This volume challenges previous views of social organization focused on elites by offering innovative perspectives on 'power from below.' Using a variety of archaeological, anthropological, and historical data to question traditional narratives of complexity as inextricably linked to top-down power structures, it exemplifies how commoners have developed strategies to sustain non-hierarchical networks and contest the rise of inequalities. Through case studies from around the world - ranging from Europe to New Guinea, and from Mesoamerica to China - an international team of contributors explores the diverse and dynamic nature of power relations in premodern societies. The theoretical models discussed throughout the volume include a reassessment of key concepts such as heterarchy, collective action, and resistance. Thus, the book adds considerable nuance to our understanding of power in the past, and also opens new avenues of reflection that can help inform discussions about our collective present and future.

This title looks at the excavations of a prehistoric to early medieval site that took place at Killelan Farm on Islay by Colin Burgess and others between 1954 and 1976.

The development of complex cultural behaviour in our own species is perhaps the most significant research issue in modern archaeology. Until recently, it was believed that our capacity for language and art only developed after some of our ancestors reached Europe around 40,000 years ago. Archaeological discoveries in Africa now show that modern humans were practicing symbolic behaviours prior to their dispersal from that continent, and more recent discoveries in Indonesia and Australia are once again challenging ideas about human cultural development. Despite these significant discoveries and exciting potentials, there is a curious absence of published information about Asia-Pacific region, and consequently, global narratives of our most celebrated cognitive accomplishment - art - has consistently underrepresented the contribution of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. This volume provides the first outline of what this region has to offer to the world of art in archaeology. Readers undertaking tertiary archaeology courses interested in the art of the Asia-Pacific region or human behavioural evolution, along with anyone who is fascinated by the development of our modern ability to decorate ourselves and our world, should find this book a good addition to their library.

This volume is part of the Changing Perspectives sub-series, which is constituted by anthologies of articles by world-renowned biblical scholars and historians that have made an impact on the field and changed its course during the last decades. This volume offers a collection of seminal essays by Keith Whitelam on the early history of ancient Palestine and the origins and emergence of Israel. Collected together in one volume for the first time, and featuring one unpublished article, this volume will be of interest to biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars interested in the politics of historical representation but also on critical ways of constructing the history of ancient Palestine.

Patterns of ritual power, presence, and space are fundamentally connected to, and mirror, the societal and political power structures in which they are enacted. This book explores these connections in South Asia from the early Common Era until the present day. The essays in the volume examine a wide range of themes, including a genealogy of ideas concerning Vedic rituals in European thought; Buddhist donative rituals of Gandhara and Andhra Pradesh in the early Common Era; land endowments, festivals, and temple establishments in medieval Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; Mughal court rituals of the Mughal Empire; and contemporary ritual complexes on the Nilgiri Plateau. This volume argues for the need to redress a historical neglect in identifying and theorising ritual and religion in material contexts within archaeology. Further, it challenges existing theoretical and methodological forms of documentation to propose new ways of understanding rituals in history. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, religion, archaeology, and historical geography.

Museums today find themselves within a mediatised society, where everyday life is conducted in a data-full and technology-rich context. In fact, museums are themselves mediatised: they present a uniquely media-centred environment, in which communicative media is a constitutive property of their organisation and of the visitor experience. The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Media and Communication explores what it means to take mediated communication as a key concept for museum studies and as a sensitising lens for media-related museum practice on the ground. Including contributions from experts around the world, this original and innovative Handbook shares a nuanced and precise understanding of media, media concepts and media terminology, rehearsing new locations for writing on museum media and giving voice to new subject alignments. As a whole, the volume breaks new ground by reframing mediated museum communication as a resource for an inclusive understanding of current museum developments. The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Media and Communication will appeal to both students and scholars, as well as to practitioners involved in the visioning, design and delivery of mediated communication in the museum. It teaches us not just how to study museums, but how to go about being a museum in today's world.

