The study of buildings--whether out of sheer interest or to assist planning decisions--is a branch of archaeology which is distinct from both archaeology and architectural history, yet allied to both. This book begins by providing background information about studying the basic materials used in a building's construction, such as stone, brick, or timber-framing. The author explains how various clues left by the builders can add to the historic background and use of the site, and explains how all these strands of information can be woven together to produce a detailed understanding of how any building has developed over the years. Over 100 illustrations and two invaluable appendices--typical examples of buildings and an illustrated glossary of terms--complete a handbook that has long been needed by professionals and amateurs alike.

Elements of Architecture explores new ways of engaging architecture in archaeology. It conceives of architecture both as the physical evidence of past societies and as existing beyond the physical environment, considering how people in the past have not just dwelled in buildings but have existed within them. The book engages with the meeting point between these two perspectives. For although archaeologists must deal with the presence and absence of physicality as a discipline, which studies humans through things, to understand humans they must also address the performances, as well as temporal and affective impacts, of these material remains. The contributions in this volume investigate the way time, performance and movement, both physically and emotionally, are central aspects of understanding architectural assemblages. It is a book about the constellations of people, places and things that emerge and dissolve as affective, mobile, performative and temporal engagements. This volume juxtaposes archaeological research with perspectives from anthropology, architecture, cultural geography and philosophy in order to explore the kaleidoscopic intersections of elements coming together in architecture. Documenting the ephemeral, relational, and emotional meeting points with a category of material objects that have defined much research into what it means to be human, Elements of Architecture elucidates and expands upon a crucial body of evidence which allows us to explore the lives and interactions of past societies.

An introduction to the ways in which archaeologists study the recent past (c.AD 1500 to the present).

An innovative 1996 discussion of architecture and its role in the culture of the ancient Andes.

This volume introduces university students and scholars of Near Eastern archaeology to 'Building archaeology' methods as applied to the context of Ancient Mesopotamia. It helps the reader understand the principles underlying this discipline and to realise what knowledge and skills are needed, beyond those that are specific to archaeologists.

In many societies monuments are associated with dynamic socio-economic and political processes that these societies underwent and/or instrumentalised. Due to the often large human and other resources input involved in their construction and maintenance, such constructions form an useful research target in order to investigate both their associated societies as well as the underlying processes that generated differential construction levels. Monumental constructions may physically remain the same for some time but certainly not forever. The actual meaning, too, that people associate with these may change regularly due to changing contexts in which people perceived, assessed, and interacted with such constructions.These changes of meaning may occur diachronically, geographically but also socially. Realising that such shifts may occur forces us to rethink the meaning and the roles that past technologies may play in constructing, consuming and perceiving something monumental. In fact, it is through investigating the processes, the practices of building and crafting, and selecting the specific locales in which these activities took place, that we can argue convincingly that meaning may already become formulated while the form itself is still being created. As such, meaning-making and -giving may also influence the shaping of the monument in each of its facets: spatially, materially, technologically, socially and diachronically.This volume varies widely in regional and chronological focus and forms a useful manual to studying both the acts of building and the constructions themselves across cultural contexts. A range of theoretical and practical methods are discussed, and papers illustrate that these are applicable to both small or large architectural expressions, making it useful for scholars investigating urban, architectural, landscape and human resources in archaeological and historical contexts. The ultimate goal of this book is to place architectural studies, in which people's interactions with each other and material resources are key, at the crossing of both landscape studies and material culture studies, where it belongs.

"A guidebook for Boston's 50 oldest buildings. Written in a conversational manner that does not bog the reader down in technical jargon, but allows them to see the history of Boston through the lens of its oldest structures while appreciating decades of efforts to preserve its built environment"--

As elite communities in medieval societies the Military Orders were driven by the ambition to develop built environments that fulfilled monastic needs as well as military requirements and, in addition, residential and representational purposes. Growing affluence and an international orientation provided a wide range of development potential. That this potential was in fact exploited may be exemplified by the advanced fortifications erected by Templars and Hospitallers in the Levant. Although the history of the Military Orders has been the subject of research for a long time, their material legacy has attracted less attention. In recent years, however, a vast range of topics concerning the Orders’ building activities has become the object of investigation, primarily with the help of archaeology. They comprise the choice of sites and building materials, provision and storage of food and water, aspects of the daily life, the design and layout of commanderies, churches and fortifications, their spatial arrangement, and the role these buildings played in their environmental context. This volume contains ten articles discussing the archaeology and architecture of buildings erected by the three major Military Orders in different geographical regions. They cover most countries of Western Europe and include a number of important fortifications in the Levant. These studies break new ground in the investigation of the built fabric of the Military Orders. Written by noted international scholars this publication is an important contribution to modern research on these institutions, which, in their association of monasticism and knighthood, were so typical for the Middle Ages.

The Buildings of Main Street is the primary resource for interpreting commercial architectural style. Richard Longstreth, a renowned and respected author in the field of historic preservation, presents a useful survey of commercial architecture in urban America. He has developed a typology of architectural classification for commercial application in American towns across the United States. Likely to be enjoyed by both students and members of the general public seeking an introduction to commercial architecture, The Buildings of Main Streetmakes a significant and lasting contribution to American architectural history.

Archaeology has unearthed the glories of ancient Jewish buildings throughout the Mediterranean. But what has remained shrouded is what these buildings meant. "Building Jewish" first surveys the architecture of small rural villages in the Galilee in the early Roman period before examining the development of synagogues as "Jewish associations." Finally, "Building Jewish" explores Jerusalem's flurry of building activity under Herod the Great in the first century BCE. Richardson's careful work not only documents the culture that forms the background to any study of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity, but he also succeeds in demonstrating how architecture itself, like a text, conveys meaning and thus directly illuminates daily life and religious thought and practice in the ancient world.