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Books > Humanities > Archaeology
The ruins of Ostia, main harbour of Imperial Rome, were uncovered
in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. In
the present volume the remains of three buildings used for the
milling of grain and baking of bread (pistrina) are studied
according to modern archaeological standards. A detailed analysis
of the architecture and masonry allows a description of the
installation and vicissitudes of the pistrina. Subsequently the
distribution of these buildings in the city and their place in the
neighbourhood is studied. The technical achievement of the Ostian
bakers is assessed. Although water-power was sometimes used in
Roman grain-mills, this was not the case in Ostia. This in turn
affects estimates of the output of the pistrina. Nevertheless the
amount of bread that was produced must have been considerably
higher than that in Pompeii, where many small bakeries have been
preserved. No remains of bakeries have ever been found in Rome or
Constantinople, but it may be assumed that the average bakery in
these cities did not differ much from the Ostian workshops.
Involvement of the fisc with the Ostian bakers has already been
suggested by Bakker in Living and Working with the Gods. The role
of the Emperor is dealt with in this volume once more. The Ostian
corpus pistorum presumably fed Imperial slaves and the local
fire-brigade. There are good reasons to assume that Ostia, like
Rome, knew distributions of free grain.
The pre-Hispanic pueblo settlements of the Pajarito Plateau, whose
ruins can be seen today at Bandelier National Monument, date to the
late 1100s and were already dying out when the Spanish arrived in
the sixteenth century. Until recently, little modern scientific
data on these sites was available.
The essays in this volume summarize the results of new
excavation and survey research in Bandelier, with special attention
to determining why larger sites appear when and where they do, and
how life in these later villages and towns differed from life in
the earlier small hamlets that first dotted the Pajarito in the
mid-1100s. Drawing on sources from archaeology, paleoethnobotany,
geology, climate history, rock art, and oral history, the authors
weave together the history of archaeology on the Plateau and the
natural and cultural history of its Puebloan peoples for the four
centuries of its pre-Hispanic occupation.
Contributors include Craig Allen (U. S. Geological Survey, Los
Alamos, New Mexico), Sarah Herr (Desert Archaeology, Inc., Tucson,
Arizona), F. Joan Mathien (National Park Service), Matthew J. Root
(Rain Shadow Research and Department of Anthropology, Washington
Sate University), Nancy H. Olsen (Anthropology Department and
Intercultural Studies Division, De Anza College, Cupertino,
California), Janet D. Orcutt (National Park Service), and Robert P.
Powers (National Park Service).
Medieval Jewelry and Burial Assemblages in Croatia analyzes the
Croatian archaeological heritage from the 8th to the 15th century,
consisting mostly of jewelry (earrings) findings from cemeteries.
Stratigraphy is used to establish horizons and phases of material
culture, as well as the structure of the burial chambers. All in
comparison with materials from neighboring regions of Europe.
This book provides information and tools necessary to bridge and
integrate the knowledge gaps related to the acquisition and
processing of archaeological data, specifically in the field of
preventive diagnostics, urban centers, archaeological parks and
historical monuments, through activities that involve the
application of non-invasive diagnostic detection systems, in the
field of applied geophysics. The principal aim of this book is to
define a tool for experts that work in the frame of Cultural
Heritage and to identify a procedure of intervention transferable
and usable in different geographical contexts and areas of
investigations: it could help to decide the better technique of
investigation to apply in relation to the predictive
characteristics of the archaeological site and the objectives of
the survey. The book is divided in two parts. The first one
explains the theory of ground high resolution penetrating radar
(GPR), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), controlled source
electromagnetism system, differential magnetic method and the
scenario of integrated methods of different geophysical techniques.
Each section covers the basic theory (complete description of the
physical parameters involved in the method), field instruments
(description of all systems actually offered by commercial
companies), field techniques (presentation of the main procedures
and setting parameters used to explore the ground surface during
data acquisition), techniques of data processing and representation
(main processing routines and comparison between different
techniques; presentation of different typologies of graphical
representation), and the possibility and limitations of methods
(explanation of best and worst conditions of implementation of the
geophysical technique in relation to the contrasts between
archaeological features and the natural background and the features
of the instruments and arrays). The second part describes some
applications of geophysical prospection to Cultural Heritage in
detailed case histories, divided in sections relative to monuments,
historical buildings, urban centres, archaeological parks and
ancient viability. Moreover, examples of integration of
three-dimensional reliefs and geophysical diagnostic of a monuments
and studies of large scale reconnaissance implemented into a
Geographical Information System are treated. In each case study the
authors cover the description of the archaeological or historical
contest; an explanation of the problem to solve; a choice of the
geophysical methods; the setting of the procedure of data
acquisition; techniques of data processing; a representation,
interpretation, and discussion of the results.
Statistics in Practice A new series of practical books outlining
the use of statistical techniques in a wide range of application
areas:
- Human and Biological Sciences
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Industry, Commerce and Finance
The authors of this important text explore the processes through
which archaeologists analyse their data and how these can be made
more rigorous and effective by sound statistical modelling. They
assume relatively little previous statistical or mathematical
knowledge. Introducing the idea underlying the Bayesian approach to
the statistical analysis of data and their subsequent
interpretation, the authors demonstrate the major advantage of this
approach, i.e. that it allows the incorporation of relevant prior
knowledge or beliefs into the analysis. By doing so it provides a
logical and coherent way of updating beliefs from those held before
observing the data to those held after taking the data into
account. To illustrate the power and effectiveness of mathematical
and statistical modelling within the Bayesian framework, a variety
of real case studies are presented covering areas of common
interest to archaeologists. These case studies cover applications
in areas such as radiocarbon dating, spatial analysis, provenance
studies and other dating methods. Background to these case studies
is provided for those readers not so familiar with the subject.
Thus, the book provides an examination of the theoretical and
practical consequences of Bayesian analysis for examining problems
in archaeology. Students of archaeology and related disciplines and
professional archaeologists will find the book an informative and
practical introduction to the subject.
Paperback reprint of the cloth original Winner of the 2004
Outstanding Academic Title award from the American Library
Association! Filling a gap in classroom texts, more than 60 essays
by major scholars in the field have been gathered to create the
most up-to-date and complete book available on Levantine and Near
Eastern archaeology.
Written by the world's leading expert, this is an accessible introduction to optical dating for earth scientists who rely on the results given without needing to understand the technicalities of the technique. The basic notions and procedures are outlined through illustrative case histories. In addition the book provides active practitioners with a full understanding of the theory, through a series of technical notes, and brings together the various strands of ongoing research.
This is a themed volume of 28 papers, written in honour of Marion
Archibald. It considers the role of coinage in northern Europe from
the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the early thirteenth
century. Although the focus of the volume is the coinage itself,
the majority of the papers consider coinage in its historical
and/or archaeological context. A recurrent theme of the volume is
the movement of coinage across the English Channel and the North
Sea and beyond. Particular areas of focus include the importation
and use of money in early Anglo-Saxon England; movement, hoarding
and secondary treatment of coinage during the Viking Age; and
monetary contacts between England and her neighbours under the
Normans and Angevins. The papers in this book provide an important
range of perspectives in current numismatic research, and will
provide a valuable resource for scholars in a variety of
disciplines with interests in the economy and society in northern
Europe, c. 500-1250.
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