Archaeology and Language book

[Andy Pawley]

The following book notice may be of interest. It is for vol. 3 of a series
edited by Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs (with a little cover help from
the irrepressible Waruno). Notice provided by Roger Blench
<r.blench at odi.org.uk>   -- Andy Pawley

_______________
The book you have all been waiting for (or not) is finally on your
bookstands. With a fetching cover of a blue
boat, courtesy of Waruno Mahdi (Austronesians sail into oblivion)
everyone will want this for the bookshelf.
Here's the official blurb.

Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, languages and texts:
building connections

Edited by
Roger Blench, Overseas Development Institute, UK and
Matthew Spriggs, Australian National University, Australia

How can material culture be linked to languages?

This volume is the third part of a four-part survey of innovative
results emerging from the fusion of
archaeology and historical linguistics. The basic data of archaeology are
artefacts, pre-eminently pottery, but also settlement sites and other
types of  material culture. Archaeology and Language III, Artefacts,
languages and texts represents groundbreaking work in interpreting the
results from archaeology  in terms of language distribution and change,
thereby complementing the other volumes in this sequence.

By reconstructing terms for artefacts and relating them to sites in
homeland areas or regions of dispersal
names can be given to silent objects. Individual chapters consider
the reconstruction of house-forms, of
maritime technology, of pottery and grave-goods. By putting together
fragmentary textual evidence for lesser-known languages, ancient patterns
of change and dispersal can be understood in a new fashion. Overall, the
volume is intended to provide the tools for a radical rewriting of the
conventional discourse of prehistory.

Volume III is a comprehensive examination of the potential for
archaeology and linguistics to complement
one another in the interpretation of prehistory. It provides concrete case
studies of artefacts and  fragmentary text materials can all be interwoven
to produce a rich narrative of the past.

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Here's the contents


Preface

I. General Introduction.
II. Introducing the papers.

Part 1. Linguistic models in reconstructing material culture

1. Green, Roger and Pawley, Andy
Early Oceanic architectural forms and settlement patterns:
linguistic, archaeological and ethnological
perspectives

2. Dutton, Tom
Going to pots: fine tuning the prehistory of Mailu Island, southeast Papua
New Guinea

3. Tryon, Darrell
Language, Culture and Archaeology in Vanuatu

4. Blust, Robert
Linguistics versus archaeology: early Austronesian terms for metals

5. Mahdi, Waruno
The dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean

6. Parpola, Asko
Formation of the Aryan Branch of Indo-European


Part 2. Interpreting Text

7. Mytum, Harold C.
The language of death in a bilingual community: 19th century
memorials in Newport, Pembrokeshire

8. McCall, Daniel and Fleming, Harold
The Pre-Classical Circum-Mediterranean World: who spoke which
languages?

9. Cosmopoulos, Michael
>>From artifacts to peoples: Pelasgoi, Indo-Europeans and the arrival
of the Greeks

10. Kochhar, Rajesh
On the identity and chronology of the Rigvedic Sarasvati

11. Allibert, Claude
The archaeology of knowledge concerning Austronesian influences in
the Western Indian Ocean

12. Lynch, John & Philip Tepahae
Digging up the linguistic past: the lost language(s) of Aneityum,
Vanuatu

=========================================================
==

I don't know the price yet, but no doubt it will be painful. Still..

To order copies, get in touch with;

Jacqueline.griffin at itps.co.uk

or;

     Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4P 4EE, UK
     Tel: 0171 583 9855
     Fax: 0171 842 2306


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++

Coming very soon! Part IV of the Trilogy with a Yukagir love-letter
on the cover

Blurb

Archaeology and Language IV: Language change and cultural
transformation

Edited by
Roger Blench, Overseas Development Institute, UK and
Matthew Spriggs, Australian National University, Australia

Why do languages and cultures change?

This volume is the fourth part of a four-part survey of innovative
results emerging from the fusion of
archaeology and historical linguistics. Archaeology reflects cultural
change over time, but the social and linguistic mechanisms and correlates
of such change remain poorly understood. Archaeology and Language IV,
Language change and cultural transformation represents groundbreaking
work
in interpreting the results from studies of language distribution and
change, thereby complementing the other three volumes in this sequence.

Many standard language classifications are coming under scrutiny at
present and some authors focus on
rethinking some of the accepted wisdom of historical linguistics. The
refocusing, whether in Polynesia or Ancient Iran, is related to a broader
illumination of historical process. Related chapters analyse linguistic
and cultural change as process, looking at evidence for social
transformations in the past by modelling the present. The evolution of
Celtic culture and the expansion of the Austronesians in the Indian Ocean
are seen to be analogous processes. Overall, Language change and
cultural
transformation is intended to provide the background to a radical
rethinking of the conventional discourse of prehistory.

Volume IV rounds off a comprehensive examination of the potential for
archaeology and linguistics to complement one another in the
interpretation of prehistory. It provides case studies to show how the
global pattern of language distribution and change can be interwoven to
produce a rich narrative of the past.


Contents

Archaeology and Language Volume IV: Language change and cultural
change

Preface
I. General Introduction.
II. Introducing the papers.

Part 1. Rethinking Language Classification

13. Blench, Roger
The languages of Africa: macrophyla proposals and Implications for
archaeological  interpretation

14. Blaz&ek, V clav
Elam: a bridge between Ancient Near East and Dravidian India?

15. Ohiri-Aniche, Chinyere
Language diversification in the Akoko area of Western Nigeria

16. Marck, Jeff
Revising Polynesian linguistic subgrouping and  its culture history
implications

Part 2. Interpreting Change

17. Waddell, John and J. Conroy
Celts and others: Maritime Contact And Linguistic Change

18. Tikkanen, Bertil
Archaeological-linguistic correlations in the formation of retroflex
typologies and correlating areal features in South Asia

19. Lynch, John
Language change in Southern Melanesia: linguistic aberrancy and
genetic distance

20. Mahdi, Waruno
Linguistic and Philological Data towards a Chronology of Austronesian
Activity in India and Sri Lanka
Dr. R.M. Blench
Research Fellow
Overseas Development Institute
Room 20, Floor 27
Portland House,
Stag Place
London SW1E 5DP
United Kingdom
Telephone ODI 00-44-(0)171-393-1600
Telephone (direct) 00-44-(0)171-393-1613
Fax 00-44-(0)171-393-1699
Email r.blench at odi.org.uk
Web page www.oneworld.org/odi/rfs/r.blench.html