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Featuring more than a hundred stunning statues, reliefs, vases, bronzes, coins, and gems, this handsome volume highlights the integral role of heroes in ancient Greek art and culture.

The stories behind the acquisition of ancient antiquities are often as important as those that tell of their creation. This fascinating book provides a comprehensive account of the history and development of classical archaeology, explaining how and why artifacts have moved from foreign soil to collections around the world.

For the ancient Romans, the manner of a person’s death provided telling information about his or her character, revealing perhaps the true patriot, the genuine philosopher, the great artist, or the faithful Christian. This engaging book investigates the significance of a wide variety of deaths recorded in Roman history and literature—from murders and executions to quiet deathbed moment...

In this major new account of the fall of the Roman Empire, prizewinning author Adrian Goldsworthy examines the painful centuries of the superpower’s decline. Bringing history to life through the stories of the men, women, heroes, and villains involved, the author uncovers surprising lessons about the rise and fall of great nations.

Preeminent classicist Mary Lefkowitz brings fresh insights to the mythology of ancient Greece, demonstrating that these stories are not only entertaining but also offer crucial lessons about human experience. They spoke to ancient audiences—and can speak to us—about the meaning of divinity, the nature of justice, and the limitations of human knowledge.

Why during the lifetime of Augustus (63 b.c. to a.d. 14) did Roman civilization spread so quickly, influencing art and architecture, religion, law, local speech, and city design throughout the ancient world? In his latest book Ramsay MacMullen argues that this acculturation was due to eager imitation by conquered peoples ably served by Romans’ effective techniques of mass production and stan...

The remarkably detailed papyrus record of Theophanes’ fourth-century travels between Egyptian Hermopolis and Antioch in Syria is here translated and put into the context of social life. Classicist and historian John Matthews offers an array of revelations on travel, diet, social relations, and other fascinating topics in the time just before Emperor Constantine’s rise to power.

Published in the year the modern Olympic Games returned to Athens, this lavishly illustrated book presents a comprehensive survey of sports in ancient Greece. It vividly describes ancient sporting events and games, considers the role of women and amateurs in ancient athletics, and explores the impact of these games on art, literature, and politics.

This book is the most comprehensive ever written on the art of woodworking in the ancient Roman world. Fully illustrated with 200 line drawings and photographs, the book discusses all aspects of Roman woodcraft and its practice and offers an extensive glossary of woodworking terms.

Alexander the Great is remembered as an unparalleled conqueror, but this provocative biography contends that the achievements of his colorful father, Philip II of Macedonia, were just as great. A brilliant military and political strategist, a canny diplomat, and a king par excellence, Philip entirely changed the course of Greek history.

The discovery of native peoples in the Atlantic world came as a shock to Columbus and other European explorers. This fascinating book uses the vivid eyewitness accounts of diaries and letters to uncover what these first encounters were like and why the initial sense of wonder gave way to vicious exploitation.

This multi-disciplinary volume offers a unique portrait of Jamaican culture from the beginning of British rule in 1655 to the aftermath of emancipation in the 1840s. It offers new perspectives on art, music, and performance in Afro-Jamaican society and on the Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean.

Mary C. Beaudry mines archaeological findings from the middle ages through the industrial revolution to discover what needles, thimbles, bobbins, and other artifacts of sewing and needlework reveal about the cultures in which they were used. She shows that these items, though small, have much to tell us about the construction of gender, personal identity, and social class.

With expert scholarship and a keen eye for detail, Bockstoce provides the first analysis of the historic competition among the Russians, British, and Americans for control of Alaska.

This beautifully illustrated book is the definitive guide to the mysteries and treasures of Machu Picchu, the New World’s most splendid archaeological site. Leading scholars discuss Machu Picchu’s place within the Inca empire, the mysteries surrounding its establishment and abandonment, and the discoveries made there since Hiram Bingham’s excavations in the early twentieth centur...

This handsome volume presents the creations of the Olmec, an enigmatic and influential people whose Mesoamerican society was precursor to the later Maya and Aztec civilizations. The book provides a framework for understanding Olmec art and archaeology and discusses recent spectacular finds—wooden busts, jade celts, and rubber balls—in the context of settlement patterns, religious pract...

