Review Among the New Books ANTHONY SINCLAIR @ Snatching corpses, illegal dissection, the secret burial ofbody parts in (dank?) cellars and the haunting figure of ‘The Resurrection Man‘ are all to be found in ROBERT L. BLAKELY & J ~ J D I T H M. HARRINGTON’S (ed.) Bones in the basement postmortem racism i n nine- teenth century medical training (xix+380 pages, 50 illustrations. 1998. Washington (DC) & London: Smithsonian Institution Press; 1-56098-750-2 hard- back $E34.95), an, almost, Gothic horror story for (osteo-)archaeologists. The truth, however, is possi- bly less entertaining. In turning the old Medical College i n Augusta, Georgia - a greek-revivalist ‘temple’-like building, and now a national monu- ment - into a museum, workers brought pits of human and animal bones to the surface. Salvage ar- chaeologists then recovered some 9800 human bones and 2000 artefacts, including old syringes, pipettes and scalpels. Osteoarchaeological studies of the bones suggest that most of those dissected were black males, whilst patterns of dissection were much like today’s, except that many of the bones showed signs of post- mortem amputation, suggesting ihe practice of com- mon (at the time) surgical techniques by trainee doctors. Ironically, whilst dissection was as impor- tant to medical training in the first half of the 19th century as it is today, it was also illegal. Corpses were, therefore, not donated f o r dissection. Some were ‘provided’ by people who came for their free, but experimental, treatment at the College; others came more surreptitiously. The members of the fac- ulty of the Medical School, purchased a slave, Grandison Harrison, whose job it was to acquire bodies for them. He did this by frequenting alley- ways in search of the dead and dying poor, and by grave-robbing from Cedar-Grove cemetery, the burial place of Augusta’s black community and indigent population. Creeping into the cemetery late at night, Harrison quickly dug down to the upper end of the coffin and pulled out the body with his allegedly powerful arms. To be black, a slave or pauper i n Augusta meant that your ’call’ to the surface might be from Grandison Harrison, ‘The Resurrection Man’. For his efforts he received a salary, room, hoard and plenty of liquor - the corpses were also preserved in vats of whisky. It would be easy to present Harrison as a sort of Hammer Horror bogey-man, lurking in the Augustan shadows and the medical faculty pho- tos; but he was a more complex figure. In the black community, he cut a certain dash, a man deserving of respect and fear; i n the Medical College, he did not just provide the bodies, he was also the man the (white) students turned to more easily for anatomi- cal advice in dissection classes, such were his cor- poreal skills. Today in Augusta, black students also learn the skills of medicine, and bodies are donated to the medical schools. They are almost all white. @ Thinking of exploration in the 15th century brings images of Christopher Columbus to mind. Just as important, however, were the explorations of Por- tuguese sailors such as Vasco da Gama and Magellan along the western coast of Africa and into the In- dian Ocean. As a result of these vogages our map of the world changed, quite literally. In JERRY BROTTON’S Trading territories: mapping the earlymodern world (208 pages, 8 colour plates, 36 illustrations. 1997. London: Reaktion Books; 1-8618-9011-7 hardback E22.50) we find out how the movement of sailors into waters far offshore necessitated a radical remod- elling of the maps and charts by which the world had been drawn. The mappa mundi, based on the geography of Ptolemy. gave way to maps in which Africa became a continent with the shape we know today, as Portuguese traders rounded Cape Bojador and explored the coasts of Guinea. Expansion of the known world was rapid, averaging over one degree south each year. In 1435 the tropic of Cancer was crossed, and by 1460 the Cape Verde islands were reached. In 1473 the equator was crossed and by 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had rounded the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498 da Gama landed in Calicut with gifts from Manuel of Portugal to secure the trade of spices, woods and precious stones with the Samorin of Calicut. The maps that resulted were not those of colonial powers: they were not about the ownership of tracts of land, but the marking of places for trade and the routes to and fro. This graphic expansion was not all. The curvature of the earth led astray ships sailing according to the flat portolan maps of the medieval period, with their straight-line head- ings between