Jeremy Green's systematic overview of maritime archaeology offers a step-by-step description of this fast-growing field. With new information about the use of computers and Global Positioning Systems, the second edition of this handbook shows how to extract as much information as possible from a site, how to record and document the data, and how to act ethically and responsibly with the artifacts. Treating underwater archaeology as a discipline, the book demonstrates how archaeologists, "looters," academics, and governments interact and how the market for archaeological artifacts creates obstacles and opportunities for these groups. Well illustrated and comprehensive in its approach to the subject, this book provides an essential foundation for everybody interested in underwater environments, submerged land structures, and conditions created by sea level changes.

Graffiti are ubiquitous within the ancient world, but remain underexploited as a form of archaeological or historical evidence. They include a great variety of texts and images written or drawn inside and outside buildings, in public and private places, on monuments in the city, on objects used in daily life, and on mountains in the countryside. In each case they can be seen as actively engaging with their environment in a variety of ways. Ancient Graffiti in Context interrogates this cultural phenomenon and by doing so, brings it into the mainstream of ancient history and archaeology. Focusing on different approaches to and interpretations of graffiti from a variety of sites and chronological contexts, Baird and Taylor pose a series of questions not previously asked of this evidence, such as: What are graffiti, and how can we interpret them? In what ways, and with whom, do graffiti communicate? To what extent do graffiti represent or subvert the cultural values of the society in which they occur? By comparing themes across time and space, and viewing graffiti in context, this book provides a series of interpretative strategies for scholars and students of the ancient world. As such it will be essential reading for Classical archaeologists and historians alike.

This photographic guide will assist scientists working with archaeological plant or insect remains in the identification of calcium-phosphate replaced biological remains. Diagnostic criteria and images are presented for the most commonly occurring taxa found as mineralised remains in cesspits, drains and middens, dating from the prehistoric to post-medieval periods . Phosphatic mineralisation primarily preserves soft tissues and often results in the loss of diagnostic features typically seen in other types of preservation, particularly of the thickened, protective outer layers (pericarps and seed coats) of fruits and seeds. For insect remains this type of preservation primarily favours fly (Diptera) pupae and puparia. High quality photographic images are presented, for the most part using mineralised archaeological material. High magnification images of specific structures and cell layers (magnifications of up to x160) are included where appropriate. Variations of potential preservation are illustrated where possible. Identification criteria for each taxon is highlighted, along with examples of archaeological sites which yielded mineralised material, information on modern ecology and interpretative value of each taxon.

Maps have always been a fundamental tool in archaeological practice, and their prominence and variety have increased along with a growing range of digital technologies used to collect, visualise, query and analyse spatial data. However, unlike in other disciplines, the development of archaeological cartographical critique has been surprisingly slow; a missed opportunity given that archaeology, with its vast and multifaceted experience with space and maps, can significantly contribute to the field of critical mapping. Re-mapping Archaeology thinks through cartographic challenges in archaeology and critiques the existing mapping traditions used in the social sciences and humanities, especially since the 1990s. It provides a unique archaeological perspective on cartographic theory and innovatively pulls together a wide range of mapping practices applicable to archaeology and other disciplines. This volume will be suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as for established researchers in archaeology, geography, anthropology, history, landscape studies, ethnology and sociology.

In this book contributions by archaeologists and numismatists from six countries address different aspects of how silver was used in both Scandinavia and the wider Viking world during the 8th to 11th centuries AD. The volume brings together a combination of recent summaries and new work on silver and gold coinage, rings and bullion, which allow a better appreciation of the broader socioeconomic conditions of the Viking world. This is an indispensable source for all archaeologists, historians and numismatists involved in Viking Studies.

This volume gathers together selected contributions which were originally presented at the conference 'Greek Art in Context' at the University of Edinburgh in 2014. Its aim is to introduce the reader to the broad and multifaceted notion of context in relation to Greek art and, more specifically, to its relevance for the study of Greek sculpture and pottery from the Archaic to the Late Classical periods. What do we mean by 'context'? In which ways and under what circumstances does context become relevant for the interpretation of Greek material culture? Which contexts should we look at - viewing context, political, social and religious discourse, artistic tradition . . .? What happens when there is no context? These are some of the questions that this volume aims to answer. The chapters included cover current approaches to the study of Greek sculpture and pottery in which the notion of 'context' plays a prominent role, offering new ways of looking at familiar issues. It gathers leading scholars and early career researchers from different backgrounds and research traditions with the aim of presenting new insights into archaeological and art historical research. Their chapters contribute to showcase the vitality of the discipline and will serve to stimulate new directions for the study of Greek art.

