“What’s the Big Picture? Comparative Perspectives on the Archaeology of Empire.” (original) (raw)
"What’s the Big Picture? Comparative Perspectives on the Archaeology of Empire Bradley J. Parker (University of Utah) The stated goal of this symposium is “to investigate imperial repertoires of rule and how they affected peripheral societies and landscapes” in an effort “to create a comparative perspective on the archaeology of empires.” To address this lofty goal, this paper takes two important steps. First, instead of detailing the specifics of a particular case study, I step back and view the overarching features that characterize the complex polity we call “empire.” To do so I employ a number of classifications proposed by prominent anthropological archaeologists working in both the old and new worlds. Second, using the Neo-Assyrian Empire as a particularly vivid example of how specific features of empire operated in practice, I systematically compare and contrast Assyria with two similarly complex polities in the New World. Utilizing settlement patterns, patterns of production, the presence of networks, material culture, the exploitation of diversity, and the creation of power differentials as categories of investigation, I search for common and unique themes by juxtaposing the Neo-Assyrian Empire of the Old World with the Inca and Wari empires of the New World. The goal of this paper is not to answer the proverbial question “What is empire?” but instead to bring cross-disciplinary and interregional comparison into the debate about the archaeology of empire. "
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