"The Mute Stones Speak" by Paul Lachlan MacKendrick. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
"MacKendrick writes so enthusiastically that all laymen who have a serious interest in scholarship and antiquity will delight in following his story." --New York Times Book Review
Stone inscriptions are the most important written source for 5th-7th century western-British history. Against a background for Old World prehistory and the classical civilizations, this book focuses on the inscribed memorial stones of Demetia (south-west Wales, modern-day Dyfed) and Dumnonia (Devon, Cornwall and part of Somerset). The author looks at cultural change after AD 400 by analyzing the evidence or "messages" left on memorial stones. The invention of the ogam script in Ireland and its use, with implications for both paganism and Christianity, on such stones is examined. A group of chapters is devoted to a praticular reconstruction of events in south-west Wales between AD 400 and 600 - the establishment of an Irish-decended kingdom of Dementia. The author demonstrates that the Dementians adopted first Latinity (use of Roman names, ets) and only then Christinity, influenced by sub-Roman native kingdoms to the east. The author then traces a remarkable "venture to the interior" - the foundation of a small Dementian kingdom in the upper Usk valley, and examines documentary evidence for the first settler-king - Brychan - and, as monk and saint, his connection with Lundy Island (in the Bristol Channel) and north Devon. Evidence for a post-Roman native kingdom in Cornwall, Devon and part of Somerset is next considered, as is minor Irish settlement in west Cornwall around the year 400, and an isolated introduction of Christianity from 5th-century Gaul. Inscribed stones show that the conversion of Dumnonia to Christianity - though field-work has revealed that, far from being a Land of Saints, the deep south-west did not become Christian until well into the 6th century.
Schliemann's excavation is but the opening chapter in this exciting story of what modern science has revealed about the ancient cultures of the Aegeans and Grecians. It is a story that begins with the potsherds of Neolithic villages and climaxes in the glories of Lyric, Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Among its fascinating events is Ventris' deciphering of the archaic Linear B script, a breakthrough which revealed the secrets of the fabulous Minoan civlization. Wedding the complex techniques of such archaeological methods as the carbon-14 dating of artifacts to an astonishingly complete cultural history of man in Greece, the author has produced a lavishly illustrated study that will interest nonprofessionals as much as archaeologists, historians, travelers and students of the fine arts.
With this exciting introduction to the ancient province of Dacia, noted classicist and archaeologist MacKendrick turns his attention to an old area little known to the English-speaking world. He examines its history from the Neolithic culture to the 165 y
Continuing his explorations of life in the Roman provinces, Paul MacKendrick surveys the rich and varied culture that spread from the eastern borders of modern Libya to the Atlantic. He focuses on the ascent of Roman hegemony in the African world, beginni
Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine.
"A collection of meditations like polished stones--painstakingly worded, tough-minded, yet partial to mystery, and peerless when it comes to injecting larger resonances into the natural world." — Kirkus Reviews Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings. Veering away from the long, meditative studies of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard explores and celebrates moments of spirituality, dipping into descriptions of encounters with flora and fauna, stars, and more, from Ecuador to Miami.
