This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic ethnicity in southeastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700, from the perspective of current anthropological theories. The conceptual emphasis here is on the relation between material culture and ethnicity. The author demonstrates that the history of the Sclavenes and the Antes begins only at around AD 500. He also points to the significance of the archaeological evidence, which suggests that specific artifacts may have been used as identity markers. This evidence also indicates the role of local leaders in building group boundaries and in leading successful raids across the Danube. The names of many powerful leaders appear in written sources, some being styled “kings.” Because of these military and political developments, Byzantine authors began employing names such as Sclavenes and Antes in order to make sense of the process of group identification that was taking place north of the Danube frontier. Slavic ethnicity is therefore shown to be a Byzantine invention.

Church architecture is a contentious field of inquiry. Polemics, dogmatism, and caricature abound. It would be unrealistic to think any book could resolve the controversies, but a fresh look at the most basic questions about churches, their meanings and their uses, may prove useful to all sides. The incentive to write this book was mixed: it grew out of historical interest, but also out of an urge to see more clearly what churches have meant and what they can mean for communities that buildand use them. It might seem that the first four chapters deal with theological questions, while the extended case studies that follow shift the focus to history—but in fact theolog and history are intertwined throughout.

Medieval archaeology is one of the fastest-growing fields in archaeology today. Road construction and urban redevelopment have led to the discovery of new rural sites and to major programs of urban excavation in cities such as Winchester, York, Trondheim, and Lübeck. The rich medieval archaeological database has been used to address a range of important theoretical concerns in contemporary archaeology. Carefully collected faunal and floral data have been used to address problems of human economy and the natural environment in the Middle Ages.

This study applies the insights of archaeology to some of the most fundamental and contentious issues in human evolution. Since the 1980s a modular concept of the mind has been put forward which likens the mind to a Swiss Army knife with its collection of specialist blades and tools - the mind is seen as a collection of specialized "intelligences" or modules, each suited for a specific purpose. The study seeks to answer the questions raised by this new theory such as "How many modules are there and how do they connect?", "How can one account for human creativity and imagination?" and "How could such a mind have evolved?". It argues that only archaeology can provide the long-term perspective necessary to understand the origins of the modern mind. It shows how the world of our ancestors has shaped the modern mind and offers a challenging explanation of what it means to be human.

An ancient city unearthed... In the 1730s, Charles of Bourbon, king of the area around present-day Naples, Italy, learned that local peasants were finding marble and other ancient objects when they dug their wells. He sent army colonel Rocque Joachin Alcubierre and later Karl Jacob Weber to explore the area. Working in darkness with only torches to light their way, Alcubierre's and Weber's crews of workers tunneled through hardened mud. The crews found a marble statue on the very first day. Soon they discovered an ancient Roman theater filled with marble and bronze statues. Later, the crew moved south, where digging was above ground, and they began to uncover the ancient city of Pompeii. This once-vibrant Roman city had been completely buried in lava and ash when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. By unearthing this ancient city, Weber spurred interested not only in artifacts, but in how the ancient people lived. By the early nineteenth century, Pompeii was a busy tourist attraction and the once-buried city lived again.

Community Identity and Archaeology explores the concept of community identity and its application in archaeology, using the modern Turkish sites of Aphrodisias and Beycesultan as case studies to illustrate the formation and dissolution of communities over time. The concept of the community is vital to the way we understand human societies both past and present, and the last decade has seen widespread interest in communities from both the popular and academic spheres. The concept is also central to archaeology, where the relationship between sites and communities remains controversial. Naoíse Mac Sweeney aims to take the debate one step further, setting out a comprehensive framework for the archaeological investigation of community identity, encompassing theoretical approaches for its conceptualization, practical methodologies for its investigation, and detailed case studies in Anatolia to test and illustrate its arguments. This book contributes to discussions in archaeological theory and material culture studies and is particularly relevant to archaeologists working on different types of cultural identity. Community Identity and Archaeology’s readership will include undergraduate and graduate students as well as academic specialists. In addition, the book contains material of direct historical interest for Classics and Near Eastern departments. It includes valuable new research relevant for those working on Aegean, Mycenaean, or Early Greek antiquity, as well as specialists in Anatolia including scholars working on the Hittite, Phrygian, and Lydian empires.

This book is the first to focus on the African origins of human language. It explores the origins of language and culture 250,000-150,000 years ago when modern humans evolved in Africa. Scholars from around the world address the fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence and critically examine the ways it has been interpreted. The book also considers parellel developments among Europe's Neanderthals and the contrasting outcomes for the two species. Following an extensive introduction contextualizing and linking the book's topics and approaches, fifteen chapters bring together many of the most significant recent findings and developments in modern human origins research. The fields represented by the authors include genetics, biology, behavioural ecology, linguistics, archaeology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

Т. 3. - 2009. - 516 с.

Данное издание представляет собой анализ и обобщение материалов раскопок последних лет, прошедших с момента публикации первой книги Х. А. Амирханова, посвященной исследованиям Зарайской стоянки (2000). За это время почти втрое увеличилась раскопанная площадь памятника, удалось прояснить некоторые детали его общей и локальной стратиграфии.