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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > Middle & Near Eastern archaeology
This book brings together our present-day knowledge about textile
terminology in the Akkadian language of the first-millennium BC. In
fact, the progress in the study of the Assyrian dialect and its
grammar and lexicon has shown the increasing importance of studying
the language as well as cataloging and analysing the terminology of
material culture in the documentation of the first world empire.
The book analyses the terms for raw materials, textile procedures,
and textile end products consumed in first-millennium BC Assyria.
In addition, a new edition of a number of written records from
Neo-Assyrian administrative archives completes the work. The book
also contains a number of tables, a glossary with all the discussed
terms, and a catalogue of illustrations. In light of the recent
development of textile research in ancient languages, the book is
aimed at providing scholars of Ancient Near Eastern studies and
ancient textile studies with a comprehensive work on the Assyrian
textiles.
Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of
Jean-Francois Champollion, the impoverished, arrogant and brilliant
child of the French Revolution who made the vital breakthrough in
deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This finely illustrated
account charts Champollion's dramatic life and achievements: by
turns a teenage professor, a supporter of Napoleon, an exile, a
fanatical decipherer and a curator at the Louvre, he lived life to
the full but drove himself into an early grave. Andrew Robinson's
full-blooded account brings the man, his setbacks and his ultimate
triumphs vividly to life.
This volume presents a series of studies by scholars working in
Middle Eastern archaeology who actively apply social theory to
interpret their fieldwork. It aims to highlight the value of using
social theory in the interpretation of field work in a region
where, traditionally, such approaches have not played a major
role.There are a number of factors that account for why social
theory is often under-exploited by archaeologists in this part of
the world. In many countries, where large numbers of the foreign
archaeologists are involved, a division between those doing
fieldwork and those undertaking archaeological interpretation can
easily arise. Or, the lack of interest in social theory may stem
from a legacy of positivism that overrides other approaches. There
is also the fact that archaeology and anthropology often belong to
separate academic departments and are considered two separate
disciplines disconnected from each other. In some cases the
centrality of historical paradigms has precluded the use of social
theory.There are also divisions between universities and other
research institutions, such as departments of antiquities, which is
not conductive to interdisciplinary cooperation. This factor is
especially debilitating in contexts of rapid destruction of sites
and the exponential growth of salvage excavations and emergency
surveys.The papers integrate a wide range of perspectives including
'New' or 'Processual' archaeology, Marxist, 'Post-Processual',
evolutionist, cognitive, symbolic, and Cyber- archaeologies and
touch on many topics including 3D representation, GIS, mapping and
social theory, semiotics and linguistics, gender and
bioarchaeology, social and technical identities, and modern
historical modellingy and social practices in Middle Eastern
archaeology.
The ancient Egyptians had very definite views about their
neighbours, some positive, some negative. As one would expect,
Egyptian perceptions of 'the other' were subject to change over
time, especially in response to changing political, social and
economic conditions. Thus, as Asiatics became a more familiar part
of everyday life in Egypt, and their skills and goods became
increasingly important, depictions of them took on more favourable
aspects. The investigation by necessity involves a
multi-disciplined approach which seeks to combine and synthesize
data from a wider variety of sources than drawn upon in earlier
studies. By the same token, the book addresses the interests of,
and has appeal to, a broad spectrum of scholars and general
readers.
The origin of the second Kingdom of Kush (c. 850 BCE-350 CE) has
been the subject of much discussion and debate over the years. The
kingdom that arose at Napata lasted over a thousand years, evolving
over time and continuing to influence the polities that emerged
after the kingdom broke apart in about 350 CE. One of the kingdom's
modern legacies is as an early example of an African state,
allowing for an exploration of larger theoretical questions
surrounding state formation, religion and ideology, political
economy, identity, and intercultural interaction. At the same time,
the Kingdom of Kush has played an important and controversial role
in the development of Black studies, the discourse of Afrocentrism,
and a consideration of the asymmetries in the racial discourse
surrounding Egypt in particular and Africa more generally, both in
their historical and contemporary incarnations. The Origins and
Afterlives of Kush conference was held at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, July 25-27, 2019. Organized by Stuart
Tyson Smith with the assistance of Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei and
sponsored by the UCSB Department of Anthropology with support from
the College of Letters and Sciences and the Institute for Social,
Behavioral, and Economic Research, it featured daily discussion
sessions and twenty-one presentations, of which ten are published
in this special volume of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian
Interconnections.
