Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The peoples who inhabited Europe during the two millennia before the Roman conquests had established urban centers, large-scale production of goods such as pottery and iron tools, a money economy, ...
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The peoples who inhabited Europe during the two millennia before the Roman conquests had established urban centers, large-scale production of goods such as pottery and iron tools, a money economy, and elaborate rituals and ceremonies. Yet as this book argues, the visual world of these late prehistoric communities was profoundly different from those of ancient Rome's literate civilization and today's industrialized societies. Drawing on startling new research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the book reconstructs how the peoples of pre-Roman Europe saw the world and their place in it. It sheds new light on how they communicated their thoughts, feelings, and visual perceptions through the everyday tools they shaped, the pottery and metal ornaments they decorated, and the arrangements of objects they made in their ritual places—and how these forms and patterns in turn shaped their experience. The book offers a completely new approach to the study of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, and represents a major challenge to existing views about prehistoric cultures. It demonstrates why we cannot interpret the structures that Europe's pre-Roman inhabitants built in the landscape, the ways they arranged their settlements and burial sites, or the complex patterning of their art on the basis of what these things look like to us. Rather, we must view these objects and visual patterns as they were meant to be seen by the ancient peoples who fashioned them.Less
The peoples who inhabited Europe during the two millennia before the Roman conquests had established urban centers, large-scale production of goods such as pottery and iron tools, a money economy, and elaborate rituals and ceremonies. Yet as this book argues, the visual world of these late prehistoric communities was profoundly different from those of ancient Rome's literate civilization and today's industrialized societies. Drawing on startling new research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the book reconstructs how the peoples of pre-Roman Europe saw the world and their place in it. It sheds new light on how they communicated their thoughts, feelings, and visual perceptions through the everyday tools they shaped, the pottery and metal ornaments they decorated, and the arrangements of objects they made in their ritual places—and how these forms and patterns in turn shaped their experience. The book offers a completely new approach to the study of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, and represents a major challenge to existing views about prehistoric cultures. It demonstrates why we cannot interpret the structures that Europe's pre-Roman inhabitants built in the landscape, the ways they arranged their settlements and burial sites, or the complex patterning of their art on the basis of what these things look like to us. Rather, we must view these objects and visual patterns as they were meant to be seen by the ancient peoples who fashioned them.
David Wengrow
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159041
- eISBN:
- 9781400848867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159041.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter proposes some distinct patterns of transmission that are attested across multiple chronological periods and regional settings, shedding further light on the institutional contexts of ...
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This chapter proposes some distinct patterns of transmission that are attested across multiple chronological periods and regional settings, shedding further light on the institutional contexts of image transfer in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The distribution of composite figures in the visual record raises a number of intriguing problems for the study of cultural transmission. Their impressive transmission across cultural boundaries is consistent with the expectations of an “epidemiological” approach to the spread of culture, which would accord them a special kind of cognitive catchiness. This chapter considers the institutional role of externally derived images within centralized (or centralizing) societies and suggests that the macro-distribution of composites follows two distinct but regular modes of transmission and reception: the “transformative” mode and the “integrative” mode. It also introduces a third mode of transmission, termed “protective” mode.Less
This chapter proposes some distinct patterns of transmission that are attested across multiple chronological periods and regional settings, shedding further light on the institutional contexts of image transfer in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The distribution of composite figures in the visual record raises a number of intriguing problems for the study of cultural transmission. Their impressive transmission across cultural boundaries is consistent with the expectations of an “epidemiological” approach to the spread of culture, which would accord them a special kind of cognitive catchiness. This chapter considers the institutional role of externally derived images within centralized (or centralizing) societies and suggests that the macro-distribution of composites follows two distinct but regular modes of transmission and reception: the “transformative” mode and the “integrative” mode. It also introduces a third mode of transmission, termed “protective” mode.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the ...
