Boundaries Borders and Frontiers in Archaeology

<p> 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.</p><p> 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 <I>The Northern Mycenaean Border in Thessaly</I> 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.</p>