Ebooks de historia, página 23 de 2153

Since the advent of Assyriology in the early nineteenth century it has been known that two distinct scripts were used in ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions and documents. One, usefully characterized as "cursive," was used for the ephemeral documents of "daily life" as well as on most library and archival texts. The other was a deliberately archaizing script reserved for ceremonial use. This ceremonial script, of Babylonian origin, contained both archaic and archaizing signs, and was in productive use for over two millennia, not only in Babylonia but occasionally also in Assyria and beyond. Yet to date there has been no systematic study devoted specifically to this ceremonial script, nor any published syllabary of the archaic and archaizing signs it employs. This volume attempts to rectify this deficiency by providing a substantive introduction to Babylonian ceremonial script, along with a history of its modern study, and several case studies of how the script was actually used. The introduction is supplemented by an edition of the paleographic lists of the second and first millennia BCE, which contain pedagogical inventories of the archaic and archaizing cuneiform signs, illustrating how the ceremonial script was taught, learned and transmitted in scholarly contexts.

This volume offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the destructions that allegedly occurred at sites across the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age, and challenges the numerous grand theories that have been put forward to account for them. The author demonstrates that earthquakes, warfare, and destruction all played a much smaller role in this period than the literature of the past several decades has claimed, and makes the case that the end of the Late Bronze Age was a far less dramatic and more protracted process than is generally believed.

This book focuses on researching the chime stone, a percussion instrument carved from stone that originated in ancient China. In antiquity, people regarded the chime stone as an important musical instrument because its presence indicated the wealth and status of the tomb owners. In the late Neolithic Age, people discovered the differences between each type of stone and their sound qualities. Chime stone manufacture focused on the timbre of the natural stone, as opposed to both materials and sounding based selection in later periods, which formed a part of making a perfect and delicate chime stone. In the earlier period the chime stone was only a musical instrument for producing rhythmic sound, but as time went by, chime stones gradually became melodic instruments and were played with string, wind, and other percussion instruments in ensemble. The book is divided into 10 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive view of existing research, sets out the aims of the present research alongside material sources and methodology, elaborates the theoretical framework of the book, and clarifies terminology in both English and Chinese. A summary of the main chime stone finds of the Yellow River andthe Yangtze River valley areas, together with geographical features of these distributions, is provided in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 to 8 contain an in-depth discussion of the chime stones unearthed from those regions, including classification and typology, shape, manufacture, assemblage and performance of the chime stones as well as the detailed tone measurementand analysis. Chapter 9 examines the acoustic properties of chime stones. Chapter 10 looks at the use and function of chime stones, which includes the role of chime stones in ancient ensembles, cultural context, use in ritual music, and the symbolic meaning of chime stones in ancient China.

In this volume, Barbara Stark examines settlement in the coastal plain of lowland Mesoamerica, which was richly endowed with fertile soil and valued tropical resources such as jaguars, cacao, avian species with bright plumage, and cotton. The book provides basic archaeological data about regional settlement from three decades of survey research in south-central Veracruz in the western lower Papaloapan basin, a region with low density urbanism. The data reveals political and social change, with consolidation of wealth by elite families during the Late Classic period. The political analysis considers archaeological evidence related to several organizational principles: collective versus autocratic, corporate versus exclusionary/network, and segmentary (unspecialized versus specialized). Many variables related to these principles used by other scholars are either suited to historically documented states, not archaeological ones, or ambiguous. Many published studies either focus on a particular city or use documents or other evidence drawn from the top of the settlement hierarchy, characterizing the whole society politically from a biased sample. This political analysis is regional in scope and attentive to variation in the settlement hierarchy, providing a guidepost to analysis of political principles with archaeological data.

The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology was founded in the early 1980s by Ellen Hickmann, John Blacking, Mantle Hood and Cajsa S. Lund. This is the second volume of the new anthology series published by the study group, turning to the topic of cross-cultural musical interactions through time. Each volume of the series is composed of concise case studies, bringing together the worlds foremost researchers on a particular subject, reflecting the wide scope of music-archaeological research world-wide. The series draws in perspectives from a range of different disciplines, including newly emerging fields such as archaeoacoustics, but particularly encouraging both music-archaeological and ethnomusicological perspectives.

The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology was founded in the early 1980s by Ellen Hickmann, John Blacking, Mantle Hood and Cajsa S. Lund. This is the third volume of the new anthology series published by the study group, bringing together theoretical and methodological approaches in the study of past music cultures. Each volume of the series is composed of concise case studies, bringing together the worlds foremost researchers on a particular subject, reflecting the wide scope of music-archaeological research world-wide. The series draws in perspectives from a range of different disciplines, including newly emerging fields such as archaeoacoustics, but particularly encouraging both music-archaeological and ethnomusicological perspectives.

The Wari State was the first expansionistic power to develop in the Andean highlands. Emerging in the area of modern Ayacucho (Peru) around AD 650, the Wari expanded to control much of the central Andes by the time of their collapse at AD 1000. This book describes the discovery and excavation (2010-2012) of a major new Wari site (Espiritu Pampa), located in the subtropical region of Vilcabamba (Department of Cuzco). While it was long believed that the Wari established trade networks between their highland capital and the Amazonian lowlands, the identification of a large Wari site in the Vilcabamba region came as a surprise to most Wari specialists. This book covers the first three years of excavations at the Wari site of Espiritu Pampa. It describes the identification of a central plaza surrounded by a series of D-shaped structures, that are believed to the loci of special activates for the Wari. It also describes the contents of more than 30 burials, many of which contained finely crafted silver, gold, bronze and ceramic objects.

Winner of AIAs 2022 Anna Marguerite McCann Award for Fieldwork Reports The rugged highlands of southern Yemen are one of the less archaeologically explored regions of the Near East. This final report of survey and excavations by the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) Project addresses the development of food production and human landscapes, topics of enduring interest as scholarly conceptualizations of the Anthropocene take shape. Along with data from Manayzah, site of the earliest dated remains of clearly domesticated animals in Arabia, the volume also documents some of the earliest water management technologies in Arabia, thereby anchoring regional dates for the beginnings of pastoralism and of potential farming. The authors argue that the initial Holocene inhabitants of Wadi Sana were Arabian hunters who adopted limited pastoral stock in small social groups, then expanded their social collectives through sacrifice and feasts in a sustained pastoral landscape. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience of archaeologists including not only those working in Arabia, but more broadly those interested in the ancient Near East, Africa, South Asia, and in Holocene landscape histories generally.

The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology was founded in the early 1980s by Ellen Hickmann, John Blacking, Mantle Hood and Cajsa S. Lund. This is the first volume of the new anthology series published by the study group, turning to the topic of music and religion in past cultures. Each volume of the series is composed of concise case studies, bringing together the worlds foremost researchers on a particular subject, reflecting the wide scope of music-archaeological research world-wide. The series draws in perspectives from a range of different disciplines, including newly emerging fields such as archaeoacoustics, but particularly encouraging both music-archaeological and ethnomusicological perspectives.

This volume offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the destructions that allegedly occurred at sites across the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age, and challenges the numerous grand theories that have been put forward to account for them. The author demonstrates that earthquakes, warfare, and destruction all played a much smaller role in this period than the literature of the past several decades has claimed, and makes the case that the end of the Late Bronze Age was a far less dramatic and more protracted process than is generally believed.

This volume completes the documentation of excavations at the Nubian site of Qasr Ibrim conducted by the Egypt Exploration Society, continuing the tradition of documenting the history and archaeology of the site phase-by-phase. Previous monographs dealt with the Ballana phase (c. AD 350-600), the earlier (c. 600-1172) and the later medieval period (c. 1172-1500). The present work carries the story forward to the final abandonment of the site in AD 1812, the period when Lower Nubia was annexed to the Ottoman Empire, and an Ottoman garrison was installed at Qasr Ibrim. Part I deals with the historical record of the site, based on archival sources, Part II presents the archaeological evidence, followed in Part III by brief summaries on the Ottoman period artefacts found at the site, in particular pottery (by William Y. Adams), basketry (by Boyce N. Driskell), and textiles (by Nettie K. Adams)

This volume offers the first comprehensive overview of the evolution over time of a foundational concept of the Egyptian afterlife beliefs, the Duat, or netherworld. The Duat is a complicated, multifaceted notion, which was never canonized into a single version of the beyond, but offered instead a variety of alternatives attempting to describe the metaphysical realms beyond the visible world, and beyond life. Theological speculations gave rise to a rich textual and visual repertoire, which underwent a process of evolution over thousands of years, during which newer ideas and images were constantly introduced. Through the analysis of royal and non-royal funerary texts from the late Old Kingdom to the end of the New Kingdom, this book traces the development of the conceptualization of the notion of Duat, outlining what it encompassed and where it was imagined to be located. In addition to the translation and discussion of the most significant passages of the texts analyzed, each chapter also provides an overview of the individual compositions and of the relevant theological, cosmological, and astronomical notions complementing the conceptual framework, of which the Duat formed but a part. Additionally, discussions of concurrent changes in Egyptian culture, society, and ideology are included in order to clarify the context in which afterlife beliefs and related texts evolved. An analysis of the correlation between funerary compositions and their material supports complements the study, emphasizing the Egyptians belief in a magical synergy between texts, images, and their contexts in the activation of a suitable, effective afterlife for the recipients of the texts.

In this volume Christina Di Cerbo and Richard Jasnow publish 92 Demotic graffiti, along with several ostraca and mummy bandages, from Theban Tombs 11, 12, Tomb-399-, and environs recorded and studied under the aegis of the Spanish Mission at Dra Abu el-Naga directed by Jose Galan. These texts from the mid-second century BCE were inscribed on the tomb walls by workers of the Ibis and Falcon cult, who used the New Kingdom tombs as burial places for mummified birds dedicated to the gods Thoth and Horus. This varied corpus of texts includes not only votive formulae and lists of names, but, most unusually, labels for chambers and halls to guide the men depositing the mummies through the labyrinthine catacombs. The cult workers also recorded important burials and memorialized events of special significance, as when a massive conflagration broke out that consumed several mummies and damaged the tomb walls. The Missions conservators recovered many hitherto virtually invisible graffiti. Numerous inscriptions posed daunting epigraphic challenges; the text editors employed computer applications, especially DStretch, in order to enhance the digital images forming the basis for decipherment. In an introductory chapter Galan discusses the work of the Spanish Mission at Dra Abu Naga and recounts the complicated history of this important area of the Theban Necropolis down to the Roman period. The graffiti illustrate how New Kingdom tombs were reused for the sacred animal cult in the Ptolemaic period. Francisco Bosch-Puche and Salima Ikram contribute a detailed chapter analyzing the archaeological context of the graffiti and the material evidence for the animal cult in the site. The volume, a holistic study of this area at the twilight of Pharaonic history, represents a true collaboration between archaeologists and philologists.

Graffiti, dipinti, rock-inscriptions and other additions to walls and rocks are integral to the landscape and writing practices of ancient Egypt. This book focuses on the margins of traditional ancient Egyptian epigraphic corpora. It aims to provide an all-encompassing view of graffiti practices and corpora in ancient Egypt, ranging from predynastic rock art in the Eastern Desert, to hieratic inscriptions in Middle Egyptian tombs, and demotic signatures in Karnak temple. A range of specialists present primary data from three different environments-deserts, tombs, and temples-following common lines of inquiry that aim to look beyond their textual or iconographic content and address graffitis agency more closely. Accordingly, this book investigates the interplay between secondary inscriptions and images, the space in which they were embedded, and the audiences for whom they were intended. Despite the diversity inherent in the nature of graffiti, common paths and shared threads of discussion emerge once these inscriptions are considered as material objects and socio-cultural practices.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has had a long-standing interest in the archaeology of Iran. In 1956, Robert H. Dyson, Jr., began excavations south of Lake Urmia at the large mounded site of Hasanlu. Although the results of these excavations await final publication, the Hasanlu Special Studies series-of which this monograph is the fourth volume-describes and analyzes specific aspects of technology, style, and iconography. This volume describes a group of ongoing research projects, most of which provide new information on Iron Age technology. A theme that runs through these studies is the degree to which ancient workers varied the composition of their products to create desirable colors and textures. The book begins with a description of the wooden furniture fragments along with fittings and decorative elements for furniture. It presents the first detailed description of the charred textiles, and places these textiles in their archaeological contexts, suggesting the roles that textiles may have played in daily life. Later chapters assess the significance of Hasanlu in the history of glassmaking, describe the archaeometallurgy of the Hasanlu IVB bronzes, and present a catalog of the bladed weapons. Also, the book presents the evidence for deliberate violence against individuals as indicated by their skeletal injuries and the results of a project undertaken to determine whether DNA could be used to obtain a better understanding of the population history at Hasanlu.

For almost three thousand years, Egypt and Mesopotamia were each ruled by the single sacred office of kingship. Though geographically near, these ancient civilizations were culturally distinct, and scholars have historically contrasted their respective conceptualizations of the ultimate authority, imagining Egyptian kings as invested with cosmic power and Mesopotamian kings as primarily political leaders. In fact, both kingdoms depended on religious ideals and political resources to legitimate and exercise their authority. Cross-cultural comparison reveals the sophisticated and varied strategies that ancient kings used to unify and govern their growing kingdoms. Experiencing Power, Generating Authority draws on rich material records left behind by both kingdoms, from royal monuments and icons to the written deeds and commissions of kings. Thirteen essays provocatively juxtapose the relationships Egyptian and Mesopotamian kings had with their gods and religious mediators, as well as their subjects and court officials. They also explore the ideological significance of landscape in each kingdom, since the natural and built environment influenced the economy, security, and cosmology of these lands. The interplay of religion, politics, and territory is dramatized by the everyday details of economy, trade, and governance, as well as the social crises of war or the death of a king. Reexamining established notions of cosmic and political rule, Experiencing Power, Generating Authority challenges and deepens scholarly approaches to rulership in the ancient world. Contributors: Mehmet-Ali AtaC, Miroslav BArta, Dominique Charpin, D. Bruce Dickson, Eckart Frahm, Alan B. Lloyd, Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia, Ludwig D. Morenz, Ellen Morris, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Michael Roaf, Walther Sallaberger, JoAnn Scurlock.

The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion argues that the history and archaeology of the site of Gordion, in central Turkey, have been misunderstood since the beginning of its excavation in the 1950s. The first excavation director, Rodney Young, found evidence for substantial destruction during the first decade of fieldwork; this was interpreted as proof that Gordion had been destroyed ca. 700 B.C. by the Kimmerians, a group of invaders from the Caucusus/Black Sea region, as attested in several ancient literary sources. During the last decade, however, renewed research on the archaeological evidence, within, above, and below the destruction level indicated that the catastrophe that destroyed much of Gordion occurred 100 years earlier, in 800 B.C., and was the result of a fire that quickly got out of control rather than a foreign invasion. This discovery requires a reassessment of Anatolian history during the entire first millennium B.C. and has serious implications for our understanding of the surrounding regions, such as Assyria, Syria, Greece, and Urartu, among others. The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion is the product of a multidisciplinary research program, with dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating working hand in hand with textual and artifact analysis, each of which is treated in a separate chapter in this volume. All of these categories of evidence point to the same conclusion and demonstrate that we need to look at Gordion, and much of the ancient Near East, in a completely new way.

The archaeological site of Gordion is most famous as the home of the Phrygian king Midas and as the place where Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot on his way to conquer Asia. Located in central Anatolia (present-day Turkey) near the confluence of the Porsuk and Sakarya rivers, Gordion also lies on historic trade routes between east and west as well as north to the Black Sea. Favorably situated for long-distance trade, Gordions setting is marginal for agricultural cultivation but well suited to pastoral production. It is therefore not surprising that with the exception of a single Chalcolithic site, the earliest settlements in the region are fairly late-they date to the Early Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium B.C.). The earliest known levels of Gordion, too, date to the Early Bronze Age, and occupation of at least some part of the site was nearly continuous through at least Roman times (second half of the 1st century B.C.). This work is a contribution to both the archaeobotany of west Asia and the archaeology of the site of Gordion. The books major concern is understanding long-term changes in the environment and in land use. An important finding, with implications for modern land management, is that the most sustainable use of this landscape involves mixed farming of dry-farmed cereals, summer-irrigated garden crops, and animal husbandry. The large number of samples from the 1988-89 seasons analyzed here make this a rich source for understanding other materials from the Gordion excavations and for comparison with other sites in west Asia.

"En razón de esto el firmante se reconoce en el día constituido a seguir en su esférica clase, si bien con la precisa necesidad de subsistencia, porque su estrella no se lo permite…".Juan Díaz Lozano

In the history of the European Communities, a declaration on European identity was adopted for the first time at the Copenhagen Summit in December 1973. Through this document, the heads of state and government set out a programmatic concept for further European integration, stronger internal cohesion and the emergence of a common foreign policy, in order to advance the unification process. After a short introduction, the book examines the background of the declaration, the role played by the founding member states, the states of the Northern enlargement (Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom), the Council of Europe, the European Council summit itself, and the European Court of Justice. The volume sheds light on what really lays behind the Copenhagen Declaration.