Built Environments, Constructed Societies

Built Environments, Constructed Societies PDF Author: Benjamin N. Vis
Publisher: Sidestone Press
ISBN: 9088900388
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Archaeology, as the discipline that searches to explain the development of society by means of material remains, has been avoiding the big issues involved with its research agenda. The topic of social evolution is concealed by anxiety about previous paradigmatic malpractice and the primary archaeological division of the world in culture areas still suffers from the archaic methods by which it was established. Archaeological inference of developing societies is weighed down by its choice of particularism within agency approaches and overtly reductionist due to the prevalence of statistical, classificatory and biological approaches. This book addresses these issues through a perspective on the spatial analysis of the built environment. As one of the principal properties of our dataset, as well as being the first materialisation of sociality, such spatialities are suggested to be a fundamental key for enabling an understanding of the developing social identity of places, regions and areas. In order to arrive at a truly social inference of spatial datasets, archaeology's usual analysis working from material remains towards socio-cultural interpretations needs to be inverted. The vantage point of this study consists of aprioristic social theory. It constructs its arguments through an epistemological foundation comprising a selection of essential ideas regarding the three constitutive axes of developing societies: time, human action and human space. As it recognises the inherent position of these axes combined in the discipline of human geography, a historical comparison of these two disciplines presents the angle from which plausible theoretical advancements can be made. The core of the book explores selected works of human geographers Allan Pred, Benno Werlen and Andreas Koch against the backdrop of theories like structuration or systems theory, phenomenology, action theory, and to a lesser extent Actor Network Theory and autopoiesis. From this follows its own theoretical proposal called the social positioning of spatialities. On this basis hypotheses for methodological opportunities are discussed, establishing a research agenda. Firmly placing its efforts in current paradigmatic debates in the discipline, this study offers archaeological theorists an incentive to leave the safety of materially bound science and adapt an alternative perspective. It is an attempt to put archaeology back in the forefront of the social theoretical debates it should contribute to.

Archaeological Remote Sensing in the 21st Century: (Re)Defining Practice and Theory

Archaeological Remote Sensing in the 21st Century: (Re)Defining Practice and Theory PDF Author: Geert Verhoeven
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783036513768
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Remotely sensed data from either air- or spaceborne platforms are often leveraged for archaeological or more general cultural heritage goals. However, despite the steady developments in remote sensing technology over the past three decades, the thoughtful integration of data sources and methods into theoretically aware archaeological practice remains relatively underdeveloped. This volume contains nine contributions which, each in their way, address different theoretical dislocations and practical shortcomings in the use of remote sensing products within archaeological practice. These contributions provide the reader with food for thought on these challenges, and so contribute to archaeological remote sensing as a more mature interdisciplinary field characterised by explicit, thoughtful, and theoretically engaged approaches to understanding the past.

Applying Innovative Technologies in Heritage Science

Applying Innovative Technologies in Heritage Science PDF Author: Pavlidis, George
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799828727
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Heritage science, a cross-disciplinary field of study that emphasizes research on cultural interpretation and management, has seen significant development in recent years. Modern technology has opened new innovations and possibilities for scientific cooperation that produces several benefits that affect multiple aspects of this scientific field. Applying Innovative Technologies in Heritage Science is a collection of progressive studies on the methods and applications of the technological implications and scientific advancements within heritage and cultural research to bridge the once unbridgeable gap between science and humanities. While highlighting topics including digital archives, cultural data, and chemical documentation, this book is ideally designed for archaeologists, museologists, conservationists, preservationists, librarians, researchers, educators, cultural heritage professionals, academicians, and students.

Remote Sensing for Archaeological Heritage Management

Remote Sensing for Archaeological Heritage Management PDF Author: David Cowley
Publisher: Archaeolingua
ISBN: 9789639911208
Category : Archaeological surveying
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Remote sensing is one of the main foundations of archaeological data, underpinning knowledge and understanding of the historic environment. The volume, arising from a symposium organised by the Europae Archaeologiae Consilium (EAC) and the Aerial Archaeology Research Group (AARG), provides up to date expert statements on the methodologies, achievements and potential of remote sensing with a particular focus on archaeological heritage management. Well-established approaches and techniques are set alongside new technologies and data-sources, with discussion covering relative merits and applicability, and the need for integrated approaches to understanding and managing the landscape. Discussions cover aerial photography, both modern and historic, LiDAR, satellite imagery, multi- and hyper-spectral data, sonar and geophysical survey, addressing both terrestrial and maritime contexts. Case studies drawn from the contrasting landscapes of Europe illustrate best practice and innovative projects.

