New perspectives on household archaeology / edited by Bradley J. Parker and Catherine P. Foster.

The essays in this volume represent substantially revised versions of papers presented at the conference "Household Archaeology in the Middle East and Beyond: Theory, Method, and Practice." This three-day meeting took place between February 19 and 21, 2009 at Fort Douglas on the campus of The University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : household archaeology in the Near East and beyond / Catherine P. Foster and Bradley J. Parker -- Section 1. Household in Theoretical Perspective -- 1. Between the individual and the collective : household as a social process in neolithic Greece / Stella Souvatzi -- 2. Homemaking in the early Bronze Age / Meredith S. Chesson -- 3. Households through a digital lens / Ruth Tringham -- Section 2. Methodological Advancements in Household Studies -- 4. Particles of the past : microarchaeological spatial analysis of ancient house floors / Isaac I. T. Ullah -- 5. Household matters : techniques for understanding Assyrian houses / Lynn Rainville -- 6. Shifting household economics of plant use from the early to late Natufian periods of the southern Levant / Arlene M. Rosen -- 7. Defining households : micro-contextual analysis of early neolithic households in the Zagros, Iran / Wendy Matthews -- Section 3. Food and Subsistence at the Household Level -- 8. Feeding households : a Multiproxy method for analysis of food preparation in the Halaf period at Fıstıklı Höyük, Turkey / Marie Hopwood and Siddhartha Mitra -- 9. Integrating household archaeology and archaeobotany : a case study from Ubaid Kenan Tepe, southeastern Anatolia / Philip Graham and Alexia Smith -- 10. Beyond the house and into the fields : cultivation practices in the late PPNB / Chantel E. White and Nicholas P. Wolff -- 11. Domestic production and subsistence in an Ubaid household in upper Mesopotamia / Bradley J. Parker -- Section 4. Urban Households -- 12. The challenge of identifying households at Tell Kurdu (Turkey) / Rana Özbal -- 13. The life of the majority : a reconstruction of household activities and residential neighborhoods at the late-third-millennium urban settlement at Titriş Höyük in northern Mesopotamia / Yoko Nishimura -- 14. Households and neighborhoods of the Indus tradition : an overview / Jonathan Mark Kenoyer -- 15. Changing households at the rise of urbanism : the Eb I-II transition at Tel Bet Yerah / Sarit Paz -- Section 5. Synthetic Household Studies -- 16. The Uruk phenomenon : a view from the household / Catherine P. Foster -- 17. Household continuity and transformation in a prehistoric Cypriot village / David Frankel and Jennifer M. Webb -- 18. How households can illuminate the historical record : the Judahite houses at Gath of the Philistines / Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Aren M. Maeir -- 19. Household archaeology in the southern Levant : an example from Iron Age Tell Halif / James W. Hardin -- Section 6. Afterword -- 20. About the archaeological house : themes and directions / Roger Matthews.

The foundational tenets of household archaeology were established more than three decades ago by anthropological archaeologists seeking multiscalar approaches to the archaeological record. The study of the household as the basic unit of society and as a window to larger social, economic, and political change reflected in the everyday actions of individual people has since become integral to archaeological practice. However, the subfield today remains as diverse in theoretical underpinnings as it is in practical applications. This volume proceedings of a three-day conference held at the University of Utah revisits conceptualizations of the household in both past and present societies, evaluates the current place of household archaeology within the wider field of anthropological and archaeological research, and presents the newest technical advances implementing a household archaeological framework. New Perspectives on Household Archaeology exhibits the breadth and depth of studies in household archaeology currently being undertaken, including studies on household time cycles in Early Bronze Age Cyprus, the socio-technical aspects of barley cultivation in Neolithic Jordan, and urban neighborhoods in the early Indus Valley tradition. More than simply reflecting the state of the field, this volume highlights the significant contributions Near Eastern archaeologists and their eastern Mediterranean colleagues are making to advance the study of ancient households and to apply this information to larger questions of sociocultural importance.