Ebooks de historia, página 31 de 2153

Combining a guide for the Museum visitor with scholarly discussions of all objects on display, this catalogue provides background on the society, history, technology, and commerce of the Etruscan and Faliscan cultures from the ninth through the first centuries B.C. Several groups of material illustrate social, historical, and technological phenomena currently at the forefront of scholarly debate and study, such as the crucial period of the turnover from Iron Age hut villages to the fully urbanized princely Etruscan cities, the development and extent of ancient literacy, and the position of women and children in ancient societies. Many special objects seldom found or generally inaccessible in the United States include Faliscan tomb groups, Etruscan inscriptions, helmets, and trade goods. The catalogue presents and analyzes objects of warfare, weaving, animals, religious beliefs, architectural and terracotta roofing ornaments, Etruscan bronze-working for utensils, weapons, and artwork, and fine, generic portraiture. It discusses the symbolic meaning of such objects deposited in tombs as a chariot buried with a Faliscan lady at Narce, a senators folding stool buried in a later tomb at Chiusi, and a pair of horse bits with the teeth of a chariot team still adhering to them where the teeth fell when sacrificed for a funeral in the fifth-century necropolis at Tarquinia-much later than the horse sacrifice was previously known in Etruria.

This volume presents the results of the 1995 international seminar on the history and archaeology of the Sea Peoples. The 17 comprehensive articles, written by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, Hittitology, biblical studies, and Aegean, Anatolian, and Near Eastern archaeology, examine current methodologies and interpretations concerning the origin, migration, and settlement of the Sea Peoples against the overwhelming new archaeological record from sites throughout the Mediterranean basin and the Levant.

This study presents the Early Helladic II ceramic roofing tile fragments from Zygouries, a site excavated by Carl Blegen more than a century ago. It is the first publication of an entire assemblage of Early Helladic roofing tiles, an oft-neglected find on archaeological sites. Details about the tiles forms, features, and variability are presented first, followed by a production-oriented analysis reconstructing much of the chaIne operatoire and complementary volumetric and energetic analyses. The results of these studies allow for the local reception and sociopolitical implications of Zygouriess ceramic-tiled roof to be explored. The assemblage is then contextualized alongside other Early Helladic roofing tile assemblages and the material culture of the period to gain a clearer understanding of the broader cultural significance of such tiled roofs.

An unparalleled assemblage of Archaic black-figure painted pinakes (plaques) was uncovered near Penteskouphia, a village west of ancient Corinth, over a century ago. The pinakes-represented by over 1,200 fragments-and their depictions of gods, warriors, animals, and the potters themselves, provide a uniquely rich source of information about Greek art, technology, and society. In this volume, the findspot of the pinakes is identified in a contribution by Ioulia Tzonou and James Herbst, and the assemblage as a whole is fully contextualized within the Archaic world. Then, by focusing specifically on the images of potters at work, the author illuminates the relationship between Corinthian and Athenian art, the technology used in ancient pottery production, and religious anxiety in the 6th century B.C. The first comprehensive register of all known Penteskouphia pinakes complements the well-illustrated discussion.

We can now be sure that Mesopotamian sculpture of the human form was typically coloured. Our project, which set out to reconstruct the polychromy of Mesopotamian stone statues dating from the fourth to the first millennium BCE, is a part of a slow shift to incorporate more visual evidence in research about colour and perception in the ancient world that has long been dominated by ethno-linguistic studies. Our scientifically grounded reconstructions serve as a prelude to a more comprehensive exploration of the materiality and aesthetics of Mesopotamian sculpture, which open many windows onto historical, cultural, and symbolic issues. In this study, we trace the chronological development of the use of colours and consider why they changed over time. The manner in which colours served as social markers - of gender, ethnicity and class for example - are explored from the material culture and textual perspectives. When used to describe hair, skin, and garments, Sumerian and Akkadian words for colour denote more than just physical properties. They also evoke qualities such as lightness or darkness, dullness or glossiness, and encode specific symbolic values that impinge on many aspects of society. In all cultures, the notion of skin colour is subject to social concepts, prejudices, and ideals, and is thus a matter of convention. Our discovery that the face and body in particular were so vibrantly coloured provides an entirely new and unexpected view of ancient Near Eastern effigies. Through such luminous, radiant and lucid colours, we are now able to recognise the true faces of the statues, and to visualise what was considered beautiful and acceptable to the gods.

