In 2020 and 2021 the Research Group on Storage in Ancient Egypt and Sudan organised two online workshops focusing on earthen storage buildings in ancient Egypt and Nubia. Following these two meetings, the nine contributions of this volume present often unpublished case studies (from the IVth millennium BCE to the Greco-Roman Period), as well as issues and perspectives of current research. They are authored by archaeologists working in Egypt, Sudan and Western Africa as well as architects specialised in earthen architecture. The interdisciplinary approach adopted to investigate storage strategies along the ancient Nile Valley effectively address the subject’s complexity and the socioeconomic issues involved, which not only pertain to the ancient world but are also relevant to modern-day societies. Throughout the volume, functional and technical analysis of the architectural and archaeological remains helps understand how specific layouts, building materials and techniques were employed in the past to create suitable conditions for short-, medium- and long-term storage. Ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological comparisons with West African vernacular traditions are used as a fruitful line of research for better understand of building practices, storage strategies and possible volumes of archaeological remains. Furthermore, extending the scope of the research to other geographical areas shows how different human groups may have used similar responses to overcome similar technical problems. Ancient and traditional practices and know-how, on the other hand, proved effective in a contemporary onion storehouse project in Senegal to find sustainable, low-cost solutions to protection and development of local products.The volume also include the preliminary results of an experimental archaeology project which led to the construction of a mud-brick silo – according to ancient Egyptian techniques – and further ensiling. The issue is highly topical since these ancient earthen facilities offer valuable information for the current debates on sustainable strategies for foodstuff storage.

Martin Hense has been travelling to North Africa and West Asia to excavate and draw for more than 25 years. This book presents his reconstructions and archaeological drawings from various excavations with full colour illustrations. Reconstructing ancient ruins, with detailed knowledge of ancient architecture and building technology, he has become an expert over the years.

Elite units carried out many dangerous operations during the Vietnam War, the most secret and hazardous of which were conducted by the Studies and Observations Group, formed in 1964. In the years since the Vietnam War, the elite unit known as SOG has spawned many myths, legends and war stories. Special Forces medic Joe Parnar served with SOG during 1968 in FOB2/CCC near the tri-border area that gave them access to the forbidden areas of Laos and Cambodia. Parnar recounts his time with the recon men of this highly classified unit, as his job involved a unique combination of soldiering and lifesaving. His stories capture the extraordinary commitment made by all the men of SOG and reveal the special dedication of the medics, who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their teammates. Parnar also discusses his medical training with the Special Forces. During his tour with SOG, Parnar served as a dispensary medic, chase medic, Hatchet Force medic and as a recon team member. This variety of roles gave him experience not only in combat but in dealing with and treating the civilians and indigenous peoples of that area. There is a graphic account of a Laotian operation involving America’s most decorated soldier, Robert Howard, during which Parnar had to treat a man with a blown-off foot alongside nearly fifty other casualties. It is a reminder of the enormous responsibility and burden that a medic carried.

This book gathers together hitherto unpublished letters from William Kennett Loftus (1820-1858) to friends and relatives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The letters have been transcribed and are introduced by John Curtis. Loftus was a geologist attached to the Turco-Persian Frontier Commission which in the years 1849-52 was charged with establishing the border between Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In this position he was able to undertake pioneering archaeological work at sites such as Warka in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Susa in Persia (Iran). As well as providing information about Loftus’ archaeological work, there are vivid descriptions of celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria in Baghdad, contending with wild tribesmen, travelling on horseback through the Taurus Mountains in winter, working in temperatures of up to nearly 50° centigrade in the summer, and hunting hyenas and wild pigs. The book also contains genealogical information about Loftus and his family.

