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The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings
By John M. Adams. 2013
Egypt, The Valley of the Kings, 1905: An American robber baron peers through the hole he has cut in an…
ancient tomb wall and discovers the richest trove of golden treasure ever seen in Egypt. At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis's most important discoveries—from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut's sarcophagus to the exquisite shabti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum not too long ago—as a lens around which to focus his quintessentially American rags-to-riches tale, Adams chronicles the dizzying rise of a poor country preacher's son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation in the field of archaeology. Davis found a record eighteen tombs in the Valley and, breaking with custom, gave all the spoils of his discoveries to museums. A confederate of Boss Tweed, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, and rival of J. P. Morgan, the colorful "American Lord Carnarvon" shared his Newport mansion with his Rembrandts, his wife, and his mistress. The only reason Davis has been forgotten by history to a large extent is probably the fact that he stopped just short of King Tutankhamen's tomb, the discovery of which propelled Howard Carter (Davis's erstwhile employee) to worldwide fame just a few short years later. Drawing on rare and never-before-published archival material, The Millionaire and the Mummies, the first biography of Theodore Davis ever written rehabilitates a tarnished image through a thrilling tale of crime and adventure, filled with larger-than-life characters, unimaginable treasures, and exotic settings.The Making of the Chinese Civilization
By Jianye Han. 2023
This book involves collection of papers primarily focused on the origin and development of Chinese civilization in the concept of…
archaeological context from the 6000 BCE to 1300 BCE through archaeological cultural perspectives. It systematically illustrates the prehistoric cultural history of China at the period from Neolithic to the early Bronze Age during 20000-1300 BCE, composing not only the proper region around the Central Plain but also the margin areas mainly in the west, and examines the cultural relationship and exchanges nationally and internationally through thousand years of advancing social complexity in geographical and temporal genealogies. It introduces three prehistoric stages for the course of Chinese Civilization Development; the three major Civilization Development Models during the Chalcolithic period; how environmental changes and warfare functioned as the part of mechanism to make civilization evolve; the Bronze Age Revolution from the West; and the critical evaluation of the characteristics belonging to Chinese Civilization and the review of ancient legendary histories and legends through the archaeological perspectives. This book is essential reading for all those wanting more information about the foundations of Chinese history and civilization through archaeological studies.Place Experience of the Sacred: Silence and the Pilgrimage Topography of Mount Athos
By Christos Kakalis. 2024
This book explores the topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the significance of silence and communal ritual in its understanding. Mount…
Athos, a mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the world’s largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places. Combining interdisciplinary insights from architectural theory, philosophy, theology and anthropology with archival and ethnographic materials, the book brings a fresh contribution to both Athonite studies and scholarship on sacred space. By focusing on the interrelation between silence and communal ritual, it offers an alternative to the traditional art historical, objectifying approaches. It reintroduces the phenomenological understanding of place, investigating also how this is expressed through a number of narratives, such as travel literature, maps and diaries.Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica: Recent Findings and New Perspectives (Conflict, Environment, and Social Complexity)
By Rubén G. Mendoza, Linda Hansen. 2024
This edited volume addresses the environmental and cultural underpinnings of the kind of social conflict that spawned the origins and…
elaboration of ritualized human and animal sacrifice in Mesoamerica. The chapters variously document the place of cultural evolution and social complexity in the origins and elaboration of ritual human sacrifice, cannibalism, and trophy-taking across a broad spectrum of Mesoamerican cultural and social contexts that first saw the light of day before 2600 BCE, and rapidly developed and proliferated across the Mesoamerican world in the centuries to follow. They study the developments in sacrifice rituals through the centuries into the first millennium CE, when the Mexica Aztec and their allies had elevated ritual human sacrifice such that they produced a plethora of sacrificial acts, modes and manners of death, and associated deities to articulate the necro-cultures and blood-tribute of the times. The chapters further study present-day rites of Amerindian communities from throughout Mesoamerica that include paying homage to the deities of earth and sky through sacrifice and consumption of animal surrogates. The interdisciplinary effort undertaken by this international cadre of scientists, including anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, art historians, ethnohistorians, iconographers, and religious studies experts provides a particularly rich forum for launching an interrogation into the role of conflict, environment, and social complexity in the emergence and persistence of ritual violence and human sacrifice in the Mesoamerican world.Sustainable Tourism, Culture and Heritage Promotion: Development, Management and Connectivity (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
By Jorge Chica-Olmo, Miroslav Vujičić, Rui Alexandre Castanho, Uglješa Stankov, Eliana Martinelli. 2024
This proceedings book explores future prospects of cultural, heritage, and religious tourism and how it can impact the socioeconomic complexity…
of a community and future developments. It includes chapters on contemporary digital age pilgrimage, digital interpretation as a management strategy, tourism in the era of digital communication, and the role of social media in conserving intangible cultural heritage. This book focuses on policies and mechanisms for heritage preservation. It includes cultural heritage tourism management, how the digitalization of data has impacted and further developed tourism, World Heritage classification in urban tourism destinations, cultural tourism products, and experiences. Moreover, it discusses the sustainable environment and geography in tourism. It covers topics such as ecotourism and rural sustainable development, heritage in socioeconomic sustainable development, and tourists' perceptions of tourism. Anotherpart of the book explores the social and economic impacts of tourism. It includes chapters on cycling tourism along the Elbe, residents' perceptions of the socioeconomic benefits of restaurants, architecture of historical mosques, tourism as a driver of soft power, tourists' perceptions of service quality, tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, gastronomic narratives in tourism, and residents' perceptions of festivals. Also, it pinpoints the focus on user interaction-based development. It includes chapters on the role of community-led initiatives in heritage revitalization and addressing connectivity issues between historical and natural touristic heritage sites. These research papers provide valuable insights into the multidimensional nature of cultural sustainable tourism, covering a wide range of topics and offering diverse perspectives on its development, management, and impact.Exploring Southeastern Archaeology
By Patricia Galloway, Evan Peacock. 2015
Contributions by Keith A. Baca, Jeffrey P. Brain, Samuel O. Brookes, Ian W. Brown, Philip J. Carr, Jessica Crawford, Patricia…
Galloway, Alison M. Hadley, Christopher T. Hays, Edward R. Henry, Cliff Jenkins, Jay K. Johnson, Evan Peacock, Janet Rafferty, Maria Schleidt, Mary Evelyn Starr, James B. Stoltman, Andrew M. Triplett, Melissa H. Twaroski, and Richard A. Weinstein This volume includes original scholarship on a wide array of archaeological research across the South. One essay explores the effects of climate on early cultures in Mississippi. Contributors reveal the production and distribution of stone effigy beads, which were centered in southwest Mississippi some 5,000 years ago, and trace contact between different parts of the prehistoric Southeast as seen in the distribution of clay cooking balls. Researchers explore small, enigmatic sites in the hill country of northern Mississippi now marked by scatters of broken pottery and a large, seemingly isolated "platform" mound in Calhoun County. Pieces describe a mound group in Chickasaw County built by early agriculturalists who subsequently abandoned the area and a similar prehistoric abandonment event in Winston and Choctaw Counties. A large pottery collection from the famous Anna Mounds site in Adams County, excavations at a Chickasaw Indian site in Lee County, camps and works of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the pine hill country of southern Mississippi, and the history of logging in the Mississippi Delta all yield abundant, new understandings of the past. Overview papers include a retrospective on archaeology in the National Forests of north Mississippi, a look at a number of mound sites in the lower Mississippi Delta, and a study of how communities of learning in field archaeology are built, with prominent archaeologist Samuel O. Brookes's achievements as a focal point. History buffs, artifact enthusiasts, students, and professionals all will find something of interest in this book, which opens doors on the prehistory and history of Mississippi.Arrowheads and Spear Points in the Prehistoric Southeast: A Guide to Understanding Cultural Artifacts
By Linda Crawford Culberson. 1993
The Native American tribes of what is now the southeastern United States left intriguing relics of their ancient cultural life.…
Arrowheads, spear points, stone tools, and other artifacts are found in newly plowed fields, on hillsides after a fresh rain, or in washed-out creek beds. These are tangible clues to the anthropology of the Paleo-Indians, and the highly developed Mississippian peoples. This indispensable guide to identifying and understanding such finds is for conscientious amateur archeologists who make their discoveries in surface terrain. Many are eager to understand the culture that produced the artifact, what kind of people created it, how it was made, how old it is, and what its purpose was. Here is a handbook that seeks identification through the clues of cultural history. In discussing materials used, the process of manufacture, and the relationship between the artifacts and the environments, it reveals ancient discoveries to be not merely interesting trinkets but by-products from the once vital societies in areas that are now Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, as well as in southeastern Texas, southern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana. The text is documented by more than a hundred drawings in the actual size of the artifacts, as well as by a glossary of archeological terms and a helpful list of state and regional archeological societies.Perspectives on Socio-environmental Transformations in Ancient Europe (Quantitative Archaeology and Archaeological Modelling)
By Johannes Müller, Wiebke Kirleis, Nicole Taylor. 2024
This open access book brings together key issues from transformative processes and events across Europe (and in some cases beyond)…
from 15,000 to 1 BCE. This volume covers the research output produced by the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1266 "Scales of Transformation" – the first interdisciplinary centre to diachronically investigate transformations in past societies with a summary of their individual aspects from the Late Palaeolithic to the Roman Period. Following the introduction, the book is divided into three main sections: In "Identification of anatomies of socio-environmental transformation", the concept of scales of transformations is first explained, and the various parameters of transformational change are identified. This is followed by "Expressions of socio-environmental transformations: from climate preconditions to decision making", in which transformation processes are illustrated with individual examples. The third major part of the book deals with"Perspectives on decision making processes in socio-environmental transformations". In conclusion, the results are framed in a broad temporal framework, and patterns of socio-environmental change are presented across common time frames from the Eastern Mediterranean to Scandinavia. This book is of interest to researchers in archaeology and palaeoecology.Dieses Open-Access-Buch beschäftigt sich mit der Zuordnung der Gebrauchsspuren bei jung- und endneolithischen Knochenartefakten zu einem Werkmaterial oder einer Funktion.…
In der Regel werden Knochen-, Geweih- und Zahnartefakte nur typologisch untersucht. Dabei werden Begriffe wie etwa „Meißel“, „Pfriem“, „Ahle“, „Schaber“ aufgrund der Form der Artefakte vergeben, ohne jedoch die tatsächliche Funktion bzw. den Verwendungszweck näher zu untersuchen. Experimentalarchäologische Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass es durchaus Unterschiede in den Gebrauchsspuren gibt, die wiederum Rückschlüsse auf den tatsächlichen Gebrauch und das bearbeitete Material ermöglichen. Die bisherigen Experimente haben gezeigt, dass sich die Gebrauchsspuren in drei Gruppen einteilen lassen, die wichtige Hinweise auf die Art der Bewegung oder die Handhabung und damit auf das bearbeitete Material geben. Zudem haben die Untersuchungen von nachgebauten Werkzeugen und Artefakten ergeben, dass die Mikrospuren direkt miteinander verglichen werden können.Building Networks: Exchange of Knowledge, Ideas and Materials in Medieval and Post-Medieval Europe (Themes in Contemporary Archaeology)
By Jeroen Bouwmeester, Laura Patrick, Duncan L. Berryman. 2024
This book aims to explore different aspects of networks in relation to the archaeology of buildings. It is divided into…
three major themes: the trade in materials, the exchange of knowledge (of techniques and/or materials), and the exchange of style. Within each of these themes, two primary aspects are addressed—notably, who were the actors and how did the network function? In medieval and post-medieval Europe, the development of buildings, of style and the use of material, cannot be understood from a local, regional or even national perspective. Not only were the borders different than in modern-day Europe, but the contacts of inhabitants also transcended local and regional boundaries. This volume describes the continuous exchange of aesthetic ideals, technological developments and building materials during this period. This volume is a culmination of four years of sessions held at the European Archaeology Association (EAA) conference between 2016-2020 on the topic. It is of interest to archaeologists, architects, and scholars of built heritage.Rooted Cosmopolitanism, Heritage and the Question of Belonging: Archaeological and Anthropological perspectives
By Lennart Wouter Kruijer, Miguel John Versluys, Ian Lilley. 2024
This book explores the analytical and practical value of the notion of "rooted cosmopolitanism" for the field of cultural heritage.Many…
concepts of present-day heritage discourses - such as World Heritage, local heritage practices, or indigenous heritage - tend to elide the complex interplay between the local and the global - entanglements that are investigated as "glocalisation" in Globalisation Studies. However, no human group ever creates more than a part of its heritage by itself. This book explores an exciting new alternative in scholarly (critical) heritage discourse, the notion of rooted cosmopolitanism, a way of making manifestations of globalised phenomena comprehensible and relevant at local levels. It develops a critical perspective on heritage and heritage practices, bringing together a highly varied yet conceptually focused set of stimulating contributions by senior and emerging scholars working on the heritage of localities across the globe. A contextualising introduction is followed by three strongly theoretical and methodological chapters which complement the second part of the book, six concrete, empirical chapters written in "response" to the more theoretical chapters. Two final reflective conclusions bring together these different levels of analysis.This book will appeal primarily to archaeologists, anthropologists, heritage professionals, and museum curators who are ready to be confronted with innovative and exciting new approaches to the complexities of cultural heritage in a globalising world.Shell Money: A Comparative Study (Elements in Ancient and Pre-modern Economies)
By Null Mikael Fauvelle. 2024
Where, when, and under what circumstances did money first emerge? This Element examines this question through a comparative study of…
the use of shells to facilitate trade and exchange in ancient societies around the world. It argues that shell money was a form of social technology that expanded political-economic capacities by enabling long-distance trade across boundaries and between strangers. The Element examines several cases in which shells and shell beads permeated throughout daily life and became central to the economic functioning of the societies that used them. In several of these cases, it argues that shells were used in ways that meet all the standard definitions of modern money. By examining the wide range of uses of shell money in ancient economic systems around the world, this Element explores the diversity of forms that money has taken throughout human history. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.Ancient Southeast Mesoamerica: Political Economies without the State (Case Studies in Early Societies)
By null Patricia A. Urban, null Edward M. Schortman. 2024
Ancient Southeast Mesoamerica explores the distinctive development and political history of the region from its earliest inhabitants up to the…
Spanish conquest. It was composed of a matrix of social networks rather than divided by distinct cultures and domains. Making use of the area's rich archaeological data, Edward Schortman and Patricia Urban provide a social network analysis of southeast Mesoamerica. They demonstrate how inhabitants from different locales were organized within such networks, and how they mobilized the assets that they needed to define and achieve their own goals. The also provide evidence for the actions of other groups, who sought to promote their importance at local and regional scales, and often opposed those efforts. Schortman and Urban's study demonstrates the fresh insights gained from study of socio-political structures via a social network perspective. It also challenges models that privilege the influence of powerful leaders in shaping those structures.Ancient Gordion (Case Studies in Early Societies)
By Lisa Kealhofer, Peter Grave, Mary Voigt. 2022
Ancient Gordion has long been recognized as a key Iron Age site for Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean. Archaeological research…
has revealed much about its sequence of occupation. However, as yet no study has explored the underlying drivers of political and economic change at this site. This volume presents an overview of the political and economic histories supporting emergent elites and how they constructed power at Gordion during the Iron Age (1200-300 BCE). Based on geochemical and typological analysis of nearly 2000 Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic ceramic samples, the volume contextualizes this primary dataset through the lens of ceramic production, consumption, exchange and emulation. Synthesizing site data sets, the volume more broadly contributes to our understanding of the pivotal role of groups and their economic, social, and ritual practices in the creation of complex societies.Archaeology: An Introduction
By Hannah Cobb, Kevin Greene, Tom Moore. 2024
This fully updated sixth edition of a classic classroom text is essential reading for core courses in archaeology.Archaeology: An Introduction…
explains how the subject emerged from an amateur pursuit in the eighteenth century into a serious discipline and explores changing trends in interpretation in recent decades. The authors convey the excitement of archaeology while helping readers to evaluate new discoveries by explaining the methods and theories that lie behind them. In addition to drawing upon examples and case studies from many regions of the world and periods of the past, the book incorporates the authors’ own fieldwork, research and teaching. It continues to include key reference and further reading sections to help new readers find their way through the ever-expanding range of archaeological publications and online sources as well as colour illustrations and boxed topic sections to increase comprehension.Serving as an accessible and lucid textbook, and engaging students with contemporary issues, this book is designed to support students studying Archaeology at an introductory level.New to the sixth edition: Inclusion of the latest survey and imaging techniques, such as the use of drones and eXtended reality. Updated material on developments in dating, DNA analysis, isotopes and population movement, including consideration of the ethical considerations of these techniques. Coverage of new developments in archaeological theory, such as the material turn/ontological turn, and work on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion. A whole new chapter covering archaeology in the present, including new sections on heritage and public archaeology, and an updated consideration of archaeology’s relationship with the climate crisis. A revised glossary with over 200 new additions or updates.The Active Archaeology Notebook (First Edition)
By Leah McCurdy. 2018
The Active Archaeology Notebook offers effective and fun activities for the archaeology classroom. Conceived by a team of instructors from…
the SAA Curriculum Committee under the direction of Leah McCurdy (University of Texas at Arlington), every activity has been class tested and is designed to demonstrate key concepts in archaeology. The Notebook is ideal for instructors looking for diverse and active ways to teach archaeology.Cattle in the Postcolumbian Americas: A Zooarchaeological Historical Study
By Nicolas Delsol. 2024
How the arrival of cattle transformed life and society in the Americas In this book, Nicolas Delsol compares zooarchaeological and…
