Mending Broken Vessels

The purpose of this book, Mending Broken Vessels, is to open the Word and show how God can fix all that are broken, Heal all that are hurting, Rebuild that which was torn down. Relationships come and go, but those that remain are tested over time. Then there are some relationships that are supposedly safe-havens to grow and cherish, but that safety can become violated and the results can be devastating. Psalms 34:18 tells us, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

The term 'jar' refers to any man-made shape with the capacity to enclose something. Few objects are as universal and multi-functional as a jar – regardless of whether they contain food or drink, matter or a void, life-giving medicine or the ashes of the deceased. As ubiquitous as they may seem, such containers, storage vessels and urns are, as this book demonstrates, highly significant cultural and historical artefacts that mediate between content and environment, exterior worlds and interior enclosures, local and global, this-worldly and otherworldly realms. The contributors to this volume understand jars not only as household utensils or evidence of human civilizations, but also as artefacts in their own right. Asian jars are culturally and aesthetically defined crafted goods and as objects charged with spiritual meanings and ritual significance. Transformative Jars situates Asian jars in a global context and focuses on relationships between the filling, emptying and re-filling of jars with a variety of contents and meanings through time and throughout space. Transformative Jars brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars with backgrounds in curating, art history and anthropology to offer perspectives that go beyond archaeological approaches with detailed analyses of a broad range of objects. By looking at jars as things in the hands of makers, users and collectors, this book presents these objects as agents of change in cultures of craftsmanship and consumption.

Archaeologists use the artifacts and fauna they found to examine the lives and activities of the inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito as well as to further interpret current models of Chaco archaeology.

The author of this fascinating mid-nineteenth century collection is not credited, but hints suggest that the material is not original and was compiled by the publisher from other sources. The recipes for a broad range of dishes represent basic cooking of the day obviously meant as an “everyday” household resource. In a long section titled “Indian Doctor,” medical treatment advice and remedies for every imaginable ailment from cholera and scarlet fever to corns and catarrh are included, and there is a substantial section on hair and skin treatment describing lotions and creams for everything from “preventing hair from falling” to curing freckles and pimples. The intriguing section “American Letter Writer” described as “letters on relationship” contains several dozen sample letters that family members and associates might write to each other in a wide variety of situations. For example: “From the Daughter to the Mother, in excuse for her neglect,” “From a Mother in town, to a Daughter at School in the country, recommending the practice of Virtue,” “From a Daughter to her Father, pleading for her Sister, who had married without his consent,” “From an officer to a Lady with whom he is in Love,” “The Officer’s Letter to the Lady’s Father,” and sample answers from the Lady and her father. This edition of The Housekeeper’s Guide and Indian Doctor was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.

This two-volume book presents cutting-edge archaeological research, primarily as practiced in the Eastern Mediterranean region. These volumes’ key foci are inspired by the work of Thomas E. Levy. Volume 1 provides an in-depth look at new archaeological research in the southern Levant (primarily in modern Israel and Jordan) inspired by Levy’s commitment to understanding social, political, and economic processes in a long-term or “deep time” perspective. Volume 2 focuses on new research in several key areas of 21st century anthropological archaeology and archaeological science. Volume 1 is organized around two major themes: 1) the later prehistory of the southern Levant, or the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age, and 2) new research in biblical archaeology, or the historical archaeology of the Iron Age. Each section contains a combination of new perspectives on key debates and studies introducing new research questions and directions. Volume 2 is organized around five major themes: 1) the archaeology of the Faynan copper ore district of southern Jordan, a key region for archaeometallurgical research in West Asia where Levy conducted field research for over a decade, 2) new research in archaeometallurgy beyond the Faynan region, 3) marine and maritime archaeology, focusing on issues of trade and environmental change, 4) cyber-archaeology, an important 21st century field Levy conceived as “the marriage of archaeology, engineering, computer science, and the natural sciences,” and 5) key issues in anthropological archaeological theory. In addition to presenting the reader with an up-to-date view of research in each of these areas, the volume also has chapters exploring the connections between these themes, e.g. the maritime trade of metals and cyber-/digital archaeological approaches to metallurgy. The work contains contributions from both up-and-coming early career researchers and key established figures in their fields. This book is an essential reference for archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines working in the southern Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean.