Bøker av Richard Hodges

This volume proposes a new approach to the Arab conquests and the spread of Islam in North Africa. In recent years, those studying the Islamic world have shown that the coming of Islam was not marked by devastation or decline, but rather by considerable cultural and economic continuity. In North Africa, with continuity came significant change. Corisande Fenwick argues that the establishment of Muslim rule also coincided with a phase of intense urbanization, the appearance of new architectural forms (mosques, housing, hammams), the spread of Muslim social and cultural practices, the introduction of new crops and manufacturing techniques and the establishment of new trading links with sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East. This concise and accessible book offers the first assessment of the archaeology of early Islamic North Africa (7th-9th centuries), drawing on a wide range of new evidence from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. It lays out current debates about its interpretation and suggests new ways of thinking about this crucial period in world history. Essential reading for those interested in understanding the impact of the Arab conquests and the spread of Islam on daily life, it will also challenge students of archaeology and history to think in new ways about North Africa, the earliest Islamic empires and states and the transition from the Roman to the medieval Mediterranean.

This memoir describes the authors experiences as a young archaeologist participating in the American archaeological excavations at ancient Knidos at south-west Turkey in 1971. Knidos, once a great classical metropolis and now entirely abandoned, is situated at Cape Crio, an isolated but glorious location at the end of a mountainous finger jutting out towards the Dodecanese islands. The ancient metropolis is famous for its marble statue of the goddess, Aphrodite, the scandalous first naked image of the deity made by the renowned sculptor, Praxiteles in the 4th century BC and imitated throughout antiquity. The book describes ('the mad consul') Charles Newton's epic excavations at Knidos during the Crimean War when, with Parliamentary support and a frigate, he excavated tons of sculpture which was dispatched the British Museum. Newton's excavations set the scene for Iris Cornelia Love's excavations (1967-77)-the Guggenheim heiress from Manhattan, who believed she discovered Aphrodite on the day American astronauts landed on the moon. This is a story about adolescence, place, archaeologists, the lost world of Turkish peasants and…… love. It portrays a major Mediterranean dig and a restless search for trophies. It also tells a tale about an extraordinarily magical place.Knidos is about classical archaeology in Victorian and modern times, the spirit of this magical place in Aegean Turkey. It also describes the mix of many personalities on this excavation, from the USA in the Vietnam War era (featuring a New York heiress, Iris Cornelia Love) and of course the local, Turkish hired peasants. Based on youthful participation on the excavations, it aims to recall some of the excitement of archaeology. Central to the story is the quest for Praxiteles's celebrated naked statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Uses archaeological evidence to re-read the history of the early Middle Ages. This book shows how archaeology makes us appreciate the changing rhythms of early medieval Europe, especially in terms of the contacts made by traders, pilgrims and travellers. The studies re-examine the archaeology of the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno (Italy).