Boundaries, Borders and Frontiers in Archaeology

Until fairly recently, archaeological research has been directed primarily toward the centers of societies rather than their perimeters. Yet frontiers and borders, precisely because they are peripheral, promote interaction between people of different polities and cultures, with a wide range of potential outcomes. Much work has begun to redress this disparity of focus.
Drawing on contemporary and ethnographic accounts, historical data and archaeological evidence, this book covers more than 30 years of research on boundaries, borders and frontiers, beginning with The Northern Mycenaean Border in Thessaly in 1983. The author discusses various theoretical and methodological issues concerning peripheries as they apply to the archaeological record. Political, economic, social and cultural processes in border and frontier zones are described in detail. Three case study societies are examined—China, Rome and Mycenaean Greece.

The late Bryan Feuer was a lecturer in humanities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His research interests included the Aegean Bronze Age, archaeological borders, regional analysis, cultural contact and interaction and ceramic analysis. He did archaeological fieldwork in Greece, Italy and the U.S and lived in Manhattan Beach, California.

Bryan Feuer
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 164
Bibliographic Info: 8 maps & illustrations, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7343-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2424-2
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface 1
Introduction 2
1. Boundaries, Borders and Frontiers 11
2. Theoretical and Methodological Issues 24
3. Evolution of Spatial Concepts 41
4. Border and Frontier Processes 48
5. Case Studies 90
Bibliography 123
Index 153