Monasticism is a form of religious life in which participants renounce worldly activities to dedicate themselves primarily to spiritual matters, living in small communities subject to a set of rules and isolated from the secular world. Christian monasticism, which originated at the end of the 3rd century in Egypt and North Africa, spread to different parts of Europe in the 6th century. However, it was not until the Middle Ages that monastic communities became one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. Monasteries and convents played a very important role not only as centers of spirituality but also as focal points of economic, technological and cultural activity. This multiplicity of activities carried out alongside their religious, social and political roles make monasteries spaces that can be studied from very different perspectives and that unfailingly provide essential information about our history.This first of two titles originates from an international conference that took place in Barcelona in January 2024, which sought to examine different aspects related to monastic life in the past and to promote and disseminate the results obtained in the latest studies undertaken within the framework of monastic complexes and their environments. These include contributions and multidisciplinary studies from archaeological, bioanthropological and/or documentary perspectives. Specialists from different disciplines present developments on the topic of monasticism from different fields of study, such as zooarchaeology, bioanthropology, palaeopathology, archaeology, history, documentary disciplines, archives, cultural heritage, etc.Volume 1 concentrates on health and lifeways within monastic communities, focusing on palaeopathological information providing insights into physical wellbeing and, in particular, the presence and significance of disabled individuals and evidence for longterm health and dental issues. A variety of scientific methods of analysis are applied to cemetery populations from monasteries and nunneries of different periods to examine both causes of and contributions to the death of individuals, the composition of communities and the treatment of the dead. Studies of assemblages of faunal remains from monastic complexes consider how faunal analysis can help interpret the role of domestic species.

Monasticism is a form of religious life in which participants renounce worldly activities to dedicate themselves primarily to spiritual matters, living in small communities subject to a set of rules and isolated from the secular world. Christian monasticism, which originated at the end of the 3rd century in Egypt and North Africa, spread to different parts of Europe in the 6th century. However, it was not until the Middle Ages that monastic communities became one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. Monasteries and convents played a very important role not only as centers of spirituality but also as focal points of economic, technological and cultural activity. This multiplicity of activities carried out alongside their religious, social and political roles make monasteries spaces that can be studied from very different perspectives and that unfailingly provide essential information about our history.This second of two titles originates from an international conference that took place in Barcelona in January 2024, which sought to examine different aspects related to monastic life in the past and to promote and disseminate the results obtained in the latest studies undertaken within the framework of monastic complexes and their environments. These include contributions and multidisciplinary studies from archaeological, bioanthropological and/or documentary perspectives. Specialists from different disciplines present developments on the topic of monasticism from different fields of study, such as zooarchaeology, bioanthropology, palaeopathology, archaeology, history, documentary disciplines, archives, cultural heritage, etc.Volume 2 focuses on diet, food practices, water management, and the organization and use of space within monastic complexes and landscapes.

This volume celebrates the academic life of prof. Raymond Corbey. It gathers contributions by diverse scholars and professionals from both science and society to engage with a range of key topics Raymond has grappled with at different stages of his capricious career. The volume not only provides an opinionated portrait of Raymond as an academic persona and sometimes controversial scholarly figure, unpacking key tropes of his intellectual journey such as “sitting on the fence” or the “embedded philosopher” and academic “jester”, it also illustrates the wide-ranging and inspirational nature of his work. As a “boundary-worker” seeking to re-negotiate the limits, opportunities and contributions of various disciplines, the volume reflects Raymond’s critical but always provocative engagement with issues such as theory-building, alien civilizations and cosmic evolution, nonhuman sentience, the politics of species, Darwinism, the Maussian gift, human nature, hand axes, the mark of the intentional, diamonds, the structure of the European Mousterian, the relation between cultural anthropology and archaeology, liminality and the marginal, ritual and religion, cats, primates, language, heritage and the many legacies of Western thinking and acting in the world. Taken together, these individual contributions showcase the immense scope – temporal, geographic and topical – that defines Raymond's unique scholarly venture which continues to animate many of his friends, colleagues and former students.The volume will be of interest for a broad readership in academia and beyond, and for the first time brings poignant essays from philosophy to archaeology into conversation, which comment on, continue, or critique the scholarship Raymond embodies. This scholarship defies the contemporary tendency of hyper-specialization, and sometimes scholasticism, and inspires us to transcend the self-erected boundaries of academic and public cathedrals in our thinking and acting alike.

