Fundamental Archaeological Concepts: Origins, Histories, Definitions

(Hardback)

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A much-needed deep dive into some of the main concepts of archaeology, offering a comprehensive explanation and definition of commonly used terms.

Modern archaeology includes a number of fundamental concepts, each with a particular term serving as a label or name for it. This volume compiles in one place the origins, developmental histories, and definitions of more than two dozen of archaeologys most fundamental concepts. Concepts discussed include artifact, assemblage, association, context, ecofact, feature, industry, in situ, period, provenience, site, stage, tool kit, and type/index fossil.

The volume is neither a dictionary nor an encyclopedia. Its goals are:
1) to document the origin and history of each of the terms/concepts,
2) to present many of the definitions of each of the terms/concepts, and
3) to document the variability in definitions of each term/concept. Two sources of formal data are reviewed.
One source is made up of 288 pieces of archaeological literature published between 1840 and 1949; the other source is 66 introductory textbooks and 10 dictionaries of archaeology published between 1904 and 2021. All were searched for the 27 concepts, and data recorded regarding (1) whether or not a term/concept appeared in each piece of literature, (2) the appearance of a particular concept without its associated term in each piece of literature, (3) the appearance of a particular term without definition or discussion of its associated concept in each piece of literature, and (4) the appearance of a particular term with an included definition and presenting the definition from each piece of literature. These formal data are supplemented with information on concepts encountered while reading other literature not included in the formal samples of early literature and introductory textbooks.

This book is unique among the archaeological literature for its synopses of much of the literature, coverage of the history and meanings of archaeological concepts used in fieldwork and analysis is thorough, and the varied definitions of concepts are summarized and easily consulted.

Author Bio

R. L. Lyman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri. He is author of Vertebrate Taphonomy (1994), Quantitative Paleozoology (2008), Theodore E. White and the Development of Zooarchaeology in North America (2016), Graphing Culture Change in North American Archaeology: A History of Graph Types (2021), and co-author of Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments: Fundamentals, Assumptions, and Techniques (2019). His research interests include zooarchaeology, the history of archaeology, and conservation paleozoology.