When standing before an ancient tablet in a museum or visiting an Egyptian monument, we marvel at this unique writing and puzzle over its meaning. Now, with the help of Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley, museum-goers, tourists, and armchair travelers alike can gain a basic knowledge of the language and culture of ancient Egypt. Collier and Manley's novel approach is informed by years of experience teaching Egyptian hieroglyphs to non-specialists. Using attractive drawings of actual inscriptions displayed in the British Museum, they concentrate on the kind of hieroglyphs readers might encounter in other collections, especially funerary writings and tomb scenes. Each chapter introduces a new aspect of hieroglyphic script or Middle Egyptian grammar and encourages acquisition of reading skills with practical exercises. The texts offer insights into the daily experiences of their ancient authors and touch on topics ranging from pharaonic administration to family life to the Egyptian way of death. With this book as a guide, one can enjoy a whole new experience in understanding Egyptian art and artifacts around the world.

    'Deeply impressive! ancient history: the new rock 'n' roll.' The Times

    In a brilliant piece of reverse engineering based on twenty years of research, Dunn reveals that the Great Pyramid of Giza was actually a large acoustical device! By its size and dimensions, this crystal edifice created a harmonic resonance with the Earth and converted Earth's vibrational energies to microwave radiation. The author shows how the pyramid's numerous chambers and passageways were positioned with the deliberate precision to maximize its acoustical qualities. This may be the same technology discovered by Nikola Tesla and the solution to our own clean energy needs.

    Weeks, an Egyptologist with the American University in Cairo, draws on his own diaries, as well as those of his wife and foreman, to describe the excitement and risks that surrounded the most significant archaeological discovery of our time: the burial site of the Son of Ramesses II.

    New and exciting archaeological discoveries are perpetually being made in Rome. All these are covered in this new edition, which also visits the ancient Roman port city of Ostia and the imperial villa of Hadrian at Tivoli.

    This text consists of an illustrated guide to all the major sites in twelve main areas in central Rome, and four in Greater Rome, including the Capitoline Hill, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Mausoleums of Augustus and Hadrian, the Circus Maximus, Catacombs, Ostia, and Tivoli.

    1000? Farley Mowat advances a controversial new theory about the first visitors to North America.Mowat's Westviking: The Ancient Norse in Greenland and North America (1965) was highly influential in helping to establish the belief, now commonly held, that the Norse visited North America some 500 years before Columbus. And yet "a worm of unease" plagued Mowat even then, a vague feeling that he hadn't gotten it quite right. He spent the next 30 years in search of a theory that would explain inconsistencies in the archaeological evidence (such as carbon-dated ruins not left by the Inuit, but that predated the arrival of Vikings in Newfoundland by hundreds of years). Now in The Farfarers he asserts that another Indo-European people he calls the "Alban" preceded the Norse by several centuries.Throughout The Farfarers, Mowat skillfully weaves fictional vignettes of Alban life into his thoughtful reconstruction of a forgotten history. What emerges is a bold and dramatic panorama of a harsher age: an age of death-dealing warships and scanty food supply, of long, cold journeys across the night sea into unknown lands."A spellbinding story . . . told by a master storyteller at the top of his form."—The Globe and Mail"The book is a fascinating glimpse of yesteryear and offers brief histories on the Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Inuits, and other peoples of the northern hemisphere. Written in vigorous, picturesque prose."—The Edmonton Sun

    A worldwide tour of discovery, Tattersall takes the reader from 30,000-year-old cave paintings in France and anthropological digs in Africa, to examining human behavior in a New York restaurant. And by offering wisdom gleaned from fossil remains, primate behavior, prehistoric art, and archaeology, Tattersall presents a stunning picture of where humankind evolved, how Darwin's theories have changed, and what we reliably know about modern-day human's capacity for love, language, and thought. Widely praised in the media, and an Amazon.com Top-10 bestseller, Becoming Human is an amazing trip into the past and into the future.

    Many diseases leave characteristic lesions and deformities on human bones, teeth and soft tissues that can be identified many years after death. This comprehensive volume includes all conditions producing effects recognizable with the unaided eye. Detailed lesion descriptions and over 300 photographs and diagrams facilitate disease recognition and each condition is placed in context with discussion of its history, antiquity, etiology, epidemiology, geography, and natural history. Uniquely, diseases affecting the soft tissues are also included as these are commonly present in mummified remains.

