European Archaeology as Anthropology

Essays in Memory of Bernard Wailes

Pam J. Crabtree, Peter Bogucki

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781934536896, 9781934536896
• eBook ISBN: 9781934536902
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Since the days of V. Gordon Childe, the study of the emergence of complex societies has been a central question in anthropological archaeology. However, archaeologists working in the Americanist tradition have drawn most of their models for the emergence of social complexity from research in the Middle East and Latin America. Bernard Wailes was a strong advocate for the importance of later prehistoric and early medieval Europe as an alternative model of sociopolitical evolution and trained generations of American archaeologists now active in European research from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. Two centuries of excavation and research in Europe have produced one of the richest bodies of archaeological data anywhere in the world. The abundant data show that technological innovations such as metallurgy appeared very early, but urbanism and state formation are comparatively late developments. Key transformative process such as the spread of agriculture did not happen uniformly but rather at different rates in different regions.The essays in this volume celebrate the legacy of Bernard Wailes by highlighting the contribution of the European archaeological record to our understanding of the emergence of social complexity. They provide case studies in how ancient Europe can inform anthropological archaeology. Not only do they illuminate key research topics, they also invite archaeologists working in other parts of the world to consider comparisons to ancient Europe as they construct models for cultural development for their regions. Although there is a substantial corpus of literature on European prehistoric and medieval archaeology, we do not know of a comparable volume that explicitly focuses on the contribution that the study of ancient Europe can make to anthropological archaeology.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Contributors
• Introduction: Remembering Bernard Wailes: European Archaeology in North America
• 1 "Disruptive Technologies" and the Transition to Agriculture in Scandinavia and the British Isles
• 2 Archaeology and Language: Why Archaeologists Care about the Indo-European Problem
• 3 Materiality of Performance and Diversity of Practice: Comparing Bronze Age Pits in Southern Bavaria
• 4 Archaeological Manifestations of Religious Belief in Southern Iberia from the Neolithic to the Iron Age
• 5 Dún Ailinne: Then and Now
• 6 Ghosts of Chiefdoms Past: Kings, Complexity, and Resistance at the Edge of European History
• 7 Socioeconomic Change in Early Medieval Ireland: Agricultural Innovation, Population Growth, and Human Health
• 8 Ceremonial Complexity: The Roles of Religious Settlements in Medieval Ireland
• 9 New Archaeology from Old Coins: Antioch Re-examined
• 10 State Formation in Anglo-Saxon England
• Conclusion: European Archaeology in North America