An examination of small artifacts exquisitely carved from walrus ivory from the coast of the Bering Strait, western Alaska, and the islands in between and recently discovered on Russian excavations or held in private collections.

New in paper

Based on new discoveries from archaeological sites in Peru, this book analyzes Moche culture and presents the fascinating relationship between the visual arts and politics.

This exciting book tells the story of America’s golden period of fossil discovery, the years from 1750 to 1890. Replete with high adventure, ruthless competing bone hunters, and previously unimagined scientific discoveries, the book sets the story of paleontology in the context of American history and the opening of the West.

This lavishly illustrated volume focuses on the unique ceramic works of the Casas Grandes-Paquimé of northwest Mexico and adjoining areas of New Mexico and Arizona. Ninety superb examples of these vessel—created from A.D. 1200–1400—are examined and placed within the native southwestern cultural tradition.

This intriguing book explores eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Philadelphia through the findings of recent archaeological excavations, sharing the excitement of reconstructing long-forgotten lives—craftspeople, shopkeepers, ministers, free Blacks, Native Americans, and other ordinary men and women.

This richly illustrated book of vintage photographs commemorates the discovery and exploration of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (Dynasty 18, ruled ca. 1336–1327 B.C.). 

This volume––which documents 26 excavated stone-built tombs of the ancient Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty––features remains of reliefs and inscriptions that decorated the walls and demonstrates the astonishing variety of Middle Kingdom funeral architecture. 

Long considered lost beyond recall, the architecture of ancient Alexandria is rediscovered in this masterful feat of archaeological detective work. Lavishly illustrated, the book uncovers the true extent of the city's architectural legacy.

The nearly twenty-year reign of Egypt’s female pharaoh Hatshepsut was a period of immense artistic creativity. This handsome book is the first to explore in detail Hatshepsut’s rise to power in the fifteenth century B.C., the nature of her kingship, the innovative art and architecture of her time, and the mysterious obliteration of her name from historical accounts.

 

This volume discusses the extraordinary art created in the second millennium B.C. for royal palaces, temples, and tombs from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia to Cyprus, Egypt, and the Aegean.

In this collection of essays, 20 international scholars analyze finds from recent archaeological excavations in areas ranging from the Caucasus to China and offer new insights into the material culture of the ancient Eurasian steppe nomads.

Using art historical detective work, archival documents, and scientific data, this volume identifies the provenance of an important group of ceramics and places them in a clear historical context for the first time.

This exquisite book presents an impressive group of African ceramics from the renowned Keith Achepohl collection. It features works spanning the entire continent and dating from the third to the mid-twentieth century. Together, they demonstrate the longstanding and intimate connection between pottery and village life, secular and sacred, in Africa.

 



 

Million-year-old Paleolithic sites, extraordinary jade and ceramic artifacts from Neolithic sites, excavated tombs and palaces of the Zhou and Shang dynasties—all are part of the archaeological riches of China. This magnificent book surveys China’s archaeological remains, takes us to the great finds of the past century, offers new insight into the formation of...

This comprehensive and extensively illustrated book covers the material culture of the Six Dynasties, the “Dark Age” of Chinese history. Drawing on archaeological findings as well as historical and literary sources, the author discusses developments in the arts, religion, and culture during this important period of change and innovation.

The burial site known as the Wu Family Shrines in the Shandong Province of northeastern China has served as a benchmark for the study of the Han Dynasty. This book presents scholarship that prompts reexamination of the site’s implications, including its attribution to the Wu family. The catalogue reinterprets the cemetery structures based on the discovery of additional structures and archaeo...

This valuable book presents essays by archaeologists, art and architectural historians, curators, and historians that offer new perspectives on the pictorial carvings from the "Wu Family Shrines" of Han dynasty China.

The kings of Aksum formally became Christian during the second quarter of the 4th century, making Ethiopia the second country in the world (after Armenia) officially to adopt the new faith. This landmark book is the first to integrate historical, archaeological, and art-historical evidence to provide a comprehensive account of Ethiopian Christian civilization and its...

