Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies provides a concise and up-to-date survey of early record-making and record-keeping practices across the world. It investigates the ways in which human activities have been recorded in different settings using different methods and technologies. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature from a wide range of disciplines, including prehistory, archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, and Chinese and Mesoamerican studies, the book reflects the latest and most relevant historical scholarship. Drawing upon the author's experience as a practitioner and scholar of records and archives and his extensive knowledge of archival theory and practice, the book embeds its account of the beginnings of recording practices in a conceptual framework largely derived from archival science. Unique both in its breadth of coverage and in its distinctive perspective on early record-making and record-keeping, the book provides the only updated and synoptic overview of early recording practices available worldwide. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students engaged in the study of archival science, archival history, and the early history of human culture. The book will also appeal to practitioners of archives and records management interested in learning more about the origins of their profession.

Beginning with Frank Hamilton Cushing's famous excavations at Key Marco in 1896, a large and diverse collection of animal carvings, dugout canoes, and other wooden objects has been uncovered from Florida's watery landscapes. Iconography and Wetsite Archaeology of Florida's Watery Realms explores new discoveries and reexamines existing artifacts to reveal the influential role of water in the daily lives of Florida's early inhabitants. Among other topics, contributors compare anthropomorphic wooden carvings such as the Key Marco cat statuette to figures found elsewhere in the Southeast. They use ethnographic data to argue that Newnans Lake was once an intersection between major watersheds and that the more than 100 canoes unearthed there likely facilitated travel throughout the peninsula. Other sites discussed include Fort Center, Chassahowitzka Springs, Weedon Island Preserve, Pineland, and Hontoon Island. Essays address the challenges of excavating and preserving perishable artifacts from waterlogged sites, especially those in saltwater environments, and highlight the value of revisiting museum collections to ask new questions and employ new analytical techniques. This volume demonstrates that, despite the difficulties faced by archaeologists working with saturated deposits, these sites are vital for understanding Florida's prehistory. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Since the first donations of Egyptian artefacts to the Fitzwilliam Museum, including the sarcophagus lid of Rameses III donated in 1823, its ancient Egyptian holdings have grown steadily. This collection, now one of the most important in Britain, was catalogued for the first time by Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (1857-1934) of the British Museum's department of antiquities. Budge was a leading authority on ancient Egypt and had himself acquired several pieces for the museum in Egypt in 1886-7. The collection as listed in this 1893 publication included 577 objects: sarcophagi, coffins, canopic jars, mummies, scarabs, sculptures, and other decorative objects. Budge provided transcriptions and translations of the hieroglyphs that appear on the objects with his descriptions of each item. Although the collection has been augmented by many further gifts and purchases, Budge's catalogue remains a valuable record of the collection in the late Victorian period.

Archaeologists from many different European countries here explore the very varied relationship between nationalistic ideas and archaeological activity through the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The resurgence of nationalism was one of the most prominent features of the European political scene in the 1990s, when this book was originally published. The past provides a large supply of ideas and images to support the claims of national identity deeply rooted in remote generations. The remote past revealed by archaeology also plays a part - heroes, heroines, golden ages long disappeared, objects to admire, and sites to provoke the memory, all called on to further the cause of nationalism. Drawing on the authoritative insights of the indigenous contributors, this book examines the issues throughout modern Europe. All of the chapters share a concern to see archaeology and the study of the past as intimately related to contemporary social and political questions. The present shapes the way we think about the past but the past also provides us with evidence for thinking about the present. These issues are timeless and this comprehensive examination of a host of issues remains important for historians and those pursuing nationalistic politics.

This book Explores Indo-European fire rituals and sacrifices throughout history and fire in its fundamental role in rites and religious practices. Analyzes fire rituals as the unifying structure in time and space in Indo-European cultures from the Bronze Age onwards. Asks the question how and why was fire the ultimate power in culture and cosmology? Has a broad interdisciplinary audience including archaeology, ethnography, folklore, religious and Indo-European studies.

Includes evidence from Soviet scholarship that is often not accessible to scholars working on this period.

At the core of this book is a success story of an Eastern European woman who survived both Soviet and Nazi occupations of her homeland, lived as a displaced person in postwar Germany, and built her career and scholarly authority within the androcentric American academia. At the same time, it is also a story of a controversy, which followed Gimbutas' theory of Old Europe - a prehistoric civilization, characterized by peacefulness, egalitarianism, women's leadership, and the worship of the Great Goddess. First introduced in 1974, this theory inspired women's movements worldwide, but was harshly criticized by other archaeologists. This book examines the various intellectual contexts (feminist, nationalist, theoretical) in which Gimbutas' ideas were formed, received, and interpreted, as well as appropriated for different political goals. This timely study will appeal to scholars and students in the following fields: history of archaeology, prehistoric archaeology, gender studies, feminist studies, women's history, Baltic studies, and religion and spirituality.

