Recently Published Open Access Books and Articles at Archaeopress

Recently Published Open Access Books and Articles at Archaeopress

Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory Proceedings of the XVII UISPP World Congress (1–7 September 2014, Burgos, Spain) Volume 14/Session A25b edited by Tiago Tomé, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Ana Maria Silva, Claudia Cunha and Rui Boaventura. xii+128 pages; illustrated throughout in black & white. 374 2017. ISBN 9781784917227.

The present volume originated in session A25b (‘Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory’) of the XVII World Congress of the International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), held in Burgos in September 2014.

Collective burials are quite a common feature in Prehistoric Europe, with the gathering of multiple individuals in a shared burial place occurring in different types of burial structures (natural caves, megalithic structures, artificial caves, corbelled-roof tombs, pits, etc.). Such features are generally associated with communities along the agropastoralist transition and fully agricultural societies of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

For a long time, human skeletal remains exhumed from collective burials were dismissed as valuable sources of information, their studies being limited mostly to morphological assessments and subsequent classification in predefined ‘races’. They currently represent a starting point for diversified, often interdisciplinary, research projects, allowing for a more accurate reconstruction of funerary practices, as well as of palaeobiological and environmental aspects, which are fundamental for the understanding of populations in the Late Prehistory of Europe and of the processes leading to the emergence of agricultural societies in this part of the world.

The articles in this volume provide examples of different approaches currently being developed on Prehistoric collective burials of southern Europe, mostly focusing on case studies, but also including contributions of a more methodological scope.

This book is also available to purchase in paperback, priced £25.00.

 

Imágenes de centauros en los vasos áticos de figuras negras y de figuras rojas Siglos VIII A.C. – IV A.C. by María Herranz. 298 pages; 15 graphs, 124 tables (all in colour). Spanish text with English summary.. 38 2017. ISBN 9781784916848.
The centaur, a hybrid being with the body of horse and a human head and torso, first appeared in the mountains of Thessaly. This was the Greek horse-breeding region and it seemed natural for the centaur to have originated there, in the heart of this exclusive heritage of the landed gentry. Centaurs belonged to the spheres of heroic mythology, with clear ties to the values of the aristocracy.

This book is composed of a catalogue divided into nine chapters. Each chapter comprises catalogue entries for a number of black-figure and red-figure Attic vases. The division into chapters is based on the various types of centaurs and different conflicts, either among themselves or against a hero. In addition to the catalogue is a chapter on images and statistics. Each of these nine chapters corresponds to a section of catalogue entries and statistics, as the information refers to two examples in each section, one in black figures and another in red figures. The highlighted examples illustrate the variety of different vase types (amphorae, lekythoi, etc.) and their chronology (550-500 BC, 500-450 BC). The statistics are likewise divided into black and red figures, and various themes, such as the centaur Pholos and the banquet, or Herakles and Nessos. For each of these themes or groups of examples, a table is given showing the number of vases (amphorae, lekythoi, etc.) and their place in the chronology (550-500 BC, 500-450 BC, etc.).
This book is also available to purchase in paperback, priced £40.00.

 

Macedonian lionesses: Herakles and lion jewelry in elite female dress (c. 325–275 BCE) Taken from Journal of Greek Archaeology Volume 2 2017 edited by John Bintliff (Ed. in Chief). Pages 231-251.
By Alexis Q. Castor

Lions, of all animal quarry, rank among the most daunting and dangerous prey for hunters. Heroes and rulers demonstrated their physical strength in lion hunts and depicted them in historical records and images as a way to affirm their authority. Lions and the iconic lion-slayer Herakles, who was important in Macedonia as the ancestor of the royal Argead clan, became especially prominent in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Macedonian art.

 

 

 

 

The Study of East Asian Art History in Europe: Some Observations on Its Early Stages Taken from Bridging Times and Spaces: Papers in Ancient Near Eastern, Mediterranean and Armenian Studies edited by Pavel S. Avetisyan and Yervand H. Grekyan. Pages 89-102.
By Lothar Von Falkenhausen

Reflections are offered on how East Asian art history was established as a field of study in European academia. Concentrating on Germany (especially Berlin), the early stages of this process from the late 19th century to the post-World War I period are traced and the main protagonists and institutions briefly characterized. The paper ends with a short polemic about the impending reorganization of the East Asian collections within the Berlin State Museums, which risks losing much of the hard-won intellectual gains made in more than one century of serious scholarship and institution-building.

 

 

AP2017: 12th International Conference of Archaeological Prospection 12th-16th September 2017, University of Bradford edited by Benjamin Jennings, Christopher Gaffney, Thomas Sparrow and Sue Gaffney. vi+280 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (177 plates in colour). Available both in print and Open Access. 362 2017. ISBN 9781784916787.
This volume is a product of the International Conference of Archaeological Prospection 2017 which was hosted by the School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences at the University of Bradford. This event marked a return to the location of the inaugural conference of archaeological prospection which was held in Bradford in 1995. The conference is held every two years under the banner of the International Society for Archaeological Prospection.

The Proceedings of 12th International Conference of Archaeological Prospection draws together over 100 papers addressing archaeological prospection techniques, methodologies and case studies from around the world. Including studies from over 30 countries distributed across Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Europe; the collection of articles covers a diverse range of research backgrounds and situations. At this particular ICAP meeting, specific consideration has been given to emerging techniques and technologies in the fields of inter-tidal and marine archaeological prospection, and low altitude archaeological prospection.

