Proceedings of the British Academy - Böcker

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 for the first time a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus through Greece and Italy to France and Spain. Leading 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 volume 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.Wide ranging in its geographical coverage, this volume will be essential reading for scholars and students of archaeology, settlement studies, the archaic period and geographers interested in the history of urban forms.

In The Codex, published in 1954, C.H. Roberts studied the process by which in the early centuries of our era the roll as the vehicle for literature was replaced by the codex, which has remained the format of the book ever since. New evidence that has accumulated in the last thirty years has set some of the problems in a new light and in this book, published here for the first time in paperback, the authors re-examine these and offer a different explanation for the remarkable part in the transformation played by the early Church.

Lectures: M. Hart: The SERC Experiment in Science-Based Archaeology; M. Woods: Plato's Division of the Soul; Lord Carver: Strategy in the Twentieth Century; C. J. Becker: Farms and Villages in Denmark from the Late Bronze Age to the Viking Period; E. M. Jope: Celtic Art: Expressiveness and Communication; S. Wells: Tales from Shakespeare; C. Peacocke: Understanding Logical Constants: A Realist's Account; I. Fenlon: The Arts of Celebration in Renaissance Venice; G. D. N. Worswick: Industrial Change and Unemployment; D. R. Karlin: Whitman: The Civil War Poems; The Lord MacKay of Clashfern: Can Judges Change the Law?; D. Dilks: 'We Must Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worst': the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and Hitler's Germany, 1937-39; D. Attridge: Poetry Unbound? Observations on Free Verse.Memoirs: Richard Ithamar Aaron (1901-1987); Denis Midgley Arnold (1926-1986); Sydney George Checkland (1916-1986); Christopher Robert Cheney (1906-1987); Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973); Richard Meredith Jackson (1903-1986); Lilian Hamilton Jeffrey (1915-1986); Nicholas Kaldor (1908-1986); Thomas Parry (1904-1985); Lionel Charles Robbins (1898-1984); George Hugh Nicholas Seton-Watson (1916-1984); Jean Joseph Seznec (1905-1983); Robert Shackleton (1919-1986); Eric Gardner Turner (1911-1983).

In order to make the contents of the British Academy's Proceedings more accessible to readers, the following changes have been made:The large annual volumes have been replaced by an irregular series of slimmer volumes, published about three times a year, with most of the volumes containing papers devoted to one particular subject. Disciplines to be represented in future thematic volumes include archaeology, history, philosophy, literature, and law. The range of subjects will also be extended to areas of the humanities and social sciences inadequately covered at present. Memoirs of the lives and scholarly achievements of deceased Fellows of the Academy will continue to be published in the series.It is hoped that the change from large, multi-disciplinary annual volumes of Proceedings to a series of slimmer, more easily classified (and less expensive) volumes will benefit subscribers to the series. The volumes will continue to be numbered in the same sequence as the former annual Proceedings.The proceedings of this prestigious meeting highlight new developments in archaeological science over the last ten years. There is a strong emphasis on the applications of organic chemistry and biochemistry to archaeological remains, as well as reviews of more traditional subjects, such as the scientific study of ceramics.

An important text for scholars and students on an aspect of Irish society that has been inadequately covered elsewhere. Ireland is one of the nations of the western world in which industrialization was longest delayed. In these papers, sociologists, economists and political scientists offer 'rich and original insights into how Irish society has developed, particularly over the last 30 years' (Irish Times). Questions of the typicality or 'exceptionalism' of the Irish experience are discussed, and the relevance of this experience for current theories of industrialism and 'modernization' is critically examined.

Heroic endeavour or diaster of hemispheric proportions? What is certain is that Columbus's discovery of the New World resulted in biological and cultural exchanges unprecedented in the history of human populations.This volume brings together 11 scholars - from both sides of the Atantic and from the disciplines of history, archaeology, anthropology, geography and biology - to discuss the nature of the European conquest and its consequences.A major them is the complex process by which Europeans and Amerindians adapted to create new criollo cultures which are distinctively American: the successess and failures of this process are evident in Latin America today.The multidisciplinary scope of this volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the enormous changes that followed Columbus' expedition.

Questions of the typicality or 'exceptionalism' of the Irish experience are discussed, and the relevance of this experience for current theories of industrialism and 'modernization' is critically examined.

Pollock and Maitland's classic The History of English Law before the time of Edward I is perhaps unique amongst late Victorian historical works in remaining the fundamental text on its subject a hundred years later. The current volume gathers leading legal historians to celebrate Maitland's achievement, to analyse his methods, to assess his legacy, and to suggest new directions for research into the history of English law before the reign of Edward I.

From the Pharaohs to the United Arab Republic of the present day, Egypt's agriculture has been subject to very different forms of political power and organization. The papers in this volume draw on the abundant documentary and archaeological evidence to analyse and compare the patterns of agricultural exploitation across historical periods (including Ptolemaic, Roman, and Ottoman times). Among important themes discussed are: the changing composition of agrarian elites, relationships between state, landholders and peasants, the impact of commercialization on the rural economy, technology, irrigation and water control, and changes in crop patterns and production. This volume's comparativist approach to the subject is crucial in crossing the linguistic and historical barriers between the different eras in Egypt's agrarian history.

