Search results for ""Archaeopress""

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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Gudenus Cave summarises the author's 60 years of research (1962 to 2021) at the earliest human occupation site known in Austria. The cave had been excavated in 1883-84 without separation of sediment layers, and subsequent endeavours to clarify its stratigraphy and dating have failed. The book describes the strategies and methods of studying a Pleistocene cave site that had been regarded as fully excavated, and their long-term applications. A significant part of the fieldwork was conducted before 1967, but the use of analytical processes and literature review continued for several decades after that. Through sustained interrogation of the site's clear palynology and lithic typology, the volume succeeds in clarifying the cave's stratigraphical sequence and placing its several Palaeolithic occupations chronologically. This has significant effects on our understanding of the local Palaeolithic sequence that has been the subject of various controversies. These are discussed in the concluding chapter, which places Gudenus Cave first within its Austrian context and then into the wider picture. The book thus shows that intensive archaeological research can reinstate the scientific importance of a site even after it has been declared bereft of all sediment.

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Il Colloquio Internazionale tra dottorandi e dottori di ricerca (RACTA) si pone come obiettivo fornire una panoramica completa degli studi riguardanti l'archeologia tardoantica e cristiana, la storia dell'arte, la storia e la letteratura paleocristiana condotti da giovani studiosi provenienti da tutto il mondo. RACTA vuole essere anche un momento di condivisione di idee e di confronto con ricercatori e specialisti di diverse discipline che possono aggiungere valore alle singole ricerche. La varietà dei temi affrontati dai 23 relatori di questa seconda edizione è trattata secondo un approccio metodologico interdisciplinare, a conferma delle infinite relazioni possibili tra le diverse discipline archeologiche, storiche, storico-artistiche e letterarie e a rafforzare l’orientamento multidisciplinare dato al Colloquio sin dalla sua prima edizione.

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Obsidian Across the Americas draws attention to recent obsidian studies in the Americas and acts as a reference for archaeologists and scholars interested in material culture and exchange. Moreover, it provides a wide range of case studies in obsidian characterization, material application, and theoretical interpretations in the Americas. The limited geographic occurrence and relatively homogenous nature of obsidian have made the material ideal for archaeometric studies. Since Cann and Renfrew’s seminal paper in 1967 on the compositional analysis of obsidian in the Mediterranean, analytical techniques have improved, identification and characterization of sources have increased, and applications have broadened geographically and theoretically to address various socio-cultural activities and behaviours around the world. While many previous publications have focused on different aspects of obsidian characterization, this volume uniquely presents obsidian compositional studies from across the Americas that have relied on the instrumentation housed in the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum of Natural History. The case studies, which feature materials from North American, Mesoamerican, and South American geological sources, explore the ways in which obsidian analyses have been used to investigate interactions, socio-economic exchanges, and socio-cultural change at multiple scales in the past.

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Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant celebrates Gabriel Mazor and his lifetime of work at the monumental city of Nysa-Scythopolis, Bet Sheʼan Baysān. This metropolis, part of the storied Decapolis, or league of ten cities, that flourished during the Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and very early Islamic periods until the devastating earthquake of AD 748, has been the singular focus of Gabi Mazor for a generation. The excavations, conservation and reconstruction at the site, and the detailed publications all are deserving of praise and appreciation. Chapters by leading archaeologists in Israel and the Levant explore themes and sites, in most cases by the chief archaeologists themselves, providing the latest information and insights about cities and villages from the Hellenistic to early Islamic periods across the region. This rare assemblage of scholars offers new material and interpretations of many of the key archaeological sites active today. The result is a rich trove of up-to-date data and insights that will be a must read for scholars and students active in this part of the ancient Mediterranean world.

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Hyblaea: Studi di archeologia e topografia dell’altopiano ibleo is a collection of ten papers focusing on the prehistoric, late-ancient and medieval-historical archaeological heritage of the Hyblaean area and in the south-eastern apex of Sicily, with particular attention to rupestrian archaeology. They aim at deepening and updating our knowledge of the landscape in its many historical, material, productive, topographical, architectural and iconographical aspects.

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Water in the Roman World: Engineering, Trade, Religion and Daily Life offers a wide and expansive new treatment of the role water played in the lives of people across the Roman world. Individual papers deal with ports and their lighthouses; with water engineering, whether for canals in the north-west provinces, or for the digging of wells for drinking water, and for multiple other purposes; with baths for swimming; and with spas. Further papers explore religion in water-sanctuaries and the deposition of objects in rivers as well as deities connected with water, including river gods and nymphs. A final chapter provides an overview of subjects not fully covered elsewhere, including warships and naval battles, trade and navigation, aqueducts, fishing and fish-farming, and literary response to watery landscapes, rivers and lakes. The latter include works by great landowners such as the younger Pliny with his Laurentine villa beside the sea west of Rome or by poets, among them Catullus enjoying Lake Garda and Ausonius with his loving description of the River Moselle. The contributors address the subject in a variety of different ways, as Classicists drawing largely on literature, archaeologists with experience of excavating the watery environment, and art-historians. The papers range from the theoretical, with particular interest in materiality, to more lyrical approaches which address the Romans with their problems as well as their pleasures.

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The economic and political challenges along the maritime borders of the Roman Empire were multiple. The North Sea coasts were the focus of the attention of traders within the framework of commercial exchanges, of the General Staff preparing for the conquest of Britain under Claudius, and for the defence of the coastlines from the time that their protection became required. The design of a defensive system and the establishment of a supportive force followed a long path through five centuries, adapting to each development and changing strategy and evolving military installations. It had to face the threat of Saxon pirates, not to mention the use of the Roman fleet for political purposes as under Carausius. Military systems are complex because they rely upon the combination of various elements, ports, fleets – thus the famous Classis Britannica – forts protecting estuaries and watch-towers. This border represents a page in military maritime history, but its coasts, in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, contain archaeological sites of high heritage value that deserve a large audience.

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Il sito della Rocca di Oratino: dieci anni di ricerche presenta i risultati delle ricerche condotte a partire dal 2005 nel sito dell’età del Bronzo di Oratino – La Rocca (Campobasso), posto sull’alta valle del fiume Biferno, in posizione strategica lungo un’importante via di penetrazione che dalla costa adriatica permette di risalire verso le zone interne verso il massiccio del Matese, ai piedi di un alto sperone roccioso che caratterizza ancora oggi il paesaggio. Con questo volume vengono presentati i dati relativi agli ultimi livelli di frequentazione dell’insediamento, da porsi in un momento avanzato del Subappenninico (XII sec. a.C.). Questi sono caratterizzati dalla presenza di una serie di piastre di cottura e focolari, legati ad attività connesse con l’uso del fuoco, orientate alla preparazione e al consumo degli alimenti. Sono inclusi gli studi sulle diverse categorie di manufatti rinvenuti, tra cui le ceramiche, i concotti e i manufatti in litica scheggiata, oltre ai resti bioarcheologici, in particolare paelobotanici, che possono oggi confluire in una ricerca multidisciplinare. L’analisi integrata dei dati a disposizione (dati di scavo, studio funzionale delle ceramiche, determinazione dei resti bioarcheologici e distribuzione spaziale di questi e di altri manufatti) permette di formulare alcune ipotesi legate al funzionamento delle strutture di fuoco e alla gestione dello spazio, in un’area aperta posta in una zona marginale del sito.

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In 1949, in the aftermath of a devastating war, Eric Birley organised the First Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. His aim was not only to pursue the study of Roman frontiers but also to take a step towards restoring harmony in international relations within this field of research. The pattern was set early on: the exchange of information, networking and friendship. These three elements remain at the core of the approach of those organising and attending the Congress. They are reinforced by the pattern of the meetings, usually held every three years. The programme includes not only lectures but also visits to the local Roman military sites led by appropriate specialists. Over the 73 years since the First Congress, membership has grown enormously with more lecture theatres and more coaches being required every meeting. This publication marks the twenty-fifth Congress at Nijmegen in the Netherlands, a city well known to Roman frontier archaeologists and early medieval scholars alike. It aims to help newer members understand the body they have joined; for those who have been attending for longer, it will be a reminder of friendships made and strengthened; for all, the book hopes to be a spur to continuing investigations and research into Rome’s greatest monument, its frontiers; for the moment of publication, it will be a celebration of the twenty-fifth Congress of Roman Frontier Studies.

