International Handbook of Historical Archaeology

Abstract

‘‘Historical archaeology’’ is one of the most fast-changing and dynamic fields of study in the archaeological discipline.This collection of essays by researchers and practitioners from around the world charts the field’s progress since its inception half century ago on a European colonial sites along the Atlantic seaboard of North America to the emergence of a truly global inquiry into the making of modern society. The 35 reviews and case studies in this compendium provide a wide-ranging snapshot of the subject today, which is breaking boundaries on many different levels, from geographical and temporal to methodological and theoretical. After 50 years, this first handbook for the discipline reveals the arrival at the beginning of the twenty-first century of a maturing and distinctive interdisciplinary study of historical material culture spanning societies and communities in almost every corner of the globe.