Richard Hodges – författare

The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor reflects the results of a research programme conducted by Charles Higham over the last twenty years, highlighting much entirely new, and occasionally surprising, information and providing a distinct perspective on cultural change over two millennia. The book covers the background of environmental change, the adoption of rice farming, archaeogenetics, the adoption of copper-based metallurgy, the iron age and the origins of state formation.

"Archaeology and Text" challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between history and archaeology by re-evaluating the role of artefacts and documents in the reconstruction of the historical past. Previous attempts to create a rapprochement between the disciplines have been undermined by a failure to see artefacts and documents as anything more than simple sources of information about the past. The central argument of this book is that both must be seen in terms of their efficacy in the past, in particular as technologies of power and resistance. Drawing upon recent work in theoretical archaeology, John Moreland puts forward a series of case studies from early medieval Europe, early modern North America, and the prehistoric Near East to illustrate the ways in which both documents and artefacts were 'activated' in the reproduction and transformation of power and identity. A concluding chapter warns that any contribution these arguments may make to the better understanding of the historical past will be negated if we fail to appreciate the very real dangers posed, to all the peoples of the past, by the recent 'linguistic turn' in both disciplines.

In this account, Colin Renfrew illustrates how the most precious product of archaeology is the information that controlled and well-published excavations can give us about our shared human past. Clandestine and unpublished digging of archaeological sites for gain - ie looting - destroys the context and all hope of providing such information. It is the source of most of the antiquities that appear on the art market today - unprovenanced antiquities, the product of illicit traffic financed, knowingly or not by the collectors and museums that buy them on a no-questions-asked basis. This trade has turned London as well as other international centres into a 'thieves kitchen' where greed triumphs over serious appreciation of the past. Unless a solution is found to this ethical crisis in archaeology, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. This book attempts to lay bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that underlies that crisis.

Al-Andalus, the Iberian Islamic civilization centred on Cordoba in the tenth and eleventh centuries, has been a 'lost' civilization in several respects. Its history suppressed or denied for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was regarded as a kind of 'historical parenthesis' with no lasting influence. Over the past twenty-five years, however, the history and archaeology of the Islamic period in the Iberian peninsula has undergone a complete transformation. Lost Civilization presents an introduction to this debate as it has played out in archaeology, taking a comparative civilizations approach that puts the formation of al-Andalus in context with corresponding developments elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Houses are often assumed to be reliable mirrors of society, fossils of family structures, social hierarchies and mental maps of worlds now vanished. This is particularly true of the elite houses of the third to sixth centuries AD, which have been read as material symptoms of Rome's decline. The great dining and reception halls of urban houses sound the death-knell of participatory government and the rise of patronage politics, while in their sheer size and splendour later Roman houses seem to encapsulate a fin-de-siecle world of have and have-nots, separated by unbridgeable social chasms. Kim Bowes debates this image of later Roman houses as reflections of decadence and despotism, suggesting that the principal interpretive model, which reads such houses as reflective of a newly hierarchical, ritualized society, finds little support either from the archaeological evidence or from new readings of historical sources. Drawing on the most recent archaeological data and new theoretical models, she offers instead a less sharply periodized view of later houses, stressing their continuity with houses of the early empire.

It was in the second half of the first millennium A.D. that northern Europe took on the basic configuration that it now presents. Recently a wealth of new archaeological evidence has emerged to enable historians to assess the growth of international trade and the evolution of towns in this crucial period. This book analyses models of economic evelopment in the light of this new evidence to evaluate not only the changing character of the first post-Roman urban centers but also the organization of the countryside which supported them. Boat remains, coins and trade artifacts are all examined. Finally, a general account is offered of the role of towns and trade in the creation of Western Europe. This is the first synthesis of its kind for the medieval period, and confirms the importance of archaeology as a major source of evidence for an understanding of the economic history of the Dark Ages.

Throughout the world, competing interest groups lay claim to the material remains of the past. Archaeologists, developers, indigenous 'first peoples' , looters, museum curators, national government officals, New Age worshippers, private collectors, tourists - all want their share. This introduction to contemporary debates surrounding their rival claims deals with defining, owning, protecting, managing, interpreting, and experiencing the archaeological heritage. Fundamental questions are considered: What is 'archaeological heritage'? Who should own and control the material culture of the past? How should these remains be protected? How should the archaeological heritage be presented to the public? Robin Skeates calls for greater communication and co-operation between archaeologists and other interest groups, urging archaeologists to increase the involvement of local people in the culturally valuable and vulnerable material remains of their past, and in archaeological research that attempts to be objective.

