The Archaeology of Household Activities

Household archaeology has traditionally relied on architectural remains to investigate the role of households in the wider community, often ignoring the information that smaller artifacts can provide about the individuality of household members and the complexity of domestic relationships. Arguing for a closer, multidisciplinary examination of all the evidence at hand, Archaeology of Household Activities brings together recent archaeological research on domestic dwellings in pre-Roman Britain, Classic Mayan civilization, Greek and Roman cultures, and colonial Australia and the Americas. Using artifact-based approaches to explore the spatial, gender and status organization of household activities, the contributors provide a more holistic view of the dynamics of domestic life in communities of the past.