Student archaeology club Faculty of Philosophy University of Zagreb
projects 
Archaeological Library
The goal of "Archaeological Library" project is translating and publishing archaeological literature. The basic idea of this project is to make current discussions of world archaeology available in Croatian language, not only to students of archaeology but also to students of sciences related to archaeology such as anthropology, ethnology and linguistics. The professors from the Department of Archaeology are involved in the realization of this project together with the students from the Departments of English and German studies, and the publisher "Konzor" from Zagreb. Students of archaeology are thus given a chance to participate in this project as advisers for archaeological terminology. Their work will be supervised and reviewed by professors from the Department of Archaeology. For students of foreign languages this is an excellent opportunity to practice the translation of technical archaeological literature with full support of experts and lectors. We intend to publish the first issue by March 2005. The selection of literature is designed to help the students and professors of archaeology and sciences related to it, but it can also be interesting and helpful to a broader academic public. The first issue will include the following titles; The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey, Invitation to Archaeology by Philip Rahtz and Opus Caementitium-Bautechnik der Römer by Heinz-Otto Lamprecht.
Ricard Leakey, The Origin of Humankind, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1994.; Phoenix, London, 1995.
Richard Leakey is one of the leading contemporary paleoanthropologists and the author of several very successful books on the earliest period of the human past. R. Leakey was born in 1944. as the second son of famous parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, who had proved that humans did not originate from Asia, but from Africa. He has been the director of Kenya National Museum since 1968 and has conducted a series of very successful research studies on fossils. Among his most important discoveries are an almost complete skeleton of a Homo erectus child found on the banks of Turkana Lake and the very first scull of Australopithecus aethiopius. During his career, he has been awarded with twelve honorary degrees and is now one of most influential world's paleoanthropologists.
In his book "The Origin of Humankind" he did not limit his interest only to physical characteristics of early human fossil remains. Instead he concentrated on language, interaction and art of early humans so that this book in fact deals with the problem of evolution and mental development of early humans from their primate ancestor to the occurrence of subtle ways of symbolic communication.
Philip Rahtz, Invitation to Archaeology, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1985.
Philip Rahtz was born in Bristol in 1921. He is one of the most prominent British archaeologists. He has been active throughout the entire second half of 20th century. He taught at Birmingham University and in 1978 he founded the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, where he now teaches medieval archaeology. He conducted excavations on many important sites in Great Britain, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain and Ghana. All of his work was published.
His book "Invitation to Archaeology" is not only a textbook dealing with archaeological techniques and theories, but also an introduction into basic knowledge of the principles of archaeology and archaeological practice. Through the examples from his own experience, Phillip Rahtz is trying to illustrate that archaeology is not just "digging", but also studying man's struggle for survival in an often-hostile environment and his ability to adapt. That struggle is what an archaeologist must recognize in the remains his ancestors have left behind. The book also has an autobiographical character because the author refers to the examples from his own experience. It is a very interesting reading material for all who share author's interest in archaeology as a science, which changes, via new archaeological evidence, our comprehension of human history and of who we are.
Heinz-Otto Lamprecht, Opus Caementitium-Bautechnik der Römer, Beton-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1985.
Heinz-Otto Lamprecht was born 1925. He studied at Hanover Technical University, and is today teaching at the Aachen Technical University. His preoccupation is industry of building materials. He undertook several research journeys and participated in several archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean. In 1986 he won an award for scientific achievements in the area of development of technology through history.
Heinz-Otto Lamprecht is a building engineer who has spent decades exploring building techniques, and this book is a result of his work. From this book we can learn that the Roman architects have developed a new building technique 2.000 years ago. This technique was called opus caementitium, and was the predecessor of today's concrete. This technique was eventually forgotten and reinvented just a century ago. Because of this, opus caementitium is considered to be one of the most important inventions in the history of architecture. Archaeological literature mostly deals with esthetical aspects of roman architecture. The reason for this is often lack of information about the material and architectural constructions. This book informs not only archaeologists, but construction engineers and architects as well, about some of the less known facts about Roman building techniques while at the same time refers to historical facts and the art of architecture. Therefore it is basic reading material for studying roman architecture.
Contact:
Filomena Sirovica
e-mail: fs0zg[at]yahoo.com