Using evidence from the Athenian Agora the authors show how objects discovered during excavations provide a vivid picture of women's lives. The book is structured according to the social roles women played - as owners of property, companions (in and outside of marriage), participants in ritual, craftspeople, producers, and consumers. A final section moves from the ancient world to the modern, discussing the role of women as archaeologists in the early years of the Agora excavations.

What France's ancient cave drawings may reveal about the origin of language, art, and human thought--insights into one of the greatest mysteries in anthropology They roam deep underground in the recesses of French (and some Spanish) caves: Bulls and bison. Horses and stags. Rhinos, bears, human-like creatures, and more. Painted, drawn, or engraved, these incredible images are 32,000 years old, yet they seem full of personality and life. Who were the artists? How did they make these paintings miles into labyrinthine caves with only stone candles to light the way? Why did the artists make them and what do they mean? What about the undecipherable signs accompanying the art? Popular science writer Amir Aczel examines the cave drawings and the theories scientists have put forward to explain them, including religious iconography, hunting trophies, and a leap in human brain development. Drawing on years of research and his own visits to Paleolithic caves, Aczel takes us underground on an unforgettable journey of discovery at the crossroads of art, science, and history in the quest to solve the mysteries of this Stone Age art and deepen our understanding of human evolution. Amir D. Aczel (Brookline, MA) is a research fellow in the history of science at Boston University and former visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of 14 books, including Fermat's Last Theorem (978-0-385-31946-1), Descartes's Secret Notebook (978-0-7679-2034-6), and The Jesuit and the Skull (978-1-59448-956-3). He has appeared on the CBS Evening News, CNN, CNBC, and ABC's Nightline, as well as NPR's Weekend Edition and Morning Edition.

This book focuses on the archaeology of the hunter-gatherer societies that inhabited Europe in the millennia between the last Ice Age and the spread of agriculture, between ten thousand and five thousand years ago. Traditionally viewed as a period of cultural stagnation, new data now demonstrate that this was a period of radical change and innovation. This was the period that witnessed the colonisation of extensive new territory at high latitudes and high altitudes following postglacial climatic change, the development of seafaring, and the synthesis of the technological, economic, and social capabilities that underpinned the later development of agricultural and urban societies. Providing a pan-European overview, Mesolithic Europe includes regional syntheses written by experts in each region as well as a diversity of theoretical perspectives.

The Living Inca Town presents a rich case study of tourism in Ollantaytambo, a rapidly developing destination in the southern Peruvian Andes and the starting point for many popular treks to Machu Picchu. Tourism is generally welcomed in Ollantaytambo, as it provides a steady stream of work for local businesses, particularly those run by women. However, the obvious material inequalities between locals and tourists affect many interactions and have contributed to conflict and aggression throughout the tourist zones. Based on a number of research visits over the course of fifteen years, The Living Inca Town examines the experiences and interactions of locals, visitors, and tourism brokers. The book makes room for unique perspectives and uses innovative visual methods, including photovoice images and pen and ink drawings, to represent different viewpoints of day-to-day tourist encounters. The Living Inca Town vividly illustrates how tourism can perpetuate gendered and global inequalities, while also exploring new avenues to challenge and renegotiate these roles.

In Rewriting History, Dennis Harding addresses contemporary concerns about information and its interpretation. His focus is on the archaeology of prehistoric and early historic Britain, and the transformation over two centuries and more in the interpretation of the archaeological heritage by changes in the prevailing political, social, and intellectual climate. Far from being topics of concern only to academics, the way in which seemingly innocuous issues such as cultural diffusion or social reconstruction in the remote past are studied and presented reflects important shifts in contemporary thinking that challenge long-accepted conventions of free speech and debate. Some issues are highly controversial, such as the proposals for the Stonehenge World Heritage sites. Others challenge long-held popular myths like the deconstruction of the Celts, and by extension the Picts. Some traditional tenets of scholarship have yet remained unchallenged, such as the classical definition of civilization itself. Why should it matter? Are the shifting attitudes of successive generations not symptomatic of healthy and vibrant debate? Are there grounds for believing that current changes are of a more disquieting character, denying the basic assumptions of rational argument and freedom of enquiry that have been the foundation of western scholarship since the Enlightenment? Re-writing History offers Harding's personal evaluation of these issues, which will resonate not only with practitioners and academics of archaeology, but across a wide range of disciplines facing similar concerns.

The study of households and everyday life is increasingly recognized as fundamental in social archaeological analysis. This volume addresses the household as a process and as a conceptual and analytical means through which we can interpret social organization from the bottom up. Using detailed case studies from Neolithic Greece, Stella Souvatzi examines how the household is defined socially, culturally and historically; she discusses household and community, variability, production and reproduction, individual and collective agency, identity, change, complexity and integration. Her study is enriched by an in-depth discussion of the framework for the household in the social sciences and the synthesis of many anthropological, historical and sociological examples. It reverses the view of the household as passive, ahistorical and stable, showing it instead to be active, dynamic and continually shifting.

This Very Short Introduction traces the history of paleoanthropology from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to today's latest fossil finds. Concentrating on the fossil evidence for human evolution, it makes reference to the relevant archaeological evidence when appropriate. The book also covers the latest genetic evidence about regional variations in the modern human genome that relate to our evolutionary history. Finally it demonstrates that our understanding of human evolution is critically dependent on advances in related sciences such as paleoclimatology, geochronology, systematics, genetics, and increasingly, developmental biology.

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

The natural terraces hanging high on the northern cliff of the Cha Gorge at the site of Monastiraki Katalimata in eastern Crete were discovered as an excellent refuge site for the first time about 5,500 years ago. At first sight, Katalimata looks like an extreme refuge place where one might expect small groups of people hiding for a brief time during the most serious period of threat. Excavation of the largest of the terraces, however, has shown that use of the place was often long-lasting and more complex. The most interesting result of the project was the identification at Katalimata of almost all the same phases known from elsewhere in Crete (and, in some cases, the broader Aegean region) as periods of disturbances, relocations, and destructions. The pottery, when compared with the material from Chalasmenos and neighbouring sites near Kavousi, allows the site to be placed in a well-established historical context in relation to the general breakdown of LM IIIB settlement pattern around 1200 B.C. This monograph provides a detailed discussion of the six occupational phases recorded on the largest of Monastiraki Katalimata's terraces (Final Neolithic, MM II, LM IB-IIIA1, LM IIIC, Early Byzantine, and Late Venetian to the 17th century A.D.) and offers a reconstruction of the site's role in the context of Cretan history.

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britaina s history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano--British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

The results of the excavation of an Early Bronze Age cemetery - including 37 tombs and an associated rectangular Minoan building - at Gournes in north-central Crete revealed strong relations with the Cyclades during the time of the Kampos Cultural Group, as exemplified by the distinctive style of pottery and other types of burial objects such as obsidian pieces and metal items. The discussion of burial practices at Gournes involves both the significance of several features of the funerary architecture and the consideration of the character and deposition of offerings in the tombs. The burial architecture and artifacts are profusely illustrated and tables of data are presented. The cemetery is compared with other Early Bronze Age sites within and outside Crete to investigate links among Prepalatial funerary practices and also to look into settlement sites that display similar characteristics that may reveal possible intercultural relations in the Aegean. Their interconnections confirm the existence, since the Early Minoan I period, of a dense social network including the Cycladic islands and contacts with distant areas of Crete. The Minoan building was used from Early Minoan III to Late Minoan IA, and its ritual character in association with the funerary context suggests that it was originally constructed as a house tomb and was reused later as a support building for rituals after the abandonment of the Early Minoan IB cemetery.

The societies that developed in the eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age produced the most prolific and diverse range of stone vessel traditions known at any time or anywhere in the world. Stone vessels are therefore a key class of artefact in the early history of this region. As a form of archaeological evidence, they offer important analytical advantages over other artefact types - virtual indestructibility, a wide range of functions and values, huge variety in manufacturing traditions, as well as the subtractive character of stone and its rich potential for geological provenancing. In this 2007 book, Andrew Bevan considers individual stone vessel industries in great detail. He also offers a highly comparative and value-led perspective on production, consumption and exchange logics throughout the eastern Mediterranean over a period of two millennia during the Bronze Age (ca.3000-1200 BC).

Could the story of mankind be far older than we have previously believed? Using tools as varied as archaeo-astronomy, geology, and computer analysis of ancient myths, Graham Hancock presents a compelling case to suggest that it is.

In Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock embarks on a worldwide quest to put together all the pieces of the vast and fascinating jigsaw of mankind’s hidden past. In ancient monuments as far apart as Egypt’s Great Sphinx, the strange Andean ruins of Tihuanaco, and Mexico’s awe-inspiring Temples of the Sun and Moon, he reveals not only the clear fingerprints of an as-yet-unidentified civilization of remote antiquity, but also startling evidence of its vast sophistication, technological advancement, and evolved scientific knowledge.

A record-breaking number one bestseller in Britain, Fingerprints of the Gods contains the makings of an intellectual revolution, a dramatic and irreversible change in the way that we understand our past—and so our future.

And Fingerprints of God tells us something more. As we recover the truth about prehistory, and discover the real meaning of ancient myths and monuments, it becomes apparent that a warning has been handed down to us, a warning of terrible cataclysm that afflicts the Earth in great cycles at irregular intervals of time—a cataclysm that may be about to recur.

George Frison's Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains has been the standard text on plains prehistory since its first publication in 1978, influencing generations of archaeologists. Now, a third edition of this classic work is available for scholars, students, and avocational archaeologists. Thorough and comprehensive, extensively illustrated, the book provides an introduction to the archaeology of the more than 13,000 year long history of the western Plains and the adjacent Rocky Mountains. Reflecting the boom in recent archaeological data, it reports on studies at a wide array of sites from deep prehistory to recent times examining the variability in the archeological record as well as in field, analytical, and interpretive methods. The 3rd edition brings the book up to date in a number of significant areas, as well as addressing several topics inadequately developed in previous editions.

Northumberland has a great many attractive sites that are well-recorded, and are frequently visited and written about. However, in this new book Dr Stan Beckensall focuses upon places that are off the beaten track, not so well known, but all of enormous interest for their stunning locations and stories. They are scattered across the county in the hills, valleys, scarplands and on the coast. Sites featured include locations off the 'Alemouth Road' from Hexham to Rothbury; hidden valleys and waterfalls at Linhope Spout, Roughting Linn and Hareshaw Linn; seascapes; abandoned settlements and industry centres; pilgrimage routes; graveyards, and the remarkable rock formations that make up much of the landscape. Northumberland hides some of its history in names, and these too are revealed. Throughout are the author's reflections on the significance of what is seen and known.

Excavations carried out at two Late Minoan III sites at Mochlos in eastern Crete yielded a pottery assemblage from 31 tombs and 11 houses, which are cataloged, discussed, and illustrated together with petrographic analyses. The cemetery remains mirror the settlement remains, and the conclusions discuss how the two sites reflect each other. Rarely in Crete are a settlement and its cemetery both preserved, and it is extremely fortunate to be able to document both in a series of scientific excavation reports (Mochlos IIA-IIC). Contents: Introduction; 1. Petrographic Analysis of the Late Minoan III Ceramics; 2. The Late Minoan II-III Pottery; 3. Conclusions: The Decoration, Character, and Relative Chronology of the Late Minoan II-III Pottery; App. A. Petrographic Descriptions; App. B. Earlier Minoan and Later Orientalizing Pottery from Late Minoan III Contexts; Bibliography; Conc. A; Conc. B; Index; Tables; Figures; Plates.

This book is the tenth volume in the series of excavation reports about the harbor town of Pseira, which is located on the island of the same name, just off the northeast coast of Crete. The book focuses on the excavation and interpretation of the architecture and material culture in Block AF. This southern group of buildings is one of the most important areas in the settlement because of its long succession of building phases. Block AF provides the fullest sequence of building phases from any one area at Pseira, with habitation extending from before MM II to LM III. It has examples of complex architectural details including a "pillar crypt," elaborate upstairs floors, a well-preserved U-shaped staircase, and a well-designed kitchen, all of which contribute significantly to our knowledge of East Cretan building practices. In addition to domestic pottery, the houses furnish examples of stone tools, stone vessels, loom weights, inscriptions in Linear A, cult objects, animal bones, marine shells, and a wide range of material recovered from water sieving. This latter category, with burned grain, fish bones, shells, and other categories of materials, fills many gaps in our knowledge of Pseiran life.

This textbook offers an up-to-date academic synthesis of the Aegean islands from the earliest Palaeolithic period through to the demise of the Mycenaean civilization in the Late Bronze III period. The book integrates new findings and theoretical approaches whilst, at the same time, allowing readers to contextualize their understanding through engagement with bigger overarching issues and themes, often drawing explicitly on key theoretical concepts and debates. Structured according to chronological periods and with two dedicated chapters on Akrotiri and the debate around the volcanic eruption of Thera, this book is an essential companion for all those interested in the prehistory of the Cyclades and other Aegean islands.

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory is the first book in nearly a century to deal with traditional secret societies from a comparative perspective and the first from an archaeological viewpoint. Providing a clear definition, as well as the material signatures, of ethnographic secret societies, Brian Hayden demonstrates how they worked, what motivated their organizers, and what tactics they used to obtain what they wanted. He shows that far from working for the welfare of their communities, traditional secret societies emerged as predatory organizations operated for the benefit of their own members. Moreover, and contrary to the prevailing ideas that prehistoric rituals were used to integrate communities, Hayden demonstrates how traditional secret societies created divisiveness and inequalities. They were one of the key tools for increasing political control leading to chiefdoms, states, and world religions. Hayden's conclusions will be eye-opening, not only for archaeologists, but also for anthropologists, political scientists, and scholars of religion.

Hasanlu V provides archaeologists with a new, more accurate chronology of Hasanlu, the largest and arguably the most important archaeological site in the Gadar River Valley of northwestern Iran. This revised chronology introduces Hasanlu Periods VIa, V, and IVc for the first time. Based on new findings, the report overturns current constructions of the origins of the archaeological culture in Hasanlu, which sought to link the Monochrome Burnished Ware Horizon (formerly known as the Early Western Grey Ware Horizon) to the migration of new peoples into western Iran in the later second millennium B.C. Hasanlu V shows instead that the Monochrome Burnished Ware Horizon developed gradually from indigenous traditions. This reappraisal has important implications for our understanding of Indo-Iranian migrations into the Zagros region. University Museum Monograph, 137

This Reader in Gender Archaeology presents nineteen current, controversial and highly influential articles which confront and illuminate issues of gender in prehistory. The question of gender difference and whether it is natural or culturally constructed is a compelling one. The articles here, which draw on evidence from a wide range of geographic areas, demonstrate how all archaeological investigation can benefit from an awareness of issues of gender. They also show how the long-term nature of archaeological research can inform the gender debate across the disciplines. The volume:
* organizes this complex area into seven sections on key themes in gender archaeology: archaeological method and theory, human origins, division of labour, the social construction of gender, iconography and ideology, power and social hierarchies and new forms of archaeological narrative
* includes section introductions which outline the history of research on each topic and present the key points of each article
* presents a balance of material which rewrites women into prehistory, and articles which show how the concept of gender informs our understanding and interpretation of the past.

Peripheral Concerns examines the influence of one "core" region of the ancient Near Eastern world-Egypt-on urban development in the southern Levant in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, with emphasis on the relative stability and sustainability of this development in each era. The study utilizes a very broad scale "macro" approach to examine urban development using core-periphery theories, specifically in regard to southern Levantine-Egyptian interactions.While many studies examine urban development in both the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age, few compare this phenomenon in the two periods. Likewise, there are few studies of urban development in the southern Levant that compare contemporary Egyptian policies in that region to those in Nubia, despite the fact that Egyptian activities linked the eastern Mediterranean, the Nile Valley, and Nubia into one interactive system. The broad chronological and geographic framework utilized in this study therefore allows for a new approach to urban development in the southern Levant.

During the 1960s, in such works as Man the Hunter, scholars constructed a model of cultural evolution in which men were characterized as "cooperative hunters of big game." Women fit neatly into this model, such books as Woman the Gatherer explained, as gatherers of plant food. In spite of evidence of hunting by women, this model-which incorporated the unexamined assumption that women in prehistory were "immobilized" by pregnancy, lactation, and child care and therefore needed to be left at a home base-came to dominate archaeological interpretation of the economic roles of men and women. Women in Prehistory challenges this model and undertakes an examination of the archaeological record informed by insights into the cultural construction of gender that have emerged from scholarship in history, anthropology, biology, and related disciplines. Along with analysis of burial assemblages and of representations of gendered individuals, contributors study bone chemistry, assessment of skeletal pathologies, micro- and macro-scale distributional evidence, as well as analogical arguments from ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory to discuss pottery, shell matrix sites, skeletal material, the domestic setting, and spinning.

A Companion to South Asia in the Past provides the definitive overview of research and knowledge about South Asia s past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, provided by a truly global team of experts. * The most comprehensive and detailed scholarly treatment of South Asian archaeology and biological anthropology, providing ground-breaking new ideas and future challenges * Provides an in-depth and broad view of the current state of knowledge about South Asia s past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal * A comprehensive treatment of research in a crucial region for human evolution and biocultural adaptation * A global team of scholars together present a varied set of perspectives on South Asian pre- and proto-history

Brilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south - the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks - and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe. Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. This led to the development of a brilliant art style, often depicting scenes from Scythian mythology and everyday life. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, from the graves of kings on the Pontic steppe, with their elaborate gold work and vividly coloured fabrics, to the frozen tombs of the Altai mountains, where all the organic material - wooden carvings, carpets, saddles and even tattooed human bodies - is amazingly well preserved. Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia.