Category:  Archaeology

From Amazon.com:The nineteen contributions to this volume approach the subject of Egyptian chronology of the Third Millennium BC from different perspectives: some of them concern the use of modern methods (14C) and natural sciences in Egyptology; others analyze the development of various aspects of the Egyptian culture during the whole period of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period, or try to specify the date of certain monuments and personalities. A study and interpretation of archaeological as well as textual sources and iconographical material is combined in the papers in order to attain a deeper knowledge and better understanding of the Egyptian chronology, archaeology and history of the Third Millennium BC. Contributions by: Hartwig Altenmuller, Tarek El Awady, Miroslav Barta, Ale Bezdek, Vivienne Gae Callender, Andrzej Cwiek, Michael Dee, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Jaromir Krejci, Juan Carlos Moreno Garcia, John S. Nolan, Hratch Papazian, Patrizia Piacentini, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Joanne M. Rowland, Teodozja Rzeuska, Anthony Spalinger, Rainer Stadelmann, Miroslav Verner, Hana Vymazalova, and Anna Wodzinska.

From AEB: This vivid account covers archaeological studies in the river valleys of the Tigris, the Eurphrates and the Nile, as well as adjacent lands from Asia Minor to the Iranian plateau and from Urartu to Nubia and Syria-Palestine.

From AEB: The author exposes the difficulties of the identification and naming of stones, and key maps to quarry locations and describes the materials. Each type of rock used for stone vessels is described, and its identification, sources and dating discussed.

Reviewed by Francesca: This book is the product of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition's forays in the upper Wadi Girafi Basin. The information which has been yielded on the southern Levantian Timnian Tradition (a pastoral tradition existing between 7000-3000 BP) is invaluable. Settlement patterns and the adaptive responses of the peoples to their changing environment is examined in graphic detail. The book is divided into two sections: the survey results and the excavations. The numerous line-drawings, maps and black and white photos enhance this fantastic scholar book. This book is highly recommended for all interested students and scholars.

From Amazon.com: Africa and Africans in Antiquity assesses recent historical research and archaeology under way in Egypt, North Africa, the Sudan, and the Horn of Africa. Whereas many European and American scholars of earlier generations believed that Egyptian contacts with Africa to the south were not culturally significant, research contained in this important collection rejects such notions. At the same time, the volume takes issue with Afrocentric scholars who argue that most Egyptians were "black" and that blacks are the rightful heirs to Egypt's past grandeur. These ten thought-provoking essays demonstrate that this large region was an ethnic and cultural mosaic in antiquity, a place where Phoenicians, Berbers, Greeks, as well as Egyptians and Nubians interacted.

From the book cover: A mathematical combination of the Fibonacci series with a process of number reduction by distillation led to the development of several numerical tables that provide evidence of a direct numerical connection to the Great Pyramid and the cosmological order of the universe.

Reviewed by Francesca: What a title! How promising! The author may be ahead of modern thinking and mathematical inclinations and beliefs, but he sure has a clear view of what his own thinking process is. He says that many of the summation numbers and ratios he comes up with are present in the Great pyramid and in nature: i.e. in petal counts, in plant stems, in leaf arrangements and in pine cones. Whether the author discovered something new or only explained clearly something we simply never saw is irrelevant: His work remains exceptional and enlightening. This book may be small in size, but its contents follow an old law of nature explained to me by my own great-grandmother: 'Precious things often come in small containers and small doses.' Thank you, Joseph Turbeville, for your 'receptivity of any little nudge that life may give you.' And now, one question: Did the Egyptians know about quantum physics, and what they were doing while building the pyramids, or was it simply instinctive?