ports, once they were beyond the vis- ible confines of the Mediterranean and the islands off the northwest coast of Africa. In 1493 a cloth merchant from Nuremberg, Martin Behaim, was ANTIQUITY 72 (1998): 436-43 REVIEW 437 commissioned, at the cost of €13 17s, by the good burghers of that city to produce a globe on account of his voyages with the Portuguese. In the 1560s, Mercator’s projection rendered the globe flat, and rolled charts once more set sailors on their way. This projection, however, was not just a feat of mathemat- ics. Mercator’s compression of the north-south axis in favour of an expanded east-west axis suited the 16th-century world and its new trading concerns ori- ented towards the New World and East Asia. For archaeologists of prehistoric periods, the prospect of textual evidence concerning the mean- ings of material things, not to mention their names and uses, is a dream, whilst for those struggling with the written source’s critical problems, the prospect of working in a period where such problems of mean- ing no longer exist seems strangely idyllic. Over the years a number of people have attempted to unravel this paradox, the latest of whom is ANDERS ANDKEN in Between artifacts and texts: historical archaeol- ogy i n global perspective. (Contributions to global historical archaeology. x+215 pages, 4 1 illustrations. 1998. London & New York (NY): Plenum; 0-306- 45556-0 hardback $39.50). One of the problems, suggests ANDREN, is that archaeologists of prehis- toric periods realize that they are working on a coin- mon project and share debates in methodology and theory, whilst this is not the case for historical ar- chaeologists; the disciplinary boundedness of his- torical archaeologies prevents scholars from seeing their problems in common. Brief reviews of histori- cal archaeologies i n northern and western Europe, the Near East and the Americas, including Japan and China, lead ANDREN to recognize five common fields of scholarship in which texts and artefacts have been brought together; aesthetics, philology, protohistory, culture history and archaeology. Despite the pres- ence of these fields, there remains the belief among historical and prehistoric archaeologists alike that where texts abound artefacts take second place in interpretation and vice versa. What is needed is a recognition of the methodological nature of the re- lationship between texts and artefacts perse. ANDREN tackles precisely this point by suggesting that rela- tionship between texts and artefacts is like that be- tween different forms of analogies; it can take the form of correspondence, contrast and association. When texts and artefacts correspond there are points of likeness or reinforcement between them, such as in the identification of a place named in a text, or the naming of an object. This is the classic use of archaeologial evidence to illustrate texts. When they contrast they reveal the different patterns of cultural behaviour associated with both forms of evidence. For example, in Shang dynasty China, the area re- vealed by stylistic similarity in bronzes is much greater than that revealed by mention on oracle bones. There are, then, cases where text and artefact are associated, such as the glyphic inscriptions of the greatness of Mayan rulers on the steps leading up to the temple tops where captives would be sacrificed. To ANDREN this is a form of rhetorical flourish. Whilst ANDKEN has not defined an historical archaeology he has usefully articulated an aspect of the relation- ship between texts and artefacts. Fernand Braudel noted in his essay on the longue durke that it was the sight of streams of French refu- gees fleeing the German armies into Vichy, France that impressed upon him the force of longer-term processes in history. It maybe a similarly sad reflec- tion on the scale of the political realignments and unrest of Europe that brings migration and invasion back to our consciousness in theory again. JOHN CHAPMAN &HELENA HAMEROW’S (ed.) Migrations and invasions in archaeological explanation. (BAR In- ternational series 664. iii+81 pages, 20 figures. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-857-0 paperback €19) is a slim and interesting outcome from a TAG ses- sion in Durham in 1993. The essence, fvllowing some of David Anthony’s comments in American Anthro- pologist a few years ago, is that the New Archaeolo- gy’s disposal of migrations and invasions in the 1960s, though still present in David Clarke’s AnaI.ytical archaeology, was close to throwing the bahy out with the bathwater. Made all the more incomprehensible since it was replaced by a concentration upon popu- lation expansion and food pressures in many new explanations. Migrations and invasions have defi- nitely existed and cannot be ignored, even if they are hard to observe archaeologically, or lie beyond the reach of our chronological resolution. As such they deserve to be investigated as one form, amongst a number, of social movement, a matter followed up by Anthony himself in this volume. In a thoughtful, historicizing paper, CHAPMAN wonders why migra- tions and invasions persisted longer in European archaeologies than their Anglo- American counterpart. It was, he argues, the product of the lack of experi- ence of invasion or large-scale migration in these ar- eas for most of the 20th century; the continued movement of armies or refugees across continental Europe has constantly kept archaeologists aware of the realities of large-scale population movement. # The nature of Dutch archaeology has changed dramatically since the 1980s with the recognition of the escalating erosion of the archaeological record, amongst other things. An appreciation of these changes appears in W.J.H. WILLEMS, H. K A R S & D.P. HALLEWAS’ (ed.) Archaeological heritage m a n a g - m e n t in the Netherlands: f i f t y years of state service for archaeological investigations ( v i t 3 6 2 pages, numerous plates & figures. 1997. Amersfoort: R O B ; 90-232-3304-2 paperback Dfl 75 & $37.50) which 438 REVIEW provides a series of articles, including considera- tions of nautical, aerial and urban archaeologies, as well as sceintific conservation and the holding and ownership of archaeological collections, devoted to the work of the ROB - the Dutch State Service for Archaeological Investigations. Originally set up as an excavation service and and for the purposes of maintaining a registcr of archaeological finds and monuments, it is now becoming a national centrc for the management and rescarch of the national heritage. Those with an interest in sites and monu- ments records will be interested to read how the Dutch have tackled this same problem. Archaeological atlases based on an inventory of finds and find-spots were produced by the National Museum of Antiq- uities from 1845. The ROB set u p a new documen- tary system in 1950 allowing searches by location, period, technology and typology, called the Central Archaeological Archive. From 1974 with the aid of the state computer centre, the CAA could be inves- tigated [for new finds) according to 29 criteria. By the 1980s a separate archive of information on sites that might qualify for protection under the Monu- ments Act of 1961 had been created, the Central Monuments Archive. Yet the data from the two ar- chives did not match; finds and find-spots from the northern provinces had been recorded i n a separate ‘northern’ archive. So from 1987 a new combined record was created, the Archaeological Information System - ARCHIS. ARCHIS will contain not just the information from the CAA and CMA but from many other data-bases, and the implementation of a GIS component will lead to rapid production of maps for planning purposes. From 1997 it has been possible to search ARCHIS graphically on the Internet. This is, however, not the end: a virtual archaeologi- cal archive of the Netherlands is in prospect. fl Last quarter I mentioned Paul Devereux’s bookThe Long Trip: a prehistory of psychedelia en- thusing about the range of evidence that he had marshalled to detail the use of psychedelia-induc- ing drugs and practices in prehistory. The final sec- tion of this book set out Devereux’s theory that there was a connection between ley lines and the straight flights of shamans. Of this I was a little bit scepti- cal. As if by magic, along has come ALBY STONE’S Straight track, crooked road: Leys, spirit paths a n d shamanism. (v+90 pages, 15 illustrations. 1998. Loughborough: Heart of Albion Press: 1-87288350- 8 paperback f9.95), which takes a longer, more de- tailed look at precisely this matter, and finds this new shamanic turn in ley-line studies sorely inap- propriate. STONE argues that Devereux, and others who have followed his lead, have glossed over the variability in shamanism, and overplayed the evi- dence relating to a number of other straight-line phenomena; ghost roads and corpse tracks, the lin- guistic relationship between kingship, straightness and shamanism, and clear evidence of angles in other- wise straight tracks in European prehistoric monu- ments. Whilst there is strong relationship between shamanism and straight tracks in South America (as properly recognized by Devereux), there are no such links between straight tracks and shamanic paths in the Altaic/Uralic tradition of