Colin Renfrew, Paul Bahn ARCHAEOLOGY Theories Methods and Practice UK, Thames & Hudson, 2000 pp. 640
	Gli autori hanno realizzato un manuale di archeologia completo e accattivante. La quantità di materiale che sono riusciti a mettere insieme, in modo facile da consultare, è davvero notevole. Praticamente ogni aspetto dell'archeologia contemporanea è toccato. Numerose immagini completano il testo, rivelandosi essenziali per la comprensione dei temi trattati. Utilissimi inserti e riquadri approfondiscono temi specifici, con largo ricorso a diagrammi e figure. L'opera è organizzata in tre parti. Nella parte introduttiva è reccontata la storia della disciplina e sono illustrate le figure dei grandi archeologi del passato. Seguono i concetti fondamentali dell'archeologia: i vari tipi di testimonianza archeologica e i processi con cui essa si forma; come vengono scoperti e scavati i siti archeologici; i metodi di datazione. Segue una seconda parte dedicata alla scoperta e alla ricostruzione dell'esperienza umana nel passato. I capitoli che la compongono trattano dell'organizzazione delle società del passato; della ricostruzione dell'ambiente che ne condizionava lo sviluppo; l'alimentazione; della fabbricazione di utensili; dei contatti tra comunità e gli scambi di beni tra di esse; delle credenze religiose e dell'aspetto fisico dei nostri antenati. Un capitolo è dedicato alle cause del cambiamento di queste società: come spiegare la formazione, l'espansione e il declino delle civiltà del passato. La terza parte illustra alcune ricerche sul campo in varie parti del mondo: America centrale, Australia, Indocina, Inghilterra. Nei capitoli della sezione l'autore discute anche delle finalità dell'archeologia e del modo con cui i risultati della ricerca archeologica sono messi a disposizione del pubblico. Un'opera ambiziosa e curata, che raggiunge sicuramente l'obiettivo di presentare in modo chiaro e piacevole da leggere l'articolazione dei metodi, gli sviluppi recenti e i problemi dell'archeologia contemporanea. Esiste una traduzione italiana della seconda edizione; il presente commento è stato redatto riferendosi alla terza edizione in inglese. Giampiero Marcello
	Contents in short 640 pages cover the entire subject, from the history of archaeology to excavation, evidence, environment and explanation in archaeology Over 600 illustrations, including world maps, charts, diagrams and reconstructions Over 100 special features on major topics, from underwater archaeology to radiocarbon dating. from the origins of farming to the collapse of civilizations, with summaries of 30 influential excavations In-depth case studies on four important projects in Mexico Australia, Southeast Asia, and England, which show the practical application of methods outlined in the book Full reference section, including a glossary of archaeological terms and a comprehensive bibliography and guide to further reading New to this Edition New theoretical approaches: up to-date ideas in cognitive and postprocessual archaeologies evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary psychology the archaeology of the individual and of identity increased coverage of gender archaeology New methods Chlorine 36 rid the dating of rock an -the increasing Importance of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) DNA analysis and molecular genetics the latest techniques of artifact analysis New special features Interpretive Archaeologies at Catalhoyulk Women Pioneers of Archaeology Geophysical Survey at Wroxeter Climate Cycles: El Nino Molecular Genetics and Population Dynamics: Europe - Archaeology and the Internet New in-depth case study: York and the Public Presentation of Archaeology 32 additional pages of text and illustrations
	COLIN RENFREW is Disney Professor of Archaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of many books, including Before Civilization and Archaeology and Language and he edited (with Ezra Zubrow) The Ancient Mind. PAUL BAHN is a prehistorian and archaeological writer. He is the author or editor of numerous books including the standard introduction to cave an, Journey through the Ice Age, as well as Easter Island, Earth Island (with John Henley) and the Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology.
