Near Eastern Cities from Alexander to the Successors of Muhammad compares the evolution of several cities in the Near East from the time of Alexander the Great until the beginning of the Islamic 'Abbasid Dynasty. This volume examines both archaeological remains and literary sources to explain the diversity of imperial, cultural, and religious influences on urban life. It offers several case studies chosen from different regions of the Roman Near East, demonstrating that Greco-Roman and Islamic culture spread unevenly through these various cities, and that it is impossible to make broad generalizations. It argues instead that there were different patterns of urbanism that demonstrate a continued vitality of civic life up to the 'Abbasid revolution. Near Eastern Cities from Alexander to the Successors of Muhammad will be of particular interest to students of this period in the Ancient Near East, as well as those studying ancient cities and everyday life.

The African continent has been looted for many centuries, although the form and motivation of this looting has varied with conquest, colonization, independence and globalization. Over the last decades, however, the destruction of archaeological sites and the illicit trade in cultural goods has reached such proportions that they seriously undermine African history and jeopardize the human rights and the development of communities. The exportation and repatriation of human remains also raise important ethical questions. In response to this alarming phenomenon, laws have been adopted, conventions ratified, ethical codes proclaimed and ethics commissions established. Local initiatives to protect heritage have been set up, and the return of cultural objects and human remains committed. Yet the hoped-for positive benefits do not always materialize given that the situation is more complex than expected. Not without reason, Switzerland is often criticized, and other European, North American, Asian or Near East Countries too, for providing a kind of hub for illicit trade of cultural goods. Antique dealers specializing in the "primitive arts," auction houses, private museums and collectors benefit greatly from this situation. At the same time, Switzerland is very involved in the fields of development and respect for human rights, and acknowledged for the growing awareness and efficiency of its custom, police and justice institutions. This book, following a conference held in Geneva, includes contributions by archaeologists, sociologists, museum curators and heritage managers, as well as legal experts and representatives of the police, and blends points of view from Africa, Europe and Switzerland. In addition to the voice of researchers responsible for the cultural heritage of African Countries that denounce alarming situations, ethical reflections and update of legal aspects linked to heritage questions, several projects of international cooperation are presented, all of them trying to promote innovative ways of acting in this very difficult context, and giving hope for the future.

A beautifully illustrated study of the caves at Dunhuang, exploring how this important Buddhist site has been visualized from its creation to today Situated at the crossroads of the northern and southern routes of the ancient silk routes in western China, Dunhuang is one of the richest Buddhist sites in the world, with more than 500 richly decorated cave temples constructed between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. The sculptures, murals, portable paintings, and manuscripts found in the Mogao and Yulin Caves at Dunhuang represent every aspect of Buddhism. From its earliest construction to the present, this location has been visualized by many individuals, from the architects, builders, and artists who built the caves to twentieth-century explorers, photographers, and conservators, as well as contemporary artists. Visualizing Dunhuang: Seeing, Studying, and Conserving the Caves is a paperback edition of the ninth volume of the magnificent nine-volume hardback set, and examines how the Lo Archive, a vast collection of photographs taken in the 1940s of the Mogao and Yulin Caves, inspires a broad range of scholarship. Lavishly illustrated with selected Lo Archive and modern photographs, the essays address three main areas-Dunhuang as historical record, as site, and as art and art history. Leading experts across three continents examine a wealth of topics, including expeditionary photography and cave architecture, to demonstrate the intellectual richness of Dunhuang. Diverse as they are in their subjects and methodologies, the essays represent only a fraction of what can be researched about Dunhuang. The high concentration of caves at Mogao and Yulin and their exceptional contents chronicle centuries of artistic styles, shifts in Buddhist doctrine, and patterns of political and private patronage-providing an endless source of material for future work. Contributors include Neville Agnew, Dora Ching, Jun Hu, Annette Juliano, Richard Kent, Wei-Cheng Lin, Cary Liu, Maria Menshikova, Jerome Silbergeld, Roderick Whitfield, and Zhao Shengliang. Published in association with the Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University

This book, edited by Nancy L. Lapp and with contributions by Michael S. Zimmerman, Daniel Ulvoczky, Nicholas Hudson and Adam Hartman, is the second volume of reports from Paul Lapp's excavations at 'Iraq al-Amir in 1961 and 1962. The first appeared as the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research Vol. 47, in 1983. The presentation by Michael S. Zimmerman of the stratified corpus of the Hellenistic and Roman pottery in the Village excavations, from approximately 200 BCE to 200 CE, is a major portion of the volume. Along with the smaller pottery collections of the Iron Age, Early Bronze, and Byzantine periods, a major contribution is made to the growing quantity of characteristic pottery of Transjordan and its relation to the ceramic assemblages of ancient Palestine to the west and Syria to the north. Although early Iron Age pottery is present in the collection, the main Iron Age occupation was later in the period, even into early Persian times, and it is doubtful that there was an Iron I fortress there as Paul Lapp suggested. The pottery studies are introduced by a review of the history of the excavations at the site from the time of the early explorers and, further, by an introduction describing camp and excavation life in an area not yet touched by modern conveniences in the middle of the twentieth century.

