This book represents the first comprehensive attempt to bring to western scholarship the great advances made in Paleolithic archaeology and palaeoanthropology in the People's Republic of China. The 15 chapters are devoted to a historical overview of past and recent studies, the development of chronological frameworks, the composition and stratigraphy of vertebrate fauna, the pongid and hominid palaeontological records, and Pleistocene prehistoric archaeology. Maps, illustrations and tables illustrate the materials presented here.

In 1922, as Egypt became an independent nation, the tomb of the young king Tutankhamun was discovered at Luxor, the first known intact royal burial from ancient Egypt. The excavation of the small but crowded tomb by Howard Carter and his team generated enormous media interest and was famously photographed by Harry Burton. These photographs, along with letters, plans, drawings and diaries, are part of an archive created by the excavators and presented to the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford after Carter's death. These historic images and records present a vivid and first-hand account of the discovery, of the spectacular variety of the king's burial goods and of the remarkable work that went into documenting and conserving them. The archive enables a nuanced and inclusive view of the complexities of both the ancient burial and the excavation, including often overlooked Egyptian members of the archaeological team. This selection of fifty key items by the staff of the Griffith Institute provides an accessible and authoritative overview of the archive, drawing on new research on the collection and giving an intimate insight into the records of one of the world's most famous archaeological discoveries.

A Prehistory of North America covers the ever-evolving understanding of the prehistory of North America, from its initial colonization, through the development of complex societies, and up to contact with Europeans.This book is the most up-to-date treatment of the prehistory of North America. In addition, it is organized by culture area in order to serve as a companion volume toAn Introduction to Native North America. It also includes an extensive bibliography to facilitate research by both students and professionals.

This study is the first full analysis of the Qumran wisdom texts. New translations and a full explanation of the background and context of wisdom literature introduce the reader to an important and hitherto little discussed part of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
After surveying biblical and extrabiblical wisdom books, the author considers the best and most fully preserved wisdom texts from Qumran. The centrepiece of the book is a discussion of the large wisdom instruction known as Sapiential Work A. Also, the author reflects on the relevance of those texts for the study of early Judaism and Christianity. An appendix treats the Ben Sira scroll from Masada.

This study is an analysis of the Qumran Wisdom texts. New translations and an explanation of the background and context of Wisdom literature introduce the reader to a little discussed part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. After surveying biblical and extrabiblical Wisdom books, the author considers the best and most fully preserved Wisdom texts from Qumran. The centrepiece of the book is a discussion of the large Wisdom instruction known as Sapiential Work A. Also, the author reflects on the relevance of those texts for the study of early Judaism and Christianity. An appendix treats the Ben Sira scroll from Masada. "The Maccabean Revolt" (1988) "John's Thought and Theology" (1990) "The Gospel of Matthew" (1991).

The Roman Empire in its early centuries was a world of cities, dominated by landowning elites and conforming to a common pattern in their institutions, buildings and culture. What became of the cities after the crisis of the 3rd century, and later when the Empire collapsed under outside pressure? In this volume archaeologists and historians bring together their two disciplines in addressing this complex question. In the introductory chapter the problem is discussed as a whole, while the remaining chapters focus on particular aspects and regions. The classical city has often been portrayed as in decline everywhere by the 4th century. This book shows that this picture is too simple - that in some regions, such as Africa, old customs were still vigorous while elsewhere, for example in Britain, urban life disappeared and the cities survived only as fortresses, if at all. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the Christianization of the Empire on cities.

An illustrated introduction to the prehistory of Japan, treated in its own right and not as a minor part of East Asia in general.

This volume publishes records 66 diplomas or fragments which provide vital evidence for the Roman military and legal world. It is the third volume of a set of four created by Roxan.

