This book, edited by Nancy L. Lapp and with contributions by Michael S. Zimmerman, Daniel Ulvoczky, Nicholas Hudson and Adam Hartman, is the second volume of reports from Paul Lapp's excavations at 'Iraq al-Amir in 1961 and 1962. The first appeared as the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research Vol. 47, in 1983. The presentation by Michael S. Zimmerman of the stratified corpus of the Hellenistic and Roman pottery in the Village excavations, from approximately 200 BCE to 200 CE, is a major portion of the volume. Along with the smaller pottery collections of the Iron Age, Early Bronze, and Byzantine periods, a major contribution is made to the growing quantity of characteristic pottery of Transjordan and its relation to the ceramic assemblages of ancient Palestine to the west and Syria to the north. Although early Iron Age pottery is present in the collection, the main Iron Age occupation was later in the period, even into early Persian times, and it is doubtful that there was an Iron I fortress there as Paul Lapp suggested. The pottery studies are introduced by a review of the history of the excavations at the site from the time of the early explorers and, further, by an introduction describing camp and excavation life in an area not yet touched by modern conveniences in the middle of the twentieth century.

When originally published in German in 1924, this volume was hailed as the first modern, comprehensive archaeological overview of an emerging area of the world. Yes, the Caribbean islands had long been known and owned, occupied, or traded among by the economically advanced nations of the world. However, the original inhabitants--as well as their artifacts, languages, and culture--had been treated by explorers and entrepreneurs alike as either slaves or hindrances to progress, and were used or eliminated. There was no publication that treated seriously the region and the peoples until this work. In the following ten years, additional pertinent publications emerged, along with a request to translate the original into Spanish. Based on those recent publications, Loven decided to update and reissue the work in English, which he thought to be the future international language of scholarship. This work is a classic, with enduring interpretations, broad geographic range, and an eager audience.

Warfare in the pre-Columbian Andes took on many forms, from inter-village raids to campaigns of conquest. Andean societies also created spectacular performances and artwork alluding to war - acts of symbolism that worked as political rhetoric while drawing on ancient beliefs about supernatural beings, warriors, and the dead. In this book, Elizabeth Arkush disentangles Andean warfare from Andean war-related spectacle and offers insights into how both evolved over time. Synthesizing the rich archaeological record of fortifications, skeletal injury, and material evidence, she presents fresh visions of war and politics among the Moche, Chimu, Inca, and pre-Inca societies of the conflict-ridden Andean highlands. The changing configurations of Andean power and violence serve as case studies to illustrate a sophisticated general model of the different forms of warfare in pre-modern societies. Arkush's book makes the complex pre-history of Andean warfare accessible by providing a birds-eye view of its major patterns and contrasts.

When European explorers began their initial forays into southeastern North America in the 16th and 17th centuries they encountered what they called temples and shrines of native peoples, often decorated with idols in human form made of wood, pottery, or stone. The idols were fascinating to write about, but having no value to explorers searching for gold or land, there are no records of these idols being transported to the Old World, and mention of them seems to cease about the 1700s. However, with the settling of the fledgling United States in the 1800s, farming colonists began to unearth stone images in human form from land formerly inhabited by the native peoples. With little access to the records of the 16th and 17th centuries, debate and speculation abounded by the public and scholars alike concerning their origin and meaning.During the last twenty years the authors have researched over 88 possible examples of southeastern Mississippian stone statuary, dating as far back as 1,000 years ago, and discovered along the river valleys of the interior Southeast. Independently and in conjunction, they have measured, analyzed, photographed, and traced the known history of the 42 that appear in this volume. Compiling the data from both early documents and public and private collections, the authors remind us that the statuary should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as regional expressions of a much broader body of art, ritual, and belief.

The first comprehensive study of the meaning of pottery as a social activity in coastal North Carolina.
Pottery types, composed of specific sets of attributes, have long been defined for various periods and areas of the Atlantic coast, but their relationships and meanings have not been explicitly examined. In exploring these relationships for the North Carolina coast, this work examines the manner in which pottery traits cross-cut taxonomic types, tests the proposition that communities of practice existed at several scales, and questions the fundamental notion of ceramic types as ethnic markers.
Ethnoarchaeological case studies provide a means of assessing the mechanics of how social structure and gender roles may have affected the transmission of pottery-making techniques and how socio-cultural boundaries are reflected in the distribution of ceramic traditions. Another very valuable source of information about past practices is replication experimentation, which provides a means of understanding the practical techniques that lie behind the observable traits, thereby improving our understanding of how certain techniques may have influenced the transmission of traits from one potter to another. Both methods are employed in this study to interpret the meaning of pottery as an indicator of social activity on the North Carolina coast.

The first comprehensive analysis of a strategically located ceremonial center on the island of Puerto Rico.
The prehistoric civic-ceremonial center of Tibes is located on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, just north of the modern coastal city of Ponce. Protected on two sides by a river, and on the other two sides by hills, this approximately 10.5-acre site remains as fertile and productive today as when first occupied over 2,000 years ago. Such a rich region would have been a choice location for native peoples because of the diversity in all resources, from land, air, and sea--and also symbolically crucial as a liminal space within the landscape. It may have been regarded as a space charged with numen or cosmic energy where different parts of the cosmos (natural vs. supernatural, or world of the living vs. world of the dead) overlap. Archaeological evidence reveals a long occupation, about 1,000 years, possibly followed by an extensive period of sporadic ceremonial use after the site itself was practically abandoned.
In this volume, nineteen Caribbeanists, across a wide academic spectrum, examine the geophysical, paleoethnobotanical, faunal, lithics, base rock, osteology, bone chemistry and nutrition, social landscape, and ceremonial constructs employed at Tibes. These scholars provide a concise, well-presented, comprehensive analysis of the evidence for local level changes in household economy, internal organization, accessibility to economic, religious, and symbolic resources related to the development and internal operation of socially stratified societies in the Caribbean.

Near Eastern Cities from Alexander to the Successors of Muhammad compares the evolution of several cities in the Near East from the time of Alexander the Great until the beginning of the Islamic 'Abbasid Dynasty. This volume examines both archaeological remains and literary sources to explain the diversity of imperial, cultural, and religious influences on urban life. It offers several case studies chosen from different regions of the Roman Near East, demonstrating that Greco-Roman and Islamic culture spread unevenly through these various cities, and that it is impossible to make broad generalizations. It argues instead that there were different patterns of urbanism that demonstrate a continued vitality of civic life up to the 'Abbasid revolution. Near Eastern Cities from Alexander to the Successors of Muhammad will be of particular interest to students of this period in the Ancient Near East, as well as those studying ancient cities and everyday life.

One of the most profound events in sixteenth-century North America was a ferocious battle between the Spanish army of Hernando de Soto and a larger force of Indian warriors under the leadership of a feared chieftain named Tascalusa. The site of this battle was a small fortified border town within an Indian province known as Mabila. Although the Indians were defeated, the battle was a decisive blow to Spanish plans for the conquest and settlement of what is now the southeastern United States. For in that battle, De Soto's army lost its baggage, including all proofs of the richness of the land - proofs that would be necessary to attract future colonists.Facing such a severe setback, De Soto led his army once more into the interior of the continent, where he was not to survive. The ragtag remnants of his once-mighty expedition limped into Mexico some three years later, thankful to be alive. The clear message of their ordeal was that this new land, then known as La Florida, could not be easily subjugated. But where, exactly, did this decisive battle of Mabila take place? The accounts left by the Spanish chroniclers provide clues, but they are vague, so lacking in corroboration that without additional supporting evidence, it is impossible to trace De Soto's trail on a modern map with any degree of certainty.Within this volume, 17 scholars - specialists in history, folklore, geography, geology, and archaeology - provide a new and encouragingly fresh perspective on the current status of the search for Mabila. Although there is a widespread consensus that the event took place in the southern part of what is now Alabama, the truth is that to this day, nobody knows where Mabila is - neither the contributors to this volume, nor any of the historians and archaeologists, amateur and professional, who have long sought it. One can rightfully say that the lost battle site of Mabila is the predominant historical mystery of the Deep South.

The American Southwest is one of the most important archaeological regions in the world, with many of the best-studied examples of hunter-gatherer and village-based societies. Research has been carried out in the region for well over a century, and during this time the Southwest has repeatedly stood at the forefront of the development of new archaeological methods and theories. Moreover, research in the Southwest has long been a key site of collaboration between archaeologists, ethnographers, historians, linguists, biological anthropologists, and indigenous intellectuals. This volume marks the most ambitious effort to take stock of the empirical evidence, theoretical orientations, and historical reconstructions of the American Southwest. Over seventy top scholars have joined forces to produce an unparalleled survey of state of archaeological knowledge in the region. Themed chapters on particular methods and theories are accompanied by comprehensive overviews of the culture histories of particular archaeological sequences, from the initial Paleoindian occupation, to the rise of a major ritual center in Chaco Canyon, to the onset of the Spanish and American imperial projects. The result is an essential volume for any researcher working in the region as well as any archaeologist looking to take the pulse of contemporary trends in this key research tradition.

This work is a comprehensive study of a unique Maya site offering the full range of undisturbed architectural features. For two millennia, the site now known as Blue Creek in northwestern Belize was a Maya community that became an economic and political center that included some 15,000-20,000 people at its height. Fairly well protected from human destruction, the site offers the full range of city components including monumental ceremonial structures, elite and non-elite residences, ditched agricultural fields, and residential clusters just outside the core. Since 1992, a multi-disciplinary, multi-national research team has intensively investigated Blue Creek in an integrated study of the dynamic structure and functional inter-relationships among the parts of a single Maya city. Documented in coverage by National Geographic, ""Archaeology"" magazine, and a documentary film aired on the Discovery Channel, Blue Creek is recognized as a unique site offering the full range of undisturbed architectural construction to reveal the mosaic that was the ancient city. Moving beyond the debate of what constitutes a city, Guderjan's long-term research reveals what daily Maya life was like.

This book looks at the treatment of Byzantine monuments in the first hundred years of the Greek State. It examines representative restoration interventions on Byzantine monuments in Greece and critically analyses the theoretical principles and the practices adopted. The author records the developmental course of actions taken to salvage the Byzantine heritage, both by the Greek State and by non-governmental agents. It also investigates their ideological and cultural framework, correlating this with European thought. It enhances the impact of the upgrading of Byzantium in Greece on activities for the protection, rescue and restoration of Byzantine ecclesiastical monuments. The study is based on ample archival material, which is published for the first time. This volume is an essential contribution to research into the history of Greek cultural heritage and of European restorations. English language edition

Lacking the grand-scale, pre-Columbian alterations to landscapes brought about by the repeated rise and fall of states and empires, the focus of North American archaeologists has been on native foragers and villagers. Since the quincentennial of Columbus's voyage, North America has also become a hotbed for studies of culture contact, transculturation, and ethnogenesis. These recent developments have reshaped North American archaeology--bridging the divide between history and prehistory and between the practices of everyday life and global cultural change.

"North American Archaeology" offers readers a rich and informative text organized around central topics and debates within the discipline that are illustrated by case studies from different regions and time periods. Based on the lives of real people and the historical changes that they experienced in the past, these case studies emphasize human agency, cultural practice, the body, issues of inequality, and the politics of archaeological practice. By highlighting current understandings of cultural and historical processes in North America and situating these understandings within a global perspective, this volume will inspire not only students and scholars of North American archaeology but will undoubtedly spark the imaginations of the many individuals interested in the rich history and cultures of North American peoples.

Southwest Asia is at the epicentre of zooarchaeological research on pivotal changes in human history such as animal domestication and the emergence of social complexity. This volume continues the long tradition of the Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas (ASWA) conference series in publishing new research results in the zooarchaeology of southwest Asia and adjacent areas. The book is organized in three thematic areas. The first presents new methodological tools and approaches in the study of animal remains exemplified through studies on domestication, butchery practices, microdebris, intrasite contextual comparisons and age-at-death recording. Besides offering interesting insights into our past, these methodological developments enable higher resolution for future research. The second section focuses on the subsistence economies of prehistoric and early complex societies and provides new insights into how animal management developed in southwest Asia. The third section includes intriguing new research results on the roles of animals in the symbolic world of ancient societies, such as the meaning of insect figures at Goebekli Tepe, animal cults in Egypt, feasting in Iron Age Oman, and the ornithological interpretation of Byzantine mosaics.

This book is an archaeological study of the cultures of conflict through an examination of caves and tunnels used during the Pacific War. Referred to here as "karst defenses," WWII caves and tunnels can be found throughout the karst landscapes of the Pacific. Karst defenses have been hidden, literally by the jungle and figuratively by history, for over 70 years. Based on a study of karst defenses and their related artifacts and oral histories in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, this book uses karst defenses to investigate the varied human experiences before, during and after the Pacific War. Historically, the book reveals new knowledge about the overall defense strategies used in the Pacific. Karst defenses were a central component of Pacific War defense and were constructed and used by civilians, the Japanese military and U.S. troops as early as 1942. Karst defenses also functioned as command posts, hospitals, shelters, storage units and combat positions. The book sheds light on the social aspects that influenced the construction and use of karst defenses, including the fragmented relationship between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Imperial Japanese Army, the social status of civilians under Japanese rule and the clandestine plans of the U.S. in Micronesia. The book also discusses the complex contemporary meanings of this dark, shared heritage.

