Inherent in “A Navy Flyer’s Creed” is the power of inspiration: “My country built the best airplane in the world and entrusted it to me. They trained me to fly it. I will use it to the absolute limit of my power. With my fellow pilots, aircrew and deck crews, my plane and I will do anything necessary to carry out our tremendous responsibilities. When the going is fast and rough, I will not falter. I will be uncompromising in every blow I strike. I will be humble in victory. I am a United States Navy Flyer.” In Vietnam, barely a month after the start of the Tet Offensive in 1968, one such proud United States Navy flyer applied the fundamental but sometimes forgotten maxims expressed in this creed. And he dared to risk not only his naval career, but the lives of his fellow aircrewmen in rescuing a wounded U.S. Army advisor whose time had nearly run out and whose loss of blood meant that he was only moments away from certain battlefield death. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Allen E. “Wes” Weseleskey, had been assigned to the Navy’s Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron Three, the “Seawolves” at the Vinh Long Army Airfield. His controversial mission took place on March 9, 1968 on the outskirts of Sadec, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Two ARVN companies were being overwhelmed and despite coming under heavy fire, Weseleskey decided to go in and rescue as many survivors as possible. The accompanying Seawolf is forced to turn back after taking hits, but Weseleskey with the agreement of his crew persisted in the attempt, flying so low under the treeline that the VC rocket launchers were unable to reach it. On reaching base, it was observed that the overladen helicopter "looked like it had been used as a battering ram." Allen Weseleskey was awarded the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Navy Cross during his service. This is his story, from early assignments, clashes with superior officers, missions and rescues during the Tet Offensive, to homecoming. It is the story of a quintessential flyer, an American hero who was prepared to speak his mind and take risks. It also encapsulates the vital role of the Seawolves in the Vietnam War.

Starting from the issues of globalisation and recent studies about the mechanisms of absorption of cultures into the Roman Empire, this book focuses on the Near East, an area that has received much less attention than the Western part of the Roman empire in the context of the Romanisation debate. Cimadomo seeks to develop new understandings of imperialism and colonialism, highlighting the numerous and multiple cultural elements that existed in the eastern provinces and raising many questions, such as the bilingualism of ancient societies, the relationship between different cultures and the difficulty of using modern terminologies to explain ancient phenomena. The first focus lies on the area of Galilee and collecting all the evidence for reconstructing the history of the region. The theme of the ethnicity of the Galileans is very complex, as even the literary evidence of the first centuries BC and AD regarding Galilee doesn’t specify anything about their ethnic identities. The question of the Arabs, their origins and ethnicity is also raised, with a particular focus on the Itureans and the Nabateans. Alongside a complete analysis of the territories they occupied, Cimadomo explores the different artefacts: from the sculptures to the pottery, from the temples to the coins, a picture emerges of an area influenced by different cultures where the inhabitants were able to create their own culture, different from all other parts of the Roman empire. A chapter is devoted to the Decapolis, paying attention to the literary and architectural evidences of each city and their urban development in a little-studied period. An important feature that clearly emerges is the religious nature of the earlier settlements: most of them were probably sanctuaries during the Hellenistic time, and developed only after the coming of the Romans. It was during this development that theatres took a principal role, seemingly the first structures built in every city under Roman rule. It becomes clear that the problems of homogenization and differentiation were present even in the past. Local inhabitants challenged their identity, adapting and modifying foreign impulses, creating new societies and new ways of being Roman.

The study of dress in antiquity has expanded in the last 20 years, evolving from investigations of costume and ethnicity in ancient art and texts and analyses of terms relating to textiles and their production, to broader studies of the social roles of dressed bodies in ancient contexts, texts, and images. This volume emerges from Approaches to Dress and the Body sessions at the Annual Meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research in 2016 and 2017, as well as sessions relating to ancient dress and personal adornment at the Annual Meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America in 2018. Following the broad notion of dress first presented in Eicher and Roach-Higgins in 1992 as the “assemblage of modifications of the body and/or supplements to the body,” the contributions to this volume study varied materials, including physical markings on the body, durable goods related to dressed bodies in archaeological contexts, dress as represented in the visual arts as well as in texts, most bringing overlapping bodies of evidence into play. Examining materials from a range of geographic and chronological contexts including the prehistoric Caucasus, Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant, the Aegean, Greece, the Roman world and Late Antique Central Asia, this volume takes as its starting point that dress does not simply function as a static expression of identity or status, inscribed on the body to be “read” by others, but is a dynamic component in the construction, embodiment, performance and transformation of identity.

