The first cultural history of early modern cryptography, this collection brings together scholars in history, literature, music, the arts, mathematics, and computer science who study ciphering and deciphering from new materialist, media studies, cognitive studies, disability studies, and other theoretical perspectives. Essays analyze the material forms of ciphering as windows into the cultures of orality, manuscript, print, and publishing, revealing that early modern ciphering, and the complex history that preceded it in the medieval period, not only influenced political and military history but also played a central role in the emergence of the capitalist media state in the West, in religious reformation, and in the scientific revolution. Ciphered communication, whether in etched stone and bone, in musical notae, runic symbols, polyalphabetic substitution, algebraic equations, graphic typographies, or literary metaphors, took place in contested social spaces and offered a means of expression during times of political, economic, and personal upheaval. Ciphering shaped the early history of linguistics as a discipline, and it bridged theological and scientific rhetoric before and during the Reformation. Ciphering was an occult art, a mathematic language, and an aesthetic that influenced music, sculpture, painting, drama, poetry, and the early novel. This collection addresses gaps in cryptographic history, but more significantly, through cultural analyses of the rhetorical situations of ciphering and actual solved and unsolved medieval and early modern ciphers, it traces the influences of cryptographic writing and reading on literacy broadly defined as well as the cultures that generate, resist, and require that literacy. This volume offers a significant contribution to the history of the book, highlighting the broader cultural significance of textual materialities.

An archaeology of innovation is the first monograph-length investigation of innovation and the innovation process from an archaeological perspective. It interrogates the idea of innovation that permeates our popular media and our political and scientific discourse, setting this against the long-term perspective that only archaeology can offer. Case studies span the entire breadth of human history, from our earliest hominin ancestors to the contemporary world. The book argues that the present narrow focus on pushing the adoption of technical innovations ignores the complex interplay of social, technological and environmental systems that underlies truly innovative societies; the inherent connections between new technologies, technologists and social structure that give them meaning and make them valuable; and the significance and value of conservative social practices that lead to the frequent rejection of innovations. -- .

This book provides a fresh interpretation of how Chinese civilization was created and transformed in the process of its early formation (1766-221 BC). It describes the principal features of that civilization which had a profound impact on the later development of Chinese history. In particular, it discusses in detail the main characteristics of the social and political organizations of that period, and argues that, contrary to the traditional interpretation, economic development in ancient China had its own dynamism.

This volume brings together contributions from an experienced group of archaeologists and geologists whose common objective is to present thorough and current reviews of the diverse ways in which methods from the earth sciences can contribute to archaeological research. Many areas of research are addressed here, including artifact analysis and sourcing, landscape reconstruction and site formation analysis, soil micromorphology and geophysical exploration of buried sites.

Questions of public and private morality, values and choices have become important areas of collective discussion. A key feature of this book is that it takes an ethnographic rather than a philosophical or speculative approach to moral debates. This study examines the contemporary explosion of ethical discourse in the public domain and the growing importance of moral rhetoric as an aspect of social relations.

This comprehensive text is intended for the junior-senior level course in North American Archaeology. Written by accomplished scholar Dean Snow, this new text approaches native North America from the perspective of evolutionary ecology. Succinct, streamlined chapters present an extensive groundwork for supplementary material, or serve as a core text.The narrative covers all of Mesoamerica, and explicates the links between the part of North America covered by the United States and Canada and the portions covered by Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the Greater Antilles. Additionally, book is extensively illustrated with the author's own research and findings.

Ever since Aristotle's famous argument about "the sea-battle tomorrow", there has been intensive and controversial discussion among philosophers whether the truth of statements about the future leads to determinism. Ther e is controversy about Aristotle's own solution to the problem, as well as the views of classical and medieval commentators on Aristotle. Seel's book attempts to answer this question for the Neoplatonist Ammonius (5th-6th century AD). In so doing, he also opens up new insights into Neoplatonic thought.

This unique book brings a fresh interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of ancient Chinese history, creating a historical model for the emergence of cultural mainstays by applying recent dramatic findings in the fields of neuroscience and cultural evolution. The centrality in Chinese culture of a deep reverence for the lives of preceding generations, filial piety, is conventionally attributed to Confucius (551-479 B.C.), who viewed hierarchical family relations as foundational for social order. Here, Porter argues that Confucian conceptions of filiality themselves evolved from a systemized set of behaviors and thoughts, a mental structure, which descended from a specific Neolithic mindset, and that this psychological structure was contoured by particular emotional conditions experienced by China's earliest farmers. Using case study analysis from Neolithic sky observers to the dynastic cultures of the Shang and Western Zhou, the book shows how filial piety evolved as a structure of feeling, a legacy of a cultural predisposition toward particular moods and emotions that were inherited from the ancestral past. Porter also brings new urgency to the topic of ecological grief, linking the distress central to the evolution of the filial structure to its catalyst in an environmental crisis. With a blended multidisciplinary approach combining social neuroscience, cultural evolution, cognitive archaeology, and historical analysis, this book is ideal for students and researchers in neuropsychology, religion, and Chinese culture and history.

The spectacle of archaeology stirs the public interest like few other topics. Sowing the detective story, finding the missing pieces of the puzzle, understanding an instilled sense of identity, making connections to the material culture, following the global discourse on heritage protection and conservation (i.e. the Elgin Marbles) are all part of the nexus of cultural values that define the meaning of archaeology to individuals and to the public at large. Along with the debates, archaeological sites are also often in view of the public - on land, as well as, underwater. Maritime cultural resources encompass sites that, because of their (often) proximity to urban or traveled areas (harbors, rivers, ports) are easily damaged but not easily visible. This leads to special challenges to site management regarding conservation, protection, and enforcement of legal mandates for public education outreach and interpretation. The editors have brought together state of the art ideas, research and scholarship associated with maritime public education and interpretation. interpretation of maritime and submerged cultural resources, this edited volume will add to a limited body of knowledge in a field that is steadily growing.

Research on early medieval Cyprus has focused on the late antique "golden age" (late fourth/early fifth to seventh century) and the so-called Byzantine "Reconquista" (post-AD 965) while overlooking the intervening period. This phase was characterized, supposedly, by the division of the political sovereignty between the Umayyads and the Byzantines, bringing about the social and demographic dislocation of the population of the island. This book proposes a different story of continuities and slow transformations in the fate of Cyprus between the late sixth and the early ninth centuries. Analysis of new archaeological evidence shows signs of a continuing link to Constantinople. Moreover, together with a reassessment of the literary evidence, archaeology and material culture help us to reappraise the impact of Arab naval raids and contextualize the confrontational episodes throughout the ebb and flow of Eastern Mediterranean history: the political influence of the Caliphate looked stronger in the second half of the seventh century, the administrative and ecclesiastical influence of the Byzantine empire was held sway from the beginning of the eighth to the twelfth century. Whereas the island retained sound commercial ties with the Umayyad Levant in the seventh and eighth centuries, at the same time politically and economically it remained part of the Byzantine sphere. This belies the idea of Cyprus as an independent province only loosely tied to Constantinople and allows us to draw a different picture of the cultural identities, political practices and hierarchy of wealth and power in Cyprus during the passage from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

This book argues that the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe essentially began shortly before 1600 BC, when lands rich in natural resources were taken over by military forces from the Eurasian steppe and from southern Caucasia. First were the copper and silver mines (along with good harbors) in Greece, and the copper and gold mines of the Carpathian basin. By ca. 1500 BC other military men had taken over the amber coasts of Scandinavia and the metalworking district of the southern Alps. These military takeovers offer the most likely explanations for the origins of the Greek, Keltic, Germanic and Italic subgroups of the Indo-European language family. Battlefield warfare and militarism, Robert Drews contends, were novelties ca. 1600 BC and were a consequence of the military employment of chariots. Current opinion is that militarism and battlefield warfare are as old as formal states, going back before 3000 BC. Another current opinion is that the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe happened long before 1600 BC. The "Kurgan theory" of Marija Gimbutas and David Anthony dates it from late in the fifth to early in the third millennium BC and explains it as the result of horse-riding conquerors or raiders coming to Europe from the steppe. Colin Renfrew's Archaeology and Language dates the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe to the seventh and sixth millennia BC, and explains it as a consequence of the spread of agriculture in a "wave of advance" from Anatolia through Europe. Pairing linguistic with archaeological evidence Drews concludes that in Greece and Italy, at least, no Indo-European language could have arrived before the second millennium BC.

Archaeology can either bolster memory and tradition, or contradict the status quo and provide an alternative view of the past. An archaeology of Harpers Ferry's wartime and Victorian eras confronts time-honored historical interpretations of the past (created and perpetuated by such interest groups as historians and the National Park Service) and in so doing allows us to be more inclusive of the town's forgotten histories and provides alternative voices to a past.

1. This new edition provides a much-needed update to the original Conservation Skills and, like the previous edition, presents an overview of the current issues facing conservators of historic and artistic works. 2. The book assists with the development of judgement in conservation students and young professionals and, as such, will be essential reading for student conservators and conservation professionals working across a wide range of conservation disciplines around the globe. 3. Titles on conservation that have published since the last edition have generally focused on specific approaches or themes, rather than taking a more general approach to conservation. The proposed book is a more holistic and general text, which explores the subject at an introductory level and enables those studying a specific area of conservation to develop an understanding of the wider nature of the discipline.

1. This new edition provides a much-needed update to the original Conservation Skills and, like the previous edition, presents an overview of the current issues facing conservators of historic and artistic works. 2. The book assists with the development of judgement in conservation students and young professionals and, as such, will be essential reading for student conservators and conservation professionals working across a wide range of conservation disciplines around the globe. 3. Titles on conservation that have published since the last edition have generally focused on specific approaches or themes, rather than taking a more general approach to conservation. The proposed book is a more holistic and general text, which explores the subject at an introductory level and enables those studying a specific area of conservation to develop an understanding of the wider nature of the discipline.

Writing as Material Practice grapples with the issue of writing as a form of material culture in its ancient and more recent manifestations, and in the contexts of production and consumption. Fifteen case studies explore the artefactual nature of writing - the ways in which materials, techniques, colour, scale, orientation and visibility inform the creation of inscribed objects, spaces and landscapes, as well as structure subsequent engagement, perception and meaning making. Covering a temporal span of some 5000 years, from c.3200 BCE to the present day, and ranging in spatial context from the Americas to the Near East, the chapters in this volume bring a variety of perspectives which contribute to both specific and broader questions of writing materialities. Authors also aim to place past graphical systems in their social contexts so they can be understood in relation to the people who created and attributed meaning to writing and associated symbolic modes through a diverse array of individual and wider social practices.

* a coherent, flowing story, written in short, punchy chapters, rich in examples, each dealing with major questions making it suitable for complete beginners in archaeology * shows how such contemporary issues such as biological and cultural diversity, gender, and climate change have deep roots in the human past * creates student interest in the human past as reconstructed by multidisciplinary research, including archaeology, anthropology, biological anthropology, ethnohistory, and many other disciplines

This superb survey of hunter-gatherer societies in Southwest Germany presents an overview of the archaeological record for three periods- the Late Paleolithic, the Early Mesolithic, and the Late Mesolithic. Michael A. Jochim employs his rigorously materialist orientation to suggest certain possibilities about the general organization of settlements, subsistence, and social relations of the cultures in question. He also discusses the data within the context of human events in western Europe during the same periods. The text is accompanied by 115 illustrations