Book info

In Penn Museum International Conference Series, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. Check out the table of contents. Listen to the podcast interview!

with chapters by Neil Roberts; Fiona Marshall, Katherine Grillo, and Lee Arco; Kathleen Ryan and Karega-Munene; Lois Beck and Julia Huang; Arlene Rosen; Tim Kohler and Charles Reed; Katherine A. Spielmann, Margaret Nelson, Scott Ingram, and Matthew A. Peeples; Maria Bruno; Katherine M. Moore; Peter Stahl; Naomi F. Miller

In the winter of 2008, the Penn Museum International Research Conference series sponsored a 4-day symposium, "Forces of Nature: Risk and Resilience as Factors of Long-term Cultural Change." We gathered specialists working in at least one of four areas of the world with significant archaeological and paleoenvironmental databases: West Asia, the American Southwest, East Africa, and Andean South America. The participating scholars have made contributions to research within at least one of three broad time scales: long-term (spanning millennia), medium-term (archaeological time--centuries or a few thousand years), and recent (ethnohistoric or ethnographic--years or decades). Thisvolume addresses forces of conservatism and innovation at work in societies dependent on the exploitation of aquatic and other wild resources, agriculture, and specialized pastoralism.
By bringing an archaeological eye to an examination of human response to unpredictable environmental conditions, informed by an understanding of contemporary traditional peoples, the symposium participants attempted to develop a nuanced picture of how societies perceive environmental risk, how they alter their behavior in the face of changing conditions, and under what challenges the most rapid and far-reaching changes in adaptation have taken place.

Read the review in Ethnobiology Letters: "Indeed, with the atmospheric CO2 threshold surpassing 400 ppm, the archaeological and anthropological perspective on human responses to environmental unpredictability and the resultant food scarcity, expertly presented in this volume, has never been more relevant. This is archaeology at its policy-decision-informing best."

Gordion Special Studies 5, published by University of Pennsylvania Museum (only $69.95 hb, + shipping). ISBN 978-1-934536-15-5.
If the accompanying CD is corrupted, you can download all the data and color photos from the tDAR 'The Digital Archaeological Record' website. It's a little tricky to figure out, so don't be discouraged.
Read Patricia Fall's review in the American Journal of Archaeology 116(1). Catherine Longford writes, "Archaeobotanical monographs are relatively rare, particularly from sites in Anatolia. This eagerly awaited volume by Naomi F. Miller on the archaeobotanical evidence from Gordion, based on the 1988 and 1989 field seasons, is a valuable contribution to the field. ... The volume is well written in an easy to understand manner which should be accessible for both archaeobotanists and non-archaeobotanists alike." (Catherine Longford, Ancient Near Eastern Studies 49:236-238, 2012)

Available since February, 2003! Yeki bud, yeki nabud, Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner, edited by Naomi F. Miller and Kamyar Abdi

ISBN: 1-931745-05-6, 340 pp., scads of (165) maps, photographs, and drawings, 23 tables, index!!!

Reviewed in Journal of Field Archaeology 29: 245-247 (2002-2004), by Gabriele Puschnigg. "Research on the archaeology of Iran has long suffered from the inaccessibility of its study area and lack of new discoveries... [This volume] is the first comprehensive publication on Iranian archaeology since Frank Hole's 1987 collection of articles The Archaeology of Western Iran.... As circumstances finally appear to change and new field projects are undertaken in Iran on a local and international level, this collection of essays is a timely reminder of the present state and requirements of Iranian archaeology."

NOW AVAILABLE!!! Drawing on the Past, An Archaeologist's Sketchbook, with lots of my watercolors

Featuring Malyan, Gordion, Hacinebi, Sweyhat and Anau. Published by University of Pennsylvania Museum publications. Cheap, too (only $19.95 hb, + shipping).