Product Description
Visions from the Past is a clear and comprehensive examination of Aboriginal rock art. It also provides a practical overview of precisely how and why archaeologist study prehistoric art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of 'Visions of the Past'
This is an excellent book.It is comprehensive, well written and well produced.It is excellent value. ... Read more

Product Description

This field manual provides essential background information for those interested in undertaking archaeology in Australia. Professional archaeologists provide their personal tips for working in each state and territory, dealing with a living heritage, working with Aboriginal peoples, and coping with Australian conditions. Grounded in the social, political and ethical issues that inform Australian archaeology today, this book is also packed with practical advice.

Product Description

Maritime archaeology and underwater cultural heritage management have become well established over the past twenty years or so in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Australia. During that period Australian researchers and underwater cultural heritage managers have conducted a significant number of important maritime archaeological investigations and have developed innovative approaches to the discipline.

Subject areas discussed in this book include shipwrecks and abandoned vessels, underwater site formation processes, maritime infrastructure and industries such as whaling, submerged aircraft and Australian Indigenous sites underwater. The application of National and State legislation and management regimes to these underwater cultural heritage sites is also highlighted, together with the important role of avocational divers and training programs in raising the profile of underwater and maritime heritage sites.

The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of work conducted both in Australia and by Australian maritime archaeologists in the Asia-Pacific region. This book will be of interest to students and practitioners of maritime and historical archaeology and cultural heritage managers throughout the world as example of good practice and innovative approaches to maritime archaeology.

Product Description
This book challenges traditional perceptions of Australian Aboriginal prehistory: that environment is the major determinant of hunter-gatherers; that Aborigines were egalitarian and culturally homogeneous; that they experienced few economic and demographic changes. Lourandos argues that their social and economic processes were complex and that the prehistory period was dynamic. Lourandos considers colonization, Tasmanian Aborigines, the role of fire, the intensification debate, plant exploitation and other prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. ... Read more

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The Greek colonization movement of the Early Iron Age, which in many ways heralded the expansion of Western civilization all over the world, has always exerted a special fascination for those interested in ancient cultures. This collection of essays by scholars from fifteen countries examines the interrelation between colonizers and the colonized, and the process that led ancient Greek colonies to the emergence of new cultural forms and concepts. Stressing the ways archaeology contributes to our understanding of colonization movements, both in ancient and modern times, the book also presents some fascinating comparative material on Australia's own colonization experience since 1788. ... Read more

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This bold and rigorous examination of the popular, cultural, and political aspects of the development of Australian archaeology draws on a wide variety of sources including media, government files, film and radio documentaries, interviews, and firsthand involvement in archaeological projects.Through the critical analysis of some major Australian archaeological projects, du Cros draws out crucial ethical debates, such as conservation versus commercialism, "science" versus indigenous spirituality and self-determination, and popular access versus technical elitism, challenging preconceived notions about Australia's cultural history and how this history has been formed through archaeology. ... Read more

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This book is an introduction to the archaeology of Australia from prehistoric times to the eighteenth century AD. It is the only up-to-date textbook on the subject and is designed for undergraduate courses, based on the author's considerable experience of teaching at the Australian National University. Lucidly written, it shows the diversity and colourfulness of the history of humanity in the southern continent.

The Archaeology of Ancient Australia demonstrates with an array of illustrations and clear descriptions of key archaeological evidence from Australia a thorough evaluation of Australian prehistory. Readers are shown how this human past can be reconstructed from archaeological evidence, supplemented by information from genetics, environmental sciences, anthropology, and history. The result is a challenging view about how varied human life in the ancient past has been.

Customer Reviews (1)

A very useful book about Australian Aborigines
The book covers all the time between the arrival of Homo sapiens on Australian continent, discuss the most important archaeological sites and traces the line toward actual Aborigines. ... Read more

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Focusing on the city of Armidale during the period 1830 to1930, this book investigates the relationship between the developmentof capitalism in a particular region (New England, Australia) and theexpression of ideology within architectural style. The author analyzeshow style encodes meaning and how it relates to the social contextsand relationships within capitalism, which in turn are related to theconstruction of ideology over time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Review
`This volume is a welcome addition to the study of architecture from archaeological perspective ... this body of data from the rural city of Armidale will provide useful comparative material for similar studies undertaken in other former British colonies, for example, in the United States and South Africa. '

Historical Archaeology, 35:2 (2001)

Review
`Heather Burke has produced a very important, perhaps landmark study using archaeological evidence to interpret and understand the evolving boundaries of class and status in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I recommend this book to all historical archaeologists interested in issues of class structure, ideology, material culture or reading building fabric.'

Australasian Historical Archaeology, 18 (2000)

Review
`The study of capitalism challenges archaeologists and thus it is impressive when a scholar succesfully rises to this challenge. Meaning and Ideology in Historical Archaeology meets this challenge and should be read by any scholar interested in understanding capitalism.'

American Antiquity, 66:1 (2001) ... Read more

Product Description
The origins of rock art in Australia are probably as old as that of the hunter-gatherers of Western Europe, well-known for the prehistoric caves of Altamira and Lascaux. That the practice of painting and engraving on rocks continues in parts of northern and central Australia emphasises the importance of this art as a source of visual information for Australia's indigenous communities, Rock art can be 'read' to determine cultural processes and provides a durable record of thousands of years of cultural change. This book is an extensive survey of Australian rock art, presenting detailed case studies revealing the significance of both recent and ancient art for Australia's living indigenous communities. Archaeological data provides evidence of the ways in which rock art traditions have changed over 15,000 or more years in response to changes in the environment, the development of new forms of social organisation and the impact of European colonial settlement. ... Read more