The Archaeology of Religion: Cultures and Their Beliefs in Worldwide Context

The new and updated edition of The Archaeology of Religion explores how archaeology interprets past religions, offering insights into how archaeologists seek out the religious, ritual, and symbolic meaning behind what they discover in their research.

The book includes case studies from around the world, from the study of Upper Palaeolithic and hunter-gatherer religions to religious structures and practices in complex societies of the Americas, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China. Steadman also includes chapters on the origins and development of key contemporary religions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam, among others--to provide an historical and comparative context. Three main themes are threaded throughout the book. These main themes involve the intersection between cultural and religious structures (＂religion reflects culture＂), including the importance of environment in shaping a culture’s religion, the role religion can sometimes play as a method of social control, and the role religion can sometimes play as a key component in revitalizing a culture.

Updated with new discoveries and theories and with two new chapters (Hunter-Gatherer Religions; and Cultures in East Asia) and with new sections on Neolithic Western Asia, the book remains an ideal introduction for courses that include a significant component on past cultures and their religions.

Sharon R. Steadman is a SUNY Distinguished Profess or Anthropology at the State University of New York at Cortland. She is the Director of the Rozanne Brooks Ethnographic Museum and the Co-Director of the archaeological excavations at Çadır Höyük in central Türkiye. Her fieldwork has focused on Near Eastern archaeological work across the Middle East, Cyprus, and the Transcaucasian region. She has also carried ethnographic work in Türkiye and India. Her research focuses on the archaeology of architecture, the investigation of ancient religions, and cultural responses to climate change.