New Releases by Ann Woodward

Pottery has become one of the major categories of artifact that is used in reconstructing the lives and habits of prehistoric people. In these 14 papers, members of the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group discuss the many ways in which pottery is used to study chronology, behavioral changes, interrelationships between people and between people and their environment, technology and production, exchange, settlement organization, cultural expression, style and symbolism.

Excavations of a large part of an extensive Iron Age settlement carried out between 1997 - 1998 at Covert Farm located near Crick in northwestern Northamptonshire.

The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ‘Wessex Culture’ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain the how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body. Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.

This volume present a detailed study of the thin, usually rectangular, pieces of pierced fine stone that occur in inhumation graves of Beaker date mainly of the second half of the third millennium cal BC. These objects are considered to be archer''s bracers or wristguards. The study forms part of a more wide-ranging research project to identify more accurately the significance of burial assemblages from Beaker and Early Bronze Age contexts in England and Wales. The key objective is to produce a detailed analysis of the nature and function of these grave goods, beginning with the bracers, and to test the hypothesis that many of the artefacts were originally designed for use as components of ritual costume or as equipment for use in religious acts and ceremonies. The volume includes an illustrated database of all recorded bracers.

From the early prehistoric period onwards the sands and gravels had been favoured for settlement, a situation seen in microcosm at Grange Park, with the claylands probably remaining heavily wooded until they were largely cleared in the Iron Age and Roman periods. The Iron Age settlements at Grange Park may be seen as outliers of the concentration of settlements in the Upper Nene Valley around Hunsbury hillfort. In the Early and Middle Saxon periods the claylands appear to have been largely abandoned for agriculture, with resultant regeneration of woodland, before in the Late Saxon and medieval periods intensive arable exploitation expanded over most of the claylands from nucleated villages generally located on the permeable geologies. Again the site at Grange Park reflects this broader pattern in microcosm, with the whole of the 193 hectare site being brought into ridge-and-furrow cultivation during the medieval period, as evidenced by documentary and cartographic sources, aerial photographs and surviving earthworks.

"Stonehenge Landscapes" is the largest digital analysis of the archaeological landscape and monuments of Stonehenge ever attempted. The study uses data from more than 1200 monuments. The contents of the Stonehenge barrows are collated for the first time and presented in a series of appendices. The result of this endeavour is a major phenomenological study of the development of the Stonehenge landscape from the Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The authors explain how the landscape emerged over time, the developing relationships between the public monuments, and how these monuments created new spaces for social action in prehistory. The way monuments were used and perceived is discussed and the results are demonstrated through interactive software which displays GIS data, animations of movement along monuments and through the landscape, as well as 3-dimensional views of the landscape, panoramic photographs and videos. Uniquely, the reader can access all the data through their web browser, permitting them to perform their own studies and produce their own reading of the landscape of Stonehenge. "Stonehenge Landscapes" is a radical step forward in archaeological publishing, integrating computing and phenomenological study: permitting new insights into a well-known landscape and allowing the reader to participate in the study and interpretation of the results. The Stonehenge Lanscapes CD includes a software program to display various data sets. The copyright owner of this program is Ronald Yorston. Archaeopress holds a licence to distribute the program as part of the electronic version of Stonehenge Landscapes.

Prehistoric barrows were not only monuments to the dead but mounds for the living - making out land, defining pathways, acting as powerful symbols, and forming a major part of perceived landscapes which welded nature and human history together.

A substantial integrated and interpretative report of the archaeological evidence for the occupation and defense of this impressive multivallate hillfort between the late Bronze Age and the Saxon and early medieval periods. Chapters examine the construction sequence of the castle, largely based on its ceramic sequence, and finds recovered from the `massacre levels'' resulting from the Roman violent conquest of the fort during the 1st century AD. Production resources and residues, largely associated with metal and stone working, agricultural features and implements as well as dress accessories and domestic items are also examined in some detail.

Lady Aoi has been restored to her position as Lady-in-Waiting in the Imperial Court of Japan. When another lady of the court elopes with the victorious general of the northern country, Lady Aoi feels she must lend her aid. Soon a number of prominent ministers of the court who have defied the dictorial general begin dying mysteriously, and once again Lady Aoi must tread lightly to find truth behind the puzzling deaths.

Trained in the Chinese healing arts, Lady Aoi stands witness to the evil that has invaded the Imperial palace in Heian Japan--a mysterious fire ignited, the princess'' quarters assailed, a young girl inexplicably murdered, a noble minister accused. Now Lady Aoi finds herself the target of a deadly enemy and must flee a court filled with spies and criminals in order to expose their illict secrets.

In French and German.

Based on new findings over the last 40 years, this book explores the ritualistic and cultic practices in Britain during the transitional period between paganism and early Christianity. A major theme running through the book is the continuity, or otherwise, between the cult sites, symbolism and rituals of the different periods: Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman.

One of the first to explore the relationship between karma and physical illnesses was Edgar Cayce, America''s famous "sleeping prophet." Cayce often told people seeking his advice that their ailments were caused by character trends set in motion in earlier lives -- "scars of the soul." Mary Ann Woodward takes up this theme and explores in depth the rich material left by Cayce on the role of karma in physical health. Scars of the Soul provides a fascinating glimpse into the underlying causes of stroke, diabetes, anemia, arthritis, allergies, epilepsy, and many other health conditions -- even homosexuality. It demonstrates the impact of the law of cause and effect upon physical health, even though centuries may intervene.

World renowned prophet and psychic Edgar Cayce gave a series of clairvoyant trance readings revolving around the central theme of reincarnation. Although Cayce was a practicing Christian, his trance readings frequently embraced concepts of Oriental religions. From these discourses comes this explanation of the powerful life forces generated by personal actions which can bless or plague us through many lifetimes.