Eventful Archaeologies: New Approaches to Social Transformation in the Archaeological Record

259 Pages·2010·3.63 MB·English

by  Douglas J. Bolender

ANTHROPOLOGY
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What is the role of historical events when evaluating the long-term significance of the
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archaeological record? Given that the event is a key mechanism for structural change, e
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are historical transformations always eventful? And what is the relationship between
specific events and other temporalities of change?
Eventful
In this notable volume, in examples from the Eurasian Steppes to Spain, Iceland to New
York, from across the sweep of European and North American prehistory and history, E
researchers explore the promise and challenges of events, and the potent intersections
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of history and archaeology. Of special interest is the potential to better understand
e Archaeologies
moments of dramatic social transformation: from volcanic disasters to the cognitive
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revolution during the Palaeolithic and the first arrival of Neolithic farmers, and from
the impact of Greece and Rome on European provinces to modernization in the New t
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World.
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Indispensable for historians, archaeologists, and those ethnohistorians and anthropologists to Social Transformation

working within a long-term historical framework, Eventful Archaeologies offers a more A
in the Archaeological Record
holistic and richly textured approach for comprehending cultural change.
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Douglas J. Bolender is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts
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Boston.
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tsintute for European and Mediterranean Archaeoylog eolo
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Disting u isIhEed MMonoAgrap h Series ie
The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology s
Distinguished Monograph Series
Edited by
IEMA
State University of
New York Press Douglas J. Bolender
www.sunypress.edu

Eventful Archaeologies
the institute for european and mediterranean archaeology
distinguished monograph series
Peter F. Biehl, Sarunas Milisauskas, and Stephen L. Dyson, editors
The Magdalenian Household: Unraveling Domesticity
Ezra Zubrow, Françoise Audouze, and James Enloe, editors
Eventful Archaeologies: New Approaches to Social Transformation in the Archaeological Record
Douglas J. Bolender, editor
eventful
archaeologies:
New Approaches
to Social
Transformation
in the Archaeological
Record
IEMA Proceedings, Volume 1
edited by
Douglas J. Bolender
state university of
new york press
Logo and cover/interior art credit: A vessel with wagon motifs from
Bronocice Poland, 3400 bc. Courtesy of Sarunas Milisauskas and Janusz
Kruk, 1982, Die Wagendarstellung auf einem Trichterbecher aus Bronocice,
Polen, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12:141–144.
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2010 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact
State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Eileen Meehan
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eventful archaeologies : new approaches to social transformation in the archaeological
record / Douglas J. Bolender, [editor].
p. cm.—(The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology
Distinguished Monograph Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-3423-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-3422-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Social archaeology.
2. Ethnoarchaeology.
I. Bolender, Douglas J.
CC72.4E86 2010
930.1—dc22
2010005362
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This volume is dedicated to the memory of Samuel B. Paley, fi ne scholar and colleague, whose
vision of intersecting and interacting worlds of archaeology helped lay the foundations for the
Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology.

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction Douglas J. Bolender
Toward an Eventful Archaeology 3
Part I
Eventful Prehistories
Chapter One Ezra B. W. Zubrow
Cascading Prehistoric Events: Fractalizing Prehistoric Research 17
Chapter Two Françoise Audouze and Boris Valentin
A Paleohistorical Approach to Upper Paleolithic Structural Changes 29
Chapter Three Dušan Bori´c
Becoming, Phenomenal Change, Event: Past and
Archaeological Re-presentations 48
Chapter Four Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss, and Frances Healy
Event and Short-Term Process: Times for the Early Neolithic of
Southern Britain 68
viii Contents
Chapter Five P edro Díaz-del-Río
The Neolithic Argonauts of the Western Mediterranean and
Other Underdetermined Hypotheses of Colonial Encounters 88
Chapter Six Bettina Arnold
Eventful Archaeology, the Heuneburg Mudbrick Wall,
and the Early Iron Age of Southwest Germany 100
Part II
Eventful Histories and Beyond
Chapter Seven J ohn Bintliff
The Annales, Events, and the Fate of Cities 117
Chapter Eight T imothy Taylor
Modeling the “Amazon” Phenomenon: Colonization
Events and Gender Performances 132
Chapter Nine Louise Revell
The Allure of the Event in Roman Provincial Archaeology 151
Chapter Ten Penelope M. Allison
Thead 79 Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius: A Signifi cant or Insignifi cant Event? 166
Chapter Eleven John P. Grattan
Testing Eventful Archaeologies: Eventful Archaeology and
Volcanic “Disasters” 179
Chapter Twelve Oscar Aldred and Gavin Lucas
Events, Temporalities, and Landscapes in Iceland 189
Chapter Thirteen Christopher N. Matthews
Freedom as a Negotiated History, or an Alternative Sort of Event:
The Transformation of Home, Work, and Self in Early New York 199
Epilogue
Chapter Fourteen Graeme Barker
Archaeology and the Human Career: Revolutions, Transformations, Events 219
Index 237