Search results for ""archaeopress""

It is commonly recognized that the Cedars of Lebanon were prized in the ancient world, but how can the complex archaeological role of the Cedrus genus be articulated in terms that go beyond its interactions with humans alone? And to what extent can ancient ships and boats made of this material demonstrate such intimate relations with wood? Drawing from object-oriented ontologies and other ‘new materialisms,’ Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships constructs a hylocentric anti-narrative spreading from the Cretaceous to the contemporary. With a dual focus on the woods and the watercraft, and on the considerable historical overlap between them, the book takes another step in the direction of challenging the conceptual binaries of nature/culture and subject/object, while providing an up-to-date synthesis of the relevant archaeological and historical data. Binding physical properties and metaphorical manifestations, the fluctuating presence of cedar (forests, trees, and wood) in religious thought is interpreted as having had a direct bearing on shipbuilding in the ancient East Mediterranean. Close and diachronic excavations of the interstices of allure, lore, and metaphor can begin to navigate the (meta) physical relationships between the forested mountain and the forest afloat, and their myriad unique realities.

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Filiform rock art appears as a spontaneous technique, more simple and immediate than pecking, good either for autonomous strands of expression, or for sketches and first drafts regarding works of painting or pecking. According to the order of presentation of the session’s papers during the XVII IUPPS (UISPP) Conference in Burgos, the articles published here are the following: Late prehistoric incised rock art in southern Europe: a contribution for its typology, by Fernando A. Coimbra, where the author presents a preliminary typology of this kind of rock art, divided in two groups (geometric and figurative), approaching not only common themes to several countries, but also some examples that have only a regional character; Filiform rock art in mount Bego (Tende, Maritime Alps, France), by Nicoletta Bianchi, which analyses some cases where pecked carvings overlap filiforms, therefore pre-dating pecked engravings and studies the interaction of the two carvings tradition; Filiform figures in the rock art of Valcamonica from Prehistory to the Roman age, by Umberto Sansoni, Cinzia Bettineschi and Silvana Gavaldo, that provides a general corpus of the figurative incised rock art of Valcamonica with a quantitative and qualitative approach, by considering the typological variety, the long-lasting chronological dating and the strong relation with the local pecked rock art of the Camunian filiforms; Threadlike engravings of historical period on the rocks and plaster of churches and civic buildings. Some comparisons and proposals of interpretation, by Federico Troletti, which presents the incised engravings exclusively of historical time located in some sites of Valcamonica – the area of Campanine di Cimbergo and Monticolo di Darfo; The rock art from Figueiredo (Sertã, Portugal): typology, parallels and chronology, by Fernando A. Coimbra and Sara Garcês, focusing vi on the description of the engravings from three carved rocks with incised motives from the place of Figueiredo, in central Portugal, which were studied during different fieldworks. Two other papers of researchers that couldn’t attend the Conference were also presented: The filiform rock art from Kosovo, by Shemsi Krasniqi, which presents recent findings from Kosovo with a similar typology of figures from other European countries; The filiform rock engravings of the Parete Manzi of Montelapiano (Chieti, Italy), by Tomaso Di Fraia, which analyses the problematic of incised rock art from a rock shelter in the centre of Italy.

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This is the fifth volume in the series Rock Art Studies: News of the World. Like the previous editions, it covers rock art research and management across the globe over a five-year period, in this case the years 2010 to 2014 inclusive. The current volume once again shows the wide variety of approaches that have been taken in different parts of the world, although one constant has been the impact of new techniques of recording rock art. This is especially evident in the realm of computer enhancement of the frequently faded and weathered rock imagery that is the subject of our study. As has been the case in past volumes, this collection of papers includes all of the latest discoveries, including in areas hitherto not known to contain rock art. The latest dating research reported in this fifth volume, sometimes returning surprisingly early results, serves to extend our knowledge of the age of rock art as well as highlight the limits of current models for its development around the world.

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Since its conception in 1998, the Iron Age Research Student Symposium (formerly ‘Seminar’) has provided postgraduates in the archaeology of Iron Age Britain an opportunity to present their current research in a friendly atmosphere. During the course of both formal seminars and informal outings (such as field trips, dinners, and the traditional pub quiz), the Iron Age Research Student Symposium (IARSS) gives students the ability to discuss their research with colleagues and peers, in addition to a number of outstanding lecturers and professors in Iron Age studies. Previous proceedings volumes (Davis et al. 2006; Humphrey 2003; Sterry et al. 2010), also offered participants the prospect of publishing their seminar paper. As a result, IARSS has become a fixture in the development of new academics while at the same time contributing fresh perspectives to Iron Age dialogues. This proceedings volume, organised to reflect three general themes (migration/interaction, material culture and the built environment), accomplishes two things. First, it provides an accessible survey of emerging concepts, ideas, methods, and fieldwork that will shape future study of the Iron Age. Second, it is an outline, not just of what the 17th IARSS accomplished, but also of a broader scheme envisioned by the organisers for future events in this Symposium series. It is the (perhaps wide-eyed) expectation of the organisers that the IARSS can and should expand to offer further opportunities to research students of the Iron Age, and they firmly hope that this volume aids in the promotion of this annual Symposium, as well as the ideas of the contributing authors.

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As part of a series of research projects on the Archaeology of hunter-gatherers societies in the Southern Pampean Hills this presents, among other things, the study of various aspects of the organization of lithic technology and strategies for the use of lithic resources by prehistoric populations. This is in order to understand the social aspects that allow us to recognize and describe habitus or ways of doing things. In this book we studied lithic assemblages, in the manner described above from stratigraphic levels of the Alero Deodoro Roca (Deodoro Roca Rockshelter) comprising chronologies between ca. 3000 years BP to ca. 3600 years BP. We propose that behind the technical movements, organization of the production, distribution of activities in space, the selection of raw materials and any other technological activity, there are people and groups who make decisions based on the context, needs, history and knowledge. We ask ourselves: What affected material selection for the production of stone tools rocks? Was there a differential selection depending on the desired end product? And if so, was it different in diachronic moments? What techniques were used in the production of what instruments? What productive activities were conducted in Alero Deodoro Roca and which were not? What role did the tools produced have? This study aims to produce relevant and new information that expands our knowledge of technological strategies used by the human groups in order to compare them with those produced in other areas of the Sierras. It will contribute to a process of constructing knowledge about hunter-gatherers of the valleys of Cordoba province, by studying lithic technology and therefore raising new questions for further studies.

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This book is about how hunter-gatherer groups maintained a relationship with the use and management of fire in the Late Holocene of Southern Precordillera. The line of study developed here as part of the anthracology made use of methodologically systematic analysis of the remains of charcoal from the archaeological site Alero Deodoro Roca B. This industry focused on a time frame of ca. 1900 years AP to ca.3900 years AP. Studies carried out in the Alero Deodoro Roca allow us to understand, on the one hand, the different methods of preservation of charcoal record in the succession of combustion events, and, secondly, to discuss the variability of species present within the composition of the flora in the paleoenvironment. Functional association is proposed for various uses; as a source of heat, cooking, and preparation of raw materials among the possibilities.

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This work examines travellers’ accounts of their journeys to Cyrenaica, focusing in the main on an analysis of these accounts within the context of their significance to topographic surveys of the region. The dates given in the title symbolically mark their beginning and end. The starting date (1706) is that of the first journey across Cyrenaica that led to the writing of the first account extensive enough to be the subject of detailed analysis. The end date (1911) marks the beginning of the Italian occupation of Libya, when responsibility for archaeology was entrusted to the greatest Italian specialists of the period. Travelogues were replaced by scholarly studies featuring both well-known and newly discovered sites, while amateur descriptions and drawings were replaced by professional analysis and documentation. The main protagonists of the book are people who travelled to Cyrenaica or stayed there for some time, people of a variety of ages and sorts: physicians and an engineer, priests, soldiers and diplomats, artists and adventurers, scholars and archaeologists. They differed considerably in their education, personalities, itineraries and objectives of their journeys, their wealth and personal circumstances. What they did have in common was great curiosity and courage, love of adventure and the ability to survive in harsh and dangerous conditions – compensated for by unusual discoveries – and, finally, an interest in ancient ruins, which for the purpose of this book is what makes their accounts valuable.

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Marine borers, particularly the shipworms, as destroyers of timber, par excellence, are well known from very ancient times. They attacked the wooden hulls of ships with such intensity that the weakened bottom planks broke up even due to a mild impact caused by hitting a rock or any floating objects inducing shipwrecks. Even the survival of sunken ships as wrecks depends on the mercy of wood-destroying organisms, which may turn these ‘port-holes’ to history into meaningless junks. The silent saboteurs, involved in several early shipwrecks, are the molluscan and crustacean borers, aided by bacteria and fungi. This paper presents an account of the marine wood-borers, together with a historical review of literature on their depredation on wooden ships, and on protective methods adopted from antiquity to modern times. The seriousness with which early mariners faced the problem of bio-deterioration and the fear the wood-borers created in their minds have been brought to light with, in some cases, excerpts from their journals and books. The anxiety and concern for protecting the ships from the ravages of wood-borers and for their own safety, as evidenced from their accounts, are discussed. Classification of various groups of marine wood-borers with notes on characters of systematic value and a complete list of species so far recorded in literature have been included under Appendix I and II. Methods employed to prevent damage to the boats included deep-charring, coating with pitch, coal-tar, whale oil and mustard oil with lime; scupper nailing (‘filling’); sheathing with animal skin, hair, tarred paper, wooden boards (untreated or soaked in coal tar, Ferrous sulphate, Copper sulphate or Lead monoxide); sheathing with metals (Lead or Copper sheets); plastic, neoprene coated ply-woods; and painting with Copper oxide, Pentachlorophenol or phenylarsenious oxide. None of these imparts complete protection. Recent archaeological investigations carried out in British waters, especially on ‘Mary Rose’, are also summarised. It is suggested that, though borers are instrumental in inducing ship-wrecks thereby enriching the materials for archaeological studies, excavations at known ship-wreck sites should be augmented to unearth valuable historical data, before they are lost to satisfy the insatiable appetite of these pests.

