Double-Sided Antler and Bone Combs in Late Roman Britain offers the first detailed study and catalogue of a comb type that represents a new technology introduced into Britain towards the end of the 4th century AD and a major signifier of the late fourth- to fifth-century transition. Their end-plates were worked into a variety of decorative profiles, some clearly zoomorphic. Over time this decor…
Extreme longevity has long been a topic of interest to the media and to the broader public. There are many legends of people who set longevity records, with tales of individuals who lived 200, 500, and even 969 years. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to validate the ages of long-lived individuals until the twentieth century. In the second half of the twentieth century, the nu…
Debates about the aging process go back into ancient societies. Philosophers suchas Aristotle, Cicero, and Seneca pondered questions about the life-course and theways that human nature develops into advanced age. Age(ing) is often regardedin relation with ‘old’ age, as the stage in life that is most commonly associatedwith derogatory stereotypes of decay. Andrew W. Achenbaum explains that R…
Fifty years after her first fieldwork with Ju/'hoan San hunter-gatherers, anthropologist Megan Biesele has written this exceptional memoir based on personal journals she wrote at the time. The treasure trove of vivid learning experiences and nightly ponderings she found has led to a memoir of rare value to anthropology students and academics as well as to general readers. Her experiences focus …
The magnificent 10th-12th century Hindu temples of Khajuraho — with their soaring towers and engaging sculptures — represent the pinnacle of the North Indian temple style. Still infused with their historical magic, they are yours to discover.
A fascinating chronicle of an extraordinary epoch—from the first Stone Age settlements through the reign of Cleopatra and the Roman invasions—Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs brings ancient Egypt to life as never before. Lavishly illustrated with pictures, maps, photographs, and charts, it offers tantalizing glimpses into Egyptian society and everyday life; amazing stories of the pharaohs an…
For decades, researchers have used the fruit fly Drosophila to probe the combined effects of microgravity and other conditions of spaceflight with exposure to ionizing radiation. Drosophila melanogaster provides a well-characterized model organism that is both genetically complex and relatively modest in its habitat and life support requirements. Microgravity exposure, a unique biological chall…
Uually, our emotions are strongly controlled. Therefore, we seldom experience situations of raw affect, where emotions simply overwhelm us. This is basically a good thing, because controlling our ancestral emotional urges helps us to respond more appropriately to most of the daily situational demands of our modern society. It is simply not acceptable to always show an emotional response i…
Whether this new project, along with its new and ambitious agenda, will in fact be any dif er ent from its forerunners or whether it will also end up using mass house construction and sedentarization to demonstrate devel-opment will become clear only in years to come. Statistics from 2020 and beyond will likely show that there are no longer any poor people—those with income below th…
Just as plant and animal lineages are not uniformly distributed around the world, the same is true for the distribution of language families. As of 2017 the Ethnologue list includes around 50 distinct language families covering 7099 living languages, some of which, like Austronesian, have spread over a huge geographical range while others, like Amuric, have only a single living member (i.e., Ni…