Search results for ""Archaeopress""

Tauric Chersonesos was one of the prominent ancient Greek centres on the north coast of the Black Sea. Founded by the Herakleians, with a small group of Delians, Chersonesos was the only Dorian city in the region. This is reflected in many events and phenomena from its history and culture; it is especially apparent in its religion, related to all aspects of the private and public lives of the population. Depending on their differing historic development, each polis obtained its own peculiar ideological situation which influenced not only public religious life, but also the religious outlook of each separate family or individual. The worship of the gods within the pantheon of the polis was a key factor in the community’s consolidation, while the beliefs surrounding these deities formed a significant role in the concrete events of civic life. This comprehensive study of the cults of the gods of the Chersonesan polis, firmly based on the available sources (written, epigraphic, images of gods and their iconography on coins and in sculpture, as well as archaeological remains of cult structures), sheds new light on the religious life of this ancient Greek centre at various stages in its development.

Read more less

To Aleppo Gone ... is a festschrift offered in honour of Jonathan Tubb, former Levant curator and Keeper of the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum. It includes 44 contributions invited from Jonathan’s friends and colleagues from across the world, with each short essay exploring a single idea and its wider ramifications. The assembled volume also reflects the development of Jonathan’s own career and professional interests, with a focus on the Jordan Valley and southern Levant, but also extending to north Syria, Mesopotamia, the protection of endangered cultural heritage, and the lives of early archaeological pioneers. The editors are all former colleagues of Jonathan, and curators in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum.

Read more less

This book presents an in-depth analysis of the Southern Necropolis of Cyrene. Numerous tombs surround this ancient Greek city located in Eastern Libya. Many of these monumental structures feature elaborate ornamental patterns and complex architectural elements. Yet, most graves have been plundered in the past, hence they appear as beautifully decorated, but empty spaces that seem to provide little information to archaeologists.This volume aims at overcoming this problem. While the book provides an exploration of the architecture of Cyrenean tombs, it avoids a purely descriptive, art-historical approach. Instead, the analysis focuses on issues of funerary competition, display strategies, spatial organization, and the possible role of lost, unknown rituals in shaping the material record over a period of more than a thousand years, from the Archaic phase to Late Roman times. In so doing, it reconstructs the social history of ancient Cyreneans through the evolution of their ostentatious

Read more less

2022 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of one of the crucial studies in the definition of the pottery of the Iberian culture (7th to 1st centuries BC). The work of C. Mata and H. Bonet (1992) La cerámica ibérica: Ensayo de tipología both synthesized and at the same time brought to fruition a long trajectory of studies related to the material culture of this paradigmatic pre-Roman culture of the Iberian Peninsula, bequeathing to future generations a typological guide that remains valid. However, one of the ceramic types that this culture produced, Iberian grey ware, was not studied individually in the aforementioned research. With this work and through the characterization of more than 6000 ceramics from 55 Iberian sites, our typological knowledge of the pottery productions of these protohistoric populations is completed. It is intended not only to expose the typological, but also the technological characteristics of Iberian grey ware, its functionality and even its origin and symbolism for the people who made it.

Read more less

Crisis y muerte en la Antigüedad, desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar e internacional, analiza los periodos de crisis en el Mundo Antiguo desde un punto de vista histórico y arqueológico. Para ello, los distintos autores han prestado atención a los periodos de crisis sanitaria y medioambiental, así como a las persecuciones y situaciones de hambruna e inanición durante la Antigüedad. Los dos primeros trabajos analizan estas cuestiones desde un enfoque global, proporcionando un marco perfecto introductorio al lector de los temas que se desarrollan a lo largo del volumen. Las siguientes contribuciones no solo estudian zonas concretas como la región del Bajo Guadalquivir (Andalucía) o Tierras de Barros (Extremadura) en la península ibérica, sino también otros lugares históricos emblemáticos como la ciudad egipcia de Oxirrinco. A continuación, primando un criterio cronológico, se aborda el fenómeno martirial y la persecución de personas de fe cristiana. Estos últimos temas, a pesar de estar ampliamente tratados por la historiografía contemporánea, se aportan nuevos datos a través del análisis filológico e histórico de autores como Orosio, Lactancio, Prudencio y Agustín de Hipona, así como de periodos más generales de épocas concretas como los gobiernos de Septimio Severo, Caracalla o Teodosio. El volumen finaliza con un argumento concreto centrado, en este caso, en la península ibérica, la llamada Plaga de Justiniano desde el punto de vista arqueológico, aportando una visión novedosa a lo que señalaron los autores clásicos.

Read more less

Since 2007, the conferences organized under the title ‘Broadening Horizons’ have provided a regular venue for postgraduates and early career scholars in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Three volumes present the proceedings of the 6th Broadening Horizons Conference, which took place at the Freie Universität Berlin from 24–28 June, 2019. The general theme, ‘Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue’, is aimed at encouraging communication and the development of multidisciplinary approaches to the study of material cultures and textual sources. Volume 3 contains 14 papers from Session 4 — Crossing Boundaries: Connectivity and Interaction; and Session 6 — Landscape and Geography: Human Dynamics and Perceptions.

Read more less

The Wider Island of Pelops explores the myriad ways in which pottery was created, utilized, and experienced in the prehistoric Aegean, across a period of more than 4000 years between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age transition. Pottery is capable both of creating bonds and creating barriers. It serves as a sociocultural call and response, marking similarity and difference, collectivism and individualism, knowledge, and the absence of knowledge. Contextually-bound, it embodies identities, memories and multiple histories. It reflects choice and reinforces orthodoxy; a product of change, and a driver of it, that both creates and curates understanding of the world. Necessity and commodity, at times anachronistic, and at others, avant-garde, it is subversive and slavish, innovative and derivative; visible always, and never without value. The seventeen papers collected here provide a diachronic perspective on the value of pottery in marking and mediating cross-scale sociocultural discourse; in framing and facilitating the transmission of knowledge and meaning; in driving economies; in the preservation of memory, in the practice of cult; and, in more recent times, as a vector in the dialogue of imperialism: at once introducing key themes in the study of Aegean pottery, and providing a snapshot of recent archaeological work in Greece.

