's aftermath.

The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan's most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars.Contributing scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald's archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald's five major surveys- papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton's scholarly output.

This book analyses the theoretical and methodological foundations of ecotourism and geotourism and examines the essence, content, factors, and models of ecotourism development. The authors conducted research to assess the tourist and recreational potential of ecotourism in Kazakhstan. The study analyses the current state and describes the problems of the long-term development of ecotourism. Besides, the authors also show the role of specially protected natural areas in ecotourism development, including a list of organizations that can create tourist products in the environmental direction. This book also defines the primary conditions necessary for ecotourism in protected natural and rural areas. The resulting cartographic material visualizes the geospatial potential of the regions of Kazakhstan, aiming a more targeted expenditure of financial resources allocated to tourism development. Thus, the presented book is relevant from a practical perspective to scientists and researchers and is of value to business structures and stakeholders.

Over the past 20 years there has been increased research traction in the anthropology of childhood. However, infancy, the pregnant body and motherhood continue to be marginalised. This book will focus on the mother-infant relationship and the variable constructions of this dyad across cultures, including conceptualisations of the pregnant body, the beginnings of life, and implications for health. This is particularly topical because there is a burgeoning awareness within anthropology regarding the centrality of mother-infant interactions for understanding the evolution of our species, infant and maternal health and care strategies, epigenetic change, and biological and social development. This book will bring together cultural and biological anthropologists and archaeologists to examine the infant-maternal interface in past societies. It will showcase innovative theoretical and methodological approaches towards understanding societal constructions of foetal, infant and maternal bodies. It will emphasise their interconnectivity and will explore the broader significance of the mother/infant nexus for overall population well-being.

Drawing on archaeological findings from the Maya lowlands, War Owl Falling shows how innovation and creativity led to social change in ancient societies. Markus Eberl discusses the ways eighth-century Maya (and Maya commoners in particular) reinvented objects and signs that were associated with nobility, including scepters, ceramic vessels, ballgame equipment, and the symbol of the owl. These inventions, he argues, reflect assertions of independence and a redistribution of power that contributed to the Maya collapse in the Late Classic period. Eberl emphasizes that individual decision-making - the ability to imagine alternate worlds and to act on that vision - plays a large role in changing social structure over time. Pinpointing where and when these Maya inventions emerged, how individuals adopted them and why, War Owl Falling connects technological and social change in a novel way.

The mining industry in North America is an important subject for archaeological investigation due to its rich and conflicted history. It is associated with the opening of the frontier and the rise of the United States as an industrial power but also with social upheaval, the dispossession of indigenous lands, and extensive environmental impacts. Synthesizing fifty years of research on American mining sites that date from colonial times to the present, Paul White provides an ideal overview of the field for both students and professionals. Case studies are taken from a wide range of contexts, from eastern coal mines to Alaskan gold fields, and special attention is paid to the domestic and working lives of miners. Exploring what material artifacts can tell us about the lives of people who left few records, White demonstrates how archaeologists contribute to understanding mining legacies.

The Colonial Caribbean is an archaeological analysis of the Jamaican plantation system at the turn of the nineteenth century. Focused specifically on coffee plantation landscapes and framed by Marxist theory, the analysis considers plantation landscapes using a multiscalar approach to landscape archaeology. James A. Delle considers spatial phenomena ranging from the diachronic settlement pattern of the island as a whole to the organization of individual house and yard areas located within the villages of enslaved workers. Delle argues that a Marxist approach to landscape archaeology provides a powerful theoretical framework to understand how the built environment played a direct role in the negotiation of social relations in the colonial Caribbean.

This book compares consumer behavior in two nineteenth-century peripheral cities: Melbourne, Australia and Buenos Aires, Argentina. It provides an analysis of domestic archaeological assemblages from two inner-city working class neighborhood sites that were largely populated by recently arrived immigrants.The book also uses primary, historical documents to assess the place of these cities within global trade networks and explores the types of goods arriving into each city. By comparing the assemblages and archival data it is possible to explore the role of choice, ethnicity, and class on consumer behavior. This approach is significant as it provides an archaeological assessment of consumer behavior which crosses socio-political divides, comparing a site within a British colony to a site in a former Spanish colony in South America. As two geographically, politically and ethnically distinct cities it was expected that archaeological and archival data would reveal substantial variation. In reality, differences, although noted, were small. Broad similarities point to the far-reaching impact of colonialism and consumerism and widespread interconnectedness during the nineteenth century. This book demonstrates the wealth of information that can be gained from international comparisons that include sites outside the British Empire.