Archaeological Approaches To Technology

Designed for upper-division undergraduate and graduate level archaeology students taking courses in ancient technologies, archaeological craft production, material culture, the history of technology, archaeometry, and field methods. This text can also serve as a general introduction and a reference for archaeologists, material culture specialists in socio-cultural disciplines, and engineers/scientists interested in the backgrounds and histories of their disciplines. The study of ancient technologies-that is, the ways in which objects and materials were made and used-can reveal insights into ec.

This book is designed for upper-division undergraduate and graduate level archaeology students taking courses in ancient technologies, archaeological craft production, material culture, the history of technology, archaeometry, and field methods. This text can also serve as a general introduction and a reference for archaeologists, material culture specialists in socio-cultural disciplines, and engineers/scientists interested in the backgrounds and histories of their disciplines. The study of ancient technologies, that is, the ways in which objects and materials were made and used can reveal insights into economic, social, political, and ritual realms of the past. This book summarizes the current state of ancient technology studies by emphasizing methodologies, some major technologies, and the questions and issues that drive archaeologists in their consideration of these technologies. It shows the ways that technology studies can be used by archaeologists working anywhere, on any type of society and it embraces an orientation toward the practical, not the philosophical. It compares the range of pre-industrial technologies, from stone tool production, fiber crafts, wood and bone working, fired clay crafts, metal production, and glass manufacture. It includes socially contextualized case studies, as well as general descriptions of technological processes. It discusses essential terminology (technology, material culture, chaine operatoire, etc.), primarily from the perspective of how these terms are used by archaeologists.

This volume represents an introduction to a new world-wide attempt to review the history of technology, which is one of few since the pioneering publications of the 1960s. It takes an explicit archaeological focus to the study of the history of technology and adopts a more explicit socially-embedded view of technology than has commonly been the case in mainstream histories of technology. In doing so, it attempts to introduce a more radical element to explanations of technological change, involving magic, alchemy, animism - in other words, attempting to consider technological change in terms of the 'world view' of those involved in such change rather than from an exclusively western scientific perspective.

The aim of this publication is to stress that cultural, social and cognitive aspects today are important goals and perspectives of technological studies, and that technological studies can contribute vitally to the interpretation of our prehistory. There is today a strong new trend among a young generation of archaeologists towards using the study of technology. This trend focuses on the understanding of the material process -- and sees these processes as logical responses and changes reflecting human behaviour and cognition. Thus, in some ways, this trend is in opposition to former morphological and static studies of artefacts. The book consists of ten case studies, which employ the study of technology as a primary methodology, and discuss issues and problems concerning the methods, results and perspectives of this methodology. The materials analysed in the studies are made from bone, stone and textiles, while the archaeological contexts are ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Viking Age. This publication is a result of the workshop "The study of technology as a method for gaining insight into social and cultural aspects of prehistory", held at the National Museum of Denmark, the 3-4 November 2005.

How is the Web transforming the professional practice of archaeology? And as archaeologists accustomed to dealing with "deep time," how can we best understand the possibilities and limitations of the Web in meeting the specialized needs of professionals in this field? These are among the many questions posed and addressed in Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration, edited by Eric Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, and Ethan Watrall. With contributions from a range of experts in archaeology and technology, this volume is organized around four key topics that illuminate how the revolution in communications technology reverberates across the discipline: approaches to information retrieval and information access; practical and theoretical concerns inherent in design choices for archaeology's computing infrastructure; collaboration through the development of new technologies that connect field-based researchers and specialists within an international archaeological community and scholarly communications issues, with an emphasis on concerns over sustainability and preservation imperatives. This book not only describes practices that attempt to mitigate some of the problems associated with the Web, such as information overload and disinformation, it also presents compelling case studies of actual digital projects--many of which are rich in structured data and multimedia content or focused on generating content from the field "in real time," and all of which demonstrate how the Web can and is being used to transform archaeological communications into forms that are more open, inclusive, and participatory. Above all, this volume aims to share these experiences to provide useful guidance for other researchers interested in applying technology to archaeology.

These fourteen original essays accept a dual premise: technology pervades and is embedded in all human activities. By taking that approach, studies of technology address two questions central in anthropological and archaeological research today-accounting for variability and change. These diverse yet interrelated chapters show that to understand human lives, researchers must deal with the material world that all peoples create and inhabit. Therefore an anthropology of technology is not a separate, discrete inquiry; instead, it is a way to connect how people make and use things to any activity studied, ranging from religion, to enculturation, to communication, to art. Each contributor discusses theories and methods and also offers a substantial case study. These detailed inquiries span human societies from the Paleolithic to the computer age. By moving beyond the usual approach of examining ancient technologies, particularly chipped stone and low-fired ceramics, this volume probes for the construction of meaning in the material world across millennia. The authors of these essays find technology to be an inclusive and flexible topic that merges with studies of everything else in human activity. "A provocative and powerful discussion of the role of technology in human cultures. At a time when archaeology has become less focused on theory, and archaeology and social anthropology seem to fracture farther and farther apart, the book is a breath of fresh air."--Professor John Douglas, University of Montana

This monograph takes a unique archaeological approach to the investigation of innovation and the innovation process. Case studies span the breadth of human history, from our earliest hominin ancestors to the contemporary world. The emphasis is on the social context and temporality of invention, adoption, creativity and resistance.

Environments, landscapes, and ecological systems are often seen as fundamental by archaeologists, but how they relate to society is understood in very different ways. The chapters in this book take environment, culture, and technology together. All have been the focus of much attention; often one or other has been seen as the starting point for analysis, but this volume argues that it is the study of the inter-relationships between these three factors that offers a way forward. The contributions to this book pick up different strands within the tangled web of intersections between environment, technology, and society, providing a series of case studies which explore facets of this common theme in different settings and circumstances and from different perspectives. As well as addressing themes of theoretical and methodological interest, these case studies draw on primary research dealing with time periods from the late Pleistocene glacial maximum to the very recent past, and involve societies of very different types. Running through all the contributions, however, is a concern with the archaeological record and the ways in which scales of observation and availability of evidence affect the development of questions and explanations. The diversity of the chapters in this volume demonstrates the inherent weakness in any attempt to prioritise environment, technology, or society. These three factors are all embedded in any human activity, as change in one will result in change in the others: social and technical changes alter relations with the environment–and indeed the environment itself—and as environmental change drives changes in society and technology. As this book shows, it is possible to consider the relationship between the three factors from different perspectives, but any attempt to consider one or even two in isolation will mean that valuable insights will be missed.