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List Price: $39.95Price: $26.37You Save: $13.58 (34%)
Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000
Author: Barry Cunliffe
ASIN : 0300119232
Sales Rank : 1399
Studio : Yale University Press
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780300119237
ISBN : 0300119232
Number Of Pages : 480
Publication Date : December 02, 2008
Publisher : Yale University Press
Manufacturer : Yale University Press
Availability : In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Label : Yale University Press
Product DescriptionEurope is, in world terms, a relatively minor peninsula attached to the Eurasian land mass. Yet it became one of the most innovative regions on the planet, generating restless adventurers who traversed the globe to trade, to explore, and often to settle. By the fifteenth century Europe was a driving world force, but the origins of its success have until now remained obscured in prehistory. In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe’s great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange. The development of these early Europeans is rooted in complex interplays, shifting balances, and geographic and demographic fluidity. Weaving together titanic concepts while remaining sensitive to specifics, Cunliffe has produced an interdisciplinary tour de force. His is a bold book of exceptional scholarship, erudite and engaging, and it heralds an entirely new understanding of Old Europe. (20080808)
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List Price: $30.00Price: $19.80You Save: $10.2 (34%)
Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
Author: Sharon Waxman
ASIN : 0805086536
Sales Rank : 12360
Studio : Times Books
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780805086539
ISBN : 0805086536
Number Of Pages : 432
Publication Date : December 28, 2008
Release Date : December 28, 2008
Publisher : Times Books
Manufacturer : Times Books
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Times Books
Product DescriptionA journey across four continents to the heart of the conflict over who should own the great works of ancient art Why are the Elgin Marbles in London and not on the Acropolis? Why do there seem to be as many mummies in France as there are in Egypt? Why are so many Etruscan masterworks in America? For the past two centuries, the West has been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill its great museums, but in recent years, the countries where ancient civilizations originated have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators, and threatening to force the return of these priceless objects. Where do these treasures rightly belong? Sharon Waxman, a former culture reporter for The New York Times and a longtime foreign correspondent, brings us inside this high-stakes conflict, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage. Her journey takes readers from the great cities of Europe and America to Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, as these countries face down the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She also introduces a cast of determined and implacable characters whose battles may strip these museums of some of their most cherished treasures. For readers who are fascinated by antiquity, who love to frequent museums, and who believe in the value of cultural exchange, Loot opens a new window on an enduring conflict.
Reviews for the Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
List Price: $26.95Price: $17.79You Save: $9.16 (34%)
The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found
Author: Mary Beard
ASIN : 0674029763
Sales Rank : 8139
Studio : Belknap Press
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780674029767
ISBN : 0674029763
Number Of Pages : 384
Publication Date : December 15, 2008
Publisher : Belknap Press
Manufacturer : Belknap Press
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Belknap Press
Product Description Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site in the world, visited by more than two million people each year. Yet it is also one of the most puzzling, with an intriguing and sometimes violent history, from the sixth century BCE to the present day. Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it was—more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol?—and what it can tell us about “ordinary” life there. From sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy, Beard offers us the big picture even as she takes us close enough to the past to smell the bad breath and see the intestinal tapeworms of the inhabitants of the lost city. She resurrects the Temple of Isis as a testament to ancient multiculturalism. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica. Recently, Pompeii has been a focus of pleasure and loss: from Pink Floyd’s memorable rock concert to Primo Levi’s elegy on the victims. But Pompeii still does not give up its secrets quite as easily as it may seem. This book shows us how much more and less there is to Pompeii than a city frozen in time as it went about its business on 24 August 79. (20081006)
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Price: $7.99
The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)
Author: Zecharia Sitchin
ASIN : 0061239216
Sales Rank : 7884
Studio : Harper
Format : Illustrated
Binding : Mass Market Paperback
EAN : 9780061239212
ISBN : 0061239216
Number Of Pages : 320
Publication Date : December 01, 2008
Release Date : December 25, 2008
Publisher : Harper
Manufacturer : Harper
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Harper
Product Description Why is it that our current twenty-first century A.D. is so similar to the twenty-first century B.C.?
Is history destined to repeat itself? Will biblical prophecies come true, and if so, when? It has been more than three decades since Zecharia Sitchin's trailblazing book The 12th Planet brought to life the Sumerian civilization and its record of the Anunnaki—the extraterrestrials who fashioned man and gave mankind civilization and religion. In this new volume, Sitchin shows that the End is anchored in the events of the Beginning, and once you learn of this Beginning, it is possible to foretell the Future. In The End of Days, a masterwork that required thirty years of additional research, Sitchin presents compelling new evidence that the Past is the Future—that mankind and its planet Earth are subject to a predetermined cyclical Celestial Time. In an age when religious fanaticism and a clash of civilizations raise the specter of a nuclear Armageddon, Zecharia Sitchin shatters perceptions and uses history to reveal what is to come at The End of Days.
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List Price: $24.95Price: $17.72You Save: $7.23 (29%)
The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery
Authors: Bob Brier, Jean-pierre Houdin
ASIN : 006165552X
Sales Rank : 34502
Studio : Collins
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780061655524
ISBN : 006165552X
Number Of Pages : 304
Publication Date : December 01, 2008
Release Date : December 14, 2008
Publisher : Collins
Manufacturer : Collins
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Collins
Product DescriptionNine years ago, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin became obsessed by the centuries-old mystery of how the Great Pyramid was built. For ten hours a day, he labored at his computer to create exquisitely detailed 3-D models of the interior of the Great Pyramid. After five years of effort, the images rotating on his computer screen provided evidence of an astonishing secret. Corkscrewing up the inside of the Great Pyramid is a mile-long ramp, unseen for 4,500 years. The pyramid was built from the inside. This revelation casts a fresh light on the minds that conceived one of the wonders of the ancient world. The Secret of the Great Pyramid moves between the ancient and the modern. The ancient story chronicles, step-by-step, how a nation of farmers only recently emerged from the Stone Age could construct one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. To execute something as complex and massive as the Great Pyramid, Egypt needed architects, mathematicians, boat builders, stone masons, and metallurgists. It took twenty years to build the Great Pyramid. By the time its capstone was laid in 2560 B.C., the innovations born of the building quest had transformed agrarian Egypt into the world's most modern, most powerful nation. As we follow the progress of Hemienu, the innovative architect who planned, organized, and oversaw construction of the Great Pyramid, we also follow Houdin working to discover how and why the ancient architect designed the Pyramid as he did. Houdin works as a forensic architect, aiming to reconstruct the lessons Hemienu had learned from construction of three previous pyramids and to visualize his blueprint for the massive stone building. In the process, Houdin also discovers the answers to other questions that have bedeviled Egyptologists for centuries: such as what was the purpose of the mysterious Grand Gallery and when did the Pyramid crack? Along the way, Houdin receives the support of a pathbreaking French software company, which helps him validate his theory virtually—a first in archaeology! The story of genius and obsession in the ancient and modern world, this archaeological mystery will appeal to anyone who has ever been captivated by this magnificent edifice.
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List Price: $39.95Price: $26.37You Save: $13.58 (34%)
The Complete World of Greek Mythology
Author: Richard Buxton
ASIN : 0500251215
Sales Rank : 15976
Studio : Thames & Hudson
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780500251218
ISBN : 0500251215
Number Of Pages : 240
Publication Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer : Thames & Hudson
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Thames & Hudson
Product DescriptionA full, authoritative, and wholly engaging account of these endlessly fascinating tales and of the ancient society in which they were created. Greek myths are among the most complex and influential stories ever told. From the first millennium BC until today, the myths have been repeated in an inexhaustible series of variations and reinterpretations. They can be found in the latest movies and television shows and in software for interactive computer games. This book combines a retelling of Greek myths with a comprehensive account of the world in which they developed—their themes, their relevance to Greek religion and society, and their relationship to the landscape. - "Contexts, Sources, Meanings" describes the main literary and artistic sources for Greek myths, and their contexts, such as ritual and theater.
- "Myths of Origin" includes stories about the beginning of the cosmos, the origins of the gods, the first humans, and the founding of communities.
- "The Olympians: Power, Honor, Sexuality" examines the activities of all the main divinities.
- "Heroic exploits" concentrates on the adventures of Perseus, Jason, Herakles, and other heroes.
- "Family sagas" explores the dramas and catastrophes that befall heroes and heroines.
- "A Landscape of Myths" sets the stories within the context of the mountains, caves, seas, and rivers of Greece, Crete, Troy, and the Underworld.
- "Greek Myths after the Greeks" describes the rich tradition of retelling, from the Romans, through the Renaissance, to the twenty-first century.
Complemented by lavish illustrations, genealogical tables, box features, and specially commissioned drawings, this will be an essential book for anyone interested in these classic tales and in the world of the ancient Greeks. 250 illustrations, 120 in color.
Reviews for the The Complete World of Greek Mythology
List Price: $35.00Price: $25.20You Save: $9.8 (28%)
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
Author: David W. Anthony
ASIN : 0691058873
Sales Rank : 10974
Studio : Princeton University Press
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780691058870
ISBN : 0691058873
Number Of Pages : 566
Publication Date : December 19, 2007
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Manufacturer : Princeton University Press
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Princeton University Press
Product DescriptionRoughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.
Reviews for the The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
List Price: $16.95Price: $11.53You Save: $5.42 (32%)
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850
Author: Brian M. Fagan
ASIN : 0465022723
Sales Rank : 10570
Studio : Basic Books
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780465022724
ISBN : 0465022723
Number Of Pages : 272
Release Date : December 24, 2001
Publisher : Basic Books
Manufacturer : Basic Books
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Basic Books
Product Description"[The Little Ice Age] could do for the historical study of climate what Michel Foucault's classic Madness and Civilization did for the historical study of mental illness: make it a respectable subject for scholarly inquiry." --Scientific American. The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how this altered climate affected historical events, and what it means for today's global warming. Building on research that has only recently confirmed that the world endured a 500year cold snap, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan shows how the increasing cold influenced familiar events from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America to the Industrial Revolution. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in history, climate, and how they interact. Amazon.com Review"Climate change is the ignored player on the historical stage," writes archeologist Brian Fagan. But it shouldn't be, not if we know what's good for us. We can't judge what future climate change will mean unless we know something about its effects in the past: "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And Fagan's story of the last thousand years, centered on the "Little Ice Age," reminds us of what we could end up repeating: flood, fire, and famine--acts of God exacerbated by acts of man. For all that he takes a broad--a very broad--view of European history, Fagan's writing is laced with human faces, fascinating anecdotes, and a gift for the telling detail that makes history live, very much in the style of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. When Fagan talks about the voyages of Basque fishermen to American shores (probably landing before Columbus sailed), he puts in the taste of dried cod and the terrifying suddenness of fogs on the Grand Banks. The Great Fire of London, what it was like when the Dutch dikes broke, the Irish Potato Famine, the year without a summer, ice fairs on the Thames, and volcanoes in the South Pacific--Fagan makes history a ripping yarn in which we are all actors, on a stage that has always been changing. --Mary Ellen Curtin
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List Price: $50.00Price: $31.50You Save: $18.5 (37%)
Biblica: The Bible Atlas: A Social and Historical Journey Through the Lands of the Bible
Author: Brian M. Fagan
ASIN : 0764160850
Sales Rank : 105405
Studio : Barron's Educational Series
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780764160851
ISBN : 0764160850
Number Of Pages : 578
Publication Date : December 07, 2007
Publisher : Barron's Educational Series
Manufacturer : Barron's Educational Series
Label : Barron's Educational Series
Product DescriptionHeralded as the most authoritative and up-to-date atlas of the Bible now available, Biblica: The Bible Atlas with an enclosed CD-ROM goes beyond the more traditional books of its kind. It places the biblical narrative and its peoples in their historical, cultural, social, and geographic contexts, and it makes clear the complex history and cultures of the Bible lands as they relate to the region’s modern social and political landscape. But perhaps most important of all, Biblica: The Bible Atlas incorporates the most recent archaeological findings and research, combining scholarly data with engaging discussion of the Bible’s immortal stories. In summary, this unusual volume offers readers fresher insights and a deeper appreciation of the biblical narrative than any other reference source of its kind. Biblica: The Bible Atlas is also a visually stunning guide to the Bible and biblical lands, featuring more than 650 full-color paintings, drawings, etchings, and photographs plus 125 full-color maps of the region. Following the extensive and beautifully illustrated main text are 14 pages of biblical reference tables, an extensive bibliography, a glossary of biblical terms, a large selection of biblical quotations from the Old and New Testaments, a gazetteer of biblical place names, and an extensive index. Here is a beautiful and informative book that will make a treasured addition to the family bookshelf. It will also be a much-sought-after volume in reference libraries everywhere.
(sidebar copy)
Biblica: The Bible Atlas Brings to life the dramatic stories, charismatic people, and fascinating locales of the Bible Arranged in eight parts: geography and history of the Bible lands; Genesis and the Patriarchal period; the Judges; the Kings, the Prophets and the Righteous; the conquest of the kingdoms; the life of Jesus of Nazareth; and the spreading of the Word Includes information on topography, geology, climate, vegetation, and key physical features of the region 125 original maps show prominent locations, journeys, battles, political boundaries, and more Incorporates the latest archaeological findings and theological research.
The enclosed CD-ROM presents interactive maps that point out biblical place names and important archaeological sites. This software accessory also defines biblical names and Bible-related terms, and serves readers as a helpful complement to a truly unusual book.
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List Price: $15.95Price: $13.95You Save: $2 (13%)
Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa
Author: Katherine Dettwyler
ASIN : 088133748X
Sales Rank : 6110
Studio : Waveland Press
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780881337488
ISBN : 088133748X
Number Of Pages : 172
Publisher : Waveland Press
Manufacturer : Waveland Press
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Waveland Press
Product Description1995 Margaret Mead Award winner! This personal account by a biocultural anthropologist illuminates important, not-soon-forgotten messages involving the more sobering aspects of conducting fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. With nutritional anthropology at its core, Dancing Skeletons presents informal, engaging and oftentimes dramatic stories from the field that relate the author's experiences conducting research on infant feeding and health in Mali. Through fascinating vignettes and honest, vivid descriptions, Dettwyler explores such diverse topics as ethnocentrism, culture shock, population control, breastfeeding, child care, the meaning of disability and child death in different cultures, female circumcision, women's roles in patrilineal societies, the dangers of fieldwork, and the realities involved in researching emotionally draining topics. Readers will alternately laugh and cry as they meet the author's friends and informants, follow her through a series of encounters with both peri-urban and rural Bambara culture, and struggle with her as she attempts to reconcile her very different roles as objective ethnographer, subjective friend, and mother in the field.
Reviews for the Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa
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