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Full Description
Archaeology can shed light on the rise and fall of empires, the march of technology, the nature of past societies, the development of arts and culture, the course of warfare, and much more. Yet what gives it its greatest value is its ability to illuminate the area in which written records fall short - the everyday lives of ordinary people.
Interpreting Archaeology uses a wide array of evidence, including artefacts as varied as humble ceramic pots, imposing monuments, and genetic data, to tell the human story from a new angle.
Beginning with the discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of hominin evolution and the spread of Homo sapiens across the globe, Neil Faulkner has charted a fascinating journey through the past, taking in everything from the rise of the world's first great civilizations to the establishment of hierarchies, the development of art and religion, and the causes of warfare along the way.
Contents
Introduction 8
Timeline 12
Chapter 1: Dawn of the Hominins 16
The Evolutionary Tree - The First Hominins - The Australopithecines - The Earliest Tools - Paranthropus - Out of Africa - Fossil Hunting - The Neanderthals
Chapter 2: The First Modern Humans 32
The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution - What Makes Us Human? - The Upper Palaeolithic Crisis
Chapter 3: The Agricultural Revolution 42
An Early Neolithic Village - A New Way of Life - Bloody Stone Age - Australia - Primitive Matriarchy - From Mother-Right to Patriarchy
Chapter 4: Bronze Age Civilizations 56
The First Social Classes - The Bronzeworkers - The Land of Shinar - A Global Transformation - Basket-makers and Olmecs: the First Civilizations of the Americas - The Chavín - Akrotiri, Troy, Knossos and Mycaenae - A Late Bronze Age Arms Race - Bronze Age System Failure - The Collapse of Indus Civilization - The Shang Dynasty and its Overthrow
Chapter 5: Iron Age Worlds 90
The First Industrial Revolution - African Ironworking - Bantu Expansion - Sacred Metal - New Civilizations - Mesopotamia: the Assyrian Empire - Persia: the Achaemenid Empire - India: Warlords and Hindus - India: Merchants and Buddhists - Culture-History - China: the First Emperor - Classical Greece - The Macedonian Empire and the Hellenistic World - The Scythians - The Celts - Animal Power
Chapter 6: The Roman Empire 144
Archaeology and Myth - The First City of Rome - Roman Expansion - Caesar's Army - Roman Colonies - Roman Forts - Roman Towns - A Note on Roman Coins - Roman Villas - Roman Pottery
Chapter 7: The Post-Roman World 174
The Fall of the Roman Empire - The Byzantine Empire - The Germanic World - Carolingian Europe - Islamic Civilization - The Vikings - Maya and Moche
Chapter 8: The Medieval World 200
European Feudalism: Villages - Monasteries - European Feudalism: Castles - Novgorod - Mound-builders and Pueblo Farmers - Toltecs, Aztecs, Chimú and Incas - Wind Power - Angkor Wat - Ming China - Samurai Japan - Pacific Societies
Chapter 9: The Archaeology of Modernity 232
Settlers, Slaves and Ships - Tudor London - Victorian York - Conflict Landscapes - The Archaeology of the Contemporary Past
Conclusion 246
Recommended Further Reading 248
Index 251
Picture Credits 256
