The Development of Pre-State Communities in the Ancient Near East: Studies in Honour of Edgar Peltenburg: 2 (BANEA monograph Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184217407X ISBN 13: 9781842174074

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2010

Synopsis

This book explores the dynamics of small-scale societies in the ancient Near East by examining the ways in which particular communities functioned and interacted and by moving beyond the broad neo-evolutionary models of social change which have characterised many earlier approaches. By focusing on issues of diversity, scale, and context, it considers the ways in which economy, crafts, technology, and ritual were organised; the roles played by mortuary practices and households in the structure and development of ancient societies; and the importance of agency, identity, ethnicity, gender, community and cultural interaction for the rise of socio-economic complexity. The contributors to this volume are well-known archaeologists in the field of Near Eastern studies; all are currently engaged in fieldwork or research in Cyprus, the Levant, or Turkey. The variety and depth of the research they present here reflect the richness of the archaeological record in the 'cradle of civilisation' and convey the vibrancy of current interpretive approaches within the field of Near Eastern prehistory today.

About this title

About the Author

Diane Bolger is a Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh where she has worked since 2002. She specialises in ceramics of early societies of the ancient Near East, with a particular focus on ceramics of the 4th-3rd millennia BC in Cyprus, where she has conducted research annually since the mid-1980s. She is also a specialist in gender archaeology and has written and edited four books and a number of articles on gender in prehistoric Cyprus and the ancient Near East.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184217407X
• ISBN 13: 9781842174074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Bolger Diane, Maguire Louise C.