Boundaries, Borders and Frontiers in Archaeology: A Study of Spatial Relationships

Until fairly recently, archaeological research has been directed primarily toward the centers of societies rather than their perimeters. Yet frontiers and borders, precisely because they are peripheral, promote interaction between people of different polities and cultures, with a wide range of potential outcomes. Much work has begun to redress this disparity of focus.

Drawing on contemporary and ethnographic accounts, historical data and archaeological evidence, this book covers more than 30 years of research on boundaries, borders and frontiers, beginning with The Northern Mycenaean Border in Thessaly in 1983. The author discusses various theoretical and methodological issues concerning peripheries as they apply to the archaeological record. Political, economic, social and cultural processes in border and frontier zones are described in detail. Three case study societies are examined--China, Rome and Mycenaean Greece.

Bryan Feuer is an emeritus lecturer in humanities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His research interests include the Aegean Bronze Age, archaeological borders, regional analysis, cultural contact and interaction and ceramic analysis. He has done archaeological fieldwork in Greece, Italy and the U.S. He lives in Manhattan Beach, California.