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Prehistoric Maritime Cultures and Seafaring in East Asia (The Archaeology of Asia-Pacific Navigation #1)
by Chunming Wu Barry Vladimir RolettThis book focuses on prehistoric East Asian maritime cultures that pre-dated the Maritime Silk Road, the "Four Seas" and "Four Oceans" navigation system recorded in historical documents of ancient China. Origins of the Maritime Silk Road can be traced to prosperous Neolithic and Metal Age maritime-oriented cultures dispersed along the coastlines of prehistoric China and Southeast Asia.The topics explored here include Neolithisation and the development of prehistoric maritime cultures during the Neolithic and early Metal Age; the expansion and interaction of these cultures along coastlines and across straits; the "two-layer" hypothesis for explaining genetic and cultural diversity in south China and Southeast Asia; prehistoric seafaring and early sea routes; the paleogeography and vegetation history of coastal regions; Neolithic maritime livelihoods based on hunting/fishing/foraging adaptations; rice and millet cultivation and their dispersal along the coast and across the open sea; and interaction between farmers and maritime-oriented hunter/fisher/foragers. In addition, a series of case studies enhances understanding of the development of prehistoric navigation and the origin of the Maritime Silk Road in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Prehistoric Maritime Frontier of Southeast China: Indigenous Bai Yue and Their Oceanic Dispersal (The Archaeology of Asia-Pacific Navigation #4)
by Chunming WuThis open access book presents multidisciplinary research on the cultural history, ethnic connectivity, and oceanic transportation of the ancient Indigenous Bai Yue (百越) in the prehistoric maritime region of southeast China and southeast Asia. In this maritime Frontier of China, historical documents demonstrate the development of the “barbarian” Bai Yue and Island Yi (岛夷) and their cultural interaction with the northern Huaxia (华夏) in early Chinese civilization within the geopolitical order of the “Central State-Four Peripheries Barbarians-Four Seas”. Archaeological typologies of the prehistoric remains reveal a unique cultural tradition dominantly originating from the local Paleolithic age and continuing to early Neolithization across this border region. Further analysis of material culture from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age proves the stability and resilience of the indigenous cultures even with the migratory expansion of Huaxia and Han (汉) from north to south. Ethnographical investigations of aboriginal heritage highlight their native cultural context, seafaring technology and navigation techniques, and their interaction with Austronesian and other foreign maritime ethnicities. In a word, this manuscript presents a new perspective on the unique cultural landscape of indigenous ethnicities in southeast China with thousands of years’ stable tradition, a remarkable maritime orientation and overseas cultural hybridization in the coastal region of southeast China.
Prehistoric Modernization: From Hunting and Gathering to the Origins of Agriculture
by Shengqian ChenThis book explores the origins of agriculture in China, and the transformation from hunter-gatherer to agriculture producer. Therefore, it reveals the ancient genes of China as an agricultural country and digs into questions like what turning events occurred during the transformative period from hunting-gathering to agricultural production and why the development of agriculture is rapid in some regions while largely delayed in others. This book also introduces various definitions and theoretical methods on the study of agriculture’s origin. It represents the transforming era by simulating prehistoric hunter-gatherer’s survival strategies with data collected from modern weather station. The author also tries to answer questions on the origins of agriculture production in China with comprehensive archeology evidences.
Prehistoric Native Americans And Ecological Change: Human Ecosystems In Eastern North America Since The Pleistocene
by Paul A. Delcourt Hazel R. DelcourtThere has long been controversy between ecologists and archaeologists over the role of prehistoric Native Americans as agents of ecological change. Using ecological and archaeological data from the woodlands of eastern North America, Paul and Hazel Delcourt show that Holocene human ecosystems are complex adaptive systems in which humans have interacted with the environment on a series of spatial and time scales. Their work therefore has important implications for the conservation of biological diversity and for ecological restoration today, making it of great interest to ecologists and archaeologists alike.
The Prehistoric Peoples of Scotland (Routledge Library Editions: Archaeology)
by Stuart PiggottBased on lectures given at the Conference of the British Summer School of Archaeology at Edinburgh in 1954, this book, published in 1962, surveys the general field of pre-historic Scotland, five archaeologists each contributing chapters discussing the main aspects and problems that have presented themselves in specialised research areas. From the first peopling of the area by human communities with hunting and food-gathering economies, to field antiquities and the introduction of copper and bronze metallurgy and on to the first settlement by Celtic speakers and the links to the first historically documented Scotland. Contributors: R.J.C. Atkinson, G.E. Daniel, T.G.E. Powell and C.A.R. Radford.
Prehistoric Rock Art
by Paul G. BahnPaul G. Bahn provides a richly illustrated overview of prehistoric rock art and cave art from around the world. Summarizing the recent advances in our understanding of this extraordinary visual record, he discusses new discoveries, new approaches to recording and interpretation, and current problems in conservation. Bahn focuses in particular on current issues in the interpretation of rock art, notably the 'shamanic' interpretation that has been influential in recent years and that he refutes. This book is based on the Rhind Lectures that the author delivered for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2006.
The Prehistoric Settlement of Britain (Routledge Library Editions: Archaeology)
by Richard BradleyThis study, first published in 1978, explores the evidence for pre-Roman settlement in Britain. Four aspects of the prehistoric economy are described by the author – colonisation and clearance; arable and pastoral farming; transhumance and nomadism; and hunting, gathering and fishing. These aspects have been brought together to formulate a structure which contains the evidence more naturally than chronological schemes that depend on assumed changes in population or technology. The book draws upon environmental evidence and recent developments in archaeological fieldwork. It also provides an extensive exploration of the published literature on the subject and the scope of the evidence. Originally conceived as an ‘ideas book’ rather than a final synthesis, the author’s intention throughout is to stimulate argument and research, and not to replace one dogma with another.
Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change During the First Millennium BCE
by Gideon ShelachThe northern borders of China - known as the Northern zone - were a key area of interaction between sedentary and nomadic people during the late second and early first millennium BCE. During this period the region's unique economy, socio-political systems, local cultures and identities took shape. 'Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China' analyses the archaeological record to examine the changes that took place in Northern China in the first millennium. Drawing on field work in the Chifeng area of Inner Mongolia, the book explores dramatic changes in the construction of identities alongside more gradual changes in subsistence strategies and political organization. The book is unique in integrating the archaeological data and historical records of this period with anthropological theory to examine the role of identity construction and the use of symbol in the shaping of East Asian society.
Prehistoric Stone Tools of Eastern Africa: A Guide
by John J. SheaStone tools are the least familiar objects that archaeologists recover from their excavations, and predictably, they struggle to understand them. Eastern Africa alone boasts a 3.4 million-year-long archaeological record but its stone tool evidence still remains disorganized, unsynthesized, and all-but-impenetrable to non-experts, and especially so to students from Eastern African countries. In this book, John J. Shea offers a simple, straightforward, and richly illustrated introduction in how to read stone tools. An experienced stone tool analyst and an expert stoneworker, he synthesizes the Eastern African stone tool evidence for the first time. Shea presents the EAST Typology, a new framework for describing stone tools specifically designed to allow archaeologists to do what they currently cannot: compare stone tool evidence across the full sweep of Eastern African prehistory. He also includes a series of short, fictional, and humorous vignettes set on an Eastern African archaeological excavation, which illustrate the major issues and controversies in research about stone tools.
Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean
by E. J.W. BarberThis pioneering work revises our notions of the origins and early development of textiles in Europe and the Near East. Using innovative linguistic techniques, along with methods from palaeobiology and other fields, it shows that spinning and pattern weaving began far earlier than has been supposed. Prehistoric Textiles made an unsurpassed leap in the social and cultural understanding of textiles in humankind's early history. Cloth making was an industry that consumed more time and effort, and was more culturally significant to prehistoric cultures, than anyone assumed before the book's publication. The textile industry is in fact older than pottery--and perhaps even older than agriculture and stockbreeding. It probably consumed far more hours of labor per year, in temperate climates, than did pottery and food production put together. And this work was done primarily by women. Up until the Industrial Revolution, and into this century in many peasant societies, women spent every available moment spinning, weaving, and sewing. The author, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, demonstrates command of an almost unbelievably disparate array of disciplines--from historical linguistics to archaeology and paleobiology, from art history to the practical art of weaving. Her passionate interest in the subject matter leaps out on every page. Barber, a professor of linguistics and archaeology, developed expert sewing and weaving skills as a small girl under her mother's tutelage. One could say she had been born and raised to write this book. Because modern textiles are almost entirely made by machines, we have difficulty appreciating how time-consuming and important the premodern textile industry was. This book opens our eyes to this crucial area of prehistoric human culture.
Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences)
by Andrea Dolfini Rachel J. Crellin Christian Horn Marion UckelmannThis is the first book to explore prehistoric warfare and violence by integrating qualitative research methods with quantitative, scientific techniques of analysis such as paleopathology, morphometry, wear analysis, and experimental archaeology. It investigates early warfare and violence from the standpoint of four broad interdisciplinary themes: skeletal markers of violence and weapon training; conflict in prehistoric rock-art; the material culture of conflict; and intergroup violence in archaeological discourse. The book has a wide-ranging chronological and geographic scope, from early Neolithic to late Iron Age and from Western Europe to East Asia. It includes world-renowned sites and artefact collections such as the Tollense Valley Bronze Age battlefield (Germany), the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Tanum (Sweden), and the British Museum collection of bronze weaponry from the late Shang period (China). Original case studies are presented in each section by a diverse international authorship.The study of warfare and violence in prehistoric and pre-literate societies has been at the forefront of archaeological debate since the publication of Keeley’s provocative monograph ‘War Before Civilization’ (Oxford 1996). The problem has been approached from a number of standpoints including anthropological and behavioural studies of interpersonal violence, osteological examinations of sharp lesions and blunt-force traumas, wear analysis of ancient weaponry, and field experiments with replica weapons and armour. This research, however, is often confined within the boundaries of the various disciplines and specialist fields. In particular, a gap can often be detected between the research approaches grounded in the humanities and social sciences and those based on the archaeological sciences. The consequence is that, to this day, the subject is dominated by a number of undemonstrated assumptions regarding the nature of warfare, combat, and violence in non-literate societies. Moreover, important methodological questions remain unanswered: can we securely distinguish between violence-related and accidental trauma on skeletal remains? To what extent can wear analysis shed light on long-forgotten fighting styles? Can we design meaningful combat tests based on historic martial arts? And can the study of rock-art unlock the social realities of prehistoric warfare? By breaking the mould of entrenched subject boundaries, this edited volume promotes interdisciplinary debate in the study of prehistoric warfare and violence by presenting a number of innovative approaches that integrate qualitative and quantitative methods of research and analysis.
Prehistoric Warfare on the Great Plains: Skeletal Analysis of the Crow Creek Massacre Victims (Evolution of North American Indians Series)
by P. WilleyFirst Published in 1991.This study is the product of the discovery, excavation, processing, data collection and analysis of nearly 500 human skeletons from the Crow Creek Massacre Project, South Dakota. In about 1325 AD nearly 500 American Indians were massacred, and their remains were discovered, excavated and cleaned in 1978. The general purpose of the Crow Creek osteological study were to describe the remains as fully as time permitted and compare these results with other samples. This volume presents information concerning the Crow Creek bone elements, paleodemography, cranial affiliations, mutilations and stature. It emphasizes the unique feature of the sample and compares the Crow Creek sample with other skeletal samples from the Plains.
