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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > General
An extraordinary exploration of the ancestry of Britain through
seven burial sites. By using new advances in genetics and taking us
through important archaeological discoveries, Professor Alice
Roberts helps us better understand life today. 'This is a terrific,
timely and transporting book - taking us heart, body and mind
beyond history, to the fascinating truth of the prehistoric past
and the present' Bettany Hughes We often think of Britain springing
from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors,
pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice
Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons,
from burial sites and by using new technology to analyse ancient
DNA. Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this
groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about
ourselves and our history: how people came and went and how we came
to be on this island. It explores forgotten journeys and memories
of migrations long ago, written into genes and preserved in the
ground for thousands of years. This is a book about belonging:
about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors.
It explores our interconnected global ancestry, and the human
experience that binds us all together. It's about reaching back in
time, to find ourselves, and our place in the world.
Threads of the Unfolding Web is essential reading for scholars,
students and the general reader interested in Javanese history of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Little is known about the
history of Java in this period, which witnessed the beginnings of
major global economic, political, cultural and religious change. It
was a time when Java saw the decline of the once powerful eastern
Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, the rise of Muslim kingdoms on
Java's northern coast and the arrival of the first Europeans in the
person of the Portuguese Tome Pires in Java's cosmopolitan ports.
"Stuart Robson's expert English translation of the Tantu
Panggelaran gives his readers ready access to this important work,
which provides insight into how the author and his contemporary
Javanese readers imagined the realities of the world in which they
lived. We learn how they conceived the creation of this world and
understood the relationship between the gods and men. Importantly,
we learn also how they conceived a history of the foundation and
spread of Bhairava Sivaite hermitages, shrines and temples. The
work traces the history of this network from its origins in the
vicinity of the Dieng plateau and the northern plains of Batang and
Pekalongan to its subsequent expansion to the Tengger and Hyang
Massifs of eastern Java. Hadi Sidomulyo's impressive commentary, an
amalgam of textual analysis and the survey of archaeological sites,
is a model for the way in which further research of this sort might
be conducted and underlines the urgent need for further
archaeological surveys and the future excavation of archaeological
sites." -- Professor Emeritus Peter Worsley, Indonesian Studies,
University of Sydney "Ever since the dissertation of Th. Pigeaud
was published in 1926, the Tantu Panggelaran has both intrigued and
perplexed scholars of the cultural history of Java. Despite
Pigeaud's translation and copious notes much remained uncertain and
his comments were not easily accessible except to readers of Dutch.
Now, the publication of Threads of the Unfolding Web has breathed
new life into studies of this rare exemplar of the literature of
the "period of transition" in sixteenth century Java. This
collaborative volume combines the skills of Stuart Robson, a senior
in the field of translation from Old Javanese, and Hadi Sidomulyo,
whose deep interest in the early history of Java combines attention
to the inscriptional record with field work using GPS technology to
locate and describe archaeological remains spread throughout Java.
As a result you have before you a volume that illustrates the close
linkages between a literary text describing the mythical
foundations of the Saiva ascetic communities of the Javanese Rsi
order and the geophysical coordinates of these communities as far
as they can be traced today. This combination represents a giant
leap forward for studies of the Tantu Panggelaran. We owe the
authors a debt of gratitude for the years of work that lay behind
the completion of this important volume."-- Thomas M. Hunter,
Lecturer in South-Southeast Asian Studies, University of British
Columbia
With contributions by J.N. Bremmer, J. Carlsen, D.P. Kehoe, L. De
ligt, E. Lo Cascio, F.J.A.M. Meijer, H.W. Pleket, D. Rathbone, P.
Rosafio, H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H.W. Singor, W. Scheidel, R.J.
v.d. Spek, H.C. Teitler, H.S. Versnel, H.T. Wallinga, D. Yntema.
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