The Archaeology of Islands

A new perspective on the characterization of islands as distinct physical and social entities.

Paul Rainbird (Author)

9780521619615, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 July 2007

216 pages
22.7 x 15 x 1 cm, 0.286 kg

'… this is an interesting and engaging introduction to this sub-discipline for the anthropologist/archaeologist, and an introduction to the delights of archaeology for the new reader.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Archaeologists have traditionally considered islands as distinct physical and social entities. In this book, Paul Rainbird discusses the historical construction of this characterization and questions the basis for such an understanding of island archaeology. Through a series of case studies of prehistoric archaeology in the Mediterranean, Pacific, Baltic, and Atlantic seas and oceans, he argues for a decentering of the land in favor of an emphasis on the archaeology of the sea and, ultimately, a new perspective on the making of maritime communities. The archaeology of islands is thus unshackled from approaches that highlight boundedness and isolation, and replaced with a new set of principles - that boundaries are fuzzy, islanders are distinctive in their expectation of contacts with people from over the seas, and that island life can tell us much about maritime communities. Debating islands, thus, brings to the fore issues of identity and community and a concern with Western construction of other peoples.

1. 'A consciousness of the earth and ocean': the creation of islands
2. Seas of islands: anthropology, biogeography, archaeology and postcolonialism
3. An archaeology of the sea
4. The Mediterranean: Malta
5. Oceania: Pohnpei and the eastern Carolines
6. The Baltic: Gotland
7. Atlantic Archipelago: the western seaways of Europe
8. Conclusion - islands and histories of the sea.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM], Environmental archaeology [HDP], Archaeology [HD]