The Roman Forum was in many ways the heart of the Roman Empire. Today, the Forum exists in a fragmentary state, having been destroyed and plundered by barbarians, aristocrats, citizens, and priests over the past two millennia. Enough remains, however, for archaeologists to reconstruct its spectacular buildings and monuments. This richly illustrated volume provides an architectural history of the central section of the Roman Forum during the Empire (31 BCE 476 CE), from the Temple of Julius Caesar to the monuments on the slope of the Capitoline hill. Bringing together state of the art technology in architectural illustration and the expertise of a prominent Roman archaeologist, this book offers a unique reconstruction of the Forum, providing architectural history, a summary of each building's excavation and research, scaled digital plans, elevations, and reconstructed aerial images that not only shed light on the Forum's history but vividly bring it to life. With this book, scholars, students, architects, and artists will be able to visualize for the first time since antiquity the character, design, and appearance of the famous heart of ancient Rome."

The use of GIS is the most powerful technology introduced to archaeology since the introduction of carbon 14 dating. The most widespread use of this technology has been for the prediction of archaeological site locations. This book focuses on the use of GIS for archaeological predictive modelling. The contributors include internationally recognized researchers who have been at the forefront of this revolutionary integration of GIS and archaeology, as well as first generation researchers who have begun to critically apply this new technology and explore its theoretical implications.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203212134

A richly illustrated book featuring recent revelations about China's first emperor, Ying Zheng, and his famous burial site containing an army of life-size terracotta soldiers and other artifacts First discovered by a farmer in 1974, the burial site of China's first emperor, Ying Zheng, has yielded thousands of life-size terracotta figures and artifacts, and continues to be excavated today. This fascinating publication features more than 130 works including ten of these majestic terracotta figures, arms and armor, horse and chariot fittings, ritual bronze vessels, works in gold and silver, jade ornaments, precious jewelry, and ceramics. Dating from the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC) through the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), these objects represent the complex history, myths, and burial customs of ancient China. The texts introduce recent scholarship on this material culture to illuminate not only the first emperor's burial complex, but also his powerful influence in Chinese history and the myriad ways in which his political and economic reforms transformed the daily lives of the Chinese people.

In Daily Life of the Aztecs, Frances Berdan and Michael E. Smith offer a view into the lives of real people, doing very human things, in the unique cultural world of Aztec central Mexico. The first section focuses on people from an array of social classes - the emperor, a priest, a feather worker, a merchant, a farmer, and a slave - who interacted in the economic, social and religious realms of the Aztec world. In the second section, the authors examine four important life events where the lives of these and others intersected: the birth and naming of a child, market day, a day at court, and a battle. Through the microscopic views of individual types of lives, and interweaving of those lives into the broader Aztec world, Berdan and Smith recreate everyday life in the final years of the Aztec Empire.

Euro-Americans see the Spanish conquest as the main event in the five-century history of Mesoamerica, but the people who lived there before contact never gave up their own cultures. Both before and after conquest, indigenous scribes recorded their communities' histories and belief systems, as well as the events of conquest and its effects and aftermath. Today, the descendants of those native historians in modern-day Mexico and Guatemala still remember their ancestors' stories. In "Mesoamerican Memory," volume editors Amos Megged and Stephanie Wood have gathered the latest scholarship from contributors around the world to compare these various memories and explore how they were preserved and altered over time.

Rather than dividing Mesoamerica's past into pre-contact, colonial, and modern periods, the essays in this volume emphasize continuity from the pre-conquest era to the present, underscoring the ongoing importance of indigenous texts in creating and preserving community identity, history, and memory. In addition to Nahua and Maya recollections, contributors examine the indigenous traditions of Mixtec, Zapotec, Tarascan, and Totonac peoples. Close analysis of pictorial and alphabetic manuscripts, and of social and religious rituals, yields insight into community history and memory, political relations, genealogy, ethnic identity, and portrayals of the Spanish invaders.

