Books in the Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology series

This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the El Mirador cave located on the Atapuerca karstic system, one of the longest Pleistocene and Holocene archaeopaleontological deposits in Iberia. This book presents the results including new unpublished and published data to discuss different aspects related to the prehistoric herders and farmers that occupied this territory.  Divided into four parts, the book covers site presentation and the paleoenvironmental reconstruction covering a chronological span between 7060 40-3040 40 yrs. The history of the excavation and the excavation methodology is detailed in this part including new unpublished recording techniques using 3D scanning and photogrammetry and a very meticulous sampling strategy. The book presents formation processes of the deposit which are key to understanding the successive occupations of the caves regarding its use as sheepfold cave as well as human remains that are part of different funerary contexts in the cave. In the last section, the book covers material culture found in the cave including lithic tools and pottery. This interdisciplinary work is of interest to scholars in anthracology, zooarchaeology, paleoanthropology, lithic technology, and experimental archaeology.

This edited volume compiles a series of chapters written by experts of isotopic analysis in order to highlight the utility of various isotope systems in the reconstruction of past human behaviors. Rather than grouping contributions by specific isotopes or analytical techniques, as many isotope review articles are arranged, the volume organizes chapters by broadly defined themes of archaeological research. These include: paleodiet and life histories, human-animal interactions, and migration and mobility. In this sense, the book is arranged with the intent of being as much question based as method based. Chapters under these themes provide background information on the principles of the techniques and on the theoretical underpinnings of the research; yet they are written with the non-specialist in mind and attempt to convey these ideas clearly and succinctly. In addition to the case studies and reviews, three chapters provide greater context to the field of isotopicarchaeology, discussing its history, basic principles, and future potential. The volume aims to serve as a reference source for students and practicing archaeologists seeking to apply isotopic studies to their own research projects or to act as a reader for courses in archaeological science. Chapter 6 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art presentation and discussion of procedures, especially what works and what doesn¿t ¿ on isotopic proveniencing, learned over the last 30 years. The volume focuses on application, not method, to emphasize to the reader the wide range of questions that can be addressed using isotopic proveniencing. Topics covered include samples, baselines, isoscapes, and place of origin.Isotopic proveniencing has become almost standard procedure in the analysis of archaeological burials as a means of distinguishing locals from foreigners. The combination of isotopic proveniencing and DNA has moved archaeological interest in migration and mobility to the fore, but there is very little synthetic work published for either technology.The field has evolved and new procedures and guidelines have emerged that have not been widely heard and this volume seeks to rectify this. The contributors have been selected from among the leaders in the field, those with active research and hands-on experience with the technology. This volume is of relevance to archaeologists.

This handbook provides a resource for those already familiar with some kinds of micro-particles who wish to learn more about others, or for those just starting out in the study of microremains who wish to have a broad understanding about microscopic archaeology.

This handbook provides a resource for those already familiar with some kinds of micro-particles who wish to learn more about others, or for those just starting out in the study of microremains who wish to have a broad understanding about microscopic archaeology.

Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding

In the decade since its publication, Statistics for Archaeologists has become a staple in the classroom. Substantially updated and containing three brand new sections, this revised edition introduces the basic principles of statistics to archaeologists.

This book makes a contribution to the developing field of complex hunter-gatherer studies with an archaeological analysis of the development of one such group.

This edited book aims to provide a new perspective on the identification and interpretation of short-term occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology.The volume includes contributions with a particular focus on the definition and identification of short-term occupations in Paleolithic contexts, aiming to improve our current knowledge on the topic, both methodologically and interpretatively. The set of chapters coming from a broad spectrum of geographies and chronologies will contribute to the debate on the definition of short-term occupations but also to a better understanding on how past hunter-gatherers communities adapted and moved in different environmental contexts across time.The in-depth examinations of short-term occupations in different chronologies and environments will shed light on an aspect of the behavioral trajectories of the human species in the management of the territory.

This book aims to thoroughly discuss new directions of thinking in the arena of environmental archaeology and test them by presenting new practical applications.Recent theoretical and epistemological advancement in the field of archaeology calls for a re-definition of the subdiscipline of environmental archaeology and its position within the practise of archaeology. New technological and methodological discoveries in hard sciences and computer applications opened fresh ways for interdisciplinary collaborations thus introducing new branches and specialisations that need now to be accommodated and integrated within the previous status-quo.This edited volume will take the challenge and engage with contemporary international discussions about the role of the discipline within the general framework of archaeology. By drawing upon these debates, the contributors to this volume will rethink what environmental archaeology is and what kind of input the investigation of this kind of materiality has to the reconstruction of human history and sociality.

As very few such techniques have been problematized in a systematicmanner or published in the archaeological literature, this volume aims toprovide guidance and direction to other modelers in the field by distillingsome basic principles for model testing derived from insight gathered in thecase studies presented.

This volume presents the most recent archaeological, historical, and ethnographic research that challenges simplistic perceptions of Native smoking and explores a wide variety of questions regarding smoking plants and pipe forms from throughout North America and parts of South America.

The last 20 years have witnessed a proliferation of new approaches in archaeolog ical data recovery, analysis, and theory building that incorporate both new forms of information and new methods for investigating them.

Extant literature on this period, by and large, presents either detailed site speeific accounts or offers continental or even global syntheses that tend to compile site speeific information but do not integrate it into whole c~nstructs of funetioning so ciocuhural entities.

The Powers Phase Project was a multiyear archaeological program undertaken in southeastern Missouri by the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

This book aims to synthesize more than 600,000 years of Italian prehistory, beginning with the Lower Paleolithic and ending with the last hunter-gatherers of the early Holocene.

Quite apart from the archaeology, work at the site is a major contribution to island biogeography, in that the Phanourios sample-certainly the best from Cyprus and probably the best anywhere in the world-has already provided, and will continue to provide, important ecological and behavioral data on these intriguing creatures.

Chesapeake Prehistory is the first book in almost a century to synthesize the archaeological record of the region offering new interpretations of prehistoric lifeways. This up-to-date work presents a new type of regional archaeology that explores contemporary ideas about the nature of the past.

Artifacts linked to projectile technologies traditionally have provided the foundations for time-space systematics and cultural-historic frameworks in archaeological research having to do with foragers.

In this volume we analyze the anthropological and biological disagreements and the positions taken on the origins of modern humans, point out difficultieswith the inter pretations, and suggest that the concept of the human origin can be explained only when we first attempt to define Homo sapiens sapiens.

In this volume, archaeologists offer a new direction for burial research by expanding the models for mortuary analysis from a site-specific to a regional level.

Historical archaeologists often become so involved in their potsherd patterns they seldom have time or energy left to address the broader processes responsi ble for the material culture patterns they recognize.

Regional approaches to the study of prehistoric exchange have generated much new knowledge about intergroup and regional interaction. The American South west and Mesoamerica: Systems of Prehistoric Exchange is the first of two volumes that seek to provide current information regarding regional exchange on a conti nental basis.

Investigations of archaeological intrasite spatial patterns have generally taken one of two directions: studies that introduced and explored methods for the analysis of archaeological spatial patterns or those that described and analyzed the for mation of spatial patterns in actuaiistic-ethnographic, experimental, or natu ral-contexts.

Incorporating both archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence, this volume reexamines the role played by native peoples in structuring interaction with Europeans. The more complete historical picture presented will be of interest to scholars and students of archaeology, anthropology, and history.

Style, Society, and Person integrates the diverse current and past understandings of the causes of style in material culture. Archaeologists, sociocultural anthropologists, and educators will appreciate the unique unifying approach this book takes to developing style theory.