How could a community of 2000-3000 Viking peasants survive in Arctic Greenland for 430 years (ca. 985-1415), and why did they finally disappear? European agriculture in an Arctic environment encountered serious ecological challenges. The Norse peasants faced these challenges by adapting agricultural practices they had learned from the Atlantic and North Sea coast of Norway. Norse Greenland was the stepping stone for the Europeans who first discovered America and settled briefly in Newfoundland ca. AD 1000. The community had a global significance which surpassed its modest size. In the last decades scholars have been nearly unanimous in emphasising that long-term climatic and environmental changes created a situation where Norse agriculture was no longer sustainable and the community was ruined. A secondary hypothesis has focused on ethnic confrontations between Norse peasants and Inuit hunters. In the last decades ethnic violence has been on the rise in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa. In some cases it has degenerated into ethnic cleansing. This has strengthened the interest in ethnic violence in past societies. Challenging traditional hypotheses is a source of progress in all science. The present book does this on the basis of relevant written and archaeological material respecting the methodology of both sciences.

This book presents essays that exemplify key themes including the interdependence of conservation, research and access; the need for a 21st-century inventory of the medieval sculpture; the breadth and value of the wide range of the research tools; and conservation issue.

This lavishly illustrated volume presents a comprehensive architectural study of 87 individual temples and sanctuaries built in the Roman East between the end of the 1st century BCE and the end of the 3rd century CE, within a broad region encompassing the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Religious architecture gave faithful expression to the complexity of the Roman East and to its multiplicity of traditions pertaining to ethnic and religious aspects as well as to the powerful influence of Imperial Rome. The source of this power lay in the uniformity of the architectural language, the inventory of forms, the choice of styles and the spatial layout of the buildings. Thus, while temples have an eclectic character, there is an underlying unity of form comprising the podium, the stairway between the terminating walls (antae) and the columns along the entrance front - in other words, the axiality, frontality and symmetry of the temple as viewed from outside. The temples and sanctuaries studied in this volume demonstrate individual nuances of plan, spatial design, location in the sanctuary and interrelations with the immediate vicinity but can be divided into two main categories: Vitruvian temples (derived from Hellenistic-Roman architecture) and Non-Vitruvian temples (those with plans and spatial designs that cannot be analysed according to architectural criteria such as those defined by Vitruvius). The individual descriptions presented focus solely upon the analysis of the external and internal space of the temples of all types and do not involve any cultural or ethnic discussion.

This book tells the story of Somerset's archaeology and history, from the earliest times up to the twentieth century. Generously illustrated with drawings by the internationally renowned artist Victor Ambrus, best known for his appearances on Channel 4's Time Team, this graphic recreation of places and events offers a visually exciting history of Somerset sure to be enjoyed by all who know and love the county. The illustrations, many of which were done on site and have never been published before, are accompanied by photographs of locations and archaeological objects, bringing Somerset's past to life.

This book is a detailed collation of the recorded finds of Roman coins on Indian soil, divided into Republican, Julio-Claudian and post-Julio-Claudian coins. It also includes chapters on the historical significance of the scarcity of Roman finds, the absence of base metal issues in the early empire, the predominance of early imperial denarii, and the difference in composition between the Julio-Claudian gold and silver hoards. There is considerable discussion on slashed gold coins and defaced silver coins and on imitation Roman coins found in India. Three exhaustive appendices include a catalogue of finds of Roman coins found in India, the present location of Roman coins found in India, and Roman coins in the Madras Central Government Museum. Copublished with the Royal Numismatic Society.

