Download or read book A Prehistory of Sardinia 2300 500 BC written by Gary S. Webster and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nuragic 'civilization' of Bronze and Iron Age Sardinia, known for its monumental stone towers, sacred wells and peculiar bronze votive figurines, has long fascinated travellers and archaeologists. Yet only recently have scholars outside the island recognized the potential significance of these unique island societies in the development of broader ancient Mediterranean cultural patterns. One reason has been the relative inaccessibility of recent reference works on the Nuragic evidence. The present Prehistory attempts to remedy the need for a complete and up-to-date synthesis of all extant evidence on Nuragic settlement, technology, economy, trade and ritual. This original interpretation of archaeological, historical and iconographic data constitutes the first modern study of the origins and development of these societies to appear in English.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Nuragic Sardinia written by Gary S. Webster and published by EQUINOX. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Archaeology of Nuragic Sardinia is a comprehensive synthesis of evidence bearing on current understandings of Sardinian prehistory from the 23rd through the 8th centuries BC. It is a study of the material traces left by those insular societies known famously for their unique megalithic 'Giants' tombs and intricate water-temples, as well as for the remarkable cyclopean edifices or nuraghi for which this singular 'civilization' takes its name. Following introductory discussions of the history of Nuragic research up to the present, as well as the island's natural setting, individual chapters are given over to detailed examinations of findings on chronology, settlement, subsistence, industries, trade, external relations and cult practices for successive chronological periods from the Early Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age. For each period, issues of interpretation are addressed with regard to what might be reasonably inferred about Nuragic social institutions, normative codes, cognitive orientations, identity formations, cultural hybridity and entanglements, and the role of indigenous and exogenous factors in cultural continuity and discontinuity. While the focus throughout is on the Sardinian record, due consideration is also paid to potentially related developments on the neighboring island of Corsica. A postscript features a glimpse of life at the great Iron Age sanctuary of Santa Vittoria di Serri as imagined by the late 'father of Sardinian archaeology' Giovanni Lilliu.
Download or read book Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages written by Stephen L. Dyson and published by UPenn Museum of Archaeology. This book was released on 2007 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With one of the richest archaeological records and most complicated histories in the Mediterranean, Sardinia provides an important laboratory for studying the interaction of indigenous societies and outside forces in a partly isolated geographical context. Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, Jr. use both material culture and written documents to reconstruct the social and economic processes of an island society that showed both cultural creativity and continuity but responded to invasions from the Phoenicians through the Romans to the Aragonese. This first accessible reconstruction of island archaeology provides a balanced picture of the sweep of Sardinian history.
Download or read book The Sardinian Neolithic written by Gary S. Webster and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2019 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite Sardinia's extraordinarily rich Neolithic record, very littleof it has made its way into the general European discourse. Written as acompanion to G. Webster and M. Webster, Punctuated Insularity. The Archaeologyof 4th and 3rd Millennium Sardinia. Oxford: BAR International Series 2871,2017, the present volume addresses the omission by offering a synthesis of anarchaeological corpus still little known outside the island. It covers indetail the evidence of colonisations and subsequent adaptations to theSardinia's diverse environments in terms of settlement patterns, craftindustries, subsistence economies, mortuary and non-mortuary cult expressions,imagery, art and extra-insular relations with special emphasis of neighbouringCorsica, while offering interpretive suggestions. As a study of thefrequentation and settling of Sardinia as a locale, a large, insular,west-Mediterranean landmass, by people with non-indigenous heritages, itfurthermore locates the island's cultural modalities within the so-calledneolithisation of the broader Tyrrhenian region during the sixth and fifthmillennia BCE.
Download or read book Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily written by Franco De Angelis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greek migrants in Sicily produced societies and economies that both paralleled and differed from their homeland. Explanations for these similarities and differences have been hotly debated. On the one hand, some scholars have viewed the ancient Greeks as one in a long line of migrants who were shaped by Sicily and its inhabitants. On the other hand, other scholars have argued that the Greeks acted as the main source of innovation and achievement in the culture of ancient Sicily, a culture that was still removed from that of mainland Greece. Neither of these positions is completely satisfactory. What is lacking in this debate is a basic framework for understanding ancient Sicily's social and economic history. Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily represents the first ever systematic and comprehensive attempt to synthesize the historical and archaeological evidence, and to deploy it to test the various historical models proposed over the past two centuries. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines classical and prehistoric studies, texts and material culture, and a variety of methods and theories to put the history of Greek Sicily on a completely new footing. While Sicily and Greece had conjoined histories from the start, their relationship was not one of periphery and center or of colony and state in any sense, but of an interdependent and mutually enriching diaspora. At the same time, local conditions and peoples, including Phoenician migrants, also shaped the evolution of Sicilian Greek societies and economies. This book reveals and explains the similarities and differences between developments in Greek Sicily and the mainland, and brings greater clarity to the parts played by locals and immigrants in ancient Sicily's impressive achievements.
