- Table View
- List View
Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece: Studies on Method and Meaning in Honor of Timothy E. Gregory
by Linda Jones HallThe essays in Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece honor the contributions of Timothy E. Gregory to our understanding of Greece from the Roman period to modern times. Evoking Gregory's diverse interests, the volume brings together anthropologists, art historians, archaeologists, historians, and philologists to address such contested topics as the end of Antiquity, the so-called Byzantine Dark Ages, the contours of the emerging Byzantine civilization, and identity in post-Medieval Greece. These papers demonstrate the continued vitality of both traditional and innovative approaches to the study of material culture and emphasise that historical interpretation should be the product of methodological self-awareness. In particular, this volume shows how the study of the material culture of post-Classical Greece over the last 30 years has made significant contributions to both the larger archaeological and historical discourse. The essays in this volume are organized under three headings - Archaeology and Method, the Archaeology of Identity, and the Changing Landscape - which highlight three main focuses of Gregory's research. Each essay interlaces new analyses with the contributions Gregory has made to our understanding of Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece. Read together these essays not only make a significant contribution to how we understand the post-Classical Greek world, but also to how we study the material culture of the Mediterranean world more broadly.
Archaeology and Intentionality: Understanding Ethics and Freedom in Past and Present Societies
by Artur RibeiroArchaeology and Intentionality explores perhaps one of the most overlooked topics in archaeology, that of intentionality. In archaeology, most explanations of human behaviour rely on intentionality, and this book fills a surprising gap in the literature. By identifying the historical trajectory of the notion of intentionality, this book reframes our understanding of what it means to act intentionally and how archaeologists provide explanations concerning past (and present) societies. In general, this book presents a strong framework for archaeological research, one that fits to current archaeological practices and research around the world. This framework considers that past actors were not unconditional free agents, who could act however they wished, nor were they absolute prisoners of the economic, biological, and environmental circumstances in which they lived. From the standpoint of intentionality, it becomes clear that human agency is not about what you can or cannot do, but about what you should do, that is to say, actions are above all ethical. In a world wealth inequality runs rampant, where humans have damaged the environment beyond recognition, and where technology advances at an alarming rate, it is important that we recognize our intentions and the ethical responsibility that accompanies those intentions. The book highlights how archaeology is the perfect discipline to understand how and from where those intentions come. Addressing several problems in archaeological theory and connecting archaeology, philosophy, and social theory, this book is for students and researchers interested in archaeological theory and how it informs practice.
Archaeology and Intentionality: Understanding Ethics and Freedom in Past and Present Societies
by Artur RibeiroArchaeology and Intentionality explores perhaps one of the most overlooked topics in archaeology, that of intentionality. In archaeology, most explanations of human behaviour rely on intentionality, and this book fills a surprising gap in the literature. By identifying the historical trajectory of the notion of intentionality, this book reframes our understanding of what it means to act intentionally and how archaeologists provide explanations concerning past (and present) societies. In general, this book presents a strong framework for archaeological research, one that fits to current archaeological practices and research around the world. This framework considers that past actors were not unconditional free agents, who could act however they wished, nor were they absolute prisoners of the economic, biological, and environmental circumstances in which they lived. From the standpoint of intentionality, it becomes clear that human agency is not about what you can or cannot do, but about what you should do, that is to say, actions are above all ethical. In a world wealth inequality runs rampant, where humans have damaged the environment beyond recognition, and where technology advances at an alarming rate, it is important that we recognize our intentions and the ethical responsibility that accompanies those intentions. The book highlights how archaeology is the perfect discipline to understand how and from where those intentions come. Addressing several problems in archaeological theory and connecting archaeology, philosophy, and social theory, this book is for students and researchers interested in archaeological theory and how it informs practice.
Archaeology and its Discontents: Why Archaeology Matters (Themes in Archaeology Series)
by John C. BarrettArchaeology and its Discontents examines the state of archaeology today and its development throughout the twentieth century, making a powerful case for new approaches. Surveying the themes of twentieth-century archaeological theory, Barrett looks at their successes, limitations, and failures. Seeing more failures and limitations than successes, he argues that archaeology has over-focused on explaining the human construction of material variability and should instead be more concerned with understanding how human diversity has been constructed. Archaeology matters, he argues, precisely because of the insights it can offer into the development of human diversity. The analysis and argument are illustrated throughout by reference to the development of the European Neolithic. Arguing both for new approaches and for the importance of archaeology as a discipline, Archaeology and its Discontents is for archaeologists at all levels, from student to professor and trainee to experienced practitioner.
Archaeology and its Discontents: Why Archaeology Matters (Themes in Archaeology Series)
by John C. BarrettArchaeology and its Discontents examines the state of archaeology today and its development throughout the twentieth century, making a powerful case for new approaches. Surveying the themes of twentieth-century archaeological theory, Barrett looks at their successes, limitations, and failures. Seeing more failures and limitations than successes, he argues that archaeology has over-focused on explaining the human construction of material variability and should instead be more concerned with understanding how human diversity has been constructed. Archaeology matters, he argues, precisely because of the insights it can offer into the development of human diversity. The analysis and argument are illustrated throughout by reference to the development of the European Neolithic. Arguing both for new approaches and for the importance of archaeology as a discipline, Archaeology and its Discontents is for archaeologists at all levels, from student to professor and trainee to experienced practitioner.
The Archaeology and Material Culture of Queenship in Medieval Hungary, 1000–1395 (Queenship and Power)
by Christopher MielkeThis book explores an alternate history of the power and agency of 30 Hungarian queens over 400 years by a rigorous examination of the material culture connected with their lives. By researching the objects, images, and spaces, it demonstrates how these women expressed and displayed their power. Queens used material culture and space not only to demonstrate their own power to a wide, international audience, but also to consolidate their own position when it was weakened by external circumstances. Both the public and private image of the queen factors significantly in understanding in her own role at the strongly centralized Hungarian court, and, moreover, how her position and person strengthened and complemented that of the king.
Archaeology and Modernity
by Julian ThomasThis is the first book-length study to explore the relationship between archaeology and modern thought, showing how philosophical ideas that developed in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries still dominate our approach to the material remains of ancient societies. Addressing current debates from a new viewpoint, Archaeology and Modernity discusses the modern emphasis on method rather than ethics or meaning, our understanding of change in history and nature, the role of the nation-state in forming our views of the past, and contemporary notions of human individuality, the mind, and materiality.
Archaeology and Modernity
by Julian ThomasThis is the first book-length study to explore the relationship between archaeology and modern thought, showing how philosophical ideas that developed in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries still dominate our approach to the material remains of ancient societies. Addressing current debates from a new viewpoint, Archaeology and Modernity discusses the modern emphasis on method rather than ethics or meaning, our understanding of change in history and nature, the role of the nation-state in forming our views of the past, and contemporary notions of human individuality, the mind, and materiality.
The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires
by Tamara L. BrayThis volume examines the commensal politics of early states and empires and offers a comparative perspective on how food and feasting have figured in the political calculus of archaic states in both the Old and New Worlds. It provides a cross-cultural and comparative analysis for scholars and graduate students concerned with the archaeology of complex societies, the anthropology of food and feasting, ancient statecraft, archaeological approaches to micro-political processes, and the social interpretation of prehistoric pottery.
Archaeology and Preservation of Gendered Landscapes
by Sherene Baugher Suzanne M. Spencer-WoodHistorical archaeology of landscapes initially followed the pattern of Classical Archaeology by studying elite men's gardens. Over time, particularly in North America, the field has expanded to cover larger settlement areas, but still often with ungendered and elite focus. The editors of this volume seek to fill this important gap in the literature by presenting studies of gendered power dynamics and their effect on minority groups in North America. Case studies presented include communities of Native Americans, African Americans, multi-ethnic groups, religious communities, and industrial communities. Just as the research focus has previously neglected the groups presented here, so too has funding to preserve important archaeological sites. As the contributors to this important volume present a new framework for understanding the archaeology of religious and social minority groups, they also demonstrate the importance of preserving the cultural landscapes, particularly of minority groups, from destruction by the modern dominant culture. A full and complete picture of cultural preservation has to include all of the groups that interacted form it.
Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice (Archaeology and Religion in South Asia)
by Daniel MichonThis book explores the ways in which past cultures have been used to shape colonial and postcolonial cultural identities. It provides a theoretical framework to understand these processes, and offers illustrative case studies in which the agency of ancient peoples, rather than the desires of antiquarians and archaeologists, is brought to the fore.
Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice (Archaeology and Religion in South Asia)
by Daniel MichonThis book explores the ways in which past cultures have been used to shape colonial and postcolonial cultural identities. It provides a theoretical framework to understand these processes, and offers illustrative case studies in which the agency of ancient peoples, rather than the desires of antiquarians and archaeologists, is brought to the fore.
Archaeology and the Capitalist World System: A Study from Russian America (Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology)
by Aron L. Crowell
Archaeology and the Media (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications)
by Timothy Clack Marcus BrittainThe public’s fascination with archaeology has meant that archaeologists have had to deal with media more regularly than other scholarly disciplines. How archaeologists communicate their research to the public through the media and how the media view archaeologists has become an important feature in the contemporary world of academic and professional archaeologists. In this volume, a group of archaeologists, many with media backgrounds, address the wide range of questions in this intersection of fields. An array of media forms are covered including television, film, photography, the popular press, art, video games, radio and digital media with a focus on the overriding question: What are the long-term implications of the increasing exposure through and reliance upon media forms for archaeology in the contemporary world? The volume will be of interest to archaeologists and those teaching public archaeology courses.
Archaeology and the Media (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications)
by Timothy Clack Marcus BrittainThe public’s fascination with archaeology has meant that archaeologists have had to deal with media more regularly than other scholarly disciplines. How archaeologists communicate their research to the public through the media and how the media view archaeologists has become an important feature in the contemporary world of academic and professional archaeologists. In this volume, a group of archaeologists, many with media backgrounds, address the wide range of questions in this intersection of fields. An array of media forms are covered including television, film, photography, the popular press, art, video games, radio and digital media with a focus on the overriding question: What are the long-term implications of the increasing exposure through and reliance upon media forms for archaeology in the contemporary world? The volume will be of interest to archaeologists and those teaching public archaeology courses.
Archaeology and the Modern World: Colonial Transcripts in South Africa and Chesapeake
by Martin HallArchaeology and the Modern World advances a new controversial theory of historical archaeology. Using new case studies, Martin Hall evaluates the major theoretical traditions in historical archaeology while contributing significantly to the debate. In this study the author places an emphasis on material culture and the recent past to bring to light a picture of an unstable and violent early colonial world in which material culture played a crucial mediating role.
Archaeology and the Modern World: Colonial Transcripts in South Africa and Chesapeake
by Martin HallArchaeology and the Modern World advances a new controversial theory of historical archaeology. Using new case studies, Martin Hall evaluates the major theoretical traditions in historical archaeology while contributing significantly to the debate. In this study the author places an emphasis on material culture and the recent past to bring to light a picture of an unstable and violent early colonial world in which material culture played a crucial mediating role.
Archaeology and the Old Testament (PDF)
by James B. PritchardArchaeology is a science in which progress can be measured by the advances made backward into the past. The last one hundred years of archaeology have added a score of centuries to the story of the growth of our cultural and religious heritage, as the ancient world has been recovered from the sands and caves of the modern Near East-Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq. Measured by the number of centuries which have been annexed to man's history in a relatively few years, progress has been truly phenomenal. This book deals with the recent advance and with those pioneers to the past who made it possible. Interest in biblical history has played an important part in this recovery. Names such as Babylon, Nineveh, Jericho, Jerusalem, and others prominent on the pages of the Bible, have gripped the popular imagination and worked like magic to gain support for excavations.This book is written from the widely shared conviction that the discovery of the ancient Near East has shed significant light on the Bible. Indeed, the newly-discovered ancient world has effected a revolution in the understanding of the Bible, its people, and their history. My purpose is to assess, in non-technical language which the layman can understand, the kind of change in viewing the biblical past which archaeology has brought about in the last century. Since the text of the Bible has remained constant over this period, it is obvious that any new light on its meaning must provide a better perspective for seeing the events which it describes. In short, I am concerned with the question, How has history as written in the Bible been changed, enlarged, or substantiated by the past century of the archaeological work?--from the Preface
Archaeology and the Pan-European Romanesque
by T. O'KeefeRomanesque is the style name given to the art and architecture of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. First used in the early nineteenth century to express the perceived indebtedness of the visual-artistic and architectural cultures of this period to their Classical antecedents, the term has survived two centuries of increasingly sophisticated readings of the relevant medieval buildings and objet d'art. The study of Romanesque as a stylistic phenomenon is now almost exclusively the preserve of art historians, particularly in the English-speaking world. Here 'the Romanesque' is subjected to a long overdue, theoretically-informed, archaeological inquiry. The ideological foundations and epistemological boundaries of Romanesque scholarship are critiqued, and the constructs of 'Romanesque' and 'Europe' are deconstructed, and alternative strategies for interpreting Romanesque's constituent material are mapped out. This book should, at the very least, illuminate the need for debate.
Archaeology and the Pan-European Romanesque
by T. O'KeefeRomanesque is the style name given to the art and architecture of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. First used in the early nineteenth century to express the perceived indebtedness of the visual-artistic and architectural cultures of this period to their Classical antecedents, the term has survived two centuries of increasingly sophisticated readings of the relevant medieval buildings and objet d'art. The study of Romanesque as a stylistic phenomenon is now almost exclusively the preserve of art historians, particularly in the English-speaking world. Here 'the Romanesque' is subjected to a long overdue, theoretically-informed, archaeological inquiry. The ideological foundations and epistemological boundaries of Romanesque scholarship are critiqued, and the constructs of 'Romanesque' and 'Europe' are deconstructed, and alternative strategies for interpreting Romanesque's constituent material are mapped out. This book should, at the very least, illuminate the need for debate.
Archaeology and the Public Purpose: Writings on and by M.N. Deshpande
by Nayanjot LahiriThis book interleaves the history of post-Independence archaeology in India with the life and times of Madhukar Narhar Deshpande (1920-2008), a leading Indian archaeologist who went on to become the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India. Spanning nearly a century, this is a tale told through a main character—Deshpande himself—some of whose writings have been included in the volume. We explore the circumstances which brought men like Deshpande to this career path; what it was like to grow up in a family devoted to India's freedom; the watershed moment that created a large cohort that was trained by Mortimer Wheeler, the doyen of British archaeology; the unknown conservation stories around the Gol Gumbad in Bijapur and the Qutb Minar in Delhi; the forgotten story of how the fabric of a historic Hindu shrine, the Badrinath temple, was saved; the chemistry shared by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the archaeologist, Deshpande, at the Ajanta and Ellora cave shrines, and; the political and administrative challenges faced by director generals of archaeology. The book is a must read for anyone interested in India's past in general and the history of Indian archaeology in particular.
Archaeology and Women: Ancient and Modern Issues (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications)
by Sue Hamilton Ruth D. Whitehouse Katherine I. WrightArchaeology and Women draws together from a variety of angles work currently being done within a contemporary framework on women in archaeology. One section of this collection of original articles addresses the historical and contemporary roles of women in the discipline. Another attempts to link contemporary archaeological theory and practice to work on women and gender in other fields. Finally, this volume presents a wide diversity of theoretical approaches and methods of study of women in the ancient world, representing a cross section of work being carried out today under the broad banner of gender archaeology. The geographical and chronological range of the contributions is also wide, from Southeast Asia and South America to Western Asia, Egypt and Europe, from Great Britain to Greece, and from 10,000 years ago to the recent past. An ideal sampler for courses dealing with women and archaeology.
Archaeology and Women: Ancient and Modern Issues (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications)
by Sue Hamilton Ruth D Whitehouse Katherine I WrightArchaeology and Women draws together from a variety of angles work currently being done within a contemporary framework on women in archaeology. One section of this collection of original articles addresses the historical and contemporary roles of women in the discipline. Another attempts to link contemporary archaeological theory and practice to work on women and gender in other fields. Finally, this volume presents a wide diversity of theoretical approaches and methods of study of women in the ancient world, representing a cross section of work being carried out today under the broad banner of gender archaeology. The geographical and chronological range of the contributions is also wide, from Southeast Asia and South America to Western Asia, Egypt and Europe, from Great Britain to Greece, and from 10,000 years ago to the recent past. An ideal sampler for courses dealing with women and archaeology.
Archaeology and World Religion
by Timothy InsollArchaeology and World Religion is an important new work, being the first to examine these two vast topics together. The volume explores the relationship between, and the contribution archaeology can make to the study of 'World Religions'.The contributors consider a number of questions:* can religious (sacred) texts be treated as historical documents, or do they merit special treatment? * Does archaeology with its emphasis on material culture dispel notions of the ideal/divine? * Does the study of archaeology and religion lead to differing interpretations of the same event?* In what ways does the notion of a uniform religious identity exist and is this recognisable in the archaeological record?Clearly written and up-to-date, this volume will be an indispensable research tool for academics and specialists in these fields.
Archaeology and World Religion: The Proceedings Of The Cambridge Conference (British Archaeological Reports International Ser.)
by Timothy InsollArchaeology and World Religion is an important new work, being the first to examine these two vast topics together. The volume explores the relationship between, and the contribution archaeology can make to the study of 'World Religions'.The contributors consider a number of questions:* can religious (sacred) texts be treated as historical documents, or do they merit special treatment? * Does archaeology with its emphasis on material culture dispel notions of the ideal/divine? * Does the study of archaeology and religion lead to differing interpretations of the same event?* In what ways does the notion of a uniform religious identity exist and is this recognisable in the archaeological record?Clearly written and up-to-date, this volume will be an indispensable research tool for academics and specialists in these fields.