Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology showcases the theories, methods, and accomplishments of archaeologists who investigate the human mind—its evolutionary development, its ideation, and its very nature—through material forms. The intellectual heart of cognitive archaeology is archaeology, the discipline that investigates the only direct evidence of the actions and decisions of prehistoric people. Its theories and methods are an eclectic mix of psychological, neuroscientific, paleoneurological, philosophical, anthropological, ethnographic, comparative, aesthetic, and experimental theories, methods, and models, united only by their focus on cognition. This volume encompasses the wide spectrum of the discipline, showcasing contributions from 66 established and emerging scholars from Europe, Africa, Asia, India, the Near East, North America, and Oceania. Significantly, the majority of chapters deliver substantive contributions that analyze specific examples of material culture, from the oldest known stone tools to ceramic and rock art traditions of the recent millennium. These examples include the gamut of methods and techniques, including typology, replication studies, chaînes operatoires, neuroarchaeology, ethnographic comparison, and the direct historical approach. The volume begins with retrospective essays by several of the pioneers of cognitive archaeology, presents a broad range of state-of-the-art investigations into cognitive abilities, tackles thorny issues like the cognitive status of Neandertals, and concludes with speculative essays about the future of an archaeology of mind, and of the mind itself.