David Brown Book Company

Russlands Seele; Ikonen, Gemälde, Zeichnungen aus der Tretjakow-Galerie Moskau.

Published to accompany an exhibition held at the Tretjakow Gallery in Moscow, Russia in 2007, this oversized catalog (9.5x11 inches) presents the impressive collection of the gallery's paintings, icons, drawings, and sculpture in full-page color plates of excellent quality. Twelve essays describe the major movements and styles represented; one is devoted to the collecting of Pawel Tretjakow. Full catalog entries are presented for a selection of 151 works. A bibliography is included; the volume is not indexed. The entire text is in German. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sacred space and sacred function in ancient Thebes; proceedings.

The September 2003 workshop in London was the first in the series to be held outside the US and the first to have its proceedings published, though papers from earlier ones have been published separately. Scholars from Europe, the US, and Australia present 11 studies on such topics as archaeological and textual evidence for the function of the Botanical Garden of Karnak in the initiation ritual, and Christian use of pharaonic space in western Thebes. No index is provided. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sir Ninian Comper; an introduction to his life and work with complete gazetteer.

The works and thought of the Gothic Revival architect (1864-1960) is given complete coverage in this heavily illustrated volume. Symondson provides a survey of Comper's buildings, restorations, and decorative works, with the discussion of each building accompanied by a b&w period photograph. Bucknall provides an exhaustive gazetteer, which documents Comper's prolific activity. Also included is a reprint of Comper's essay, "Of the atmosphere of a church", which is an excellent example of Gothic Revival theory. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Sphinx revealed; a forgotten record of pioneering excavations.

The books were never lost, of course — this is the British Museum, after all — and had been duly cataloged when acquired. But while the library and archives at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan were being moved, people noticed these two volumes and realized that one else had noticed them for a long time. They were the text and atlas of Henry Salt's (1780-1827) Memoir on Pyramids and Sphinx; he was the British Consul General in Egypt from 1816 until he died. The text, reprinted here, describes the discoveries by Genoese mercantile captain Giovanni Caviglia (1770-1845) in 1817, including the survey and excavation of the surrounding necropolis. All the extant drawings are also reproduced. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

St Peter's; Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire; a parish church and its community; v.2: The human remains.

St. Peter's Church was a site of worship and burial from the Middle Ages to 1972. Now in the care of heritage maintainers, the church and the graves are studied as archeological sites. Waldon, taking up the work of the late Juliet Margaret Rogers, places the church within its local contexts and through text and photographs displays the bones, describing all their paleopathological characteristics. As a result we know which denizens of the graves died of trauma, tumors, or other diseases, which had gout and spinal injuries, and which went the their graves for no apparent reason, except perhaps to dance for the diggers. Distributed in North American by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Summoning St Michael; early romanesque towers in Lincolnshire.

Between 1984 and 1992, Stocker and Everson undertook fieldwork for the Lincolnshire volume of the series Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, and picked up enough extraneous material for a volume on the towers of the many 11th-century churches there. The core of the volume is an inventory with details of construction, photographs, plans, and maps. They also describe and define the Lincolnshire Tower group as a whole, and discuss such aspects as date and style, landscape, the social and economic context, and symbols of the psychopomp as a possible motivation for building the towers. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Surveying the Greek chora; Black Sea region in a comparative perspective.

Archaeologists and classicists draw evidence from landscape archaeology to explore the relationship between Greek cities and their territory, and between Greek settlers and the indigene environment in the Black Sea region from the seventh to the fourth centuries AD. Among their topics are community in the hinterlands of a Black Sea port, the chora of Kerkinitis, and ancient roads and land divisions in the chorai of the European Bosporos and Chersonesos. The 15 papers, one in German, were presented at an August-September 2003 conference in Sønderborg, Denmark. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tell 'Acharneh 1998-2004; preliminary reports on excavation campaigns and study season.

Archaeologists report preliminary findings from ongoing excavations at a site in Syria with material from periods ranging from Sargon II of Assyria to medieval and later. The introductory matter and the yearly reports 1998-2002 are in French. Other topics include the Kingdom of Hamath, typological and technical aspects of pottery, and coins. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tell Beydar; the 2000-2002 seasons of excavations, the 2003-2004 seasons of architectural restoration, a preliminary report.

The third volume about the Euro-Syrian archaeological project at the ancient city of Nabada reports on the 2000-02 excavations and the 2003-04 architectural restoration. About a third of the text, including the introduction, are in French. The monochrome photographs are of particularly high quality. There is no index. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tel Tanninim; excavations at Krokodeilon Polis, 1996-1999.

Tel Tanninim, Crocodiles Mound, is the modern Hebrew name for the Arabic site Tell el-Melat, Mortar Mound, on the east coast of the Mediterranean about 4.25 kilometers north of Caesarea. Stieglitz and colleagues describe the geography and hydrography of the site; the four-year excavation project they conducted; and finds dating to the Iron Age, Byzantine, and later periods. Distributed by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Teti Cemetery at Saqqara; v.8: The tomb of Inumin.

The tomb was excavated during the middle 1990s by the Australian Centre and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. Kanawati discusses the tomb's owner and dependents, date, architectural features, burial apartments, and scenes and inscriptions. Colleagues contribute chapters on color conventions in reconstructing the scenes and on the excavation and finds themselves. Following the numbered 78 pages are about as many more with color and monochrome plates, some on folding-out pages. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference; proceedings.

Organizers of the Theoretical Roman Archeology Conference (TRAC) held in March 2006 introduce 13 papers representing a cross-section of the themes discussed. Traversing the Roman Empire from Britain to North Africa, authors consider topics including the types and social roles of metal smiths in Egypt, public and domestic architecture, trends in dietary consumption, the Romanizing of the Saturn cult in North Africa, and various aspects of burials. The volume includes basic excavation and distribution site maps and data, but lacks information on contributors' professional affiliations and an index. Distributed by The David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Theoretical Roman archaeology conference (TRAC 2005); proceedings.

Three of the 11 papers were commissioned to mark the 15th year of the Conference by taking stock of it to date and projecting its course in the future; the 10th anniversary was similarly commemorated. Other topics include modeling Roman demography and urban dependency in central Italy, the Romanization of the countryside in western Gaul, and wild and domestic animals in the Roman sacrificial ritual. There is no index. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Through a glass darkly; magic, dreams & prophecy in ancient Egypt.

Egyptologists gathered in September 2003 at Baskerville Hall in Wales to share information on current investigations into phenomena related to magic, dreams, and prophecy in Ancient Egypt. Their topics include corn-mummies as amulets of life, Egyptian dream exegesis from a comparative perspective, a black cat from the right and a scarab on your head, and the power of knots and knotting in Ancient Egypt. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Tower of London new armouries project.

During the period 1997-2000, Oxford Archaeology carried out a series of archaeological investigations at the Tower of London. This report summarizes what was found there, including traces of Roman deposits, the remains of medieval buildings, and features constructed within the royal garden. The excellently preserved remains of Dugal Campbell's 18th-century Irish Barracks are also described. The volume is thoroughly illustrated with photographs and diagrams (many in color). Distributed in North America by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Travel, geography and culture in ancient Greece, Egypt and the Near East.

In 12 papers from an April 2002 seminar in Nottingham, historians and archaeologists demonstrate how people saw the world before the tourist industry was there to serve their every whim. Their topics include Egyptians abroad in the Late Period, traveling by land in ancient Greece, the function and interpretation of travel in the Greek novels, and landscapes and identity in the mosaics of Antioch. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Trademarks on Greek vases; addenda.

Much has happened in the study of Greek pottery and trade since his Trademarks on Greek Vases (1982), according to Johnston (classical archeology, U. College, London). Acknowledging that keeping track of the "many wanderings of these pots on the market" is not an easy task, in this edition updated to 2004 (for the basic text), he incorporates reviewers' corrections and feedback, e.g., a complete new database-assisted catalog plus supplementary text and an alphabetical index of types to facilitate consultation. He also addresses the issue of vase prices. The volume includes a section of illustrations and indexes of marks, museums, general subjects, and subjects in Greek. Distributed in North America by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tributes to Jonathan J.G. Alexander; the making and meaning of illuminated medieval & Renaissance manuscripts, art & architecture.

In this volume honoring the well-known scholar of illuminated manuscripts, 38 senior scholars have contributed essays of their research, with b&w plates of the highest quality included for their illustration. There are essays on marginalia, the interaction of text and image, cultural context, and workshop methods. Seven essays are included on artists and scribes (one is in Italian), with contributions by Lilian Armstrong (Wellesley College, Massachusetts), Benjamin David (Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon), and Lawrence Nees (U. of Delaware). Indexes are included of manuscripts, printed books, artists, scribes and painters, owners, and patrons. A complete bibliography of Alexander (Institute of Fine Arts, New York U.) is also provided. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Unity and discontinuity; architecture relationships between the Southern and Northern Low countries, 1530-1700.

The north of the Low Countries in the early modern era was classicist and the south was baroque, but that is hardly the end of the matter. In this collection of articles the two regions do not compete but instead coordinate as contributions examine the first reception of the antique, the workings of antique and modern architectural theory, the impact of patronage and the prevailing building materials and trade practices. Topics include the standardization of "antique" architecture in a remarkably short time, court architecture, the systematization of ornament about 1600, the production process of building within the court, religious architecture and trade changes in the building industry. The illustrations are well-chosen and clearly show how what could have been two architectures became, in essence, different facets of the same theory. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Warfare and society; archaeological and social anthropological perspectives.

Over the past few decades, military historians have begun to look at the social aspects of war, but the archaeologists and anthropologists here find that even these historians treat war as something set aside from other practices. Seeking to show how war is instead an outgrowth or extension of fundamental features of a society, they cover conceptions of warfare in Western thought and research, pre-state societies, the state, discourse and identity, and weaponry and material culture. Their time frame stretches from Neolithic Britain and Ireland to Bosnia in the 1990s. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

War art; murals and graffiti — military life, power and subversion.

The murals and graffiti displayed in this volume, mostly created by British soldiers and civilians in the 20th and 21st centuries, do not all adhere to what one might think of as the characteristics of "war art." The paintings, bas-relief, and other forms of art that appear (some sanctioned and others unofficial) were selected because they were located in an active or bygone site of combat or shelter; and while many immortalize battles, aircraft, comrades, and women, others display anger and subversion, poke fun at war, or appear to have little to do with it. Approximately 250 color photographs display images such as graffiti in the Persian Gulf, protest statements in Northern Ireland, large murals on the Berlin wall, and soldiers' renderings of pin-up photos from WWII, among others. Text exploring context and significance supports the images. This book is distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Warren cup.

When The Warren Cup, a fine Roman art work of the first century, was acquired by the British Museum in 1999, great controversy arose partly because of the price, but mostly because of the explicit homo-erotic scenes on it. Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquaries at the Museum, Williams describes the cup and its history, and places it in historical and artistic context. There is no index. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)