Eurasia at the Dawn of History: Urbanization and Social Change

　　Edited by Manuel Fernández-Götz and Dirk Krausse

　　Cambridge University Press, 2017

　　K861.13/Eu71(KG)

　　Our current world is characterized by life in cities, the existence of social inequalities, and increasing individualization. When and how did these phenomena arise? What was the social and economic background for the development of hierarchies and the first cities? The authors of this volume analyse the processes of centralization, cultural interaction, and social differentiation that led to the development of the first urban centres and early state formations of ancient Eurasia, from the Atlantic coasts to China. The chronological framework spans a period from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, with a special focus on the early first millennium BC.

　　  By adopting an interdisciplinary approach structured around the concepts of identity and materiality, this book addresses the appearance of a range of key phenomena that continue to shape our world.

　　Medieval and post-medieval ceramics in the eastern Mediterranean

　　Edited by Joanita Vroom

　　Brepols, 2015

　　The focus in this varied collection of studies by key scholars in the field is on material culture (particularly ceramics) of the eastern Mediterranean during Medieval and Post-Medieval times. The scope of the contributions encompasses archaeological remains of the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World, the Crusader States, the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The volume offers a state of the art of an often still little known territory in archaeological, which makes it essential reading for scholars and a larger audience alike.

　　Museums and Archaeology: Leicester reader In Museum Studies

　　Robin Skeates

　　Routledge, 2017

　　K85/M972(KG)

　　Museums and Archaeology brings together a wide, but carefully chosen, selection of literature from around the world that connects museums and archaeology. Part of the successful Leicester Readers in Museum Studies series, it provides a combination of issue- and practice-based perspectives. As such, it is a volume not only for students and researchers from a range of disciplines interested in museum, gallery and heritage studies, including public archaeology and cultural resource management(CRM), but also the wide range of professionals and volunteers in the museum and heritage sector who work with archaeological collections.

　　  The volume’s balance of theory and practice and its thematic and geographical breadth is explored and explained in an extended introduction, which situates the readings in the context of the extensive literature on museum archaeology, highlighting the many tensions that exist between idealistic ‘principles’ and real-life ‘practice’ and the debates that surround these. In addition to this, section introductions and the seminal pieces themselves provide a comprehensive and contextualised resource on the interplay of museums and archaeology.