This text examines the important continuing discussion of the rebirth of urbanism in Carolingian Europe. Drawing upon a good deal of new archaeological evidence from southern and northern Europe, Richard Hodges looks at the end of towns in Roman antiquity, the phenomenon of the Dark Age emporium, and the hotly disputed mechanisms which led to the inception of market towns during the age of Charlemagne. Much use is made, in particular, of recently excavated evidence from the Mediterranean, as well as from England.

Who were the Iron Age peoples of Europe? Celts, Germans, Scythians and others are among the names that come to mind. But such names, and the characteristics associated with them, come to us from outside observers - Greek and Roman writers - not from the native peoples themselves. To understand how late prehistoric groups constructed and expressed their identities, we need to examine the rich archaeological evidence left by Iron Age Europeans themselves. Recent theoretical and methodological advances in anthropology, archaeology and history, together with results of archaeological research all over Europe, provide the basis for a new approach to the problem of the identities of Iron Age peoples. Peter Wells uses patterns of identity revealed in the archaeology to interpret the commentaries of Greek and Roman authors who conveyed their own perceptions of these non-literate groups. Finally, he examines ways in which Iron Age Europeans responded to the Greek and Roman representations of them. The result was an ever-changing mosaic of complex and dynamic identities among the diverse peoples of Late Iron Age Europe.

National origins remain as important as they have ever been to our sense of identity. Accounts of the early history of the peoples of Europe, including the English, are key tools in our construction of that identity. National identity has been studied through a range of different types of evidence - historical, archaeological, linguistic and most recently genetic. This has caused problems of interdisciplinary communication. In this book Catherine Hills carefully and succinctly unravels these different perceptions and types of evidence to assess how far it is really possible to understand when and how the people living in south and east Britain became 'English'.

"Villa to Village" challenges the historical view that hilltop villages in Italy were first founded in the tenth century. Drawing upon recent excavations, the authors show that the makings of the medieval village lie in the demise of the Roman villa in late antiquity. The book describes the lively debate between archaeologists and historians on this issue. It also examines the evidence for the first manorial villages of the Carolingian era and describes how these were transformed into the familiar feudal villages that are characteristic of much of Italy.

A study that makes use of an interdisciplinary approach to challenge traditional theories of state formation in China and promote debate on early Chinese history. Analyzing data from archaeology, geology, cultural geography, ethnohistory and ancient texts, the authors show how the procurement of key external resources - especially metal and salt - drove the dynamics of state formation in early China in the period of 1800-1400BC.

In this work, Stephen Dyson provides a new synthesis, describing current research on the Roman countryside within a topological rather than a geographical or historical framework. He first examines the Roman villa, looking at changing interpretations of the villa and the ways they have been shaped both by new information and evolving interpretative models, relating the survey-settlement evidence to larger questions of landscape use and landscape transformation during the Roman period. Focusing on areas where some of the most innovative rural research has been conducted - Italy, North Africa, Spain and France - he discusses what happened in rural areas in the period of transition between the end of Antiquity and the emergence of medieval society, showing that the period of transition was much longer than previously thought and that there was tremendous variation not only between one part of the Empire and another, but between micro-regions within a single province.

This intriguing book is the first to explore the potential of shipwrecks discovered off the Holy Land to rewrite social and economic history. Ancient myths and modern misconceptions about Byzantine Palestine's maritime compatibility are radically reconsidered by discussing cargoes in relation to wine, glass, cloth and dye processing across the Holy Land and by plotting mass exports shipped as far as Britain and the Yemen. A new model for the province's economy is assembled, in which middle-class merchants and entrepreneurs replace the traditional image of oppressive State and Church domination. Shipwreck Archaeology of the Holy Land integrates archaeology, history and early modern travelogues to argue that in isolation shipwrecks are of limited value and must be appreciated as cogs in far broader exchange mechanisms. It sets a new theoretical agenda for the thousands of shipwrecks continuing to appear beneath the Mediterranean Sea and is an invaluable source for students of everyday life in Late Antiquity.

The concept of social evolution in its modern form became widespread 250 years ago as part of the Enlightenment, and yet it still structures the thinking of academics, politicians and the public in a myriad ways. Hunter-gatherers become the repository of the natural or primitive; civilisation and 'our' history is deemed to begin with farming societies; and state societies are seen as the only gateway to social complexity. Through a historical and comparative review, this book challenges the idea that social evolution and the inevitability of progress is self-evident, and examines the connections of progressive social evolution with various ideologies and projects, from emancipation to racism, colonialism and imperialism and contemporary ideas of the new world order. Mark Pluciennik suggests that taking a critical stance allows other ways of thinking about and writing history to come into better focus, enabling us to ask different kinds of questions about the nature of change in human societies, and to treat social evolution in a more nuanced way.

This series of short volumes, each devoted to a theme which is the subject of contemporary debate in archaeology, ranges from issues in theory and method to aspects of world archaeology. If 'all property is theft', then cultural property is nothing less than the theft of culture. The term 'cultural property' is widespread in the field of heritage management and is a particularly powerful concept in legal approaches. The term and the concept it represents are never discussed, however. The idea that material that comes to us from the past should be considered 'property' accordingly seems to be taken for granted by those charged with its care. Any debate that does take place is limited to comparing private with state ownership, often under the pretence that the latter represents a form of 'stewardship'. This radical work seeks to challenge the dominance of these limiting ideas by looking for alternatives. Taking as a starting-point the four different types of property relation generally recognised by lawyers and economists, the book explores the implications for cultural objects of different property regimes.In presenting an argument that the concept of 'property' is inappropriate for the heritage, the book challenges much that is taken for granted and undiscussed in the field of heritage management.

This series of short volumes, each devoted to a theme which is the subject of contemporary debate in archaeology, ranges from issues in theory and method to aspects of world archaeology. The archaeology of recent conflict is a fast-moving field of research. It is challenging and provocative. It deals with established historical events for which the material remains are unquestionably 'heritage', but also the more recent, tragic and heavily politicised events, actions and places whose meaning and significance is more ambiguous. But although recent and familiar, it is also a subject that draws closely on established principles of archaeological theory and practice, while also connecting with the related fields of history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, art and representation. Here the author draws together projects and ideas from a diverse literature and from his own research, presenting them as a worked example of contemporary archaeology, of heritage management practice and of archaeological principles and theory. This study encapsulates a lively area of current debate: fascinating, challenging, controversial, contemporary and cross-disciplinary.

"In Goodbye to the Vikings?", Richard Hodges uses new archaeological evidence to re-read the familiar history of the early Middle Ages. Taking his examples from the fifth to the tenth centuries, he re-examines many familiar themes, including the identity of King Arthur, the Pirenne thesis, Marc Bloch on feudalism, the significance of nationalism in early medieval archaeology and the place of the Vikings in European history. Some of the studies are wide-ranging, while others re-examine the archaeology of the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno (Italy) in detail. This book shows how archaeology is making us appreciate the changing rhythms of early medieval Europe, especially in terms of the contacts made by traders, pilgrims and travellers.

Romanesque is the style name given to the art and architecture of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. First used in the early nineteenth century to express the perceived indebtedness of the visual-artistic and architectural cultures of this period to their Classical antecedents, the term has survived two centuries of increasingly sophisticated readings of the relevant medieval buildings and objet d'art. The study of Romanesque as a stylistic phenomenon is now almost exclusively the preserve of art historians, particularly in the English-speaking world. Here 'the Romanesque' is subjected to a long overdue, theoretically-informed, archaeological inquiry. The ideological foundations and epistemological boundaries of Romanesque scholarship are critiqued, and the constructs of 'Romanesque' and 'Europe' are deconstructed, and alternative strategies for interpreting Romanesque's constituent material are mapped out. This book should, at the very least, illuminate the need for debate.