Read more less

Modelling Christianisation breaks new ground by studying the underutilised archaeological material for the Christianisation of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Around the first Millennium, in present-day Central Europe, the political and religious landscape changed dramatically. With the Christianisation of the pagan societies on its borders, the Ottonian/Holy Roman Empire significantly expanded according to the principles of the Imperium Christianum. This process – Christianisation - frequently tied to ‘the making of Europe’, has long generated broad interest in scholarship. Although recent attempts have shown archaeology’s potential to shed light on the subject, interpretations of Christianisation and state formation are still primarily dominated by historical narratives. Instead of concentrating on the upper echelons of society, the volume draws on the archaeological record relating to the Christianisation of the commoners – rural churches and field cemeteries – and more precisely (digital) archaeological archival data. This was subjected to geospatial analysis to uncover potential networks and clusters and to provide a different narrative about the course of Christianisation. Written evidence deals typically only with the topmost layer of institutions, such as the foundation of bishoprics, archbishoprics and some monasteries. Local churches, the smallest but most numerous elements of the church system, seldom appear in written sources; thus, theories about the development of the Church as an institution have often lacked direct evidence about the local church network. The approach taken here integrates this abundant data which provides information about the largest part of the population, otherwise absent in the written sources. It allows the reconstruction of a cultural landscape and lets us see the process of (institutionalised) Christianisation as a process of adaptation. Thus, it also offers a new interpretation for modelling Christianisation in newly emergent kingdoms.

Read more less

Who Were the Plunderers of Salmydessus? discusses ten references (from different periods) concerning the piratical activities of the Thracians at Salmydessus in an attempt to identify who these Thracians were. The goal set, the specificity of the references, and, above all, the probability that most of the authors under review had no first-hand experience of the area of Salmydessus, but relied on the works of their predecessors, define the character of the study and the research methods used. It is a historical work, with a strong element of Quellenforschung, and provides a comprehensive examination of the literary and epigraphic evidence relevant to the topic.

Read more less

Arqueologia de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en Sudamerica: el asentamiento Nazi de Teyú Cuaré reports on a remarkable discovery and a pioneering piece of research in the historical archaeology of Latin America. In the jungle on the border between Argentina and Paraguay, near the bank of the Paraná River, an unknown settlement was found nestled between rocky cliffs. While there were local references to it having been the refuge of Nazi General Martin Bormann, studies showed that it had indeed been built to house someone at the end of World War II; this is impossible, however, for Bormann who died in Berlin. An extensive archaeological and historical study of the site and its environment allowed it to be dated to between 1943 and 1946 and revealed that it was made by local people to house a family whose stay was of a brief duration. The constructions are of very poor quality, plain stacked stones, but following a modern, complex plan arranged according to contemporary bourgeois needs, and foreign to the wooden and thatch architecture of the region. It is possible that pre-existing remains were used and that after their abandonment there were sporadic occupants. The finds are characterised by exotic luxuries (European porcelain, cut glass, silverware and weapons), German coins and coins from the occupied countries of Western Europe, and even papers and photographs hidden in a wall.

Read more less

The View from Malakand: Harold Deane’s ‘Note on Udyana and Gandhara’ presents an edition with introductions and extensive commentary of a manuscript, discovered by Luca M. Olivieri in the fort at Malakand, Swat, Pakistan, of a seminal and pioneering account of the antiquities of Swat and Peshawar by Harold Deane. The article of which this manuscript is an earlier draft, the first significant contribution to the archaeology of Swat, was published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society (1896), and the manuscript contains interesting additional information that did not make the final text. The book presents and transcribes the manuscript, also including introductory material on its discovery and the life and significance of Deane, and (most importantly) extended notes identifying and describing the places that Deane discusses in his article. The book thus doubles as a gazetteer of this immensely rich archaeological space, and a history of its archaeological discovery. The book includes images of the original article, the manuscript, some of the artefacts referred to by Deane in his article, and an appendix publishing a manuscript by J. W. McCrindle, ‘Alexander’s Campaign in Afghanistan’, found among a small number of Deane’s papers in the possession of his great-grandson in England, which is directly relevant to the composition of his article.

Read more less

Towards the end of Caesar’s Gallic War, Rome had reached the Rhine. Since the campaigns under Emperor Augustus (15 B.C.), larger troop contingents were stationed along the river, with focal points around Mogontiacum/Mainz and in northern Switzerland. After the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), when the attempt to occupy all of Germania had failed, the Lower Rhine remained the frontier of the empire’s territory until Late Antiquity. East of the Middle and Upper Rhine, however, the Roman sphere of power was pushed forward several times over a period of almost 200 years, and from 90 AD at the latest, the construction of artificial borders was initiated. When the Roman expansion came to an end around 160 AD, the province was secured in its furthest extension by the “Frontal” or “Outer Upper-Germanic Limes”, which existed until the middle of the 3rd century. This book illustrates the historical and archaeological significance of the Upper Germanic Limes and provides an up-to-date overview of its manifold features in the field.

Read more less

Archaeologies and Antiquaries collects and republishes 14 key academic works by the late Professor Dai Morgan Evans FSA (1944–2017), whose career spanned the civil service, learned societies, charitable organisations and the academy. His research focused on the archaeology of Wales and England. Spanning early medieval archaeology and history, the management and conservation of ancient monuments, histories of antiquarianism, and the Welsh church of Llangar, the chapters have been reformatted, freshly edited and published together for the first time with new illustrations. Together, the studies provide still-pertinent and insightful investigations, here contextualised by a multi-authored introduction surveying Dai’s career and contributions to archaeology and its public understanding.