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This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Strange creatures, part human, part beast, were crafted onto gold and bronze jewelry and cast onto the handles and lids of bronze vessels. Metalsmiths created lush new forms of decoration—incised and relief ornament based on floral motifs such as leaves and petals, with spirals, S-curves, and whirligigs decorating objects ranging from pottery to sword scabbards. This style was a radical departure from the forms of representation and decoration that preceded it. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, namely to study a two-thousand-year period in Europe, from 2000 BC to the Roman conquests during the last century BC and the first century AD, known by the terms “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age.”Less
This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Strange creatures, part human, part beast, were crafted onto gold and bronze jewelry and cast onto the handles and lids of bronze vessels. Metalsmiths created lush new forms of decoration—incised and relief ornament based on floral motifs such as leaves and petals, with spirals, S-curves, and whirligigs decorating objects ranging from pottery to sword scabbards. This style was a radical departure from the forms of representation and decoration that preceded it. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, namely to study a two-thousand-year period in Europe, from 2000 BC to the Roman conquests during the last century BC and the first century AD, known by the terms “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age.”
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0003
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light ...
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This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light as an important issue in any consideration of seeing in times previous to the ready availability of electric light. It then describes changes in the landscape, in the character of settlements, houses, and in other aspects of the visual environment during the two millennia between the beginning of the Early Bronze Age and the end of the Iron Age. These changes were most often gradual. A number of significant trends are recognizable in the environmental evidence pertaining to changes in the landscape; and there is archaeological evidence pertaining to changes in tool use, the digging of ditches, the building of walls, and the construction of settlements and houses.Less
This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light as an important issue in any consideration of seeing in times previous to the ready availability of electric light. It then describes changes in the landscape, in the character of settlements, houses, and in other aspects of the visual environment during the two millennia between the beginning of the Early Bronze Age and the end of the Iron Age. These changes were most often gradual. A number of significant trends are recognizable in the environmental evidence pertaining to changes in the landscape; and there is archaeological evidence pertaining to changes in tool use, the digging of ditches, the building of walls, and the construction of settlements and houses.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0004
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter first discusses the concept of the frame and how it helps us to understand the visual patterning of space in late prehistoric Europe. Frames, whether they are wooden picture frames that ...
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This chapter first discusses the concept of the frame and how it helps us to understand the visual patterning of space in late prehistoric Europe. Frames, whether they are wooden picture frames that hold paintings on museum walls or boundary ditches around prehistoric sites, perform the important function of establishing for the viewer the boundaries of that which is to be viewed. The frame tells the viewer what is inside and therefore to be considered and what is outside and therefore can be ignored. The things that prehistoric Europeans placed within frames, their foci of attention, can be understood as diagrams. The chapter then considers some of the visual patterns that persist from the Early Bronze Age through the Late Iron Age, before turning to the character of the changes that took place in ways of seeing in later prehistoric Europe.Less
This chapter first discusses the concept of the frame and how it helps us to understand the visual patterning of space in late prehistoric Europe. Frames, whether they are wooden picture frames that hold paintings on museum walls or boundary ditches around prehistoric sites, perform the important function of establishing for the viewer the boundaries of that which is to be viewed. The frame tells the viewer what is inside and therefore to be considered and what is outside and therefore can be ignored. The things that prehistoric Europeans placed within frames, their foci of attention, can be understood as diagrams. The chapter then considers some of the visual patterns that persist from the Early Bronze Age through the Late Iron Age, before turning to the character of the changes that took place in ways of seeing in later prehistoric Europe.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0006
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter is devoted to fibulae, which are clothing pins that operated on the same principle as the modern safety pin. The style of fibulae changed relatively rapidly throughout the Bronze and ...
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This chapter is devoted to fibulae, which are clothing pins that operated on the same principle as the modern safety pin. The style of fibulae changed relatively rapidly throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, and they have long been used as the principal chronological indicator for a given grave or settlement. Of all of the common objects preserved from late prehistoric Europe, fibulae are the most attractive, in the sense that even today people are drawn to them, finding them intriguing to look at. The reason that they are so appealing is that they embody a number of the visually commanding features outlined in Chapter 2. In their shapes, they are unlike anything in nature and thus immediately seize our attention. In addition, fibulae had a unique property among material culture items of late prehistoric Europe. In order to operate a fibula—to attach it to a garment—the user had to apply considerable force with the thumb and forefinger to the pin in order to lift the end out of the catch. Then, after sliding the pin through a textile garment or removing it from one, he or she released the pin to sit in the catch again. No other objects required this kind of bodily manipulation in order to serve their intended purposes.Less
This chapter is devoted to fibulae, which are clothing pins that operated on the same principle as the modern safety pin. The style of fibulae changed relatively rapidly throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, and they have long been used as the principal chronological indicator for a given grave or settlement. Of all of the common objects preserved from late prehistoric Europe, fibulae are the most attractive, in the sense that even today people are drawn to them, finding them intriguing to look at. The reason that they are so appealing is that they embody a number of the visually commanding features outlined in Chapter 2. In their shapes, they are unlike anything in nature and thus immediately seize our attention. In addition, fibulae had a unique property among material culture items of late prehistoric Europe. In order to operate a fibula—to attach it to a garment—the user had to apply considerable force with the thumb and forefinger to the pin in order to lift the end out of the catch. Then, after sliding the pin through a textile garment or removing it from one, he or she released the pin to sit in the catch again. No other objects required this kind of bodily manipulation in order to serve their intended purposes.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter focuses on sword and scabbards. Swords were important visual objects, larger than most other objects in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, and their shape made them visually striking. Two parts ...
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This chapter focuses on sword and scabbards. Swords were important visual objects, larger than most other objects in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, and their shape made them visually striking. Two parts of the sword were especially important in this regard. In the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, the hilt and pommel were often the vehicles for elaborate eye-catching ornament. When a sword was in its scabbard, whether worn at the side of the bearer, hanging on a wall, or placed in the burial chamber, the only parts of the weapon that were visible were the handle and its end. During the Middle and Late Iron Age, the scabbard became especially important as a vehicle for decorative elaboration. Bronze and Early Iron Age scabbards were mostly made of wood, and we do not, therefore have much information about how they were decorated. From the end of the Early La Tène period on, however, swords were long, and scabbards of bronze and iron offered extensive rectangular surfaces for decoration.Less
This chapter focuses on sword and scabbards. Swords were important visual objects, larger than most other objects in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, and their shape made them visually striking. Two parts of the sword were especially important in this regard. In the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, the hilt and pommel were often the vehicles for elaborate eye-catching ornament. When a sword was in its scabbard, whether worn at the side of the bearer, hanging on a wall, or placed in the burial chamber, the only parts of the weapon that were visible were the handle and its end. During the Middle and Late Iron Age, the scabbard became especially important as a vehicle for decorative elaboration. Bronze and Early Iron Age scabbards were mostly made of wood, and we do not, therefore have much information about how they were decorated. From the end of the Early La Tène period on, however, swords were long, and scabbards of bronze and iron offered extensive rectangular surfaces for decoration.
Peter S. Wells
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143385
- eISBN:
- 9781400844777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143385.003.0013
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European ...
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This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European provinces practicing Roman culture—in particular, Roman ways of seeing—needs considerable revision. Much evidence suggests that Middle Iron Age modes of visual perception and ways of crafting objects continued throughout the period of Roman political domination to reemerge in the so-called “early Germanic” style of the early Middle Ages, as well as in “Celtic” objects such as the Book of Kells and the traditions known as “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” art.Less
This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European provinces practicing Roman culture—in particular, Roman ways of seeing—needs considerable revision. Much evidence suggests that Middle Iron Age modes of visual perception and ways of crafting objects continued throughout the period of Roman political domination to reemerge in the so-called “early Germanic” style of the early Middle Ages, as well as in “Celtic” objects such as the Book of Kells and the traditions known as “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” art.
Jonathan Fox
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199208852
- eISBN:
- 9780191709005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208852.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter analyzes the social foundations of democracy by focusing on the internal dynamics of building scaled-up, democratic counterweights under authoritarian rule. It takes up the challenge ...
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This chapter analyzes the social foundations of democracy by focusing on the internal dynamics of building scaled-up, democratic counterweights under authoritarian rule. It takes up the challenge posed by Michels' classic political sociology puzzle of ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’, asking which factors make it possible for members to hold their leaders accountable. The case study traces the history of a broad-based regional agrarian membership organization to identify ebbs and flows of leadership accountability. An inductive, ethnographic, and longitudinal approach documents how the power relationships between leaders and members change over time. Though the organization held regular elections, in which elected agrarian community leaders voted for regional representatives, the electoral process was not the principal determinant of leadership accountability. Instead, the existence of other kinds of checks and balances — participatory subgroups and pro-democracy external actors — turn out to be more important factors in favor of leadership accountability.Less
This chapter analyzes the social foundations of democracy by focusing on the internal dynamics of building scaled-up, democratic counterweights under authoritarian rule. It takes up the challenge posed by Michels' classic political sociology puzzle of ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’, asking which factors make it possible for members to hold their leaders accountable. The case study traces the history of a broad-based regional agrarian membership organization to identify ebbs and flows of leadership accountability. An inductive, ethnographic, and longitudinal approach documents how the power relationships between leaders and members change over time. Though the organization held regular elections, in which elected agrarian community leaders voted for regional representatives, the electoral process was not the principal determinant of leadership accountability. Instead, the existence of other kinds of checks and balances — participatory subgroups and pro-democracy external actors — turn out to be more important factors in favor of leadership accountability.
Susan E. Scarrow
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198279181
- eISBN:
- 9780191600166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279183.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
In the last decades of the twentieth century, leaders of the largest parties in Britain and Germany began reexamining their parties’ organizational strategies to find new ways to use party members to ...
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In the last decades of the twentieth century, leaders of the largest parties in Britain and Germany began reexamining their parties’ organizational strategies to find new ways to use party members to generate electoral support. Evidence from party documents and debates shows that this change was both deliberate and intentional. In apparent defiance of Michels's ‘iron law of oligarchy’, party leaders seem to have been willing to give new rights to members in order to attract and maintain active party memberships.Less
In the last decades of the twentieth century, leaders of the largest parties in Britain and Germany began reexamining their parties’ organizational strategies to find new ways to use party members to generate electoral support. Evidence from party documents and debates shows that this change was both deliberate and intentional. In apparent defiance of Michels's ‘iron law of oligarchy’, party leaders seem to have been willing to give new rights to members in order to attract and maintain active party memberships.
A. Bernard Knapp
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199237371
- eISBN:
- 9780191717208
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237371.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This book provides a new island archaeology and island history of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Cyprus, set in its eastern Mediterranean context. By drawing out tensions between different ways of ...
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This book provides a new island archaeology and island history of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Cyprus, set in its eastern Mediterranean context. By drawing out tensions between different ways of thinking about theoretical issues such as insularity and connectivity, ethnicity, migration, and hybridization, it addresses a dynamic new field of archaeological enquiry — the social identity of prehistoric and early historic Mediterranean islanders. The archaeological record of Cyprus during the centuries between about 2700–1000 BC — including architecture, the mortuary record, pottery, figurines, seals and sealings, ivories, metalwork, and the broader Cypriot landscape — is presented. Using this material evidence, the book re‐evaluates from the postcolonial perspective of hybridization long‐standing notions about ethnicity, migration, and colonization on the island at the beginning and end of the Bronze Age, and concludes that the Cypriotes themselves provided the main impetus for social development and change on the island. By addressing directly the theoretical underpinnings of various interpretations of the material record, and by comparing and contrasting that record with all relevant documentary evidence, this book considers how a more contextualized, nuanced treatment of the motivations and practices involved in demographic movement, individual or group identification, cultural entanglement, and social change can help us to re‐present several complex aspects of the Cypriot past, and in turn bring them to bear upon Mediterranean archaeologies.Less
This book provides a new island archaeology and island history of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Cyprus, set in its eastern Mediterranean context. By drawing out tensions between different ways of thinking about theoretical issues such as insularity and connectivity, ethnicity, migration, and hybridization, it addresses a dynamic new field of archaeological enquiry — the social identity of prehistoric and early historic Mediterranean islanders. The archaeological record of Cyprus during the centuries between about 2700–1000 BC — including architecture, the mortuary record, pottery, figurines, seals and sealings, ivories, metalwork, and the broader Cypriot landscape — is presented. Using this material evidence, the book re‐evaluates from the postcolonial perspective of hybridization long‐standing notions about ethnicity, migration, and colonization on the island at the beginning and end of the Bronze Age, and concludes that the Cypriotes themselves provided the main impetus for social development and change on the island. By addressing directly the theoretical underpinnings of various interpretations of the material record, and by comparing and contrasting that record with all relevant documentary evidence, this book considers how a more contextualized, nuanced treatment of the motivations and practices involved in demographic movement, individual or group identification, cultural entanglement, and social change can help us to re‐present several complex aspects of the Cypriot past, and in turn bring them to bear upon Mediterranean archaeologies.
