Download or read book Order Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States written by Janet Richards and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-12-07 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three terms, Order, Legitimacy and Wealth, delineate a comparative approach to ancient civilizations initially developed by John Baines, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford, and Norman Yoffee, Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, in 1992. In an influential paper, they compared and contrasted the nature of social and political power in Egypt and Mesopotamia. This was the first analysis of the impact of wealth and high culture on the development of states. The contributors to the present book, first published in 2000, apply the classic Baines/Yoffee model to a range of ancient states around the world, providing documentary and archaeological evidence on the production and uses of 'high culture', literature and monumental architecture. There are chapters on Mesoamerica, the Andes, the Indus Valley, the Han Dynasty of China, and Greece during the Roman empire, while others expand on the original Egypt-Mesopotamia comparison.
Download or read book Order Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Archaic States written by Gary M. Feinman and published by School of American Research Ad. This book was released on 1998 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, the authors highlight the diversity and instability of ancient states and how widely they have varied through time and across space. Archaic States presents new comparative studies of early states in the Old and New Worlds, including the Near East, India and Pakistan, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. In the process, it helps to define key avenues for research and discussion in the decades ahead.
Download or read book In the House of Heqanakht written by M. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the House of Heqanakht: Text and Context in Ancient Egypt gathers Egyptological articles in honor of James P. Allen, Charles Edwin Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University.
Download or read book Ancient Perspectives on Egypt written by Roger Matthews and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The allure of Egypt is not exclusive to the modern world. Egypt also held a fascination and attraction for people of the past. In this book, academics from a wide range of disciplines assess the significance of Egypt within the settings of its past. The chronological span is from later prehistory, through to the earliest literate eras of interaction with Mesopotamia and the Levant, the Aegean, Greece and Rome. Ancient Perspectives on Egypt includes both archaeological and documented evidence, which ranges from the earliest writing attested in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BC, to graffiti from Abydos that demonstrate pilgrimages from all over the Mediterranean world, to the views of Roman poets on the nature of Egypt. This book presents, for the first time in a single volume, a multi-faceted but coherent collection of images of Egypt from, and of, the past.
Download or read book Ancient Pakistan An Archaeological History written by Mukhtar Ahmed and published by Amazon. This book was released on 2014-10-25 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the fifth and the last volume of a much larger project, Ancient Pakistan - An Archaelogical History. which deals with the prehistory of Pakistan from the Stone Age to the end of the Indus Civilization. This volume deals with the decay and demise of the Indus Civilization and its devolution into post-Harappan regional cultures under the impact of the intruding pastoral nomads from the West, the Indo-Aryans being one of them. A comprehensive bibliography is provided for those who want to dig deeper into the subject.
Download or read book The People of the Cobra Province in Egypt written by Wolfram Grajetzki and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-04-19 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book delivers a history from below for the first half of Egyptian history coveringthe earliest settlements, state formation and the pyramid age. The focus is on theWadjet province, about 350 km south of modern Cairo in Upper Egypt. Herearchaeological records provide an especially rich dataset for the material culture offarmers. Histories of Ancient Egypt have focussed heavily on the kings, monuments and inscriptions, while the working population is hardly mentioned. The book investigates the life of people far from the centres of power. One main aim of the book is the interaction between farmers and the ruling classes at the centres of power and locally. How did decisions at the royal centre affect the life of ordinary people? The Introduction offers a critical survey of Egyptologists and their attitudes towardsthe working class. The social and cultural background of these researchers is analysed to assess how heavily they are influenced by time and their political and cultural background. The First chapter then describes the location and gives a history ofprevious research and excavations. The archaeological sites and the recorded ancientplace names of the province are presented to provide a geographical framework forthe book. The following chapters are arranged in chronological order, mainly according to thearchaeological phases visible in the province. It appears that in phases of a weakcentral government, people in the provinces were much better off, while in phases ofa strong central government burials of poorer people are almost absent. The reasons for this are discussed. A substantial part of the book comprises descriptions of single burials and the materialculture in the province. The archaeology of the poorer people is the main focus. Burial customs and questions of production are discussed. For a fuller picture, evidence from other parts of Egypt is also taken into account. Thus settlement sites in other regions are presented to provide contemporary evidence for living conditions in particular periods. As the book will focus on the lower classes, the Tributary Mode of Production will be used as the main theoretical framework. The Tributary Mode of Production (previouslyknown as the Asiatic Mode of Production) is a term that goes back to Karl Marx, but was mainly used in the 20th century to describe ancient societies whose economies were not based on slaves.A constant question will be the status of the working population. Were they slaves,serfs or free citizens? It will be argued that they were most often in a dependent position comparable to that of serfs, while there is little evidence for slavery. The numerous burials presented in the volume are important for highlighting the diversity of burials in the different periods. Many will be placed in special subchapters. Readers can skip these chapters when they prefer to concentrate on the main text.