Read more less

The Family of Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy from Thebes (TT 414) revisited provides fresh material about the identity of one of the key figures of the family that reused the Saite tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414) in the Asasif from the 4th century BCE onwards. It is the woman Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu, who was previously listed in the genealogical register of TT 414 as Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy’s daughter and wife of one of his sons, Hor. By examining objects found by the agents of the consuls in the 19th century CE and those found by the Austrian mission in the 1970s in TT 414 and in wider Theban contexts, the authors are able to identify Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu, wife of Hor, as another, until now overlooked individual, separate from his sister with the same name. The examination of the funerary assemblage of Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu and of objects belonging to her husband, daughter and sons reveals not only details of Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic burial customs in Thebes but also additional information on the priesthood of Khonsu and of the sacred baboons in this era. This new identification of a previously overlooked person, the mistress of the house and daughter of the first prophet of Amun, Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu (G108 + G137), demonstrates that the finds from TT 414 are still far from being processed in their totality. This material has the potential to provide answers to some of the open questions regarding Late Dynastic/Ptolemaic Thebes and to contextualise funerary assemblages.

Read more less

Se aborda en el presente trabajo un estudio arquitectónico sobre los dos bastiones que configuran la puerta sur del oppidum ibérico de El Cerro de las Cabezas (Valdepeñas, Ciudad Real). Se trata de dos construcciones defensivas cuyo espacio interno cumplió con una función socioeconómica relacionada con el almacenamiento de cereal. A través de este trabajo de investigación, de carácter arqueoarquitectónico, apoyado en la digitalización y reestudio del archivo fotográfico del proceso de excavación, se pretende analizar las técnicas y los materiales constructivos de ambas construcciones, definir sus sucesivas fases constructivas dentro el proceso histórico del asentamiento y valorar el conjunto arquitectónico en un área espacial de enorme importancia dentro del entramado urbano. Todo ello nos permitirá conocer los continuos cambios y transformaciones que sufrió este espacio, entre los siglos V y III a.C., para defender, seguidamente, la influencia y presencia púnica en este oppidum ibérico.

Read more less

Image and Identity in the Ancient Near East: Papers in memoriam Pierre Amiet gathers the papers of two colloquia – one held in Pierre Amiet’s honour in Lyon in 2016 and the other held in Paris in 2017, as well as articles by colleagues who wished to dedicate a final tribute to him. The volume consists of two parts. The studies in the first part analyse the body as a biological entity as well as a social, sexual and cultural identity (persona). They show the emotional power of images, the means and media used to achieve this suggestive power, and the different audiences that are the privileged recipients of the different types of production. They also investigate the emotions as they are expressed through the gestures and attitudes of the characters represented. The second part includes articles that are more closely related to the themes that Pierre Amiet has tackled. Two articles deal with his favourite research theme, glyptics. One article takes up the problem of the formation of the state which Pierre Amiet had dealt with in several of his glyptic studies. Other papers are concerned with the organisation of craftsmen and statuary.

Read more less

The Fertile Desert studies a region of the Euphrates Valley between the Balikh and Khabour in Syria that remains little known. Partial reports, isolated interventions, and proposals for a hypothetical reconstruction of the relationship and processes of cultural expansion between Mesopotamia and the Jazira suggest that the Euphrates has always been a major traffic route. But suggestions on a map must be confirmed on the ground. However, when looking at the usual tools for information or the relevant archaeological charts such as the Tübinger Atlas, we face a paradox: except for a few well-known sites, a surprising void reigns over the archaeological landscape. The difficult circumstances since the outbreak of the war in Syria have made the situation still more problematic. Fortunately, various archaeological expeditions have worked intensively in the region. The possibilities have changed, and the time has come for a review of the evidence. This volume thus attempts to reconstruct the history of the Euphrates Valley between the mouths of the Balikh and the Khabour. Several surveys, archaeological expeditions, and interventions of the Syrian Directorate of Antiquities, most featuring the author’s own participation, have made available a significant number of data, the majority unpublished, which contribute to an improved overview of the region.

Read more less

The Archaeology of Nucleation in the Old World explores the role of the built environment in expressing and shaping community organization and identity at prehistoric and historic nucleated settlements and early cities in the Old World. The spatial layout of large settlements results from the interaction of social, political, economic, and religious orders. Subsequent structural changes governed by the application, manipulation, and challenges of these orders yield a dynamic built environment which influences the processes of organization and identity formation. Taking advantage of advances in archaeological methods and theory that allow investigations of nucleated settlements to an extent and depth of detail that was previously impossible, the contributors to this volume address specific topics, such as how the built environment and location of activity zones help us to understand social configurations; how various scales of social units can be recognized and the resulting patterns interpreted; how collective actions contribute to settlement organization and community integrity; how changes in social relations are reflected in the development of the built environment; how cooperation and competition as well as measures to mitigate social and communication stress can be identified in the archaeological record; and how the built environment was used to express or manipulate identity.

Read more less

Schinkel ‘in Athens’: Meta-Narratives of 19th-Century City Planning proposes a fresh appraisal of Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s urban design legacy and his involvement in the design of modern Athens in the 1830s. From the 1830s onwards, the incompatibility between Schinkel’s position as a civil servant and his vocation as a scholar inspired by Fichte led him along a transcendental path of life. Transcendentalism set its own terms and conditions under which Schinkel’s project of a palace atop the Acropolis of Athens (1834) might be understood. The ‘contextual analysis’ of Schinkel’s work in this book challenges the view of this proposal as a utopian scheme, detached from the realities of nineteenth-century Greece. On the other hand, the first plan of Athens, supposedly the work of two of his former Bauakademie students, ratified a year earlier, in 1833, proposed the location of the royal residence in the new town at a few hundred metres north of the Acropolis. But, though the two options for Otto’s palace were topographically dissimilar they did retain a common strong, topological significance – which, along with other factors analysed in this book, provides ample evidence for re-thinking the authorship of the new plan of the capital city of Greece. Schinkel ‘in Athens’, by all means!

Read more less

The broad valley of the Bradano river and its tributary the Basentello separates the Apennine mountains in Lucania from the limestone plateau of the Murge in Apulia in South East Italy. For millennia the valley has functioned both as a cultural and political divide between the two regions, and as a channel for new ideas transmitted from South to North or vice versa depending on the political and economic conditions of the time. Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border aims to explain how the pattern of settlement and land use changed in the valley over the whole period from Neolithic to Late Medieval, taking account of changing environmental conditions, and setting the changes in a broader political, social and cultural context. There are three levels of focus. The first is on the results of a field survey (1996-2006) in the Basentello valley by teams from the Universities of Alberta, Edinburgh, and Bari, directed by the authors. The second concerns the discoveries of earlier field surveys in the late 1960s and early 1970s undertaken in connection with excavations on Botromagno near Gravina in Puglia. The third is a much broader synthesis of the results of recent scholarship using archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources to reconstruct an archaeological history of the valley and the surrounding area. The creation of a vast imperial estate at Vagnari around the end of the 1st century BC and its long-lasting impact on the pattern of settlement in the area is a significant theme in the later chapters of the book.

Read more less

Practice and Prestige: An Exploration of Neolithic Warfare, Bell Beaker Archery, and Social Stratification from an Anthropological Perspective investigates the appearance of the ‘archer’s package’ in select Bell Beaker burials raising questions of daily life, warfare, and social stratification during the Neolithic period. It draws on a recent study by the author that applied an anthropological methodology to assess the bone morphology of these skeletons for signs of specialised archery activity. These analyses revealed results at both a population as well as an individual level. In order to contextualise these osteological findings, the book explores the evidence for warfare and archery throughout the Neolithic period in general and the Bell Beaker period in particular. This perspective considers warfare to be a primary function of archery, thereby associating ‘archer’ burials with concepts of warfare and the warrior. A second perspective delves into prehistoric concepts of specialisation and social hierarchy in order to situate archers, archery, and warfare within potentially stratified populations. These two perspectives allow for the contextualisation of the anthropological results within a broad archaeological framework in which archers and archery were prominent parts of a complex Bell Beaker society.

Read more less

Le site néolithique de Tinqueux « la Haubette » (Marne) daté du « Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain » (5000-4700 cal. BC) a livré cinq maisons, ainsi que des fosses et une structure de combustion. Les éléments de la culture matérielle abondants ont permis d’approfondir différentes problématiques. La première traite de la singularité du site en raison de sa position très orientale dans l’aire d’extension du BVSG et sa place dans la séquence chronologique. Le second sujet porte sur la nature de l’habitat dans le réseau des sites « producteurs » ou « receveurs » qui caractérise le BVSG. Le troisième thème abordé est celui de la provenance des matières premières et le quatrième est celui des caractéristiques chronologiques internes au village. Les analyses menées sur la structuration du village et sur le mobilier archéologique ont permis de révéler un pan encore inconnu de la culture BVSG. Ainsi, la séquence chronologique fine de cette période dans son faciès régional a pu être établie ; comme que la périodisation interne du village. La comparaison avec des sites proches ou éloignés a été déterminante pour comprendre le rapport de cet habitat avec les sites contemporains. Elle révèle une ouverture vers l’est et une forte dynamique culturelle qui se traduit par des réseaux d’influences et de circulations variées, notamment pour l’approvisionnement en matières premières et en produits finis.

Read more less

Rocks of Ages: Developing Rock Art Tourism in Israel presents the findings of an interdisciplinary project aimed at safeguarding the future of this unique resource. Cultural heritage in the Negev desert region of Israel is potentially under threat from a number of social, political and economic activities such as militarization, settlement and tourism, resulting in significant environmental change. The cultural heritage and archaeology extend back at least a quarter of a million years but also include a unique engraved rock art assemblage that dates to at least 3000 BCE. These engravings form a clear association with other relic monuments including prehistoric and protohistoric settlements, agricultural and irrigation regimes, and the remnants of a nomadic way of life. But how can this unique cultural heritage survive in the long-term? In December 2017, an international conference was held at Mitzpe Ramon attended by academics, heritage professionals and individuals from the tourism industry. The meeting centered on the dissemination of the findings from the Integrative Multilateral Planning to Advance Rock Art Tourism (IMPART) research project. Formed from an interdisciplinary team of Israeli-Italian scholars, the IMPART researchers collaborated to conduct archaeo-ecological and socio-touristic research with the goal of establishing an authoritative set of sustainable best practices for effectively valorizing Negev rock art. Based on the successful outcome of this research dynamic, the book is organized into 12 thought-provoking chapters that identify and analyze the cultural heritage, archaeology and tourism geographies that fill the multilayered Negev landscape. The focus throughout is to find ways to preserve this unique heritage for future generations while striking a balance between these fragile resources and the pressures for development of the desert.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Rock Art Studies: News of the World VI, like the previous editions in the series, covers rock art research and management all over the world over a five-year period, in this case, the years 2015 to 2019 inclusive. The current volume once again shows the wide variety of approaches that have been taken in different parts of the world and reflects the expansion and diversification of perspectives and research questions. 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. 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. While relatively little has happened in some areas, a great deal has occurred in others. Rock art studies continue to go through a period of intense scientific and technological development, but at the same time – due to the problems of preservation and vandalism – it is crucial to educate local people and the young about the importance of this fragile heritage.

Read more less

Between the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC: Exploring Cultural Diversity and Change in Late Prehistoric Communities is a collection of studies on the cultural reconfigurations that occurred in western Europe between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. It brings together seven texts focusing on the evidence from the West of the Iberian Peninsula, and one on the South of England. The texts have their origin in a landmark meeting held at the University of Coimbra in November 2018, where scholars explored the grand narratives explaining the differences between what are traditionally considered Chalcolithic (or Late Neolithic) and Bronze Age communities. The contributions look at key aspects of these grand narratives through regional perspectives, asking the following questions: is there clear data to support the idea of an intensification of social complexity towards the emergence of the Bronze Age chiefdoms? What is the role of monumental architecture within this process? How do we best discuss the different levels of architectural visibility during this period? How can we interpret collective and individual burials in relation to the emergence of individual/territorial powers? In answering these questions, the papers explore regional diversity and argue that regional specificities resist a general interpretation of the historical process at stake. In light of this resistance, the book emphasizes that cultural singularities only become visible through contextual, medium, or low-scale approaches. The recognition of singularities challenges grand narratives, but also carries the potential to expand our understanding of the changes that occurred during this key moment of Late Prehistory. The book thus offers readers the opportunity to think about the diversity of archaeological evidence in combination with an exploration of the available range of approaches and narratives. The critical intertwining of multiple points of view is necessary, because it gets us closer to how elusive the cultural differences of prehistoric communities can be. This elusive dimension is precisely what can force us to constantly rethink what we see and what questions we ask.

Read more less

Current Research in Egyptology 2019 presents the papers and posters from the twentieth meeting of the prestigious international student Egyptology conference, on this occasion held at the University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain. The conference took place 17–21 June 2019 at the Major College of San Ildefonso, the historic centre of the University of Alcalá, with almost 200 participants from various countries and institutions all over the world. The conference addressed a wide range of topics including all periods of ancient Egyptian History and different aspects of its material culture, archaeology, history, society, religion and language. Fifteen wide-ranging papers are published here with wider information on the scientific and cultural programme of the conference.

Read more less

Ex Asia Minor et Syria: Religions in the Roman Central Balkans investigates the cults of Asia Minor and Syrian origin in the Roman provinces of the Central Balkans. The author presents, analyzes and interprets all hitherto known epigraphical and archaeological material which attests to the presence of Asia Minor and Syrian cults in that region, a subject which is yet to be the object of a serious scholarly study. Thus the book both reviews previously known monuments and artefacts, many of which are now missing or are destroyed, and adds new finds, exploring their social and geographical context from all possible angles, and focusing on the thoughts and beliefs of the dedicants and devotees of the particular cult in question. New conclusions are presented in a scientific framework, taking account of the latest theoretical developments.

Read more less

Aquatic Adaptations in Mesoamerica explores the subsistence strategies that ancient Mesoamericans implemented to survive and thrive in their environments. It discusses the natural settings, production sites, techniques, artifacts, cultural landscapes, traditional knowledge, and other features linked to human subsistence in aquatic environments. The study is based on analyses of fishing, hunting, gathering, and manufacture (among other activities), all of which were integral elements of aquatic lifeways. In addition to the aquatic lifeways themselves, salt-making, and intensive agriculture developed and practiced in lakes and marshes are also examined. The study adopts a perspective based on ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory, complemented by archaeological field data.

Read more less

Iron Age marsh-forts are large, monumental structures located in low-lying waterscapes. Although they share chronological and architectural similarities with their hillfort counterparts, their locations suggest that they may have played a specific and alternative role in Iron Age society. Despite the availability of a rich palaeoenvironmental archive at many sites, little is known about these enigmatic structures, and until recently, the only acknowledged candidate was the unusual, dual-enclosure monument at Sutton Common, near Doncaster. Assessing Iron Age Marsh-Forts considers marsh-forts as a separate phenomenon within Iron Age society through an understanding of their landscape context and palaeoenvironmental development. At the national level, a range of Iron Age wetland monuments has been compared to Sutton Common to generate a gazetteer of potential marsh-forts. At the local level, a multi-disciplinary case-study is presented of the Berth marsh-fort in North Shropshire, incorporating GIS-based landscape modelling and multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental analysis (plant macrofossils, beetles and pollen). The results of both the gazetteer and the Berth case-study challenge the view that marsh-forts are simply a topographical phenomenon. These substantial Iron Age monuments appear to have been deliberately constructed to control areas of marginal wetland and may have played an important role in the ritual landscape.

Read more less

Thorvald’s Cross. The Viking Age Cross-Slab ‘Kirk Andreas MM 128’ and its Iconography provides an in-depth analysis of one of the Isle of Man’s most important and intriguing monuments. The Manx Crosses are a unique collection of Scandinavian-style grave stones unequalled in the medieval Viking World. Their carvings and inscriptions offer a window into Viking Age society and spirituality at a time when the Celtic Manx and Scandinavian settlers in the Island came to terms with each other. Among these stones, the iconic ‘Thorvald’s Cross’ (MM 128) in St Andrew’s church in the village of Andreas demands particular attention, as it features figural scenes with humans and animals deriving from both pagan Norse mythology and Christian religious imagery. According to the prevailing view, the triumph of Christianity over paganism is shown in the two preserved reliefs, but differing opinions have been put forward. This book brings together all available information about Thorvald’s Cross and discusses and analyses former and current hypotheses regarding the stone’s iconography, weighing their respective merits and shortcomings. Based on in-depth research and an ‘autopsy’ of the stone on-site, it considers the images in their spiritual, cultural, and chronological context and presents a new interpretation of this remarkable monument, arguing that the depiction of religious confrontation was not its original purpose, but that both scenes convey a common, much more subtle and comforting Christian message.

