Exploring the Role of Analytical Scale in Archaeological Interpretation (bar s)
These eight papers, plus an introduction and two final discussions, grew from a symposium held at the Society for Americal Archaeology in Philadelphia in 2000, which discussed the effect on analytical scale on the interpretation of the archaeological record. In other words, the contributors debate the validity of archaeologists’ choices regarding the limits of their research area, such as geographical and temporal limitations, and the size of the material discussed, ranging from a complete castle or settlement to a few finds. The case studies are broad in their range, including early European farming, the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, the uses of archaeometry, early Anglo-Saxon East Anglia, Late Antique Volterra and early medieval European cities.
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read moreThe Development of Early Medieval and Later Poultry and Cheapside: Excavations at 1 Poultry and Vicinity, City of London (MoLAS Monograph)
One of the largest excavations in the City of London, at 1 Poultry, recovered a remarkable archaeological sequence from the 1st to the 20th century AD. This volume presents the evidence for Late Saxon, medieval and post-medieval development of this part of the city. Poultry occupied a prominent position at the eastern side of Cheapside, the city’s principal medieval market street; integrating documentary evidence with the archaeological record has provided an outstandingly detailed account of this area. Re-occupation of the site in the later 10th century began with the construction of scattered sunken-floored buildings; a more regular pattern of settlement, characterised by narrow-fronted timber buildings along the roadsides, developed by the early 11th century. Occupation became progressively denser up to the 13th century when large stone-built houses began to be built in previously open areas behind the street frontages. Metalworking evidence from the excavated buildings provides evidence of early economic activity, corresponding with later documentary evidence for smiths, ironmongers and other metalworkers in the area.
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read moreMicroarchaeology: Beyond the Visible Archaeological Record
The archaeological record is a combination of what is seen by eye, as well as the microscopic record revealed with the help of instrumentation. The information embedded in the microscopic record can significantly add to our understanding of past human behavior, provided this information has not been altered by the passage of time. Microarchaeology seeks to understand the microscopic record in terms of the type of information embedded in this record, the materials in which this information resides, and the conditions under which a reliable signal can be extracted. This book highlights the concepts needed to extract information from the microscopic record. Intended for all archaeologists and archaeological scientists, it will be of particular interest to students who have some background in the natural sciences as well as archaeology. *Emphasizes the nature of the materials in which information is embedded and the problems associated with extracting a real signal. *Provides a comprehensive list of the types of information embedded in the microscopic archaeological record. *Offers an in-depth overview of the use of infrared spectroscopy for analyzing the microscopic record, the only one of its kind available.
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read moreThe Past and Present of Leprosy: Archaeological, Historical, Palaeopathological and Clinical Approaches (bar s)
Thirty-seven papers, from a conference held in Bradford in 1999, examine leprosy from all angles: as a historical disease overwhelmed by stigma and as a condition that is still prevalent in much of the world despite new medications. Contributors discuss the medical diagnosis and treatment of leprosy, its effects on the skeleton using archaeological and historical evidence, its occurrence in the archaeological record worldwide and detecting its traces in DNA. Case studies are taken from across the ancient, medieval and modern worlds, including the Near East, Roman Egypt, medieval England, Wales and Ireland, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Asia and the Pacific.
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read moreHuman Evolution, Language and Mind: A Psychological and Archaeological Inquiry
The question of how modern human behaviour emerged from pre-human hominid behaviour is central to discussions of human evolution. This important book argues that the capacity to use signs in a symbolic way, identified by the authors as language, is the basis for behaviour that can be described as human. The book is the product of a unique collaboration between the key disciplines in the debate about human evolution and mentality – psychology and archaeology. It investigates the significance and nature of the emergence of linguistic behaviour. The text critically examines the archaeological record of hominid evolution and argues that linguistic behaviour emerged no earlier than 100,000 years ago. The book’s interdisciplinary approach allows critical attention to be given to an impressively broad range of relevant literature. For the first time, all the known pieces of this evolutionary puzzle are examined in detail.
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read moreThe Archaeological Northeast
Despite the advances made in archaeology over the past generation, the Northeast remains the most misunderstood of all the archaeological regions of North America. With a complex environmental history shaped by ice sheets from the last glaciation, and highly acidic soils characteristic of the area, the kinds of organic artifacts found in other areas have been destroyed in the Northeast. The result is a sometimes evasive, particularly complicated, and always fragmentary archaeological record. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, the Northeast is a region that inspires the development of innovative research designs and thoughtful and relevant questions. Each author has been a graduate student of Dena Dincauze, who has done much to foster understanding of the prehistory of Northeastern North America.
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read moreThe Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches (New Directions in Archaeology)
Groups of people abandoned sites in different ways, and for different reasons. And what they did when they left a settlement or area had a direct bearing on the kind and quality of cultural remains that entered the archaeological record, for example, whether buildings were dismantled or left standing, or tools buried, destroyed or removed from the site. Contributors to this unique collection on site abandonment draw on ethnoarchaeological and archaeological data from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Near East.