Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, and Practice

Still authoritative, now thoroughly updated by new co-author Elizabeth DeMarrais

This authoritative survey of archaeological practice takes a unique approach by launching each chapter with an important question that archaeologists consider. In this edition, new co-author Elizabeth DeMarrais, an expert in the archaeology of the Americas, introduces recent discoveries and advances in methodology, analysis, and interpretation, paying special attention to the contributions of women, people of color, and Indigenous communities, and to how the discipline is changing amid calls for decolonization and diversification.

Colin Renfrew is Disney Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and former Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. He is the author and editor of many books, including Before Civilization, Archaeology and Language, and Prehistory and coeditor (with Paul Bahn) of The Cambridge World Prehistory. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a life peer in the House of Lords.

Paul Bahn is co-author of Thames & Hudson's hugely influential and bestselling textbook Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, and has also published a variety of popular books, including Easter Island: Earth Island (with John Flenley), Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age (with Adrian Lister), and Images of the Ice Age, widely regarded as the standard introduction to cave art.

Elizabeth DeMarrais is Associate Professor in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, where she teaches archaeological theory and the archaeology of the Americas. She has done fieldwork in Northwest Argentina, Cape Cod, Maui (Hawai‘i), and the American Southwest, and is widely published.