Books in the New Studies in Archaeology series

Lynne Sebastian examines the transition of the Chaco system from a kinship structured society to a hierarchically organised political structure with institutional roles of leadership. She argues that the increasing political complexity was a consequence of improved rainfall in the region which permitted surplus production, not the harsh conditions as previously thought.

Teotihuacan was one of the earliest and more populous preColumbian cities, and the Feathered Serpent was its vital monument, erected circa 200 AD. This work explores the religious meanings and political implications of the pyramid with meticulous and thorough analyses of substantially new excavation data. Challenging the traditional view of the city as a legendary, sacred, or anonymously-governed centre, the book provides significant new insights on the Teotihuacan polity and society. It provides interpretations on the pyramid's location, architecture, sculptures, iconography, mass sacrificial graves and rich symbolic offerings, and concludes that the pyramid commemorated the accession of rulers who were inscribed to govern with military force on behalf of the gods. This archaeological examination of the monument shows it to be the physical manifestation of state ideologies such as the symbolism of human sacrifice, militarism, and individual-centred divine authority, ideologies which were later diffused among other Mesoamerican urban centres.

Using approaches from several disciplines, Stahl reconstructs the daily lives of Banda villagers of west central Ghana, from when they were drawn into the Niger trade (around AD 1300) until the twentieth century establishment of British overrule. Stahl argues for closer integration of archaeology, history and anthropology in African studies.

This 1996 volume uses analytical methods to approach architecture and its relationship to culture, politics, and religion in the ancient Andes. Jerry D. Moore's clear and richly illustrated discussion represents an original perspective on architecture and its role in the ancient world.

This study reviews 15,000 years of worldwide settlement growth in the light of the limits imposed by buildings, layouts, and forms of communication, and examines the great transformations of human settlements - from mobile to sedentary, sedentary to urban, and urban to industrial.

European Bronze Age societies produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a European-wide trade network, yet they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristiansen offers an interesting explanation of this paradox. The result is a coherent overview that addresses some of the larger questions raised about the period.

Michael Shanks's challenging contribution to recent debates on the emergence of Greek city states in the first millennium BC draws on a range of disciplines. He interprets the art and archaeological remains of Korinth to elicit connections between new urban environments, foreign trade, warfare, and the ideology of male sovereignty.

Interpreting the Axe Trade documents the changing character and context of stone axe production and exchange in the British Neolithic. Drawing on a variety of studies, the authors explore some of the problems and potentials that attend archaeological discussions of exchange at both a theoretical and a methodological level.

This is an archaeological perspective on the elaborate system of chiefdoms found in the islands of Polynesia. Using comparative ethnography, lexical reconstruction and direct archaeological evidence, the author reconstructs Ancestral Polynesian Society and details colonization, adaptation to changing environments, development of intensive production and social conflict and competition.

Dean Arnold's ethnoarchaeological study looks at pottery production in a contemporary Peruvian Andean community. Its main purpose is to propose a review of accepted ideas about pre-industrial pottery in the light of what has been discovered about contemporary practices and the associated beliefs and interpretations.

In this innovative study, James Whitley examines the relationship between the development of pot style and social changes in the Dark Age of Greece.

This ethnoarchaeological study looks at contemporary household-scale ceramic production in several Mexican communities.

Christopher Tilley integrates a wide range of evidence to recreate accessibly the lives of hunter-gatherers and farmers in Sweden and Denmark. His skilful fusion of archaeology and new anthropological approaches makes this book an original contribution to a widely debated topic.

First published in 1982, this book presents the results of a series of field investigations carried out in Kenya, Zambia and the Sudan into the 'archaeological' remains and material culture of contemporary small-scale societies, and demonstrates the way in which objects are used as symbols within social action and within particular world views and ideologies.

In this revised and updated 1993 edition of a book first published in 1981, the authors synthesize recent research to provide a comprehensive survey of Mesoamerica, one of the most important areas for research into the emergence of complex human societies.

Using archaeological research in conjunction with historical records and works of art, Anne Yentsch has reconstructed the daily life of an aristocratic British family in Maryland.

This book develops a theory of ceramics which elucidates the complex relationship between ceramics and culture and society. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of systems theory, cybernetics and cultural ecology, Dr Arnold develops cross-cultural generalizations to explain the origins and evolution of the craft of pottery making.

The particular fascination of Maya archaeology is featured alongside developments of more general interest in anthropological archaeology to make a substantial contribution to the practice and theory of settlement studies within complex societies.

Problems in Neolithic Archaeology is a notable contribution to the debate about how we can write prehistory. Drawing on both processual and post-processual approaches, it reaffirms the central role of theory and interpretation while accepting as permanent the uncertainty which makes the testing of archaeological hypotheses difficult or even impossible.

This study of the changing relationships between burial rituals and social structure in Early Iron Age Greece draws upon the ancient literary evidence and the relevant historical and anthropological comparisons to explain the transition to the city-state. It will be an invaluable resource for all archaeologists working with burial evidence, in whatever period.

Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri, one of the finest Italian protohistorians, deals in this monograph with a major archaeological site, the Iron Age cemetery of Osteria dell'Osa, near Rome. The cemetery materials provide rich insights into the emergence of the city-state in central Italy in the crucial period 900-580 BC.

The development of European archaeology as a scholarly discipline in the nineteenth century was closely connected with the appearance of systematic methods for dating archaeological materials. Professor Graslund's book is the first in-depth study of what is now recognised as a crucial stage in the history of archaeology.

John Fox here offers a fresh and persuasive view of the crucial Classic-Postclassic transition that determined the shape of the later Maya state.

This book is about post-Pleistocene adaptive change among the aboriginal cultures of the mountains and deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. Conceived essentially as a natural science alternative to the prevailing culture history paradigm, it offers a general theoretical framework for interpreting the archaeological record of the American South-West.

Originally published in 1986, the aim of this important study was to develop methods for reconstructing the processes of prehistoric exchange. Previous archaeological work had concentrated on mapping obsidian finds relative to source areas using trace-element analysis and on investigating the effect of trade on particular cultural groups.

Religion and Empire is an innovative and provocative study of the two largest states of the Precolumbian Americas, the Aztec and Inca Empires. By examining the causes of the formation and expansion of these two empires, the authors identify similar patterns and processes underlying their rise and decline.

How, when and why did inherited differences of wealth, status and power arise in human communities? At the heart of Emerging Complexity is the thesis that complex societies developed independently during the Copper and Bronze Ages in south-east Spain, and in the wider context of the Iberian peninsula and the west Mediterranean.

Using as case studies his own observations of Australian Aborigines, and those of others, the author presents a unified theory of ethnoarchaeology.

The Lake Chad region of Nigeria is an extreme environment. Professor Connah traces the story of human adaptation to and exploitation of this unusual environment from prehistoric to modern times.

A masterly account of prehistoric farming and its potential to influence today's industrial farmers.