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From Lascaux to Shanidar caves, from Malta temples to Stonenge (and the ‘new’ one...), from Serra da Capivara to Foz Coa park, from Australia to North Africa’s Rock Art, from Pechino to Isernia excavations, from the Musée de l’Homme in Paris to the Museum of Civilization in Quebéc, from Çatal Hüyük to the Varna village, from the Rift Valley to the Grand Canyon, most problems have to be fronted in a common perspective. But which perspective? Is it possible to have a common point of view on different values, different sites, different methodologies? The Scientific Commission for the Quality Management of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sites, Monuments and Museums© set up at UISPP by initiative of the author (UISPP-PPCHM) is aimed to examine these issues and propose solutions acceptable to all those who want to contribute to common understanding of our past history. The only certainty in fact is our Past. It is undoubted that it happened, it is undoubted that its consequences are in place today, it is undoubted that it is affecting persons, social groups or larger structures in some ways also when it is disregarded. The help of specialists from different Countries and the exchange of opinions with other colleagues from other fields and/or organizations is then needed in order to: discuss the reasons and possibilities for preservation and use of Sites, Monuments and Museums; let the management of Rock Art Sites and Parks, Prehistoric excavations, Museums and Interpretations Centres and related structures open to the public to be made according to criteria agreed at an International level, both in normal and critical conditions; enhance standards in preserving, communicating and using Sites, Monuments and Museums; involve the public and diffuse awareness; analyse tourism benefits and risks at these destinations; introduce new opportunities for jobs and training; develop networks on these topics in connection with other specialized Organizations. This session aimed to ask: what is your experience? Which problems would you like to address? What solutions can be considered?

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This volume presents proceedings from the session ‘Monumental Earthen Architecture in Early Societies: Technology and power display’, part of the XVII World UISPP Congress, held in Burgos (Spain), the 4th September 2014. The theme of the symposium is the archaeology of earthen architecture in pre- and protohistoric cultures, with an emphasis on constructive techniques and systems, and diachronic changes in those aspects. The main interest is in monumental architecture (not domestic), where it is better possible to appreciate the building strategies that show raw earth to be as noble a material as stone or wood, but with its very own characteristics which required the development of original solutions and construction techniques. The scope on monumental buildings also allows analyzing the political, social and economical factors that made such architecture a recognized expression of societal values and political power.

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This book presents the study of pottery in two medieval contexts, Pisa (a city) and San Genesio (a central rural settlement in the Arno Valley). The research focusses on specific issues observed in the two contexts, like characters of production (type of workshops, technological characteristics and characterization of ceramic bodies), specialization of pottery and circulation of the products; characters of consumption (similarities and differences in the composition of the pottery equipment and their modification); the role of social-economic indicator of some pottery classes to verify how much and when imported products from the Mediterranean were considered luxury items, if some types of local or regional pottery could have the same role, if the consumer wealth could be reflected in the specialization of ceramic forms used on the table and in the kitchen, if the desire to emulate aristocracy could be read even in the use of particular forms or pottery equipment; movement to understand in what way (whether by land or water), by what means and by what logic (market, pay census, barter) the pottery would move. The data from this research helps define a picture of relations between town and countryside in the Arno Valley between Xth and XIVth century.

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The contributions to this volume address the archaeology and history of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Bringing together papers presented at a conference in Athens in December 2012 as a part of the Syrian-Norwegian research project Palmyrena: City, Hinterland and Caravan Trade between Orient and Occident, it reflects international research and fieldwork that was going on until the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

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Copper is the first metal to play a large part in human history. This work is devoted to the history of metallurgical production in Northern Eurasia during the Bronze Age, based on experiments carried out by the author and analyses of ancient slag, ore and metal. It should be noted that archaeometallurgical studies include a huge range of works reflecting different fields of activity of ancient metallurgists. Often, all that unites these is the term 'metallurgy'. This work considers the problems of proper metallurgy, i.e. extracting metal from ore. A number of accompanying operations are closely connected with it, such as charcoal-burning, ore dressing, furnace constructing, and preparation of crucibles. In some instances the author touches upon these operations; however the main topic of the work is the smelting process. The closing stage of the metallurgical production is metalworking including various casting and forging operations, and also auxiliary operations: making of crucibles, casting molds, stone tools for metal forging. These problems are, as a rule, out of frameworks of this research.

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The central theme The Ubaldini and the City is the classic confrontation between feudal society and a resurgent urban form as the central instrument of organisation of European society, which is crucial to the origins of Europe as we know it today. The analysis starts from a reconstruction of the historical role played by the Ubaldini on the basis of a critical reconsideration of the available documentary evidence, and the results appear to be perfectly consistent with the general pattern for the Florentine aristocracy. The theme is one of ‘boundaries’: between historical and archaeological evidence, between the late Middle Ages and the birth of modernity; it concerns space with the establishment of new ‘borders’ which evolve from Terra Nuova and become completely territorial. The book takes as its subject a turning point in the history of the late Middle Ages on the threshold of the modern world: the crisis and collapse of the traditional feudal and rural world and the emergence of new territorial states based on the cities.

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This book seeks to explore the issues of production, use and importance of flint tools in the Archaic Period, known also as the Early Dynastic Period, and the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the epoch immediately following the unification of pre-state organisms of Upper and Lower Egypt into one political body. This volume provides an in-depth study of tools made of flint, which unceasingly fulfilled a major role in the period being considered. Flint, occurring in a number of varieties, substantially outnumbers other raw materials used for manufacturing tools, to wit: chalcedony, obsidian, quartzite, carnelian or rock crystal, all found in small or even minute amounts, which attests to their minor role in the first periods of Egyptian history. Notwithstanding a growing number of implements made of copper, then bronze, flint tools constituted an essential element of a broad-based culture, and not only material culture, in the Archaic Period, the Old Kingdom and beyond.

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This volume is a detailed gazetteer of fish-salting production in the northwest Maghreb in antiquity. It consists of a catalogue of fish-salting sites in addition to catalogues of other related resources that are necessary for the production and trans-shipment of the industry's products: salt and amphorae kilns. The gazetteer is intended to serve as a comprehensive source book, and as such, it builds upon previous studies and current research on the region's fish-salting industry.

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The research scope of this book is the human occupation of the northern Adriatic region at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 24,000- 20,000 calBP), and a point of view over the long debated occupation of the once exposed Great Adriatic Plain and the role it played within the early Epigravettian hunter-gatherers settlement system. The study relied on a comprehensive techno-economic approach to lithic technology, one among the possible means to investigate site function, mobility and land use.

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This work explores the many factors underlying the extended popularity of the cliff tomb, a local burial form in the Sichuan Basin in China during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220). The development of the cliff tomb was linked to a complex set of connections involved with burial forms, and continued through associations with many other contemporary burial practices: brick chamber tombs, stone chamber tombs, and princely rock-cut tombs. These connections and links formed to a large extent through the incorporation of the Sichuan region within the Empire, which began in the fourth century BC. It was as part of this overall context that a series of factors contributed to the formation and popularity of the cliff tombs in Sichuan. The hilly topography and the soft sandstone, easy to cut, provided a natural resource for the development of cliff tombs. The present book, therefore, analyses the decisions behind the exploitation of this natural resource, which were also affected by many complexities rooted in the social background. The inherent nature of the cliff tomb structure is fully explored, followed by an investigation into the corresponding innovations involving pictorial carvings and burial objects. The meanings behind the seemingly continuous ‘family’ associated with the cliff tomb structure are also explored, as the construction of the tomb resulted from the continuous endeavours of many generations, and the physical appearance of the cliff tomb becomes a metaphor for family prosperity.

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This book is the result of more than a dozen years of research in the field of the hitherto unstudied medieval settlement pattern of the Syrian coastal region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The conclusions presented in this work were reached with the combined use of several source types including medieval documents, travellers’ accounts, former research, map evidence, toponymy, archive and satellite photographs, oral sources and extensive archaeological field surveys accompanied by documentation between the years 2000 and 2015. After enumerating the historical events that influenced the settlement pattern of the coast, its centres, including the towns and castles (with special regard to the smaller fortifications of the countryside that seem to have been a Frankish introduction to the area) are analysed. Following the detailed examination of the written sources and the architectural material preserved at these lesser sites, a closer look at the villages and their environment aims to draw a general picture on the density of settlements and their basic characteristics. The book also discusses communication lines and provides an assessment of the medieval population that inhabited the region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The text is accompanied by a collection of maps, plan drawings, tables and illustrations on a selected number of sites visited during the field surveys.

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What could be more evident than the concepts of oblique, horizontal or vertical? In the modern world, these concepts form the basis of our thought system, both from a mathematical and artistic point of view. Everything would suggest that these principles were known to the Greek civilization. However, the study of the surviving texts casts a different light on the matter. Homer did not know the concept of oblique - no word could translate it into the language of his time. Even later, the Greeks had five adjectives approximately meaning oblique: λοξός, πλάγιος, λέχριος, σκολιός and δόχμιος. Each discipline (cosmology, optic, geography, art, etc.) had its own way of looking at these five words. Paradoxically, what the written language had not yet synthesized was abundant in imagery. Even more surprising, the oblique in images, which we consider as a sign of movement in our own iconographic language, is found to signify both movement and rest. Two monuments of Greek art draw attention to this new paradox: the frieze of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Mourning Athena. In each of them, the oblique line is present, and carries two distinct meanings. These two forms of language, written and figurative, bring a different and complementary perspective on the ancient Greeks' apprehension (or lack thereof) of the concept of oblique.

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A comprehensive repertory of the stamps decorating the rims of Christian African lamps. This volume will be an indispensable tool to Mediterranean archaeologists for identifying even small fragments of lamps. French description: Fruit d’un travail de plus de dix ans ce répertoire de 1383 fleurons sur bandeaux de lampes Hayes II marque une avancée significative par rapport aux onze répertoires existants. Celui d’Ennabli, le plus souvent utilisé avec ses 126 fleurons seulement, ne répond pas toujours aux attentes du chercheur. Les auteurs présentent leur classement alphanumérique et justifient leur choix de rendre les reliefs des dessins en noir et les creux en blanc contrairement à la convention qui pour les dessins de décors sur céramique inverse ces valeurs : les fleurons de lampes Hayes II, issus de moules d’appliques, sont en relief et rendre leur contour en blanc suppose nécessairement un trait de contour en noir qui souvent prête à confusion. Ceci est particulièrement visible dans le cas de cercles concentriques ou de damiers. Une base de données entrant plus de 5000 lampes Hayes II dont les fleurons ont été identifiés grâce au répertoire, permet, en faisant jouer l’association des décors de disques avec ceux des bandeaux et avec les provenances, d’ouvrir d’intéressantes perspectives de recherches ultérieures sur les productions des grands ateliers tunisiens actuellement connus.