D. W. Yalden and U. Albarella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199217519
- eISBN:
- 9780191712296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217519.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Ornithology
The period between the arrival of Neolithic farmers, around 5,500 years ago through the Bronze and Iron Ages, saw farming and farming landscapes well established in the British Isles. The earliest ...
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The period between the arrival of Neolithic farmers, around 5,500 years ago through the Bronze and Iron Ages, saw farming and farming landscapes well established in the British Isles. The earliest and best Neolithic bird faunas come, surprisingly, from Orkney (Isbister, Knap of Howar, etc.), where seabirds including great and little auk, as well as fulmar, are well represented. White-tailed eagles were also common. Some of the best Bronze and Iron Age sites are in fenlands, including the classic sites of Glastonbury and Meare lake villages. White-tailed eagles were here, too, with such less likely species as crane and dalmatian pelican. The mute swan, sometimes thought to be a Roman or Norman import, is common at such sites, and was clearly native.Less
The period between the arrival of Neolithic farmers, around 5,500 years ago through the Bronze and Iron Ages, saw farming and farming landscapes well established in the British Isles. The earliest and best Neolithic bird faunas come, surprisingly, from Orkney (Isbister, Knap of Howar, etc.), where seabirds including great and little auk, as well as fulmar, are well represented. White-tailed eagles were also common. Some of the best Bronze and Iron Age sites are in fenlands, including the classic sites of Glastonbury and Meare lake villages. White-tailed eagles were here, too, with such less likely species as crane and dalmatian pelican. The mute swan, sometimes thought to be a Roman or Norman import, is common at such sites, and was clearly native.
Matei Calinescu†
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Calinescu argues that Eliade saw himself as a Romanian scholar and writer in exile, in contrast with Ionesco, who adopted a French linguistic and literary identity. Ionesco, an adversary of the ...
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Calinescu argues that Eliade saw himself as a Romanian scholar and writer in exile, in contrast with Ionesco, who adopted a French linguistic and literary identity. Ionesco, an adversary of the Romanian extreme right-wing movement of the Iron Guard, at first regarded Eliade as an ideological enemy, for Eliade had “serious and self-deluded” ties with the Iron Guard. The explicit published traces of this engagement are few, and they stopped in 1938 (in part with the aid of the censorship introduced by the dictatorship of King Carol II, an opponent of the Legionary movement), nor did Eliade ever talk about this connection. But when he later appeared to regret his political past (although not publicly), Ionesco “forgave” him, and the two became friends.Less
Calinescu argues that Eliade saw himself as a Romanian scholar and writer in exile, in contrast with Ionesco, who adopted a French linguistic and literary identity. Ionesco, an adversary of the Romanian extreme right-wing movement of the Iron Guard, at first regarded Eliade as an ideological enemy, for Eliade had “serious and self-deluded” ties with the Iron Guard. The explicit published traces of this engagement are few, and they stopped in 1938 (in part with the aid of the censorship introduced by the dictatorship of King Carol II, an opponent of the Legionary movement), nor did Eliade ever talk about this connection. But when he later appeared to regret his political past (although not publicly), Ionesco “forgave” him, and the two became friends.
Moshe Idel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that Eliade’s diverse types of writings––religious, political, historical, literary, or personal––reveal the same underlying assumption: that the sacred camouflages itself within ...
