Territoriality in Archaeology

by Osborne, James F.; Vanvalkenburgh, Parker

• ISBN13: 9781118871218
• ISBN10: 1118871219
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-12-09
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

"Territoriality in Archaeology brings together a series of studies that examine the dynamic nature of land, boundaries, and social space in ancient political life. The authors draw on diverse perspectives, ranging from evolutionary ecology to critical geography, but share a common interest in exploring variation in territorial patterns and processes, as well as developing models that better account for the role of territorial claims in the constitution of social power. Archaeological case studies exploring the diversity of territoriality in the past range from the Andes Mountains and Latin America to Mesopotamia and South Asia."

The Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (AP3A) is published on behalf of the Archaeological Division of the American Anthropological Association. AP3A publishes original monograph-length manuscripts on a wide range of subjects generally considered to fall within the purview of anthropological archaeology. There are no geographical, temporal, or topical restrictions. Organizers of AAA symposia are particularly encouraged to submit manuscripts, but submissions need not be restricted to these or other collected works.

Author Biography

James F. Osborne (Ph.D. 2011, Harvard University) is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, director of the Tayinat Lower Town Project, and associate director of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey. His current research interests include diaspora in antiquity and the nature of political authority in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the ancient Near East, especially as revealed through spatial analysis of the built environment.

Parker VanValkenburgh (Ph.D. 2012, Harvard University) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont and director of the Proyecto Arqueol´ogico Za˜na Colonial. His current research centers on understanding landscape change and political subjectivity in late pre-Hispanic and Spanish colonial Peru.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents iii

 SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1. Home Turf: Archaeology, Territoriality, and Politics 
Parker VanValkenburgh and James F. Osborne 1

SECTION II: ORIGINS AND TRANSITIONS: THE EMERGENCE OF EARLY TERRITORIAL POLITIES

Chapter 2. Territoriality and Politics in the Prehistoric and Classical Aegean 
John L. Bintliff  28

Chapter 3. Grass, Water, Salt, Copper, and Others: Pastoralists’ Territorial Strategies in Central Sudan  
Augustin F. C. Holl  39

Chapter 4. Mobility, Territorial Commitments, and Political Organization among Late Bronze Age Polities in Southern Caucasia  
Alan Greene and Ian Lindsay  54

SECTION III: CONTINGENCY AND VARIABILITY IN POLITICAL TERRITORIALITY

Chapter 5. Territorial and Nonterritorial Routes to Power: Reconciling Evolutionary Ecological, Social Agency, and Historicist Approaches  
Benjamin Chabot-Hanowell and Eric Alden Smith  72

Chapter 6. Monumentality, Territoriality, and Networks during the Middle Preclassic in Northwest Honduras  
Patricia Urban and Edward Schortman  87

Chapter 7. Settlement, Territory, and the Political Landscape of Late Bronze Age Polities in the Northern Levant    
Jesse Casana  107

SECTION IV: TERRITORIALITY AND POLITICS IN ANCIENT EMPIRES

Chapter 8. Geographies of Power: Territoriality and Empire during the Mesopotamian Iron Age 
Bradley J. Parker  126 

Chapter 9. Conquests of Dharma: Network Models and the Study of Ancient Polities 
Namita Sugandhi  145  

Chapter 10. Shifting Territorialities under the Inka Empire: The Case of the Rapay´an Valley in the Central Andean Highlands 
Alexis Mantha  164

SECTION V: DISCUSSION

Chapter 11. New Territory in Archaeological Theory 
Norman Yoffee  189

List of Contributors 193