The 6th volume of the MAAO series details the results of two seasons of excavation carried out on Karacamirli Tepe 5, a small hill near the southern bank of the river Kura in Shamkir District, Azerbaijan. The site was first occupied in the 5th millennium BC, from which several pits containing pottery and obsidian could be studied. After the mid-2nd mill. BC, Tepe 5 saw repeated use as a place of burial. Altogether 46 graves, starting with the Late Bronze / Early Iron Age, continuing with interments from Late Antiquity and concluding with the 14th cent. AD, were documented. Their archaeological discussion forms the core of the volume. A series of 21 ra- diocarbon dates, an anthropological study including isotope data, as well as a comprehensive programme of chemical analysis (with portable XRF) targeting obsidian, ceramic and metal finds contribute to produce one of the most fine-grained sets of burial data available from the Southern Caucasus.

Even though Dorothy Thompson excavated the Agora Bone Well in 1938, the well and its remarkable finds have never been fully studied until now. Located outside the northwest corner of the Athenian Agora and dating to the second quarter of the 2nd century B.C., the well contained the remains of roughly 460 newborn infants, as well as a few older individuals. Also found in the well were the bones of over 150 dogs and an assortment of other animals, plus various artifacts, including an intriguing herm (treated here by Andrew Stewart) and an ivory chape. In addition to a thorough examination of the contents of the well, the authors provide a thoughtful analysis of the neighborhood in which the well was located and carefully compare the deposit with similar accumulations found elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The product of close cooperation between archaeological, palaeoanthropological, and faunal scholars, this interdisciplinary work will be of interest to a large audience across a variety of fields.

Greeks - in later times - saw Athens as the Hellas of Hellas, but in the classical period many Athenians thought otherwise. Athens might be a school of Hellas, but the school of Hellas was Sparta. Militarily and morally, Sparta was supreme. This book explores how Athenians - ordinary citizens as well as writers and politicians - thought about Spartas superiority. Nine new studies from a distinguished international cast examine how Athenians might revere Sparta even as they fought her. This respect led to Platos literary creation of fantasy cities (in the Republic and Laws) to imitate Spartan methods. And, after its military surrender in 404 BC, ruling Athenian politicians claimed that their city was to be remodelled as itself a New Sparta.

The Neolithic is thought to have arrived in Egypt via diffusion from an origin in southwest Asia, relatively late compared to neighboring locations. The authors suggest an alternative approach to understanding the development of food production in Egypt based on the results of new fieldwork in the Fayum. They provide the results of a detailed study of the Fayum archaeological landscape interpretable at different temporal and spatial scales, using an expanded version of low-level food production to organize observations concerning paleoenvironment, socioeconomy, settlement, and mobility. While domestic plants and animals were indeed introduced from elsewhere, when a number of aspects of the archaeological record are compared, a settlement system is suggested that has no obvious analogues with the Neolithic in southwest Asia. The results obtained from the Fayum are used to assess other contemporary sites in Egypt.

Altera Roma explores the confrontation of two cultures, European and Amerindian, and two empires, Spanish and Aztec. In an age of exploration and conquest, Spanish soldiers, missionaries, and merchants brought an array of cultural preconceptions. Their encounter with Aztec civilization coincided with Europes rediscovery of classical antiquity, and Tenochtitlan came to be regarded a "second Rome," or altera Roma. Iberias past as the Roman province of Hispania served to both guide and critique the Spanish overseas mission. The dialogue that emerged between the Old World and the New World shaped a dual heritage into the unique culture of Nueva Espana. In this volume, ten eminent historians and archaeologists examine the analogies between empires widely separated in time and place and consider how monumental art and architecture created "theater states," a strategy that links ancient Rome, Hapsburg Spain, preconquest Mexico, and other imperial regimes.

The analysis of stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen provides a powerful tool for reconstructing past diets, since it provides the only direct evidence of the foods that were actually consumed. The chapters that comprise this volume describe the application of this methodology to the archaeology of Greece, a country whose archaeobotanical remains have been isotopically studied more extensively than any other place in the world. The archaeological issues that can be addressed using stable isotope methods include the importance of fishing; the possible early introduction of millet; the nature of childrearing including weaning age and weaning foods; temporal shifts in protein consumption; differential access to certain foods associated with social status as well as gender and age; and cultural differences in dietary patterns. Additionally, diet is strongly correlated with health or stress markers in the teeth and bones. Knowing what people ate has vital implications for our understanding of past environments and economies, subsistence strategies, and nutrition.

This book, the first of a projected three, reports on excavations at Formative-period sites in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico. The transition to the Formative in the relatively high-altitude study region is later than in choice regions for early agriculture elsewhere in Mesoamerica. From 900 BC, however, population growth and sociopolitical development were rapid. A central claim in the research presented here is that a macroregional perspective is essential for understanding the local Formative sequence. In this volume, excavations at three village sites (Amomoloc, Tetel, and Las Mesitas) and one modest regional center (La Laguna) are reported. Ceramics are described in detail. An innovative approach to the classification of figurines is presented, and a Formative chronology for the region is proposed based on seriation of refuse contexts and radiocarbon dates. The work concludes with a macroregional framework to be used in the analysis of subsistence, social relations, and political economy in forthcoming volumes 2 and 3.

This volume contains the original hieratic text, complete transcription into hieroglyphs, transliteration, English translation, philological apparatus and copiously illustrated medical commentaries for the 48 clinical cases of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, as well as extensive bibliographical resources, and a lucid introduction exploring the importance of the document, the history of previous scholarship, and distinctive aspects of the current edition. It offers an authoritative treatment of the Egyptian text, which clarifies the meaning of many passages from the papyrus and points the way to their correct medical interpretation. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is the first comprehensive trauma treatise in the history of medicine. Not only is the ESP the source of numerous anatomical and functional concepts of the nervous system, it is the basis for the development of modern objective clinical thinking, establishing the foundations of modern medicine more than a thousand years before Hippocrates. The volume features an impressive array of medical material that reveals the precise conditions described by the ancient physician and explores the Egyptian contribution to modern diagnostics, clinical practice, and methodology. This publication sets the standard in the presentation of ancient medical documents. It also includes the previously unpublished translation of the papyrus by Edwin Smith himself. Reviews: "An extraordinary contribution to our medical and surgical history! There is no question that the collaboration of an Egyptologist and a neurosurgeon has clearly made this translation a better result and a clear improvement on Breasteds original brilliant accomplishment, bringing this remarkable historical document back to new life. The addition of the illustrations will help the nonmedical reader understand what the various injuries represent--as always a picture is worth a thousand words. A landmark work!" -- James T. Goodrich, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sci., (Hon) Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Childrens Hospital at Montefiore. Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Albert Einstein College of Medicine "Sanchez and Meltzer have performed a minor miracle, producing a new edition of Papyrus Edwin Smith that surpasses all previous efforts at translating and understanding this difficult and fascinating text. Meltzer has taken full advantage of this opportunity to test the Standard Theory of Egyptian grammar against a text that is perfect for the task. His translation remains lucid for a beginner while the grammatical notes are thought-provoking for professionals. This book is truly an important accomplishment in the history of translation and our understanding of medical history." -- Edward Bleiberg, Ph.D., Curator of Egyptian Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY "This eloquent volume brings a cascade of new insights and breathes fresh vitality into the ancient Edwin Smith Papyrus. The eminent scholars, Gonzalo M. Sanchez, a distinguished neurosurgeon and strong contributor to the field of Egyptology, and Edmund S. Meltzer, a noted philologist, have teamed up to bring modern neuroscience and sophisticated advances in the interpretation of ancient Egyptian texts to bear on new case translations and commentaries. Remarkably, they have also brought to light the notes of Edwin Smith himself, which are published here for the first time. A visual index in color at the start of the volume makes the basic ...

