Intended as a comprehensive handbook and showcase for archaeology, this work outlines where the discipline has been and where it is going at the turn of the 21st century. The topics of the chapters include the major questions in archaeology. Each chapter considers the history of research on the subject and the direction in which future work may go. The sourcebook is divided into four substantive sections, each of which is introduced by a summary statement outlining the chapters in the section. Part I deals with the history of archaeology and the advance of archaeological theory. Part II ranges over the first four million years of our evolution as a cultural species and covers the first hominids to complex hunter-gatherers. Part III concerns the origins of agriculture and features discussions of such issues as craft production, the division of labour, warfare, and the rise of social inequality. Part IV analyzes the rise of states and empires in both the Old and New worlds; the archaeology of the classical Mediterranean states is also included in this section. A final chapter portends the future of archaeology.