This book presents the first full length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or ...animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Starting with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages and to the re-evaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator.
Roughly half the world’s population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did ...they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization.
This book provides an overview of Bronze Age societies of Western Eurasia through an investigation of the archaeological record. The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia outlines the long-term processes and ...patterns of interaction that link these groups together in a shared historical trajectory of development. Interactions took the form of the exchange of raw materials and finished goods, the spread and sharing of technologies, and the movements of peoples from one region to another. Kohl reconstructs economic activities from subsistence practices to the production and exchange of metals and other materials. Kohl also argues forcefully that the main task of the archaeologist should be to write culture-history on a spatially and temporally grand scale in an effort to detect large, macrohistorical processes of interaction and shared development.
Interaction and mobility have attracted much interest in research within scholarly fields as different as archaeology, history, and more broadly the humanities. Critically assessing some of the most ...widespread views on interaction and its social impact, this book proposes an innovative perspective which combines radical social theory and currently burgeoning network methodologies. Through an in-depth analysis of a wealth of data often difficult to access, and illustrated by many diagrams and maps, the book highlights connections and their social implications at different scales ranging from the individual settlement to the Mediterranean. The resulting diachronic narrative explores social and economic trajectories over some seven centuries and sheds new light on the broad historical trends affecting the life of people living around the Middle Sea.
Along with the well-known metal artefacts produced in series specific to the Bronze Age, unique, prestige products were also manufactured in the Carpathian area. Among them the Larga type axes stand ...out both by their very small number and by their beauty. Summing up specific elements, found individually and in the case of other axes (semi-calotte flat, curved blade, decoration on the sleeve and so on), the use of the term hybrid axes is justified. Their similarity with Drajna-type axes is obvious, supporting their symbolic value. The last known axe, discovered in Mihalţ, in a gravel pit, is also the only Transylvanian piece, the rest of the discoveries being known from Maramureş and Ukraine. Their dating is relative, with no specific context, but they can be dated in the Late Bronze and associated / contemporary with Wietenberg, Gligoreşti or Komarow manifestations.
Inaugurated in January 1954, the ‘Minoan Linear B Seminar’ explored the information emerging from Ventris' decipherment of Linear B in 1952. The new academic discipline of ‘Mycenaean Studies’ rapidly ...moved on from questions influenced by the field's ‘pre‐history’ dating back a further 60 years to Evans' first publication on Aegean scripts. Intense philological and epigraphical research in the 1950s and 1960s laid the foundations for comparative study of the Mycenaean palatial societies, while a greater appreciation of archaeological data and contexts moved interpretation on in the 1980s and 1990s. Building on this tradition, Mycenaean studies currently needs more documents to sustain a ‘critical mass’ of researchers and, ideally, a new Ventris to unlock the Aegean scripts that remain undeciphered.
José C. Martìn de la Cruz es uno de los investigadores más relevantes durante los últimos años del siglo XX y primeros del siglo XXI tanto en la investigación en Prehistoria como de la difusión del ...patrimonio a nivel internacional. Este volumen aspira a servir de homenaje a una trayectoria profesional, al reunir alrededor de medio centenar de investigadores para tratar diferentes ejes temáticos y cronológicos relacionados con la investigación prehistórica y su difusión. Por lo tanto, se trata de un volumen multidisciplinar cuyos especialistas interpretan la prehistoria desde sus orìgenes más remotos hasta el paso previo a las colonizaciones históricas, asì como exploran las diferentes vìas en las que pervive el patrimonio prehistórico. El volumen se estructura en cuatro partes, organizadas de manera cronológica desde lo más reciente hasta lo más antiguo. La primera parte trata sobre las economìas locales desde la Edad del Hierro hasta los contactos interculturales que se producen durante la Edad del Bronce en el ámbito mediterráneo. En un segundo bloque retrocedemos en el tiempo para explorar las últimas investigaciones realizadas sobre historiografìa, secuenciación cronológica, ideologìa y religiosidad de las sociedades calcolìticas y sobre la economìa de las primeras sociedades productoras neolìticas. La tercera parte indaga sobre los primeros pobladores de la penìnsula ibérica, las representaciones artìsticas y su entorno natural. Por último, cierra el volumen un apartado multidisciplinar que aborda la prehistoria desde diversas áreas cientìficas. Al final, esta obra se convierte en punto de encuentro donde se reúnen desde investigadores consolidados hasta jóvenes investigadores, que ofrecen sus investigaciones cientìficas al mismo tiempo que rinden homenaje al profesor Martìn de la Cruz.
Titanium dioxide of bronze phase (TiO2(B)) has attracted considerable attention as a promising alternative lithium/sodium‐ion battery anode due to its excellent operation safety, good reversible ...capacity, and environmental friendliness. However, several intrinsic critical drawbacks, including moderate electrochemical kinetics and unsatisfactory long cyclic stability, significantly limit its practical applications. It is crucial to develop reliable strategies to resolve these issues to advance the TiO2(B) based materials into practical applications in lithium/sodium‐ion batteries. In this review, both the theoretical and experimental investigations on the TiO2(B) based materials over the last few decades are chronically elaborated. Insights on the general and detailed evolution trends of the research on TiO2(B) anodes are provided. The review also points to future directions for the TiO2(B) anode research to advance the practical application of TiO2(B) anodes.
A comprehensive chronicle review of the TiO2(B) lithium/sodium‐ion battery anodes over the last few decades is performed. With the unique perspective, the evolution trends of the related studies are revealed, which are instructive and inspiring for the development of high‐performance rechargeable batteries.
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