	CONTENTS Preface 9 Introduction The Nature and Aims of Archaeology 11 PART I The Framework of Archaeology 17 1 The Searchers The History of Archaeology 19 The Speculative Phase 20 The Beginnings of Modern Archaeology 24 Classification and Consolidation 34 A Turning Point in Archaeology 38 World Archaeology 40 Summary 48 Further Reading 48 BOX FEATURES Pompeii: Archaeology Past and Present 22 The Impact of Evolutionary Thought 26 19th-century Pioneers of North American Archaeology 28 The Development of Field Techniques 31 Women Pioneers of Archaeology 36 Processual Archaeology. Key Concepts 39 Interpretive or Postprocessual Archaeologies 42 Interpretive Archaeologies at Catalhoyuk 44 2 What is Left? The Variety of Evidence 49 Basic Categories of Archaeological Evidence 49 Formation Processes 52 Cultural Formation Processes - Now People Have Affected What Survives in the Archaeological Record 54 Natural Formation Processes - Now Nature Affects What Survives in the Archaeological Record 55 Summary 70 Further Reading 70 BOX FEATURES Experimental Archaeology 53 Wet Preservation: The Ozette Site 60 Dry Preservation: The Tomb of Tutankhamun 62 Cold Preservation 1: The Barrow Site 65 Cold Preservation 2: The Iceman 66 3 Where? Survey and Excavation of Sites and Features 71 Discovering Archaeological Sites and Features 72 Assessing the Layout of Sites and Features 89 Excavation 106 Summary 116 Further Reading 116 BOX FEATURES Regional Survey on Melos 75 Sampling Strategies 76 Archaeological Aerial Reconnaissance 80 Teotihuacàn Mapping Project 90 Surface Investigation at Abu Salabikh 92 Underwater Archaeology 95 The Red Bay Wreck. Discovery and Excavation 96 Geophysical Survey at Roman Wroxeter 100 Measuring Magnetism 102 Controlled Archaeological Test Site 104 4 When? Dating Methods and Chronology 117 RELATIVE DATING 118 Stratigraphy 118 Typological Sequences 120 Linguistic Dating 124 Climate and Chronology 125 ABSOLUTE DATING 128 Calendars and Historical Chronologies 129 Annual Cycles: Varves and Tree-Rings 133 Radioactive Clocks 137 Trapped Electron Dating Methods 150 Calibrated Relative Methods 155 Chronological Correlations 161 World Chronology 162 Summary 170 Further Reading 170 BOX FEATURES 130 The Maya Calendar The principles of Radioactive Decay 137 The Publication of Radiocarbon Dates 139 How to Calibrate Radiocarbon Dates 140 Dating Our African Ancestors 148 Dating the Thera Eruption 160 PART II Discovering the Variety of Human Experience 171 5 How Were Society Organized? Social Archaeology 173 Establishing the Nature and Scale of the Society 174 Further Sources of Information for Social Organization 182 Techniques of Study for Mobile Hunter-Gatherer Societies 190 Techniques of Study for Segmentary Societies 194 Techniques of Study for Chiefdoms and States 203 The Archaeology of the Individual and of Identity 215 Investigating Gender 218 The Molecular Genetics of Social Groups and Lineages 222 Summary 224 Further Reading 224 BOX FEATURES Settlement Patterns in Mesopotamia 180 Ancient Ethnicity and Language 189 Space and Density in Hunter-Gatherer Camps 193 Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis 197 Early Wessex 198 Maya Territories 205 Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDSCAL) 206 Social Analysis at Moundville 212 Gender Relations in Early Intermediate Period Peru 220 6 What Was the Environment? Environmental Archaeology 225 Investigating Environments on a Global Scale 225 Studying the Landscape 232 Reconstructing the Plant Environment 239 Reconstructing the Animal Environment 247 Reconstructing the Human Environment 255 Summary 268 Further Reading 268 BOX FEATURES Reconstructing Climates from Sea and Ice Cores 227 Climatic Cycles: EI Nino 228 Cave Sediments 234 Pollen Analysis 240 Elands Bay Cave 254 Site Catchment Analysis 258 Mapping the Ancient Environment: Cahokia and GIS 260 Ancient Gardens at Kuk Swamp 262 7 What Did They Eat? Subsistence and Diet 269 What Can Plant Foods Tell Us About Diet? 270 Information from Animal Resources 282 investigating Diet, Seasonality, and Domestication from Animal Remains 286 Now Were Animal Resources Exploited? 301 Assessing Diet from Human Remains 305 Summary 310 Further Reading 310 Box FEATURES Paleoethnobotany: A Case Study 272 Butser Experimental Iron Age Farm 274 investigating the Rise of Farming in Western Asia 280 Taphonomy 284 Animal Bones 288 The Study of Animal Tooth 291 Bison Drive Sites 292 Farming Origins A Case Study 296 Shell Midden Analysis 300 8 How Did They Make and Use Tools? Technology 311 Unaltered Materials: Stone 315 Other Unaltered Materials 327 Synthetic Materials 335 Archaeometallurgy 339 Summary 349 Further Reading 350 BOX FEATURES Artifacts or "Geofacts" at Pedra Furada 314 Raising Large Stones 318 Refitting and Microwear Studies at the Meer Site 324 Woodworking in the Somerset Levels 330 Metallographic Examination 341 Copper Production in Peru 344 Early Steelmaking: An Ethnoarchaeological Experiment 348 9 What Contact Did They Have? Trade and Exchange 351 The Study of Interaction 351 Discovering the Sources of Traded Goods: Characterization 358 The Study of Distribution 367 The Study of Production 373 The Study of Consumption 377 Exchange and Interaction: The Complete System 378 Summary 384 Further Reading 384 BOX FEATURES Modes of Exchange 354 Materials of Prestige Value 356 Analysis of Artifact Composition 360 Lead Isotope Analysis 364 Trend Surface Analysis 369 Fall-off Analysis 370 Distribution: The Uluburun Wreck 374 Production lion: Greenstone Artifact., in Australia 376 Interaction Sphere Hopewell 383 10 What Did They Think? Cognitive Archaeology, Art, and Religion 385 Investigating Now Human Symbolizing Faculties Evolved 387 Working with Symbols 391 From Written Source to Cognitive Map 391 Establishing Place: The Location of Memory 397 Measuring the World 399 Planning: Maps for the Future 402 Symbols of Organization and Power 404 Symbols for the Other World: The Archaeology of Religion 406 Depiction: Art and Representation 412 Summary 420 Further Reading 420 BOX FEATURES Indications of Early Thought 390 Paleolithic Cave Art 392 Paleolithic Portable Art 394 The Megalithic Yard 401 Maya Symbols of Power 406 Recognizing Cult Activity at Chavìn 410 Identifying Individual Artists in Ancient Greece 414 Conventions of Representation in Egyptian Art 416 The interpretation of Swedish Rock Art.' Archaeology as Text 418 A Question of Style 419 11 Who Were They? What Were They? The Archaeolgoy of People 421 Identifying Physical Attributes 422 Assessing Human Abilities 432 Disease, Deformity, and Death 438 Assessing Nutrition 451 Population Studies 452 Ethnicity and Evolution 455 Summary 459 Further Reading 460 BOX FEATURES Spitalfields: Determining Biological Age at Death 426 How to Reconstruct the Face 430 Looking Inside Bodies 440 1 Life and Death Among the Inuit 444 Lindow Man: The Body in the Bog 448 Genetics and Languages 454 Studying the Origins of Now World Populations 456 12 Why Did Things Change? Explanation in Archaeology 461 Migrationist and Diffusionist Explanations 463 The Processual Approach 465 The Form of Explanation: General or Particular 474 Attempts at Explanation: One Cause or Several? 476 Postprocessual or Interpretive Explanation 483 Cognitive-Processual Archaeology 491 Summary 495 Further Reading 496 BOX FEATURES Diffusionist Explanation Rejected Great Zimbabwe 464 Language Families and Language Change 467 Molecular Genetics and Population Dynamics: Europe 468 The Origins of Farming: A Processual Explanation 471 Marxist Archaeology Key Features 473 Origins of the State 1: Peru 478 Origins of the State 2: The Aegean 480 The Classic Maya Collapse 484 Explaining the European Megaliths 488 The Individual as an Agent of Change 492 PART III The World of Archaeology 497 13 Archaeology in Action Four Cases in Studies 499 The Oaxaca Projects: The Origins and Rise of the Zapotec State 500 Research Among Hunter-Gatherers: Kakadu National Park, Australia 509 Khok Phanom Di: The Origins of Rice Farming in Southeast Asia 516 York and the Public Presentation of Archaeology 522 Further Reading 532 14 Whose Past? Archaeology and the Public 533 The Meaning of the Past: The Archaeology of Identity 533 Who Owns the Past? 536 The Uses of the Past 542 Conservation and Destruction 546 Who Interprets and Presents the Past? 558 Archaeology and Public Understanding 559 Summary 563 Further Reading 564 BOX FEATURES The Politics of Destruction 1: The Bridge at Mostar 535 The Politics of Destruction 2: The Mosque at Ayodyha 537 Applied Archaeology Farming in Peru 544 The Practice of CRM in the United States 547 Conservation: The Great Temple of the Aztecs in Mexico City 552 Destruction and Response: Mimbres 554 "Collectors Are the Real Looters" 556 Archaeology and the Internet 560 Archaeology at the Fringe 562 Glossary 565 Notes and Bibliography 574 Acknowledgments 619 Index 622