BRILL

Papyrus British Museum 10808 and its cultural and religious setting.

The papyrus contains a unique Proto-Coptic magical text composed in the liturgical language of ancient Egypt but written down on Greek script with a few Demotic signs thrown in. Sederholm (history, Weber State U.) provides a fresh transliteration and German and English translations based on a new infrared photograph and image enhancing software in order to isolate and thus read many of the words and phrases. He finds a coherent text that helps illuminate the Egyptian priesthood's attitudes toward the Greco-Roman world just before the great shutdown of the ancient temple learning. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Past tense; studies in the archaeology of conflict.

Archaeologists from Britain, the US, and continental Europe report on specific sites and general features to explore how the investigation of a historical battlefield differs from other archaeological pursuits. Their topics include fire and steel over Saipan on 15 June 1944, the political aesthetics of pain in Antonine art, the survey and excavation of an Anglo-Zulu war fort at Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, and Flanders as an example of applying Great War aerial photography for battlefield archaeology. The necessary mention of 9/11 unintentionally reminds readers that there will never be an investigation of that site. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Power and religion in Baroque Rome; Barberini cultural policies.

Rietbergen (post-medieval cultural history, Radboud U., Nijmegen, the Netherlands) assembles eight essays on Rome in the 17th century that look at high culture such as architecture, music, poetry, and scholarship but also at low culture such as ceremonial and ritual behavior and even magic. His topics include the Barberini build a chapel, the days and works of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the bare feet of Saint Augustine, and Urban VIII between white magic and black magic. Only names are indexed. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The protection of the underwater cultural heritage: national perspectives in light of the UNESCO convention 2001, 2d ed.

The first edition was published just before the 2001 convention, and the second takes account of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage adopted there, as well as subsequent changes in national laws, policy, and practice. Eight of the 16 country reports are entires new, and many of the others have been substantially rewritten. South America, Africa, and much of Asia continue to be under-represented. The Convention applies to objects and areas underwater for at least 100 years, so will not be of immediate help as rising sea levels inundate major coastal cities. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sinan's autobiographies; five sixteenth-century texts.

Shortly before the Ottoman chief architect Sinan died in 1588 AD, he narrated his autobiography to the poet-painter Mustafa Sa'i Çelebi (d. 1595-96). Five versions are preserved, three incomplete drafts with crossed-out lines and insertions that testify to an extensive editing process between Sinan and Mustafa, and two subsequently edited versions that are highly polished and were apparently widely circulated. All five are collected here for the first time, with critical editions in Arabic transliterated into Latin script, annotated English translations, and facsimiles of selected manuscript copies. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Textile messages; inscribed fabrics from Roman to Abbasid Egypt.

The third meeting of the international study group Textiles from the Nile Valley was held in Berlin in January 2003 and focused on textiles of the first millennium AD in which text was weaved or on which text was written. By early Islamic times, inscribed clothing was as ubiquitous as advertising on tee-shirts is today. The 15 papers cover the historical background, sources, and contents; inscribed textiles from various collections,; and radiocarbon analyses and technical aspects. Three of the papers, along with the introduction, are in English, the others in French or German. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Uygur patronage in Dunhuang; regional art centres on the northern Silk Road in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Independent scholar Russell-Smith explores the social and political realities ever-present in the background of these divine works and the architectures surrounding them, including the political history of the patronage system, the lively intermarriages behind it, the material and religious culture the works represented, the tensions between regional and central societies, the iconographic functions of divine art within and between cultures, the political and social forces that influenced workshop practice, and clues to the identity of the donors and the purpose of the art. Russell-Smith includes very helpful sketches and 115 monochrome and color plates. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)