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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > General
This book expands on Archaeological Human Remains: Global
Perspectives that was published in the Springer Briefs series in
2014 and which had a strong focus on post-colonial countries. In
the current volume, the editors include papers that deal with
non-Anglophone European traditions such as Portugal, Germany and
France. In addition, authors continue the exploration of
osteological trajectories that are not well-documented in the West,
such as Senegal, China and Russia. The lasting legacies of
imperialism, communism and colonialism are apparent as the authors
of the individual country profiles examine the historical roots of
the study of archaeological human remains and the challenges
encountered while also considering the likely future directions
likely of this multi-faceted discipline in different world areas.
This volume will examine the varied roles that women and children
play in period of warfare, which in most cases deviate from their
perceived role as noncombatants. Using social theory about the
nature of sex, gender and age in thinking about vulnerabilities to
different groups during warfare, this collection of studies focuses
on the broader impacts of war both during warfare but also long
after the conflict is over. The volume will show that during
periods of violence and warfare, many suffer beyond those
individuals directly involved in battle. From pre-Hispanic Peru to
Ming dynasty Mongolia to the Civil War-era United States to the
present, warfare has been and is a public health disaster,
particularly for women and children. Individuals and populations
suffer from displacement, sometimes permanently, due to loss of
food and resources and an increased risk of contracting
communicable diseases, which results from the poor conditions and
tight spaces present in most refugee camps, ancient and modern.
Bioarchaeology can provide a more nuanced lens through which to
examine the effects of warfare on life, morbidity, and mortality,
bringing individuals not traditionally considered by studies of
warfare and prolonged violence into focus. Inclusion of these
groups in discussions of warfare can increase our understanding of
not only the biological but also the social meaning and costs of
warfare.
Landscapes have been fundamental to the human experience world-wide
and throughout time, yet how did we as human beings evolve or
co-evolve with our landscapes? By answering this question, we can
understand our place in the complex, ever-changing world that we
inhabit. This book guides readers on a journey through the
concurrent processes of change in an integrated natural-cultural
history of a landscape. While outlining the general principles for
global application, a richly illustrated case is offered through
the Mariana Islands in the northwest tropical Pacific and
furthermore situated in a larger Asia-Pacific context for a full
comprehension of landscape evolution at variable scales. The author
examines what happened during the first time when human beings
encountered the world's Remote Oceanic environment in the Mariana
Islands about 3500 years ago, followed by a continuous sequence of
changing sea level, climate, water resources, forest composition,
human population growth, and social dynamics. This book provides a
high-resolution and long-term view of the complexities of landscape
evolution that affect all of us today.
Migration is the talk of the town. On the whole, however, the
current situation is seen as resulting from unique political
upheavals. Such a-historical interpretations ignore the fact that
migration is a fundamental phenomenon in human societies from the
beginning and plays a crucial role in the cultural, economic,
political and social developments and innovations. So far, however,
most studies are limited to the last four centuries, largely
ignoring the spectacular advances made in other disciplines which
study the 'deep past', like anthropology, archaeology, population
genetics and linguistics, and that reach back as far as 80.000
years ago. This is the first book that offers an overview of the
state of the art in these disciplines and shows how historians and
social scientists working in the recent past can profit from their
insights.
The Egyptian Sudan is a detailed account of early travels and
archaeological missions to the Sudan in Egypt. The two-volume
series contains illustrations and explanations of the dig sites and
artifacts excavated, the history behind the pyramids and temples
explored, the history of the region itself, and the details of the
actual trips to Sudan and the scientists who took them. A
wonderfully explicit and precise series for anyone interested in
archeology and Egyptian artifacts, The Egyptian Sudan is a
must-read. Volume I contains information on the travelers and
archeologists who explored the Sudan, descriptions of the first
through the fourth missions (1897, 1898, 1903, and 1905) and
illustrations and descriptions of the pyramids and artifacts found.
SIR ERNEST ALFRED THOMPSON WALLIS BUDGE (1857-1934) was born in
Bodmin, Cornwall in the UK and discovered an interest in languages
at a very early age. Budge spent all his free time learning and
discovering Semitic languages, including Assyrian, Syriac, and
Hebrew. Eventually, through a close contact, he was able to acquire
a job working with Egyptian and Iraqi artifacts at the British
Museum. Budge excavated and deciphered numerous cuneiform and
hieroglyphic documents, contributing vastly to the museum's
collection. Eventually, he became the Keeper of his department,
specializing in Egyptology. Budge wrote many books during his
lifetime, most specializing in Egyptian life, religion, and
language.
Improving the relationship between archaeology and local government
represents one of the next great challenges facing archaeology
-specifically archaeology done in urban settings. Not only does
local government have access to powerful legal tools and policy
mechanisms that can offer protection for privately owned
archaeological sites, but because local government exists at the
grassroots level, it is also often closer to people who have deep
knowledge about the community itself, about its values, and about
the local meaning of the sites most in need of protection. This
partnership between archaeology and local government can also
provide visibility and public programing for heritage sites. This
book will explore the experiences, both positive and negative, of
small and large cities globally. We have examined programs in the
Commonwealth of Nations (formerly known as the British
Commonwealth) and in the United States. These countries share
similar perspectives on preservation and heritage, although the
approaches these cities have taken to address municipal archaeology
reveals considerable diversity. The case studies highlight how
these innovative partnerships have developed, and explain how they
function within local government. Engaging with the political
sphere to advocate for and conduct archaeology requires creativity,
flexibility, and the ability to develop collaborative partnerships.
How these archaeological partnerships benefit the community is a
vital part of the equation. Heritage and tourist benefits are
discussed. Economic challenges during downturns in the economy are
analyzed. The book also examines public outreach programs and the
grassroots efforts to protect and preserve a community's
archaeological heritage.
This book addresses a variety of topics within the growing
discipline of Archaeoastronomy, focusing especially on
Archaeoastronomy in Sicily and the Mediterranean and Cultural
Astronomy. A further priority is discussion of the astronomical and
statistical methods used today to ascertain the degree of
reliability of the chronological and cultural definition of sites
and artifacts of archaeoastronomical interest. The contributions
were all delivered at the XVth Congress of the Italian Society of
Archaeoastronomy (SIA), held under the rubric "The Light, the
Stones and the Sacred" - a theme inspired by the International Year
of Light 2015, organized by UNESCO. The full meaning of many
ancient monuments can only be understood by examining their
relation to light, given the effects that light radiation produces
in "interacting" with lithic structures. Moreover, in addition to
manifestations of the sacred through the medium of light
(hierophanies), there are many ties between temples, tombs,
megalithic structures, and the architecture of almost all ages and
cultures and our star, the Sun. Readers will find the book to be a
source of fascinating insights based on synergies between the
disciplines of archaeology and astronomy.
This volume analyses existing data from field survey of the Khasi
and Jaintia hills of the Meghalaya plateau to establish a
distribution pattern for the Neolithic culture in the region. It
aims to get a picture of the relationship between the Neolithic
sites of the region and the Neolithic cultures of the surrounding
areas, and to trace migration patterns, both internally and into
and out of the region.
Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history
of the Sami, the indigenous population of northernmost Europe.
Discussing crucial issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity,
interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition
from hunting to reindeer herding, the book departs from the common
trope whereby native encounters with other cultures, state
societies, and "modernity", are depicted mainly in negative terms.
Far from always victimizing "the other", the interaction with
outside societies played a crucial role in generating and
maintaining a number of features considered integral to Sami
culture. At the same time the authors also emphasize internal
processes and dynamics and show how these have greatly contributed
to the diverse historical trajectories with which this book is
concerned. Listed by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding
Academic Titles of 2014
IDA MINERVA TARBELL (1857-1944) is remembered today as a muckraking
journalist, thanks to this 1904 blockbuster expos. Originally
published as a series of articles in *McClure's* magazine, this
groundbreaking work highlighted the dangers of business monopolies
and contributed to the eventual breakup of Standard Oil. "In this
era of financial crisis compounded, and even perhaps enabled, by a
dearth of investigative reporting, it is valuable to go back in
time to learn from the work of great journalists with the courage
to have taken on avaricious corporations and irresponsible business
practices. "Perhaps no book demands our attention and respect as
much as the one now in your hands. The unabridged edition, long out
of print, of Ida Tarbell's study/expose of the history of the
Standard Oil Company is an American classic, a model of careful
research, detailed analysis, clear expository writing, and social
mission. It has been hailed as one of the top ten of journalism's
greatest hits." In Volume II, Tarbell explores: [ battles over oil
pipelines [ the marketing of oil [ the political response to
Standard's domination [ breaking up the oil trust [ competition in
the oil industry [ and more. Investigative journalist DANNY
SCHECHTER is editor of Mediachannel.org and author of numerous
books on the media, including *Plunder: Investigating Our Economic
Calamity and the Subprime Scandal* (Cosimo). For more, see
www.newsdissector.com/plunder. He writes in his new introduction,
exclusive to this Cosimo Classics edition:
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