Download or read book Networks of Power written by Edward Schortman and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2011-02-18 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Little is known about how Late Postclassic populations in southeast Mesoamerica organized their political relations. Networks of Power fills gaps in the knowledge of this little-studied area, reconstructing the course of political history in the Naco Valley from the fourteenth through early sixteenth centuries. Describing the material and behavioral patterns pertaining to the Late Postclassic period using components of three settlements in the Naco Valley of northwestern Honduras, the book focuses on how contests for power shaped political structures. Power-seeking individuals, including but not restricted to ruling elites, depended on networks of allies to support their political objectives. Ongoing and partially successful competitions waged within networks led to the incorporation of exotic ideas and imported items into the daily practices of all Naco Valley occupants. The result was a fragile hierarchical structure forever vulnerable to the initiatives of agents operating on local and distant stages. Networks of Power describes who was involved in these competitions and in which networks they participated; what resources were mustered within these webs; which projects were fueled by these assets; and how, and to what extent, they contributed to the achievement of political aims.
Download or read book Writing and the Ancient State written by Haicheng Wang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing and the Ancient State explores the early development of writing and its relationship to the growth of political structures. The first part of the book focuses on the contribution of writing to the state's legitimating project. The second part deals with the state's use of writing in administration, analyzing both textual and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the state used bookkeeping to allocate land, police its people, and extract taxes from them. The third part focuses on education, the state's system for replenishing its staff of scribe-officials. The first half of each part surveys evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Maya lowlands, Central Mexico, and the Andes; against this background the second half examines the evidence from China. The chief aim of this book is to shed new light on early China (from the second millennium BC through the end of the Han period, ca. 220 AD) while bringing to bear the lens of cross-cultural analysis on each of the civilizations under discussion.
Download or read book Science and the World s Religions written by Patrick McNamara Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This trio of volumes contains essays that explore vital existential, moral, or metaphysical issues surrounding the relationship between the sciences and the world's religions. In Science and the World's Religions, experts with scientific and religious backgrounds explore vital existential or practical issues, drawing on whatever sciences are relevant and engaging at least two religious traditions. The multidisciplinary essays exhibit rigorous intellectual, scholarly thinking but are written to clearly communicate to educated adult lay readers. The first volume addresses questions about the origins and purpose of the cosmos and the human project. The second volume investigates the roles of religion and spirituality in human existence, considering issues ranging from the brain and religious experience to the human life cycle. The third volume tackles controversies in which both religion and science are stakeholders, showing how both can deepen understanding and enrich human experience. Together, these three books present readers with powerful tools that enable them to think through the challenge of integrating science with their religious beliefs and spiritual practices.
Download or read book Tutankhamun Knew the Names of the Two Great Gods Dt and nHH as Fundamental Concepts of Pharaonic Ideology written by Steven R.W. Gregory and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-02-04 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tutankhamun Knew the Names of the Two Great Gods offers a new interpretation of the terms Dt and nHH as fundamental concepts of Pharaonic ideology, terms that, until now, have often been treated as synonyms reflecting notions related to the vastness of time.
Download or read book Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt written by Carolyn Graves-Brown and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2018-09-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It deals with artefacts from the Egypt Centre. This is a little known but important collection. It deals largely with themes rarely or not at all discussed in separate volumes. The theme of daemons is particularly current in academic Egyptology. It should appeal to both academic and non-academic readers.