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Symbolism was endemic in the ancient world as a visual language, with its interpretation one of the most important challenges, especially in the realm of the divine and sacred, to today’s cognitive archaeology and Classical Studies. This study is focussed on circular solar/cosmic symbolism which has endured for seven millennia in the European and Mediterranean worlds. The potency of the solar/cosmic circle should not be understated, as this study will demonstrate, with its worldwide affiliation. For all humankind is aware of the sun’s benefits of light and warmth, and of the seasons which needed in the ancient world to be sustained by heavenly harmony through ritual, sacrifice and worship; hence the introduction of sympatheia, i.e. ‘as above so below’ thus satisfying society’s need for a relationship with the natural world of the universe/sun. To that end, Bronze Age people created circular landscapes such as Stonehenge with circular henges and burial monuments (barrows). In the Classical Greco-Roman world, kingship required emperors to play a cosmocrator role acting as a beneficial solar/cosmic earthly filter for their people. Thus Augustus adopted the primary solar Greek god Apollo as his patron, for he commanded prophecy and divination integral in the ancient world. Divination and fate belonged to the Gods, with ancient astrology not just fortune telling but projecting the divine will and workings of the circular living orderly universe with the Sun the centre of Divine intelligence. The pagan world inter-religious toleration was exchanged for Christian universalist monotheism which needed the solarisation of Christ by early Christian fathers to gain followers and permanent converts. Such was the strength of solar tradition that the Emperor Constantine remained loyal nearly unto death, and up to medieval times Christ in Europe was still known as Sol Resurrectionus.

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This volume presents the results of the Italian excavations and surveys carried out in Transjordan between 1927 and 1938. After a first excavation campaign conducted in 1927 on the Amman Citadel by Giacomo Guidi, the excavations were resumed in 1929 by Renato Bartoccini (Rome 1893–Rome 1963), who carried out four campaigns on the Citadel in 1929, 1930, 1933 and 1938. He also travelled across modern Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, taking photos and writing reports on several archaeological sites. Bartoccini published a few notes and reports, but almost all the original documentation of his work was still unpublished at the time this study was conducted. The main source of data is the Fondo Renato Bartoccini, i.e. the private archive of Bartoccini, today held by the University of Perugia, while other useful documents are kept in other archives in Macerata and in Rome. Furthermore, some decorated Islamic pottery from the excavations on the Citadel is held at the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza. The retrieved photos, excavation journals, letters, and administrative documents make it possible to understand, after almost a century, how the Citadel of Amman appeared at the time of its first excavation.

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This volume brings together a selection of papers proposed for the Proceedings of the 42nd Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference (CAA), hosted at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University from 22nd to 25th April 2014. The program was divided into different themes and this structure has been maintained in the arrangement of articles in the various chapters of this book. Chapter headings include: Historiography; Field and Laboratory Data Recording; Ontologies and Standards; Internet and Archaeology; Archaeological Information Systems; GIS and Spatial Analysis; Mathematics and Statistics in Archaeology; 3D Archaeology and Virtual Archaeology; Multi-Agent Systems and Complex System Modelling.

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This volume is focused on the cataloguing of glass conserved in the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli. This is so far an unpublished corpus of objects identified from investigations into the necropolis and other burials in Tripoli and its suburbs, in conjunction with the activities of the Italian Government in Libya during the first twenty years of the last century. The main objective of the work is filling the gaps in the state of knowledge concerning the production of glass of the North-African area by providing as complete as possible a documentation on the findings from Oea and its territory.

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The lector is first attested during the 2nd Dynasty and is subsequently recognised throughout ancient Egypt history. In previous studies the lector is considered to be one of the categories of the ancient Egyptian priesthood. He is perceived to be responsible for the correct performance of rites, to recite invocations during temple and state ritual, and to carry out recitations and perform ritual actions during private apotropaic magic and funerary rites. Previous treatments of the lector have rarely considered the full extent of his activities, either focusing on specific aspects of his work or making general comments about his role. This present study challenges this selective approach and explores his diverse functions in a wide ranging review of the relevant evidence. Why did he accompany state organised military, trading and mining expeditions and what was his role in healing? In the temple sphere he not only executed a variety of ritual actions but he also directed ritual practices. What responsibilities did he fulfil when sitting on legal assemblies, both temple-based and in the community? Activities such as these that encompassed many aspects of ancient Egyptian life are discussed in this volume.

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Much has been written about the history of Northern Ireland, but less well-known is its wealth of prehistoric sites, particularly burial sites, from which most of our knowledge of the early inhabitants of this country has been obtained. This work brings together information on all the known sites in Northern Ireland that are in some way associated with burial. It has been compiled from a number of sources and includes many sites that have only recently been discovered. A total of 3332 monuments are recorded in the inventory, ranging from megalithic tombs to simple pit burials. In addition to providing an inventory of all known sites, along with a selection of photographs and plans, the work also includes an introduction to the prehistory of Northern Ireland, an explanation of terms and a full bibliography. The aim is to provide a foundation for more specific research projects, based on a standardised information format of this largely untapped resource. For example, the work highlights several large and previously unrecognised clusters of prehistoric burial monuments, some located at unusual landscape features. Hopefully, further analysis will lead to a greater understanding of why this should be and stimulate a renewed interest in the prehistory of Northern Ireland. Enhanced awareness of this should complement knowledge of the historical period to provide a more balanced picture of human activity here.

