Social Theory in Archaeology and Ancient History: The Present and Future of Counternarratives - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107053331 ISBN 13: 9781107053335

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

At a time when archaeology has turned away from questions of the long-term and large scale, this collection of essays reflects on some of the big questions in archaeology and ancient history - how and why societies have grown in scale and complexity, how they have maintained and discarded aspects of their own cultural heritage, and how they have collapsed. In addressing these long-standing questions of broad interest and importance, the authors develop counter-narratives - new ways of understanding what used to be termed 'cultural evolution'. Encompassing the Middle East and Egypt, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, the American Southwest and Mesoamerica, the fourteen essays offer perspectives on long-term cultural trajectories; on cities, states and empires; on collapse; and on the relationship between archaeology and history. The book concludes with a commentary by one of the major voices in archaeological theory, Norman Yoffee.

About this title

About the Author

Geoff Emberling is Assistant Research Scientist at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. He has held positions as Museum Director and Chief Curator at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and as Assistant Curator in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has directed archaeological fieldwork at Tell Brak in northeastern Syria, in the Fourth Cataract region of northern Sudan, and is currently excavating at El Kurru, also in northern Sudan.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107053331
• ISBN 13: 9781107053335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Emberling Geoff