A lavish and unprecedented survey of Viet Nam’s body of artwork––including burial jars, jeweled gold pieces, and ritual drums––from the first millennium B.C. to the 18th century.

This practical and knowledgeable guidebook is the first to deal comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany. Filled with fascinating information, useful maps, and arresting photographs, this invaluable resource describes over 400 sites and discusses the archaeology and architectural features of each ring.

William Stukeley, one of the first to recognize the historic importance of Stonehenge, meticulously recorded his fieldwork discoveries in a manuscript that until now has remained unpublished. Here transcribed and annotated, Stukeley’s writings and drawings offer a detailed view of all that was known of the stone circle nearly three hundred years ago.

What was going on in Europe (a relatively minor peninsula in world terms) that enabled it by 1000 A.D. to become a driving global force? This sensational interdisciplinary work by a leading archaeologist reorients our understanding of Old Europe’s success, uncovering a set of complex factors that have gone unrecognized until now.

Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. This captivating book by a world expert examines what is known of the Druids, then explores how and why they have been repeatedly reinvented to play varying roles in English, Scottish, and Welsh history.

When it was first released in 1962, The Shape of Time presented a radically new approach to the study of art history. Drawing upon new insights in fields such as anthropology and linguistics, George Kubler replaced the notion of style as the basis for histories of a...

This beautifully illustrated book examines the emergence of Christian art in the third century A.D. Drawing on insights from recent discoveries, leading experts explore topics from Jewish art in the Greco-Roman period and the influence of Constantine, to the development of church decoration and illuminated Bibles. New color photographs of frescoes, marble sculpture, silver...

Despite Darwin’s bold contention in 1871 that the likely ancestor for Homo sapiens was an African ape, the scientific community hesitated for decades before accepting small-brained bu t bipedal walking “apes” from southern Africa as direct human ancestors. Remains of the australopiths, as these bipedal apes are now called, were first discovered in 1924, yet 25 years passed before the australopiths found their place on the human family tree. This book is the first to document in detail this paradigm shift in paleoanthropology between 1924 and 1950.

Tom Gundling examines a period in anthropological history when ideas about what it means to be human were severely tested. Drawing on extensive primary sources, many never before published, he argues that the reinterpretation of early human fossils came about at last because of changes in theoretical approach, not simply because new and more complete fossils had been recovered. Gundling concludes with a review of the most significant post-1950 events in the field of paleoanthropology.

Tom Gundling is assistant professor of anthropology, William Paterson University of New Jersey.

An indispensable book for all professionals and students interested in the field of geoarchaeology, including those with limited earth-science experience, this new edition of Geoarchaeology builds on the success and innovation of the first edition and includes updates, new concepts and examples, an enhanced bibliography, and many new illustrations.  The second edition begins by considering the history and theory of geoarchaeology.  Rapp and Hill then move to discussions of soils and environmental interpretations; initial context and site formation; methods of discovery and spatial analyses; estimating time; paleoenvironments, landscapes, and the human past; identifying, analyzing, and sourcing raw materials; and construction, destruction, and conservation of sites and materials.  

"[This book] covers a wide range of topics . . . with clarity and balance. . . . [The] chapters are all well written and have concise introductory discussions that are not too detailed and not too brief. . . . Beautifully produced."—Michael Waters, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal (on the first edition)

George (Rip) Rapp is Regents Professor Emeritus of Geoarchaeology and was formerly director of the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Christopher L. Hill is an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. 

In 1732 a group of elite young men who had met on the grand tour formed a convivial dining club called the Society of Dilettanti. By the middle of the 18th century the Dilettanti took on an influential role in cultural matters, organizing archaeological expeditions, forming the Royal Academy and the British Museum, and ultimately becoming one of the most prominent and influential societies of the British Enlightenment.

This lively and illuminating account is the most detailed analysis of the early Society of Dilettanti to date. Jason M. Kelly places the group at the complex intersection of international and national discourses that shaped the British Enlightenment; thus, it sheds new light on 18th-century grand tourism, elite masculinity, sociability, aesthetics, architecture, and archaeology.

Jason M. Kelly is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis.