Glass bead trade in Northeast Africa : the evidence from Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia /
: "Strings of colorful glass beads were a popular commodity traded throughout ancient Nubia in the earlier half of the first millennium AD. Combining macroscopic examination with laboratory analyses, the author breaks new ground in Nubian studies, establishing diagnostic markers for a study of trading markets and broader economic trends in Meroitic and post-Meroitic Nubia. Archaeometric results, lucidly presented and discussed, identify the origins of the glass from which the beads under investigation were made. The demonstrated South Indian/Sri Lankan provenance of some of the ready-made beads from Nubian burial contexts and a reconstruction of their distribution patterns in Northeast Africa is the first undisputed proof of contacts between Nubia and the Red Sea coast. Reaching beyond that, it shows Nubia's involvement in the Asian maritime trade, whether directly or indirectly, during a period of intensive interchanges between the 4th and 6th centuries AD."--Front flap : 315 pages : color illustrations, maps ; 30 cm. : Includes bibliographical references (page 300-311). : 9788323538998
The problem of disenchantment : scientific naturalism and esoteric discourse, 1900-1939 /
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The Problem of Disenchantment offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the intellectual history of science, religion, and "the occult" in the early 20th century. By developing a new approach to Max Weber's famous idea of a "disenchantment of the world", and drawing on an impressively diverse set of sources, Egil Asprem opens up a broad field of inquiry that connects the histories of science, religion, philosophy, and Western esotericism. Parapsychology, occultism, and the modern natural sciences are usually viewed as distinct cultural phenomena with highly variable intellectual credentials. In spite of this view, Asprem demonstrates that all three have met with similar intellectual problems related to the intelligibility of nature, the relation of facts to values, and the dynamic of immanence and transcendence, and solved them in comparable terms.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004254947 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
George T. Scanlon 1925–2014 /
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Born in Pennsylvania on April 23, 1925, George T. Scanlon was more than just a scholar of Islamic art and architecture; he was a true Renaissance man who paved the way in areas as wide-ranging as salvage archaeology and scholarly writing. One would have to refer back to his vocation as a young Naval officer to find the wellspring of his intrepid career, since it was his service in the armed forces that played an important role in shaping his academic and professional trajectory. According to one of Scanlon’s oldest friends, he volunteered to join the US Navy at around the age of 18, and was first active in the Second World War from 1942. One of the advantages of his service was eligibility to enroll in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, an initiative created by the American government during the wartime period to augment declining college attendance and grant degrees to prospective officers. It was through this program that he received a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from Villanova College in 1945. As a war veteran he was also a beneficiary of the G.I. Bill, which enabled him to attend the prestigious Swarthmore College to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and History in 1950. Through ties at Swarthmore he taught English for two years at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah (1950–1951), on a fellowship from the Friends Service Committee; and it was from Ramallah, so I have been told, that Scanlon visited Egypt for the first time.
The archaeology of ancient Egypt : beyond pharaohs /
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"Egyptologists, art historians, philologists and anthropological archaeologists have long worked side by side in Egypt, but they often fail to understand one another's approaches. This book aims to introduce students to the archaeological side of the study of ancient Egypt and to bridge the gap between disciplines by explaining how archaeologists tackle a variety of problems. Douglas J. Brewer introduces the theoretical reasoning for each approach, as well as the methods and techniques applied to support it. This book is an essential read for any student considering further study of ancient Egypt" --
"Archaeology: History and Development Archaeology and Egyptology Archaeology, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is the "study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and analysis of physical remains." These physical remains include not only every item ever made by humans - - from a piece of burnt charcoal to awe-inspiring stone monuments -- but also the remains of humans themselves. As such, archaeology is one of the widest-ranging scientific disciplines and incorporates method and theory from art, history, linguistics, geology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and the social sciences. What is Egyptology and how does it differ from archaeology? Egyptology is a historical discipline devoted to the study of ancient Egypt. It is modeled after classical studies of Greece and Rome, which rely on written records to supply chronology, historical data, and information about beliefs of the past. Egyptologists work with specific texts to understand nuances of the ancient culture, often within a well-defined time period. Like all historical disciplines, Egyptology is a particularizing discipline. That is, it is primarily interested in defining what happened at a specific place and time"--
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xvii, 200 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9780521707343
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.