Archaeology: The Key Concepts

246 Pages·2005·1.22 MB·English

ARCHAEOLOGY:
THE KEY CONCEPTS
This invaluable resource provides an up-to-date and comprehensive survey of key ideas
in archaeology and their impact on archaeological thinking and method.
Featuring over fifty detailed entries by international experts, the book offers
definitions of key terms, explaining their origin and development. Entries also feature
guides to further reading and extensive cross-referencing. Subjects covered include:
● Thinking about landscape
● Cultural evolution
● Social archaeology
● Gender archaeology
● Experimental archaeology
● Archaeology of cult and religion
● Concepts of time
● The Antiquity of Man
● Feminist archaeology
● Multiregional evolution
Archaeology: The Key Concepts is the ideal reference guide for students, teachers and
anyone with an interest in archaeology.
Colin Renfrew is Emeritus Disney Professor of Archaeology and Fellow of the
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge.
Paul Bahn is a freelance writer, translator and broadcaster on archaeology.
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN
THE FOLLOWING ROUTLEDGE
STUDENT REFERENCE TITLES:
Archaeology: The Basics
Clive Gamble
Ancient History: Key Themes and Approaches
Neville Morley
Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt
Michael Rice
Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East
Gwendolyn Leick
Who’s Who in the Greek World
John Hazel
Who’s Who in the Roman World
John Hazel
ARCHAEOLOGY
The Key Concepts
Edited by
Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.”
© 2005 Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn for selection and editorial matter; the
contributors for individual entries.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been
requested
ISBN 0-203-49109-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-60160-2 (Adobe e-reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-31757-6 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-31758-4 (pbk)
CONTENTS

List of Key Concepts vi
Contributors viii
Introduction x

KEY CONCEPTS 1

Index 208
KEY CONCEPTS
Agency
The antiquity of man
Archaeoastronomy
Archaeogenetics
Catastrophist archaeology
The chaîne opératoire
Characterisation and exchange theory
Childe’s revolutions
Cognitive archaeology
Archaeology of cult and religion
Cultural evolution
‘Dark Ages’ in archaeology/ systems collapse
Darwinian archaeology
Ideas in relative and absolute dating
The descent of man
Theorising diffusion and population movements
Ecological archaeology
Environmental archaeology
Epistemology
Ethnoarchaeology
The evolution of social complexity and the state
Key ideas in excavation
Experimental archaeology
Feminist archaeology
Archaeological formation processes
Gender archaeology
Habitus
Historical archaeology and text
Holistic/contextual archaeology
Indigenous archaeologies
Innovation and invention—independent event or historical process?
Thinking about landscape
Material engagement and materialisation
Materialism, Marxism and archaeology
Mental modularity
Multiregional evolution
Non-linear processes and archaeology
Notions of the person
Organisation of societies, including chiefdoms
Peer polity interaction
Phenomenological archaeology
Post-processual and interpretive archaeology
Processual archaeology
Public archaeology/museology/ conservation/heritage
Simulation
Site catchment analysis
Social archaeology
Theory of social practice
Principles of stratigraphic succession
Survey
Symbolic and structuralist archaeology
Systems thinking
The Three Ages
Concepts of time
Uniformitarianism
CONTRIBUTORS
Leslie C.Aiello is at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK
Paul Bahn is a freelance writer, translator and broadcaster on Archaeology, UK
Geoff Bailey is at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK
John C.Barrett is at the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, Sheffield
University, UK
Richard Blanton is at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Martin Carver is at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK
John F.Cherry is at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, USA
Elizabeth DeMarrais is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge,
UK
Kenneth L.Feder is at the Department of Anthropology, Central Connecticut State
University, USA
Jonathan Friedman is at the Department of Anthropology, Lund University, Sweden
Peter Gathercole is an Emeritus Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge, UK
Guy Gibbon is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, USA
Chris Gosden is at the Pitt Rivers Museum, School of Anthropology and Museum
Ethnography, University of Oxford, UK
Catherine Hills is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Ian Hodder is at the Department of Cultural Anthropology, Stanford University, USA
Linda Hurcombe is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK
Timothy Insoll is at the School of Art History and Archaeology, University of
Manchester, UK
Matthew Johnson is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK
Martin Jones is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Kristian Kristiansen is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Gotëburg,
Sweden
Vincent M.LaMotta is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, USA
Lynn Meskell is at the Department of Anthropology, University of New York, USA
Steven Mithen is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, UK
Sarah Milledge Nelson is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Denver,
USA
Paul B.Pettitt is at the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, Sheffield University,
UK
Colin Renfrew is at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
John Robb is at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Michael Rowlands is at the Department of Anthropology, University College London,
UK
Clive Ruggles is at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of
Leicester, UK
Jeremy Sabloff is at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology, USA
Michael B.Schiffer is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, USA
Nathan Schlanger is at the Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, France
Michael Shanks is at the Department of Classics, Stanford University, USA
Stephen Shennan is at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK
Marie Louise Stig Sørensen is at the Department of Archaeology, University of
Cambridge, UK
Julie K.Stein is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle,
USA
Joseph A.Tainter is at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque, USA
Julian Thomas is at the School of Art History and Archaeology, University of
Manchester, UK
Christopher Tilley is at the Department of Anthropology, University College London,
UK
Sander E.van der Leeuw is at the Department of Anthropology, Arizona State
University, USA
Milford H.Wolpoff is at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, USA
Ezra Zubrow is at the Department of Anthropology, University of Buffalo, USA