Best products from r/ArtefactPorn

I have one more that is most definitely not academic, but was my introduction to paleopathology as an amateur interest: Rosalie David's Conversations With Mummies. Another one I picked up one sale close to fifteen years ago, which had a profound effect on me. She talks about some of the most important cases that shaped the field, and several chapters are more comprehensive studies of a single person. It covers some of the processes involved in paleopathology, and how the field has developed, with technology allowing archaeologists to study people and specimens while still preserving their integrity. It's starting to get a little bit old, but it's still a fascinating read with lots of pictures. Sorry these are Amazon UK links; I'm not sure where you are, and it's probably a good idea to cross-reference with Amazon US. British books look deceptively affordable, but the last time I made a major order for thesis-related reading materials, I spent over $100 without even thinking about it!

Oh, and if parasitology is your thing too, David's book has a fair bit about it. A friend of mine who's a marine parasitologist (I'm not sure if that's his official title, but he studies marine parasites) recommended Parasite Rex to me, and I devoured it in a few days (poor choice of words, I know). It's more pop than academic but I enjoy reading anything that will bolster my understanding of something else.

And thank you, for your recommendation. Hubby started med school this year and I'm on the hunt for possible Christmas presents. This looks like something both of us would enjoy.

There is an interesting book called The Origins of the World's Mythologies by a Harvard professor named E.J. Michael Witzel which provides a great deal of information on this topic. I haven't actually read it yet, I've just read the description and a sample chapter but it's very interesting. I'll attach a link and the description from Amazon below, but what seems to be the major underlying theme of the book is that just like all people came from Africa long ago so too did the World's mythologies.

>This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but single-handedly invented the modern study of myth and religion. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics and human population genetics, Michael Witzel reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back some 100,000 years. Identifying features shared by this "Out of Africa" mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, Witzel suggests that these common myths-recounted by the communities of the "African Eve"-are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, Witzel shows, survive today in all major religions. Witzel's book is an intellectual hand grenade that will doubtless generate considerable excitement-and consternation-in the scholarly community. Indeed, everyone interested in mythology will want to grapple with Witzel's extraordinary hypothesis about the spirituality of our common ancestors, and to understand what it tells us about our modern cultures and the way they are linked at the deepest level.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0199812853/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=247VMV2CMXW7Z&coliid=I1HWP702NS4MC7

It probably wasn't silver purely for the sake of elegance. Silver is easier to work with than a lot of other metals - cuts easy, forms easy, solders easy, etc., and it's sturdy (assuming it's not pure silver), corrosion-resistant, and safe to use as an eating utensil. That makes it a likely candidate for a small, fairly intricate, hand-made thing like this.

edit to add

People still buy travel utensils. Titanium sporks are really popular right now - here's a more modern, mass-produced and non-artisan version of the same thing: https://www.amazon.com/TOAKS-Titanium-Folding-Spork/dp/B00GLD8SYA/ . Back then, they'd have even more importance, because a person might spend days between towns on even a routine journey. This particular one is cool because it'd easily fit in a pocket, stay clean in its case, be light-weight (every ounce counts when you're carrying your own gear), etc.

Sure! I like this one. It has a good balance of historical continuity, supported by archaeological evidence. I also recall that it does a good job of impressing upon the reader just how interesting and unique Etruscan art and technology was for the region and time period. We still don't know exactly how the Etruscans created some the pottery and jewelry they were famous for.

If you're interested in acquiring a book on it, let me recommend the one from Chronicle Books, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day. I've owned a few books on it and while others have more scholarly interest, they can also be dry reading. The Chronicle Books edition shows images of the scroll, and then gives you the translation underneath, which I found incredibly visually interesting as a non-Egyptologist.

If you want more scientific detail and analysis, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will recommend a more recent book. I got my start three decades ago with The Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum, by E. A. Wallis Budge. Lots of fascinating historical detail, even if his conclusions have probably all been refined or refuted since then.

> What do most people today have in mind when they say that they want their partner to be "faithful"?

Bit of a silly question. One usually doesn't demand a partner be faithful with no other factors. It's a mutual exchange of trust between partners agreeing to be faithful to each other. But the doll here represents a desire to control another person without their consent.

I don't think it's "horrible", it's just typical desperation from lonely people. The modern equivalent is the self-help section in the book store, "How to make him fall in love with you." #1 #2 #3 #4 [on and on]

Of course, we still have "magick"-based superstition...

So much for my reading skills -- sorry.

I've made some of that type of chain, it's tedious, but very rewarding. If you are serious about it, this is the classic book. I have the spiral bound one (stays flat), it's very good.

Im pretty sure that the start of the Middle Ages is know put at the 8th century, it certainly is for the Middle East, as someone interested in the period you should read this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inheritance-Rome-History-Europe/dp/0140290141

I have an MA in Archaeology, research landscapes of the Sassanid Empire (GIS + CORONA) and work here in Australia as consultant archaeologist, I have worked on research excavations in the Middle East and Caucasus.

Hey not to call you out (that username tho) but have you been to grad school or checked any programs out?

I personally studied under people who specialize in: Greek elegiac poetry, Greek legal history, Roman republican family structure, etc. And all three had a Sumer/Mesopotamia course. I don't mean they spent a year deciphering tablets like this, but simply learning the basics of cuneiform. The equivalent of this book which I studied in undergrad.

You realize that cuneiform is literally the bedrock on which the other written languages are based right? A basic understanding of it is certainly not a waste.

edited to fix link

Edit: Well since you have made it clear that you intend to stay hostile "hold your ground" and all that, good day.

Here are some links anyway just in case you actually are interested but intend to save face or something.

Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt

Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Sexuality and Gender in the Ancient World

Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World

The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity

The Demography of Roman Egypt

Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society under the Ptolemies

Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Economy, Society, Culture

Sorry a lot of these focus on Hellenistic and Roman Egypt but as it I my favourite subject it is what I have the most readily available sources for.

These scrolls are a really big deal. IIRC, only the outer layer was carbonized, which meant that some of the writing is preserved in the interior layers. Some fragments from finds like this were what brought the ancient work "De Rerum Natura" (On the Nature of Things) to the attention of early scholars.

According to Greenblatt in The Swerve, the rediscovery of this work is what kicked off much of the secular/scientific turn in European history.

I read the Swerve a while back and I'm currently reading a translation of De Rerum Natura when I'm on the shitter, and it's utterly fascinating. It's an epic poem that basically lays out the vision of a secular/scientific view of the universe. It's one of those works (like the dome of the Pantheon, etc.) which makes clear how much was lost in the fall of the Roman Empire.

I don't know who Toby de Silva is, but I do know that Paul Koudounaris published an amazing book on this: Heavenly Bodies.

I highly recommend the entertaining illustrated "anthropological" book Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay, the author and illustrator of the The Way Things Work series, as well as other similar books. It features a team of researchers in the far future excavating a hotel room from 1985 and getting everything completely wrong.

You might enjoy Motel of the Mysteries.

>It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

For those interested, there was a book published a little while ago with full-colour photos of these skeletons. http://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-Bodies-Treasures-Spectacular-Catacombs/dp/0500251959

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