James Symonds – författare

The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology is a multi-authored compendium of articles on specific topics of interest to today’s historical archaeologists, offering perspectives on the current state of research and collectively outlining future directions for the field.

The broad range of topics covered in this volume allows for specificity within individual chapters, while building to a cumulative overview of the field of historical archaeology as it stands, and where it could go next. Archaeological research is discussed in the context of current sociological concerns, different approaches and techniques are assessed, and potential advances are posited. This is a comprehensive treatment of the sub-discipline, engaging key contemporary debates, and providing a series of specially-commissioned geographical overviews to complement the more theoretical explorations.

This book is designed to offer a starting point for students who may wish to pursue particular topics in more depth, as well as for non-archaeologists who have an interest in historical archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, preservationists, and all scholars interested in the role historical archaeology plays in illuminating daily life during the past five centuries will find this volume engaging and enlightening.

Interpretive archaeology – meaning the interpretation (social science as opposed to hard science) of archaeology and archaeological artifacts – has predominantly been the realm of prehistoric archaeologists. Many historical archaeologists are participating in this disciplinary shift from processualism to post-processualism and interpretation, but to date few have called their work interpretive archaeology.

This volume is based on a session at the Society for Historical Archaeology meeting in 2005. The organizers – now editors – brought together historical archaeologists from both the UK and the US working in the same areas (industrial landscape, monuments, etc.) but because of their country-based training, their work arises out of differing intellectual traditions. The chapters in each section do not stand in isolation; rather, the authors exchange ideas about what each other has written. They construct dialogues about theories and practices that inform interpretive archaeology on either side of the Atlantic, ends with commentary by two well-known names in interpretive archaeology in the UK and in the States.

The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology is a multi-authored compendium of articles on specific topics of interest to today’s historical archaeologists, offering perspectives on the current state of research and collectively outlining future directions for the field.

The broad range of topics covered in this volume allows for specificity within individual chapters, while building to a cumulative overview of the field of historical archaeology as it stands, and where it could go next. Archaeological research is discussed in the context of current sociological concerns, different approaches and techniques are assessed, and potential advances are posited. This is a comprehensive treatment of the sub-discipline, engaging key contemporary debates, and providing a series of specially-commissioned geographical overviews to complement the more theoretical explorations.

This book is designed to offer a starting point for students who may wish to pursue particular topics in more depth, as well as for non-archaeologists who have an interest in historical archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, preservationists, and all scholars interested in the role historical archaeology plays in illuminating daily life during the past five centuries will find this volume engaging and enlightening.