Books

ISBN: 9781743329634
Paperback, 500 pages
$100.00

After Alexander: The Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods at Pella in Jordan details the excavation of Hellenistic and Early Roman period horizons carried out at Pella in Jordan by the University of Sydney since 1979. It deals with both the stratigraphy of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels at Pella, and catalogues the pottery recovered from them. Short summaries of relevant work by the College of Wooster are also included.

After a brief introduction to the site and history of excavations, a detailed description of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels on the main mound of Khirbet Fahl, on nearby Tell Husn, and in select hinterland locations, then follows.

The heart of the study centres on a detailed catalogue of the corpus of some 900 individual Hellenistic-Early Roman pottery fragments, accompanied by outline drawings for each fragment, and a smaller number of images of the more important pieces.

Discussion of the relevance and importance of the material remains to the history and archaeology of the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods at Pella and more broadly to Jordan and the southern Levant concludes the study.

For further details, and to purchase, visit: sydneyuniversitypress.com.au

ISBN: 978-0755645275
Hardcover, 280 pages
$122.53 on Amazon

Paperback, 280 pages
$44.99 at Abbey’s

How can a nation’s archaeological treasures help explain its history, especially one as richly complex as Syria’s? Ross Burns chooses 40 among Syria’s outstanding range of sites, accompanied by over 200 colour illustrations, to take the reader through the tangled paths of this crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean where numerous world cultures intersected.

Given the last 12 years of savage conflict, the author reports too on the plight of many of these monuments, addressing the common but unhelpful assumption that much of the country’s archaeological treasures have been ‘destroyed’. A better approach is to recognise that Syria’s heritage can play a role in the country’s recovery and cannot simply be declared a write-off.

This is a history which tells us much about how Syria’s mixture of traditions defy simplistic categorisation through modern definitions of cultures and identities.

Available at Amazon, and online and in-store bookstores

ISBN: 9781743327593
Paperback, 460 pages
$95

• The first comparative study of game drives on a global
• An essential resource for researchers and students with an interest in the history of communal hunting and wildlife

Once the world’s prairies, grasslands, steppes and tundra teemed with massive herds of game: gazelle, wild ass, bison, caribou and antelope. Humans seeking to hunt these large fast-moving herds devised a range of specialised traps that share many characteristics across all continents. Typically consisting of guiding walls or lines of stones leading to an enclosure or trap, game drives were designed for a mass killing. Construction of the game drive, organisation of the hunt and processing of the carcass often required group co-operation and in many cases game drives have been linked to seasonal gatherings of otherwise scattered groups, who may have used these occasions not only to hunt, but also for social, ritual and economic activities.

The Gazelle’s Dream: Game Drives of the Old and New Worlds examines this mode of hunting across three continents and a broad range of periods. The book describes the hunting of bison in North America, reindeer in Scandinavia, antelope in Tibet and an extensive array of examples from the greater Middle East, from Egypt to Armenia.

With each chapter written by a specialist in the field, The Gazelle’s Dream is of value to anyone with an interest in the history of hunting and wildlife management, and their social significance within communities.

About the editors
Alison Betts is Edwin Cuthbert Hall Chair of the Archaeology and Mythology of the Ancient Middle East at the University of Sydney. She specialises in the archaeology of the lands along the Silk Roads and nomadic peoples of the Old World.

Paul van Pelt was a Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. He studies the interplay between technology and culture.

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For further details, and to purchase, visit: sydneyuniversitypress.com.au

ISBN: 9781743320105,
Paperback, 256 pages,
$95

This book is a translated and revised edition of Yagodin’s Strelovidnye Planirovki Ustyurta, originally published in Tashkent in 1991. Based on extensive fieldwork, the volume investigates arrow-shaped structures used for hunting in remote areas of Central Asia between the seventh and 14th centuries CE. This classic study of game drives remains one of the most significant works in Ustyurt archaeology and one of the few that integrates geoarchaeological, ecological and ethnographic data.

For further details, and to purchase, visit: sydneyuniversitypress.com.au

ISBN: 9781743327180,
Paperback, 276 pages,
$80
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.30722/sup.9781743327180

The Orontes Valley in western Syria is a land ‘in between’, positioned between the small trading centres of the coast and the huge urban agglomerations of the Euphrates Valley and the Syro-Mesopotamian plains beyond. As such, it provides a critical missing link in our understanding of the archaeology of this region in the early urban age. A Land in Between documents the material culture and socio-political relationships of the Orontes Valley and its neighbours from the fourth through to the second millennium BCE.

For further details, and to purchase, visit: sydneyuniversitypress.com.au

ISBN: 9781743325414
Paperback, 414 pages
$85

The iconic minaret of Jām stands in a remote mountain valley in central Afghanistan, the finest surviving monument of the enigmatic 12th-century Ghūrid dynasty. The re-discovery of the minaret half a century ago prompted renewed interest in the Ghūrids. Two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at Jām, the detailed analysis of satellite images and the innovative use of Google Earth have resulted in a wealth of new information about known Ghūrid sites, and the  identification of hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological sites across Afghanistan.

Thomas has used these data to re-assess the Ghūrids and generate a more nuanced understanding of this significant Early Islamic polity.

or further details, and to purchase, visit: sydneyuniversitypress.com.au

ISBN: 0 9578890 0 3

This volume contains the catalogue and associated commentaries for the 1106 coins from the University of Sydney’s excavations at Pella in Jordan from 1979 to 1990. The material includes Ptolemaic, Seleucid, Hellenistic city, Jewish, Roman Imperial, Greek Imperial, Byzantine, Umayyad, Abbasid and Mamluk issues. The volume also includes a short introduction to the site and concordances of mints, hoards, findspots and registration numbers to locate the coin corpus within the overall publication plan of the excavation project.

If you would like to order a copy of this publication, please download the Adapa Order Form here.