Ancient Stones

The meeting assembled an interdisciplinary group of nearly 50 archaeologists and art historians, geologists and geochemists from the U.S.A. and 14 European and Near Eastern countries to discuss the provenance, quarrying, transport and use of stone from prehistoric to early Christian times, both in Europe and in the Near East. The papers which reflect a merger between classicism and geotechnology, thus deal with (1) quarries from the Bronze Age to the Byzantine period, their technology and organization, (2) quarry prospection through satellite imaging, (3) dressing of artifacts near the quarries, (4) trade, availability and archaeological use of certain stones in antiquity, (5) determination of obsidian, flint, granite, marble, limestones, sandstones and arkoses from Europe, Asia Minor and the Near East by means of petrological and chemical analysis, trace element analysis, electron microprobe and stable isotope analysis, ESR spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence and X-ray powder diffradtometry, mercury porosimetry, cathodoluminiscence, light diffustion from laser-irradiated stones, computer assisted assessment of coloured stones or amulti-method appraoch, and (6) provenance determination applied to ancient artifacts.The volume is highly recommended for those who wish to combine a journey into classical scholarship with geochemical sciences.

The Dawsons have decided to take an impromptu camping trip since their parents are out of town. When the park closes at 8:00 p.m. and the sun sets, ancient residents make themselves known, and the three children are thrust into a supernatural world where their eternal freedom is at stake. On a late September afternoon, three teens embark on a weekend of relaxation only to find themselves engaged in a supernatural struggle against an evil that seeks to take them captive for eternity.

During his long teaching career at Syracuse University and Boston University, H. Neil Richardson touched the lives of many students and colleagues. The nineteen essays included in this volume were written in his memory following his death in 1988.

In Horos, Thea Potter explores the complex relationship between classical philosophy and the ‘horos’, a stone that Athenians erected to mark the boundaries of their marketplace, their gravestones, their roads and their private property. Potter weaves this history into a meditation on the ancient philosophical concept of horos, the foundational project of determination and definition, arguing that it is central to the development of classical philosophy and the marketplace. Horos challenges many significant interpretations of ancient thought. With nuance and insight, Potter combines the works of Aristotle, Plato, Homer and archaic Greek inscriptions with the twentieth-century continental philosophy of Heidegger, Derrida and Walter Benjamin. The result is a powerful study of the theme of boundaries in classical Athenian society as evidenced by boundary stones, law and exchange, ontology, insurgency and occupation. The innovative book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of ancient Greek social history, philosophy, and literature, as well as to the general reader who is curious to know more about classical life and philosophy.

In this first-person tale of archaeological adventure in the tropical forest, Jeffrey Quilter tells the story of his excavation of Rivas, a great ceremonial center at the foot of the Talamanca Mountain range, which flourished between A.D. 900 and 1300, and its fabled gold-filled cemetery, the Panteón de La Reina. Beginning with the 1992 field season and ending with the last excavations in 1998, Quilter discusses Rivas’ builders and users, theories on chiefdom societies, and the daily interactions and surprises of modern archaeological fieldwork. Writing in the first person with a balance between informal language and academic theory, Quilter concludes that Rivas was a ceremonial center for mortuary rituals to bury chiefly elite on the Panteón. Through use of his narrative technique, he provides the reader with accounts of discoveries as they occurred in fieldwork and the development of interpretations to explain the ancient refuse and cobble architecture his team uncovered. As his story progresses amid the enchantment of the Costa Rican landscape, research plans are adjusted and sometimes completely overturned as new discoveries, often serendipitous ones, are made. Such changing circumstances lead to new insights into the rise and fall of the people who built the cobble circles and raised the standing stones at Rivas, a thousand years ago. The only book in English that focuses on a single archaeological site in Costa Rica, which continues to develop as a destination for archaeological tourism, Cobble Stones and Standing Circles will appeal to laypeople and professionals alike.

A sweeping history of premodern architecture told through the material of stone Spanning almost five millennia, Painting in Stone tells a new history of premodern architecture through the material of precious stone. Lavishly illustrated examples include the synthetic gems used to simulate Sumerian and Egyptian heavens; the marble temples and mansions of Greece and Rome; the painted palaces and polychrome marble chapels of early modern Italy; and the multimedia revival in 19th-century England. Poetry, the lens for understanding costly marbles as an artistic medium, summoned a spectrum of imaginative associations and responses, from princes and patriarchs to the populace. Three salient themes sustained this “lithic imagination”: marbles as images of their own elemental substance according to premodern concepts of matter and geology; the perceived indwelling of astral light in earthly stones; and the enduring belief that colored marbles exhibited a form of natural—or divine—painting, thanks to their vivacious veining, rainbow palette, and chance images.

In Collectanea, SaRiah went on the hunt to uncover the truth about her history after receiving a family heirloom. In Standing Stones, she finds herself on an entirely new and unexpected adventure as she steps up to claim the destiny her mother never prepared her for. Making the choice to head for the stars with her partner MiKael, an unforeseen wrinkle shunts them away from the ringed planet they are aiming for. They wind up back in time on a second planet where technology has not yet developed. With no way to get home and facing impending parenthood, SaRiah and MiKael travel to the surface. There, they discover a connection to their own past: ancient stone monoliths linked to a secret history of SeWon. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems in this new world, but the couple learn to adapt and communicate as they search for answers. Do these ancient stone circles hold the information they need? Will these stone giants and their secrets be able to help them change what is coming on SeWon?

A collection of autobiographical poems written over a thirty year period, STANDING STONES marks important life events and experiences familiar to many readers. The poems cover such themes as growing up, love and marriage, divorce, career choice, and personal change. They include humorous verse, as well as strange, mystical encounters. The title, STANDING STONES, reflects a similarity verse shares with ancient stone memorials. These poems are outbursts of creativity, they represent a particular understanding of life, and they quietly insist on the endurance of the human spirit in the face of the ongoing passage of time.