Best of
Archaeology
2014
Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
Svante Pääbo - 2014
Beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, Neanderthal Man describes the events, intrigues, failures, and triumphs of these scientifically rich years through the lens of the pioneer and inventor of the field of ancient DNA.We learn that Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pääbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species’ interactions. His findings have not only redrawn our family tree, but recast the fundamentals of human history—the biological beginnings of fully modern Homo sapiens, the direct ancestors of all people alive today.A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are.
The Parthenon Enigma
Joan Breton Connelly - 2014
Since the Enlightenment, it has also come to represent our political ideals, the lavish temple to the goddess Athena serving as the model for our most hallowed civic architecture. But how much do the values of those who built the Parthenon truly correspond with our own? And apart from the significance with which we have invested it, what exactly did this marvel of human hands mean to those who made it?In this revolutionary book, Joan Breton Connelly challenges our most basic assumptions about the Parthenon and the ancient Athenians. Beginning with the natural environment and its rich mythic associations, she re-creates the development of the Acropolis—the Sacred Rock at the heart of the city-state—from its prehistoric origins to its Periklean glory days as a constellation of temples among which the Parthenon stood supreme. In particular, she probes the Parthenon’s legendary frieze: the 525-foot-long relief sculpture that originally encircled the upper reaches before it was partially destroyed by Venetian cannon fire (in the seventeenth century) and most of what remained was shipped off to Britain (in the nineteenth century) among the Elgin marbles. The frieze’s vast enigmatic procession—a dazzling pageant of cavalrymen and elders, musicians and maidens—has for more than two hundred years been thought to represent a scene of annual civic celebration in the birthplace of democracy. But thanks to a once-lost play by Euripides (the discovery of which, in the wrappings of a Hellenistic Egyptian mummy, is only one of this book’s intriguing adventures), Connelly has uncovered a long-buried meaning, a story of human sacrifice set during the city’s mythic founding. In a society startlingly preoccupied with cult ritual, this story was at the core of what it meant to be Athenian. Connelly reveals a world that beggars our popular notions of Athens as a city of staid philosophers, rationalists, and rhetoricians, a world in which our modern secular conception of democracy would have been simply incomprehensible.The Parthenon’s full significance has been obscured until now owing in no small part, Connelly argues, to the frieze’s dismemberment. And so her investigation concludes with a call to reunite the pieces, in order that what is perhaps the greatest single work of art surviving from antiquity may be viewed more nearly as its makers intended. Marshalling a breathtaking range of textual and visual evidence, full of fresh insights woven into a thrilling narrative that brings the distant past to life, The Parthenon Enigma is sure to become a landmark in our understanding of the civilization from which we claim cultural descent.
The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi
Julius Csotonyi - 2014
Csotonyi has considerable academic expertise that contributes to his stunning dynamic art.Csotonyi represents the natural world photorealistically and has been influenced by natural history illustrators such as Peter Zallinger, Doug Henderson and Greg Paul. He uses bold patterns and colors to paint the prehistoric world both with traditional media as well as modern digital techniques.
Knowledge Encyclopedia Dinosaur!: Over 60 Prehistoric Creatures as You've Never Seen Them Before
D.K. Publishing - 2014
The closest you'll come is between the pages of this landmark visual encyclopedia that brings prehistoric creatures to life in jaw-dropping detail.This wonderfully realistic and completely comprehensive guide covers the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods. Travel back millions of years to meet legendary dinosaurs in spectacular 3D, including terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex, spiky Stegosaurus, and vicious Velociraptor. Full of facts and the latest updated information, Knowledge Encyclopedia Dinosaur! explores how the dinosaurs evolved, lived, and died.A reference section at the end explains our incredible knowledge of dinosaur evolution, behaviour, and habitats thanks to fossils, research, and computer modelling techniques.Whether dipping in and out or reading from start to finish, dinosaur enthusiasts need look no further.
Intervention Theory Essentials (Everything You Know Is Wrong Essentials)
Lloyd Pye - 2014
Lloyd Pye is known for his hard-hitting combination of scientific facts with jargon-free, easy to understand explanations. Filled with "see it with your own eyes" evidence ranging from the moment that the Earth came into existence, to recent discoveries in our own DNA, this book will make you question many of the fundamental theories that are often mistaken for proven fact. This eBook is the updated and revised version of Part 1 of Pye's best seller "Everything You Know Is Wrong," crammed with page after page of brand new archaeological and scientific evidence that was not available when the original print book was published.
The Brothers' Keepers
Matthew Peters - 2014
At the urging of his FBI friend, Jesuit Nicholas Branson joins the investigation. His effort to uncover the truth behind the murder draws him into a web of ecclesiastical and political intrigue, and sets him on a quest for an eight-hundred-year-old treasure that could shake the foundations of the Judeo-Christian world.
Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide
Diana E. E. Kleiner - 2014
E. Kleiner has shared her deep knowledge and passion for the history and architecture of ancient Rome with thousands of students, travelers, and enthusiasts through her lectures. She is indeed “the traveler’s best friend”—and now she has created an enhanced eBook that richly deserves that encomium as well. Professor Kleiner personally guides you through the great ruins of Rome and the Roman Empire, highlighting their most fascinating and important features with an extraordinary wealth of knowledge, insights and anecdotes. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide offers readers over 250 appealing and enlightening visual images alongside accessible, concise descriptions that focus on precisely the most pertinent and meaningful information.. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide is an indispensable—and enchanting—resource for travelers, architecture enthusiasts, historians, and all those with an interest in any aspect of the richly multi-faceted subject that is Roman architecture. At its most expansive, the Roman Empire stretched from the British Isles to Egypt; Rome was the ancient world’s greatest superpower. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide takes us to the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its empire, exploring not only Rome but also buildings preserved at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Tivoli, North Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, and North Africa—allowing readers to trace the growth and expansion of the Roman Empire chronologically through its cities. Roman Architecture’s wealth of photographs and site plans of these intriguing structures are presented from the fresh perspective of an author who has journeyed to nearly all of the sites, revealing most of them through her own digital images. In addition, this interactive e-book makes learning about these monuments easier than ever, with handy maps and geolocation links that show you just where the monuments are and, if you’re traveling, how to get there. A fascinating introduction to some of history’s most compelling and influential architecture, Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide is an enthralling resource, whether one wishes to visit Rome in person or from afar.About the Author DIANA E. E. KLEINER is the Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University. A pioneer in online education, she is the Founding Director of Open Yale Courses, where she offers Roman Architecture as a free self-directed course. Kleiner has resided in Rome and Athens and has traveled extensively throughout what was once the Roman Empire, experiencing firsthand nearly every site and building featured in Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide.
Ireland: A Luminous Beauty
Peter Harbison - 2014
And none more so than Ireland's. Ireland's light floods the landscape, luring the senses with a restless presence. The water surrounding and carving through the island reflects back to us the ever-changing movement of the wind-blown clouds and light. Stop for a minute and the settings change: what was straight is bent, light is dark, still is in motion. It is as though an unseen hand directs the wind, the clouds, and the light to harness our attention.Ireland: A Luminous Beauty is a collection of stunning full-color photographs by some of Ireland's finest landscape photographers with concise text blending history, myth, and a sense of place. Many of the photographs were taken in the early morning light or as the sun set. That hour after sunrise and before sunset, with the sun low in the sky, is known to photographers as the golden hour and favored for its soft, diffused light.We take a journey to one of the most beautiful places in the world. From the ancient stone monuments of the Boyne Valley to the treacherous stone steps of Skellig Michael; from the distinctive columns of the Giant's Causeway and the spectacularly sited Dunluce Castle ruins to lush, green countryside and fields of heather; from the limestone of the Burren (the rockiest part of Ireland) to exuberant stretches of flowers and gardens; from a moody sea and crashing surf to massive stone cliffs battered by the relentless pounding of the waves, and from steely rivers to tranquil lakes, it's all here.The Irish respond to this dramatic environment by transforming it into one that solidifies and enriches their own sense of place. We all have this instinct to create our own space, but the Irish have made an art of it. Through the ancient, natural, and cultivated landscapes, surrounded by history and legend, we discover and celebrate the spirit of Ireland and its luminous beauty.
The Phoenix Code
Helen Moss - 2014
Can Ryan and Cleo unravel the mystery and solve the phoenix code before it's too late?
Oracle
David Wood - 2014
For more than a millennium, the Oracle of Delphi guided kings and conquerors with stunningly accurate visions of the future. But, with the rise of a new God, the Oracle faded from memory. Now, the power of the Oracle is about change the world once more. While excavating a previously uncharted passage beneath the ancient city of Teotihuacan, archaeologist Jade Ihara makes a startling discovery: enormous stone spheres, arranged to resemble a model of the solar system, slowly orbiting a golden sun. Even more fantastic, when Jade attempts to move one of the spheres, she catches a glimpse of the future…a premonition that will save her life and launch her into a desperate race to unlock the mysterious secret of the oracular orbs. Jade is accompanied by her old friend, former Navy SEAL Pete “Professor” Chapman, and pursued by a relentless secret society intent on burying the secret of the Oracle forever. Return to the world of the Dane Maddock Adventures in the first book of a thrilling new series, as Jade crosses the globe in pursuit of the secret of the Oracle. Praise for Oracle! "I'll admit it. I am totally exhausted after finishing Oracle, the latest Jade Ihara page-turner by David Wood and Sean Ellis. What an adventure! I kept asking myself how the co-authors came up with all this fantastic stuff. This is a great read that provides lots of action, and thoughtful insight as well, into strange realms that are sometimes best left unexplored." Paul Kemprecos, author of Cool Blue Tomb and the NUMA Files
Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory
Francis Pryor - 2014
In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.'Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today . . . Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' - Guardian Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent over thirty years studying our prehistory. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of The Making of the British Landscape, Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.Show More Show Less
Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England's Churches
Matthew Champion - 2014
So archaeologist Matthew Champion started a nationwide survey to gather the best examples. In this book he shines a spotlight on a secret world of ships, prayers for good fortune, satirical cartoons, charms, curses, windmills, word puzzles, architectural plans and heraldic designs. Drawing on examples from surviving medieval churches in England and Wales, the author gives a voice to the secret graffiti artists: from the lord of the manor and the parish priest to the people who built the church itself.Here are strange medieval beasts, knights battling unseen dragons, ships sailing across lime-washed oceans and demons who stalk the walls. Latin prayers for the dead jostle with medieval curses, builders’ accounts and slanderous comments concerning a long-dead archdeacon. Strange and complex geometric designs, created to ward off the ‘evil eye’ and thwart the works of the devil, share church pillars with the heraldic shields of England’s medieval nobility.
Vikings: Life and Legend
Gareth WilliamsSunhild Kleingärtner - 2014
The Viking Age was a period of major change as a result of the Vikings' impact on neighboring areas and the introduction of external influences into Scandinavia. This book explores Viking culture from a global perspective, examining the influences of their varied contacts from around the world and how Viking Scandinavia drew from both Christian Europe and the Islamic world.The book focuses on the core period of the Viking Age, from the late eighth to the early eleventh centuries. New discoveries by archaeologists and metal detectorists highlight the interconnected nature of the cultures of Europe, Byzantium, and the Middle East.Vikings accompanies a major exhibition developed jointly by the British Museum, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Museum for Prehistory and Early History in Berlin. Edited by the exhibition curators Gareth Williams, Peter Pentz, and Matthias Wemhoff and with contributions from a number of key experts, the book, with its strong, flowing narrative and integrated illustrations, draws on a wealth of Viking objects to provide a rich and vivid account of the impact of Viking expansion throughout the world.
DK Eyewitness Books: Wonders of the World
D.K. Publishing - 2014
From man-made landscapes like the Statue of Liberty to record-breaking natural marvels like the Nile River, this book takes kids on an incredible journey around the world's most awesome sights.Each revised Eyewitness book retains the stunning artwork and photography from the groundbreaking original series, but the text has been reduced and reworked to speak more clearly to younger readers. Still on every colorful page: Vibrant annotated photographs and the integrated text-and-pictures approach that makes Eyewitness a perennial favorite of parents, teachers, and school-age kids.
The Deep Space Collection
Scott McElhaney - 2014
You’ll get three short tales of sci-fi adventure, each story being over a hundred pages in length.In Dominion, one man is going to bring the furthest reaches of the galaxy within the grasp of mankind. Meriwether Hawke has created a vehicle that folds space, changing the whole perspective of the space program in an instant. Unfortunately for Hawke, the first manned test vehicle doesn’t end up where it’s supposed to. Lost and without sufficient life support, the two-person crew must engage the automated distress beacon and then settle in for a deep cryogenic sleep to await potential rescue. When Hawke is revived from cryosleep by an alien species, he quickly discovers that he is both their honored guest and guarded prisoner at the same time. It’s no secret that they are extremely interested in his ancient dead spacecraft and its method of propulsion. While he may not be aware of how much time has passed, two things become evident to him: The alien species are sworn enemies of his people, and humanity has become both more and less technologically advanced in the years that have passed. Hawke may hold the only key to the rescue of a forgotten human colony. In Vestige, we find that somewhere amidst the buried ruins of an ancient alien civilization lies the answer to one of the greatest mysteries in our galaxy. But researching the desolate planet brings about more questions than it could ever hope to answer. And those questions need answered soon if Landon is to find out who just declared war on the people of Earth. Landon is the sole operator of the Tachyon Relay – an outpost that serves as an interchange point for wormhole transit throughout the galaxy. When some mysterious ships start attacking Earth’s outposts, Landon is forced to watch helplessly as the wormholes begin to collapse, severing the links to these colonized systems. When Landon’s post is ultimately attacked, his only mode of escape is to slip aboard a vessel heading toward an abandoned system. Much to his surprise, the system had not been abandoned at all and was now home to a settlement that had been excavating alien ruins for the past decade. The ancient civilization, he quickly learns, may somehow be closely related to the unidentified ships that have declared war on Earth. He may have to risk more than just his own life in order to get the answers he needs and put an end to the war.And finally, in Erinyes, a Universal Command Science Ship has just successfully jumped over 160,000 light years into the Large Magellanic Cloud, giving the ship and its crew the honor of being the first to travel to another galaxy. One of these crewmembers, Donovan Rost, was recently presented with an honorary commission as an Ensign in the Universal Command. It appears that the only thing he did to earn such a commission was a simple act of surviving a long time in cryostasis… a very, very long time. Donovan came from a 21st century Earth - an Earth that used to be dominated by humanity. Now, man is a minority and all that he knew of his civilization is buried and almost completely forgotten. He’s about to learn why he and five others were revived and why they were now searching the Large Magellanic Cloud for a technological race that the crew is certain exists somewhere in that galaxy.Brought to you by the international bestselling author of the Mystic Saga and Ghosts of Ophidian. With over 250,000 books downloaded worldwide, Scott McElhaney continues to prove that reasonable Kindle prices do not have to mean poor quality.
The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers
Sherene Baugher - 2014
An essential text for many archaeologists, art historians, and cultural anthropolgists.”—Harold Mytum, coeditor of Prisoners of War: Archaeology, Memory, and Heritage of 19th- and 20th-Century Mass Internment Gravestones, cemeteries, and memorial markers offer fixed points in time to examine Americans’ changing attitudes toward death and dying. In tracing the evolution of commemorative practices from the seventeenth century to the present, Sherene Baugher and Richard Veit offer insights into our transformation from a preindustrial and agricultural to an industrial, capitalist country. Paying particular attention to populations often overlooked in the historical record—African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrant groups—the authors also address the legal, logistical, and ethical issues that confront field researchers who conduct cemetery excavations. Baugher and Veit reveal how gender, race, ethnicity, and class have shaped the cultural landscapes of burial grounds and summarize knowledge gleaned from the archaeological study of human remains and the material goods interred with the deceased. From the practices of historic period Native American groups to elite mausoleums, and from almshouse mass graves to the rise in popularity of green burials today, The Archaeology of Cemeteries and Gravemarkers provides an overview of the many facets of this fascinating topic.
An Anthropologist's Arrival: A Memoir
Ruth M. Underhill - 2014
Underhill (1883-1984) was one of the twentieth century's legendary anthropologists, forged in the same crucible as Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. After decades of trying to escape her Victorian roots, Underhill took on a new adventure at the age of forty-six, when she entered Columbia University as a doctoral student of anthropology. Celebrated now as one of America's pioneering anthropologists, Underhill reveals her life's journey in frank, tender, unvarnished revelations that form the basis of An Anthropologist's Arrival. This memoir, edited by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Stephen E. Nash, is based on unpublished archives, including an unfinished autobiography and interviews conducted prior to her death, held by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In brutally honest words, Underhill describes her uneven passage through life, beginning with a searing portrait of the Victorian restraints on women and her struggle to break free from her Quaker family's privileged but tightly laced control. Tenderly and with humor she describes her transformation from a struggling "sweet girl" to wife and then divorcee. Professionally she became a welfare worker, a novelist, a frustrated bureaucrat at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a professor at the University of Denver, and finally an anthropologist of distinction. Her witty memoir reveals the creativity and tenacity that pushed the bounds of ethnography, particularly through her focus on the lives of women, for whom she served as a role model, entering a working retirement that lasted until she was nearly 101 years old. No quotation serves to express Ruth Underhill's adventurous view better than a line from her own poetry: "Life is not paid for. Life is lived. Now come."
The Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty
Gideon Shelach-Lavi - 2014
It covers an extended time period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago. The geographical coverage includes the traditional focus on the Yellow River basin but also covers China's many other regions. Among the topics covered are the emergence of agricultural communities; the establishment of a sedentary way of life; the development of sociopolitical complexity; advances in lithic technology, ceramics, and metallurgy; and the appearance of writing, large-scale public works, cities, and states. Particular emphasis is placed on the great cultural variations that existed among the different regions and the development of interregional contacts among those societies.
Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia
John Guy - 2014
Lost Kingdoms reveals newly discovered architectural and sculptural relics from this region, which provide key insights into the formerly mysterious kingdoms. The first publication to use sculpture as a lens to explore this period of Southeast Asian history, Lost Kingdoms offers a significant contribution and a fresh approach to the study of cultures in Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and other countries. Authoritative texts by John Guy introduce more than 160 objects, extensively described and beautifully illustrated, together with essays by prominent scholars. Many of the objects have never before traveled outside their home countries. Gorgeous photography shot on location highlights each artwork, and maps and a glossary of place names elucidate their geographical context. A watershed study of Southeast Asia’s artistic and cultural legacy, Lost Kingdoms is an essential resource on a fascinating and enduring subject.
Discovered- Noah's Ark
Ron Wyatt - 2014
They agreed it was an ancient, manmade ship and could be nothing other than Noah's Ark. In 1987 they officially dedicated "Noah's Ark" as a national treasure and began work on a Visitor's Center overlooking the site. Since 1988, when the center was completed, visitors from all over the world have come to view the amazing discovery. This book gives a brief, concise description of Ron Wyatt's research. It explains the analysis of the specimens which show this site to contain sophisticated manmade metal alloys. It shows the electronic scans which reveal the pattern of a massive ship. And much more evidence which clearly points to the identification of this site as containing the remains of Noah's Ark.
Biblical Archaeology: An Introduction with Recent Discoveries That Support the Reliability of the Bible
David Elton Graves - 2014
Revisionist scholars often seek to undermine and downplay the relevance of many of the discoveries, believing that Sodom never existed, the Exodus never happened, Jericho never fell to the Israelites, and David was never a great king. This work challenges the minimalist views by bringing together many of the new discoveries from the last 20 years highlighting the recent finds that are relevant to the claims of the Bible. Experienced archaeologist David Graves has assembled a helpful collection of discoveries that will take you on a journey to: -Confirm the historicity of the biblical events and people of the past -Explore the full range of new archaeological discoveries, from pottery, inscriptions, seals, ossuaries, through to coins, manuscripts, and other artifacts -Present a short history of archaeology, outlining its characteristics and role in Christian apologetics -Lay out the limitations of archaeology and its methodological fallacies -Explain the meticulous method of excavation -Explore the significance of manuscripts for the transmission of the Bible -Navigate the maze of arguments between the minimalists and maximalists controversy This insightful book will: -Illustrate archaeological finds with more than 140 pertinent photographs -Provide numerous detailed maps, carefully crafted charts and tables of previous discoveries -Include helpful breakout panes, dealing with "Quotes from Antiquity," and "Moments in History" -Include a glossary defining technical archaeological terms -Provide extensive footnotes and bibliography for future study This invaluable resource provides an interesting and informative understanding of the cultural and historical background of the Bible illustrated from archaeology. This is an accessible resource intended for laypeople who want to know more about archaeology and the Bible, whether in seminary courses, college classrooms, church groups or personal study.
The Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language, and Identity in Greek Central Asia
Rachel Mairs - 2014
Over the next three hundred years, these settlements evolved into multiethnic, multilingual communities as much Greek as they were indigenous. To explore the lives and identities of the inhabitants of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, Rachel Mairs marshals a variety of evidence, from archaeology, to coins, to documentary and historical texts. Looking particularly at the great city of Ai Khanoum, the only extensively excavated Hellenistic period urban site in Central Asia, Mairs explores how these ancient people lived, communicated, and understood themselves. Significant and original, The Hellenistic Far East will highlight Bactrian studies as an important part of our understanding of the ancient world.
The Great Archaeologists
Brian M. Fagan - 2014
Controversial figures such as Heinrich Schliemann and the Hungarian Aurel Stein, plunderer of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia, are given new assessments. Little-known pioneers such as Max Uhle in Peru and Li Chi in China are set beside the giants in the field—from Koldewey, Dörpfeld, and Woolley in the Near East, to Louis and Mary Leakey, who transformed knowledge of our African ancestry. Other indomitable women include Gertrude Bell, Kathleen Kenyon, and the script-decipherer Tatiana Proskouriakoff.Brian Fagan has assembled a team of some of the world’s greatest living archaeologists to write knowledgeably and entertainingly about their distinguished predecessors in this handsome volume, full of fascinating anecdotes, personal accounts, and unexpected insights.
Ötzi the Iceman
Amanda Lanser - 2014
This title examines the study of Ötzi the iceman. The book explores what scientists know about Ötzis life, traces his discovery and the subsequent scientific investigation, and discusses future study and conservation efforts. Well-placed sidebars, vivid photos, helpful maps, and a glossary enhance readers understanding of the topic. Additional features include a table of contents, a selected bibliography, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and essential facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood
Irving Finkel - 2014
Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.
Travels in Egypt and Nubia: Belzoni (Expanded, Annotated) (Ancient Egypt Book 5)
Giovanni Battista Belzoni - 2014
No study of the modern exploration of ancient Egypt is complete without his extraordinary work. Once a circus strongman, trained as an engineer, he spent many years on the Nile in Egypt and Nubia studying the ancient ruins and shipping antiquities back to Europe. Though once considered a tomb robber, recent re-evaluations of Belzoni have given him credit for his remarkably keen powers of observation and, for the Victorian period, careful excavation methods and recording. A larger-than-life character, Belzoni was a true adventurer-explorer during a time of nationalist competition between the European powers for the best antiquities. This exciting and detailed account of his two journeys to Egypt and Nubia is a treasure of Egyptology. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.
Women in Mycenaean Greece: The Linear B Tablets from Pylos and Knossos
Barbara A. Olsen - 2014
The book offers a systematic analysis of women's tasks, holdings, and social and economic status in the Linear B tablets dating from the 14th and 13th centuries BCE, identifying how Mycenaean women functioned in the economic institutions where they were best attested - production, property control, land tenure, and cult. Analysing all references to women in the Mycenaean documents, the book focuses on the ways in which the economic institutions of these Bronze Age palace states were gendered and effectively extends the framework for the study of women in Greek antiquity back more than 400 years.Throughout, the book seeks to establish whether gender practices were uniform in the Mycenaean states or differed from site to site and to gauge the relationship of the roles and status of Mycenaean women to their Archaic and Classical counterparts to test if the often-proposed theories of a more egalitarian Bronze Age accurately reflect the textual evidence. The Linear B tablets offer a unique, if under-utilized, point of entry into women's history in ancient Greece, documenting nearly 2000 women performing over fifty task assignments. From their decipherment in 1952 one major gap in the scholarly record remained: a full accounting of the women who inhabited the palace states and their tasks, ranks, and economic contributions. Women in Mycenaean Greece fills that gap recovering how class, rank, and other social markers created status hierarchies among women, how women as a group functioned relative to men, and where different localities conformed or diverged in their gender practices.
Beastly Questions: Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues
Naomi Sykes - 2014
This is bizarre given that the archaeological record is composed largely of debris from human–animal relationships (be they in the form of animal bones, individual artifacts or entire landscapes) and that many disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and geography, recognise human–animal interactions as a key source of information for understanding cultural ideology.By integrating knowledge from archaeological remains with evidence from texts, iconography, social anthropology and cultural geography, Beastly Questions: Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues seeks to encourage archaeological students, researchers and those working in the commercial sector to offer more engaging interpretations of the evidence at their disposal. Going beyond the simple confines of 'what people ate', this accessible but in-depth study covers a variety of high-profile topics in European archaeology and provides novel interpretations of mainstream archaeological questions. This includes cultural responses to wild animals, the domestication of animals and its implications on human daily practice, experience and ideology, the transportation of species and the value of incorporating animals into landscape research, the importance of the study of foodways for understanding past societies and how animal studies can help us to comprehend issues of human identity and ideology: past, present and future.
Tracing Old Norse Cosmology: The World Tree, Middle Earth and the Sun in Archeaological Perspectives
Anders Andrxe9n - 2014
Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline
Cecily J. Hilsdale - 2014
The apparent enigma can be resolved by recognizing that later Byzantine diplomatic strategies, despite or because of diminishing political advantage, relied on an increasingly desirable cultural and artistic heritage. This book reassesses the role of the visual arts in this era by examining the imperial image and the gift as reconceived in the final two centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In particular it traces a series of luxury objects created specifically for diplomatic exchange with such courts as Genoa, Paris and Moscow alongside key examples of imperial imagery and ritual. By questioning how political decline refigured the visual culture of empire, Cecily J. Hilsdale offers a more nuanced and dynamic account of medieval cultural exchange that considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.
Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal: The Long-Suppressed Story of One Woman's Discoveries and the Man Who Stole Credit for Them
Alan Kaiser - 2014
Alan Kaiser draws on the private scrapbook that budding archaeologist Mary Ross Ellingson compiled during that dig, as well as her personal correspondence and materials from major university archives, to paint a fascinating picture of gender, power, and archaeology in the early twentieth century. Using Ellingson's photographs and letters as a guide, Kaiser brings alive the excavations led by David Robinson and recounts how the unearthing of private homes-rather than public spaces-emerged as a means to examine the day-to-day of ancient life in Greece. But as Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal clearly demonstrates, a darker story lurks beneath the smiling faces and humorous tales: one where Robinson stole Ellingson's words and insights for his own, and where fellow academics were complicit in the theft.
Tooth Development in Human Evolution and Bioarchaeology
Simon Hillson - 2014
When and where did this schedule evolve? Have technological advances, farming and cities had any effect upon it? Addressing these and other key questions in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology, Simon Hillson examines the unique role of teeth in preserving detailed microscopic records of development throughout childhood and into adulthood. The text critically reviews theory, assumptions, methods and literature, providing the dental histology background to anthropological studies of both growth rate and growth disruption. Chapters also examine existing studies of growth rate in the context of human evolution and primate development more generally, together with implications for life history. The final chapters consider how defects in the tooth development sequence shed light on the consequences of biological and social transitions, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of modern human development and cognition.
Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches
Dawn M. Hadley - 2014
The everyday use of space and changes in the layout of buildings are examined, in order to reveal how these impacted upon the daily practices and tasks of household tasks relating to the upbringing of children. Aspects of work and play are explored: how, archaeologically, we can determine whether, and in what context, children played board and dice games? How we may gain insights into the medieval countryside from the perspective of children and thus begin to understand the processes of reproduction of particular aspects of medieval society and the spaces where children's activities occurred; and the possible role of children in the medieval pottery industry. Funerary aspects are considered: the burial of infants in early English Christian cemeteries the treatment and disposal of infants and children in the cremation ritual of early Anglo-Saxon England; and childhood, children and mobility in early medieval western Britain, especially Wales. The volume concludes with an exploration of what archaeologists can draw from other disciplines - historians, art historians, folklorists and literary scholars - and the approaches that they take to the study of childhood and thus the enhancement of our knowledge of medieval society in general.
Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
Angelo Di Berardino - 2014
It draws upon such fields as archaeology, art and architecture, biography, cultural studies, ecclesiology, geography, history, philosophy, and theology. This three-volume encyclopedia offers unparalleled, comprehensive coverage of the people, places and ideas of ancient Christianity, including:cultural currentsevents and movementsphilosophyiconography and architecturearchaeologytexts and translationstheological termsdoctrinesliturgyspiritualitymonasticismChristian sectsheresiescontroversiescouncilsThe encyclopedia's A-to-Z coverage extends from "Aaron (iconography)" to "Zosimus, pope" and chronologically from Christianity's origins to Bede (d. 735) in the West and John of Damascus (d. ca. 749) in the Greek East, with detailed emphasis on the first four centuries of Christian history. Its geographical range reaches across:North AfricaMauretaniaNumidiaAfrica Proconsularis ByzacenaLibyaEgyptNubiaEthiopiaAsiaAdiabeneArmeniaBithynia & PontusGeorgiaCappadociaLycia and PamphyliaPhrygiaSyriaMesopotamiaArabiaPalestinePersiaChinaEuropeGaulSpain & PortugalItalyGermanyBritain and IrelandScotlandPannoniaDalmatiaMacedoniaMoesiaThraceCyprusCreteThis edition updates and expands on previous Italian and English-language editions with the addition of more than 500 new articles (added to the current Italian or English edition), including the following 30 articles exclusive to IVP's edition:apostolic seeCapuaCarmen de synodo TicinensiChinacosmopolitanismdeathdiakonia/diaconateDialogi de sancta Trinitate IV-Vdoorkeeper (porter)dynamis/energeiaeternityforgivenessfreedom/free willgoodHierotheusincubatioinfinity/infinitudelibelli miraculorumloveMara bar Serapion (letter of)oikeiosisold agepresanctifiedSerapeion (Serapeum)subdeaconTheosebiaTriumphus Christi heroicusTychonunityVirgo ParensExtensive cross-referencing provides ease in exploring related articles, and helpful bibliographies, including primary sources (texts, critical editions, translations) and key secondary sources (books and journal articles), give access to the very latest in-depth scholarship in countless disciplines of study. IVP's new Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity (2014) is translated from Nuovo dizionario patristico e di antichita cristiane (2006-2008), produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, the world's foremost center for partristic studies, under the direction of Professor Angelo Di Berardino, and it greatly updates and expands the 1992 Encyclopedia of the Early Church (Oxford University Press/James Clarke).
The Jesus Movement and Its Expansion: Meaning and Mission
Seán Freyne - 2014
In addition to offering fresh insights into Jesus' Jewish upbringing and the possible impact of Greco-Roman lifestyles on him and his followers, Freyne delves into the mission and expansion of the Jesus movement in Palestine and beyond during the first hundred years of its development.To give readers a full picture of the context in which the Jesus movement developed, Freyne includes pictures, maps, and timelines throughout the book. Freyne's interdisciplinary approach, combining historical, archaeological, and literary methods, makes The Jesus Movement and Its Expansion both comprehensive and accessible."
The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Silk Roads (Volume 2)
Christoph Baumer - 2014
The foundation by the Han dynasty of an extensive network of interlinking trade routes, collectively known as the Silk Road, led to an explosion of cultural and commercial transactions across Central Asia that had a profound impact on civilization. In this second volume of his authoritative history of the region, Christoph Baumer explores the unique flow of goods, peoples and ideas along the dusty tracks and wandering caravan routes that brought European and Mediterranean orbits into contact with Asia. The Silk Roads, the author shows, enabled the spread across the known world of Christianity, Manichaeism, Buddhism and Islam, just as earlier they had caused Roman citizens to crave the exotic silk goods of the mysterious Far East. Tracing the rise and fall of empires, this richly illustrated book charts the ebb and flow of epic history: the bitter rivalry of Rome and Parthia; the lucrative mercantile empire of the Sogdians; the founding of Samarkand; and Chinese defeat at the Battle of Talas (751 AD) by the forces of Islam.
Shamans, Queens, and Figurines: The Development of Gender Archaeology
Sarah Milledge Nelson - 2014
The book covers her theoretical contributions, her extensive studies of gender in the archaeology of East Asia, and her literary work on the subject. Included with the selections of her writing-- taken from diverse articles and books published in a variety of places-- is an illuminating commentary about the development of her professional and personal understanding of how gender plays out in ancient societies and modern universities and her current thinking on both topics.
Archaeology: All That Matters
John Manley - 2014
He then uses the results of famous archaeological studies both to illustrate the power of archaeology, and to show specifically what archaeology has taught us about ancient, and surprisingly recent, history. In an exciting final chapter, Manley wonders how archaeology may adapt over time, exploring how the archaeologists of the future may examine our own era.
The Global Prehistory of Human Migration
Peter Bellwood - 2014
Previously published as the first volume of The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, this work is devoted exclusively to prehistoric migration, covering all periods and places from the first hominin migrations out of Africa through the end of prehistory.Presents interdisciplinary coverage of this topic, including scholarship from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, genetics, biology, linguistics, and more Includes contributions from a diverse international team of authors, representing 17 countries and a variety of disciplines Divided into two sections, covering the Pleistocene and Holocene; each section examines human migration through chapters that focus on different regional and disciplinary lenses
The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece
Judith M. Barringer - 2014
Arranged chronologically in broad swathes of time, from the Bronze and Iron Ages through the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, and concluding with the Roman conquest of the Greek world, the textbook focuses on Greek art but also incorporates Near Eastern, Etruscan, and Roman objects. Judith M. Barringer examines a variety of media, analyzing marble and bronze sculpture, public architecture, and vase painting, as well as coins, domestic architecture, mosaics, terracotta figurines and reliefs, jewelry, and wall painting. This book adopts an approach that considers objects and monuments within their cultural contexts. * More than 500 illustrations, with over 400 in color and 13 maps, including specially commissioned photographs, maps, plans, and reconstructions * Includes text boxes, chapter summaries and timelines, and detailed glossary * Looks at Greek art from perspectives of both art history and archaeology, giving students an understanding of the historical and everyday context of art objects
Asian Art
Dorinda Neave - 2014
Students will gain an understanding of the emergence and evolution of Asian art in all its diversity. Using a range of analytical skills, readers will learn to recognize patterns of continuity and change between the arts and cultures of various regions comprising Asia. Images set within their broader cultural and religious backgrounds provides students with important contextual information to understand and decode artworks.
Tools: Extending Our Reach
Matilda McQuaid - 2014
Accompanying an exhibition of the same name that celebrates the fall 2014 reopening of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Tools is unprecedented in its composition of collaborators--the exhibition is Cooper Hewitt's first pan-institutional show, spanning ten Smithsonian museums. From the earliest times to the present, tools have been at the frontier of design, demonstrating how technology and culture are inextricably linked. Consider, for example, that hand axes remained the dominant tool for 1.5 million years before any significant change was made to the human toolkit, and that the range of tools began to expand only 10,000 years ago. It is notable that the design of our basic tools--hammers, saws, screwdrivers, drills--has remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years, indicating not only their continuity of need and function, but also the effectiveness of their design solutions. Their various incarnations and histories link us to the past. Other tools highlight new technologies and scientific breakthroughs that have opened new worlds to us. Through lush images, authoritative essays and superb design, the book shows the interconnectedness of scientists, designers, historians, anthropologists, engineers and artists through design-thinking and problem-solving, while also looking at various design perspectives and methodologies. Tools explores the world of design ideas while celebrating human ingenuity across cultures and over time.
Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii
Kristina Milnor - 2014
Focusing in particular on the writings which either refer to or quote canonical authors directly, Milnor uncovers the influence--in diction, style, or structure--of elite Latin literature as the Pompeian graffiti show significant connections with familiar authors such as Ovid, Propertius, and Virgil.While previous scholarship has described these fragments as popular distortions of well-known texts, Milnor argues that they are important cultural products in their own right, since they are able to give us insight into how ordinary Romans responded to and sometimes rewrote works of canonicalliterature. Additionally, since graffiti are at once textual and material artefacts, they give us the opportunity to see how such writings gave meaning to, and were given meaning by, the ancient urban environment.Ultimately, the volume looks in detail at the role and nature of popular literature in the early Roman Empire and the place of poetry in the Pompeian cityscape.
Tezcatlipoca: Trickster and Supreme Deity
Elizabeth Baquedano - 2014
While iconographic and textual resources from sixteenth-century chroniclers and codices have contributed greatly to the understanding of Aztec religious beliefs and practices, contributors to this volume demonstrate the diverse ways material evidence expands on these traditional sources. The interlocking complexities of Tezcatlipoca’s nature, multiple roles, and metaphorical attributes illustrate the extent to which his influence penetrated Aztec belief and social action across all levels of late Postclassic central Mexican culture. Tezcatlipoca examines the results of archaeological investigations—objects like obsidian mirrors, gold, bells, public stone monuments, and even a mosaic skull—and reveals new insights into the supreme deity of the Aztec pantheon and his role in Aztec culture.
The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt
Steven Snape - 2014
Now, new research and excavation are transforming our knowledge. This is the first book to bring these latest discoveries to a wide audience and to provide a comprehensive overview of what we know about ancient settlement during the dynastic period.The cities range in date from early urban centers to large metropolises. From houses to palaces to temples, the different parts of Egyptian cities and towns are examined in detail, giving a clear picture of the urban world. The inhabitants, from servants to Pharaoh, are vividly brought to life, placed in the context of the civil administration that organized every detail of their lives.Famous cities with extraordinary buildings and fascinating histories are also examined here through detailed individual treatments, including: Memphis, home of the pyramid–building kings of the Old Kingdom; Thebes, containing the greatest concentration of monumental buildings from the ancient world; and Amarna, intimately associated with the pharaoh Akhenaten. An analysis of information from modern excavations and ancient texts recreates vibrant ancient communities, providing range and depth beyond any other publication on the subject.
Memory
Victoria Feuerstein - 2014
While on location in Africa, a series of animal attacks slaughter her co-workers while leaving her unharmed. Local tribes think she’s a witch with supernatural powers. They’re closer to the truth than Memory knows. When deliberately and recklessly provoking an adult grizzly leaves Memory unscathed, she decides she needs answers. Her quest takes her to Apaquaque Island, her birthplace in the remote Atlantic. There Memory reunites with her enigmatic aunt Katherine and meets Hill, a woman with her own secrets. Intensely attracted to Hill, Memory finds herself opening up to another person for the first time in her life. Under Hill’s careful guidance, Memory undergoes an extraordinary apprenticeship. She discovers she belongs to an ancient and secretive family with intimate connections to the Earth and its creatures. With this knowledge comes power, power her father tried to hide and a ruthless NSA agent craves. With malignant forces converging on Apaquaque, Memory needs to work closely with Hill to master her newly-awakened powers. Trouble is, working with Hill is distracting. . . .
Viking Age Yorkshire
Matthew Townend - 2014
Ten years later, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Viking army made the transition from warfare to settlement, as their leader ‘shared out the land of the Northumbrians, and they proceeded to plough and to support themselves’. This conquest and settlement marked the beginning of two centuries of Scandinavian dominance in Yorkshire, a defining period in the county’s history.Viking kings reigned in York until 954, when the last Scandinavian ruler, Eric Bloodaxe, was driven out and killed. But even after Yorkshire had come under the rule of the southern kings of England, Scandinavian culture remained extremely strong, and imparted a distinctive and enduring character to the region.This book offers the first full-length study of Yorkshire’s Viking centuries, from the fall of York to the Norman Conquest. It gives sustained attention not only to the written sources for the period, but also to the evidence of names, language, art, and archaeology, and it integrates these various sources to present a detailed reconstruction of life and politics in Viking Age Yorkshire, in both the city of York and the surrounding countryside – from the major upheavals of conquest and conversion to the complex issues of identity and assimilation.Matthew Townend is Reader in the Department of English and Related Literature, and Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York. His previous books include 'Language and History in Viking Age England' (2002) and 'The Vikings and Victorian Lakeland: the Norse medievalism of W.G. Collingwood and his contemporaries' (2009).
