Examples of Relevant Print Titles
The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols by
One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's paradigm-shattering Origins, The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the little-known geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world--the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language. Imagine yourself as a caveman or woman. The place: Europe. The time: 25,000 years ago, the last Ice Age. In reality, you live in an open-air tent or a bone hut. But you also belong to a rich culture that creates art. In and around your cave paintings are handprints and dots, x's and triangles, parallel lines and spirals. Your people know what they mean. You also use them on tools and jewelry. And then you vanish--and with you, their meanings. Join renowned archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger on an Indiana Jones-worthy adventure from the open-air rock art sites of northern Portugal to the dark depths of a remote cave in Spain that can only be reached by sliding face-first through the mud. Von Petzinger looks past the beautiful horses, powerful bison, graceful ibex, and faceless humans in the ancient paintings. Instead, she's obsessed with the abstract geometric images that accompany them, the terse symbols that appear more often than any other kinds of figures--signs that have never really been studied or explained until now. Part travel journal, part popular science, part personal narrative, von Petzinger's groundbreaking book starts to crack the code on the first form of graphic communication. It's in her blood, as this talented scientist's grandmother served as a code-breaker at Bletchley. Discernible patterns emerge that point to abstract thought and expression, and for the first time, we can begin to understand the changes that might have been happening inside the minds of our Ice Age ancestors--offering a glimpse of when they became us.
Call Number: GN772.2.A1 V66 2016Publication Date: 2016-05-31
Lost City of the Incas by
In 1911 Hiram Bingham, a pre-historian with a love of exotic destinations, set out to Peru in search of the legendary city of Vilcabamba, capital city of the last Inca ruler, Manco Inca. With a combination of doggedness and good fortune he stumbled on the perfectly preserved ruins of Machu Picchu perched on a cloud-capped ledge 2000 ft above the torrent of the Urumbamba River. The buildings were of white granite, exquisitely carved blocks each higher than a man. Bingham had not, as it turned out, found Vilcabamba but he had nevertheless made an astonishing discovery which he described in his best-selling book LOST CITY OF THE INCAS.
Call Number: F3429.1.M3 B617 2002Publication Date: 2002-10-01
The Middle East: A History by
This text contains the full history of the Middle East from the seventh century to the present. Coverage includes the early history of Islam, the medieval period, the early modern empires and all aspects of the modern history of the Middle East. It also covers the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Afghanistan. Changes in this edition include fuller treatment of Iran and a new chapter on Trends since 1945.
Call Number: DS62.F5 1990Publication Date: 1989-11-01
Egypt: Lost Civilizations by
In this revised edition, Sugimoto challenges the traditional notion that Japan is an homogeneous society with few cultural and social disparities. He features the latest research into Japanese society, updated statistical data, and coverage of recent events, including the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the change in government. It remains essential reading for students of Japanese society.
Call Number: DT61 .R54 2017
Maya Art and Architecture by
Renowned expert Mary Miller and co-author Megan E. O'Neil explain how and why the ancient Maya created the paintings, sculpture and monuments that intrigue and compel people the world over. Rewritten from cover to cover and updated with discoveries and new theories from the past decade and a half, this classic survey is now illustrated in colour throughout. With an array of new material, from recent finds that include the La Corona panels and beautiful wall paintings at San Bartolo and Calakmul, to new studies of the monuments at Palenque, Tikal and elsewhere, this second edition will be essential reading for students and scholars - and for travellers to the cities of this mysterious civilization.
Call Number: F1435.3.A7 M55 2014ISBN: 9780500204221Publication Date: 2014-06-24
More Relevant Print Titles
Pathogenesis by
A "gripping" (The Washington Post) account of how the major transformations in history--from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism--have been shaped not by humans but by germs "Superbly written . . . Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman."--The Times (U.K.) According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires. Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world's major religions. By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past--and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story.
