David Brown Book Company
The illuminated psalter; studies in the content, purpose and placement of its images.
This volume presents a substantial contribution to manuscript studies, with 28 papers by an international group of scholars (writing in German, French, and English) grouped into the main subjects of form and history, function and use, iconographic programs, iconographic subjects, and pictorial bindings. Among the senior scholars whose work is included are Suzy Dufrenne, Adelaide Bennett, Ursula Nilgen, Gude Suckale-Redlefsen, Nigel Morgan, the late Janet Backhouse, and the late Michael Camille. Büttner (affiliations are not noted) commences the volume with a lengthy (103-page) survey of illuminated psalters (or books of psalms) in the west; Rainer Kahsnitz authored the next chapter, surveying early psalters with decorative letters (both are in German). The papers describe psalters from Byzantium, Italy, France, Germany, and England, from the earliest examples through the Renaissance. There are indexes for the psalms and for the manuscripts, but not by subject. The papers were first presented at an eponymous colloquium held in Bamberg, Germany in October 1999. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Invention and innovation; the social context of technological change 2; Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East, 1650-1150 BC.; proceedings.
Archaeologists, most from Britain but others from across Europe, explore the context of technological innovations during the period by modelling, applying art history and archaeology to a group of problematic group of artefacts, integrating archaeological and textual sources to review basic questions of identity and status, and the scientific analysis of archaeological evidence to illuminate technology or a supposed innovation. The 10 papers are not indexed. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Jean Poyer; Das Gesamtwerk.
A 15th-century manuscript and stained glass painter from Tours, Poyer (sometimes misspelled as Poyet) was celebrated in his day, when he worked at the court of Queen Anne of Brittany, and largely forgotten in subsequent centuries. In this handsome volume, which is in German, Hofmann provides a much needed catalogue raisoné of the artist's work, with analysis of original sources on the artist and discussion of his life, career, and reception. The catalogue entries include location, provenance, dimensions, content, bibliography, and condition. The works are reproduced in b&w and a few color plates. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (tenth to fifteenth centuries); proceedings.
This volume contains essays presented at an international symposium of European historians held in Speyer, Germany, October 2002. Thirty-four contributions focus on comparing and contrasting Jewish communities across Europe between 1000 and 1500 in terms of culture, economics, linguistics, social structure, and interaction with the dominant cultures. Editor Cluse provides a brief foreword and an introduction to each of the five thematic sections, which address the broad dimensions of the subject; communities in the Mediterranean area (e.g. Sicily, Aragon, Navarre, Italy); the northern Jewries (France, England, Ashkenaz); aspects of Jewish social, economic, and intellectual history; and individual Jewries through archival and archaeological studies. The book is distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Jomon reflections; forager life and culture in the prehistoric Japanese archipelago.
The skeletons of three women buried together wear 14 shell bracelets among them. Stone circles form monumental sundials, and forests of wooden pillars sprout from the earth. Kobayashi (archeology, Kokugakuin U.) precisely describes the finds of a life digging through the prehistoric Joman period, exploring 13,000 years of a complex society, its cultural and spiritual realms, settlements, attitudes toward nature, and its knowledge of its place on the earth. The photographs augmenting the text are works of art in themselves. Distributed by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Journal of Roman pottery studies; v.11.
This edition focuses on providing a research framework for the study of Roman pottery in Britain. Topics of articles include a report of the study group on this issue, a description of second-century pottery found in London, quantitative data from the Upper Thames Valley, guidelines for archiving, distribution of pottery in the East Midlands, examinations of Roman pottery manufacture, and commentary on whether you can really trust a correlation coefficient. Reviewers examine recent publications and the editor provides a bibliography and index to entries. Distributed by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Kingship in the Mycenaean world and its reflections in the oral tradition.