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This chapter argues that Eliade’s diverse types of writings––religious, political, historical, literary, or personal––reveal the same underlying assumption: that the sacred camouflages itself within the profane and is therefore largely unrecognizable, and that, in order to reach a higher form of existence, one must be able to recognize its revelations, which are sometimes expressed by signs. The Romanian and Hindu experiences and the Florentine Renaissance were the determinant factors in his thought and literature, far more than his more formal adherence to the Iron Guard in 1937 and his prolonged participation in the Eranos encounters at Ascona from 1950.Less
This chapter argues that Eliade’s diverse types of writings––religious, political, historical, literary, or personal––reveal the same underlying assumption: that the sacred camouflages itself within the profane and is therefore largely unrecognizable, and that, in order to reach a higher form of existence, one must be able to recognize its revelations, which are sometimes expressed by signs. The Romanian and Hindu experiences and the Florentine Renaissance were the determinant factors in his thought and literature, far more than his more formal adherence to the Iron Guard in 1937 and his prolonged participation in the Eranos encounters at Ascona from 1950.
Anne T. Mocko
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that the political position evident in the work of Mircea Eliade is an opposition to Communism. The chapter utilizes a combination of Eliade’s academic, fictional, personal, and ...
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This chapter argues that the political position evident in the work of Mircea Eliade is an opposition to Communism. The chapter utilizes a combination of Eliade’s academic, fictional, personal, and early political writings to trace out (1) an opposition to philosophical Marxism, (2) an opposition to invasive governments generally, and (3) an opposition to specific Communist and Fascist regimes. The chapter contends that the political sensibility available in Eliade’s writing is deeply conservative but not Fascist or paramilitary.Less
This chapter argues that the political position evident in the work of Mircea Eliade is an opposition to Communism. The chapter utilizes a combination of Eliade’s academic, fictional, personal, and early political writings to trace out (1) an opposition to philosophical Marxism, (2) an opposition to invasive governments generally, and (3) an opposition to specific Communist and Fascist regimes. The chapter contends that the political sensibility available in Eliade’s writing is deeply conservative but not Fascist or paramilitary.
Carlo Ginzburg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter deals with the relationship between Eliade’s political commitment and Eliade’s work as a historian of religions, focusing on The Myth of the Eternal Return, probably his most interesting ...
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This chapter deals with the relationship between Eliade’s political commitment and Eliade’s work as a historian of religions, focusing on The Myth of the Eternal Return, probably his most interesting work. Eliade’s Lisbon Journal provides a context for the central theme of The Myth of the Eternal Return: the terror (or rejection) of history. The chapter argues that this theme and its implications throw much light on Eliade’s paradoxically ambivalent legacy.Less
This chapter deals with the relationship between Eliade’s political commitment and Eliade’s work as a historian of religions, focusing on The Myth of the Eternal Return, probably his most interesting work. Eliade’s Lisbon Journal provides a context for the central theme of The Myth of the Eternal Return: the terror (or rejection) of history. The chapter argues that this theme and its implications throw much light on Eliade’s paradoxically ambivalent legacy.
Bernard A. Knapp
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199237371
- eISBN:
- 9780191717208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237371.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
The early Iron Age (ca. 1125-1000 BC) represents a major cultural break in the archaeological record of Cyprus. Although often regarded as a time when Aegean migrants or colonists established firm ...
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The early Iron Age (ca. 1125-1000 BC) represents a major cultural break in the archaeological record of Cyprus. Although often regarded as a time when Aegean migrants or colonists established firm control over native Cypriotes in new towns that later became the centres of Cyprus's Iron Age kingdoms, this chapter argues through detailed discussions of a wide range of archaeological data that the population of the island was as hybridized as it material culture, showing a clear amalgamation of native Cypriot, Aegean, and Levantine (Phonenician) elements. Again employing the concept of hybridization, it examines various types of pottery, metals (including a spit with an inscribed Greek name), mortuary goods and tomb constructions, figurines, and luxury items to argue that the colonial encounter played out on early Iron Age Cyprus was anything but a blanket emulation of Aegean high culture. Instead, not only material but also social and ethnic meetings and mixings in the various towns and regions of Cyprus are seen.Less
The early Iron Age (ca. 1125-1000 BC) represents a major cultural break in the archaeological record of Cyprus. Although often regarded as a time when Aegean migrants or colonists established firm control over native Cypriotes in new towns that later became the centres of Cyprus's Iron Age kingdoms, this chapter argues through detailed discussions of a wide range of archaeological data that the population of the island was as hybridized as it material culture, showing a clear amalgamation of native Cypriot, Aegean, and Levantine (Phonenician) elements. Again employing the concept of hybridization, it examines various types of pottery, metals (including a spit with an inscribed Greek name), mortuary goods and tomb constructions, figurines, and luxury items to argue that the colonial encounter played out on early Iron Age Cyprus was anything but a blanket emulation of Aegean high culture. Instead, not only material but also social and ethnic meetings and mixings in the various towns and regions of Cyprus are seen.
AMIHAI MAZAR
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264010
- eISBN:
- 9780191734946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
There exists today a wide spectrum of views concerning the process of the writing and redaction of the various parts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the evaluation of the biblical text in ...
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There exists today a wide spectrum of views concerning the process of the writing and redaction of the various parts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the evaluation of the biblical text in reconstructing the history of Israel during the Iron Age. An archaeologist must make a choice between divergent views and epistemological approaches when trying to combine archaeological data with biblical sources. There are five major possibilities, one of which is to claim that the biblical sources retain important kernels of ancient history in spite of the comparatively late time of writing and editing. Archaeology can be utilized to examine biblical data in the light of archaeology and judge critically the validity of each biblical episode. This chapter examines why we should accept the historicity of the biblical account regarding ninth-century northern Israel and discredit the historicity of the United Monarchy or Judah. It also discusses Jerusalem as a city during the tenth to ninth centuries and its role in defining state formation in Judah.Less
There exists today a wide spectrum of views concerning the process of the writing and redaction of the various parts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the evaluation of the biblical text in reconstructing the history of Israel during the Iron Age. An archaeologist must make a choice between divergent views and epistemological approaches when trying to combine archaeological data with biblical sources. There are five major possibilities, one of which is to claim that the biblical sources retain important kernels of ancient history in spite of the comparatively late time of writing and editing. Archaeology can be utilized to examine biblical data in the light of archaeology and judge critically the validity of each biblical episode. This chapter examines why we should accept the historicity of the biblical account regarding ninth-century northern Israel and discredit the historicity of the United Monarchy or Judah. It also discusses Jerusalem as a city during the tenth to ninth centuries and its role in defining state formation in Judah.
Robin Osborne and Barry Cunliffe (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263259
- eISBN:
- 9780191734618
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263259.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a ...
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Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.Less
Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.
HANS M. BARSTAD
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264010
- eISBN:
- 9780191734946
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
There can be little doubt about the enormous importance of the work of Fernand Braudel and the French Annales tradition for the academic study of history. Together with its many ramifications, the ...
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There can be little doubt about the enormous importance of the work of Fernand Braudel and the French Annales tradition for the academic study of history. Together with its many ramifications, the Annales ‘school’ constitutes what is known today as the (French) ‘New History’. In France, the scientific nature of history was never really doubted. History formed (as it does today) a part of the social sciences. For this reason, Braudel stressed the necessity of using empirical data, often quantifiable, to be able to identify the structures underlying social and cultural phenomena. Later, this was referred to as histoire sérielle. The reason why Annales should be considered in some detail in the present context is that some biblical researchers have claimed that the Braudel heritage may be useful for the study of the history of ancient Israel. Knowledge of climate, biology, geography, population movements, and economic trends in Palestine during the Iron Age is relevant to the student of the history of ancient Israel.Less
There can be little doubt about the enormous importance of the work of Fernand Braudel and the French Annales tradition for the academic study of history. Together with its many ramifications, the Annales ‘school’ constitutes what is known today as the (French) ‘New History’. In France, the scientific nature of history was never really doubted. History formed (as it does today) a part of the social sciences. For this reason, Braudel stressed the necessity of using empirical data, often quantifiable, to be able to identify the structures underlying social and cultural phenomena. Later, this was referred to as histoire sérielle. The reason why Annales should be considered in some detail in the present context is that some biblical researchers have claimed that the Braudel heritage may be useful for the study of the history of ancient Israel. Knowledge of climate, biology, geography, population movements, and economic trends in Palestine during the Iron Age is relevant to the student of the history of ancient Israel.
