New Technologies for Archaeology

New Technologies for Archaeology
Author: Markus Reindel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2009-02-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3540874380

This heavily-illustrated book covers recent developments in archaeometry and offers a multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing complex cultural histories. It also presents a detailed history of human development in South America’s Nasca region.

Beyond the Nasca Lines

Beyond the Nasca Lines
Author: Conlee, Christina A
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813052564

Inhabited for over 5,000 years before European colonization, the site of La Tiza in Peru’s Nasca Desert provides an unprecedented opportunity to examine the dynamics of ancient complex societies. This volume takes a long temporal perspective on La Tiza from the Preceramic through the Inca era, studying the site within the context of broader developments such as the rise of Nasca culture, subsequent conquest by the Wari Empire, collapse, abandonment, and the reformation of a new society. Christina Conlee synthesizes data she obtained while directing a multi-year excavation at the site with data from other investigations to reconstruct the development of social complexity over time. She includes detailed descriptions of the stratigraphy and artifacts, carefully separating materials from each period. Exploring how political integration, religious practices, economics, and the environment shaped societal transformations at La Tiza, Conlee offers patterns that can be found in other areas and can be used to understand the development of other long-lasting civilizations.

The Construction of Value in the Ancient World

The Construction of Value in the Ancient World
Author: John K. Papadopoulos
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Total Pages: 666
Release: 2012-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1938770471

Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.

Funerary Practices and Models in the Ancient Andes

Funerary Practices and Models in the Ancient Andes
Author: Peter Eeckhout
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2015-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107059348

This edited volume focuses on the funerary archaeology of the Pan-Andean area in the pre-Hispanic period. The contributors examine the treatment of the dead and provide an understanding of how these ancient groups coped with mortality, as well as the ways in which they strove to overcome the effects of death. The contributors also present previously unpublished discoveries and employ a range of academic and analytical approaches that have rarely - if ever - been utilised in South America before. The book covers the Formative Period to the end of the Inca Empire, and the chapters together comprise a state-of-the-art summary of all the best research on Andean funerary archaeology currently being carried out around the globe.

Ceramics of the Indigenous Cultures of South America

Ceramics of the Indigenous Cultures of South America
Author: Michael D. Glascock
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-03-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0826360297

This cohesive edited volume showcases data collected from more than seven thousand ceramic artifacts including pottery, figurines, clay pipes, and other objects from sites across South America. Covering a time span from 900 BC to AD 1500, the essays by leading archaeologists working in South America illustrate the diversity of ceramic provenance investigations taking place in seven different countries. An introductory chapter provides a background for interpreting compositional data, and a final chapter offers a review of the individual projects. Students, scholars, and researchers in archaeological study on the interactions between the indigenous peoples of South America and studies of their ceramics will find this volume an invaluable reference.

Crimson Horizon: The Mysterious Sea Kings Of The Pacific

Crimson Horizon: The Mysterious Sea Kings Of The Pacific
Author: Brien Foerster
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2012-11-30
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1291227792

The people of the Pacific known by most as "Polynesians" remain a mystery to scholars and the public alike as to their origins. While most academics in the fields of archaeology and anthropology strongly insist that they exclusively came from 121 P a g e south east Asia, other researchers, and the oral traditions of the people themselves often differ with this opinion. The presence of red hair, called "Ehu" in Hawaii and "Uru Kehu" in some of the ancient and present populations suggest connections, in the distant past, with sea farers from coastal Peru, especially the Paracas, to account for this. The famous explorer Thor Heyerdahl was insistent that there were ancient connections between Peru and the Pacific Islands, and this book attempts to solve this riddle, without delving into Celtic or other possible European ancestry. Come explore the possibilities through science, wind directions, sea currents, sculpture, and oral traditions.

Population Dynamics in Prehistory and Early History

Population Dynamics in Prehistory and Early History
Author: Elke Kaiser
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2012-07-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 311026630X

Migrations and population dynamics are considered very problematic topics in the fields of ancient studies. Recent scholarship in (pre)historical population has generated new impulses by using scientific approaches using radiogenic and stable isotopes, and palaeogenetics, as well as computer simulation. As a result, the state of migration research has undergone rapid change. Several research groups presented papers at aconference held in Berlin in 2010, addressing specific historical aspects of population dynamics and migration, with no chronological or geographical restrictions, in the light of cutting-edge bio-archaeological research. This volume, divided into three larger thematic sections (isotope analysis, population genetics, and modelling and computer simulation), presents experiences and insights about methodological approaches, research results and prospects for future research in this area in a varied collection of papers. Scholars from widely diverse scientific disciplines present their approaches, findings and interpretations to an audience far broader than the circles of the individual disciplines.

The Ancient Central Andes

The Ancient Central Andes
Author: Jeffrey Quilter
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2022-05-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000584194

The Ancient Central Andes presents a general overview of the prehistoric peoples and cultures of the Central Andes, the region now encompassing most of Peru and significant parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina. The book contextualizes past and modern scholarship and provides a balanced view of current research. Two opening chapters present the intellectual, political, and practical background and history of research in the Central Andes and the spatial, temporal, and formal dimensions of the study of its past. Chapters then proceed in chronological order from remote antiquity to the Spanish Conquest. A number of important themes run through the book, including: the tension between those scholars who wish to study Peruvian antiquity on a comparative basis and those who take historicist approaches; the concept of "Lo Andino," commonly used by many specialists that assumes long-term, unchanging patterns of culture some of which are claimed to persist to the present; and culture change related to severe environmental events. Consensus opinions on interpretations are highlighted as are disputes among scholars regarding interpretations of the past. The Ancient Central Andes provides an up-to-date, objective survey of the archaeology of the Central Andes that is much needed. Students and interested readers will benefit greatly from this introduction to a key period in South America’s past.

The Ancient Nasca World

The Ancient Nasca World
Author: Rosa Lasaponara
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2017-01-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319470523

This book presents outstanding chapter contributions on the Nasca culture in a variety of artistic expressions such as architecture, geoglyphs, ceramics, music, and textiles. The approach, based on the integration of science with archaeology and anthropology, sheds new light on the Nasca civilization. In particular the multidisciplinary character of the contributions and earth observation technologies provide new information on geoglyphs, the monumental ceremonial architecture of Cahuachi, and the adaptation strategies in the Nasca desert by means of sophisticated and effective aqueduct systems. Finally, archaeological looting and vandalism are covered. This book will be of interest to students, archaeologists, historians, scholars of Andean civilizations, scientists in physical anthropology, remote sensing, geophysics, and cultural heritage management.

Climate and Settlement in Southern Peru

Climate and Settlement in Southern Peru
Author: Volker Sossna
Publisher: Dr Ludwig Reichert
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN:

Based on data gathered by an archaeological long-term project of the German Archaeological Institute, 3,000 years of settlement history of the Palpa Region at the Andean west flank in South Peru (14.5° S) are being reconstructed. The question is pursued whether past climate changes in this arid region may have triggered the observed substantial changes in settlement behavior. The general trend suggests that a causal relation can be stated only for a few periods.