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 monograph considers the painted frieze on the facade of Tomb II at Vergina (ca. 330-280 B.C.) as a visual document that offers vital evidence for the public self-stylings of Macedonian royalty in the era surrounding the reign of Alexander the Great. The hunting scene on the frieze reflects the construction of Macedonian royal identity through the appeal to specific and long-standing cultural traditions, which emerged, long before Alexanders reign, out of a complex negotiation of claims to heroic and local dynastic pasts, regional ideals of kingship, and models of royal behavior provided by the East.

Ancient Sikyon, in the northeastern Peloponnese, was a major player on the Mediterranean stage, especially in the Archaic and Hellenistic periods. This comprehensive study combines a discussion of the geological and historical background with the results of original research based on many years of archaeological fieldwork. Author Yannis Lolos, drawing upon the limited excavations in Sikyonia, literary sources, and mostly his own extensive survey data, traces the history of the human presence in the territory of Sikyon from prehistory to the early modern period. A series of detailed maps plots the position of many previously unknown roads, fortifications, and settlement sites.

This book presents the first well-preserved set of sympotic pottery which served a Late Archaic house in the Athenian Agora. The deposit contains household and fine-ware pottery, nearly all the figured pieces of which are forms associated with communal drinking. Since it comes from a single house, the pottery also reflects purchasing patterns and thematic preferences of the homeowner. The multifaceted approach adopted in this book shows that meaning and use are inherently related, and that through archaeology one can restore a context of use for a class of objects frequently studied in isolation. Winner of the 2013 James R. Wiseman Book Award given by the Archaeological Institute of America.

This volume presents the papers of an international colloquium on the archaeology of houses and households in ancient Crete held in Ierapetra in May 2005. The 38 papers presented here range from a discussion of household activities at Final Neolithic Phaistos to the domestic correlates of "globalization" during the early Roman Empire. These studies demonstrate a variety of methodological approaches currently employed for understanding houses and household activities. Key themes include understanding the built environment in all of its manifestations, the variability of domestic organization, the role of houses and households in mediating social (and perhaps even ethnic) identity within a community or region, household composition, and of course, household activities of all types, ranging from basic subsistence needs to production and consumption at a suprahousehold level.

This work presents a classification system and absolute chronology for black-gloss wares from Crete, establishing the first local and regional ceramic sequences during the period from 600 to 400 B.C. This new chronological foundation of datable pottery from excavated sites fills in the so-called 6th-/5th-century gap and dispels the prevailing view that this was a period of decline in population and one of artistic and cultural impoverishment. The 6th century heralded important changes in Cretan society, reflected in the reorganization of burial grounds, new patterns of sanctuary dedication, and the circulation of exotica among the elite. The study reveals unsuspected connections with mainland Greece, especially Sparta and Athens. Historians and archaeologists will find the authors conclusions, and their implications, to be of considerable interest.

The study of archaic Greece (c. 750-480 BC) is being transformed by exciting discoveries and interpretations. In fourteen original studies from a distinguished international cast, this book explores many aspects of a rapidly changing Greek world. Detailed re-interpretation of archaeological material reveals diversity in patterns of settlement, sanctuaries and burial practices, and shows motivations underlying the expanding exchange of goods and the settlement of new communities. Local studies of archaeology and iconography revise our image of the peculiarity of Spartan society and East Greek cult. Texts, from Homer and Hesiod to a newly-found poem of Simonides, are given fresh interpretations. And there are new studies of developments in maritime warfare, the roles of literacy and law-making in Crete, the emergence of a less violent Greek life-style, and the articulation of political thought.