List of figures and tables ............................... page vii
List of contributors ......................................... xiii
Acknowledgements ............................................... xv
Introduction: Measure: Towards the construction
of our world ................................................ 1
Colin Renfrew and Iain Morley
SECTION I. NUMBER: COUNTING, MATHEMATICS
AND MEASURE ..................................................... 5
1 Conceptualising quantification before settlement: Activities
and issues underlying the conception and use of measurement .. 7
Iain Morley
2 Measurement in navigation: Conceiving distance and
time in the Neolithic ....................................... 19
Helen Farr
3 The token system of the ancient Near East: Its role
in counting, writing, the economy and cognition ............. 27
Denise Schmandt-Besserat
4 Grasping the concept of number: How did the sapient
mind move beyond approximation? ............................. 35
Lambros Malafouris
5 Numerical cognition and the development of 'zero'
in Mesoamerica .............................................. 43
John Justeson
6 Recording measure(ment)s in the Inka khipu .................. 54
Gary Urton
SECTION II. MATERIALISING THE ECONOMY .......................... 69
7 Measuring by weight in the Late Bronze Age Aegean:
The people behind the measuring tools ....................... 71
Anna Michailidou
8 The concept of weighing during the Bronze Age
in the Aegean, the Near East and Europe ..................... 88
Lorenz Rahmstorf
9 Measuring the Harappan world: Insights into the
Indus order and cosmology .................................. 106
Mark Kenoyer
SECTION III. DIMENSIONS AND BELIEF ............................ 123
10 Architectural measurements in the Indus cities:
The case study of Mohenjo-Daro ............................ 125
Michael Jansen
11 Teotihuacan city layout as a cosmogram: Preliminary
results of the 2007 Measurement Unit Study ................ 130
Saburo Sugiyama
12 Aztec dimensions of holiness .............................. 150
John E. Clark
13 Establishing direction in early Egyptian burials and
monumental architecture: Measurement and the spatial
link with the 'other' ..................................... 170
Kate Spence
SECTION IV. CALENDAR AND COSMOLOGY ............................ 181
14 The measurement of time and distance in the heavens
above Mesopotamia, with brief reference made to other
ancient astral sciences ................................... 183
David Brown
15 Evolution of the calendar in Shang China .................. 195
Mark Edward Lewis
16 The measure of time in Mesoamerica: From Teotihuacan
to the Maya ............................................... 203
Anthony F. Aveni
17 Measuring time, sacred space, and social place
in the Inca Empire ........................................ 216
Charles Stanish
18 Measuring time in the European Neolithic? The function
and meaning of Central European circular enclosures ....... 229
Peter F. Biehl
SECTION V. THE SPIRITUALITY OF MEASURE ........................ 245
19 The roots of spirituality and the limits of human
mensuration ............................................... 247
F. LeRon Shults
20 Worldview, measurement and 'the roots of spirituality' .... 250
Jeremy S. Begbie
Index ..................................................... 257
|