As the American government began a disastrous mass evacuation of its Afghan allies, a group of American veterans saw the writing on the wall—the people who had supported them on the ground over the past two decades were going to be left behind. Instead of watching on the sideline, they sprang into action. The effort became known nationally as #DigitalDunkirk, in reference to the civilian aspect of the evacuation of soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. As America's last days in Afghanistan came to a chaotic end, an ad-hoc group of veterans, intelligence assets and legislative aides undertook an extraordinary mission to honor the U.S. battlefield creed to leave no comrade behind.Relying on cell phones and satellites as their weapons, they worked feverishly around the clock to help evacuate as many Afghans who had supported U.S. troops over the past twenty years as possible. As the desperate mass of Afghans tried to flee brutal Taliban rule, Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, worked at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate in conditions that brought combat-hardened veterans to tears. After an ISIS suicide bomber detonated his S-vest, killing 13 U.S. service members, operations came to a halt.Told through the eyes of Mikael, his Afghan friend Abdul and the 2/1 Marines on the ground, including a Marine squad leader who personally led the Afghans through the airport, Life and Death at Abbey Gate tells the story behind the story of the mass evacuation of over 124,000 Americans and Afghan allies during a two-week period in the summer of 2021.This is an important story that should be read by all Americans. A story of leadership, empty government promises and the convictions of our military to stand by our allies in their time of need.

The adoption of Christianity by the Egyptian populace was well underway by the late third century, but evidence for its presence in the archaeological record from the Nile valley is sparse. This is due, in part, to the loss of ancient settlement sites beneath modern cultivation. By comparison, Ismant al-Kharab, ancient Kellis, in Dakhleh Oasis, was abandoned at the end of the fourth century and many of its structures survive intact. The villagers, moreover, left behind a wealth of artefacts and documentation. By the late third century some had converted to Christianity and by the early fourth century three churches were built to accommodate their growing numbers. The churches afford an unparalleled window into three ecclesiastical complexes that served a single village. The Large East Church, moreover, is the earliest surviving example of a purpose-built basilica in Egypt known thus far. It provides a better understanding of the development of Egyptian church architecture and has forced a reappraisal of the dates of certain features that were previously attributed to the fifth century.The community established three burial grounds: Kellis 2, with an estimated 3,500–4,000 graves, a funerary church and associated graveyard, and in a reused monumental mausoleum. Christian cemeteries are known throughout North Africa, Europe, and Britain, but in Egypt few are published in anything but a cursory manner. At Kellis, 800+ graves have been excavated; the earliest burials date to the late third century confirming the evidence of an early conversion by some villagers and its rapid expansion thereafter.This volume provides the first detailed publication of the churches and Christian burial grounds. It incorporates a discussion of the spread of Christianity in Egypt’s Southern Oasis, drawing upon data from the rich textual documentation from the site. The material culture is presented in detail, especially the extensive collection of ceramics, glass, and coins.

Olivier Nieuwenhuyse was a remarkable archaeologist whose work has transformed the study of later Neolithic societies in West Asia. He has inspired many colleagues and students in their own pursuit of archaeology. Through the analysis of material culture his aim was to reconstruct social meanings and practices of societies in the deep past. In this volume a series of colleagues and friends pay tribute to the scholarship of Olivier Nieuwenhuyse, who died much too young, and present a series of studies on the archaeology of Late Neolithic societies in West Asia.The volume includes a reflection on Olivier’s career in archaeology (Spoor). There are chapters on the key site of Tell Sabi Abyad, on which Olivier worked for many years, dealing with its buildings (Akkermans and Brüning), its funerary practices (Plug), and the use of bitumen at the site (Connan et al.). The next section on the book focusses on the analysis of tokens (Bennison-Chapman), figurines (Arntz, Düring), and ornaments (Belcher and Croucher), of various sites dating to the Late Neolithic in West Asia. Following this there are studies on the emergence of pottery in West Asia (Bartl, Özbal), the use of ceramic ‘husking trays’ (Balossi Restelli), and the design rules in various prehistoric pottery traditions (Bernbeck and Pollock). Finally, the last chapter presents new data on prehistoric Palmyra (Maqdissi and Ishaq).Colleagues working on Neolithic West Asia will find much of interest in this volume. We hope they will agree that this is a worthy tribute to the remarkable body of scholarship that Olivier Nieuwenhuyse has created.

“DAMN THE VALLEY” was a phrase regularly uttered by the men that spent any amount of time in the Arghandab River Valley during the deployment of 2 Fury to Afghanistan in 2009–2010. The valley has claimed bodies from the troops of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and more recently, the Russian Army. Operating in the valley was like nothing the men could have envisaged, they called it the “meat grinder. ” It was a deployment that the media didn’t talk about, and the government doesn’t acknowledge. Three of the company were KIA, more than a dozen suffered life-changing injuries, and half the company had Purple Hearts – not many modern-day deployments have a 52% casualty rate. At one point, the entire prosthetics ward at Walter Reed was full of the men who patrolled that deadly area of the world. Since their return, many of the survivors have struggled to move on with their lives, and the unit has been declared at "extraordinary risk" by the Department of Veteran Affairs. This book shares the perspective of the men that were on the ground for that deployment during the fighting season of 2010.

