Showing titles in Archaeology

In How War Began, author Keith F. Otterbein draws on primate behavior research, archaeological research, data gathered from the Human Relations Area Files and a career spent in research and reflection on war to argue for two separate origins. He identifies two types of military organization: one which developed two million years ago at the dawn of humankind, wherever groups of hunters met and a second which developed some 5,000 years ago, in four identifiable regions, when the first states arose and proceeded to embark upon military conquests.

More than 1200 miles from the nearest inhabited island and 2200 miles from mainland Chile, Easter Island is one of the most inaccessible places on the planet, made famous by its thousand huge statues. How people came to live there and what happened to them has been the cause of heated debate. Now, in this compelling and deeply researched new book, we find out the answers.

In 1999, few people had thought to examine the effects of climate on civilization. Now, due in part to the groundbreaking work of archaeologist Brian Fagan, climate change is a central issue. Revised and updated 10 years after its first publication, Floods, Famines and Emperors remains the definitive account of how the world's best-known climate event had an indelible impact on history.

Facing an insurmountable deficit in resources compared to the Union navy, the Confederacy resorted to unorthodox forms of warfare to combat enemy forces. Perhaps the most energetic and effective torpedo corps and secret service company organized during the American Civil War, the Singer Secret Service Corps, led by Texan inventor and entrepreneur Edgar Collins Singer, developed and deployed submarines, underwater weaponry, and explosive devices.

Greek mythology has a lot of interesting and thought-provoking tidbits attached to it, and for many people it is a great subject to learn. But how do you get started with it? Well, the answer is simple, and this book will show you just how to kick-start your learning of Greek mythology. By the end of this, you will have a full and in-depth understanding of Greek mythology. It's a ton of fun to learn and understand, and you, too, will avail yourself of all this interesting information through the use of this book.

Flatboats were the most prolific type of vessel on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers during the early 1800s. Thousands of these boats descended the two rivers each year, carrying not only valuable cargo to New Orleans but also western-bound emigrants to newly opened territories. By the late 1800s, flatboats had completely disappeared, and no intact examples were known to exist. That changed in 2000, when local residents found a wreck on the Ohio River shoreline in Illinois.

This first comprehensive work on women in pre-Columbian cultures describes gender roles and relationships in the Americas from 12,000 B.C. to the A.D. 1500s. Utilizing many key archaeological works, Karen Olsen Bruhns and Karen E. Stothert redress some of the long-standing male bias in writing about ancient Native American lifeways. The authors pay particular attention to the problems of interpreting archaeological remains and the uses of historic and ethnographic evidence in reconstructing the past.

In July 1882, the steamboat Red Cloud hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The Red Cloud was a symbol-and a source-of the trading company's success. Bought for $25,000 in 1877, it was one of three boats that I. G. Baker employed on the Missouri. A stern-wheeled, wooden-hulled packet boat, the Red Cloud carried both cargo and passengers on a floating palace.

L'archéologie en Terre sainte ne peut se réduire à un seul usage politique religieux. Les rapports entre foi et science, mythe et histoire, imaginaire et rationnel sont infiniment plus complexes. A partir d'une approche historique, sont retracés les grandes explorations et les quêtes fantastiques, découvertes scientifiques et débats de société que Jérusalem a suscités.

Girl Archaeologist recounts Alice Kehoe's life, begun in an era very different from the twenty-first century in which she retired as an honored elder archaeologist. She persisted against patriarchy in her childhood, at Harvard University, and as she did fieldwork with her husband in the northern plains. Working in archaeology and in the histories of American First Nations, Kehoe published groundbreaking books and articles, and fostered a sisterhood of feminists—strong, bright women archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnohistorians who have been essential to the field.

