This book examines archaeological and historical evidence for the socio-economic organization of the kingdom of East Kent, England, as a territorial and social system during the Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon period (AD 400-900). Explicit archaeological and theoretical frameworks are considered to propose a hierarchical model of the spatial organization of communities as a way of providing a micro-economic casestudy of state formation.

Many regional forest reserves are in decline in the Mediterranean as these dynamic ecosystems become increasingly threatened and affected by climate change and human activities. This study examines the forest resources of Cyprus through a case study based in the Makheras region of the eastern Troodos mountains. Burnet presents the results of field survey carried out in this vast 4,054 hectare area, looking in particular at the relationship between archaeological sites and their contemporary environment. In more general terms, she reconstructs the ecological and economic landscape of the eastern Troodos and studies its long-term development asking questions such as what resources were available in prehistoric and historic times, how did man exploit these, what impact did this have and how can the resources be sustained in the future.

Prompted by two contradictory references to the nature and extent of woodlands in Cudham during the medieval period, Sue Harrington embarked upon a survey of the history of woodlands in this part of the North Downs. With the Domesday Book referring to extensive ploughlands and a slighty later reference to extensive woodlands, this study was designed to find out which was correct and what impact London had on Cudham in terms of offering a market for its surpluses. The methodology of Harrington's fieldwork and documentary research is outlined and background material on the environment, geology, patterns of settlement and land use, are presented. A core-periphery model is used to describe the relationship between Cudham and London.

The Reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes through Digital Technologies: 18 Papers from the Italy-United States Workshop, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, November, 2001. Including: Landscape Archaeology in Tuscany: Cultural resource management, remotely sensed techniques, GIS based data integration and interprccardo Francovich); Hyperspectral airborne remote sensing as an aid to a better understanding and characterization of buried elements in different archaeological sites (Cavalli R.M., Marino C. M. and Pignatti S.); Archaeology at War (Armando De Guio); The Power of GIS and Remote Sensing: Multi-Scalar Spatial Analysis of Settlement Data in SE Pacific Coastal Guatemala and the Southern Maya Lowlands (Francisco Estrada-Belli); From Artifact to Landscape: A Theoretical Approach to a Simulated Reconstruction of Historical Processes in Ancient Ethiopia (Rodolfo Fattovich); Real Space Beyond Solid Models: Spatial Metadata in Ethnoarchaeology (Monica Foccillo, Andrea MAnzo, Cinzia Perlingieri, Rosario Perlingieri); Remote Sensing, GIS and Virtual Reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes (Maurizio Forte); Mindscape: ecological thinking, cyber-anthropology and virtual archaeological landscapes (Maurizio Forte); Digital Technologies and Prehistoric Landscapes in the American Southwest (John Kantner and Ronald Hobgood); NASA archaeological research: a remote sensing approach (Marco J. Giardino, Troy E. Frisbee, Michael R. Thomas); Genetic Programming, and Traditional Statistics: towards Interpretation of Ancient Landscape and Social Simulation (Andrea Manzo, Cinzia Perlingieri); Preliminary recognition and analysis of archaeological mounds in the lower Sourou Valley (Burkina Faso)( Paolo Mozzi, Aldino Bondesan, Armando De Guio, Francesco Ferrarese, Giovanna Pizzaiolo); Archaeological Subsurface Site Reconstruction Using Computer Processing of GPR Data (Sheldon S. Sandler); Remote Sensing and the Location of the Ancient Tigris (Elizabeth C Stone); Hydraulic Landscapes and Social Relations in the Middle Horizon Andes (Patrick Ryan Williams); The Archaeologist, the Neural Networkroblems in Spatial and Cultural Cognition of Landscapes (Ezra Zubrow).

Thirteen papers form the proceedings of the First International Conference on Soils and Archaeology held in Szazhalombatta, Hungary, in 2001. The specialised and mostly technical papers comprise methodological and theoretical discussions of the contribution soil analysis can make to archaeology as well as worldwide case studies. These include prehistoric and medieval sites in western Siberia, Sardinia, South Africa, Bavaria, Hungary and the Caucasus. Other subjects include C14 dating, soft tissue decomposition, the deterioration of archaeological materials in soil and the impact of human populations on soil formation.