“An indispensable, lucid guide to the origins and recent development of the European Union…. Judicious and authoritative in his curation of historical facts and details about the individuals, social forces, and geopolitics that shaped key developments of the EU, Dinan provides deep insights and clarity about the EU’s accomplishments and its shortcomings…. This up-to-date history of the EU is unparalleled—eloquent and engaging in its narrative and compelling in its final analysis that ‘the EU is worth fighting for. ’” —Vicki L. Birchfield, Georgia Institute of Technology“This is modern European history at its best…. Dinan offers a balanced and up-to-date narrative of European integration from its inception in the post–World War II period to the present, with special emphasis on the contemporary European Union, its institutional and legal structures, the management of the crises it has encountered, its continuing relevance, and its future. His book will establish itself as one of the best concise introductions to the EU for not only students, but also any other readers interested in a deeper understanding of contemporary European affairs.” —Yannis A. Stivachtis, Virginia Tech University What explains the remarkable evolution of the European Union since its emergence in the early 1990s? How has the EU coped with a series of severe shocks, ranging from the euro crisis to Brexit to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? How is it dealing with the rise of illiberal democracy in some of its member states? And why is it more contested, while at the same time more relevant, than ever before?Addressing these questions, this concise text—authoritative, engaging, and well written—traces the development of the EU from its inception to the present. It is ideal for use in the early weeks of courses on European or EU politics, as well as for the EU portion of courses on contemporary European history.

“Cultivation is just another word for commitment. You think you are just pulling weeds, but what you are really doing is writing a love letter to your patch of earth.” – Thomas RainierThis quote opens Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden, a book that is a love letter from a woman to the garden she spent 40 years creating. Jill Nooney, a psychotherapist and graduate of the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design, and her husband Bob Munger, a physician, developed their 30 acres in Lee, New Hampshire into an unforgettable garden.Featuring more than 300 photographs of the garden and Jill’s artful sculptures, water features, and built structures that provide places throughout Bedrock Garden from which to contemplate the complete landscape, the book takes us from the garden’s origins as a private space to its present life as a public garden. The garden has slowly evolved through its creators’ deep love for the land and an indominable urge to experiment.Rich with entertaining anecdotes of realizing improbable, visionary concepts that involved moving boulders, carrying trees and rocks on planes, ferreting out rare plant material, operating all manner of equipment, and managing thousands of visitors, this is a story of love, loss and generosity. The book takes the reader into a landscape that is green and wild, but also filled with a deep sense of peace. Just like visitors to the garden, readers will fall in love with Bedrock.

The Johnson-Gilmor Raid represents one of three attempts to free prisoners of war during the American Civil War. Like the other two, it was destined to fail for a variety of reasons, mostly because the timetable for the operation was a schedule impossible to meet. The mounted raid was a fascinating act of increasing desperation by the Confederate high command in the summer of 1864, and award-winning cavalry historian Eric J. Wittenberg presents the gripping story in detail for the first time in Destined to Fail: The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864. The thundering high-stakes operation was intended to ease the suffering of 15,000 Confederate prisoners held at Point Lookout, Maryland, a peninsula at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. The story includes a motley cast of characters on both sides and fast-paced drama in a deeply researched study that draws upon published and unpublished primary sources, including contemporary newspapers. Part of Wittenberg’s cogent analysis compares and contrasts this raid to a pair of other unsuccessful attempts to free Union prisoners of war – the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid of February-March 1864, and the Stoneman Raid on Macon, Georgia of July 1864 – as well as Gen. George S. Patton’s attempt to free his son-in-law and other American prisoners in March of 1945. This book will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the Civil War, high-stakes cavalry operations, or the politics of Civil War high command.

This volume presents details, images and discussion of the contents of twenty English coin hoards, ranging in date from the 730s to the 1090s. Found between the 1960s and 1990s, all were studied by the late Marion Archibald at the British Museum but have never been published in full before now. Each hoard is the subject of its own chapter, with discussion of the discovery, and of the historical context in which the hoard was buried, before a catalogue of the relevant coins. The volume also contains an introductory chapter, providing an overview of developments in the use of coinage in England in the seventh to eleventh centuries, as well as a discussion of hoarding in this period. This provides context for the more detailed presentation of the individual hoards in this volume, but also draws on other major hoards of the period, both published and unpublished.

Carlton McCarthy, a former artilleryman with the Richmond Howitzers, noted after the war that historians would only write about big battles and campaigns, not how the common soldier fried his bacon and baked his biscuits. McCarthy was correct. Save for a few small references in scattered books, no one has set out to document how an army was fed, or the daily eating habits of Confederate soldiers until Michael C. Hardy’s Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.Although seldom studied, food (or the lack thereof) and the logistics behind it played a critical role during the war, contributed mightily to the success and failure of campaigns, and impacted the overall outcome of the conflict. Understanding how soldiers fried their bacon and baked their biscuits, how they ate and, very often, went hungry, is a vital tool to understanding their individual experiences and the larger history of supply and logistics within the Confederate army.Hardy bases his unique study on more than 300 sets of letters and diaries that closely examine the importance of sustenance in the day-to-day life of the soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Various chapters examine food issued by the army, food sent from home, and food carried, collected, and eaten during campaigns. These accounts dispel many misconceptions and assumptions about food during the war and provide a rich and complex picture of the arduous journey various meats, grains, and other foodstuffs underwent to reach the hungry soldiers in the field.In addition to the common soldier, Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia examines what the Confederate high command ate and also explores the relationship between hospitals and food, demonstrating the importance of proper nutrition in the recovery and care of the wounded. The vital role of camp servants is also studied, as is the critical connection between proper nutrition and morale. The voices of the men themselves provide a multi-faceted examination of this critical, but often overlooked, field of history.Battles and campaigns would not have been possible without a proper diet and a functioning logistical system to support the men at the front. Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia offers invaluable insight into this overlooked and understudied topic that made it all possible.

This volume presents the Greek and Roman pottery collected and analyzed by the Sphakia Survey project and provides a ceramic model for a large section of western Crete, where ceramic traditions, both domestic and imported, are little known. This research integrates two approaches. It first presents a morphological and functional study of a body of pottery from a sizable part of Crete with little known archaeological evidence. Second, fabric analysis identifies and defines clays and clay mixtures, with macroscopic and petrographic analyses providing results from two perspectives. The rigorous application of fabric analysis, combined with the morphological examination, contribute to reconstructions of sites and areas within Sphakia. This data provides information about the history of individual sites, but then more broadly about that of Sphakia itself.Elements like site chronology, activities undertaken in particular areas, available landscape resources and their exploitation, and contact within the region, with other parts of Crete, and the wider Greek and Roman worlds are explored.

The temperature was 40 degrees below zero when fighter planes screamed out of the clouds, puncturing the fuselage with a spray of machinegun fire and sending the bomber beside them into a death spin. This was followed by intense flak, as a hundred cannons on the ground tried to blow them out of the sky.When they finally made it back to the base, another enemy awaited them: homesickness, crushing boredom, relentless cold, and more mud than they could imagine. Bert Ibelle was a 19-year-old freshman at Dartmouth College when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps to fly dozens of bomber missions over Nazi-occupied Europe and win the Purple Heart. His buddy, Fran Brighenti, served as an infantry marksman on the opposite side of the globe, slogging through the steaming jungles of the Philippine and the fiery hell of Okinawa.Their wars couldn’t have been more different, nor could their approach to life. While the ever-exuberant Fran was a ladies man, Bert only had eyes for “Red,” the girl back home who was in love with another young man.This is their story—one that combines terror, humor, friendship, and a son’s search for his elusive father.

