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In the course of the 1980s, Palaeolithic research was resumed in Austria and has been intensified since 1999 by the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This research has focused on the archaeological-rich loess region of Lower Austria, centred around Krems on the Danube. In 2005, the first of these projects, which concentrated on the long-known site of Hundssteig in Krems, was completed. On this occasion, the Academy invited specialists from twelve European countries to an international symposium in Vienna with the topic - New Aspects of the Central and Eastern European Upper Palaeolithic methods, chronology, technology and subsistence/ Aktuelle Aspekte des mittel- und osteuropaischen Jungpalaolithikums - Methoden, Chronologie, Technologie und Subsistenz to discuss the present state of research and new regional finds. Much emphasis was placed on interdisciplinary studies which are of such vital importance to Palaeolithic research. Of special importance were sedimentology, Ice Age stratigraphy and absolute chronology which could be discussed and compared over large geographical regions of Europe. The discussion concentrated on the early phases of the Upper Palaeolithic and the transition from the Aurignacian to the Gravettian. These periods were exemplified by the presentation of new research from the Lower Austrian sites of Krems-Hundssteig, Krems-Wachtberg, Willendorf, Grub-Kranawetberg and Alberndorf and neighbouring regions, as well as well-known sites ranging along the Danube from the Swabian Alb in Germany to Rumania and north to Russia. ... Read more

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This volume on Eastern Europe has contributions by many leading archaeologists from the regions under study and from Britain. Despite its wide chronological range, from the paleolithic to the early Middle Ages, the text achieves a coherence with the theme of interaction - movement of people, movement of ideas, and movement of objects. The power such interactions had to transform societies, whether through the introduction of new technology or farming practices or by social change wrought by dominant powers and ideologies, is further explored by many of the contributors. Each of the four chronological divisions of the book has its own introduction, written by scholars, helping to put the papers into context and making the prehistory of little-known regions more accessible to western scholars. ... Read more

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Gripping and Revealing Account of Western Man in India.
A gripping account of British life in the capital city of their Indian Empire, their treatment of the Indian population, and their own reaction to Indian culture - from 1689 when they founded Calcutta, until the early 20th century, when the capital of British India was moved from Bengal to New Delhi. This is a vivid pen picture which reveals the day-to-day life and epic adventures of the kind of people who made Europeans a dominant force in world history. Their attitudes to the native peoples and the rise of racial consciousness are described. First published in 1954, in Calcutta, India, and later reprinted in the USA.
Chapters include: Merchant Adventurers; The Early Settlement; Growth and Prosperity; The Rule of the Nabobs; Imperial Splendor; The Merchant Princes; and Victorian Calcutta. ... Read more

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This book brings together new and original work by forty two of the world's leading scholars of Indo-European comparative philology and linguistics from around the world. It shows the breadth and the continuing liveliness of enquiry in an area which over the last century and a half has opened many unique windows on the civilizations of the ancient world. The volume is a tribute to Anna Morpurgo Davies to mark her retirement as the Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford. The book's six parts are concerned with the early history of Indo-European (Part I); language use, variation, and change in ancient Greece and Anatolia (Parts II and III); the Indo-European languages of Western Europe, including Latin, Welsh, and Anglo-Saxon (Part IV); the ancient Indo-Iranian and Tocharian languages (Part V); and the history of Indo-European linguistics (Part VI).Indo-European Perspectives will interest scholars and students of Indo-European philology, historical linguistics, classics, and the history of the ancient world. ... Read more

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Loren'sIn Contact offers a fascinating synthesis of current knowledge of the contact period between Europeans and Native peoples in the American Eastern woodlands. ... Read more

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Suggesting new approaches to the period when written history begins and the early medieval states emerge, the book examines early European ethnic formations and states, the demography of medieval populations and the nature of rural settlement and urban development. There are chapters on the contact between Byzantium and medieval Hungary and Scandinavia. There is also analysis of the medieval populations of Czechoslovakia and Denmark, of social organization in Poland and cultural conflict in Livonia. Studies of early settlements in Bohemia and the Danube are complemented by detailed accounts of the origin and growth of three great medieval cities--Lubeck, Prague and Kiev. ... Read more

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This book takes a fresh look at the European Neolithic and asks pertinent questions about the way in which we study it. By unsettling accepted notions regarding sedentism and the onset of farming, the contributors are able to show that many ideas which are taken as read may need re-evaluating in the light of new modes of thinking. Sedentism and mobility form the bulk of this volume's focus, and a number of papers look at these concepts through examining/re-examining certain sites or collections of sites. Paul Halstead makes the case that sedentism does not preclude a large degree of mobility. Bailey asks us to completely re-think our attitude to the built environment of the Neolithic, arguing that we are trapped by details as to the purpose of structures, rather than on what effect their presence had on the people who used them. Taken together, these fourteen papers encourage us to move beyond the search for sedentism or mobility as a characteristic of society. ... Read more

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In this work the author correlates animal history with the evolution of human society and with the ecological transformations in mediaeval Moldavia, revealing the role played by animals in the life of mediaeval communities, the exploitation strategies employed, the dynamics of the morphology, and the distribution of various animal species in mediaeval Moldavia. The objectives in view were: to evaluate the animal resources and the purposes of their use in various mediaeval settlements in Moldavian; to identify consumer diversity depending on the geographical, ethnical and religious factors on the urban or rural environment; to describe different animal species identified starting from the archaeozoological samples and to establish certain racial types of domestic animals in mediaeval Moldavia on the basis of the correlation of archaeozoological and historiographical data, as well as present-day zootechnological data; to estimate the ways in which animals were utilized (age, gender, butchering methods, etc.). The work is presented in four chapters, followed by conclusions, bibliography, and appendices of metric data inventories. The first chapter presents the general study framework and background on previously published data. Chapter two provides a general description of the archaeozoological samples on which the synthetic analysis is founded. Chapter three is an investigation of the animal resources used in mediaeval Moldavia. Chapter four contains the osteometric description of the domestic animal species identified in the archaeological samples. ... Read more

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Originally published between 1920-70,The History of Civilization was a landmark in early twentieth century publishing. It was published at a formative time within the social sciences, and during a period of decisive historical discovery. The aim of the general editor, C.K. Ogden, was to summarize the most up to date findings and theories of historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and sociologists. This reprinted material is available as a set or in the following groupings:
* Prehistory and Historical Ethnography
Set of 12: 0-415-15611-4: £800.00
* Greek Civilization
Set of 7: 0-415-15612-2: £450.00
* Roman Civilization
Set of 6: 0-415-15613-0: £400.00
* Eastern Civilizations
Set of 10: 0-415-15614-9: £650.00
* Judaeo-Christian Civilization
Set of 4: 0-415-15615-7: £250.00
* European Civilization
Set of 11: 0-415-15616-5: £700.00
... Read more

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This compelling ethnographic study describes how two groups of Romanian industrial workers have fared since the end of socialism. Once labor's elite, the celebrated coal miners of the Jiu Valley and the chemical workers of the Fagaras region had many social privileges and often derived genuine satisfaction from their work. Today, they are a rarely noted casualty of postsocialist transformations. Fear, distance, and alienation are the physical manifestations of stress experienced due to their precarious job status, declining health, and loss of a social safety net. Kideckel traces these issues in the context of labor, political relationships, domestic and community life, gender identities, and health. Drawing on more than three decades of fieldwork, he presents many narratives from select individuals, in their own words, providing a poignant and illuminating perspective on the everyday lives of ordinary people.

