William Bowden – författare

Movable Bridge Design provides a fascinating and comprehensive guide of both past and current approaches to the design of a wide range of movable bridges.Against the background of worldwide development, the author provides the necessary information on the mechanical systems that drive movable bridges. A wide range of structures are explored in an accessible format to be used at a practical level.Key topics of focus are:Design specifications and standardsMachinery required to operate and stabilise movable spansTraditional and non-traditional superstructure formsMaterials of constructionMaterial strength and failureExamples of hydraulic, electrical and mechanical systemsMovable Bridge Design considers both city and rural movable bridges by providing worldwide examples, as well as discussing the various forms of motive power. This is an essential purchase to inform and guide engineers, engineering consultants, and administrators of governmental agencies, as well as students from these disciplines.

This engaging and well-illustrated volume describes the excavations of a large urban sector, the so-called Triconch Palace, of the Adriatic seaport of Butrint. In so doing it adds to the new paradigm for the development of Roman towns in the Mediterranean. The book traces the changing nature of this rich and varied area - from 2nd-century Roman townhouses, to a 4th-century elite domus, to a Mid Byzantine trading area to late medieval allotments - and reveals the rhythms of Butrint and its Mediterranean connections. This is accompanied by discussions of the elaborate mosaic decoration of the palatial phase and their articulation of elite living, as well as of in-depth discussions of the implications of elite and domestic architecture in late antiquity and the Mid Byzantine period.

This book surveys a variety of themes relating to the late antique countryside. It covers social and economic life, the archaeology of pilgrimage and the fate of rural temples, villas, monasteries and landscape change. There is a special section on rural survey in Turkey, a region of the Roman empire for which our knowledge of the countryside is poor. A bibliographic essay, on the rural archaeology of the entire empire, provides an excellent introduction to the volume and to the subject as a whole. Essays range from Northern Gaul to Egypt and draw on many sources: from papyrology and epigraphy to field survey and paleobotany. A complex picture of differing regional trajectories emerges, whilst cultural change is everywhere apparent, in phenomena such as Christianisation, settlement nucleation and fortification. Contributors include Beat Brenk, Beatrice Caseau, Douglas Baird, Archie Dunn, Etienne Louis, Fabio Saggioro, John Mitchell, Joseph Patrich, Lynda Mulvin, Carla Sfameni, Marcus Rautman, Peter Sarris, Frank Trombley, Joanita Vroom and Marc Waelkens.

This book examines a number of themes relating to social and political life in Late Antiquity. The first part of the book considers how the powers of the emperor, state and civic authorities were expressed in the phyiscal environment, and how coinage and material culture were caught up in the political life of the period. The second part investigates the "middle classes" and "the poor", who are often less visible in archaeological, textual and epigraphic records. Other articles consider such topics as long term social evolution and the definition of time in Late Antiquity. Two extensive bibliographic essays provide an overview of published literature relating to social and political life.