Nick P. Kardulias – författare

Written in Stone: The Multiple Dimensions of Lithic Analysis demonstrates the vitality of contemporary lithics analysis by examining material from a variety of geographical locations. This edited collection is primarily concerned with the link between craft production and social complexity, the nature of trade, and the delineation of settlement patterns and manipulation of landscape. While deconstructing the present to reconstruct the past, each chapter incorporates a technological dimension shaped by the type of analysis utilized. Methods include microwear analysis, which adds significant understanding of stone tool function, to the identification of obsidian sources, which illustrates the potential of lithic provenance studies for reconstructing trade. This book verifies and expands on the notion that lithics play an integral role in our understanding of past societies at all levels of complexity, from Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to archaic states.

With a long, detailed historical record, a large corpus of archaeological data, and, more recently, a number of sophisticated analyses of current and previous environmental conditions, the Aegean region of the eastern Mediterranean offers a unique setting to explore the evolution of a landscape through time. As expanding world markets continue to encroach upon even the most remote and delicate ecological zones, anthropologists across all sub-disciplines are beginning to find common theoretical and methodological ground within their own discipline and with other ecologically oriented sciences. This volume examines the value of such collaborative research by bringing together archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ethnoarchaeologists, and ecologists to discuss environmentally related issues that affect the European fringe, with an emphasis on the Aegean region. The contributors bring to light the subtleties involved in understanding the interactive relationship between humans and their environment over time. Students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, classics, and history, will find this book to be a valuable and original investigation of a dynamic and complex region.