1. What is Archaeology? 2. How Many Archaeologies Are There? 3. Basic Concepts 4. People 5. Objects 6. Time and Space 7. Change and Stasis 8. Identity and Power

Archaeology’s main contribution to the debate over the origins of modern humans has been investigating where and when modern human behavior is first recognized in the archaeological record. Most of this debate has been over the empirical record for the appearance and distribution of a set of traits that have come to be accepted as indicators of behavioral modernity. This debate has resulted in a series of competing models that we explicate here, and the traits are typically used as the test implications for these models. However, adequate tests of hypotheses and models rest on robust test implications, and we argue here that the current set of test implications suffers from three main problems: (1) Many are empirically derived from and context‐specific to the richer European record, rendering them problematic for use in the primarily tropical and subtropical African continent. (2) They are ambiguous because other processes can be invoked, often with greater parsimony, to explain their character. (3) Many ...

/pdf/the-origin-of-modern-human-behavior-3zwsntubb7.pdf

Archaeology, the basics

The origin of modern human behavior.

This article presents the initial results from the S2AGES database of calibrated radiocarbon estimates from western Europe in the period 25,000–10,000 years ago. Our aim is to present a population history of this sub-continental region by providing a chronologically-secure framework for the interpretation of data from genetics and archaeology. In particular, we define five population events in this period, using dates-as-data, and examine the implications for the archaeology of Late Glacial colonization. We contrast this detailed regional approach to the larger project which we call the cognitive origins synthesis that includes historical linguistics in the reconstruction of population history. We conclude that only archaeology can currently provide the framework for population history and the evaluation of genetic data. Finally, if progress is to be made in the new interdisciplinary field of population history then both disciplines need to refrain from inappropriate agricultural thinking that fosters distorting models of European prehistory, and they should also pay less, if any, attention to historical linguistics.

/pdf/the-archaeological-and-genetic-foundations-of-the-european-1bsgxehqnb.pdf

The archaeological and genetic foundations of the European population during the Late Glacial: implications for ‘agricultural thinking’

The Routledge companion to landscape studies

Part I. The Context: 1. Introduction and definitions 2. Environment and culture: South Asia's environmental, linguistic and religious patterns 3. Histories of South Asian archaeology Part II. The Indus Valley Tradition c.6500-1900 BCE: 4. Food producers: multiple Neolithics (c.6500-2000 BCE) 5. Regionalisation and differentiated communities (c.5000-2600 BCE) 6. An era of integration: the Indus civilisation (c.2600-1900 BCE) 7. Localisation: transformations of a system (c.1900-1200 BCE) Part III. The Early Historic Tradition (c.1900-200 BCE): 8. South Asia: transitions and continuities (c.1900-1200 BCE) 9. The re-emergence of regional differentiation (c.1200-600 BCE) 10. Reintegration: towards an early historic world (c.600-250 BCE) 11. The Mauryans and the Asokan ideal (c.321-185 BCE) Part IV. Conclusions: 12. Conclusions and challenges.

The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE-200 CE

While some researchers continue to focus fruitfully on traditional issues, in recent years new perspectives, some strongly revisionist, have developed within European Iron Age archaeology, moving it from a long-static state into a rapidly changing milieu. Studies of colonialism, imperialism, and interaction have undergone sequential shifts into new territory, while topics related to sacred activity, political apparatuses, and the ruler-subject relationship have undergone substantial reworking. Perspectives absent from earlier literature have emerged: gender, age, ethnicity, and identity, and interpretations employing theories of practice, agency, landscape, and embodiment have emerged, mirroring broader disciplinary shifts. An overarching trend sees Iron Age Europe as a series of interactive societies with both broad similarities and sharp regional, even local, differences, moving through time and ever-changing relationships, influences, and trajectories. The collision of traditional and revisionist scholarship has produced debate, some heated, but has improved and invigorated the field.

Archaeology, the basics

Citations

The origin of modern human behavior.

The archaeological and genetic foundations of the European population during the Late Glacial: implications for ‘agricultural thinking’

The Routledge companion to landscape studies

The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE-200 CE

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

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