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This is the final publication of excavations conducted by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem on the Crusader castle of Belmont (Suba) between 1986 and 1989. The account of the excavation is accompanied by specialist reports and concludes with a discussion of the castle's architecture, its military functions, and its economic role. ... Read more

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The process of ethnographic fieldwork often implies the art of mosaic-making. In Pieces of Mosaic, anecdotes from inside as well as from outside Macedonia are joined together in a complex and fluid mosaic. With its foreground and field in the multi-ethnic community of Resen, which borders Greece and Albania in the Prespa Lake Region, the essay places a wager on inter-ethnic co-existence. The anthropologist's intervention takes the form of a civil iconoclasm, where hard and hateful histories give way to a shared and diverse future. ... Read more

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Collected articles of the world's preeminent rock art researchers and cognitive archaeologists. ... Read more

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Brushing aside the veil
This collection of articles outlines the development of a new idea.For many years, the "meaning" of prehistoric cave paintings and "rock art" defied scholars.Many theses were advanced, ranging from humans with an aesthetic sense - "art for art's sake", through "hunting magic" to "structuralism" - using images to portray "universal duality".These proposals almost universally dealt with the astounding images found in places like Lascaux in France or Altamira in Spain.In short, a Eurocentric focus.Australian images were lightly considered, but Aborigine art seemed too mystical to fit the perceived patterns.African rock art, although more numerous in examples, remained mostly ignored by researchers.

David Lewis Williams spent many years examining San rock paintings.Underlying the images was a large collection of ethnographic data accumulated over the previous century.Bringing the two together, he formulated a rational explanation of what the images imparted.His conclusion, cogently formulated and explained here, underlies the understanding of how humans developed the idea of a "spirit world".That idea is reflected in how San society was structured and how that arrangement has persisted into today's world.To the author, San society combined roles for the individual and the group.The individuals each had various levels of the ability to engage in the spiritual world.The barrier between that world and the human one was the rock face.Through various forms of sensory deprivation, certain individuals could conjure images, human, other animals and theriantropic [humans with animal characteristics], which were imparted on the rock surfaces.The configuration of the rock provided elements used in the images - a spine, an eye or other anatomical features.In this way, the "veil" between the spirit and real worlds became "transparent".The best imagers were elevated in the society to become healers and diviners - the "shaman" now well established in hunter-gatherer societies.In shamans, we have the precursors of today's priesthoods and "moral guides".

Lewis Williams presents each of the essays in an historical context.He explains the various "schools" of thought dealing with cave and rock art, showing how these fail to incorporate what the society producing them might have been like.He's careful to disclaim any detailed knowledge of ancient cultures, but does point out the universality of the conditions leading to the mysterious images.Historically, Anthropology was beset by a number of "movements" in which theory often proved insufficient, and precise data collection and collation offered little in the way of insights.The author, with a wealth of such data at his disposal, gives a fuller view of what the data implies in a cultural context. The gains made in cognitive studies over the past two generations granted him the opportunity to merge not only data and theories in a social framework, but to resolve many issues outstanding in many fields.His narrative gains additional continuity with introductory and "Retrospect" concluding comments.These smooth the steps presented to the reader by each main essay by dealing further with the issues raised and how some have been resolved.

Numerous copies of the rock art images superbly enhance the author's texts.The eland, a particularly noteworthy animal in San society, is credited with imparting "power" to the shamans and other individuals.In fact, instead of the "hunting magic" thesis which explained cave art as hopefully conjuring the animals for hunters to take, the eland is imaged after it's killed.The eland provided powers through its breath, fat and blood.The "breath" was taken by inhaling at the animal's mouth; the fat and blood were smeared over the shaman's body.Blood was a major element in shamanist ceremonies.The illustrations show how the dance-inspired trance was often accompanied by nasal bleeding of the dancers.Among other uses, the blood was used in treating the group's sick members.Lewis Williams traces the progression of image types from simple geometrics, commonly indicated by those who have undergone laboratory experiments in sensory deprivation to the complex and often bizarre renditions of animal subjects.The more involved images, he notes, were likely painted after the trance state, perhaps even dictated to an artist with better skills than the shaman.Nor, he reminds us, need these be done by men alone.Among the San, women were participants in the dancing ceremonies, and had many of the same visions.Gender specificity need not be assumed in rock art activities.

This volume is a major step in explaining not only how rock art was accomplished, but in how human societies began developing hierarchical arrangements.The shaman, exhibiting special powers, clearly assumed a significant role.They may have collaborated with the hunters in various ways, beginning the "church-state" alignments characteristic of later societies.To be able to follow the progression of ideas leading to this innovative concept is a special treat.Few researchers have taken the trouble to detail how a novel approach has been achieved.Anthropology plays a special role in understanding our roots.With this series of essays, we have an outline of how a once enigmatic phenomenon underlies many of our traditions and cultural norms.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] ... Read more

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This study of Neolithic tool assemblages from three sites in Syria addresses the question of transformations in lithic debitage from the 10th to 8th millennium BP. The changes witnessed are placed within the context of the economy and subsistence systems to reveal links between debitage development, especially blade variability, and hunting, husbandry and herding practices. Abbes argues that developments in blade debitages were geared towards the production of projectile points which has implications in terms of hunting and warfare. French text. ... Read more

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This volume brings together studies of Ephesos--a major city in the Greco-Roman period and a primary center for the spread of Christianity into the Western world--by an international array of scholars from the fields of classics, fine arts, history of religion, New Testament, ancient Christianity, and archaeology. The studies were presented at a spring 1994 Harvard Divinity School symposium on Ephesos, focusing on the results of one hundred years of archaeological work at Ephesos by members of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

The contributors to this volume discuss some of the most interesting and controversial results of recent investigations: the Processional Way of Artemis, the Hadrianic Olympieion and the Church of Mary, the so-called Temple of Domitian, and the heroa of Androkolos and Arsinoe.

Since very little about the Austrian excavations at Ephesos has been published in English, this volume should prove useful in introducing the archaeology of this metropolis to a wider readership.

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well researched and documented
Very few books currently in print provide detailed information about ancient Ephesos.This book is an invaluable resource.

The essays included are:

The City of Ephesos from the Roman Period to Late Antiquity
Urban Development and Social Change in Imperial Ephesos
At Home in the City of Artemis: Religion in Ephesos in the Literary Imagination of the Roman Period
Ephesos in Early Christian Literature
Via Sacra Ephesiaca:New Aspects of the Cult of Artemis Ephesia
The Processional Way in Ephesos as a Place of Cult and Burial
Preliminary Views of the Ephesian Harbor
Subsidiary Factories of Italian Sigillata Potters: The Ephesian Evidence
The Cult of the Roman Emperors in Ephesos: Temple Wardens, City Titles, and the Interpretation of the Revelation of John
Sculptures of Gods and Heroes from Ephesos
Egyptian Religion in Ephesos
The Church of Mary and the Temple of Hadrian Olympios
The Council of Ephesos: the Rise of the See of Ephesos and the Rise of the Cult of the Theotokos ... Read more

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An excellent early Slavonic history
Barford deals with the difficult subject of early Slav history in a thoughtful and non-political way. In the absence of Slavonic written history (writing only came with Christianity in the 9th and 10th centuries) he carefully uses scarce Byzantine, Carolingian and Arab references together with linguistic, archeological and ethnographic sources.
The interesting picture that emerges is of closely related Slavonic groups (linguistic evidence) probably originating in the Southern Polish, Czech, Carpathian area, cooperating with invading Huns from the East, and moving into land abandoned by the movement of earlier Germanic tribes (who in turn had moved to occupy the collapsing Western Roman Empire). Linguistic evidence also shows wide ranging contacts with German and Iranian influences overlaying the earlier Proto Balto Slavonic. He emphasizes the importance of Christianity (from both Rome and Byzantium) in bringing stability, "promoting social unity and aiding the authorities of the early state in their struggle against decentralizing tendencies in a way that no pagan religion could have done". Christianity also developed a class of educated people able to read and write and give Slavonic kingdoms a place in the newly forming Medieval world.

Fills a big gap in English literature
This is a great overview of the origins of the Slavs and their ancient customs. The book fills a big gap in English historical literature - most history books I've read in English on Eastern Europe only begin with the early Middle Ages, but don't say much about the origins of the Slavic people and the displacement of the Celts and Germanic tribes in the region. For this reason, I think the book is a must read for anyone interested in the region who can't speak the local languages. For those who can, this book provides an impartial view, or rather overview, of competing theories among Communist scholars. The downside is that it reads very much like a textbook, which makes for dry reading. Only true nerds interested in the subject can read through the whole thing without being bored.

Great introduction of the Ancient Slavs
"The Early Slavs" by P.M. Barford is probably the best non-fiction book about Ancient Slavs that I've ever read. It is, in reality, very complicated to discover who these Ancient Slavic peoples were, since there are sparse archaeological evidence and minimal historical accounts. Barford, despite the sparse evidence and accounts, fully details the "Pagan Ideologies" and the "Daily Life" and the "State Formation" of what is now Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and (even) Germany. However, there is a downside to this book: this reads like a bloated textbook and much of the vocabulary is sophisticated (a dictionary must be useful). This is nonetheless a great introduction of the Ancient Slavs. A-

The 1st book those interested in the early Slavs should buy
P. M. Barford is a British scholar residing in Poland. With this book he has made a valuable contribution by providing an easy to read, and best of all OBJECTIVE overview of this often controversial subject area.

I say controversial because as any student of Eastern Europe knows, the history of the region has always been fraught with vastly differing interpretations based on rival and competing nationalisms, and no area moreso than the fragmentary early history.

The author tackles this issue head-on, tracing the course of various nationalist contructions of early Slavic history in response to certain political imperatives, such as the post-WWII refutation of Nazi German claims to East European territory, or Soviet government desires to minimize and divert attention away from differences among peoples in order to facilitate the formation of one "Soviet people". He also carries this healthy skepticism even further, by constantly questioning the perspectives and motivation for writing of all of the existing early written sources he discusses, and even applying it to the newest scholarship which has begun to appear in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

The book begins with a preface and introduction as well as a very convenient time-line chart of East-, West- and South-Slavic history. The body of the book consists of 13 chapters. The first four cover the early history divided into several phases. Chapters 5-10 respectively focus on daily life of the early Slavs, their social structure, warfare, economics, paganism, and the coming of Christianity. Chapters 11-12 deal with state formation and the final chapter deals with the image of the Slavs from a historiographic perspective.

This is then followed by 30 pages of extensive notes to the preceding chapters, a select bibliography (which I would have preferred to be a bit more thoroughgoing), and best of all 80 pages of illustrations and maps. The 12 maps included here I found especially wonderful!

My only tiny complaints would be the rendering of certain East- or South-Slavic names in Polish style, which may be confusing to some readers, and the very occasional echoing of a distinctly Polish perspective on certain issues (which I had actually gone into the book expecting to be far stronger given the author's immersion in the Polish academic milieu). But neither of these are significant enough to mar my 5-star rating of this book.

I am happy to recommend this book as a concise, comprehensive and up to date introduction to this subject area.

The Early Slavs: a wealth of hard-to-get information
This is a scholarly book by an archaeologist/historian living in Poland.12 main maps, plus some more maps among the 72 illustrations, most of which are clear line drawings, not photos. The most important characteristic of this book is that it summarizes in English a wealth of information otherwise available only in Slavic languages. (Most of the 38 pages of notes and references cite Slavic language sources.) A very enlightening examination of who the Slavs are and where they might have come from. Of limited use in genealogy, since the main story here ends in about the 11th Century. Tiny print is hard on the eyes. ... Read more

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A study of the process of Romanisation in Eastern Dalmatia based on archaeological evidence which is studied alongside literary evidence. Zotovic concludes that the first evidence for Roman intervention in the region began in the mid-1st century AD and he traces the impact of Romanisation on the development of the population, social hierarchies, settlements, standards of living, burials and religion, and the economy, including agriculture, crafts, mining and trade. ... Read more

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Twenty-six papers from the Proceedings of the Second International Symposium "Cities on the Sea" held in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1994, dedicated to maritime matters in the eastern Mediterranean from the early Holocene through to the Roman period. Papers focused on the exploitation of raw materials, trade, marine archaeology, ship iconography, ancient history, shipwrecks and seafaring in the East Mediterranean as a whole and referring to specific sites or areas: Cilicia, Minet el-Beida, Kourion, Uluburun shipwreck, Dakhleh, Kition, Phalasarna, Alonnesos, Roman Periploi, Corinthia. ... Read more

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A new edition of this illustrated guide to Celtic religion in Britain and Europe. ... Read more

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Must-have for the serious student, but analysis maybe weak.
The book is loaded with archeological data and illustrations.It also reveals the confusing plethora of local pantheons that seem to be a major featue of Celtic Religion.Unfortunatly, Green rigidly applies the skygod/earth god dichotomy originally proposed and heavily debated for theGreek pantheon.Though she admits to puzzling inconsistancies this causesin her interpretations she does not apply other material already knownabout the Celtic faith to resolve the problems. ... Read more

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This collection of essays examines the politicization and the politics of the Jewish people in the Russian empire during the late tsarist period. The focal point is the Russian revolution of 1905, when the political mobilization of the Jewish youth took on massive proportions, producing a cohort of radicalized activists - committed to socialism, nationalism, or both - who would exert an extraordinary influence on Jewish history in the twentieth-century in Eastern Europe, the United States, and Palestine. Frankel describes the dynamics of 1905 and the leading role of the intelligentsia as revolutionaries, ideologues, and observers. But, elsewhere, he also looks backwards to the emergent stage of modern Jewish politics in both Russia and the West and forward to the part played by the veterans of 1905 in Palestine and the United States. ... Read more

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This generously illustrated volume, honoring Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., field director of the Sardis Expedition for over thirty years, and commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Harvard– Cornell archaeological excavation, presents new studies by scholars closely involved with Professor Greenewalt’s excavations at this site in western Turkey. The essays span the Archaic to the Late Antique periods, focusing primarily on Sardis itself but also touching on other archaeological sites in the eastern Mediterranean. Three papers publish for the first time an Archaic painted tomb near Sardis with lavish interior furnishings. Papers on Sardis in late antiquity focus on domestic wall paintings, spolia used in the late Roman Synagogue, and late fifth-century coin hoards. Other Sardis papers examine the layout of the city from the Lydian to the Roman periods, the transformation of Sardis from an imperial capital to a Hellenistic polis, the reuse of pottery in the Lydian period, and the history and achievements of the conservation program at the site. Studies of an Archaic seal from Gordion, queenly patronage of Hellenistic rotundas, and ancient and modern approaches to architectural ornament round out the volume.

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