Monographs

Conference Volumes

The Global Origins (and Development) of Seafaring
The Global Origins (and Development) of Seafaring

edited by Edited by Atholl Anderson, James Barrett and Katie Boyle

When and in what circumstances did seafaring begin and how is it understood from the perspectives of maritime technology?

This volume explores key themes in maritime prehistory from the perspective of seafaring, discussing the circumstances and incentives of seafaring development, its patterning in relation to periods of migration and trade and the relationship between sailing and society.

The sea was dangerous and difficult to predict, but from at least the Middle Palaeolithic people sought its resources and attempted to move on its surface or beneath.

The evolution of watercraft facilitated coastal foraging, fishing, hunting and travel, and the later development of sailing allowed long offshore passages, fundamental to all other sea-borne activities and interests.

Increasing maritime exploration, migration, trade and colonialism together stimulated the integrating effects of globalization, describe a developing reach and complexity in human affairs that is comparable with, and in various ways holds up a mirror to, the course of terrestrial prehistory across the late Quaternary.

The history of the sea, no less than that of the land, speaks to the development of modern humanity and the discussions in Global Origins of Seafaring will make a strong contribution to the construction of a better theoretical framework for seafaring studies.

Hardback | £44 | ISBN 978-1-902937-52-6 | 320 pp. | 115 figs |McDonald Institute monograph, 2010
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Rethinking the Human Revolution
Rethinking the Human Revolution

edited by P. Mellars, K. Boyle, O. Bar-Yosef and C. Stringer
Arising from a conference Rethinking the Human Revolution reconsiders all of the central issues in modern human behavioural, cognitive, biological and demographic origins in the light of new information and new theoretical perspectives which have emerged over the past twenty years of intensive research in this field. The 34 papers cover topics ranging from the DNA and skeletal evidence for modern human origins in Africa, through the archaeological evidence for the emergence of distinctively 'modern' patterns of human behaviour and cognition, to the various lines of evidence for the geographical dispersal patterns of biologically and behaviourally modern populations from their African origins throughout Asia, Australasia and Europe, over the past 60,000 years. The authors are world-leading authorities in these fields.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-46-5 | xx + 436 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 160 ills. | 33 tables | October 2007
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simulations_genetics
Simulations, Genetics, and Human Prehistory

edited by Shuichi Matsumura, Peter Forster, and Colin Renfrew
Data from molecular genetics have changed our views on the origin, spread and timescale of our species across this planet. But how can we reveal more detail about the demography of ancient human populations? For example, is it possible to determine when and how many people arrived at a certain continent, and which route they took from a choice of geographically plausible options? One of the most promising tools for such investigation is computer simulation incorporating various demographic scenarios.
Hardback | £25/US$50 | ISBN 978-1-902937-45-8 | 240 pp. | 85 ills. | February 2008
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Horizons: a Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades
Horizons: a Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades

edited by N.J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas & C. Renfrew
The Cycladic Islands of Greece played a central role in Aegean prehistory, and many new discoveries have been made in recent years at sites ranging in date from the Mesolithic period to the end of the Bronze Age. In the well-illustrated chapters of this book, based on the recent conference held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, international scholars including leading Greek archaeologists offer new information about recent developments, many arising from hitherto unpublished excavations. The book contains novel theoretical insights into the workings of culture process in the prehistoric cultures of the islands. It will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars interested in the prehistory of the Aegean and in the contributions made to its development by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Cyclades.
Hardback | £65/US$130 | ISBN 978-1-902937-36-6 | 540 pp. | 471 b/w, 60 col. ills. | 286 x 220 mm | 2008
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Image and Imagination
Image and Imagination: A Global Prehistory of Figurative Representation

edited by C. Renfrew & I. Morley
The dawn of art is sometimes equated with the birth of the human spirit. But when and how did figuration - sculpture, painting, drawing - actually begin? And did these first figurative creations coincide with the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens? Is figuration a general and fundamental feature of the human condition? In this challenging volume leading experts review the evidence now available from the worldwide practice of prehistoric archaeology, and go on to formulate some important conclusions. The scope of this work is global. It sets out to explore the first stirrings of artistic endeavour and of figurative imagery on each continent, and to consider the social context in which they arose. It will be a fundamental resource for all those seeking to understand the origins of art and the beginnings of human spirituality.
Hardback | £30/US$60 | ISBN 978-1-902937-48-9 | x + 339 pp. | 306 ills. | December 2007
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Substance, Memory, Display: Archaeology and Art
Substance, Memory, Display: Archaeology and Art

edited by Colin Renfrew, Chris Gosden & Elizabeth DeMarrais
Following the interest in archaeology, transience and monumentality shown recently by artists such as Mark Dion ("The Tate Thames Dig"), Richard Long and Cornelia Parker, this book explores the interface between archaeology and art in the modern world and includes contributions from artists Simon Callery and Antony Gormley.
Hardback | £45/US$90 | ISBN 978-1-902937-24-3 | vi+170 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 107 col. ills. | 2004
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Rethinking Materiality: Engagement of Mind with the Material World
Rethinking Materiality: Engagement of Mind with the Material World

edited by Elizabeth DeMarrais, Chris Gosden & Colin Renfrew
What is the relationship between mind and ideas on the one hand, and the material things of the world on the other? In recent years, researchers have rejected the old debate about the primacy of the mind or material, and have sought to establish more nuanced understandings of the ways humans interact with their material worlds. In Rethinking Materiality contributors debate the significance of key thresholds in the human past.
Hardback | £45/US$95 | ISBN 978-1-902937-30-4 | viii+280 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 62 ills. | 3 tables | 2005
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Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the European Landscape during the Last Glaciation
Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the European Landscape during the Last Glaciation

edited by Tjeerd H van Andel & William Davies
What role did Ice Age climate play in the demise of the Neanderthals, and why was it that modern humans alone survived? A team of international experts from a wide range of disciplines have worked together to provide a detailed study of the world occupied by the European Neanderthals between 60,000 and 25,000 years ago. The results provide revolutionary insights into the glacial climate of this period and the landscapes and resources that influenced late Palaeolithic life-styles.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-21-2 | xviii+265 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 92 ills. | 41 tables | 2004
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Material engagements: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
Material engagements: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
edited by Neil Brodie & Catherine Hills

The subject matter of archaeology is the engagement of human beings, now and in the past, with both the natural world and the material world they have created. All aspects of human activity are potentially relevant to archaeological research, and, conversely, the ways in which others, especially artists and anthropologists, have investigated the world are of interest to archaeologists. Archaeological artefacts and sites are also used by groups and nations to establish identity, and for financial gain, both through tourism and trade in antiquities.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-26-7 | xii+180 pp. | 101 ills. | 2004
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Traces of ancestry: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
Traces of ancestry: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew

edited by Martin Jones
In 1987, Colin Renfrew's Archaeology and Language challenged many perceptions about how one language family spread across large parts of the world. In doing so he re-invigorated an important exchange between archaeologists and historical linguists. At precisely the same time, a quite separate field, human genetics, was making considerable steps forward in the elucidation of human ancestry. These three parallel lines of enquiry into genes, words, and things have, over the ensuing two decades, entirely transformed our perceptions of the human past.
Hardback | £30/US$60 | ISBN 978-1-902937-25-0 | xii+161 pp. | 45 ills. | 9 tables | 2004
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Explaining social change: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
Explaining social change: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew

edited by John Cherry, Chris Scarre & Stephen Shennan
Over the past 30 years, social archaeology has become one of the central fields of archaeological research, placing human societies at the heart of our understanding of the human past. Colin Renfrew has been a key champion of social archaeology, and the present volume brings together a series of papers on the occasion of his retirement. They have been written by colleagues and former students, and touch upon many of the themes that he himself has studied and about which he has written so persuasively and engagingly: the development of the human mind, trade and exchange, social change, chiefdoms and states, and the archaeology of island societies.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-23-6 | xiv+239 pp. | 87 ills. | 26 tables | 2004
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Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse
Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse

edited by Marsha Levine, Colin Renfrew and Katie Boyle
The domestication of the horse was one of the most significant events in the development of human societies, ushering in new modes of transport and warfare and generating social and political change. This volume seeks to examine the origins of horse husbandry and pastoralism - especially nomadic pastoralism - in the Eurasian steppe. In bringing together archaeologists and archaeozoologists from Asia, Europe, and North America it provides a wide-ranging overview of issues and evidence for the development of Central European societies from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.
Hardback | £45/US$80 | ISBN 1-902973-09-0 | xii+428 pp. | 192 ills. | 40 tables. 2003
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Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis
Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis

edited by Peter Bellwood & Colin Renfrew
Linguistic diversity is one of the most puzzling and challenging features of humankind. Why are there some six thousand different languages spoken in the world today? Why are some, like Chinese or English, spoken by millions over vast territories, while others are restricted to just a few thousand speakers in a limited area? The farming/language dispersal hypothesis makes the radical and controversial proposal that the present-day distributions of many of the world's languages and language families can be traced back to the early developments and dispersals of farming from the several nuclear areas where animal and plant domestication emerged.
Hardback | £50/US$85 | ISBN 978-1-902937-20-5 | xiv+505 pp. | 82 ills. | 25 tables | 2003
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Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption
Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption

edited by Preston Miracle and Nicky Milner
What we eat, and 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 prehistory and history of food consumption.
Hardback | £20/US$35 | ISBN 978-0-9519420-8-6 | vi+136 pp. | 48 ills. | 16 tables | 2002
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Ancient interactions: east and west in Eurasia
Ancient interactions: east and west in Eurasia

edited by Katie Boyle, Colin Renfrew & Marsha Levine
The history and archaeology of the Scythians and other steppe peoples are relatively familiar, but what of their predecessors who colonized and occupied this vast region, from the Carpathians to China, before the Iron Age? The papers in this volume provide an overview and reassessment of the period from the Neolithic to Iron Age in an area which covers approximately one-sixth of the earth's land surface. The subject matter of the papers ranges broadly from East to West on a number of major themes: the development of pastoral economies; the diffusion of ideas, and the movement of peoples throughout this region and into adjoining regions.
Hardback | £45/US$80 | ISBN 978-1-902937-19-9 | xii+344 pp. | 171 ills. | 22 tables | 2002
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Trade in Illicit Antiquities: the Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage
Trade in Illicit Antiquities: the Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage

edited by Neil Brodie, Jennifer Doole and Colin Renfrew
All over the world archaeological sites are being looted to feed an ever-expanding antiquities market. The phenomenon has been well-documented, by journalists and TV documentaries as much as by academic study, but its true scale remains a matter for conjecture. With this in mind in October 1999 the McDonald Institute convened an international symposium of archaeologists and other interested parties, which allowed them to give accounts of looting in their own countries, share their experiences, and to consider possible remedies or preventative measures. The proceedings of the Symposium are now published in this volume.
Hardback | £25/US$45 | ISBN 978-1-902937-17-5 | xii+172 pp. | 73 ills. | 11 tables | 2001
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Archaeogenetics: DNA and the population prehistory of Europe
Archaeogenetics: DNA and the population prehistory of Europe

edited by Colin Renfrew and Katie Boyle
Recent developments in molecular genetics are currently transforming our understanding of the population history of the world. Their application to the prehistory and history of Europe was the focus of an interdisciplinary meeting held in Cambridge in 1999 as a Euroconference of the Human Genome Diversity Group. The papers describe the latest developments in this fast-moving area, with a clear and accessible discussion of the results of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome analysis, and of their integration with the archaeological and climatic record. For the first time it is here possible to assess the impact of molecular genetics upon European prehistory.
Hardback | £38/US$60 | ISBN 978-1-902937-08-3 | xxiv+342 pp. | 103 ills. | 2000
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Cognition and Material Culture: the Archaeology of Symbolic Storage
Cognition and Material Culture: the Archaeology of Symbolic Storage

edited by Colin Renfrew and Chris Scarre
The material expression of human cognitive development is one of the most exciting and important fields of current archaeological research, exemplified most clearly by the attention given in recent years to the emergence of modern humans. But what of the cognitive changes which have taken place since the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic? The present volume, the result of a conference held in Cambridge in 1996, takes as its starting point the provocative study of Origins of the Modern Mind by Merlin Donald, and addresses the question of cognitive change in recent millennia through the development and role of material symbols in holding and conveying information and ideas - Donald's concept of 'External Symbolic Storage'.
Hardback | £45/US$80 | ISBN 978-0-951942-06-2 | 200 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 58 ills. | 8 tables | 1999
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Neolithic Orkney in its European context
Neolithic Orkney in its European context

edited by Anna Ritchie
In the far north of the British isles, the islands of Orkney have a wealth of well-preserved monuments. They have inspired this volume of essays by international scholars, who offer new ideas about life and death, monuments and landscapes, not just in Orkney but also in the rest of Britain and Europe. From Ireland to Eastern Europe and north to Scandinavia, an inter-relating pattern of social practices in the Neolithic can be traced through archaeological excavations and close observation of upstanding monuments.
Hardback | £45/US$70 | ISBN 1-902937-04-X | xiv+342 pp. | 193 ills. | 12 tables | 2000
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Late Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe
Late Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe

edited by Marsha Levine, Yuri Rassamakin, Aleksandr Kislenko & Nataliya Tatarinteseva
The nomadic peoples of the great grasslands of the former USSR have left little in the way of settlement evidence, and archaeologists studying their history have had to rely on environmental remains to reconstruct their pasts. This book contains three major studies: The origins of horse husbandry on the Eurasian Steppe (M Levine); The eneolithic of the Black Sea Steppe: The dynamics of cultural and economic development 4500-2300 BC (Y Rassamakin), and The Eastern Ural steppe at the end of the Stone Age (A Kislenko and N Tatarintseva). Each presents evidence that has not previously been available to European prehistorians. The whole provides an important contribution to European prehistory, and provides background to the ongoing discussions on the prehistory of language.
Hardback | £40/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-03-8 | 216 pp | 133 ills. | 26 tables | 1999
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Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages
Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages

edited by Peter Forster & Colin Renfrew
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. But which phylogenetic methods are best suited to retracing the evolution of languages? And which types of language data are most informative about deep prehistory? In this book, leading specialists engage with these key questions.
Hardback | £20/US$40 | ISBN 978-1-902937-33-5 | 220 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 50 ills | 2006
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Archaeoacoustics
Archaeoacoustics

edited by Chris Scarre & Graeme Lawson
Archaeoacoustics focuses on the role of sound in human behaviour, from earliest times up to the development of mechanical detection and recording devices in the nineteenth century. Megalithic tombs, Palaeolithic painted caves, Romanesque churches and prehistoric rock shelters all present specific sound qualities which offer clues as to how they may have been designed and used. Archaeoacoustics brings together archaeologists and specialists in early musical instruments and acoustics in an attempt to unlock some of the meaning latent in the acoustics of such early structures and spaces.
Hardback | £25/US$50 | ISBN 978-1-902937-35-9 | x+126 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | ills | 118 pp. | 59 ills. | 2006
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Stone Knapping: the Necessary Conditions for a Uniquely Hominin Behaviour
Stone Knapping: the Necessary Conditions for a Uniquely Hominin Behaviour

edited by Valentine Roux & Blandine Bril
How were early stone tools made, and what can they tell us about the development of human cognition? This question lies at the basis of archaeological research on human origins and evolution, and Stone Knapping fulfils a growing need among advanced students and researchers working in this field. The individual chapters by a range of leading international scholars approach stone knapping from a multidisciplinary perspective that embraces psychology, physiology, behavioural biology and primatology as well as archaeology.
Hardback | £60/US$120 | ISBN 978-1-902937-34-2 | xii+356 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 143 ills | 2005
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