The Golden Lands: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand Vietnam
Vikram Lall - 2014
Architecture of the Buddhist World, a projected six-volume series by the noted architect and scholar Vikram Lall, represents a new multidisciplinary approach to this fascinating subject, showing how Buddhist thought and ritual have interacted with local traditions across the Asian continent to produce masterpieces of religious architecture.The first volume in the series, The Golden Lands, is devoted to Southeast Asia, home to many of the most spectacular Buddhist monuments. Following a general introduction to the early history of Buddhism and its most characteristic architectural forms (the stupa, the temple, and the monastery), Lall examines the Buddhist architecture of Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos in turn. For each country, he provides both a historical overview and case studies of noteworthy structures. Lall’s concise and accessible text is illustrated throughout with new color photography, as well as 3-D architectural renderings that make even the most complex structures easily comprehensible.The monuments that Lall considers in The Golden Lands range from the modest Bupaya stupa, constructed in Bagan, Myanmar, in the third century AD, to the vast complex of Borobudur in Central Java, the world’s largest Buddhist monument; his achievement is to place them all within a single panorama of history, religion, and artistic innovation.Distributed for JF Publishing
Interpreting Shipwrecks: Maritime Archaeology Approaches
Jonathan Adams - 2014
At one time their value was often squandered, with anything from cursory surveys to total excavations being undertaken for the same reason George Mallory suggested that mountains were climbed: because they were there. Today it is recognised that the remains of wrecked ships, through their distribution in time and space, their variety and their complexity, comprise one of the richest forms of archaeological source material. This volume brings together researchers who explore the ways in which ships can be understood and interpreted as material culture through their wreck sites, focusing on ships as artefacts, as agents, as technology, as society, as ideology and as symbols, as well as on what they carried and the people who sailed on them. Collectively they show that shipwrecks are not just the preserve of nautical specialists but have wider implications for the understanding of human action and past societies. The editors: Jon Adams is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton and the founding Director of Southampton's Centre for Maritime Archaeology (CMA). Johan ROnnby is Professor of Archaeology at SOdertOrn University and Director of the Maritime Archaeological Research Institute at SOdertOrn (MARIS).
Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscience
Thomas E. Levy - 2014
It has also been a pervasive theme in artistic and popular imagination.Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspectiveis a pioneering worksurveying this tradition in unprecedented breadth, combiningarchaeological discovery, quantitative methodology and close literary reading. Archaeologists, Egyptologists, Biblical Scholars, Computer Scientists, Geoscientists and other experts contribute their diverse approaches in a novel, transdisciplinary consideration of ancient topography, Egyptian and Near Eastern parallels to the Exodus story, the historicity of the Exodus, the interface of the Exodus question with archaeological fieldwork on emergent Israel, the formation of biblical literature, and the cultural memory of the Exodus in ancient Israel and beyond.This edited volume contains research presented at the groundbreaking symposium"Out of Egypt: Israel s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination"held in 2013at the Qualcomm Institute of the University of California, San Diego. The combination of 44 contributions by an international group of scholars from diverse disciplines makes this the first such transdisciplinary study of ancient text and history. In the original conference and with this new volume, revolutionary media, such as a 3D immersive virtual reality environment, impart innovative, Exodus-based research to a wider audience. Out of archaeology, ancient texts, science and technology emergean up-to-date picture of the Exodus for the21stCentury and a new standard for collaborative research."
Woodstown: A Viking-Age settlement in Co. Waterford
Ian Russell - 2014
The discovery has been hailed as one of the most significant made by Irish archaeologists in modern times. This book is the definitive report on the archaeological excavations undertaken at Woodstown, as it draws together all the existing evidence from the site and places it in its national and international context. About the excavation: the site has significant implications for the understanding of the earliest phases of Viking raiding in Ireland and the establishment of their settlements on the island * it contains one of the most richly furnished Viking warrior burials in Ireland or Britain * Woodstown was an important center for trade and exchange: materials recovered from the site include amber from the Baltic, silver coins from the Near East, and weapons from Scandinavia - reflecting the range of the Viking trading networks in the 9th century * the origins of the vibrant and distinctive Hiberno-Norse culture that developed in Ireland in the following centuries may be traced back to Woodstown and similar sites. [Subject: History, Medieval Studies, Archaeology, Viking Studies, Irish Studies]
The Material Life of Roman Slaves
Sandra R. Joshel - 2014
Rather than regarding slaves as irretrievable in archaeological remains, the book takes the archaeological record as a key form of evidence for reconstructing slaves' lives and experiences. Interweaving literature, law, and material evidence, the book searches for ways to see slaves in the various contexts - to make them visible where evidence tells us they were in fact present. Part of this project involves understanding how slaves seem irretrievable in the archaeological record and how they are often actively, if unwittingly, left out of guidebooks and scholarly literature. Individual chapters explore the dichotomy between visibility and invisibility and between appearance and disappearance in four physical and social locations - urban houses, city streets and neighborhoods, workshops, and villas.
A Prehistory of South America: Ancient Cultural Diversity on the Least Known Continent
Jerry D. Moore - 2014
This accessible, clearly written text is designed to engage undergraduate and beginning graduate students in anthropology. For more than 12,000 years, South American cultures ranged from mobile hunters and gatherers to rulers and residents of colossal cities. In the process, native South American societies made advancements in agriculture and economic systems and created great works of art—in pottery, textiles, precious metals, and stone—that still awe the modern eye. Organized in broad chronological periods, A Prehistory of South America explores these diverse human achievements, emphasizing the many adaptations of peoples from a continent-wide perspective. Moore examines the archaeologies of societies across South America, from the arid deserts of the Pacific coast and the frigid Andean highlands to the humid lowlands of the Amazon Basin and the fjords of Patagonia and beyond. Illustrated in full color and suitable for an educated general reader interested in the Precolumbian peoples of South America, A Prehistory of South America is a long overdue addition to the literature on South American archaeology.
Field Archaeologist's Survival Guide: Getting a Job and Working in Cultural Resource Management
Chris Webster - 2014
Based on his popular blog feature, Shovelbums Guide, Webster offers young archaeologists useful advice about CRM work, including writing, cooking in hotel rooms, hand-mapping, surviving unemployment, life after archaeology, and more. It provides tools new CRM archaeologists need to get hired and to live life on the road in a fluctuating job market, as well as details on how to succeed as a field archaeologist. Appendices cover sample job hunting documents and checklists for fieldwork. If you will be pursuing a position in this dynamic, challenging field, this book is a must-read both before you apply for that first job and once you get one.