In many facets of Western culture, including archaeology, there remains a legacy of perceiving gender divisions as natural, innate, and biological in origin. This belief follows that men are naturally pre-disposed to public, intellectual pursuits, while women are innately designed to care for the home and take care of children. In the interpretation of material culture, accepted notions of gender roles are often applied to new findings: the dichotomy between the domestic sphere of women and the public sphere of men can color interpretations of new materials. In this innovative volume, the contributors focus explicitly on analyzing the materiality of historic changes in the domestic sphere around the world. Combining a global scope with great temporal depth, chapters in the volume explore how gender ideologies, identities, relationships, power dynamics, and practices were materially changed in the past, thus showing how they could be changed in the future.

The Germania of Tacitus is the most extensive account of the ancient Germans written during the Roman period. This new translation, introduction, and commentary provides an up-to-date guide to the relevant literary and archaeological evidence, and discusses the methodological issues involved in understanding this important historical source.

During 1977 and 1978 the Meiron Excavation Project moved north from its excavations at Khirbet Shema and Meiron, excavating at the site of the synagogue at Gush Halav. With only very limited areas available for excavation, the team nevertheless was able to extract significant information for the history of Galilean synagogues. The synagogue here had a unique form, with spatial elements that have few if any parallels elsewhere. This publication will thus be of great importance for the history of Galilee in the first millennium C.E. and for the development of synagogue architecture and its relationship to the culture of the region in general.

This overview and introduction to the multi-volume Petexbatun project series describes the objectives, structure, personnel, and major findings of the seven-year multidisciplinary investigation. The previous research, issues, and problem-orientation of the project are reviewed, and an unusually frank history of the 1989-1996 field investigations is presented. Final results of the dozen Petexbatun subprojects are previewed, including summaries of site-specific studies of centers and subordinate kingdoms and the regional disciplinary subprojects exploring osteology, ecology, faunal studies, ceramics, epigraphic history, settlement patterns, defensive systems, caves, and other aspects of Classic period civilization and culture change.

Then, based on the project's findings, Demarest presents interpretive reconstructions of the linked histories of the Pasion River kingdoms and correlates these interpretations with the variable evidence and culture-histories of other regions of the Classic Maya lowlands. He points out that only through linking such accurate regional culture-histories can we begin to understand the eighth- through tenth-century changes in Classic Maya civilization. The volume describes how the Petexbatun project addressed this challenge in its research design, structure, and large, multicentered zone of study. Building on the previous twenty years of Harvard research in adjacent zones, the Vanderbilt projects succeeded in reconstructing events and processes throughout the Pasion River Valley, the largest single inland trade route of the ancient Maya world.

In its conclusions, this first of the Petexbatun volumes of multidisciplinary studies, evidence, analyses, and interpretations, provides answers to some long-standing questions about the "Classic Maya collapse," as well as a new, preliminary culture-history of the abandonment, decline, or transformation of the Classic Maya kingdoms of the western Peten. It is an exciting preview and summary of a decade of evidence on the debate over the fate of the Classic Maya civilization, one of the great controversies in the history of Pre-Columbian archaeology. VIMA Series #1

The volume presents the results of a detailed survey of north-western Samaria in Israel/Palestine. It is the third volume of the Manasseh Hill Country Survey publications. This project, in progress from 1978 and covering 2500 sq. km, is a thorough mapping of the archaeological-historical area between the River Jordan and the Sharon Plain and between Nahal 'Iron and the Dead Sea. The survey is a valuable tool for scholars of the Bible, Archaeology, Near Eastern history and other aspects of the Holy Land. This volume describes the area between Nahal 'Iron (Wadi 'Ara) in the north and Nahal Shechem (Wadi She'ir) in the south. It is a fully revised and updated version of the Hebrew publication of 2000.

The scholarly world first became aware of the myth of Adapa and the South Wind when it was discovered on a tablet from the El-Amarna archive in 1887. We now have at our disposal six fragments of the myth. The largest and most important fragment, from Amarna, is dated to the 14th century B.C.E. This fragment of the Adapa myth has red-tinted points applied on the tablet at specific intervals. Izre'el draws attention to a few of these points that were missed in previous publications by Knudtzon and Schroeder. Five other fragments were part of the Assurbanipal library and are representative of this myth as it was known in Assyria about seven centuries later. The discovery of the myth of Adapa and the South Wind immediately attracted wide attention. Its ideology and its correspondence to the intellectual heritage of Western religions precipitated flourishing studies of this myth, both philological and substantive. Many translations have appeared during the past century, shedding light on various aspects of the myth and its characters. Izre'el unveils the myth of Adapa and the South Wind as mythos, as story. To do this, he analyzes the underlying concepts through extensive treatment of form. He offers an edition of the extant fragments of the myth, including the transliterated Akkadian text, a translation, and a philological commentary. The analysis of poetic form that follows leads to understanding the myth as a piece of literature and to uncovering its meanings. This study therefore marks a new phase in the long, extensive research into this Mesopotamian myth.

Traditionally, Historical Archaeology has had a North American or European stance, focusing on the interplay between historical documents and the archaeological record. For Africa, with its non-traditional historical sources, this interplay is not as applicable. These sources also inform the period of contact with Europeans, during which the shape of the modern continent was inexorably defined. By focusing on such sources, it becomes possible to present historical understandings which access African experiences with outsiders and other African populations.

This volume explores the range of interactions between the historical sources and archaeology that are available on the African continent. The contributions, written by a range of experts on different aspects of African archaeology, present the underlying issues such as:
- The conflict and collaboration in the foundation of modern Africa;
- African trading communities maintaining their independence from Europe;
- The impacts of the Atlantic slave trade.

This represents the first consideration of historical archaeology over the African continent as a whole and therefore provides an important review for African archaeologists and historians. This seminal volume also explores Africa's place in global systems of thought and economic development for historical archaeologists and historians alike.

The current focus on the theme of authorship in Medieval and Early Modern studies reopens questions of poetic agency and intent. Bringing into conversation several kinds of scholarship on medieval authorship, the essays in Author, Reader, Book examine interrelated questions raised by the relationship between an author and a reader, the relationships between authors and their antecedents, and the ways in which authorship interacts with the physical presentation of texts in books.The broad chronological range within this volume reveals the persistence of literary concerns that remain consistent through different periods, languages, and cultural contexts. Theoretical reflections, case studies from a wide variety of languages, examinations of devotional literature from figures such as Bishop Reginald Pecock, and analyses of works that are more secular in focus, including some by Chaucer and Christine de Pizan, come together in this volume to transcend linguistic and disciplinary boundaries.

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, has been called the Stonehenge of North America. Its spectacular pueblos, or great houses, are world famous and have attracted the attention of archaeologists for more than a century. Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, Chaco Canyon draws on the very latest research on Chaco and its environs to tell the remarkable story of the people of the canyon, from foraging bands and humble farmers to the elaborate society that flourished between the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. Brian Fagan is a master story teller, and he weaves the latest discoveries into a compelling narrative of people living in a harsh, unpredictable environment. Indeed, this is not a story about artifacts and dusty digs, but a riveting narrative of people in the distant past, going about their daily business, living and dying, loving, raising children, living in plenty and in hunger, pondering the cosmos, and facing the unpredictable challenges of the environment. Drawing on rare access to the records of the Chaco Synthesis Project, Fagan reveals a society where agriculture and religion went hand-in-hand, where the ritual power of Chaco's leaders drew pilgrims from distant communities bearing gifts. He describes the lavish burials in the heart of Pueblo Bonito, which offer clues about the identity of Chaco's shadowy leaders. And he explores the enduring mystery of Chaco's sudden decline in the face of savage drought and shows how its legacy survives into modern times. Here then is the first authoritative account of the Chaco people written for a general audience, lending a fascinating human face to one of America's most famous archaeological sites.

The Celts - from their dark origin to the present day.

• Takes the story of the Celts right up to the present
• Compares archaeology to national mythology
• Covers continental Europe, Britain, Ireland and the present day Diaspora to the Americas, Australasia and South Africa

John Haywood is a freelance historical writer. His many books include "The Vikings" (Sutton, 2000, ISBN 0500019827), "Historical Atlas of the Celtic World"(Thames and Hudson, 2001, ISBN 0500051097 ), "Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings "(Penguin, 1995, ISBN 0140513280) and many more.

Among the best-known and most esteemed people known from antiquity is the Babylonian king Hammurabi. His fame and reputation are due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. This book offers an innovative interpretation of the Laws of Hammurabi. Ancient scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a set of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribes in composing statutes that manifest systematization and implicit legal principles, and inserted the Laws of Hammurabi into the form of a royal inscription, shrewdly reshaping the genre. This tradition of scribal improvisation on a set of traditional cases continued outside of Mesopotamia. It influenced biblical law and the law of the Hittite empire significantly. The Laws of Hammurabi was also witness to the start of another stream of intellectual tradition. It became the subject of formal commentaries, marking a profound cultural shift. Scribes related to it in ways that diverged from prior attitudes; it became an object of study and of commentary, a genre that names itself as dependent on another text. The famous Laws of Hammurabi is here given the extensive attention it continues to merit.

"Evidential Reasoning in Archaeology" addresses a series of questions: how do archaeologists actually work with the forms of data they identify as a record of the cultural past?; how are these data collected and how are they construed as evidence?; what is the impact on archaeological practice of new techniques of data recovery and analysis (especially those that originate in the physical and life sciences)?; how do archaeologists work with old evidence in pursuit of new interpretations, and how do they adjudicate conflicting evidential claims based on the same or overlapping bodies of data?To answer these questions the authors identify key examples of evidential reasoning in archaeology that are widely regarded as successful, as pivotal to the development of the field, or as instructive failures, and build nuanced analyses of the forms of reasoning exemplified by these cases. This case-based approach is predicated on a conviction that archaeological practice is a repository of considerable methodological wisdom, embodied in tacit norms and skilled expertise; it is rarely made explicit, except when contested, and has been largely obscured by the abstractions of high profile crisis debates. "Evidential Reasoning in Archaeology" captures this wisdom in a set of close-to-ground principles of best practice.

Frankfurt/M., Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien. This volume relates to a comparative research of historical developments and structures in North Central Europe, which is directed to the exploration of an early medieval design of this historical region beyond the Roman Empire's culture frontier. One point of the editorial concern thus was building bridges to overcome long existing dividing lines built up by divergent perspectives of previous scientific traditions. In addition, the recent come back of national histories and historiographies call for a scrutiny on the suitability of postulated ethnicities for the postsocialist nation building process. As a result, the collected papers - presented partly in English, partly in German - have a critical look into various influences, responsible for the realization of images of the past as of scientific strategies. Contents: Jerzy Gassowski: Is Ethnicity Tangible? - Sebastian Brather: Die Projektion des Nationalstaats in die Fruhgeschichte. Ethnische Interpretationen in der Archaologie - Przemyslaw Urbanczyk: Do We Need Archaeology of Ethnicity? - Klavs Randsborg: The Making of Early Scandinavian History. Material Impressions - George Indruszewski: Early Medieval Ships as Ethnic Symbols and the Construction of a Historical Paradigm in Northern and Central Europe - Volker Schmidt: Die Prillwitzer Idole. Rethra und die Anfange der Forschung im Land Stargard - Babette Ludowici: Magdeburg als Hauptort des ottonischen Imperiums. Bemerkungen zum Beitrag von Archaologie und Kunstgeschichte zur Konstruktion eines Geschichtsbildes - Arne Schmid-Hecklau: Deutsche Forschungen zur 'Reichsburg' Meien. Ein Uberblick - Stine Wiell: Derdanisch-deutsche Streit um die groen Moorwaffenfunde aus der Eisenzeit. Ansichten zur Vor und Fruhgeschichte aus dem 19. und 20. Jahrhundert - Christian Lubke: Barbaren, Leibeigene, Kolonisten: Zum Bild der mittelalterlichen Slaven in der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft - Matthias Hardt: 'Schmutz und trages Hinbruten bei allen'? Beispiele fur den Blick der alteren deutschen Forschung auf slawische landlich-agrarische Siedlungen des Mittelalters - Elaine Smollin: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Archaeology: Lithuania 1900-1918: The Intersection of Baltic, German and Slavic Cultures - Derek Fewster: Visionen nationaler Groe. Mittelalterperzeption, Ethnizitat und Nationalismus in Finnland, 1905-1945 - Leszek Pawel Slupecki: Why Polish Historiography has Neglected the Role of Pagan Slavic Mythology - Dittmar Schorkowitz: Rekonstruktionen des Nationalen im postsowjetischen Raum. Beobachtungen zur Permanenz des Historischen.