Archaeology

A Levantine Log-book – J. A. Hart – First Edition 1906 [Fine Example]

First edition of this interesting travel account published by Longmans Green, New York in 1906.

Gifted by J M Gray on March 13, 1906 in fine writing on paste down … almost exactly one month before the great San Francisco earthquake.

Octavo, 404 pages with 50 plates from photographs. Nice embossed decoration to front covers. Top edge gilt. A fine copy … really super good.

Jerome Alfred Hart (1854-1937) was from California and was a noted traveller and author who also acted as Editor of the San Francisco Argonaut.

Here he travels in the Levante to Turkey, Palestine [of the day] and Egypt as well as fitting in Malta and Naples where he visits Pompeii. A sound narrative with some good detail and well chosen illustrations.

Hart writes about the Levante as it was …

$50.00

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The Moth Hunters – Aboriginal Prehistory of the Australian Alps – Josephine Flood.

First edition of this important work – the very first history of the Aboriginal people who inhabited a large area of south-eastern Australia.

Published by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra in 1980. Large sized soft cover [no equivalent hardback] 388 pages after preface and helpful guides. Well illustrated with diagrams, images from photographs [50 plates] and sketches [60 figures, maps, tables etc.

Chapters include – archaeological background; geographical setting; ethnohistorical evidence; demography; material culture; of Moths and Men; tribal territories; rock art; settlement patterns; - Canberra, Alps, southern uplands; stone assemblages of open campsites etc etc.

Near the end we have commentary on the excavation of nine rocks shelters.

Followed by numerous appendices re specific understandings and discoveries – a wealth of information and a most rewarding book.

Readable most comprehensive work of Australian Aboriginal pre-history.

$240.00

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Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

Maureen Byrne was emerging as one of Australia’s best archaeologists before she tragically died from a terrible asthma attack in 1978, she was only 24-year-old. [See also our copy of her work on the Ross Bridge]

The massive collection of clay pipe fragments she found are held at Port Arthur. Dane and Morrison produced this thorough analysis. Published by the Department of Prehistory at the ANU, Canberra – Technical Bulletin No 2 – issued in 1979.

Large sized, original wrappers, spiral bound fifty-five pages with eleven pages of plates covering a multitude of examples.

Port Arthur established as a convict settlement in 1830 and remained so for a quarter of a century, after that it was a home for the poor and those with metal health issues. This work identifies that at some time it was likely a home for a number of military officers.

The pipes [over a thousand of them] were mainly made in Scotland which in the Victorian era was the centre of such pipe making in the World. Makers are identified – Mc Dougall, Murray, Coghill, Burns etc and the many decorative bowls that followed such lines as heraldic, heads, botanicals etc.

An unusual subject the detail of which could make you the star of the next dinner party – do people still have dinner parties?

Port Arthur its history through the pipes left behind.

$40.00

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T.E. Lawrence by his friends – Edited A.W.Lawrence 1938

“I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time. I do not see his like elsewhere. I fear whatever our need we shall never see his like again” – Churchill.

An important book in the Lawrence cannon. Published in January1938 a fourth impression, seven months after the first. Large thick octavo, 595 pages, with illustrations. No jacket (scarce) but a pretty clean and solid copy.

Contributors include numerous historical figures – Churchill, Allenby, Bernard Shaw, Kennington, Robert Graves, E.M. Forster, Ronald Storrs.

We also very much like … at the front “Dates in the life of T.E. Lawrence” the Chapter by Jonathan Cape – his Publisher and near the back “Books at Clouds Hill” a complete descriptive list and following that ”Gramophone Records at Clouds Hill”.

Voyager has fantasised about getting a copy of all the Clouds Hill books – unfortunately a number e.g. the early Morris books are out of Voyager’s pocket size.

Lawrence by his special Friends few could compete.

$90.00

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Early Image of the Sphinx and Pyramid of Khafre at Giza

An original magic lantern slide c1890 of the Sphinx and Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren) at Giza – the second largest pyramid.

Standard British magic Lantern slide by an unknown maker. Some age as can be seen but excuse it for the rarity of the image.

A striking image of Kharfe with the Sphinx in the foreground. Compare the image with a modern image taken from pretty much the same position. The Pyramid is in a remarkably similar state of condition retaining the same amount of polished coping stone near to top – Kharfe the only pyramid to retain any – they were raided to build later structures.

However, the Sphinx is quite different and the modern image by comparison shows just how much reconstruction has been carried out in the intervening 130 years.

Khafre ruled Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty between 2558 and 2553 years BC … unfortunately the tombs were robbed of anything valuable likely early on.

Khafre as it is and the Sphinx as it was.

$80.00

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Easter Island – Earth Island – Bahn and Flenley

A high quality book published by Thames and Hudson, London in 1992, a first hardcover edition.

Large squarish octavo, 240 pages, over 200 illustrations from photographs, sketches of digs, designs, maps and charts etc. Nice bibliography. A fine copy.

They reference previous visits from Cook etc and then the scientific efforts of Katherine Routledge (Voyager Hero) in WWI and then Thor Heyerdahl who brought with him William Mulloy who would become the expert on the island and its past. Bahn and Flenley are a bit harsh with their criticism of Heyerdahl.

A super book and essential for any Easter Island enthusiast. We are going to dig out some work by Mulloy shortly.

Easter Island should be part of a tight collection.

$50.00

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A Levantine Log-book – J. A. Hart – First Edition 1906 [Fine Example]

The Moth Hunters – Aboriginal Prehistory of the Australian Alps – Josephine Flood.

Clay Pipes from Port Arthur 1830-1877 – Maureen Byrne’s 1977-1978 Excavations at Port Arthur – Descriptive Account by Alexandra Dane and Richard Morrison.

T.E. Lawrence by his friends – Edited A.W.Lawrence 1938

Early Image of the Sphinx and Pyramid of Khafre at Giza

Easter Island – Earth Island – Bahn and Flenley

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