Showing titles in Archaeology

The Inka empire was the largest pre-Columbian polity in the New World. Its vast expanse, its ethnic diversity, and the fact that the empire may have been consolidated in less than a century have prompted much scholarly interest in its creation. In this study, Besom explores the ritual practices of human sacrifice and the worship of mountains, attested in both archaeological investigations and ethnohistorical sources, as tools in the establishment and preservation of political power.

Historians have long asserted that during and after the Hannibalic War, the Roman Republic's need to conscript men for long-term military service helped bring about the demise of Italy's small farms and that the misery of impoverished citizens then became fuel for the social and political conflagrations of the late republic. Nathan Rosenstein challenges this claim, showing how Rome reconciled the needs of war and agriculture throughout the middle republic.

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.

Weapons improved rapidly after the Civil War, raising difficult questions about the battle tactics employed by the United States Army. The most fundamental problem was the dominance of the tactical defensive, when defenders protected by fieldworks could deliver deadly fire from rifles and artillery against attackers advancing in close-ordered lines.

It may be the most interesting and yet loneliest spot on Earth: a volcanic rock surrounded by a million square miles of ocean, named for the day Dutch explorers discovered it, Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722. Here, people created a complex society, sophisticated astronomy, exquisite wood sculpture, monumental stone architecture, roads, and a puzzling ideographic script. And then they went about sculpting amazing, giant human figures in stone.

On September 1, 2004, three middle-aged buddies set out on one of the last geographic challenges never before attempted in North America: to hike the Comb Ridge in one continuous push. The Comb is an upthrust ridge of sandstone-virtually a mini-mountain range-that stretches almost unbroken for a hundred miles from just east of Kayenta, Arizona, to some ten miles west of Blanding, Utah. To hike the Comb is to run a gauntlet of up-and-down severities, with the precipice lurking on one hand, the fiendishly convoluted bedrock slab on the other-always at a sideways, ankle-wrenching pitch.

History is recorded in many ways. According to author James Deetz, the past can be seen most fully by studying the small things so often forgotten. In his completely revised and expanded edition of In Small Things Forgotten, Deetz has added new sections that more fully acknowledge the presence of women and African Americans in Colonial America.

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.

Загадки древних цивилизаций, сказочные сокровища царских гробниц, ловушки, опасности и проклятия, подстерегающие дерзких первооткрывателей, рискнувших извлечь из небытия храмы забытых богов... Звучит как тизер к приключенческому фильму. Однако задолго до того, как на широкие экраны вырвались Индиана Джонс и Лара Крофт, археология перестала быть пыльной наукой, интересной только ученым мужам. Произошло это в том числе и благодаря книге, которую вы держите в руках.

First published in 1871, Ancient America delivers the earliest comprehensive English language survey of North America’s prehistoric past. Baldwin synthesizes scattered accounts—from the fluted point hunters of the Paleo Indian era to the monumental earthworks of the Mississippi Valley “Mound Builders,” and onward to the pyramidal cities of Mexico and Central America—into a single, lucid narrative.

Com base na arqueogenética, cientistas como Johannes Krause traçaram a rota das ondas migratórias que povoaram o mundo, lançando luz sobre aspectos do passado que até então permaneciam um mistério. Krause e o jornalista Thomas Trappe reescrevem um dos capítulos mais interessantes desse percurso: o povoamento da Europa. Além disso, detalham a cultura dos povos que viviam lá no período pré-histórico, formados por hábeis artesãos, por pessoas que enterravam os mortos com joias de ouro muito antes dos faraós do Egito e por caçadores de grandes animais que pereceram na Era do Gelo.

This book contains a glimpse into the lives of multiple historical figures that have escaped common knowledge and many historical texts. Here's an inescapable fact: you will need to dig deeper when learning about these people, but you will come out introduced to droves of new personalities. If you do not find yourself wanting to know more, we have done you a disservice, but we guarantee you that your interest will be piqued.

Das zehnte Jahrhundert gilt als Beginn deutscher Geschichte. Damals formte die Dynastie der Ottonen das, was zum »Heiligen Römischen Reich deutscher Nation« werden sollte. Es ist eine Epoche von Intrigen, Bruderkämpfen und Schlachten: Dieser Wendepunkt der europäischen Geschichte kann nun völlig neu dargestellt werden, dank einer Vielzahl aktueller archäologischer Ausgrabungen und archäogenetischer Untersuchungen.

Seit Jahrhunderten fasziniert die Geschichte des Heiligen Grals die Menschheit. Er soll der Kelch sein, aus dem Jesus beim letzten Abendmahl trank, oder das Gefäß, in dem das heilige Blut Christi gesammelt wurde. Er wurde von Rittern gesucht, von Geheimbünden gehütet, von Wissenschaftlern analysiert und von Abenteurern verfolgt. Doch trotz aller Legenden, Theorien und Spekulationen bleibt eine Frage bis heute unbeantwortet: Gibt es den Heiligen Gral wirklich – oder ist er nur eine Geschichte, die sich verselbstständigt hat? Dieses Hörbuch geht der Legende auf den Grund.

C. W. Ceram si è proposto, in questo libro ormai divenuto un classico, "di mettere in luce il carattere appassionante, drammatico, profondamente umano" delle ricerche archeologiche. In sua compagnia assistiamo ai favolosi trionfi registrati nelle scoperte di civiltà scomparse, al seguito di archeologi, scavatori, ostinati studiosi come Schliemann o Thompson, di quanti hanno rivelato civiltà dimenticate di cinquemila anni or sono.

Вас ждет невероятное путешествие по миру, истории удивительных сокровищ, ценность которых исчисляется не только в деньгах, но и в том, что они рассказывают нам о прошлом. Римский "сейф" и монеты трех императоров, настоящие сокровища испанских галеонов, семейные реликвии обреченных жертв Второй мировой войны, военные трофеи англосаксов и ценности, спрятанные на "черный день" под божественным крылом. История не даст вам заскучать! Ваш внутренний авантюрист-романтик насытится и сможет взглянуть иначе на привычные вещи. Быть может, и вы оставите свой клад потомкам?

Neste audiolivro, o arqueólogo Theodōros Papakōstas leva o ouvinte a uma jornada por grandes e pequenos momentos da história e da mitologia gregas, mostrando como os povos viviam e explicando como o homem passou de nômade a fundador de civilizações inteiras. Ao longo do trajeto ele responde a várias perguntas intrigantes, derrubando mitos e revelando detalhes sobre objetos do dia a dia e monumentos gregos, assim como curiosidades sobre a vida de pessoas comuns. Tal como na sociedade moderna, elas amavam, traíam, pediam proteção aos deuses e tomavam porres homéricos.

‘Popular history at its very best, thought-provoking and accessible. Underpinned by serious research, and written with panache, it summons up a vanished world’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH This is an astonishing new account of Alexander the Great – one of the most important figures of the ancient...

When the Smithsonian’s Hall of Physical Anthropology opened in 1965 it featured 160 Andean skulls affixed to a wall to visualize how the world’s human population had exploded since the birth of Christ. Through a history of Inca mummies, a preHispanic surgery called trepanation, and Andean crania like these, Empires of the Dead explains how “ancient Peruvians” became the single largest population in the Smithsonian and many other museums in Peru, the Americas, and beyond.

North America boasts a rich history of dinosaurs, with a diverse array of species that once roamed its ancient landscapes. From fearsome predators to gentle herbivores, these creatures left an indelible mark on the continent's geological and paleontological record.