Best of
Archaeology
2013
Pagan Britain
Ronald Hutton - 2013
In this ambitious and thoroughly up-to-date book, Ronald Hutton reveals the long development, rapid suppression, and enduring cultural significance of paganism, from the Paleolithic Era to the coming of Christianity. He draws on an array of recently discovered evidence and shows how new findings have radically transformed understandings of belief and ritual in Britain before the arrival of organized religion. Setting forth a chronological narrative, Hutton along the way makes side visits to explore specific locations of ancient pagan activity. He includes the well-known sacred sites—Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge, Maiden Castle, Anglesey—as well as more obscure locations across the mainland and coastal islands. In tireless pursuit of the elusive “why” of pagan behavior, Hutton astonishes with the breadth of his understanding of Britain’s deep past and inspires with the originality of his insights.
The Anglo-Saxon World
Nicholas J. Higham - 2013
Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics. The result is the definitive introduction to the Anglo-Saxon world, enhanced with a rich array of photographs, maps, genealogies, and other illustrations. The Anglo-Saxon period witnessed the birth of the English people, the establishment of Christianity, and the development of the English language. With an extraordinary cast of characters (Alfred the Great, the Venerable Bede, King Cnut), a long list of artistic and cultural achievements (Beowulf, the Sutton Hoo ship-burial finds, the Bayeux Tapestry), and multiple dramatic events (the Viking invasions, the Battle of Hastings), the Anglo-Saxon era lays legitimate claim to having been one of the most important in Western history.
The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World
Cyprian Broodbank - 2013
World-class interpretations exist of its Classical and subsequent history, but there has been remarkably little holistic exploration of how its societies, culture and economies first came into being, despitethe fact that almost all the fundamental developments originated well before 500 BC. This book is the first full, interpretive synthesis for a generation on the rise of the Mediterranean world from its beginning, before the emergence of our own species, up to the threshold of Classical times, bywhich time the Middle Sea was already in effect made.Thanks to unrivalled depth and breadth of exploration, Mediterranean archaeology is one of the world's richest sources for the reconstruction of ancient societies. This book is the first to draw in equal measure on ideas and information from the European, western Asian and African flanks, as well asthe islands at the Mediterranean's heart, to achieve a truly innovative focus on the varied trajectories and interactions that created this maritime world.The Mediterranean combines unusual conditions in a strictly unique fashion that goes a long way towards explaining its precocious development: it is the world's largest inland sea, easily the largest of the five challenging, opportunity-rich mediterraneoid environments on the planet, and adjacentto the riverine cores of two of the earliest civilizations, in Mesopotamia and Egypt. No wonder its societies proved exceptional.Extensively illustrated and ranging across disciplines, subject matter and chronology from early humans and the origins of farming and metallurgy to the rise of civilizations--Egyptian, Levantine, Hispanic, Minoan, Mycenaean, Phoenician, Etruscan, early Greek--the book is a masterpiece ofarchaeological and historical writing.
The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance
Elizabeth Wayland Barber - 2013
So appealing were these spirit-maidens that they also took up residence in nineteenth-century Romantic literature.Archaeologist and linguist by profession, folk dancer by avocation, Elizabeth Wayland Barber has sleuthed through ethnographic lore and archaeological reports of east and southeast Europe, translating enchanting folktales about these “dancing goddesses” as well as eyewitness accounts of traditional rituals — texts that offer new perspectives on dance in agrarian society. She then traces these goddesses and their dances back through the Romans and Greeks to the first farmers of Europe. Along the way, she locates the origins of many customs, including coloring Easter eggs and throwing rice at the bride. The result is a detective story like no other and a joyful reminder of the human need to dance.
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
Margalit Fox - 2013
When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece's Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe's earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain a mystery. Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean--the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen--to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the decipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.
Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
Paul Roberts - 2013
Pompeii and Herculaneum--and countless nearby farms, estates, and villages--were completely buried under pumice and super-heated ash. It was arguably the most widely recognized volcanic eruption in recorded history, and the ruins it left behind are our most valuable archaeological record of day-to-day life in the Roman empire. This magnificently illustrated book illuminates the daily lives of the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The plaster-cast bodies of the victims are the most vivid reminders of the horrific event that made Pompeii so well-known, but who were these men, women, and children so cruelly frozen in time? Drawing on full-color photographs of more than 200 excavated objects--from a soldier's sword to a shopkeeper's blue glass storage bottle-Paul Roberts, a curator at the British Museum, lifts the inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum out of the ashes and ruins of their homes and brings them back into the light. Roberts explores every room in the typical Roman home. Here are bronze busts and magnificent mosaics from an entrance area; beautiful frescoes and silver drinking cups from a dining room; a carbonized wooden cradle and birth certificate of a little girl from a bedroom and library; and bottles for fish sauce and cooking pots from a kitchen. In addition, Roberts offers an engaging discussion of the many shops founds in the two cities, ranging from bakeries to taverns, and he also reconstructs the catastrophe, drawing on the best archaeological and geological evidence, as well as the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger. With sharp full-color photographs of the most celebrated artifacts, including incredible recent finds from Herculaneum, this book captures the public face and private life of real Roman families.
The Belial Stone
R.D. Brady - 2013
Before she can deal with the heartbreaking loss, she is viciously attacked in her home by a man with inhuman fighting abilities.Former Navy SEAL and head of security for a global think tank, Jake Rogan drops everything when he hears his foster brother, Tom Jeffries, has gone missing. There seem to be no clues, no information about his whereabouts. He has just vanished. But Jake won't rest until he finds him.Laney and Jake join forces when they learn that the fates of their loved ones are intertwined. And somehow all the danger that dogs their steps, revolves around an eccentric archaeologist's controversial work on Gobekli Tepe, and the search for an ancient source of power.Their personal quest soon becomes a race to protect humanity's very existence. But how can they defeat a foe who has been planning his moves for millennia?To save mankind, Laney and Jake know they must succeed. But to succeed, they must live long enough to fight.
Witnesses to Mystery: Investigations into Christ's Relics
Grzegorz Górny - 2013
The authors investigated a rich body of documentary evidence found in various museums, archives and churches surrounding sacred objects believed to have been preserved since Jesus' lifetime, exploring and collaborating with historians and scientists in their attempt to verify the relics' authenticity. They reach their conclusions not so much on the basis of faith as on the evidence supplied by historical sources and expert scientific opinion.The relics associated with the Passion - the suffering, death and burial of Christ - have long proved something of an enigma for the scientific community. Relics investigated, and photographed, for this glorious volume include: the Cross, nails, crown of thorns, pillar of scourging, Christ's tunic, the Veil of Manoppello, the Sudarium of Oviedo, the famous Shroud of Turin burial cloth and more.
First Footprints: The Epic Story of the First Australians
Scott Cane - 2013
It is a story of ancient life on the driest continent on earth through the greatest environmental changes experienced in human history: ice ages, extreme drought and inundating seas. It is chronicled through astonishing archaeological discoveries, ancient oral histories and the largest and oldest art galleries on earth. Australia's first inhabitants were the first people to believe in an afterlife, cremate their dead, engrave representations of the human face, and depict human sound and emotion. They created new technologies, designed ornamentation, engaged in trade, and crafted the earliest documents of war. Ultimately, they developed a sustainable society based on shared religious tradition and far-reaching social networks across the length and breadth of Australia.
The Rise of Ancient Israel
William G. Dever - 2013
Based on a 1991 Smithsonian Institution symposium organized by the Biblical Archaeology Society, this handsomely illustrated book brings together four authoritative and insightful lectures from world renowned scholars that carefully consider the archaeological and historical evidence for ancient Israel’s origins. Furthermore, the new electronic edition of The Rise of Ancient Israel allows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.In the book’s introduction, moderator Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, not only defines the broad range of issues involved in tackling Israel’s beginnings, but also provides the basic information needed to appreciate the scholarly debates. William Dever, America’s preeminent Biblical archaeologist, then assesses the archaeological evidence that is usually associated with the Israelite settlement in Canaan beginning in about 1200 B.C.E. The often controversial views presented by Dever are followed by brief responses from leading scholars who study Israelite origins, including Israel Finkelstein, Norman Gottwald and Adam Zertal. In the book’s final chapters, Baruch Halpern, a senior professor of Jewish studies and biblical history at Penn State University, describes how the Book of Exodus may preserve authentic historical memories of Israel’s emergence in Egypt, while famed biblical scholar P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., discusses the fascinating and perhaps unexpected origins of Israelite religion. The book concludes with an informal but revealing panel discussion spurred by questions from Shanks and the symposium audience.
Getting to Know Arcgis for Desktop
Michael Law - 2013
Readers are shown how to use ArcGIS for Desktop software tools to display and present maps and data, and then query and analyze the data. The third edition has been reorganized and includes new topics such as exploring online resources and raster data and contains new exercises, data, and learning tools. Known for its broad scope, clarity, and reliability, Getting to Know ArcGIS for Desktop is equally well-suited for classroom use, independent study, and as a reference. A data DVD for working through the exercises is included with the book, and access to a 180-day trial of ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop is provided.
The Ekkos Clan
Sudipto Das - 2013
The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters – Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist.Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales – they contain rich linguistic fossils and layers of histories.In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle had not been so lucky. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed?Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories.At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the first book written by mankind.
Stonehenge: A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument
Mike Parker Pearson - 2013
Stonehenge changes the way we think about the site, correcting previously erroneous dating, filling gaps in our knowledge about its builders and how they lived, clarifying the monument s significance both celestially and as a burial ground, and contextualizing Stonehenge which sits at the center of one of the densest prehistoric settlements in history within the broader landscape of the Neolithic Age.
War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views
Douglas P. Fry - 2013
Fry brings together leading experts in such fields as evolutionary biology, archaeology, anthropology, and primatology to answer fundamental questions about peace, conflict, and human nature in an evolutionary context. The chapters in this book demonstrate that humans clearly have the capacity to make war, but since war is absent in some cultures, it cannot be viewed as ahuman universal. And counter to frequent presumption the actual archaeological record reveals the recent emergence of war. It does not typify the ancestral type of human society, the nomadic forager band, and contrary to widespread assumptions, there is little support for the idea that war isancient or an evolved adaptation. Views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking.Drawing upon evolutionary and ecological models; the archaeological record of the origins of war; nomadic forager societies past and present; the value and limitations of primate analogies; and the evolution of agonism, including restraint; the chapters in this interdisciplinary volume refute manypopular generalizations and effectively bring scientific objectivity to the culturally and historically controversial subjects of war, peace, and human nature.
The Glacier's Wake
Katy Didden - 2013
A number of the poems in the collection are monologues in recurring voices--specifically those of a glacier, a sycamore, and a wasp--offering an inventive, prismatic approach to Didden's ambitious subject matter. As poet Scott Cairns says, "Didden's is a capacious voice, able at once to deliver both wit and wonder, canny insight and meditative mystery." In The Glacier's Wake, the scientific, the elegiac, and the fantastical intertwine in the service of considering our human place--constructive and destructive, powerful and impermanent--amidst the massive shiftings that are occurring endlessly all around us.
Unlocking the Past: How Archaeologists Are Rewriting Human History with Ancient DNA
Martin Jones - 2013
For the first time, the building blocks of ancient life—DNA, proteins, and fats that have long been trapped in fossils and earth and rock—have become widely accessible to science. Working at the cutting edge of genetic and other molecular technologies, researchers have been probing the remains of these ancient biomolecules in human skeletons, sediments and fossilized plants, dinosaur bones, and insects trapped in amber. Their amazing discoveries have influenced the archaeological debate at almost every level and continue to reshape our understanding of the past.Devising a molecular clock from a certain area of DNA, scientists were able to determine that all humans descend from one common female ancestor, dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve," who lived around 150,000 years ago. From molecules recovered from grinding stones and potsherds, they reconstructed ancient diets and posited when such practices as dairying and boiling water for cooking began. They have reconstituted the beer left in the burial chamber of pharaohs and know what the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old hunter found in the Alps in the early nineties, ate before his last journey. Conveying both the excitement of innovative research and the sometimes bruising rough-and-tumble of scientific debate, Jones has written a work of profound importance. Unlocking the Past is science at its most engaging.
The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction
Eric H. Cline - 2013
Even today, the war inspires countless articles and books, extensive archaeological excavations, movies, television documentaries, even souvenirs and collectibles. Butwhile the ancients themselves believed that the Trojan War took place, scholars of the modern era have sometimes derided it as a piece of fiction.Combining archaeological data and textual analysis of ancient documents, this Very Short Introduction considers whether or not the war actually took place and whether archaeologists have really discovered the site of ancient Troy. To answer these questions, archaeologist and ancient historian EricH. Cline examines various written sources, including the works of Homer, the Epic Cycle (fragments from other, now-lost Greek epics), classical plays, and Virgil's Aeneid. Throughout, the author tests the literary claims against the best modern archaeological evidence, showing for instance thatHomer, who lived in the Iron Age, for the most part depicted Bronze Age warfare with accuracy. Cline also tells the engaging story of the archaeologists--Heinrich Schliemann and his successors Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Carl Blegen, and Manfred Korfmann--who found the long-vanished site of Troy throughexcavations at Hisarlik, Turkey.Drawing on evidence found at Hisarlik and elsewhere, Cline concludes that a war or wars in the vicinity of Troy probably did take place during the Late Bronze Age, forming the nucleus of a story that was handed down orally for centuries until put into final form by Homer. But Cline suggests that, even allowing that a Trojan War took place, it probably was not fought because of Helen's abduction, though such an incident may have provided the justification for a war actually fought for more compelling economic and political motives.About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchantand provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, theseries will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy andaffordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science is Rewriting Their Story
Dimitra Papagianni - 2013
It turns out that the Neanderthals’ behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals’ place in our own past.For hundreds of thousands of years, Neanderthals evolved in Europe parallel to Homo sapiens evolving in Africa, and, when both species made their first forays into Asia, the Neanderthals may even have had the upper hand. In this important volume, Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse compile the first full chronological narrative of the Neanderthals’ dramatic existence—from their evolution in Europe to their expansion to Siberia, their subsequent extinction, and ultimately their revival in popular novels, cartoons, cult movies, and television commercials.
Identifying and Interpreting Animal Bones: A Manual
April M. Beisaw - 2013
Using the basic principles outlined here, the bones of any vertebrate animal, including humans, can be identified and their relevance to common research questions can be better understood. Because the interpretation of archaeological sites depends heavily on the analysis of surrounding materials—soils, artifacts, and floral and faunal remains—it is important that non-human remains be correctly distinguished from human bones, that distinctions between domesticated and wild or feral animals be made correctly, and that evidence of the reasons for faunal remains in the site be recognized. But the ability to identify and analyze animal bones is a skill that is not easy to learn from a traditional textbook. In Identifying and Interpreting Animal Bones, veteran archaeologist and educator April Beisaw guides readers through the stages of identification and analysis with sample images and data, also illustrating how specialists make analytical decisions that allow for the identification of the smallest fragments of bone. Extensive additional illustrative material, from the author’s own collected assemblages and from those in the Archaeological Analytical Research Facility at Binghamton University in New York, are also available in the book’s online supplement. There, readers can view and interact with images to further understanding of the principles explained in the text.
Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia
Manduhai Buyandelger - 2013
Economic shock therapy—an immediate liberalization of trade and privatization of publicly owned assets—quickly led to impoverishment, especially in rural parts of the country, where Tragic Spirits takes place. Following the travels of the nomadic Buryats, Manduhai Buyandelger tells a story not only of economic devastation but also a remarkable Buryat response to it—the revival of shamanic practices after decades of socialist suppression. Attributing their current misfortunes to returning ancestral spirits who are vengeful over being abandoned under socialism, the Buryats are now at once trying to appease their ancestors and recover the history of their people through shamanic practice. Thoroughly documenting this process, Buyandelger situates it as part of a global phenomenon, comparing the rise of shamanism in liberalized Mongolia to its similar rise in Africa and Indonesia. In doing so, she offers a sophisticated analysis of the way economics, politics, gender, and other factors influence the spirit world and the crucial workings of cultural memory.
Uncovering History: Archaeological Investigations at the Little Bighorn
Douglas D. Scott - 2013
For many years afterward, as fascination with the famed 1876 fight intensified, visitors to the area scavenged the many relics left behind. It took decades, however, before researchers began to tease information from the battle’s debris—and the new field of battlefield archaeology began to emerge. In Uncovering History, renowned archaeologist Douglas D. Scott offers a comprehensive account of investigations at the Little Bighorn, from the earliest collecting efforts to early-twentieth-century findings.Artifacts found on a field of battle and removed without context or care are just relics, curiosities that arouse romantic imagination. When investigators recover these artifacts in a systematic manner, though, these items become a valuable source of clues for reconstructing battle events. Here Scott describes how detailed analysis of specific detritus at the Little Bighorn—such as cartridge cases, fragments of camping equipment and clothing, and skeletal remains—have allowed researchers to reconstruct and reinterpret the history of the conflict. In the process, he demonstrates how major advances in technology, such as metal detection and GPS, have expanded the capabilities of battlefield archaeologists to uncover new evidence and analyze it with greater accuracy.Through his broad survey of Little Bighorn archaeology across a span of 130 years, Scott expands our understanding of the battle, its protagonists, and the enduring legacy of the battlefield as a national memorial.
Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible
Carl G. Rasmussen - 2013
Packed with multidimensional maps, photos, diagrams, and charts; the Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible is designed to help you better understand the history and places of the Bible and its world.This full-color atlas is concise but thorough, perfect for Bible students, travelers to the Holy Land, or any reader of the Bible curious to find out more about commonly mentioned places in the Old and New Testaments.The Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible features:Nearly 200 stunning multidimensional and three-dimensional maps and full-color images.Accurate and up-to-date mapping technologies.Innovative chronological charts and maps covering historical backgrounds, regions, weather, and roads.With this easy-to-understand atlas, you'll find Bible study more engaging and comprehensible, and you'll learn key contextual facts about these historically and spiritually rich places.
Sex on Show: Seeing the Erotic in Greece and Rome
Caroline Vout - 2013
Phallic imagery, sex scenes, and the lively activities of their promiscuous gods adorned many objects, buildings, and sculptures. Drinking cups, oil-lamps, and walls were decorated with scenes of seduction; statues of erect penises served as boundary-stones and signposts; and marble satyrs and nymphs grappled in gardens. Caroline Vout examines the abundance of sexual imagery in Greek and Roman culture. Were these images intended to be shocking, humorous, or exciting? Are they about sex or love? How are we to know whether our responses to them are akin to those of the ancients? The answers to these questions provide fascinating insights into ancient attitudes toward religion, politics, sex, gender, and the body. They also reveal how the ancients saw themselves and their world, and how subsequent centuries have seen them. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this lively and thought-provoking book not only addresses theories of sexual practice and social history, it is also a visual history of what it meant and still means to stare sex in the face.
The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut's Mummy
Jo Marchant - 2013
After resting undisturbed for more than three millennia, King Tut’s mummy was suddenly awakened in 1922. Archaeologist Howard Carter had discovered the boy-king’s tomb, and the soon-to-be famous mummy’s story—even more dramatic than King Tut’s life—began.The mummy’s “afterlife” is a modern story, not an ancient one. Award-winning science writer Jo Marchant traces the mummy’s story from its first brutal autopsy in 1925 to the most recent arguments over its DNA. From the glamorous treasure hunts of the 1920s to today’s high-tech scans in volatile modern Egypt, Marchant introduces us to the brilliant and sometimes flawed people who have devoted their lives to revealing the mummy’s secrets, unravels the truth behind the hyped-up TV documentaries, and explains what science can and can’t tell us about King Tutankhamun.
Debt to the Bone-Eating Snotflower
Sarah Lindsay - 2013
Anything might turn up in a Cornell box: a stuffed bird, images snipped from old engravings, dice, corks, a broken watch--anything. Like Cornell, Lindsay also creates tiny, complete worlds that operate according to their own particular laws."—ParnassusIn her fourth collection of poetry, National Book Award finalist and Lannan Fellowship winner Sarah Lindsay presents a lyric menagerie of bizarrely imagined personae and historic figures revealing their long-held secrets, alongside surprising scientific subjects and discoveries layered into quirky, dark-edged, sometimes macabre, always intimate and graceful poems. Imbued with a buoying sense of respect for the different, the unexpected, and the challenging, Lindsay's poems are alive with wonder.And when asked the obvious question about the title, you can say, "A 'bone-eating snotflower' is the inelegant slang for the worm-like creature, Osedax mucofloris, that feeds on the carcasses of minke whales in the North Sea."From "Without Warning":Elizabeth Bishop leaned on a table, it cracked,both fell to the floor. A gesturegone sadly awry. This was close to factand quickly became symbolic, bound to occurin Florida, where she was surroundedby rotting abundance and greedy insects. One moment a laughing smile, a graceful handalighting on solid furniture, a casual shift of weight, the next, undignified splayed legs. The shell of the tableproved to be stuffed with termite eggs . . . Sarah Lindsay graduated from St. Olaf College and holds a MFA from UNC Greensboro. Her first book of poetry, Primate Behavior, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She currently works as a copy editor for Pace Communications, and lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Ancient Central Andes
Jeffrey Quilter - 2013
The book contextualizes past and modern scholarship and provides a balanced view of current research. Two opening chapters present the intellectual, political, and practical background and history of research in the Central Andes and the spatial, temporal, and formal dimensions of the study of its past. Chapters then proceed in chronological order from remote antiquity to the Spanish Conquest.A number of important themes run through the book, including: the tension between those scholars who wish to study Peruvian antiquity on a comparative basis and those who take historicist approaches; the concept of Lo Andino, commonly used by many specialists that assumes long-term, unchanging patterns of culture some of which are claimed to persist to the present; and culture change related to severe environmental events. Consensus opinions on interpretations are highlighted as are disputes among scholars regarding interpretations of the past.The Ancient Central Andes provides an up-to-date, objective survey of the archaeology of the Central Andes that is much needed. Students and interested readers will benefit greatly from this introduction to a key period in South America's past.
The Complete Collection of Travel Literature: In Search of King Solomon's Mines, Beyond the Devil's Teeth, House of the Tiger King, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Travels With Myself, Trail of Feathers
Tahir Shah - 2013
Beyond the Devil's Teeth is the author's first travelogue, and spans a journey from India, to Africa, to South America. Travels With Myself is a collection of travel essays that span the author's world travels. Sorcerer's Apprentice is based in India, and chronicles the author's bizarre apprenticeship to a tyrannical master of illusion. Trail of Feathers and House of the Tiger King are set in Peru. The former details the author's search for the secret of how the ancient Incas flew like birds over the Amazon; the latter covers his expedition that searched for the lost Incan city of Paititi. In Search of King Solomon's Mines is set in Ethiopia, as the author searches for undiscovered mines known only in folklore. Shah's overwhelming laugh-out-loud style is present as he educates, informs, and amuses readers about the locations and people he discovers on his journeys. About the Author Tahir Shah is the author of more than fifteen books, many of which chronicle a wide range of outlandish journeys through Africa, Asia and the Americas. For him, there’s nothing so important as deciphering the hidden underbelly of the lands through which he travels. Shunning well-trodden tourist paths, he avoids celebrated landmarks, preferring instead to position himself on a busy street corner or in a dusty café and observe life go by. Insisting that we can all be explorers, he says there’s wonderment to be found wherever we are – it’s just a matter of seeing the world with fresh eyes.
Human Evolutionary Genetics
Mark A. Jobling - 2013
Written for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, it is the only textbook to integrate genetic, archaeological, and linguistic perspectives on human evolution, and to offer a genomic perspective, reflecting the shift from studies of specific regions of the genome towards comprehensive genomewide analyses of human genetic diversity.Human Evolutionary Genetics is suitable for courses in Genetics, Evolution, and Anthropology. Those readers with a background in anthropology will find that the streamlined genetic analysis material contained in the Second Edition is more accessible. The new edition also integrates new technologies (including next-generation sequencing and genome-wide SNP typing) and new data analysis methods, including recent data on ancient genomes and their impact on our understanding of human evolution. The book also examines the subject of personal genomics and its implications.
Archaeology
Archaeological Institute Of America - 2013
Readers can look forward to the latest news, vivid storytelling, and compelling photography. Archaeology brings the human past to life.
Hidden Riches
Christopher B. Hays - 2013
Key Selling Points:Shows how the Hebrew Bible was shaped by Ancient Near East texts, addressing literary, historical, and cultural contextsOffers Hebrew Bible texts with side-by-side comparison to Ancient Near East textsIdeal for introductory courses in Hebrew Bible
Myanmar (Burma): Temples of Bagan (2017 Travel Guide)
Approach Guides - 2013
Bagan, the ancient Buddhist capital in central Myanmar (Burma) that thrived from 850-1300, is one of the most magnificent and inspiring sites in Southeast Asia. It is yours to uncover. What’s in this guidebook * Comprehensive look at Bagan’s art and architecture. We provide an overview of Bagan’s art and architecture, laying out the two types of religious structures (temples and stupas) and the art forms used to decorate them (paintings and sculpture). To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images. * A tour that goes deeper on the most important sites. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer a detailed tour of twenty-one of the premier sites. For each, we present information on its history, a detailed plan that highlights its most important architectural and artistic features, high-resolution images and a discussion that ties it all together. * Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook supplies logistical advice, maps and links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location. * Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features. * NEW! Customers can now print this guidebook with our new PDF-on-Demand service. See the final chapter in the book for details. ABOUT APPROACH GUIDES Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine. PRAISE FOR APPROACH GUIDES Compulsive (and compulsively informed) travelers, the Raezers are the masterminds behind the downloadable Approach Guides, which are filled with a university course-worth of history and insights for 62 destinations worldwide. WHY WE LOVE IT: The Raezers share our desire for deep, well-researched information on the wonders of the world. - Travel + Leisure What started as one couple’s travel notes aimed at filling in the gaps in guidebooks has become ApproachGuides.com — a menu of downloadable travel guides that cover cultural and historical topics of interest to thoughtful travelers. What’s hot: Bite-sized travel guides that specialize in topics ranging from 29 pages on the foods of Italy to one that helps you explore the historical and architectural significance of Angkor’s famous temple structures in Cambodia. - LA Times
Animals as Neighbors: The Past and Present of Commensal Animals
Terry P. O'Connor - 2013
For thousands of years, humans have categorized animals in simple terms, often according to the degree of control that we have over them, and have tended to see the long story of human-animal relations as one of increasing control and management for human benefit. And yet, around the world, species have adapted to our homes, our towns, and our artificial landscapes, finding ways to gain benefit from our activities and so becoming an important part of our everyday lives. These commensal animals remind us that other species are not passive elements in the world around us but intelligent and adaptable creatures. Animals as Neighbors shows how a blend of adaptation and opportunism has enabled many species to benefit from our often destructive footprint on the world. O’Connor investigates the history of this relationship, working back through archaeological records. By requiring us to take a multifaceted view of human-animal relations, commensal animals encourage a more nuanced understanding of those relations, both today and throughout the prehistory of our species.
Ireland in the Medieval World, AD 400 - 1000: Landscape, Kingship and Religion
Edel Bhreathnach - 2013
The book narrates the story of Ireland's emergence into history, using anthropological, archaeological, historical, and literary evidence. The subjects covered include the king, the kingdom and the royal household, religion and customs, free and unfree classes in society, exiles, and foreigners. The rural, urban, ecclesiastical, ceremonial, and mythological landscapes of early medieval Ireland anchor the history of early Irish society in the rich tapestry of archaeological sites, monuments, and place-names that have survived to the present day. A historiography of medieval Irish studies presents the commentaries of a variety of scholars, from the 17th-century Franciscan Micheal O Cleirigh to Eoin Mac Neill, the founding father of modern scholarship.
Britain's Secret Treasures
Mary-Ann Ochota - 2013
Here in Britain's Secret Treasures, which accompanies the ITV series, the British Museum chooses eighty of the most fascinating finds ever reported and Mary-Ann Ochota shares with us the moving histories that bring each piece to life. There is also a detailed chapter showing you how you can get involved in archaeology too.From hoards of Roman gold and Bronze Age drinking vessels to tiny Viking spindle whorls and weapons from dozens of wars, all manner of treasures are described here. Some help prove that our ancestors were alive over half a million years ago, some saw their modern-day finders receive a generous reward, all provide an insight into the wonderful, dynamic, colourful history of our nation.
The Ancient Egyptian Language
James P. Allen - 2013
Part One discusses phonology, working backward from the vowels and consonants of Coptic to those that can be deduced for earlier stages of the language. Part Two is devoted to grammar, including both basic components such as nouns and the complex history of the verbal system. The book thus provides both a synchronic description of the five major historical stages of ancient Egyptian and a diachronic analysis of their development and relationship.
Celtic from the West 2: Rethinking the Bronze Age and the Arrival of Indo-European in Atlantic Europe
John T. Koch - 2013
Until recently the idea that Atlantic Europe was a wholly pre-Indo-European world throughout the Bronze Age remained plausible. Rapidly expanding evidence for the later prehistory and the pre-Roman languages of the West increasingly exclude that possibility. It is therefore time to refocus on a narrowing list of 'suspects' as possible archaeological proxies for the arrival of this great language family and emergence of its Celtic branch. This reconsideration inevitably throws penetrating new light on the formation of later prehistoric Atlantic Europe and the implications of new evidence for interregional connections.Celtic from the West 2 continues the series launched with Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature (2010; 2012) in exploring the new idea that the Celtic languages emerged in the Atlantic Zone during the Bronze Age. This Celtic Atlantic hypothesis represents a major departure from the long-established, but increasingly problematical scenario in which the Ancient Celtic languages and peoples called Keltoi (Celts) are closely bound up with the archaeology of the Hallstatt and La T�ne cultures of Iron Age west-central Europe.
Richard III: The King Under the Car Park
Mathew Morris - 2013
America's Assembly Line
David E. Nye - 2013
It is the most familiar form of mass production. Both praised as a boon to workers and condemned for exploiting them, it has been celebrated and satirized. (We can still picture Chaplin's little tramp trying to keep up with a factory conveyor belt.) In America's Assembly Line, David Nye examines the industrial innovation that made the United States productive and wealthy in the twentieth century.The assembly line--developed at the Ford Motor Company in 1913 for the mass production of Model Ts--first created and then served an expanding mass market. It also transformed industrial labor. By 1980, Japan had reinvented the assembly line as a system of "lean manufacturing"; American industry reluctantly adopted the new approach. Nye describes this evolution and the new global landscape of increasingly automated factories, with fewer industrial jobs in America and questionable working conditions in developing countries. A century after Ford's pioneering innovation, the assembly line continues to evolve toward more sustainable manufacturing.
A Land Without Sin
Paula Huston - 2013
The church, immersed in trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict between wealthy landowners and poverty-stricken indigenas, remains strangely silent in the face of his disappearance. When his sister, only thirty-four but already a hardened battlefield photojournalist, finds out what is going on, she flies to Central America to find him, applying for a job assisting a taciturn Dutch Mayanist in order to provide herself with a cover story. But as it turns out, he, too, is on a secret quest. From the great pyramids of Tikal to the graceful palaces of Palenque to the shadowy guerrilla camps of the vast Lacandon, A Land Without Sin is a modern-day journey into the heart of darkness.
Thailand: Guide to the Temples of Bangkok, Sukhothai & Ayutthaya (2019 Travel Guide)
Approach Guides - 2013
The temples of Thailand — overflowing with golden Buddhas, soaring spires and glistening surfaces of infinite complexity — stir the spirit, inviting contemplation and wonder. This Approach Guide reveals the country’s best art and architecture from its three great historical capitals: Sukhothai (1238-1368), Ayutthaya (1350-1767), and Bangkok (1782-present). It is yours to discover. What’s in this guidebook ★ Art and architecture review. We provide an overview of Thai art and architecture, isolating trademark features that you will see again and again while touring. To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images. ★ Tour of the highlights. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer a tour of Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Bangkok’s greatest Buddhist monuments (itinerary below). For each, we reveal its most important architectural and decorative features and offer a discussion that ties it all together. ★ Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook offers logistical advice, maps and links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location. ★ Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features. ★ NEW! Customers can now print this guidebook with our new PDF-on-Demand service. See the final chapter in the book for details. TOUR ITINERARY To help with prioritization, must-see temple sites in each city are marked with asterisks (*). Sukhothai: Wat Chang Lom, Wat Chedi Si Hong, Wat Chetuphon, Wat Mahathat*, Wat Phra Phai Luang, Wat Sa Si, Wat Saphan Hin, Wat Si Sawai*, Wat Si Chum*, Wat Trapang Ngoen, Wat Trapang Thong Lang. Si Satchanalai (Sukhothai daytrip): Wat Chedi Cha ng Lom*, Wat Chedi Chet Thaew*, Wat Khao Phanom Phloeng, Wat Khao Suwan Khiri, Wat Nang Phaya. Ayutthaya: Wat Chai Watthanaram, Wat Mahathat*, Wat Maheyong*, Wat Na Phra Men*, Wat Phu Khao Thong, Wat Phutthaisawan, Wat Ratchaburana*, Wat Si Sanphet*, Wat Suwandararam*, Wat Yai Chai Mongkon. Bangkok: Buddhaisawan chapel*, Wat Arun*, Wat Benchamabophit, Wat Bowornivet, Wat Khrua Wan*, Wat Pho aka Chetuphon*, Wat Phra Kaeo*, Wat Suthat,* Wat Suwannaram*. ABOUT APPROACH GUIDES Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine. PRAISE FOR APPROACH GUIDES Compulsive (and compulsively informed) travelers, the Raezers are the masterminds behind the downloadable Approach Guides, which are filled with a university course-worth of history and insights for 62 destinations worldwide. WHY WE LOVE IT: The Raezers share our desire for deep, well-researched information on the wonders of the world. - Travel + Leisure
The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel
Israel Finkelstein - 2013
Using the most updated field research and biblical studies, this first comprehensive history of the Northern Kingdom deals with the archaeology and history of northern Israel from the late Bronze Age until the Northern Kingdom's fall in 720 BCE and beyond.
Time Team Dig Book
Tim Taylor - 2013
So many of us watch the show and wish that we, too, could get out there, get digging, and uncover an artifact such as a piece of pottery, glass, brooch, or pipe stem. Now we can! The Time Team Dig Book explains all the key skills the budding archaeologist needs to know. From gaining permission for your dig and surveying the landscape, to locating and excavating your first trench; from identifying pottery, to your final report and the legacy of your dig. Taking us on a tour of some of their latest key excavation sites, Tony, Mick, Phil, and the gang share with us their wealth of expertise and tell us all we need to know in order to join in.
Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings
Jean Manco - 2013
The idea of migration in prehistory, so long out of favor, is back on the agenda. New advances allow us to track human movement and the spread of crops, animals, and disease, and we can see the evidence of population crashes and rises, both continent-wide and locally. Visions of continuity have been replaced with a more dynamic view of Europe’s past, with one wave of migration followed by another, from the first human arrivals in Europe to the Vikings.Ancient DNA links Europe to its nearest neighbors. It is not a new idea that farming was brought from the Near East, but genetics now reveal an unexpectedly complex process in which farmers arrived not in one wave, but several. Even more unexpected is the evidence that the European gene pool was stirred vigorously many times after farming had reached most of Europe. Climate change played a part in this upheaval, but so did new inventions such as the c and wheeled vehicles. Genetic and linguistic clues also enhance our understanding of the upheavals of the Migration Period, the wanderings of steppe nomads, and the adventures of the Vikings.
Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Shawnee
Charles River Editors - 2013
*Explains the Shawnee's role in colonial history and Tecumseh's life and legacy.*Explains the origins, history, religion, and social structure of the Shoshone*Includes a Bibliography for further reading.*Includes a Table of Contents.From the “Trail of Tears” to Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn, the narrative of American history is incomplete without the inclusion of the Native Americans that lived on the continent before European settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the first contact between natives and settlers, tribes like the Sioux, Cherokee, and Navajo have both fascinated and perplexed outsiders with their history, language, and culture. In Charles River Editors’ Native American Tribes series, readers can get caught up to speed on the history and culture of North America’s most famous native tribes in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.Throughout the 19th century, American settlers pushing across the Western frontier came into contact with diverse American tribes, producing a series of conflicts ranging from the Great Plains to the Southwest, from the Trail of Tears to the Pacific Northwest. Indian leaders like Geronimo became feared and dreaded men in America, and Sitting Bull’s victory over George Custer’s 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn was one of the nation’s most traumatic military endeavors. Given this history, it’s no surprise that the Shawnee continue to be closely associated with their most famous leader, Tecumseh, the most famous Native American of the early 19th century. While leading the Shawnee, he attempted to peacefully establish a Native American nation east of the Mississippi River in the wake of the American Revolution. While Native Americans, especially in the “old Northwest” (present-day land west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River), understood and recognized their own, long established territories and those of other tribes, these boundaries and territories were ignored and unappreciated by the incoming settlers. Together with his brother Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh was in the process of forming a wide-ranging, Native American confederacy that they hoped would stem the westward flow of Anglo-American settlers and essentially establish a “nation” of Native Americans that would be recognized and accepted by the advancing European-American settlers. Tecumseh and the Shawnee would be at the heart of the fighting in the present-day Midwest during the War of 1812.Even as he continues to keep the Shawnee’s name in textbooks, Tecumseh actually overshadows the long and even ancient history of the Shawnee. With their cultural origins dating back nearly 3,000 years, the Shawnee had ties to the Ancient Moundbuilders tradition and lived in the same region for thousands of years, developing both a rich history and unique set of customs and beliefs. At the same time, the Shawnee themselves were never a truly unified group, even as their most famous leader set about making a Native American confederacy, so different bands of Shawnee have had different historical narratives as well. Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Shawnee comprehensively covers the culture and history of the famous group, profiling their origins, their history, and their lasting legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Shawnee like you never have before, in no time at all.
Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain
Charlotte Higgins - 2013
Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered and made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story and song and verse?Charlotte Higgins has traced these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid, though not particularly reliable, VW camper van. Via accounts of some of Britain's most intriguing, and often unjustly overlooked ancient monuments, Under Another Sky invites us to see the British landscape, and British history, in an entirely fresh way: as indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined, and wrote, these strange and exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world, into existence.
The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak
Mary Miller - 2013
In three rooms, a pageant of rulership opens up, scene by scene, like pages of an ancient Maya book. Painted c. AD 800, the murals of Bonampak reveal a complex and multifaceted view of the ancient Maya at the end of their splendor during the last days of the Classic era. Members of the royal court engage in rituals and perform human sacrifice, dance in extravagant costumes and strip the clothing from fallen captives, acknowledge foreign nobles, and receive abundant tribute. The murals are a powerful and sophisticated reflection on the spectacle of courtly life and the nature of artistic practice, a window onto a world that could not know its doomed future.This major new study of the paintings of Bonampak incorporates insights from decades of art historical, epigraphic, and technical investigation of the murals, framing questions about artistic conception, facture, narrative, performance, and politics. Lavishly illustrated, this book assembles thorough documentation of the Bonampak mural program, from historical photographs of the paintings--some never before published--to new full-color reconstructions by artist Heather Hurst, recipient of a MacArthur award, and Leonard Ashby. The book also includes a catalog of photographs, infrared images, and line drawings of the murals, as well as images of all the glyphic texts, which are published in their entirety for the first time. Written in an engaging style that invites both specialists and general readers alike, this book will stand as the definitive presentation of the paintings for years to come.
Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance
Cheryl Janifer LaRoche - 2013
Unlike previous histories of the Underground Railroad, which have focused on frightened fugitive slaves and their benevolent abolitionist accomplices, Cheryl LaRoche focuses instead on free African American communities, the crucial help they provided to individuals fleeing slavery, and the terrain where those flights to freedom occurred. This study foregrounds several small, rural hamlets on the treacherous southern edge of the free North in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. LaRoche demonstrates how landscape features such as waterways, iron forges, and caves played a key role in the conduct and effectiveness of the Underground Railroad. Rich in oral histories, maps, memoirs, and archaeological investigations, this examination of the "geography of resistance" tells the new powerful and inspiring story of African Americans ensuring their own liberation in the midst of oppression.
Scarborough Castle
John Goodall - 2013
This being to the seaside and much open, the wind drove the rain in forcibly, so that the water came up over my bed.'George Fox, imprisoned at Scarborough, 1666This beautifully illustrated English Heritage guidebook to Scarborough Castle gives a full tour and history of the remains of this important medieval castle.
Everyday Life in Viking-Age Towns: Social Approaches to Towns in England and Ireland, c. 800 - 1100
Dawn M. Hadley - 2013
Far less attention has been paid to the experience of living in towns.The thirteen chapters in this book bring together the current state of knowledge about Viking-Age towns (c. 800 - 1100) from both sides of the Irish Sea, focusing on everyday life in and around these emerging settlements. What was it really like to grow up, live, and die in these towns? What did people eat, what did they wear, and how did they make a living for themselves? Although historical sources are addressed, the emphasis of the volume is overwhelmingly archaeological, paying homage to the wealth of new material that has become available since the advent of urban archaeology in the 1960s.
Shunned
Steven Strong - 2013
The Original Australians (referred to by some as Aboriginals), like so many indigenous peoples, have been stripped of their heritage by an aggressive European colonizing power while has re-written the history books, largely as an exercise in justifying exploitation, suppression, cultural genocide at best and in a number of cases, actual racial extinction as with the mainland Tasmanians. Partially to justify these crimes, and partially through a cultural blindness, the original Australians were perceived as, and portrayed as, the most ‘backward’ and ‘primitive’ of people. Yet, as the Strongs show, Original Australians had a rich culture which may have sown the first seeds of spirituality in the world. They had the technology to make international seafaring voyages and have left traces in the Americas and possibly, Japan, Southern India, Egypt and elsewhere. They practiced brain surgery, invented the first hand tools and had knowledge of penicillin. Shunned brings together thirty years of intensive research in consultation with Elders in the Original Australian community who have shared their knowledge and wisdom with the authors to an extent few people outside their community have been privileged to experience. This ground-breaking book is essential reading for anybody who wants to know where the human race came from and perhaps where they should be going…
Bioarchaeology: An Integrated Approach to Working with Human Remains
Debra L. Martin - 2013
This comprehensive and much-needed manual provides both a starting point and a reference for archaeologists, bioarchaeologists and others working in this integrative field. The authors cover a range of bioarchaeological methods and theory including:Ethical issues involved in dealing with human remainsTheoretical approaches in bioarchaeologyTechniques in taphonomy and bone analysisLab and forensic techniques for skeletal analysisBest practices for excavation techniquesSpecial applications in bioarchaeologyWith case studies from bioarchaeological research, the authors integrate theoretical and methodological discussion with a wide range of field studies from different geographic areas, time periods, and data types, to demonstrate the full scope of this important field of study.
The Archaeology of Citizenship
Stacey L. Camp - 2013
It is a fine and timely example of the way that archaeologists can make the past meaningful in relation to the present.”—Carolyn White, editor of The Materiality of Individuality: Archaeological Studies of Individual LivesSince the founding of the United States, the rights to citizenship have been carefully crafted and policed by the Europeans who originally settled and founded the country. Immigrants have been extended and denied citizenship in various legal and cultural ways. While the subject of citizenship has often been examined from a sociological, historical, or legal perspective, historical archaeologists have yet to fully explore the material aspects of these social boundaries. The Archaeology of Citizenship uses the material record to explore what it means to be an American. Using a late-nineteenth-century California resort as a case study, Stacey Camp discusses how the parameters of citizenship and national belonging have been defined and redefined since Europeans arrived on the continent. In a unique and powerful contribution to the field of historical archaeology, Camp uses the remnants of material culture to reveal how those in power sought to mold the composition of the United States and how those on the margins of American society carved out their own definitions of citizenship.
The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict
Christopher Knusel - 2013
Whereas weapons or defenses may simply be statements of prestige or status and written sources are characteristically biased and incomplete, human remains offer clear and unequivocal evidence of physical aggression reaching as far back as we have burials to examine.Warfare is often described as 'senseless' and as having no place in society. Consequently, its place in social relations and societal change remains obscure. The studies in The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict present an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to recent times as evidenced by the remains of past people themselves in order to explore the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. A broadly chronological approach is taken from prehistory through to recent conflicts, however this book is not simply a catalogue of injuries illustrating weapon development or a narrative detailing 'progress' in warfare but rather provides a framework in which to explore both continuity and change based on a range of important themes which hold continuing relevance throughout human development.
Pannonia and Upper Moesia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire (Routledge Revivals)
Andras Mocsy - 2013
His primary concern is to develop a general synthesis of the archaeological and historical researches in the Danube Basin, which lead to a more detailed knowledge of the Roman culture of the area.The economic and social development, town and country life, culture and religion in the Provinces are all investigated, and the local background of the so-called Illyrian Predominance during the third century crisis of the Roman Empire is explained, as is the eventual breakdown of Danubian Romanisation.This volume will appeal to students and teachers of archaeology alike, as well as to those interested in the Roman Empire - not only the history of Rome itself, but also of the far-flung areas which together comprised the Empire's frontier for centuries.
Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory: Investigating the Missing Majority
Linda Hurcombe - 2013
Providing news ideas and connections and suggesting revisionist ways of thinking about broad themes in the past, this book demonstrates the efficacy of an holistic approach by using examples and cases studies.No other book covers such a broad range of organic materials from a social and object biography perspective, or concentrates so fully on approaches to the missing components of prehistoric material culture. This book will be an essential addition for those people wishing to understand better the nature and importance of organic materials as the 'missing majority' of prehistoric material culture.
Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking
Ken Albala - 2013
Learn first about Aztec society, its indigenous foodstuffs, and distinctive diet. Also study descriptions of lavish Aztec banquets; “signature” foods, from avocados, beans, and chilies to chocolate and maize; and the Aztec philosophy of balance and moderation in eating.©2013 The Great Courses (P)2013 The Great Courses
Henchmen of Ares: Warriors and Warfare in Early Greece
Josho Brouwers - 2013
Along the way, a number of detailed issues are considered, including the proper place of the Greek hoplite in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, the possible origins of the Argive shield, developments in naval warfare, and the activities of Greek mercenaries.Written for an audience of serious students and specialists alike, this book offers a detailed treatment of the relevant sources, with extensive bibliographic notes.
Religion at Work in a Neolithic Society: Vital Matters
Ian Hodder - 2013
The volume is tightly focused on the early farming village of �atalh�y�k, which has generated much interest both within and outside of archaeology, especially for its contributions to the understanding of early religion. The volume discusses contemporary themes such as materiality, animism, object vitality, and material dimensions of spirituality while at the same time exploring broad evolutionary changes in the ways in which religion has influenced society. The volume results from a unique collaboration between an archaeological team and a range of specialists in ritual and religion.
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial
Sarah Tarlow - 2013
It contains forty-four chapters which focus on the history of the discipline and its current scientific techniques and methods.Written by leading, international scholars in the field, it derives its examples and case studies from a wide range of time periods, such as the middle palaeolithic to the twentieth century, and geographical areas which include Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Combining up-to-date knowledge of relevant archaeological research with critical assessments of the theme and an evaluation of future research trajectories, it draws attention to the social, symbolic, and theoretical aspects of interpreting mortuary archaeology.The volume is well-illustrated with maps, plans, photographs, and illustrations and is ideally suited for students and researchers.
Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom
Soyoung Lee - 2013
to 935 A.D., is known for its intricately crafted ornaments, many in resplendent gold, and for the creation of prominent Buddhist temples. Silla focuses on the striking artistic traditions of the Old and Unified Silla Kingdoms (4th–8th century), and is the first publication in English to explore the artistic and cultural legacy of this ancient realm. Among the topics explored are Korea’s position as the eastern culmination of the Silk Road in the first millennium A.D. and the character and evolution of Buddhism, as illuminated by objects from major monuments, temples, and tombs. The book also presents new research about Silla’s ancient capital, Gyeongju, which is known for the Gyerim-ro Dagger, as well as the pottery, glass, and beads discovered in tombs located there. Featuring over 100 magnificent objects, newly photographed and presented with the latest scholarship, this volume will be a revelation to many, and a lavish introduction to the glory that was Silla.
Pisim Finds Her Miskanow
William Dumas - 2013
Out of that important archeological discovery came this unique story about a week in the life of Pisim, a young Cree woman, who lived in the Mid 1600s. In the story, created by renowned storyteller William Dumas, Pisim begins to recognize her miskanow - her life's journey - and to develop her gifts for fulfilling that path. The story is brought to life by the rich imagery of Leonard Paul, and is accompanied by sidebars on Cree language and culture, archaeology and history, maps, songs, and more.
The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts
Mike Smith - 2013
Over the last few decades, a wealth of new environmental and archaeological data about this fascinating region has become available. Drawing on a wide range of sources, The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts explores the late Pleistocene settlement of Australia's deserts, the formation of distinctive desert societies, and the origins and development of the hunter-gatherer societies documented in the classic nineteenth-century ethnographies of Spencer and Gillen. Written by one of Australia's leading desert archaeologists, the book interweaves a lively history of research with archaeological data in a masterly survey of the field and a profoundly interdisciplinary study that forces archaeology into conversations with history and anthropology, economy and ecology, and geography and earth sciences.
Building the Great Stone Circles of the North
Colin Richards - 2013
From the tall, elegant, pointed monoliths of the Stones of Stenness to the grandeur of Stonehenge and the sarsen blocks at Avebury, circles of stone exert a magnetic fascination to those who venture into their sphere. In Britain today, more people visit these structures than any other form of prehistoric monument and visitors stand in awe at their scale and question how and why they were erected. Building the Great Stone Circles of the North looks at the enigmatic stone structures of Scotland and investigates the background of their construction and their cultural significance.
The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning for the Middle East
John Curtis - 2013
The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530BC) after he captured Babylon in 539BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights as it appears to permit freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It is valued by people all around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths, so much so that a copy of the cylinder is on display in the United Nations building in New York.This catalogue is being published in conjunction with the first ever tour of the object to the United States, along with sixteen other objects from the British Museum's collection. The book discusses how these objects demonstrate the innovations initiated by Persian rule in the Ancient Near East (550 BC-331 BC), a prime example being a gold plaque from the Oxus Treasure with the representation of a priest that shows the spread of the Zoroastrian religion. The book offers a new authoritative translation of the Cyrus Cylinder by Irving Finkel and the publication of two fragments of a cuneiform tablet that show how the Cyrus Cylinder was most probably a proclamation and not just a foundation deposit.
Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, C.Ad 600-1150: A Comparative Archaeology
Christopher Loveluck - 2013
During these centuries radical changes occurred in the organisation of the rural world. Towns and complex communities of artisans and merchant-traders emerged and networks of contact between northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle and Far East were redefined, with long-lasting consequences into the present day. Loveluck provides the most comprehensive comparative analysis of the rural and urban archaeological remains in this area for twenty-five years. Supported by evidence from architecture, relics, manuscript illuminations and texts, this book explains how the power and intentions of elites were confronted by the aspirations and actions of the diverse rural peasantry, artisans and merchants, producing both intended and unforeseen social changes.
Ancient Egypt: Two Illustrated Encyclopedias
Lucia Gahlin - 2013
s/t: A Guide to the History, Mythology, Sacred Sites and Everyday Lives of a Fascinating Civilization, Shown in Over 850 Vivid PhotographsTwo informative and highly illustrated books in one gift set, charting the mythology and religion of ancient Egypt over 3000 years, and exploring the temples, tombs and treasures of the world's first great civilization.
Onikymn Crystal
R.R. Morris - 2013
Nineteen years later, he revisits the site of her disappearance and is strangely transported in the midst of a hellish sandstorm in an unfamiliar place. The next morning he discovers a monument called the Onikymn and is rescued by an exotic alien female who whisks him away to her father, an Onikymn Overseer. He explains that the Onikymn crystal works in concert with the Earth’s sun, like a key, to open a dimensional portal between their worlds. Kyle agrees to return to Earth on a quest to find a lost crystal in exchange for being reunited with the love of his life. It’s a race against time as he tracks down a sequence of clues that will lead him to the missing artifact. Beset from every direction by emerging threats, Kyle fights impossible odds against a malevolent nemesis with an impish army of nightmarish creatures, forced to engage in a world of danger and adventure that straddles the human and the supernatural, the past and the present, in search for the last Onikymn Crystal. A spellbinding work of imaginative science fiction, RR Morris’ novel will impress readers with its command of historical epochs and alien intrigue….
Negotiated Settlements: Andean Communities and Landscapes under Inka and Spanish Colonialism
Steven A. Wernke - 2013
This is a groundbreaking book that will inspire historical archaeologists to systematically examine the broader social and natural landscapes in which individual sites are located.”—Mary L. Van Buren, Colorado State University This interdisciplinary combination of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic research reveals how the Andean people of southern Peru’s Colca Valley experienced and responded to successive waves of colonial rule by the Inka and Spanish empires from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. While most research splits the prehispanic and post-conquest eras into separate domains of study, Steven Wernke’s perspective explicitly bridges the periods before and after the Spanish conquest of the Andes. He integrates GIS-based spatial analyses of settlement patterning, land use, and layout with documentary-based reconstruction of land-tenure patterns. He also tracks the negotiation of urban space and religious practice at the earliest Franciscan mission settlement excavated in the highland Andes to date. Wernke’s findings show how Spanish ideals of urban order penetrated this rural provincial setting as early as the first generation after the conquest yet also reveal how Andean communities had long been actively incorporating foreigners’ ideals and practices to make them their own. At ease whether examining religious practice at early Franciscan mission settlements or reconstructing prehispanic Andean land use, Wernke contributes to current debates on colonial and postcolonial theory, historical anthropology, and the growing field of colonial archaeology. He argues that we should avoid thinking of relations within the Inka and Spanish states as a dichotomy between colonizers and colonized; instead, he explains how new kinds of communities and landscapes were co-produced at the local level.
The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes: Human-Environment Interaction from the Neolithic to the Roman Period
Kevin Walsh - 2013
A fundamental aim of this book is to bridge the intellectual and methodological gaps between those with a background in archaeology and ancient history, and those who work in the palaeoenvironmental sciences. The aim of this volume is twofold: first, to provide archaeologists and landscape historians with a comprehensive overview of recent palaeoenvironmental research across the Mediterranean, and second, to consider ways in which this type of research can be integrated with what might be considered "mainstream" or "cultural" archaeology. This volume takes a thematic approach, assessing the ways in which environmental evidence is employed in different landscape types, from coastal zones via rivers and wetlands to islands and mountainous areas. This volume also presents analyses of how people have interacted with soils and vegetation, and revisits the key questions of human culpability in the creation of so-called degraded landscapes in the Mediterranean. It covers chronological periods from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.
Before Modern Humans: New Perspectives on the African Stone Age
Grant S. Mccall - 2013
Inaugurating a paradigm shift in our understanding of modern human behavior, Grant McCall argues that this transition—related to the origins of “home base” residential site use—occurred in mosaic fashion over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. He concludes by proposing a model of brain evolution driven by increasing subsistence diversity and intensity against the backdrop of larger populations and Pleistocene environmental unpredictability. McCall argues that human brain size did not arise to support the complex patterns of social behavior that pervade our lives today, but instead large human brains were co-opted for these purposes relatively late in prehistory, accounting for the striking archaeological record of the Upper Pleistocene.
The National Architectural Museum of Naples
Rosanna Cappelli - 2013
Custer, Cody, and Grand Duke Alexis: Historical Archaeology of the Royal Buffalo Hunt
Douglas D. Scott - 2013
Grand Duke Alexis of Russia had already seen the cities and sights of the East—New York, Washington, and Niagara Falls—and now the young nobleman was about to enjoy a western adventure: a grand buffalo hunt. His host would be General Philip Sheridan, and the excursion would include several of the West’s most iconic characters: George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Spotted Tail of the Brulé Sioux. The Royal Buffalo Hunt, as this event is now called, has become a staple of western lore. Yet incorrect information and misconceptions about the excursion have prevented a clear understanding of what really took place. In this fascinating book, Douglas D. Scott, Peter Bleed, and Stephen Damm combine archaeological and historical research to offer an expansive and accurate portrayal of this singular diplomatic event. The authors focus their investigation on the Red Willow Creek encampment site, now named Camp Alexis, the party’s only stopping place along the hunt trail that can be located with certainty. In addition to physical artifacts, the authors examine a plethora of primary accounts—such as railroad timetables, invitations to balls and dinners, even sheet music commemorating the visit—to supplement the archaeological evidence. They also reference documents from the Russian State Archives previously unavailable to researchers, as well as recently discovered photographs that show the layout and organization of the camp. Weaving all these elements together, their account constitutes a valuable product of the interdisciplinary approach known as microhistory.
The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology)
Peter Mitchell - 2013
It is where the human lineage first evolved and from where Homo sapiens spread across the rest of the world. Later, it witnessed novel experiments in food-production and unique trajectories to urbanism and the organisation of large communities that were not always structured along strictly hierarchical lines. Millennia of engagement with societies in other parts of the world confirm Africa's active participation in the construction of the modern world, while the richness of its history, ethnography, and linguistics provide unusually powerful opportunities for constructing interdisciplinary narratives of Africa's past. This Handbook provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of African archaeology, covering the entirety of the continent's past from the beginnings of human evolution to the archaeological legacy of European colonialism. As well as covering almost all periods and regions of the continent, it includes a mixture of key methodological and theoretical issues and debates, and situates the subject's contemporary practice within the discipline's history and the infrastructural challenges now facing its practitioners. Bringing together essays on all these themes from over seventy contributors, many of them living and working in Africa, it offers a highly accessible, contemporary account of the subject for use by scholars and students of not only archaeology, but also history, anthropology, and other disciplines.
Before Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province
Marit K. Munson - 2013
As the last ice age came to an end, land began to emerge from the melting glaciers. With time, plants and animals moved into the new landscape and people followed. For almost 15,000 years, the land that is now Ontario has provided a home for their descendants: hundreds of generations of First Peoples. With contributions from the province's leading archaeologists, Before Ontario provides both an outline of Ontario's ancient past and an easy to understand explanation of how archaeology works. The authors show how archaeologists are able to study items as diverse as fish bones, flakes of stone, and stains in the soil to reconstruct the events and places of a distant past - fishing parties, long-distance trade, and houses built to withstand frigid winters. Presenting new insights into archaeology’s purpose and practice, Before Ontario bridges the gap between the modern world and a past that can seem distant and unfamiliar, but is not beyond our reach. Contributors include Christopher Ellis (University of Western Ontario), Neal Ferris (University of Western Ontario/Museum of Ontario Archaeology), William Fox (Canadian Museum of Civilization/Royal Ontario Museum), Scott Hamilton (Lakehead University), Susan Jamieson (Trent University Archaeological Research Centre - TUARC), Mima Kapches (Royal Ontario Museum), Anne Keenleyside (TUARC), Stephen Monckton (Bioarchaeological Research), Marit Munson (TUARC), Kris Nahrgang (Kawartha Nishnawbe First Nation), Suzanne Needs-Howarth (Perca Zooarchaeological Research), Cath Oberholtzer (TUARC), Michael Spence (University of Western Ontario), Andrew Stewart (Strata Consulting Inc.), Gary Warrick (Wilfrid Laurier University), and Ron Williamson (Archaeological Services Inc).
Small Archaeology Project Management: How To Run Cultural Resource Management Projects Without Busting Your Budget
William A. White - 2013
College didn’t teach us the tricks of the trade. It usually takes years of trials and tribulations to learn how to bring in even the smallest archaeology projects on budget.It doesn’t have to be that way.This eBook takes you step-by-step through the five main phases of managing a small archaeology project.Discover:• How to ask all the right questions before you head out into the field• Conduct pre-field preparations that ultimately set you up for success• Manage the field effort with ease and efficiency• Build a comprehensive technical report that will satisfy supervisors and clients• Use each project as a lesson that will allow you to better manage future projectsAfter reading this, you’ll have a template for smoothly executing small archaeology projects with precision and use them as building blocks to further your career.“So, when can I buy your eBook on how to run small projects? I could really use it, tomorrow.” A. MortonPeer-reviewed by cultural resource management professionals across the country, this book is a sequential guide outlining all the steps required to complete a small archaeology project on time and within your budget.In this difficult economy, all cultural resource managers need to know how to produce efficient, cost-effective results on projects of all sizes. Download this eBook and improve your small project management capabilities today!
The Cambridge Introduction to Franz Kafka
Carolin Duttlinger - 2013
This Introduction offers a clear and accessible account of Kafka's life, work and literary influence and overturns many myths surrounding them. His texts are in fact far more engaging, diverse, light-hearted and ironic than is commonly suggested by clich�s of 'the Kafkaesque'. And, once explored in detail, they are less difficult and impenetrable than is often assumed. Through close analysis of their style, imagery and narrative perspective, Carolin Duttlinger aims to give readers the confidence to (re-)discover Kafka's works without constant recourse to the mantras of critical orthodoxy. In addition, she situates Kafka's texts within their wider cultural, historical and political contexts illustrating how they respond to the concerns of their age, and of our own.