Nationalism and Archaeology in Europe (Routledge Library Editions: Archaeology)

Archaeologists from many different European countries here explore the very varied relationship between nationalistic ideas and archaeological activity through the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The resurgence of nationalism was one of the most prominent features of the European political scene in the 1990s, when this book was originally published. The past provides a large supply of ideas and images to support the claims of national identity deeply rooted in remote generations. The remote past revealed by archaeology also plays a part – heroes, heroines, golden ages long disappeared, objects to admire, and sites to provoke the memory, all called on to further the cause of nationalism. Drawing on the authoritative insights of the indigenous contributors, this book examines the issues throughout modern Europe. All of the chapters share a concern to see archaeology and the study of the past as intimately related to contemporary social and political questions. The present shapes the way we think about the past but the past also provides us with evidence for thinking about the present. These issues are timeless and this comprehensive examination of a host of issues remains important for historians and those pursuing nationalistic politics. This book is one of a series of volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986 which addressed world archaeology in its widest sense, investigating how people lived in the past and how and why changes took place to result in the forms of society and culture which exist now. The series brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who could lend their own expertise to the discussions. This book is an exploration of the way in which the animal world features in the works of art of a variety of cultures of different times and places. Contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives for looking at the complex ways in which past and present humans have interrelated with beings they classify as animals. Some of the approaches are predominantly economic and ecological, some are symbolic and others philosophical or theological. All these different views are included in the interpretation of the artworks of the past, revealing some of the foci and inspirations of cultural attitudes to animals. Originally published 1989 In this book, archaeologists from many different European countries have come together to explore the varied relationship between nationalistic ideas and archaeological activity throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The resurgence of nationalism has been a prominent feature of the European political scene in the 1990s. The collapse of the Soviet Union has given rise to the re-establishment of a sense of ethnic identity for many peoples, while in western Europe the continuing debate about federalization has concentrated attention on questions of individual national identity. This comprehensive examination of a host of fascinating issues will be essential reading for archaeologists but will also interest historians and others studying the interaction between perceptions of the past and the pursuit of nationalistic politics Experimental archaeology is a new approach to the study of early man. By reconstructing and testing models of ancient equipment with the techniques available to early man, we learn how he lived, hunted, fought and built. What did early man eat? How did he store and cook his food? How did he make his tools and weapons and pottery? Such everyday questions, besides the more dramatic mysteries associated with the monuments of Easter Island and Stonehenge and the colonization of Polynesia, can all be explored by experiment A comprehensive discussion of what can be established about the culture and daily life of medieval Germany. Besides methodological questions, the author considers what can be learnt about the history of settlement and architecture, of technology, of economic and social matters, of churches and missions, and of population, diet and vegetation. This volume develops a new approach to plant exploitation and early agriculture in a worldwide comparative context. The studies throughout the book come from a worldwide range of geographical contexts, from the Andes to China and from Australia to the Upper Mid-West of North America. Originally published 1989.