A Time of Change: Questioning the “Collapse” of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

A Time of Change: Questioning the “Collapse” of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka PDF Author: Keir Magalie Strickland
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784916331
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book reassesses the apparent collapse of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, through explicit reference to the archaeological record, rather than focusing solely upon textual sources which have been overly relied upon in previous studies.

A Time of Change: Questioning the “Collapse” of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

A Time of Change: Questioning the “Collapse” of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka PDF Author: Keir Magalie Strickland
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784916331
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book reassesses the apparent collapse of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, through explicit reference to the archaeological record, rather than focusing solely upon textual sources which have been overly relied upon in previous studies.

Anuradhapura: The hinterland

Anuradhapura: The hinterland PDF Author: Robin Coningham
Publisher: BAR International Series
ISBN: 9781407311890
Category : Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The third volume of the Anuradhapura series documents the results of six years of settlement survey, excavation and geoarchaeology in the hinterland of the Citadel. Mapping the response of rural communities to the growth of Anuradhapura as Sri Lankan capital and Indian Ocean pilgrimage centre, this interdisciplinary study presents the establishment and consolidation of settlement within the island's Dry Zone and the associated investment in hydraulic infrastructure from the first millennium BC onwards. It also traces the division of hinterland settlement into either Buddhist monastery or agricultural village with an absence of towns as well as the hinterland's subsequent collapse in the eleventh Century AD. Conforming to a model of Tropical Forest 'Low Density Urbanism', this volume presents the most detailed archaeology study of the dynamic and contested nature of a South Asia urban hinterland. (See also BAR S1508 and BAR S824) With contributions from (in alphabetical order) Gamini Adikari, Paul Adderley, Ian Bailiff, Cathy Batt, C. I. Burbidge, A. J. Cresswell, Christopher Davis, Randolph Donahue, Krista Gilliland, Jennifer Jones, Mangala Katugampola, Krishnan Krishnan, Mark Manuel, Gerry McDonnell, Harendralal Namalgamuwa, Umanga Roshani Rammungoda, David Sanderson, Armin Schmidt, Jayampath Senanayake, Ian Simpson, Ben Stern, Keir Strickland and Ruth Young

The Archaeology of Early Medieval and Medieval South Asia

The Archaeology of Early Medieval and Medieval South Asia PDF Author: Swadhin Sen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000780759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
This book looks at the ways in which archaeological methods have been used in debates concerning the early medieval and medieval periods in South Asia. Despite the incorporation and use of archaeological data to corroborate historical narratives, the theories and methods of archaeology are largely ignored in and excluded from the dominating, institutionalized, and hegemonic disciplinary discourses. The volume offers contesting insights, polemical narratives, and new data from archaeological contexts to initiate a debate on many foundational premises of archaeological and historical narratives. It focuses on the much-neglected region of the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin as a spatial frame to do this and studies themes such as spatial and temporal scales of concepts and methods, multi-scaler factors and processes of continuity and changes, the settlement archaeology of the alluvial landscape, changing patterns of agrarian transformation, and material cultures, including coins, inscriptions, pottery, and sculptures, in their contexts in sub-regional, regional, and supra-regional intersections. Dedicated to historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, this volume presents a crucial and unprecedented intervention in the study of the early medieval and the medieval periods. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of archaeology, ancient history, medieval history, water history, earth sciences, palaeoecology, historical ecology, epigraphy, art history, material culture studies, Indian history, and South Asian studies in general.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion PDF Author: Timothy Insoll
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019923244X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1135

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Book Description
A comprehensive overview, by period and region, of the archaeology of ritual and religion. The coverage is global, and extends from the earliest prehistory to modern times. Written by over sixty renowned specialists, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will also stimulate further research.

Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present

Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present PDF Author: Federica Sulas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317197380
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies.

The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads

The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads PDF Author: Alison Betts
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789694078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
One of the least known but culturally rich and complex regions located at the heart of Asia, Xinjiang was a hub for the Silk Roads, serving international links between cultures to the west, east, north and south. Trade, artefacts, foods, technologies, ideas, beliefs, animals and people traversed the glacier covered mountain and desert boundaries.

Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History

Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History PDF Author: Zoltán Biedermann
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1911307843
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.

The Archaeology of South Asia

The Archaeology of South Asia PDF Author: Robin Coningham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316418987
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 557

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Book Description
This book offers a critical synthesis of the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE), when domestication began, to the spread of Buddhism accompanying the Mauryan Emperor Asoka's reign (third century BCE). The authors examine the growth and character of the Indus civilisation, with its town planning, sophisticated drainage systems, vast cities and international trade. They also consider the strong cultural links between the Indus civilisation and the second, later period of South Asian urbanism which began in the first millennium BCE and developed through the early first millennium CE. In addition to examining the evidence for emerging urban complexity, this book gives equal weight to interactions between rural and urban communities across South Asia and considers the critical roles played by rural areas in social and economic development. The authors explore how narratives of continuity and transformation have been formulated in analyses of South Asia's Prehistoric and Early Historic archaeological record.

Archaeological Investigation

Archaeological Investigation PDF Author: Martin Carver
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136616829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 607

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Book Description
Drawing its numerous examples from Britain and beyond, Archaeological Investigation explores the procedures used in field archaeology travelling over the whole process from discovery to publication. Divided into four parts, it argues for a set of principles in part one, describes work in the field in part two and how to write up in part three. Part four describes the modern world in which all types of archaeologist operate, academic and professional. The central chapter ‘Projects Galore’ takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through different kinds of investigation including in caves, gravel quarries, towns, historic buildings and underwater. Archaeological Investigation intends to be a companion for a newcomer to professional archaeology – from a student introduction (part one), to first practical work (part two) to the first responsibilities for producing reports (part three) and, in part four, to the tasks of project design and heritage curation that provide the meat and drink of the fully fledged professional. The book also proposes new ways of doing things, tried out over the author’s thirty years in the field and brought together here for the first time. This is no plodding manual but an inspiring, provocative, informative and entertaining book, urging that archaeological investigation is one of the most important things society does.

Jungle

Jungle PDF Author: Patrick Roberts
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154160010X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
"A bold, ambitious and truly wonderful history of the world"—Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees From the age of dinosaurs to the first human cities, a groundbreaking new history of the planet that tropical forests made. To many of us, tropical forests are the domain of movies and novels. These dense, primordial wildernesses are beautiful to picture, but irrelevant to our lives. Jungle tells a different story. Archaeologist Patrick Roberts argues that tropical forests have shaped nearly every aspect of life on earth. They made the planet habitable, enabled the rise of dinosaurs and mammals, and spread flowering plants around the globe. New evidence also shows that humans evolved in jungles, developing agriculture and infrastructure unlike anything found elsewhere. Humanity’s fate is tied to the fate of tropical forests, and by understanding how earlier societies managed these habitats, we can learn to live more sustainably and equitably today. Blending cutting-edge research and incisive social commentary, Jungle is a bold new vision of who we are and where we come from.