Read more less

Life, Death and Rubbish Disposal in Roman Norton, North Yorkshire: Excavations at Brooklyn House 2015-16 reports on excavations in advance of the development of a site in Norton-on-Derwent, North Yorkshire close to the line of the main Roman road running from the crossing point of the River Derwent near Malton Roman fort to York (Eboracum). The Brooklyn House site provided much information on aspects of the poorly understood ‘small town’ of Delgovicia. The area came to be used for apparently widely-dispersed burials in the mid-3rd century AD. Among these was the bustumtype burial of a soldier, or former soldier, which produced a well-preserved assemblage of military equipment and incorporated some ‘non-standard’ features. In addition, evidence was found for a possible mausoleum. During the late third and fourth centuries the burial activity was succeeded by occupation in the form of substantial stone-founded, or in some cases possibly stone-built buildings fronting onto the Roman road which was the main approach road to the town from the south. These structures could have been related in some way to the Norton Roman pottery industry, the core area of which was located to the east of the site, although no evidence from them suggested this. Following the fairly short-lived occupation, much of the site was used for the disposal of large quantities of rubbish and structural debris that presumably originated from locations closer to or beyond the river crossing, including possibly the Roman fort. The Roman pottery assemblage incorporated in excess of 21,000 sherds and adds considerably to our knowledge of pottery use and production in Roman Malton/Norton. Similarly, the substantial and well-preserved Roman-period finds assemblage provides insights, not only into the bustum burial but also wider aspects of life in Delgovicia. Within the assemblage, there were some unusual and rarely found individual items such as a pair of iron-working tongs, a two-link snaffle bit and a bone needle case, as well as a wide range of other material including military equipment, jewellery, styli and a possible scroll holder. The medieval and later pottery from the site provides a baseline for work on assemblages recovered from Malton/Norton in the future.

Read more less

Kitāb al-ʾifādah wa al-ʾiʿtibār fī al-ʾumur al-mušāhadah wa al-ḥawādiṯ al-muʿāyanah bi-arḍ Miṣr, by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baġdādī (1162-1231 AD) is a fascinating work; it represents one of the best known and most important manuscripts concerning Egypt during the period between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD. The author, through his gaze and with a clear and shrewd use of language and style, describes several characteristic aspects of the Nile country: the landscape, the animals, the plants, the monuments, the boats, the peculiar dishes, without forgetting the effects of the famine, or the misery caused by the ailments and hunger that hit the country between 1200 and 1202 AD. Translated into German (1790), Latin (1800), French (1810), and more recently into English (1965), there was, until now, still no translation into Italian of this masterful work. This omission prompted the authors to work over a period of several years on the present volume which, in addition to providing the first Italian translation (accompanied by the transcription of the original Arabic manuscript), provides essential and necessary commentary notes aimed at explaining different passages of the manuscript. Some preliminary chapters also attempt to focus on themes, the author and his philosophy in order to provide the reader with a wider image of the conceptions of the period in which he lived and what this description represented and still represents: a masterpiece of realism which continues to stir the imagination in the modern age.

Read more less

During the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in Leiden (July 2019), a special one-day session on the stone tools of prehistoric Arabia was held. Stone tools are generally associated with the oldest archaeological periods of human existence, the Palaeolithic, and are the most lasting vestiges of our ancestors’ productive activities. In Arabia, stone tools (or lithics) are found on the deflated surfaces close to raw material outcrops, high on the top of mountains and deep within valleys and terraces, on lake relics at the heart of the many sand seas, and even under water. For a long time, however, stratified archaeological records were rare and developing chronological frameworks was therefore a challenge. The discoveries made by international archaeological projects conducted across Arabia in recent years have made vital contributions to the field; the archaeological investigation of human origins in the Arabian Peninsula and a better understanding of cultural diversification throughout prehistory are good examples. The interpretation of the new finds provides alternative scenarios for how prehistoric human populations interacted with the diverse landscapes of Arabia, suggesting the Peninsula was not merely a crossroads or superhighway of expansion for anatomically modern humans but also functioned as a human habitat throughout the Pleistocene. The present Supplement to Volume 50 of the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies addresses these and many particularly emerging interests on the deep past of the Arabian Peninsula.

Read more less

This volume is in honor of the American scholar Rev. H. Richard Rutherford, C.S.C, Ph.D (University of Portland). It contains the papers presented at the Archaeometry Symposium in the 74th Northwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (NORM) which took place in Portland (Oregon), June 18th 2019, covering a wide range of topics. The volume includes papers about the application of different techniques in archaeology in order to comprehend some aspects during and after the excavation, for instance, physics, chemical analysis, remote sensing, LiDAR, etc. This work compiles papers about sites from different places around of the world, Spain, Canada, Thailand, Lithuania or Russia. The aim of the symposium was to facilitate communication between scholars from different places, to present current work in the field, and to stimulate future research.

Read more less

Historical Archaeology and Heraldry on Chios presents the results of research into the island’s medieval period, a terra incognita in the contemporary scholarly record. It is the first to be devoted to this topic in more than 100 years, following the publication of the seminal History of Chios by G. Zolotas in the 1920s. The book discusses the archaeology and history of Chios during the Byzantine and Genoese periods, focusing on Mount Amani, the region on the north-western part of the island. Harsh, remote, and poor, Mount Amani is nevertheless surprisingly rich in material for the landscape archaeologist and the student of historical topography, yet unknown in scholarly literature. Different types of evidence—both tangible and intangible—are used to discuss aspects of the local history and culture, from the evolution of the Byzantine settlement pattern, the rural economy, communications by land and sea and the chain of watchtowers, to the genealogy, the prosopography and the insignia of the local aristocracy, with many stone carvings illustrated for the first time.

