Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300_1800 PDF Download

Author: John N. Miksic
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 997169574X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Beneath the modern skyscrapers of Singapore lie the remains of a much older trading port, prosperous and cosmopolitan and a key node in the maritime Silk Road. This book synthesizes 25 years of archaeological research to reconstruct the 14th-century port of Singapore in greater detail than is possible for any other early Southeast Asian city. The picture that emerges is of a port where people processed raw materials, used money, and had specialized occupations. Within its defensive wall, the city was well organized and prosperous, with a cosmopolitan population that included residents from China, other parts of Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean. Fully illustrated, with more than 300 maps and colour photos, Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea presents Singapore's history in the context of Asia's long-distance maritime trade in the years between 1300 and 1800: it amounts to a dramatic new understanding of Singapore's pre-colonial past.

Author: Alessandro Baricco
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307490955
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
The year is 1861. Hervé Joncour is a French merchant of silkworms, who combs the known world for their gemlike eggs. Then circumstances compel him to travel farther, beyond the edge of the known, to a country legendary for the quality of its silk and its hostility to foreigners: Japan.There Joncour meets a woman. They do not touch; they do not even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his own country. But in the moment he does, Joncour is possessed.

Author: Geoffrey C. Gunn
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888528653
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Imagined Geographies is a pioneering work in the study of history and geography of the pre-1800 world. In this book, Gunn argues that different regions astride the maritime silk roads were not only interconnected but can also be construed as “imagined geographies.” Taking a grand civilizational perspective, five such geographic imaginaries are examined across respective chapters, namely Indian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and European including an imagined Great South Land. Drawing upon an array of marine and other archaeological examples, the author offers compelling evidence of the intertwining of political, cultural, and economic regions across the sea silk roads from ancient times until the seventeenth century. Through a thorough analysis of these five geographic imaginaries, the author sets aside purely national history and looks at the maritime realm from a broader spatial perspective. He challenges the Eurocentric concept of center and periphery and establishes a revisionist view on a decentered world regional history. This book will definitely interest history lovers from all around the world who wants to know more about how their forebears viewed their respective region and how their region fits into world history with local uniqueness. “Gunn takes large themes and makes them understandable. He is not afraid to make the grand statement, and to look at the sweep of history all in one arc. I admire that greatly; this is not history for the faint of heart. But it is history well-done, and history that can show the forest from the trees.” —Eric Tagliacozzo, John Stambaugh Professor of History, Cornell University “This is one of the most ambitious and insightful books that I have read on pre-Modern maritime Asia. The author offers fascinating perspectives on how this vast region was imagined, charted, and experienced over many centuries. That requires mastery of an immense range of scholarship and primary sources. His aim is to knit this watery world together into a conceptual whole. This mission is accomplished with style and discipline.” —Andrew R. Wilson, John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies, U.S. Naval War College

Author: Shakirah Bourne
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338642111
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology. * “A heart-wrenching adventure with big laughs and well-earned surprises.” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That's why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She's desperate to make it onto her school's cricket team because she'll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating. But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can't try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . . The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn't scare easily. Josephine knows there's something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father's first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss's clutches before it's too late?

Author: Don Silk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Coastwise shipping
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Silk & Boyd was a highly successful inter-island shipping company based in the Cook Islands. Covering nearly four decades, this book recounts Don Silk's adventures in the Pacific, his near-fatal accident and his yearning for the sea.

Author: Senake Bandaranayake
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sri Lanka
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Author: Sean Blamires
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669886301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Silk is a protein-based, usually fibrous, material produced by many invertebrates. It can be used to catch or subdue prey, protect the animal and/or its eggs, or for defence. Each type of silk has its own unique set of properties, which makes certain silks useful for human uses. One type of silk in particular, that produced by the mulberry silkworm moth, has been used for millennia as a fibre for developing luxurious textiles and apparel. Silk and the animals that produce it are thus very curious. This book overviews the diversity of silk-producing animals, comparing the types of silks produced by each of them and their functions, properties, and secretory mechanisms. The properties of each type of silk are explained by examining the chemistry of the proteins. Having established the mechanism of silk performance, the book investigates the applications of different silks, both throughout history and into the future, with explanations on how silk production is proceeding in the age of genetic engineering. Of particular mention is spider dragline (or major ampullate) silk, as it the silk considered the toughest of the silks, and is of research interest to the author.

Author: Kim Michelle Toft
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780975839003
Category : Alpahbet books
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Dive in and you will find a sea of words to learn, the letters and their animals on every page you turn.Unique handpainted silk illustrations shimmer from page to page. Informative tongue twisters written using alliteration will delight all ages.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780994238849
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The reef at night comes to life and an array of extraordinary creatures get busy creating a spectacular underwater symphony. Written in classic rhyme and illustarted with Kim Michelle Toft's unique hand painted silk , this book reminds of the urgency to preserve our fragile reef ecosystems.

Author: Helen Scales
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472911377
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The beautifully written story of shells and their makers, and our relationships with them. Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet. But watch out. Some molluscs can kill you if you eat them. Some will kill you if you stand too close. That hasn't stopped people using shells in many ways over thousands of years. They became the first jewelry and oldest currencies; they've been used as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food. Spirals in Time is an exuberant aquatic romp, revealing amazing tales of these undersea marvels. Helen Scales leads us on a journey into their realm, as she goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater on tiny wings to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards that were supposedly the source of Jason's golden fleece, and learns how shells have been exchanged for human lives, tapped for mind-bending drugs and inspired advances in medical technology. Weaving through these stories are the remarkable animals that build them, creatures with fascinating tales to tell, a myriad of spiralling shells following just a few simple rules of mathematics and evolution. Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. Some species have been overfished, others poisoned by polluted seas; perhaps most worryingly of all, molluscs are expected to fall victim to ocean acidification, a side-effect of climate change that may soon cause shells to simply melt away. But rather than dwelling on what we risk losing, Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world.