Download or read book Archaeology of Asia written by Miriam T. Stark and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introduction to the archaeology of Asia focuses on casestudies from the region’s last 10,000 years of history. Comprises fifteen chapters by some of the world’sforemost Asia archaeologists Sheds light on the most compelling aspects of Asianarchaeology, from the earliest evidence of plant domestication tothe emergence of states and empires Explores issues of cross-cultural significance, such asmigration, urbanism, and technology Presents original research data that challenges readers tothink beyond national and regional boundaries Synthesizes work previously unavailable to western readers
Download or read book Classic Maya Provincial Politics written by Lisa J. LeCount and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most treatments of large Classic Maya sites such as Caracol and Tikal regard Maya political organization as highly centralized. Because investigations have focused on civic buildings and elite palaces, however, a critical part of the picture of Classic Maya political organization has been missing. The contributors to this volume chart the rise and fall of the Classic Maya center of Xunantunich, paying special attention to its changing relationships with the communities that comprised its hinterlands. They examine how the changing relationships between Xunantunich and the larger kingdom of Naranjo affected the local population, the location of their farms and houses, and the range of economic and subsistence activities in which both elites and commoners engaged. They also examine the ways common people seized opportunities and met challenges offered by a changing political landscape. The rich archaeological data in this book show that incorporating subject communities and people—and keeping them incorporated—was an on-going challenge to ancient Maya rulers. Until now, archaeologists have lacked integrated regional data and a fine-grained chronology in which to document short-term shifts in site occupations, subsistence strategies, and other important practices of the daily life of the Maya. This book provides a revised picture of Maya politics—one of different ways of governing and alliance formation among dominant centers, provincial polities, and hinterland communities.
Download or read book From House Societies to States written by Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2022-10-21 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The organization and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. On the one hand, neo-evolutionary schemas of political transformation find it difficult to define some of their most basic concepts, such as ‘chiefdom’, ‘complex chiefdom’ and ‘state’, not to mention the transition between them. On the other hand, teleological interpretations based on linear dynamics, from less to increasingly more complex political structures, in successive steps, impose biased and too rigid views on the available evidence. In fact, recent research stresses the existence of other forms of socio-political organization, less vertically integrated and more heterarchical, that proved highly successful and resilient in the long term in tying together social groups. What is more, such forms quite often represented the basic blocks on which states were built and that managed to survive once states collapsed. Finally, nomadic, maritime and mountain populations provide fascinating examples of societies that experienced alternative forms of political organization, sometimes on a seasonal basis. In other cases, their consideration as ‘marginal’ populations that cultivated specialized skills ensured them a certain degree of autonomy when living either within or at the borders of states. This book explores such small-scale socio-political organizations, their potential and the historical trajectories they stimulated. A selection of historical case studies from different regions of the world may help rethink current concepts and views about the emergence and organization of political complexity and the mechanisms that prevented, occasionally, the emergence of solid polities. They may also cast some light over trajectories of historical transformation, still poorly understood as are the limits of effective state power. This book explores the importance of comparative research and long-term historical perspectives to avoid simplistic interpretations, based on the characteristics of modern Western states abusively used retrospectively.
Download or read book Material Koinai in the Greek Early Iron Age and Archaic Period written by Anastasia Gadolou and published by Aarhus Universitetsforlag. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Greek word koine was used to describe the new common language dialect that became widespread in the ancient Greek world after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Modern scholars have increasingly used the word to conceptualise regional homogeneities in the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean. In this volume, twenty scholars from various disciplines present case studies that focus on the fundamental question of how to perceive and the social and cultural mechanisms that led to the spread and consumption of material culture in the Greek early Iron Age. Combined the chapters provide a critical examination of the use of the koine concept as a heuristic tool in historical research and discuss to what degree similarities in material culture reflect cultural connections. The volume will be of interest scholars interested in archaeological theory and method, the social significance of material culture, and the history of the ancient Greek world in the first half of the first millennium BC.
Download or read book The Evolution of Social Institutions written by Dmitri M. Bondarenko and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-12 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a novel and innovative approach to the study of social evolution using case studies from the Old and the New World, from prehistory to the present. This approach is based on examining social evolution through the evolution of social institutions. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a vast number of social institutions that are constantly interacting and changing. As a result, the structure of society as a whole is also evolving and changing. The authors posit that the combination of evolving social institutions explains the non-linear character of social evolution and that every society develops along its own pathway and pace. Within this framework, society should be seen as the result of the compound effect of the interactions of social institutions specific to it. Further, the transformation of social institutions and relations between them is taking place not only within individual societies but also globally, as institutions may be trans-societal, and even institutions that operate in one society can arise as a reaction to trans-societal trends and demands. The book argues that it may be more productive to look at institutions even within a given society as being parts of trans-societal systems of institutions since, despite their interconnectedness, societies still have boundaries, which their members usually know and respect. Accordingly, the book is a must-read for researchers and scholars in various disciplines who are interested in a better understanding of the origins, history, successes and failures of social institutions.
