Archaeology Books

Book SynopsisBecause of their architectural value and function as places of hygiene, relaxation and interaction, bathhouses have always played a prominent role for civilizations in Anatolia and its neighboring regions. As architectural spaces and important cultural institutions, baths have been continously shaped by social and historical change on many levels and thus constitute a rewarding subject of study for archaeologists and historians in many different sub-fields of the discipline. The outcome of a symposium organized by Koc University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul, the essays in this volume examine the evolution of the building type and its cultural context, Seljuk hamams, Ottoman hamams in the capital as well as the provinces of the empire, Safavid and Mughal baths from a comparative perspective, the Turkish bath in the West, and hamams in the painter's imagination.

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Book SynopsisThe conference Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean (ICAM) was organised in 2008 by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. While Mediterranean contacts in archaeology are a popular topic in Europe, it was the first time this theme was addressed in Egypt. The conference aimed to discuss theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of intercultural contacts in archaeology on the one hand, and to present actual case-studies of such contacts on the other. In the present volume, thirty-five contributions deal with intercultural contacts all over the Mediterranean from the Levant to Spain and from Egypt to Greece, from prehistory up to the Hellenistic period. They are presented in six sections: Theory and methodology, Identifying foreigners and immigrants, Material evidence for contact, Maritime trade and sea ports, Influences in iconography, ideology and religion, and Administration and economy.

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Book SynopsisThis volume, publishing the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (London, 2008), presents the results of the latest research and discoveries in the field which are leading to a better understanding of the origins of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. It contains 54 contributions by 67 authors hailing from around the globe. The articles are organised under ten major themes: Settlement archaeology, mortuary archaeology, object studies, technology of pottery and lithic production, early temples, interaction north and south, chronological investigations, potmark research, script as material culture and theoretical approaches. Each contribution provides new insights into the variety of factors contributing to the rise of the distinct form of the early Egyptian state. Recent discoveries from major sites such as Hierakonpolis, Abydos, and Tell el Farkha, amongst others, are also discussed in detail.

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Book SynopsisThis volume in honour of Karel Van Lerberghe contains 47 contributions by his colleagues and students dealing with the history and archaeology of the Syro-Mesopotamian area. The focus on Syria and on the Old-Babylonian period reflects Karel's main research interests. Quite some cuneiform tablets are published here for the first time (both in hand-copy and with the help of the Portable Light Dome). Most recent archaeological field research is presented in contributions concerning Ugarit, Tell Tweini, Tell Beydar and many other sites.

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Book SynopsisFor millennia, walled citadels have served both as residences for rulers and military forces and as sacred centers embodying the power of the elite. The outcome of a symposium organized by Koc University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, the essays in this volume are by leading scholars on the area that is now Turkey, from the first millennium BC through the fourteenth century AD. They examine the phenomenon of citadels in a comparative perspective in Anatolia and neighboring regions. Archaeology, art history, and history are brought to bear on the phenomenon of the citadel in its urban context.

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Book SynopsisAm Beginn der Vorbereitungsarbeiten für dieses Symposium stand die Idee, eine neue Auszeichnungskategorie für historische Wasserleitungen zu schaffen. Da die Idee ihren Ausgangspunkt in Wien hatte, fand das Symposium auch in Wien statt und der Titel der Veranstaltung lautete daher “Historische Wasserleitungen. Gestern – Heute – Morgen“. Ein besonderer Aspekt dieser internationalen Tagung sollte die Berücksichtigung der denkmalgerechten und betriebssicheren Erhaltung der vorgestellten Bauten sein. Erwünscht waren einerseits Beiträge zu beispielhaft erhaltenen historischen Wasserleitungen, die heute zumindest teilweise noch in Betrieb sind und zur Wasserversorgung verwendet werden und andererseits Fallbeispiele historischer Wasserleitungen, die unter Einbeziehung kultur-touristischer Aspekte besonders gut präsentiert sind oder es wert wären, besonders gut präsentiert zu werden. Die Tagung fand im Oktober 2011 statt und obwohl sich als Abschluss der Tagung ein eigener Workshop, an dem Vertreter von ECOVAST (European Council of the Village and Small Town) und der Frontinus-Gesellschaft teilnahmen, mit der Schaffung eines Awards für historische Wasserleitungen auseinandersetzte, gibt es bisher dazu noch keine Fortschritte. Die 22 Vorträge der Tagung liegen aber nun in diesem Band vor. Der Festvortrag nach der Eröffnung im feierlichen Rahmen zwischen den Partherreliefs des Ephesos Museums beschäftigte sich mit dem Namenspaten der Frontinus-Gesellschaft, Sextus Iulius Frontinus, der um 100 n.Chr. curator aquarum von Rom war und als solcher mit einem modernen CEO (Chief Executive Officer) verglichen wird. Einer der Höhepunkte der Tagung war die Verleihung der Frontinus-Medaille an Prof. Fanny Del Chicca in Würdigung ihrer beispielhaften wissenschaftlichen Leistung, die sie mit ihrem Buch “Frontino, De aquaeductu Urbis Romae, Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento“ erbracht hat. Ausgehend von den historischen Wasserleitungen in Wien von der Römerzeit bis zur zweiten Hochquellen-wasserleitung spannt sich der Bogen der Beiträge topographisch von Usbekistan, über Syrien, Türkei, Österreich, Deutschland, Italien, Spanien und Portugal bis nach Südamerika und zeitlich von den Hethitern über die Römer bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Dabei wurden die Aquädukte des Römischen Reiches gleichermaßen behandelt wie die Wasserleitungen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. Drei Beiträge befassen sich mit Wassertürmen als Teil von Wasserleitungen, weitere Beiträge gibt es zu mit einem Nymphäum, zu Mühlen und zur Wasserversorgung privater Nutzer. Und jeder Beitrag geht in irgendeiner Form mehr oder weniger auf den Zustand der Wasserleitungen und deren Erhaltungswürdigkeit ein, auch wenn es nicht immer einfach ist diese Bauwerke tatsächlich zu erhalten, weil sie großteils nicht mehr in Betrieb sind. Im Anhang wird die Bedeutung von Sinteranalysen bei der Erforschung von Aquädukten erörtert. Damit liegt ein weiterer interessanter Band zu historischen Wasserbauten vor.

