The ancient capital of Cahokia and a series of lesser population centers developed in the Mississippi valley in North America between the eighth and fifteenth centuries AD, leaving behind an extraordinarily rich archaeological record. Cahokia's gigantic pyramids, finely crafted artifacts, and dense population mark it as the founding city of the Mississippian civilization, formerly known as the 'mound' builders. As Cahokian ideas and objects were widely sought, a cultural and religious ripple effect spread across the mid-continent and into the South. In its wake, population migrations and...
The ancient capital of Cahokia and a series of lesser population centers developed in the Mississippi valley in North America between the eighth and f...
This is an in-depth treatment of the antecedents and first flourescence of early state and urban societies in lowland Mesopotamia over nearly three millennia, from approximately 5000 to 2100 BC. The approach is explicitly anthropological, drawing on contemporary theoretical perspectives to enrich our understanding of the ancient Mesopotamian past. It explores the ways people of different genders and classes contributed and responded to political, economic, and ideological changes. The interpretations are based on studies of regional settlement patterns, faunal remains, artifact distributions...
This is an in-depth treatment of the antecedents and first flourescence of early state and urban societies in lowland Mesopotamia over nearly three mi...
This book focuses on the development of Egypt in its formative phase, from ca. 5200 BC, when Egyptians first began farming wheat and barley, until 2160 BC, as Egypt s central government weakened and appears to have fallen into disorder. During these millennia, which coincide with the Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom periods, Egyptian civilization became increasingly complex, and many of its greatest pyramids and other monuments were built. Robert Wenke examines this cycle of ancient Egypt s development by analyzing Egyptological, anthropological, and other forms of evidence, which...
This book focuses on the development of Egypt in its formative phase, from ca. 5200 BC, when Egyptians first began farming wheat and barley, until 216...
Ancient Central China provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological discoveries in the upper and middle Yangzi River region of China, including the Three Gorges Dam reservoir zone. It focuses on the Late Neolithic (late third millennium BC) through the end of the Bronze Age (late first millennium BC) and considers regional and interregional cultural relationships in light of anthropological models of landscape. Rowan K. Flad and Pochan Chen show that centers and peripheries of political, economic, and ritual activities were not coincident, and that politically peripheral regions such as...
Ancient Central China provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological discoveries in the upper and middle Yangzi River region of China, including t...
