Archaeology : britac

The Lost Woodlands of Ancient Nasca

David Beresford-Jones — 2013-01-31

Author:: David Beresford-Jones
ISBN:: 9780197264768
Publisher:: British Academy
Subjects:: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
DOI:: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264768.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2013-01-31

This book presents an archaeological case of prehistoric human environmental impact: a study of ecological and cultural change from the arid south coast of Peru, beginning around 750 bc and culminating in a collapse during the Middle Horizon, around ad 900. Its focus is the lower Ica Valley — today depopulated and bereft of cultivation and yet with archaeological remains attesting to substantial prehistoric occupations — thereby presenting a prima facie case for changed environmental conditions. Previous archaeological interpretations of cultural changes in the region rely heavily on climatic factors such as El Niño floods and long droughts. While the archaeological, geomorphological, and archaeobotanical records presented here do indeed include new evidence of huge ancient flood events, they also demonstrate the significance of more gradual, human-induced destruction of Prosopis pallida (huarango) riparian dry-forest. The huarango is a remarkable leguminous hardwood that lives for over a millennium and provides forage, fuel, and food. Moreover, it is crucial to the integration of a fragile desert ecosystem, enhancing microclimate and soil fertility and moisture. Its removal exposed this landscape to the effects of El Niño climatic perturbations long before Europeans arrived in Peru. This case study therefore contradicts the popular perception that Native Americans inflicted barely perceptible disturbance upon a New World Eden. Yet, it also records correlations between changes in society and degrees of human environmental impact. These allow inferences about the specific contexts in which significant human environmental impacts in the New World did, and did not, arise.

The Speciation of Modern Homo Sapiens

T. J. Crow — 2012-02-06

Author:: T. J.CrowWarneford Hospital, Oxford
ISBN:: 9780197263112
Publisher:: British Academy
Subjects:: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
DOI:: 10.5871/bacad/9780197263112.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2012-02-06

This volume addresses the question of the speciation of modern Homo Sapiens. The subject raises profound questions about the nature of the species, our defining characteristic (it is suggested it is language), and the brain changes and their genetic basis that make us distinct. The British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences have brought together experts from palaeontology, archaeology, linguistics, psychology, genetics and evolutionary theory to present evidence and theories of our understanding of these issues. Palaeontological and genetic work suggests that the transition from a precursor hominid species to modern man took place between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago. Some chapters discuss what is most characteristic of the species, focussing on language and its possible basis in brain lateralization. This work is placed in the context of speciation theory, which has remained a subject of considerable debate since the evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian theory. The timing of specific transitions in hominid evolution is discussed, as also is the question of the neural basis of language. Other chapters address the possible genetic nature of the transition, with reference to changes on the X and Y chromosomes that may account for sex differences in lateralization and verbal ability. These differences are discussed in terms of the theory of sexual selection, and with reference to the mechanisms of speciation.

Mediterranean Urbanization 800-600 BC

Robin Osborne and Barry Cunliffe — 2012-02-06

Author:: RobinOsborneProfessor of Ancient History, University of CambridgeBarryCunliffeProfessor of European History, University of Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy
ISBN:: 9780197263259
Publisher:: British Academy
Subjects:: Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
DOI:: 10.5871/bacad/9780197263259.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2012-02-06

Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.

Images and Artefacts of the Ancient World

Alan K. Bowman and Michael Brady — 2012-02-06

Author:: Alan K.BowmanCamden Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford; Fellow of the British AcademyMichaelBradyBP Professor of Information Engineering, University of Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy
ISBN:: 9780197262962
Publisher:: British Academy
Subjects:: Archaeology, Methodology and Techniques
DOI:: 10.5871/bacad/9780197262962.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2012-02-06

These fifteen chapters explore the ways in which recent developments in imaging, image analysis, and image display and diffusion can be applied to objects of material culture in order to enhance historians' understanding of the period from which the objects came (in this case, the remote past). In interpreting artefacts, the historian acts out a perceptual-cognitive task of transforming often noisy and impoverished signals into semantically rich symbols that have to be set within a cultural and historical context. Engineering scientists, equipped with a range of sophisticated techniques, equipment and highly specialised knowledge, are not always as aware as they might be of the range and the exact nature of problems faced by historians in interpreting objects of material culture. By providing the opportunity for scholars from these communities to explain to each other what they are doing and how, the chapters explore the ways in which the scientific contributors and the historians are thinking about subjectivity of interpretation, visual cognition, and the need to improve methods of presenting evidence so as to feed directly back into their own scientific thinking and to encourage genuine innovation in their approach to developing methods of image-enhancement and interpretation of objects. A significant further dimension is the improvement of techniques of providing high quality images of important and valuable collections of original artefacts to scholars who cannot always study the originals directly. Another important development discussed here is the fact that such imaging techniques now offer the researcher valuable insurance against the processes of deterioration to which such artefacts are inevitably subject. Seven of the chapters are scientific and technical, while the other eight have an archaeological or historical focus.

Going Over: The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in North-West Europe

Alasdair Whittle and Vicki Cummings — 2012-02-06

Author:: AlasdairWhittleDistinguished Research Professor, School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University; Fellow of the British AcademyVickiCummingsLecturer in Archaeology, University of Central Lancashire
ISBN:: 9780197264140
Publisher:: British Academy
Subjects:: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
DOI:: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264140.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2012-02-06

The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people thought about themselves and their worlds, from their pasts to their animals. Two sets of protagonists have often been lined up in the long-running debates about these processes: on the one hand incoming farmers and on the other indigenous hunter-gatherers. Both have found advocates as the dominant force in the transitions to a new way of life. North-west Europe presents a very rich data set for this fundamental change, and research has both extended and deepened our knowledge of regional sequences, from the sixth to the fourth millennia bc. One of the most striking results is the evident diversity from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia. No one region is quite like another; hunter-gatherers and early farmers alike were also varied and the old labels of Mesolithic and Neolithic are increasingly inadequate to capture the diversity of human agency and belief. Surveys of the most recent evidence presented here also strongly suggest a diversity of transformations. Some cases of colonization on the one hand and indigenous adoption on the other can still be argued, but many situations now seem to involve complex fusions and mixtures. This wide-ranging set of papers offers an overview of this fundamental transition.