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Greek and Roman torsion catapults were the most powerful missile projectors in the western world from their invention in the 4th century BC to the 11th century AD.Powered by the energy stored in tensioned and twisted rope springs, they outranged archers, slingers and all other missile launchers.After tracing their Greek origins, Roman Imperial Artillery describes the machines used from the time of Sulla and Caesar, the Roman improvements in their design and power, and their importance in the defence of the Roman Empire.Full-size reconstructions, made in collaboration with engineers Len Morgan and Tom Feeley, are based firmly on the author's revised editions of the texts of the Greek and Roman engineers, the latest archaeological finds and the evidence of relief sculptures. This revised edition analyses remarkable new finds from the Rhine frontier in the Netherlands and elsewhere. The 1999 find of a catapult frame in Germany allows an accurate reconstruction of the standard

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Exploring the Sacred Landscape of the Ancient Peloponnese traces the origins of the religious system of the Peloponnese to identify the factors behind its subsequent development from the Geometric to the Classical period. Which deities found favour in the Peloponnese? What factors lay behind local religious manifestations? What were their special attributes? How were the Olympian gods adapted within the context of previous religious systems and deities?Through a presentation of cult places, the deities worshipped, and the epithets used, the book explores preferences for particular deities and the reasons for this. The chthonian attributes of the deities are an important factor, and such attributes are further elucidated by the myths that accompany them. Reconstructing the ancient religious landscape and the political, economic and social context sheds light on how the cult places played their role and demonstrates how the primitive chthon

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Research into furniture has not been a priority for archaeologists. Fixed installations are often studied without the necessary rigor or clear definition. More often than not, the identification of installations remains subjective, unexplained and dependent on the interpretation of the spaces that the furniture should have helped to identify. The series of workshops that gave rise to this book addressed key issues such as the perception of spaces, their functionality in relation to layout, multifunctionality and the question of multiple storeys. In the same way, archaeological analysis benefits from being confronted with texts, which, when it comes to architecture, are at once episodic, rich and complex. This book is dedicated to Jean-Claude Margueron, who never ceased to encourage archaeologists to work rigorously on architecture. It begins with a biography of Jean Margueron by Béatrice Muller and an almost definitive list of his writings. The fi

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St Albans Abbey is one of the greatest of medieval England. The origins of the medieval abbey lie much further in the past, in the time of Roman Verulamium, and the early history of the abbey is that of the martyrdom of Alban, whose burial is associated with the area of the abbey itself. The creation of memorial churches over the graves of saints outside the walls of Roman cities is commonplace in the world of late antiquity. One has only to think of St Peter's or St Paul's without the Walls in Rome, but in Britain no single case is yet known, other than St Albans.This book is about the excavation in 1978 of the site of the medieval chapter house of St Albans Abbey, a building second in importance only to the abbey church itself. The excavation took place in response to the impending construction of a new chapter house, on the exact site of its medieval predecessor, demolished following the suppression of the abbey in the sixteenth century.Enigmatic finds

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Double-Sided Antler and Bone Combs in Late Roman Britain offers the first detailed study and catalogue of a comb type that represents a new technology introduced into Britain towards the end of the 4th century AD and a major signifier of the late fourth- to fifth-century transition. Their end-plates were worked into a variety of decorative profiles, some clearly zoomorphic. Over time this decorative styling passed from elaborate to rudimentary, adding to the dating evidence for individual combs. As many combs survive only as small fragments, data collection has not been absolute but has concentrated on combs from burials, or with stylistically relevant end-plates, or those providing good dating or contextual evidence, the main aim of the study being to answer questions of typology, chronology and social distribution. A particularly distinctive feature within the assemblage from funerary contexts is the substantial number of these combs from Winchester, which together make u

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The Roman frontier with Persia in north-eastern Mesopotamia investigates the Roman city of Singara and the fortifications and roads in the surrounding area. The physical frontier between Rome and Persia has been little studied, in part because of the difficulty of access for scholars. In comparison with other parts of the Roman ‘limes’, this frontier was of great importance because it separated the two major civilisations of the early first millennium CE. Although the frontier stretched north to Armenia and the Black Sea, north-east Mesopotamia was for long periods the major area of confrontation. After a brief review of the history of north-east Mesopotamia and its role as the setting for repeated clashes between the two empires, the book focuses on Singara, its fortifications and the surrounding frontier zone. This town was one of the strongpoints on the Roman frontier as it existed up to 363 CE. The volume then addresses the ancient road network around Singara and the links to Nisibis and to the Khabur valley to the west. It makes use of old aerial photographs and satellite imagery to illustrate fortifications, roads and associated sites, in particular those mentioned in the Peutinger Table. A final chapter addresses the nature of the frontier in this region.

