Description

Basketry Technology, first published in 1977, is the only comprehensive guide for archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and collectors for identifying and analyzing ancient baskets and basket fragments. Long out of print, this volume is again available with an extensive new introduction by the original author that summarizes the extensive work done in this area over the past 35 years. The volume describes proper field and lab techniques for recovery of specimens and offers a systematic methodology for identifying and interpreting twined, coiled, and plaited basket samples. It then uses Canyon de Chelly as an example of how to process a large basketry assemblage properly. In addition to 200 illustrations, the book includes a variety of sample forms to use in describing and analyzing ancient baskets.

About the Author

J. M. Adovasio, Ph.D., is the Provost of Mercyhurst College, Dean of Mercyhurst’s Zurn School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and founder and director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, Pennsylvania. He is co-author of The Invisible Sex (with Olga Soffer and Jake Page) and of The First Americans (with Jake Page). Adovasio is internationally recognized as an expert on ancient basketry and for his excavation of Meadowcroft Rockshelter, an archaeological site in Pennsylvania that revolutionized ideas of human settlement in the Americas.



 

Praise For…

“A well-illustrated guide to the recovery, analysis and description of archaeological basketry specimens. This manual in archaeology succinctly defines basketry and briefly treats field and laboratory procedures for its recovery and preservation…a fine study.”

—American Indian Quarterly

”An attractive and informative volume demonstrating the potential of prehistoric basketry in archaeological studies.”

—American Anthropologist