Famous oceanographer and marine scientist Robert D. Ballard played a pivotal role in last night’s episode of 30 Rock. While the Dr. Ballard on the show was portrayed by an actor, Princeton University Press is fortunate to have the real Dr. Ballard as a PUP author. Check out his recent books below.

Archaeological Oceanography is the definitive book on the newly emerging field of deep-sea archaeology. Marine archaeologists have been finding and excavating underwater shipwrecks since at least the early 1950s, but until recently their explorations have been restricted to depths considered shallow by oceanographic standards. This book describes the latest advances that enable researchers to probe the secrets of the deep ocean, and the vital contributions these advances offer to archaeology and fields like maritime history and anthropology.

“The Eternal Darkness is a straightforward look at a complicated business that shows again not just that exploration is worth doing but that even at home here on earth it is far from over. . . . [It] is not really a book about the past. It’s a promise that the ‘E’ word remains the deepest adventure of them all.”–Michael Parfit, New York Times Book Review

Here’s the love with wine and flowers!

Why are we giving away two books this week? First of all, our Facebook Page reached the 2,000 fans milestone over the weekend and 2nd, it’s Valentine’s Day. So to everyone, here’s “the love” and our thanks with some wine and flowers: Ancient Wine by Patrick E. McGovern and Orchids of Australia by John J. Riley.

“Ancient Wine tells a dramatic, factual story of wine’s beginnings at the dawn of civilization 8,000 years ago, bringing to life what I have long believed-wine has been an essential part of the gracious way of life for many cultures. Patrick McGovern takes us on a fascinating journey back to the first experiments in making this marvelous beverage. He shows the central role of wine in human history, with insights drawn from archeology, chemistry, gastronomy, and the arts. Ancient Wine will please everyone who enjoys wine. I heartily recommend it.”–Robert Mondavi, winemaker

“Vast in scope and amazing in detail, this comprehensive guide highlights a different type of orchid on each pair of beautifully designed pages. . . . Banks’ and Riley’s passion for the native orchids of Australia has clearly resulted in one of today’s finest contemporary orchid books. Well written and wonderfully illustrated, Orchids of Australia is one of the most interesting and beautiful guides available.”–The Botanical Artist

Anyone who has or who LIKES us on Facebook this week is in the draw on Friday.

Ancient Wine by Patrick E. McGovern and Orchids of Australia by John J. Riley.

If you’re attending the AIA and APA joint annual meeting in Texas, stop by our booth (no. 302) to say hello and browse new books. If you can’t make it to the meeting, we invite you to browse and download our new 2011 Ancient World catalog:

http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/ancientworld11.pdf

Check out new titles by Erich S. Gruen, Leslie Kurke, Garry Wills, Andrea Carandini, Brooke Holmes, Andrew Feldherr and many more. New paperback editions are also available for Adrienne Mayor’s The Poison King, and The First Fossil Hunters. The catalog is full of great books by great authors. You will definitely find a great book to add to your reading list and library.

You’ve seen the Vanity Fair version on the last page of each issue, the one adapted from Proust and given to celebrities to answer. Now check out Dorothy King’s blog where 2009 National Book Award Finalist and POISON KING author Adrienne Mayor channels her subject and unlocks the key to the Man, the Mith, the Legend.

“The gift of nature that I would like to have is: I am already blessed by Nature, with a magnificent physique and superb athletic prowess!”

Nice timing leading up to the April paperback release but hey, Mithradates? Would a little bit of modesty kill you?

Then again, this royal coinage shows off some luscious locks so maybe Nature really did spend a little more time crafting the king…

Just this year, the Archaeological Institute of America created a new annual book award, and has recently declared PUP authors Benjamin R. Foster and Karen Polinger Foster the first recipients of the prize for the book, Civilizations of Ancient Iraq!

The Felicia A. Holton Book Award, named in honor of the prolific journalist and co-author of Koster: Americans in Search of their Prehistoric Past, seeks to honor authors who represent “the importance and excitement of archaeology” to the general public through a major work of non-fiction (quote from the AIA’s website). In the opinion of the Felicia A. Holton award committee, the Fosters’ book did just that.

A photograph of Felicia A. Holton, namesake of the AIA’s new award – from the AIA website

Civilizations of Ancient Iraq traces the rise and fall of civilizations in Iraq over the course of millennia. Because archaeological discoveries are the source of our knowledge of ancient Iraq, the book also provides an epilogue about the discovery and future of its antiquities. It has been praised as a “crystal-clear and well-illustrated narrative” by Peter Skinner of ForeWord Magazine and declared by Bruce Elder of Sydney Morning Herald to be a “very readable overview of the importance of Iraq in its own terms and in the larger context of the forces that have shaped modern civilisation.”

To view a complete list of other PUP books that have recently won awards, please click here.

With the recent discovery of an ancient statue of King Amenhotep III (grandfather of King Tutankhamun), you may want to learn more about Egypt’s fascinating history. We invite you to read chapter one of Robert L. Tignor’s new book, Egypt: A Short History.

This is a sweeping, colorful, and concise narrative history of Egypt from the beginning of human settlement in the Nile River valley 5000 years ago to the present day. Accessible, authoritative, and richly illustrated, this is an ideal introduction and guide to Egypt’s long, brilliant, and complex history for general readers, tourists, and anyone else who wants a better understanding of this vibrant and fascinating country, one that has played a central role in world history for millennia–and that continues to do so today.

Respected historian Robert Tignor, who has lived in Egypt at different times over the course of five decades, covers all the major eras of the country’s ancient, modern, and recent history. This book provides an indispensable key to Egypt in all its layers–ancient and modern, Greek and Roman, and Christian and Islamic.

Read chapter one online:
Egypt: A Short History
By Robert L. Tignor
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9274.html

FACT: In around a.d. 900, a parchment volume of 400 folios (book pages) cost between 20 and 25 gold pieces equivalent to the earnings of one poor family for 5 years.

Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century:
A Descriptive Catalogue Sofia Kotzabassi & Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, with the collaboration of Don C. Skemer

Believe me, you don’t want to miss out on tomorrow’s (Friday’s) PUP’s Facebook/Twitter book giveaway:
Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue by Sofia Kotzabassi & Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, with the collaboration of Don C. Skemer

What’s the big fuss? It’s difficult to put into words what an awesome book this is. I’ve been trying all week to capture the essence of this book, but I don’t think I did it justice. First time I saw a copy of the book was last Friday and it blew me away. It’s like each page was hand crafted–and the binding, well, you just have to see it for yourself. The Publications of the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, do things right. Let’s just say you probably will want to build your own private library to hold this tome (as Danielle, one of our FB followers, called the book.) Second best, if you have a sturdy coffee table, you could put it there, but the book weighs 7 lbs., so be careful.

How do you enter? Go to PUP’s facebook page and click on the “like” icon to become our fan. Once you’re a fan, then you are automatically entered to win our weekly book giveaways. Or are you into Twitter? If so, go to PUP’s Twitter Page and click on the “Sign Up” button. Tomorrow afternoon, 3:30 ET, we will be picking the lucky winner. You have until then to become part of the draw. So if you “like” what we’re doing with our PUP book giveaways, let us know by becoming a PUP fan.

Last chance. Are you entered to win?

Just one of the 504 color illustrations in PUP’s book giveaway this week. They say a picture is worth a thousand words–then this illustration alone, is worth a gazillion words.

“[E]very book in this collection represents an arm stretched out across vast spaces of time. Gospel books, books of liturgy, anthologies of music and prayers, guides to holy places were there to make time itself stand still, in the eternal presence of God. This collection has many copies of such texts. They stretch over an expanse of time from the 6th to the 19th century. But the volumes that speak, perhaps, most poignantly to modern historians are those that show the reach of medieval Byzantines into the treasures of a past that was already centuries, even millennia, distant from them.”–from the Foreword, Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue

To be a part of tomorrow’s book giveaway, follow PUP on Facebook and/or Twitter. All followers are automatically entered to win.

Adrienne Mayor, author of The Poison King, looks at what may have been the cause of Alexander the Great’s death. When Alexander suddenly became ill and never recovered over 2,000 years ago, his friends thought he might have been poisoned. Did bacteria from the River Styx have a role in his death? DiscoveryNews reports the interesting possibilities at: http://bit.ly/ate2al

For more information about the River Styx poison from a working paper written by Adrienne Mayor, please visit the Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics at:

The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander

Also by Adrienne Mayor:
The Poison King:
The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy

Also Available:
Alexander the Great and His Empire:
A Short Introduction
By Pierre Briant
Translated by Amélie Kuhrt

Announcing the first publication in English of Pierre Briant’s classic short history of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian empire, from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Eschewing a conventional biographical focus, this is the only book in any language that sets the rise of Alexander’s short-lived empire within the broad context of ancient Near Eastern history under Achaemenid Persian rule, as well as against Alexander’s Macedonian background. As a renowned historian of both the Macedonians and the Persians, Briant is uniquely able to assess Alexander’s significance from the viewpoint of both the conquerors and the conquered, and to trace what changed and what stayed the same as Alexander and the Hellenistic world gained ascendancy over Darius’s Persia.

For this translation, Briant has written a new foreword and conclusion, updated the main text and the thematic annotated bibliography, and added a substantial appendix in which he assesses the current state of scholarship on Alexander and suggests some directions for future research. More than ever, this masterful work provides an original and important perspective on Alexander and his empire.

Read the introduction online at:
http://bit.ly/diViFP

Alexander the Great and His Empire:
A Short Introduction
Pierre Briant
Translated by Amélie Kuhrt

PUP author James Cuno debates Christopher Hitchens on whether the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece or remain in The British Museum. I read Hitchens’s moving and convincing piece in Vanity Fair about his visit to the new Greek museum, but I am also swayed by Cuno’s arguments about the importance of encyclopedic museums and protecting artifacts from less than ideal circumstances in their source countries (see the Iraq museums being looted, or deliberate attempts by new regimes or religions to destroy artifacts of earlier times).