This volume presents the papers of an international colloquium on the archaeology of houses and households in ancient Crete held in Ierapetra in May 2005. The 38 papers presented here range from a discussion of household activities at Final Neolithic Phaistos to the domestic correlates of "globalization" during the early Roman Empire. These studies demonstrate a variety of methodological approaches currently employed for understanding houses and household activities. Key themes include understanding the built environment in all of its manifestations, the variability of domestic organization, the role of houses and households in mediating social (and perhaps even ethnic) identity within a community or region, household composition, and of course, household activities of all types, ranging from basic subsistence needs to production and consumption at a supra-household level.

The understanding and interpretation of ancient architecture, landscapes, and art has always been viewed through an iconographic lens--a cognitive process based on traditional practices in art history. But ancient people did not ascribe their visions on canvas, rather on hills, stones, and fields. Thus, Chris Tilley argues, the iconographic approach falls short of understanding how ancient people interacted with their imagery. A kinaesthetic approach, one that uses the full body and all the senses, can better approximate the meaning that these artifacts had for their makers and today's viewers. The body intersects the landscape in a myriad of ways--through the effort to reach the image, the angles that one can use to view, the multiple senses required for interaction. Tilley outlines the choreographic basis of understanding ancient landscapes and art phenomenologically, and demonstrates the power of his thesis through examples of rock art and megalithic architecture in Norway, Ireland, and Sweden. This is a powerful new model from one of the leading contemporary theorists in archaeology.

Rob Sands explores the evidence left by the use of axes on wooden beams and tools found in waterlogged archaeological sites dating over 2000 years old. A toolmark can not only inform the archaeologist about the implement used, but also provides evidence of building and artifact construction methods and labor patterns. Examples come from the author's work at Oakbank Crannog in Scotland. The volume examines the methods of recording, techniques of analysis and implications of this unusual form of evidence.

This volume is the first summary and synthesis of the rock art of the American High Plains, from Archaic times to the historic period. Even more, it presents an engaging combination of Plains archaeology, rock art sites, and holistic archaeological research. This refreshing approach to rock art studies reminds us that archaeologists glean information from the whole site and everything that may have occurred there, rather than simply focusing on the images on stone. Clues to understanding rock art can be found in other images, in associated artifacts, and in ethnographic analogy. Archaeologists are shown how rock art integrates with other materials available for study. With each page, the reader will be engaged in a compelling, and comprehensive story that focuses equally on the art and the archaeology of the prehistoric plains.

This volume is the first summary and synthesis of the rock art of the American High Plains, from Archaic times to the historic period. Even more, it presents an engaging combination of Plains archaeology, rock art sites, and holistic archaeological research. This refreshing approach to rock art studies reminds us that archaeologists glean information from the whole site and everything that may have occurred there, rather than simply focusing on the images on stone. Clues to understanding rock art can be found in other images, in associated artifacts, and in ethnographic analogy. Archaeologists are shown how rock art integrates with other materials available for study. With each page, the reader will be engaged in a compelling, and comprehensive story that focuses equally on the art and the archaeology of the prehistoric plains.

Ayioryitika, a large open-air settlement in Arcadia, in central Greece, was inhabited during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. It was excavated in 1928 by Carl Blegen under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, but the research was never published. The site is particularly important for its beautifully decorated Middle Neolithic pottery and for its figurines of human figures and animals. This volume gathers together the scattered and fragmentary evidence for the excavation and its finds. For the first time, the information from this large and important early town has been made available to scholars and students of prehistoric Greece.

Written to appeal to professional archaeologists, students, and the interested public alike, this book is a long overdue introduction to the ancient peoples of the Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau. Through detailed syntheses, the reader is drawn into the story of the habitation of the Great Basin from the entry of the first Native Americans through the arrival of Europeans. Ancient Peoples is a major contribution to Great Basin archaeology and anthropology, as well as the general study of foraging societies.

This volume presents the salvage excavation of a Minoan settlement at Bramiana in southeastern Crete that was destroyed during the creation of a new system of agriculture in the 1980s. Excavation of the site provides new evidence for a Bronze Age economy based on trade, agriculture, and craftwork. This publication is a test case for a highly successful new system of organizing all the pottery based on its petrography, sorting it by materials and workshop practices. The results show the existence of an unsuspected large trade network operating across hundreds of kilometers for the routine distribution of cooking pots and other clay vessels and their contents. The Minoan settlement used the lustrous and silky smooth fine ceramics invented presumably in the still undiscovered palace near modern Ierapetra; this technology would be used for the fine Mycenaean tableware of the Late Bronze Age.

Neolithic Horizons investigates some of our most remarkable and iconic archaeological sites: the great public monuments at Stonehenge and Avebury and others like them and places them within their landscape context-the rolling chalklands of Wessex. Rightly famous the world over, these monuments are complemented by less well-known, contemporary, foci such as the earthen circles at Knowlton, in Dorset, or Marden, in Wiltshire and seen to be part of an earth-shifting tradition that extended right across the region and traced back to our very earliest monuments, long barrows and causewayed enclosures. After Stonehenge, the tradition continued with the construction of enormous numbers of circular burial mounds along the river valleys and hillsides. Indeed, few other regions in Europe can match the scale and intensity of development at these ceremonial complexes. These locations, places of ritual, must nevertheless be viewed as part of a wider landscape; one where features of the land are continually changing according to the influence of local inhabitants.Whilst charting a remarkable archaeological legacy, this book reveals the developing landscape of grassland, settlements and fields; the product of the early farming communities who lived their lives in the shadow of the monuments.

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.

This book elaborates on the distinctive characteristics as well as the archaeological, historical and artistic value of Liangzhu pottery, welcoming readers to the wonderful world of Liangzhu by introducing them to its origin, type, design, decoration, evolution and processing technology. It also presents the types of pottery that people in Liangzhu used daily to eat, drink, and bury their dead. Thanks to a wealth of photos taken at the archaeological site, readers can admire the color, decorative patterns, types and shapes of unearthed pottery. The book vividly reveals the lifestyle, aesthetics and level of scientific-technical development in Liangzhu society 5000 years ago.

This volume surveys the archaeology of Native North Americans from their arrival on the continent 15,000 years ago up to contact with European colonizers. Offering rich descriptions of monumental structures, domestic architecture, vibrant objects, and spiritual forces, Timothy R. Pauketat and Kenneth E. Sassaman show how indigenous people shaped both their history and North America's many varied environments. They place the student in the past as they trace how Native Americans dealt with challenges such as climate change, the rise of social hierarchies and political power, and ethnic conflict. Written in a clear and engaging style with a compelling narrative, The Archaeology of Ancient North America presents the grand historical themes and intimate stories of ancient Americans in full, living color.

Everyday Life in the Ice Age is the first attempt to present a truly complete, balanced and realistic picture of life during the last Ice Age, with its many problems and challenges, while dispelling many of the myths and inaccuracies about our early ancestors. One of the most common questions asked by visitors to Europe's decorated caves is 'What was life like for these people?' No previous book has ever managed to answer this question, and most studies of the period are aimed entirely at academics, tending to focus on tool-types rather than what the tools were used for. Women and children are almost invisible in these studies. The book examines all aspects of the lives of biologically modern humans in Europe from about 40,000 to 12,000 years ago, the period known as the Last Ice Age, a time of radical change in climate and environment. It explores how people were able to cope with and adapt to the often rapid alterations in their circumstances. Elle Clifford's background in Social Psychology brings important insights into aspects of the past which are never normally discussed - domestic and family life, pregnancy and child-rearing, and care of the sick and elderly. The book is aimed not only at students and specialists, but also and especially the interested public, for whom the most interesting questions are: How were they like us? and what behaviours do we share?

Early Human Behaviour in a Global Context will be of use to students and professionals who are interested in prehistory, Paleolithic archaeology, and paleoanthropology. Those interested in our ancestors and their place in the natural world will also benefit from the information presented in this book.
Chapters focus on:
* the nature of archaeological evidence
* stone tool technology
* subsistence practices
* settlement distributions.

eBook available with sample pages: EB:0203203275

Begun in 1874 and published in 1880, a detailed survey of the stones of Stonehenge was one of the earliest works of William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), the energetic archaeologist who is remembered as a pioneering Egyptologist. It is reissued here alongside Sir Richard Colt Hoare's 1829 analysis of the barrows surrounding Stonehenge, thus giving modern readers a valuable two-part snapshot of nineteenth-century investigations into this famous site. Hoare (1758-1838), a Wiltshire baronet with a keen interest in archaeology and topography, conducted excavations on the site of the stones in the early 1800s, which were later referred to by Petrie, whose measurements were much more accurate (up to one tenth of an inch). Petrie's numbering system for the stones, as set out in this publication, is still in use today. Many of his groundbreaking works in Egyptology are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

This book is the first-ever monograph on clustering patterns in prehistoric settlements. It not only theoretically explains the difference between natural settlement communities and organizational forms for the first time, but also demonstrates the importance of understanding this difference in practical research. Based on extensive archaeological data from China and focusing on the evolution of prehistoric settlements and changing social relations, the book completely breaks with the globally popular research mode which is based on the assumption that settlement archaeology has nothing to do with prehistoric social organization. In terms of research methods, the book also abandons the globally popular method of measuring the grade and importance of settlements according to their size and the value of the unearthed objects. Instead, it focuses on understanding settlements' attributes from the combined perspective of the group and individuals. On the one hand, the book proves that the clustering patterns in prehistoric settlement sites reflect the organizational forms of the time; on the other, it demonstrates that historical research focusing on the organizational forms of prehistoric societies is closer to the historical reality and of more scientific value. The intended readership includes graduates and researchers in the field of archaeology, or those who are interested in cultural relics and prehistoric settlements.

This volume provides a descriptive overview of the cultural complexity on the northwest coast that stretches from northern California to Alaska. Topics covered range from the earliest settlements to the subsequent cultural diversities in Native American populations. Maps, charts, and illustrations further enhance the book's interest and appeal.

Controversy, especially religious controversy, was the great spectator sport of Victorian England. This work is a study of the biggest and best of Victorian religious controversies. Essays and Reviews (1860) was a composite volume of seven authors (six of them Anglican clergymen) which brought England its first serious exposure to biblical criticism. It evoked a controversy lasting four years, including articles in newspapers, magazines and reviews, clerical and episcopal censures, a torrent of tracts, pamphlets and sermons, followed by weightier tomes (and reviews of all these), prosecution for heresy in the ecclesiastical courts, appeal to the highest secular court, condemnation by the Convocation of the clergy and a debate in Parliament. Essays and Reviews was the culmination and final act of the Broad Church movement. Outwardly the conflict ended inconclusively; at a deeper level, it marked the exhaustion both of the Broad Church and of Anglican orthodoxy and the commencement of an era of religious doubt. This controversy illustrates the pathology of Victorian religion in its demonstration of the propensity to controvert and the methods of controversialists. It is both the greatest Victorian crisis of faith and the best case study of Victorian religious controversy.

An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology is the first concise introduction that lays out the epistemological foundations of evolutionary cognitive archaeology in a way that is accessible to students. The volume is divided into three sections. The first section situates cognitive archaeology in the pantheon of archaeological approaches and distinguishes between ideational cognitive archaeology and evolutionary cognitive archaeology. This is followed by a close look at the nature of cognitive archaeological inferences and concludes with brief summaries of the major methods of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. The second section of the book introduces the reader to a variety of cognitive phenomena that are accessible using the methods of cognitive archaeology: memory, technical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition, art and aesthetics, and symbolism and language. The third section presents a brief outline of hominin cognitive evolution from the perspective of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. The authors divide the archaeological record into three major phases: The Bipedal Apes-3.3 million-1.7 million years ago; The Axe Age-1.7 million-300,000 years ago; and The Emergence of Modern Thinking-300,000-12,000 years ago. An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology is an essential text for undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars across the behavioral and social sciences interested in learning about cognitive archaeology, including psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and archaeologists.

Archaeology, most of us learned in school, consists in the painstaking digging up and sifting of relics from extinct cultures; hardly an exciting or indeed interesting activity - for most of us. Archaeologists and anthropologists, professional and otherwise, know better. In the buried structures and detritus of ancient cultures can be found a world of knowledge and insight - empirical and theoretical - into their cultures as well as our own. This fascinating volume brings these worlds to life, by integrating recent developments in anthropological and sociological theory with a series of detailed studies of prehistoric material culture. It is an exploration of the manner in which semiotic, hermeneutic, Marxist, and post-structuralist approaches radically alter our understanding of the past, and provides a series of innovative studies of key areas of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists.

This fascinating volume integrates recent developments in anthropological and sociological theory with a series of detailed studies of prehistoric material culture. The authors explore the manner in which semiotic, hermeneutic, Marxist, and post-structuralist approaches radically alter our understanding of the past, and provide a series of innovative studies of key areas of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists.

This is the first book to survey the 'hidden half' of prehistoric societies as revealed by archaeology - from Australopithecines to advanced Stone Age foragers, from farming villages to the beginnings of civilisation. Prehistoric children can be seen in footprints and finger daubs, in images painted on rocks and pots, in the signs of play and the evidence of first attempts to learn practical crafts. The burials of those who did not reach adulthood reveal clothing, personal adornment, possession and status in society, while the bodies themselves provide information on diet, health and sometimes violent death. This book demonstrates the extraordinary potential for the study of childhood within the prehistoric record, and will suggest to those interested in childhood what can be learnt from the study of the deep past. -- .

In this book, Jennifer French presents a new synthesis of the archaeological, palaeoanthropological, and palaeogenetic records of the European Palaeolithic, adopting a unique demographic perspective on these first two-million years of European prehistory. Unlike prevailing narratives of demographic stasis, she emphasises the dynamism of Palaeolithic populations of both our evolutionary ancestors and members of our own species across four demographic stages, within a context of substantial Pleistocene climatic changes. Integrating evolutionary theory with a socially oriented approach to the Palaeolithic, French bridges biological and cultural factors, with a focus on women and children as the drivers of population change. She shows how, within the physiological constraints on fertility and mortality, social relationships provide the key to enduring demographic success. Through its demographic focus, French combines a 'big picture' perspective on human evolution with careful analysis of the day-to-day realities of European Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities-their families, their children, and their lives.

Tepe Hissar is a large Bronze Age site in northeastern Iran notable for its uninterrupted occupational history from the fifth to the second millennium B.C.E. The quantity and elaborateness of its excavated artifacts and funerary customs position the site prominently as a cultural bridge between Mesopotamia and Central Asia. To address questions of synchronic and diachronic nature relating to the changing levels of socioeconomic complexity in the region and across the greater Near East, chronological clarity is required. While Erich Schmidt's 1931-32 excavations for the Penn Museum established the historical framework at Tepe Hissar, it was Robert H. Dyson, Jr., and his team's follow-up work in 1976 that presented a stratigraphically clearer sequence for the site with associated radiocarbon dates. Until now, however, a full study of the site's ceramic assemblages has not been published. This monograph brings to final publication a stratigraphically based chronology for the Early Bronze Age settlement at Tepe Hissar. Based on a full study of the ceramic assemblages excavated from radiocarbon-dated occupational phases in 1976 by Dyson and his team, and linked to Schmidt's earlier ceramic sequence that was derived from a large corpus of grave contents, a new chronological framework for Tepe Hissar and its region is established. This clarified sequence provides ample evidence for the nature of the evolution and the abandonment of the site, and its chronological correlations on the northern Iranian plateau, situating it in time and space between Turkmenistan and Bactria on the one hand and Mesopotamia on the other.

To be human is to be curious. And one of the things we are most curious about is how we came to be who we are--how we evolved over millions of years to become creatures capable of inquiring into our own evolution.
In this lively and readable introduction, renowned anthropologist Ian Tattersall thoroughly examines both the fossil and archeological records to trace human evolution from the earliest beginnings of our zoological family Hominidae, through the emergence of Homo sapiens, to the Agricultural Revolution. He begins with an accessible overview of evolutionary theory and then explores the major turning points in human evolution: the emergence of the genus Homo, the advantages of bipedalism--the trait that most strongly distinguishes humans from other primates--the birth of the big brain and symbolic thinking, Paleolithic and Neolithic tool-making, and finally the enormously consequential shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent and elsewhere. Focusing particularly on the pattern of events and innovations in human biological and cultural evolution, Tattersall offers illuminating commentary on a wide range of topics, from early intimations of symbolism in Africa to our earliest known artistic expressions--the exquisite Cro-Magnon cave paintings and 30,000 year--old flutes made from vulture bones-to ancient burial rites, the beginnings of language, the likely causes of Neanderthal extinction, the relationship between agriculture and Christianity, and the still unsolved mysteries of human consciousness.
Complemented by a wealth of illustrations and written with the grace and accessibility for which Tattersall is widelyadmired, The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE invites us to take a closer look at the strange and distant beings who, over the course of millions of years, would become us.