Have you ever wondered about the secrets that lie in the shadows of the Great Pyramid of Giza? Dive into a fascinating journey through the centuries. This book takes you from medieval accounts to cutting-edge archaeological research, revealing every nook and cranny of this iconic monument. Discover the amazing engineering that defies logic, explore its cosmic mysteries, and dive into the cultural and spiritual connections that have resonated throughout the millennia. From its original function as a funerary monument to its impact on modern architecture, this book unravels the secrets of a ...

Almost as soon as the last shot was fired in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the battlefield became an archaeological site. For many years afterward, as fascination with the famed 1876 fight intensified, visitors to the area scavenged the many relics left behind. It took decades, however, before researchers began to tease information from the battle's debris - and the new field of battlefield archaeology began to emerge.

A thriving fur trade post between 1830 and 1860, Fort Clark, in what is today western North Dakota, also served as a way station for artists, scientists, missionaries, soldiers, and other western chroniclers traveling along the Upper Missouri River. The written and visual legacies of these visitors have long been the primary sources of information on the cultures of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, the peoples who met the first fur traders in the area. This book is the first account of the fur trade at Fort Clark to integrate new archaeological evidence into the history.

A vibrant portrait of a lost world, A History of Ancient Rome in 100 Lives reveals the mightiest civilization of antiquity through the eyes of one hundred of its citizens. The book gives a voice not just to Rome's most famous generals and rulers, such as Caesar and Caligula, but also to its builders, sculptors, poets, historians, gladiators, shepherds, enslaved people, and courtesans.

Using the writings of Cosmas and a wealth of other historical and archaeological evidence from the period, eminent historian G. W. Bowersock carefully reconstructs this fascinating but overlooked chapter in pre-Islamic Arabian history. The flashpoint of the war, Bowersock tells us, occurred when Yusuf, the Jewish king of Himyar, massacred hundreds of Christians living in Najran. The Christian ruler of Ethiopia, Kaleb, urged on by the Byzantine emperor Justin, led a force of 120,000 men across the Red Sea to defeat Yusuf.

In 2000, archaeologist Paul Gething rediscovered a sword. An unprepossessing length of rusty metal, it had been left in a suitcase for thirty years. But Paul had a suspicion that the sword had more to tell than appeared, so he sent it for specialist tests. When the results came back, he realized that what he had in his possession was possibly the finest, and certainly the most complex, sword ever made, which had been forged in seventh-century Northumberland by an anonymous swordsmith.

From southern Greece to northern Russia, people have long believed in female spirits, bringers of fertility, who spend their nights and days dancing in the fields and forests. So appealing were these spirit-maidens that they also took up residence in 19th-century Romantic literature. Archaeologist and linguist by profession, folk dancer by avocation, Elizabeth Wayland Barber has sleuthed through ethnographic lore and archaeological reports of east and southeast Europe, translating enchanting folktales about these "dancing goddesses" as well as eyewitness accounts of traditional rituals - texts that offer new perspectives on dance in agrarian society.

Mudlarking enthusiast Ted Sandling takes us on a riveting journey along the Thames foreshore and back into the past.

Wie lebten Frauen in der Stein- und Bronzezeit? Wie waren die Geschlechterverhältnisse in der Zeit vor Erfindung der Schrift? Bis vor Kurzem waren alle Antworten auf diese Fragen mehr oder weniger Spekulation. Doch seit DNA-Analysen für die prähistorische Forschung zur Verfügung stehen, hat sich dies geändert. Die Wissenschaftsjournalistin Karin Bojs trägt die neuesten Ergebnisse zusammen und fragt, wann und warum das Patriarchat entstand. Die Prähistorikerin Marija Gimbutas hatte seit den 50er Jahren eine Theorie entwickelt, nach der in „Alteuropa“ eher friedliche, matrilineare Gesellschaften existiert hätten.

Useful for academic and recreational archaeologists alike, this book identifies and describes more than 200 projectile points and stone tools used by prehistoric Native American Indians in Texas. The authors also demonstrate how factors such as environment, locale, and type of artifact combine to produce a portrait of theses ancient cultures.