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This volume contains 13 papers on hunting and fishing techniques, weapons and prey in the area from Anatolia to the Gibraltar region. Papers include specific case studies as well as syntheses of wider data sets and provide the latest methodological and theoretical perspectives on the role of hunting and fishing in early agricultural societies.

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Settlements and Necropoleis of the Black Sea and its Hinterland in Antiquity contains a selection of some two dozen of the papers from an international conference held in October 2017 at Tekkeköy in Samsun, ancient Amisos, on the Turkish Black Sea coast. The archaeology sessions included presentations not only on the Tekkeköy/Samsun region but also on other parts of the Black Sea. They were presented by participants from Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The selection offered here includes almost all of the contributions on archaeology and ancient history. The papers cover all shores of the Black Sea, studying (once again), the establishment dates of some Greek colonies, East Greek transport amphorae, the Black Sea on the Tabula Peutingeriana, the history of Tekkeköy, a Sinopean from Tomis, imports at Açic Suat (Caraburun), arrowhead and dolphin-shaped monetary signs from Berezan, the pre-Roman economy of Myrmekion, the necropolis of Porthmion, Artyushchenko-1 settlement on the Taman Peninsula, South Pontic imports at Classical sites in Ajara, recent excavations in Gonio-Apsarus, the Alaca Höyük Chalcolithic culture in coastal settlements, the Baruthan Tumuli at Amisos, iron finds from the Fatsa Cıngırt Kayası excavations, new excavations at Amastris, ancient Sebastopolis, politics and diplomacy in Paphlagonia, the Great Göztepe tumulus in Paphlagonia, Amasya-Oluz Höyük, the Iron Age sites of Zile district, Byzantine finds at Komana, glass bracelets from Samsun Museum, and dating the Kavak Bekdemir Mosque in Samsun.

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Our volume opens on a very sad note, the sudden passing of that great scholar of Greek Art, Andrew Stewart (1948-2023). A scholar of immense knowledge and energy, Andy was also greatly loved and admired by his students as well as innumerable colleagues in international scholarship. He supported this Journal from its creation, peer-reviewed papers, contributed his own pathbreaking articles, and encouraged others to successfully offer their work to us. Over many books and papers he gave us unique insights into Greek artistic culture, a contribution to the field which is irreplaceable. This volume is dedicated to him, while our first article is an appreciation by his close friend and colleague Tonio Hölscher. Later in this volume the article by Maria Panagiotonakou is also dedicated to Andy’s memory. Moving on to the other contents of this volume, as always we have encouraged and succeeded in spanning the millennia of Greek Archaeology in its fullest sense. We begin with Copper Age and Early Bronze Age lithic industries and food economies in Attica and Cyprus respectively, before diving into the complexities of the dating of the immense eruption of Santorini in the early Late Bronze Age. A detailed geographic study of Cretan settlement history over the Late Bronze Age and into Protohistoric times is complemented by an article on the existence or not of a Dorian invasion of the island over the same period. For the Early Iron Age, an innovative exploration of Geometric vase decoration deploys the patterning of chess moves. With Classical-Hellenistic times we learn about houses and group dining in Sicily and a contextual analysis of the construction of the Segesta theatre on the same island. In the absence of Roman-era offerings (readers and prospective authors please note!), we jump to two papers on Medieval ceramics. One focusses on their production in Messenia, the other is a response to a review on architectural ceramics (bacini) in Crete that appeared in Volume 7. Finally we give you a study of physical landscape transformation by geoarchaeologists from the Valley of the Muses in Boeotia, and a very insightful report on public outreach initiatives undertaken by an archaeological project in the Xeros valley on Cyprus. Following on these articles there appears our usual wide-ranging set of book reviews, compiled by our Assistant Editor Damjan Donev. John Bintliff, General Editor

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En tierras de Hércules explores the history and archaeological heritage of the southwest coast of the Isla Gaditana – the territory where the Temple of Hercules and the Idol of Cádiz are said to have stood for more than twelve centuries: Torregorda, Camposoto and Sancti Petri. The text examines the occupation sequence of Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze-Age and historic societies in the area. In addition, it analyses the shaping of the landscape by geological, sedimentary and human action since the Phoenician settlement. The historical region of the Strait of Gibraltar, considered the end of the ‘known world’ until the modern age, is studied as an intercontinental and cultural bridge. The core of the work is an examination of 32 groups of remains, classified according to communicational, strategic and environmental factors. This includes those relating to the underwater site of the Sancti Petri Castle, which are usually associated with the Temple of Hercules. Using manuscripts from local archives, the book documents elements such as the emergence of the underwater remains of the Temple of Hercules or the construction of canals and defensive architecture. And by means of prehistoric rock art, it examines the origins of sailing in the vicinity of Gibraltar. A final chapter recommends the investigation of the millenary intersection between the Rio Arillo channel and the Calzada de La Alcantarilla road.

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Art as Ritual Engagement is examined through a case study of feminised funerary representation in the repertoire of Watetkhethor, an elite woman interred in the mastaba tomb of her spouse, Mereruka, at Saqqara, c.2345-2181 BCE. The focus is centred upon the functionality of a particular form of gendered imagery in a ritualised, funerary context. The spaces and images in which Watetkhethor is featured alone, or in support of her spouse, indicate something of an elite woman’s expectations of the afterlife at this particular time. Contemporaneous examples as detailed as Watetkhethor’s are rare, and her status may have permitted Watetkhethor’s personal involvement in designing the funerary programme. Her. The arrangements would have been ‘state-of-the-art’, meeting the requirements of a woman identified as the eldest daughter of King Teti, c. 2300-2181 BCE. However, to date, the assumptions of twentieth century anachronisms, attitudes and biases have all but dismissed the rich iconographical programme of specifically feminised arrangements within this shared tomb.

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The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the longest continually running academic forum for the presentation of cultural heritage research on the Arabian Peninsula. Meeting for the first time in 1968, the Seminar covers a wide range of subjects including but not limited to archaeology, epigraphy, history, ethnography, art, architecture, linguistics, and literature from prehistory to the early twentieth century. The 55th Seminar for Arabian Studies marked the first in-person gathering for this event since 2019, with the Seminar cancelled in 2020 and hosted entirely online in 2021. Drawing upon lessons learned from the 54th Seminar, this year’s presentations were available in a hybrid in-person and online format, which allowed for broader attendance among those unable to travel to Berlin. The Editorial Team for the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies is proud to present the published presentations from the 55th Seminar, and we look forward to future volumes as colleagues from around the world come together (in-person and virtually) to contemplate Arabian studies.

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Focusing on the eastern part of the region, this is the first in a series of five volumes that comprehensively document rock art in Upper Tibet. It examines a panoply of graphic evidence found on stone surfaces, supplying an unprecedented view of the long-term development of culture and religion on a large swathe of the Tibetan Plateau. The pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings), host sites, and descriptions and analyses presented are the direct result of intensive fieldwork conducted by the author in Upper Tibet between 1995 and 2016. Information on rock art production techniques, subject identification, thematic class, mode of presentation, physical condition, estimated age, and relative location are supplied for each piece of rock art. In addition to the datasets, the book offers rock art site descriptions and assesses the cultural, religious and artistic development of these locations.

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Pottery from Manqabad 2 presents, documents and analyses a new selection of ceramics from the Egyptian site of Manqabad (Asyut). The Italian Egyptian project at this monastic complex started in 2011, sponsored by the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (UNIOR) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation (MAECI). One of the principal goals of the project is the study and publication of the related finds, today stored at the SCA warehouses in el-Ashmunein and Shutby, together with the analysis of the material deriving from the ongoing excavations. Of course, pottery has a prominent role in the identification of the different phases of occupation and production/domestic activities performed in the ancient monastic community. Therefore this volume aims at presenting the most significant ceramic typologies from Manqabad, while collecting as many references and parallels as possible deriving from several different monastic sites in Egypt.

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Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell (1879-1974) developed an early interest in Islamic architecture, which became his main area of research at the time of his military posting in Egypt, in 1916. His publications are still fundamental research tools for scholars in the field. Creswell considered photography as an essential tool for recording architectural artefacts, and this volume deals with the photographs that concern Mesopotamia, Syria and Jordan, kept today at the Biblioteca Berenson, of the Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, in Florence. On the whole, they can be dated between 1919 and 1930. Many of the sites and monuments photographed by Creswell are still standing, but there are many others that no longer exist, or have been significantly modified. Geolocations for all the photographed monuments can also be viewed on Google My Maps. For this reason, the Creswell photo collection is an exceptional resource for the study of ancient monuments, especially for any conservation and restoration project.

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While Saudi Arabia’s first inscribed World Heritage Site, Ḥegrā (al‑Ḥijr) — Nabataean sister city of Petra — may be the best-known archaeological site in north-west Saudi Arabia, the region is extremely rich in cultural heritage beyond it. The special session Revealing Cultural Landscapes in North-west Arabia, included in the 54th Seminar for Arabian Studies (delayed from 2020 to 2021), presented the latest findings at a range of sites in this critical but understudied area of Saudi Arabia, showcasing a deep and complex past through many millennia. Since the establishment of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) in 2017, a result of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, extraordinary attention and resources have been exacted on the study of the archaeological assets and cultural heritage of al‑ʿUlā County, within its oases and beyond, and shortly after of Khaybar, when parts came under RCU’s jurisdiction. A strategy and initial programme of research projects were established, and in 2019 the French Agency for the Development of AlUla (Afalula), the key partner of RCU, began sponsoring archaeological research as well. Unsurprisingly, therefore, recent work in al‑ʿUlā and Khaybar predominate the volume. The results and analyses offered in the articles derive from survey, extensive targeted excavation at multiple sites, and intensive excavation and studies at single sites. Together the papers present a range of recent discoveries that demonstrate north-west Arabia’s centrality to understanding the greater region and further, and to begin to clarify the extraordinary richness of life in this pivotal zone of the Arabian Peninsula from the Palaeolithic through to the Islamic period.

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As the name indicates, KOINON is a journal that encourages contributions to the study of classical numismatics from a wide variety of perspectives. The journal includes papers concerning iconography, die studies, provenance research, forgery analysis, translations of excerpts from antiquarian works, specialized bibliographies, corpora of rare varieties and types, ethical questions on laws and collecting, book reviews, and more. The editorial advisory board is made up of members from all over the world, with a broad range of expertise covering virtually all the major categories of classical numismatics from archaic Greek coinage to late Medieval coinage.

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