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The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory addresses one of the most debated and least understood revolutions in the history of our species, the change from hunting and gathering to farming. Graeme Barker takes a global view, and integrates a massive array of information from archaeology and many other disciplines, including anthropology, botany, climatology, genetics, linguistics, and zoology. Against current orthodoxy, Barker develops a strong case for the development of agricultural systems in many areas as transformations in the life-ways of the indigenous forager societies, and argues that these were as much changes in social norms and ideologies as in ways of obtaining food. With a large number of helpful line drawings and photographs as well as a comprehensive bibliography, this authoritative study will appeal to a wide general readership as well as to specialists in a variety of fields.

Archaeologists often approach ancient dwellings as straightforward reflections of specific cultural and social projects, cultural traditions, household wealth and status, and residence groups. This book calls for a fundamental reassessment of the archaeology of houses and households, employing a multidimensional, “triangulating” investigation regarding how ancient dwellings were made, inhabited, and studied. This requires several intersecting considerations. Part I, Making Andean Houses, explores how dwellings are made, repaired, abandoned, and recycled, distinct processes for different kinds of domestic buildings and associated roofs. These variations produce distinct archaeological signatures more complex than simply “decay.” Part II, Inhabiting Andean Houses, explores how social behaviors and cultural meanings are enacted, encoded, and re-created in different Andean dwellings. Comparative case studies identify several common tropes—such as the existence of gendered spaces and the significance of houses as places of ritual—while documenting significant variations in habitat and habitus that archaeologists must investigate rather than assume. Part III, Studying Andean Houses, is a critical assessment of archaeological approaches to studying Andean domestic architecture but with broader implications. This includes a critical history of the development of archaeological investigations on the North Coast of Peru, an assessment of current studies that argue that “house size” is an accurate proxy for “household wealth and status” and the emergence of inequality, and an alternative model in which aspiring elites may co-opt social practices originally based on reciprocity, subverting social practices, and instantiating social differences in the construction of chiefly houses

Within a challenging tropical environment, a remarkable urban tradition developed and flourished as an element of ancient Maya culture. This book is about the cities of the eastern lowlands, a small but geographically diverse part of the homeland of the Maya. Using data collected by many different archaeological projects and researchers, the author presents detailed descriptions of 14 Classic period (ca. 250 to 900 CE) cities from five geographical areas of the modern nation of Belize, discussing the setting, the history of investigations, the site plan and urban features, culture history, and political history of each. For many of the cities discussed, this is the first time all of this information has been presented together. The data are viewed through the analytical lenses of site planning and the built environment. The final chapters consider the 14 cities as a group to examine urban planning and look for meaning, construed broadly here to encompass all the things that contributed to the final design of a place including mundane things like where water drains to esoteric things like worldview and cosmology. What the data in this book show are remarkable and nuanced variations in architectural assemblages across space and time, varied levels of political control over suburban landscapes, shared planning concepts combined with wildly different ideas about how to build a Maya city, and intriguing hints at possible relationships between cities based on planning principles. Flexibility in city design emerges from this study as a hallmark of ancient Maya urbanism.

Andean Ontologies is a fascinating interdisciplinary investigation of how ancient Andean people understood their world and the nature of being. Exploring pre-Hispanic ideas of time, space, and the human body, these essays highlight a range of beliefs across the region’s different cultures, emphasizing the relational aspects of identity in Andean worldviews. Studies included here show that Andeans physically interacted with their pasts through recurring ceremonies in their ritual calendar and that Andean bodies were believed to be changeable entities with the ability to interact with nonhuman and spiritual worlds. A survey of rock art describes Andeans’ changing relationships with places and things over time. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence reveals head hair was believed to be a conduit for the flow of spiritual power, and bioarchaeological remains offer evidence of Andean perceptions of age and wellness. Andean Ontologies breaks new ground by bringing together an array of renowned specialists including anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, historians, linguists, ethnohistorians, and art historians to evaluate ancient Amerindian ideologies through different interpretive lenses. Many are local researchers from South American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and this volume makes their work available to North American readers for the first time. Their essays are highly contextualized according to the territories and time periods studied. Instead of taking an external, outside-in approach, they prioritize internal and localized views that incorporate insights from today’s indigenous societies. This cutting-edge collection demonstrates the value of a multifaceted, holistic, inside-out approach to studying the pre-Columbian world.

