The Antonine Wall, the Roman frontier in Scotland, was the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire for a generation from AD 142. It is a World Heritage Site and Scotland’s largest ancient monument. Today, it cuts across the densely populated central belt between Forth and Clyde. In this volume, nearly 40 archaeologists, historians and heritage managers present their researches on the Anto…
The observation and study of Lepidoptera (the large order of insects that includes the butterflies and moths, characterized by four membranous wings covered with small scales; lepidoscaly + ptera, wing) began, historically, with the curiosity of amateurs. The science (lepidopterology) followed, as dedicated amateurs began to devote more time to the study, share their discoveries with others and…
The modern US Army as we know it was largely created in the years between the two world wars. Prior to World War I, officers in leadership positions were increasingly convinced that building a new army could not take place as a series of random developments but was an enterprise that had to be guided by a distinct military policy that enjoyed the support of the nation. In 1920, Congress accepte…
The story of human activity in the land now known as Egypt streches back some five hundred thousand years to an early stage of present, or so-called Quaternary, era in the history of the earth's surface. As elsewhere on that surface this scarcely conceivable span of time covers only a minute fraction of the story of the land itself, the more recent chapters of which take us back approximately s…
Christmas is a special time. A Time of rejoicing, of solemn thanksgiving, of gift-giving, of pleasures both modern and traditional, of feasting and of being together with family and friends. And christmas is a time of special music. What better way to celebrate the birthday of Jesus than to join together and raise our voices in the special songs of Christmas - or to tune our musical songs of Ch…
n September 2010, I was preparing to order a meal at a restaurant called The Gold of Africa in downtown Cape Town, South Africa. The waitress was dressed in appropriately African garb, and the menu listed specialties from Morocco, Kenya, and Egypt as well as South Africa. As I glanced at the drinks list, however, a most unexpected item caught my eye—Japanese green tea. About six months later,…
The one thing that I find most difficult is to write about myself. It is hard to understand why some people thirst for knowledge about me. It was never my intention to be anyone's hero. I am certainly no great example upon which to base one's life. I consider myself a very average normal kind of guy. I have some pretty good points; I have some human failings. I am proud of some of my achievemen…
People and communities, lives and livelihoods. These define the Arctic, just as with all other populated areas on the planet. Is there, then, any-thing special, specific, exceptional or unique about the Arctic? To the peoples in the Arctic, the answer is ‘of course’.Because it is home.As Arctic literature is fond of stating, there is no single Arctic. Definitions abo…
This book poses a question: since, in encounters between the present and the past, the present always wins, how might we in the present recover the strangeness of a society that flourished two-and-a-half millennia ago? Can we find ways of throwing off our mind-forged manacles, and instead make an attempt, without preconceptions or agendas, to…
If it were announced on the Manchester Exchange, or among any other large gathering of intelligentmen, that not one in every hundred of them could see correctlythe appearance of the walls or windows about them, it might cause no small amount of surprise,if not disconcert ; yet such is probably the fact. Millions of persons pass through life unconscious of the change that takes place in the appe…