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Alysia Fischer, Miami University visiting assistant professor of anthropology, is author of Hot Pursuit: Integrating Anthropology in Search of Ancient Glass-blowers, published in March by Lexington Books.
In Hot Pursuit, about glass-blowing in antiquity and today, Fischer shows how using a variety of anthropological methods to answer an archaeological question "yields an intriguing glimpse into the lives of glass-blowers in antiquity." She develops an "anthropology of craft" that integrates theory, methods and findings from subdisciplines of anthropology.
In her examination of ancient glassworkers at the site of Sepphoris, in northern Israel, she draws upon the knowledge and experience of current Middle-Eastern glass-workers to interpret artifacts excavated at the site. She is able to "create a picture of the life and work of craftspeople living 1,500 years ago."
"Innovative and impressive, Hot Pursuit will likely change the way anthropologists study technology," said reviewer Michael Brian Schiffer, Fred Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.
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