This volume presents a searching critique of the more traditional archaeological methodologies and interpretation strategies and lays down a firm philosophical and theoretical basis for symbolist and structuralist studies in archaeology. A variety of procedures, ranging from ethnoarchaeological studies and computing techniques to formal studies of artefact design variability, are utilized to provide models for archaeologists within the proposed framework and the theory and models are then applied to a range of archaeological analyses. This particular approach sees all human actions as being...

Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space investigates the relationship between the built environment and the organisation of space. The contributors are classical and prehistoric archaeologists, anthropologists and architects, who from their different backgrounds are able to provide some important and original insights into this relationship.

Since the l960s, archaeology has become increasingly taught in universities and practiced on a growing scale by national and local heritage agencies throughout the world. This book addresses the criticisms of postmodernist writers about archaeology's social role, and asserts its intellectual importance and achievements in discovering real facts about the human past. It looks forward to the creation of a truly global consciousness of the origins of human societies and civilizations.

One of the most troubling problems in archaeology is to determine the manner and content of prehistoric thought. A fundamental challenge is to develop the theory, methodology and tools to understand human cognition. Cognitive archaeology as a subject is still in its infancy, and archaeologists are adopting a variety of approaches--literary, linguistic, and scientific. The contributors to The Ancient Mind develop a new direction in prehistoric cognitive research that is rooted in the scientific tradition and in an empirical methodology. Together, they begin to develop a science of cognitive...

The archaeology of classical Greece developed in the shadow of Greek historical scholarship. Many modern developments in archaeology have been neglected, and classical archaeology has become something of a backwater. The contributors to this book review the history of the field and aim to demonstrate that modern archaeological approaches can contribute to a richer understanding of Greek society. They insist that this complex, literate and highly unusual society poses important questions for archaeologists of other regions.

Groups of people abandoned sites in different ways, and for different reasons. And what they did when they left a settlement or area had a direct bearing on the kind and quality of cultural remains that entered the archaeological record, for example, whether buildings were dismantled or left standing, or tools buried, destroyed or removed from the site. Contributors to this unique collection on site abandonment draw on ethnoarchaeological and archaeological data from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Near East.

Rock art--prehistoric pictures--gives us lively and captivating images of animals and people painted and carved in caves and on open rock surfaces. It is all too easy to guess at the meanings the images carry. This pioneering set of essays instead explores how we can reliably learn from rock art as a material record of distant times by adapting the proven methods of archaeology to the special subject of rock art.

In this collection, archaeologists, historians, geographers and language specialists reexamine the structure and political development of Celtic states scattered across present-day Europe. The main theoretical focus is on whether and when state-level complexity was attained in the different Celtic settlements. The contributors also discuss and evaluate the various methods for studying Celtic social systems: the historical textual studies, as opposed to the analysis of the archaeological record, and the use of regional comparisons.

Bad Year Economics explores the role of risk and uncertainty in human economics within an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and ancient and modern history, the contributors range widely in time and space across hunting, farming and pastoralism, across ancient states, empires, and modern nation states. The aim, however, is a common one: to analyse in each case the structure of variability - particularly with regard to food supply - and review the range of responses offered by individual human communities. These responses commonly exploit...

In a very influential paper published in 1994, John Baines and Norman Yoffee produced the first analysis to examine the impact of wealth and high culture on the development of states. The contributors to this book apply that model to a range of ancient states around the world, providing evidence on the production and uses of "high culture," literature and monumental architecture. There are chapters on Mesoamerica, the Andes, the Indus Valley, China, and Greece, while others expand on the original Egypt-Mesopotamia comparison.