Interpreting Archaeology

This volume provides a forum for debate between varied approaches to the past. The authors, drawn from Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia, represent many different strands of archaeology. They address the philosophical issues involved in interpretation and a desire among archaeologists to come to terms with their own subjective approaches to the material they study, a recognition of how past researchers have also imposed their own value systems on the evidence which they presented.

Discovering World Prehistory introduces the general field of archaeology and highlights for students the difference between obtaining data (basic archaeology) and interpreting those data into a prehistory, a coherent model of the past. The opening section of the book covers the history, methods, and techniques of archaeology to provide a detailed examination of archaeological investigation. It highlights the excitement of archaeological discovery and how archaeologists analyze and interpret evidence. The second half covers global prehistory and shows how archaeological data is interpreted through theoretical frameworks to create a picture of the past. Starting with human evolution, chapters detail the key stages, from around the world, of prehistory, finishing with the transition to post-prehistoric societies. Including chapter overviews, highlight boxes, chapter summaries, key concepts, and suggested reading, Discovering World Prehistory is designed to support introductory courses in archaeology and allows students to experience both methods and interpretation, offering a perfect introduction to the discipline.

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The Archaeology of Seeing provides readers with a new and provocative understanding of material culture through exploring visual narratives captured in cave and rock art, sculpture, paintings, and more. The engaging argument draws on current thinking in archaeology, on how we can interpret the behaviour of people in the past through their use of material culture, and how this affects our understanding of how we create and see art in the present. Exploring themes of gender, identity, and story-telling in visual material culture, this book forces a radical reassessment of how the ability to see makes us and our ancestors human; as such, it will interest lovers of both art and archaeology. Illustrated with examples from around the world, from the earliest art from hundreds of thousands of years ago, to the contemporary art scene, including street art and advertising, Janik cogently argues that the human capacity for art, which we share with our most ancient ancestors and cousins, is rooted in our common neurophysiology. The ways in which our brains allow us to see is a common heritage that shapes the creative process; what changes, according to time and place, are the cultural contexts in which art is produced and consumed. The book argues for an innovative understanding of art through the interplay between the way the human brain works and the culturally specific creation and interpretation of meaning, making an important contribution to the debate on art/archaeology.

Archaeology can shed light on the rise and fall of empires, the march of technology, the nature of past societies, the development of arts and culture, the course of warfare, and much more. Yet what gives it its greatest value is its ability to illuminate the area in which written records fall short - the everyday lives of ordinary people. Interpreting Archaeology uses a wide array of evidence, including artefacts as varied as humble ceramic pots, imposing monuments, and genetic data, to tell the human story from a new angle. Beginning with the discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of hominin evolution and the spread of Homo sapiens across the globe, Neil Faulkner has charted a fascinating journey through the past, taking in everything from the rise of the world's first great civilizations to the establishment of hierarchies, the development of art and religion, and the causes of warfare along the way.

A new generation of archaeologists has thrown down a challenge to post-processual theory, arguing that characterizing material symbols as arbitrary overlooks the material character and significance of artifacts. This volume showcases the significant departure from previous symbolic approaches that is underway in the discipline. It brings together key scholars advancing a variety of cutting edge approaches, each emphasizing an understanding of artifacts and materials not in terms of symbols but relationally, as a set of associations that compose people’s understanding of the world. Authors draw on a diversity of intellectual sources and case studies, paving a dynamic road ahead for archaeology as a discipline and theoretical approaches to material culture.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has become one of the standard tools in the archaeologist's array of methods, but users still struggle to understand what the images tell us. In this book—illustrated with over 200 full-color photographs—Lawrence Conyers shows how results of geophysical surveys can test ideas regarding people, history, and cultures, as well as be used to prospect for buried remains. Using 20 years of data from more than 600 GPR surveys in a wide array of settings, Conyers, one of the first archaeological specialists in GPR, provides the consumer of GPR studies with basic information on how the process works. He show how the plots are generated, what subsurface factors influence specific profiles, how the archaeologist can help the surveyor collect optimal data, and how to translate the results into useable archaeological information.