The Archaeology Of Engagement

Little and Shackel use case studies from different regions across the world to challenge archaeologists to create an ethical public archaeology that is concerned not just with the management of cultural resources, but with social justice and civic responsibility.

The world’s collective archaeological heritage is threatened by war, development, poverty, climate change, and ignorance. To protect our collective past, archaeologists must involve the general public through interpersonal experiences that develop an interest in the field at a young age and foster that interest throughout a person’s life. Contributors to this volume share effective approaches for engaging and educating learners of all ages about archaeology and how one can encourage them to become stewards of the past. They offer applied examples that are not bound to specific geographies or cultures, but rather, are approaches that can be implemented almost anywhere.

Exploring archaeology, community engagement and cultural heritage protection in South Asia, this book considers heritage management strategies through community engagement, bringing together the results of research undertaken by archaeologists, heritage practitioners and policy makers working towards the preservation and conservation of both cultural and natural heritage. The book highlights the challenges faced by communities, archaeologists and heritage managers in post-conflict and post-disaster contexts in their efforts to protect, preserve and present cultural heritage, including issues of sustainability, linkages with existing community programmes and institutions, and building administrative and social networks. The case-studies illustrate larger-scale projects to small micro-level engagement, across a range of geographical, political, social and economic contexts, providing a framework that links and synchronises programmes of archaeological activities alongside active community engagement. The chapters ‘Introduction’, ‘Community Engagement in the Greater Lumbini Area of Nepal: the Micro-Heritage Case-Study of Dohani’ and ‘Conclusion’ of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

When a historic battlefield site is discovered and studied, the focus is often on the “hardware”: remnants of weaponry, ammunition, supplies, and equipment that archaeologists carefully unearth, analyze, conserve, and frequently place on display in museums. But what about the “software”? What can archaeology teach us about the humans involved in the conflict: their social mores and cultural assumptions; their use and understanding of power? In The Archaeology of Engagement: Conflict and Revolution in the United States, Dana L. Pertermann and Holly K. Norton have assembled a collection of studies that includes sites of conflicts between groups of widely divergent cultures, such as Robert E. Lee's mid-1850s campaign along the Concho River and the battles of the River Raisin during the War of 1812. Notably, the second half of the book applies the editors’ principles of conflict event theory to the San Jacinto Battlefield in Texas, forming a case study of one of America's most storied—and heavily trafficked—battle sites.

This book provides a broad overview of the key concepts in public archaeology, a research field that examines the relationship between archaeology and the public, in both theoretical and practical terms. While based on the long-standing programme of undergraduate and graduate teaching in public archaeology at UCL’s renowned Institute of Archaeology, the book also takes into account the growth of scholarship from around the world and seeks to clarify what exactly ‘public archaeology’ is by promoting an inclusive, socially and politically engaged vision of the discipline. Written for students and practitioners, the individual chapters provide textbook-level introductions to the themes, theories and controversies that connect archaeology to wider society, from the trade in illicit antiquities to the use of digital media in public engagement, and point readers to the most relevant case studies and learning resources to aid their further study. This book was produced as part of JISC's Institution as e-Textbook Publisher project. Find out more at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/institution-as-e-textbook-publisher Praise for Key Concepts in Archaeology 'Littered throughout with concise and well-chosen case studies, Key Concepts in Public Archaeology could become essential reading for undergraduates and is a welcome reminder of where archaeology sits in UK society today.' British Archaeology

Archaeology, Heritage, and Wellbeing fills an important gap in academic literature, bringing together experts from archaeology/ historic environment and mental health research to provide an interdisciplinary overview of this emerging subject area. The book, uniquely, provides archaeologists and heritage professionals with an introduction to the ways in which mental health researchers view and measure wellbeing, helping archaeologists and other heritage professionals to move beyond the anecdotal when evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of such initiatives. Importantly, this book also serves to highlight to mental health researchers the many ways in which archaeology and heritage can be, and are being, harnessed to support non-medical therapeutic interventions to improve wellbeing. Authentic engagement with the historic environment can also provide powerful tools for community health and wellbeing, and this book offers examples of the diverse communities that have benefited from its capacity to promote wellbeing and wellness. Archaeology, Heritage, and Wellbeing is for students and researchers of archaeology and psychology interested in wellbeing, as well as researchers and professionals involved in health and social care, social prescribing, mental health and wellbeing, leisure, tourism, and heritage management.

This book looks at how archaeologists in the early 21st century are dealing with the challenges and opportunities presented by development in archaeologically sensitive urban centres. Based on a session held at the 2017 EAA conference in Maastricht, the volume features case studies from across Europe and beyond - including Norway, Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Israel. The chapters look both at individual projects and larger thematic issues.How has urban archaeology changed the ways in which archaeologists work? Is it possible to predict (and avoid or protect) sensitive archaeology in dynamic urban centres? Do technical solutions to preservation in situ actually work? How are the public involved and how do archaeologists promote public engagement? What are some of the issues and problems for the future?This book is the first publication of the EAA Urban Archaeology Community, and its editors hope that it will provoke debate, and inform future developments in urban archaeology in Europe and beyond.

An account of the different ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body, from prehistory to the present. An increasingly influential school of thought in cognitive science views the mind as embodied, extended, and distributed rather than brain-bound or “all in the head.” This shift in perspective raises important questions about the relationship between cognition and material culture, posing major challenges for philosophy, cognitive science, archaeology, and anthropology. In How Things Shape the Mind, Lambros Malafouris proposes a cross-disciplinary analytical framework for investigating the ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body. Using a variety of examples and case studies, he considers how those ways might have changed from earliest prehistory to the present. Malafouris's Material Engagement Theory definitively adds materiality—the world of things, artifacts, and material signs—into the cognitive equation. His account not only questions conventional intuitions about the boundaries and location of the human mind but also suggests that we rethink classical archaeological assumptions about human cognitive evolution.