BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 8 (3) 2011
Posted by PalArch Editor (AV) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology on June 25th, 2011
Daniel Arpagaus about D’Auria, S.H. Ed. 2008. Servant of Mut: Studies in Honor of Richard A. Fazzini. – Leiden/Boston, Brill (Probleme der Ägyptologie 28).
Die Festschrift für Richard Fazzini, den langjährigen Kurator und Vorsteher der Abteiling für ägyptische Kunst am Brooklyn Museum, New York, versammelt insgesamt 32 Aufsätze von Freunden un Kollegen. Der Inhalt der Beiträge is vielfältig und deckt ein chronologisches Spektrum von Har-Aha (Redford: 198ff.) bis zu Ptolemaios XII. ab (Johnson & McLain: 134ff.). Thematisch lassen sich trotzdem [...]
Gregory Bearman, Mark S. Anderson & Kenneth Aitchison. 2011. New Imaging Methods to Improve Text Legibility of Ostraca – PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 8(2) (2011)
Posted by PalArch Editor (AV) in PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology on June 18th, 2011
Abstract We report on experiments on three new methods to improve text contrast for carbon ink ostraca. These are (1) Raman imaging, (2) Micro-focus XRF scanning and (3) exogenous contrast agents either to enhance the X-ray signal or create an optical fluorescence signal. We tested all three methods with modern ‘stunt’ ostraca, made using a variety of carbon-based inks. In each imaging modality, the inks are clearly differentiated from the clay background. The exogenous contrast enhancement, in particular, suggests a variety of approaches to improving text legibility.
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BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 8 (3) 2011
Posted by PalArch Editor (IN) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on April 24th, 2011
Ilja Nieuwland about Brian Switek. 2010. Written in Stone. Evolution, The Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. – New York, Bellevue Literary Press.
The history of vertebrate paleontology has simultaneously been very well and very poorly served in the past. Certain periods have seen tens or hundreds of publications devoted to them, and there’s little new to be found out about London in the 1830s and 1840s, or the Bone Wars of the 1870s and 1880s. But there’s still a whole world to be discovered. One of the – many – admirable qualities of Brian Switek’s first book, Written in Stone, is that Switek generally steers clear from re-hashing the historical warhorses of vertebrate paleontology and so offers something that holds interest for both the lay reader and the paleontological veteran.
BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 8 (2) 2011
Posted by PalArch Editor (IN) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on April 24th, 2011
B.L. Beatty about Pinhasi, R.& Mays, S. (eds.) 2008. Advances in Human Palaeopathology. – Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Paleopathology, as a science, has a deep and rich history, and most so for that which is focused on humans. Cases of pathologies in mummies, ancient buried skeletons, and even simply historical records are abundant, and have been praised not just for helping us understand the history of disease, but also in the role they play in humanizing history and historical figures. But this focus on cases has resulted in little available literature and direction in methods that are not simply the methods used by modern pathologists. While the interpretation of paleopathologies has had some very helpful standardization (Buikstra & Ubelaker, 1994), as well as discussions on theoretical limitations and opportunities in how they should be interpreted in animals in an evolutionary context (Beatty & Heckert, 2009, Beatty & Rothschild, 2009, Beatty & Dooley, 2010, Wolff, 2008, Wolff, 2009), methodologies used with modern technologies are largely relegated to the primary literature. In Pinhasi and Mays’s recent edited volume, “Advances in Human Palaeopathology”, we get a comprehensive collection of all the most up to date reviews on modern methods used in paleopathology of ancient humans. The book is organized in two parts: Analytical Approaches in Palaeopathology (chapters 1-9) and Diagnosis and Interpretation of Disease in Human Remains (chapters 10-16). Here I will review these chapters for their content and how they may be utilized by vertebrate palaeontologists.
BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 8 (1) 2011
Posted by PalArch Editor (IN) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on April 24th, 2011
B.L. Beatty about Sepkoski, D. & Ruse, M. (eds.) 2009. The Paleobiological Revolution. – Chicago, University of Chicago Press
The history of palaeontology tends to focus on Darwin, Cope and Marsh, or if someone is particularly scholarly, the Burgess Shale. But with the exception of studies on Darwin, few of these ever delve deeper in the broader meaning of the history of palaeontology in any Kuhnian paradigm shifting nature. That may be because palaeontology, despite all the excitement over new technologies and integrations with developmental biology, morphometrics or cladistics, is still largely dependant on classical methods – one needs to find and dig up the fossils, then identify and describe them, before much else can be done with them. Palaeontology had remained something of a “stamp-collecting” science, at least on a procedural basis as it was perceived, until the development of what most would call paleobiology. This book, edited by David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse, is a chronicle of the history of how paleobiology got “to the high table” in evolutionary biology. Perhaps most impressive, these editors managed to get these chapters together so cohesively, and by many of the original authors of seminal papers in what started in the early 1970s, including Raup, Bambach, Hallam, Sepkoski, and Valentine. It is unfortunate that Steven J. Gould and Jack Sepkoski and Tom Schopf did not live to contribute to this, but it is clear from the repeated focus on these individuals in the chapters by others that their influence is omnipresent despite their lack of authorship here.
BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 7 (7) 2010
Posted by PalArch Editor (AV) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology on December 9th, 2010
André J. Veldmeijer about Picton, J. & I. Pridden. 2008. Unseen Images. Archive Photographs in the Petrie Museum. Volume 1: Gurob, Sedment and Tarkhan. – London, Golden House Publications
Sometimes, a book does not need a long review to explain its importance. ‘Unseen Images. Archive Photographs in the Petrie Museum. Volume 1: Gurob, Sedment and Tarkhan’ is one of these…
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Tor Bertin. 2010. A Catalogue of Material and Review of the Spinosauridae. – PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 7 (4): 1-39
Posted by PalArch Editor (AV) in PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on December 9th, 2010
Abstract Spinosaurids are a monophyletic clade of large-bodied, long-snouted theropod dinosaurs known from minimal skeletal material. In an effort to assist future research on this unusual clade, a catalogue of past spinosaurid discoveries is presented. Database information includes specimen numbers, material identification, locality information, depositional environments, stratigraphic detail, generic or subclade assignment, tooth measurements, tooth placement, and detailed notes on the nature of the finds themselves when needed. Previously reported biogeographic and faunal dispersal patterns suggest that spinosaurids may eventually be found in North American strata, potentially having migrated from western Europe in the Early Cretaceous and eastern Asia over the Beringian isthmus in the Late Cretaceous. This database may be useful for predicting future points of spinosaurid discovery.
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BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 7 (9) 2010
Posted by PalArch Editor (AV) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology on November 18th, 2010
Ingrid Blom-Böer about Fitzenreiter, M. 2009. Das Ereignis Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Vorfall und Befund. – London, Golden House Publications (IBAES X)
Dem Vorwort zum ersten Band IBAES (Internet-Beiträge zur Ägyptologie und Sudanarchäologie/Studies from the Internet on Egyptology and Sudanarchaeology) Vol. I, 1998 kann man entnehmen, wie die Idee zur Internet-Publikation zustande kam und welche Ziele verfolgt werden sollten. Man möchte mit der zu dem Zeitpunkt relativ neuen Form der elektronischen Kommunikation den Versuch starten, „möglichst schnell, unkompliziert und preiswert Forschungsergebnisse einer breiten wissenschaftlichen Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen.“ Durch die Interdisziplinarität der Beiträge erhoffeman sich des Weiteren, dass sich auch eine Leserschaft außerhalb der Ägyptologiefindet. Die Downloads aus dem Internet lassen sich problemlos öffnen und sind kostenlos. Im Vorwort des Bandes…
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