Volume 101 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 12 British Academy lectures and 12 obituaries of Fellows of the British Academy.

Educational standards have been prominent in debates over educational policy. Discussing different perspectives in this text, two themes emerge - the notion of a "standard" viewed in its historical and social context, and the problems to arrive at an "objective" definition of educational standard.

Within the great diversity of their world, the assertion of origin was essential to the ancient Greeks in defining their sense of who they were and how they distinguished themselves from neighbours and strangers. Each person's name might carry both identity and origin - 'I am' . . . inseparable from 'I come from' . . . Names have surfaced in many guises and locations - on coins and artefacts, embedded within inscriptions and manuscripts - carrying with them evidence even from prehistoric and preliterate times. The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names has already identified more than 200,000 individuals. The contributors to this volume draw on this resource to demonstrate the breadth of scholarly uses to which name evidence can be put. These essays narrate the stories of political and social change revealed by the incidence of personal names and cast a fascinating light upon both the natural and supernatural phenomena which inspired them. This volume offers dramatic illumination of the ways in which the ancient Greeks both created and interpreted their world through the specific language of personal names.

Volume 105 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 11 British Academy lectures and 15 obituaries of Fellows of the British Academy.

These essays constitute a welcome addition to the current re-engagement with the ethical thought of a prominent late Victorian philosopher and reformer. Henry Sidgwick wrote the first professional work of modern moral philosophy, yet one century after his death his thought remains relevant to the present revival of interest in the question of how we should live. How does moral philosophy fit in with the more general use of practical reason? - a still puzzling and deeply contested problem. Which actions are appropriate for an intellectual? - i.e., how should the moral thought of the professional few in the universities be related to the thought and action of the many in the world outside? Sidgwick's solutions to these questions are discussed and criticised by a distinguished group of scholars, providing new insights into these recurring issues of moral philosophy.

These papers bring an interdisciplinary approach to bear on what is arguably the central question in the study of human social evolution: how did the simple hunting and foraging bands of the Upper Palaeolithic evolve into the institutionally complex societies of the so-called Neolithic Revolution? The contributors to this volume are leading experts from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and game theory, all of whom share a common evolutionary perspective. The ideas presented here form a major addition to the widespread current interest in evolutionary theory as applied to human behaviour.

Ever since Darwin, scholars have noted that cultural entities such as languages, laws, firms and theories seem to 'evolve' through sequences of variation, selection and replication, in many ways just like living organisms. These essays consider whether this comparison is 'just a metaphor', or whether modern evolutionary theory can help us to understand the dynamics of different cultural domains. The 'evolutionary paradigm of rationality' has a significant role to play throughout the human sciences, but raises complex issues in every cultural context where it is applied. By fostering discussion between scholars from a wide range of research traditions, this volume aims to influence the evolution of all of them.

Bayes's theorem is a tool for assessing how probable evidence makes some hypothesis. The papers in this volume consider the worth and applicability of the theorem.

The essays in this volume cover the whole of the period in which Rome dominated the Mediterranean world. The belief shared by all the contributors is that the Roman empire is best understood from the standpoint of the Mediterranean world looking in to Rome, rather than from Rome looking out. The papers focus on the development of political institutions in Rome itself and in her empire, and on the nature of the relationship between Rome and her provincial subjects. They also discuss historiographical approaches to different kinds of source material, literary and documentary - including the major Roman historians, the evidence for the pre-Roman near east, and the Christian writers of later antiquity. This volume reflects the immense complexity of the political and cultural history of the ancient Mediterranean, from the late Republic to the age of Augustine.

Volume 115 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 20 obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy and an essay on James Bryce (President of the Academy, 1913-1917). Memoirs of Fellows have previously been published in the same annual Proceedings volume as that containing the British Academy's Lectures. The Biographical Memoirs are henceforth to be published in a volume of their own, within the Proceedings sequence.

Volume 117 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 16 lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2001.

The exciting recent developments in our understanding of the history of the Indo-Iranian languages and their speakers are surveyed and assessed by a group of internationally renowned linguists and archaeologists.In the last few years the materials available for the study of the older Indo-Iranian languages have increased dramatically: there have been sensational discoveries of birch-bark scrolls bearing Buddhist texts in the Gandhari language of north-west India, and of leather documents in Bactrian, the ancient language of northern Afghanistan. Previously known data has been exploited in new ways using innovative techniques for compiling, manipulating and disseminating electronic text and digital images. And archaeological finds in India, Pakistan and Central Asia, including the 'Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex', have given rise to new hypotheses concerning the history and pre-history of the Indo-Iranian peoples.The volume also pays tribute to the pioneer work of the great philologist Sir Harold Bailey (1899-1996).

This book presents the first interdisciplinary discussion by leading international historians of the important methodological tool known as prosopography - the collection of all known information about individuals within a given period. With the advent of computer technology it is now possible to gather and store such information in increasingly sophisticated and searchable databases, which can bring a new dimension to traditional historical research. The book surveys the transition in prosopographical research from more traditional methods to the new technology, and discusses the central role of the British Academy, as well as that of French, German and Austrian academic institutions, in developing prosopographical research on the Later Roman Empire, Byzantium and now Anglo-Saxon and other periods. The contributions discuss both national histories of the discipline and its potential for future research. The book demonstrates mutual benefits and complementarity in such studies between the use of new technology and the highest standards of traditional scholarship, and in doing so it sets forth new perspectives and methodologies for future work.

The process of European integration is marked both by continued deepening and widening, and by growing evidence of domestic disquiet and dissent. Against this background, this volume examines three key themes: the challenge to the power of member states - as subjects of European integration - to determine the course of the integrationist project and to shape European public policies; the increasing constraints in the domestic political arena experienced by member states as objects of European integration; and the contestation over both the 'constitutive politics of the EU' and specific policy choices. These three themes - power, constraint and contestation - and their interdependence are explored with specific reference to contemporary Germany.The main findings call for a revision of the 'conventional wisdom' about Germany's Europeanization experience. First, while Germany continues to engage intensively in all aspects of the integration process, its power to 'upload' - 'hard' and 'soft', 'deliberate' or 'unintentional', 'institutional' or 'ideational' - appears in decline. Germany's capacity to 'shape its regional milieu' is challenged by both changes in the integration process and the ever more apparent weaknesses of the 'German model'. The traditional regional core milieu is shrinking in size and importance in an enlarging Europe, and Germany's milieu-shaping power is being challenged. Second, the coincidence of enabling and constraining effects is being progressively replaced by a discourse that notes unwelcome constrictions associated with EU membership. The book's findings suggest that key political institutions and processes in the Federal Republic have not co-evolved with the integration process, but lead an, at times, uncomfortable co-existence. Third, domestic contestation over both everyday EU policy and the constitutional politics of integration seems set to increase. There are, as yet, no indications that these domestic conflicts will reach an intensity comparable to that of the 1950s. However, both the 'permissive' mass consensus and, perhaps more importantly, élite consensus are being tested to their limits. This volume is essential reading for students of comparative European politics and German studies.

Volume 120 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 25 obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy.

Volume 121 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 12 lectures delivered at the British Academy in 2002.

This is the first volume to address directly the question of the speciation of modern Homo sapiens. The subject raises profound questions about the nature of the species, our defining characteristic (it is suggested it is language), and the brain changes and their genetic basis that make us distinct. The British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences have brought together experts from palaeontology, archaeology, linguistics, psychology, genetics and evolutionary theory to present evidence and theories at the cutting edge of our understanding of these issues.Palaeontological and genetic work suggests that the transition from a precursor hominid species to modern man took place between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago. Some contributors discuss what is most characteristic of the species, focussing on language and its possible basis in brain lateralization. This work is placed in the context of speciation theory, which has remained a subject of considerable debate since the evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian theory. The timing of specific transitions in hominid evolution is discussed, as also is the question of the neural basis of language. Other contributors address the possible genetic nature of the transition, with reference to changes on the X and Y chromosomes that may account for sex differences in lateralization and verbal ability. These differences are discussed in terms of the theory of sexual selection, and with reference to the mechanisms of speciation.These essays will be vital reading for anyone interested in the nature and origins of the species, and specifically human abilities.

To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines which fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpteting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight essays (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, from History of Art to International Relations and Geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.

These ten essays are concerned with theoretical and empirical analyses of trust and distrust in post-Communist Europe after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989. The contributors come from different disciplines, ranging from history, economics and political science to social psychology and sociology. They are all specialists on the countries about which they write, and they show above all that the Soviet 'bloc' was in fact a rich spectrum of different countries with diverse histories, cultures and traditions, and - not surprisingly - with different expectations for the future.Like other social concepts, trust never makes sense in isolation but only within the network of other concepts - in this case, social capital, faith, belief, solidarity, reciprocity and security. 'Trust' is a highly polysemic term. Differences between meanings of trust in countries with democratic traditions and in post-totalitarian countries raise questions about the ways in which history, culture and social psychology shape the nature and development of political phenomena. These questions include: antinomies such as trust versus risk, and trust versus fear; the co-existence of rural and urban systems; legitimacy of different political regimes; and the arbitrariness of decisions and the abuse of common sense in totalitarianism.The transition period in many post-Communist countries has now been completed and in others it is likely to be completed in the near future. Yet the authors show that while political and economic changes can have rapid effects, cultural and psychological changes may linger and influence the quality of political trust and representations of democracy. As post-Communist countries become members of the European Union, many problems discussed in this book will recede into history. Yet the theoretical issues addressed by the authors, such as the interdependence of politics, culture and human psychology, will remain central to current and future concerns in social and human sciences.

Volume 124 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 19 obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy.