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Showing 1 - 20 of 899 items
By A. Rosalie David. 1978
An account of how scientists and archaeologists have adopted new methods to further reveal the secrets of the past, as…
in the postmortem examination of a young girl dead for more than 2,000 years. Includes a brief explanation of Egyptian history and burial ritualsComparative insights on astronomy, divination, and medicine from ancient textsScientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East presents a…
collection of articles by leading scholars on scientific practices in the ancient world, with emphasis on the fields of medicine, astronomy, astrology, and other forms of divination. The essays engage with a wide variety of textual sources in many different languages and scripts from Egypt and the Near East spanning more than a millennium, including some texts that are edited and discussed here for the first time. The contributors to this volume were tasked with approaching their texts not only as specialists, but also from a cross-cultural perspective, and the resulting body of work reveals new and exciting evidence for the transfer of scientific knowledge across cultural borders in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.This book will be of interest primarily to specialists in the history of medicine, science, divination, and magic, as well as to papyrologists, Egyptologists, and Assyriologists.By Lorna Almonds Windmill. 2008
&“Intriguing . . . describes a modest but exceptional man from whom the contemporary soldier, politician, and citizen can learn how to enjoy…
life (and how not to).&” —The Spectator Son of the victor of Jutland, George Jellicoe has enjoyed power and privilege but never shirked his duty. His war exploits are legendary and, as a founder member of Stirling&’s SAS and first commander of the Special Boat Service, he saw action a-plenty. A brigadier at twenty-six with a DSO and MC, he liberated Athens as the Germans withdrew and saved Greece from a Communist revolution. After the war, Jellicoe joined the Foreign Office and worked with spies Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, and Donald Maclean in Washington and on the Soviet Desk. His political life saw him in the Cabinet of the Heath Government and he is frank with his biographer over the issues and characters of his fellow ministers. Jellicoe&’s Achilles heel is his weakness for, and attraction to, women. His resignation over an involvement with a prostitute was a national scandal, but he is refreshingly honest and devoid of self-justification. He remained an active member of the Lords pursuing a top-level business career. A British Achilles is a superb biography of a major public figure and exemplary wartime soldier.By Susan Ronald. 2007
“A highly colorful, swashbuckling read, one that will give you new respect for Britain’s first Elizabeth.” —Seattle TimesAn illuminating revisionist…
biography about Queen Elizabeth I and her merchant-adventurers who terrorized the seas, extended the Empire, and amassed great wealth for the throne.Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power, both feared and admired by her enemies. Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, she employed a network of daring merchants, brazen adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council to anchor her throne—and in doing so, planted the seedlings of an empire that would ultimately cover two-fifths of the world.In The Pirate Queen, historian Susan Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, relying on a wealth of historical sources and thousands of the queen's personal letters to tell the thrilling story of a visionary monarch and the swashbuckling mariners who terrorized the seas to amass great wealth for themselves and the Crown.By Shimon Gibson. 2009
Analyzing the archaeological data sources documenting the days leading to the crucifixion, “this book is destined to become the standard in…
the field.” (Prof. James D. Tabor, author of The Jesus Dynasty) Unraveling the mystery of Jesus's last days, world-renowned scholar Shimon Gibson reveals how archaeology has a major role to play not only in how the gospels should be read and understood, but also in understanding Jesus in his world.Inside you'll find:the actual site of the execution of Jesusstartling new information about the crucifixion based on the discovery of a first-century crucified manthe surprising location of the trial of Jesusthe truth about his final resting place“A well-written guide to the archaeology behind Jesus’ death and burial, written by one of Jerusalem’s finest archaeologists.” —Jonathan L. Reed, author of the HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament“Gibson synthesizes evidence from archaeology and the New Testament to craft a clear and enjoyable account.” —Jodi Magness, Professor of Early Judaism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill“Rigorously scientific, and frequently brilliant. A must read.” —James H. Charlesworth, George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Princeton University“An expert archaeologist’s valuable insights on the final days of Jesus.” —Geza Vermes, FBA, University of Oxford, author of Jesus the Jew and The Passion“Gibson’s book punctures fourth century mythology with first century evidence drawn from intimate knowledge of the great city of Jerusalem. . . . [A] provocative series of observations and insights.” —Herb Krosney, author of The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas IscariotBy Martin Gilbert. 1988
