In Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas, Laurent Bricault, one of the principal scholars of the cults of Isis, presents a new interpretation of the multiple sources that present Isis as a goddess of the seas. Bricault discusses a wealth of relatively unknown archaeological and textual data, drawing on a profound knowledge of their historical context. After decades of scholarly study, Bricault offers an important contribution and a new phase in the debate on understanding the “diffusion” as well as the “reception” of the cults of Isis in the Graeco-Roman world. This book, the first English-language monograph by the leading French scholar in the field, underlines the importance of Isis Studies for broader debates in the study of ancient religion.

This authoritative short volume introduces readers to the Roman army, its structure, tactics, duties and development. One of the most successful fighting forces that the world has seen, the Roman army was inherited by the emperor Augustus who re-organized it and established its legions in military bases, many of which survived to the end of the empire. He and subsequent emperors used it as a formidable tool for expansion. Soon, however, the army became fossilized on its frontiers and changed from a mobile fighting force to a primarily defensive body. Written by a leading authority on the Roman army and the frontiers it defended and expanded, this is an invaluable book for students at school and university level, as well as a handy guide for general readers with an interest in military history, the rise and development and fall of the Roman legions, and the ancient world.

This collection of papers introduces an English-speaking audience to Bulgarian prehistory, providing an ethnography of Bulgarian archaeology and a review of the periods, people, artifacts, monuments, and problems of the field. Topics include cultures of the Bulgarian Paleolithic, use-wear analysis,

Based on the extensive excavation in the 1960s and 1970s, before flooding by artificial lakes, explores the Lepenski Vir culture, which lived in the Iron Gates Gorge of the Danube about 7,000 years ago. Investigates their origin; their geographical and chronological framework; and their role in ushering in the neolithic age, the early stages of which exhibit some Lepenski Vir traits. Discusses the environment now and then, settlements and architecture, burial rites, portable artifacts, periodization and chronology, and the European framework. Translated (from Serbian) and extensively revised from a 1993 U. of Belgrade Ph. D. dissertation. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $48.50. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR