Search results for ""Schnell Steiner GmbH, Verlag""

The chronicler Widukind of Corvey described Otto I as "Emperor of the Romans, King of the Nations" when he wrote about his death on 7 May 973. This new biography on the 1050th anniversary of Otto’s death combines written, pictorial and archaeological testimonies to create a new overview of the great emperor. The book describes Otto's life, as well as the most important symbols of power and his European significance through the re-establishment of the Roman Empire in 962. Aimed at a wider interested audience and scholars alike, this new biography critically summarizes the research of the last 20 years.

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In impressive pictures, the volume reflects the building's transformation from a picture gallery and a residence for the Study Foundation established by King Max II to the seat of the Bavarian Parliament. Since the Bavarian Parliament moved in in January 1949, the striking building, at the end of Maximilianstrasse, high above the Isar, has been subject to constant change and adaptation to the latest technical requirements. The unique charm of the truly regal building with its mosaic-decorated terracotta façade, however, remains unchanged. Numerous photographs in different sizes and perspectives open up the building to the viewer's eye and literally open up new, unusual "insights" into the Maximilianeum, its architecture and its art. The deliberately chosen brevity of the picture texts is intended to support this effect.

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In 1521 Jakob Fugger laid the foundation-stone for the existence of the Fuggerei in eternity, with a deed of foundation. Today, the Fuggerei still offers Augsburg citizens in need a safe home; descendants of Jakob Fugger still give their time to the management of the Foundation. To this day, the Foundation assets that Fugger contributed form the basis for funding the settlement. Taking a tour through the settlement, the guide explains how the Fuggerei has been able to fulfil its mission as a foundation for 500 years. The diverse contents of the houses are presented clearly and vividly – from architecture, to historical and contemporary life in the Fuggerei to the future of their foundation idea. Additionally, guest authors comment on interesting social and cultural-historical topics of the Fuggerei, discussing what the concept of the Fuggerei can mean for today’s society. An information section, a folding map and graphics provide quick orientation. The volume is generously illustrated in colour throughout.

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The Niederwald. One book – two sights. Take the time to visit and look at the two monuments at the entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Trace the respective spirits of two different periods: in Ostein’s Niederwald, which is a creation in the landscape, and at the Niederwald Monument, which commemorates war and the founding of the German Empire. A walk through the “ornamental forest” founded by Karl Maximilian Count of Ostein (1735–1809) gives you the pleasure of enjoying the nature of a forest rich in species and views of the Rhine valley. At the same time, it introduces you to an important period of garden art from the end of the 18th century. The monument with the colossal Germania is also located on the grounds of the historical park forest. It takes you back to an eventful epoch in German history, as a result of which a nation state was founded. Subsequently, many meaningful monuments were erected in the German Empire. The Niederwald Monument proclaims the political messages of that era.

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This book investigates the substantial changes that can be perceived within the urban fabric and its surrounding territory in the transition period between the second century and the sixth century AD in several areas of the Mediterranean Basin that have remained unexplored until now. The results of new excavations and case studies with an innovative and original approach give new insights into the development of the late antique city. Multidisciplinary methods, and the comprehensive examination of the different topics offer a new focus on the spatial occupation of urban territories through time and geographic boundaries. The volume brings together a series of historical and archaeological studies and researches carried out in recent years under the theme „Urban Space“. These contributions were presented at an International Workshop, which took place in Regensburg on 13th - 14th February 2020. The metropolis of Aquileia is analysed in two papers focusing on the demographics of the peri-urban space and on waste management as a proxy for understanding the urban dynamics. Moving East, light is shed on the renewed liveliness of some late antique cities of Asia Minor (in the West and South Coasts) and of Caucasus. Also, the role of religious institutions, which are responsible for the transformation of the cityscape, are examined through some case studies (synagogues at Priene, Sardis, Andriake; monastic foundations in Cilicia and Isauria). Finally, the analysis of religious architecture as a mark of the transformation of urban space in the Near East (Palmyra) perfectly shows the conception of a new late antique urban aesthetic.

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The collection of medieval church art at the University Museum of Bergen is among the finest of its kind in Europe. Most of the objects came from churches along Norway’s west coast, but their style, techniques and iconography reflect the many cultural connections that tied these lands to other areas surrounding the North Sea, to the Mediterranean and the Near East. Most outstanding are high medieval altar decorations of painted wood: twenty altar frontals, various polychromed Madonnas and a vaulted altar canopy. The collection also includes several Romanesque baptismal fonts, late Gothic winged altarpieces, metal vessels, and liturgical vestments. Introductory chapters on the museum’s history and on Western Norway’s medieval church landscape are followed by a presentation of one hundred selected art works.

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In 1552, St. Francis Xavier died on the island of Sancian without setting foot on mainland China. Since then, this image of Francis Xavier on Sancian has been enshrined in Western memory, and many missionaries, merchants and adventurers have tried to realise the unfinished dream of Francis Xavier. In 1700, the German Jesuit Kaspar Castner was sent to build a tomb for Francis Xavier on Sancian. During the three months he and his workers spent there, he encountered the local population and the soldiers that the Chinese government had installed there to protect them from pirates. Castner wrote a report on this period, which is presented here for the first time in a modern scholarly translation into German, English and Chinese. Kastner's report is a unique contemporary document that provides a glimpse of the clash of different worldviews, cultures, ethnicities and religions. The publication is rounded off by a facsimile of the Latin report cut in wood from the University Library of the LMU Munich.

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Byzantium the other. Byzantium the pompous. Byzantium the eternal. The mere existence of this empire spurred the minds of people of all ranks during its existence and well after its ultimate demise in 1453. Neglecting its great political and cultural influence, Enlighteners divested Byzantium of its historic reality and created a model to be applied in completely different constructs. With the rise of nationalism in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century, the reception of Byzantium gained new facets and dimensions. In this volume some light will be shed on the different ways in which »Byzantium« was used in constructing new national narratives, and how its legacy endured in ecclesiastical historiography.

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What do we know about the environments in which the Byzantine Empire unfolded in the eastern Mediterranean? How were they perceived and how did man and the environment mutually influence each other during the Byzantine millennium? Which approaches have been tried up until now to understand these interactions? And what could a further environmental-historical research agenda look like? The present volume brings together contributions from researchers who have approached these issues from very different perspectives. They focus on the explanatory power of traditional as well as “new” sources and the methods of Byzantine Studies and Byzantine archaeology for this hitherto little-explored sphere.

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The exhibition "Byzantium – Splendour and Everyday Life" of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn and the Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums in Mainz (2010) opened up new perspectives for Byzantine research. This conference volume takes up the approach of the exhibition and deepens the discussion of its themes in an interdisciplinary framework. The focus is on everyday life within the urban and rural regions of the empire. The contributions in this volume bring together the results of the Mainz conference. They are dedicated to the capital Constantinople, the cities and their surroundings in the Balkans and Asia Minor, as well as everyday life at sea, in monasteries and in the countryside.

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At the end of the Pleistocene, hunters and gatherers in North-West Europe had to adapt themselves and their social systems to abrupt climate and significant environmental changes. This adaptation process is reconstructed in detail in this book, with reference to 25 archaeological sites, and to high-resolution climate and environmental archives. Based on this rigorous correlation, a chronological relation between climatic, environmental, and cultural change is established, which for the first time allows founded statements about cause and effect. This study reveals that the Pleistocene social systems could cope with the significant climate changes but that they were stretched beyond their limits by quickly changing environmental conditions.

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In this volume the concept of complex systems is used to discuss the interplay between social and environmental factors for the emergence and maintenance of maritime infrastructure and route systems in the ancient and medieval period. The approach is applied to various aspects of maritime history within the research programme ‘Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages’. Complexity theory and network analysis provide an analytical framework to describe social configurations (cities, maritime communities, polities) and environmental phenomena (hydrosphere, climate) as complex systems, entangled via mechanisms of feedbacks, adaptation or disruption.

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This richly-illustrated book presents the restoration of the intricate grave furnishings in the tomb of Li Chui, a descendant of emperor Gaozu, who had died in AD 736 in Chang’an. The grave was excavated in Xi’an in 2001, and this is the first time that the results have been made available to an English-speaking public. The Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), China’s Golden Age, was a flourishing period teeming with fascinating cultural phenomena. At the centre of this cosmopolitan empire lay the capital city of Chang’an – one of the largest metropolises of its time and now hidden below present-day Xi’an. Aristocrats as protagonists of courtly life shaped the character of the city, their luxurious everyday life equally reflected in lavishly furnished tombs. Nowadays, most of these tombs are found to have been robbed. Evidence of the former splendour of these subterranean chambers only survives in the form of marvellous wall paintings and clay figurines ignored by the grave robbers. The undisturbed tomb of Li Chui who had died in AD 736, a descendant of emperor Gaozu, was excavated in Xi’an in 2001. It took a German-Chinese team six years to restore the intricate grave furnishings. For the first time, it was possible to reconstruct the opulent jewellery assemblage of a Tang period noblewoman. In conjunction with the results of scientific analyses by a team of specialists from various disciplines it was possible to obtain new insights into Tang period burial culture. This book presents these results to an English-speaking public for the first time. Illustrated appendices throughout the text provide further insights into Tang period everyday life.

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Reopened in 2010, having been closed since 1939, the world-famous Berlin Etruscan collection, one of the largest outside Italy, is now on permanent display again. This companion volume to the new exhibition in the Altes Museum provides exciting insights into this still fascinating culture of early Italy on the basis of the Berlin holdings - complete grave findings and excellent testimonies of Etruscan art production: history, architecture, sculpture and cabaret, cult and myth as well as writing and reception are presented in informative and richly illustrated articles.

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This book conceptually develops the condition of rule of law within a framework of continental integration. It then analyzes the European Economic Community as a case of economic integration with rule of law. This contrasts with the North American experience of free–trade integration with rule of law, which was joined by Mexico. The Latin American cases of trade integration without rule of law are reviewed as failed attempts. The study furthermore analyzes the current European Union as a case of integration including politics and rule of law, and its current challenges. The book ends with a new approach to Latin American integration, starting from energy integration and other infrastructure projects.

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In the capital of Kievan Rus’, princely Kiev, almost 70 medieval hoards have been discovered to date. The hoards published in this book contained gold and silver jewellery of the ruling dynasty, nobility and the Christian Church. They were unique to Kiev and their quantity and magnificence of style cannot be matched by anything found either in any other former city of Rus’, or in Byzantium. Most of the objects has never been published outside the former Soviet Union. During the 17th-20th centuries, many medieval hoards were gradually unearthed; some disappeared soon after they were found. This book provides a complete picture of the three largest medieval hoards discovered in Kiev: in 1906, 1842 and 1824, and traces the history and whereabouts of other lost treasures. Other treasures took pride of place in some of the world’s top museums. This publication highlights the splendid heritage of medieval Kievan jewellery. It illustrates not only the high level of art and jewellery craftsmanship in the capital, but also the extraordinary religious, political, cultural and social development of Kievan Rus’, the largest and most powerful East Slavic state in medieval Europe.

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“Festung Ehrenbreitstein – Pictures of the change“ takes a look at the fortress complex and history of the site where already in 3000 BC people settled, and the changes from the most important military installations of ots era to a cultural and tourist highlight of our modern times. The pictorial documents in particular the largest building works ever conducted by the state of Rheinland-Pfalz on the Ehrenbreitstein, as accompanied and recorded by the three Koblenz authors. In it, unique pictures from the largest image library showing the latest changes are compiled to create a meaningful whole, providing the reader with special moments and charming perspectives.

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Kremsmünster Abbey houses one of the most precious liturgical vessels of the early Middle Ages: a lavishly decorated and magnificently inscribed communion chalice. This illustrated book provides for the first time a comprehensive descriptive and pictorial documentation of the chalice. The chalice was donated by Bavarian Duke Tassilo III and his wife, the Lombard princess Liutpirc. Created about 1250 years ago in the Salzburg area, splendour has surrounded this singular work of art for centuries. Researchers consider the Tassilo-Liutpirc chalice to be a symbol of ancient Bavaria and a short-lived symbiosis of Mediterranean-insular post-antiquity. But little was known about its production, authenticity and original function. Despite many efforts, the message of the mysterious images and ornaments remained a mystery that this volume aims to solve. For the first time, as a result of a five-year research project, a comprehensive descriptive, photographic and graphic documentation as well as in-depth archaeometric and goldsmith investigations according to the latest state of the art can now be presented. The historical environment and the artistic heyday of that time are illuminated against the backdrop of Tassilo's glorious reign and his intriguing overthrow by Charlemagne in 788. In detective meticulousness, the lost art treasure of Tassilo III is brought back to life and the enigmatic pictorial program of the Tassilo Liutpirc chalice is deciphered as an allegorical visualization of the celestial city. Language of text: German

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This beautifully illustrated book points to ways in which a sense of social responsibility can be applied in the preservation and use of historic gardens. It offers diverse international examples of the value of these cultural monuments in tackling current sustainability challenges—ranging from climate change to the contemporary relationship between humankind and nature. The spectrum of types and purposes and uses of these gardens and parks with their diverse range of functional and formal designs derives from the evolution of urban lifestyles and specific needs. Historic gardens have always been places of pleasurable interaction, education and leisurely relaxation. They are also extremely valuable from the point of view of biodiversity, providing benefits in terms of recreation, human well-being, leisure, environmental education and interdependence with the climate. As part of the cultural heritage, historic gardens can act as a stable driving force in the context of contemporary civilisation processes, helping to formulate and implement sustainable goals for action geared towards a humane outlook and lifestyle in our society. For thousands of years, the design, cultivation and preservation of gardens and cultural landscapes as fine arts and as useful arts have been among the most striking expressions of human culture. As vehicles of meaning, historic gardens are important not just aesthetically but also historically, allegorically and symbolically.

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This richly illustrated volume invites you to dip into Germany’s endless variety of stately homes and parks between Lake Constance and the Baltic Sea. Germany is a country of palaces and castles, of abbeys, parks and gardens. They define our regions, give our cultural landscapes their unmistakable character, and create a sense of home and belonging, of regional rootedness and touristic flair. They offer leisure and regeneration; they are centres of culture and communication; and for the cultural historian they are an indispensable, tangible archive. From celestially inspired Gothic to proud Renaissance, from exultant Baroque to gardens of earthly paradise, this book presents a journey of discovery through epochs, styles, and thematic worlds. It is a journey to enjoy, and one that may inspire you to personally explore one or other of these worlds—the choice is overwhelming.

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The Trier City Library preserves bibliophilic treasures of the highest value, dating back to the 7th century. The Codex Egberti, the Trier Apocalypse, the Ada Evangelia or the Gutenberg Bible are particular treasures. This catalogue presents in words and images 100 of the most significant items from the collection. The library, which was created at the beginning of the 19th century, quickly developed into a huge depository of the abandoned manuscripts and prints of the secularized monasteries of the Trier area. In addition to magnificent manuscripts from the entire Middle Ages, there are numerous works from the early days of printing. Highlights of the collection include the Gutenberg Bible, the Schedelsche Weltchronik or the Catholicon created by Fust and Schöffer. Texts and fragments from the Old and Middle High German periods are also of great appeal, as are maps, atlases and autographs. This publication offers a representative cross-section of the collection and encourages you to visit the treasure-house that is the library at Trier.

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Excavations at the Early Pleistocene vertebrate site of Untermassfeld took place over a total of 127 months, resulting in the recovery of an abundance of 18,000 identifiable paleontological finds. Led by R.-D. Kahlke, this incredible collection has been preserved and evaluated by an interdisciplinary team of scientists. Part 4 of the Untermassfeld monograph details the research history of the site from 1997 to 2015. New results on the geological evolution of the Werra valley in the area of the fossil deposit are discussed along with the absolute age of the finds. This volume also contains studies on insect-generated bone modifications and new discoveries on fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and bison skull finds. Current knowledge on the extensive collection of Untermassfeld cervid fauna and pathological results on hippo remains has been extended and the volume concludes with additional descriptions of new equid and rhinocerotid finds. All contributions are richly illustrated and written in English.

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This volume contains thirteen papers from a conference held in the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz in 2015. The contributions primarily deal with the material culture of goldsmiths’ works, such as crosses, reliquary caskets, jewellery, enamel works, and precious stones, spanning the wide geographical area of Byzantium and many of its neighbours, from Russia via Trebizond and Serbia to Crete. Furthermore, written sources on Byzantine goldsmiths, their craft and the provenance of precious metals provide evidence for goldsmithing in Byzantium throughout its history.

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The Caucasus as a bridge of cultures is at the centre of the transfer of innovation between Mesopotamia and Europe in the 4th and early 3rd millennia BC. The 4th millennium BC saw the transfer of knowledge and technical innovations, such as the wheel and the wagon, new metals like silver, copper alloying, the domestication of the horse, and the outbreeding of woolly sheep. All these innovations had far-reaching consequences well into historical times. The contributions contained in this volume, first presented at an international conference, cover the period from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age and deal with the geographical area from the Levant to the Pontic steppe and Carpathian Basin.

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This exhibition catalogue provides insight into the spectacular conservation of this masterpiece from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. The Crucified Thief fragment, by the "Master of Flémalle", shines in new splendour. The book documents the spectacular results of the restoration, and describes and comprehensively contextualises the painting. This book is the catalogue for an exhibition in 2017-18 at the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt. The exhibition highlights a single painting, the Master of Flémalle’s The Crucified Thief, a key work of European art history, created by one of the most enigmatic artists of early Dutch painting. The recently restored fragment of the painting, painted on both sides, is the only surviving part of a large-format triptych of the Descent from the Cross, which was one of the most important and influential works of its time. In addition to the results of the technological investigation and restoration of the painting, thirteen selected works of art are presented, including the eponymous "Flémaller Panels", the "Medici Madonna" by Rogier van der Weyden as well as mounted and unmounted sculptures by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece and Hans Multscher. They exemplify the reciprocal references between painting and sculpture and thus contribute to a deeper understanding of the breathtaking detail realism and the suggestive effect of the altarpiece on the contemporary viewer. The gruesome picture of a crucified man, which was once the top half of the right wing of a monumental altarpiece the rest of which has long been lost without trace. That Deposition Triptych from around 1430¬ is considered a founding work of early Dutch painting, comparable to the Ghent Altarpiece. The exhibition catalogue provides insight into the spectacular conservation of this masterpiece from the Städel Museum, reconstructs the original appearance of the lost ensemble with the aid of copies, and explains the context of its creation by means of international loans and gems of the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung.

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This book presents selected findings that are representative of the archaeological wealth of Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as up to date information on findings from current research. The Rhine and Moselle make today’s Rhineland-Palatinate region both a hub and a transit area, at times a centre of power, at times a contested border region. The history of this region is one of cultural diversity and cultural encounters, in which the flows of people, goods and ideas – often still visible today – have shaped the region over the millennia.

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In 1799, one of the most important hoards of gold from the European early Middle Ages was discovered near the village of Nagyszentmiklós (then in the Kingdom of Hungary, now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania). It consists of 23 gold vessels with a total weight of almost 10 kg. What makes the treasure so valuable is the high quality of workmanship and the exotic beauty of some of the vessels. Above all, however, it represents a unique resource for the study of cultural connections between the Mediterranean world and the nomadic societies of Eurasia. The contributions in this volume—results of a conference held in Vienna in 2010—deal, among other things, with techniques of goldsmithing and the possible connections between the treasure and the culture of the Sasanian Empire.

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Contributions in this volume from archaeology and history deal with the question of what effect external pressure might have had in decentralised political structures with personalised rule in the European empires of the 10th century. One of the most important findings is that the concrete effects of external threats are hard to grasp, and the archaeological findings do not give a clear picture. The traditionally assumed causal links between external incursions and crisis phenomena are obviously just as unacceptable as the assumption that the Hungarian incursions would have had a lasting impact on existing structures.

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Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli, 1876-1958) was one of the most prominent personalities of the Catholic Church in the 20th century. Under the sponsorship of Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx, a highly acclaimed Series of lectures was held in 2009, whose individual contributions are now made available to a wider reading public. Leading scholars address a wide range of important topics, including: “Pius XII and Modernity,” “Pius XII and the Jews,” “Pius XII and Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber,” and “Pius XII in the Judgment of Posterity.” Eugenio Pacelli – Pius XII (1876-1958): In the View of Scholarship provides an overview of the most current research on this important but also controversial pope. This volume makes that significant new scholarship available to English readers.

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After working in Augsburg and Vienna they came to Regensburg in 1663. Their sculptural reliefs for Emperor Ferdinand III on Ovid brought issues of Empire, iconography and artistic creation into focus. The attached catalogue of works deals with the provenance, restauration, iconography, analysis and reception of their oeuvre. This study provides valuable evidence that a re-evaluation of ceroplastics is long overdue within the canon.

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The guide opens by describing the ever-changing history of the museum. In two clearly structured and richly illustrated chapters the various departments present their respective collections and individual items - Prehistory and Early History, Archaeology, paintings and sculptures ranging from the early Middle Ages to the present. Also included are Block Beuys, Applied Art, the Graphic Collection, as well as Zoology, Mineralogy and Geology-Palaeontology including the fossils from the Messel Pit UNESCO World Heritage site. The main focus of the museum guide is not on a classical tour of the building. It is rather a well-founded consolidation, classification and visualisation of the collections enabling the reader to become familiar with the museum, as an in-depth analysis, or as a follow-up and recollection of the museum visit.

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This volume is an invitation to meet this extraordinary woman of the 13th century, kings daughter, landgravine, and saint, in Germany, Hungry, Italy and Slovakia. The pictures evoke stations of her life, trace the path of her husband Ludwig IV who was called the Holy, lead to the source of her Franciscan ideal, present the preserved remains of a distant past, tell legends and guide ones gaze towards the artwork of pious veneration. The text and pictures of this book incite the reader to come closer: What appears to be a legend might seem, as a life really lived, strange to us nowadays. With Franciscan humility, Elisabeth chose a pathway removed from the beaten track of her times. She set an example of humanity which can be understood the world over down to the present day.

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The study is based on a multidisciplinary approach from the perspective of science, religion and art. Biblical and scientific approaches - namely computistics and astronomy - are juxtaposed. By contrasting pictorial representations, written interpretations and historical facts, it becomes convincingly clear how strongly scientific representations and biblical iconography have influenced each other. Medieval scribes and illuminators did not separate these two genres. In the course of recent research, the work shows that Isidore of Seville, Beda Venerabilis or Alcuin were extremely important mediators of ancient cosmological knowledge for the modern world and that Christian authors have made lasting and still relevant contributions in the scientific field. One of these fields is computistics, originally the calculation of the exact date of Easter, in a broader sense the calculation of time. The spiritual nature of medieval science is extremely valuable for the comparison of science and art against the background of the main messages of the Christian faith. This work is the first to systematically describe the significance of the so-called Schematisms for the interpretation of medieval art, beginning in the Carolingian period and spanning a period of 300 years. Previously unknown illuminations are included in the analysis. The work convincingly illustrates the close interweaving of iconography - formed by schematic representations - and eschatology.

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The so-called Cappenberger Barbarossakopf is one of the most famous and well-known monuments of 12th century art. It is now kept in the former monastery church of the Premonstratensian monastery of Cappenberg, the collegiate church of St. John the Evangelist. This book sheds new light on the importance of Cappenberg for the spread of the Premonstratensians, but above all it explains the origin, function and significance of the Cappenberg head. The head raises many questions: Who does the head actually represent? What is its liturgical function? How can the head be historically contextualized? How can the identification of the head with the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa be explained? Does this attribution still hold true? A conference in Cappenberg in 2019 attempted to answer these questions; this book publishes the papers presented at that conference. The head has long been regarded as a portrait of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1122–1190). However, previously unpublished results of a material engineering investigation from 1977/78 require a new definition of the context in which the work was created. What are the consequences for the understanding of the head? In addition to the consistent reference to the object, the foundation of the Premonstratensian monastery of Cappenberg is the focus of many of the contributions to the book. What influence did Otto von Cappenberg’s godparenthood of Friedrich Barbarossa have on the furnishings of the monastery? The contributions shed new light on the importance of Cappenberg for the spread of the Premonstratensians.

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This Tandem Festschrift pays tribute to Elaine Turner and Martin Street, to celebrate all they have both contributed to the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, in ensuring high research standards, and for your contributions to Palaeolithic Archaeology in Germany and beyond. It should be understood as a big “CHEERS” from the MONREPOS staff and many other friends and colleagues from all over the world, who contributed to this Festschrift. This double volume covers a broad spectrum of topics from the Lower Palaeolithic to the early Holocene and even to the Medieval period – touching upon the vast array of topics Elaine and Martin have dealt with over the last more than 30 years. It starts with the discussion of the oldest evidence for fire and addresses many other key-topics of scientific debate at fascinating levels of detail. "There is no doubt that Elaine Turner and Martin Street are to be especially acknowledged as the trailblazers for the internationalisation of Pleistocene Archaeology in Germany. The diversity of topics reflected by these contributions is due in large part to their rock-solid research, which is based on their exceptionally broad expertise and reflected in their highly interdisciplinary research projects.” (The Editors)

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The Vogtland is an old cultural landscape that includes parts of today’s German states of Thuringia, Saxony, and Bavaria, as well as parts of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Over a period of centuries the dynasty of the Reeves of Weida, Gera and Plauen left its mark on the region, developing it economically and culturally on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor. Copiously illustrated, The Reeves’ Progress traces routes through the largely unresearched territory of late medieval Vogtland. In a topographic journey it explores the old domains of the reeves before drawing the strands together in a thematic treatment. The book takes in the estates and churches, religious houses and sacred art of the region, examines the impact of the Teutonic Order, and introduces the reader to key monuments of pre-modern municipal and economic history.

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The contributors to this volume examine the complex dynamics which arose between the Byzantine Empire and the Near East. Moving beyond the tradition of histoire événementielle, the contributions collected here highlight the passing of artistic practices, ideas and interlocutors between Byzantium and the Islamicate world. In this way, the book seeks to nuance and contextualize our understanding of the relationship between these two medieval cultural spheres.

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The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the few medieval monuments whose decoration, preserved, even if partially, in its original state until recently, can be almost completely reconstructed on behalf of surviving mosaics and wall paintings, in situ inscriptions, and rich written evidence from the Middle Ages and early modern times. The decorative program, dating back to the third quarter of the twelfth century, represents a unique testimony of its time, in its historical, theological, and art-historical aspects. The crusader lining of one of the most important monuments of early Christianity takes up local, Byzantine, and European traditions, eastern and western impulses to emphasize a locus sanctus that supports the Christian claim to universality. It is close to a miracle that such a diverse network of sometimes contradictory requirements and traditions as the one extant in crusader Holy Land merged into an exceptionally consistent programme.

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The study of sanctuaries and sacred contexts in Magna Graecia and southern Italy has undergone profound changes in recent years. The discoveries of weapons in some sanctuaries (e.g. Caulonia) in museum magazines (e.g. Paestum) together with monographic studies on specific weapons (e.g. tanks) today allow systematic research of weapons in votive contexts. Especially important is the possibility of comparing ritual practice in different cultures. This volume collects contributions on the complexity, prevalence and significance of war in votive contexts of southern Italy between the Archaic and Roman periods.

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The Magdalenian open air site of Gönnersdorf (Rhineland, Germany) continues to provide new insights into the organisation of Upper Palaeolithic human societies. This analysis of the faunal remains at the site goes far beyond a mere presentation of primary archaeozoological data to investigate the ways in which the Magdalenian site occupants incorporated hunting and subsistence into their daily life and social organisation. Methods including targeted strategies of radiocarbon dating, analyses of mortality patterns of horse, the main prey animal, meticulous recording of evidence for butchery, and the plotting and interpretation of spatial patterning of animal remains place the faunal data in context. Integrating these approaches, the authors have produced a convincing description of a Magdalenian settlement occupied seasonally in response to environmental opportunities and constraints, organised according to a strict spatial template and functioning as a semi-permanent »village«, thus foreshadowing the full sedentarism emerging in the contemporary Near East.

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The volume "Humans, environment and Chronology of the Late Glacial of the North European Plain" assembles papers presented during a workshop for the 15th Congress of the Union International des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques held in Lisbon in September 2006. The workshop was organised under the remit of U.I.S.P.P. Commission XXXII, which focuses on the "The Final Palaeolithic of the Great European Plain", and the present volume continues the series of conference proceedings that have been published at regular intervals during the past decade. This most recent contribution underlines the geographical spread and chronological depth of research into this topic, with papers ranging from those in the British Isles to the eastern Baltic and from the Paris Basin to southern Scandinavia, and covering a period of time extending from the late Magdalenian to the early Mesolithic.

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Altar and Church: Principles of Liturgy from Early Christianity is the first English edition of a book (Altar und Kirche: Prinzipien christlicher Liturgie) first published very successfully in German in 2019. It is a translation of the revised third German edition. The central themes of Stefan Heid’s book are the early Christian altar and the building of churches. It is about the beginnings of the Christian liturgy; but it is also about the principles behind the liturgy. In his Preface, the author states that the book is concerned with “those things that are so fundamental and important for Christian worship that up to the Middle Ages they were found in all churches and to this day continue to exert an influence, especially in the communities of the East. In many cases, however, the praxis has meanwhile diverged a long way from what it once was and is now increasingly subject to ideological decisions.” Whether or not what Christians use during service today is considered to be an altar is a point of contention between the denominations. However, since the liturgical reform of the Vatican Council 2, the altar has been at the centre of many redesigns of Catholic church spaces, with the early Church frequently taken as the model. But how can this be reconciled with the widespread opinion that Christianity initially knew no cult and no sacrifices? It was not until later, from the time of Emperor Constantine, that a real state-supported cult with sacrifices, altars and magnificent sacred spaces developed; the Church suffers from this historical burden to this day. This volume carves a few paths through the liturgucal jungle and arrives at results that are as surprising as they are stimulating.