At a time when division, polarization, and antagonisms pervade the United States, here is hope for the future. Landscapes of Hope shows how people from all walks of life and backgrounds can come together, talk and work out details, compromise, and do something special for generations to come: safeguarding 900,000 acres of spectacular wild country in Utah.Perched on the western edge of the Colorado Plateau, the Greater San Rafael Swell spans 8,000 square miles in south-central Utah and showcases a rich tapestry of landscapes. Its colorful geological strata span 350 million years of Earth’s history and contain a remarkably well-preserved fossil record from times when primitive marine species first emerged, to the era of dinosaurs and the appearance of large mammals. The region’s arid climate and isolation have also worked together to preserve cultural artifacts left by Indigenous peoples who occupied the area for more than ten millennia.As the treasures of the Greater San Rafael Swell became widely known during the 1960s, conservationists undertook campaigns to designate large tracts of public lands in the region as wilderness, where “the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Initially, some residents of Emery County, located at the heart of the Greater Swell, strongly opposed these efforts, concerned that wilderness designations could limit ranching and mining, undermine residents' livelihoods, and sever their cultural ties to the lands.At first, reconciling these opposing views seemed impossible, but, starting in the late 1990s, Emery County leaders and residents engaged a wide spectrum of stakeholders in discussions spanning more than two decades. In 2019, their efforts to find common ground culminated in the passage of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. This comprehensive federal legislation designated substantial portions of public lands for multiple uses, while creating twenty-five new wilderness and other protected areas, safeguarding nearly 900,000 acres.Landscapes of Hope celebrates the commitment of those who take rightful pride in their legacy and who forged the legislation, conserving landscapes of extraordinary beauty and profound cultural importance. The fruits of their endeavors are portrayed in photographs and stories that showcase the sublime grandeur of the areas now protected in perpetuity.

For many years now, the main thrust of European prehistory has followed a fundamentally terrestrial plot line. This terrestrial paradigm has undervalued the story of Europe as a peninsula between the Baltic, Mediterranean and Atlantic, and likewise downplayed that of many navigable rivers that reach deeply inland and the large lakes important for travel and subsistence. In vast areas of Europe the survival of incoming groups depended on coping and interacting with a seascape as much as a landscape. From the late Mesolithic onwards, in regions such as Scandinavia, the British Isles and the Mediterranean, most occupation was coastal; seas or rivers provided the most important infrastructure for transport, exchange and communication. Know-how about seascapes, boatbuilding, navigation and maritime networks had a profound impact on social organisation, ritual monuments and iconography, and the spread of materials and ideas, enabled by the adaptation of languages to these new environments. Given these facts the time is long overdue to critique the dominant terrestrial paradigm of European prehistory. This book is the first in the multi-author series Maritime Encounters, outputs of the major six-year (2022–2028) international research initiative funded by Sweden’s central bank. Our programme is based on a maritime perspective, a counterpoint to prevailing land-based vantages on Europe’s prehistory. In the Maritime Encounters project a highly international cross-disciplinary team has embarked on a diverse range of research goals to provide a more detailed and nuanced story of how prehistoric societies realised major and minor sea crossings, organised long-distance exchange, and adapted to ways of life by the sea in prehistory.

This portrait of Santa Isabel in over 600 pictures shows an island transformed by its colonial history yet maintaining a confident and distinctive identity within Solomon Islands and the Pacific Island region.Santa Isabel is one of the largest islands that make up the island nation of Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific. Politically it is now one of nine provinces, each with its own variation of a shared history. In a country divided among many Christian denominations, Isabel is distinctive for its early acceptance of the Anglican Church, which united most of the island and its six language groups by the 1920s and then shaped its history up to the present.This book traces Santa Isabel history through a selection of the many hundreds of pictures of the island made first by Europeans and increasingly by its own people. These begin with the drawings and paintings of voyagers from the late 18th century, gradually succeeded by photos from the 1860s onwards showing the arrival of missionaries, traders and warships. From the 1900s there are photos made by the Europeans who established plantations on Isabel and colonial officers asserting British colonial authority. However, the pictorial record is dominated by photos from the Anglican Melanesian Mission. The Second World War, portrayed mainly by military photos, was followed closely by economic and political developments leading up to Solomon Islands independence in 1978 – developments portrayed in both church and government photos. Photos of more recent social, ceremonial and political activities show the unique combination of church, chiefs and local government in Isabel life. A renewed interest in local culture in the 21st century is revealed through photos of festivals and cultural research by both visiting and local researchers as Isabel people explore the possibilities of tourism, resource extraction and environmental conservation.

