SpringerBriefs in Archaeology – serie

Once visited only by the cognoscenti of the ancient world, over the last decade Petra has drawn almost a million visitors in some years. Petra burst into popular consciousness with the release of enormously popular motion picture Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Moviegoers all over the world were introduced to some of the spectacular scenic wonders of Petra: the Siq, a narrow chasm with colorful, towering sandstone walls, and Al-Khazna, the exquisitely carved tomb for a Nabataean king. For centuries, the Nabataeans controlled the trade in precious commodities across the Arabian Peninsula, bring spices from Southeast Asia, incense from present-day Yemen, gold and ivory from Africa, and silk from the Far East across the Empty Quarter to ports on the western Mediterranean. In 1985, Petra was included on the list of World Heritage Sites. Since then, low cost jet travel and a fast highway from the capital city of Amman have made the site increasingly accessible. The Jordanian government has made attracting tourists to Jordan a top priority. For all of the attention that Petra has received, it is still surprisingly poorly understood. A widely accepted chronology of the city, even the dates of major tombs and monuments, has yet to be established. Even the mystery of why and how Arab nomads adopted a sedentary lifestyle and built a great city has yet to be fully explained. Will Petra’s popularity as a tourism destination overshadow the importance of addressing these questions, and, more importantly, will tourism damage the archaeological remains there in ways that make answers more difficult or even impossible to find?

​This monograph analyzes current cultural resource management, archeological heritage management, and exhibitionary practices and policies in the People’s Republic of China. Academic researchers, preservationists, and other interested parties face a range of challenges for the preservation of the material past as rapid economic and social changes continue in China.   On the one hand, state-supported development policies often threaten and in some cases lead to the destruction of archeological and cultural sites. Yet state cultural policies also encourage the cultivation of precisely such sites as tourism development resources. This monograph aims to bring the concepts of world heritage sites, national tourism policies, ethnic tourism, and museum display together for a general cultural heritage audience. It focuses on a central issue: the tensions between a wide range of interest groups:  cultural anthropologists and archeologists, tourism officials, heritage proponents, economic development proponents, a new class of private rich with the means to buy artifacts, and a fragmented regulatory system. Behind all of them lies the political role of heritage in China, also addressed in this monograph.

The publication explores the ways in which archaeological research can inform us about the manner and motives of European involvement in the development of a sovereign United States. The five chapters  focus on different archaeological sites (four terrestrial sites) and each consider the special ways in which archaeology can contribute to our understanding of the cultural dynamics that set the historic course of events in motion that culminated in United States sovereignty. An introduction and conclusion examine how the material culture that is the central focus of archaeological research should be preserved, managed, and interpreted. While much is known through historical documents, this volume seeks to enrich, modify, and challenge the written record by attention to the archaeological remains. The scale of analysis ranges from the artifact through the site to the landscape. Chapters address the changing relationships between specific European countries and the United States as indicated by the presence of artifacts or types of artifacts (e.g., weapons, domestic, architectural) made or traded by other countries during different time periods; an analysis of “space syntax” seen at battlefields or fortifications; the importance of conceptually reconstructing terrain crossed by troops or at battlefields. The Archaeology of Interdependence: European Involvement in the Development of a Sovereign United States presents innovative investigations of what material culture at all scales might tell us about the political, economic, or ideological relationships among cultures that corroborates, contradicts, or enriches the historic record.

Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space offers a concise overview of air and spaceborne imagery and related geospatial technologies tailored to the needs of archaeologists. Leading experts including scientists involved in NASA’s Space Archaeology program provide technical introductions to five sections: 1) Historic Air and Spaceborne Imagery2) Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imagery3) Synthetic Aperture Radar4) Lidar5) Archaeological Site Detection and ModelingEach of these five sections includes two or more case study applications that have enriched understanding of archaeological landscapes in regions including the Near East, East Asia, Europe, Meso- and North America. Targeted to the needs of researchers and heritage managers as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students, this volume conveys a basic technological sense of what is currently possible and, it is hoped, will inspire new pioneering applications. Particular attention is paid to the tandem goals of research (understanding) and archaeological heritage management (preserving) the ancient past. The technologies and applications presented can be used to characterize environments, detect archaeological sites, model sites and settlement patterns and, more generally, reveal the dialectic landscape-scale dynamics among ancient peoples and their social and environmental surroundings.  In light of contemporary economic development and resultant damage to and destruction of archaeological sites and landscapes, applications of air and spaceborne technologies in archaeology are of wide utility and promoting understanding of them is a particularly appropriate goal at the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention.​

​This brief is the proceedings of two roundtables and forums organized by Eszter Bánffy, Peter Biehl, Douglas Comer, and Christopher Prescott and sponsored by the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) and the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) held at the 76th SAA annual conference in Sacramento in April 2011, and the 17th EAA annual conference in Oslo in September 2011. The book is organized around five main issues with the goal to stimulate discussion, research and practices within the field:Traditions and legal regulations of heritage and its management The teaching of cultural heritage; public outreach and university trainingHeritage and national identity The future of cultural heritage in a globalized and digitized world  This book is thus be an exploration of the various experiences in Europe and the Americas to better understand, in the vast field of archaeology and cultural heritage management, where we are today, where we might be, and where we hope to be in the near future.

Hadrian’s Wall was inscribed as a World Heritage Site (WHS) in 1987 and, with the German Limes, became one of the first two parts of the transnational ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ (FRE) WHS in 2005. The World Heritage Site of Hadrian's Wall is unusual, although not unique, among World Heritage sites in its scale and linear nature: stretching from Ravenglass on the west coast of England to Newcastle upon Tyne on the east coast - over 150 miles. Along its length it passes through two major urban centres and a variety of rural landscapes and its remains vary from substantial upstanding architectural features to invisible below ground archaeology. Traditionally many of the constituent parts of Hadrian's Wall, forts etc, have been managed as separate entities by different State and private organisations. These and other issues make it an extremely complex WHS to manage. This book not only chronicles the past management of the Wall but also looks towards the future as more countries aspire to have their Roman frontiers added to the FRE. The experience gained over the last two decades illustrates developments in the management of large scale complex heritage sites that will be of value as a detailed case study to those involved in (and affected by) heritage management, as well as academics, and students. Many of the issues raised will find resonance in those faced by many other large (World) heritage sites.

This book analyses the problematics of archaeological heritage management in the Canary Islands, which are echoed in other parts of the world where the indigenous heritage is under-represented. The present-day management of Canarian archaeological heritage has a very specific and unusual context given that the archipelago is located on the fringes of Europe, belonging to Spain and therefore to the European Unión, but geographically and in terms of early history being part of Africa. From a theoretical perspective, then, the proposed book analyzes issues such as the effects of colonialism and eurocentrism on the management of the archaeological heritage. It also examines the evolutionist and historico-cultural models used to analyze past societies and, ultimately, used to create identities that influence archaeological heritage management itself. From a practical point of view, the book presents a proposal for enhancing the archaeological heritage of the Canary Islands through the creation of archaeological parks (providing some concrete examples in the case of the city of La Laguna) and the active involvement of the local community. Parallel to this, the book considers the Canarian Archipelago as part of a problematic that is not unique to this area but is an example of poor indigenous heritage management overall. It demonstrates how the course of history and the politics of the past still have an excessive influence on the way in which the present-day archaeological heritage is interpreted and managed. Therefore, this book provides an almost unique opportunity for uncovering the history of archaeology within the margins of Europe (in fact, in an African region) and exploring colonial and foreign influences. In many ways it is a mirror of archaeological mainstreams and an exercise in (re)thinking the aim and status of present-day archaeology.

This volume presents case studies from around the world aiming to serve as a hands-on book for management and treatment of archaeological World Heritage properties. It comprises not only sites inscribed as World Heritage due to their archaeological character but also World Heritage properties where the analysis of their archaeological dimension provides a deeper and better understanding of the assets and includes the potential for disseminating this knowledge. The book has an important practical value, since all the works presented here illustrate - with practical examples, the best and most appropriate ways to manage World Heritage properties. The aim of the heritage managers at these World Heritage sites is to improve conservation and increase understanding and communication in such a way that the communities living in those sites or who earn a livelihood from them can be positively affected by these initiatives.The book presents exemplary models of heritage management in World Heritage properties–an issue not treated in depth up to now and Best Practices in this management. Therefore, this volume becomes a new, original source presenting model strategies to be followed by other initiatives in order to improve the consideration and treatment of the most outstanding valued sites considered by UNESCO.

Ever since the signing of the World Heritage Convention 40 years ago and ratified by 33 African countries, to date, only 43 cultural heritage sites have been successfully proclaimed as World Heritage Sites in Africa. These include archaeological and historical sites, religious monuments and cultural landscapes. This book is a re-evaluation of the nomination and management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa from the late 1970s when the Island of Gorée of Senegal and the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ethiopia were first inscribed on the WHL until today. It considers whether a credible and well balanced WHL has been attained, especially in regards to the nomination of more sites in Africa. The book also examines the roles and contribution of various heritage organizations and African governments to the nomination and management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa. Lastly, the volume also scrutinizes economic development, which may result from the nomination and successful management of cultural World Heritage sites in Africa.

This edited volume aims at exploring a most relevant but somewhat neglected subject in archaeological studies, especially within Latin America: maroons and runaway settlements. Scholarship on runaways is well established and prolific in ethnology, anthropology and history, but it is still in its infancy in archaeology. A small body of archaeological literature on maroons exists for other regions, but no single volume discusses the subject in depth, including diverse eras and geographical areas within Latin American contexts. Thus, a central aim of the volume is to gather together some of the most active, Latin American maroon archaeologists in a single volume. This volume will thus become an important reference book on the subject and will also foster further archaeology research on maroon settlements. The introduction and comments by senior scholars provide a wide-ranging and comprehensive analysis of runaway archaeology that will help to indicate the global importance of this research.

This book examines the relationship between archaeological tourism and professional archaeology. Moreover, just as histories of archaeology have largely ignored the connection between archaeology and tourism, so too has tourism in the reverse direction.

This volume addresses the Out-of-Africa dispersals of the earliest hominins and early anatomically modern humans, the last semi-sedentary, pottery-bearing hunters-fishers-gatherers, the early food producers and users of domestic plants and animals either local or imported from the Near East, and the presuppositions of the rise of the kingdoms of Kerma, Pharaonic Egypt, and Axum on the basis of the latest available data.Sudan played a crucial role in the development of ancient human behavior and societies and was part of an extensive network encompassing faraway areas of Africa, such as Chad, the Sahara, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya, as well as Asia, namely the Levant, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and India. The archaeology of this country has been explored and appreciated since the 1700s and more than 30 national and international research teams are currently active. New remarkable discoveries are unearthed every year, which are analyzed with the most up-to-date scientific techniques, and offer a prominent contribution to the general theoretical and methodological panorama of world archaeology. Beside the Nile Valley, the various geographical regions of Sudan – the deserts, savannas, and other watercourses to the west and east of the main river – are attentively taken into consideration as they formed a regional synergy that equally contributed to the far-reaching influence of Sudan’s inhabitants.This book is particularly addressed to Africanist archaeologists who study other parts of Africa; to prehistorians investigating other parts of the world; to archaeology students and teachers interested in having a global view on human adaptation and behavior in ancient Sudan; to science journalists, and to antiquity admirers and learned tourists who travel to Sudan and Nubia.

This book proposes new ways of looking at the built environment in archaeology, specifically through postcolonial perspectives.

This is the first book devoted to the topic of Manila galleon shipwrecks in North America; previous research on Manila galleons either has focused on the economics of the Manila galleon trade or has been limited to reports of the galleon wreck sites in the western Pacific salvaged for their cargoes.

This volume presents an overview of methodologies to identify and study foodways in the archaeological record. Foodways Archaeology is devoted specifically to the archaeological study of the intersection of food, culture, history, and traditions as viewed in the archaeological record.

This open access book focuses on the destruction of our Ocean Heritage from bottom trawling. It brings together the natural and cultural sides of the marine environment to further our understanding of the importance of this heritage, how it is threatened by activities such as bottom trawling, and provides recommendations, such as a moratorium in particularly vulnerable areas that are currently unprotected. It is a unique publication in integrating cultural heritage into a discussion where the primary focus has been the destruction of natural heritageThe book is divided into three sections that discuss, respectively, the international legal context, history and ecological impact of bottom trawling, case studies highlighting the impact of these destructive activities on underwater cultural heritage, and finally recommended future steps and how to use the damage presented here to halt future devastation. This book is a valuable tool for resource managers and representatives of governments and international organizations in their efforts to establish the moratoria called for. This book is also of interest to educators, archaeologists and practitioners working in the field of underwater cultural heritage.This is an open access book.

This open access volume focuses on the environmental hazards and cultural significance of Potentially Polluting Wrecks (PPWs), and how mitigation efforts have assisted in documenting and preserving the history of these sites.

This open access brief is a pioneering work that is one of the first book publications to cover underwater cultural heritage and deep seabed mining. Bringing together a variety of perspectives, the work is designed to serve several purposes and educate a few different types of readers. The work introduces and offers a history on deep seabed mining, the legal context, and how it fits into the new UN Convention on Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ treaty), the International Seabed Authority (DSM governing body), and the ecological impacts of deep seabed mining.The brief is also aimed at marine ecologists and other ocean scientists who may already be aware of the DSM and the ecological impacts, but not of the cultural heritage at risk. It introduces deep-water archaeology to them and a few case studies of heritage at risk, like in New Zealand or polluting wrecks. Finally, the book offers suggestions for steps forward and case studies of cultural heritage being included in environmental impact assessments.By the end of the book, all parties should feel educated enough to begin championing a ban on, or more regulations for, seabed mining. One additional strength of the book is that it gives voice to those without a traditional academic background. Intangible cultural heritage has been a hotbed issue in mining regulations and many indigenous voices, especially from the Pacific, have been loudly outspoken at the ISA. While writing thousand-word academic journal articles was not in their wheelhouse, they have given permission for their speeches to be transcribed and included in the book. This will bring a new set of voices into the scientific discourse on the issue. The book is also set up to have many images to de-mystify the deep and show readers the beauty that must be protected.

This SpringerBrief examines emotions in the past through contemporary archaeological materials. This book offers several examples on how emotions could be accessed in the deep past and draws parallels between the examples from a contemporary 'western' country and various archaeological cultures and contexts.

This brief provides a unique overview that weaves a thread across the deep history of the management and symbolism of wild aurochs and domestic cattle in Sudan, where these practices are attested for over 15,000 to 20,000 years. It highlights the central preoccupation with these bovids by societies of the region, from the time of the earliest funerary rituals involving wild aurochs in the late Pleistocene, to the introduction of domestic cattle in the Neolithic, to pre-state societies through the historical period into the present day. It recounts the relationship between humans and the African aurochs, the processes of wild animal management, the prey pathway that provides a possible model for domestication, the introduction of Bos taurus to the African continent, and then the establishment of widespread herding practices, including the introgression of the African aurochs into domesticated cattle populations. Finally, it emphasises the economic and symbolic value of cattle seen through social cults and even a human ‘infatuation’ with cattle by observing the roles and representations of these animals from different disciplinary perspectives. Its geographic scope covers modern Sudan's territory, extending from Nubia, in the Middle Nile Valley, to the wider Nile Basin, as well as to eastern and western Sudan.The herding of domestic animals came to shape the societies of North-Eastern Africa during a period of over 10,000 years, up to the present.  With focus on cattle, this volume examines the deep history of the origins of pastoralism in Africa and the economic, political, and religious role they came to play over time. Animal herding is the subsistence economy that is best adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, such as those in North-Eastern Africa, with cattle herding playing a prominent role in providing economic needs by serving as a ‘walking larder’ and ‘storage on the hoof’ and in ritual through its symbolic role, including the practice of sacrifice. From an economic point of view, cattle can provide meat, milk, blood, skin, sinew, manure, fuel, and labor, and can serve as a currency of exchange and a store of value. From a symbolic point of view, their physical presence in tombs and in movable (figurines) and immovable art (rock engravings and paintings) represents a material demonstration of ostentatious wealth and/or social status that can be converted into political support by building a clientele by means of exchange and redistribution, as well as a manifestation of divinity. Finally, from a ritual point of view, ceremonies related to a cattle cult fix and consolidate social bonds between members of a community.

This open access book highlights the historical significance of Titanic, and its impact on law, including the first treaty on maritime safety - the Safety Of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS). The work covers the laws that protect Titanic, e.g., the 1986 RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act, the international agreement on Titanic, and the 2017 implementing legislation that enabled its Entry into Force between the US, and UK. UNESCO's 2001 Convention has also protected Titanic since 2012. The authors specifically address the evolution of these laws and policies from their perspectives. They explain how a US District Court has jurisdiction over a British flagged vessel under the high seas and the decades of litigation that resulted in Orders of the court that protect the public interest in Titanic. It has taken decades for the Agreement to become law, which now seeks to safeguard the wreck site of Titanic as a Maritime Memorial, a historic and archaeological resource that is being preserved.

This book offers the only synthesis of early-period Marianas archaeology, marking the first human settlement of Remote Oceania about 1500 B.C.  In these remote islands of the northwest Pacific Ocean, archaeological discoveries now can define the oldest site contexts, dating, and artifacts of a Neolithic (late stone-age) people. This ancient settlement was accomplished by the world’s longest open-ocean voyage in human history at its time, more than 2000 km from any contemporary populated area. This work brings the isolated Mariana Islands into the forefront of scientific research of how people first settled Remote Oceania, further important for understanding long-distance human migration in general. Given this significance, the early Marianas sites deserve close attention that has been awkwardly missing until now. The author draws on his years of intensive field research to define the earliest Marianas sites in scientific detail but accessible for broad readership. It covers three major topics: 1) situating the ancient sites in their original environmental contexts; 2) inventory of the early-period sites and their dating; and 3) the full range of pottery, stone tools, shell ornaments, and other artifacts.  The work concludes with discussing the impacts of the findings on Asia-Pacific archaeology and on human global migration studies.

This volume addresses the directions that studies of archaeological human remains have taken in a number of different countries, where attitudes range from widespread support to prohibition. Overlooked in many previous publications, this diversity in attitudes is examined through a variety of lenses, including academic origins, national identities, supporting institutions, archaeological context and globalization. The volume situates this diversity of attitudes by examining past and current tendencies in studies of archaeologically-retrieved human remains across a range of geopolitical settings. In a context where methodological approaches have been increasingly standardized in recent decades, the volume poses the question if this standardization has led to a convergence in approaches to archaeological human remains or if significant differences remain between practitioners in different countries. The volume also explores the future trajectories of the study of skeletal remains in the different jurisdictions under scrutiny.

This book focuses on the issues of resilience and variability of desert pastoralists, explicitly challenging a set of traditional topics of the discourse around pastoralism in arid lands of the Old World. Based on a field research carried out on the Kel Tadrart Tuareg in Libya, various facets of a surprisingly successful adaptation to an extremely arid environment are investigated. By means of an ethnoarchaeological approach, explored are the Kel Tadrart interactions with natural resources, the settlement patterns, the campsite structures, and the formation of the pastoral archaeological landscape, focusing on variability and its causes. The resilience of the Kel Tadrart is the key to understand the reasons of their choice to stay and live in the almost rainless Acacus Mountains, in spite of strong pressure to sedentarize in the neighboring oases. Through the collection of the interviews, participant observation, mapping of inhabited and abandoned campsites, remote sensing, and archival sources, various and different Kel Tadrart strategies, perceptions, and material cultures are examined. This book fills an important gap in the ethnoarchaeological research in central Sahara and in the study of desert pastoralism.​ Desert lands are likely to increase over the next decades but, our knowledge of human adaptations to these areas of the world is still patchy and generally biased by the idea that extremely arid lands are not suited for human occupation.​

At the Mogao Grottoes, a World Heritage site near Dunhuang city in Gansu Province, visitor numbers have increased inexorably since 1979 when the site opened. A national policy that identifies tourism as a pillar industry, along with pressure from local authorities and businesses to encourage more tourism, threatens to lead to an unsustainable situation for management, an unsafe and uncomfortable experience for visitors and irreparable damage to the fragile art of the cave temples for which the site is famous. In the context of the comprehensive visitor management plan developed for the Mogao Grottoes, a multi-year study began in 2001 as a joint undertaking of the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute to determine the impact of visitation on the painted caves and develop strategies for sustainable visitation such that, once implemented, these threats would be resolved. The methodological framework featured a major research and assessment component that integrates visitorstudies; laboratory investigations; environmental monitoring; field testing and condition assessment to address the issues affecting the grottoes and visitors. Results from this component led to defining limiting conditions, which were the basis for establishing a visitor capacity policy for the grottoes and developing long-term monitoring and management tools.

This book will suggest new agendas for identity and heritage studies by means of presenting contentious issues facing archaeology and heritage management in a globalized world. The book is not only present the variability of heritage objectives and experiences in the New and Old World, and opens a discussion, in a shrinking world, to look beyond national and regional contexts. If the heritage sector and archaeology are to remain relevant in our contemporary world and the near future, there are a number of questions concerning the politics, practices and narratives related to heritage and identity that must be addressed. Questions of relevance in an affluent, cosmopolitan setting are at odds with those relevant for a region emerging from civil war or ethnic strife, or a national minority battling oppression or ethnic cleansing. A premise is that heritage represents a broad scope of empirically and theoretically sound interpretations – that heritage is a response to contemporary forces, as much as data. It is therefore necessary constantly to evaluate what is scientifically accurate as well as what is valid and relevant and what can have a contemporary impact.

The book is organised in four parts: Part 1 offers a summary of field procedures. Part 3 illustrates the huge variety confronted by field workers with a series of exemplary commercial and academic projects enacted in downland, jungle, desert, permafrost, road schemes and towns.

Archaeological evidence - i.e. presence of exogenous, foreign material objects (pottery, obsidian and so on) - is used to make inferences on ancient trade, while population movement can only be assessed when the biological component of an ancient community is analyzed (i.e. the human skeletal remains). But the exchange of goods or the presence of foreign architectural patterns does not necessarily imply genetic admixture between groups, while at the same time humans can migrate for reasons that may not be related only to trading. The Prehispanic Maya were a complex, highly stratified society. During the Classic period, city-states governed over large regions, establishing complex ties of alliance and commerce with the region’s minor centers and their allies, against other city-states within and outside the Maya realm. The fall of the political system during the Classic period (the Maya collapse) led to hypothetical invasions of leading groups from the Gulf of Mexico into the northern Maya lowland at the onset of the Postclassic. However, it is still unclear whether this collapse was already underway when this movement of people started. The whole picture of population dynamics in Maya Prehispanic times, during the Classic and the Postclassic, can slowly emerge only when all the pieces of the puzzle are put together in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion. The contributions of this volume bring together contributions from archaeology, archaeometry, paleodemography and bioarchaeology. They provide an initial account of the dynamic qualities behind large–scale ancient population dynamics, and at the same time represent novel multidisciplinary points of departure towards an integrated reconstruction and understanding of Prehispanic population dynamics in the Maya region.

This book seeks to communicate to both a global and local audience, the key attributes of pre-industrial African metallurgy such as technological variation across space and time, methods of mining and extractive metallurgy and the fabrication of metal objects.