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As part of a detailed introduction to the post-Reformation church topography of Norway, some 140 epitaphs preserved in all parts of Norway from the period 1550 to 1700 are documented with illustrations, descriptions and short biographies. In addition to numerous illustrations of the epitaphs, the volume contains transcriptions of all inscriptions as well as their translation into English. The epitaph genre was particularly popular in post-Reformation Lutheranism (unlike in the Reformed areas of Europe) - as it was in Norway. In addition to a comprehensive introduction to the cultural, social and geographical context of epitaphs, the volume offers a detailed insight into the (self-)representation of the elites who commissioned these epitaphs. It also names the most important artists who were entrusted with the production of the epitaphs in Norway. The main part of the volume is a detailed presentation of the surviving epitaphs in Norway's four early modern bishoprics. Pictorial motifs, inscriptions and biographical studies are included in the interpretation.

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Jerusalem is a city holy to three world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From the early Byzantine period, Christian pilgrimage here and to other holy sites became a »mass phenomenon«. Thousands of Christians set out to holy sites in Palestine, Egypt and other places in order to physically experience salvation history and seek divine intervention in their lives. Numerous travel reports, pilgrim guides and other written sources highlight important aspects of pilgrimage. In addition, many well-preserved churches, monasteries, hostels and other buildings, as well as rich archaeological findings, provide us with a vivid and synthetic picture of the history of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This volume presents the contributions of a conference held at Jerusalem in 2017. They address the phenomenon of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem from very different approaches using written and material sources. On the one hand, they ask how pilgrims travelled to the Holy Land, what was the infrastructure that made pilgrimages possible, what did they see and what impressed them. On the other hand, they approach the pilgrims themselves, their origins, their motivations and their itineraries.

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Within the research project known as ‘Harbours from the Roman Period to Middle Ages’, an international conference titled “Harbours as objects of interdisciplinary research – Archaeology + History + Geosciences” was held in Kiel in 2015. This volume includes 26 papers presented at the conference under the headings ‘Geophysics and Field Research: Developing methods’, ‘Geoarchaeology: Changing Harbour Environments’, ‘Archaeological Features: Harbour Facilities and Infrastructure’ and ‘Written and Iconographic Sources: Complementing the Material Evidence’.

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Old alleyways seem to echo with the footsteps of the Latin scholar in Mansfeld or the student in Erfurt. The reader can envisage the medieval traveller in the images of roads that Luther travelled 500 years ago. Portraits by Wittenberg painter Cranach and historical paintings of later eras illustrate biographical incidents, giving a face to Luther’s companions and opponents and a vivid impression of the places where the events took place. The text is closely linked to the images. It is not didactic; it tells Luther’s story and motivates the reader to reflect on the man, his work and his time. Across the centuries, the interested reader will find much that is familiar.

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The hill park of Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel is one of the most magnificent achievements of European garden art in existence. Even today, the gardening styles and tastes of several centuries remain visible and explorable, overlaying each other, merging and interacting to form an unforgettable whole. The guiding principle observed by all those who had a part in laying out the park over the years was the orchestration of the primeval power of water, realised in a terrain as challenging as it was inspiring – the steep slope west of the city. The work of centuries has resulted in a worldclass masterpiece of garden art, incorporating the Baroque and Romantic water displays as well as the Octagon building with the statue of Hercules, and the many and varied landscaped spaces. This booklet provides an overview of the history and development of Wilhelmshöhe Park, inviting you to discover a place of outstanding and intriguing beauty, and the numerous fine sceneries created by its garden artists over the years.

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Viewed on a large scale, Christianisation proceeded from south to north and from west to east, but besides continuity, it also repeatedly showed breaks. This volume compiles important source material from different European countries, which should enable an assessment of this complex process. An emphasis is placed on the often lesser-known archaeological sources. This also includes an evaluation of the possible statements that can be derived from the interpretation of finds and features, i.e. of art and everyday objects as well as building remains. In 28 contributions, international experts from the relevant scientific disciplines of archaeology and history explore the core question of how Christianisation processes can be recorded and assessed. Where are the origins of the religion that still shapes Europe today?

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