    This completely revised edition reflects the latest developments in scientific techniques for studying human skeletons and the latest applications of those techniques in archaeology. In particular, the sections on ancient DNA and bone stable isotopes have been comprehensively updated, and two completely new chapters have been introduced, covering metric study of the postcranial skeleton and ethical dimensions of the study of human remains.The Archaeology of Human Bones introduces students to the anatomy of bones and teeth, utilising a large number of images. It analyzes the biasing effects of decay and incomplete recovery on burial data from archaeological sites, and discusses what we may learn about burial rites from human remains. Subsequent chapters focus on demographic analysis of earlier populations, normal skeletal variation, disease and injury, isotopic and DNA analysis of bone, the study of cremated bone and ethical aspects of working with ancient human remains. Current scientific methods are explained, alongside a critical discussion of their strengths and weaknesses. The ways in which scientific analyses of human skeletal remains can contribute to tackling major archaeological or historical issues is illustrated by means of examples drawn from studies from around the world.Technical jargon is kept to a minimum, and each chapter contains a summary of the main points that a student should grasp and a list of further reading targeted to enable students to follow up major issues covered in the book. Featuring case studies from around the world and with copious illustrations, The Archaeology of Human Bones continues to be a crucial work for students of archaeology.

    Christy and Jacqueline Turner’s study of prehistoric violence, homicide, and cannibalism explodes the myth that the Anasazi and other Southwest Indians were simple, peaceful farmers. Using detailed osteological analyses and other lines of evidence the Turners show that warfare, violence, and their concomitant horrors were as common in the ancient Southwest as anywhere else in the world.The special feature of this massively documented study is its multi-regional assessment of episodic human bones assemblages (scattered floor deposits or charnel pits) by taphonomic analysis, which considers what happens to bones from the time of death to the time of recovery. During the past thirty years, the authors and other analysts have identified a minimal perimortem taphonomic signature of burning, pot polishing, anvil abrasions, bone breakage, cut marks, and missing vertebrae that closely match the signatures of animal butchering and is frequently associated with additional evidence of violence. More than seventy-five archaeological sited containing several hundred individuals are carefully examined for the cannibalism signature. Because this signature has not been reported for any sites north of Mexico, other than those in the Southwest, the authors also present detailed comparisons with Mesoamerican skeletal collections where human sacrifice and cannibalism were known to have been practiced. The authors review several hypotheses for Southwest cannibalism: starvation, social pathology, and institutionalized violence and cannibalism. In the latter case, they present evidence for a potential Mexican connection and demonstrate that most of the known cannibalized series are located temporally and spatially near Chaco great houses.

    Long known but little understood, Maya writing has now largely been deciphered, leading to a new understanding of the Maya scribes and the society in which they lived. This volume is the first to make full use of the latest research and the first to consider Maya writing both aesthetically and in terms of its meaning. Michael D. Coe begins by examining the origins and character of the script. He then explores the world of the scribes and "keepers of the holy books, " decoding their depiction in Maya art and describing the mediums in which they worked, their tools, and techniques.

    It explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, the volume comprehensively explores methods and techniques, presenting detailed case studies of lithic analysis from around the world. It also examines new emerging techniques and includes a new section on stone tool functional studies.

    It lies in a site that contains all the elements of archaeological mystery and romance: burial mounds, buried treasure, great works of art, sacrificed horses, and evidence of human execution. In the first accessible account of the whole story to date, Martin Carver explains what we know of the Sutton Hoo burial ground, in which the leaders of the medieval kingdom of East Anglia signaled their belief in a pagan and maritime kingdom independent of the Christian Europe of the day.Since the rediscovery of the first ship-burial in 1939, the site has been the subject of three major campaigns of excavation and research, the last of which ended in 1993. In Sutton Hoo, Martin Carver, director of the most recent excavation, tells the story not only of one of the most dramatic historic places in early England but of the fifty years of its exploration--a history of British archaeology.A selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

    At the end of the Ice Age, Southeast Asia formed a continent twice the size of India, which included Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Borneo. In Eden in the East, Stephen Oppenheimer puts forward the astonishing argument that here in southeast Asia—rather than in Mesopotamia where it is usually placed—was the lost civilization that fertilized the Great cultures of the Middle East 6,000 years ago. He produces evidence from ethnography, archaeology, oceanography, creation stories, myths, linguistics, and DNA analysis to argue that this founding civilization was destroyed by a catastrophic flood, caused by a rapid rise in the sea level at the end of the last ice age.

    The first section of the volume then comprises 14 overviews which explore the history and significance of each period.The main body of the text offers more than 300 alphabetically organized entries, written by some of the most eminent scholars in this field. Areas covered include: artefacts - glass, jewellery, sculpturearchaeological practices - dating techniques, representational evidence, textual sourcesbiographies - Howard Carter, Gertrude Caton Thompson, Gaston Masperobuildings - cult temples, private tombs, pyramid complexes geographical features - agriculture, climate, irrigationsites - Abydos, Dakhla Oasis, Thebessocial organization - kingship, law, taxationThe text is extensively illustrated with over 120 images. Each entry is followed by a selected further reading section which includes foreign language sources to supplement the available works in English.

    The extraordinary earthenware figures illustrated have all been recovered from burial sites and shaft tombs. They represent a wide range of subjects -- warriors, chieftains, acrobats, shamans, musicians, ball players, festival couples, and bound prisoners -- in a variety of styles from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 800 that constitute the artistic canon of a region encompassing the modern states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit.This distinctive artistic tradition is among the most aesthetically appealing and culturally informative of the ancient Americas. Yet until now the region has never been as thoroughly documented as other early Mesoamerican civilizations. The ancient cultures of this period were not isolated farming villages, as was long thought, but impressive chieftaincies with complex social organizations; art, architecture, ritual dance, and performance played an essential and dynamic role in the formation and integration of these multiethnic societies.This is the first publication to analyze fully the splendid accomplishments of the area. It includes an analysis of a recently discovered multichambered shaft tomb in Huitzilapa, west of Guadalajara, the first scientifically excavated tomb found complete with multiple human remains, mortuary vessels, large-scale earthenware figures, conch-shell trumpets, and other precious objects. Other essays, by a distinguished team of American andMexican archaeologists, art historians, and ethnohistorians, describe the discovery at Tenochtitlan of a major circular ceremonial center; shamanism and spirituality as reflected in funerary sculpture; the West Mexican ball game, an elaborate ritual associated with pan-Mesoamerican themes of fertility, life, death, and renewal; the iconography of rulership in ancient funerary figures; and the evidence for sea trade between ancient West Mexico and Ecuador.

    It reveals substantial links between Meso-America and Egypt and the Middle East.

    By gathering evidence from a vast range of material and literary sources from 3000 BC onwards, threads of influence and continuity are traced into the Middle Ages. The effect of recent rediscovery on European art is also explored.

    Forbidden Archeology's Impact offers readers an inside look at how mainstream science reacts with ridicule, threats and intimidation to any challenge to its deeply held beliefs.

    In this volume Marc Van de Mieroop examines the evolution of the very earliest cities which, for millennia, inspired the rest of the ancient world. The author argues that the city determined every aspect of Mesopotamian civilization, and the political and social structure, economy, literature, and arts of Mesopotamian culture cannot be understood without acknowledging their urban background.

    Designed as much for general readers and travelers interested in ancient Greece as for scholars, the volume presents the findings of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP), which has intensively studied the region over the past 15 years. The 1998 edition, originally published by the University of Texas Press and widely used as a textbook in undergraduate classes, is reprinted with a new preface assessing PRAP's impact and outlining new discoveries in the region.

    Covering all types of archaeological finds from bones to pottery, armour to jewellery, this text provides a complete and detailed picture of every major period from the Palaeolithic to the medieval.

    The question of gender difference and whether it is natural or culturally constructed is a compelling one. The articles here, which draw on evidence from a wide range of geographic areas, demonstrate how all archaeological investigation can benefit from an awareness of issues of gender. They also show how the long-term nature of archaeological research can inform the gender debate across the disciplines. The volume: * organizes this complex area into seven sections on key themes in gender archaeology: archaeological method and theory, human origins, division of labour, the social construction of gender, iconography and ideology, power and social hierarchies and new forms of archaeological narrative * includes section introductions which outline the history of research on each topic and present the key points of each article * presents a balance of material which rewrites women into prehistory, and articles which show how the concept of gender informs our understanding and interpretation of the past.

    Every year many burials are excavated in the course of building work or archaeological research - possibly of a medieval monk found boxed up below a herbacious border, or a couple of 4000-year-old skulls discovered deep beneath the Yorkshire Dales.

    Buried in the desert without a trace, it had become known as "the Atlantis of the Sands." Many had searched for Ubar, including Lawrence of Arabia. Then in the 1980s, Nicholas Clapp, a documentary filmmaker and amateur archaeologist, stumbled on the legend of the lost city while poring over historical manuscripts. Filled with overwhelming curiosity, he led two expeditions to Arabia with a team that included space scientists and geologists. The discovery of Ubar was front-page news across the world and was heralded by Time as one of three major scientific events of the year.

    Imagine the thrill students will experience as they discover artifacts from the past. There isn't a single student who won't love the activities in this book!From creating simulated archaeology, to participating in digs in the classroom, to digs in the community, this book is a how-to for teaching archaeology. Of equal importance is that while learning the discipline of archaeology, students will be acquiring skills in math, biology, geology, art, geography, history, and language skills, as well as motor, social, and conceptual skills.Hands-On Archaeology shows teachers everything they will need to help students conduct real-life archaeological digs. Packed with activities, this book first offers small-scale activities that can easily be conducted in the classroom using everyday materials. Then, the author takes kids out of the school to an empty lot in the community. Students will not just learn about archaeology--they will be archaeologists!Grades 4-10

    Well, it's now 1998 and Gene Florence has once again completely revised his Pocket Guide to Depression Glass. This all, new eleventh edition is once again released at the great, low retail price of $9.95. This popular guide has been completely revised with over 4,000 values updated and hundreds of listings added to reflect the ever-changing market. Over 60 percent of the photographs have been re-shot to improve the quality and add the many new finds. These gorgeous full-color photographs show great detail, and the listings of the patterns and their available pieces make identification simple. There is even a section on re-issues and the numerous fakes flooding the market. Many collectors have referred to this book as much more than just a "pocket guide". It's the perfect book to take with you on your searches through shops and flea markets. This is the ideal companion to Florence's comprehensive Collector's Encyclopedia of Depression Glas

    Starting in the Mesolithic and carrying his analysis through to the Late Bronze Age, Richard Bradley sheds light on this complex period and the changing consciousness of these prehistoric peoples.The Significance of Monuments studies the importance of monuments tracing their history from their first creation over six thousand years later. Part One discusses how monuments first developed and their role in developing a new sense of time and space among the inhabitants of prehistoric Europe. Other features of the prehistoric landscape - such as mounds and enclosures - across Continental Europe are also examined. Part Two studies how such monuments were modified and reinterpreted to suit the changing needs of society through a series of detailed case studies.The Significance of Monuments is an indispensable text for all students of European prehistory. It is also an enlightening read for professional archaeologists and all those interested in this fascinating period.

    The soldier's name was Tiberius Claudius Maximus and he served under the emperor Trajan, in his great wars in Central Europe and the Middle East. Maximus was decorated three times for bravery and became famous for hunting down Rome's great enemy, Decebalus (leader of the Dacians, whose lands covered all of what is now Romania). These two volumes trace the soldier's career from the day he entered the Seventh Legion on the Danube frontier in Central Europe, in about 85 AD, to the day he retired as a cavalry officer in Mesopotamia some thirty years later. They provide a unique portrait of the life of an ordinary man who lived during one of the most extraordinary periods of Western history. In addition to the text, a huge amount of information is conveyed in the richly detailed illustrations that have become the trademark of Peter Connolly's work.

    The chapters demonstrate how the resurrection both provides the basis for joyful living now despite the shadow of death and undergirds the Christian belief in a future after death.

    Yet the art of mosaic enjoyed spectacular success in the Graeco-Roman world, where its practitioners created some of the most beautiful artworks in history. This handsomely illustrated and elegantly written book traces the evolution of mosaic from the Hellenistic period to the early Christian era, with particular emphasis on the Roman Empire, and examines its regional variations from Britain to North Africa and from the Levant to the Spanish seaboard.The eminent classical scholar Roger Ling explains how mosaics were first made in the fifth century B.C. with the use of inset pebbles to provide durable pavements. He shows how mosaic became one of the hallmarks of luxury in Roman times, when such masterpieces of imperial floor decoration as the black-and-white silhouette pavements of Ostia and the colorful figure compositions of Piazza Armerina in Sicily were created. From pavements, mosaic graduated to walls and ceilings, where it culminated in the soaring blue and gold work of early Christian churches in Rome, Constantinople, and Ravenna. Ling examines the wide range of styles and subject matter employed by mosaicists, whether geometric patterns or figurative scenes of mythology, agriculture, and hunting, and explores what mosaics reveal about domestic and imperial tastes and aspirations. Such topics as techniques and materials, the relationship of mosaic to other forms of interior decoration, and the influence of ancient mosaics in more recent times are also discussed in detail.Illuminating, attractive, and affordable, this book makes a major contribution to classical scholarship and will also appeal strongly to art historians, artists, designers, and general readers.

    Rediscovered accidentally in the 18th century, the remarkably preserved remains of Pompeii have since revealed a detailed picture of what an ancient city was like. From its theaters to its baths, from its palatial homes to Herculaneum Gate, from the Temple of Apollo to the Temple of Venus, the book re-creates Pompeii as a flourishing center of activity, the way it appeared before that fateful day on August 24, AD 79. Illustrated with over 200 color photographs and illustrations, including architectural renderings and floor plans of many structures, this book reveals Pompeii as never before for the tourist or armchair traveler.

    Describes the people, culture, antiquities, and influences of ancient civilizations, starting with early humans and moving chronologically through Sumer, Egypt, Nubia, India, China, Israel, Greece, Rome, and others.

    Cusick,seeks to define the role of culture contact in human history, to identify issues in the study of culture contact in archaeology, and to provide a critical overview of the major theoretical approaches to the study of culture and contact.In this collection of essays, anthropologists and archaeologists working in Europe and the Americas consider three forms of culture contact—colonization, cultural entanglement, and symmetrical exchange. Part I provides a critical overview of  theoretical approaches to the study of culture contact, offering assessments of older concepts in anthropology, such as acculturation, as well as more recently formed concepts, including world systems and center-periphery models of contact. Part II contains eleven case studies of specific contact situations and their relationships to the archaeological record, with times and places as varied as pre- and post-Hispanic Mexico, Iron Age France, Jamaican sugar plantations, European provinces in the Roman Empire, and the missions of Spanish Florida.Studies in Culture Contact provides an extensive review of the history of culture contact in anthropological studies and develops a broad framework for studying culture contact’s role, moving beyond a simple formulation of contact and change to a more complex understanding of the amalgam of change and continuity in contact situations.

    After a critical survey of the sources, the author analyses systematically the information on the individual gods worshipped by the Nabataeans, including a detailed illustrated account of temples and iconography. A further major section discusses religious themes: aniconism, henotheism, death-cult and the divinisation of kings. In a final chapter, Nabataean religion is considered in relation to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The book will be of particular interest to historians of religion in the Graeco-Roman Near East and to Semitic epigraphists.

    They are grouped in three overlapping sections, covering the economy and society of cities; peasants and the rural economy; and food supply and famine. The essays, all previously published, are presented together with bibliographical addenda by Walter Scheidel that summarize and assess scholarly reaction to the author's work. The range of subject matter and approach is wide and the treatment original and provocative.

    The techniques are valid in any western state, even Alaska. It begins where other ghost town guidebooks end. It is the first book to guide readers around a site in Sherlock Holmes fashion. Using the techniques of a historical sleuth, you will learn to identify forgotten pieces of the past. You will see for yourself the lives that passed this way and you will hear The Mining Camps Speak. Illustrated with hundreds of black and white photographs and antique engravings.

    This volume completes a series of four titles which comprehensively cover the development of Greek vases.

    Pyne, showing what a historian deeply schooled in environmental science can contribute to our awareness of nature and culture, has produced a provocative work that is a major contribution to the literature of environmental studies."--New York Times Book Review

    

    After his death at the age of nineteen, "King Tut" was forgotten from history, until the discovery of his tomb in 1922 propelled him to worldwide fame. But the circumstances of his death remain shrouded in mystery....X-rays of Tutankhamen's skull suggest a violent death. Was it accident or murder? Several members of his family died around the same time--was is coincidence? Why did Tutankhamen's widow send desperate messages to the Hittite king, requesting marriage to one of his sons? And who murdered the Hittite price on his journey to Egypt? Who ordered the removal of Tutankhamen's name from all monuments and temples, and thus from Egyptian history?This fascinating, painstakingly researched book is the first to explore in depth the questionable circumstances of Tutankhamen's demise--and to present a shocking scenario of betrayal, ambition, and murder. In The Murder of Tutankhamen, renowned Egyptologist Bob Brier reveals an exciting journey into ancient history--and a 3,000 year-old mystery that still compels us today."Brier's 3,000-year-old mystery steadily draws the reader into the curious and exotic world of Egyptology."--The New York TimesINCLUDES 16 PAGES OF PHOTOS

    Discover the hidden secrets of Solomon's Temple and King Herod's expansion of the Temple Mount.