In this book, Guy D. Middleton explores the fascinating lives of thirty real women of the ancient Mediterranean from the Palaeolithic to the Byzantine era. They include queens and aristocrats, such as the Pharoah Hatshepsut and the Etruscan noblewoman Seianti; Eritha and Karpathia, Bronze Age priestesses from the Aegean; a Pompeiian prostitute called Eutychis; the pagan philosopher Hypatia and the Christian saint Perpetua, from North Africa, as well as women from smaller communities. Middleton uses a wide range of archaeological and historical evidence, including burials and funerary practices, graffiti, inscriptions and painted pottery, handprints, human remains and a variety of historical texts, as well as the latest modern research. His volume weaves together the stories of real women, placing them firmly in the spotlight of history. Engagingly written and up-to-date in its scholarship, Middleton's book offers new insights for students and researchers in Ancient History, Archaeology and Mediterranean Studies, as well as in Women's History.

The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland provides a synthesis of this dynamic period of prehistory from the end of the Mesolithic through to the early Beaker period. Drawing on new excavations and the application of new scientific approaches to data from this period, this book considers both life and death in the Neolithic. It offers a clear and concise introduction to this period but with an emphasis on the wider and on-going research questions. It is an important text for students new to the study of this period of prehistory as well as acting as a reference for students and scholars already researching this area. The book begins by considering the Mesolithic prelude, specifically the millennium prior to the start of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland. It then goes on to consider what life was like for people at the time, alongside the monumental record and how people treated the dead. This is presented chronologically, with separate chapters on the early Neolithic, middle Neolithic, late Neolithic and early Beaker periods. Finally it considers future research priorities for the study of the Neolithic.

The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland provides a synthesis of this dynamic period of prehistory from the end of the Mesolithic through to the early Beaker period. Drawing on new excavations and the application of new scientific approaches to data from this period, this book considers both life and death in the Neolithic. It offers a clear and concise introduction to this period but with an emphasis on the wider and on-going research questions. It is an important text for students new to the study of this period of prehistory as well as acting as a reference for students and scholars already researching this area. The book begins by considering the Mesolithic prelude, specifically the millennium prior to the start of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland. It then goes on to consider what life was like for people at the time, alongside the monumental record and how people treated the dead. This is presented chronologically, with separate chapters on the early Neolithic, middle Neolithic, late Neolithic and early Beaker periods. Finally it considers future research priorities for the study of the Neolithic.

The history of the early Slavs is a subject of renewed interest and one which is highly controversial both politically and historically. This pioneering text reviews the latest archaelogical (and other) evidence concerning the first settlers, their cultural identities and their relationship with their modern successors. Dr Dolukhanov explores the various historiographical debates before offering his own interpretations.

"Islands in Time" explores the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies, considers the prehistory of the Mediterranean and offers an explanation of the effects of isolation on the development of human communities.
This study details the fundamental questions that are raised about colonization processes, the human impact on ecosystems, cultural development on islands, and the significance of inter-island and island-mainland interaction. Evidence is drawn from a broad range of Mediterranean islands, including Cyprus, Crete and the Cyclades, Malta, Lipari, Corsica and Sardinia. Developing a general theoretical model of island sociogeography, "Islands in Time" provides insight into the broader question of how island populations inter-relate with their environments.

This powerful book provides the first comprehensive overview of the intellectual roots of the worldwide environmental movement - from ancient religions and philosophies to modern science and ethics - and synthesizes them into a new philosophy of nature in which to ground our moral values and social action. It traces the origins and evolution of the dominant worldview that has built our industrial, technocratic, man-centered civilization, and brought us to the current ecological crisis. At the same time, it uncovers an alternative cultural tradition in the world's different religions and philosophies and describes how these ideas are now surfacing and coalescing to form an ecological sensibility and a new vision of nature which recognizes the inter-relatedness of all living things. Finally, this book integrates these varied traditions with modern physics and the science of ecology into a larger philosophical whole that provides the environmental movement with a comprehensive vision of an organic and sustainable society in harmony with nature. As ecological disasters continue to threaten our planet, becoming worse with every passing moment of indifference, it has become clear that we must take action. We must change our relationship with nature, and return to the days when our lives were intimately connected to and dependent upon the natural world. Nature's Web lays the foundations for that change by explaining where our complex ideas about nature come from, why they are wrong, and what we can do to change them.

Over the last 25 years, archaeology has revolutionized our knowledge of the early history of towns in Britain. Based on his day-to-day involvement in urban archaeology, Patrick Ottaway reviews the crucial work of the urban archaeologist during this period and considers a variety of long-term research programmes which have brought to light new information about towns and the lives of their inhabitants. Beginning with the story of Britain's first town, the Roman colony at Colchester, Ottaway examines the course of urban development in the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. He draws on research conducted at great historic centres, such as London and York, and at less prominent places, such as Hull, Perth and Aberdeen. As a background to the discoveries themselves, the book looks at the increasingly sophisticated archaeological techniques involved. It also looks at some of the problems of preserving the urban past, and includes two case studies in which the interests of archaeology and property development have clashed.

Did the Exodus occur? This question has been asked in biblical scholarship since its origin as a modern science. The desire to resolve the question scientifically was a key component in the funding of archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century. Egyptian archaeologists routinely equated sites with their presumed biblical counterpart. Initially, it was taken for granted that the Exodus had occurred. It was simply a matter of finding the archaeological data to prove it. So far, those results have been for naught. The Exodus: An Egyptian Story takes a very real-world approach to understanding the Exodus. It is not a story of cosmic spectaculars that miraculously or coincidentally occurred when a people prepared to leave Egypt. There are no special effects in the telling of this story. Instead, the story is told with real people in the real world doing what real people do. Peter Feinman does not rely on the biblical text and is not trying to prove that the Bible is true. He places the Exodus within Egyptian history based on the Egyptian archaeological record. It is a story of the rejection of the Egyptian cultural construct and defiance of Ramses II. Egyptologists, not biblical scholars, are the guides to telling the Exodus story. What would you expect Ramses II to say after he had been humiliated? If there is an Egyptian smoking gun for the Exodus, how would you recognize it? To answer these questions requires us to take the Exodus seriously as a major event at the royal level in Egyptian history.

Winchester’s identity as a royal centre became well established between the ninth and twelfth centuries, closely tied to the significance of the religious communities who lived within and without the city walls. The reach of power of Winchester was felt throughout England and into the Continent through the relationships of the bishops, the power fluctuations of the Norman period, the pursuit of arts and history writing, the reach of the city’s saints, and more. The essays contained in this volume present early medieval Winchester not as a city alone, but a city emmeshed in wider political, social, and cultural movements and, in many cases, providing examples of authority and power that are representative of early medieval England as a whole.

This volume gathers together selected contributions which were originally presented at the conference 'Greek Art in Context' at the University of Edinburgh in 2014. Its aim is to introduce the reader to the broad and multifaceted notion of context in relation to Greek art and, more specifically, to its relevance for the study of Greek sculpture and pottery from the Archaic to the Late Classical periods. What do we mean by 'context'? In which ways and under what circumstances does context become relevant for the interpretation of Greek material culture? Which contexts should we look at - viewing context, political, social and religious discourse, artistic tradition . . .? What happens when there is no context? These are some of the questions that this volume aims to answer. The chapters included cover current approaches to the study of Greek sculpture and pottery in which the notion of 'context' plays a prominent role, offering new ways of looking at familiar issues. It gathers leading scholars and early career researchers from different backgrounds and research traditions with the aim of presenting new insights into archaeological and art historical research. Their chapters contribute to showcase the vitality of the discipline and will serve to stimulate new directions for the study of Greek art.

The archaeology of early Rome has progressed rapidly and dramatically over the last century; most recently with the discovery of the shrine of Aeneas at Lavinium and the reports of the walls of the Romulan city discovered on the city slopes of the Palatine Hill. The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium presents the most recent discoveries in Rome and its surroundings: princely tombs,inscriptions and patrician houses are included in a complete overview of the subject and the controversies surrounding it.
This comprehensively illustrated study fills the need for an accessible English guide to these new discoveries, and in preparation, the author interviewed most of the leading figures in current research on the early periods of Rome.

The Viking Age was a period of profound change in Scandinavia. As kingdoms were established, Christianity became the encompassing ideological and cosmological framework and towns were formed. This book examines a central backdrop to these changes: the economic transformation of West Scandinavia. With a focus on the development of intensive and organized use of woodlands and alpine regions and domestic raw materials, together with the increasing standardization of products intended for long-distance trade, the volume sheds light on the emergence of a strong interconnectedness between remote rural areas and central markets. Viking-Age Transformations explores the connection between legal and economic practice, as the rural economy and monetary system developed in conjunction with nascent state power and the legal system. Thematically, the book is organized into sections addressing the nature and extent of trade in both marginal and centralized areas; production and the social, legal and economic aspects of exploiting natural resources and distributing products; and the various markets and sites of trade and consumption. A theoretically informed and empirically grounded collection that reveals the manner in which relationships of production and consumption transformed Scandinavian society with their influence on the legal and fiscal division of the landscape, this volume will appeal to scholars of archaeology, the history of trade and Viking studies.

First published in 2001, this is the first reference work to cover the archaeology of medieval Europe. No other reference can claim such comprehensive coverage -- from Ireland to Russia and from Scandinavia to Italy, the archaeology of the entirety of medieval Europe is discussed. With coverage ranging from the fall of the western Roman empire in the 5th century CE through the end of the high Middle Ages in 1500 CE, Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia answers the needs of medieval scholars from a variety of backgrounds, including archaeologists, historians and classicists. Featuring over 150 entries by an international team of leading archaeologists, this unique reference is soundly based on the most important developments and scholarship in this rapidly growing field.

Ancient Monuments and Modern Identities sets out to examine the role of archaeology in the creation of ethnic, national and social identities in 19th and 20th century Greece. The essays included in this volume examine the development of interpretative and methodological principles guiding the recovery, protection and interpretation of material remains and their presentation to the public. The role of archaeology is examined alongside prevailing perceptions of the past, and is thereby situated in its political and ideological context. The book is organized chronologically and follows the changing attitudes to the past during the formation, expansion and consolidation of the Modern Greek State. The aim of this volume is to examine the premises of the archaeological discipline, and to apply reflection and critique to contemporary archaeological theory and practice. The past, however, is not a domain exclusive to archaeologists. The contributors to this volume include prehistoric and classical archaeologists, but also modern historians, museum specialists, architectural historians, anthropologists, and legal scholars who have all been invited to discuss the impact of the material traces of the past on the Modern Greek social imaginary.

Many West African societies have egalitarian political systems, with non-centralised distributions of power. 'Egalitarian Revolution in the Savanna' analyses a wide range of archaeological data to explore the development of such societies. The volume offers a detailed case study of the village settlement of Kirikongo in western Burkina Faso. Over the course of the first millennium, this single homestead extended control over a growing community. The book argues that the decentralization of power in the twelfth century BCE radically transformed this society, changing gender roles, public activities, pottery making and iron-working. 'Egalitarian Revolution in the Savanna' will be of interest to students of political science, anthropology, archaeology and the history of West Africa.

The aim of this book is to explore the changing character and social roles of stone tools of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Britain, examining the changing material and social conditions under which tools were produced, acquired, used and deposited.

The Iron Age in Northern Britain examines the archaeological evidence for earlier Iron Age communities from the southern Pennines to the Northern and Western Isles and the impact of Roman expansion on local populations, through to the emergence of historically-recorded communities in the post-Roman period. The text has been comprehensively revised and expanded to include new discoveries and to take account of advanced techniques, with many new and updated illustrations. The volume presents a comprehensive picture of the 'long Iron Age', allowing readers to appreciate how perceptions of Iron Age societies have changed significantly in recent years. New material in this second edition also addresses the key issues of social reconstruction, gender, and identity, as well as assessing the impact of developer-funded archaeology on the discipline. Drawing on recent excavation and research and interpreting evidence from key studies across Scotland and northern England, The Iron Age in Northern Britain continues to be an accessible and authoritative study of later prehistory in the region.