Drawing on archaeology, art history, ethnology, ethnohistory, and linguistics, the essays consider the function of manuscripts and ritual in local, regional, and, now, national settings. Several scholars highlight direct connections between the collective memory of indigenous communities and the struggles of contemporary groups. Such modern documents as land titles, for example, gain legitimacy by referring to ancestral memory.

Crossing disciplinary, methodological, and temporal boundaries, "Mesoamerican Memory "advances our understanding of collective memory in Mexico and Guatemala. Through diverse sources--pictorial and alphabetic, archaeological, archival, and ethnographic--readers gain a glimpse into indigenous remembrances that, without the research exhibited here, might have remained unknown to the outside world.

The Early Formative Olmec are central in a wide variety of debates regarding the development of Mesoamerican societies. A fundamental issue in Olmec archaeology is the nature of interregional interaction among contemporaneous societies and the possible Olmec role in it. Previous debates have often not been informed by recent research and data, often relying on materials lacking archaeological context. In order to approach these issues from new perspectives, this book introduces readers to the full spectrum of the material culture of the Olmec and their contemporaries, relying primarily on archaeological data, much of which has not been previously published. For the first time, using a standard lexicon to consider the nature of the interaction among Early Formative societies, the authors, experts in diverse regions of Mesoamerican art and archaeology, provide carefully considered contrasts and comparisons that advance the understanding of the Early Formative origins of social complexity in Mesoamerica.

"The Incas" is a captivating exploration of one of the greatest civilizations ever seen. Seamlessly drawing on history, archaeology, and ethnography, this thoroughly updated new edition integrates advances made in hundreds of new studies conducted over the last decade.

- Written by one of the world's leading experts on Inca civilization

- Covers Inca history, politics, economy, ideology, society, and military organization

- Explores advances in research that include pre-imperial Inca society; the royal capital of Cuzco; the sacred landscape; royal estates; Machu Picchu; provincial relations; the "khipu" information-recording technology; languages, time frames, gender relations, effects on human biology, and daily life

- Explicitly examines how the Inca world view and philosophy affected the character of the empire

- Illustrated with over 90 maps, figures, and photographs

Through a cross-cultural and comparative approach, it reveals both changes and significant continuities in the symbolism that conferred meaning to iron smelting over two thousand years in East and Central Africa. North America: Indiana U Press

This book examines the effects of the Peloponnesian War on the arts of Athens and the historical and artistic contexts in which this art was produced. During this period, battle scenes dominated much of the monumental art, while large numbers of memorials to the war dead were erected. The temple of Athena Nike, built to celebrate Athenian victories in the first part of the war, carries a rich sculptural program illustrating military victories. For the first time, the arts in Athens expressed an interest in the afterlife, with many sculptured dedications to Demeter and Kore, who promised initiates special privileges in the underworld. Not surprisingly, there were also dedications to healer gods. After the Sicilian disaster, a retrospective tendency can be noted in both art and politics, which provided reassurance in a time of crisis. Bringing together essays by an international team of art historians and historians, this is the first book to focus on the new themes and new kinds of art introduced in Athens as a result of the thirty-year war.

Waterlogged archaeological sites in Florida contain tools, art objects, dietary items, human skeletal remains, and glimpses of past environments that do not survive the ravages of time at typical terrestrial sites. Unfortunately, archaeological wet sites are invisible since their preservation depends upon their entombment in oxygen-free, organic deposits. As a result, they are often destroyed accidentally during draining, dredging, and development projects. These sites and the objects they contain are an important part of Florida's heritage. They provide an opportunity to learn how the state's earliest residents used available resources to make their lives more comfortable and how they expressed themselves artistically. Without the wood carvings from water-saturated sites, it would be easy to think of early Floridians as culturally impoverished because Florida does not have stone suitable for creating sculptures.
This book compiles in one volume detailed accounts of such famous sites as Key Marco, Little Salt Spring, Windover, Ft. Center, and others. The book discusses wet site environments and explains the kinds of physical, chemical, and structural components required to ensure that the proper conditions for site formation are present and prevail through time. The book also talks about how to preserve artifacts that have been entombed in anaerobic deposits and the importance of classes of objects, such as wooden carvings, dietary items, human skeletal remains, to our better understanding of past cultures. Until now this information has been scattered in obscure documents and articles, thus diminishing its importance. Our ancestors may not have been Indians, but they contributed to the state's heritage for more than 10,000 years. Once disturbed by ambitious dredging and draining projects, their story is gone forever; it cannot be transplanted to another location.

