Norman Yoffee

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "all history becomes subjective," that, in fact, "properly there is no history, only biography." Today, Emerson's observation is hardly revolutionary for archaeologists; it has become conventional wisdom that the present is a battleground where interpretations of the events and meanings of the past are ...

"This is an excellent collection of essays on the collapse of ancient states and civilizations by historians, archaeologists. . . . excellent overviews of the relevant research."--Contemporary Sociology

Between 1969 and 1980, Soviet archaeologists conducted excavations of Mesopotamian villages occupied from pre-agricultural times through the beginnings of early civilization. This volume brings together translations of Russian articles along with new work.

Although history and archaeology each seek to elucidate the past, both sets of data are incomplete and ambiguous and thus open to multiple readings that invite contradictory interpretations of human activity. This is particularly true when scholars of each field ignore or fail to understand research in the other discipline. Excavating ...