Archaeological Approaches To Technology

Author : Heather Margaret-Louise Miller
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archaeological Approaches to Technology written by Heather Margaret-Louise Miller and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for upper-division undergraduate and graduate level archaeology students taking courses in ancient technologies, archaeological craft production, material culture, the history of technology, archaeometry, and field methods. This text can also serve as a general introduction and a reference for archaeologists, material culture specialists in socio-cultural disciplines, and engineers/scientists interested in the backgrounds and histories of their disciplines. The study of ancient technologies-that is, the ways in which objects and materials were made and used-can reveal insights into ec.

Author : Heather Margaret-Louise Miller
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315434598
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archaeological Approaches to Technology written by Heather Margaret-Louise Miller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed for upper-division undergraduate and graduate level archaeology students taking courses in ancient technologies, archaeological craft production, material culture, the history of technology, archaeometry, and field methods. This text can also serve as a general introduction and a reference for archaeologists, material culture specialists in socio-cultural disciplines, and engineers/scientists interested in the backgrounds and histories of their disciplines. The study of ancient technologies, that is, the ways in which objects and materials were made and used can reveal insights into economic, social, political, and ritual realms of the past. This book summarizes the current state of ancient technology studies by emphasizing methodologies, some major technologies, and the questions and issues that drive archaeologists in their consideration of these technologies. It shows the ways that technology studies can be used by archaeologists working anywhere, on any type of society and it embraces an orientation toward the practical, not the philosophical. It compares the range of pre-industrial technologies, from stone tool production, fiber crafts, wood and bone working, fired clay crafts, metal production, and glass manufacture. It includes socially contextualized case studies, as well as general descriptions of technological processes. It discusses essential terminology (technology, material culture, chaine operatoire, etc.), primarily from the perspective of how these terms are used by archaeologists.

Author : A. Mark Pollard
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 1009207105
Total Pages : 80 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Archaeological Perspective on the History of Technology written by A. Mark Pollard and published by . This book was released on 2023-02-22 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents an introduction to a new world-wide attempt to review the history of technology, which is one of few since the pioneering publications of the 1960s. It takes an explicit archaeological focus to the study of the history of technology and adopts a more explicit socially-embedded view of technology than has commonly been the case in mainstream histories of technology. In doing so, it attempts to introduce a more radical element to explanations of technological change, involving magic, alchemy, animism - in other words, attempting to consider technological change in terms of the 'world view' of those involved in such change rather than from an exclusively western scientific perspective.

Author : Mikkel Sørensen
Publisher : Aarhus University Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Technology in Archaeology written by Mikkel Sørensen and published by Aarhus University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this publication is to stress that cultural, social and cognitive aspects today are important goals and perspectives of technological studies, and that technological studies can contribute vitally to the interpretation of our prehistory. There is today a strong new trend among a young generation of archaeologists towards using the study of technology. This trend focuses on the understanding of the material process -- and sees these processes as logical responses and changes reflecting human behaviour and cognition. Thus, in some ways, this trend is in opposition to former morphological and static studies of artefacts. The book consists of ten case studies, which employ the study of technology as a primary methodology, and discuss issues and problems concerning the methods, results and perspectives of this methodology. The materials analysed in the studies are made from bone, stone and textiles, while the archaeological contexts are ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Viking Age. This publication is a result of the workshop "The study of technology as a method for gaining insight into social and cultural aspects of prehistory", held at the National Museum of Denmark, the 3-4 November 2005.

Author : Eric Christopher Kansa
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archaeology 2.0 written by Eric Christopher Kansa and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Eric C. Kansa
Publisher : Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
ISBN 13 : 193877065X
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archaeology 2.0 written by Eric C. Kansa and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is the Web transforming the professional practice of archaeology? And as archaeologists accustomed to dealing with "deep time," how can we best understand the possibilities and limitations of the Web in meeting the specialized needs of professionals in this field? These are among the many questions posed and addressed in Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration, edited by Eric Kansa, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, and Ethan Watrall. With contributions from a range of experts in archaeology and technology, this volume is organized around four key topics that illuminate how the revolution in communications technology reverberates across the discipline: approaches to information retrieval and information access; practical and theoretical concerns inherent in design choices for archaeology's computing infrastructure; collaboration through the development of new technologies that connect field-based researchers and specialists within an international archaeological community and scholarly communications issues, with an emphasis on concerns over sustainability and preservation imperatives. This book not only describes practices that attempt to mitigate some of the problems associated with the Web, such as information overload and disinformation, it also presents compelling case studies of actual digital projects--many of which are rich in structured data and multimedia content or focused on generating content from the field "in real time," and all of which demonstrate how the Web can and is being used to transform archaeological communications into forms that are more open, inclusive, and participatory. Above all, this volume aims to share these experiences to provide useful guidance for other researchers interested in applying technology to archaeology.