Download or read book Decoding Neolithic Atlantic and Mediterranean Island Ritual written by George Nash and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What constitutes an island and the archaeology contained within? Is it the physicality of its boundary (between shoreline and sea)? Does this physical barrier extend further into a watery zone? Archaeologically, can islands be defined by cultural heritage and influence? Clearly, and based on these few probing questions, islands are more than just lumps of rock and earth sitting in the middle of a sea or ocean. An island is a space which, when described in terms of topography, landscape form and resources, becomes a place. A place can sometimes be delineated with barriers and boundaries; it may also have a perimeter and can be distinguished from the space that surrounds it. The 16 papers presented here explore the physicality, and levels of insularity of individual islands and island groups during prehistory through a series of case studies on Neolithic island archaeology in the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions. For the eastern Atlantic (the Atlantic Archipelago) papers discuss the sacred geographies and material culture of Neolithic Gotland, Orkney, and Anglesey and the architecture of and ritual behavior associated with megalithic monuments in the Channel Islands and the Scilly Isles. The Mediterranean region is represented by a different type of Neolithic, both in terms of architecture and material culture. Papers discuss theoretical constructs and ritual deposition, cave sites, ritualized and religious aspects of Neolithic death and burial; metaphysical journeys associated with the underworld in Late Neolithic Malta and the possible role of its Temple Period art in ritual activities; and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Neolithic monuments of Corsica. The cases examined illustrate the diversity of the evidence available that affords a better understanding of the European-Mediterranean Neolithic 'island society', not least the effects of interaction/contact and/or geographical insularity/isolation, all factors that are considered to have consequences for the establishment and modification of cultures in island settings.
Download or read book One Europe Many Nations written by James B. Minahan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2000-07-30 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dominating world politics since 1945, the Cold War created a fragile peace while suppressing national groups in the Cold War's most dangerous theater—Europe. Today, with the collapse of Communism, the European Continent is again overshadowed by the specter of radical nationalism, as it was at the beginning of the century. Focusing on the many possible conflicts that dot the European landscape, this book is the first to address the Europeans as distinct national groups, not as nation-states and national minorities. It is an essential guide to the national groups populating the so-called Old World-groups that continue to dominate world headlines and present the world community with some of its most intractable conflicts. While other recent reference books on Europe approach the subject of nations and nationalism from the perspective of the European Union and the nation-state, this book addresses the post-Cold War nationalist resurgence by focusing on the most basic element of any nationalism—the nation. It includes entries on nearly 150 groups, surveying these groups from the earliest period of their national histories to the dawn of the 21st century. In short essays highlighting the political, social, economic, and historical evolution of peoples claiming a distinct identity in an increasingly integrated continent, the book provides both up-to-date information and historical background on the European national groups that are currently making the news and those that will produce future headlines.
Download or read book A Companion to Archaic Greece written by Kurt A. Raaflaub and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-12-26 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A systematic survey of archaic Greek society and culture which introduces the reader to a wide range of new approaches to the period. The first comprehensive and accessible survey of developments in the study of archaic Greece Places Greek society of c.750-480 BCE in its chronological and geographical context Gives equal emphasis to established topics such as tyranny and political reform and newer subjects like gender and ethnicity Combines accounts of historical developments with regional surveys of archaeological evidence and in-depth treatments of selected themes Explores the impact of Eastern and other non-Greek cultures in the development of Greece Uses archaeological and literary evidence to reconstruct broad patterns of social and cultural development
Download or read book The Collapse of the Mycenaean Economy written by Sarah C. Murray and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Sarah Murray provides a comprehensive treatment of textual and archaeological evidence for the long-distance trade economy of Greece across 600 years during the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Analyzing the finished objects that sustained this kind of trade, she also situates these artifacts within the broader context of the ancient Mediterranean economy, including evidence for the import and export of commodities as well as demographic change. Murray argues that our current model of exchange during the Late Bronze Age is in need of a thoroughgoing reformulation. She demonstrates that the association of imported objects with elite self-fashioning is not supported by the evidence from any period in early Greek history. Moreover, the notional 'decline' in trade during Greece's purported Dark Age appears to be the result of severe economic contraction, rather than a severance of access to trade routes.
Download or read book Colonial Religion and Indigenous Society in the Archaic Western Mediterranean C 750 400 BCE written by Lela Manning Urquhart and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2010 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This project examines the long-term responses of indigenous societies in Sicily and Sardinia to colonial religion in the ancient western Mediterranean. It conducts a comparative analysis of religious developments among indigenous, Greek, and Phoenician communities between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. It shows that while indigenous communities near Greek colonies in Sicily integrated Greek-style material culture and practices into their religious lives, those near Phoenician colonies in Sardinia and Sicily showed much less interest in Phoenician material culture and religion. This contrast is then explained in terms of the greater social accessibility and more communal features of Greek polis religion, which made its practices and material culture broadly attractive across cultural divides in a time of rapid social change.
Download or read book Encounters and Transformations written by Miriam Balmuth and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1997-04-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past twenty years, archaeological research in Spain and Portugal has undergone profound changes in theoretical orientation, changes that parallel the political and social transformations in those countries over the past generation. These Proceedings of the First International Conference in America on Iberian Archaeology demonstrate the increasingly strong implantation of processualist approaches and their useful integration with historicist orientations. Contributions ranging from the Neolithic to the Iron Age provide a representative sample of the current state of archaeological research in Iberia.
Download or read book The Peoples of Ancient Italy written by Gary D. Farney and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-11-20 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there are many studies of certain individual ancient Italic groups (e.g. the Etruscans, Gauls and Latins), there is no work that takes a comprehensive view of each of them—the famous and the less well-known—that existed in Iron Age and Roman Italy. Moreover, many previous studies have focused only on the material evidence for these groups or on what the literary sources have to say about them. This handbook is conceived of as a resource for archaeologists, historians, philologists and other scholars interested in finding out more about Italic groups from the earliest period they are detectable (early Iron Age, in most instances), down to the time when they begin to assimilate into the Roman state (in the late Republican or early Imperial period). As such, it will endeavor to include both archaeological and historical perspectives on each group, with contributions from the best-known or up-and-coming archaeologists and historians for these peoples and topics. The language of the volume is English, but scholars from around the world have contributed to it. This volume covers the ancient peoples of Italy more comprehensively in individual chapters, and it is also distinct because it has a thematic section.
Download or read book The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age written by Assaf Yasur-Landau and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, Assaf Yasur-Landau examines the early history of the biblical Philistines who were among the 'Sea Peoples' who migrated from the Aegean area to the Levant during the early twelfth century BC. Creating an archaeological narrative of the migration of the Philistines, he combines an innovative theoretical framework on the archaeology of migration with new data from excavations in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and thereby reconstructs the social history of the Aegean migration to the southern Levant. The author follows the story of the migrants from the conditions that caused the Philistines to leave their Aegean homes, to their movement eastward along the sea and land routes, to their formation of a migrant society in Philistia and their interaction with local populations in the Levant. Based on the most up-to-date evidence, this book offers a new and fresh understanding of the arrival of the Philistines in the Levant.
Download or read book Archaeologies of Complexity written by Robert Chapman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An up-to-date and critical analysis of how archaeologists study past societies, Archaeologies of Complexity addresses the nature of contemporary archaeology and the study of social change, and debates the transition from perceived simple, egalitarian societies to the complex power structures and divisions of our modern world. Since the eighteenth century, archaeologists have examined complexity in terms of successive types of societies, from early bands, tribes and chiefdoms to states; through stages of social evolution, including 'savagery', 'barbarism' and 'civilisation', to the present state of complexity and inequality. Presenting a radical, alternative view of ancient state societies, the book explains the often ambiguous terms of 'complexity', 'hierarchy' and inequality' and provides a critical account of the Anglo-American research of the last forty years which has heavily influenced the subject.
Download or read book The Idea of Order written by Richard Bradley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bradley's volume uses archaeological evidence to investigate the creation, use, and ultimate demise of circular architecture in prehistoric Europe. Concerned mainly with the prehistoric period from the origins of farming to the early first millennium AD, it considers the role of circular features across a wide geographical spectrum.
Download or read book Island Historical Ecology written by Peter E. Siegel and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2018-01-29 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first book-length treatise on historical ecology of the West Indies, Island Historical Ecology addresses Caribbean island ecologies from the perspective of social and cultural interventions over approximately eight millennia of human occupations. Environmental coring carried out in carefully selected wetlands allowed for the reconstruction of pre-colonial and colonial landscapes on islands between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Comparisons with well-documented patterns in the Mediterranean and Pacific islands place this case study into a larger context of island historical ecology.
Download or read book Bronze Age Warfare written by Richard Osgood and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bronze Age, so named because of the technological advances in metalworking and countless innovations in the manufacture and design of tools and weapons, is among the most fascinating periods in human history. Archaeology has taught us much about the way of life, habits and homes of Bronze Age people, but as yet little has been written about warfare. What was Bronze Age warfare like? How did people fight and against whom? What weapons were used? Did they fortify their settlements, and, if so, were these intended as defensive or offensive structures? This detailed and fully illustrated study of warfare in Bronze Age Europe, aims to answer these and many other questions.