The chantry -- a special, often private, chapel within a church dedicated to a particular benefactor or benefactor's family, where prayers for the benefactor's soul were said -- was probably the most common, and also one of the most distinctive, of all late medieval religious foundations. These structures, although much altered with time, are still a very noticeable feature of many late medieval parish churches. However, no systematic, thorough or comparative examination has been undertaken to discover what they may reveal about contemporary devotion, aspiration and planning. This is a void which this book seeks to fill. It shows how the use of archaeological approaches can illuminate aspects of medieval religious practice only hinted at in many historical documents; it also demonstrates how the structural and spatial analysis of former chantry chapels can shed light on the level of private and communal piety and reveal a wider, more universal, context to chantry foundation in the medieval parish church. In addition, it discusses how various personal strategies for intercession shaped both chapel space and fabric, and the ultimate effects of the Reformation on such structures. Includes a selected gazetteer of chantry chapels. Dr SIMON ROFFEY teaches in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Winchester.

This volume stands as a key general resource for archaeologists working in the region extending from Louisiana through Mississippi north to Missouri and Kentucky, and it represents an opportunity to influence for decades a large part of the archaeological work to take place in the Southeast.The book responds to a need for a comprehensive archaeological overview of the Lower Mississippi Valley that forms a portion of an interstate corridor spanning nine states that will run from southern Michigan to the Texas-Mexico border. The culturally sensitive Mississippi Delta is one of the richest archaeological areas in North America, and it is crucial that research designs be comprehensive, coordinated, and meet current preservation and future research needs. The authors are well-respected researchers from both within and outside the region with expertise in the full range of topics that comprise American archaeology. They examine matters of method and theory, the application of materials science, geophysics, and other high-tech tools in archaeology that provide for optimum data-recovery.

This Element provides a concise account of the archaeology of salt production in ancient Europe. It describes what salt is, where it is found, what it is used for, and its importance for human and animal health. The different periods of the past in which it was produced are described, from earliest times down to the medieval period. Attention is paid to the abundant literary sources that inform us about salt in the Greek and Roman world, as well as the likely locations of production in the Mediterranean and beyond. The economic and social importance of salt in human societies means that salt has served as a crucial aspect of trade and exchange over the centuries, and potentially as a means of individuals and societies achieving wealth and status.

This book contains tremendous insight and an excellent grasp of the special geoinformatics needs of Caribbean researchers. Addressing the use of geoinformatics in Caribbean archaeology, this volume is based on case studies drawn from specific island territories, namely, Barbados, St. John, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Nevis, St. Eustatius, and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as inter-island interaction and landscape conceptualization in the Caribbean region. Geoinformatics is especially critical within the Caribbean where site destruction is intense due to storm surges, hurricanes, ocean and riverine erosion, urbanization, industrialization, and agriculture, as well as commercial development along the very waterfronts that were home to many prehistoric peoples. By demonstrating that the region is fertile ground for the application of geoinformatics in archaeology, this volume places a well-needed scholarly spotlight on the Caribbean.

This is a model for investigations of the Mississippian dimensions of Fort Ancient societies. The last prehistoric cultures to inhabit the Middle Ohio Valley (ca. A.D. 1000-1650) are referred to as Fort Ancient societies, which exhibited a wide variety of Mississippian period characteristics. What is less well known and little understood are the social processes by which Mississippian characteristics spread to Fort Ancient communities. Through a comprehensive study of Sun Watch, one of the few thoroughly excavated Fort Ancient settlements, the author focuses on the development of village social structure within a broad geographic and temporal framework, recognizing border areas as particularly dynamic contexts of social change. As a fundamental study of social patterning of Fort Ancient villages, this work reveals the interrelationships of small social units in culture change and social structure development and provides a full reconsideration of the Mississippian dimensions of Fort Ancient societies and a model for future investigations of larger patterning in the late prehistory of the region.

The British Archaeological Association's 2013 conference was devoted to the study of Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. It also embraced Westminster School, which was founded at the Reformation in the Abbey precinct. Collectively, these institutions occupy a remarkable assemblage of medieval and later buildings, most of which are well documented. Although the Association had held a conference at Westminster in 1902, this was the first time that the internationally important complex of historic buildings was examined holistically, and the papers published here cover a wide range of subject matter.

One of the most venerable concepts in Southeastern archaeology is that of the Southern Cult. The idea has its roots in the intensely productive decade (archaeologically) of the 1930s and is fundamentally tied to yet another venerable concept - Mississippian culture. The last comprehensive study of the melding of these two concepts into the term Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) is more than two decades old, yet our understanding of the objects, themes, and artistic styles associated with the SECC have changed a great deal. This work presents new data and new ideas on the temporal and social contexts, artistic styles, and symbolic themes included in the complex. It also demonstrates that engraved shell gorgets, along with other SECC materials, were produced before A.D. 1400.

This book presents a collection of archaeological and anthropological writings by Li Chi, the founding father of modern archaeology in China. It is divided into two parts, the first of which traces back the rise of Chinese civilization, as well as the origins of the Chinese people; in turn, the second part reviews the rise of archaeology in China as a scientific subject that combines fieldwork methods from the West with traditional antiquarian studies. Readers who are interested in Chinese civilization will find fascinating information on the excavations of Yin Hsu (the ruins of the Yin Dynasty), including building foundations, bronzes, chariots, pottery, stone and jade, and thousands of oracle bones, which are vividly shown in historical pictures. These findings transformed the Yin Shang culture from legend into history and thus moved China's history forward by hundreds of years, shocking the world. In turn, the articles on anthropology include Li Chi's reflections on central problems in Chinese anthropology and are both enlightening and thought-provoking.

Plaquemine, Louisiana, about 10 miles south of Baton Rouge on the banks of the Mississippi River, seems an unassuming southern community for which to designate an entire culture. Archaeological research conducted in the region between 1938 and 1941, however, revealed distinctive cultural materials that provided the basis for distinguishing a unique cultural manifestation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Plaquemine was first cited in the archaeological literature by James Ford and Gordon Willey in their 1941 synthesis of eastern U.S. prehistory. Lower Valley researchers have subsequently grappled with where to place this culture in the local chronology based on its ceramics, earthen mounds, and habitations. Plaquemine cultural materials share some characteristics with other local cultures but differ significantly from Coles Creek and Mississippian cultures of the Southeast. Plaquemine has consequently received the dubious distinction of being defined by the characteristics it lacks, rather than by those it possesses. The current volume brings together 11 leading scholars devoted to shedding new light on Plaquemine and providing a clearer understanding of its relationship to other Native American cultures. It is the first major book to specifically address the archaeology of Plaquemine societies. The authors provide a thorough yet focused review of previous research, recent revelations, and directions for future research. They present pertinent new data on cultural variability and connections in the Lower Mississippi Valley and interpret the implications for similar cultures and cultural relationships. This volume finally places Plaquemine on the map, incontrovertibly demonstrating the accomplishments and importance of Plaquemine peoples in the long history of native North America.

According to the European chronicles, at the time of contact, the Greater Antilles were inhabited by the Tainos or Arawak Indians, who were organized in hierarchical societies. Since its inception Carribean archaeology has used population as an important variable in explaining many social, political, and economic processes such as migration, changes in subsistence systems, and the development of institutionalized social stratification. In Caribbean Paleodemography, L. Antonio Curet argues that population has been used casually by Caribbean archaeologists and proposes more rigorous and promising ways in which demographic factors can be incorporated in our modeling of past human behavior. He analyzes a number of demographic Issues in Island archaeology at various levels of analysis, including inter- and intra-island migration, carrying capacity, population structures, variables in prehistory, cultural changes, and the relationship with material culture and social development. With this work, Curet brings together the diverse theories on Greater Antilles island populations and the social and political forces governing their growth and migration.

The diverse forms of regional connectivity in the ancient world have recently become an important focus for those interested in the deep history of globalisation. This volume represents a significant contribution to this new trend as it engages thematically with a wide range of connectivities in the later prehistory of the Mediterranean, from the later Neolithic of northern Greece to the Levantine Iron Age, and with diverse forms of materiality, from pottery and metal to stone and glass. With theoretical overviews from leading thinkers in prehistoric mobilities, and commentaries from top specialists in neighbouring domains, the volume integrates detailed case studies within a comparative framework. The result is a thorough treatment of many of the key issues of regional interaction and technological diversity facing archaeologists working across diverse places and periods. As this book presents key case studies for human and technological mobility across the eastern Mediterranean in later prehistory, it will be of interest primarily to Mediterranean archaeologists, though also to historians and anthropologists.