Study of prehistoric archaeology

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 173-177
Author(s):  
Virender Singh
Keyword(s):  
Prehistoric Archaeology

scholarly journals The effects of publishing processes on scientific thought: Typography and typology in prehistoric archaeology (1950s–1990s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-297
Author(s):  
Sébastien Plutniak
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Scientific Publishing ◽  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Editorial Policies ◽  
Publication Data ◽  
File Formats ◽  
Wide Scale

ArgumentIn the last decades, many changes have occurred in scientific publishing, including online publication, data repositories, file formats and standards. The role played by computers in this process rekindled the argument on forms of technical determinism. This paper addresses this old debate by exploring the case of publishing processes in prehistoric archaeology during the second part of the twentieth century, prior to the wide-scale adoption of computers. It investigates the case of a collective and international attempt to standardize the typological analysis of prehistoric lithic objects, coined typologie analytique by Georges Laplace and developed by a group of French, Italian, and Spanish researchers. The aim of this paper is to: 1) present a general bibliometric scenario of prehistoric archaeology publishing in continental Europe; 2) report on the little-known typologie analytique method in archaeology, using publications, archives, and interviews; 3) show how the publication of scientific production was shaped by social (editorial policies, support networks) and material (typography features and publication formats) constraints; and 4) highlight how actors founded resources to control and counterbalance these effects, namely by changing and improving publishing formats.

Australian prehistoric archaeology

2004 ◽  
Vol 2004 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fullagar
Keyword(s):  
Prehistoric Archaeology

Spear Butts or Sceptre Heads? Towards the Ferrules from Lori Berd

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Seda Devedjyan ◽  
Ruben Davtyan
Keyword(s):  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
Phd Thesis

H. Martirosyan’s contribution in the development of archaeology in Armenia is enormous. Thanks to his efforts, the archaeology in Armenia reached a new level. As for our article, it is important to mention that the excavations at the necropolis of Lori Berd were initiated and supported by H. Martirosyan, who was the head of the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Soviet Armenia back then. Moreover, he supervised the PhD thesis of S. Devedjyan (one of the contributors of this article).

scholarly journals At the Edge of Knowability: Towards a Prehistory of Languages

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Genetics ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Pleistocene Period ◽  
Demographic Processes

The issue of ‘knowability’ in relation to the origins and distribution of the language families of the world is addressed, and recent advances in historical linguistics and molecular genetics reviewed. While the much-debated problem of the validity of the concept of the language ‘macrofamily’ cannot yet be resolved, it is argued that a time depth for the origins of language families greater than the conventional received figure of c. 6000 years may in some cases be appropriate, allowing the possibility of a correlation between language dispersals and demographic processes following the end of the Pleistocene period. The effects of these processes may still be visible in the linguistic ‘spread zones’, here seen as often the result of farming dispersals, contrasting with the linguistic ‘mosaic zones’ whose early origins may sometimes go back to initial colonization episodes during the late Pleistocene period. If further work in historical linguistics as well as in archaeology and molecular genetics upholds these correlations a ‘new synthesis’, whose outlines may already be discerned, is likely to emerge. This would have important consequences for prehistoric archaeology, and would be of interest also to historical linguists and molecular geneticists. If, however, the proposed recognition of such patterning proves illusory the prospects for ‘knowability’ appear to be less favourable.

Childe, Marxism, and Knowledge

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 181-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gathercole
Keyword(s):  
European Society ◽  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Independent Entity

Childe withdrew from revolutionary politics after his post-university years in Australia in favour of a career in prehistoric archaeology in Britain. Though remaining a Marxist, his application of Marxist principles to prehistory developed only slowly as his interpretations became more sophisticated. He became increasingly interested in knowledge about prehistory from studying results of the interactions between material remains and their interpretation (in Marxist terms, the relationships between practice and theory). In his paper ‘Retrospect’, Childe (1958b:73) charted the development in his thinking to where he rejected ‘transcendental laws determining history and mechanical causes … automatically shaping its course’ with an understanding that a prehistoric society's knowledge of itself was ‘known or knowable … with its then existing material and conceptual equipment’. Thus the prehistory of Europe could be seen not as a product of Oriental civilization, but as an independent entity. Childe could then write a prehistory of Europe ‘that should be both historical and scientific’ (1958b:74). This book, The Prehistory of European Society (1958a), also demonstrated his use of the epistemology of knowledge to understand prehistory as a sociological phenomenon.

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