Many consider Lewis Binford to be the single most influential figure in archaeology in the last half-century. His contributions to the "New Archaeology" changed the course of the field, as he argued for the development of a scientifically rigorous framework to guide the excavation and interpretation of the archaeological record. This book, the culmination of Binford's intellectual legacy thus far, presents a detailed description of his methodology and its significance for understanding hunter-gatherer cultures on a global basis. This landmark publication will be an important step in understanding the great process of cultural evolution and will change the way archaeology proceeds as a scientific enterprise. This work provides a major synthesis of an enormous body of cultural and environmental information and offers many original insights into the past. Binford helped pioneer what is now called "ethnoarchaeology"-the study of living societies to help explain cultural patterns in the archaeological record-and this book is grounded on a detailed analysis of ethnographic data from about 340 historically known hunter-gatherer populations. The methodological framework based on this data will reshape the paradigms through which we understand human culture for years to come.

Ministry With the Aging--the one most frequently used textbook in seminary courses that deal with ministry and aging--is now available from The Haworth Press. Here is a genuinely useful and informative text in which an all-star cast of authors reflects on the current situation of the aged in our society. Ministry With the Aging encourages a deeper appreciation of the presence and role of aging people with contemporary religion, addresses the challenges that the church and society face in a rapidly aging society, and provides practical applications for an effective ministry with the aging. Each chapter, whether it focuses on the role of the elderly in the early church, death and dying, ageism, retirement, or caring for elderly parents, is written by an eminent scholar who has chosen only the most relevant issues for discussion. A past runner up for the "Book of the Year Award" by the Academy of Parish Clergy, Ministry With the Aging is a landmark volume that can offer theology students a unique and insightful look at how they can best meet the needs of their elderly parishioners.

For four centuries Britain was an integral part of the Roman Empire, a political system stretching from Turkey to Portugal and from the Red Sea to the Tyne and beyond. Its involvement with Rome started long before the Conquest launched by the Emperor Claudius in 43 AD, and it continued to be a part of the Roman world for some time after the final break with Roman rule. Bringing together archaeological investigation and historical scholarship, Peter Salway explores some of the key issues arising from this period in Britain's history, discussing the question of identity at this time and analysing the importance of widespread literacy in Roman Britain. Covering the period from Julius Caesar's first forays into Britain and Claudius' subsequent conquest, as well as Britain under the later Roman Empire, Salway outlines the key events of this time period, providing a focus on society in Roman Britain, and offering a thoughtful consideration of the aftermath of Roman rule. In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction, Peter Salway makes a number of essential updates in light of recent research in the area. He looks at issues of ethnicity, 'Britishness', and post-colonialism, provides alternative theories to the end of the Roman period in Britain, and draws parallels between the history of Roman Britain and a wide range of other periods, territories, and themes, including the modern experience of empires and national stereotypes. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

During the last forty years, South-West England has been the focus of some of the most significant work on the early modern house and household in Britain. Its remarkable wealth of vernacular buildings has been the object of much attention, while the area has also seen productive excavations of early modern household goods, shedding new light on domestic history. This collection of papers, written by many of the leading specialists in these fields, presents a number of essays summarizing the overall understanding of particular themes and places, alongside case studies which publish some of the most remarkable discoveries. They include the extraordinary survival of wall-hangings in a South Devon farm, the discovery of painted rooms in an Elizabethan town house, and a study of a table-setting mirrored on its ceiling. Also considered are forms of decoration which seem specific to particular areas of the West Country houses. Taken together, the papers offer a holistic view of the household in the early modern period. John Allan is Consultant Archaeologist to the Dean & Chapter of Exeter Cathedral; Nat Alcock is Emeritus Reader in the Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick; David Dawson is an independent archaeologist and museum and heritage consultant. Contributors: Ann Adams, Nat Alcock, John Allan, James Ayres, Stuart Blaylock, Peter Brears, Tania Manuel Casimiro, Cynthia Cramp, Christopher Green, Oliver Kent, Kate Osborne, Richard Parker, Isabel Richardson, John Schofield, Eddie Sinclair, John R.L. Thorp, Hugh Wilmott,

Chiefly concerned with a number of painted tombs which were visited by early travellers to Egypt, but the exact locations of which are now unknown. The meticulous drawings and tracings made by those pioneers are apparently all that remain to show the appearnce of these monuments. Includes numerous d

Throughout history, a large portion of the world's population has lived under imperial rule. Although scholars do not always agree on when and where the roots of imperialism lie, most would agree that imperial configurations have affected human history so profoundly that the legacy of ancient empires continues to structure the modern world in many ways. Empires are best described as heterogeneous and dynamic patchworks of imperial configurations in which imperial power was the outcome of the complex interaction between evolving colonial structures and various types of agents in highly contingent relationships. The goal of this volume is to harness the work of the "next generation" of empire scholars in order to foster new theoretical and methodological perspectives that are of relevance within and beyond archaeology and to foreground empires as a cross-cultural category. This book demonstrates how archaeological research can contribute to our conceptualization of empires across disciplinary boundaries.

If all the portable artifacts of Ancient Rome were in a single location, the lives of students, historians, and connoisseurs would be immeasurably simpler. But the masterpieces are in museums all over the world. This book identifies 200 of the most important of these works, and describes them vividly and informatively in ways that reveal how each is a key object in its own right - a creation that commemorates a great event or heralds the start of a new era in creativity or politics. From coins of the fifth century bce to pottery made at the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 ce, each object reveals an important insight into this highly influential ancient civilization.

A comprehensive and scholary history of prehistoric and early Cardiganshire. This volume is illustrated with maps, line-drawings and photographic plates. It begins with the geography of the county, its flora and fauna, and traces the slow emergence of Man in prehistoric times. It reconstructs, from evidence much of which has only been recently discovered, the extent and nature of the Roman Occupation, and finaly the slow emergence of the kingdom of Ceredigion, the nature of its economic and social organization and political structures. The coming of Christianity, the settlements of the Saints and their priceless heritage, are also explored. The volume ends with the coming of the Normans. This is the first volume to appear in the County History which is being prepared by the Cardiganshire County Historical Society. The completed history will consist of three scholarly volumes designed to present the history of the ancient county from the beginning to the present day. Volume 2: "Medieval and Early Modern Cardiganshire", edited by Professor J. Beverley Smith and Volume 3: "Cardiganshire in Modern Times", edited by Professor Ieuan Gwynedd Jones and Professor Geraint H. Jenkins are in preparation and will follow at regular intervals.

The focus of Conquistador's Wake is a decade-long archaeological project undertaken at a place now known as the Glass Site, located in Telfair County, Georgia. This spot, near the town of McRae, Georgia, offers clues that place Hernando de Soto in Georgia via a different route than previously thought by historians and archaeologists. Rare glass beads-some of the only examples found outside Florida-are among the rich body of evidence signaling Spanish interaction with the Native Americans along the Ocmulgee River. An unusual number and variety of metal and glass artifacts, identified by their distinct patterns and limited production, are the "calling cards" of Soto and other early explorers. As a meditation on both the production of knowledge and the implications of findings at the Glass Site, Conquistador's Wake challenges conventional wisdom surrounding the path of Soto through Georgia and casts new light on the nature of Native American societies then residing in southern Georgia. It also provides an insider's view of how archaeology works and why it matters. Through his research, Dennis Blanton sets out to explain the outcome of one of Georgia's, and the region's, most important archaeological projects of recent years. He tells at the same time a highly personal story, from the perspective of the lead archaeologist, about the realities of the research process, from initial problem formulation to the demands of fieldwork, the collaborative process, data interpretation, and scholarly tribalism.

