Books in the Debates in Archaeology series

Over the years archaeological research has shifted decisively from check-list identifications of the state as an evolutionary type to studies of how power and authority were constituted in specific polities. This book illustrates conceptual issues by means of case studies drawn from Madagascar, Mesopotamia, the Inca, the Maya, Egypt and Greece.

"The book covers the background of environmental change, the adoption of rice farming, archaeogenetics, the adoption of copper-based metallurgy, the Iron Age and the origins of state formation"--

This fresh approach to the study of Islamization proposes an innovative conceptual framework that treats the subject as a particular case of cultural change. The aim of the volume is to make Islamization amenable to archaeological and historical analyses of changes in material conditions of life without forsaking the specific history of Islam. Islam and Islamization must be understood in their particular social context, but also in relation to the conditions that hold them together over large geographical and chronological expanses.Archaeologists and historians have considered Islamization from a range of different perspectives, from conversion to cultural change, though these studies have tended to be underpinned by a normativist conception of Islam. In contrast, José C. Carvajal López takes a hermeneutical stance, wherein Islam is the result of exploration, and adopts a New Materialist theoretical analysis to explore Islamization and its impact on identities, communities and their material culture. The consequences for the study of Islamization are examined through examples that include some of the author's own experiences. This innovative take on Islamization is not exclusively interested in the spread of the religion or of the polity, and therefore it overcomes the theoretical limits imposed by the concepts of religious conversion and ideological imposition. This book will appeal to scholars interested in associating cultural and religious change and, in particular, those working on Islam, whether within or outside the discipline of archaeology.

Early European Castles shows how our understanding of the origins and growth of medieval castles is currently being transformed and develops a framework for deepening our understanding of Europe's 'castral revolution' in the period AD 800-1200.

This book argues the importance of investigating archeological findspots and historical context when examining Roman art.

An examination of the potential role of archaeology and built heritage in the context of international development practice in Africa. It focuses on Africa, examining the key issues and threats affecting the archaeological resource, including governance, neglect, conflict, climate change and globalisation.

This book sets a new agenda for ethical studies in mortuary investigation, adducing a series of case studies which can be used to understand the questions facing burial archaeology.

A study of conversion to Christianity in the early medieval world which explores in particular the relationship between archaeology and belief and an attempt to re-centre the 'pagan' as a key element in the conversion process.

Houses are often assumed to be reliable mirrors of society, fossils of family structures, social hierarchies and mental maps of worlds now vanished. Drawing on the archaeological data and theoretical models, this title offers a periodized view of later houses, stressing their continuity with houses of the early empire.

Traces the development of 'community archaeology', identifying both its advantages and disadvantages by describing how and why tensions have arisen between archaeological and community understandings of the past.

Presents a critical yet positive approach to how contemporary conceptual outlooks, if unacknowledged, can seriously influence our understanding of the past. This book presents an exploration and evaluation of conceptual categories, of significance to archaeology, such as: age, experience, emotion, the senses, distance, and colour.

Al-Andalus, the Iberian Islamic civilization centred on Cordoba in the tenth and eleventh centuries, has been a 'lost' civilization in several respects. This book takes a comparative civilizations approach that puts the formation of Al-Andalus in context with corresponding developments elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Museums and museum politics were important elements in the development of the disciplines of Archaeology and Art History in nineteenth-century Britain. This title explores some of the key debates and events which led to the conceptual differentiation and physical separation of 'archaeological' and 'artistic' material culture.