The Anthropomorphic Stelae of the Ukraine

The Anthropomorphic Stelae of the Ukraine

Author: D. I︠A︡ Telehin

Publisher: Institute for the Study of Man, Incorporated

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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THE COPPER AGE STELAE OF THE UKRAINE:IntroductionSimple StelaeStatue-MenhirsAltar SanctuariesThe Creators of the Stelae.IMAGERY AND MYTH:ContextAnatomy and Dress of the Statue-MenhirsAnatomy and MythologyThe Stela as Royal FigureIndo-European Deities?Diffusion?.STELA-OBELISKS OF THE CIMMERIANS:IntroductionSingle-Headed StelaeDeer Stones of the North CaucasusThe Function of the Cimmerian Stelae.STELAE OF THE SCYTHIANS AND SARMATIANS:IntroductionStatue-StelaeSchematic Stelae and Statutory ReliefsThe Georgiyevka Stela. SLAVIC STELAE:The Zbruch IdolThe Sanctuary on Bogt Mountain.STONE 'BABAS? OF THE POLOVTSIANS.ConclusionsAppendix?A Catalogue of Copper Age Stelae.


The Horse, the Wheel, and Language

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language

Author: David W. Anthony

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2010-07-26

Total Pages: 566

ISBN-13: 1400831105

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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. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.


Monumental Polovtsian Statues in Eastern Europe

Monumental Polovtsian Statues in Eastern Europe

Author: Aneta Golebiowska-Tobiasz

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 3110399350

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Stone statues, indigenous to the early Turks, appeared in the vast territory of the Asian steppes, from Southern Siberia to Central Asia and across the foothills of the Ural Mountains. The custom originated among Cumans in Eastern Europe. The skill of erecting anthropomorphic stelae required proficiency in processing different kinds of stone and wood, and was characterized by artistic value of representations, as well as by the timeless aesthetics of the canon. The author presents the results of her formative studies into the collection of the Cuman sculptures of the Veliko-Anadol Forest Museum, Ukraine. The book delves into the history of research on Cuman stone stelae, resulting in great reading for all archeologists and historians alike.


Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods

Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods

Author: T.D. Kokoszka

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2023-08-25

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 1803412860

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T.D. Kokoszka grew up in Texas with a Jewish mother and a Polish-American father. While he was aware of roots going back to Eastern Europe from both families, he found it hard to learn very much about them. He knew that Polish people would whack one another with palm leaves around Easter, and he knew that his great-grandmother purportedly believed in forest spirits known as borowy. However, it wasn't until he was in his teens that he became vaguely aware of an ancient people known as the Slavs who gave rise to the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Slovene, and Czech languages. It quickly became clear to him that this was a family of cultures currently under-represented in popular culture, and even in western scholarship. Not simply a regurgitation of scholarship from the Soviet period - and presenting new analyses by using previously neglected resources - Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods offers one of the most painstaking scholarly reconstructions of Slavic paganism. These new resources include not only an overview of folklore from many different Slavic countries but also comparisons with Ossetian culture and Mordvin culture, as well as a series of Slavic folktales that Kokoszka analyzes in depth, often making the case that the narratives involved are mythological and shockingly ancient. Readers will recognize many European folktale types and possibly learn to look at these folktales differently after reading this book.


Communities in Transition

Communities in Transition

Author: Søren Dietz

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2017-11-30

Total Pages: 1332

ISBN-13: 1785707213

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Communities in Transition brings together scholars from different countries and backgrounds united by a common interest in the transition between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the lands around the Aegean. Neolithic community was transformed, in some places incrementally and in others rapidly, during the 5th and 4th millennia BC into one that we would commonly associate with the Bronze Age. Many different names have been assigned to this period: Final Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Eneolithic, Late Neolithic [I]-II, Copper Age which, to some extent, reflects the diversity of archaeological evidence from varied geographical regions. During this long heterogeneous period developments occurred that led to significant changes in material culture, the use of space, the adoption of metallurgical practices, establishment of far-reaching interaction and exchange networks, and increased social complexity. The 5th to 4th millennium BC transition is one of inclusions, entanglements, connectivity, and exchange of ideas, raw materials, finished products and, quite possibly, worldviews and belief systems. Most of the papers presented here are multifaceted and complex in that they do not deal with only one topic or narrowly focus on a single line of reasoning or dataset. Arranged geographically they explore a series of key themes: Chronology, cultural affinities, and synchronization in material culture; changing social structure and economy; inter- and intra-site space use and settlement patterns, caves and include both site reports and regional studies. This volume presents a tour de force examination of many multifaceted aspects of the social, cultural, technological, economic and ideological transformations that mark the transition from Neolithic to Early Bronze Age societies in the lands around the Aegean during the 5th and 4th millennium BC.


Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture

Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture

Author: J. P. Mallory

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 890

ISBN-13: 9781884964985

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The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is a major new reference work that provides full, inclusive coverage of the major Indo-European language stocks, their origins, and the range of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. The Encyclopedia also includes numerous entries on archaeological cultures having some relationship to the origin and dispersal of Indo-European groups -- as well as entries on some of the major issues in Indo-European cultural studies.There are two kinds of entries in the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture: a) those that are devoted to archaeology, culture, or the various Indo -European languages; and b) those that are devoted to the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European words.Entries may be accessed either via the General Index or the List of Topics: Entries by Category where all individual reconstructed head-forms can also be found. Reference may also be made to the Language Indices.In order to make the book as accessible as possible to the non-specialist, the Editors have provided a list of Abbreviations and Definitions, which includes a number of definitions of specialist terms (primarily linguistic) with which readers may not be acquainted. As the writing systems of many Indo-European groups vary considerably in terms of phonological representation, there is also included a list of Phonetic Definitions.With more than 700 entries, written by specialists from around the world, the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture has become an essential reference text in this field.


Megaliths of the World

Megaliths of the World

Author: Luc Laporte

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2022-08-22

Total Pages: 1436

ISBN-13: 1803273216

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Bringing together the latest research on megalithic monuments throughout the world, 150 researchers offer 72 articles, providing a region-by region account in their specialist areas, and a summary of the current state of knowledge. Highlighting salient themes, the book is vital to anyone interested in the phenomenon of megalithic monumentality.


People of Ancient Daunia

People of Ancient Daunia

Author: Camilla Norman

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Published: 2024-06-01

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 1950446476

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The statue-stelae of Early Iron Age Daunia (north Apulia, Italy), a group of stone slabs, are each incised to represent the garb and accoutrements of a person. They detail the clothing and adornment worn by men and women in full regalia, plus, through additional figurative images drawn on the robes, show ritual practices, everyday activities, and scenes of local legend. As such, they offer an unparalleled window into the lives of a proto-historic people, providing a rich source of self-representation for what is otherwise a fairly poorly understood society. Grounded in the scholarship of post-colonial and gender archaeology, this book pays full respect to the agency of indigenous communities and the important role of women. It considers the stelae not through a Hellenic lens, but in the Italo-Adriatic context to which they belong. This is the first time an in-depth, holistic study of the Daunian stelae has been undertaken, and the first presentation of the material in English.


Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings (Revised and Updated Edition)

Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings (Revised and Updated Edition)

Author: Jean Manco

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Published: 2016-02-16

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 0500772908

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“An ambitious and lucid full narrative account of the peopling of Europe . . . this will undoubtedly provide a base line for future debates on the origins of the Europeans.” —J. P. Mallory, author of In Search of the Indo-Europeans and The Origins of the Irish Who are the Europeans? Where did they come from? New research in the fields of archaeology and linguistics, a revolution in the study of genetics, and cutting-edge analysis of ancient DNA are dramatically changing our picture of prehistory, leading us to question what we thought we knew about these ancient peoples. This paradigm-shifting book paints a spirited portrait of a restless people that challenges our established ways of looking at Europe’s past. The story is more complex than at first believed, with new evidence suggesting that the European gene pool was stirred vigorously multiple times. Genetic clues are also enhancing our understanding of European mobility in epochs with written records, including the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the spread of the Slavs, and the adventures of the Vikings. Now brought completely up to date with all the latest findings from the fast-moving fields of genetics, DNA, and dating, Jean Manco’s highly readable account weaves multiple strands of evidence into a startling new history of the continent, of interest to anyone who wants to truly understand Europeans’ place in the ancient world.