The Magic in the Image : Women in Clay at Mohenjodaro and Harappa /
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Hundreds of clay figurines of women, and their fragments, were found in the remains of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, major cities of the Indus civilization, but almost none in the other Harappan towns or villages. What could be the explanation? This study begins with the background: the archaeological history, various studies of figurines, and how they came to be linked with the idea of the mother goddess. There is also an attempt to draw a general picture of popular religion of the time, and to detect archaeological traces of Harappan beliefs and religious practices. There follows an analysis of the figurines themselves: what were their antecedents? Do the few male clay figurines fall in the same genre as the plentiful remains of women's images? There were youthful women, mothers, portly matrons, and also women at the grinding stone, but nothing that could be a representation of 'womanhood'. Attention is paid to the variation in headgear, hairstyles, ornamentation, and the all-pervasive hip-girdles. Nudity is also a topic of discussion. Besides, they cannot be stood upright. As for their distribution, it was significantly irregular. Although attempts to replicate the firing of these solid objects using simple methods failed, it is doubtful to what extent they were made by skilled potters, the modelling being unpractised and even clumsy, as the photographs of some profiles, published here for the first time, shows.
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1 online resource (444 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753242
Earthen Architecture in Muslim Cultures, Historical and Anthropological Perspectives.
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This edited volume follows the panel "Earth in Islamic Architecture" organised for the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) in Ankara, on the 19th of August 2014. Earthen architecture is well-known among archaeologists and anthropologists whose work extends from Central Asia to Spain, including Africa. However, little collective attention has been paid to earthen architecture within Muslim cultures. This book endeavours to share knowledge and methods of different disciplines such as history, anthropology, archaeology and architecture. Its objective is to establish a link between historical and archaeological studies given that Muslim cultures cannot be dissociated from social history. Contributors: Marinella Arena; Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya; Christian Darles; François-Xavier Fauvelle; Elizabeth Golden; Moritz Kinzel; Rolando Melo da Rosa; Atri Hatef Naiemi; Bertrand Poissonnier; Stéphane Pradines; Paola Raffa and Paul D. Wordsworth.
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1 online resource. :
9789004356337
Evolution of a community : the colonisation of a clay inland landscape : Neolithic to post-medieval remains excavated between 1995 and 2011 at Longstanton in Cambridgeshire /
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The movement of people from the fen edge and river valleys into the clay lands of eastern England has become a growing area of research. The opportunity of studying such an environment and investigating the human activities that took place there became available 9 km to the north-west of Cambridge at the village of Longstanton. The archaeological excavations that took place over a 16 year period have made a significant contribution to charting the emergence of a Cambridgeshire clayland settlement and its community over six millennia. 'Evolution of a Community' chronologically documents the colonisation of this clay inland location and outlines how it was not an area on the periphery of activity, but part of a fully occupied landscape extending back into the Mesolithic period.
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1 online resource : illustrations (black and white, and colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781784910877 (PDF ebook) :