This book presents a much-needed review of commercial closures for bottles and jars used in America prior to World War II. Archaeological attention to commercial closures has been rather limited. This is surprising given that data derived from bottles and jars pertain to a wide range of studies, including chronological control, trade, site functions, and methods of manufacture. Closures are an integral part of these studies, becoming particularly important after a spectacular variety of me...

Symbolic ornamentation inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art is a long-standing Western tradition. The author explores the designs of 18th century English gunsmiths who engraved classical ornamental patterns on firearms gifted or traded to American Indians. A system of allegory is found that symbolized the Americas of the New World in general, and that enshrined the American Indian peoples as "noble savages."The same allegorical context was drawn upon for symbols of national libe...

The movie Jeremiah Johnson introduced millions to the legendary mountain man, John Johnson. The real Johnson was a far cry from the Redford version. Standing 6'2" in his stocking feet and weighing nearly 250 pounds, he was a mountain man among mountain men, one of the toughest customers on the western frontier. As the story goes, one morning in 1847 Johnson returned to his Rocky Mountain trapper's cabin to find the remains of his murdered Indian wife and her unborn child. He vowed vengeanc...

In 1795 three boys discovered the top of an ancient shaft on uninhabited Oak Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The boys began to dig, and what they uncovered started the world's greatest and strangest treasure hunt but nobody knows what the treasure is. Two hundred years of courage, back-breaking effort, ingenuity, and engineering skills have failed to retrieve what is concealed there.Theories of what the treasure could be include Captain Kidd's bloodstained pirate gold, an army p...

"Remarkable….Ekirch has emptied night's pockets, and laid the contents out before us."—Arthur Krystal, The New YorkerBringing light to the shadows of history through a "rich weave of citation and archival evidence" (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians—those that unfold at night. In this "triumph of social history" (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch's "enthralling anthropology" (Ha...

**A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume.“Beautifully written . . . Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers.” —NPR, Best Books of 2017**The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white t...

A fascinating, beautifully illustrated guide to the monsters that are part of our collective psyche, featuring stories from the Lore podcast—now a streaming television series—including “They Made a Tonic,” “Passed Notes,” and “Unboxed,” as well as rare material.They live in shadows—deep in the forest, late in the night, in the dark recesses of our minds. They’re spoken of in stories and superstitions, relics of an unenlightened age, old wives’ tales, passed down th...

The #1 bestselling chapter book series of all time celebrates 25 years with new covers and a new, easy-to-use numbering system! Getting the facts behind the fiction has never looked better. Track the facts with Jack and Annie!!When Jack and Annie got back from their adventure in Magic Tree House Merlin Mission #14: A Good Night for Ghosts, they had lots of questions. What are some of the most famous ghost stories? Why do people believe in ghosts? Do most cultures have ghos...

The Hooked X is a secret symbol first found on an inscribed slab of rock, dated 1362, unearthed by a farmer in Minnesota in 1898. This mysterious symbol inspired the author to pursue a nine-year investigation on both sides of the Atlantic that led to the discovery of other artifacts and clandestine documents indicative of secret trips to North America long before Columbus. The trail of evidence led to a deep plunge into the shadowy areas of Freemasonry and the Knights Templar that most bre...

Discover the rich, turbulent history of Seattle from the 1780s to the 1860s through the story of the Native American war leader who strove to create a peaceful blended community.When the British, Spanish, and then Americans arrived in the Pacific Northwest, it may have appeared to them as an untamed wilderness. In fact, it was a fully settled and populated land. Chief Seattle was a powerful representative from this very ancient world.Here, historian David B...

The past remains essential - and inescapable. A quarter-century after the publication of his classic account of man's attitudes to his past, David Lowenthal revisits how we celebrate, expunge, contest and domesticate the past to serve present needs. He shows how nostalgia and heritage now pervade every facet of public and popular culture. History embraces nature and the cosmos as well as humanity. The past is seen and touched and tasted and smelt as well as heard and read about. Empathy, r...

Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers: The Mysteries of the Hooked X is the third book in a series that investigates the origin and meaning of a mysterious symbol originally found on the five fiercely debated medieval North American rune stones. That research led forensic geologist Scott Wolter on a world-wide search that resulted in several explosive discoveries, including the stunning realization that the Hooked X symbolizes an ideological thread that weaves through at least 3,800 years of h...