Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

This two-volume set was edited by Lothar von Falkenhausen and authored by Suzanne E. Cahill with essays by K.E. Brashier, Charlotte Horlyck, Li Jaang, Guolong Lai, Colin Mackenzie, Li Min, David A. Scott, Lillian Lan-ying Tseng, and Hanmo Zhang.

Volume I, The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors: Catalogue, includes an engaging foreword by Lloyd Cotsen, an overview of major Chinese dynasties and periods, and a brief history of Chinese bronze mirrors by Suzanne E. Cahill. This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the extensive Cotsen Collection through high-quality images and illustrations of the mirrors in their approximate chronological sequence. Volume II, a set of eleven scholarly essays, goes further to investigate these mirrors as a study collection.

Guided by the conviction that this particular constellation of mirrors may lead to substantive insights that cannot easily be obtained otherwise, the leading scholars who contributed to this volume used the materials in Volume I as a point of departure for explorations of topics of their own choice. The publication of this two-volume set preceded an exhibition of the mirrors at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens and the return of the collection to China in recognition of that country’s rightful cultural patrimony.

The Incas carried out some of the most dramatic ceremonies known to us from ancient times. Groups of people walked hundreds of miles across arid and mountainous terrain to perform them on mountains over 20,000 feet high. The most important offerings made during these pilgrimages involved human sacrifices (capacochas). Although Spanish chroniclers wrote about these offerings and the state sponsored processions of which they were a part, their accounts were based on second-hand sources, and the only direct evidence we have of the capacocha sacrifices comes to us from archaeological excavations.

Some of the most thoroughly documented of these were undertaken on high mountain summits, here the material evidence has been exceptionally well preserved. In this study we describe the results of research undertaken on Mount Llullaillaco (6,739 m/22,109 feet), which has the world’s highest archaeological site. The types of ruins and artifact assemblages recovered are described and analyzed. By comparing the archaeological evidence with the chroniclers’ accounts and with findings from other mountaintop sites, common patterns are demonstrated; while at the same time previously little known elements contribute to our understanding of key aspects of Inca religion. This study illustrates the importance of archaeological sites being placed within the broader context of physical and sacred features of the natural landscape.

Volume 2 presents the concluding research on Sitagroi, a prehistoric settlement mound in northeastern Greece, excavated between 1968 and 1970. This volume offers a detailed report on the plant remains along with a full treatment of craft and technology: artifacts of adornment; tools of bone and flaked stone; artifacts and tools of bone and ground and polished stone (and petrology); tools of the spinner, weaver and mat maker; pottery technology; metallurgy; and special clay finds such as seals, miniatures, and utensils. This rich presentation offers unparalleled insights into the life of the prehistoric inhabitants of the area. Sitagroi now becomes one of the most comprehensively published sites from prehistoric Europe and will be indispensable for all those concerned with European prehistory.

This volume is a collection of essays by colleagues, friends, and students of William M. Sumner in appreciation of his outstanding contribution to Iranian archaeology, especially to our archaeological knowledge of Fars, a center of Iranian civilization.

Honoring Jane Buikstra’s pioneering work in the development of archaeobiological research, the essays in this volume stem from a symposium held at an annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Buikstra’s redefinition of the term “bioarchaeology” to focus specifically on human skeletal data in historical and anthropological contexts, and the impact of her mentorship on developing scholars in the field, are acknowledged and celebrated by the wide-ranging contributions in The Dead Tell Tales.

They highlight the dynamism of bioarchaeology, documenting the degree to which this discipline has become integrated into anthropological research, and has become essential to the interpretation of archaeological data. Sections organized geographically present topics in North America, Central and South America, and the Old World, and discuss such diverse subjects as animal effigies, the archaeology of cemeteries, childhood diets in Copan, an analysis of skeletal trauma in samples from a medieval to early modern Danish cemetery, the social aspects of leprosy, and the role and origins of individuals who labored in a Byzantine prison mining camp in southern Jordan.

Series: Monographs 76

California’s northern Channel Islands have one of the longest and best-preserved archaeological records in the Americas, spanning some 13,000 calendar years. When European explorers first traveled to the area, these islands were inhabited by the Chumash, some of the most populous and culturally complex hunter-gatherers known.

Chumash society was characterized by hereditary leaders, sophisticated exchange networks and interaction spheres, and diverse maritime economies. Focusing on the archaeology of five sites dated to the last 3,000 years, this book examines the archaeology and historical ecology of San Miguel Island, the westernmost and most isolated of the northern Channel Islands. Detailed faunal, artifact, and other data are woven together in a diachronic analysis that investigates the interplay of social and ecological developments on this unique island. The first to focus solely on San Miguel Island archaeology, this book examines issues ranging from coastal adaptations to emergent cultural complexity to historical ecology and human impacts on ancient environments.

Series: Perspectives in California Archaeology 8

The product of ten years of fieldwork at Little Lake Ranch in the Rose Valley, the southern gateway to the Owens Valley, this book presents the results of intensive rock art analyses carried out by the interdisciplinary research team of the UCLA Rock Art Archive. The research attempts to establish a connective web of associations to break down traditional but artificial barriers between rock art and the rest of archaeology. Through time-honored methods of stylistic analysis, the focus is on recent breakthroughs in the analysis of meaning and religion in the context of landscape attributes and ecological opportunities. Regional or ethnic differences suggested by the rock art record has made it possible to create a flexible analytical framework.

This book describes the occurrence, concentration, distribution, and formal variation of pecked and painted motifs. Scratched, pecked, and painted patterns are analyzed separately. Full-color illustrations throughout enhance the physical appeal of this beautiful book. overlooked archaeological excavation and object data.

Machu Picchu, voted one of the New Wonders of the World, is one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, yet it remains a mystery. Even the most basic questions are still unanswered: What was its meaning and why was it built in such a difficult location? Renowned explorer Johan Reinhard attempts to answer such elusive questions from the perspectives of sacred landscape and archaeoastronomy.

Using information gathered from historical, archaeological, and ethnographical sources, Reinhard demonstrates how the site is situated in the center of sacred mountains and associated with a sacred river, which is in turn symbolically linked with the sun's passage. Taken together, these features meant that Machu Picchu formed a cosmological, hydrological, and sacred geological center for a vast region.

Series: World Heritage and Monument 1