What role did plant resources have in the evolution of the human species? Why and how have plants been managed and transported to new environments? Where, how, and why were plants domesticated, and why do the patterns vary in different parts of the world? What is the relationship between the intensification of food production and the rise of complex societies? Numerous new studies are using starch granules discovered in archaeological contexts to answer these questions and improve our knowledge of past human behavior and environmental variation. Given the substantial body of successful research, the time has clearly come for a comprehensive description of ancient starch research and its potential for archaeologists. This book fills these roles by describing the fundamental principles underlying starch research, guiding researchers through the methodology, reviewing the results of significant case studies, and pointing the way to future avenues for research. The joint product of over two dozen archaeological scientists, Ancient Starch Research aims to bring the important new field of ancient starch analysis to the attention of a wider range of scholars and to provide them with the information needed to embark on their own research.

How do we identify and measure human disease in the past? In the absence of soft tissue, paleoepidemiologists have developed ingenious ways of assessing illness and mortality in archaeological populations. In this volume, the key methods of epidemiology are outlined for non-specialists, showing the importance of studying prevalence over incidence, adjustments needed in studying past groups, how to compare studies, and the dangers of assessing occupation based upon bone evidence. A model for planning a proper paleoepidemiological study concludes the volume. Both as an introduction to epidemiology for archaeologists, and as a primer on archaeological analysis for epidemiologists, this book should serve the needs of both populations.

The core subject matter of bioarchaeology is the lives of past peoples, interpreted anthropologically. Human remains, contextualized archaeologically and historically, form the unit of study. Integrative and frequently inter-disciplinary, bioarchaeology draws methods and theoretical perspectives from across the sciences and the humanities. Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study of Human Remains focuses upon the contemporary practice of bioarchaeology in North American contexts, its accomplishments and challenges. Appendixes, a glossary and 150 page bibliography make the volume extremely useful for research and teaching.

This fascinating volume, assessing Lower and Middle Pleistocene African prehistory, argues that the onset of the Middle Stone Age marks the origins of landscape use patterns resembling those of modern human foragers. Inaugurating a paradigm shift in our understanding of modern human behavior, Grant McCall argues that this transition-related to the origins of "home base" residential site use-occurred in mosaic fashion over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. He concludes by proposing a model of brain evolution driven by increasing subsistence diversity and intensity against the backdrop of larger populations and Pleistocene environmental unpredictability. McCall argues that human brain size did not arise to support the complex patterns of social behavior that pervade our lives today, but instead large human brains were co-opted for these purposes relatively late in prehistory, accounting for the striking archaeological record of the Upper Pleistocene.

First published in 1928, this volume constituted the results of expeditions by the famous archaeologist and explorer of Central Asia, Albert von Le Coq. Funded by the last German emperor, Wilhelm II, and von Le Coq's own brewing and winery empire, the second and third German expeditions ventured to Turfan in the Xinjiang region of China. Travelling East expecting to find Greek influences, the expedition in fact uncovered extensive networks of Buddhist and Manichaean cave temples in the Northwest China. This volume includes extensive images in addition to a record of the expedition's journeys and discoveries.

'There are huge gaps in our understanding of the lives of the Silures ... Despite what is in many instances a glaring lack of evidence, I've increasingly become convinced that trying to tease out what we can about the social structure of these people offers one of our best avenues to understanding them better.' Silures explores exciting new discoveries and changing interpretations to give an up-to-date analysis of the Iron Age peoples of south-east Wales. From 'the study of stuff', new evidence of trade and commerce and archaeological discoveries, to the suggestion of a new research agenda and a consideration of Silurian resonances in modern Wales, Ray Howell's insights are based on personal observations and his own research activities, including excavations in the Silurian region.

World Prehistory provides a unique and balanced narrative of what happened in the prehistoric past and why. The book is well worth acquiring, as it provides essential historical background to a wide variety of subjects from written history and environmental studies to climate change. Chronological tables, numerous illustrations, guides to further reading, and stand-alone boxes on some archaeological methods, key sites, and some people of the past amplify much of the basic narrative. This global prehistory is aimed at people with no background in archaeology, undergraduates at all levels, and participants in graduate seminars on a wide range of subjects. Numerous people with a general interest in archaeology and multidisciplinary history have acquired and enjoyed this book.