Archaeologies of Empire
Local Participants and Imperial Trajectories
Edited by Anna L. Boozer, Bleda S. Düring, and Bradley J. Parker
Throughout history, a large portion of the world’s population has lived under imperial rule. Although scholars do not always agree on when and where the roots of imperialism lie, most would agree that imperial configurations have affected human history so profoundly that the legacy of ancient empires continues to structure the modern world in many ways. Empires are best described as heterogeneous and dynamic patchworks of imperial configurations in which imperial power was the outcome of the complex interaction between evolving colonial structures and various types of agents in highly contingent relationships. The goal of this volume is to harness the work of the “next generation” of empire scholars in order to foster new theoretical and methodological perspectives that are of relevance within and beyond archaeology and to foreground empires as a cross-cultural category. This book demonstrates how archaeological research can contribute to our conceptualization of empires across disciplinary boundaries.
2020. 344 pp., 6 x 9, 53 halftones, 10 tables
Contributors: Sonia Alconini, Anna L. Boozer, Sofia Chacaltana, Bleda S. Düring, Donna Nash, Lisa Overholtzer, Bradley J. Parker, Stuart Tyson Smith, Patrick Ryan Williams, Alice Yao
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Watch the editors discuss their work with Peter Perdue (co-editor of Imperial Formations, SAR Press, 2007) in SAR Press Book Talk: Archaeologies of Empire.
“Overall, this volume represents a welcome addition to the study of empires—one that puts agents and diversity at center stage. Departing from traditional models and simplistic typologies, Archaeologies of Empire encourages readers to envision empires as produced and reproduced by individuals who have different, and sometimes contradictory, stakes in the imperial project.”
—Véronique Bélisle, Millsaps College, American Antiquity, September 2021 (doi:10.1017/aaq.2021.104)
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Bradley J. Parker in Memoriam
Bleda S. Düring and Patrick Ryan Williams
Chapter One. Archaeologies of Empire: An Introduction
Bleda S. Düring, Anna L. Boozer, and Bradley J. Parker
Chapter Two. Colonial Entanglements: Imperial Dictate, Individual Action, and Intercultural Interaction in Nubia
Stuart Tyson Smith
Chapter Three. The Great Wall as Destination? Archaeology of Migration and Settlers under the Han Empire
Alice Yao
Chapter Four. Inka Provinces of the Kallawaya and Yampara: Imperial Power, Regional Political Developments, and Elite Competition
Sonia Alconini
Chapter Five. Agents of Empire: Imperial Agendas and Provincial Realities in Roman Egypt
Anna L. Boozer
Chapter Six. The Assyrian Threshold: Explaining Imperial Consolidation in the Early Assyrian Empire
Bleda S. Düring
Chapter Seven. Historical Time and Imperial Formation in Aztec Mexico
Lisa Overholtzer
Chapter Eight. Wari and Tiwanaku: Early Imperial Repertoires in Andean South America
Patrick Ryan Williams, Donna Nash, and Sofia Chacaltana
Chapter Nine. Re-modeling Empire
Bradley J. Parker
Chapter Ten. Conclusions
Anna L. Boozer and Bleda S. Düring
References
Contributors
Index
- The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Gil J. Stein, 2005
- Archaic State Interaction: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age, edited by William A. Parkinson and Michael L. Galaty, 2010
- Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas, edited by Matthew Liebmann and Melissa S. Murphy, 2011
- Imperial Formations, edited by Ann Stoler, Carole McGranahan, and Peter Perdue, 2007
- Law & Empire in the Pacific: Fiji and Hawai’i, edited by Sally Engle Merry and Donald Brenneis, 2004