As an archaeologist with primary research and training experience in North American arid lands, I have always found the European Stone Age remote and impenetrable. My initial introduction, during a survey course on world prehis tory, established that (for me, at least) it consisted of more cultures, dates, and named tool types than any undergraduate ought to have to remember. I did not know much, but I knew there were better things I could be doing on a Saturday night. In any event, after that I never seriously entertained any notion of pur suing research on Stone Age Europe-that course was enough for me. That's a pity, too, because Paleolithic Europe-especially in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene-was the scene of revolutionary human adaptive change. Iron ically, all of it was amenable to investigation using precisely the same models and analytical tools I ended up spending the better part of two decades applying in the Great Basin of western North America. Back then, of course, few were thinking about the late Paleolithic or Me solithic in such terms. Typology, classification, and chronology were the order of the day, as the text for my undergraduate course reflected. Jochim evidently bridled less than I at the task of mastering these chronotaxonomic mysteries, yet he was keenly aware of their limitations-in particular, their silence on how individual assemblages might be connected as part of larger regional subsis tence-settlement systems.

Bringing together an international set of scholars, this volume presents integrative theoretical and methodological perspectives linking two complementary approaches in anthropological archaeology: cultural landscapes and human ecology. Authors grapple with issues ranging from the hunter-gatherer populations of North America and the emergence of the Neolithic in Europe to contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, using approaches from ethnoarchaeology to geomorphology, and methodological specialties from stable isotopes to social networks, in order to shed light on prehistoric human adaptations and how they produce cultural variation on a landscape scale. Together, contributions to this volume illustrate how interdisciplinary and integrative perspectives can aid archaeology by providing the means necessary to interpret and explain long-term records of human activity. This book capitalizes on the unique position of archaeology, and the long-term records of human ecology and cultural resilience the discipline develops, to make significant contributions to contemporary discussions of long-term climate human-environment interactions throughout the Holocene. The book is therefore produced during a perfect time in which other disciplines are focusing on the unique contribution that can be made by archaeology.

Marking the Land investigates how hunter-gatherers use physical landscape markers and environmental management to impose meaning on the spaces they occupy. The land is full of meaning for hunter-gatherers. Much of that meaning is inherent in natural phenomena, but some of it comes from modifications to the landscape that hunter-gatherers themselves make. Such alterations may be intentional or unintentional, temporary or permanent, and they can carry multiple layers of meaning, ranging from practical signs that provide guidance and information through to less direct indications of identity or abstract, highly symbolic signs of sacred or ceremonial significance. This volume investigates the conditions which determine the investment of time and effort in physical landscape marking by hunter-gatherers, and the factors which determine the extent to which these modifications are symbolically charged. Considering hunter-gatherer groups of varying sociocultural complexity and scale, Marking the Land provides a systematic consideration of this neglected aspect of hunter-gatherer adaptation and the varied environments within which they live.

The role of place-making and architecture in mobile cultures The relationship of hunter-gatherer societies to the built environment is often overlooked or characterized as strictly utilitarian in archaeological research. Taking on deeper questions of cultural significance and social inheritance, this volume offers a more robust examination of houses as not only places of shelter but also of memory, history, and social cohesion within these communities. Bringing together case studies from Europe, Asia, and North and South America, More Than Shelter from the Storm utilizes a diverse array of methodologies including radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeology, refitting studies, and material culture studies to reframe the conversation around hunter-gatherer houses. Discussing examples of built structures from the Pleistocene through Late Holocene periods, contributors investigate how these societies created a sense of home through symbolic decoration, ritual, and transformative interaction with the landscape. Demonstrating that meaningful relationships with architecture are not limited to sedentary societies that construct permanent houses, the essays in this volume highlight the complexity of mobile cultures and demonstrate the role of place-making and the built environment in structuring their worldviews. Contributors: Brian Andrews | Amy E. Clark | Margaret W. Conkey | Kelly Eldridge | Randy Haas | Knut A. Helskog | Bryan C. Hood | Sebastien Lacombe | Danielle Macdonald | Lisa Maher | Brooke Morgan | Christopher Morgan | Gustavo Neme | Lauren Norman | Matthew O’Brien | Spencer Pelton | Sarah Ranlett | Vladimir Shumkin | Kathleen Sterling | Todd Surovell | Christopher B. Wolff

This set of papers by European and North American archaeologists explore the interface between new spatial technologies and areas of theoretical concern in spatial archaeology. Differing aspects of landscape, such as vision, perception and movement, are explored through a series of case studies that focus on how spatial technologies can influence archaeological interpretation and to what extent these new technologies can be manipulated to take us beyond 2-dimensional maps. Individual site-based analyses and new applications of predictive modelling are also presented and assessed together with the wider questions of spatial technologies within heritage management.

Newfoundland lies at the intersection of arctic and more temperate regions and, commensurate with this geography, populations of two Amerindian and two Paleoeskimo cultural traditions occupied Port au Choix, in northern Newfoundland, Canada, for centuries and millennia. Over the past two decades The Port au Choix Archaeology Project has sought a comparative understanding of how these different cultures, each with their particular origin and historical trajectory, adapted to the changing physical and social environments, impacted their physical surroundings, and created cultural landscapes. This volume brings together the research of Renouf, her colleagues and her students who together employ multiple perspectives and methods to provide a detailed reconstruction and understanding of the long-term history of Port au Choix. Although geographically focussed on a northern coastal area, this volume has wider implications for understanding archaeological landscapes, human-environment interactions and hunter-gatherer societies.