material evidence from sites across Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to show how the introduction of cattle, beginning with imports by Spanish colonizers in the 1500s, shaped colonial American society. Before European colonization, cows were vital in European and African societies but were unknown to the Native communities of the Western Hemisphere. This book traces their impact in the Americas by using a broad range of methods, such as ancient DNA analyses on faunal collections from major postcolumbian sites. Delsol describes the place of cattle in the colonial culture and landscape, beginning with the transportation of cattle across the Atlantic and moving to herding practices in new habitats, butchery techniques, and the production, trading, and use of cow byproducts. Cattle in the Postcolumbian Americas is the first large-scale regional archaeological study of the introduction of a European domesticated species to the Americas. Using both zooarchaeological and historical data, Delsol argues that the arrival of cattle was a major consequence of European colonization with effects that have often been overlooked.Bignor Roman Villa
By Miles Russell, David Rudling. 2015
Discovered in 1811, Bignor is one of the richest and most impressive villas in Britain, its mosaics ranking among the…
finest in north-western Europe. Opened to the public for the first time in 1814, the site also represents one of Britain’s earliest tourist attractions, remaining in the hands of the same family, the Tuppers, to this day. This book sets out to explain the villa, who built it, when, how it would have been used and what it meant within the context of the Roman province of Britannia. It also sets out to interpret the remains, as they appear today, explaining in detail the meaning of the fine mosaic pavements and describing how the villa was first found and explored and the conservation problems facing the site in the twenty-first century. Now, after 200 years, the remarkable story of Bignor Roman Villa is told in full in this beautifully illustrated book.Northumbria: History and Identity 547-2000
By Robert Colls. 2019
THE NORTH EAST is probably England’s most distinctive region. A place of strong character with a very special sense of…
its past, it is, as William Hutchinson remarked in 1778, ‘truly historical ground’. This is a book about both the ancient Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, which stretched from the Humber to the Scottish border, and the ways in which the idea of being a Northumbrian, or a northerner, or someone from the ‘North East’, persisted in the area long after the early English kingdom had fallen. It examines not only the history of the region, but also the successive waves of identity that history has bestowed over a very long period of time. Northumbria existed before ‘England’ began but is with us still in name, and in the way we think about ourselves. A series of sections, entitled Christian Kingdom, Borderland and Coalfield, New Northumbria, Cultural Region and Northumbrian Island, explore the region on the grand scale, from its very beginning, and bring a sharp sense of history to bear on the various threads that have influenced the making of modern regional identity. The book is a work of exceptional scholarship. Never before have so many leading historians addressed together the issues which have affected this special region. Clearly written, and rich in ideas, chapters explore the physical origins of Northumbria and consider just how the pressing political and military claims of adjoining states shaped and tempered it. There are further chapters on art, music, mythology, dialect, history, economy, poetry, politics, religion, antiquarianism, literature and settlement. They show how Northumbrians have lived and died, and looked forward and back, and these accounts of the North East’s past will surely help in the shaping of its future. Front cover illustration taken from LNER poster ‘Northumberland: It’s Quicker By Rail’, and reproduced courtesy of the Science & Society Picture Library. Back cover illustration shows coalminers working the chock at Cambois Colliery and is reproduced courtesy of the Six Townships Community History Group in Bedlingtonshire.Life And Afterlife In Ancient China
By Jessica Rawson. 2023
The three millennia up to the establishment of the first imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC cemented many of the…
distinctive elements of Chinese civilization still in place today: an extraordinarily challenging geography and environment; formidable infrastructure; a society based on the strict hierarchy of the family; a shared written script of characters; a cuisine founded on rice and millet; a material culture of ceramics, bronze, silk, and jade; and a unique concept of the universe, in which ancestors continue to exist alongside the living. Records of these early achievements and their diverse expressions often lie not in written history but in how people marked the end of their lives: their dwellings for the afterlife. Tombs and the treasures within them are almost the only artifacts to survive from Ancient China; their scale and sophistication rivals their equivalents in Ancient Egypt. Jessica Rawson, one of the most eminent Western scholars of China, explores twelve grand tombs―each from a specific historical moment and place―showing how they reveal wider political, dynastic, and cultural developments, culminating in the lavish ambition of the First Emperor's monument, guarded by his army of terracotta warriors. Beautifully illustrated and drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China illuminates a constellation of beliefs about life and death and provides a remarkable new perspective on one of the oldest civilizations in the world.