This book Explores how the practice of nineteenth-century sex work involved a careful construction of fantasy for brothel customers. This fantasy had the potential to provide financial stability and security for the madam of the establishment, if not for the women working for them. By employing theories of embodiment, sexuality, and an archaeology of the senses, this study of the Endicott Street collection contributes a new methodological and theoretical framework for studying the archaeology of prostitution across time, space, and culture. Explores both the semi-private, "behind the scenes" narrative of sex work, as well as the semi-public, eroticized "performance space" where patrons were entertained. is for student and scholars of historical archaeology, nineteenth-century urban America, and gender studies. Students studying feminist theory and archaeology of the senses will also be interested in the contents.

This book provides an overview of medieval monasticism in Iceland, from its dawn to its downfall during the Reformation. Blends the evidence from material remains and written documents to highlight the realities of everyday life in the monasteries and nunneries operated in Iceland. describes the incorporation of monasticism in to the Icelandic society, the land of the Vikings, and thus how the monasteries coexisted with the natural and social environments on the island while keeping their general aims and objectives. shows that large social systems, such as monasticism, can cross social and natural borders without necessitating fundamental changes apart from those triggered by the constant coexistence of nature and culture inside the environment they exist within. debunks the myth that Icelandic monasteries, male or female were isolated, silent places or simple cells functioning principally as retirement homes for aristocrats. To be a member of an ecclesiastical institution did not mean a quiet, secluded life without any outside interaction, but rather active participation in the surrounding community. Is of interest for researchers in archaeology, osteology, and medieval history, in addition to all those interested in monasticism and the medieval history of Northern Europe.

This book looks at the ways in which archaeological methods have been used in debates concerning the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia. Despite the incorporation and use of archaeological data to corroborate historical narratives, the theories and methods of archaeology are largely ignored in and excluded from the dominating, institutionalized, and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume offers contesting insights, polemical narratives, and new data from archaeological contexts to initiate a debate on many foundational premises of archaeological and historical narratives. It focuses on the much-neglected region of the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin as a spatial frame to do this and studies themes such as spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, multi-scaler factors and processes of continuity and changes, the settlement archaeology of the alluvial landscape, changing patterns of agrarian transformation, and material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, in their contexts in sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections. Dedicated to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, this volume presents a crucial and unprecedented intervention in the study of the early medieval and the medieval periods. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences, palaeoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general.

This book studies the internal framework of the Indo-Pacific region and examines the strategic issues faced by the countries that belong to it. Over the years, the Indo-Pacific region has become a prime driver of global economic growth and has generated considerable interest from countries both within and without. The region is now witnessing an intensified great power competition for greater geostrategic space, thus shaping the 21st-century world order. The volume focuses on the emerging strategies of the main actors involved in this competition. It discusses various key issues such as the purpose of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and its post-pandemic agenda, the conceptualisation of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) amid an intensifying Sino-US great power competition, the strategies of ASEAN and South Korea, China's activities in the Indo-Pacific, economic architecture and supply chain disruption in the region, as well as the geopolitical strategy of the European Union for the Indo-Pacific. A crucial study of the Indo-Pacific region in the post-COVID-19 world, the book gives fresh insights into the areas of convergence and divergence in the strategic visions of the many regional actors. It will be of great interest to policymakers as well as students and academics in the fields of political science, international relations, foreign policy, geopolitics, security studies, strategic studies, as well as area studies, namely East and Southeast Asian studies, European Union studies, American studies and Australian studies.

This volume presents a collection of interdisciplinary collaborations between contemporary art, heritage, anthropological, and archaeological practitioners. Departing from the proceedings of the Sixth World Archaeological Congress's 'Archaeologies of Art' theme and Abhar agus Meon exhibitions, it includes papers by seminal figures as well as experimental work by those who are exploring the application of artistic methods and theory to the practice of archaeology. Art and archaeology: collaborations, conversations, criticisms encourages the creative interplay of various approaches to 'art' and 'archaeology' so these new modes of expression can contribute to how we understand the world. Established topics such as cave art, monumental architecture and land art will be discussed alongside contemporary video art, performance art and relational arts practices. Here, the parallel roles of artists as makers of new worlds and archaeologists as makers of pasts worlds are brought together to understand the influences of human creativity.

