The Adventure Of The Illustrious Scholar

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, celebrates the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Forty-seven major scholars contribute to this unusual and important volume.

The period of Anatolian history between the death of the semi-legendary king Midas of Gordion ca. 700 BC and the advent of the Achaemenid Persian Empire ca. 550 BC is dominated by certain narratives: the rise of the Mermnad Lydian Kingdom, from Gyges to Croesus; the demise of the Urartian Kingdom and ‘Neo-Hittite’-type culture and polities; and the invasion of shadowy forces from the Steppe: Cimmerians, Scythians and Medes. The discoveries of Geoffrey and Francoise Summers’s project at the massive walled city on Kerkenes Da?? have changed the cultural history and texture of Anatolia during this time period, opening up insights into the spread of Phrygian culture and language and inviting further discussion of how the period is framed. This book honors their accomplishments by presenting papers addressing the dynamics and events of that period from various angles, and in various regions and places, as well as other interventions on Iron Age Anatolia, from dating of kings to rare and potentially influential medical techniques. The volume sheds light on and also advocates for further synthesis of the regional dynamics affecting the Mediterranean, Near East and Anatolia together, toward the production of revised, more nuanced narratives.

Covering the period from 2500 BCE to the Byzantine Era, this volume focuses on the social history of furniture found in houses, tombs and temples as narrated through the archaeological evidence. The earliest furniture can be seen as an attempt by humans to enhance their safety, comfort and social standing but it can also offer opportunities for understanding human behavior, values and thought: fine furniture was among the most valuable of possessions in the ancient world so it expressed power, wealth and status. It was appreciated as art, used in diplomacy (both as a gift and as tribute) and recorded as booty. At the same time, its practical and ceremonial uses yield important clues about the domestic environment and daily life in antiquity, as well as revealing aspects of sacred belief and funerary practices. Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, this volume presents essays that examine key characteristics of the furniture of the period on the themes of Design and Motifs; Makers, Making, and Materials; Types and Uses; The Domestic Setting; The Public Setting; Exhibition and Display; Furniture and Architecture; Visual Representations; and Verbal Representations.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, celebrates the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Forty-seven major scholars contribute to this unusual and important volume.

Phrygia in the second and third centuries CE offers more vivid evidence for what has been termed “lived ancient religion” than any other region in the ancient world. The evidence from Phrygia is neither literary nor issued by cities or their powerful inhabitants but rather comes from farmers and herders who left behind numerous stone memorials of themselves and dedications to their gods, praying for the welfare of their families, crops, and cattle. In Religion in Roman Phrygia: From Polytheism to Christianity, Robert Parker opens a rare window into the world of those Sir Ronald Syme called “the voiceless earth-coloured rustics” who have been “conveniently forgotten.” The period in which Phrygian paganism flourished so visibly was also the period in which Christianity was introduced by the apostle Paul and took root. Parker presents a rich body of evidence and uses it to explore one of history’s great stories and enigmas: how and why the new religion overtook its predecessor, with the Christian God meeting needs previously satisfied by Zeus and the other gods.

This volume brings together the final reports of salvage excavations carried out in the vicinity of Tel Qashish in the northern Jezreel Valley, Israel, from 2010 to 2013. These include the Middle and Epipaleolithic flint workshops at Tel Qashish West and Tel Qashish South, the early Early Bronze Age I settlement at Tell el-Wa'er, the late Early Bronze Age I features and the Late Bronze Age II cultic repository at Tel Qashish, as well as some early Roman remains. Twenty-nine chapters by twenty-five authors present the context, stratigraphy, finds, and analyses of these four major aspects of the excavations.

Raccolta di articoli in onore di Marcella Frangipane riguardo il sito archeologico Arslantepe, in Antaolia orientale

This book shows that the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics is a natural consequence of the development of human society. It examines the history of production from the Stone Age to the present, progressing from the manual age to the machine age and then to the robotic age. From the perspective of economics and human physiology, this book explains how AI and robotics will reshape the economy and society, and how individuals, firms, and governments should prepare for the advent of the robotic age.