Every war continues to dwell in the lives it touched, in the lives of those living through that time, and in those absorbed by its historical significance. The Vietnam War lives on famously and infamously, dependent on political points of view, but those who have “been there, done that” have a highly personalized window on the time they spent in Vietnam creating that history. Valor in Vietnam focuses on nineteen stories of Vietnam, stories of celebrated characters in the veteran community, compelling war narratives, vignettes of battles, and the emotional impact on the combatants. It is replete with leadership lessons as well as lessons learned that are just as applicable today as they were forty years ago. Dedicated to “our comrades-in-arms, who did not return with us from Vietnam, and to those who did, but carry scars in body, soul and spirit,” this is an anecdotal history of America’s war in Vietnam composed of firsthand narratives of Vietnam War veterans, collected by the author, who is also a Vietnam War veteran, and presented in chronological order. These are intense, emotional, and highly personal stories. The Vietnam War transcended the relatively small geographic area within which it was contained. Depending on where you served, when you served, and what your work entailed— Green Beret A-team leader near the Laotian border, rifle company commander fighting in the Ia Drang Valley, Phoenix operative in the Delta, Swift Boat skipper patroling the mangrove swamps of the U Minh forest and Ca Mau Peninsula, air force F-4 Phantom pilot over Hanoi, combat medic in the A Shau Valley, piloting a navy A-1 Skyraider over the South China Sea—your experience was likely different, dramatically different from that of other veterans. The stories in Valor in Vietnam cover all this ground... and much more. Included are the experiences of vets from all four of America’s armed forces: the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. Historical commentary is provided by prominent military historian Lewis Sorely, West Point class of 1956 and Vietnam War veteran, and author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated Vietnam history A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam (1999) and Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam (2011) among other books. This commentary provides the connective tissue between the stories: setting the stage, discussing what was going on during the war at that time, detailing the geography of the story, and presenting the then-current strategy of the war. Valor in Vietnam presents a historical overview of the war through the eyes of the participants, men and two women who lived it. Simply put, their stories serve to reflect the commitment, honor, and dedication with which America’s veterans performed their service in Vietnam.

Khnumhotep I was the first governer of the Oryx nome during Egypt’s formative Twelfth Dynasty. Appointed by Amenemhat I, his tomb at Beni Hassan is one of the most significant for its insights on a pivotal period in Egyptian history. For the first time since Newberry's publication in 1893, a record of the tomb and its preserved scenes and inscriptions is provided in colour photographs and detailed line drawings. The report includes a description of the tomb’s architecture, its various scenes on daily life, desert-hunting and militaristic activities, as well as a new copy and translation of Khnumhotep I’s biography.

Asia Minor is considered to have been a fairly prosperous region in Late Antiquity. It was rarely disturbed by external invasions and remained largely untouched by the continuous Roman-Persian conflict until very late in the period, was apparently well connected to the flourishing Mediterranean economy and, as the region closest to Constantinople, is assumed to have played an important part in the provisioning of the imperial capital and the imperial armies. When exactly this prosperity came to an end – the late sixth century, the early, middle or even later seventh century – remains a matter of debate. Likewise, the impact of factors such as the dust veil event of 536, the impact of the bubonic plague that made its first appearance in AD 541/542, the costs and consequences of Justinian’s wars, the Persian attacks of the early seventh century and, eventually the Arab incursions of around the middle of the seventh century, remains controversial. This volume explores a series of themes including the physical development of large and small settlements, their financial situation, and the proportion of public and private investment. Imperial, provincial, and local initiatives in city and countryside are compared and the main motivations examined, including civic or personal pride, military incentives and religious stimuli. The evidence presented will be used to form opinions on the impact of the plague on living circumstances in the sixth century and to evaluate the significance of the Justinianic period.

The book provides insights into the various technical approaches and underlying bodies of knowledge in the different wall painting traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age and sheds light on how these may have been interwoven.

Baqet III was the ‘great overlord’ of the Oryx province, located in the most fertile region of Egypt. The well-preserved wall scenes in his chapel record activities undertaken in the desert, on land and river, in workshops as well as those of wars and entertainments. Dated to the end of the Eleventh Dynasty, the tomb documents one of the critical times in Egyptian history. The architectural features and the scenes and inscriptions are published in colour photographs and detailed line drawings, accompanied by explanatory text.

