Interpreting Archaeology - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415157447 ISBN 13: 9780415157445

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

There has been a profound shift in the direction of archaeological activity in the last fifteen years, a change reflected in this volume. While excavation remains a professional priority, the interpretation of archaeological evidence is now attracting increasing critical study. In part this is stemmed from the public demand for explanation of archaeological evidence, which moves beyond the more restricted academic debate among archaeologists. But it also follows from a desire among archaeologists to come to terms with their own subjective approaches to the material they study, and a recognition of how past researchers have also imposed their own value systems on the evidence which they presented.
This volume provides a forum for debate between varied approaches to the past from leading archaeologists in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. It addresses the philosophical issues involved in interpretation, and the origins of meaning in the evolution and emergence of 'mind' in early hominids. It covers the ways in which material culture is understood and presented in museums, and how the nature of history is itself in flux.

About this title

About the Author:

Ian Hodder is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. Michael Shanks is Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Wales. Alexandra Alexandri, Victor Buchli, John Carman, Jonathan Last and Gaving Lucas are all at the University of Cambridge.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0415157447
• ISBN 13: 9780415157445
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 286
• Editor: Alexandri Alexandra, Buchli Victor, Carman John, Hodder Ian