Kategoria BISAC: History >> Ancient - General

• Major survey of the history and culture of Roman Britain
  
• Brings together specialists to provide an overview of recent debates about this period
  
• Exceptionally broad coverage, embracing political, economic, cultural and religious life
  
• Focuses on changes in Roman Britain from the first century BC to the fifth century AD
  
• Includes pioneering studies of the human population and...

• Written by some of the top archaeologists of the Middle East: scholars from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of interests and intellectual approaches
  
• Coverage spans 100,000 years: from the Paleolithic to Hellenistic times
  
• Explores the connections between modern-day politics and the social context of archaeological practice and various underutilized approaches to archaeological...

• Written by some of the top archaeologists of the Middle East: scholars from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of interests and intellectual approaches
  
• Coverage spans 100,000 years: from the Paleolithic to Hellenistic times
  
• Explores the connections between modern-day politics and the social context of archaeological practice and various underutilized approaches to archaeological...

• Explores a millennium of food consumption, from c.750 BC to 200 AD.
  
  
• Shows the pivotal role food had in a world where it was linked with morality and the social order.
  
  
• Concerns people from all walks of life - impoverished citizens subsisting on cereals to the meat-eating elites.
  
  
• Describes religious sacrifices, ancient dinner parties and drinking bouts,...

• A primary source book presenting new translations of Mesopotamian and ancient Near Eastern historiographic texts, and other related materials.
  
• Helps readers to understand the historical context of the Near East.
  
• Covers the period from the earliest historical and literary texts (c.2700 B.C.) to the latest Hellenistic historians who comment on ancient...

This special-edition volume of the Library of Ancient Israel, based on the latest research, presents a vivid description of the world of Ancient Israel, covering such topics as domestic life, the means of existence, cultural expression, and religious practices. With over 175 full-color pictures and illustrations, Life in Biblical Israel opens the door to everyday life in biblical Israel for all readers. This volume is perfect for classrooms, coffee tables, and personal use.

Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology,...

The ancient Greeks commonly resorted to magic spells to attract and keep lovers--as numerous allusions in Greek literature and recently discovered "voodoo dolls," magical papyri, gemstones, and curse tablets attest. Surveying and analyzing these various texts and artifacts, Christopher Faraone reveals that gender is the crucial factor in understanding love spells. There are, he argues, two distinct types of love magic: the curselike charms used primarily by men to torture unwilling women with fiery and maddening passion until they surrender sexually; and the binding spells and debilitating...

What was life like for Jews settled throughout the Mediterranean world of Classical antiquity--and what place did Jewish communities have in the diverse civilization dominated by Greeks and Romans? In a probing account of the Jewish diaspora in the four centuries from Alexander the Great's conquest of the Near East to the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E., Erich Gruen reaches often surprising conclusions.

By the first century of our era, Jews living abroad far outnumbered those living in Palestine and had done so for generations. Substantial Jewish communities were...

Over the past century, exploration and serendipity have uncovered mosaic after mosaic in the Near East--maps, historical images, mythical figures, and religious scenes that constitute an immense treasure of new testimony from antiquity. The stories these mosaics tell unfold in this brief, richly informed book by a preeminent scholar of the classical world.

G. W. Bowersock considers these mosaics a critical part of the documentation of the region's ancient culture, as expressive as texts, inscriptions on stone, and architectural remains. In their complex language,...

The Byzantine Shops at Sardis form a complex of commercial establishments lining the south wall of Sardis's renowned synagogue and bath complex. They offer scholars a unique opportunity to study urban life and commercial architecture in the Late Antique period. Remarkably well preserved, these shops provide economic data vital to an understanding of the trade and commerce of their time.

J. Stephens Crawford was a primary excavator of the shops and has worked at contemporary sites in Asia Minor. His first-hand insights elucidate his publication of the functions of the shops, which...

John Riddle uncovers the obscure history of contraception and abortifacients from ancient Egypt to the seventeenth century with forays into Victorian England--a topic that until now has evaded the pens of able historians.

Riddle's thesis is, quite simply, that the ancient world did indeed possess effective (and safe) contraceptives and abortifacients. The author maintains that this rich body of knowledge about fertility control--widely held in the ancient world--was gradually lost over the course of the Middle Ages, becoming nearly extinct by the early modern period. The reasons for...

Although the treasury of King Croesus held great quantities of gold and silver plate, the Lydians clearly loved fine ceramic wares imported from Greece. This preference was entirely appropriate for the capital of the expansive Lydian Kingdom, which occupied a pivotal position between the city states of the Greeks and the gigantic empire of the Persians. The importation of Greek pottery corresponds to the visits from poets, philosophers, and politicians mentioned by the historian Herodotus.

This collaborative work consists of three generously illustrated sections presenting the...