Eventful Archaeologies

The potential of events for interpreting changes in the archaeological record.

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics re-examines the relationship between Eurasia’s past and present, demonstrating that social life in ancient Eurasia was considerably more unruly than research has traditionally allowed.

The American Southwest is one of the most important archaeological regions in the world, with many of the best-studied examples of hunter-gatherer and village-based societies. Research has been carried out in the region for well over a century, and during this time the Southwest has repeatedly stood at the forefront of the development of new archaeological methods and theories. Moreover, research in the Southwest has long been a key site of collaboration between archaeologists, ethnographers, historians, linguists, biological anthropologists, and indigenous intellectuals. This volume marks the most ambitious effort to take stock of the empirical evidence, theoretical orientations, and historical reconstructions of the American Southwest. Over seventy top scholars have joined forces to produce an unparalleled survey of state of archaeological knowledge in the region. Themed chapters on particular methods and theories are accompanied by comprehensive overviews of the culture histories of particular archaeological sequences, from the initial Paleoindian occupation, to the rise of a major ritual center in Chaco Canyon, to the onset of the Spanish and American imperial projects. The result is an essential volume for any researcher working in the region as well as any archaeologist looking to take the pulse of contemporary trends in this key research tradition.

These perspectives are applied to a broad range of archeological contexts stretching across the Southeast and spanning more than 7,000 years of the region's pre-Columbian history. New data suggest that several of this region's most pivotal historical developments, such as the founding of Cahokia, the transformation of Moundville from urban center to vacated necropolis, and the construction of Poverty Point's Mound A, were not protracted incremental processes, but rather watershed moments that significantly altered the long-term trajectories of indigenous Southeastern societies. In addition to exceptional occurrences that impacted entire communities or peoples, Southeastern archaeologists are increasingly recognizing the historical importance of localized, everyday events, such as building a house, crafting a pot, or depositing shell.

The Life of Trade utilizes archaeological and historical sources to address the dynamic nature of the Atlantic trade on the Gambia River. Taking a fresh multi-disciplinary approach, the book highlights the region’s atypical position as a commercial crossroads and access point for both interior and Atlantic markets. This engagement with a diversified commodities trade brought about the formation of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious community which was supported by, and reliant on, economic exchange. Gijanto situates the Niumi Kingdom within the emerging capitalist world-system through the analysis of data collected from archaeological excavations at four sites: the central multi-ethnic trading village of Juffure, the associated British merchant company factory there, and the two nearby settlements of San Domingo and Lamin Conco. As part of the Atlantic world, residents were in a continual process of negotiation between their local socio-economic structures and the commodities and ideas introduced by foreign traders. Gijanto sheds light on these interactions, exploring the impact of increased access to wealth by examining a number of excavated objects associated with public display, including European glass trading beads, faunal and botanical remains and locally produced ceramics. Presenting new perspectives on the complex nature of the Atlantic trade in the region The Life of Trade enriches our understanding of this period of great change in West Africa.

The Archaeology of Inequality explores the different aspects of social boundaries and articulation by comparing several interdisciplinary approaches for the analysis of the archaeological data, as well as actual case studies from the Prehistory to the Classical world. The book explores slavery, gender, ethnicity and economy as intersecting areas of study within the larger framework of inequality and exemplifies to what degree archaeologists can identify and analyze different patterns of inequality.

Interdisciplinary study of monumental art and architecture in human history. Monumentality is a human phenomenon that has occurred in nearly all times and places. Because of its ubiquity, monumentality is something that has been studied by a large number of disciplines and individuals. Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology explores the phenomenon of monumental art and architecture from humankind’s most ancient past to recent history, and does so using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates the research of anthropological archaeologists, art historians, classicists, and sociologists working in a wide variety of historical and cultural contexts. The volume seeks to define what is meant by the terms “monument” and “monumentality,” and to understand the social and political significance of monument-building as it has manifested around the world. By advocating for a relational approach to the topic that seeks to find monumentality in the ongoing relationship between object and person, this book offers the opportunity to begin the process of uniting these varied interests into a unified discourse.

Material things mattered immensely to those who engaged in daily struggles over the character and future of slavery and to those who subsequently contested the meanings of freedom in the post-emancipation Caribbean. Throughout the history of slavery, objects and places were significant to different groups of people, from the opulent master class to enslaved field hands as well as to other groups, including maroons, free people of colour and missionaries, all of who shared the lived environments of Caribbean plantation colonies. By exploring the rich material world inhabited by these people, this book offers new ways of seeing history from below, of linking localised experiences with global transformations and connecting deeply personal lived realities with larger epochal events that defined the history of slavery and its abolition in the British Caribbean. This book was originally published as a special issue of Slavery & Abolition.