This collection of papers by leading international experts on the subject of ancient Egyptian coffins, builds on a project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to study and record in detail its collection. Papers address a series of topics including: the development of coffins in antiquity, including iconographic and text-based studies, providing new insights into ancient Egyptian belief systems at different periods and regional differences in coffin presentation; the post-antiquity history of coffins, including their acquisition and subsequent treatment in museums around the world; developments in technical examination and methods of studying coffins, especially the use of multispectral imaging to provide non-invasive analysis of materials, and what this tells us about construction and decorative techniques at different periods and in response to the availability of different materials and increasing evidence of the re-use of materials and complete re-working of coffins for new owners, leading us to question fundamental attitudes to the purpose of coffins as a containers of human remains and the practices of craftsmen in the funerary industry. The papers stem from a conference held at the Museum to accompany a major new exhibition.

To celebrate 40 years of Egyptology at Macquarie University, Tombs, Trowels and Treasures provides an overview of the fieldwork undertaken in Egypt from the early days until the present and records our engagement in teaching, research and community outreach. Part One presents the fieldwork projects conducted by Macquarie in over 20 sites and 80 tombs. The projects are arranged by site in the chronological order in which the work was undertaken. The special, unusual and sometimes unique scenes and finds are showcased in over 650 photographs. Part Two has three sections reflecting the distinct areas of our engagement in teaching Egyptology in the Department of Ancient History, with research in Egyptology at Macquarie University through The Australian Centre for Egyptology, as well as our multi-facetted commitment to making Egyptology accessible to the wider community through The Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology. At the end of the volume, the reader will find several thematic lists. They best document the scope of what ‘Egyptology at Macquarie University’ comprises.

Seafaring is a mode of travel, a way to traverse maritime space that enables not only the transport of goods and materials but also of people and ideas — communicating and sharing knowledge across the sea and between different lands. Seagoing ships under sail were operating between the Levant, Egypt, Cyprus and Anatolia by the mid-third millennium BC and within the Aegean by the end of that millennium. By the Late Bronze Age (after ca. 1700/1600 BC), seaborne trade in the eastern Mediterranean made the region an economic epicentre, one in which there was no place for Aegean, Canaanite or Egyptian trading monopolies, or ‘thalassocracies’. At that time, the world of eastern Mediterranean seafaring and seafarers became much more complex, involving a number of different peoples in multiple networks of economic and social exchange. This much is known, or in many cases widely presumed. Is it possible to trace the origins and emergence of these early trade networks? Can we discuss at any reasonable level who was involved in these maritime ventures? Who built the early ships in which maritime trade was conducted, and who captained them? Who sailed them? Which ports and harbours were the most propitious for maritime trade? What other evidence exists for seafaring, fishing, the exploitation of marine resources and related maritime matters? This study seeks to address such questions by examining a wide range of material, documentary and iconographic evidence, and re-examining a multiplicity of varying interpretations on Bronze Age seafaring and seafarers in the eastern Mediterranean, from Anatolia in the north to Egypt in the south and west to Cyprus. The Aegean world operated on the western boundaries of this region, but is referred to more in passing than in engagement. Because the social aspects of seafaring and transport, the relationship different peoples had with the sea, and the whole notion of ‘seascapes’ are seldom discussed in the literature of the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, this volume devotes significant attention to such factors, including: mobility, connectivity, the length and purpose as well as the risk of the journey, the knowledge and experience of navigation and travel, ‘working’ the sea, the impact of distance and access to the exotic upon peoples’ identities and ideologies, and much more.

The book explores the use of inscriptions as an instrument of the cult of saints in Asia Minor between the 4th and mid-7th c. AD. In addition to the analytical chapters, the work encompasses a catalogue of around 250 inscriptions on stone, mosaics, small objects (in particular reliquaries), and graffiti, attesting to the rise and development of the cult of saints in the discussed region and period. For the first time such a catalogue includes revised full texts of inscriptions, English translations, bibliographical references, and a detailed commentary. The book was awarded the 2018 EKVAM Annual Award of the Ancient Anatolian Studies by the Izmir Center of the Archaeology of Western Anatolia. The analytical part is divided into five chapters preceded by an introduction which discusses methodological issues, presents a short history of research on the epigraphy of the cult of saints in Asia Minor, and the possibility of the application of the principles of ‘the epigraphic habit theory’ into the studies on the cult of saints. Chapter 1 shows different categories of inscriptions used in the religious practice: epitaphs for martyrs, inscriptions commemorating translations of relics, labels of reliquaries, inscribed invocations of saints, building and dedicatory inscriptions, vows, inscriptions using names of saints as a marker of identity, inscriptions attesting burials ad sanctos, inscriptions from boundary stones, inscriptions recording normative and liturgical texts, and others. Chapter 2 deals with the chronological distribution of the evidence collected. The saints chosen as addresses of their prayers and vows by the commissioners of inscriptions, and the saintly epithets, are closely discussed respectively in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. A prosopographical overview of the commissioners of inscriptions is presented in Chapter 5. This chapter also includes considerations on the motivation of donors recording their deeds by the means of inscriptions, with particular emphasis put onto the transition from the ‘rational’ to the ‘emotional’ motivation and the phenomenon of ‘the longing for the saint’. The geographical distribution of all the sources collected, and of sources illustrating cults of selected saints is shown on maps.

As reflected in the title From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Individual households and cities in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, both a micro-approach introducing microhistories of individual sites according to recent archaeological fieldwork incorporating interdisciplinary methods as well as general patterns and regional developments in Northeast Africa are discussed. This combination of research questions on the micro-level with the macro-level provides new information about cities and households in Ancient Egypt and Nubia and makes the book unique. Architectural studies as well as analyses of material culture and the new application of microarchaeology, here especially of micromorphology and archaeometric applications, are presented as case studies from sites primarily dating to the New Kingdom (Second Millennium BC). The rich potential of well-preserved but still not completely explored sites in modern Sudan, especially as direct comparison for already excavated sites located in Egypt, is in particular emphasised in the book. Settlement archaeology in Egypt and Nubia has recently moved away from a strong textual approach and generalised studies to a more site-specific approach and household studies. This new bottom-up approach applied by current fieldwork projects is demonstrated in the book. The volume is intended for all specialists at settlements sites in Northeast Africa, for students of Egyptology and Nubian Studies, but it will be of interest to anyone working in the field of settlement archaeology. It is the result of a conference on the same subject held in 2017 as the closing event of the European Research Council funded project AcrossBorders at Munich.

Stamp seals were used in a similar way to modern signet rings: a negative object used to impress a design into another material, often clay. They are common from around 7000 BC and have remained in use in parts of the world continuously until the present day. This volume focuses on the British Museum’s collection of Middle Eastern Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic (~7000–5000 BC) seals used in modern-day Syria, south-east Turkey and northern Iraq. In addition to a catalogue that includes all provenanced examples of these seals in the Museum’s collection, the volume presents a new interpretation of these objects by discussing the role of stamp seals in prehistoric society and considers how they were used and why they were made. Whereas previous studies have assessed stamp seals as purely administrative objects, this new publication argues that they should be interpreted in their own, Neolithic, context. The result is a completely fresh approach to Middle Eastern prehistoric studies that complements growing archaeological interest in this period.

The prehistoric site of Tell Sabi Abyad lies in the valley of the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates in northern Syria. Between 2001 and 2008 excavations focused on the north-western, western and southwestern slopes of the main mound (Operations III, IV and V). Relentlessly Plain presents the results of detailed investigations into the 7th millennium BC ceramic assemblages recovered from those excavations by an interdisciplinary group of scholars. The 7th millennium BC was an era of profound cultural transformations in the ancient Near East. This began with the sustained adoption of pottery c. 7000 cal BC, followed by the slow advance of the new craft as pottery containers became increasingly common. Important social, economic and ritual activities became increasingly dependent on pottery containers. Over the course of the millennium, prehistoric communities began to cook food and drink, store surpluses, and send symbolic messages via the medium of pottery vessels. Tell Sabi Abyad offers a unique vantage point from which to study these innovations. Supported by a strong program of radiocarbon dating, extensive excavations have revealed a lengthy, continuous sequence of prehistoric occupation from the start of the Late Neolithic into the Early Halaf period. Pottery changed dramatically in the course of this long trajectory. Whereas in the initial stages pottery containers were rare, at the end of the sequence they represented a mass-produced craft. Initially ceramic containers were visually conspicuous, occasionally decorated, but masses of relentlessly plain pottery characterize subsequent stages. The book combines detailed discussion of themes relevant to the study of early ceramics in the ancient Near East with extensive analyses of each of the individual wares currently distinguished at the site. Separate chapters offer perspectives on the archaeometry, the depositional context, early repairs, food residues, provenance and associated human burials.

This volume focuses on J.H. Insinger (1854/1918) as a collector of Ancient Egyptian art and maecenas of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities.