Archaeology in the Making

Archaeology in the Making
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 444
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780415634809
ISBN-13 : 0415634806
Rating : 4/5 (09 Downloads)

Synopsis Archaeology in the Making by : William L. Rathje

Archaeology in the Making is a collection of bold statements about archaeology, its history, how it works, and why it is more important than ever. This book comprises conversations about archaeology among some of its notable contemporary figures. They delve deeply into the questions that have come to fascinate archaeologists over the last forty years or so, those that concern major events in human history such as the origins of agriculture and the state, and questions about the way archaeologists go about their work. Many of the conversations highlight quite intensely held personal insight into what motivates us to pursue archaeology; some may even be termed outrageous in the light they shed on the way archaeological institutions operate - excavation teams, professional associations, university departments. Archaeology in the Making is a unique document detailing the history of archaeology in second half of the 20th century to the present day through the words of some of its key proponents. It will be invaluable for anybody who wants to understand the theory and practice of this ever developing discipline.

Making

Making
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 215
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781136763670
ISBN-13 : 1136763678
Rating : 4/5 (70 Downloads)

Synopsis Making by : Tim Ingold

Making creates knowledge, builds environments and transforms lives. Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture are all ways of making, and all are dedicated to exploring the conditions and potentials of human life. In this exciting book, Tim Ingold ties the four disciplines together in a way that has never been attempted before. In a radical departure from conventional studies that treat art and architecture as compendia of objects for analysis, Ingold proposes an anthropology and archaeology not of but with art and architecture. He advocates a way of thinking through making in which sentient practitioners and active materials continually answer to, or ‘correspond’, with one another in the generation of form. Making offers a series of profound reflections on what it means to create things, on materials and form, the meaning of design, landscape perception, animate life, personal knowledge and the work of the hand. It draws on examples and experiments ranging from prehistoric stone tool-making to the building of medieval cathedrals, from round mounds to monuments, from flying kites to winding string, from drawing to writing. The book will appeal to students and practitioners alike, with interests in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art and design, visual studies and material culture.

Nature and Antiquities

Nature and Antiquities
Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Total Pages : 257
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780816531127
ISBN-13 : 0816531129
Rating : 4/5 (27 Downloads)

Synopsis Nature and Antiquities by : Philip L. Kohl

Nature and Antiquities analyzes how the study of indigenous peoples was linked to the study of nature and natural sciences. Leading scholars break new ground and entreat archaeologists to acknowledge the importance of ways of knowing in the study of nature in the history of archaeology.

Ruins and Rivals

Ruins and Rivals
Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Total Pages : 260
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0816523975
ISBN-13 : 9780816523979
Rating : 4/5 (75 Downloads)

Synopsis Ruins and Rivals by : James E. Snead

Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University Ruins are as central to the image of the American Southwest as are its mountains and deserts, and antiquity is a key element of modern southwestern heritage. Yet prior to the mid-nineteenth century this rich legacy was largely unknown to the outside world. While military expeditions first brought word of enigmatic relics to the eastern United States, the new intellectual frontier was seized by archaeologists, who used the results of their southwestern explorations to build a foundation for the scientific study of the American past. In Ruins and Rivals, James Snead helps us understand the historical development of archaeology in the Southwest from the 1890s to the 1920s and its relationship with the popular conception of the region. He examines two major research traditions: expeditions dispatched from the major eastern museums and those supported by archaeological societies based in the Southwest itself. By comparing the projects of New York's American Museum of Natural History with those of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and the Santa Fe-based School of American Archaeology, he illustrates the way that competition for status and prestige shaped the way that archaeological remains were explored and interpreted. The decades-long competition between institutions and their advocates ultimately created an agenda for Southwest archaeology that has survived into modern times. Snead takes us back to the days when the field was populated by relic hunters and eastern "museum men" who formed uneasy alliances among themselves and with western boosters who used archaeology to advance their own causes. Richard Wetherill, Frederic Ward Putnam, Charles Lummis, and other colorful characters all promoted their own archaeological endeavors before an audience that included wealthy patrons, museum administrators, and other cultural figures. The resulting competition between scholarly and public interests shifted among museum halls, legislative chambers, and the drawing rooms of Victorian America but always returned to the enigmatic ruins of Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, and Mesa Verde. Ruins and Rivals contains a wealth of anecdotal material that conveys the flavor of digs and discoveries, scholars and scoundrels, tracing the origins of everything from national monuments to "Santa Fe Style." It rekindles the excitement of discovery, illustrating the role that archaeology played in creating the southwestern "past" and how that image of antiquity continues to exert its influence today.

The Archaeology of Time

The Archaeology of Time
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 161
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781134384273
ISBN-13 : 1134384270
Rating : 4/5 (73 Downloads)

Synopsis The Archaeology of Time by : Gavin Lucas

It might seem obvious that time lies at the heart of archaeology, since archaeology is about the past. However, the issue of time is complicated and often problematic, and although we take it very much for granted, our understanding of time affects the way we do archaeology. This book is an introduction not just to the issues of chronology and dating, but time as a theoretical concept and how this is understood and employed in contemporary archaeology. It provides a full discussion of chronology and change, time and the nature of the archaeological record, and the perception of time and history in past societies. Drawing on a wide range of archaeological examples from a variety of regions and periods, The Archaeology of Time provides students with a crucial source book on one of the key themes of archaeology.

Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages

Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 291
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520928183
ISBN-13 : 0520928180
Rating : 4/5 (83 Downloads)

Synopsis Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages by : Bonnie Effros

Clothing, jewelry, animal remains, ceramics, coins, and weaponry are among the artifacts that have been discovered in graves in Gaul dating from the fifth to eighth century. Those who have unearthed them, from the middle ages to the present, have speculated widely on their meaning. This authoritative book makes a major contribution to the study of death and burial in late antique and early medieval society with its long overdue systematic discussion of this mortuary evidence. Tracing the history of Merovingian archaeology within its cultural and intellectual context for the first time, Effros exposes biases and prejudices that have colored previous interpretations of these burial sites and assesses what contemporary archaeology can tell us about the Frankish kingdoms. Working at the intersection of history and archaeology, and drawing from anthropology and art history, Effros emphasizes in particular the effects of historical events and intellectual movements on French and German antiquarian and archaeological studies of these grave goods. Her discussion traces the evolution of concepts of nationhood, race, and culture and shows how these concepts helped shape an understanding of the past. Effros then turns to contemporary multidisciplinary methodologies and finds that we are still limited by the types of information that can be readily gleaned from physical and written sources of Merovingian graves. For example, since material evidence found in the graves of elite families and particularly elite men is more plentiful and noteworthy, mortuary goods do not speak as directly to the conditions in which women and the poor lived. The clarity and sophistication with which Effros discusses the methods and results of European archaeology is a compelling demonstration of the impact of nationalist ideologies on a single discipline and of the struggle toward the more pluralistic vision that has developed in the post-war years.

Making Senses of the Past

Making Senses of the Past
Author :
Publisher : SIU Press
Total Pages : 445
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780809332878
ISBN-13 : 0809332876
Rating : 4/5 (78 Downloads)

Synopsis Making Senses of the Past by : Jo Day

Since the nineteenth century, museums have kept their artifacts in glass cases to better preserve them, and drawings and photographs have become standard ways of presenting the past. These practices have led to an archaeology dominated by visual description, even though human interaction with the surrounding world involves the whole body and all of its senses. In the past few years, sensory archaeology has become more prominent, and Making Senses of the Past is one of the first collected volumes on this subject. This book presents cutting-edge research on new theoretical issues. The essays presented here take readers on a multisensory journey around the world and across time. In ancient Peru, a site provides sensory surprises as voices resound beneath the ground and hidden carvings slowly reveal their secrets. In Canada and New Zealand, the flicker of reflected light from a lake dances on the faces of painted rocks and may have influenced when and why the pigment was applied. In Mesopotamia, vessels for foodstuffs build a picture of a past cuisine that encompasses taste and social activity in the building of communities. While perfume and flowers are examined in various cultures, in the chamber tombs of ancient Roman Palestine, we are reminded that not all smells are pleasant. Making Senses of the Past explores alternative ways to perceive past societies and offers a new way of wiring archaeology that incorporates the senses.

History in the Making

History in the Making
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages : 209
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780759120242
ISBN-13 : 0759120242
Rating : 4/5 (42 Downloads)

Synopsis History in the Making by : Donald H. Holly

The Eastern Subarctic has long been portrayed as a place without history. Challenging this perspective, History in the Making: The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic charts the complex and dynamic history of this little known archaeological region of North America. Along the way, the book explores the social processes through which native peoples “made” history in the past and archaeologists and anthropologists later wrote about it. As such, the book offers both a critical history and historiography of the Eastern Subarctic.

Inheriting the Past

Inheriting the Past
Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Total Pages : 292
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780816526567
ISBN-13 : 0816526567
Rating : 4/5 (67 Downloads)

Synopsis Inheriting the Past by : John Stephen Colwell-Chanthaphonh

In recent years, archaeologists and Native American communities have struggled to find common ground even though more than a century ago a man of Seneca descent raised on New YorkÕs Cattaraugus Reservation, Arthur C. Parker, joined the ranks of professional archaeology. Until now, ParkerÕs life and legacy as the first Native American archaeologist have been neither closely studied nor widely recognized. At a time when heated debates about the control of Native American heritage have come to dominate archaeology, ParkerÕs experiences form a singular lens to view the fieldÕs tangled history and current predicaments with Indigenous peoples. In Inheriting the Past, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh examines ParkerÕs winding career path and asks why it has taken generations for Native peoples to follow in his footsteps. Closely tracing ParkerÕs life through extensive archival research, Colwell-Chanthaphonh explores how Parker crafted a professional identity and negotiated dilemmas arising from questions of privilege, ownership, authorship, and public participation. How Parker, as well as the discipline more broadly, chose to address the conflict between Native American rights and the pursuit of scientific discovery ultimately helped form archaeologyÕs moral community. ParkerÕs rise in archaeology just as the field was taking shape demonstrates that Native Americans could have found a place in the scholarly pursuit of the past years ago and altered its trajectory. Instead, it has taken more than a century to articulate the promise of an Indigenous archaeologyÑan archaeological practice carried out by, for, and with Native peoples. As the current generation of researchers explores new possibilities of inclusiveness, ParkerÕs struggles and successes serve as a singular reference point to reflect on archaeologyÕs history and its future.

Just Past?

Just Past?
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 383
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317491361
ISBN-13 : 131749136X
Rating : 4/5 (61 Downloads)

Synopsis Just Past? by : Raz Kletter

The land of Israel is rich in history and material culture and has long been the location of extensive archaeological excavation. 'Just Past?' examines the origins of Israeli archaeology in the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on previously unpublished documentary material, the study offers a history of intriguing finds, failures and dreams. 'Just Past?' covers a range of topics, from the 1948 war to the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, issues of foreign aid, and the political circumstances behind the decision to start excavations at Masada. Highlighting the centrality of politics to archaeology in Israel/Palestine, 'Just Past?' presents an assessment of the origins of Israeli archaeology which will be invaluable to students and scholars of history and archaeology.