“An intriguing look into the past through The National Archives . . . It offers a glimpse into the different seals of the monarchs, nobility, and clergy.” —Tudor Blogger Royal Seals is an introduction to the seals of the kings and queens of England, Scotland and latterly the United Kingdom, as well as the Church and nobility. Ranging from Medieval times to modern day, it uses images of impressive wax seals held at The National Archives to show the historical importance of these beautiful works of art. Included are features on the great seals of famous monarchs like Richard III, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and twentieth-century monarchs, as well as insights on the role of seals in treaties and foreign policy. With ecclesiastical seals and those of the nobility and lower orders included, this is a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated guide. “It is actually very fascinating as the book looks at the different types of seal used by various monarchs and why the seal came into being. We read about some of the most notable monarchs such as Charles II, George IV, James I, Henry VIII and more. But what has to be the best part of this book produced in conjunction with The National Archives, is the high quality of the pictures, certainly fantastic and really do show off the book at its best.” —UK Historian “The book should interest readers of Medieval Archaeology, providing a good introduction to the subject through what is undoubtedly an amazing national collection.” —Medieval Archaeology

These volumes contain most of the papers of the late Jonas C. Greenfield written in English, with source and lexeme indexes, and is intended for scholars and students of the Ancient Near East, Aramaic, Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Semitic philology. Greenfield published numerous articles in a wide range of journals, some of them fairly inaccessible. He himself had begun to collect his papers, with the aim of revising and republishing them, when his sudden death intervened. It is the privilege of the editors, two close friends of Greenfield and one of his former students, to present this collection to the public. This collection shows the wealth, breadth, and creativity of Greenfield's substantial scholarship, as well as his desire to collaborate with his colleagues in academic pursuits. Jonas Greenfield Biography Prof. Jonas C. Greenfield was born in New York City in 1926 and completed his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1956. In addition to a distinguished teaching career that spanned nearly two and a half decades at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he was a member of the team of translators of the Jewish Publication Society and of the Dead Sea Scrolls Supervisory Committee of the Israel Antiquities Authority, an honorary fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Royal Asiatic Society; in 1994, he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He died unexpectedly in his sleep in 1995. Jonas was distinguished by his love of learning and his high regard for his colleagues and students--the values by which he lived as a man and a scholar.

This stunning catalogue includes color photographs of more than 230 objects, excavated in the 1930s by renowned British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley, from the third-millennium-B.C. Sumerian city of Ur. Learn the fascinating story of the excavation and preservation of these magnificent artifacts. Many of the objects are published in color and fully described for the first time—jewelry of gold and semiprecious stones, engraved seal stones, spectacular gold and lapis lazuli statuettes and musical instruments; and vessels of gold, silver, and alabaster. Curator Richard Zettler sets the stage with a history of Ur in the third millennium and the details of the actual excavations. Art historians Donald Hansen and Holly Pittman discuss the historical importance and significance of the many motifs on the most spectacular finds from the tombs.