Bøger af Colin Renfrew

Features key questions that archaeologists ask about the past. With an introduction to archaeology, this book includes examples from every part of the world. It offers a coverage of the discovery of Richard III's burial; excavations at the Neolithic Ness of Brodgar in the Orkney Islands; and more.

Foreword by Colin Renfrew.It is only in the last couple of decades that the crucial importance of the westernmost province of China (formerly known as Chinese Turkestan) for the prehistoric period, and specifically for the bronze and iron ages, has come to be recognized. It has come to public attention through the excavation and study of the so called Xinjiang 'mummies', in fact desiccated human burials (with wonderfully preserved textiles) going back to before 1000 BCE. The present volume offers the first coherent study of the later prehistory of this region to be available in English, and the first in any language to give a detailed treatment of what is now known of its early metallurgy. In this field the author has been a pioneer, and his metallurgical analyses and his study of the important mining and smelting site at Nulasai here begin the necessary task of reconstructing the early history of metallurgy in Central Asia.

In Prehistory, the award-winning archaeologist and renowned scholar Colin Renfrew covers human existence before the advent of written recordswhich is to say, the overwhelming majority of our time here on earth. But Renfrew also opens up to discussion, and even debate, the term prehistory itself, giving an incisive, concise, and lively survey of the past, and how scholars and scientists labor to bring it to light. Renfrew begins by looking at prehistory as a discipline, particularly how developments of the past century and a halfadvances in archaeology and geology; Darwins ideas of evolution; discoveries of artifacts and fossil evidence of our human ancestors; and even more enlightened museum and collection curatorshiphave fueled continuous growth in our knowledge of prehistory. He details how breakthroughs such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have helped us to define humankinds pasthow things have changedmuch more clearly than was possible just a half century ago. Answers for why things have changed, however, continue to elude us, so Renfrew discusses some of the issues and challenges past and present that confront the study of prehistory and its investigators. In the books second part, Renfrew shifts the narrative focus, offering a summary of human prehistory from early hominids to the rise of literate civilization that is refreshingly free from conventional wisdom and grand unified theories. The authors own case studies encompass a vast geographical and chronological rangethe Orkney Islands, the Balkans, the Indus Valley, Peru, Ireland, and Chinaand help to explain the formation and development of agriculture and centralized societies. He concludes with a fascinating chapter on early writing systems, From Prehistory to History. In this invaluable, brief account of human development prior to the last four millennia, Colin Renfrew delivers a meticulously researched and passionately argued chronicle about our life on earth, and our ongoing quest to understand it.

Archaeology is being undermined by clandestine and unpublished digging of archaeological sites for gain. Unless a solution is found to this ethical crisis, our record of the past will be vastly diminished. This book attempts to lay bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that underlies that crisis.

Evolutionary ('phylogenetic') trees were first used to infer lost histories nearly two centuries ago by manuscript scholars reconstructing original texts. Today, computer methods are enabling phylogenetic trees to transform genetics, historical linguistics and even the archaeological study of artefact shapes and styles.

Thirteen leading archaeologists have contributed to this innovative study of the socio-political processes - notably imitation, competition, warfare, and the exchange of material goods and information - that can be observed within early complex societies, particularly those just emerging into statehood.