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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “all history becomes subjective,” that, in fact, “properly there is no history, only biography.” Today, Emerson’s observation is hardly revolutionary for archaeologists; it has become conventional wisdom that the present is a battleground where interpretations of the events and meanings of the past are constantly being disputed. What were the major events? Whose lives did these events impact, and how? Who were the key players? What was their legacy? We know all too well that the answers to these questions can vary considerably depending on what political, social, or personal agenda is driving the response. Despite our keen eye for discerning histo...
These twenty papers dedicated to Mike Tite focus upon the interpretation of ancient artefacts and technologies, particularly through the application of materials analysis. Instruments from the human eye to mass spectrometry provide insights into a range of technologies ranging from classical alum extraction to Bronze Age wall painting, and cover materials as diverse as niello, flint, bronze, glass and ceramic. Ranging chronologically from the Neolithic through to the medieval period, and geographically from Britain to China, these case studies provide a rare overview which will be of value to students, teachers and researchers with an interest in early material culture.
When did the Indo-Europeans enter the lands that they occupied during historical times? And, more specifically, when did the Greeks come to Greece? Robert Drews brings together the evidence--historical, linguistic, and archaeological--to tackle these important questions.
"This volume comprises all but one of the papers presented at the workshop Unearthing the Wilderness : Workshop on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age, held at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem, on 12 December 2010. It is supplemented with studies from scholars who were unable to attend the conference but were eager to contribute to this book."--Preface.
This book provides a comprehensive treatment of change in long-distance exchange systems during this tumultuous time, combining a formidable array of evidence to demonstrate that Greece underwent a serious economic crisis, but one that gave rise to a whole new set of institutions and economic structures.
As a major tourist destination and the most eastern member of the European Union, housing two British Sovereign Bases and sitting at the intersection of three continents, Cyprus attracts international attention in more ways than one; hence the complex web of converging and conflicting outside interests that has marked and scarred the country’s history. Since 2009, when the previous edition appeared, further big changes have occurred with the United Nations-led efforts to bring about a settlement to the Cyprus problem as well as the latest on the exploration of hydrocarbon in the eastern Mediterranean seabed. Historical Dictionary of Cyprus, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has several hundred cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, architecture, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Cyprus.
Enemies of Civilization is a work of comparative history and cultural consciousness that discusses how "others" were perceived in three ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Each civilization was the dominant culture in its part of the world, and each developed a mind-set that regarded itself as culturally superior to its neighbors. Mu-chou Poo compares these societies' attitudes toward other cultures and finds differences and similarities that reveal the self-perceptions of each society. Notably, this work shows that in contrast to modern racism based on biophysical features, such prejudice did not exist in these ancient societies. It was culture rather than biophysical nature that was the most important criterion for distinguishing us from them. By examining how societies conceive their prejudices, this book breaks new ground in the study of ancient history and opens new ways to look at human society, both ancient and modern.
‘Broadening Horizons: multidisciplinary approaches to landscape study’ presents nine papers on physical landscape research in the Mediterranean and the Near East. Giving prime place to young researchers working in this field, it brings together highly diverse applications ranging from ground survey to semi-automated remote sensing, from cuneiform studies to palynology and from human geography to paradigm re-evaluation. Aimed at a public of both students and scholars with a shared interest in the study of past landscapes, its aims are dual. In presenting ongoing research which applies various techniques available to the student of landscape, it aims to add to the practice of these sub-fie...
The laws of Æthelbert of Kent (ca. 600), Hlohere and Eadric (685x686), and Wihtred (695), are the earliest laws from Anglo-Saxon England, and the first Germanic laws written in the vernacular. They are of unique importance as the only extant early medieval English laws that delineate the progress of law and legal language in the early days of the conversion to Christianity. Æthelbert's laws, the closest existing equivalent to Germanic law as it was transmitted in a pre-literate period, contrast with Hlohere and Eadric's expanded laws, which concentrate on legal procedure and process, and again contrast with the further changed laws of Wihtred which demonstrate how the new religion of Christianity adapted and changed the law to conform to changing social mores. This volume updates previous works with current scholarship in the fields of linguistics and social and legal history to present new editions and translations of these three Kentish pre-Alfredian laws. Each body of law is situated within its historical, literary, and legal context, annotated, and provided with facing-page translation.
Water management, soil conservation, sustainable animal husbandry . . . because such socio-environmental challenges have been faced throughout history, lessons from the past can often inform modern policy. In this book, case studies from a wide range of times and places reveal how archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of humans' relation to the environment. The Archaeology of Environmental Change shows that the challenges facing humanity today, in terms of causing and reacting to environmental change, can be better approached through an attempt to understand how societies in the past dealt with similar circumstances. The contributors draw on archaeological research in multiple...