Call Number: RA649 .K46 2023ISBN: 9780593240472Publication Date: 2023-04-18
Abu Simbel and the Nubian Temples by
"The three-thousand-year-old rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel and the story of their rescue from the rising waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s are almost as familiar worldwide as the tale of the gold funerary mask and brief life of the boy king Tutankhamun. Yet although they remain among the most celebrated, visited, and photographed archaeological sites in the world, the lower Nubian temples--from Philae in the north to Abu Simbel in the south--are some of the least understood by the visitor. In this lucidly written, beautifully illustrated book, Nigel Fletcher-Jones places the temples in their historical context, telling the story of the discovery of the Abu Simbel temples, and why and how they were moved, explaining what the Nubian temples teach us about ancient Egypt, which gods and goddesses were worshiped there, and the place of Rameses II in the long line of ancient Egyptian kings and queens.
Call Number: DT73.A15 F53 2020Publication Date: 2020-01-07
Pagans: the end of traditional religion and the rise of Christianity by
A provocative and contrarian religious history that charts the rise of Christianity from the point of view of traditional" religion from the religious scholar and critically acclaimed author of Augustine. Pagans explores the rise of Christianity from a surprising and unique viewpoint: that of the people who witnessed their ways of life destroyed by what seemed then a powerful religious cult. These "pagans" were actually pious Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Gauls who observed the traditions of their ancestors. To these devout polytheists, Christians who worshipped only one deity were immoral atheists who believed that a splash of water on the deathbed could erase a lifetime of sin. Religious scholar James J. O'Donnell takes us on a lively tour of the Ancient Roman world through the fourth century CE, when Romans of every nationality, social class, and religious preference found their world suddenly constrained by rulers who preferred a strange new god. Some joined this new cult, while others denied its power, erroneously believing it was little more than a passing fad. In Pagans, O'Donnell brings to life various pagan rites and essential features of Roman religion and life, offers fresh portraits of iconic historical figures, including Constantine, Julian, and Augustine, and explores important themes--Rome versus the east, civilization versus barbarism, plurality versus unity, rich versus poor, and tradition versus innovation--in this startling account.
Call Number: BR128.A2 O36 2015Publication Date: 2015-03-17
The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam by
The Crusades were penitential war-pilgrimages fought in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as in North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Baltic region, Hungary, the Balkans, and Western Europe. Beginning in the eleventh century and ending as late as the eighteenth, these holy wars were waged against Muslims and other enemies of the Church, enlisting generations of laymen and laywomen to fight for the sake of Christendom. Crusading features prominently in today's religio-political hostilities, yet the perceptions of these wars held by Arab nationalists, pan-Islamists, and many in the West have been deeply distorted by the language and imagery of nineteenth-century European imperialism. With this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith returns to the actual story of the Crusades, explaining why and where they were fought and how deeply their narratives and symbolism became embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life. From this history, Riley-Smith traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims. Europeans fashioned an interpretation of the Crusades from the writings of Walter Scott and a French contemporary, Joseph-Fran#65533;ois Michaud. Scott portrayed Islamic societies as forward-thinking, while casting Christian crusaders as culturally backward and often morally corrupt. Michaud, in contrast, glorified crusading, and his followers used its imagery to illuminate imperial adventures. These depictions have had a profound influence on contemporary Western opinion, as well as on Muslim attitudes toward their past and present. Whether regarded as a valid expression of Christianity's divine enterprise or condemned as a weapon of empire, crusading has been a powerful rhetorical tool for centuries. In order to understand the preoccupations of Islamist jihadis and the character of Western discourse on the Middle East, Riley-Smith argues, we must understand how images of crusading were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Call Number: D157 .R536 2008ISBN: 0231517947Publication Date: 2008-09-30
The Early Chinese Empires by
'The Early Chinese Empires' illuminates many formative events in China's long history of imperialism - events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.
Call Number: DS735 .L42 2007ISBN: 9780674024779Publication Date: 2007-04-20
