Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia
Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia

Author: David R. Harris

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1934536512

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In Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia, archaeologist David R. Harris addresses questions of when, how, and why agriculture and settled village life began east of the Caspian Sea. The book describes and assesses evidence from archaeological investigations in Turkmenistan and adjacent parts of Iran, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan in relation to present and past environmental conditions and genetic and archaeological data on the ancestry of the crops and domestic animals of the Neolithic period. It includes accounts of previous research on the prehistoric archaeology of the region and reports the results of a recent environmental-archaeological project undertaken by British, Russian, and Turkmen archaeologists in Turkmenistan, principally at the early Neolithic site of Jeitun (Djeitun) on the southern edge of the Karakum desert. This project has demonstrated unequivocally that agropastoralists who cultivated barley and wheat, raised goats and sheep, hunted wild animals, made stone tools and pottery, and lived in small mudbrick settlements were present in southern Turkmenistan by 7,000 years ago (c. 6,000 BCE calibrated), where they came into contact with hunter-gatherers of the "Keltiminar Culture." It is possible that barley and goats were domesticated locally, but the available archaeological and genetic evidence leads to the conclusion that all or most of the elements of the Neolithic "Jeitun Culture" spread to the region from farther west by a process of demic or cultural diffusion that broadly parallels the spread of Neolithic agropastoralism from southwest Asia into Europe. By synthesizing for the first time what is currently known about the origins of agriculture in a large part of Central Asia, between the more fully investigated regions of southwest Asia and China, this book makes a unique contribution to the worldwide literature on transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

Soviet Archaeology
Soviet Archaeology

Author: Lev Samuilovich Kleĭn

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2012-11-29

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 0199601356

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In Soviet Archaeology: Trends, Schools, and History, Russian archaeologist Leo S. Klejn looks at the peculiar phenomenon that is Soviet archaeology and how it differs to Western archaeology and the archaeology of pre-revolutionary Russia. Klejn shows that Soviet archaeology was not a monolithic block as Soviet ideologists attempted to represent it, but rather it was divided into competing schools and trends and, even under the veil of Marxist ideology,was often closely related to the movements occurring in western archaeology. As an archaeologist working during the turmoil of the Soviet government's rule over Russia, Klejn's scholarly account is laid out in ajournalistic manner, tracing the history of archaeology in Russian from 1917 to beyond 1991, as well as recounting the lives and fates of leading Soviet archaeologists in vivid descriptions with accompanying photographs.

The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology

Author: Bethany Walker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-10-27

Total Pages: 1024

ISBN-13: 0199987882

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Born from the fields of Islamic art and architectural history, the archaeological study of the Islamic societies is a relatively young discipline. With its roots in the colonial periods of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its rapid development since the 1980s warrants a reevaluation of where the field stands today. This Handbook represents for the first time a survey of Islamic archaeology on a global scale, describing its disciplinary development and offering candid critiques of the state of the field today in the Central Islamic Lands, the Islamic West, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. The international contributors to the volume address such themes as the timing and process of Islamization, the problems of periodization and regionalism in material culture, cities and countryside, cultural hybridity, cultural and religious diversity, natural resource management, international trade in the later historical periods, and migration. Critical assessments of the ways in which archaeologists today engage with Islamic cultural heritage and local communities closes the volume, highlighting the ethical issues related to studying living cultures and religions. Richly illustrated, with extensive citations, it is the reference work on the debates that drive the field today.

Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archaeology
Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archaeology

Author: Bonnie Effros

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Published: 2018-12-31

Total Pages: 501

ISBN-13: 1938770617

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This volume addresses the entanglement between archaeology, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and war. Popular sentiment in the West has tended to embrace the adventure rather than ponder the legacy of archaeological explorers; allegations by imperial powers of "discovering" archaeological sites or "saving" world heritage from neglect or destruction have often provided the pretext for expanding political influence. Consequently, citizens have often fallen victim to the imperial war machine, seeing their lands confiscated, their artifacts looted, and the ancient remains in their midst commercialized. Spanning the globe with case studies from East Asia, Siberia, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and Africa, sixteen contributions written by archaeologists, art historians, and historians from four continents offer unusual breadth and depth in the assessment of various claims to patrimonial heritage, contextualized by the imperial and colonial ventures of the last two centuries and their postcolonial legacy.