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Moel-y-Gaer (Bodfari) is the northernmost of a series of hillforts atop the Clwydian hills in north-eastern Wales. Nine seasons of survey and excavation have revealed details of Moel-y-Gaer’s ramparts, entrances and interior. This small hillfort started with a single rampart, later to be enlarged on the western side with an extra rampart and ditch. The second phase rampart was constructed of dry-stone walling and increased in width at least once. It was shown to be very different in character to the earlier rampart. An early western entrance was no longer used in the later phase, which saw the construction of an inturned entrance to the north. There is little evidence for occupation within the enclosure although a single roundhouse was constructed facing the northern entrance. Radiocarbon dating establishes all the second phase activity within the Middle Iron Age with the first phase rampart being somewhat earlier. Discussion situates Moel-y-Gaer (Bodfari) within current understandings of the later prehistoric settlement record for north-eastern Wales paying particular attention to hillforts.

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The Roman eastern frontier stretched from the north-east shore of the Black Sea to the Red Sea. It faced Rome’s formidable foe, the kingdom of Parthia, and its successor, Sasanian Persia. Rome’s bulwark in antiquity was the area known as Syria or the Levant, roughly modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. To the south lay the Nabataean kingdom, annexed by Rome in 106 and formed into the province of Arabia. To the north, the Cappadocian frontier was laid out in one of the most inaccessible and remote parts of Eurasia facing extremes of climate and topography, amid a patchwork of client kingdoms. This hidden and fascinating frontier in Turkey, whose bases mostly lie under reservoirs, is the major omission from this volume and it is hoped that a more in-depth account might appear in due course. The Caucasian forts along the edge of the Black Sea are, however, part of this volume; this is perhaps Rome’s least known frontier archaeologically but the subject of a unique account by Arrian when governor of Cappadocia.

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Wroxeter: Ashes under Uricon offers a perspective on how people over time have viewed the abandoned Roman city of Wroxeter in Shropshire. It responds to three main artistic outputs relating to the site: poetry, images and texts. The poets include Wilfred Owen, A.E. Housman and Mary Webb. The writers cover a range of interests relating to the site but include Darwin, Dickens, Rosemary Sutcliff and John Buchan. The artists are perhaps less well-known but include watercolours by Thomas Girtin, archaeological reconstructions by Alan Sorrell and Amedée Forrestier, and paintings by Wroxeter’s own resident artist, Thomas Prytherch. Photographs are represented by the work of Francis Bedford and others more closely associated with aerial archaeology such as J.K. St Joseph and Arnold Baker. While the famous names have their value, The book also investigates what locals and visitors thought of the site over time – how they perceived it and have responded to it. It reflects in particular upon how the public and locals responded to the archaeological discoveries on the site and perceived the narratives that were created by the archaeologists working on it. It contends that archaeologists are just as much story-tellers as the writers, poets or artists, although their work is more filtered or controlled, and through these narratives, they inspire others. A further strand to the book is to explore the increasing focus over the past century on the democratisation of access to and understanding of the site, alongside increasing state intervention in its running. This too has had its impact on who visits and what is understood about the site. A short concluding section offers a vision of how the site might develop in the near-future, and how its cultural side might flourish once again.

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Late Bronze Age Painted Pottery Traditions at the Margins of the Hittite State is the result of a workshop organized by the editors at the 11th ICAANE held in Munich in 2018 with additional contributions presented by renowned scholars working on this topic. The Late Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East is generally marked by a massive decline in the occurrence of painted pottery and a clear dominance of plain ceramics. This is especially evident when looking at Anatolia. Here, the presence of simple undecorated ceramics is considered as the main distinguishing trait of the dominance of the Hittite State and its material culture. Nevertheless, at the margins of the empire, especially in Southern and South-Eastern as well as Northern Anatolia, painted ceramics are frequently attested and, during recent years, new findings have come to light from a number of excavations. However, a comprehensive analysis of this material has not yet been accomplished. The intent of this volume is to break through the boundaries usually imposed by the study of 2nd millennium BC pottery production in Anatolia and to reconstruct a comprehensive scenario concerning the appearance, evolution, and related historical meanings of these painted pottery traditions. To this end, 12 papers of leading specialists working on relevant material have been collected in this book offering, for the first time, the possibility of a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of painted pottery in the 2nd millennium BC.

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Drying kilns, corn-dryers and malting ovens are increasingly familiar features in post-Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval archaeology. Their forms, functions and distributions offer critical insights into agricultural, technological, economic and dietary history across the British Isles. Despite the significance and growing corpus of these structures, exceptionally few works of synthesis have been published. Yet such a foundational study was produced by Robert Rickett as early as 1975: an undergraduate dissertation which, for the first time, assembled a gazetteer of drying kilns from across the British Isles, critically examined this archaeological evidence in the light of documentary research, and established a typology and uniform terminology for drying kiln studies. This pioneering and oft-cited dissertation is here published for the first time, providing a foundation for the future study of drying kilns in Britain, Ireland and beyond. A new introduction and notes by Mark McKerracher set the original work within the context of drying kiln research since 1975.

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La provincia dell’Arpione Occidentale nei testi egiziani: ricerche storiche, geografiche e religiose dalle origini all’Epoca Romana presents research on the Western Harpoon province – the seventh nome of Lower Egypt – located in the north-western Delta and a strategic region for the Egyptian economy, joining the Mediterranean, the caravan routes in the Libyan Desert and the heart of Egyptian political power exercised along the Nile valley. However, this region has not been the subject of comprehensive studies or in-depth archaeological investigations. Our archaeological knowledge of the province is greatly lacking, with the exception of the regions of Canopus and Alexandria. The scarcity of archaeological sources is contrasted by an abundance of textual documentation, mainly from priestly literature, which provides us with a kind of ‘map’ of human thought and belief that follows a topographical arrangement and allows us to define the lost archaeological landscape. This book is the first monograph devoted to a comprehensive study of the province of the Western Harpoon and aims to reconstruct its history and religious geography through textual sources, from its origins to the end of the Roman era. From this research, a more organic and structured picture has been gained of the sacred topography and cults of the Western Harpoon province within its historical landscape.

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Tomb Families investigates the apparently random distribution of New Kingdom private tombs in the Theban Necropolis by focusing on factors which may have influenced tomb location. The Theban Necropolis contains hundreds of tombs belonging to elite individuals, dating from the end of the Old Kingdom through to the Ptolemaic Period, with the vast majority dating to the New Kingdom (c.1550-1077 BC). These tombs are scattered across the landscape at the edge of the desert between the Valley of the Kings to the west, and the row of royal mortuary temples along the edge of the cultivation to the east. GPS surveying has enabled the spatial analysis of these tombs, demonstrating that specific areas of the necropolis were popular at different times and among particular groups of people. Clusters and patterns can be identified between tombs built during the same reign(s), as well as between tomb owners with similar titles and familial connections. The orientation of specific tombs towards Karnak temple, royal mortuary temples and festival processional routes reveals their significance to certain individuals. This research provides a deeper understanding of the necropolis, and how private tombs linked to the wider sacred landscape of Thebes.

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Prehistoric Fisherfolk of Oman reports on excavations at the prehistoric site Ras Al-Hamra RH-5, located on a large promontory in the Qurum area of Muscat, conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Oman with support from the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. The site dates from the late fifth to the end of the fourth millennia BC and comprises an accumulation of superimposed food discards deriving from continuous and repeated subsistence activities such as fishing, collecting shells, hunting and herding. Dwellings and household installations, including objects of daily use and ornaments, have also been found throughout the occupation sequence. Excavations at RH-5 yielded unprecedented data on the economic and social dynamics of Neolithic societies in eastern Arabia. The exploitation of different ecological niches supplied all the necessary requirements for year-round sedentary human occupation. The lifestyle of fisher-gatherer communities during the Middle Holocene represents a fundamental step of the neolithisation process in Oman.

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Omani men carried personal weapons until relatively recent years. Swords and daggers were part of daily life attire and are still worn in social events. Thanks to its political independence, Oman developed unique types of weaponry like the saif sword, which descends from the swords used in the early Islamic period, and the kattara sword that was influenced by the swordsmanship tradition of East Africa. A central role is played by the curved dagger that, common throughout the region, has a special declination in the Omani khanjar. Traditional Omani weaponry includes also the characteristic round terrs shields and the small jertz and qaddum axes, used in the Musandam Peninsula and in the Wahiba sands. This book describes all these main types of Omani edged weapons, their origin, structure and accessories, with the support of a large amount of illustrations and constant reference to specimens from museums and private collections in Oman. The book includes also a long and detailed appendix about one of the most exciting discoveries by the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, the so-called Desert Lord of Sinaw, buried almost two thousand years ago with a long iron sword and two iron daggers.

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The Antonine Wall lay at the very extremity of the Roman world. For a generation, in the middle of the second century AD, it was the north-west frontier of the Roman empire. Furthermore, it was one of only three “artificial” frontiers along the European boundaries of the empire: the other two are Hadrian’s Wall and the German Limes. Although the Antonine Wall fits into the general pattern of Roman frontiers, in many ways it was the most developed frontier in Europe, with certain distinct characteristics. Perhaps of greatest significance is the survival of the collection of Roman military sculpture, the Distance Slabs. These record the lengths constructed by each legion and their relationship to the labour camps allow further conclusions to be made about the work of constructing the Antonine Wall.

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New Approaches to the Archaeology of Beekeeping aims to take a holistic view of beekeeping archaeology (including honey, wax, and associated products, hive construction, and participants in this trade) in one large interconnected geographic region, the Mediterranean, central Europe, and the Atlantic Façade. Current interest in beekeeping is growing because of the precipitous decline of bees worldwide and the disastrous effect it portends for global agriculture. As a result, all aspects of beekeeping in all historical periods are coming under closer scrutiny. The volume focuses on novel approaches to historical beekeeping but also offers new applications of more established ways of treating apicultural material from the past. It is also keenly interested in helping readers navigate the challenges inherent in studying beekeeping historically. The volume brings together scholars working on ancient, medieval, early modern, and ethnographic evidence of beekeeping from a variety of perspectives. In this sense it will serve as a handbook for current researchers in this field and for those who wish to undertake research into the archaeology of beekeeping.

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Funerary Practices in the Second Half of the Second Millennium BC in Continental Atlantic Europe presents a selection of essays dedicated to funerary practices from Belgium to the north of Portugal. It aims at filling gaps in the documentation and helping to better understand the relationships between these Atlantic regions during the Bronze Age. Our knowledge of the Atlantic Bronze Age has increased considerably over the last thirty years, but the current state of research varies from one region to another of Western Atlantic Europe, with a marked dichotomy between north and south. The volume not only highlights the cultural characteristics of those Atlantic regions that are poorly represented in European syntheses on the Bronze Age, but also establishes the long-term relationships, if any, that were maintained between the regions of the Southern Atlantic area and those of the Northern Atlantic area.

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Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History (ASSAH) is a series concerned with the archaeology and history of England and its neighbours during the period circa AD 400-1100. ASSAH offers researchers an opportunity to publish new work in an inter- and multi-disciplinary forum that allows for a diversity of approaches and subject matter. Contributions placing England in its international context are as warmly welcomed as those that focus on England itself.

