Prähistorisch & primitiv

Michael Higgins broadens our understanding of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by bringing science, engineering, and technology together with ancient documentation and archaeological findings.The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Pyramids of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria) have been a source of fascination for more than two thousand years. Even though six of the Wonders are now gone, historians and archaeologists have attempted to explain how and why these ancient monuments were created. However, never before have these attempts been synthesized with the contributions of science, engineering, and technology.In The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Michael Higgins combines scientific research together with ancient documentation and archaeological findings to present a rich, multi-layered portrait of each monument. To build a Wonder took advanced social organization and wealth generated by agriculture and trade, both of which depended on regional geography and climate. It also took natural resources, as well as an understanding of the environment where the Wonder would stand. Even the natural processes often responsible for a Wonder's destruction sometimes contributed to the preservation of its ruins. These and other topics are accessibly explored in this book. After using science, engineering, and technology to answer key questions about the Wonders, Higgins speculates on how we could recreate these ancient monuments and make new wonders that could withstand environmental changes and natural disasters for the next two thousand years.

Te Henua Enana: Images and Settlement Patterns in The Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia represents the first attempt in Polynesian archaeology to systematically examine rock art in the Marquesas Islands in relation to settlement patterns and excavation data. Sidsel N. Millerstrom's groundbreaking archaeological research is based on more than 15 years of field work in the islands. Surveying the dramatic landscapes of the deep valleys and thick forests of the Marquesas, Millerstrom and her team found a significant quantity of rock art. They learned that every image was not randomly placed but rather purposefully positioned according to prehistoric Marquesan cultural norms. The images were found on public and private prehistoric architecture, on outcrops, rock shelters, walls of underground pits, narrow ridges and springs. Based on our present understanding of science, Millerstrom also explains what the prehistoric petroglyphs, pictographs and anthropomorphic sculptures probably signified to the past inhabitants. This monograph, first published in 2017, is volume 67 of the series Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility.

Places of Memory takes a new look at spatialised practices of remembrance and its role in reshaping societies from prehistory to today, gathering researchers representing diverse but complementary fields of expertise. This diachronic outlook provides important insights into the great variety of human and social reactions examining memory, encompassing aspects of remembering, the loss of memory, reclaiming memories, and remembering things that may not have happened. The contributions to this volume expand upon Pierre Nora's concept of lieux des memoire (places of memory) and the notion that memory is not just stored in these places but activated through human engagement. The volume presents a reflection on the creation of memories through the organisation and use of landscapes and spaces that explicitly considers the multiplicity of meanings of the past. Thus, social identities were created, reaffirmed, strengthened, and transformed through the founding, change, and reorganization of places and spaces of memory in the cultural landscape.

Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology invites readers to reconsider the contents and agendas of the art historical and world-culture canons by looking at one of their most historically enduring components: the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Ann Shafer, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and other top researchers in the field examine and critique the formation and historical transformation of the ancient Near Eastern canon of art, architecture, and material culture. Contributors flesh out the current boundaries of regional and typological sub-canons, analyze the technologies of canon production (such as museum practices and classroom pedagogies), and voice first-hand heritage perspectives. Each chapter, thereby, critically engages with the historiography behind our approach to the Near East and proposes alternative constructs. Collectively, the essays confront and critique the ancient Near Eastern canon's present configuration and re-imagine its future role in the canon of world art as a whole.This expansive collection of essays covers the Near East's many regions, eras, and types of visual and archaeological materials, offering specific and actionable proposals for its study. Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology stands as a vital benchmark and offers a collective path forward for the study and appreciation of Near Eastern cultural heritage. This book acts as a model for similar inquiries across global art historical and archaeological fields and disciplines.

The decorative art of the Indians of the North Pacific coast is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1897.Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

La finalidad de este estudio es el analisis de la figura soliforme en el arte rupestre esquematico. Presentamos una investigacion global atendiendo a todos los factores susceptibles de estudio (tecnologicos, tipologicos, estilisticos, semioticos, astronomicos, antropologicos y paisajisticos) de esta figura y de su relacion con el conjunto del arte rupestre esquematico y con las sociedades autoras del mismo. El ambito geografico de nuestro estudio sera el entorno de la Laguna de la Janda y el Campo de Gibraltar (Cadiz). Uno de los argumentos que esgrimimos para la realizacion de esta investigacion es la escasa produccion de estudios realizados en el territorio gaditano en relacion a esta figura- y al arte rupestre en general- que ha sido motivo central en casi todas las religiones o mitologias primitivas desde el nacimiento de las sociedades agropecuarias. La recurrencia de los motivos abstractos dentro del arte rupestre de la zona que nos ocupa, y su perduracion en el tiempo, podria ser indicio de patrones culturales comunes entre las diferentes poblaciones que habitaron nuestra provincia. Pero estos mismos signos tambien se repiten en diferentes partes del mundo. Podriamos estar hablando de aspectos universales de nuestra especie? Somos conscientes que la interpretacion de este simbolo ha estado y esta sujeta a cuestiones subjetivas o intangibles, por consiguiente, no exenta de posibles proyecciones de nuestra propia cultura. Creemos que estamos en condiciones de aproximarnos de una manera cientifica a los aspectos rituales y simbolicos de aquellos que elaboraron estas pinturas, proponiendo una alternativa desde los marcos teoricos de disciplinas como la Etnografia, la Antropologia, la Arqueologia del Paisaje, la Arqueoastronomia y la Semiotica.

This early work by Franz Boas was originally published in 1897 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast' is an analysis of the various carving techniques and symbolism present in Native American art. Franz Boas was born on July 9th 1958, in Minden, Westphalia. Even though Boas had a passion the natural sciences, he enrolled at the University at Kiel as an undergraduate in Physics. Boas completed his degree with a dissertation on the optical properties of water, before continuing his studies and receiving his doctorate in 1881. Boas became a professor of Anthropology at Columbia University in 1899 and founded the first Ph.D program in anthropology in America. He was also a leading figure in the creation of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Franz Boas had a long career and a great impact on many areas of study. He died on 21st December 1942.