More than any other category of evidence, ceramics ofters archaeologists their most abundant and potentially enlightening source of information on the past. Being made primarily of day, a relatively inexpensive material that is available in every region, ceramics became essential in virtually every society in the world during the past ten thousand years. The straightfor ward technology of preparing, forming, and firing day into hard, durable shapes has meant that societies at various levels of complexity have come to rely on it for a wide variety of tasks. Ceramic vessels quickly became essential for many household and productive tasks. Food preparation, cooking, and storage-the very basis of settled village life-could not exist as we know them without the use of ceramic vessels. Often these vessels broke into pieces, but the virtually indestructible quality of the ceramic material itself meant that these pieces would be preserved for centuries, waiting to be recovered by modem archaeologists. The ability to create ceramic material with diverse physical properties, to form vessels into so many different shapes, and to decorate them in limitless manners, led to their use in far more than utilitarian contexts. Some vessels were especially made to be used in trade, manufacturing activities, or rituals, while ceramic material was also used to make other items such as figurines, models, and architectural ornaments."

More than any other category of evidence, ceramics ofters archaeologists their most abundant and potentially enlightening source of information on the past. Being made primarily of day, a relatively inexpensive material that is available in every region, ceramics became essential in virtually every society in the world during the past ten thousand years. The straightfor ward technology of preparing, forming, and firing day into hard, durable shapes has meant that societies at various levels of complexity have come to rely on it for a wide variety of tasks. Ceramic vessels quickly became essential for many household and productive tasks. Food preparation, cooking, and storage-the very basis of settled village life-could not exist as we know them without the use of ceramic vessels. Often these vessels broke into pieces, but the virtually indestructible quality of the ceramic material itself meant that these pieces would be preserved for centuries, waiting to be recovered by modem archaeologists. The ability to create ceramic material with diverse physical properties, to form vessels into so many different shapes, and to decorate them in limitless manners, led to their use in far more than utilitarian contexts. Some vessels were especially made to be used in trade, manufacturing activities, or rituals, while ceramic material was also used to make other items such as figurines, models, and architectural ornaments."

Empires, the largest political systems of the ancient and early modern world, powerfully transformed the lives of people within and even beyond their frontiers in ways quite different from other, non-imperial societies. Appearing in all parts of the globe, and in many different epochs, empires invite comparative analysis - yet few attempts have been made to place imperial systems within such a framework. This book brings together studies by distinguished scholars from diverse academic traditions, including anthropology, archaeology, history and classics. The empires discussed include case studies from Central and South America, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Near East, South East Asia and China, and range in time from the first millennium BC to the early modern era. The book organises these detailed studies into five thematic sections: sources, approaches and definitions; empires in a wider world; imperial integration and imperial subjects; imperial ideologies; and the afterlife of empires.

In Worlds of Gender ten prominent scholars consider the research on gender and archaeology that has been conducted around the world. The authors discuss the archaeological evidence for gender distinctions from Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Australia, Europe, Mesoamerica, North America, and South America. Although some regions of the world have only been studied sporadically, this volume brings together the totality of the evidence to make it possible to compare sexual roles and identities from far-flung cultures of vastly different time periods. Worlds of Gender is an excellent resource for comparative cultural studies and gender studies, as well as a useful examination of how gender roles affect social structures.

The study of specialized craft production has a long tradition in archaeological research. Through analyses of material remains and the contexts of their production and use, archaeologists can examine the organization of craft production and the economic and political status of craft producers. This study combines archaeological and historical evidence from the author's twenty years of fieldwork at the imperial capital of Vijayanagara to explore the role and significance of craft production in the city's political economy of the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. By examining a diverse range of crafts from poetry to pottery, Sinopoli evaluates models of craft production and expands upon theoretical and historical understandings of empires in general and Vijayanagara in particular. It is the most broad-ranging study of craft production in South Asia, or in any other early state empire.

Drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and perspectives, this volume approaches ancient India both historically and geographically. The primary temporal focus lies in India's "Early Historic" period, from the mid-first millennium BCE through the mid-first millennium CE. The geographic focus is shifted landward rather than seaward and is centered on South Asia rather than the Mediterranean. Contributors examine power and material culture; Mediterranean image making, which looks at Greek and Roman understandings of India; and language and otherness, which explores Indian knowledge and understandings of outsiders. The volume as a whole directs us to the complex webs and networks that throughout Indian history have linked South Asians to each other and to the world beyond the subcontinent. A very wide world indeed.

Contributors are Shinu A. Abraham, Madhav Deshpande, Grant Parker, Alka Patel, Himanshu P. Ray, James Romm, Martha Ann Selby, and Thomas R. Trautmann.

Grant Parker is Assistant Professor of Classics, Stanford University.

Carla M. Sinopoli is Professor of Anthropology and Curator and Director, Museum of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan.

Vijayanagara, the "City of Victory," was the capital of South India's largest and most successful pre-colonial empire from c. AD 1330-1565. This richly illustrated volume reports on the results of a ten-year systematic regional archaeological survey in the hinterland or "metropolitan region" of this vast and well-preserved urban site.

Carla Sinopoli examines a diverse range of crafts to explore the role and significance of craft production in the political economy of the fourteenth through seventeenth-century South Indian Vijayanagara empire. Ranging from poetry to pottery, Sinopoli utilizes evidence from twenty years of fieldwork at the Vijayanagara capital, one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world in its time. This book is a broad-ranging study of craft production in South Asia, as well as other early state empires.