Download or read book The World s Richest Wrecks written by Robert F. Marx and published by RAM Publishing. This book was released on 2009-04-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A culmination of more than 50 years of experience and research covering all known shipwrecks of both the Old World and New World whose cargoes contained at least $10 million worth of treasures. Contains many maps collected by Marx and more than 100 photos of shipwrecks treasures and diving salvage operations.
Download or read book Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica Panama and Colombia written by Jeffrey Quilter and published by Dumbarton Oaks. This book was released on 2003 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lands between Mesoamerica and the Central Andes are famed for the rich diversity of ancient cultures that inhabited them. Throughout this vast region, from about AD 700 until the sixteenth-century Spanish invasion, a rich and varied tradition of goldworking was practiced. The amount of gold produced and worn by native inhabitants was so great that Columbus dubbed the last New World shores he sailed as Costa Rica—the "Rich Coast." Despite the long-recognized importance of the region in its contribution to Pre-Columbian culture, very few books are readily available, especially in English, on these lands of gold. Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia now fills that gap with eleven articles by leading scholars in the field. Issues of culture change, the nature of chiefdom societies, long-distance trade and transport, ideologies of value, and the technologies of goldworking are covered in these essays as are the role of metals as expressions and materializations of spiritual, political, and economic power. These topics are accompanied by new information on the role of stone statuary and lapidary work, craft and trade specialization, and many more topics, including a reevaluation of the concept of the "Intermediate Area." Collectively, the volume provides a new perspective on the prehistory of these lands and includes articles by Latin American scholars whose writings have rarely been published in English.
Download or read book Greek Gold written by Dyfri Williams and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 1994 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The consummate mastery of Greek goldsmiths and the beauty of their designs elevated jewelry in the Classical period to glorious artistic heights. This volume presents nearly 200 of the finest surviving pieces made between the fifth and the early third century B.C., the era that also saw the creation of the Parthenon at Athens and the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the sculptures of Polykleitos, Praxiteles, and Lysippus, and the paintings of Polygnotos, Apollodoros, Zeuxis, and Nikias." "Drawn from the unrivaled collections of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, London, the works in this book represent jewelry produced throughout the Greek world. Regional variations and preferences are seen in jewelry from Greece itself, as well as from the wealthy Greek cities in Asia Minor, the Crimea, and South Italy and from partially Hellenized areas such as Cyprus, Egypt, and the Eastern Mediterranean. The authors describe the goldsmiths' techniques in detail, with the aid of specially taken scanning electron microphotographs, and they discuss how the jewelry was worn, its iconography, and how it relates to other arts, such as drawing and sculpture. Each piece is illustrated in full color, with numerous color details showing the intricacy and subtlety of these masterpieces of ancient Greek craftsmanship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia written by Rosemarie Klemm and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-13 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents the historical evolution of gold mining activities in the Egyptian and Nubian Desert (Sudan) from about 4000 BC until the Early Islamic Period (~800–1350 AD), subdivided into the main classical epochs including the Early Dynastic – Old and Middle Kingdoms – New Kingdom (including Kushitic) – Ptolemaic – Roman and Early Islamic. It is illustrated with many informative colour images, maps and drawings. An up to date comprehensive geological introduction gives a general overview on the gold production zones in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and northern (Nubian) Sudan, including the various formation processes of the gold bearing quartz veins mined in these ancient periods. The more than 250 gold production sites presented, are described both, from their archaeological (as far as surface inventory is concerned) and geological environmental conditions, resulting in an evolution scheme of prospection and mining methods within the main periods of mining activities. The book offers for the first time a complete catalogue of the many gold production sites in Egypt and Nubia under geological and archaeological aspects. It provides information about the importance of gold for the Pharaohs and the spectacular gold rush in Early Arab times.
Download or read book A History of Gold and Money 1450 to 1920 written by Pierre Vilar and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of human history, the motive force behind war, conquest, social conflict and world exploration has been the drive to acquire gold. From the ancient world of Croesus to the wealthy dynasties of Renaissance Italy, from the earliest European explorations into Africa, America, and Asia to the gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the banking crises that lay beyond them, Pierre Vilar depicts the awesome power of avarice to structure the world in which we live. The insidious power of gold and money is the subject of this enlightening and entertaining history. The age of exploration brought an influx of treasure into Western Europe, prompting disputes between theologians and early economists over the causes of inflation in the sixteenth century. In time, American silver distorted metropolitan Spanish society beyond recognition. Vilar goes on to examine the roots of the modern banking and financial systems in institutions founded in Holland, England and France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And in the nineteenth century, the gold rushes of Australia, California and South Africa generated new modifications in the international monetary system. Vilar concludes the story of these developments with a discussion of the crisis of the 1920s that, in the wake of the world credit crash of 2008, is more pertinent than ever. A History of Gold and Money provides a unique work of synthesis on the role of money in modern economic history.
Download or read book Ancient Gold Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art written by Barbara Deppert-Lippitz and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lovely volume illustrates in color superb examples of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman jewelry. Major types of Greek and Etruscan jewelry from the seventh to the first centuries B.C. are well represented, along with a few Roman imperial works. In exquisite miniature, these ornaments reflect the stylistic history of more monumental art: they are sculptures on a small scale. Underneath the shining splendor these gold objects -- works originally meant to be worn by men and women as a sign of wealth and power in life -- lies a more fundamental meaning. Gold, a mysterious power, was a means for people to communicate with the gods who rule human life. The skill of the ancient goldsmith has never been equaled. Although the techniques used are for the most part understood, the virtuosity and intricacy of manufacture have vet to be duplicated.
Download or read book Nubian Gold written by Peter Lacovara and published by . This book was released on 2019-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fabled land of Nubia, whose very name means 'gold, ' was famous in ancient times for its supplies of precious metal, exotic material, and intricate craftsmanship. Many of the adornments made in Nubia are masterpieces of the jeweler's art--marvels of design and construction rivaling, and often surpassing, adornments made in Egypt and the rest of the ancient Mediterranean world. Although these unique treasures are among the most stunning to have survived from antiquity, they remain little known. Richly illustrated with beautiful photographs of these exquisite items, many of them never before published, Nubian Gold also places the jewelry within the cultural contexts in which it was manufactured and employed. It tells the story not only of the treasures themselves but of the exciting tales of their discovery and the rich background of the exotic and remote civilizations that produced them. The book also explores the innovative techniques used to procure the precious materials used in the jewelry and to craft them into intricate ornaments replete with magical purpose and coded meaning. Featured in the book are not only the intricately crafted pieces themselves but depictions of them in sculpture, relief, and painting as well as references to them in ancient texts, locating them within the full spectrum of Nubian history, from the earliest beginnings of society to the advent of Christianity.
Download or read book A Global History of Gold Rushes written by Benjamin Mountford and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing set the world in motion like gold. Between the discovery of California placer gold in 1848 and the rush to Alaska fifty years later, the search for the precious yellow metal accelerated worldwide circulations of people, goods, capital, and technologies. A Global History of Gold Rushes brings together historians of the United States, Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific World to tell the rich story of these nineteenth century gold rushes from a global perspective. Gold was central to the growth of capitalism: it whetted the appetites of empire builders, mobilized the integration of global markets and economies, profoundly affected the environment, and transformed large-scale migration patterns. Together these essays tell the story of fifty years that changed the world.
Download or read book Golden Kingdoms written by Joanne Pillsbury and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume accompanies a major international loan exhibition featuring more than three hundred works of art, many rarely or never before seen in the United States. It traces the development of gold working and other luxury arts in the Americas from antiquity until the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century. Presenting spectacular works from recent excavations in Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico, this exhibition focuses on specific places and times—crucibles of innovation—where artistic exchange, rivalry, and creativity led to the production of some of the greatest works of art known from the ancient Americas. The book and exhibition explore not only artistic practices but also the historical, cultural, social, and political conditions in which luxury arts were produced and circulated, alongside their religious meanings and ritual functions. Golden Kingdoms creates new understandings of ancient American art through a thematic exploration of indigenous ideas of value and luxury. Central to the book is the idea of the exchange of materials and ideas across regions and across time: works of great value would often be transported over long distances, or passed down over generations, in both cases attracting new audiences and inspiring new artists. The idea of exchange is at the intellectual heart of this volume, researched and written by twenty scholars based in the United States and Latin America.
Download or read book Reading Planet The Ancient World Gold Galaxy written by Zoe Clarke and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Galaxy reading books are a wonderful collection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays to capture the interest of every child, helping to develop a life-long love of reading. Take a journey back in time to the ancient world and discover the amazing things that the people of those times created. Packed with fascinating facts, photos, maps and timelines, this is an ideal introduction to the Stone Age, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and other ancient civilizations. Reading age: 6-7 years
Download or read book The Construction of Value in the Ancient World written by John K. Papadopoulos and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.
Download or read book The World s Greatest Treasures written by Gianni Guadalupi and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since ancient times the world's most powerful people have collected together priceless objects for their own indulgence, often artifacts with an element of the strange and wonderful, dazzling with gold and glittering with gemstones.
Download or read book Ancient Gold Jewellery written by Aikaterinē Despoinē and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jewellery appeared worldwide during the early phases of civilisation, when man, through his belief in the existence of supernatural forces and magic, laid down the substrate of religion. In those times, and for many centuries after, jewellery was regarded as having the power to attract benign forces or to avert evil, functioning as a magical medium. Its association with metals was of decisive importance, not least with gold which, being imperishable and untarnishable, was the only metal charged of itself with supernatural properties. In time the human intellect put aside the magical character of jewellery, though it was never cast off completely. By the beginning of the first millennium BC, to which the works of Greek goldsmithing discussed in this book belong, jewellery already had a long tradition behind it. Its form was often affected by the religious and metaphysical concepts of the age, as is succinctly noted in the Introduction. The manufacture of Greek gold jewellery depended on the possibility of access to the precious metal, the sources of and the techniques of working which, interwoven with myth and lore, are examined in sub-chapters. The founding of the colonies at first and the Macedonian expansion later, brought the Greeks into contact with both supplies of the raw material and traditional centres of goldsmithing, from where they also received new ornament types. These they transmuted, giving them a Greek identity, eventually creating a common language of jewellery that spread from the northern shores of the Euxine Pontus to Egypt, and from Italy to Asia. The development of jewellery is examined by category and bears witness to the influence of those same historical factors as contributed to the development of major art in the Hellenic world. Greek goldsmiths often emulated its achievements, also endowing this genre of the so-called minor arts with unique masterpieces.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean written by Eric H. Cline and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 968 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greek Bronze Age, roughly 3000 to 1000 BCE, witnessed the flourishing of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, the earliest expansion of trade in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean Sea, the development of artistic techniques in a variety of media, and the evolution of early Greek religious practices and mythology. The period also witnessed a violent conflict in Asia Minor between warring peoples in the region, a conflict commonly believed to be the historical basis for Homer's Trojan War. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean provides a detailed survey of these fascinating aspects of the period, and many others, in sixty-six newly commissioned articles. Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with Background and Definitions, which contains articles establishing the discipline in its historical, geographical, and chronological settings and in its relation to other disciplines. The second section, Chronology and Geography, contains articles examining the Bronze Age Aegean by chronological period (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age). Each of the periods are further subdivided geographically, so that individual articles are concerned with Mainland Greece during the Early Bronze Age, Crete during the Early Bronze Age, the Cycladic Islands during the Early Bronze Age, and the same for the Middle Bronze Age, followed by the Late Bronze Age. The third section, Thematic and Specific Topics, includes articles examining thematic topics that cannot be done justice in a strictly chronological/geographical treatment, including religion, state and society, trade, warfare, pottery, writing, and burial customs, as well as specific events, such as the eruption of Santorini and the Trojan War. The fourth section, Specific Sites and Areas, contains articles examining the most important regions and sites in the Bronze Age Aegean, including Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Knossos, Kommos, Rhodes, the northern Aegean, and the Uluburun shipwreck, as well as adjacent areas such as the Levant, Egypt, and the western Mediterranean. Containing new work by an international team of experts, The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean represents the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date single-volume survey of the field. It will be indispensable for scholars and advanced students alike.
Download or read book Caravans of Gold Fragments in Time written by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, held January 26, 2019-July 21, 2019, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Download or read book Greek Gold written by Yuri Kalashnik and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tentoonstellingscatalogus van Griekse sieraden uit de vijfde tot en met de derde eeuw voor Christus uit de collectie van de Hermitage in Petersburg.
Download or read book Magic in the Ancient World written by Fritz Graf and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction. In this survey of magical beliefs and practices from the sixth century B.C.E. through late antiquity, Fritz Graf sheds new light on ancient religion. Graf explores the important types of magic in Greco-Roman antiquity, describing rites and explaining the theory behind them. And he characterizes the ancient magician: his training and initiation, social status, and presumed connections with the divine world. With trenchant analysis of underlying conceptions and vivid account of illustrative cases, Graf gives a full picture of the practice of magic and its implications. He concludes with an evaluation of the relation of magic to religion.