A fascinating, concise and comprehensive description of ancient Khmer civilization. The volume outlines the evolution and development of one of the most splendid and long-lived civilizations of the entire Asian continent. The narrative and related images in the volume guide the reader from the birth of the Khmer civilization, through the first uncertain steps amongst the small and restless Khmer tribes, forced to endure the rule of larger and stronger powers, to the birth of the empire and then to its glory and decadence. A journey six centuries long, interspersed with great events and dramatic figures, but also with incredible architectural masterpieces scattered in the forests and countryside of Cambodia and parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, structures for many centuries almost lost to memory. Presenting both the classic vision of this civilization and also the latest theories about it, this volume is aimed at those who wish to learn the essential facts of Khmer history and culture, stripped of platitudes and romantic visions, in clear language that both tells a story and includes incisive anecdotes. AUTHOR: Stefano Vecchia graduated in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of Turin, and subsequently earned a diploma in oriental languages and culture at the Italian Institute for Africa and the East (IsIAO). He has worked as a professional journalist since 1990, and has divided his time between journalistic work in Italy and trips to Asia, where he is currently a correspondent for Italian publications. He has been chief editor of the magazine Popoli, published in Milan, and has been the director of the Milanbased magazine Quaderni Asiatici (Asian Notebooks) and manager of the Asia News agency, the first Italian agency reporting only on Asian lands and people. Stefano Vecchia's numerous reports and special photo shoots, published in a variety of journals, are the result of tireless travel and intense professional activity. In 2006 he contributed articles about Japanese and South-East Asian art for "The Great Story of Art" series, published by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore; and in 2007 he completed guides to Bali and Japan. 210 colour illustrations

Few places in the world are as fascinating as Angkor, the heart of the immense Khmer empire that flourished in Indochina from the 9th to the 13th century and is today a magnificent archaeological park. The Khmers, who lived in present-day Cambodia exploited the special features of the Angkor plain and created an incredible hydraulic network of basins, canals and rice paddies that not only guaranteed subsistence for a million persons but also made it possible to accumulate a surplus used to finance innumerable constructions. The Khmer kings were skilful and warlike rulers who, drawing inspiration from the Indian concepts of regality and from the local cults of spirits and deified ancestors, built monumental pyramid temples as reproductions and representations of the mythical cosmic mountain, Meru. What is more, every temple was reflected in a large pool that served the practical purpose of a reservoir and the symbolic function of a representation of the primeval ocean. The result was a liquid checkerboard dotted with temples, wooden buildings and bamboo huts and swarming with markets, carts, dugout canoes, animals and people. The only remains of Angkor, the great capital city consisting of numerous urban areas that rose up over the centuries, are its temples, invaded by the luxuriant vegetation. The plant world has regained possession of what were once human settlements, bursting through the stones in a suffocating maze of branches and lianas; indeed, the presence of this greenery that adds to the ineffable artistic beauty of the Angkor temples a magical atmosphere of distant times and remote worlds. AUTHOR: Marilia Albanese a graduate in Sanskrit and Indology, with a diploma in Hindi Language and Indian Culture, is the director of the Lombardy Section of the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (I.A.O.) at the University of Milan. CONTENTS Introduction The Refinement of the Early Period Masterpieces of Carving The Royal Foundations The Heart of Angkor The Heritage of the Khmer Itineraries outside the Archaeological Park Travelwise Glossary Bibliography Index Photo credits ILLUSTRATIONS: 250 colour photos *

Scattered throughout their coastal homelands, the remains of impressive artworks produced by the Moche of northern Peru survive. These works include ceremonial centers extensively decorated with murals, as well as elaborate and sophisticated ceramic vessels, textiles, and metalwork, that serve to visually represent an ancient American culture that developed a complex, systematized pictorial code used to communicate narratives, sets of ideas, and ideological constructs.

In this study, Margaret Jackson analyzes Moche ceremonial architecture and ceramics to propose the workings of a widely understood visual language. Using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates archaeology and linguistics with art history and studies of visual culture, Jackson looks at the symbolism of Moche art as a form of communication, the social mechanisms that produced it, and how it served to maintain the Moche social fabric.