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Au large des côtes atlantiques vendéennes (France), l’île d’Yeu est un territoire occupé depuis la Préhistoire. Les sites à vocations domestiques, artisanales, funéraires ou encore symboliques datés du Néolithique sont nombreux. Leur état de conservation est exceptionnel car les architectures bâties en pierre sont préservées en élévation pour beaucoup d’entre eux. C’est le cas, par exemple, sur les habitats du IVème millénaire avant J.-C., qui ont fait l’objet de plusieurs programmes de recherche depuis 2010. Cet ouvrage regroupe la documentation, les informations inédites et les principaux résultats des études, prospections, fouilles et relevés réalisés sur les habitats, les monuments funéraires, les carrières et les sites symboliques. Les premiers travaux tentent de proposer un état des lieux de l’environnement minéral ainsi que les principales formes d’exploitation, les stratégies d’approvisionnement et les usages des roches. Le coeur de l’ouvrage est consacré à la fouille des deux principaux habitats datés du Néolithique récent, la pointe de la Tranche et Ker Daniaud. L’accent est mis sur les architectures de pierre de ces éperons barrés directement ouverts sur l’Océan mais dont I’occupation semble non permanente. Enfin, les relevés (plan, photogrammétrie, microtopographie) et la modélisation numérique des sépultures mégalithiques des Tabernaudes, de la Planche à Puare et des Petits Fradets autorisent une restitution tridimensionnelle des architectures funéraires néolithiques. Pour les rochers marqués de cupules, dont la concentration actuelle est une des plus importantes, une première analyse du corpus des signes est proposée; en dépit de leur datation encore mal assurée. Cette contribution est l’occasion d’offrir les résultats de l’observation du réel et de l’imaginaire, perçus par I’analyse des témoignages et expressions, physiques et symboliques, des populations de la fin de la Préhistoire installées - et non piégées - sur un territoire restreint battu par les vents et cerné par les flots.

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With the right methods, studying the ancient world can be as engaging as it is informative. Many K-12 teachers, university instructors, and museum educators use hands-on, project-based, and experiential activities in their classes to increase student engagement and learning. This book aims to bring together such pedagogical methods and teaching activities about the ancient world for any educator to use. The teaching activities in this book are designed in a cookbook format so that educators can replicate these teaching "recipes” (which include materials, budget, preparation time, levels of students) in their ancient art, archaeology, social studies, and history classes. They can be implemented online or in-person, in schools, universities, libraries, museums, or at home. Find out more about the book and the contributors at: https://pinardurgunpd.wixsite.com/teachancient

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El instrumental de pesca en el Fretum Gaditanum : Catalogación, análisis tipo-cronológico y comparativa region analyses fishing tackle in the region known as Fretum Gaditanum (Straits of Gibraltar), where over a thousand pieces of fishing tackle have been identified. The book offers a typo-chronological classification of the material, which follows a diachronic discourse spanning from the Phoenician-Punic period to Late Antiquity. Special emphasis is given to the morphological-typological changes undergone by these artefacts and technological changes over time. In this way, a comprehensive picture of the fishing arts practised in the environment of Gades during Antiquity is drawn. The corpus is compared to assemblages found in other Atlantic and Mediterranean regions.

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At first sight, it seems that ancient Egyptian history and culture have no meaningful ties with present-day Croatia. However, when we scratch beneath the surface of the common idea of Egypt, that of a distant and ancient civilisation, we notice that its elements have been present in Croatia ever since antiquity. Egypt in Croatia provides a closer look at many aspects of the presence and fascination of ancient Egyptian culture in Croatia, from antiquity to the present. The topics explored are the artefacts discovered in present-day Croatia (mostly from the early 19th century), Croatian travellers to Egypt from the 16th to the middle of the 20th century, Egyptian collections in Croatia and early collectors from the 1820s until the 1950s, an overview of the development of Egyptology of study within Croatia as well as the various elements of ‘Egyptomania’ found in Croatia, mostly from the beginning of the 19th century.

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The type of monumental tomb that developed in Macedonia in the late Classical period was undoubtedly the most impressive of all the Greek funerary complexes. It was a burial chamber with a vestibule, built of stone blocks, vaulted and furnished with an architectural facade, concealed under a large tumulus rising above the ground. The concept of the Macedonian sepulcher, which the Macedonians and Greeks settling in Alexandria ad Aegyptum, the city founded by Alexander the Great on the Egyptian coast, brought with them, influenced the structural form of the underground tombs that were developed in the new city. ‘Macedonia–Alexandria’ explores the scope of this influence, comparing in synthetic form the structural elements of the cist graves, chamber and rock-cut tombs of Macedonia with the Alexandrian hypogea, while taking into account the different geographical factors that conditioned them. This is followed by a presentation of the facade and interior decoration, and a discussion of the themes of wall painting inside the tombs and a characteristic of the surviving tomb furnishings. The Macedonian tomb reflects in its form Greek eschatological beliefs ingrained in the mystery religions and the social ideology of the Macedonian kingdom. The assimilation of these beliefs is seen in the architectural arrangements, the vestibule and chamber plan, the facade (in Macedonia) or courtyard (in Alexandria), the structural and architectural interior decoration, and the furniture found in the chamber. These elements refer to palace architecture and determine the symbolic function of the tomb. The cult of the dead aspect is emphasized by wall painting iconography, the form of burial and the nature of the grave goods accompanying the deceased. In Alexandria, the role of rituals celebrated in the family tombs is attested by the declining size of burial chambers in favour of the vestibules and by the introduction of an open courtyard as well as the presence of altars. With regard to the ideology behind the Alexandrian complexes, the author explores the issue of the coexistence and the popularity of Egyptian beliefs adopted into Alexandrian sepulchral art, emphasizing the differences in the perception of the role of the tomb in the Macedonian and Egyptian consciousness.

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The Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) minority community has a contested indentured labour background and involvement in the Australian sugar cane industry which has resulted in a consequent paucity of material culture and other records. This paucity, in a sense, forms a substantive part of The Secret Life of Memorials: Through the Memory Lens of the Australian South Sea Islanders as it is argued that memory places, rather than static artefactual stand-ins for the past, are dynamic material culture which have agency and relevance in the present, participating in the on-going post-colonial process. Although a material culture study focused on the materialised expression of memory, this research allows discussion beyond typologies, styles and categories to consider the relational meaning and distributed agency of these objects within the complex network of public memory. In addition to considerations of their symbolic, mnemonic or representational reflections of the past, contemporary memorials are discussed as extensions of the original ASSI event to which they refer, a part of a continuous process that is helping to shape current communities. This encompassing approach, from historical experience to present day memory enactment strategies, employs a variety of theoretical arguments, contributing a new method for comprehending and including the many interleaving aspects of memory spaces, of interest to heritage professionals, local councils and governing bodies, and members of the general public.

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‘Rethinking the Concept of ‘Healing Settlements’: Water, Cults, Constructions and Contexts in the Ancient World’ brings together papers dealing with therapeutic aspects connected to thermomineral sites both in Italy and in the Roman Provinces, as well as cultic issues surrounding health and healing. The first part of the book consists of contributions that are focused on the numerous problems concerning the exploitation of curative springs and the settlement patterns at spa sites in terms of topography, infrastructure, architecture, cult, society and economy, emphasizing the particularities accompanying the use of beneficial sources and comparing them to that of common freshwaters. The papers in the second part of the volume concentrate on religious aspects connected to health, fertility and healing, focussing especially on sites located at particular natural surroundings such as caves and water sources. Together, the contributions in this book give us an idea of the amount and quality of research currently being undertaken in different parts of the Roman world (and complemented by one paper on the Greek world) on the topic of health and healing associated with cults and salutiferous waters.

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This volume features a group of select peer-reviewed papers by an international group of authors, both younger and senior academics and researchers. It has its origins in a conference held at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which aimed to bring up the frequently-neglected popular cult and other ritual practices in prehistoric and ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. The topics covered by the chapters of the volume include the interplay between elite and popular ritual at cemeteries and peak sanctuaries just before and right after the establishment of the first palaces in Minoan Crete; the use of conical cups in Minoan ritual; the wide sharing of religious and other metaphysical beliefs as expressed in the wall-paintings of Akrotiri on the island of Thera; the significance of open-air sanctuaries, figurines and other informal cult and ritual paraphernalia in the Aegean, Cyprus and the Levant from the late bronze age to the archaic period; the role of figurines and caves in popular cult in the classical period; the practice of cursing in ancient Athens; and the popular element of sports games in ancient Greece.

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The area of Kymissala on the southwest coast of Rhodes is of great archaeological interest, as it conceals a large number of important archaeological sites belonging to the lesser known ancient deme of the Rhodian countryside, the deme of Kymissaleis. The region is also of exceptional environmental and ecological importance, as it has a particular biodiversity and is protected by the European ‘Natura 2000’ network of nature protection areas. Kymissala has systematically been researched during the past 10 years by the Kymissala Archaeological Research Project (KARP) inaugurated by the Department of Mediterranean Studies and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese in 2006. The research, escaping from its narrow academic and archaeological context and exploiting the comparative advantage of the region, may –and should– inter alia, intervene in a mild and sustainable manner in the promotion of the archaeological site of Kymissala. Its ultimate goal is to promote the antiquities of the area, its educational value and its historical and cultural continuity within a protected natural environment, in the context of an ecological-archaeological park. Under the title Kymissala: Archaeology – Education – Sustainability, fourteen original studies have been published, constituting the first complete presentation of the area of Kymissala and the work in progress, after ten years of systematic research, in terms of Archaeology, Education and Sustainable Development.

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Our understanding of ancient Pre-Columbian civilizations has changed significantly as the result of archaeological research in the last fifty years. Major projects during this period included dealing with cultural change in different contexts (Valley of Mexico, Oaxaca), regional research projects (“Olmec”), as well as attempts to understand more general trends in interpreting Pre-Columbian art and ideology (Codex Cihuacoatl, Templo Mayor). This book presents both the changes that occurred in the last few decades, and the impact that they had on our understanding on ancient Mesoamerican religions and cultures. It also includes references to some lesser-known research traditions (such as Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia), as well as to the work of scholars like Jacques Soustelle or Didier Boremanse. With the insistence on clear methodology, based on field research, this book uses the context of specific archaeological finds in order to put Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures in a historical perspective. In terms of method, the author follows R. E. W. Adams, Jeremy Sabloff, Robert J. Sharer and other archaeologists in emphasizing the “field archaeology school” approach, with its insistence on using the data acquired in context. Archaeological and anthropological research is in itself fascinating enough to not need stolen artefacts, forged vases, fantastic stories and invented mythical genealogies. The main goal of this book is to produce a methodologically sound and ethically valid interdisciplinary introduction into the exciting world of ancient Mesoamerica.

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This publication brings together personal analyses of sixty CT scans of ancient Egyptian human mummies collected from many museums throughout the UK and continental Europe. The effect is that of performing ‘virtual autopsies’ (‘virtopsies’) allowing techniques of mummification to be examined. The historical age of the mummies ranges from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period. Several new observations are made regarding the preparation of mummies and confirmation of previously described themes is tempered by the observation of variations probably indicating individual workshop practices. The work presents a springboard for further detailed research on the subject. About the Author: Robert Loynes is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who, after retirement, carried out the research described in this publication and was subsequently awarded a PhD in Egyptology. His lifelong interest in Egyptology and a lifetime career using medical images fired his passion for the subject of mummy research specifically using CT scans as a tool.

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This book contains a series of selected papers presented at two symposia entitled ‘Scientific study of rock art’, one held in the IFRAO Congress of Rock Art in La Paz, Bolivia, in June 2012, the other held in the IFRAO Congress in Cáceres, Spain, in September 2015; as well as some invited papers from leading rock art scientists. The core topic of the book is the presentation of scientific approaches to the materiality of rock art, ranging from recording and sampling methods to data analyses. These share the fact that they provide means of testing hypotheses and/or of finding trends in the data which can be used as independent sources of evidence to support specific interpretations. The issue of the materiality of visual productions of the distant past, which in archaeological theory has attracted much attention recently and has stimulated much conceptual debate, is addressed through a variety of scientific approaches, including fieldwork methods, laboratory work techniques and/or data analysis protocols. These, in turn, will provide new insights into human agency and people-image engagements through the study of rock art production, display and use.

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Presents 18 of Beeston's papers from PSAS, with the addition of five works. This book also includes a personal reminiscence by W W Muller.

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