Beneath the waters of Abukir Bay, at the edge of the Nile Delta,
lie the submerged remains of the ancient Egyptian cities Canopus
and Thonis-Heracleion, which sank over 1,000 years ago but were
dramatically rediscovered in the 20th century and brought to the
surface by marine archaeologists in the 1990s. These pioneering
underwater excavations continue today, and have yielded a wealth of
ancient artefacts, to be exhibited in Britain for the first time in
2016. Through these spectacular finds, this book tells the story of
how two iconic ancient civilizations, Egypt and Greece, interacted
in the late first millennium bc. From the foundation of Naukratis
and Thonis-Heracleion as trading posts to the conquest of Alexander
the Great, through the ensuing centuries of Ptolemaic rule to the
ultimate dominance of the Roman Empire on the world stage, Greeks
and Egyptians lived alongside one another in these lively cities,
sharing their politics, religious ideas, languages, scripts and
customs. Greek kings adopted the regalia of the pharaoh; ordinary
Greek citizens worshipped in Hellenic sanctuaries next to Egyptian
temples; and their ancient gods and mythologies became ever more
closely intertwined. This book showcases a spectacular collection
of artefacts, coupled with a retelling of the history by
world-renowned experts in the subject (including the sites'
long-term excavator), bringing the reader face-to-face with this
vibrant ancient society. Accompanies the most sensational
exhibition of ancient Egyptian and Greek discoveries to be held in
the UK for decades, opening at the British Museum.
In ancient Egypt, one of the primary roles of the king was to
maintain order and destroy chaos. Since the beginning of Egyptian
history, images of foreigners were used as symbols of chaos and
thus shown as captives being bound and trampled under the king's
feet. The early 18th dynasty (1550-1372 BCE) was the height of
international trade, diplomacy and Egyptian imperial expansion.
During this time new images of foreigners bearing tribute became
popular in the tombs of the necropolis at Thebes, the burial place
of the Egyptian elite. This volume analyses the new presentation of
foreigners in these tombs. Far from being chaotic, they are shown
in an orderly fashion, carrying tribute that underscores the wealth
and prestige of the tomb owner. This orderliness reflects the
ability of the Egyptian state to impose order on foreign lands, but
also crucially symbolises the tomb owner's ability to overcome the
chaos of death and achieve a successful afterlife. Illustrated with
colour plates and black-and-white images, this new volume is an
important and original study of the significance of these images
for the tomb owner and the functioning of the funerary cult.
Every year thousands of enthusiasts, amateur and professional,
spend the summer months digging in the sands of Israel hoping to
find items that in some way relate to the places and events
depicted in the Bible. This work looks at the history and
archaeology of the Bible lands.
Ancient clay cooking pots in the southern Levant are unappealing,
rough pots that are not easily connected to meals known from
ancient writings or iconographic representations. To narrow the gap
between excavated sherds and ancient meals, the approach adopted in
this study starts by learning how food traditionally was processed,
preserved, cooked, stored, and transported in clay containers. This
research is based on the cookware and culinary practices in
traditional societies in Cyprus and the Levant, where people still
make pots by hand.Clay pots were not only to cook or hold foods.
Their absorbent and permeable walls stored memories of food
residue. Clay jars were automatic yogurt makers and fermentation
vats for wine and beer, while jugs were the traditional water
coolers and purifiers. Dairy foods, grains, and water lasted longer
and/or tasted better when stored or prepared in clay pots. Biblical
texts provide numerous terms for cookware without details of how
they looked, how they were used, or why there are so many different
words.Recent studies of potters for over a century in the southern
Levant provide a wealth of names whose diversity helps to delineate
the various categories of ancient cookware and names in the text.
Ancient Cookware from the Levant begins with a description of five
data sources: excavations, ancient and medieval texts, 20th century
government reports, early accounts of potters, and
ethnoarchaeological studies. The final section focuses on the
shape, style, and manufacture of cookware for the past 12,000
years. For archaeologists, changes in cooking pot morphology offer
important chronological information for dating entire assemblages,
from Neolithic to recent times. The survey of pot shapes in Israel,
Palestine, and Jordan presents how different shapes were made and
used.
This is the story of the landfill that operated in Jerusalem during
the first century CE and served as its garbage dump during the ca.
50-year period that followed Jesus’s crucifixion through to the
period that led to the great revolt of the Jews just prior to the
city’s destruction. The book presents an extensive investigation
of hundreds of thousands of items that were systematically
excavated from the thick layers of landfill. It brings together
experts who conducted in-depth studies of every sort of material
discarded as refuse—ceramic, metal, glass, bone, wood, and more.
This research presents an amazing and tantalizing picture of daily
life in ancient Jerusalem, and how life was shaped and regulated by
strict behavioral rules (halacha). The book also explores why
garbage was collected in Jerusalem in so strict a manner and why
the landfill operated for only about 50 years. Half a century of
garbage from Early Roman–period Jerusalem provides an abundance
of new data and new insights into the ideological choices and new
religious concepts emerging and developing among those living in
Jerusalem at this critical moment. It is an eye-opener for
archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, and theologians, as
well as for the general reader.
The surgeon William Ainsworth (1807-96) acted as the geologist of
the 1835 Euphrates Expedition, his account of which is also
reissued in this series. Great interest was aroused by the
scientific and archaeological findings of that journey, and the
Royal Geographical Society helped to fund a further expedition,
ostensibly to make contact with the Nestorian Christians of the
region, but covertly to make further mineralogical investigations.
Ainsworth was the leader of the expedition, and his two-volume
account was published in 1842. Starting from Istanbul in 1839, he
took a route through Asia Minor, northern Syria, Kurdistan, Persia
and Armenia, returning to Istanbul in 1840. The expedition was not
regarded as a success, as Ainsworth had massively overspent the
budget originally allotted by the sponsors, and his secret
activities were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, but the work
remains a vivid account of the area.
The career of Arthur Weigall (1880-1934) encompassed Egyptology but
also stage design, film criticism and journalism, as well as
fiction and books about ancient Egypt. After studying in Germany,
he worked at Abydos with Flinders Petrie, but in 1905 he was
unexpectedly promoted to Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper
Egypt, when Howard Carter was forced to resign. His work in Egypt,
especially in the area of Luxor, focused on the conservation of
monuments and the prevention of the shipping of artefacts abroad,
until 1911, when he returned to London. In the preface to this
two-volume work, published in 1925, Weigall likens the writing of a
history of Egypt to the piecing together of a jigsaw puzzle
consisting of thousands of pieces, but intends to present a
chronological narrative at a level to satisfy both the scholar and
the interested amateur.
In this book, Nadine Moeller challenges prevailing views on Egypt's
non-urban past and argues for Egypt as an early urban society. She
traces the emergence of urban features during the Predynastic
period up to the disintegration of the powerful Middle Kingdom
state (c.3500-1650 BC). This book offers a synthesis of the
archaeological data that sheds light on the different facets of
urbanism in ancient Egypt. Drawing on evidence from recent
excavations as well as a vast body of archaeological data, this
book explores the changing settlement patterns by contrasting
periods of strong political control against those of
decentralization. It also discusses households and the layout of
domestic architecture, which are key elements for understanding how
society functioned and evolved over time. Moeller reveals what
settlement patterns can tell us about the formation of complex
society and the role of the state in urban development in ancient
Egypt.
During the Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians constructed
elaborately decorated mortuary monuments for their pharaohs. By the
late Old Kingdom (ca. 2435-2153 BCE), these pyramid complexes began
to contain a new and unique type of statue, the so-called prisoner
statues. Despite being known to Egyptologists for decades, these
statues of kneeling, bound foreign captives have been only
partially documented, and questions surrounding their use,
treatment, and exact meaning have remained unanswered. Ancient
Egyptian Prisoner Statues-the first comprehensive analysis of the
prisoner statues-addresses this gap, demonstrating that the
Egyptians conceived of and used the prisoner statues differently
over time as a response to contemporary social, cultural, and
historical changes. In the process, the author contributes new data
and interpretations on topics as diverse as the purpose and
function of the pyramid complex, the ways in which the Egyptians
understood and depicted ethnicity, and the agency of artists in
ancient Egypt. Ultimately, this volume provides a fuller
understanding of not only the prisoner statues but also the
Egyptian late Old Kingdom as a whole.
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Fragments of Colossae
(Paperback)
Cabra Collective Cabra Collective, Alan Cadwallader
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R1,384
R729
Discovery Miles 7 290
Save R655 (47%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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An engagingly visual guide book to a lost city from a scholar at
the forefront of research on Colossae. Alan Cadwallader distils
information, insights and interpretation into a rich collection of
evidence from Colossae and its environs, giving us access to a
fascinating and under-researched city. Together with a significant
chapter by Rosemary Canavan, Cadwallader's often ground-breaking
work gives us unprecedented access into the life and context of
this city. A book for all who enjoy time travel with expert guides!
There was probably only one past, but there are many different
histories. As mental representations of narrow segments of the
past, 'histories' reflect different cultural contexts and different
historians, although 'history' is a scientific enterprise whenever
it processes representative data using rational and controllable
methods to work out hypotheses that can be falsified by empirical
evidence. A History of Biblical Israel combines experience gained
through decades of teaching biblical exegesis and courses on the
history of ancient Israel, and of on-going involvement in biblical
archaeology. 'Biblical Israel' is understood as a narrative
produced primarily in the province of Yehud to forge the collective
memory of the elite that operated the temple of Jerusalem under the
auspices of the Achaemenid imperial apparatus. The notion of
'Biblical Israel' provides the necessary hindsight to narrate the
fate of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as the pre-history of
'Biblical Israel', since the archives of these kingdoms were only
mined in the Persian era to produce the grand biblical
narrative.The volume covers the history of 'Biblical Israel'
through its fragmentation in the Hellenistic and Roman periods
until 136 CE, when four Roman legions crushed the revolt of Simeon
Bar-Kosiba.
Pen, Stylus, and Chisel: An Ancient Egypt Sourcebook helps students
understand the world of the ancient Egyptians by introducing them
to primary sources that cover a broader spectrum, both temporally
and geographically, than most ancient Egyptian readers. Beginning
with The Old Kingdom in the third millennium BCE, the book covers
3,000 years of history, progressing through the Middle Kingdom, New
Kingdom, Late Kingdom, Persian Period, and ending with the
Ptolemaic Dynasty in the first century BCE. Students will learn
about the Egyptians' political ideas, social customs, religious
views, economy, ethics, and forms of expression. The material
includes documents written both by the Egyptians and by those who
observed them, which gives students a well-rounded view of the
Egyptian people, their history, and their culture. The book
includes maps, introductions to the readings to place them in
context and enhance comprehension, discussion questions to be used
in class or as writing assignments, and a glossary. Pen, Stylus,
and Chisel can be used in history and humanities courses on ancient
Egypt.
During recent years new excavations at a number of Neolithic
locations in the Central Zagros by German, British and Iranian
archaeologists have revealed a series of important results. Notable
are the Early Neolithic sites of Choga Golan, Jani, Sheikh-e Abad,
and East Chia Sabz, all discovered and excavated within the last
ten years. In this volume Hojjat Darabi gives a survey of the
discoveries on which our knowledge is based. The book is set in a
chronological frame, in an environmental context, and in a regional
and theoretical perspective. It is illustrated by a number of
useful photos, drawings charts and diagrams. The book is a
presentation of our knowledge about Neolithic Revolution as it
appears right now; in addition, its provides an outline of further
steps for future research.
The Tell el-Ghaba project was born as part of an international
project launched in the early 1990s by the Egyptian government and
UNESCO to save the monuments of North Sinai threatened by the
imminent construction of the El-Salam Canal and its distributaries.
This is the third volume of the work undertaken by the Argentine
Archaeological Mission (AAM) at Tell el-Ghaba in North Sinai. This
volume of Tell el-Ghaba consolidates and extends the results of the
excavations undertaken in the first stage between 1995 and 1999 and
includes the results of the fieldwork conducted in the second stage
in 2010. The overall objective of this project is to study the
history, archaeology and environment of Tell el-Ghaba. Our research
has been directed at developing a deep knowledge of the site: its
environment, occupancy levels, architecture, economy, urban
planning and social structure, and towards understanding the role
of Tell el-Ghaba at a regional level, taking into account its
particular location in the north-eastern boundary of the Delta and
its proximity to the route that once connected Egypt with the south
of Palestine. The volume is divided into an introduction and four
main sections: The environmental and physical studies; the
fieldwork; pottery; other finds.
This book is the result of a large-scale research undertaking
"Trade Routes of the Near East", examining Egyptian-Levantine
interaction in the 4th Millennium BC. Chapters explore many issues
related to copper and trade in the long period covering the
Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, but also Roman period, with a special
extension to present metallurgical practices in the African
interior. A wide range of data discussed here was collected from
across the eastern Mediterranean region including Egypt, Jordan,
Cyprus and Greece.
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