The Caucasus region, sandwiched between the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east, traditionally marks the boundary between Europe to the north and Asia to the south. This catalogue gathers together ancient Caucasian and related material in the British Museum, most of which is now in the Department of the Ancient Near East. The objects include items of jewellery, weapons, pottery, figurines and other miscellaneous artefacts, but it does not include Greek and Roman objects, coins, or material of early Christian date. The catalogue has been divided into four parts, covering the Central Caucasus (and The Koban Culture), Transcaucasia, objects of general Caucasian type, and objects that may be loosely associated with the Scythians. An introduction offers a short overview of the geography and history of the region, from prehistory to the advent of the Christianity.

Tim Phillips' book tells the human story of the siege - of the terrible toll that thirst, hunger and sleeplessness took on the hostages, of the bravery of those who dealt with the terrorists, such as the elderly headmistress of the school and the doctor who tried to relieve the suffering of the young children. Phillips also looks at the authorities' response to the siege and finds it severely wanting. He has spent time in Beslan researching the book, talking to those involved and those affected, listening to the conspiracy theories, and trying to set the events of September 2004 in their wider context of centuries of conflict and enmity in the Caucasus.

The city on the Kerkenes Dağ in the high plateau of central Turkey was a new Iron Age capital, very probably Pteria. Founded in the later seventh century BC, the city was put to the torch in the mid-sixth century and then abandoned. Excavations at what we have identified as the Palatial Complex were conducted between 1999 and 2005. The stone glacis supporting the Fortified Structure at the eastern end of the complex was revealed in its entirety while the greater portion of the Monumental Entrance was uncovered. Portions of buildings within the complex were also excavated, notably one-half of the heavily burned Ashlar Building, one corner of the Audience Hall, and parts of other structures. This volume documents as fully as possible the results of those excavations with the exception of sculpture, some bearing Paleo-Phrygian inscription, already published (OIP 135). The location of the complex, its development from foundation to destruction, and its architecture are discussed and illustrated. Within the Monumental Entrance were extraordinary, unexpected, semi-iconic stone idols, and other embellishments that include stone blocks with bolsters, bases for large freestanding wooden columns, and stone plinths. Extensive use was made of iron in combination with timber-framed facades and large double-leafed doors. Objects of gold, silver, copper alloys, and iron attest to former splendor. Organization of the volume is roughly chronological, beginning with the Fortified Structure, and concluding with the Monumental Entrance. Presentation of material culture is organized with an emphasis on context. Specialist chapters report on alphabetic and nonalphabetic graffiti and masons' marks, animal bones among which was found the jawbone of a dolphin, and a Byzantine-period burial. This volume provides further dramatic and surprising new evidence for the power, wealth, and sophistication of an eastward expansion of Phrygian culture exemplified by architecture, cultic imagery, Paleo-Phrygian inscriptions and graffiti, pottery, and artifacts. The brief existence of this extraordinary city, hardly more than one hundred years, together with the excellent stratigraphic context provided by the destruction level, offer an unparalleled window onto the first half of the sixth century BC on the Anatolian Plateau.

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics re-examines the relationship between Eurasia’s past and its present by interrogating the social construction of time and the archaeological production of culture. Traditionally, archaeological research in Eurasia has focused on assembling normative descriptions of monolithic cultures that endure for millennia, largely immune to the forces of historical change. The papers in this volume seek to document forces of difference and contestation in the past that were produced in the perceptible engagements of peoples, things, and places. The research gathered here convincingly demonstrates that these forces made social life in ancient Eurasia rather more fitful and its publics considerably more unruly than archaeological research has traditionally allowed. Contributors are Mikheil Abramishvili, Paula N. Doumani Dupuy, Magnus Fiskesjö, Hilary Gopnik, Emma Hite, Jean-Luc Houle, Erik G. Johannesson, James A. Johnson, Lori Khatchadourian, Ian Lindsay, Maureen E. Marshall, Mitchell S. Rothman, Irina Shingiray, Adam T. Smith, Kathryn O. Weber and Xin Wu.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella’s interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

Originally published as Volume 4 (2005) of Brill's journal "Ancient West & East,"

Brass from the Past follows the evolution of brass from its earliest forms around 2500 BC through to industrialised production in the eighteenth century, telling the story in the context of the people, economies, cultures, trade and technologies that have themselves defined the alloy and its spread around the world.

This book explores different aspects of LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). It presents a large array of new analytical protocols for elemental or isotope analysis. LA-ICP-MS is a powerful tool that combines a sampling device able to remove very small quantities of material without leaving visible damage at the surface of an object. Furthermore, it functions as a sensitive analytical instrument that measures, within a few seconds, a wide range of isotopes in inorganic samples. Determining the elemental or the isotopic composition of ancient material is essential to address questions related to ancient technology or provenance and therefore aids archaeologists in reconstructing exchange networks for goods, people and ideas. Recent improvements of LA-ICP-MS have opened new avenues of research that are explored in this volume.

Anne Draffkorn Kilmer has had a long and fruitful career as an academic in Assyriology. After receiving her doctorate in Philadelphia and serving as assistant to Benno Landsberger in Chicago, she came to Berkeley in 1963 and stayed there for the long term, despite offers from other universities. During her career, in addition to her many contributions to Assyriology and ancient musicology, she served the university in various administrative functions. In Assyriology, her wide and varied interests included lexical texts, mathematics, animals, entertainment, and especially music. Her discoveries were often unexpected and dramatic. In this volume, the essays presented in her honor focus on many of Prof. Kilmer’s primary interests. The contributions are divided into two sections, reflecting the title, “Strings and Threads.” The “strings” portion of the volume collects essays that follow her interest in musicology and related matters, especially “music archaeology.” It is well known that she studied ancient Hurrian, Mesopotamian, and Ugaritic texts containing musical notations and/or songs, and has been at the forefront of decipherment and explanation of these texts. And a number of essays in this volume address various aspects of ancient music, whether it be the lyrics of the songs or the pictorial representation of music-making or the language in which music is described. In the “threads” portion of the volume are collected essays on various aspects of Mesopotamian narrative literature, an area to which Anne contributed significant insight on the structure of compositions and verbal wordplay used by ancient authors. A number of the articles in the volume follow up on or parallel Prof. Kilmer’s work in this area. Contributors include: G. Azarpay, D. Collon, J. Cooper, R. L. Crocker, D. Foxvog, E. Hickmann, A. B. Knapp, E. Leichty, S. L. Macgregor, S. B. Noegel, D. Pickworth, E. Robson, J. C. Ross, D. Schmandt-Besserat, D. Stronach, and R. L. Zettler. The volume concludes with a bibliography and an index of the works of A. D. Kilmer.