This collection of essays on cultural astronomy celebrates the life and work of Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at Leicester University. Taking their lead from Ruggles’ work, the papers present new research focused on three core themes in cultural astronomy: methodology, case studies, and heritage. Through this framework, they show how the study of cultural astronomy has evolved over time and share new ideas to continue advancing the field.

Published in Modern Drama.

This article argues that Suzan-Lori Parks situates metal discursively in Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) (2015) to highlight speculation’s emancipatory potential.

Published in History of Religions.

This article examines the history of yoga with attention to mantras and sacred sound. It argues that meditation on the syllable “om” at the moment of death, which is central to the construction of early yoga, has roots in a much older technique from Vedic sacrifice called the “yoking” (yukti).

by Sasha-Mae Eccleston, Classics. Eos READS for Black Lives.

The newest issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine features the cutting edge research of Laurel Bestock (Egyptology and Assyriology, JIAAW) and Sheila Bonde (History of Art and Architecture).

In Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, edited by Suzanne Newcombe and Karen O’Brien-Kop, 502-21.

Edited by Nicholas Carter, Stephen D. Houston, and Franco D. Rossi. The Adorned Body: Mapping Ancient Maya Dress. (University of Texas Press, 2020)

The Adorned Body is the first truly comprehensive book on what the ancient Maya wore, a systematic survey of dress and ornaments, from head to toe and everything in between.

Srinivas Reddy, Raya: Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara. (Juggernaut, 2020)

Srinivas Reddy is presently Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies.

Kelly Nguyen (Classics, PhD '21) was awarded the Eric Gruen Prize by the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) for her essay, "What's in a Natio: Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the Roman Empire." The Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus, of which Nguyen is a co-founder, also received the prestigious 2021 Professional Equity Award from the Women's Classical Caucus.

Published in Magdalena de Cao Viejo: An Early Colonial Town in Northern Peru, ed. J. Quilter.

During the early Colonial Period in the Americas, as an ancient way of life ended and the modern world began, indigenous peoples and European invaders confronted, resisted, and compromised with one another. Yet archaeological investigations of this complex era are rare. Magdalena de Cao is an exception: the first in-depth and heavily illustrated examination of what life was like at one culturally mixed town and church complex during the early Colonial Period in Peru.

Published in "The Archaeology of Knowledge Traditions of the Indian Ocean World."

This book examines knowledge traditions that held together the fluid and overlapping maritime worlds of the Indian Ocean in the premodern period, as evident in the material and archaeological record.

Rodríguez, Gretel. (History of Art & Architecture.) “Before and After Rome: The Incised Contours Technique in the Art of Gallia Narbonensis”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 3(1). (2020) p.3.

Published in "Defining Shugendō: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion," eds. Andrea Castiglioni, Carina Roth, and Fabio Rambelli.

Defining Shugendo brings together leading international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more than a thousand years.

Published in KIVA: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History.

Chaco Canyon (850–1130 CE) served as the regional center for Ancestral Puebloan communities in the northern U.S. Southwest. Pueblo ethnographic traditions and the archaeological record demonstrate the importance of cosmological beliefs with origins at Chaco.

Sustainable resource management is of central importance among agrarian societies in marginal drylands. In the Negev Desert, Israel, research on agropastoral resource management during Late Antiquity emphasizes intramural settlement contexts and landscape features.

Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

by Stephen Houston, Anthropology. Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography, 2020.

Houston, Stephen. (Anthropology.) “All the Small Things.” Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography. 2020.

Published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

Caribbean plantation landscapes were designed to mediate interactions between planters and enslaved laborers. In this paper, wind-powered sugar mills on the island of Montserrat are singled out as being prominent components of the plantation environment that were not only economically productive, but also served as markers of planter power and control.

Parker VanValkenburgh (Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of Social Sciences) and Andy Dufton (PhD, '17, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World) recently visited the Archaeotech podcast ("Archaeology and Big Data," Episode 133) to discuss a supplement about digital archaeology and ethical considerations they brought to the Journal of Field Archaeology.

Quoting a psalm, Carl Linnæus began a major treatise on classification with words of praise for his Creator: “How great are your works! … how filled the Earth with your possessions!”

Nguyen, Kelly. (PhD ‘21, Classics.) "Phạm Duy Khiêm, classical reception, and colonial subversion in early 20th century Vietnam and France," Classical Receptions Journal, Volume 12, Issue 3, July 2020, Pages 340–356

Houston, Stephen. (Anthropology.) A Sacrificial Sign in Maya Writing (Dmitri Beliaev and Stephen Houston) Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography. 2020.

Published in Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde.

The role of women in the processes of fertilization and procreation in ancient Egypt has been tradition-ally regarded as passive. This article sets out to challenge this view, by introducing the new evidence that the study of the Hemusets provide.