The Rise of Man in the Gardens of Sumeria


Book Description

Lieut.-Col. Laurence Austine Waddell (1854 1938) was a British Army officer with an established reputation mainly due to a work on the 'Buddhism' of Tibet, his explorations of the Himalayas, and a biography which included records of the 1903-4 military expedition to Lhasa (Lhasa and its Mysteries). Waddell was also in the limelight due to his acquisition of Tibetan manuscripts which he donated to the British Museum. His overriding interest was in 'Aryan origins'. After learning Sanskrit and Tibetan, and in between military expeditions and gathering intelligence from the borders of Tibet in the Great Game, Waddell researched Lamaïsm. He extended his activities to Archaeology, Philology and Ethnology, and was credited with discoveries in relation to Buddha. His personal ambition was to locate records of ancient civilisation in Tibetan lamaseries. Waddell is little known as an archaeologist and scholar, in contrast with his fame in the Oriental field, due to the controversial nature of his published works dealing with 'Aryan themes'. Waddell studied Sumerian and presented evidence that an Aryan migration fleeing Sargon II carried Sumerian records to India. He interrupted his comparative studies of Sumerian and Indian king-lists to publish a work on Phoenician origins and decipherment of Indus Valley seals, the inscriptions of which he claimed were similar to Sumerian pictogram signs cited from G. A. Barton's plates, which are reproduced in this volume. Waddell's life is reconstructed from primary sources, such as letters from Marc Aurel Stein at the British Museum and Theophilus G Pinches, held in the Special Collections at the University of Glasgow Library. Special attention is paid to the contemporary reception of his theories, with the objective of re-evaluating his contribution; they are contrasted to past and present academic views, in addition to an overview of relevant discoveries in Archaeology.




Brutus of Troy


Book Description

A “fascinating [and] unique exploration” of the mythological founder of Britain, divine ancestor of King Arthur, and symbol of British identity (Your Family History). Believed to be a great-great-great grandson of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, Brutus of Troy led a voyage from Greece to Britain. Landing at Totnes in Devon, it is said that Brutus overthrew the giants who lived there, laid the foundations of Oxford University and London, and sired a line of kings that includes King Arthur and the ancestors of the present Royal Family. Genealogist Anthony Adolph traces the legend of Brutus of Troy from the Roman times onwards, looking at his popularity, his mentions in fiction, and his place in mythology of some of London’s landmarks. Brutus’ story played a crucial role in royal propaganda and foreign policy. His tale also inspired poets and playwrights including Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordworth, Dickens, and Blake. Brutus of Troy delves into how the myth shaped Britain’s identity and gave the nation a place in Classical mythologies and the Bible.







Indian Antiquary


Book Description




Language, History, Ideology


Book Description

This volume presents twelve in-depth case studies that critically examine the ways in which historical linguistics and language change interact with ideology. These varying interactions have been present since the birth of historical-comparative linguistics as a field of study. Work in historical linguistics may be appropriated or rejected for ideological reasons, most notably in the debates surrounding the Indo-European homeland; it can also by influenced by ideological biases, as in the 'alternative' histories that have been proposed for Moldovan and Maltese. The development of linguistically-defined nation states may itself fuel linguistic change, for instance through the suppression of minority languages or the division of existing languages to mirror political divisions, as occurred in the Balkans; or it may lead to the formulation of pseudo-histories designed to give a nation a more prestigious past. The book will be of interest not only to historical linguists but also to anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in language policy.