Cambridge's new McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research owes its origin to the generosity of Daniel McLean McDonald, and it is an appropriate act of pietas that the Institute's first monograph should be a collection of his writings. Dr McDonald was fascinated by systems of weighing and measuring and his investigations ranged from Egypt and Sumer through Classical times to the Middle Ages and the New World. He saw very clearly how the use of liquid to measure capacity imposed a relationship between units of weight and those used to measure volume and hence length; and for him the units employed by the ancients possessed a coherence that reflected a very pragmatic understanding of the real world. His writings on metrology do not seem to have been written for publication and are pretty cryptic to the uninitiated, and some of his hypotheses on the relationship between various systems are, to say the least, bold - but it is from such speculations that understanding grows, and understanding intelligence and its origins is one of the aims of the McDonald Institute and its new Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

The Origins of Metrology (Monograph Series)

History

McDonald, Daniel McLean

Ancient Civilizations

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

A volume of papers from a conference held by the McDonald Institute in Cambridge, 1993. The aim of the conference was to address key issues in the development of intelligence and cognitive capacities though the course of human evolution. It did this by invoking theoretical perspectives from a broad range of relevant disciplines - psychology, ethology and primate behaviour, neurology, child development, artificial intelligence and, of course, archaeology. The volume contains the papers presented at the conference, revised and updated in the light of post-conference discussions. It provides the most comprehensive review available of current approaches to 'modelling' the evolution of intelligence and congnition in early human popoulations. Seventeen papers by Colin Renfrew, Richard W. Byrne, Robert A. Foley, Steven Mithen, J. A. J. Gowlett, Frederic Joulian, James Russell, Christopher Longuet-Higgins, David Erdal, Andrew Whiten, P. C. Lee, Peter G. Grossenbacher, K. A. Robson Brown, Leslie C. Aiello, Elizabeth Whitcombe, Angela C. Roberts, Peter Collins and Trevor W. Robbins.

Modelling the Early Human Mind (th-arc)

Politics & Social Sciences

Gibson, Kathleen R.

Mellars, Paul

Archaeology

The Epirus region of north-west Greece has witnessed more dramatic changes of physical landscape than almost any other part of Europe. Tectonic activity has shaped a complex and dynamic topography, supplemented by the impact of a local ice sheet formed during the Glacial Maximum, and dramatic episodes of erosion triggered by changes of climate, vegetation and land use. These two volumes set out the history of Palaeolithic occupation over the past 100,000 years, bringing together the full range of studies carried out between 1981 and 1983 as part of the Klithi project. Volume 1: Excavation and intra-site analysis at Klithi covers the results of excavations at the rockshelter and analysis of finds, together with an introduction to the whole project and the AMS dating programme which played a key role in on-site and off-site interpretation. 336p, 187 illus, 121 tables Volume 2: Klithi in its local and regional setting deals with archaeological results from other sites and palaeo-environmental and off-site studies, both locally at Klithi and in its immediate vicinity, and more widely within the region concluding with a synthesis which brings together all the different strands of the investigation. 396p, 231 illus, 64 tables

Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece, 2 Volume Set, (Monographs Series)

Bailey, G. N.

After the excitement of its discovery and excavations in the early 1960s, the world important site of Catalhöyuek has remained dormant for 30 years. This volume describes the first phase of renewed archaeological research at the site. It reports on the work that has taken place on the surfaces of the east and west mounds and in the surrounding regions. It also discusses the material from the 1960s excavation in museums, which has been re-examined. The result is that new perspectives can be offered on the internal organization and symboplism of a site which is central to our understanding of the earliest development of complex socieities.

On the Surface: çatalhöyuk 1993-95 (McDonald Institute Monographs)

Hodder, Ian

A summary of findings from the most recent archaeological and palaeoecological investigations at the Early Mesolithic occupation site. The new programme of research, intended to shed further light on problematic issues such as the exact age, duration, and pattern of occupation, and the precise nature of the birch brushwood platform, called for the use of scientifically more advanced techniques not before available. Contributors to the work include Phil Clogg, Chantal Conneller, Charly French, Huw. I. Griffiths, Jonathan Hather, Jonathan A. Holmes, Jennifer Jones, Paul Lane, Carol Law, Richard Preece, Peter Rowley-Conwy, Tim Schadla-Hall, and Maisie Taylor.

Star Carr in context (McDonald Institute Monographs)

Dark, Petra

The fifteen papers in this volume explore how human beliefs have been externalised and `stored' in material form, thus making very intangible ideas exist in a permanent, tangible form. The volume benefits from a culturally and temporally comparative approach. Contents: Mind and matter: cognitive archaeology and external symbolic storage (Colin Renfrew); Hominid enculturation and cognitive evolution (Merlin Donald); Palaeolithic origins of artificial memory systems: an evolutionary perspective (Francesco d'Errico); Material artefacts, symbolism, sociologists and archaeologists (David Halle); Mimesis, imagination and role-play (David Harris); Rock art: handmaiden to studies of cognitive evolution (Thomas Dowson); Digging for memes: the role of material objects in cultural evolution (Mark Lake); Personal experience and belief: the significance of external symbolic storage for the emergence of modern human cognition (E J Lowe); The supernatural beings of prehistory and the external storage of religious ideas (Steven Mithen); Chinese burial patterns: sources of information on thought and belief (Jessica Rawson); Social relations and the idea of externality (Marilyn Strathern); Some problems with the notion of external symbolic storage and the case of Neolithic material culture in Britain (Julian Thomas); Symbolic behaviour: the origin of a spatial perspective (Ezra Zubrow and Patrick Daly); Mind and artefact: a dialectical perpsective (Robert Hinde); Material culture and cognition: concluding thoughts (Merlin Donald).

Cognition and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage (Monograph Series)

Do all or most languages in the world descend from a single proto-language ? And if so what can we tell from linguistic analysis about the speakers of this ancient tongue ? These are the two questions at the heart of this controversial book and the themes clearly outlined by Colin Renfrew in his introduction. The theory of a Nostratic proto-language is not new, but the extremely detailed presentation of historical linguistic evidence provided here is. The lists of possible linguistic roots are not for the faint-hearted, but for serious linguists they provide real meat on which to chew, and, the publishers hope, provide a solid basis for debate.

The Nostratic Macrofamily and Linguistic Palaeontology (Papers in Historical Linguistics)

Dolgopolsky, Aharon

This volume outlines and illustrates the importance of considering social contexts of food consumption in interpretations of past and present human societies, giving a new twist to the old adage 'You are what you eat'. What we eat, how we eat, are and always have been fundamental to the structuring of social life, both in the past and in the present. The remains of food are also among the most common archaeological finds. The papers in this volume explore and develop ways of using food to write social history; they move beyond taphonomic and economic properties of 'subsistence resources' to examine the social background and cultural contexts of food preparation and consumption. Contributions break new ground in method and interpretation in case studies spanning the Palaeolithic to the Present, and from the Amazon to the Arctic. This volume will thus be essential reading for all archaeologists, anthropologists and social historians interested in the prehistory and history of food consumption.

Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption (Monograph Series)

Tell Brak, ancient Nagar, was one of the most important cities in northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and a focus of long-distance trade. It was also, for about a century, a provincial capital of the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Agade. This is the second of four volumes on the 1976-93 excavations at Tell Brak. The construction level of Naram-Sin's Palace, discovered by Mallowan in the 1930s, has been used as a point of chronological reference to provide the first well-dated corpus of archaeological material in northern Mesopotamia belonging to the second half of the third millennium. The major Akkadian buildings at Tell Brak are the first well-preserved examples to be discovered at any site, and include a great ceremonial complex and a unique caravanserai that housed the donkey caravans bringing metals from Anatolia. During the ritual closure of these buildings beautiful silver jewellery was deposited, along with numerous copper/bronze tools and the skeletons of some of the caravan donkeys. Specialist reports provide detailed historical, geomorphological, ceramic, faunal, botanical, microstratigraphic and other data.

Excavations at Tell Brak: Volume 2 - Nagar in the 3rd Millennium BC (McDonald Institute Monographs)

Oates, David

Oates, Joan

McDonald, Helen

Aspects of the prehistory of the Americas currently remain little understood, with suggested dates for the first human colonization varying widely between 40,000 and 14,000 years ago. In this volume molecular geneticists and historical linguists debate the evidence for the first peopling of the Americas, and for the subsequent emergence of the remarkable genetic and linguistic diversity still seen among Native Americans to this day. The arguments against the controversial 'three waves of migration' proposal made by the distinguished linguist Joseph Greenberg are scrutinized. Special attention is given to the theme of 'population-specific polymorphism', that is to say the presence in significant frequencies in individual tribes, language groups or other population units of particular genetic features which serve to distinguish them from other populations. Detailed consideration is given to the case of the Yanomama of the Lowland Amazon. For comparative purposes a case study of long-term continuity among Jewish priests in Israel using Y-chromosome analysis is examined.

America Past, America Present: Genes and languages in the Americas and beyond (Papers in the Prehistory of Languages)

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