Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice

by Renfrew, Colin; Bahn, Paul; Bahn, Paul G.

• ISBN13: 9780500281475
• ISBN10: 0500281475
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

The third edition of this best-selling introduction to what archaeologists do and how they do it has been entirely revised and updated in the light of new views, discoveries, and data. Developments in the technology and scope of archaeology are reflected in an increased emphasis on aspects ranging from GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and information on the Internet to gender archaeology and the latest thinking on post-processualism and cognitive archaeology. The profound impact of advances in genetics and linguistics is assessed, and some sections of the book -- the dating of rock art, for example -- have been totally rewritten in the light of recent events.

Author Biography

Colin Renfrew is Disney Professor of Archaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(2)
Introduction The Nature and Aims of Archaeology	11	(6)
PART I The Framework of Archaeology	17	(154)
The Searchers The History of Archaeology	19	(30)
The Speculative Phase	20	(4)
The Beginnings of Modern Archaeology	24	(10)
Classification and Consolidation	34	(4)
A Turning Point in Archaeology	38	(2)
World Archaeology	40	(8)
Summary	48	(1)
Further Reading	48	(1)
What is Left? The Variety of the Evidence	49	(22)
Basic Categories of Archaeological Evidence	49	(3)
Formation Processes	52	(2)
Cultural Formation Processes-How People Have Affected What Survives in the Archaeological Record	54	(1)
Natural Formation Processes--How Nature Affects What Survives in the Archaeological Record	55	(15)
Summary	70	(1)
Further Reading	70	(1)
Where? Survey and Excavation of Sites and Features	71	(46)
Discovering Archaeological Sites and Features	72	(17)
Assessing the Layout of Sites and Features	89	(17)
Excavation	106	(10)
Summary	116	(1)
Further Reading	116	(1)
When? Dating Methods and Chronology?	117	(54)
Relative Dating	118	(1)
Stratigraphy	118	(2)
Typological Sequences	120	(4)
Linguistic Dating	124	(1)
Climate and Chronology	125	(3)
Absolute Dating	128	(1)
Calendars and Historical Chronologies	129	(4)
Annual Cycles: Varves and Tree-Rings	133	(4)
Radioactive Clocks	137	(13)
Trapped Electron Dating Methods	150	(5)
Calibrated Relative Methods	155	(6)
Chronological Correlations	161	(1)
World Chronology	162	(8)
Summary	170	(1)
Further Reading	170	(1)
PART II Discovering the Variety of Human Experience	171	(326)
How Were Societies Organized? Social Archaeology	173	(52)
Establishing the Nature and Scale of the Society	174	(8)
Further Sources of Information for Social Organization	182	(8)
Techniques of Study for Mobile Hunter-Gatherer Societies	190	(4)
Techniques of Study for Segmentary Societies	194	(9)
Techniques of Study for Chiefdoms and States	203	(12)
The Archaeology of the Individual and of Identity	215	(3)
Investigating Gender	218	(4)
The Molecular Genetics of Social Groups and Lineages	222	(2)
Summary	224	(1)
Further Reading	224	(1)
What Was the Environment? Environmental Archaeology	225	(44)
Investigating Environments on a Global Scale	225	(7)
Studying the Landscape	232	(7)
Reconstructing the Plant Environment	239	(8)
Reconstructing the Animal Environment	247	(8)
Reconstructing the Human Environment	255	(13)
Summary	268	(1)
Further Reading	268	(1)
What Did They Eat? Subsistence and Diet	269	(42)
What Can Plant Foods Tell Us About Diet?	270	(12)
Information from Animal Resources	282	(4)
Investigating Diet, Seasonality, and Domestication from Animal Remains	286	(15)
How Were Animal Resources Exploited?	301	(4)
Assessing Diet from Human Remains	305	(5)
Summary	310	(1)
Further Reading	310	(1)
How Did They Make and Use Tools? Technology	311	(40)
Unaltered Materials: Stone	315	(12)
Other Unaltered Materials	327	(8)
Synthetic Materials	335	(4)
Archaeometallurgy	339	(10)
Summary	349	(1)
Further Reading	350	(1)
What Contact Did They Have? Trade and Exchange	351	(34)
The Study of Interaction	351	(7)
Discovering the Sources of Traded Goods: Characterization	358	(9)
The Study of Distribution	367	(6)
The Study of Production	373	(4)
The Study of Consumption	377	(1)
Exchange and Interaction: The Complete System	378	(6)
Summary	384	(1)
Further Reading	384	(1)
What Did They Think? Cognitive Archaeology, Art, and Religion	385	(36)
Investigating How Human Symbolizing Faculties Evolved	387	(4)
Working with Symbols	391	(1)
From Written Source to Cognitive Map	391	(6)
Establishing Place: The Location of Memory	397	(2)
Measuring the World	399	(3)
Planning: Maps for the Future	402	(2)
Symbols of Organization and Power	404	(2)
Symbols for the Other World: The Archaeology of Religion	406	(6)
Depiction: Art and Representation	412	(8)
Summary	420	(1)
Further Reading	420	(1)
Who Were They? What Were They Like? The Archaeology of People	421	(40)
Identifying Physical Attributes	422	(10)
Assessing Human Abilities	432	(6)
Disease, Deformity, and Death	438	(13)
Assessing Nutrition	451	(1)
Population Studies	452	(3)
Ethnicity and Evolution	455	(4)
Summary	459	(1)
Further Reading	460	(1)
Why Did Things Change? Explanation in Archaeology	461	(36)
Migrationist and Diffusionist Explanations	463	(2)
The Processual Approach	465	(9)
The Form of Explanation: General or Particular	474	(2)
Attempts at Explanation: One Cause or Several?	476	(7)
Postprocessual or Interpretive Explanation	483	(8)
Cognitive-Processual Archaeology	491	(4)
Summary	495	(1)
Further Reading	496	(1)
PART III The World of Archaeology	497	(68)
Archaeology in Action Four Case Studies	499	(34)
The Oaxaca Projects: The Origins and Rise of the Zapotec State	500	(9)
Research Among Hunter-Gatherers: Kakadu National Park, Australia	509	(7)
Khok Phanom Di: The Origins of Rice Farming in Southeast Asia	516	(6)
York and the Public Presentation of Archaeology	522	(10)
Further Reading	532	(1)
Whose Past? Archaeology and the Public	533	(32)
The Meaning of the Past: The Archaeology of Identity	533	(3)
Who Owns the Past?	536	(6)
The Uses of the Past	542	(4)
Conservation and Destruction	546	(12)
Who Interprets and Presents the Past?	558	(1)
Archaeology and Public Understanding	559	(4)
Summary	563	(1)
Further Reading	564	(1)
Glossary	565	(9)
Notes and Bibliography	574	(45)
Acknowledgments	619	(3)
Index	622