A study of the life and works of Athanasius Kircher, "Germanus incredibilis" : with a selection of his unpublished correspondence and an annotated translation of his autobiography...
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Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit in 17th-century Rome, was an enigma. Intensely pious and a prolific author, he was also a polymath fascinated with everything from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the tiny creatures in his microscope. His correspondence with popes, princes and priests was a window into the restless energy of the period. It showed first-hand the seventeenth-century's struggle for knowledge in astronomy, microscopy, geology, chemistry, musicology, Egyptology, horology... The list goes on. Kircher's books reflect the mind-set of 17th-century scholars - endless curiosity and a substantial larding of naiveté: Kircher scorned alchemy as the wishful thinking of charlatans, yet believed in dragons. His life and correspondence provide a key to the transition from the Middle Ages to a new scientific age. This book, though unpublished, has been long quoted and referred to. Awaited by scholars and specialists of Kircher, it is finally available with this edition.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216327 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Head of all years : astronomy and calendars at Qumran in their ancient context /
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Rather than being an isolated, primitive body of knowledge the Jewish calendar tradition of 364 days constituted an integral part of the astronomical science of the ancient world. This tradition-attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha-stands out as a coherent, novel synthesis, representing the Jewish authors' apocalyptic worldview. The calendar is studied here both "from within"-analyzing its textual manifestations -and "from without"-via a comparison with ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. This analysis reveals that the calendrical realm constituted a significant case of inter-cultural borrowing, pertinent to similar such cases in ancient literature. Special attention is given to the "Book of Astronomy" (1 Enoch 72-82) and a variety of calendrical and liturgical texts from Qumran.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-307) and indexes. :
9789047424192 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Calendar, chronology, and worship : studies in ancient Judaism and early Christianity /
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This book takes as its theme the related issues of calendar, chronology and worship, as they were conceived and practised in ancient Jewish and early Christian times. After a general discussion of the way the three issues are related, there follow six chapters on the calendar, first the standard Jewish calendar, then the Qumran calendar (giving particular attention to the Book of Enoch and the Temple Scroll) and finally the Christian calendar - both the standard Christian calendar and that observed by the Montanists. Three chapters on chronology come next, one of them offering a chronological solution to a puzzling calendrical problem in the Dead Sea Scrolls, another relating Jewish eschatological expectations to New Testament teaching, and a third examining the chronological calculations of the Hellenistic Jew Demetrius, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Book of Jubilees. The three concluding chapters, on worship, include an investigation of the historical development of the Psalter and a careful survey of the relationship between ancient Jewish worship and early Christian. The book discusses a variety of issues that arise in modern biblical, intertestamental and patristic study, some neglected, some very controversial, and throws new light upon them.
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1 online resource (viii, 255 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047415473 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Staging Holiness: The Case of Hospitaller Rhodes (ca. 1309-1522) /
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"In Staging Holiness. The Case of Hospitaller Rhodes (ca. 1309-1522) Sofia Zoitou offers a study of the history of relic collections, devotional rituals and sites invested with special meaning in Rhodes, during a time when the island became one of the most frequented ports of call for ships carrying pilgrims from Venice to the Holy Land. Scrutinizing late medieval travel reports by pilgrims from all over Europe along with extant historical, archaeological, visual and material evidence, Sofia Zoitou traces the various forms of the Rhodian cultic sites' evolution and perception, ultimately considered as an overall artistic strategy for the staging of the sacred"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004444225
9789004436855
Between caravan and sultan : the Bayruk of southern Morocco, a study in history and identity /
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This work presents a study of the history and identity of the Moroccan Bayruk family. The first part of the book gives an outline of the main referents in both the Bayruk vision of 'self', and academic discourses on Maghribian history: the dynasty, caravan and 'tribe'. It identifies discrepancies in scholarly presentations of the Bayruk and traces them back to two overlapping issues of translation and conception. For the remainder of the book a variety of sources are used to highlight the role of textuality in the creation of the Bayruk image in academic discourse. As a result this book demonstrates how the Bayruk family can be used as a case-study to revise the existing interpretations of Maghribian history and modes of identification.
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1 online resource (xviii, 360 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [347]-356) and index. :
9789004183827 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A seventeenth-century odyssey in East Central Europe : the life of Jakab Harsanyi Nagy /
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In A Seventeenth-Century Odyssey Gábor Kármán reconstructs the life story of a lesser-known Hungarian orientalist, Jakab Harsányi Nagy. The discussion of his activities as a school teacher in Transylvania, as a diplomat and interpreter at the Sublime Porte, as a secretary of a Moldavian voivode in exile, as well as a court councillor of Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector of Brandenburg not only sheds light upon the extraordinarily versatile career of this individual, but also on the variety of circles in which he lived. Gábor Kármán also gives the first historical analysis of Harsányi's contribution to Turkish studies, the Colloquia Familiaria Turcico-latina (1672).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004306813 :
2405-4488 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The maritime transport of sculptures in the ancient Mediterranean /
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With a focus on the underwater context of sculptures retrieved from beneath the sea, this volume examines where, when, why and how sculptures were transported on the Mediterranean Sea during Classical Antiquity through the lenses of both maritime and classical archaeology.
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Also issued in print: 2022. :
1 online resource (166 pages) : illustrations (colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9781803273310 (PDF ebook) :
Augustan and Julio-Claudian Athens : a new epigraphy and prosopography /
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While there is now renewed interest in the history of Athens under the Roman empire, the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods remain relatively neglected in terms of extended study. Thus the only comprehensive historical works on the period and its epigraphy remain those of Paul Graindor, which were published before the discovery of the Athenian Agora and its epigraphical wealth. This study aims to help provide a basis for new research on early Roman Athens, in the form of an epigraphical and historical reference work, in two parts. The Epigraphical Catalogue (Part I) represents both a companion and supplement to the Attic corpus of the Inscriptiones Graecae (Minor Editio) as it pertains to the Augustan and Julio-Claudian period. The Prosopographical Catalogue (Part II) offers an updated prosopography of the period as it relates to the material of the Epigraphical Catalogue. An appendix provides a chronological list of the period's major office-holders, liturgists, and priesthoods.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-349) and indexes. :
9789047443384 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From document to history : epigraphic insights into the Greco-Roman world /
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In From Document to History: Epigraphic Insights into the Greco-Roman World , editors Carlos Noreña and Nikolaos Papazarkadas gather together an exciting set of original studies on Greek and Roman epigraphy, first presented at the Second North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Berkeley 2016). Chapters range chronologically from the sixth century BCE to the fifth century CE, and geographically from Egypt and Asia Minor to the west European continent and British isles. Key themes include Greek and Roman epigraphies of time, space, and public display, with texts featuring individuals and social groups ranging from Roman emperors, imperial elites, and artists to gladiators, immigrants, laborers, and slaves. Several papers highlight the new technologies that are transforming our understanding of ancient inscriptions, and a number of major new texts are published here for the first time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004382886
Ancient documents and their contexts : First North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (2011) /
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Ancient Documents and their Contexts contains the proceedings of the First North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (San Antonio, Texas, 4-5 January 2011). It gathers seventeen papers presented by scholars from North America, Europe, and Australia at the first formal meeting of classical epigraphists sponsored by the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy. Ranging from technical discussions of epigraphic formulae and palaeography to broad consideration of inscriptions as social documents and visual records, the topics and approaches represented reflect the variety of ways that Greek and Latin inscriptions are studied in North America today. Contributors are: Bradley J. Bitner, Sarah Bolmarcich, Ilaria Bultrighini, Patricia A. Butz, Werner Eck, John Friend, Peter Keegan, Jinyu Liu, Kevin McMahon, John Nicols, Nadya Popov-Reynolds, Carolynn E. Roncaglia, Stephen V. Tracy, Dennis E. Trout, Georgia Tsouvala, Steven L. Tuck, and Arden Williams.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004273870 :
1876-2557 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Estudios antracológicos en los espacios de combustión del Alero Deodoro Roca - Ongamira (Córdoba) /
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This paper deals with the study of the archaeological remains of charcoal to further understand the usage and handling of fire by human hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited, over time, the Ongamira valley, located in the Ischilin and Totoral provinces of Cordoba, Argentina.
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Previously issued in print: 2016. :
1 online resource : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white). :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781784913441 (ebook) :
A slave who would be king : oral tradition and archaeology of the recent past in the Upper Senegal River Basin /
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This report makes a significant contribution to the archaeology and ethnography of eastern Senegal. Combining ethnographic and archaeological data yields a picture of a period of intense social change at the end of the 19th century which extended well into the mid-20th century.
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Previously issued in print: 2016. :
1 online resource : illustrations (colour) :
Specialized. :
9781784913526 (ebook) :
Coins in Rhodes : from the monetary reform of Anastasius I until the Ottoman conquest (498-1522) /
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'Coins in Rhodes' presents the Byzantine and medieval coins collected by Greek archaeologists in Rhodes over a period of more than sixty years. It includes lists of excavated land plots, stray finds, an illustrated catalogue of all the Byzantine and local coins up to 1309, and a representative sample of the Hospitaller petty coins as well as all the Western coins found.
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Previously issued in print: 2018. :
1 online resource (vi, 444 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781784918422 (ebook) :
Tales of three worlds : archaeology and beyond : Asia, Italy, Africa : a tribute to Sandro Salvatori /
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Tales of Three Worlds collects, as a sign of gratitude and affection, a series of papers by many authors who, in different times, contexts and contingencies, had the luck to meet Sandro Salvatori, and share with him a path of knowledge and mutual personal acquaintance. The book is divided in three sections: his long years of work in Middle Asia, from the plains of Sistan to those of the Indus, the coasts of the Omani peninsula and southern Turkmenistan; Sandro's activities in Italy, as an officer of the Archaeological Superintendency (Ministry of Cultural Heritage) of his region; and the prehistory of north-eastern Africa, a context in which Sandro could work in full scientific and familiar ease, as he was prevented from doing in other situations.
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Also issued in print: 2020. :
1 online resource (372 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781789694413 (ebook) :
The plague cemetery of Alghero, Sardinia (1582-1583) : the bioarchaeological study /
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This study presents a bioarchaeological analysis of the individuals exhumed from the cemetery of Alghero (Sardinia), which is associated with the plague outbreak that ravaged the city in 1582-83. The results shed light on a population which lived during a period of plague, revealing lifestyles, activity patterns and illnesses.
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Also issued in print: 2022. :
1 online resource (viii, 312 pages) : illustrations (black and white) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781803270777 (PDF ebook) : :
Open access.
Reinterpreting chronology and society at the mortuary complex of Jebel Moya (Sudan) /
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Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan) is the largest known pastoral cemetery in sub-Saharan Africa with more than 3100 excavated human burials. This research revises our understanding of Jebel Moya and its context.
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Previously issued in print: 2016. :
1 online resource : illustrations (black and white, and colour), maps (black and white, and colour). :
Specialized. :
9781784914325 (ebook) :
Working with the past : towards an archaeology of recycling /
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Recycling is a basic anthropological process of humankind. The reutilization of materials or of ideas from the past is a process determined by various natural or cultural causes. Recycling can be motivated by a crisis or by a complex symbolic cause like the incorporation of the past into the present. What archaeology has not insisted upon is the dimensional scale of the process, which operates from the micro-scale of the recycling of the ancestors' material, up to the macro-scale of the landscape. It is well known that there are direct relations between artefacts and landscapes in what concerns the materiality and mobility of objects. An additional relation between artefact and landscape may be the process of recycling. In many ways artefact and landscape can be considered as one aspect of material culture, perceived at a different scale, since both have the same materiality and suffer the same process of reutilisation.
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Previously issued in print: 2017. :
1 online resource : illustrations (colour). :
Specialized. :
9781784916305 (ebook) :
Immagini del tempo degli dei, immagini del tempo degli uomini : un'analisi delle iconografie dei mesi nei calendari figurati romani e bizantini e del loro contesto storico-cultural...
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A characteristic shared by the Roman and Byzantine illustrated calendars is that they represent the 12 months of the year, referable to an iconographic repertoire which is divided into three themes: the astrological-astronomical, the festive-ritual and the rural-seasonal. With regard to the first type, the months are depicted through images of the signs of the zodiac, often associated with images of the guardian deities of the months; the second category includes depictions of the months that refer to some important religious festivals; finally, the third theme includes images of the months that allude to the most important work activities performed in the countryside.
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Previously issued in print: 2017. :
1 online resource (viii, 338 pages) : illustrations (black and white). :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9781784917357 (ebook) :
Brass from the past : brass made, used and traded from prehistoric times to 1800 /
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Brass from the Past is a history of the use and production of brass, and more broadly an insight into the journey of this metal in the context of a changing and modernising world. The book follows the evolution of brass from its earliest forms around 2500 BC through to industrialised production in the eighteenth century. The story is told in the context of the people, economies, cultures, trade and technologies that have themselves defined the alloy and its spread around the world. It explores innovations, such as the distillation of zinc, that have improved the quality and ease of production. From national or religious priorities to exhaustion of raw material supplies, the themes from the past are echoed today. In the later centuries, the book shines a light on some of the more personal aspects of people,businesses and relationships that have influenced industry and its progress.
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1 online resource (viii, 358 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9781789691573 (PDF ebook) :
The dialectic of practice and the logical structure of the tool : philosophy, archaeology and the anthropology of technology /
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The Dialectic of Practice and the Logical Structure of the Tool undertakes a critical review of recent trends in the archaeological and anthropological theory of technology from processual neo-positivism and postprocessual relativism to the contemporary French and American anthropology, and the symmetrical theory of material culture. On the basis of a critique of their logical premises and epistemological consequences, it draws on the tradition of Hegelian dialectics in order to propose an alternative understanding of technology as a material social practice within which the subject and the object -the socio-cultural and the natural- are produced concurrently as inter-constituted elements, and they are unified through their mutual negative relation to each other.
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Also issued in print: 2020. :
1 online resource (92 pages). :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781789694055 (ebook) :