Anthropocene

Julie Field is Associate Professor at The Ohio State University and teaches World Prehistory, Archaeological Method and Theory, and Archaeological Field and Laboratory Methods. Julie is a specialist in environmental modelling and spatial technologies, and holds a National Science Foundation Senior Research grant in Archaeology for her multi-disciplinary studies of island colonization and agricultural transformations in Fiji. Joy McCorriston is Professor at The Ohio State University, and has taught Methods, Theory, and World Prehistory courses in archaeology for 22 years. Joy is a National Curriculum Committee Member for the Society for American Archaeology, and was part of the application assessment of SAA principles for teaching archaeology in the 21st century. She is the author of Pilgrimage and Household in the Ancient Near East (Cambridge University Press), and is the Director of the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia. Joy researches agricultural origins and development in the ancient Near East.

'I love the inclusive nature of its content in terms of global prehistory – it covers geographies and cultures that are often neglected in the teaching of archaeology' - James Taylor, University of York

• 1. Archaeology and the Anthropocene What Is the Anthropocene? • The Perspective of Archaeology • Polynesia and the North Atlantic: Islands as Laboratories • Methods: Survey and Excavation • How Have Humans Made Their World? 2. Discovering Diversity: Modern Human Origins Diversity of Humans: Homo sapiens and Neanderthals • Modern Humans • Lascaux Cave and the Human Experience of the Ice Age • Additional Human Experiences in the Ice Age • Human Culture Begins to Shape the Anthropocene • Protecting Cultural Diversity Global Timeline 1: Human Origins and Migrations 3. Technology Makes the Human: Stone, Metal, and Organic Material Culture Stone Tools and the Discovery of Time • The Mechanics of Flintknapping • Stone Tools as Evidence of Human Adaptation • Metalworking, a New Technology for Communities • Perishable Technologies: Revelations from the Iceman • Technology, the Environment, and the Anthropocene 4. Peopling the World: Human Dispersals to Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific Inhabiting Australia • Human Dispersals in the Americas • Inhabiting the Pacific • Methods: Archaeological Survey • Peopling and the Anthropocene Global Timeline 2: People and Societies 5. Digging In: Responding to Climate Change in the American Southwest The American Southwest • Methods: Excavation • The Colorado Plateau and the Chaco Phenomenon • Understanding Ancient Pueblo Society: Broken K Pueblo • Other People of the Southwest • The Southwest and the Changing Environment 6. Extinctions in the Past Big Game Hunters: The Clovis People • Radiocarbon Dating • The Spread of Clovis • Hunting Megafauna • Mastodons and the Role of a Changing Environment • South America: The Giant Ground Sloth • The Role of Humans in Extinction Events 7. Understanding Human Decisions: Evolutionary and Social Theory Bison Hunters of the American Great Plains • Zooarchaeology • Bison Hunting and Butchering in Context • South Pacific: Conflict and Fortification in Fiji • Europe: Deciding With or Against a Community in St. Kilda • The Amazon: Decision-Making Today 8. Producing Food: Domestication and Its Consequences in Southwest and East Asia Southwest Asia: The First Settlements • What Led to the Development of Farming? • Archaebotany and the Evidence for Food Production • Domestication: A Two-Way Process • China: Independent Domestication and Rice • The Consequences of Farming • The Critical Role of the Community in Food Production Global Timeline 3: Domestication 9. Individuals and Identity: Agency in History Studying Identity • Mesoamerica: The Aztecs • Cortés and La Malinché • Textiles, Identity, and Gender • Bioarchaeology • Inequality and Structural Violence in Prehistory • Agency, Identity, and the Anthropocene 10. Feeding Cities: Urbanism and Agriculture Mesoamerica: Discovering the Maya • Maize and the Maya • The Maya City • Southeast Asia: Irrigation and Agriculture at Angkor • The State • The Environmental Perils of Intensification • Cities, Surplus, and the Elite 11. Building Monuments, Building Society: Collective Labor as Social Identity Monuments and Landscapes • Ancient Egypt: Building the Egyptian State • Monuments Among Mobile Communities • Stonehenge and the Pastoralist Landscape of Neolithic Britain • North America: The Hopewell Earthworks 12. Conspicuous Consumption: Feasts, Burials, and Sacrifice Chiefs and Hoards • Feasting • Residue Analysis • Reciprocity • The Ultimate Sacrifice: Human • Europe: The Burial of Viking and Anglo-Saxon Ships • Is Conspicuous Consumption Inevitable? 13. Writing: A History of Access to Information Writing in Many Contexts • Writings of the Maya • Writings of the Sumerians • Ancient Chinese Writing • Alphabetic Writing • Preservation of Writing Systems • Without Writing: Systems of Notation • North Africa and Arabia: Literacy without Settlement • Writing and the Anthropocene 14. Extracting the Modern World: Fishing, Mining, and Slavery Extractivism, Markets, and the Environment • Fishing and Maritime Extractivism • Underwater Archaeology • Extracted Minerals in the New World • Extracting People: The Slave Trade • Extractivism and the Anthropocene 15. The Future of the Anthropocene The Challenges Ahead • Extinctions and Increasing Diversity • Population Growth • Fossil-Fuel Consumption and Innovation • Understand Your Agency Glossary Sources of Quotations Sources of Illustrations Index