Prehistoric Wetland Sites of Southern Europe: Archaeology, Dendrochronology, Palaeoecology and Bioarchaeology (Natural Science in Archaeology)
by Ariane Ballmer Albert Hafner Willy TinnerThis is an open access book. Unique in its scope, this book provides for the first time a Southern European perspective on prehistoric wetland settlements and their natural environment. These are dwellings originally built in humid locations, i.e. on shores and in shallow water areas of lakes, bogs, marshes, rivers, estuaries and lagoons. The relevant archaeological remains are in most cases waterlogged and offer outstanding preservation conditions for organic materials and are moreover in close proximity to uninterrupted natural archives (e.g. lake or mire sediments), which allows for a broad range of transdisciplinary research approaches. The sites discussed in this book date from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (c. 5500–1000 BC), and are located in nine countries of Southern Europe, i.e. Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. Four dimensions of prehistoric wetland settlements are explored in the book – the archaeological, the dendroarchaeological, the palaeoecological and the bioarchaeological: Part I is dedicated to archaeology, i.e. the excavation of settlement remains, their transdisciplinary exploration as well as their interpretation; Part II deals with dendroarchaeology and its contribution to the understanding of occupation sequences and regional chronologies; and Part III concerns uninterrupted off-site palaeoecological records of past ecosystem change, including human–environment interactions, as well as bioarchaeological on-site approaches to subsistence strategies and land use practices. Prehistoric Wetland sites of Southern Europe showcases how different disciplines and areas of expertise from the humanities and the natural sciences meet on an equal footing to elaborate coherent pictures of the past. Besides a cross-section of research statuses of different archaeological sites, currently ongoing research as well as novel, hitherto unpublished case studies and findings are made accessible to the international research community. Drawing on a wide range of expert contributions from both archaeology and the natural sciences, this book targets scholars, professionals, and students from the fields of prehistoric archaeology and palaeo-sciences, and is furthermore of interest to cultural-heritage stakeholders.
Prehistoric Woodworking: The Analysis and Interpretation of Bronze and Iron Age Toolmakers (UCL Institute of Archaeology Publications)
by Rob SandsRob Sands explores the evidence left by the use of axes on wooden beams and tools found in waterlogged archaeological sites dating over 2000 years old. A toolmark can not only inform the archaeologist about the implement used, but also provides evidence of building and artifact construction methods and labor patterns. Examples come from the author’s work at Oakbank Crannog in Scotland. The volume examines the methods of recording, techniques of analysis and implications of this unusual form of evidence.
Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction
by Chris GosdenMany of the familiar aspects of modern life are no more than a century or two old, yet our deep social structures and skills were in large measure developed by small bands of our prehistoric ancestors many millennia ago. In this book, readers are invited to think seriously about who we are by considering who we have been.
Prehistory: The Making Of The Human Mind (Mcdonald Institute Monographs)
by Professor Lord Colin RenfrewA brief and original prehistory of the worldPrehistory covers human existence before written records, i.e. most of human existence. But it also refers to the discipline through which we scrutinize prehistoric times. PREHISTORY begins by looking at the discovery of a remote human past and the subsequent dramatic growth of the study of prehistory: early archaeology; geology; Darwin's ideas of evolution; cave paintings; fossil discoveries of human ancestors; museums and collections; radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis.Renfrew challenges the conventional assumption of an all-important 'human revolution' 40,000 years ago - when Homo Sapiens first appeared in Europe - and suggests that the key developments were much later. The author's case-studies range widely, from Orkney to the Balkans, from the Indus Valley to Peru, from Ireland to China, and provide fresh insights on landmark monuments such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Stonehenge and the sacrificial burial pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico. The book closes with a fascinating chapter on the transition from Prehistory to History, on early writing systems.