shamanism in Eurasia, which is more appropriate to European phenomena. Indeed, when the movements of shamans are men- tioned at all, there is common reference to the winding nature of their travels. The Dutch straight corpse pathways used as corroborating evidence are inap- propriate: they are all recent phenomena. Moreo- ver, other corpse paths are markedly crooked and ambulatory. The linguistic links between words with reg- as roots and kingship and straightness in sha- manism is also not that simple. STONE argues that such words are Italo-Celtic i n origin: they cannot explain earlier phenomena of the Neolithic, and there is no clear relationship to shamanism at all. Finally, many of the straight monumental phenomena of the Neolithic also contain distinct and deliberate changes in direction at points on their path. These remain t o be cxplained. Monographs For those who also teach a course on social anthro- pology, try ROBERT LAYTON’S An introduction to an- thropofogical theory (xi+241 pages, 2 2 figures, 8 tables. 1998. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-521-62982-9 hardback E 3 5 , paperback €12.95). In a few short chapters LAYTON introduces readers to the main theoretical postions that have influenced anthropological writings since the time of Malinowski; functionalism, structuralism, Marxism, social interractionism, socioecology and Post- modernism. All are covered, succinctly and clearly: the discussion of LBvi-Strauss and kinship is com- prehensible! Having avoided the perspective of de- stroying previous theories with a view to their replacement by something better, LAYTON presents a reasoned assessment of the contribution, positive and negative, of these different perspectives t o an- thropological debates today. His discussions of socioecology and, especially, Postmodernism , which he argues are currently the most ‘productive’ theo- ries in anthropology at the moment, are excellent. For those wondering where the problems lie i n ref- erence and text in the work of Derrida, Layton sug- gests are-reading of Quine and the subject of ostensive references. A table can be a table after all, and not just ‘not-a-chair’, ‘not-a-sofa’, etc. In a concise, read- able book LAYTON has produced a theoretical guide that will find itself a ready audience almost imme- diately. This book will make a significant addition to an already full shelf of good introductory texts on anthropology, and frankly it is the text that many might crave for archaeological theory; it doesn’t work too badly for that purpose either. The relaunch of the British Archaeological Re- ports, under the auspices of Archaeopress in Ox- REVIEW 439 Memoria Mundi (No. 11) by Anne 8 Patrick Poirier. Gathered together in this cabinet of curiosities are the archives of the site Mnemosyne (the Greek word for memory), excavated by an archaeologist-architect; a cast taken from a bronze sculpture, a cranium containing an ancient ruined theatre, a field notebook a n d other artefacts. Each object suggests the evidence of a civilization, but the archive is incomplete, a n d the notebook contains no clue that allows a n y of the artefacts to be situated in place or time: a collection of fragments, the ruins of a memory. Accompanying an exhibition a t the Getty Research Institute, MICHAEL ROTH’S (ed.). Irresistible decay: ruins reclaimed [xii+l09 pages, 20 colour plates, 20 black 8 white plates. 1998. Los Angeles (CA): Getty Research Institute; 0-89236-468-8 paperback €14.95) is a series of meditations on ruins to explore their allure, their curiosity a n d the sense of fear that they arouse i n those who contemplate the p a s t through its physical traces. Proust figures highly, so in melancholy remembrance of things lost, ‘The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in that sensation which that material object will give u s ] of which we have no inkling. And if depends on chance whether or not we come upon that object before we ourselves must die’. ford, has resulted in a crop of fine books this quar- ter. Amongst these is GEORGE A. SAID-ZAMMIT’s Popti- lation, land use a n d settlement on Punic Malta: a contextual analysis of the burial evidence. (BAR International series 682. xii+l59 pages, 19 black & white plates, 86 figures. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-869-4 paperback €30). Split into three main sections, the first looks at the relationships between burial areas and Settlement showing that agriculturally productive arcas were settled and it is here that burials 440 REVIEW are to be found: the second section looks at wealth in the tombs through time, showing a trend to a re- duction in the percentage of wealthy tombs: the third attempts to reconstruct population estimates, showing a dramatic increase in population size with the ad- vent of Roman immigration, leading t o a popula- tion number similar to that historically noted for the Medieval period. In the British series of BAR, a useful volume is STEPHEN BURROW’S T h e Neolithic: culture of t h e Isle of Man: n s t u d y of t h e sites and pottery. (BAR British series 263. vi+149 pages, 1 1 7 figures. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-872- 4 paperback € 2 0 ) , a small volume rich in archaeo- logical data, resulting from a recently submitted (1997) Ph.D thesis. The current volume provides the fac- tual details on the settlements and pottery from ex- cavations on the Isle of Man, divided according to early, middle and late Neolithic. An essential source for any future research on the Neolithic of this rich archaeological island. The interpretive parts of this thesis are to follow in future publications. In T h e R o m a n domestic architecture of North- ern Italy (BAR International series 670. iv+144 pages, 6 2 figures. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-861- 9 paperback €25) by MICHELE GEORGE is a study of the form of the town house, the d o m u s , as oposed to the villa or multi-family i n s u l u , in what had been Gallia Cisalpina. GEORGE’S study shows that as in southern Italy, the atrium had a limited period of popularity and was replaced by the peristyle i n do- mestic houses. A catalogue at the end provides de- scriptions of the houses studies, plans and publication references. Finally, in a more anthropological vein there is MICHELE BIEWERS’ L‘habitat traditionnel ci ‘ A i m a : enqu&te ethnoarchkologique d u n s u n village jordanien. (BAR International series 662. 163 pages, 116 figures, 13 tables. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress: 0-86054-856-2 paperback E34). BIEWERS has produced a detailed ethnoarchaeological account of the small agricultural village of ‘Aima in southern Jordan, with accounts of both land use and settlement construc- tion. Separate chapters consider the developments in individual habitation as well as public space in the evolution of this village from 1953 to 1986. MATHEW RESTALL’S T h e Maya world: Yucatec cul- ture and society 1550-2850. (xiv+441 pages, 8 fig- ures, 5 maps, 39 tables. 1997. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press; 0-8047-2745-7 hardback €45 & $55) is a social and cultural history of the Mayan peo- ples following the Spanish Conquest. Instead of following Spanish colonial accounts, Restall has based h i s work o n notarial documents of the Yucatec Maya from archives in Mexico, the USA and Spain. Four parts consider identity a n d or- ganization, society and culture, land and mate- rial culture, and literacy a n d language. What emerges is an account of the Maya c a h , the self- governing municipality i n which Mayans lived, that was far from disabled by colonial rule and i n many important ways continued as before. J E N N I F E R LAING’S A r t a n d society in R o m a n Brit- ain ( ix+188 pages, 1 2 colour plates, 100 illustra- tions. 1997. Stroud: Sutton Publishing; 0-7509-0895-5 hardback €19.99) is a mixture between a book on Roman society and one on art, with chapters de- voted to primarily one topic or the other.’ Fieldwork and surveys Compared to the sites of East Africa, the Lower Palaeolithic of northern Africa is poorly known, yet potentially vitally important. An important inroad into that disparity of information is to be found i n MOHAMED SAHNOUNI’S T h e Lower Palaeolithic of t h e Maghreb: evaluations a n d analyses at A i n Hanech, Algeria (Cambridge Monographs i n African Archae- ology 42. BAR International series 689. xiii+164 pages, 94 figures, 2 7 tables, & appendices. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-875-9 paperback €25). This volume is a detailed presentation of recent excava- tion and artefactual work at the site of Ain Hanech, which has been dated, biostratigraphically and palaeomagnetically, to the period 1.9-1.8 million years ago. An important contribution to the archae- ology of this period and area. LINDA M. GREGONIS’ T h e Hardysite n t Fort Lowell Park. Tucson, Arizonci (Arizona State Museum ar- chaeological series 1 7 5 . x+75 pages, 26 figures, 9 tables. 1997. Tucson (AZ): Arizona State Museum; 1-889747-66-1 paperback $14.95) is an account of the University of Arizona’s excavations (1976-78) of this large pre-Classic Hohokam village. The ex- cavated depsoits date from the Snaketown to the Late Rincon sub-phases. Chapters deal with the excava- tion and the artefacts (ceramics and stone), whilst the discussion centres on the use of space at the site. The finds of various pine and ponderosa wood frag- ments indicate that the Hohokam inhabitants were exploiting a wider catchment than previously thought, perhaps supporting agriculture with foraged and hunted resources from higher elevations. SVEND W. HELMS. Excavations o t Old Kandahar in Afghanistan 1976-1 978: conducted on behalf of t h e Society f o r South A s i a n studies (Society for Af- ghan studiesj stratigraphy, pottery and other f i n d s . (Society for South Asian studies monograph 2 . BAR International series 686. xvi+397 pages, 16 black & white plates, 2 3 1 figures, 11 tables. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-875-9 paperback €25.) The city of Old Kandahar has been throught to be the city of Alexandropoulis, eponymously founded by the Great conqueror i n about 329/330 BC. Frequent excavations and constant redevelopment have left the city a ruin field. In this volume HELMS presents the ‘raw archaeological data’ from excavations con- ducted at the site between 1976 and 1978. Copious appendices provide lists of coins, inscriptions, figu- rines and pottery catalogues, whilst full illustrations for plans, sections and pottery are also provided. The late Peter Gelling’s excavations on Orkney have now been published in SIMON BUTEtJX’S Settlements REVIEW 4 4 1 Two sides to the life of Pan. In Edward Burne-Jones’ luscious pre-Raphaelite painting, Pan’s tender caress comforts Psyche in her search for Cupid: in Anton’s cartoon, just the sight of Pan’s leg i s enough to suggest thoughts of unbridled passion. JOHN BOARDMAN’S The great God Pan: the survival of an image. [The Walter Neurath memorial lecture. 4 8 pages, 53 plates. 1998. London: T h a m e s b Hudson; 0-500-55030- 1 hardback €7.95) i s a brief essay on the career of Pan since the end of antiquity when Pan the Great God died. It i s also a remarkable essay on the life of an image. In antiquity, Pan was a rural beast, primarily animal, slightly h u m a n , a figure of the country to be feared and worshipped, and ironically a loser i n love. Since antiquity P a n has become a concept to be evoked in such ways that parts of h i s body represent characters of t h e h u m a n psyche or nature. Pan can be a teacher of n y m p h s , a natural spirit, a picture of ugly disfigured shame. He con also be a rural ‘cupid’, un exemplar of unfettered natural urges, and at t h e same time, like the beast i n the fairytale, h e i s a figure to fear. He i s the feared piper at the gates of Dawn in The Wind in the Willows, before whom Ratty and Mole m u s t tremble. ‘Perhaps that will convince you that there’s an orgy going on up t h e m ’ 442 REVIEW at Skaill, Deerness, Orkney: excavations b y Peter Gelling of the Prehistoric Pictish, Viking and later periods. (BAR British series 260. vii+276 pages, numerous illustrations. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-865-3 paperback f 2 8 ) . The site itself pro- vides evidence from the late Bronze Age, Iron Age- Pictish to the Norse periods. Detailed chapters by various authors deal with the evidence of the vari- ous periods, followed by specialist reports on the fnds, dating, etc. ZARINE COOPER. Prehistory of the Chitrakot Falls, Central India (viii+ll5 pages, 2 7 plates. 1997. Pune: Ravish Publishers; 81-900294-1-x paperback Rs.685) is a study of 49 surface stations of lithic debris in this region of Central India. Analysis indicates that, contrary to earlier opinions, these locations do not represent factory sites but are the residues of sub- sistence activities related to the exploitation of riverine resources. Spatial analyses indicate that the lithic pieces are determined by large topographic features and erosional processes. Finally ERIK HALLAGER & BIRGITTA I? HALLAGER’S (ed.) T h e Greek-Swedish excavations at the Agia Aikaterini Square Kastelli Khania 1970-1987 (Vol. 1:1 text. 305 pages, 9 colour plates, 45 figures. 1997. Stockholm: Swedish Institute i n Athens; 91-7916- 035-2 hardback. Vol I:Z plates. 1 4 1 pages all with plates. 1997. Stockholm: Swedish Institute in Ath- ens; 91-7916-035-2 hardback) is the first of seven proposed volumes on this excavation of the excava- tions carried out between 1970 and 1987 in Agia Aikaterini Square in Khania i n western Crete. 2.5 metres of deposit contain 5000 years of archaeol- ogy in more than 7000 stratified units, made all the more difficult by Late Minoan rubbish pits cut into the deposits and foundation trenches cut by the oc- cupying Venetians right down t o bedrock and the fill dispersed acorss the site. Conferences A provocative book is to be found in JUDITH LUSTIG’S (ed.) Anthropology 6. Egyptology: a developing dia- logue (Monographs in Mediterranean archaeology 8. 