Download or read book Archaeology and The Politics of Vision in a Post Modern Context written by Vítor Oliveira Jorge and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-14 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology is intimately connected to the modern regime of vision. A concern with optics was fundamental to the Scientific Revolution, and informed the moral theories of the Enlightenment. And from its inception, archaeology was concerned with practices of depiction and classification that were profoundly scopic in character. Drawing on both the visual arts and the depictive practices of the sciences, employing conventionalised forms of illustration, photography, and spatial technologies, archaeology presents a paradigm of visualised knowledge. However, a number of thinkers from Jean-Paul Sartre onwards have cautioned that vision presents at once a partial and a politicised way of apprehending the world. In this volume, authors from archaeology and other disciplines address the problems that face the study of the past in an era in which realist modes of representation and the philosophies in which they are grounded in are increasingly open to question.

Download or read book Active Landscape Photography written by Anne C Godfrey and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diverse Practices, the third book in the Active Landscape Photography series, presents a set of unique photographic examples for site-specific investigations of landscape places. Contributed by authors across academia, practice and photography, each chapter serves as a rigorous discussion about photographic methods for the landscape and their underlying concepts. Chapters also serve as unique case studies about specific projects, places and landscape issues. Project sites include the Miller Garden, Olana, XX Miller Prize and the Philando Castile Peace Garden. Landscape places discussed include the archeological landscapes of North Peru, watery littoral zones, the remote White Pass in Alaska, Sau Paulo and New York City’s Chinatown. Photographic image-making approaches include the use of lidar, repeat photography, collage, mapping, remote image capture, portraiture, image mining of internet sources, visual impact assessment, cameraless photography, transect walking and interviewing. These diverse practices demonstrate how photography, when utilized through a set of specific critical methods, becomes a rich process for investigating the landscape. Exploring this concept in relationship to specific contemporary sties and landscape issues reveals the intricacy and subtlety that exists when photography is used actively. Practitioners, academics, students and researchers will be inspired by the underlying concepts of these examples and come away with a better understanding about how to create their own rigorous photographic practices.

Download or read book The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare written by Naomi Sykes and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations of medicine and care have tended to examine the obvious and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as discrete practices that take place within specific settings, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume highlights the importance of medical worldviews as a means of understanding healthcare and medical practice in the past. The volume brings together ten chapters, with themes ranging from a bioarchaeology of Neanderthal healthcare, to Roman air quality, decontamination strategies at Australian quarantine centres, to local resistance to colonial medical structures in South America. Within their chapters the contributors argue for greater integration between archaeology and both the medical and environmental humanities, while the Introduction presents suggestions for future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, 'exposome' studies and ecological public health, microbiome studies and historical disability studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of World Archaeology.

Download or read book Archaeology and Photography written by Lesley McFadyen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-05 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does a photograph freeze a moment of time? What does it mean to treat a photographic image as an artefact? In the visual culture of the 21st century, do new digital and social forms change the status of photography as archival or objective – or are they revealing something more fundamental about photography’s longstanding relationships with time and knowledge?Archaeology and Photography imagines a new kind of Visual Archaeology that tackles these questions. The book reassesses the central place of Photography as an archaeological method, and re-wires our cross-disciplinary conceptions of time, objectivity and archives, from the History of Art to the History of Science.Through twelve new wide-ranging and challenging studies from an emerging generation of archaeological thinkers, Archaeology and Photography introduces new approaches to historical photographs in museums and to contemporaryphotographic practice in the field. The book re-frames the relationship between Photography and Archaeology, past and present, as more than a metaphor or an analogy – but a shared vision.Archaeology and Photography calls for a change in how we think about photography and time. It argues that new archaeological accounts of duration and presence can replace older conceptions of the photograph as a snapshot orremnant received in the present. The book challenges us to imagine Photography, like Archaeology, not as a representation of the past and the reception of traces in the present but as an ongoing transformation of objectivity and archive.Archaeology and Photography will prove indispensable to students, researchers and practitioners in History, Photography, Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies and Museum and Heritage Studies.

Download or read book Egyptology in the Present written by Carolyn Graves-Brown and published by Classical Press of Wales. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume builds bridges between usually-separate social groups, between different methodologies and even between disciplines. It is the result of an innovative conference held at Swansea University in 2010, which brought together leading craftspeople and academics to explore the all-too-often opposed practices of experimental and experiential archaeology. The focus is upon Egyptology, but the volume has a wider importance. The experimental method is privileged in academic institutions and thus perhaps is subject to clear definitions. It tends to be associated with the scientific and technological. In opposition, the experiential is more rarely defined and is usually associated with schoolchildren, museums and heritage centres; it is often criticised for being unscientific. The introductory chapter of this volume examines the development of these traditionally-assumed differences, giving for the first time a critical and careful definition of the experiential in relation to the experimental. The two are seen as points on a continuum with much common ground. This claim is borne out by succeeding chapters, which cover such topics as textiles, woodworking and stoneworking. And Salima Ikram, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, here demonstrates remarkably that our understanding of the classic Egyptian funerary practice of mummification benefits from both 'scientific' experimental and sensual experiential approaches. The volume, however, is important not only for Egyptology but for archaeological method more generally. The papers illuminate the pioneering of individuals who founded modern archaeological practice. Several papers are truly groundbreaking and deserve to circulate far beyond Egyptology. Thus the archaeologist Marquardt Lund tackles the problem of understanding the earliest known depictions of flint knife manufacture, those from an Egyptian tomb dated around 1900 BC. He shows the importance of thinking outside 'traditional', i.e. modern, knapping practice. Lund's knapping method, guided by the tomb depictions, is surprising but effective, and very different from that presented in manuals of lithic technology or taught in academic institutions.

Download or read book Archaeology After Interpretation written by Benjamin Alberti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new generation of archaeologists has thrown down a challenge to post-processual theory, arguing that characterizing material symbols as arbitrary overlooks the material character and significance of artifacts. This volume showcases the significant departure from previous symbolic approaches that is underway in the discipline. It brings together key scholars advancing a variety of cutting edge approaches, each emphasizing an understanding of artifacts and materials not in terms of symbols but relationally, as a set of associations that compose people’s understanding of the world. Authors draw on a diversity of intellectual sources and case studies, paving a dynamic road ahead for archaeology as a discipline and theoretical approaches to material culture.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe written by Chris Fowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 1303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Download or read book The Future of Nuclear Waste written by Rosemary Joyce and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, a contemporary archaeologist critically examines designs experts advising the US government suggested to mark nuclear waste sites and prevent their excavation thousands of years into the future: to build either an artificial ruin, or install a landscape scale artwork; and explores why planners thought they would work.

Download or read book Death and Dying in the Neolithic Near East written by Karina Croucher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-21 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Croucher explores what mortuary practices can reveal about the living populations in the Neolithic Near East. Incorporating evidence from excavations, she provides an overview of the period and offers a unique insight into changing attitudes towards the human body, identity, and the experiences of the lived populations of the Neolithic Near East.

Download or read book The Archaeology of Southeastern Native American Landscapes of the Colonial Era written by Charles R. Cobb and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honorable Mention, Southern Anthropological Society James Mooney Award Native American populations both accommodated and resisted the encroachment of European powers in southeastern North America from the arrival of Spaniards in the sixteenth century to the first decades of the American republic. Tracing changes to the region’s natural, cultural, social, and political environments, Charles Cobb provides an unprecedented survey of the landscape histories of Indigenous groups across this critically important area and time period.  Cobb explores how Native Americans responded to the hardships of epidemic diseases, chronic warfare, and enslavement. Some groups developed new modes of migration and travel to escape conflict while others built new alliances to create safety in numbers. Cultural maps were redrawn as Native communities evolved into the groups known today as the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Catawba, and Seminole peoples. Cobb connects the formation of these coalitions to events in the wider Atlantic World, including the rise of plantation slavery, the growth of the deerskin trade, the birth of the consumer revolution, and the emergence of capitalism.  Using archaeological data, historical documents, and ethnohistorical accounts, Cobb argues that Native inhabitants of the Southeast successfully navigated the challenges of this era, reevaluating long-standing assumptions that their cultures collapsed under the impact of colonialism. A volume in the series the American Experience in Archaeological Perspective, edited by Michael S. Nassaney

Download or read book Ontologies of Rock Art written by Oscar Moro Abadía and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-03 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ontologies of Rock Art is the first publication to explore a wide range of ontological approaches to rock art interpretation, constituting the basis for groundbreaking studies on Indigenous knowledges, relational metaphysics, and rock imageries. The book contributes to the growing body of research on the ontology of images by focusing on five main topics: ontology as a theoretical framework; the development of new concepts and methods for an ontological approach to rock art; the examination of the relationships between ontology, images, and Indigenous knowledges; the development of relational models for the analysis of rock images; and the impact of ontological approaches on different rock art traditions across the world. Generating new avenues of research in ontological theory, political ontology, and rock art research, this collection will be relevant to archaeologists, anthropologists, and philosophers. In the context of an increasing interest in Indigenous ontologies, the volume will also be of interest to scholars in Indigenous studies. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429321863/ontologies-rock-art-oscar-moro-abad%C3%ADa-martin-porr?context=ubx&refId=3766b051-4754-4339-925c-2a262a505074

Download or read book Seeing the Past with Computers written by Kevin Kee and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent developments in computer technology are providing historians with new ways to see—and seek to hear, touch, or smell—traces of the past. Place-based augmented reality applications are an increasingly common feature at heritage sites and museums, allowing historians to create immersive, multifaceted learning experiences. Now that computer vision can be directed at the past, research involving thousands of images can recreate lost or destroyed objects or environments, and discern patterns in vast datasets that could not be perceived by the naked eye. Seeing the Past with Computers is a collection of twelve thought-pieces on the current and potential uses of augmented reality and computer vision in historical research, teaching, and presentation. The experts gathered here reflect upon their experiences working with new technologies, share their ideas for best practices, and assess the implications of—and imagine future possibilities for—new methods of historical study. Among the experimental topics they explore are the use of augmented reality that empowers students to challenge the presentation of historical material in their textbooks; the application of seeing computers to unlock unusual cultural knowledge, such as the secrets of vaudevillian stage magic; hacking facial recognition technology to reveal victims of racism in a century-old Australian archive; and rebuilding the soundscape of an Iron Age village with aural augmented reality. This volume is a valuable resource for scholars and students of history and the digital humanities more broadly. It will inspire them to apply innovative methods to open new paths for conducting and sharing their own research.

Download or read book Art and Architecture in Neolithic Orkney written by Antonia Thomas and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a groundbreaking analysis of Neolithic art and architecture in Orkney, focussing upon the incredible collection of hundreds of decorated stones being revealed by the current excavations at the Ness of Brodgar.

Download or read book Making a Mark written by Andrew Meirion Jones and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The visual imagery of Neolithic Britain and Ireland is spectacular. While the imagery of passage tombs, such as Knowth and Newgrange, are well known the rich imagery on decorated portable artefacts is less well understood. How does the visual imagery found on decorated portable artefacts compare with other Neolithic imagery, such as passage tomb art and rock art? How do decorated portable artefacts relate chronologically to other examples of Neolithic imagery? Using cutting edge digital imaging techniques, the Making a Mark project examined Neolithic decorated portable artefacts of chalk, stone, bone, antler, and wood from three key regions: southern England and East Anglia; the Irish Sea region (Wales, the Isle of Man and eastern Ireland); and Northeast Scotland and Orkney. Digital analysis revealed, for the first time, the prevalence of practices of erasure and reworking amongst a host of decorated portable artefacts, changing our understanding of these enigmatic artefacts. Rather than mark making being a peripheral activity, we can now appreciate the central importance of mark making to the formation of Neolithic communities across Britain and Ireland. The volume visually documents and discusses the contexts of the decorated portable artefacts from each region, discusses the significance and chronology of practices of erasure and reworking, and compares these practices with those found in other Neolithic contexts, such as passage tomb art, rock art and pottery decoration. A contribution from Antonia Thomas also discusses the settlement art and mortuary art of Orkney, while Ian Dawson and Louisa Minkin contribute with a discussion of the collaborative fine art practices established during the project.

Download or read book Unquiet Pasts written by Stephanie Koerner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important book addresses critical themes in the development of archaeology as a reflexive, self-critical discipline in the modern world. It explores the ethical, political and cultural tensions and responsibilities which need to be addressed by archaeologists when working within networks of global ecologies and communities, examining how authoritarian traditions can exacerbate the divide between expert and public knowledge. Moreover, it analyses how localized acts of archaeology relate to changing conceptions of risk, heritage, culture, identity, and conflict. Bringing insights from Alain Schnapp, Michael Shanks, Isabelle Stengers, Bruno Latour, Ulrich Beck, John Urry and others to cross-disciplinary discussions of these themes, Unquiet Pasts shows how archaeological discourse can contribute towards engaging and understanding current dilemmas. It also shows how archaeology, as a localized and responsibly exercised practice, can play a part in building our commonly shared and experienced world.

Download or read book The Neolithic of Europe written by Penny Bickle and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2017-05-31 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic of Europe comprises eighteen specially commissioned papers on prehistoric archaeology, written by leading international scholars. The coverage is broad, ranging geographically from southeast Europe to Britain and Ireland and chronologically from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, but with a decided focus on the former. Several papers discuss new scientific approaches to key questions in Neolithic research, while others offer interpretive accounts of aspects of the archaeological record. Thematically, the main foci are on Neolithisation; the archaeology of Neolithic daily life, settlements and subsistence; as well as monuments and aspects of world view. A number of contributions highlight the recent impact of techniques such as isotopic analysis and statistically modeled radiocarbon dates on our understanding of mobility, diet, lifestyles, events and historical processes. The volume is presented to celebrate the enormous impact that Alasdair Whittle has had on the study of prehistory, especially the European and British Neolithic, and his rich career in archaeology.

Download or read book Historic Landscapes and Mental Well being written by Timothy Darvill and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using archaeological sites and historic landscapes to promote mental well-being represents one of the most significant advances in archaeological resource management for many years. Prompted by the Human Henge project (Stonehenge/Avebury World Heritage Site), this volume provides an overview of work going on across Britain and the near Continent.