Presenting studies in Andean archaeology and iconography by leading specialists in the field, this volume tackles the question of how researchers can come to understand the intangible, intellectual worlds of ancient peoples. Archaeological Interpretations is a fascinating ontological journey through Andean cultures from the fourth millennium BC to the sixteenth century AD. Through evidence-based case studies, theoretical models, and methodological reflections, contributors discuss the various interpretations that can be derived from the traces of ritual activity that remain in the material record. They discuss how to accurately comprehend the social significance of artifacts beyond their practical use and how to decode the symbolism of sacred images. Addressing topics including the earliest evidence of shamanism in Ecuador, the meaning of masks among the Mochicas in Peru, the value of metal in the Recuay culture, and ceremonies of voluntary abandonment among the Incas, contributors propose original and innovative ways of interpreting the rich Andean archaeological heritage.

This book provides the first modern synthesis of the archaeology of Skye and Western Isles: a region with some of the finest and best-preserved archaeological monuments in Europe. Our understanding of the region has been transformed in recent years through the results of new archaeological excavations, field surveys, and reassessments of earlier work from the nineteenth century onwards. From the ritual monuments of the Neolithic period, notably the great stone circles at Calanais in Lewis, to the spectacular Iron Age brochs and wheelhouses of the Iron Age, the exceptional preservation of key monuments offers insights into the broader currents of British and European prehistory. In later periods, the arrival of the Vikings in the Outer Hebrides is marked by a series of important archaeological discoveries casting new light on the nature and extent of cultural change. As well as covering the periods before the emergence of detailed written history, the book also addresses the archaeology of later periods, exploring the history of human settlement and society from earliest prehistory to the Clearances.

This volume brings together archaeologists working in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to construct a new prehistory of the Upper Amazon, outlining cultural developments from the late third millennium B.C. to the Inca Empire of the sixteenth century A.D. Encompassing the forested tropical slopes of the eastern Andes as well as Andean drainage systems that connect to the Amazon River basin, this vast region has been unevenly studied due to the restrictions of national borders, remote site locations, and limited interpretive models. The Archaeology of the Upper Amazon unites and builds on recent field investigations that have found evidence of extensive interaction networks along the major rivers—Santiago, Marañon, Huallaga, and Ucayali. Chapters detail how these rivers facilitated the movement of people, resources, and ideas between the Andean highlands and the Amazonian lowlands. Contributors demonstrate that the Upper Amazon was not a peripheral zone but a locus for complex societal developments. Reaching across geographical, cultural, and political boundaries, this volume shows that the trajectory of Andean civilization cannot be fully understood without a nuanced perspective on the region’s diverse patterns of interaction with the Upper Amazon.

Beyond the Nasca Lines examines the origin, rise, fall, and reformation of complex societies through investigations conducted at the archaeological site of La Tiza in the desert of Nasca, Peru. La Tiza was inhabited for over 5000 years and has the longest occupation of any settlement in the region, providing an unprecedented opportunity to examine the dynamics of ancient complex societies. Although the region is famous for the Nasca Lines (ground drawing on the desert floor) that were created by the Nasca culture (A.D. 100–650), many societies thrived in the region before and after that period. From hunters and gatherers of the Middle Preceramic (ca. 3500 B.C.) to the Inca empire (ca. A.D. 1450), the transformation of society is documented with a particular focus on the cycle of the rise of the Nasca culture, subsequent conquest by the Wari state followed by collapse and abandonment, and then the establishment of a new society in the Late Intermediate Period (ca. A.D. 1200). Many factors were involved in these shifts, and included the organization of kinship groups, shifts in subsistence strategies, influxes of immigrants and new ideas, religious movements, climate change, trade and social networks, and external imperial policies. This book is unique from previous studies in Nasca in that it takes a diachronic perspective and addresses the long prehistory of the region from the perspective of a particular site.

The volume presents a broad array of bioarchaeological techniques that can illuminate the lives of individuals in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East and the promise of bioarchaeological research in this region. The authors present their results in a contextualized manner, considering a region's unique geographic, cultural, and historical situation throughout antiquity. The book's organization around specific research topics (mortuary practices and society, population movement and migration, health, disease, and diet), rather than specific methods, emphasizes the problem-oriented nature of these projects. This arrangement makes the book more accessible to archaeologists and historians wishing to familiarize themselves with bioarchaeology's potential, in addition to introducing bioarchaeologists working in other regions to the growing body of research in the Near East.

During the second millennium B.C. hundreds of villages were founded in peninsular India. The people of the Deccan Chalcolithic period relied on farming drought-resistant barley and wheat. They raised cattle, sheep, and goats; maintained hunting and foraging traditions; and utilized the resources gathered from local lakes and forest habitats for subsistence, construction, and fuel. Throughout this time, Chalcolithic people successfully colonized the peninsula despite the challenges of living in a semi-arid climate and unpredictable monsoon rainfall. By 1400 B.C. their settlements were thriving, populations were growing, and large regional centers were established. Yet, around 1000 B.C., the majority of these settlements were deserted. This book uses evidence from paleoclimate research, archaeology, and human skeletal material to examine life and death at three villages occupied during this time. Innovative methods of bioarchaeological analysis reveal complexity in the interactions between humans and their environment and suggest a new model for understanding this period of India's prehistory. Questions about human interactions with the environment thousands of years ago in India are interesting from an academic standpoint, but the insights we gain into the past are relevant in a contemporary context as we face the consequences of continued population growth, unsustainable lifestyles, degradation of local environments, and large-scale climate change. Having a longer view of the challenges, strategies, and consequences of human–environment interactions may prove helpful as we all develop strategies for dealing with contemporary environmental change.

This book represents an important shift in the interpretation of skeletal remains in the Americas. Until recently, bioarchaeology has focused on interpreting and analyzing populations. The chapters here examine how individuals fit into those larger populations. The overall aim is to demonstrate how bioarchaeologists can uniquely contribute to our understanding of the formation, representation, and repercussions of identity. The book combines historical and archaeological data with population-genetic analyses, biogeochemical analyses of human tooth enamel and bones, mortuary patterns, and body modifications. Case studies drawn from North, Central, and South American mortuary remains from AD 500 to the Colonial period examine a wide range of factors that make up identity, including ethnicity, age, gender, and social, political, and religious constructions. By adding a valuable biological element to the study of culture—a topic traditionally associated with social theorists, ethnographers, and historical archaeologies—the book aims to highlight the importance of skeletal evidence in helping us better understand our past.

Examined through the lens of human remains, the overarching theme of this volume is human interaction and its consequences for the human condition across the vast expanse of East Asia during the Holocene. The volume is also an exploration of human interaction at an entirely different level, bringing together chapters written by scholars from several distinct academic schools of thought. The contributors stem from a range of culturally mediated scholarly traditions in biological anthropology that were isolated to varying degrees by the tumultuous politics of the 20th century. Conceptual frameworks, underlying assumptions, goals, and even styles of presentation vary considerably among the chapters, reflecting our goal of creating a forum within which a highly diverse and international group of scholars could engage in their particular approaches to examining human skeletal remains drawn from archaeological contexts.

This book is a compilation of osteobiographies: life histories of individuals whose remains were recovered from archaeological sites all over the world. The essays include contributions by some forty individuals and provide richly textured accounts of life in the past and of the process of bioarchaeological inquiry. Skeletal and dental analysis is augmented by information from oral history and legends, sagas, ethnography and ethnohistory, ancient DNA, bone chemistry, and the abundance of the archaeological record-all carefully woven into interpretations of the lives of artisans, healers, craftsmen, and farmers. Amply illustrated, the chapters present research results in a manner accessible to students and non-professionals, without glossing over the scientific aspects of the methods or oversimplifying the problems and limitations inherent in the research. The range of research methods and trajectories presented in these chapters exemplifies the creative, interdisciplinary nature of bioarchaeology and the unique contribution of this field to our understanding of the breadth of human experience.

Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica presents work from both Mesoamerican-based and U.S.-based researchers who use a combination of cultural ethnohistorical, (bio)archaeological, dental, and chemical data in an interdisciplinary approach to research population history in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The goals for such a project are threefold: 1) to encourage more cross-fertilization of work between fields and subfields, in order to more appropriately address large regional questions of population history; 2) to explicitly address the theoretical and methodological challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary research; and 3) to introduce a larger audience to the state of interdisciplinary work in Mesoamerica. The volume is organized into three primary sections. First, the editors discuss the theory and methods of interdisciplinary research, with a particular focus on bioarchaeological research. Then, we present authored case studies using interdisciplinary methods to analyze the population dynamics of migration and mobility (section two) and explore reconstructions of ethnicity and social identity (section three). A concluding chapter integrates these studies and places them into a broader research framework to guide future research.

Featuring a wealth of case studies on human skulls recovered from ethnographic and archaeological contexts around the world, this book focuses on the question of whose skulls and heads were collected and modified and why, whether as ancestors or enemies, as insiders or outsiders, as males, females or children. This volume includes discussions of osteological examinations, visual descriptions, iconography, taphonomy, and DNA, x-ray and isotope analyses to determine, for example, whether the skulls belonged to ancestors or enemies, as local or non-local residents. Emphasizing social identity and the use of the body in ritual, this book includes varied approaches to heads and skulls as both biological objects and as material culture. Bioarchaeological discussions of these skulls shed light on questions of identity as well as on cultural, economic, and political practices within past societies. Whether decorated, disembodied, or deformed, collected for display or hidden, or otherwise modified or curated, skulls, and their study serve to illustrate the potential of the abundance of information that can be obtained from a combined analysis of this notable part of the human body.

Bioarchaeology provides a body of theory, method, and data to investigate the origins and evolution of social violence in human groups going back in time for thousands of years. Case studies from different time periods and different cultures demonstrate the commonalities and differences among human groups with respect to the ways that culturally sanctioned violence is used. These richly detailed studies provide ways to examine the relationship between violence and lived experience, and between lived experience and cultural processes. The chapter authors use a variety of theoretical approaches to explain the human behaviors that maintain and perpetuate violent encounters within groups, as well as between groups. It is important to document long chronologies of human behavior because it becomes clearer how change can bring on violent responses (changes such as droughts, population pressure, resource acquisition, or status). These kinds of studies can be used to better understand how to prevent or eradicate violence in human groups today. This volume compels readers to view culturally sanctioned violence not as a necessary evil or an abhorrent behavior but as a way that human groups solve problems that they perceive they have. Ritual violence as part of ceremonies to bring people together, or male coalitions that go out and raid other groups for women and resources are examples where violence aids in solving problems within the culture. Anthropological perspectives on violence using bioarchaeological data from the past are a unique and valuable resource for those wishing to understand violence in all of its manifestations.

The study of ancient architecture and the built environment has much to tell us about the social makeup and culture of the designers, builders, and users of these constructions. This volume presents the most current research on domestic, public, and ritual architecture created over four millennia along the Ohio River, its tributaries, and in the lower Great Lakes. Most of these chapters describe new discoveries and previously unpublished data. This compilation begins with the latest information on some of the most ancient (Late Archaic) dwellings in the region which demonstrate that early cultures built sophisticated dwellings and were much more settled than previously thought. Of particular note are the chapters which provide the first published descriptions of newly discovered Hopewell domestic and ritual constructions in the central Ohio River Valley, such as the Moorehead Circle and the Brown’s Bottom domestic hamlet. Rare evidence of post-Hopewell architecture in Ohio is derived from the recent discovery of a complete early Late Woodland domestic structure at the Heckelman site in northern Ohio. The climax of domestic architecture in the region is thoroughly investigated by three analyses of Late Prehistoric period house constructions and public architecture in the central Ohio Valley and central Indiana. The volume concludes with a discussion of how archaeologists working in the region can improve our understanding of prehistoric constructions through the development of a new interpretive framework based on basic architectural principals and nomenclature.

Cahokia is located in the northern expanse of the American Bottom, the largest of the Mississippian flood plains, and opposite St. Louis, Missouri. This book overturns the current political characterization of this largest known North American prehistoric site north of Mexico. Rather than treating Cahokia as the seat of a dominant Native American polity, a “paramount chiefdom”, the book argues that it must be given a religious characterization as a world renewal cult center. Furthermore, the social and economic powers that it manifests must not be seen to reside in Cahokia itself but in multiple world renewal cults distributed across the American Bottom and in the nearby upland regions. It also argues that Cahokia can be thought of as an affiliation of mutually autonomous cults that pooled their labor and other resources and established their collective mission as the performance of world renewal rituals by which to maintain and enhance the sacred powers of the cosmos. The cults, the book argues, adopted two forms of sacrifice: one was the incrementally staged manipulation of the deceased (burial, disinterment, bone cleaning, and reburial), with each unfolding step constituting a mortuary act having different and greater world renewal sacrificial force. The other was lethal human sacrifice—probably correlated with long distance warfare by which to procure victims.

Ceramics of Ancient America analyzes ceramics specifically from ancient America to add new layers to our understanding by emphasizing new perspectives and a multidisciplinary approach from the fields of archaeology, art history, and anthropology. Scholars have studied ceramic objects in these disciplines using various methodologies. So far, however, no publication has combined these different scholarly approaches to analyze Pre-Columbian ceramics to understand aspects of many different ancient societies across the Americas. This book thus will provide a much-needed compendium, survey, and synthesis of current scholarship of New World ceramics by drawing on a combination of three different disciplines. This volume will help students and scholars alike better understand and appreciate ceramics as one of the vital forms of communication within small social units, and across cultural and political boundaries. Although three different disciplines have approached the study of ceramics using different methodologies, this book will be the first to utilize them in a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary way to contribute to a more complete picture of Pre-Columbian ceramics and their place in society. The study of ceramics has already been recognized as a fundamental tool for understanding Pre-Columbian beliefs about daily life, reconstructing social systems, and assessing inter- and intra- cultural political relationships. The contributors to this book, however, explore social implications, iconography, trade, variations of regional style, innovation, ritual, and political meanings from numerous cultures in North, Central, and South America that are relevant to the study of ceramics anywhere, but particularly in ancient America.

The Ch'orti' area — located in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — was once the southernmost region of the ancient Maya world. Though thousands of years of tumultuous change have altered the face of the region drastically, many Ch'orti' have preserved their identity and maintained strong cultural ties to their past, and the region generally continues to practice traditions with Ch'orti' roots. The Ch'orti's' connection with the Maya past and modern-day struggles with poverty and cultural encroachment have made the once little-studied Ch'orti' an important subject of anthropological research. This book looks at these people, their culture, and the region itself. Highlighting research from scholars around the globe, this collection is an exploration of the history of human habitation in the area from approximately 3,000 years ago to the present.