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Book SynopsisThis volume is dedicated to Anthony J. Frendo, professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Hebrew Bible at the University of Malta, and it contains papers presented by his colleagues, students, and friends. Frendo has dedicated the largest part of his academic career - in print as well as in class - to exploring the relationship between text and artefact. Appropriately, therefore, many of the collected essays operate at this interface between disciplines while focusing on a diverse array of material, such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Punic epigraphy, Phoenician/Punic textual and material culture, ancient Near Eastern archaeology, biblical texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as elements from Maltese archaeology, including a cuneiform inscription found at a local sanctuary at Tas-Silg.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents essays on the ancient history and classical archaeology of the Black Sea. Like a Periplus, it offers a journey throughout the Pontus. The introductory chapter provides an overview of developments across the region over the last 20 years in the study of Greek colonisation, the local population and the relationship between them. The following chapters take the journey to the Cimmerians and Thrace, and how we understand them from written sources. Next to the southern Black Sea and recent surveys and excavations there, local peoples and the early Greek presence; then to the west and an account of archaeological research from the Archaic period to the Roman conquest. To the north, with an essay on recent archaeological research, a chapter on one of the local peoples, the Taurians, and another on the economy of the Greek colonies of the region, presented through an examination of Kerkinitis in the Crimea. The northern and western shores are combined in a consideration, based on epigraphic sources, of religious experience there. The final journey is to the eastern Black Sea, and a survey of recent discoveries and studies in Colchis.

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Book SynopsisThe 16th International Aegean Conference/Rencontre égéenne internationale encompasses all the geographical regions west of the Aegean (Western Mainland Greece, the Ionian islands and the Adriatic, Italy, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic islands), giving prominence to those focal points and traits of the local civilizations which interact with their Aegean counterparts of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC, not excluding their Neolithic background. Some of the issues for which HESPEROS opens the floor to discussion are the nature of Mycenaean presence in Iberia, the spread of the early technology of bronze across the Mediterranean, the expansion of phenomena connected with the Cetina “culture”, the local productions and the Mediterranean trade network of goods, such as the industry of amber, glass and murex, the distribution of tumuli and their social implications as monuments for the local elites, the lack of local manufacture of Italo-Mycenaean pottery in Sicily, the nodal role of the Balkans in a “connecting cultures” process, the documentation of Cycladic elements as far away as the Ionian islands, and the aspects of the metallurgical koine across the LBA Adriatic and the Aegean, not neglecting the examination of “traditional” questions, such as the nature of Mycenaean imports in Italy, the spread of matt-painted pottery in the SW Balkans and the degree of “Mycenaeanization” of Epirus.

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Book SynopsisThe Maltese islands occupy a distinctive place in the knowledgescape of antiquarianism and archaeology. Exceptional prehistoric monuments and extraordinary remains from later periods - Phoenician, Punic, and Roman - have continued to lure researchers to this tiniest of Mediterranean archipelagos. This collection of twenty-four papers is presented to an outstanding scholar, Anthony Bonanno, by his colleagues, former students, and friends to celebrate his remarkable achievements in the study of ancient Malta. The papers reflect his broad range of interests over a career spanning fifty years that in many respects shaped the direction of archaeology on the islands. They bridge prehistoric and classical studies, and tackle diverse topics that place the archipelago in its Mediterranean context: antiquarianism, palaeo-ecology, contextual studies, art and architecture, artefact studies, technology, economy, and identity. An epilogue written by a number of friends is a reflection of the honorand's passion for travel, discovery and engagement with people from all walks of life.

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Book SynopsisLe quatrième volume des rapports sur les nouvelles fouilles de Chagar Bazar, engagées depuis 1999, contient la publication des tombes ordinaires fouillées par les équipes de la Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de Syrie et de l’Université de Liège jusqu’en 2011. Le Corpus comprend 164 numéros de tombes et les différents chapitres du volume donnent une description archéologique aussi complète que possible de ces sépultures. Les tombes ordinaires de Chagar Bazar ont parfois fourni des données qui n’étaient pas encore reconnues sur d’autres sites de la Jézireh syrienne et le volume constitue une contribution majeure à la connaissance de l’archéologie funéraire de la région, voire de la Mésopotamie. Le contenu des tombes sont étudiées dans les quatre volumes suivants. This fourth report on the new excavations at Chagar Bazar, which were resumed in 1999, contains the publication of the ordinary graves excavated by the teams of the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria and of the University of Liège until 2011. The Corpus is composed of 164 graves numbers and the detailed archaeological description of those graves is provided in the different chapters of the volume. Most of the data collected in the ordinary graves of Chagar Bazar were not attested in the other sites of the Syrian Jezireh and the volume is a major contribution to the perception of the funerary customs in the region, or indeed in all of Mesopotamia. The furnishing of the graves is studied in the four subsequent volumes.

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Book SynopsisLes ossements humains et animaux des tombes décrites dans le quatrième volume sont étudiées dans cette publication. L’étude des ossements humains par Rania Ali a comme objectif la détermination des caractéristiques anthropologiques et des indices pathologiques. Les ossements animaux sont ceux des offrandes animales découvertes dans les tombes du Bronze moyen et ils sont étudiés en détail par Jean-Marie Cordy. This volume contains the study of the human and animal bones of the graves published in the fourth volume. The aim of the study of the human bones by Rania Ali is to determine their anthropological particularities and pathological indices. The animal bones are those of the animal offerings in the graves of the Middle Bronze age and they are carefully described by Jean-Marie Cordy.

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Book SynopsisThe four-yearly International Conference of the Society for Nubian Studies is currently the most important scientific meeting on the archaeology and the ancient history of Nubia. The 13th session took place in 2014 in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and its Proceedings contain 95 peer-reviewed papers distributed in 13 chronological or thematic sections, evidencing the breadth of subjects covered: general synthesis, prehistory, protohistory, Egypt, Napata, Meroe, Middle ages, epigraphy and linguistics, cultural heritage, fortifications, bioanthropology, man and animal, survey and fieldwork. The subjects treated are a reflexion of the scientific and cultural heritage issues facing Nubian archaeology, which is one of the most dynamic and innovative of the African continent. It is today confronted with the numerous challenges of the 21st century, which include the coordination between economic development and the protection of the environment and heritage, maintaining and encouraging preventive archaeology, as well as the valorisation of sites in the light of growing public interest.

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Book SynopsisTell Tweini or ancient Gibala is located in the Syrian coastal plain and represents the southernmost harbour of the Ugaritic Kingdom in the Late Bronze Age. As one of the few sites under excavation in the Northern Levant with a full archaeological sequence spanning the Early Bronze Age IV (ca. 2400 BCE) up to the Iron Age III period (ca. 500 BCE), Tell Tweini (Field A) is a key site for the study of the developments in the Northern Levant especially where the Bronze to Iron Age transition is concerned. The yearly missions at Tell Tweini conducted by a Belgian-Syrian team have halted since 2011; however, the continuous research of the prodigious amount of data available has not. Over the past years the research team headed by Joachim Bretschneider (University of Ghent) has focused on the study of particular groups of artefacts, ecofacts and landscape, resulting in new and exciting insights on various aspects of the settlement of Tell Tweini presented in this book.

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Book SynopsisThis book contains the proceedings of the 61e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, which was held in Geneva and Bern in Switzerland from 22nd until 26th June 2015. The overarching conference theme “Text and Image” addressed a topic of fundamental importance for historical research on ancient Near Eastern cultures and societies. The aim of the conference was to stimulate an interdisciplinary dialogue between the closely related, but increasingly diverging disciplines of Near Eastern Archaeology and Assyriology. Fifty-one articles are published in three languages, including contributions to the main topic and to a number of workshops organized in the context of the RAI, as well as reports on an extraordinary session devoted to cultural heritage.

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Book SynopsisThis volume, Alalakh and its Neighbours, represents the results of the symposium held in honour of the fifteenth anniversary of renewed excavations at Tell Atchana (Alalakh). It brings together results of ongoing interdisciplinary research projects conducted by the large and diverse Tell Atchana team with reflections on Alalakh’s connections to its wider social and geographical setting as discussed in the contributions of scholars working at nearby sites in Anatolia, Syria, and the Aegean. The papers here look both inward towards resolving lingering questions from Sir Leonard Woolley’s original excavations at the site, as well as new questions that have come up in the renewed excavations concerning life at Alalakh, and outward toward the city’s place in a regional context. Covering chronological issues, textual evidence, scientific analyses, and a wide range of material culture (including especially ceramics, metals, stone, and glass), this volume encompasses the recent results of work at this important second millennium BC site.

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Book SynopsisLe volume Ras Shamra – Ougarit XXVI est le second opus de l’opération Archéologie, patrimoine et archives, qui rassemblent des études portant plus spécifiquement sur l’exploitation scientifique des archives des fouilles anciennes de la Mission archéologique de Ras Shamra. L’ouvrage comporte quatorze articles auxquels ont contribué douze membres de la mission, rejoints par une collaboratrice extérieure. Ces recherches sont fondées sur l’édition d’une riche documentation pour une grande part inédite. Les fouilles conduites sous la direction de Claude Schaeffer sont de loin les mieux représentées et nombre de documents font partie du «Fonds C. Schaeffer» du Collège de France. D’autres fonds ont aussi été exploités parmi lesquels les sources documentaires gérées par la mission et les archives du Département des Antiquités orientales du musée du Louvre. Plusieurs études abordent l’histoire des recherches à Ras Shamra et à Minet el-Beida, avec des éclairages plus spécifiques sur le début des fouilles ou encore sur des pièces de la correspondance scientifique du fonds C. Schaeffer. D’autres articles analysent des témoins de la civilisation ougaritique, objets, inscriptions en louvite hiéroglyphique ou en hiéroglyphes égyptiens, productions locales ou importations datant en majorité de la période du Bronze récent. Ils livrent une documentation neuve sur des constructions, sur des objets inédits (poids, scarabée, bulle étiquette, harpè), apportent des données permettant une meilleure contextualisation de ces ÷uvres, ou sur d’autres déjà connues par les publications. Un troisième dossier, consacré aux études géographiques, livre la seconde contribution du programme en cours d’analyse diachronique des paysages (XVIIe–XXIe siècles), ainsi que trois nouvelles cartes numériques thématiques et une étude sur le climat de la région de Lattaquié.

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together fifty-four studies on ancient Egypt and its interconnections with neighbouring regions to celebrate the career of Colin Hope. Presented by friends, colleagues and former students, contributions to the volume offer original research and fieldwork discoveries informed by new interpretations and insights on contemporary issues in Egyptology. In recognition of Colin Hope’s extensive research interests, the subjects of discussion are wide-ranging in their exploration of the art, archaeology, language and literature of Egypt from prehistory to the pharaonic period, the Roman period and later. Also included are studies on the reception of Egyptology and discussions on museum collections and material conservation. A feature of the volume is the range of studies that come from contexts within the Nile Valley proper and the desert regions beyond. Together, the contrasting perspectives reflect important directions in an ever-expanding discipline and in the long-standing contributions made to it by Colin Hope.

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Book SynopsisBeginning his academic career in Classical Studies, John G. Younger rapidly extended his expertise into prehistoric (Bronze Age) Aegean archaeology, art and architecture, with a particular focus on ancient stone-working... and from this interest came his seminal studies on the iconography of Bronze Age Aegean stone seals, a field on which he has made an indelible mark. He also branched out into Jewish Studies, becoming an expert on early synagogues. His lifelong activism for LGBTQI+ and minority rights, and his early embrace of feminism and the crucial role that women have played in the past (not just in archaeology, but in the ancient world itself) have also informed his teaching and studies regarding ancient and modern notions about gender and sexuality, and these studies have greatly enriched our views of the ancient world, while going a long way toward counteracting the persistently male-centric interpretations of the ancient world characteristic of the past few centuries. He has been a pioneer in the establishment of LGBTQI+ academic programs in the U.S., and in the integration of modern technologies (especially computers) into Classics and archaeology. He has established himself as an international authority on Linear A, the undeciphered writing system of the Minoans; his website containing the corpus of that script is second to none in terms of its value to scholars working on Linear A. His recent and continuing investigations into the identification of prehistoric Aegean myths promises to add yet another facet to what is already a brilliant diamond of a career.

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Book SynopsisJérusalem eut histoire mouvementée et une évolution urbaine décrites par les historiens de l’Antiquité. Depuis 130 ans on a cherché à retracer les remparts, à comprendre les sièges, à restituer les grands édifices, à décrypter son urbanisme. Avec leurs regards croisés, on devinait les illustres monuments disparus : le temple d’Hérode, le temple capitolin d’Hadrien, la longue basilique chrétienne de Justinien. Ils n’avaient sous la main que le mur du Temple, le Saint-Sépulcre, le Dôme de la Roche. Ils ont sans relâche scruté Jérusalem, avec compétence et passion qui font toujours autorité, on croyait la connaître. Aujourd’hui elle est devenue un sujet qui suscite la curiosité du monde entier. Les recherches interdisciplinaires qui se multiplient apportent chaque jour de nouveaux documents. Les vieilles cartes, le potentiel de la photographie d’avant 1914 qui sort des tiroirs, la mise à disposition des technologies nouvelles comme la photographie satellitaire, le traitement des données sur ordinateur bouleversent les méthodes d’investigation. L’auteur a pris la ville à bras-le corps, dans toute sa complexité. En apprenant d’abord l’acquis accumulé avec un respect qui est dû, c’est avec une formation d’ingénieur qu’il a mené l’enquête. La méthode qui diffère l’a mené à des intuitions nouvelles. Habitant sur place et au fil des ans arpentant les rues et les ruelles, les endroits secrets, les places comme les arrière-cours il a cherché à vérifier ses intuitions un crayon en main, un décamètre et une machine à calculer. La géométrie des grands travaux dans les quartiers des princes hasmonéens, puis ceux d’Hérode, l’ampleur de l’Aelia Capitolina d’Hadrien lui sont apparues par transparence, transformées par le temps mais dont l’organisation demeure. Le croisement des axes urbains atteste la marque de leurs idéologies. L’emplacement des grandes constructions a laissé l’empreinte de leurs politiques ou de leurs propagandes concurrentes. L’auteur bouleverse la vision de la Jérusalem antique. Son habileté d’horloger excelle à décrire les grilles d’urbanisme et à placer les unes par rapport aux autres. On le suit avec une curiosité accrue au fil de la lecture. Les quartiers ont été fondés par les rois hasmonéens au IIe s. av. J-C et la place de la Porte de Damas s’ouvre en agora. Au nord du Temple, Hérode lotit un quartier pour y mettre un théâtre et son quadriportique. L’arc de l’Ecce Homo redevient une porte hérodienne percée dans le Deuxième mur de la ville. L’ambitieux petit-fils Hérode Agrippa déploie la ville au nord et le Tombeau des Rois y trouve sa place. Tout a été remanié après la destruction du Temple pour l’implantation intra-muros de la Dixième Legio Fretensis. Jérusalem a été embellie par Hadrien qui en fit une colonie romaine pour y célébrer son propre culte et celui de Jupiter, en place du Sépulcre, et sur une plate-forme sacrée de l’ancien Temple juif a trôné la statue équestre d’Hadrien. Le bilan de ces travaux est une recherche audacieuse. Elle ravive un débat qui s’annonce fécond.

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Book SynopsisThis volume publishes 34 papers, by a mixture of established and younger scholars, from the international conference 'Ionians in the East and West', organised by the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya-Empuries, Spain, and held there in October 2015, It is arranged in four parts: 'Investigating Ionia' (literary sources, language, Clazomenae, Teos, Ephesus), 'Ionians, West and East' (pottery analysis, coins, mercenaries, ethnicity and identity, memory, Naukratis, etc.), 'Western Directions' (Italy, Sicily and Southern France, but predominantly Spain) and 'Eastern Directions' (all shores of the Black Sea). Some papers have a broad focus, others are confined to particular sites and discoveries. It is illustrated extensively. Most papers are in English.

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Book SynopsisVolume 12 of Thorikos Reports and Studies contains eleven contributions, authored or co-authored by more than 30 scholars currently involved in the multi-disciplinary archaeological project under way at Thorikos in Attica, Greece. Eight of the papers relate to the recent surveys undertaken on the site, and include methodological and technical aspects as well as discussions of the multi-faceted findings: the 2012-2017 survey of the southern Velatouri hill, the survey begun in 2018-2019 of the northern Velatouri, and related sondages and finds. Moreover, two other material contexts, previously excavated in the so-called Industrial Quarter at Thorikos, are explored in depth: House 1 and the olpai found here and elsewhere, including a discussion of foundation offerings, and Insula 10, discussing the attribution of the sacred structure identified here. A detailed study of Attic Final Protogeometric pottery of wider, regional interest is also included.

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Book SynopsisThe Syrian and Iraqi civil wars, with their immense toll of human suffering, have also fuelled an unprecedented wave of heritage destruction. The deliberate ruin of cultural property in Syria and Iraq by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also referred to as IS, ISIS, ISIL or Da’esh) and other belligerents – widely broadcast across traditional and social media – has horrified heritage professionals and the general public alike. How the heritage community reacted is now coming under increasing scrutiny. The low impact of some projects and, indeed, the total ineffectiveness of others has been highlighted by various commentators. Now is the time to evaluate our responses, reflecting on the successes and failures, in the hope of making future efforts more effective. It is intended that this volume will contribute to this process. This book reflects the proceedings of two workshops, held in Marburg and Melbourne in 2017, that dealt with these matters, and the contributions provide a range of insights into the problems (and solutions) involved. Rather than lengthy formal papers, they offer accounts – in many cases first-hand reports or personal reflections – on the situation as it unfolded.

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Book SynopsisIn dieser interdisziplinären Studie untersucht Alexander Ahrens ägyptische Objekte, die in der nördlichen Levante (Libanon, Syrien und Regionen der Türkei) in Kontexten des zweiten Jahrtausends v. Chr. gefunden wurden. Er stützt sich auf Methoden der Archäologie und der soziokulturellen Theorie, um mittels einer eingehenden Analyse der Fundkontexte Strategien der Rezeption und eine damit verbundene Emulation der ägyptischen materiellen Kultur und ihrer spezifischen Motivik durch nordlevantinische Eliten zu charakterisieren. Die Studie vermittelt so ein besseres Verständnis der Komplexität und Vielfalt interkultureller Beziehungen im bronzezeitlichen östlichen Mittelmeerraum. In this interdisciplinary study, Alexander Ahrens examines Egyptian objects found in the northern Levant (covering the modern states of Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey) in archaeological contexts dated to the second millennium BCE. Drawing on methods from archaeology and sociocultural theory, he provides a characterization of the perception and accompanying emulation of Egyptian material culture within northern Levantine elite spheres. Analyzing many of the artifacts’ find contexts, he proposes a new way to explore their ancient perception and reception through the study of archaeological and historical sources. The book thus enhances our understanding of the complexity and diversity of intercultural relations in the eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age.

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Book SynopsisVolume IV of the ed-Dur series completes the previous publications on glass, tombs and architectural remains discovered during the Belgian excavations from 1986 until 1995 at ed-Dur. This harbor site was the largest settlement of the late 1st century BCE and 1st century CE on the Arabian coast between Qatar and the promontory of Musandam. The range of the finds reflects the site’s extensive commercial contacts as well as its local SE-Arabian identity. It was part of an Arabian kingdom and could be the Omana mentioned by Classical authors. Apart from local produce that provide insight in the local economy and subsistence strategies, there are imports from Rome and the Mediterranean basin, Mesopotamia and Iran, the Indian subcontinent, North-East and Southern Arabia. The volume first discusses the regional SE-Arabian Abiel coinage and the presence of foreign coins, followed by metal finds and beads, bone and ivory, stone, pottery, shell, coral, glass and plaster objects.

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Book SynopsisThe Neolithic (7000-5000 BCE) of the North Aegean - comprising western Turkey, northern and central Greece, and the north Aegean islands - saw an influx of new subsistence strategies into an already established region. Worked animal bone, including tools and objects, was one element of the prehistoric toolkit that was consistently created, used, and discarded by North Aegean communities to support their new agricultural way of life. This study, a comparative analysis of almost 100 sites, furthers our understanding of Neolithic North Aegean worked animal bone assemblages through a series of research questions drawn from evidence in published reports and new research which have burgeoned in the last two decades. Results from this research reveal how bone was transformed into tools and objects and in what ways they were used in everyday activities, such as textile manufacture, hide preparation, and pottery moulding. An emphasis on the important symbolic role worked bone played during special events and their interaction with this intricate landscape is also stressed, highlighting the complexity of the region and the period.

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Book SynopsisThe first in a series of volumes generated by the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project, this explores the use of pigments and the experience of colour in the town founded around 1300BC as a centre of the pharaonic administration of Upper Nubia (Kush). Combining scientific analyses, archaeological fieldwork, and modern ethnographic perspectives, the research provides nuanced perspectives on lived experience at Amara West. This study outlines the evidence for paint products at the site from pigments, palettes, grindstones, painted walls, and coffin fragments, and uses several scientific techniques to identify the materials used. The evidence is used alongside interviews with current residents of the area around Amara West, and experiments with grinding and painting, to discuss the importance of the process of collecting and preparing the paint in ancient times, and its place in the interconnected taskspaces in the ancient town.

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Book SynopsisThe 18th International Aegean Conference on the subject of Zoia (literally ‘creatures endowed with an anima or life force’) was conceived and organized by Robert Laffineur and Tom Palaima, director of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP) in the Department of Classics at The University of Texas at Austin, marking 30 years of their collaboration on Aegaeum volumes and conferences. In the event, Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the conference proper. This volume, however, testifies to the dedication of Aegeanist scholars worldwide to accomplish the scholarly objectives of the proposed conference: to examine, from a wide range of specialist research perspectives, how the human societies that developed in the Aegean area in the Middle and Late Bronze Age and the human beings within them interacted with wild, domesticated and semi-domesticated animals of the sea, sky and land socio-politically, economically, religiously, ideologically, imaginatively and artistically. Diamantis Panagiotopoulos stresses in his keynote paper that the 28 papers in Zoia reflect “the dynamic development of Human-Animal Studies” in the last two decades. Papers are grouped under five main topics: identification of the animal environment; human uses of domesticated and wild animals, material economy, diet and society; hybrid and fantastic creatures in animal iconography (seals, frescoes and other forms of representation); animals in beliefs and religion (their contemporary symbolic uses and later uses as relics or heirlooms); and animals in texts (Indo-European and non-Indo-European; Cretan Pictographic, Linear A, Linear B and later Homeric and historical Greek). The results are comprehensive, eclectic, scientifically informative and intellectually provocative. They help us see protohistoric Aegean cultures as the non-human animals inextricably linked to them saw them.

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Book SynopsisLe site archéologique de Sangtarashan est situé à l’ouest de l’Iran, dans la province du Luristan, au cœur de la chaîne montagneuse du Zagros. Découvert en 2002, il a fait l’objet de six campagnes de fouilles entre 2005 et 2011. Dès les premières recherches, il est apparu que le site présentait des caractéristiques exceptionnelles. Au sein d’une structure circulaire en pierre, chevauchée par plusieurs autres constructions, les fouilles ont mis au jour plus de deux mille objets. Parmi eux, des centaines d’objets métalliques connus sous le nom de Bronzes du Luristan. Ces bronzes étaient enterrés par lot, insérés dans les murs ou éparpillés sur toute la surface du site. L’étude architecturale et l’examen de la nature et de la distribution des objets conduisent à penser que le site de Sangtarashan serait un sanctuaire ayant connu deux phases d’occupation. Les dépôts de la première phase sont constitués d’armes et de vases enfouis dans le sol. Ceux de la seconde phase sont constitués d’objets isolés, de taille plus petite et de nature plus variée, déposés dans la maçonnerie des bâtiments. La première occupation daterait de l’ ge du Fer I-II, la seconde de l’ ge du Fer II-III (et peut-être même IV). L’hypothèse d’une fonction non cultuelle pendant la seconde phase n’est pas totalement écartée au regard de la prolongation des structures architecturales vers l’ouest et de la position des objets éparpillés sur toute la surface du site. Avec Sorkhdom-i Lori, Sangtarashan est le deuxième sanctuaire de l’ ge du Fer de la région du Zagros central où les fidèles déposaient des objets dans le sol ou dans la maçonnerie des bâtiments. La richesse des objets métalliques découverts fait de Sangtarashan un site de référence pour l’étude des Bronzes du Luristan. L’analyse du matériel archéologique permet désormais de proposer une datation pour des objets jusqu’alors connus uniquement par des exemplaires issus de fouilles clandestines.