Over 15,000 years ago, a band of hunter-gatherers became the first people to set foot in the Americas. They soon found themselves in a world rich in plants and animals, but also a world still shivering itself out of the coldest depths of the Ice Age. The movement of those first Americans was one of the greatest journeys undertaken by ancient peoples. In this book, David Meltzer explores the world of Ice Age Americans, highlighting genetic, archaeological, and geological evidence that has revolutionized our understanding of their origins, antiquity, and adaptation to climate and environmental change. This fully updated edition integrates the most recent scientific discoveries, including the ancient genome revolution and human evolutionary and population history. Written for a broad audience, the book can serve as the primary text in courses on North American Archaeology, Ice Age Environments, and Human evolution and prehistory.

Alexandria is located on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, bordered by Egypt's Western Desert and the fertile Nile Delta. For many centuries, Alexandria was the major port city in the Eastern Mediterranean and it has been repeatedly struck by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and land subsidence, in its ~2400-year history. This book focuses on the geomorphological and archaeological evidence on the coastal zone of Alexandria, attempting to provide a comprehensive review of its evolution, taking into consideration long-term and short-term factors. The book provides an extensive background on the geomorphology and recent geoarchaeological history of Alexandria, discussing historical maps and natural disasters. In the coastal area of Alexandria there is numerous archaeological evidence, such as burial sites, quarry activities and ancient building remnants, as well as geomorphological features, all revealing a complex evolution of the coastal zone. New evidence, such as fish tanks and ship wrecks in order to discuss the Late Holocene evolution of the coastal zone. Detailed illustrations and maps accompany the book chapters providing the reader the opportunity to gain an extensive view of Alexandria's features.

In Abundant Earth, Eileen Crist not only documents the rising tide of biodiversity loss, but also lays out the drivers of this wholesale destruction and how we can push past them. Looking beyond the familiar litany of causes--a large and growing human population, rising livestock numbers, expanding economies and international trade, and spreading infrastructures and incursions upon wildlands--she asks the key question: if we know human expansionism is to blame for this ecological crisis, why are we not taking the needed steps to halt our expansionism? Crist argues that to do so would require a two-pronged approach. Scaling down calls upon us to lower the global human population while working within a human-rights framework, to deindustrialize food production, and to localize economies and contract global trade. Pulling back calls upon us to free, restore, reconnect, and rewild vast terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, the pervasive worldview of human supremacy--the conviction that humans are superior to all other life-forms and entitled to use these life-forms and their habitats--normalizes and promotes humanity's ongoing expansion, undermining our ability to enact these linked strategies and preempt the mounting suffering and dislocation of both humans and nonhumans. Abundant Earth urges us to confront the reality that humanity will not advance by entrenching its domination over the biosphere. On the contrary, we will stagnate in the identity of nature-colonizer and decline into conflict as we vie for natural resources. Instead, we must chart another course, choosing to live in fellowship within the vibrant ecologies of our wild and domestic cohorts, and enfolding human inhabitation within the rich expanse of a biodiverse, living planet.

The Wadden Sea Region is comprised of the embanked coastal marshes and islands in the Wadden Sea near Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. This area retains an exceptional common history in all its aspects: archaeologically, economically, socially, and culturally. Its settlement history of more than two thousand years is unrivalled and still mirrored in the landscape. Even though it has never constituted a political unity, it still shares a landscape and cultural heritage. For example, the approaches to water management and associated societal organization developed in the region during the last millennium have set significant world standards. This book offers an overview of current research on history, landscape and cultural heritage of the Wadden Sea region.

Because of the sheer volume of industrial debris and the limited information it yields, quarries are challenging archaeological subjects. Michael J. Shott tackles this challenge in a study of flakes and preforms from the Modena and Tempiute obsidian quarries of North America's Great Basin. Using new statistical methods combined with experimental controls and mass analysis, Shott extracts detailed information from debris assemblages, and parses them by successive 'stages' of reduction continua. The book also reports the first test of the behavioral ecology field-processing model that treats quarry biface production in continuous terms, and estimates the production efficiency of prehistoric Great Basin knappers. After mapping and interpreting the abundance and distribution of quarry products, Shott concludes by charting future lines of research in the analysis of large toolstone sources. Whatever area of the world and technological traditions they research, lithic analysts will learn much from this book's approach to complex archaeological deposits and their constituent artifacts.

This book provides new insights into the relationship between humans and birds in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Joakim Goldhahn argues that birds had a central role in Bronze Age society and imagination, as reflected in legends, myths, rituals, and cosmologies. Goldhahn offers a new theoretical model for understanding the intricate relationship between humans and birds during this period. He explores traces of birds found in a range of archaeological context, including settlements and burials, and analyzes depictions of birds on bronze artefacts and figurines, rock art, and ritual paraphernalia. He demonstrates how birds were used in divinations, and provides the oldest evidence of omens taken from gastric contents of birds - extispicy - ever found in Europe.

Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments outlines the reconstruction of ancient climates, floras, and habitats on the basis of animal fossil remains recovered from archaeological and paleontological sites. In addition to outlining the ecological fundamentals and analytical assumptions attending such analyzes, J. Tyler Faith and R. Lee Lyman describe and critically evaluate many of the varied analytical techniques that have been applied to paleozoological remains for the purpose of paleoenvironmental reconstruction. These techniques range from analyses based on the presence or abundance of species in a fossil assemblage to those based on taxon-free ecological characterizations. All techniques are illustrated using faunal data from archaeological or paleontological contexts. Aimed at students and professionals, this volume will serve as fundamental resource for courses in zooarchaeology, paleontology, and paleoecology.

Andean South America offers significant anthropological insights into highland and arid zone adaptations, including pastoralist economy and ecology, settlement patterns, site formation processes, tool manufacture, and the cultural meanings of landscapes. The 16 papers in this volume present detailed studies of economics and production, caravanning and trade, ceramic manufacture and use life, patterns of settlement and mobility among highland and lowland pastoralists and horticulturalists, taphonomy, and sacred landscapes. The epistomological foundations of ethnoarchaeology, archaeological uses of ethnoarchaeology, and the relationship between environment and culture are important theoretical themes. Beyond those interested in Andean South America, this volume will be of use to anyone who studies human adaptations to highland or arid environments, and to those interested in pastoral societies.

New insights into the microbiome, epigenetics, and cognition are radically challenging our very idea of what it means to be 'human', while an explosion of neo-materialist thinking in the humanities has fostered a renewed appreciation of the formative powers of a dynamic material environment. The Matter of History brings these scientific and humanistic ideas together to develop a bold, new post-anthropocentric understanding of the past, one that reveals how powerful organisms and things help to create humans in all their dimensions, biological, social, and cultural. Timothy J. LeCain combines cutting-edge theory and detailed empirical analysis to explain the extraordinary late-nineteenth century convergence between the United States and Japan at the pivotal moment when both were emerging as global superpowers. Illustrating the power of a deeply material social and cultural history, The Matter of History argues that three powerful things - cattle, silkworms, and copper - helped to drive these previously diverse nations towards a global 'Great Convergence'.

Over 15,000 years ago, a band of hunter-gatherers became the first people to set foot in the Americas. They soon found themselves in a world rich in plants and animals, but also a world still shivering itself out of the coldest depths of the Ice Age. The movement of those first Americans was one of the greatest journeys undertaken by ancient peoples. In this book, David Meltzer explores the world of Ice Age Americans, highlighting genetic, archaeological, and geological evidence that has revolutionized our understanding of their origins, antiquity, and adaptation to climate and environmental change. This fully updated edition integrates the most recent scientific discoveries, including the ancient genome revolution and human evolutionary and population history. Written for a broad audience, the book can serve as the primary text in courses on North American Archaeology, Ice Age Environments, and Human evolution and prehistory.

Sustainability strives to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future, but increasingly recognizes the tradeoffs among these many needs. Who benefits? Who bears the burden? How are these difficult decisions made? Are people aware of these hard choices? This timely volume brings the perspectives of ethnography and archaeology to bear on these questions by examining case studies from around the world. Written especially for this volume, the essays by an international team of scholars offer archaeological and ethnographic examples from the southwestern United States, the Maya region of Mexico, Africa, India, and the North Atlantic, among other regions. Collectively, they explore the benefits and consequences of growth and development, the social costs of ecological sustainability, and tensions between food and military security.

Over the past century, the Italian landscape has undergone exceedingly rapid transformations, shifting from a mostly rural environment to a decidedly modern world. This changing landscape is endowed with a narrative agency that transforms how we understand our surroundings. Situated at the juncture of Italian studies and ecocriticism and following the recent "material turn" in the environmental humanities, Elemental Narratives outlines an original cultural and environmental map of the bel paese. Giving equal weight to readings of fiction, nonfiction, works of visual art, and physical sites, Enrico Cesaretti investigates the interconnected stories emerging from both human creativity and the expressive eloquence of "glocal" materials, such as sulfur, petroleum, marble, steel, and asbestos, that have helped make and, simultaneously, "un-make" today's Italy, affecting its socio-environmental health in multiple ways. Embracing the idea of a decentralized agency that is shared among human and nonhuman entities, Cesaretti suggests that engaging with these entangled discursive and material texts is a sound and revealing ecocritical practice that promises to generate new knowledge and more participatory, affective responses to environmental issues, both in Italy and elsewhere. Ultimately, he argues that complementing quantitative, data-based information with insights from fiction and nonfiction, the arts, and other humanistic disciplines is both desirable and crucial if we want to modify perceptions and attitudes, increase our awareness and understanding, and, in turn, develop more sustainable worldviews in the era of the Anthropocene. Elegantly written and convincingly argued, this book will appeal broadly to scholars and students working in the fields of environmental studies, comparative literatures, ecocriticism, environmental history, and Italian studies.

Nel regno del fango presents the preliminary results of the archaeological excavations recently carried out in the Grotta di Polla, in the province of Salerno, in the Vallo di Diano area. Speleoarchaeological researches in recent years have revealed the considerable difficulty of operating methodologically in an environment, such as that of a cave which, in addition to being often characterized by the limitations caused by the darkness and tightness of the environments, has in this case led to the presence of a considerable amount of mud which made researches even more complex. The methodologies adopted for the preservation and conservation of archaeological materials and the results obtained are therefore illustrated. From an interpretative point of view, the cave is configured as an area that has been exploited with a certain continuity from the Neolithic to the whole Bronze Age with the specific function of a burial area.

Lithic refitting has been around for well over a century now. While the mechanics of conjoining artifacts have remained unchanged, despite some recent attempts to automate at least part of the process, the questions that have been addressed with refitting data changed dramatically over time and probably will continue to do so in the future. This volume reflects both well-established uses of refitting as well as some novel approaches.

This series of short volumes, each devoted to a theme, which is the subject of contemporary debate in archaeology, ranges from issues in theory and method to aspects of world archaeology. Wetland archaeology has provided some of the most exciting discoveries in world archaeology, from bog bodies in northern Europe, to prehistoric and medieval wetland dwellings in central and western Europe, New Zealand, Japan and the Pacific Northwest. Arguably, however, the amount of evidence from these sites and the need for intense multidisciplinary scientific analysis, allied to a general tendency towards empiricist research, has led to wetland archaeology being isolated from current theoretical debates. "Rethinking Wetland Archaeology" shows how wetland studies can be contextualised within broader geographical, cultural and theoretical frameworks. It discusses how wetland archaeological discoveries can be understood in terms of past people's perception and understanding of landscape, which was not only a source of economic benefit, but a storehouse of, and a metaphor for, cultural values and beliefs. It argues that archaeologists interested in the temporal rhythms of life, and in cultural biographies of place and objects, should look again at the astonishingly detailed narratives produced by wetland archaeology. Finally, it considers the past and future role of wetland archaeologists in contemporary political and social discourses.

