This unique collection of thirteen fictional problems, particularly useful at the undergraduate level and geared to a semester's length, offers the teacher of archaeology an invaluable means of supplementing courses dealing largely in theory with practical exercises in archaeological problem-solving. The captivating, often witty problems are directed not to the discovery of one correct answer but to the encouragement of intelligent inquiry and analysis.

This volume reports on the excavation of Guila Naquitz cave in Oaxaca, a site that provides important evidence for the earliest plant domestication in the New World. Stratigraphic studies, examinations of artifactual and botanical remains, simulations, and an imaginative reconstruction make this a model project of processual archaeology.

Evaluates techniques for excavation, sampling of sites and regions, and stylistic analysis, as well as such theoretical factors of explanation as population pressure, trade, and religion.

In this volume, the authors present an original ethnographic study of five llama herding communities in Ayacucho, Peru. Data on herd dynamics are subjected to computer modeling in an effort to evaluate the roles of biology, symbolic and ritual behavior, ecological adaptation, and practical reason. The book contains the most detailed study of the waytakuy llama marking ceremony yet available. The role of this ceremony in preventing herds from going to extinction is evaluated against anthropological and sociobiological theory. This is an interdisciplinary book will appeal to professional...