BRILL

Ajanta; history and development; v.2: Arguments about Ajanta.

Through a nearly year-by-year analysis of their development, Spink (emeritus history of art, U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor) challenges some commonly held views about the Hinayana Buddhist site Ajanta and related caves. His account should also magnify the image of the emperor Harisena, arguing that he was responsible for the startling and final florescence of the great Vakataka empire in central India during his brief reign about 460-477 AD. He looks at whether patronage of the site was consistent or collapsed, and the patronage associated with redecoration of the caves in Vakataka times. Inscriptions from the cite are appended. There is no index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Ancient West & East; v.4 no.1.

The biennial publication is devoted to the history and archaeology of the periphery of the Graeco-Roman world. This year's edition contains a list of standard abbreviations of journals and other publications to be used in place of full titles and descriptions in all subsequent issues and Ancient West and East and Occasional Papers, and slightly modified Notes to Contributors. Five articles are also included, on a new classification system for East Greek pottery, Hellenistic tradition and Augustan ideology relating to women and public life in imperial Asia Minor, idiosyncrasies of the formation process of the North Caucasian Alan culture as revealed in archaeological data, and other topics. Three notes and many book reviews fill out the issue. There is no index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Apocalyptic representations of Jerusalem.

Revising her 2002 doctoral dissertation in comparative religion at Abo Akademic University, Finland, Leppäkari analyzes the conceptions of Jerusalem as an endtime symbol in religious settings. She looks at messianic and millenarian groups, interpretive frames, apocalyptic representations in practice, Jerusalem as sacred place and symbol, The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and The Temple Mount Faithful as case studies of the Eternal Kingdom of God, and theoretical application. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Art and archaeology of Afghanistan; its fall and survival; a multi-disciplinary approach.

The articles of this fascinating volume present first-hand accounts of the history and current state of preservation, recovery, and research of the art and architectural monuments of Afghanistan. The destruction of the Buddha of Bamiyan is only the best known example among articles discussing the willful destruction of Afghanistan's rich artistic heritage. The majority of the articles, however, are concerned with more positive themes, including the recovery of many significant works believed lost, the discovery of new archaeological sites, the reconstruction of ancient monuments, and the restoration of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. Legal aspects of recovering stolen goods are also discussed. Several of the authors, including the editor, are affiliated with the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage; all are art historians whose work as curators, archaeologists, and researchers has brought them into close contact with the monuments and their fates. Many b&w and color plates are included. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The art of reform in eleventh-century Flanders; Gerard of Cambrai, Richard of Saint-Vanne, and the Saint-Vaast Bible.

The Romanesque Giant Bibles were not only examples of stunning beauty and reverence toward the Word. As in the case of one of the earliest and most important, the Saint-Vaast Bible, they were political and theological statements, symbols of patronage, and liturgical innovations. Reilly (art history, Indiana U.) analyzes the Saint-Vaast Bible and the events and people surrounding its creation and use, finding evidence of political and ecclesiastical ambition, complex social and theological contexts, and even a call to unity between sacred and secular authorities. He describes how the unique design of the Saint-Vaast Bible figured in monastic reform, promotion of certain religious leaders' agendas, and even in marriage, be it royal or mystical. The color and monochrome plates are well-chosen and informative as well as beautiful. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Belief, bounty, and beauty; rituals around sacred trees in India.

It was a non-academic article on Indian environmental movements that sparked Nugteren's (phenomenology and history of Indian religions, Tilburg, U., the Netherlands) interest in trees, especially noticing how easily and self-evidently a glorified past was deployed to vitalize an awareness of modern problems. Focusing on the ritual domain and the inter-relatedness of symbolic and material values, she considers trees in ancient religious literature, from the perspective of kings and poets, and in the Buddhist milieu; a living cult around the wood statues of Puri; rituals around sacred trees in contemporary India; and the symbolic values of trees in Indian environmentalism. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Beyond the steppe and the sown; proceedings.

Various perspectives on the archaeology of Eurasia and Anatolia from the earliest times to the early Middle Ages are presented by anthropologists from the US, Europe, and Asia from Turkey and Ukraine to Mongolia. The 29 papers cover local and global perspectives, regional studies, new directions in theory and practice, and palaeo-ecology and environment. Among specific topics are whether migrations or economic changes caused cultural transformation in the Black Sea steppe between the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, petroglyphs of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Province in China, and community organization among Copper Age sedentary horse pastoralists of Kazakhstan. There is hope to publish proceedings of the 2005 conference as well. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Bible in film; the Bible and film.