This groundbreaking volume presents, for the first time in English, a broad historical review of the researches carried out over 170 years in the region of Lagoa Santa, Brazil, one of the most important archaeological regions in the Americas. From the pioneering work of the Danish naturalist Peter Lund in the XIX century to the recent research on the dispersion of early humans across South America, led by Walter A. Neves and colleagues, Lagoa Santa has offered remarkable findings, the largest collections of early human skeletons in the Americas, and has contributed to the overall discussions about the settlement of the Americas. This edited volume aims to fill the lack of publications in English about Lagoa Santa and gathers representatives of all the main Brazilian institutions directly involved in the archaeological and paleontological investigations in the region, in order to provide the international scientific community a comprehensive and complete account of the researches that contributed to rewrite the history of the peopling of the Americas. The book is organized in two parts. The first consists of chapters describing each of the interventions in the region, beginning with the pioneering work of Peter Lund and culminating with the latest intervention led by Walter A. Neves and his team. The second part of the book consists of reviews of current relevant research foci in the region, such as migrations, health, mortuary rituals, paleontology, rock art and technology.

This volume uses osteobiography and individual-level analyses of burials retrieved from the La Plata River Valley (New Mexico) to illustrate the variety of roles that Ancestral Pueblo women played in the past (circa AD 1100-1300). The experiences of women as a result of their gender, age, and status over the life course are reconstructed, with consideration given to the gendered forms of violence they were subject to and the consequences of social violence on health. The authors demonstrate the utility of a modern bioarchaeological approach that combines social theories about gender and violence with burial data in conjunction with information from many other sources-including archaeological reconstruction of homes and communities, ethnohistoric resources available on Pueblo society, and Pueblo women's contemporary voices. This analysis presents a more accurate, nuanced, and complex picture of life in the past for mothers, sisters, wives, and, captives.

Includes evidence from Soviet scholarship that is often not accessible to scholars working on this period.

Imperial frontiers are a fascinating stage for studying the interactions of people, institutions, and their environments. In one of the first books to explore the Inka frontier through archaeology, Sonia Alconini examines part of present-day Bolivia that was once a territory at the edge of the Inka empire. Along this frontier, one of the New World's most powerful polities came into repeated conflict with tropical lowland groups that it could never subject to its rule. Using extensive field research, Alconini explores the multifaceted socioeconomic processes that transpired in the frontier region. Her unprecedented study shows how the Inka empire exercised control over vast expanses of land and peoples in a territory located hundreds of miles away from the capital city of Cusco, and how people on the frontier navigated the cultural and environmental divide that separated the Andes and the Amazon.

Beginning with the earliest known finds, this volume provides a linear and thematic account of the history of the Old Stone Age, or Palaeolithic Period, covering major discoveries, interpretations and debates worldwide, a story that takes us from the embers of the Great Fire of London to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. It offers a comprehensive and unique history of archaeological theory and interpretation, seeking to explain how we know what we know about the deep past, and how ideas about it have changed over time, reflecting both scientific and societal change. At its heart lies the quest for an answer to a most curious and sometimes beautiful tool ever made - the handaxe. While focused on the earlier Palaeolithic period, the book provides a readable account of how ideas about the prehistoric past generally were formed and altered, showing how the wider discipline came to be dominated by a succession of different theoretical 'paradigms', each seeking different answers from the same dataset. Serving a dual purpose as a historical narrative and as a reference source, this book will be of interest to all students and researchers interested in deep human prehistory and evolution, archaeological theory and the history of archaeology.

This book provides an overview of medieval monasticism in Iceland, from its dawn to its downfall during the Reformation. Blends the evidence from material remains and written documents to highlight the realities of everyday life in the monasteries and nunneries operated in Iceland. describes the incorporation of monasticism in to the Icelandic society, the land of the Vikings, and thus how the monasteries coexisted with the natural and social environments on the island while keeping their general aims and objectives. shows that large social systems, such as monasticism, can cross social and natural borders without necessitating fundamental changes apart from those triggered by the constant coexistence of nature and culture inside the environment they exist within. debunks the myth that Icelandic monasteries, male or female were isolated, silent places or simple cells functioning principally as retirement homes for aristocrats. To be a member of an ecclesiastical institution did not mean a quiet, secluded life without any outside interaction, but rather active participation in the surrounding community. Is of interest for researchers in archaeology, osteology, and medieval history, in addition to all those interested in monasticism and the medieval history of Northern Europe.

Using archaeological evidence, the author investigates the prehistories of Austronesian migrants to Taiwan and their connections to contemporary peoples in Taiwan. Due to its unique geographic location, Taiwan has played a significant role in various peoples' maritime migrations and the process of cultural interactions for tens of thousands of years. Within the history of humankind, Taiwan has also evidenced a high degree of cultural continuity. Paleolithic people had already settled on the island at least 30,000 years ago, but Taiwan only entered the historical period as recently as the 17th century. Before this, there was a long and continuous development over the prehistoric period. To this day there are at least 20 different indigenous ethnic groups on the island, totalling over half a million people, all of whom speak Austronesian languages. Investigating the archaeology of abandoned villages, Kuo takes the Paiwan and Sanhe cultures as key case studies of these groups. This book provides valuable insight for historians and archaeologists of Taiwan, and scholars of prehistoric Austronesian migration.

From AD 1550 to 1850, the Araucanian polity in southern Chile was a center of political resistance to the intruding Spanish empire. In this book, Tom D. Dillehay examines the resistance strategies of the Araucanians and how they used mound building and other sacred monuments to reorganize their political and culture life in order to unite against the Spanish. Drawing on anthropological research conducted over three decades, Dillehay focuses on the development of leadership, shamanism, ritual, and power relations. His study combines developments in social theory with the archaeological, ethnographic, and historical records. Both theoretically and empirically informed, this book is a fascinating account of the only indigenous ethnic group to successfully resist outsiders for more than three centuries and to flourish under these conditions.

This book examines from an archaeological perspective the social and economic changes that took place in Yucatan, Mexico beginning in the 18th century, as the region became increasingly articulated within global networks of exchange. Of particular interest is the formation and ultimate supremacy of the hacienda system in Yucatan and the effect that new forms of capitalist organized production had on native Maya social organization. Household archaeology and spatial analysis conducted on the grounds of the former Hacienda San Juan Bautista Tabi provides the data for analyzing the results of this change on the daily lives and existence of those individuals incorporated within the hacienda system. The use of archaeological excavation to place the lives of local individuals within the context of larger global processes makes this book a worthy contribution to the study of archaeology.

The book approaches museums of the Great War as political entities, some more overtly than others, but all unable to escape from the politics of the war, its profound legacies and its enduring memory. Their changing configurations and content are explored as reflections of the social and political context in which they exist. Curating of the Great War has expanded beyond the walls of museum buildings, seeking public engagement, both direct and digital, and taking in whole landscapes. Recognizing this fact, the book examines these museums as standing at the nexus of historiography, museology, anthropology, archaeology, sociology and politics as well as being a lieux de memoire. Their multi-vocal nature makes them a compelling subject for research and above all the book highlights that it is in these museums that we see the most complete fusion of the material culture of conflict with its historical, political and experiential context. This book is an essential read for researchers of the reception of the Great War through material culture and museums.

The Archaeology Hotspots series offers reader-friendly and engaging narratives of the archaeology in particular countries. Written by archaeological experts with a general reader in mind, each book in the series focuses on what has been found and by whom, what the controversies and scandals have been, ongoing projects, and how it all fits into a broader view of the history of the country. In Archaeology Hotspot Great Britain, expert Donald Henson first chronicles the deep archaeology of a long settled region-including England, Wales, and Scotland-then explores both the famously ancient finds (cave art at Creswell Crags, Stonehenge) and more recent and iconic historic sites and monuments (such as Westminster Abbey and Ironbridge Gorge). He profiles the often larger-than-life personalities and the previously-marginalized women who have contributed to British archaeology; the controversies influencing how we see the past are also highlighted. Henson considers London's position in the antiquities trade and the safeguarding of heritage sites. As a whole, the book tells a fascinating story of Great Britain's history, culture, national heritage, and ongoing role as a hotspot of archaeology.

Using a variety of disciplinary approaches including archaeological analysis and material culture studies, anthropology, historical research, oral histories, and reflexive ethnography, the social context of art creation is explored. May argues that Injalak Arts as a place activates and draws together particular social groupings to form a sense of identity and community. It is the nature of this community, or 'Karrikadjurren' in the local dialect, that is the primary focus of this book, with the artworks painted during this period providing unique insights into art, identity, community and innovation. This book will be of most interest to those working in or studying archaeology, material culture studies, museum studies, anthropology, sociology, Indigenous studies, art history, Australian studies, rock art and development studies. More specifically, this book will appeal to scholars with an interest in the archaeology or anthropology of art, ethnoarchaeology, and the nature and politics of community archaeology.

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.