Author : Michael Brian Schiffer
Publisher : University of Utah Press
ISBN 13 : 9781607811367
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Studying Technological Change written by Michael Brian Schiffer and published by University of Utah Press. This book was released on 2011-05-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studying Technological Change synthesizes nearly four decades of research by Michael Brian Schiffer, a cofounder of the field of behavioral archaeology. This new book asks historical and scientific questions about the interaction of people with artifacts during all times and in all places. The book is not about the history or prehistory of technology, nor is it a catalog of methods and techniques for inferring how specific technologies were made or used. Rather, it supplies conceptual tools that can be used to help craft an explanation of any technological change in any society. The behavioral approach leads to new questions, creative research employing diverse lines of evidence, and, often, counterintuitive explanations. In behavioral archaeology, one never loses sight of the materiality of human behavior. Needless to say, advocates of other research approaches will find much in this book to dispute. But critics cannot gainsay the productivity of the behavioral approach nor the fact that it has furnished fresh insights into episodes of technological change.

Author : Valentine Roux
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030039730
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ceramics and Society written by Valentine Roux and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pottery is the most ubiquitous find in most historical archaeological excavations and serves as the basis for much research in the discipline. But it is not only its frequency that makes it a prime dataset for such research, it is also that pottery embeds many dimensions of the human experience, ranging from the purely technical to the eminently symbolic. The aim of this book is to provide a cutting-edge theoretical and methodological framework, as well as a practical guide, for archaeologists, students and researchers to study ceramic assemblages. As opposed to the conventional typological approach, which focuses on vessel shape and assumed function with the main goal of establishing a chronological sequence, the proposed framework is based on the technological approach. Such an approach utilizes the concept of chaîne opératoire, which is geared to an anthropological interpretation of archaeological objects. The author offers a sound theoretical background accompanied by an original research strategy whose presentation is at the heart of this book. This research strategy is presented in successive chapters that are geared to explain not only how to study archaeological assemblages, but also why the proposed methods are essential for achieving ambitious interpretive goals. In the heated debate on the equation stating that “pots equal people”, which is a rather fuzzy reference to assumed relationships between (mostly) ethnic groups and pottery, technology enables us to propose with conviction the equation “pots equal potters”. In this way, a well-founded history of potters is able to achieve a much better cultural and anthropological understanding of ancient societies.​

Author : Michela Spataro
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789088908248
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Detecting and Explaining Technological Innovation in Prehistory written by Michela Spataro and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology refers to any set of standardised procedures for transforming raw materials into finished products. Innovation consists of any change in technology which has tangible and lasting effect on human practices, whether or not it provides utilitarian advantages. Prehistoric societies were never static, but the tempo of innovation occasionally increased to the point that we can refer to transformation taking place. Prehistorians must therefore identify factors promoting or hindering innovation.This volume stems from an international workshop, organised by the Collaborative Research Centre 1266 'Scales of Transformation' at Kiel University in November 2017. The meeting challenged its participants to detect and explain technological change in the past and its role in transformation processes, using archaeological and ethnographic case studies. The papers draw mainly on examples from prehistoric Europe, but case-studies from Iran, the Indus Valley, and contemporary central America are also included. The authors adopt several perspectives, including cultural-historical, economic, environmental, demographic, functional, and agent-based approaches.These case studies often rely on interdisciplinary research, whereby field archaeology, archaeometric analysis, experimental archaeology and ethnographic research are used together to observe and explain innovations and changes in the artisan's repertoire. The results demonstrate that interdisciplinary research is becoming essential to understanding transformation phenomena in prehistoric archaeology, superseding typo-chronological description and comparison.This book is a scholarly publication aimed at academic researchers, particularly archaeologists and archaeological scientists working on ceramics, osseous and metal artifacts.

Author : David Frankel
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134626150
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archaeology in Environment and Technology written by David Frankel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environments, landscapes, and ecological systems are often seen as fundamental by archaeologists, but how they relate to society is understood in very different ways. The chapters in this book take environment, culture, and technology together. All have been the focus of much attention; often one or other has been seen as the starting point for analysis, but this volume argues that it is the study of the inter-relationships between these three factors that offers a way forward. The contributions to this book pick up different strands within the tangled web of intersections between environment, technology, and society, providing a series of case studies which explore facets of this common theme in different settings and circumstances and from different perspectives. As well as addressing themes of theoretical and methodological interest, these case studies draw on primary research dealing with time periods from the late Pleistocene glacial maximum to the very recent past, and involve societies of very different types. Running through all the contributions, however, is a concern with the archaeological record and the ways in which scales of observation and availability of evidence affect the development of questions and explanations. The diversity of the chapters in this volume demonstrates the inherent weakness in any attempt to prioritise environment, technology, or society. These three factors are all embedded in any human activity, as change in one will result in change in the others: social and technical changes alter relations with the environment–and indeed the environment itself—and as environmental change drives changes in society and technology. As this book shows, it is possible to consider the relationship between the three factors from different perspectives, but any attempt to consider one or even two in isolation will mean that valuable insights will be missed.