Read more less

This volume presents the entire assemblage of fine wares (terra sigillata, lamps and thin-walled wares) from Ammaia, a Roman and Late Antique town located in the hinterland of southern Lusitania (presently in Portuguese territory). Despite its distance from the Atlantic coast, Ammaia took advantage of its proximity to Augusta Emerita, the capital of Lusitania. This aspect is particularly strong between c. AD 50 and c. AD 150, when the local market imported large quantities of fine wares from the capital. The Late Antique phase reveals a balanced capacity of importation at Ammaia, whose fine wares, essentially related to terra sigillata, were provided by wares from northern Hispania (Douro and Ebro valleys) and North Africa (Tunisia). Moreover, recent research at Ammaia has provided excellent stratigraphic contexts dated to between c. AD 50 and c. AD 150, crucial for the understanding of the chronological evolution of Italian, South-Gaulish and Hispanic terra sigillata. In the final chapter, the author undertakes a wide-ranging analysis of southern Lusitania with regard to the consumption of fine wares and amphorae. Several chronological phases have been established, based on stratigraphic and typological evidence, for the period between c. AD 50 and c. AD 550: that is the Early Empire (from the Claudio-Neronian period onwards) and its transition into the Late Roman period and the post-Roman phase. In the final sub-chapters, this analysis focuses on the problematic 5th century and up to the latest Lusitanian stratigraphic evidence of around the middle of the 6th century AD.

Read more less

Henry Hunter Calvert died at his family house at Çannakale in 1880 a few months after escaping from the rioting in Alexandria where he was British consul. The consulate was sacked and his collections destroyed. He had however sent an annotated list of his Greek amphora stamps to the British Museum, presumably to Charles Newton, with whom he and his brother Frank had frequent correspondence. This list was forgotten until the present writer ‘found’ it in a box-file in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (its title at the time). Henry Hunter Calvert’s Collection of Amphora Stamps and that of Sidney Smith Saunders publicly presents that material.

Read more less

The numerous rescue excavations conducted in Athens and Attica by the Archaeological Service during and after the major construction projects of the 2004 Olympic Games brought to light significant new prehistoric finds which have transformed our understanding of the region in prehistory. However, despite their importance, the new discoveries had remained mostly unnoticed by the international community, as the results were scattered in various publications, and no synthesis was ever attempted. The goal of the 2015 international conference Athens and Attica in Prehistory, which was organized by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the University of Athens (Department of Archaeology and History of Art), the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Ephorate of Antiquites of East Attica (Hellenic Ministry of Culture) was to gather scholars working in the region and present for the first time a survey of Attic prehistory which would include the most recent discoveries and integrate over a century of scholarship. The 668- page conference proceedings include over 66 papers in Greek and English with sections dedicated to topography, the palaeo-environment, the Neolithic, the Chalcolithic transition, the Early Bronze Age, the Middle and Late Bronze Age, as well as the contacts between Attica and its neighbouring regions. A series of new detailed maps, derived from an exhaustive GIS-related database, provide the most up to date topographical and archaeological survey of Prehistoric Attica. Athens and Attica in Prehistory provides the most complete overview of the region from the Neolithic to the end of the Late Bronze Age. Its importance goes beyond the field of Aegean prehistory, as it paves the way for a new understanding of Attica in the Early Iron Age and indirectly throws new light on the origins of what will later become the polis of the Athenians.

Read more less

Masters of the Steppe: the impact of the Scythians and later nomad societies of Eurasia consists of 45 papers presented at a major international conference held at the British Museum in 2017 on the occasion of the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, both conference and exhibition being jointly organised with the State Hermitage Museum. There are 58 contributors and co-authors from 16 countries, mostly from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but also America, Britain, France, Germany, China and Mongolia. The papers range from new archaeological discoveries, results of scientific research and studies of museum collections to reconstructions of social elites, the phenomenon of monumental tomb construction, and ‘Animal Style’ art. Most results are presented for the first time in the English language and they throw a completely new light on a huge range of aspects of the lives of Scythians and other ancient nomads of Eurasia, their horses, rock art and the working of precious metals, textiles and other materials.

Read more less

Places of Memory takes a new look at spatialised practices of remembrance and its role in reshaping societies from prehistory to today, gathering researchers representing diverse but complementary fields of expertise. This diachronic outlook provides important insights into the great variety of human and social reactions examining memory, encompassing aspects of remembering, the loss of memory, reclaiming memories, and remembering things that may not have happened. The contributions to this volume expand upon Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux des memoire (places of memory) and the notion that memory is not just stored in these places but activated through human engagement. The volume presents a reflection on the creation of memories through the organisation and use of landscapes and spaces that explicitly considers the multiplicity of meanings of the past. Thus, social identities were created, reaffirmed, strengthened, and transformed through the founding, change, and reorganization of places and spaces of memory in the cultural landscape.

Read more less

Distinguishing between the bones of sheep and goats is a notorious challenge in zooarchaeology. Several methods have been proposed to facilitate this task, largely based on macro-morphological traits. This approach, which is routinely adopted by zooarchaeologists, although still valuable, has also been shown to have limitations: morphological discriminant traits can differ in different sheep/ goat populations and a correct identification is highly dependent upon experience, as well as the availability of appropriate reference collections and the degree to which a researcher is prepared to ‘risk’ an identification. The Neglected Goat provides a new, more objective and transparent methodology, based on a combination of morphological and biometrical analyses, to distinguish between sheep and goat post cranial bones. Additionally, on the basis of the newly proposed approach, it reassesses the role of the goat in medieval England. There are several historical and archaeological questions concerning the role of this animal that have so far remained unanswered: why is the goat commonly recorded in the Domesday Book, when it appears to be so scarce in the contemporary archaeological record? Is the goat under-represented in the archaeological record or over-represented in the Domesday Book? Why is this animal, when identified in English medieval animal bone assemblages, almost exclusively represented by horncores? Through the investigation of a number of English sheep and goat medieval assemblages, this study sheds light on these questions, and suggests that the goat was indeed rarer than the Domesday Book suggests.