Bradley J. Parker made numerous contributions to the field of archaeology and Assyriology on a broad array of topics spanning six millennia of archaeological history in both ancient Mesopotamia and the Andes. His varied research interests included the archaeology of empires and imperial dynamics, frontiers and borderlands, households and micro-archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, aerial drone mapping, and the politics of archaeology and nationalism. This volume contains a collection of essays from his friends, colleagues and former students that cover three broad themes: household archaeology, frontiers and borderlands, and the archaeology of empire. Our goal is to explore Bradley’s indelible legacy in the field of archaeology and how his work will contribute to academic discourses in the future.

The world’s oldest still-active war correspondent, Al J. Venter has reported from the front lines for well over half a century, witnessing the horrors humanity visits upon itself in twenty-five conflict zones across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.In this memoir, Venter masterfully recounts his experiences, sharing the real stories behind the headlines and the sharp lessons he learned that enabled him to survive his countless exploits, ranging from exposing a major KGB operative in Rhodesia entirely by accident, and accompanying an Israeli force led by Ariel Sharon into Beirut, to gun-running into the United States.

“What Does This Have to Do with Archaeology?” is a collection of essays published on the occasion of Reinhard Bernbeck’s 65th birthday. The distinguished archaeologist Reinhard Bernbeck from the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at Freie Universität Berlin is an internationally highly esteemed colleague. This commemorative volume (Festschrift) reflects his great influence on many different areas of archaeological research from the Neolithic in Central Asia to contemporary archaeology in Europe. The essays are written by an international circle of colleagues who contributed scientific papers, photographs, and personal memories of joint research and scientific exchange with Reinhard Bernbeck. The book covers a wide range of subjects, from analytical discussions on ethnology, spatial theory, and digital archaeology to more practical considerations of research practices related to fieldwork, data management, and alternative modes of archaeological writing. Case studies provide insights into new investigations and re-interpretations of ancient material culture of Southwest and Central Asia. Other contributions address the political use of archaeology in the present, as well as the heritage management and the study of the most recent past.

During the roughly hundred years (ca. 1225 – 1125 BCE) that the Middle Assyrian dunnu at Tell Sabi Abyad was in operation, some forty-nine individuals were interred in graves of a striking diversity. In this book their burial type, location, orientation, position, grave goods and osteological data are analysed in order to generate new insights on Middle Assyrian society. Most graves appear to have been inhumation graves dug into abandoned spaces in and around the settlement. Men, women, and children were placed in mudbrick-lined cists, unlined pits, pre-existing architecture, and jars. Burial practices similar to those at Tell Sabi Abyad are found at many other Middle Assyrian sites, and suggest they were part of an overarching Middle Assyrian funerary repertoire. At the same time, Tell Sabi Abyad also contained cremation graves – a burial practice that is at odds with Mesopotamian views of the afterlife. These may belong to (Hurrian) deportees that chose to adhere to the funerary traditions of their homelands. The cremated remains were deposited in jars that were subsequently buried in the ground or buried at the place of the funeral pyre. While almost all graves contained some form of grave goods – usually consisting of items of bodily adornment and ceramic bowls placed close to the head and hands – the two graves with the most grave goods were both cremation graves. Their inventories contained sumptuous items of Middle Assyrian style and iconography, suggesting people of non-Assyrian backgrounds were just as capable of socio-economic success in Assyrian society.

The nature of war is constant change. We live in an era of exponential technological acceleration which is transforming how wars are waged. Today, the battlespace is transparent; multi-domain sensors can see anything, and long-range precision fire can target everything that is observed. Autonomous weapons can be unleashed into the battlespace and attack any target from above, hitting the weakest point of tanks and armoured vehicles. War now develops at hyper-speed, risking operational, informational, and organisational paralysis induced by the rapid convergence of key disrupters in the battlespace. Hit with too many attacks in multiple domains, all occurring simultaneously, the force is paralysed.Imagine a peer fight against Communist China, a new war in Europe against a resurgent Russia, or a conflict against Iran in the Middle East. How can our forces survive an enemy-first strike in these circumstances? Can we adapt to the ever-accelerating tempo of war? Will our forces be able to mask from enemy sensors? How will leaders execute command and control in a degraded communications environment? Will our command posts survive, and will our commanders see and understand what is happening in order to plan, decide, and act in real time? Written by military strategy and leadership expert, John Antal, this book addresses these tough questions and more.

The most eye-opening, and terrifying, story in Chip Reid's career as a journalist was the six weeks he spent with 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as a correspondent for NBC News. Traveling shoulder-to-shoulder with the young Marines, he had unparalleled access, witnessing them in combat, and interviewing as many as he could persuade his bosses to put on air, allowing them to tell their war stories in their own words. It took only 22 days for the Marines of 3/5 to fight their way to Baghdad, but the effects on those who fought have lasted a lifetime. They lost a number of their own in battle, and others suffered life-threatening injuries. Of those who returned - even if they avoided physical scars - many have had to find their own way through survivor's guilt and the nightmare of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with all its attendant miseries. Twenty years on, Chip sat down with the Marines of 3/5 once more. They told Chip inspiring stories of heroism in battle, of camaraderie and comrades lost, of patriotism and belief in mission, of recovery and success in both military and civilian life, and of the new appreciation for life that results from Post-Traumatic Growth. Visceral and searingly honest, this book is a tribute to the Marines for their service, and for the many sacrifices they made then, and that many still make today.

Jebel Aruda, a prominent mountain ridge overlooking the Taqba Dam lake in northern Syria, was the location of a remarkable settlement that flourished between c. 3300 and 3100 BC during the so-called Uruk period. For the inhabitants the sacredness of this high place, evidenced by the discovery of a large temple complex, seems to have taken precedent over its impractical location far above the valley of the Euphrates River. The site was destroyed under unknown circumstances, leaving behind the spectacular remains of a well preserved temple complex and numerous houses filled with a rich collection of material culture and administrative tools such as bullae and tablets. A Dutch team excavated the site between 1972 and 1982 while the Tabqua Dam was under construction. These two volumes present the results of these excavations and subsequent research of the remains, with special emphasis on the relationship between the domestic architecture and the finds.These richly illustrated volumes aim to facilitate further research and analysis of an exceptional, short-lived Uruk period settlement, comprising domestic architecture associated with a monumental temple complex. It is intended to appeal to readers interested in Mesopotamia and ancient Syria, as well as archaeologists concerned with architectural and locational analysis in a broader perspective. Volume I presents the results of the excavation, with a discussion of the individual houses and the history of the temple buildings, together with the pottery corpus, the administrative artefacts and sealings, as well as shorter chapters on other material categories (flint, stone etc). The contents of each individual house are presented in Volume II.

Jebel Aruda, a prominent mountain ridge overlooking the Taqba Dam lake in northern Syria, was the location of a remarkable settlement that flourished between c. 3300 and 3100 BC during the so-called Uruk period. For the inhabitants the sacredness of this high place, evidenced by the discovery of a large temple complex, seems to have taken precedent over its impractical location far above the valley of the Euphrates River. The site was destroyed under unknown circumstances, leaving behind the spectacular remains of a well preserved temple complex and numerous houses filled with a rich collection of material culture and administrative tools such as bullae and tablets. A Dutch team excavated the site between 1972 and 1982 while the Tabqua Dam was under construction. These two volumes present the results of these excavations and subsequent research of the remains, with special emphasis on the relationship between the domestic architecture and the finds.These richly illustrated volumes aim to facilitate further research and analysis of an exceptional, short-lived Uruk period settlement, comprising domestic architecture associated with a monumental temple complex. It is intended to appeal to readers interested in Mesopotamia and ancient Syria, as well as archaeologists concerned with architectural and locational analysis in a broader perspective. Volume I presents the results of the excavation. In Volume II the contents of each individual house are listed and illustrated as discrete room assemblages, with the specific intention of making the evidence available for more detailed analysis of the relationship between material culture and architecture and to stimulate further research into aspects such as identity and the social structure of the settlement surrounding the temples.