Prehistory in Northeastern Arabia
by Abdullah Hassan MasryThis manuscript in its original thesis form was published by Field Research Projects of Florida in 1974. It had a very limited circulation and was basically in the form of a mimeographed edition. The version now published here represents the work for the first time as a proper publication in book form and has been revised and edited and is appropriately produced as a regular archaeological book. Fundamentally this was and remains the seminal work on the subject and was the first in its filed. It is an integral work of scholarship of permanent value. It is a work written in its own time and no attempt has been made to retrospectively interfere or change the nature of the text or its conclusions but to publish it for what it is. The work has ushered in a series of field excavations and analyses that expand upon it and amplify the information already given in the work itself. Thus one could say that this original work has had a seminal and indeed catalytic impact on the archaeology of the Gulf over the last two decades.This edition first published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Prehistory of Asia Minor
by Bleda S. DüringIn this book, Bleda Düring offers an archaeological analysis of Asia Minor, the area equated with much of modern-day Turkey, from 20,000 to 2,000 BC. During this period human societies moved from small-scale hunter-gatherer groups to complex and hierarchical communities with economies based on agriculture and industry. Dr Düring traces the spread of the Neolithic way of life, which ultimately reached across Eurasia, and the emergence of key human developments, including the domestication of animals, metallurgy, fortified towns and long-distance trading networks. Situated at the junction between Europe and Asia, Asia Minor has often been perceived as a bridge for the movement of technologies and ideas. By contrast, this book argues that cultural developments followed a distinctive trajectory in Asia Minor from as early as 9,000 BC.
Prehistory of Australia
by Johan KammingaAustralia's human prehistory through more than 40,000 years is the challenging theme of this masterly survey. John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga bring together the discoveries and often controversial interpretations of six decades of archaeological research to reveal that across this island continent, in the face of contrasting environments and changing climates, human responses produced many cultures, languages and life styles. The Old World is usually credited with the origins of art and spirituality. Recent discoveries, however, prove that symbolic rock art and complex burial rites also existed in Australia at challengingly early times. The authors evaluate the dating evidence upon which Australia's human story before 1788 is reconstructed. They review diverse topics, such as the controversy about the time people first arrived on the continent's northern coast, the extinction of marsupial megafauna and the diversity of Aboriginal rock art. Prehistory of Australia explains why Aboriginal Australia is recognised today for its significance in global prehistory and why so many of its archaeological places have merited World Heritage listing.
The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland (Cambridge World Archaeology)
by Richard BradleySited at the furthest limits of the Neolithic revolution and standing at the confluence of the two great sea routes of prehistory, Britain and Ireland are distinct from continental Europe for much of the prehistoric sequence. In this landmark study, Richard Bradley offers an interpretation of the unique archaeological record of these islands. Highlighting the achievements of its inhabitants, Bradley surveys the entire archaeological sequence over a 5,000 year period, from the last hunter-gatherers and the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic period, to the discovery of Britain and Ireland by travellers from the Mediterranean during the later pre-Roman Iron Age. His study places special emphasis on landscapes, settlements, monuments, and ritual practices. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. The text takes account of recent developments in archaeological science, such as isotopic analyses of human and animal bone, recovery of ancient DNA, and more subtle and precise methods of radiocarbon dating.
The Prehistory of Denmark
by Jorgen JensenFirst Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change (One World Archaeology #Vol. 32)
by Chris Gosden Jon HatherThe Prehistory of Food sets subsistence in its social context by focusing on food as a cultural artefact. It brings together contributors with a scientific and biological expertise as well as those interested in the patterns of consumption and social change, and includes a wide range of case studies.
The Prehistory of Home
by Jerry D. MooreMany animals build shelters, but only humans build homes. No other species creates such a variety of dwellings. Drawing examples from across the archaeological record and around the world, archaeologist Jerry D. Moore recounts the cultural development of the uniquely human imperative to maintain domestic dwellings. He shows how our houses allow us to physically adapt to the environment and conceptually order the cosmos, and explains how we fabricate dwellings and, in the process, construct our lives. The Prehistory of Home points out how houses function as symbols of equality or proclaim the social divides between people, and how they shield us not only from the elements, but increasingly from inchoate fear.
The Prehistory of Home
by Jerry D. MooreMany animals build shelters, but only humans build homes. No other species creates such a variety of dwellings. Drawing examples from across the archaeological record and around the world, archaeologist Jerry D. Moore recounts the cultural development of the uniquely human imperative to maintain domestic dwellings. He shows how our houses allow us to physically adapt to the environment and conceptually order the cosmos, and explains how we fabricate dwellings and, in the process, construct our lives. The Prehistory of Home points out how houses function as symbols of equality or proclaim the social divides between people, and how they shield us not only from the elements, but increasingly from inchoate fear.