Table of Contents

Introduction Colin Renfrew and Iain Morley; Part I. Number: Counting, Mathematics, and Measure: 1. Conceptualising quantification before settlement: activities and issues underlying the conception and use of measurement Iain Morley; 2. Measurement in navigation: conceiving distance and time in the Neolithic Helen Farr; 3. The token system of the ancient Near East: its role in counting, writing, the economy and cognition Denise Schmandt-Besserat; 4. Grasping the concept of number: how did the sapient mind move beyond approximation? Lambros Malafouris; 5. Numerical cognition and the development of 'zero' in Mesoamerica John Justeson; 6. Recording measure(ment)s in the Inka Khipu Gary Urton; Part II. Materialising the Economy: 7. Measuring by weight in the late Bronze Age Aegean: the people behind the measuring tools Anna Michailidou; 8. The concept of weighing during the Bronze Age in the Aegean, the Near East and Europe Lorenz Rahmstorf; 9. Measuring the Harappan world: insights into the Indus order and cosmology J. Mark Kenoyer; Part III. Dimensions and Belief: 10. Architectural measurements in the Indus cities: the case study of Mohenjo-Daro Michael Jansen; 11. Teothuacan City layout as a cosmogram: preliminary results of the 2007 measurement unit study Saburu Sugiyama; 12. Aztec dimensions of holiness John Clark; 13. Establishing direction in early Egyptian burials and monumental architecture: measurement and the spatial link with the 'other' Kate Spence; Part IV. Calendar and Cosmology: 14. The measurement of time and distance in the heavens above Mesopotamia, with brief reference made to other ancient astral sciences David Brown; 15. Evolution of the calendar in Shang China Mark Lewis; 16. The measure of time in Meso-America: from Teotihuacan to the Maya Anthony Aveni; 17. Measuring time, sacred space, and social place in the Inca Empire Charles Stanish; 18. Measuring time in the European Neolithic? The function and meaning of Central European circular enclosures Peter Biehl; Part V. The Spirituality of Measure: 19. The roots of spirituality and the limits of human mensuration F. LeRon Shults; 20. Worldview, measurement and 'the roots of spirituality' Jeremy Begbie.

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Explores the archaeological evidence for the development of measuring activities in numerous ancient societies and the implications of these discoveries.

About the Author

Iain Morley is a Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Research Fellow of Darwin College at Cambridge University. A scholar of Palaeolithic archaeology and the evolution of human cognition, he is also co-editor, with Colin Renfrew, of Becoming Human: Innovation in Prehistoric Material and Spiritual Culture and Image and Imagination: A Global Prehistory of Figurative Representation. Colin Renfrew (Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn) is Emeritus Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge University, where he is a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. He is author of many influential books on archaeology and prehistory, including, with Paul Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, which is one of the standard textbooks on the subject.

Reviews

"In summary, scholars and students of archaeology alike will welcome the comprehensive and balanced approach to such an ambitious topic of measurement." --Kiara Beaulieu, Journal Canadien D'Archeologie 36