1 4 7 pages, 4 1 illustrations. 1998. Sheffield: Shef- field Academic Press. 1-8507-5676-7 hardback €32.50 & $53.50), a series of papers on how the study of Ancient Egypt might be enriched by reference to anthropology (including linguistics, physical anthro- pology and cultural anthropology). Several papers illustrate the ways i n which an anthropological ap- proach, often to the traditionally used evidence of Egyptologists, provides a fresh, enlivening perspec- tive. Subjects covered include the study of social differentiation from mortuary practices, the inves- tigation of kinship, gender and age relations in tomb scenes and texts, and the analysis of setlement pat- terns from textual sources. Papers by senior authors looking from the more distanced perspective sug- gest that in the study of Egyptology a focus on cul- tural change provides a meeting ground on whch anthropologists and Egyptologists might come to- gether. Robert Wenke is interested in the use of an evolutionary approach to considering change, Bruce Trigger reminds others that Egypt is similar in most respects ot other early civilizations, thus the gener- alizing approach of anthropologists is useful. An admittedly cynical essay by William Adams notes that the running in this rapprochement of the disci- plines must come from Egyptologists: from his per- spective as an anthropologist, he can see the study of anthropology getting along quite happily with- out reference to Ancient Egypt, but not the other way around. KLAVS UNDSBORC’S (ed.) Absolute chronologies: archaeological Europe 2500-500 BC (Acta Archaeo- logica vol. 67 (1996), Acta Archaeologica supple- menta vol 1 (1996). 335 pages, numerous illustrations. 1996. Cobenhagen: Munksgaard; 0065-001X paper- back DKK460) contains 26 papers presented at the conference on absolute chronologies in Verona in 1995. Papers are divided up according to dating technique; historical chronologies, relative chronologies, Carbon- 1 4 and dendrochronology, and within each section papers deal with dating in particular parts of Europe. KATHRYN BEKNICK ’s (ed.). Hidden dimensions: the cultural significance of wetland archaeology (Pacific Rim archaeology. xvii+362 pages, several illustra- tions. 1997. Vancouver (BC): UBC Press: 0-7748-0632- X hardback $95; 0-7748-0633-8 paperback $34.95) is a series of papers devoted to wetland archaeol- ogy, arranged around the themes of human adapta- tion to wetlands, set-site perspectives in the past and present, fishing technologies on the northwest coast and finally preservation and conservation in practice. Papers are roughly split half-way between those devoted to wet matters in the Americas and those in Europe, western and eastern. Much of the data is previously unpublished. Our copy has a number of pages left blank in printing, so check when ordering. Not as recent as it might have been, JOHN BINTLIFF’S (ed.) Recent developments in the history and archae- ology of central Greece: proceedings of the 6th i n - ternational Boetian conference (BAR International series 666. 377 pages, numerous illustrations. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-858-9 paperback €48) contains 25 papers and an introduction from a con- ference held in December 1989. Specialist papers are arranged according to chronological period with good representation from prehistory through the Archaic period, Hellenistic and Roman Greece end- ing with the medieval to Early Modern. Contribu- tors come from all over Europe and North America. Reprints, second editions and paperbacks BRIAN M. FAGAN. Clash of cultures. (2nd edition.) 333 pages, numerous illustrations. 1998. London: REVIEW 443 Altamira Press: 0-7619-9146-8 paperback €16.50. An update of this book, first published i n 1977, Fagan looks at a range of instances of the meeting of local small-scale societies and larger colonial nations, from the Aztecs and the Spanish, to the Japanese and the Americans. This is a sad tale of poor coinniunica- tions, myth-making and inequality. JOHN S. HENDERSON. T h e world of t h e ancient Maya. (New edition.) xvii+329 pages, 11 colour plates, numerous black & white plates & illustrations, 9 maps. 1998. London: John Murray; 0-7195-5568-X hard- back E25. This is a completely revised edition of his book, first published in 1981. Nine chapters lead the reader from the beginnings of the Maya civiliza- tion i n the development of Mesoamerica, through its florescence to its later conquest by the Spanish. This second edition benefits not only from recent developments i n the archaeology of the material record, but especially in the interpretation of Mayan inscriptions. W.A. CUMMINS’ The age o f t h e Picts (ix+166 pages, 55 illustrations. 1998. Stroud: Sutton Publishing: 0- 7509-1608-7 E10.99) is a paperback imprint of his 1995 book, and comprises a series of introductory chapters leading into a chronological/geographic review of the archaeological and historical evidence for the Picts. Reference ARTHUR MACGREGOR’S Ashmolean Museum Oxford: a summary catalogue of the continental archaeo- logical colections [Roman Iron age, migration p e - riod, early Medieval) (BAR International series 674. iv+288 pages, numerous illustrations. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress: 0-86054-863-5 paperback €55) is a catalogue of material largely collected by the late John Evans from all areas of Europe. Assessment of finds is largely based on visual details of the finds and each piece is accordingly illustrated photographi- cally. BRANKA MIGOTTI’S Evidence for Christianity in Roman Southern Pannonia (Northern Croatia): a catalogue of f i n d s and sites (BAR International se- ries 684. v+117 pages, numerous ihstrations. 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-870-8 paperback€30) is a detailed catalogue of materials used to illustrate an exhibition on the presence of Christianity i n this region of Croatia. A brief discussion of the nature of Christianity i n the Roman period leads to a consid- eration of the architectural/site evidence followed by a detailed catalogue of artefactual materials. LESLEY & ROY ADKINS’ T h e handbook of British archaeology (319 pages, numerous illustrations. 1998. London: Constable; 0-09-478330-6 paperback E14.99) is the third edition of this work, first published in 1 9 8 2 . It remains a most useful work with informa- tion on all kinds of archaeological materials and sites, divided by period, from Palaeolithic to Medieval, followed by sections on archaeological techniques and that necessity of all classificatory schemes, mis- cellaneous. ROBERT A. SEGAL’S (ed.) The myth and ritual theory (ix+473 pages, 3 figures. 1998. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers: 0-6312-0679-5 hardback €50 & $64.95: 0-6312-0680-9 paperback €15.99 & $29.95) is a col- lected reader of articles concerning the interpreta- tion of myth and ritual, more specifically the theory that the two are interconnected and cannot be in- terpreted without understanding how they affect one another. 29 collected articles chart the origin of this approach in the lectures of William Robertson Smith in biblical studies, through their developmcnt in the work of Frazer, and application to the ancient world, and worldwide, and on to their most recent revi- sions and evaluations by scholars such as Versnal i n the early 1990s. A very complete anthology. Popular T h e cities of the ancient A n d e s (240 pages, 2 7 col- our plates, 120 illustrations. 1998. London: Thames & Hudson; 0-500-05086-4 hardback E17.95) by ADRIANA VON HACEN & CRAIG MORRIS is a straight- forward introduction to the understanding of cities and urbanism i n the Andes. Particular emphasis is placed on how the special topography and natural environment of the Andes affected the development of cities and their particular religious and economic role in Andean societies. As is usual with this pub- lisher, this is a beautifully produced book with plenty of excellent photographs and architectural line draw- ings. More a small notebook on facts and things about the Celtic World than an academic text is VICTOR WALKLEY’S Celtic daily life. (128 pages. 1997. Lon- don: Robinson; 1-85487993-6 hardback E6.99), gath- ered during the course of the author’s busy life. Divided into a series of chapters; Celtic peoples, oc- cupations and skills, everyday dress and ‘high fashion’ food, drink and herb lore, ritual and belief. A rather tasty recipe for Celtic Honey Cake is usefully in- cluded for foodies. Also Iznik ceramics from ancient Nicaea were the ceramics supplied to the court of the Ottoman empire, and from there to the mosques, palaces and othcr bnild- ings. In Iznik pottery (128 pages, 43 colour plates, 52 black & white plates, 1 map. 1998. London: Brit- ish Museum Press; 0-7141-1482-0 paperback €10.99) JOHN CARSWELL examines the evolution of the ce- ramic designs and production techniques from the monochrome blue and white ceramics for Mehmed the Conqueror in his 15th-century palace at Topkapi Saray, through a more painterly development, to their moment of perfection with the introduction of red and turquoise green to the palette.