This book captures the painstaking, step-by-step process of excavation; and the wonders of the treasure-filled inner chamber. 104 on-the-spot photographs depict the phases of the discovery and the scrupulous cataloging of the treasures.

For over half a millennium, the megalithic ruins of Tiwanaku in the highlands of the Andes mountains have stood as proxy for the desires and ambitions of various empires and political agendas; in the last hundred years, scholars have attempted to answer the question "What was Tiwanaku?" by examining these shattered remains from a distant preliterate past.This volume contains twelve papers from senior scholars, whose contributions discuss subjects from the farthest points of the southern Andes, where the iconic artifacts of Tiwanaku appear as offerings to the departed, to the heralded ruins weathered by time and burdened by centuries of interpretation and speculation. Visions of Tiwanaku stays true to its name by providing a platform for each scholar to present an informed view on the nature of this enigmatic place that seems so familiar, yet continues to elude understanding by falling outside our established models for early cities and states.

This Brief is the first comprehensive coverage of law and policy intended to protect built heritage in Hong Kong. Although characterized as a city of skyscrapers and modernity, Hong Kong has a rich cultural heritage and a surprisingly rich built heritage. The text considers what "built heritage" means in Hong Kong and what built heritage there is in Hong Kong. It introduces general readers, practitioners and students to the issues facing built heritage protection and how such protection usually develops in a modern city. In particular, it considers the problems and disputes that provided the focus for development of law and policy in Hong Kong, especially the legacy of 150 years as a British colony and the consequent identification as a "borrowed" and "temporary" place. The Brief considers how effective law and policy has been in protecting built heritage under the colonial and post-colonial administrations- their successes and failures. These include the Kowloon-Canton Railway Station, the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, reclamation of Victoria Harbour, violent protests at Queen's Pier, and the introduction of mandatory heritage impact assessments for government projects. The text concludes noting recent successes, which may indicate a brighter future for the protection of Hong Kong's built heritage.

A unique early medieval assemblage of tools and associated fragments of metal and glass was found during the excavation of a prehistoric and Roman site in 1981. Post-excavation revealed that the objects were Anglo-Saxon and had been placed in wooden boxes in a grave. The tools included hammer heads, an anvil, tongs, clips and snips plus punches, files and knife blades as well as iron structural items. Ornate pieces of copper alloy and silver and garnets were also recorded. The grave possibly dates from the mid to late 7th century while some of the objects may have been in circulation for the preceding century. No other Saxon features were discovered on the site but the nature of the assemblage suggests that the person in the grave was a jeweller, possibly itinerant, who may have been skilled in ironwork as well.

A research and community-training excavation took place over two summer seasons in 2013-14 within the Roman extramural settlement at Maryport, including the backplot. The primary aim of the project, which attracted around 125 volunteers, was to enhance understanding of the settlement through the excavation of a single building plot, the first time this had been undertaken at Maryport in modern times. Using geophysical survey evidence, a plot located 150 m north-east of the fort, adjacent to the main Roman road, was selected for investigation. The earliest feature was a small ditch, possibly part of a late pre-Roman or early Roman field system, but there was little evidence for activity before the late Hadrianic period (c AD 130+), when a timber 'strip building' was constructed on the street frontage. This went out of use in the mid-second century, but was immediately replaced by a similar structure. Following the demolition of this building around the end of the century, the plot was seemingly abandoned for a time, after which a stone-footed strip building was erected, probably c AD 220-30. Although direct evidence was sparse, all three buildings may have been multifunctional, possibly combining residential and commercial functions. To the rear was a palimpsest of features, including plot-boundary ditches and a group of wells and/or water cisterns. The Roman properties on either side of this also contained stone-footed strip buildings during the third century, one separated by a minor road, extending north-west from the main road. The stone-footed building, and probably also those in the adjacent plots, had been demolished by c AD 270. Subsequent activity was extremely limited, but included the cutting, in the late third/early fourth century, of a ditch along the north-eastern boundary of the targeted plot. Thereafter, the site seems to have been abandoned completely, and no evidence of post-Roman activity was identified

A detailed report on excavation of early historic features at Forteviot in eastern Scotland by the University of Glasgow's Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) Project. Features include a potential royal palace and early church with a discussion of their relationship with prehistoric remains. This report also includes a detailed analysis of early medieval sculpture from the Forteviot area.

This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars of the art and archaeology of late antiquity (c. 200−1000), across cultures and regions reaching from India to Iberia, to discuss how objects can inform our understanding of religions. During this period major transformations are visible in the production of religious art and in the relationships between people and objects in religious contexts across the ancient world. These shifts in behaviour and formalising of iconographies are visible in art associated with numerous religious traditions including, but not limited to, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, religions of the Roman Empire, and paganism in northern Europe. Studies of these religions and their material culture, however, have been shaped by Eurocentric and post-Reformation Christian frameworks that prioritised Scripture and minimised the capacity of images and objects to hold religious content. Despite recent steps to incorporate objects, much academic discourse, especially in comparative religion, remains stubbornly textual. This volume therefore seeks to explore the ramifications of placing objects first and foremost in the comparative study of religions in late antiquity, and to consider the potential for interdisciplinary conversation to reinvigorate the field.

A history of women prophets from medieval saints to radical Protestants. Diane Watt sets aside the conventional hiatus between the medieval and early modern periods in her study of women's prophecy, following the female experience from medieval sainthood to radical Protestantism. The English women prophets and visionaries whose voices are recovered here all lived between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries and claimed, through the medium of trances and eucharistic piety, to speak for God. They include Margery Kempe and the medieval visionaries, Elizabeth Barton (the Holy Maid of Kent), the Reformation martyr Anne Askew and other godly women described in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, and Lady Eleanor Davies as an example of a woman prophetof the Civil War. The strategies women devised to be heard and read are exposed, showing that through prophecy they were often able to intervene in the religious and political discourse of the their times: the role of God's secretary gave them the opportunity to act and speak autonomously and publicly. Winner of Foster Watson Memorial Gift for 1998. Professor Diane Watt is Head of the School of English and Languages, University of Surrey.

Archaeology--along with Native American traditions and memories--holds a key to understanding early chapters of the human story in Washington. This all-new book draws together and brings up to date much of what has been learned about the state's prehistory and the environments early people experienced. It presents a sample of sites representing Washington's geographic regions and touches on historical archaeology, including excavations at fur-trade forts and the Whitman mission, and Cathlapotle, a Columbia River village visited by Lewis and Clark. The authors portray the discovery of a mastodon butchered by hunters on the Olympic Peninsula 14,000 years ago; the nearly 13,000-year-old Clovis points in an East Wenatchee apple orchard; an 11,200-year-old "Marmes Man" in the Palouse; and the controversial "Kennewick Man," more than 9,000 years old, eroded out of the riverbank at Tri-Cities. They discuss a 5,000-year-old camas earth oven in the Pend Oreille country; 5,000 years of human habitation at Seattle's Metro sewage treatment site; the recovery at Hoko River near Neah Bay of a 3,200-year-old fishnet made of split spruce boughs and tiny stone knife blades still hafted in cedar handles; and the world-renowned coastal excavations at Ozette, where mudslides repeatedly swept into houses, burying and preserving them. The tale ranges from the earliest bands of hunters, fishers, and gatherers to the complex social organizations and highly developed technologies of native peoples at the time of their disruption by the arrival of Euro-American newcomers. Also included is a summary of the changing role, techniques, and perspectives of archaeology itself, from the surveys and salvage excavation barely ahead of dam construction on the Snake and among Columbia rivers to today's collaboration between archaeologists, Native Americans, private landowners, and public agencies. Color photographs, line drawings, and maps lavishly illustrate the text.

This book synthesizes in-depth bioarchaeological research into diet, subsistence regimes, and nutrition-and corresponding insights into adaptation, suffering, and resilience-among indigenous north-coastal Peruvian communities from early agricultural through European colonial periods. The Spanish invasion and colonization of Andean South America left millions dead, landscapes transformed, and traditional ways of life annihilated. However, the nature and magnitude of these changes were far from uniform. By the time the Spanish arrived, over four millennia of complex societies had emerged and fallen, and in the 16th century, the region was home to the largest and most expansive indigenous empire in the western hemisphere. Decades of Andean archaeological and ethnohistorical research have explored the incredible sophistication of regional agropastoral traditions, the importance of food and feasting as mechanisms of control, and the significance of maritime economies in the consolidation of complex polities. Bioarchaeology is particularly useful in studying these processes. Beyond identifying what resources were available and how they were prepared, bioarchaeological methods provide unique opportunities and humanized perspectives to reconstruct what individuals actually ate, and whether their diets changed within their own lifespans.

Major sites such as Hamwic and Dorestad typically dominate any discussion of early medieval trade and emporia - this study is altogether atypical in many ways. Comprising nineteen papers taken from a conference held at Worcester College, Oxford in 2000, the focus here is very much on the smaller, more rural trading centres and inland markets of Northern Europe. The contributors reflect very different approaches to the material, including studies that examine up-to-date historical, archaeological and numismatic evidence from Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden dating from the 7th to 9th century. The authors consider the rather controversial use of metal-detecting in identifying and defining new sites and patterns of interaction and exchange, highlighting its positive contribution. Contributors include Mark Blackburn, David Griffiths, Lars Jorgensen, Michael Metcalf, Julian D Richards, Peter Sawyer and Astrid Tummuscheit.

The excavations at Canhasan Hoeyoek I in the Konya plain of central Turkey revealed a series of settlements running through the Chalcolithic period (c.5500-3000 BC). The pottery from the site, much of it of types previously unknown or not found elsewhere in stratified contexts, is of fundamental importance for an understanding of this period in Anatolia. In this volume, Dr French, the excavator of Canhasan and for many years director of the British Institute at Ankara, carefully and concisely presents both the plain and decorated wares, with detailed descriptions of their characteristic fabrics, shapes and decoration. There is a full catalogue of the best-preserved and most important pieces (which were registered finds), but a major feature of the volume are the drawings of over 2500 less well-preserved pieces, which illustrate all the characteristic shapes and types of decoration. A special feature of the study is a careful grading of the material in terms of chronological reliability. The author privileges the whole, or nearly whole, pots found on floors in each layer, as the only types which were certainly made at the time. Related pottery may be accepted as contemporary, but with less certainty, while unrelated wares must be treated with circumspection, for they may be either recycled from an earlier layer or intrusive from a later one. This rigorous methodology means that the Chalcolithic pottery provides a completely reliable relative chronology through the Chalcolithic period, and the volume will remain a basic reference for Near Eastern archaeology.

Two major dividing lines have formed the megastructure of Eurasia, determining the historical epochs of the continent's peoples. The first, vertical (longitudinal) line has separated East and West since the Paleolithic Age. The East was dominated by Mongol peoples speaking Sino -Tibetan, Manchu-Tungus, and Altaic languages. The Caucasoid peoples of the West spoke mostly Indo-European, Semite, and Finno-Ugric languages. The second line divided the continent horizontally (by latitude) into North and South. This division was closely connected with the Eurasian Steppe Belt. To the north of it lay the world of hunter-gatherers and fishermen. To the south, settled agriculture was dominant. The Steppe Belt itself was the domain of pastoralists, the nomadic and semi-nomadic herders. These lines converged at the entrance to the Great Silk Road. With the swift development of horse domestication and horseback riding, the nomads moved-from the Early Metal Age (500-400 BCE) to Genghis Khan's and the Genghisid's Great Empire (1200-1400 CE)-to the forefront of Eurasian history as their world became increasingly involved in dramatic and sometimes tragic relationships with their southern neighbors. This book focuses on the tangle of problems in these nomadic peoples' history.

This collection of twenty-eight essays presents an up-to-date survey of pre-Islamic Iran, from the earliest dynasty of Illam to the end of Sasanian empire, encompassing a rich diversity of peoples and cultures. Historically, Iran served as a bridge between the earlier Near Eastern cultures and the later classical world of the Mediterranean, and had a profound influence on political, military, economic, and cultural aspects of the ancient world. Written by international scholars and drawing mainly on the field of practical archaeology, which traditionally has shared little in the way of theories and methods, the book provides crucial pieces to the puzzle of the national identity of Iranian cultures from a historical perspective. Revealing the wealth and splendor of ancient Iranian society - its rich archaeological data and sophisticated artistic craftsmanship - most of which has never before been presented outside of Iran, this beautifully illustrated book presents a range of studies addressing specific aspects of Iranian archaeology to show why the artistic masterpieces of ancient Iranians rank among the finest ever produced. Together, the authors analyze how archaeology can inform us about our cultural past, and what remains to still be discovered in this important region.

In 2006, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens celebrates seventy five years of archaeological work in the Athenian Agora, the civic center of classical Athens. Since the first trench was dug on May 25th 1931, excavations have continued in a series of yearly campaigns, only briefly interrupted by the Second World War. The impact of the discoveries made on our understanding of Athenian history and topography is well-documented, but relatively little has been published about the fascinating history of the Agora excavations from the clearing of one of the most densely settled areas of Ottoman Athens at the start of the enterprise to the reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos twenty five years later to house the finds. This book fills that gap, presenting a pictorial history of the project illustrated with many archival photographs. Rather than taking a simple chronological approach, the authors focus on some of the greatest contributions of the American School's work, such as the reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Apostles from 1954-1956 and the painstaking work involved in re-building the Stoa. are a number of maps and diagrams placing the images in context.

Complementing the previous volume Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I, this book explores Ghor as-Safi's ancient history and archaeology through the material remains found during excavations. The finds described are from historical periods and include unpublished early Christian and Aramaic inscriptions as well as Arabic writing and graffiti. Newly discovered mosaic pavements are presented along with other noteworthy finds such as glazed imported wares, local industrial pottery, fine glass, an array of coins and specialised metal work. Animal and plant remains testify to varied and rich agricultural regimes which sustained the prosperity of ancient communities. In turn, this affluence seems to have led to a fairly sophisticated and literate society in an otherwise rather desolate environment. Studies on the human remains affirm a robust population. Ancient Landscapes of Zoara II, as with the previous volume, is aimed at students and researchers of the archaeology of the Near East and the southern Levant in particular. It is also of interest to readers wishing to further their understanding of the region's medieval cultures, with a focus on material finds from archaeological excavations belonging to the Byzantine and Islamic periods.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE AND THE HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE A journey told through stories and songs into Doggerland, the ancient region that once joined the east coast of England to Holland Time Song tells of the creation, the existence and the loss of a country now called Doggerland, a huge and fertile area that once connected the entire east coast of England with mainland Europe, until it was finally submerged by rising sea levels around 5000 BC. Julia Blackburn mixes fragments from her own life with a series of eighteen 'songs' and all sorts of stories about the places and the people she meets in her quest to get closer to an understanding of this vanished land. She sees the footprints of early humans fossilised in the soft mud of an estuary alongside the scattered pockmarks made by rain falling eight thousand years ago. She visits a cave where the remnants of a Neanderthal meal have turned to stone. In Denmark she sits beside Tollund Man who, despite having lain in a peat bog since the start of the Bronze Age, seems to be about to wake from a dream... 'This book is a wonder' Adam Nicolson, Spectator 'A clairvoyant and poetic conversation with the past' Antony Gormley

Investigation of literary and archaeological evidence in search of pagan sources for the Arthurian legend. `Darrah makes the valid point that episodes in the Arthurian romances read like motifs from the ancient mythologies...[he] reconstructs a lost British paganism, grounded in the rivers, hills and woods, and especially those grey monoliths...reminders of a cosmology vanished from this island. NIKOLAI TOLSTOY, DAILY TELEGRAPH `Contends, with a good deal of evidence, that the impact of pre-Christian Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Cornish and Breton religion is greater than has been previously thought... Extensively researched and well written.' CHOICE The origins of Arthurian romance will always be a hotly disputed subject. The great moments of the legends belong partly to dimly-remembered history, partly to the poets' imagination down the ages, yet there is another strand to the stories which goes back deeper and further: the traces of ancient pagan religion, found both in Arthurian heroes who have inherited the attributes of gods, and in episodes which reflect ancient religious rituals. Darrah's careful study of the thematic relationships of, particularly, the more obscure episodes of the romances and his identification of the relative geography of Arthurian Britain as portrayed in the romances will be valuable even to those who differ with his conclusions. His most original contribution to an unravelling of a pagan Arthurian past lies in his appropriation of the fascinating evidence of standing stones and pagan cultic sites. This is dark and difficult territory, but building on elusive clues, and tracing a range of sites, especially in south-west Britain, John Darrah hasadded a significant new dimension to the search for the sources of the legends of Arthur and his court. JOHN DARRAH has also written The Real Camelot.

Excavations at East Winch on the Greensand Belt in north-west Norfolk, revealed a Romano-British pottery production site - part of the Nar Valley industry - as well as more limited evidence of iron smelting and possible habitation. The principal features were a trackway, potentially linking the site to the nearby iron smelting site at Ashwicken, and part of a ditched enclosure containing an aisled building, a stone-founded workshop, four Nar Valley kilns and a drying oven. The pottery assemblage adds considerably to our understanding of this industry. Of principal importance is the occurrence within the pottery assemblage of tightly dated imports which assist in developing a chronology for the Nar Valley industry. Archaeomagnetic dating of one of the kilns indicated a last firing at some point between AD 200 and 250. A decline in pottery production in the later Roman period seems to have coincided with a renewed emphasis on iron smelting nearby and the disposal of quantities of tap slag on site.