Intended to delight and provoke, these short, beautifully crafted essays, enlivened with photos and illustrations, explore how humans have engaged with the Canadian environment and what those interactions say about the nature of Canada. Tracing a path from the Ice Age to the Anthropocene, some of the foremost stars in the field of environmental history reflect on how we, as a nation, have idolized and found inspiration in nature even as fishers, fur traders, farmers, foresters, miners, and city planners have commodified it or tried to tame it. Their insights are just what we need as Canada attempts to reconcile the opposing goals of prosperity and preservation.

Questo volume e dedicato agli Atti del Convegno Paesaggi urbani e rurali in trasformazione organizzato dalla Scuola di Dottorato delle Universita di Pisa, Firenze e Siena per discutere le trasformazioni del paesaggio in una prospettiva diacronica. Il volume affronta il tema del paesaggio come entita complessa e dinamica caratterizzata da una molteplicita di fenomeni in continua trasformazione prodotti dall'interazione e dal reciproco condizionamento di fattori naturali e antropici. Adottando questa prospettiva, il paesaggio viene studiato attraverso l'analisi e l'interpolazione di molteplici fonti. Uso delle risorse, produzione, distribuzione e popolazione, vengono letti in una prospettiva ampia per contestualizzare la presenza umana nel tempo e nello spazio. Diversi casi di studio, quindi, consentono di affrontare il tema da diversi punti di vista - urbano, commerciale, produttivo, culturale - per valorizzare le caratteristiche peculiari dell'ambiente per come e stato vissuto e percepito.

"Los animales ensenaron el camino...": La fauna de la Sierra Gorda queretana a traves de sus representaciones ceramicas arqueologicas examines the past fauna of the Sierra Gorda region of Mexico, and its representation in archaeological ceramics. Queretaro's Sierra Gorda was declared a "Biosphere Reserve" on May 19, 1997, by presidential decree. As a natural area thus protected, there are almost 400,000 hectares of great biodiversity, in which there are at least 15 types and subtypes of different vegetation, more than 1800 species of plants, 124 of fungi and 550 species of vertebrates, among other elements that prove the natural wealth of the region. As part of the "Northern Archaeological Project of the State of Queretaro, Mexico" (PANQ), the book presents ceramic representations of the fauna of the region, relating them to the oral traditions that the inhabitants of the region have preserved until now. In so doing it demonstrates the deep interdependence of humans and animals, and analyses wider cultural interconnections across Mesoamerica. The book goes on to analyze some of these Mesoamerican cultural traits, although its main goal is to highlight the archaeological evidence that has been recovered by the project since 1990 in this still little-known region of ancient Mexico.

Although humans in the Southwest were hunter-gatherers for about 85 percent of their history, the majority of the archaeological research in the region has focused on the Formative period. In recent years, however, the amount of data on the Archaic period has grown exponentially due to the magnitude of cultural resource management projects in this region. The Archaic Southwest: Foragers in an Arid Land is the first volume to synthesize this new data. The book begins with a history of the Archaic in the Four Corners region, followed by a compilation and interpretation of paleoenvironmental data gathered in the American Southwest. The next twelve chapters, each written by a regional expert, provide a variety of current research perspectives. The final two chapters present broad syntheses of the Southwest: the first addresses the initial spread of maize cultivation and the second considers present and future research directions. The reader will be astounded by the amount of research that has been conducted and how all this information can be woven together to form a long-term picture of hunter-gatherer life.

Clothing was crucial in human evolution, and having to cope with climate change was as true in prehistory as it is today. In Climate, Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory, Ian Gilligan offers the first complete account of the development of clothing as a response to cold exposure during the ice ages. He explores how and when clothes were invented, noting that the thermal motive alone is tenable in view of the naked condition of humans. His account shows that there is considerably more archaeological evidence for palaeolithic clothes than is generally appreciated. Moreover, Gilligan posits, clothing played a leading role in major technological innovations. He demonstrates that fibre production and the advent of woven fabrics, developed in response to global warming, were pivotal to the origins of agriculture. Drawing together evidence from many disciplines, Climate Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory is written in a clear and engaging style, and is illustrated with nearly 100 images.