The final volume of the acclaimed official biography: &“A meticulously detailed and annotated account of Churchill&’s declining years . . . A contemporary…
classic&” (Foreign Affairs). The eighth and final volume of Winston S. Churchill&’s official biography begins with the defeat of Germany in 1945 and chronicles the period up to his death nearly twenty years later. It sees him first at the pinnacle of his power, leader of a victorious Britain. In July 1945 at Potsdam, Churchill, Stalin, and Truman aimed to shape postwar Europe. But upon returning home, was thrown out of office in the general election. Though out of office, Churchill worked to restore the fortunes of Britain&’s Conservative Party while warning the world of Communist ambitions, urging the reconciliation of France and Germany, pioneering the concept of a united Europe, and seeking to maintain the close link between Britain and the United States. In October 1951, Churchill became prime minister for the second time. The Great Powers were navigating a precarious peace at the dawn of the nuclear age. With the election of Eisenhower and the death of Stalin, he worked for a new summit conference to improve East-West relations; but in April of 1955, ill health and pressure from colleagues forced him to resign. In retirement Churchill completed his acclaimed four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples and watched as world conflicts continued, still convinced they could be resolved by statesmanship. &“Never despair&” remained his watchword, and his faith, until the end. &“A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.&” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War &“The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.&” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York TimesThis book provides a unique, in-depth look at three Indigenous World Heritage sites in Canada and their use for Indigenous…
empowerment and community development. Based on extensive ethnographic field studies and comprehensive narrative interviews, it shows how the three First Nation communities presented in the case studies enforce recognition of their collective rights to preserve their cultural heritage and assert their right to political, economic, cultural, and social self-determination. It also considers the prevailing universalistic discourses around World Heritage and the various ways in which they serve to either reinforce existing oppressive conditions regarding Indigenous communities and voices or provide opportunities to overcome them. The book will be of interest to scholars and students working on social and cultural histories, histories of colonialism, and in heritage and museum studies.How humans became so dependent on things and how this need has grown dangerously out of control. Over three…
million years ago, our ancient ancestors realized that rocks could be broken into sharp-edged objects for slicing meat, making the first knives. This discovery resulted in a good meal, and eventually changed the fate of our species and our planet. With So Much Stuff, archaeologist Chip Colwell sets out to investigate why humankind went from self-sufficient primates to nonstop shoppers, from needing nothing to needing everything. Along the way, he uncovers spectacular and strange points around the world—an Italian cave with the world’s first known painted art, a Hong Kong skyscraper where a priestess channels the gods, and a mountain of trash that rivals the Statue of Liberty. Through these examples, Colwell shows how humanity took three leaps that led to stuff becoming inseparable from our lives, inspiring a love affair with things that may lead to our downfall. Now, as landfills brim and oceans drown in trash, Colwell issues a timely call to reevaluate our relationship with the things that both created and threaten to undo our overstuffed planet.By Rachel Morgan. 2023
An incisive history of early American archaeology—from reckless looting to professional science—and the field’s unfinished efforts to make amends today.…
American archaeology was forever scarred by an 1893 business proposition between cowboy-turned-excavator Richard Wetherill and socialites-turned-antiquarians Fred and Talbot Hyde. Wetherill had stumbled upon Mesa Verde’s spectacular cliff dwellings and started selling artifacts, but with the Hydes’ money behind him, well—there’s no telling what they might discover. Thus begins the Hyde Exploring Expedition, a nine-year venture into Utah’s Grand Gulch and New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon that—coupled with other less-restrained looters—so devastates Indigenous cultural sites across the American Southwest that Congress passes first-of-their-kind regulations to stop the carnage. As the money dries up, tensions rise, and a once-profitable enterprise disintegrates, setting the stage for a tragic murder. Sins of the Shovel is a story of adventure and business gone wrong and how archaeologists today grapple with this complex heritage. Through the story of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, practicing archaeologist Rachel Morgan uncovers the uncomfortable links between commodity culture, contemporary ethics, and the broader political forces that perpetuate destructive behavior today. The result is an unsparing and even-handed assessment of American archaeology’s sins, past and present, and how the field is working toward atonement.By Hunter W. Whitehead, Megan Lickliter-Mundon. 2023
This volume presents a subfield overview on current research, trends, and commentary on the state of aeronautical archaeology and its…
development, through selections from a session on aviation archaeology at the 2020 Society for Historical Archaeology Conference. It serves to highlight those practices and projects that take strides towards standard methodologies in aeronautical archaeology. This book involves the study of aircraft crash sites, airfields, battlefields, and buildings or structures related to aviation. High profile sites and topics in this book include Lake Mead’s B-29 Superfortress, Tuskegee Airmen in Michigan, and patterns of preservation in WWII aircraft and their importance. A relatively new field, aeronautical archaeology is the sub-field of archaeology that examines past human interaction with flight. The authors aim to create more awareness for aviation cultural heritage projects and the associated community of scholars, practitioners, and enthusiasts. This volume includes contributions from leading global scholars through varied scientific inquiries, summaries of site investigations, and conservation techniques of aeronautical heritage.By William R. Hogan. 2023
A fourth-generation soldier tells the story of his father’s tank battalion, the “Spearhead,” that selflessly led the charge on the…
front lines from Normandy into Germany—against impossible odds, technologically superior weaponry, and a fanatical enemy on its home turf—and the heroes whose sacrifice won World War II.At twenty-eight, Sam Hogan is one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the US Army. The West Point graduate from Texas stands in the commander’s hatch of his Sherman tank, behind him a steel wedge of seventeen other Shermans of his tank battalion. Two weeks after the now-infamous D-Day landings, Sam is preparing to give the order to advance into the German defenses that enclose the Normandy beachheads. Ahead of Sam lies seemingly impossible odds for survival: technologically superior Nazi tanks, camouflaged anti-tank guns, and infantry armed with new anti-tank rockets. But Sam has prepared for this moment for the past seven years. With a guttural call to move out accompanied by diesel fumes and the squeak of tank treads, Sam and his men begin their long journey to liberate Europe—a journey from which many of them would not return.So begins the story of Sam Hogan and his colorful band of tanker heroes of the Third Armored Division—the “Spearhead”—as they battle on the front lines of some of the war’s toughest fights, from Normandy to the Elbe to the Battle of the Bulge. The soldiers of Task Force Hogan come from all walks of life. There are cooks, tankers, infantrymen, salty old sergeants, and wet-behind-the-ears lieutenants. In common, they have a sense of duty to each other and their country, and the struggle against the most sinister enemy modern history has ever produced.In Task Force Hogan, the story of Sam and his band of heroes comes to life through the writing of his son, Will Hogan—aided by never-before-seen letters, military dispatches, journal entries, and interviews with surviving family of the Task Force. These were the soldiers at the tip of the spear, brave enough to lead the charge and fight against insurmountable odds, and often paying the ultimate price, while liberating French villages and concentration camps as they rolled towards Germany to ultimately win the war. In the pages of this book, Will Hogan finally gives these unsung soldiers the voice and memorial that they all deserve.By David Ohana. 2023
Jacqueline Kahanoff: A Levantine Woman is the first intellectual biography of this remarkable Egyptian-Jewish intellectual, whose work has secured her…
place in literary pantheon as a herald of Levantine, Mediterranean, and transnational culture. Growing up Jewish in cosmopolitan Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s, Jacqueline Kahanoff experienced a bustling Middle East enriched by diverse languages, religions, and peoples who nonetheless were deeply connected to each other through history, business, daily practices, and shared landscape. At the age of twenty-four, Kahanoff immigrated to the United States. Her stories, essays, and short autobiographical novel attest to her penchant to cross boundaries, generations, social classes, sexes, and Western and Eastern constructs. After immigrating to Israel in the early 1950s, she critically addressed the country's "provinciality" and "ethnic nationalism" as seen through her conception of a transnational Levantine culture. Through many writings, Kahanoff set forth her distinctive vision of Israel as a Mediterranean country with a broad, multicultural Levantine identity. Drawing on an extensive array of sources, ranging from interviews with Jacqueline Kahanoff's acquaintances and contemporaries to unpublished writings, David Ohana explores her fascinating life and intellectual journey from Cairo to Tel Aviv. The encompassing vision of a Levantine Israel made Kahanoff the initiator of a different cultural possibility, more extensive than that offered in her time, and also, perhaps, than is offered today.By Hideaki Terashima, Barry S. Hewlett. 2016
This is the first book to examine social learning and innovation in hunter–gatherers from around the world. More is known…
about social learning in chimpanzees and nonhuman primates than is known about social learning in hunter–gatherers, a way of life that characterized most of human history. The book describes diverse patterns of learning and teaching behaviors in contemporary hunter–gatherers from the perspectives of cultural anthropology, ecological anthropology, biological anthropology, and developmental psychology. The book addresses several theoretical issues including the learning hypothesis which suggests that the fate of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the last glacial period might have been due to the differences in learning ability. It has been unequivocally claimed that social learning is intrinsically important for human beings; however, the characteristics of human learning remain under a dense fog despite innumerable studies with children from urban–industrial cultures. Controversy continues on problems such as: do hunter–gatherers teach? If so, what types of teaching occur, who does it, how often, under what contexts, and so on. The book explores the most basic and intrinsic aspects of social learning as well as the foundation of innovative activities in everyday activities of contemporary hunter–gatherer people across the earth. The book examines how hunter-gatherer core values, such as gender and age egalitarianism and extensive sharing of food and childcare are transmitted and acquired by children. Chapters are grouped into five sections: 1) theoretical perspectives of learning in hunter–gatherers, 2) modes and processes of social learning in hunter–gatherers, 3) innovation and cumulative culture, 4) play and other cultural contexts of social learning and innovation, 5) biological contexts of learning and innovation. Ideas and concepts based on the data gathered through an intensive fieldwork by the authors will give much insight into the mechanisms and meanings of learning and education in modern humans.This book proposes a new model and scheme of analysis for complex burial material and applies it to the prehistoric…
archaeological record of the Liangshan region in Southwest China that other archaeologists have commonly given a wide berth, regarding it as too patchy, too inhomogeneous, and overall too unwieldy to work with.The model treats burials as composite objects, considering the various elements separately in their respective life histories. The application of this approach to the rich and diverse archaeological record of the Liangshan region serves as a test of this new form of analysis. This volume thus pursues two main aims: to advance the understanding of the archaeology of the immediate study area which has been little examined, and to present and test a new scheme of analysis that can be applied to other bodies of material.By Nick Holland. 2017
This biography looks behind the mask of the seventeenth-century rebel who became a controversial folk hero for his role in…
the infamous Gunpowder Plot.Today, Guy Fawkes is an instantly recognizable symbol of violent rebellion across the globe. Some proudly dress in his image while others burn his effigy. But few people know the story of the man behind the legend. In The Real Guy Fawkes, biographer Nick Holland explores his eventful life and the complicated, dangerous era in which he lived.Born in York in 1570, Fawkes was raised Protestant, yet went on to plan mass murder for the Catholic cause. Prepared to risk everything and endanger countless lives, was he a freedom fighter, a treasonous fanatic, or merely a fool? Holland offers a fresh take on Fawkes’s early life, showing how he was radicalized into a Catholic mercenary and a key member of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. Featuring beautiful illustrations, this accessible and engaging biography combines contemporary accounts with modern analysis to reveal new motivations behind his actions.By Jacqueline Reiter. 2017
This biography of the second Earl of Chatham looks beyond his famous military failure to reveal one of the early…
nineteenth century’s most fascinating figures.John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, is one of the most enigmatic and overlooked figures of early nineteenth century British history. The elder brother of Pitt the Younger, he has long been consigned to history as the late Lord Chatham, the lazy commander-in-chief of the 1809 Walcheren expedition, whose inactivity and incompetence turned what should have been an easy victory into a disaster. In The Late Lord, Jacqueline Reiter presents a more nuanced and revealing portrait. During a twenty-year career at the heart of government, Pitt served in several important cabinet posts such as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master-General of the Ordnance. Yet despite his closeness to the Prime Minister and friendship with the Royal Family, political rivalries and private tragedy hampered his ascendance. Paradoxically for a man of widely admired diplomatic skills, his downfall owed as much to his personal insecurities and penchant for making enemies as it did to military failure.Using a variety of manuscript sources to tease Chatham from the records, this biography peels away the myths and places him for the first time in proper familial, political, and military context. It breathes life into a much-maligned member of one of Britain’s greatest political dynasties, revealing a deeply flawed man trapped in the shadow of his illustrious relatives.By Monty Woolley. 2004
A memoir of the lethal conflict in the former Yugoslavia, by a British soldier who was on the front lines.…
This is a young cavalry lieutenant&’s moving and shocking account of front line service in the cauldron of war. His troop of Scimitar light-armored vehicles was attached to the 1 CHESHIRE Battle Group, under the charismatic command of Colonel Bob Stewart. Fresh from Germany, he and his men found themselves in a highly political and lethally dangerous civil war. They witnessed appalling atrocities and human tragedy on a giant scale. Yet both soldiers and civilians showed massive courage and resilience. Thanks to the author's diary, we have here an extraordinary, spontaneous, and important account of British troops performing vital military and humanitarian tasks, described by war correspondent and MP Martin Bell as &“earning its place among the impartial narratives of the Bosnian War.&”By Martin Porr, Oscar Moro Abadía. 2021
Ontologies of Rock Art is the first publication to explore a wide range of ontological approaches to rock art interpretation,…
constituting the basis for groundbreaking studies on Indigenous knowledges, relational metaphysics, and rock imageries. The book contributes to the growing body of research on the ontology of images by focusing on five main topics: ontology as a theoretical framework; the development of new concepts and methods for an ontological approach to rock art; the examination of the relationships between ontology, images, and Indigenous knowledges; the development of relational models for the analysis of rock images; and the impact of ontological approaches on different rock art traditions across the world. Generating new avenues of research in ontological theory, political ontology, and rock art research, this collection will be relevant to archaeologists, anthropologists, and philosophers. In the context of an increasing interest in Indigenous ontologies, the volume will also be of interest to scholars in Indigenous studies. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429321863/ontologies-rock-art-oscar-moro-abad%C3%ADa-martin-porr?context=ubx&refId=3766b051-4754-4339-925c-2a262a505074By Christopher De Bellaigue. 2022
“Christopher de Bellaigue has a magic talent for writing history. It is as if we are there as the era…
of Suleyman the Magnificent unfolds.” —Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Narrated through the eyes of the intimates of Suleyman the Magnificent, the sixteenth-century sultan of the Ottoman Empire, The Lion House animates with stunning immediacy the fears and stratagems of those brought into orbit around him: the Greek slave who becomes his Grand Vizier, the Venetian jewel dealer who acts as his go-between, the Russian consort who becomes his most beloved wife.Within a decade and a half, Suleyman held dominion over twenty-five million souls, from Baghdad to the walls of Vienna, and with the help of his brilliant pirate commander, Barbarossa, placed more Christians than ever before or since under Muslim rule. And yet the real drama takes place in close-up: in small rooms and whispered conversations, behind the curtain of power, where the sultan sleeps head-to-toe with his best friend and eats from wooden spoons with his baby boy.In The Lion House, Christopher de Bellaigue tells the story not just of rival superpowers in an existential duel, nor of one of the most consequential lives in human history, but of what it means to live in a time when a few men get to decide the fate of the world.By Rasha Barrage. 2023
If you want to know your ichthyosaur from your iguanodon, and your belemnites from your brachiopods, strap in for this…
whirlwind tour of the highlights of palaeontology Life as we know it now has a long history, buried beneath the ground. Palaeontology is the science of fossilized animals and plants, using discoveries of ancient lifeforms to uncover secrets of the past. From giant dinosaurs, to ammonites, to the first ever humans, explore the greatest findings in palaeontology in this pocket-sized introduction. The Little Book of Palaeontology includes:- The key palaeontological discoveries over the past 400 years, including the dinosaur found complete with intricate scales, and the largest fossil ever uncovered- Profiles of influential palaeontologists such as Jack Horner, Dong Zhiming and Mary Anning- What we have learnt about the lives of ancient creatures and how they became extinct- The big questions about the prehistoric world that palaeontologists are trying to answer todayThis illuminating little book will introduce you to the key thinkers, themes and theories you need to know to understand how life evolved. Look through this window to the past and learn about our prehistoric ancestors and the creatures of a bygone age.