Read more less

By presenting case studies from across eastern and western medieval Europe, Ecclesiastical Landscapes in Medieval Europe aims to start a Europe-wide debate on the variety of relations and contexts between ecclesiastical buildings and their surrounding landscapes between the 5th and 15th centuries AD. The book contains 16 papers dealing with 11 very diverse regions: Transylvania, Western Bohemia, Switzerland, Tuscany, the Po Valley, Central Spain, Galicia, England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. The volume is divided into two main thematic sections. ‘Ecclesiastical Topographies’ comprises works exploring the spatial dimension of ecclesiastical architecture during the Middle Ages, particularly regarding the creation of the parish system and the relationship between churches and cemeteries. In ‘Monastic Landscapes’ medieval monasteries provide an especially interesting case study because of their recognised capacity to modify the surrounding environment. As a result of the convergence of these perspectives, the hope is that this book will offer researchers ample comparative evidence for understanding the universal elements of ecclesiastical landscapes which transcend both chronological and geographical limits.

Read more less

Conversations in Human Evolution is an ongoing science communication initiative seeking to explore the breadth and interdisciplinarity of human evolution studies. This volume reports twenty interviews (referred to as ‘conversations’ as they are informal in style) with scholars at the forefront of human evolution research, covering the broad scientific themes of quaternary and archaeological science, Palaeolithic archaeology, biological anthropology and palaeoanthropology, primatology and evolutionary anthropology and evolutionary genetics. This project features academics at various different stages in their careers and from all over the world; in this volume alone, researchers are based at institutions in seven different countries (namely the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States of America, Germany, Denmark, India, and China), covering four continents. Having arisen at the start of the COVID19 pandemic, Conversations in Human Evolution aims to encourage engagement with both human evolutionary studies and the broader socio-political issues that persist within academia, the latter of which is particularly pertinent during this time of global uncertainty. The conversations delve deeply into the study of our species’ evolutionary history through the lens of each sub-discipline, as well as detailing some of the most current advances in research, theory and methods. Overall, Conversations in Human Evolution seeks to bridge the gap between the research and researcher through contextualisation of the science with personal experience and historical reflection.

Read more less

The Urban Landscape of Bakchias: A Town of the Fayyūm from the Ptolemaic-Roman Period to Late Antiquity summarises the results of field research conducted on the archaeological site of Bakchias, located in the north-eastern part of the Fayyūm region. Historical, historico-religious and papyrological studies are also presented. The book provides a clear and comprehensive overview of the rise and fall of the kome of Bakchias. The settlement was a thriving centre from at least the 26th dynasty up until the ninth or tenth centuries CE, although with differing levels of economic prosperity and urban development. Equal weight is given not only to the archaeological and topographical aspects but also to the historical and the religious, whilst never forgetting the relationship between the urban settlement and other villages of the Arsinoite nomos, which is famously a peculiar exception in Egyptian geography.

Read more less

Discussions on consanguineous marriage within Egyptology usually focus on brother-sister marriages recorded in census returns from Roman Egypt, or royal sibling marriages amongst the ruling Ptolemies. However, no wide-ranging review exists of non-royal consanguineous marriage in ancient Egypt despite the economic and biological implications of such relationships. This is the first time that evidence for nonroyal consanguineous marriage in ancient Egypt has been collated from select sources spanning the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period and a method created to investigate the potential economic and biological outcomes of these unions, particularly beyond the level of sibling and half-sibling unions. The working definition of consanguineous marriage used throughout this study is that used by clinical geneticists: unions contracted between cousins biologically related as second cousins or closer biological kin. This research argues that for some families, and under certain conditions, consanguineous marriage was a preferred economic strategy in terms of gifts given at marriage and in inheritance, and that families who married consanguineously may have received greater levels of intra-familial support without the expectation of reciprocity. Although there may have been adverse biological outcomes arising from congenital anomalies and genetic disorders in the offspring of consanguineous marriages, the research suggests that it is unlikely that these physical or cognitive disorders were distinguished from other medical disorders in the general health environment of ancient Egypt. The investigation focuses primarily on ancient Egyptian documentary and archaeological sources, including human remains, and is informed by research on consanguinity from a range of disciplines including anthropology, demography, economics and pathology.

Read more less

This volume is in honour of the Austrian scholar Prof. Dr Hannsjörg Ubl. It contains a tabula gratulatoria, a bibliography and 24 contributions covering a wide range of topics. The focus being Greek and Roman, the volume includes papers about the Langobards, renaissance replicas of classical sculpture, and the archaeology of World War I. The 'classical' papers deal with Greek and Roman art and art looting; dogs in Greek and Roman warfare; Roman looking-glasses; erotic inscriptions of Gaulish spindle whorls; military equipment and dress accessories; Roman military history and the non-military archaeology of Raetia, Noricum and Pannonia.

Read more less

Carving a Professional Identity: The occupational epigraphy of the Roman Latin West presents the results of long-term research into the occupational epigraphy from the Latin-language provinces of the Roman Empire. It catalogues stone epigraphs of independent professionals (thus excluding state workers, imperial slaves, freedmen and military personnel), comprising some 690 people, providing quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of the raw data. A glossary translating the occupational titles is also included. The book reveals a very lively work market, where specialisation responded to demand and brought social and economic status to the worker. The coherence of epigraphic habits and manifestations within a professional group, along with all the other existing clues for a rather unitary use of symbols, endorse once more the existence of a Roman provincial, commercial, middle class.

Read more less