What actually happened during the first six weeks of new-found peace once General Lee surrendered the remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant? What were the initial reactions of the soldiers and Virginia citizens to the devastating news of Lincoln’s assassination? How did they handle the situation of the emancipated slaves? These and many other issues are covered in depth by Chris Calkins, former chief historian at Appomattox, in The Final Bivouac: The Confederate Surrender Parade at Appomattox and the Disbanding of the Virginia Armies, April 10-May 20, 1865.The first installment in this unofficial set, “No One Wants to be the Last to Die” (formerly The Battles of Appomattox), set the stage for the final dramatic act of the Civil War in Virginia: the surrender parade at Appomattox. Calkins vividly captured the intense feelings and emotions of both Union and Confederate soldiers as the former enemies faced each other for the last time. The honor and respect shown the victorious Federal troops toward the defeated Southerners is one of the most moving episodes in American history.The Final Bivouac continues the story with accounts of homeward-bound Confederates, the Union encampment at Burkeville, the Danville Expedition, and the occupation of Southside Virginia. The narrative concludes as the last few regiments in blue cross the James River at Richmond on their way to Washington, D.C., and then, finally home.Calkins based his work on primary source material, photographs, and archaeological evidence. When primary sources differ, as they occasionally did, he presents all of the information so readers can weigh the facts for themselves. The Final Bivouac will stand the judgment of time and will be of deep interest to everyone who enjoys reading about the American Civil War.

In the spring of 1864, many in the North, including President Lincoln, were growing frustrated. Although Lincoln’s armies were achieving success on the battle¬fields, the gruesome toll was becoming increasingly unacceptable. The president needed a general who would ¬ finally put an end to the war. He found him in Ulysses S. Grant, who would close out the conflict a little more than a year after his appointment. Determined to destroy Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Grant bulked up the Army of the Potomac with the addition of Burnside’s IX Corps, swelling the army’s numbers to nearly 120,000. The campaigns of 1862 and 1863 had inflicted heavy losses on Lee’s army, including some of his most talented commanders, among them “Stonewall” Jackson. In the spring of 1864, Lee’s army was more scattered than Meade’s, but the Army of Northern Virginia was not only capable but also deeply familiar with the Virginia terrain.Grant planned several offensives involving attacks against Richmond, Atlanta, and the Shenandoah Valley. In the north, the Army of the Potomac would strike hard at Lee, while the Union Army of the James would head inland toward Richmond to cut supply lines and then join with Meade’s army. On May 3, 1864, the Army of the Potomac headed for the Wilderness to open the Spring Campaign. The next six weeks saw the most brutal ¬ fighting of the entire war. Repeatedly, Grant brought Lee into battle—notably at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor—yet each time Grant was frustrated in his efforts to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, unable to capture Richmond, Grant reached the James River where his forces built a long bridge to facilitate its crossing to attack Petersburg. While Grant had failed to destroy Lee’s army or capture Richmond, the relentless pressure of the campaign effectively sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

From the closing days of the Revolutionary War in 1783 to the beginning of the War of 1812, the United States Army faced one of its most challenging periods. During this era, American soldiers confronted threats from Great Britain, France, and Spain. On the western frontier, hostile warriors from American Indian nations battled U. S. Army and militia troops north of the Ohio River, as white settlers’ insatiable demands for land provoked conflict with Indian communities. The Army suppressed civil unrest, built roads, and conducted explorations, including the transcontinental expedition led by Army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The post-revolutionary years also saw the Army in a process of frequent reorganization, from the disbanding of the Continental Army at the end of the Revolutionary War to the establishment of Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne’s Legion of the United States, followed by President Thomas Jefferson’s efforts at reforming the Army into a Republican institution. These structural changes increased during James Madison’s first presidential term, as Americans prepared for war with Great Britain over maritime rights, free trade, and territorial expansion in a conflict that became known as the War of 1812.Illustrated with photographs, artwork and maps, this explains how the United States’ Army was transformed in its first four decades.