Books in the New Directions in Archaeology series

The essays in this volume, which was originally published in 1983, present an innovative and unified approach to the archaeological analysis and interpretation of art and design. Together, they illustrate a variety of approaches to the discovery and systematic description of the underlying regularities in the organization of art forms.

This 1982 collection of eight original anthropological essays provides an exciting synthesis of theory and practice in one of the key issues of contemporary cultural evolutionary thought. The contributors ask why complex, highly stratified societies emerged at several locations in the New World at the same point in prehistory.

This book starts from the premise that methodology - the procedures for obtaining an 'objective' knowledge of the past - has always dominated archaeology to the detriment of broader social theory. It argues that social theory is archaeological theory, and that past failure to recognise this has resulted in disembodied archaeological theory and weak disciplinary practice.

This volume brings together research on the evolution of civilisation in the Andean region of South America from the work of sixteen leading scholars. Together, the contributors provide the first systematic study of the evolution of polities along the dry coastal plains and high mountain valleys of the Peruvian Andes.

This collaborative volume is concerned with long-term social change. Envisaging individual societies as interlinked and interdependent parts of a global social system, the aim of the contributors is to determine the extent to which ancient societies were shaped over time by their incorporation in - or resistance to - the larger system.

This contributory volume emphasises the archaeological significance of historical method and philosophy.

Hunters in Transition analyses one of the crucial events in human cultural evolution: the emergence of post-glacial hunter-gatherer communities and the development of farming. Traditionally, the advantages of settled agriculture have been assumed and the transition to farming has been viewed in terms of the simple dispersal of early farming communities northwards across Europe.

This book represents an attempt to gather together Marxist perspectives in archaeology and to examine whether indeed they represent advances in archaeological theory.

Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production is the first systematic study of archaeological sites that served as quarries for stone tools. Its theoretical and methodological importance will extend its appeal beyond those archaeologists concerned with lithic technology and prehistoric exchange systems to archaeologists and anthropologists in general and to geographers and geologists.

This book examines abandonment as a stage in the formation of an archaeological site.

This 1991 volume describes past studies of prehispanic roads in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, paying special attention to their significance for economic and political organisation, as well as regional communication.

This collection considers the relevance of the Annales 'school' for archaeology.

This book, a comparative study of specialized production in prehistoric societies, examines both adaptionist and political approaches to specialization and exchange using a worldwide perspective. What forms of specialisation and exchange promote social stratification, political integration and institutional specialization?

This companion volume to Archaeology as Long-term History focuses on the symbolism of artefacts.

It has been said that for 99 per cent of their cultural history human societies have made their living through the collection of wild resources. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that the study of hunters and gatherers has become an increasingly popular and central topic of research.

Ranked societies are characterized by disparities in personal status that are often accompanied by the concentration of power and authority in the hands of a few dominant individuals. They stand between the sophistication of developed, states and the relative simplicity of most hunter-gatherer groups and early agriculturalists.

Farmers as hunters analyses from an essentially ethnographic perspective the role of hunters in small-scale farming societies. The twelve contributors examine the effects of hunting and mobility on behaviour, diet, economy and material culture at both culture-specific and cross-cultural levels.

Concentrating their attention on the Pacific Islands, the contributors to this book show how the tightly focused social and economic systems of islands offer archaeologists a series of unique opportunities for tracking and explaining prehistoric change.

This volume presents a searching critique of the more traditional archaeological methodologies and interpretation strategies and lays down a firm philosophical and theoretical basis for symbolist and structuralist studies in archaeology.

The aim of the contributors to Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology is therefore to examine what we mean by diversity, to review the methods of measurement and formulae we an apply and assess the pitfalls that exist.

The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines offers a conspectus of recent work on coastal archaeology examining the various ways in which hunter-gatherers and farmers across the world exploited marine resources such as fish, shellfish and waterfowl in prehistory.

This book undertakes a comparative study of the history and development of legislative and administrative systems in operation today for the protection of archaeological monuments.

Thirteen leading archaeologists have contributed to this innovative study of the socio-political processes - notably imitation, competition, warfare, and the exchange of material goods and information - that can be observed within early complex societies, particularly those just emerging into statehood.

This volume, bringing together studies on the disposal of the dead, explores the frontiers and potential of research and presents critical appraisals of theory about social organisation and culture change.

This book brings together essays that illustrate the different uses and interpretations of style in archaeology. The collection considers the history of style in archaeology, its relationship to the concept of style in art history and how stylistic analyses will differ according to different initial assumptions.

Time, Energy and Stone Tools aims to refocus archaeological and anthropological interest in technology by demonstrating that theory-building is possible if tool manufacture and use are conceived as products of both environmental factors and social needs.

An interdisciplinary group of contributors to this volume re-examine the structure and political development of Celtic states scattered across present-day Europe. The main theoretical focus is on whether and when state-level complexity was attained in the different Celtic settlements.

The archaeology of classical Greece developed in the shadow of Greek historical scholarship, and classical archaeology has become something of a backwater. The contributors to this comprehensive volume review the history of the field, demonstrating that modern archaeological approaches can contribute to a richer understanding of Greek society.

Criticising the popular view about the progressive development of powerful hierarchies led by chiefs and kings, this book offers evidence from case studies in sub-Saharan Africa supporting the idea that complexity has emerged and developed in a variety of ways. It includes contributions from historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists.

One of the most troubling problems in archaeology is to determine the manner and content of prehistoric thought. A fundamental challenge is to develop the theory, methodology and tools to understand human cognition. The contributors to The Ancient Mind develop a new direction in prehistoric cognitive research which is rooted in the scientific tradition and in an empirical methodology.