Religious and biblical scholars from the US, Canada, and Europe analyze films that retell or re-present the biblical story, and analyze themes and allusions or character types in mainstream cinema that relate to the bible. Their topics include The Passion of Christ; dishing up the biblical body in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; and the role of the female in some apocalyptic films. There is no index. The 11 essays, two in German, originally appeared as a special issue of the journal Biblical Interpretation. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Church, state, vellum, and stone; essays on medieval Spain in honor of John Williams.

Scholars and students of the history of the art and architecture of medieval Spain will find much of value in this collection of papers, which were delivered in abbreviated form at the October 2002 Court and Monastery Symposium held at Southern Methodist U. in Dallas, Texas and at the 37th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan in May, 2002. The 16 papers, most of which have been expanded and revised into substantial articles, are on topics for which Williams is the most renowned specialist: the Beatus manuscripts, the relation of church and state in medieval Spain, and the architecture of the medieval Spanish churches themselves. The papers are accompanied by b&w plates. A lengthy bibliography is included. The contributors are scholars in the US, the UK, Germany, and Spain; some, including the editors, were Williams' students at the U. of Pittsburgh, where he is now emeritus. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Coinage and history in the North Sea world, c. AD 500-1200; essays in honour of Marion Archibald.

Scholars in or associated with the Britain museum community were invited to contribute substantial studies aimed at forging an integrated approach to numismatic and monetary studies, archaeology, and other aspects of historical research. The 29 essays look at the post-Roman period from the fifth to the seventh centuries, the northern world (i.e. Europe) in transition from the seventh to the tenth centuries, and England and its continental neighbors from the 10th to the 13th centuries. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Color, line, and space; the neuroscience of spatio-chromatic vision.

The ability of animals to perceive color differences seems to have existed for at least half a billion years. Primates turned this already complex phenomenon into a massive neural investment considered independent of a perception of luminance that is evolutionarily older than the color system. Both color and luminance are central to this collection of 11 papers that are based on psychophysical experiments informed by neural and computational models, and the result is useful to those working in or studying visual neuroscience, psychology, ophthalmology, cognitive science and computer science. Topics include an introduction to spatio-chromatic interactions, neural adjustments to chromatic blur, color contrast influences in perceiving shape, Fechner-Benham subjective colors and McCollough effects, cone contrast computations, surface interpolation, lightness and illumination in terms of gradients, a neural model of surface perception, and two contributions on the watercolor illusion. VSP is a subsidiary of Brill. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Cyprus; society and culture, 1191-1374.

Six historians who specialize in the eastern Mediterranean during the Byzantine and crusades era explore the social and cultural history of the island from Richard the Lionheart's conquest to the death of Peter I. The text itself is tailored for general readers, but extensive footnotes are provided for scholars. The topics are Greeks, Franks, the economy, religion, literature, and art. Included are 33 black-and-white photographs of sites, manuscripts, and art. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Death in ancient China; the tale of one man's journey.

Drawing on bamboo-strip Baoshan divination texts and other contents of his tomb near Jiangling, Cook (Chinese, Lehigh U.) recreates the life and death of Shao Tuo, a member of the elite and one of many royal officers who negotiated government affairs in the nearby city and palace. He died at age 35 or 40 in 316 BC. She describes death as a journey in ancient China, the tomb, his burial rituals, the topography of the afterlife, and other topics. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Enigmatic charms; medieval Arabic block printed amulets in American and European libraries and museums.

Contrary to the notion that the technology of printing somehow bypassed them, says Schaefer (librarianship, Drake U.), Arabs have left substantial evidence that block printing was a craft familiar to many in the medieval Islamic world, 900-1400 CE. The most common texts to have survived are amulets, and it is this genre he identifies 55 examples of in European and US libraries and museums. He describes the physical document, presents the text in Arabic with English translation, and appends color photographs. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

General maps of Persia; 1477-1925.

This major work presents a thorough, erudite, and thought-provoking catalogue and analysis of the maps made of Iran (long known as Persia), mostly by non-Iranians (the Safavids, who ruled from 1502-1736, were uninterested in sponsoring their own cartographers), dating from the earliest printed Ptolemaic atlases of the 15th century through maps produced worldwide until the end of the Qajar dynasty in 1925. The maps are grouped into two major sections; a shorter section on the Ptolemaic maps, which are grouped according to publisher; and a larger section, on the general and regional maps of Persia, which are grouped by country of origin. In the latter, maps are included that were produced in Italy, the Low Countries, France, Russia, America, Turkey, and the Iberian peninsula. Britain is especially well represented, with 151 examples. Two lengthy historical introductions are included for each of the two parts. The entries are in a succinct catalogue format, containing author and complete title, dimensions, scales, and description. The volume, which is printed in folio format (it measures 11.25x15 inches) is beautifully illustrated with color plates, many of them full page, of the best quality. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Horos dios; an Athenian shrine and cult of Zeus.

During the second quarter of the 19th century CE, two inscriptions indicating a horos dios shrine were discovered what had been a rich suburb of Athens in the sixth century BCE. Lalonde (classics, Grinnell College) offers the first thorough study of the inscriptions and investigation into the deity honored. He presents new evidence and arguments for the form, dating, and meanings of the inscriptions; reports and interprets many rock cuttings on the same rock spur as remnants of an old, inelegant, but elaborate shrine of Zeus; argues that the shrine was devoted to the popular cult of Zeus Meilichios but that other deities, including Herakles Alexikakos, were sometimes worshiped there; and summarizes the chronology of the cult and shrine in their historical and topographical contexts. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Humanism and creativity in the Renaissance; essays in honor of Ronald G. Witt.

This festschrift reflects Witt's richly-deserved influence on a surprisingly diverse rank of scholars in history and cultural studies. Papers gathered under the general topic of politics and the revival of antiquity include studies of Bruni, Accolti and Budé and examinations of Parleo and Machiavelli and their uses of Cicero and Livy, the Discorsi Palleschi and the social and political workings behind a Medici gem collection. Those on humanism, religion and moral philosophy include studies of Alberti and Boccaccio, Ficino and Renaissance Platonism, Vives's Parisian writings, the period's preoccupation with dreams, and an analysis of the newly found final part of Dialogus de fide in Christum. Papers based on the study of erudition and innovation include an article on Voigt, a survey of humanism in Italian universities, the consequences of translating Aristotle, and the repercussions of an accidental kangaroo. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The legacy of Muslim Spain, 2d ed; 2v. (reprint, 1994)

Consisting of 49 essays on broad topics by an international group of specialists (many of the essays were translated into English for this work), this two-volume work offers students and academics a reliable one- stop source on the history, language, literature, art, architecture, music, philosophy, science, and religion of this rich and versatile culture. Chapter topics include urbanism in Granada, Andalusi notions of the northern Christians, Hispano-Arabic poetry, the legacy of Islam in Spanish literature, the social history of Muslim Spain, and an overview of the economy of al-Andalus. The volumes are illustrated with color and b&w plates. This volume is a reprint of the 1994 hardcover original edition. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Muslim military architecture in greater Syria; from the coming of Islam to the Ottoman period.

The 21 papers presented here by Kennedy (Middle Eastern history, U. of St. Andrews, UK) are drawn from a conference on Islamic Fortification in Bilad al-Sham, held in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in September of 2003. The papers approach the topic from different angles ranging from close observation of the archaeology of individual sites to broader consideration of long-term changes and developments. The papers concern the fortifications of the early Islamic Umayyad period, the growth of military architecture in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, and the Ottoman era. In addition, there is one paper on the Byzantine fortifications of Qal`at Sim`an. Both black and white and color plate illustrations are included throughout. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

On interpretative activity; a Peircian approach to the interpretation of science, technology, and the arts.

An enormous divide exists between the activity of philosophy as understood within institutional practices, and processes of interpretation applied in everyday experience, says Boulting. He draws on the pragmatism of American scientist and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce to suggest how philosophers can bridge that gap. His topics include making sense of science and technology, the status of works of art, and the problem of reification. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

On the road to being there; studies in pilgrimage and tourism in late modernity.

Social scientists and religious scholars from North America, Europe, and Australia investigate, among related questions, whether there is a difference between pilgrims and tourists, and if so what. Their topics include journeys to the goddess: pilgrimage and tourism in the New Age; labyrinth as heterotopia: the pilgrim's creation of space; Brazilian faith healing; the social construction of ground zero; and identity creation through religious tourism. There is no index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)