A Companion to Archaeology

by Bintliff, John; Earle, Timothu; Peebles, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780631213024
• ISBN10: 0631213023
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-13
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Archaeology is a subject of much popular interest, with devotees ranging from armchair enthusiasts to tourists to serious academics. This Companion features essays from 27 of the worldrs"s leading authorities on different types of archaeology and aims to define the field and describe what it means to be an archaeologist. It shows that contemporary archaeology is an astonishingly broad activity, with many contrasting specializations and ways of approaching the material record of past societies. The volume introduces readers to a range of archaeologists: those who devote themselves to the philosophy or the sociology of archaeology, those who see archaeology as politics or as anthropology, and those who contend that the essence of the discipline is a hard science. Among these experts are those who read the past through art, linguistics, or the built environment, and those professionals who present the past to the public through heritage management and museums.

Author Biography

John Bintliff is Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology at Leiden University.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	x
List of Contributors	xiv
Acknowledgments	xvi
Introduction	xvii
John Bintliff
Part I Thinking About Archaeology	1	(36)
Analytical Archaeology	3	(18)
Stephen Shennan
The Great Dark Book: Archaeology, Experience, and Interpretation	21	(16)
Julian Thomas
Part II Current Themes and Novel Departures	37	(158)
Archaeology and the Genetic Revolution	39	(13)
Martin Jones
Archaeology and Language: Methods and Issues	52	(23)
Roger Blench
The Archaeology of Gender	75	(17)
M. L. S. Sørensen
Archaeology and Social Theory	92	(18)
Matthew Johnson
Materiality, Space, Time, and Outcome	110	(31)
Roland Fletcher
Archaeological Perspectives on Local Communities	141	(14)
Fokke Gerritsen
Archaeology and Technology	155	(19)
Kevin Greene
Time, Structure, and Agency: The Annales, Emergent Complexity, and Archaeology	174	(21)
John Bintliff
Part III Major Traditions in Archaeology in Contemporary Perspective	195	(212)
Archaeological Dating	197	(9)
J. A. J. Gowlett
Chronology and the Human Narrative	206	(29)
J. A. J. Gowlett
Archaeology and Indigenous Peoples: Attitudes Towards Power in Ancient Oaxaca	235	(18)
Maarten Jansen
Classical Archaeology	253	(19)
Ian Morris
The Archaeologies of Recent History: Historical, Post-Medieval, and Modern-World	272	(19)
Charles E. Orser, Jr.
Animal Bones and Plant Remains	291	(20)
Peter Rowley-Conwy
Ecology in Archaeology: From Cognition to Action	311	(23)
Fekri A. Hassan
The Archaeology of Landscape	334	(23)
T.J. Wilkinson
Archaeology and Art	357	(23)
Raymond Corbey
Robert Layton
Jeremy Tanner
Putting Infinity Up On Trial: A Consideration of the Role of Scientific Thinking in Future Archaeologies	380	(17)
A. M. Pollard
Experiencing Archaeological Fieldwork	397	(10)
John Bintliff
Part IV Archaeology and the Public	407	(125)
Public Archaeology: A European Perspective	409	(26)
Timothy Darvill
Persistent Dilemmas in American Cultural Resource Management	435	(19)
Joseph A. Tainter
Museum Studies	454	(19)
Linda Ellis
Relating Anthropology and Archaeology	473	(17)
Michael Rowlands
Archaeology and Politics	490	(19)
Michael Shanks
Archaeology and Green Issues	509	(23)
Martin Bell
Index	532