Archaeology & Ancient History / Archaeological Method & Theory
Format: Hardback
Pages: 557
ISBN: 9788779341104
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2006
Illustrations: illus
Description:
This book deals with the interrelationship between society and war seen through the analytical eyes of anthropologists and archaeologists. War is a ghastly thing, which unfortunately thrives almost everywhere in the world today. We need, therefore, to have a better understanding of what war does to people and their societies.
War produces change, and archaeologists and anthropologists are analytically equipped to pinpoint its direction, patterning, scale and content. The perspective -- and filter -- of time provides one important tool, while context and comparison provide other tools. Looking at the history of war studies, war is quite often perceived of and treated as something set aside from other practices; almost personified. However, the results published in this book allow us to say that it is never autonomous and self-regulating. War always forms part of something else. Numerous questions arise, and at least some answers -- often tentative and multifaceted -- are provided in the twenty-eight studies included in the book. They certainly add to an ongoing debate, hopefully qualifying it as well.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 118
ISBN: 9781902937359
Pub Date: 20 Apr 2006
Series: McDonald Institute Monographs
Illustrations: 59 b/w illus
Description:
Archaeoacoustics focuses on the role of sound in human behaviour, from earliest times up to the development of mechanical detection and recording devices in the 19th century. Recent calls for an `archaeology of the senses' have served as a timely, even overdue reminder that the past which we experience - and which others have experienced before us - is multisensory, drawing not only upon the primary field of vision, but also on touch, smell and hearing. Megalithic tombs, Palaeolithic painted caves, Romanesque churches and prehistoric rock shelters all present specific sound qualities which offer clues as to how they may have been designed and used.
Voices resonate, external noises are subdued or eliminated, and a special aural dimension is accessed which complements the evidence of our other senses. The present volume, arising from a conference held at the McDonald Institute in 2003, brings together archaeologists and specialists in early musical instruments and acoustics in an attempt to unlock some of the meaning latent in the acoustics of such early structures and spaces. It will be essential reading for all who are concerned to seek a broader understanding of human sensory experience from prehistory up to historical times.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9781902937335
Pub Date: 20 Apr 2006
Series: McDonald Institute Monographs
Illustrations: 50 b/w illus
Description:
Evolutionary ('phylogenetic') trees were first used to infer lost histories nearly two centuries ago by manuscript scholars reconstructing original texts. Today, computer methods are enabling phylogenetic trees to transform genetics, historical linguistics and even the archaeological study of artefact shapes and styles. But which phylogenetic methods are best suited to retracing the evolution of languages?
And which types of language data are most informative about deep prehistory? In this book, leading specialists engage with these key questions. Essential reading for linguists, geneticists and archaeologists, these studies demonstrate how phylogenetic tools are illuminating previously intractable questions about language prehistory. This innovative volume arose from a conference of linguists, geneticists and archaeologists held at Cambridge in 2004.
Pathways to Inclusion
A Guide to Staff Development
Format: Paperback
Pages: 244
ISBN: 9789979546467
Pub Date: 01 Apr 2006
Imprint: University of Iceland Press
Description:
The book is, as the title indicates, written to support staff development in schools working towards inclusive education. The purpose of the material is to diseminate to teachers, parents and support services elements of successful practices of inclusive schooling in four European countries. It was produced by a collaborative team from Austria, Iceland, Portugal and Spain as part of a Leonardo da Vinci, European Union project called Enhancing Teachers' Ability in Inclusion.
The outcome of the project was recently selected by the Directorate-General of Education and Culture of the European Commission as a good example of innovation in vocational education in the field of Social insertion/formation for the disabled. The book is based on several case studies of successful efforts towards inclusive education in compulsory schools in the four countries. The introduction to the book introduces the context of the project and the research methodology. The conclusions section discusses the findings in nine chapters representing the major themes emerging from the study. Each chapter states the main findings for the corresponding theme and then makes practical suggestions for school and staff development based on these findings. Finally, there is a short discussion of the general implications of the study, including guidance on how the materials might be used. The bulk of the material is a handbook for staff development, divided into nine chapters corresponding to the themes emerging from the study.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842172049
Pub Date: 28 Jan 2006
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls
Description:
The importance of context has been extensively discussed in recent years. This volume attempts to address the fragmentation and misconceptions that have developed around context in archaeology, highlighting the common threads that link together varying contextual perspectives. The first part of the book examines the concept of archaeological context by offering a critical assessment of its 'historical' development.
The second section presents a number of case studies, and the third section discusses the management of archaeological material. Finally, part four takes the discussion on context further, setting the content of the book in a wider perspective.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 399
ISBN: 9788779340053
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2005
Series: The Dolphin
Description:
What is human nature? How is language related to thought -- and should the connection be investigated socially or scientifically? Is external reality coherent or fragmented?
What are the foundations of rationality, and how trustworthy are they? Such questions have bedevilled thinkers for millennia. Contemporary scholars have harnessed enormous resources to find answers, yet their inquiry is invariably constrained by the tunnel vision of academic specialisation. This issue of The Dolphin seeks to establish common ground among the disciplines examining the mind–brain continuum. Among those meeting the editors' challenge to think outside the disciplinary box are Noam Chomsky, John Searle and Steven Pinker, as well as a dozen others from the fields of neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, English, computer science and ethnography. The implicit framework that results should help researchers in all fields locate the diversity of human knowing within a joint ontological perspective.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 275
ISBN: 9781902937342
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2005
Series: McDonald Institute Monographs
Illustrations: 143 ills., 36 tables
Description:
How were early stone tools made, and what can they tell us about the development of human cognition? This question lies at the basis of archaeological research on human origins and evolution, and the present volume fulfils a growing need among advanced students and researchers working in this field. The individual chapters by a range of leading international scholars approach stone knapping from a multidisciplinary perspective that embraces psychology, physiology, behavioural biology and primatology as well as archaeology.
The skills and behaviour of humans and their primate relatives are key parts of the enquiry. The result is a better understanding of early human engagement with the material world and the complex actions required for the creation of stone tools. The book contains many illustrations and is extensively referenced, and provides a landmark contribution in this field.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 218
ISBN: 9781842171684
Pub Date: 05 Oct 2005
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Description:
The eastern Mediterranean was the centre of trade for many centuries, sitting at the junction of what are now Europe, Asia and Africa. It was the place where exotic produce and products could be traded or exchanged for things that had their origins perhaps thousands of miles away. But wherever trade takes place, a similar exchange of ideas, technology and culture also occurs.
This book presents thirty papers on this very subject, looking at the ways in which we can measure the transmission of culture, and how this transmission varied across time and space.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781593332747
Pub Date: 14 Sep 2005
Description:
Sam Osmanagich transports the reader to ruined Mayan cities including the brilliant Chichen Itza, elegant Uxmal, artistic Copan, magical Palenque, forgotten Ek Balam, beautiful Izamal, hidden Yaxchilan, spiritual Oxkintok, monumental Coba, and colossal Tikal.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842172001
Pub Date: 05 Aug 2005
Illustrations: 86 b/w illus and pls
Description:
The term 'Mesolithic' was born in the nineteenth century from the need to label a 'hiatus' period and was not generally accepted as a useful term by many scholars until around fifty years later. It has been championed by some, but still concerns others because of the difficulty of defining what it represents. This volume highlights the enthusiasm for Mesolithic studies in the 21st century and the feeling that there is a need to explore the many facets of Mesolithic lifeways.
Approaches are now moving away from the traditional Mesolithic canon that seems to have been based on a particular set of biological and/or ecological perspectives and are now looking for new directions and new theoretical arenas which can only help stimulate Mesolithic debate. The papers in this volume take a range of approaches to a period that has largely been devoid of explicit theoretical discussion. They deconstruct and explore a broad variety of subjects, including mobility, complexity, seasonality, death & burial, gender & sexuality, social relations, music, human agency, ethnoarchaeology and emotion.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9781842171486
Pub Date: 10 May 2005
Description:
In 1998 Anna Marguerite McCann received the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America for her distinguished archaeological achievements. This volume includes the papers presented at a special colloquium held in her honour, along with essays by other colleagues and friends. The volume is divided into two thematic parts: the first reflects Anna McCann's general interests in ancient art and archaeology, especially Greek and Roman sculpture; the other, her specific expertise in underwater and port archaeology and technology.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 280
ISBN: 9781902937304
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2005
Series: McDonald Institute Monographs
Illustrations: 62 ills., 3 tables
Description:
What is the relationship between mind and ideas on the one hand, and the material things of the world on the other? In recent years, researchers have rejected the old debate about the primacy of the mind or material, and have sought to establish more nuanced understandings of the ways humans interact with their material worlds. In this volume alternative approaches are presented, deriving from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives.
Contributors debate the significance of key thresholds in the human past, including sedentism, domestication, and the emergence of social inequality and their impact on changing patterns of human cognition, symbolic expression, and technological innovation. In its global coverage and its broad theoretical scope, this landmark volume offers an innovative and comprehensive assessment of current thinking and future directions.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 316
ISBN: 9780972435345
Pub Date: 20 Jan 2005
Series: American Furniture Annual
Illustrations: 308 illus. (230 colour). 10 fig. Table. End-paper
Description:
Acknowledged as the journal of record in its field, American Furniture presents new research on furniture design, use, production, and appreciation. Begun in 1993, this award-winning annual provides a comprehensive forum on furniture history, technology, connoisseurship, and conservation by the foremost scholars in the field. It is the only interdisciplinary journal devoted exclusively to furniture made or used in the Americas from the 17th century to the present.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9781842171738
Pub Date: 01 Jan 2005
Series: TRAC
Illustrations: b/w illus, tables
Description:
The fourteenth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference was held at the University of Durham Department of Archaeology, March 2004. The papers present and discuss information drawn from as wide a range of geographical regions of the Roman Empire as the scope of theoretical and methodological approaches applied. An equally wide selection of subject matter is illustrated, including the ancient economy, historiography and modern perceptions of the Roman world, production, supply and consumption of material culture, social identities and the experience of social space and the landscape.
Contents: Preface; The economy of Roman Britain: Representation and historiography (Kevin Greene) ; Reconstructing syntheses in Romano-British cremation (Jake Weekes) ; Metalworking and Late Roman power: A Study of towns in Later Roman Britain (Adam Rogers) ; Not at random: Evidence for a regionalized coin supply? (Fleur Kemmers) ; Regional identities and the social use of ceramics (Martin Pitts) ; Social and economic aspects of glass recycling (Daniel Keller) ; Interaction and exchange in food production in the Nijmegen frontier area during the Early Roman period (Annemiek Robeerst) ; Brickworks and ladders: Explaining intra-regional diversity of late prehistoric and Roman landscapes in the territory of the Parisi (Mick A Atha) ; Beyond the temple: Blurring the boundaries of 'sacred space' (Eleanor Ghey) ; The cupae of Iberia in their monumental contexts: A study of the relationship between social status and commemoration with barrel-shaped and semi-cylindrical tombstones (Charlotte Tupman) ; The quick and the dead in the extra-urban landscape: The Roman cemetery at Ostia/ Portus as a lived environment (E J Graham) ; Houses, GIS and the micro-topology of Pompeian domestic space (Michael A Anderson) ; Unifying aspects of Roman fortresses (Mark Driessen) .
Format: Paperback
Pages: 91
ISBN: 9781901992472
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2004
Illustrations: 28 b/w illus
Description:
This volume will be an invaluable asset to all archaeologists involved in fieldwork and site management. In the modern environment of developer-funded archaeology, commercial development and site preservation, there are more and more cases where archaeological sites are being impacted upon by various forms of construction. In order to understand and protect the historic environment wherever possible, archaeologists are faced with the crucial task of making decisions on how best to combine the needs of development whilst maintaining our archaeological heritage.
Yet the majority of archaeologists have only limited knowledge of the great range of construction practices and how these can impact upon archaeological deposits and structures. This book has been researched and produced with these problems in mind, to inform and assist archaeologists in making decisions where sites may be threatened by development. Extensive information on the range of construction techniques as well as a range of suggested strategies to mitigate the impact of the techniques outlined. The information on construction types and impacts is supported by an annotated literature review, case studies, a series of technical appendices of engineering processes and a data base of mitigation/preservation in situ case studies collected from the British archaeological community.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 162
ISBN: 9781902937250
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2004
Illustrations: b/w figs
Description:
In 1987, Colin Renfrew's Archaeology and Language challenged many perceptions about how one language family spread across large parts of the world. In doing so he re-invigorated an important exchange between archaeologists and historical linguists. At precisely the same time, a quite separate field, human genetics, was making considerable steps forward in the elucidation of human ancestry.
These three parallel lines of enquiry into genes, words, and things have, over the ensuing two decades, entirely transformed our perceptions of the human past. This volume brings together contributors to that transformation from around the world, to honour Colin Renfrew with a series of key papers. They include a number of impressive synthetic statements, as well as case studies at the frontiers of three different branches of research. They range from global accounts of human dispersal through to archaeological, genetic and linguistic studies, illustrating what has been achieved over the past two decades, and the most promising avenues of research for the future.