Adam T. Smith

The limitations of doxa Agency and subjectivity from an archaeological point of view

In recent years, archaeological discussions of agency have relied quite heavily upon Pierre Bourdieu’s rendering of doxa in discriminating between those phenomena resulting from habit and those from active intention. However, doxa presents considerable problems for archaeological analyses as it rests upon a troubling theory of history and fails to assist in promulgating an archaeological account of subjectivity. This article presents an explicitly archaeological critique of Bourdieu’s doxa, utilizing a decorated silver-plated goblet from the Middle Bronze Age site of Karashamb, Armenia, to explore future directions in the theorization of subjectivity.

The making of an Urartian landscape in southern Transcaucasia : a study of political architectonics

In the early eighth century B.C., Argishti I, King of Urartu, conquered southern Transcaucasia and began a dramatic transformation of the local landscape into an instrument of imperial authority. This article details the changing spatial organization of political power on the Ararat and Shirak plains from the emergence of the earliest states in the late second millennium B.C. through the collapse of the Urartian empire in the late seventh century B.C. Spatial patterns defined by built forms were active elements in organizing political relations between subjects and the Urartian state apparatus and between institutional elements of the empire. This analysis suggests that an architectonic approach to political authority can bring a critical perspective to investigations of how particular spatial relations contributed to the production, reproduction, and collapse of ancient states.

The Political Machine: Assembling Sovereignty in the Bronze Age Caucasus

The Political Machine is a timely effort to interrogate the role of things in the reproduction of sovereignty, and how the framework of sovereign authority comes to be assembled and sustained over the longue durée in the Bronze Age Caucasus. Although ostensibly a book whose subject matter is archaeology, the author also contributes to contemporary political theory by re-inserting material objects into the study of political life. The result is an important and provocative intellectual work, located squarely at the intersection of political theory, materiality studies and archaeology.

A History of Archaeology in the Republic of Armenia

Abstract This article traces the development of archaeological inquiry in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia, from its antiquarian roots in the 19th century, through the Soviet era, and into modern times. The resurgence of western attention in the region since the end of the Cold War has been driven by collaborative research projects from the United States, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, England, Russia, and Canada, that employ a variety of methods to understand the archaeological heritage of Armenia. Research problems are related to the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as to the Urartian, Achaemenid, and Hellenistic periods. For those unfamiliar with Armenia, this article is meant as a primer to the history of the discipline as it has been practiced in the region. For those already engaged in archaeology there, it is our hope that this discussion will lend an added historical dimension to ongoing field projects.

Geophysical survey at Late Bronze Age fortresses: comparing methods in the diverse geological contexts of Armenia

Geophysical techniques now available to archaeology have the potential to provide large-scale survey data that can map the buried structures of extensive and complex sites. Recent work at two Late Bronze Age hilltop fortresses in the mountainous volcanic terrain of Armenia provides an excellent illustration of their potential. Magnetometry revealed an unknown residential complex at Tsaghkahovit. Across the plain at Gegharot, where magnetometry was less successful, ground-penetrating radar identified terracing extending down the western slope of the hill below the fortress, greatly increasing the size of the occupied area. Combined with targeted excavations, these geophysical approaches are providing novel insights into the unusual political relations between fortress-based sovereigns and mobile subjects in central Armenia.

ON LANDSCAPES IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

L. MILANO, S. DE MARTINO, F. M. FALES, and G. B. LANFRANCHI, editors, Landscapes: Territories, Frontiers, and Horizons in the Ancient Near East (Part I: Invited Lectures; Part II: Geography and Cultural Landscapes; Part III: Landscape in Ideology, Religion, Literature, and Art). Papers presented to the XLIV Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Padova: Sargon srl, 2000. 76 + 254 + 196 pp.

Scott C. Smith. Landscape and politics in the ancient Andes: biographies of place at Khonko Wankane. 2016. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Meyers (Chapter 7) unites geographical and archaeological approaches to delve into the multiscalar history of henequen cultivation in Yucatán. Henequen, most useful for its fibre, played a minor role in the colonial economy, but by the early 1900s, Yucatán had become a ‘henequen zone’. Inspired by the materiality of landscapes, Meyers examines how different social groups experienced the ‘henequen episode’ at two farming estates that prospered from the mid 1800s to the 1940s.

Early Eurasia: pattern and process among pastoralistsMichael D. Frachetti. Pastoralist landscapes and social interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia . xviii+214 pages, 53 illustrations. 2008. Berkeley & Los Angeles (CA): University of California Press; 978-0-520-25689-7 hardback £26.95.

Over the last three years, the archaeology of Bronze Age Eurasia has witnessed an explosion of accomplished, synthetic books intended for Englishspeaking audiences – the fruit of almost two decades of collaborative research since the emergence of the region’s independent states. Monographs by Anthony (2007), Kohl (2007) and Koryakova & Epimakhov (2007), as well as edited volumes by Peterson et al. (2006), Popova et al. (2007), Linduff & Rubinson (2008) and Hanks & Linduff (in press) provide not only scholarly discussions of a complex archaeological region, but also a palpable sense of a field in the midst of a substantive intellectual transition. On the one hand, the robust interpretive apparatus established by the Soviet (now Russian) archaeological school continues to play a critical role in contemporary research, a perspective most clearly visible in an emphasis on the historically determinative role of productive economies and an attention to tracking formal artefact variation as evidence of culture groups and their migratory paths. On the other hand, the waxing influence of Anglo-American social archaeology can be seen in studies of social heterogeneity and the more micro-scale analytics that such thematic interests require. While this transformation is clearly part of