This fourth edition of the bestselling textbook, now available in print, eBook, and audiobook,
has been fully updated, continuing to provide a concise introduction to the key concepts of …

A photograph can mediate the presence of the absent, the object or person captured in the
photograph. Now, with the aid of the network connection provided by the camera phone …

Abstract Material Engagement Theory (MET) is currently driving a conceptual change in the
archaeology of mind. Drawing upon the dictates of enactivism and active externalism, it …

The study of photography has been a fundamental testing case for pictorial semiotics, in part
because, being in a sense machine made, photographs would seem to resist the critique of …

Human identity is not static but dynamic. It depends on somatic and cognitive development,
culture and society. Human identity is now extending to cyberspace of digital media …

The nature and emergence of “symbolic” material culture has long been at the forefront of
the debate on modern human origins. For most evolutionary archaeologists, material signs …

In at least one important respect, pictorial semiotics differs from most other fields and sub-
domains included in the study of signification: it is not only a new discipline; it does not …

Prehistoric archaeologists generally treat early body ornaments, such as the Blombos shell
beads, as inherently symbolic artefacts that were created by symbolically capable brains …

The debate regarding the status of the Blombos ochre engravings and shell beads for
gauging the timeline of when cognitive abilities and symbolic intent appeared has been …

Archaeology clearly is not only involved in the handling of material artifacts, but also deals
with meanings; indeed, as many archaeologists would claim, at least by implication, it is one …