Download or read book The Paleolithic Prehistory of the Zagros Taurus written by Deborah Olszewski and published by UPenn Museum of Archaeology. This book was released on 1993-01-29 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated between Europe, Asia, and the Levantine corridor to Africa, the Zagros-Taurus region has enormous potential for the study of human adaptation and population movement during the Pleistocene. While archaeological work was done in this area 40 years ago, much of it remains unpublished. The political situation restricts research by archaeologists. This volume includes new data and major syntheses of the Paleolithic prehistory of the region, with reports of key sites and industries. By filling a major gap in our understanding of this area, it represents an essential reference for Near Eastern and Paleolithic specialists. University Museum Symposium Series V

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Prehistory written by Peter N. Peregrine and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Prehistory represents temporal dimension. Major traditions are an attempt to provide basic information also defined by a somewhat different set of on all archaeologically known cultures, sociocultural characteristics than are eth covering the entire globe and the entire nological cultures. Major traditions are prehistory ofhumankind. It is designed as defined based on common subsistence a tool to assist in doing comparative practices, sociopolitical organization, and research on the peoples of the past. Most material industries. but language, ideology, of the entries are written by the world's and kinship tics play little or no part in foremost experts on the particular areas their definition because they are virtually and lime periods. unrecoverable from archaeological con The Encyclopedia is organized accord· texts. In contrast, language, ideology, and ing to major traditions. A major tradition kinship ties arc central to defining ethno is defined as a group ofpopulations sharing logical cultures. similar subsistence practices. technology, There are three types of entries in the and forms oj sociopolitical organizati01I, Encyclopedia: the major tradition entry.

Download or read book Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East written by John J. Shea and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys the archaeological record for stone tools from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago in the Near East.

Download or read book Tools versus Cores written by Shannon P. McPherron and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume address an incredibly basic question in stone tool studies, namely whether a particular lithic artifact should be classified as a tool, thus implying that at some time in the past it was used directly to perform activities, or whether it should instead be classified as a core, meaning that its purpose was to produce flakes some of which were then made into tools. This question is so basic that it would seem archaeologists should have solved it by now, and in most instances this is the case. This volume, however, looks at some of the remaining problem cases in part to find out if they can be solved, but mainly because the really difficult cases raise the more challenging and interesting methodological issues, which can in turn lead us to question and overhaul long-held assumptions and long-used approaches to the study of stone tools. This is, in fact, what happens in this volume with papers that discuss assemblages from Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites in Europe and southwest Asia to more recent Holocene sites in the New World and Australia. In some instances the very idea of classifying these artifacts as one or the other is entirely discarded; in other instances, it is assumed they fit in both categories, and the behavioral implications are assessed. The end result in each case is a richer understanding of the past less encumbered by categories archaeologists bring to the study.

Download or read book The Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Eastern Fertile Crescent written by Tobias Richter and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together the latest results and discussions from research carried out in the eastern Fertile Crescent, the so-called hilly flanks, and adjacent regions, as well as providing key historical perspectives on earlier fieldwork in the region. The emergence of sedentary food producing societies in southwest Asia ca. 10,000 years ago has been a key research focus for archaeologists since the 1930s. This book provides a balance to the weight of work undertaken in the western Fertile Crescent, namely the Levant and southern Anatolia. This preference has led to a heavy emphasis on these regions in discussions about where, when and how the transition from hunting and gathering to plant cultivation and animal domestication occurred. Chapters assess the role of the eastern Fertile Crescent as a key region in the Neolithization process in southwest Asia, highlighting the key and important contributions people in this region made to the emergence of sedentary farming societies. This book is primarily aimed at academics researching the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in southwest Asia. It will also be of interest to archaeologists working on this transition in other parts of Eurasia.

Download or read book The Middle Paleolithic Site of Combe Capelle Bas France written by Harold L. Dibble and published by UPenn Museum of Archaeology. This book was released on 1995-01-29 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report presents the new excavations at Combe-Capelle Bas, a Middle Paleolithic site in southern France. The site is situated directly on a source of good quality flint, and recent theories suggest that such a setting may have certain predictable effects on the lithic industries. These effects, and others relating to current models of raw material procurement and use, are discussed. This book will appeal to anyone interested in Paleolithic archaeology, lithic analysis, raw material use, and site formation and taphonomy. University Museum Monograph, 91

Download or read book Archaeological Variability and Interpretation in Global Perspective written by Alan P. Sullivan and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Archaeological Variability and Interpretation in Global Perspective, contributors illustrate the virtues of various ecological, experimental, statistical, typological, technological, and cognitive/social approaches for understanding the origins, formation histories, and inferential potential of a wide range of archaeological phenomena. As archaeologists worldwide create theoretically inspired and methodologically robust narratives of the cultural past, their research pivots on the principle that determining the origins and histories of archaeological phenomena is essential in understanding their relevance for a variety of anthropological problems. The chapters explore how the analysis of artifact, assemblage, and site distributions at different spatial and temporal scales provides new insights into how mobility strategies affect lithic assemblage composition, what causes unstable interaction patterns in complex societies, and which factors promote a sense of “place” in landscapes of abandoned structures. In addition, several chapters illustrate how new theoretical approaches and innovative methods promote reinterpretations of the regional significance of historically important archaeological sites such as Myrtos-Pyrgos (Crete, Greece), Aztalan (Wisconsin, USA), Tabun Cave (Israel), and Casas Grandes (Chihuahua, Mexico). The studies presented in Archaeological Variability and Interpretation in Global Perspective challenge orthodoxy, raise research-worthy controversies, and develop strong inferences about the diverse evolutionary pathways of humankind using theoretical perspectives that consider both new information and preexisting archaeological data. Contributors: C. Michael Barton, Brian F. Byrd, Gerald Cadogan, Philip G. Chase, Harold L. Dibble, Matthew J. Douglass, Patricia C. Fanning, Lynne Goldstein, Simon J. Holdaway, Kathryn A. Kamp, Sam Lin, Emilia Oddo, Zeljko Rezek, Julien Riel-Salvatore, Gary O. Rollefson, Jeffrey Rosenthal, Barbara J. Roth, Sissel Schroeder, Justin I. Shiner, John C. Whittaker, David R. Wilcox

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History written by Touraj Daryaee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook is a current, comprehensive single-volume history of Iranian civilization. The authors, all leaders in their fields, emphasize the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific epoch of Iranian history and surveys the general political, social, cultural, and economic issues of that era. The ancient period begins with chapters considering the anthropological evidence of the prehistoric era, through to the early settled civilizations of the Iranian plateau, and continuing to the rise of the ancient Persian empires. The medieval section first considers the Arab-Muslim conquest of the seventh century, and then moves on to discuss the growing Turkish influence filtering in from Central Asia beginning in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The last third of the book covers Iran in the modern era by considering the rise of the Safavid state and its accompanying policy of centralization, the introduction of Shi'ism, the problems of reform and modernization in the Qajar and Pahlavi periods, and the revolution of 1978-79 and its aftermath. The book is a collaborative exercise among scholars specializing in a variety of sub-fields, and across a number of disciplines, including history, art history, classics, literature, politics, and linguistics. Here, readers can find a reliable and accessible narrative that can serve as an authoritative guide to the field of Iranian studies.

Download or read book The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire written by Roger Matthews and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-06-30 with total page 1239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Archaemenid Empire is the first modern academic study to provide a synthetic, diachronic analysis of the archaeology and early history of all of Iran from the Palaeolithic period to the end of the Achaemenid Empire at 330 BC. Drawing on the authors’ deep experience and engagement in the world of Iranian archaeology, and in particular on Iran-based academic networks and collaborations, this book situates the archaeological evidence from Iran within a framework of issues and debates of relevance today. Such topics include human–environment interactions, climate change and societal fragility, the challenges of urban living, individual and social identity, gender roles and status, the development of technology and craft specialisation and the significance of early bureaucratic practices such as counting, writing and sealing within the context of evolving societal formations. Richly adorned with more than 500 illustrations, many of them in colour, and accompanied by a bibliography with more than 3000 entries, this book will be appreciated as a major research resource for anyone concerned to learn more about the role of ancient Iran in shaping the modern world.

Download or read book The Neolithisation of Iran written by Hassan Fazeli Nashli and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period c. 10,000-5000 BC witnessed fundamental changes in the human condition with societies across the Fertile Crescent shifting their alignment from millennia-old practices of seasonally mobile hunting and foraging to year-round sedentism, plant cultivation and animal herding. The significant role of Iran in the early stages of this transition was recognised more than half a century ago but has not been to the fore of academic consciousness in recent decades. In the meantime, investigations into Neolithic transformation have proceeded apace in all other regions of the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Here, 18 studies attempt to redress that balance in re-assessing the role of Iran in the early neolithisation of human societies. These studies, many of them by Iranian scholars, consider patterns of change and/or continuity across a variety of topographical landscapes; investigate Neolithic settlement patterns, the use of caves, animal exploitation and environmental indicators and present new insights into some well-known and some newly investigated sites. The results re-affirm the formative role of this region in the transition to sedentary farming.

Download or read book The Neolithisation of Iran written by Roger Matthews and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period c. 10,000-5000 BC witnessed fundamental changes in the human condition with societies across the Fertile Crescent shifting their alignment from millennia-old practices of seasonally mobile hunting and foraging to year-round sedentism, plant cultivation and animal herding. The significant role of Iran in the early stages of this transition was recognised more than half a century ago but has not been to the fore of academic consciousness in recent decades. In the meantime, investigations into Neolithic transformation have proceeded apace in all other regions of the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Here, 18 studies attempt to redress that balance in re-assessing the role of Iran in the early neolithisation of human societies. These studies, many of them by Iranian scholars, consider patterns of change and/or continuity across a variety of topographical landscapes; investigate Neolithic settlement patterns, the use of caves, animal exploitation and environmental indicators and present new insights into some well-known and some newly investigated sites. The results re-affirm the formative role of this region in the transition to sedentary farming.

Download or read book Stone Tools in Human Evolution written by John J. Shea and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of how the evolution of behavioral differences between humans and other primates affected the archaeological stone tool evidence.

Download or read book The Human Career written by Richard G. Klein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 1021 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its publication in 1989, The Human Career has proved to be an indispensable tool in teaching human origins. This substantially revised third edition retains Richard G. Klein’s innovative approach while showing how cumulative discoveries and analyses over the past ten years have significantly refined our knowledge of human evolution. Klein chronicles the evolution of people from the earliest primates through the emergence of fully modern humans within the past 200,000 years. His comprehensive treatment stresses recent advances in knowledge, including, for example, ever more abundant evidence that fully modern humans originated in Africa and spread from there, replacing the Neanderthals in Europe and equally archaic people in Asia. With its coverage of both the fossil record and the archaeological record over the 2.5 million years for which both are available, The Human Career demonstrates that human morphology and behavior evolved together. Throughout the book, Klein presents evidence for alternative points of view, but does not hesitate to make his own position clear. In addition to outlining the broad pattern of human evolution, The Human Career details the kinds of data that support it. For the third edition, Klein has added numerous tables and a fresh citation system designed to enhance readability, especially for students. He has also included more than fifty new illustrations to help lay readers grasp the fossils, artifacts, and other discoveries on which specialists rely. With abundant references and hundreds of images, charts, and diagrams, this new edition is unparalleled in its usefulness for teaching human evolution.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter Gatherers written by Vicki Cummings and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 1683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century, the study of hunting and gathering societies has been central to the development of both archaeology and anthropology as academic disciplines, and has also generated widespread public interest and debate. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies to date, including critical engagements with older debates, new theoretical perspectives, and renewed obligations for greater engagement between researchers and indigenous communities. Chapters provide in-depth archaeological, historical, and anthropological case-studies, and examine far-reaching questions about human social relations, attitudes to technology, ecology, and management of resources and the environment, as well as issues of diet, health, and gender relations - all central topics in hunter-gatherer research, but also themes that have great relevance for modern global society and its future challenges. The Handbook also provides a strategic vision for how the integration of new methods, approaches, and study regions can ensure that future research into the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers will continue to deliver penetrating insights into the factors that underlie all human diversity.

Download or read book A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East written by D. T. Potts and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 1509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of ancient material culture from the late Pleistocene to Late Antiquity. This expansive two-volume work includes 58 new essays from an international community of ancient Near East scholars. With coverage extending from Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indo-Iranian borderlands, the book highlights the enormous variation in cultural developments across roughly 11,000 years of human endeavor. In addition to chapters devoted to specific regions and particular periods, many contributors concentrate on individual industries and major themes in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, ranging from metallurgy and agriculture to irrigation and fishing. Controversial issues, including the nature and significance of the antiquities market, ethical considerations in archaeological praxis, the history of the foundation of departments of antiquities, and ancient attitudes towards the past, make this a unique collection of studies that will be of interest to scholars, students, and interested readers alike.

Download or read book Aspects of Prehistory written by Grahame Clark and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-05-13 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

Download or read book Radiocarbon Dating written by R.E. Taylor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-03 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a major revision and expansion of Taylor’s seminal book Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. It covers the major advances and accomplishments of the 14C method in archaeology and analyzes factors that affect the accuracy and precision of 14C-based age estimates. In addition to reviewing the basic principles of the method, it examines 14C dating anomalies and means to resolve them, and considers the critical application of 14C data as a dating isotope with special emphasis on issues in Old and New World archaeology and late Quaternary paleoanthropology. This volume, again a benchmark for 14C dating, critically reflects on the method and data that underpins, in so many cases, the validity of the chronologies used to understand the prehistoric archaeological record.