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Contents of Book
VOLUME 1: ARCHEOLOGY, MIGRATION AND NOMADISM, LINGUISTICS: Map of Eastern Central Asia. INTRODUCTION: Victor H. Mair: Priorities. ARCHEOLOGY: AN Zhimin: Cultural Complexes of the Bronze Age in the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas; Elena E. Kuzmina: Cultural Connections of the Tarim Basin People and Pastoralists of the Asian Steppes in the Bronze Age; David W. Anthony: The Opening of the Eurasian Steppe at 2000 BCE; Asko Parpola: Aryan Languages, Archeological Cultures, and Sinkiang-Where Did Proto-Iranian Come into Being and How Did It Spread?; Fredrik T. Hiebert: Central Asians on the Iranian Plateau-A Model for Indo-Iranian Expansionism; SHUI Tao: On the Relationship between the Tarim and Fergana Basins in the Bronze Age; HE Dexiu: A Brief Report on the Mummies from the Zaghunluq Site in Chärchän County; J.P. Mallory: A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia; Colin Renfrew: The Tarim Basin, Tocharian, and Indo-European Origins-A View from the West. MIGRATION AND NOMADISM: Karl Jettmar: Early Migrations in Central Asia; Natalia I. Shishlina and Fredrik T. Hiehert: The Steppe and the Sown-Interaction between Bronze Age Eurasian Nomads and Agriculturalists; Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Tribal Interaction between the Early Iron Age Nomads of the Southern Ural Steppes, Semirechive, and Xinjiang; Claudia Chang and Perry A. Tourtellotte: The Role of Agro-pastoralism in the Evolution of Steppe; Culture in the Semirechye Area of Southern Kazakhstan during the Saka/Wustun Period (600 BCE-400 CE); Tzehtley C'hiou-Peng: Western Hunan and Its Steppe Affinities. LINGUISTICS: Eric P. Hamp: Whose Were the Tocharians?-Linguistic Subgrouping and Diagnostic Idiosyncrasy; Werner Winter: Lexical Archaisms in the Tocharian Languages; Georges-Jean Pinault: Tocharian Languages and Pre-Buddhist Culture; Douglas Q. Adams: On the History and Significance of Some Tocharian B Agricultural Terms; Alexander Lubotsky: Tocharian Loan Words in Old Chinese-Chariots, Chariot Gear, and Town Building; Don Ringe, Tandy Warnow, Ann Taylor, Alexander Michailov, and Libby Levison: Computational Cladistics and the Position of Tocharian; Juha Janhunen: The Horse in East Asia-Reviewing the Linguistic Evidence; John Colarusso: Languages of the Dead; Kevin Tuite: Evidence for Prehistoric Links between the Caucasus and Central Asia-The Case of the Burushos; LIN Meicun: Qilian and Kunlun-The Earliest Tokharian Loan-words in Ancient Chinese; Penglin Wang: A Linguistic Approach to Inner Asian Ethnonyms; William S-Y. Wang: Three Windows on the Past.

VOLUME 2: GENETICS AND PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Paolo Francalacci: DNA Analysis on Ancient Desiccated Corpses from Xinjiang (China)-Further Results; Tongmao Zhao: The Uyghurs, a Mongoloid-Caucasoid Mixed Population-Genetic Evidence and Estimates of Caucasian Admixture in the Peoples Living in Northwest China; HAN Kangxin: The Physical Anthropology of the Ancient Populations of the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas. METALLURGY: Ke Peng: The Andronovo Bronze Artifacts Discovered in Toquztara County in Ili, Xinjiang; Jianjun Mei and Colin Shell: Copper And Bronze Metallurgy in Late Prehistoric Xinjiang; Emma C. Bunker: Cultural Diversity in the Tarim Basin Vicinity and Its Impact on Ancient Chinese Culture; Katheryn M. Linduff: The Emergence and Demise of Bronze-Prod-ucing Cultures Outside the Central Plain of China. TEXTILES: E.J.W. Barber: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin-The Krorän (Loulan) and Qumul (Elami) Evidence; Irene Good: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin-The Chärchän Evidence. GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATOLOGY: Harold C. Fleming: At the Vortex of Central Asia-Mummies as Testimony to Prehistory; Kenneth J. Hsü: Did the Xinjiang Indo-Europ-eans Leave Their Home Because of Global Cooling? HISTORY: Michael Puett: China in Early Eurasian History-A Brief Review of Recent Scholarship on the Issue; E. Bruce Brooks: Textual Evidence for 04c Sino-Bactrian Contact. MYTHOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY: Denis Sinor: The Myth of Languages and the Language of Myth; C. Scott Littleton: Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies `Epi-Scythians'? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology; CHEN Chien-wen: Further Studies on the Racial, Cultural, and Ethnic Affinities of the Yuezhi; Dolkun Kamberi: Discovery of the Täklimakanian Civilization during, a Century of Tarim Archeological Exploration (ca. 1886-1996); Dru C. Gladney: Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Identity in China-Considering the Uygurs and Kazaks. CONCLUSION: Victor H. Mair: Die Sprachmöbe-An Archeolinguistic Parable. APPENDIX: Victor H. Mair and Dolkun Kamberi: Place, People, and Site Names of the Uyghur Region Pertinent to the Archeology of the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Excellent Modern Treatment of an Ancient Subject
This superb, broad collection of detailed papers on ancient Eastern Central Asia is fascinating for anyone interested in the subject.Though presented for professionals in the field, virtually every paper is intelligible to the lay person, opening new horizons for anyone interested in the history of this region.Exceptionally well-edited, with chapters covering archeology, migration and nomadism, linguistics, genetics and physical anthropology, metallurgy, textiles, geography and climatology, history, mythology and ethnology, a long overdue comprehensive treatment of this subject is finally at hand.Every contributor to the two-volume set should be pleased with this phenomenal achievement.Persons interested in many diverse topics, such as Zoroastrian studies, history of the Fergana Valley, or Tocharian linguistics, will still find many papers of interest, whether treated as separate subjects or not.Outstanding! ... Read more

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This volume deals with the prehistoric human groups and their environments that occurred during the early and middle Holocene (roughly 10 6 thousand years before present) in a huge segment of the Eurasian continent forming the East European Plain, which predated the early manifestations of food-producing economies: agriculture and stock-rearing. In archaeological terms widely accepted in the West, this period corresponds to the Mesolithic, panoply of hunter-gathering communities that evolved in the aftermath of the Last Ice Age. Contents: 1) Theoretical Background (P.M. Dolukhanov); 2) Geography of East European Plain (P.M. Dolukhanov); 3) Initial Human Settlement of East European Plain (P.M. Dolukhanov et al.); 4) The Mesolithic of East European Plain (P.M. Dolukhanov); 5) Late Quaternary Environments of Northern Black Sea Area (E.P. Larchenkov et al.); 6) The Holocene Vegetation, Climate and Early Human Subsistence in the Ukraine (G.A. Pashkevich & N.P. Gerasimenko); 7) Multiple sources for Neolithic European agriculture: Geographical origins of early domesticates in Moldova and Ukraine (G. Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute et al.); 8) Late Quaternary Environments of the North Caspian Lowland (P.M. Dolukhanov et al.); 9) The Middle Volga Neolithic (A.A. Vybornov et al.); 10) The North Caspian Mesolithic and Neolithic (A.A. Vybornov et al.); 11) The Lower Don Neolithic (A.L. Aleksandrovsky et al.); 12) Early Neolithic in the South of East European Plain (P. M. Dolukhanov et al.); 13) The Holocene Environment and Prehistoric Settlements in North-Western and Central Russia (Kh.A. Arslanov et al.); 14) The Holocene History of the Baltic Sea, Ladoga Lake and Early Human Movements (D.A. Subetto et al.); 15) Mesolithic and Neolithic in the Western Dvina-Lovat Area (A.N. Mazurkevich et al.); 16) The Beginning of Farming in the Eastern Baltic Area (A. Kriiska); 17) Early Farming and Metal Working in Boreal Russia: Zhizhitsa Lake Sits Case Study (B.S. Korotkevich et al.); 18) Mesolithic and Neolithic in North Eastern Europe (M. Lavento & P.M. Dolukhanov); 19) Multiple Sources of the European Neolithic: Mathematical Modelling Constrained by Radiocarbon Dates (K. Davison et al.); 20) Mathematical Modelling of the Neolithic Transition: a Review for Non-Mathematicians (J. Fort); 21) Population Spread Along Self-organized Paths (F.G. Feugier et al.); 22) Archaeology and Languages in Northern Eurasia: New Evidence and Hypotheses (P.M. Dolukhanov); 23) Human Genetics and Neolithic Dispersals (O.P. Balanovsky). ... Read more

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This volume presents ten papers on the Greek and non-Greek world of the Black Sea in the archaic, classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Five papers broach literary and historical topics. Four investigate material in Greek writers (Alcman, Aristeas of Proconnesus, Herodotus and Lucian) connected with Scythia and the North, while the fifth deals with the Bosporan Kingdom. Mediterranean Greek contact with, and reception of, the Pontic world play a significant role throughout. The other five papers concern pottery and metalwork (vessels and phalerae) from Colchis, the North Black Sea and elsewhere. Some new material for the West is published (from Vani and Picvnari) but light is also cast on familiar objects (Sarmatian gold vessels) and iconography (Amazonomachies). Contact between the Aegean and Pontus is again a recurrent theme. ... Read more