This series of short volumes, each devoted to a theme, which is the subject of contemporary debate in archaeology, ranges from issues in theory and method to aspects of world archaeology. Wetland archaeology has provided some of the most exciting discoveries in world archaeology, from bog bodies in northern Europe, to prehistoric and medieval wetland dwellings in central and western Europe, New Zealand, Japan and the Pacific Northwest. Arguably, however, the amount of evidence from these sites and the need for intense multidisciplinary scientific analysis, allied to a general tendency towards empiricist research, has led to wetland archaeology being isolated from current theoretical debates. "Rethinking Wetland Archaeology" shows how wetland studies can be contextualised within broader geographical, cultural and theoretical frameworks. It discusses how wetland archaeological discoveries can be understood in terms of past people's perception and understanding of landscape, which was not only a source of economic benefit, but a storehouse of, and a metaphor for, cultural values and beliefs.It argues that archaeologists interested in the temporal rhythms of life, and in cultural biographies of place and objects, should look again at the astonishingly detailed narratives produced by wetland archaeology. Finally, it considers the past and future role of wetland archaeologists in contemporary political and social discourses.

This series of short volumes, each devoted to a theme which is the subject of contemporary debate in archaeology, ranges from issues in theory and method to aspects of world archaeology.The central question this book seeks to explore is this: Are we trying to reconstruct a past in our own image, chained solely to our own unacknowledged emotional, intellectual, and philosophical traditions, or should we attempt to look beyond this at the fundamental concepts we often take for granted, but which if recognised as constructs of the relatively recent past, might begin to allow us to acknowledge our limitations and potentially more profitably engage with archaeological evidence in various ways.The end result is not another nihilist offering based upon a post-modernist collapsed perspective, but rather a considered approach, which, if anything, is ultimately positivist in tone, owing a debt, if anything, to the philosophical outlooks of critical realism.This is a critical yet positive approach to how contemporary conceptual outlooks, if unacknowledged, can seriously influence our understanding of the past.It is an exploration and evaluation of conceptual categories, of great significance to archaeology, which are nevertheless often neglected - age, experience, emotion, the senses, distance, colour etc.

"Vessels of Influence", while examining in depth the role of Chinese ceramics in Japan, also delves into the meaning, motivation for, and rapid development of Japanese porcelain from many angles, including archaeology, heirloom and documentary evidence. The political and fiscal advantage that one lord found for his domain in creating its own local 'china' is placed in the context of the domestic and international market economy. Through an examination of the role of China and that of a domestic 'china' in Japan, a fuller picture of Japan's rich material culture emerges, revealing complex interactions between government, taste-makers, traders, merchants, consumers, imports and new technology. "Vessels of Influence" also discusses how these interactions have been viewed by historians, and the often heated debates that have occurred as a result.

Museums and museum politics were important elements in the development of the disciplines of Archaeology and Art History in nineteenth-century Britain. Here Christopher Whitehead explores some of the key debates and events which led to the conceptual differentiation and physical separation of 'archaeological' and 'artistic' material culture, looking especially at the ways in which objects and histories were contested within museum politics. For example, in the 1850s, the status of Egyptian antiquities as 'art' or 'archaeology' was keenly debated, and this related closely to questions about which kinds of museum should house them and the possible histories and epistemologies in which they might figure. This concise study serves as a basis for a discussion of the continued intellectual legacy of this for our understanding, management and presentation of the past in the museum and in curricula. It is argued that by understanding the politics and circumstances through which the two disciplines were delimited and distinguished from one another we may be able to glimpse, retrospectively, the possibility of alternative art histories and alternative archaeologies.

After neo-evolutionism, how does one talk about the pre-modern state? Over the past two decades archaeological research has shifted decisively from check-list identifications of the state as an evolutionary type to studies of how power and authority were constituted in specific polities. Developing Gramsci's concept of hegemony, this book provides an accessible discussion of general principles that serve to help us understand and organise these new directions in archaeological research. Throughout this book, conceptual issues are illustrated by means of case studies drawn from Madagascar, Mesopotamia, the Inca, the Maya and Greece.

This new volume enlarges on the debate that still continues almost thirty years after Richard Hodges' ground-breaking "Dark Age Economics" was first published. Richard Hodges focuses on the archaeological, anthropological and historical models of gift and commodity exchange, pertinent to Europe during the seventh to ninth centuries, and shows how these debates shed new light on the evolution of the Early Medieval political economies. Special attention is also given to new evidence for managing agrarian economies and how this shaped the evolution of towns. Ranging across western Europe, a new thesis is advanced about the shift from the consumption economies of antiquity to the emphasis upon production in the Middle Ages.