A Brief History of Archaeology details early digs and covers the development of archaeology as a multidisciplinary science, the modernization of meticulous excavation methods during the twentieth century, and the important discoveries that led to new ideas about the evolution of human societies.
Spanning more than two thousand years of history, this short account of the discipline of archaeology tells of spectacular discoveries and the colorful lives of the archaeologists who made them, as well as of changing theories and current debates in the field. Early research at Stonehenge in Britain, burial mound excavations, and the exploration of Herculaneum and Pompeii culminate in the nineteenth-century debates over human antiquity and the theory of evolution. The book then moves on to the discovery of the world’s pre-industrial civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Central America; the excavations at Troy and Mycenae; the Royal Burials at Ur, Iraq; and the dramatic finding of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. The book concludes by considering recent sensational discoveries and exploring the debates over processual and post-processual theory that have intrigued archaeologists in the early twenty-first century. The third edition updates this respected introduction to one of the science’s most fascinating disciplines.
A Brief History of Archaeology is a vivid narrative that will engage readers who are new to the discipline, drawing on the authors’ extensive experience in the field and classroom.
Author(s): Nadia Durrani, Brian M. Fagan
Edition: 3
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 286
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Authors’ Note
Major Events in the History of Archaeology from A.D. 1600
1 “The Backward-Looking Curiosity”
Beginnings
A Past “Five Days Elder Than Ourselves”
British Antiquarians
Scandinavian Antiquarians
Antiquarian Societies
Stone Tools and Scriptures
Herculaneum and Pompeii
Egypt and Mesopotamia
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
2 The Antiquity of Humankind
Stratigraphic Geology
Humans and Extinct Animals
The Scientific Establishment Takes Notice
From Skepticism to Acceptance
Evolution and Natural Selection: Human Progress
Darwin Publishes On the Origin of Species
Reactions to the Theory
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
3 Pharaohs and Assyrians
Napoleon in Egypt
The Decipherment of Hieroglyphs
Looters and Archaeologists
Discovering the Assyrians
Layard at Nimrud and Kuyunjik
The Decipherment of Cuneiform
Layard Excavates a Palace
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
4 Human Progress and the Three Ages
The Enlightenment and Human Progress
The Barrow Diggers
The Native Americans
The Three Ages
Three Ages Proven
The Swiss Lake Dwellings
Cro-Magnon
Inevitable Human Progress?
Cultural Evolution and Human Progress
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
5 Early American Archaeology
The Discovery of Ancient Maya Civilization
The Moundbuilders of North America
Science, the First Americans, and Moundbuilders
The Beginnings of Southwestern Archaeology
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
6 Scriptures and Civilizations
Underground Jerusalem
The Flood Tablets
The Sumerian Civilization
Heinrich Schliemann: Troy and Mycenae
The Beginnings of Scientific Excavation
Flinders Petrie and the Small Object
The Discovery of Minoan Civilization
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
7 The Birth of Culture History
Lubbock’s Prehistoric Times
Oscar Montelius and the First Culture History
Stratigraphic Archaeology and Culture Change in the Americas
Diffusionism
Alfred Kidder and Pecos
Mesoamerica and the Andes
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
8 Egypt, Iraq, and Beyond
Tutankhamun: The Golden Pharaoh
Leonard Woolley and Gertrude Bell: Carchemish and Ur
Aurel Stein: Archaeology in Central Asia
Early Archaeology in Africa
Australia and New Zealand
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
9 Archaeology Coming of Age, 1920 to 1950
Field Archaeology and Aerial Photography
Mortimer Wheeler and Scientific Excavation
The Indus Valley Civilization
Vere Gordon Childe: Prehistoric Revolutions
The Search for Human Origins
Australopithecus: The “Southern Ape”
Louis and Mary Leakey
Excavating a Ghost Ship: Sutton Hoo
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
10 Culture History and Beyond
North American Archaeology: Tree Rings and Taxonomy
Stratigraphy, Seriation, and Culture History
Grahame Clark and the Birth of Ecological Archaeology
Julian Steward and Cultural Ecology
Settlement Archaeology in the Americas
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Sepulcher of the Maya Lord Pacal
Functional Archaeology
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
11 Radiocarbon Dating and World Prehistory
W. W. Taylor’s A Study of Archaeology
Multidisciplinary Research
Radiocarbon Dating
New Chapters in Human Evolution
The Pazyryk Horsemen
Tollund and the Bog People
Olsen-Chubbock: A Paleo-Indian Bison Kill
A Global Prehistory
Grahame Clark’s World Prehistory
Salvage Archaeology
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
12 The “New Archaeology”?
Multilinear Evolution
Processual Archaeology: Cultural Systems and Cultural Process
A “New” Approach
Middle-Range Theory and Ethnoarchaeology
Reaction and Legacy
Underwater Archaeology
More Chapters in Human Evolution
Major Archaeological Discoveries of the 1960s and 1970s
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
13 After Processualism
Postprocessual Archaeology
The Contributions of Postprocessual Archaeology
Social Inequality and Ethnicity
Social Inequality
Ethnicity
Gender
Stakeholders and Stewardship
Public Archaeology
Community Archaeology
Cognitive Archaeology
High-tech Archaeology and Beyond
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
14 The Future
Discoveries
Archaeological Method and Theory
Stakeholders and Community Archaeology
Sustainability
External Influences on Academic Archaeology
Conservation and Public Outreach
Summary
Guide to Further Reading
Glossary: Archaeological Sites and Cultural Terms
References
Index
