In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology - Hardcover

Fagan, Brian M.

3.63

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9780673525246: In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0673525244 ISBN 13: 9780673525246

Publisher: Taylor & Francis, 1996

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Brian M. Fagan begins with a summary history of the subject, overviewing the objectives and processes of archaeological research and the basic principles of culture, context, and dating methods. He describes how archaeologists find, excavate, and analyze sites, artifacts, and food remains, reinforcing complex material throughout with diverse examples. The book examines some of the major theoretical approaches to archaeological interpretation and shows how archaeologists use such techniques as ethnographic analogy, middle range theory, and controlled experimentation to interpret the past. The closing chapters summarize major theoretical debates and advances as well as discuss the role of archaeology in the modern world. The ninth edition places new emphasis on remote sensing techniques for archaeological survey, addresses the study of gender and ethnic diversity from the archaeological record, and assesses the importance of archaeology in the modern world. Comprehensively illustrated, the book contains a guide to further reading and a glossary of major archaeological sites mentioned in the text.

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From the Back Cover:

Prentice Hall's exclusive Companion Website that accompanies In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology, Tenth Edition, offers unique tools and support that make it easy for students and instructors to integrate this online study guide with the text. The site is a comprehensive resource that is organized according to the chapters within the text and features a variety of learning and teaching modules:

For Students:

Study Guide Modules contain a variety of exercises and features designed to help students with self-study. These modules include:

Chapter objectives that help students organize key concepts to be learned
Essay questions that help strengthen critical thinking skills
Quizzes with multiple-choice and true-false questions that supply instant scoring and feedback on student mastery of core material
Built-in e-mail routing option that gives students the ability to forward essay responses and graded quizzes to their instructors.

Reference Modules contain Web Destinations and Net Search options that provide the opportunity to expand upon the information presented in the text. Whether through a directory of websites relevant to the subject matter of a chapter or by simplifying key-term searching by automatically inserting terms from a chapter into major search engines, these reference features enable students to quickly reach related information on the web.
Communication Modules include tools such as Live Chat and Message Boards to facilitate online collaboration and communication.
Personalization Modules include our enhanced Help feature that contains a text page for browsers and plug-ins.

For Instructors:

Syllabus Manager tool provides an easy-to-follow process for creating, posting, and revising a syllabus online that is accessible from any point within the Companion Website . This resource allows instructors and students to communicate both inside and outside of the classroom at the click of a button.

The Companion Website makes integrating the Internet into your course exciting and easy. Join us online at the address above and enter a new world of teaching and learning possibilities and opportunities.

About the Author:

Brian Fagan is one of the leading archaeological writers and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and then spent seven years in sub-Saharan Africa working in museums and in monuments conservation and excavating early farming sites in Zambia and East Africa. He was one of the pioneers of multidisciplinary African history in the 1960s. From 1967 to 2003, he was professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in lecturing and writing about archaeology to wide audiences. He is now Emeritus Professor of Anthropology.

Brian Fagan has written six best-selling textbooks (all published by Prentice Hall): Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory; In the Beginning, Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; World Prehistory; Ancient Civilizations (with Chris Scarre); and this volume which are used around the world. His general books include The Rape of the Nile, a classic history of Egyptology; The Adventure of Archaeology Time Detectives; Ancient North America; The Little Ice Age; Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants; and The Long Summer. He was also General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Archaeology. In addition, he has published several scholarly monographs on African archaeology and numerous specialized articles in national and international journals. An expert on multimedia teaching, he has received the Society for American Archaeology's first Public Education Award for his indefatigable efforts on behalf of archaeology and education.

Brian Fagan's other interests include bicycling, sailing, kayaking, and good food. He is married and lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and daughter, four cats (who supervise his writing), and last but not least, a minimum of four rabbits.

Christopher R. DeCorse received his bachelor of arts and master's degrees in anthropology and archaeology at the University of New Hampshire and the University of California, Los Angeles, completing his doctorate in archaeology at UCLA. His theoretical interests include the interpretation of ethnicity, culture change, and variability in the archaeological record. Dr. DeCorse has excavated a variety of prehistoric and historic period sites in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa, but his primary area of research has been in the archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography of Sierra Leone and Ghana. His most recent research has focused on culture contact and change at the African settlement of Elmina, Ghana, the site of the first European trading post in sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently collaborating on several projects that are examining connections between Africa and the Americas.

Christopher DeCorse has taught archaeology and general anthropology in a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs, including the University of Ghana, Legon; Indiana University, Pennsylvania; and Syracuse University, New York, where he is currently an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is particularly interested in the interpretation and presentation of anthropology for under graduates and the general public. In addition to In the Beginning, he has authored The Record of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology and Physical Anthropology, and co-authored Anthropology: A Global Perspective, a four-field anthropology text, and Worldviews in Human Expression, an introduction to the humanities from an anthropological perspective. He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Annual Editions in physical anthropology and archaeology, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Journal of African Archaeology, and Beads: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers. He has participated on a number of committees and panels, including work as a consultant on human evolution and agricultural origins for the National Center for History in the Schools.

Christopher DeCorse has received several academic honors and awards, including Fulbright and Smithsonian fellowships and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for outstanding teaching, research, and service. He has published more than forty articles, reviews, and research notes in a variety of publications, including The African Archaeological Review, Journal of African Archaeology, Historical New Hampshire, Historical Archaeology, and Slavery and Abolition. Books dealing with his work in West Africa include An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast and an edited volume West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives.

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