Balkan Prehistory - Exclusión, Incorporation and identity

Douglass W. Bailey - Balkan Prehistory, © 2000


The period from 6500 to 2500 BC was one of the most dynamic eras of the
prehistory of south-eastern Europe, for it saw many fundamental changes in the
ways in which people lived their lives. This up-to-date and authoritative synthesis
both describes the best excavated relevant Balkan sites and interprets long-term
trends in the central themes of settlement, burial, material culture and economy.

Prominence is given to the ways people organized themselves, the houses and
landscapes in which they lived and the objects, plants and animals they kept. The
key developments are seen as the creation of new social environments through
the construction of houses and villages, and a new materiality of life which filled
the built environment with a wide variety of objects. Against the prevailing trends
in European prehistory, the author argues for a prehistoric past riven with tension
and conflict, where hoarding and the exclusion of people was just as frequent as
sharing and helping.

Balkan Prehistory provides a much-needed guide to a period which has previously
been inaccessible to western scholars. It will be an invaluable resource for
undergraduates, advanced students and scholars.

Douglass W.Bailey is Lecturer in European Prehistory at the School of History
and Archaeology, Cardiff University. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in
Bulgaria and Romania.


Contents:

Introduction: Balkan prehistory (6500–2500 BC):
fundamental changes in human behaviour
Fundamental changes in living
Explanation
The organization and structure of the book

1. Setting the scene: the Balkans before 6500 BC
The early Balkans
Spatial organization in the middle and upper Palaeolithic
Expressions of identity in the Balkan late Pleistocene
Where is the Mesolithic?
Chapter conclusions
Summary

2. Building social environments (6500–5500 BC)
Building the social environment
Northern Greece
West- and south-central Bulgaria
The Western Balkans and the lower Danube
The Danube Gorges
North-west Anatolia and Turkish Thrace
Chapter conclusions
Summary

3. New dimensions of material culture: pottery containers
and other forms of expression (6500–5500 BC)
Pottery
Other forms of expressive material culture
Non-representational, visually expressive material culture
Chapter conclusions and summary

4. Continuity or change? Burials, lithics, plants and animals
Treatment of the deceased
Flaked stone tools
Plants and animals
Chapter conclusions
Summary

5. Continuities, expansion and acceleration of building and economy (5500–3600 BC)
The built environment
Managing the living environment
Chapter conclusions
Summary

6. Burial and expressive material culture (5500–3600 BC)
Mortuary practice
Expressive material culture
Chapter conclusions
Summary

7. Transitions to new ways of living:
the Balkans after 4000 BC
Settlement
Burial
Material culture
Continuity in lithics and economy
Chapter conclusions
Summary

8. The Balkans (6500–2500 BC):
exclusion, incorporation and projection
The built environment
The new materiality
The arrangement of people and things
Illusion within the post-6500 BC Balkans
Conclusion: Why were things different after 6500 BC?

Early Civilizations of the Old World

The formative histories of Egypt, the
Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China

Charles Keith Maisels - Early Civilizations of the Old World, © 1999


To the genius of Titus Lucretius Carus (99/95 BC - 55 BC)
and his insight into the real nature of things.


1. HOW DOES THE PAST ILLUMINATE THE PRESENT?
The emergence of archaeology as a scientific discipline
The lands of the Bible ( = Near East)
Social archaeology
Childe’s checklist
The present illuminated: paths of the past, spirals to the future

2. SEMA-TAWY: THE LAND OF THE PAPYRUS AND LOTUS
The place
The time
Late Palaeolithic
Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic
State formation process
Childe’s checklist

3. THE LEVANT AND MESOPOTAMIA
The place
The time
Syria and the Levant
To the heartland of cities in Sumer, via Hassuna,
Samarra and Halaf village farming cultures
The social order
Conclusion
Childe’s checklist

4. THE INDUS/‘HARAPPAN’/SARASVATI CIVILIZATION
The place
The time
Social evolution: Neolithic to Chalcolithic at Mehrgarh
Later agricultural subsistence
Urban society
The misrepresentation of the Greater Indus oecumene
Class stratification
The fall
Palaeoethnology: kinship to caste
Conclusion
Childe’s checklist

5. THE CENTRAL KINGDOM, ZHONG-GUO
The place
The time
The Neolithic clusters
Final Neolithic to Chalcolithic
The Chalcolithic: Longshan
The Chalcolithic: Hongshan
Clanship and the territorial state
Bronze Age urbanism
States: The three dynasties
The late Shang capital at Anyang
The earlier Shang capital at Zhengzhou
Western Zhou
Childe’s checklist

6. CONCLUSION: THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY
How useful do Childe’s criteria turn out to be?
Childe’s other revolution
Political economies
Politics and the state
Social evolution

Archæology of Celtic Art

Dennis W. Harding:
THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF CELTIC ART (2007)

Tempering the much adopted art-historical approach, Harding argues for a broader definition of Celtic art. Contrary to recent attempts to deconstruct the Celts as an ethnic entity altogether, he argues that there were communities in Iron Age Europe thatwere identified historically as Celts, regarded themselves as Celtic, or who spoke Celtic languages, and that the art of these communities may reasonably be regarded as Celtic art. Though the La Tène styles represent the summation of achievement of Celtic art, the origin and geographical distribution of Celtic art extend well beyond the La Tèneculture zone.

Though art-historical considerations remain essential, Harding shows that Celtic artshould also be viewed within its broader archaeological context. From Central Europe to the Atlantic west, Celtic art was essentially a social and political art, as well as a religious art, and a medium through which identity could be asserted. It was fundamentally embedded in Celtic society, custom and belief. This new study will beindispensable for anyone wanting to take a fresh and innovative perspective on Celtic art.

Dennis W. Harding is Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. His most recent book The Iron Age in Northern Britain was published in 2004.

Contents

01. Definitions, material and context
02. ‘An art with no genesis’: later Bronze Age and Hallstatt origins
03. The La Tène Early Styles: origins and influences
04. The La Tène developed styles
05. The art of the swordsmith
06. The La Tène later relief styles
07. Insular British art to the Roman Conquest
08. La Tène and non-La Tène in Ireland
09. South-West Europe and the Celtiberians
10. Later styles and Romanizing influences
11. Later insular art in Britain and Ireland
12. Conclusions: archaeology and Celtic art

Izgubljeno kraljevstvo Maja

(Drevne civilizacije, National Geographic DVD)

Davno prije Kolumba Maje su uspostavile jednu od najrazvijenijih civilizacija njihova vremena u prašumama Meksika i Središnje Amerike. Ali ovo je napredno društvo svećenika, astronoma, zanatlija i poljodjelaca iznenada tajanstveno nestalo prije više od tisuću godina. Pridružite se arheolozima u putovanju do Copana, Dos Pilasa i drugih klasičnih ruševina Maja dok iskopavaju predmete i ogromne hramove nevjerojatne ljepote. Nedavno dešifrirani hijeroglifi i nova otkrića pružaju nevjerojatna saznanja o životu ovih drevnih ljudi. Čut ćete dramatične priče o padu jednog kraljevstva i poslednjim satima jednog okrutnog rata. Uz životopisne prikaze svjedočit ćete drevnim ritualima izvedenim na mjestima njihova izvođenja. I upoznat ćete vječne Maje koji još uvijek održavaju mnoge tradicije svojih predaka. Čut ćete glasove nevjerojatne civilizacije dok otkrivate IZGUBLJENO KRALJEVSTVO MAJA.

http://rapidshare.com/files/129687989/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129698080/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129703752/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129708546/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129713008/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129718016/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129727800/NG_2-2007_LOST_KINGDOMS_OF__THE_MAYA_CASSIDY.part7.rar

Long before Columbus, the Maya established one of the most highly developed civilisations of their time in the jungles of Mexico and Central America. Yet this advanced society of priests, astronomers, artisans, and farmers suddenly and mysteriously collapsed more than a thousand years ago. Accompany archaeologists to Copan, Dos Pilas, and other spectacular Classic Maya ruins as they unearth artefacts and huge temples of incredible beauty. Recently deciphered hieroglyphics and other new discoveries offer astounding clues to the lives of these ancient people.

· hear the startling story of one kingdom’s downfall and its final desperate hours of violent warfare
· witness ancient rituals re-enacted on sites where they originally occurred through spine-tingling recreations
· meet the enduring Maya who still maintain many of their ancestors’ traditions.

You’ll hear the voices of a magnificent civilisation as you uncover Lost Kingdoms Of The Maya in the National Geographic ‘Forgotten Kingdom’ series. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, produced for the National Geographic Society.