The Archaeology of Pastoralism, Mobility, and Society

Beyond the Grass Paradigm

Emily Hammer (University of Pennsylvania )

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
18 September 2025

Archaeological theory; Archaeological methodology & techniques

Though mobile pastoralists were long a significant component of many societies in Eurasia and Africa, scholars have long considered them to be materially and documentarily 'invisible.' The archaeological study of pastoralism across these regions has relied on ethnographic analogies and environmentally deterministic models, often with little or no data on historically specific herding communities. This approach has yielded a static picture of pastoralism through time that has only recently been challenged. In this book, Emily Hammer articulates a new framework for investigating variability in past pastoral practices. She proposes ways to develop a more rigorous relationship with pastoralist ethnographies and illustrates new archaeological and scientific methodologies for collecting direct data on herding, mobility, and social complexity in the past. Hammer's approach to the archaeology of pastoralism promotes efforts to dismantle the legacy of evolutionary classifications of human societies, which have drawn sharp distinctions between farmers and herders, and to investigate how diverse non-agricultural and mobile groups have shaped complex society and environment.

By: Emily Hammer (University of Pennsylvania )
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009561655
ISBN 10: 1009561650
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 18 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Emily Hammer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania. An anthropological archaeologist of the Middle East and the South Caucasus, she has conducted fieldwork in the UAE, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Iraq. Her ongoing research contributes to three fields of inquiry: the archaeology of pastoralism, comparative studies of early urbanism in Mesopotamia and its surrounding highlands, and GIS methodologies for environmental and landscape archaeology.