Shear explores questions concerning the degree of economic and religious power held by the king in the Mycenaean world of second millennium BC Greece and its environs. She combines evidence from three realms of scholarship that often do not speak to each other: archaeology; the Linear B tablets and their decipherment; and the epic traditions, the myths and legends of the past, and most particularly the Iliad and Odyssey, which he points out, were oral narratives for a long time before they came out in cheap used paperbacks. The book is distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Knossos; palace, city, state; proceedings. (CD-ROM included)
This volume consists of the proceedings of a November 2000 conference organized by the British School at Athens for the centenary of Sir Arthur Evans's excavation at Knossos. The intent of the conference was to re-examine Knossos through time and in wider contexts, and the sections of the book address neolithic to prepalatial Knossos; final, post, and neo- palatial Knossos; and Minoan, Greek, and Roman Knossos. Topics range from political dynamics, cultural interactions, metallurgy, costumes, pottery, weapons, tombs, cult activity, crafts, and currency, to Sir Arthur Evans himself. This text, as was the conference, is bilingual in Greek and English. It begins with abstracts of the 54 articles, and includes a CD-ROM of three papers reproduced in their entirety. Distributed by David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The late Roman gold and silver coins from the Hoxne treasure.
This volume contains a description of the coins of the impressive Hoxne Treasure, discovered in a field in England in 1992. The coins are late Roman gold and silver and include a few imitations. In addition, almost all the coins are clipped, that is, trimmed around the edge. The coins, the clipping, gold and silver in the late Roman empire, and the use of coins in the Roman tradition of gift exchange are discussed by Guest (Roman archaeology, Cardiff U., UK and director, Barbican Research Associates). Appendices contain a scientific analysis of the coins and a catalogue of each coin (15,234 coins were contained in the hoard) and b&w plates of the coins and other parts of the treasure. The volume is oversized: 9x11 inches. There is a bibliography but no index. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Life and death in London's east end; 2000 years at Spitalfields.
Thomas describes excavations by the Museum's archaeological teams of a district in London, and the evidence they have turned up about the Roman graveyard, the medieval hospital, the early modern artillery ground, and the changing ethnic communities that have lived there over the centuries. There is no index. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Living back-to-back.
The back-to-back was once the most common form of housing in England. Although a half-million of the homes — built in rows, courts, or blocks — housed working people in Victorian cities, few remain standing today. Upton (history, Newman College of Higher Education, Birmingham, UK) took as the starting point for his popular history Court 15 in Birmingham, now a National Trust museum. Upton combines documentary evidence and oral history to describe the practical realities of life in a back-to-back as well as more conceptual matters like why Britain's population moved so readily into cities in the early 19th century, and moved away just as rapidly in the 1960s. The volume is well illustrated in sepia-tone b&w. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Ludovico Carracci and the art of drawing.
Historians of Italian baroque art will welcome this remarkably thorough catalogue raisonné of the drawings of the prolific and influential painter. Three hundred & fifteen autograph drawings are described in entries that note material, size, location, provenance, and bibliography and contain an entry describing the drawing's content and related works. In addition, Bohn (art history, Texas Christian U., Fort Worth) has undertaken the mammoth task of assessing all drawings attributed to Ludovico, including full entries on 35 questionable and 95 rejected attributions. Every drawing is reproduced with the entry in a b&w plate of outstanding quality. Five chapters precede the catalogue, on Bologna in Ludovico's day, the painter's life and career, the sources and influences of his and his brother Annibale's drawings, Ludovico's pen drawings, and his chalk drawings. The introductory chapters will be useful to art history students as well as specialists. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Material engagements; studies in honour of Colin Renfrew.
Renfrew has a unique manner of engagement with the material world; he dug into it as an archeologist and academician and dug it in his support and enthusiasm for modern art. In this collection of essays that celebrate both of Renfrew's fascinations, contributors examine the link between art and archeology as initiated by Renfrew, issues in art and also in archeology with far-reaching effects into the future of either and both, the effects of the nonmaterial, such as politics, on artifacts, and the similarities and differences between material and oral records. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The maussolleion at Halikarnassos; reports of the Danish archaeological expedition to Bodrum. v.6: The subterranean and pre-Maussollan structures....