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Book SynopsisL’ouvrage Ougarit, un anniversaire, bilans et recherches en cours (Ras Shamra – Ougarit XXVIII), édité grâce au soutien du Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres et de la Fondation Hugot du Collège de France, rassemble vingt-cinq contributions. Deux-tiers des articles correspondent à des communications données lors du colloque international Ougarit, 90 ans après (Collège de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, 13-16 novembre 2019). Trois volets structurent l’ouvrage. Le premier est consacré aux activités de la mission (missions, publications, actions de valorisation). Le second volet rassemble des synthèses consacrées à plusieurs champs disciplinaires, la publication d’inédits, les résultats d’études techniques et archéométriques, ainsi que des mises au point sur des recherches en cours. L’éventail des thématiques traitées est large. L’ouvrage n’illustre toutefois qu’une partie des travaux menés dans la cadre de la mission de Ras Shamra – Ougarit. La troisième partie du livre accueille des études consacrées à d’autres documentations, archéologiques ou épigraphiques, dont l’analyse apporte un éclairage sur Ougarit et sur le contexte dans lequel s’est développée la civilisation ougaritique. De Chypre au Kurdistan, le cadre chronologique est celui de l’âge du Bronze. Les trente-trois auteurs sont des membres et collaborateurs (post-doctorants, chercheurs, enseignants-chercheurs) de la mission ou des chercheurs extérieurs, spécialistes de la Méditerranée orientale et du Proche-Orient. Archéologues, historiens, épigraphistes, géographes... croisent leurs regards, confrontent leurs idées, pour faire revivre cette civilisation du Levant nord, tout en convoquant une réflexion historiographique et épistémologique.

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Book SynopsisPalestinian Traditional Pottery stands out, first and foremost, as a scholarly testimony to the disappeared and disappearing craft of traditional pottery making by Palestinian women and men potters. It offers a contribution that has been long awaited and is long overdue. The material it provides, both textual and pictorial, is based on field research completed in the 1970s by two very different, yet complementary, researchers and authors. For various reasons, this material lay dormant over four decades until it was retrieved and returned to the light of day. The occasion for the creation of the volume was the death in 2017 in the U.S. of one of the authors, John Landgraf. Fortunately, the other author, Owen Rye in Australia, had most of the written material still in his possession, which was then digitized, arranged, and edited. The graphic material, especially the black and white – and beautiful color – photographs, taken by the two authors, was also gathered and cataloged for use in the book. The photographs of the women potters are particularly poignant, since they date to the final decade of their pottery making activity. Assembling and producing the book required months of painstaking collaborative work by the editors and the layout artist, with results that are worthy of their efforts. This volume invites readers into the two distinct worlds of Palestinian women and men potters at work in the 1970s: the women in or outside their village homes, and the men in their mostly urban workshops. With Palestinian culture under siege, the scholarship presented here aims to record and preserve a key part of that culture. It stands out equally as a memorial volume for John Landgraf, who lived in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1980, dedicating himself to archaeology, ethnography, and social work.

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Book SynopsisJerusalem had a turbulent history and an urban evolution, which we find described by the historians of Antiquity. For 130 years attempts have been made to trace the lines of the ramparts, understand the sieges, reconstruct the great buildings and reveal the underlying planning. Crusader eyes first discerned the great monuments, long since vanished: Herod’s Temple, Hadrian’s Capitoline temple and Justinian’s long Christian basilica. All they had in front of them was the wall of the Temple, Constantine’s Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock. They scrutinized Jerusalem tirelessly, with a skill and a passion that still demand respect, and they felt they knew the city. Jerusalem has become a subject that arouses curiosity around the world. The ever-increasing quantity of interdisciplinary research is bringing new documents to light every day. Old maps, the potential of pre-1914 photographs found tucked away in drawers, and the availability of new technologies like satellite photography and computer data-processing are radically changing the methods of investigation. Dominique-Marie Cabaret tackles the whole complexity of the city head-on. Respectfully taking the current state of knowledge on board he conducts his investigation with the analytical skill of an engineer. His alternative approach has opened up new insights for him. Living on the spot, and familiar with the city from years of walking the streets and alleys, secret places, squares and courtyards, he has sought to test his intuitions armed with a pencil, a ten-metre tape-measure and a calculator. He found himself able to discern the geometry of the great works in the districts of the Hasmonean princes, then those of Herod and the whole area of Hadrian’s Aelia Capitolina, transformed by the ravages of time but with their organisational principles still intact. The intersections of the city’s main thoroughfares bear the marks of their ideologies. The sites of the great buildings have left the imprint of their policies or their competing propaganda. Cabaret radically changes our view of ancient Jerusalem. His watchmaker skills are put to excellent use as he describes the city planning grids and places them in relation to each other. Our curiosity builds as we follow along in his text. The city’s quarters were founded by the Hasmonean kings in thesecond century BC and the Damascus Gate square opens into an agora. To the north of the Temple, Herod prepared a quarter for a theatre and its quadriporticus. The Ecce Homo Arch comes back to life as a Herodian gate set in the city’s Second Wall. His ambitious grandson Herod Agrippa extended the city to the north, and this is where the Tomb of the Kings has its place. Everything changed following the destruction of the Temple to accommodate the Tenth Legio Fretensis inside the city walls. Jerusalem was embellished by Hadrian, who made it a Roman colony where he himself and Jupiter were to be worshipped, on the site of the Holy Sepulchre, and the equestrian statue of Hadrian was given pride of place on a sacred platform of the former Jewish Temple. The bold thesis of this work will breathe new life into what promises to become a fruitful debate.

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Book SynopsisL’étude de l’art des arpenteurs romains a longtemps été le lot des spécialistes des lettres classiques. La fin du xxe siècle a vu se multiplier des expériences pratiques d’évaluations de nos connaissances en la matière et l’auteur a pris conscience que son art était proche de celui de l’agrimensor romain, art que l’électronique et la micro-informatique allaient reléguer au musée. L’étude des fortifications de Samra est l’occasion d’aborder l’art des places-fortes romaines, celui du metator et du mensor. Ayant retrouvé leur trace dans les ruines, il ne restait que quelques pas à franchir pour vérifier virtuellement le tracé des chaussées de la voie de Trajan entre Bostra et Philadelphia. La recherche autour de Samra a été fructueuse. Il a fallu comprendre l’orientation des chaussées et leur place dans le quadrillage des centuriations rurales malgré leur absence dans le paysage ; il a fallu vérifier les distances sur l’antique Table de Peutinger, les mesurer entre le centre des sites-étapes et comprendre les numérotations des bornes. À la suite des grands explorateurs de la steppe alors vierge de Jordanie du Nord, l’aventure commencée au long de la voie pour retrouver les bornes milliaires s’est poursuivie avec le déchiffrage des cartes sommaires de Schumacher, des calculs effectués par Germer-Durand quand il progressait dans les wadis embaumés par les lauriers roses. L’étude a même résolu l’énigme de la base maçonnée au bord de la ruine de Samra. Grâce à ces précisions, le site de Gadda a été retrouvé à el-Hadid-Zarqa. Samra-Hatita retrouve sa place conforme à la Table de Peutinger, à 33 milles romains du tétrapyle au centre de Bostra, et à 24 milles romains du centre d’Amman, rue King Talal, au débouché du kardo. L’ouvrage présente en détail les calculs effectués sur le terrain, sur les cartes et sur les photos satellites, retrouve les mesures exactes des unités de longueurs romaines, analyse les méthodes de travail des arpenteurs romains et leurs démarches géométriques sur le terrain, place leurs grilles sur le paysage. L’art des arpenteurs antiques revit dans les découvertes du géomètre d’aujourd’hui.

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Book SynopsisQu’a reflété jadis ce miroir minoen ou mycénien à la surface boursouflée d’oxydes verts, encore mêlé de la terre de la sépulture dans laquelle il fut déposé ? Ancien luxe de commodité, fruit d’une précision technique et artistique, et de matériaux importés à grands frais, ne pouvait avoir un miroir en métal qui veut : il y a plus de trente siècles, l’usage commun est celui du plan d’eau, du bol d’huile, qui offrent après tout un reflet suffisant en réponse à d’autres besoins. Qu’a-t-on recherché, dès lors, au travers de son éclat brillant aux reflets cuivrés ? S’agissait-il d’impressionner par un nouveau mode de vie fait de choses superflues, d’imiter les codes hiérarchiques des cours lointaines orientales raffinées, de rivaliser de prestige et d’innovation avec les pouvoirs voisins ? Et quelles furent les interprétations merveilleuses de ses propriétés optiques ? C’est par ces questions que ce livre tente de réviser l’image déprimée d’ornement banal qui a longtemps prévalu sur le miroir égéen ancien, dont les premières apparitions et l’évolution, au cours du deuxième millénaire avant notre ère, ont été portées par de nouveaux flux idéologiques, sociaux et politiques, mais aussi commerciaux, entre les rives grecques et celles du pourtour méditerranéen. Plus d’un tiers du corpus archéologique, estimé à environ 200 pièces, a été étudié, photographié et dessiné dans les réserves des musées helléniques. Les exemplaires les mieux conservés, à manche finement ouvré, font souvent partie des pièces maîtresses de leurs collections. Objets, contextes archéologiques, et sources de nature et de provenances diverses (iconographiques, littéraires, ethnographiques), sont associés pour offrir un regard actualisé sur un pan de l’histoire du miroir ancien, avec ses acteurs, ses processus, et ses trajectoires. La séquence d’évènements ainsi reconstituée montre que l’apparition du miroir en métal dans les sociétés égéennes, plutôt que d’être le simple corollaire de changements culturels, sociaux, ou politiques, en est également le catalyseur.

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