A selection of books, as recommended by Robert, which you might also like to read.
Categories > Archaeology |
Tomb of the Eagles
: Death and Life in a Stone Age Tribe
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By John W. Hedges with a foreward by Colin Renfrew
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Pub: New Amsterdam Books
ISBN: 0941533050
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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In Tomb of the Eagles John W. Hedges describeds vividly the activities of a tribal sub-group which had as its totem the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle. For these people the building and use of the tomb was symbol and expression of their identity. It was here that the deat joined their ancestors - but only after the flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was here, too, that offerings of food and goods were made according to the prescriptions and taboos of both group and society. Here that broken pots were piled; fish, eagles and joints of meat mouldered; and the hands of the living sorted the heaped bones of the dead.
A US version now the British edition has gone out of print.
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The Language of the Goddess
: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization
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By Marija Gimbutas
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Pub: Thames and Hudson Ltd
ISBN: 0500282498
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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The Goddess is the most potent and persistent feature in the archaeological records of the ancient world. She was a symbol of the unity of life in nature, and the personification of all that was sacred and mysterious on Earth. Here, in this pioneering and provocative volume, Marija Gimbutas resurrects the world of Goddess-worshipping, earth-centred cultures, bringing ancient matriarchal society vividly to life. She interweaves comparative mythology, early historical sources, linguistics, ethnography and folklore to demonstrate conclusively that Goddess-worship is at the root of Western civilization. Illustrated with nearly 2000 symbolic artifacts - sculptures, figurines, temple models, frescos, vases, sacrificial containers - Gimbutas' magnum opus is at once a 'pictorial script' of the prehistoric Goddess religion and an authoritative work that takes these ancient cultures from the realm of speculation into that of documented fact.
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The Living Goddesses
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By Marija Gimbutas
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Pub: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520229150
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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This text crowns a lifetime of influential work by one of the 20th-century's most remarkable scholars. Marija Gimbutas wrote and taught with rare clarity in her original - and originally shocking - interpretation of prehistoric European civilization. Gimbutas flew in the face of contemporary archaeology when she reconstructed goddess-centered cultures that predated historic patriarchal cultures by many thousands of years. This volume, which was close to completion at the time of her death, contains the distillation of her studies, combined with new discoveries, insights, and analysis. Editor Miriam Robbins Dexter has added introductory and concluding remarks, summaries, and annotations. The first part of the book is an accessible, illustrated summation of all Gimbutas's earlier work on "Old European" religion, together with her ideas on the roles of males and females in ancient matrilineal cultures. The second part of the book brings her knowledge to bear on what we know of the goddesses today - those who, in many places and in many forms, live on.
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A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales
: Gwynedd
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By Frances Lynch
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Pub: Cadw
ISBN: 1857601971
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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A guidebook which takes the reader on a dazzling tour of the history of Gwynedd. The 150 sites covered range from the monumental tombs of the first farmers to the enigmatic circles and cairns of the Bronze Age, from the forts of the Roman army to the strongholds of the English King Edward I, and from early Christian graves to Cistercian monasteries. An indefatigable guide, Frances Lynch shares with us an intimate and expert knowledge of the moors and mountains, the ruins and the tombs and castles of the great, and the qually evocative remains of more mundane homes and workplaces.
Part of a unique seris of four regional guides to Wales which promises to provide the reader with a tangible link with the past.
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After The Ice
: A Global Human History, 20,000 - 5000 BC
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By Steven Mithen
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Pub: Phoenix
ISBN: 0753813920
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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Drawing on the latest cutting-edge research in archaeology, human genetics and the environmental sciences, Steven Mithen takes the reader on a sweeping global tour, bringing this world vividly back to life. Part history, part science and part time travel, After the Ice is breathtaking in its scope - an evocative, original, gripping yet intimate picture of minds, diverse cultures, lives and landscapes through 15,000 years that laid the foundations of the modern world.
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The Descent of Woman
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By Elaine Morgan
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Pub: Souvenir Press Ltd
ISBN: 0285627007
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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The current version is a revised edition which presents a controversial theory in women's studies. Morgan argues the case for the equal role of women in evolution, promoting the Aquatic Ape Theory of evolution which she elaborated on in further works.
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The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
: Most Credible Theory of Human Evolution
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By Elaine Morgan
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Pub: Souvenir Press Ltd
ISBN: 0285635182
Available to buy from
- Amazon.co.uk
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This thought-provoking text presents the Aquatic Ape Theory, with new information, new questions and a wealth of documentary evidence. It is the most persuasive, closely argued case yet offered to explain the mystery of human origins.
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Categories > Archaeology |