The sixth volume reports on work in 1972-74 and 1976 on pre-Maussollan and subterranean structures in the close vicinity of the Mausolleion proper, and finally publishes the remaining parts of the small finds from the tomb chamber of Maussollos. After reviewing the Turkish site and its excavation since the 19th century, it reports on trenches, the drain around the quadrangle, terrace walls, the aqueduct, the upper gallery, miscellaneous evidence. A chronology and interpretation of the pre-Maussolleion site is included. Distributed in the US by David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Megiddo 3; final report on the stratum VI excavations. (CD-ROM included)
The excavations of the Iron Age settlement at Megiddo (Tell el- Mutesellim) were originally carried out in the 1930s by the U. of Chicago, but were never completely published. Harrison (Near Eastern archaeology, U. of Toronto, Canada) has undertaken a thorough report on the finds of the excavation, working both from the field records and his own study of the artifactual remains kept at the Oriental Institute Museum. The chapters detail the history of the excavations, the stratigraphy and chronology, the architecture, the pottery, and the small finds (by Patricia Plaice). Registers for the pottery and the small finds are provided. The CD-ROM contains a digital archive of the primary field records, field photographs, and the artifact database. The text includes b&w plates of excellent quality. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Money on the silk road; the evidence from eastern central Asia to c.AD 800.
Historians, archaeologists, and coin specialists will find much of value in this detailed discussion of the wide range of money used in what are now the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu along the Silk Road. Following initial chapters that describe the geography, history, archaeology, and use of money of the Silk Road, Wang gives detailed chapters describing the numismatic and documentary evidence. A complete catalogue is included of the Aurel Stein Collection of coins from Eastern Central Asia held in the British Museum (where Wang is curator of East Asian money). The volume includes maps, plates, and a full bibliography. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Mycenaean feast.
Drawing from large deposits of vessels and bones, artistic depictions, and descriptions in manuscripts, classical scholars examine traditions of feasting on mainland Greece, Crete, and Cyprus from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The seven essays are from a colloquium in Philadelphia in January 2002, and are published in Hespiria vol. 73, no. 2 (2004), the journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. They are not indexed. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The myths of Rome.
In this view of Roman history through the lens of mythic narratives, Wiseman (emeritus, classics, U. of Exeter, UK) counters misconceptions that the Romans merely appropriated their gods, myths, and art from the Greeks. In a lively general audience treatment, the author shares Roman legends both mythologically- and historically-based such as those of the founding of Rome, Homer's Trojan stories, and the Caesars. He includes a time-chart scaled at one millennium per page, color art plates, other illustrations, historical and mythical maps, and extensive reference material. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The neolithic of the Irish Sea; materiality and traditions of practice.
Recent changes in the character of research on the Irish Sea have shifted the focus from emphasis on cultural homogeneity and the existence of prehistoric contact via sea routes, toward approaches that consider the parallel but different cultural changes taking place in a series of regions in the Irish Sea zone. 24 papers address topics such as the Neolithic of the Cheshire Basin; the early Bronze Age on the Isle of Man; diversity & invisibility in late Neolithic Wales; rock art, identity, and death in the Early Bonze Age of Ireland & Britain; constructing the dolmen in southwest Wales; and cultural comparisons & social interpretations of Manx chambered cairns. Edited by Cummings (School of History & Archaeology, Cardiff U.), and Fowler (School of Art History & Archaeology, U. of Manchester). Distributed by the David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Northern archaeological textiles; proceedings.
The 24 articles of this proceedings were first presented at the Seventh North-European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in May 1999. Topics include gold textiles from a Roman burial at Munigua, changing gender roles in late Saxon textile production, textiles for transport, and women's robes excavated from the crypt of Holy Virgin Mary's Church in Torun, Poland. Five of the articles are in German. The articles are well-illustrated with b&w photos and drawings; the book is slightly oversize, at 8.75x11.25 inches. Not indexed. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A Norse farmstead in the outer Hebrides; excavations at mound 3, Bornais, South Uist.
Archaeologists from Wales, England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland report on their excavation of a third mound at a medieval Norse settlement on the west coast of the island, itself part of the chain of islands off the west coast of Scotland. Trench D uncovered the main house, and Trench F the kiln/barn. A separate chapter compares the findings in the two. Findings from the first two mounds are also reviewed, and the methods for evaluating various types of finds explained. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
