Antiquity 2020 Vol.

94 (377): 1387–1394
https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.180

New Book Chronicle

Claire Nesbitt
“What can archaeology do for justice, peace, community and the Earth?” (Little 2009: 115)

Barbara Little’s ambitious question challenged archaeology to demonstrate that it was not an
indulgent discipline with little to offer the modern world, but rather that archaeology has real
benefits to offer society. This NBC features several books that answer Little’s call to arms in
different ways. Over the last 20 years, public engagement in archaeology has become more
prevalent and its benefits—both to the field and the public—are increasingly recognised.
We begin with two volumes that consider how communities might benefit from that engage-
ment with archaeology and the transformation that has taken place in heritage practice and
management in recent decades.

Ludomir R. Lozny & Thomas H. McGovern (ed.). 2019. Global perspectives on long term
community resource management. Cham: Springer; 978-3-030-15799-9 hardback €104.

The ‘tragedy of the commons’ was first explored by Garrett Hardin

(1968) who coined the term to describe a scenario whereby individ-
ual users deplete common resources and produce a negative effect on
the community at large. Global perspectives on long term community
resource management revisits the ‘tragedy of the commons’ in what
Carole Crumley describes in her foreword as “a broad and sophisti-
cated update” (p. vi). Ludomir Lozny and Thomas McGovern have
marshalled 12 chapters, written by authors from a range of disci-
plines, detailing case studies that consider contemporary and historic
management of communal-level resources. The case studies open
with James Acheson’s theoretical update on approaches to the com-
mons. Acheson challenges Hardin’s coercive solution to the problem and identifies the key
issue with that model as its inability to operate cross-culturally. Through a consideration of
economic theory, changes in the conception of property rights and theories of cooperation,
Acheson concludes that “some societies have been able to solve commons problems at a local
level by democratic means” (p. 10).
In their intriguingly titled chapter, ‘Trolls, water, time, and community’, Ragnhildur
Sigurðardóttir and her co-authors consider resource management in a lake basin in northern
Iceland. The paper details an integrated human-environmental study, which included geo-
science, archaeology, environmental and climate history, environmental humanities and trad-
itional local knowledge. Sigurðardóttir et al. use the legend of Kráka the troll woman to
demonstrate how traditional knowledge of land management has underpinned long-term

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community cooperation to protect their resources from changing climate and geomorph-
ology. The authors conclude that “the myth was a device that united people by asserting a
common goal in a common landscape. In doing so it transcended the fact of boundaries, pri-
vate land, and separate households” (p. 96), reinforcing Acheson’s claims that peaceable col-
lective cultural landscape and heritage management is possible.
As Lozny and McGovern state in their introduction, the success or failure of communal-
level resource management hinges on complex interactions between local, regional and global
political, economic and environmental forces. This volume demonstrates that these changes
have recurring patterns and trajectories. The authors of the studies in this volume advocate a
pro-active approach to ecological stresses that mitigate against disasters rather than reacting to
them. Lozny and McGovern’s volume offers a welcome hope for the ability of societies to
cooperate successfully to manage communal resources. Overturning Hardin’s sentiment,
they present “the ‘joy of the commons’, an approach to argue that cognitive (generosity)
and practical (cooperation) attributes govern collective action to mitigate risk and sustain
communal wellbeing” (p. 8). The papers in this volume reflect how the concept of ‘com-
mons’ is re-emerging in many parts of the world as a cross-disciplinary way of integrating heri-
tage management. All in all, this represents an uplifting read that presents positive solutions
to resource management in the future.

John H. Jameson & Sergiu Musteaţă (ed.). 2019. Transforming heritage practice in the 21st
century. Cham: Springer; 978-3-030-14326-8 hardback €94.

Transforming heritage practice in the 21st century takes the view that
communities and professionals have much to learn from each other.
Presented in light of the move from what the authors term the
‘expert approach’ prevalent in the twentieth century to a more recent
‘people-centred’ approach, this volume considers archaeological and
heritage projects that have public engagement and community
involvement at all stages of the project and its planning. The volume
boasts 60 international contributors and is divided into three parts
that deal with ‘Community archaeology at the intersections of heri-
tage and community’, ‘Catalysts for inclusive heritage at cultural
landscapes and parks’ and ‘Catalysts for inclusive heritage in new
knowledge creation and innovation’, respectively.
In the introduction, John Jameson outlines the focus of the volume, including what
happens when archaeological, heritage and community interests converge. Jameson emphasises
the importance of multivocalities and power-sharing, the creation of new narratives, authorised
heritage discourses and elitism, and how to develop participatory relationships that can be cat-
alysts for inclusive heritage. The three parts of the volume then go on to investigate their
respective subjects through case studies from a geographically diverse range of projects.
Sergiu Musteaţă suggests that there is an important difference between ‘public archae-
ology’ and ‘community archaeology’, whereby public archaeology represents the

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dissemination of archaeological research to a wider public audience, and community archae-

ology is “archaeology by the people for the people” (p. 45). Using the case study of Soroca
Fortress in Moldova, Musteaţă charts the public response to the project and the sometimes
difficult interactions between archaeologists and the public. The conclusion is that local com-
munities are receptive to involvement in archaeological projects and that more workshops and
opportunities for engagement are therefore necessary. Musteaţă feels that projects dealing
with archaeological heritage should always have community representation, believing that
“for efficient collaboration and heritage protection, only through cooperation can we educate
and empower real democratic society” (p. 45).
Heather Sebire sets out to demonstrate that “the quality of archaeology is better when
volunteers, local people and anyone who is an interested amateur contribute to it alongside
anyone who works in the profession” (p. 415). Using several case studies to support her
argument, she shows how alternative forms of participation can address different aspects of
engagement. Sebire advocates inclusion for everyone and a voice for all members of society
because “peoples’ lives are enriched by participation and having a voice in their historic
environment” (p. 428).
Uzi Baram’s paper looks at how heritage practices in Florida are being transformed
by public archaeology that embeds archaeology in communities, rather than simply
involving the community in archaeology at a superficial level. Baram considers how
the ‘Looking for Angola’ project, which sought the location of a first settlement
in the region, led to a community thinking through issues of race and identity, free-
dom and slavery, hidden histories and historical amnesia, to create a productive
model for heritage practice.
Collectively, the papers in the volume highlight that public involvement has a two-way
benefit and that increased stakeholder involvement, and power-sharing mechanisms that
encourage greater participation by lay people, benefit archaeology and heritage practice in
multiple ways.

Stephen W. Silliman (ed.). 2018. Engaging archaeology: 25 case studies in research practice.
Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell; 978-1-119-24050-1 paperback £27.50.

If the above volumes offer ways of integrating communities into

heritage research production, the next book examines how research
is really produced. Designed as an antidote to the polished research
paper that glosses over the pain of its production, Engaging archae-
ology provides honest and gritty accounts of “how archaeologists
actually do research” (p. 1). In refreshingly candid narratives,
31 contributors share their experiences of archaeological research
in 25 engaging case studies.
Opening her chapter with an erudite project mission statement,
Elizabeth Arkush goes on to present two versions of her project on
Pre-Columbian Andean hillforts. The first section of the chapter offers the official version of

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the hillfort project, a seamless description of a well-executed fieldwork season and its results,
outlining the inspiration for the project, its evolution and the theory and interpretation. Next
comes the uncut version; in this section, Arkush writes honestly about the difficulties of the
fieldwork. She reveals the real motivations for her choice of fieldwork and the competing
demands on her time, including the natural desire to spend time with her husband and
young baby, which made the time away from home more challenging. In a final section
that reflects on what might have been done differently, Arkush considers the roles of diffi-
culty, convenience, connections, developing ideas and just plain luck in the evolution of pro-
jects and fieldwork.
Tadhg O’Keeffe explores the problem of archaeological sites and monuments that are con-
sidered “‘done’ in the sense that historical and archaeological research has been published”
(p. 171), but also in the sense that the results are considered unassailable. Using Trim Castle
near Dublin, Ireland, as a case study, O’Keeffe considers how the canonised reports on such
monuments need not be considered the final word, nor the site considered off limits, but
rather that all sites, even iconic ones, “‘belong’ to all researchers who are interested in
them” (p. 171). Viewing the castle through the separate lenses of history, archaeology and
scholarship, O’Keeffe notes that while the monograph on the site is about the history of
the monument, it is also a part of that history. It has, after all, shaped the visitor experience
of the castle, both in terms of how it is understood and how it is experienced. In that sense,
the author sees the monograph itself as an agent of stasis, holding the site in the moment of its
interpretation. He also advocates a flexible approach to the formation of research questions,
which are sometimes discovered by first stumbling over the answer. Finally, O’Keeffe
recommends courage, “to be a researcher of consequence is to enter fearlessly into a contract
with posterity” (p. 176), leaving the reader and any aspiring researchers with the important
advice that all ideas are inevitably superseded, and that we should become more comfortable
with this fact.
In her chapter on archaeological projects in India, Uzma Rizvi offers an insight on
the importance of being self-reflexive when working in social and cultural spaces.
Rizvi discusses the importance of decolonising archaeological research and fieldwork
and how community engagement has proved effective at dismantling power structures.
She reminds us that any archaeological project has the potential to reiterate oppressive
structures and challenges us to ensure that our projects do not add to the inequity
of systems.
This volume is a refreshing read for all archaeological researchers, and a must for those just
beginning their archaeological careers. It is a book I wish I had been able to read sooner. The
case studies are fascinating in themselves, but, accompanied by the less frequently shared
experiences of the researchers—both the highs and lows—their value is increased. Authors
offer advice on how to enjoy the process of research, rather than its culmination in print
(Anna Agbe-Davies), and the importance of drinking tea and shifting methodologies in
dismantling the colonial power structures upon which an archaeologist may stand (Uzma
Rizvi). The message that echoes throughout the volume is to remain flexible and learn
how to value failure, for the experience of the archaeologist, as Arkush states, “is always getting
it wrong, but a little less wrong than before” (p. 22).

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Power and ritual in prehistory

Brian Hayden. 2018. The power of ritual in prehistory: secret societies and origins of social
complexity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-1-10-857207-1 hardback £90.

Brian Hayden’s book aims to situate ethnographic accounts of secret

societies in prehistory within archaeological consciousness in a way
that has so far been largely absent, and to highlight the roles of such
societies in a socio-political and religious context. These societies gen-
erally used supernatural justification to elicit surplus resources from the
community, thereby increasing their own wealth and power. Hayden
is interested in the power that secret societies wielded in the past, which
allowed them to demand the gruelling inauguration or participation
rituals that are revealed. As Hayden correctly states, “reading the
early ethnographic descriptions is not always for the faint of
heart”(p. 2). Threats to authority, dissent or trespassing on the secret activities of these societies
often appear to have resulted in violence or death.
The book is divided into three sections dealing with ethnographic case studies from ‘The
New World’, ‘The Old World’ and their ‘Implications for archaeology’, respectively. The vol-
ume is designed so that sections and chapters are self-contained for those who wish to dip in
and out, but the compelling prose invites reading of the volume in full. In Chapter 1, Hayden
outlines the background to research on secret societies and details the key reasons why archae-
ologists should be interested in their development and role in society. This chapter discusses
how secret societies are defined and identified archaeologically, and their role in emerging
complexity within societies. Parts I and II contain detailed in-depth analysis of ethnographic
accounts of secret societies in communities across the Americas, Oceania and Africa, with the
core features of each society presented in a summary box. The structure of the book is care-
fully planned so that readers can peruse an overview of the chapter that summarises the key
themes and observations before deciding which sections of the chapter to mine for further
detail. Part III reflects on the archaeological implications of these societies and suggests
that the secret society model might usefully be applied to a variety of archaeological
situations.
Hayden considers the core features of secret societies and finds recurring themes around
the world. These include wealth acquisition; a close connection to politics—in that those in
the highest ranks of secret societies frequently also held the highest ranks in the wider com-
munity, such as chiefly offices; a professed ideology to justify terror and violence; communal
benefits or threats; exclusivity in terms of cost of membership; and the alleged possession of
knowledge of how to commune with or control supernatural powers or spirits.
Hayden’s concluding chapter reviews what he considers to be the most important features
of the secret societies, including: political influence, terror, use of ecstasy, binding members,
exclusivity and promotion of self-interest. The volume presents a detailed examination of the
power of belief and ritual and how it has been used to control societies. The culmination of
Hayden’s research leads him to the conclusion that “secret societies created the foundations

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from which the world religions of the past three millennia emerged” (p. 372). Hayden’s thesis
is a provocative one, and will no doubt stimulate debate among archaeologists.

Linda Hulin, Lindy Crewe & Jennifer M. Webb (ed.). 2018. Structures of inequality on
Bronze Age Cyprus: studies in honour of Alison K. South (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology
and Literature PB 187). Nicosia: Astrom; 978-9925-7455-0-0 hardback €48.

The theme of social inequality continues in our next volume, Struc-

tures of inequality on Bronze Age Cyprus: studies in honour of Alison
K. South, which celebrates South’s work at Kalavasos, Ayios Dhimi-
trios, Cyprus, a site that revealed important evidence for social com-
plexity in the Late Bronze Age. A collection of 18 papers by 21
international contributors considers the emergence of complexity
in the politics and economies of Cypriot societies from the Chalco-
lithic to the Late Bronze Age, and with it the appearance of inequal-
ity. Although inequality is not an inevitable result of complexity, the
two phenomena are often found together as Bernard Knapp dis-
cusses in his chapter on how wealth, inequality and complexity
are evident in mortuary practices at Kalavasos, Ayios Dhimitrios. Focusing on the four richest
tombs at Ayios Dhimitrios, Knapp discovers a link between the highest value grave goods and
the most significant symbolic objects, suggesting the existence of a social hierarchy. He con-
cludes that “the adoption of specific and exclusionary mortuary practices underscored the
reality of social differentiation and the unequal accumulation of power by an elite group”
(p. 17).
Sturt Manning and Kevin Fisher, meanwhile, go in search of the peasant population of
Late Bronze Age Cyprus. With the focus of research at Ayios Dhimitrios naturally falling
on the elite north-east quarter, Manning and Fisher are eager to discover where and how
the ordinary people lived, and how they interacted with the social elite. The focus here is
not on the rural poor, but rather those that lived side by side with the wealthy in the imme-
diate vicinity of Ayios Dhimitrios. To avoid the pejorative connotations of the moniker ‘peas-
ant’, the authors qualify that they are considering the 90+ percentage of the population that
are not the elite. The results reveal that in fact most of the rural agricultural workers lived at
Ayios Dhimitrios, meaning that the population employed in the urban area were a minority.
This leads to a view of Late Bronze Age Cypriot society as corporate, which shifts the nature of
power relations away from a divide between a ruling urban elite and a rural peasant class, and
towards a close community where those in power would need to foster good relationships
with their neighbours.
In an attempt to understand how the elite became the elite, Priscilla Keswani presents ‘On
the relationship between modes of agricultural production and social inequality in Bronze
Age Kalavasos: a theoretical essay’. Considering household inequalities in the areas of live-
stock management and olive production, Keswani convincingly challenges the model that
towns and elite domination in Late Bronze Age Cyprus were a result of the growing copper

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industry and expansion in Mediterranean trade. While acknowledging the importance of

these factors in Late Bronze Age Cyprus generally, she argues that in the Vasilikos Valley,
as well as other parts of the island, the rise of the elite was related to “descent group inequal-
ities” (p. 139), which emerged as a result of certain families successfully accumulating agri-
cultural assets.
Despite the focus on Cyprus, this book has much to offer in terms of broader understand-
ings of social complexity and inequality. Editors Linda Hulin, Lindy Crewe and Jennifer
Webb have curated a volume that takes a bottom-up view of structures of inequality, to
understand how and why “individuals come to cede their autonomy to others and power
shifts from the power to organise (essentially a social power) to power over the organisation
(essentially a political one)” (p. vii).
Returning to Little’s challenge, to what extent do these volumes suggest that archaeology
has much to offer society? They reveal, once again, how archaeology can contribute to suc-
cessful models of communal resource management, and can foster inclusivity and wellbeing
in communities that engage in archaeological projects. Moreover, research on past societies
informs contemporary understandings of social processes and systems of control, and archae-
ology can act in reparation for its colonial past. The benefits are perhaps best summed up by
Little herself: “The study of archaeology has the potential to teach about the contingency of
all human endeavour. As we expand our view of the past to include the struggles, successes,
and failures of all peoples from all times and situations, our wisdom—and compassion—
ought also to expand” (Little 2002: 16).

References
Hardin, G. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Little, B. J. 2009. What can archaeology do for
Science. 162: 1243–48. justice, peace, community, and the Earth?
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.162.3859.1243 Historical Archaeology 43(4):115–19.
Little, B.J. (ed.). 2002. ‘Archaeology as a shared https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376772
vision’, Public benefits of archaeology: 3–19.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Books received
This list includes all books received between 1 May 2020 and 30 June 2020. Those featuring
at the beginning of New Book Chronicle have, however, not been duplicated in this list. The
listing of a book in this chronicle does not preclude its subsequent review in Antiquity.

The Roman world

David J. Breeze & William S. Hanson (ed.). The Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-78925-364-1 hardback
Antonine Wall: papers in honour of Professor $90.
Lawrence Keppie. 2020. Oxford: Archaeopress; Janka Istenič. Roman military equipment from the
978-1-78969-450-5 paperback $48. River Ljubljanica: typology, chronology and
Emanuele Intagliata, Simon J. Barker & technology (Katalogi in Monografije 43). 2019.
Christopher Courault (ed.). City walls in Late Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije;
Antiquity: an empire-wide perspective. 2020. 978-961-6981-35-4 hardback €58.

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Charles W. King. The ancient Roman afterlife: Di Austin: University of Texas Press;
Manes, belief, and the cult of the dead. 2020. 978-1-4773-2020-4 hardback $55.

Africa and Egypt

Corisande Fenwick. Early Islamic North Africa: a John J. Shea. Prehistoric stone tools of Eastern Africa: a
new perspective. 2020. London: Bloomsbury; guide. 2020. Cambridge: Cambridge University
978-1-35007-518-4 eBook $19.40. Press; 978-1-108-42443-1 hardback $110.

Asia
Joyce C. White & Elizabeth G. Hamilton (ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press;
Ban Chiang, northeast Thailand: volume 2C: the 978-1-931707-93-0 hardback £56.
metal remains in regional context. 2020.

Britain and Ireland

H.R. Hurst. Gloucester: the Roman Forum and Publications; 978-0-948386-02-2 paperback
post-Roman sequence at the city centre. 2020. £25.
Gloucester: Gloucester Archaeological

Byzantine, early medieval and medieval

Lenny Salvagno. The neglected goat: a new method to volume 1. 2020. Oxford: Oxbow;
assess the role of the goat in the English Middle Ages. 978-1-78925-193-7 eBook £30.
2020. Oxford: Archaeopress; Eberhard W. Sauer. Dariali: the ‘Caspian Gates’ in
978-1-7896-9629-5 paperback $168. the Caucasus from Antiquity to the age of the Huns
Eberhard W. Sauer. Dariali: the ‘Caspian Gates’ in and the Middle Ages: the Joint Georgian-British
the Caucasus from Antiquity to the age of the Huns Dariali Gorge excavations & surveys of 2013–2016,
and the Middle Ages: the Joint Georgian-British volume 2. 2020. Oxford: Oxbow;
Dariali Gorge excavations & surveys of 2013–2016, 978-1-78925-193-7 eBook £30.

Historical archaeology
Sally Foster & Sian Jones. My life as a replica: Windgather & Oxbow; 978-1-9111-8859-9
St John’s Cross, Iona. 2020. Oxford: eBook £17.

Method
Mark D. McCoy. Maps for time travelers: how past. 2020. Oakland: University of California
archaeologists use technology to bring us closer to the Press; 978-0-5203-0316-4 eBook £23.

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