An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era

An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era PDF Author: Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042980699X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era approaches the contemporary age, between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, as an archaeological period defined by specific material processes. It reflects on the theory and practice of the archaeology of the contemporary past from epistemological, political, ethical and aesthetic viewpoints, and characterises the present based on archaeological traces from the spatial, temporal and material excesses that define it. The materiality of our era, the book argues, and particularly its ruins and rubbish, reveals something profound, original and disturbing about humanity. This is the first attempt at describing the contemporary era from an archaeological point of view. Global in scope, the book brings together case studies from every continent and considers sources from peripheral and rarely considered traditions, meanwhile engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue with philosophy, anthropology, history and geography. An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era will be essential reading for students and practitioners of the archaeology of the contemporary past, historical archaeology and archaeological theory. It will also be of interest to anybody concerned with globalisation, modernity and the Anthropocene.

Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology

Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology PDF Author: Sarah H. Parcak
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134060459
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This handbook is the first comprehensive overview of the field of satellite remote sensing for archaeology and how it can be applied to ongoing archaeological fieldwork projects across the globe. With a focus on practical uses of satellite remote sensing, Sarah H. Parcak evaluates satellite imagery types and remote sensing analysis techniques specific to the discovery, preservation, and management of archaeological sites.

Satellite Remote Sensing

Satellite Remote Sensing PDF Author: Rosa Lasaponara
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048188016
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
This book provides a state-of-the art overview of satellite archaeology and it is an invaluable volume for archaeologists, scientists, and managers interested in using satellite Earth Observation (EO) to improve the traditional approach for archaeological investigation, protection and management of Cultural Heritage. The recent increasing development of EO techniques and the tremendous advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted primarily in Cultural Heritage applications. The book focuses on new challenging prospects for the use of EO in archaeology not only for probing the subsurface to unveil sites and artifacts, but also for the management and valorization as well as for the monitoring and preservation of cultural resources. The book provides a first-class understanding of this revolutionary scenario which was unthinkable several years ago. The book offers: (i) an excellent collection of outstanding articles focusing on satellite data processing, analysis and interpretation for archaeological applications, (ii) impressive case studies, (iii) striking examples of the high potential of the integration of multi-temporal, multi-scale, multi-sensors techniques. Each chapter is composed as an authoritative contribution to help the reader grasp the value of its content. The authors are renowned experts from the international scientific community. Audience: This book will be of interest to scientists in remote sensing applied to archeology, geoarcheology, paleo-environment, paleo-climate and cultural heritage.

Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology

Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology PDF Author: Allan S. Gilbert
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789400748279
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Geoarchaeology is the archaeological subfield that focuses on archaeological information retrieval and problem solving utilizing the methods of geological investigation. Archaeological recovery and analysis are already geoarchaeological in the most fundamental sense because buried remains are contained within and removed from an essentially geological context. Yet geoarchaeological research goes beyond this simple relationship and attempts to build collaborative links between specialists in archaeology and the earth sciences to produce new knowledge about past human behavior using the technical information and methods of the geosciences. The principal goals of geoarchaeology lie in understanding the relationships between humans and their environment. These goals include (1) how cultures adjust to their ecosystem through time, (2) what earth science factors were related to the evolutionary emergence of humankind, and (3) which methodological tools involving analysis of sediments and landforms, documentation and explanation of change in buried materials, and measurement of time will allow access to new aspects of the past. This encyclopedia defines terms, introduces problems, describes techniques, and discusses theory and strategy, all in a format designed to make specialized details accessible to the public as well as practitioners. It covers subjects in environmental archaeology, dating, materials analysis, and paleoecology, all of which represent different sources of specialist knowledge that must be shared in order to reconstruct, analyze, and explain the record of the human past. It will not specifically cover sites, civilizations, and ancient cultures, etc., that are better described in other encyclopedias of world archaeology. The Editor Allan S. Gilbert is Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. were earned at Columbia University. His areas of research interest include the Near East (late prehistory and early historic periods) as well as the Middle Atlantic region of the U.S. (historical archaeology). His specializations are in archaeozoology of the Near East and geoarchaeology, especially mineralogy and compositional analysis of pottery and building materials. Publications have covered a range of subjects, including ancient pastoralism, faunal quantification, skeletal microanatomy, brick geochemistry, and two co-edited volumes on the marine geology and geoarchaeology of the Black Sea basin.

Digital Archaeology

Digital Archaeology PDF Author: Thomas Laurence Evans
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415310482
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
The authors address how digital technologies have been and can be incorporated within different aspects of archaeology and heritage management. They aim to stimulate widespread thought and debate on how IT can be holistically integrated into the study of past cultures.

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania PDF Author: Ethan E. Cochrane
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199925070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
"The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania presents the archaeology, linguistics, environment and human biology of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. First colonized 50,000 years ago, Oceania witnessed the independent invention of agriculture, the construction of Easter Island's statues, and the development of the word's last archaic states."--Provided by publisher.