The papers within this volume represent the conference themes of: Techniques and new technological developments; Applications and reconstructing landscapes and urban environments; Integration of techniques and inter-disciplinary studies, with focus on visualisation and interpretation; Marine, inter-tidal and wetland prospection techniques and applications; Low altitude prospection techniques and applications; Commercial archaeological prospection in the contemporary world.
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The folding cubit rod of Kha in Museo Egizio di Torino, S.8391 Taken from Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists, Florence, Italy 23-30 August 2015. Pages 450-456.
By Naoko Nishimoto

Much may be inferred about item S.8391, a folding cubit rod that belonged to Kha (TT 8, 18th Dynasty), by analyzing the results of the measurement survey conducted in 2011 from the perspective of woodwork. When Schiaparelli discovered the rod, it was folded inside a leather bag with a strap. The extremely rare folding cubit rod was loved by Kha, who was the overseer of works in Deir el-Medina and its related sites, where it was in practical use. This rod folds in half with a simple bronze hinge at the center; there are absolutely no inscriptions. The carved tally marks are only rough divisions into palms and the digits, and compared with other rods, the cubit measure is somewhat long, so the rod’s precision was in doubt. However, a metrological argument concerning the differences in the values of the palms and digits is proposed based on the presumed manner in which the wooden rod was created and actually used. The rod’s total length is 527.6mm, not greatly different from that reported by Senigalliesi in 1961. The size of each measurement interval, which Senigalliesi did not report, suggests how the rod was made. The tally marks are fine white lines; the left-hand palm is 75mm long, which is the common measurement of one palm, subdivided into four digits that vary little in size. Taking this into account, it is unthinkable that the makers lacked the ability to make tally marks accurately. The variations of values were supposedly caused by the process of creating the hinge. The center interval, including the hinge, is especially small, at (36mm + 36mm =) 72mm. For example, if we assume a play of about 3mm, a commonly used value, the center interval would become 36mm + 36mm + 3mm = 75mm. The inclination of the lines and the variations in size indicate that tally marks were etched in the closed position. S.8391 can also be used as a half-cubit measure in a closed position, and the first palm on the left side can measure digits. Traces of trial and error in remaking the hinge were found. In this study, I discovered that the clever hinge that makes this cubit rod possible satisfies two contradictory requirements to realize this rare folding rod. The appearance of this folding cubit rod, with no inscriptions and purely functional design, shows that it took incalculable effort to make it a prized instrument for the owner.

 

Mercenaries or refugees? The evidence from the inscriptions of Merenptah on the ‘Sea Peoples’ Taken from Journal of Greek Archaeology Volume 2, 2017 (John Bintliff (editor-in-chief), Archaeopress, 2017) by Konstantinos Kopanias. pp.119-134. Journal of Greek Archaeology .
During the fifth regnal year of Merenptah (either 1208 BC or 1219 BC), king Merey of the Rebu/Lebu attacked Egypt, together with his archers and many northern warriors. These northerners were not affiliated with any of the existing minor or major kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean, since they are only identified by obscure ethnonyms. Five inscriptions of Merenptah refer to these particular events, but they offer scarce historical information; a sixth one, inscribed on a wall of the Amun temple in Karnak, is the most elaborate one.5 Although the Karnak inscription has often been cited, most scholars usually focus on the parts referring to the ‘Sea Peoples’, which are often examined in isolation and out of their context. The aim of this paper is to re-examine the available evidence.
Journal of Greek Archaeology Volume 2, 2017 will be published in October 2017. Subscriptions are available now with special reduced rates for private subscriptions and bundle prices available for Volumes 1-2, 2016-2017. Click here to view full information for print and online subscriptions.

Faience in seventh-century Greece: egyptianizing ‘bric a brac’ or a useful paradigm for relations with Egypt? Taken from Interpreting the Seventh Century BC edited by Xenia Charalambidou and Catherine Morgan. Pages 71-79.
By Virginia Webb

Egyptianizing objects found in seventh- and sixth-century contexts in east Greece and elsewhere are most often made of faience. There are many problems, both of dating and attribution. I would like to discuss one particular group of faience objects from seventh-century contexts, the small perfume vessels in double vase form (so-called Leopard Spot Group), and will make some comments on the parallel group of small lekythoi, pyxides and alabastra. These are not stray imports brought in on the whim of individuals for dedication or personal use, but the products of an intentionally established industry which was certain of its market, and whose products could be traded widely. These were highly valued objects acceptable both as dedications to the gods and as gifts for the grave. By examining the techniques and decorative motifs, strong links can be made with Egyptian craft traditions and in particular with the iconography of good luck signifiers. A complementary strand is the role of east Greece, in particular Rhodes, as an intermediary in the packaging and onward dispersal of oils. Around 650 BC, the appearance of these specific faience vessel types in east Greece and the west suggests that faience factories had been set up on the same model as for the terracotta aryballoi. It cannot be fortuitous that Egyptian models and techniques found such ready acceptance in the Greek world at this time.

 

El Sur de la Península Ibérica y el Mediterráneo Occidental: relaciones culturales en la segunda mitad del II milenio a.C. by Juan Manuel Garrido Anguita. 580 pages; illustrated throughout with 181 plates in colour. Spanish text. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784916459.
In ancient times, the first communities, societies and civilizations in the Iberian peninsula, according to archaeological evidence, began to develop following a progressive local evolution tempered by the significance of outside contacts. In order to reconstruct our history, resorting to ancient poets, we strive to distinguish reality from myth in the pursuit of a bond of certainty between the data provided by historical and literary sources and the excavated remains. Greek epics, based on the Illiad and the Odyssey, are the basis for the first speculations that link societies all along the Mediterranean coast, from east to west, with a common thread. However, how many times have we been told about mythical places, such as cities of great splendour and unique cultural progress? Did the land which Plato called Atlantis and Adolf Schulten linked to Tartessos truly exist? These answers may never be revealed (they are not at the forefront of research interests nowadays); for the time being, they are lost into a mythical and legendary world. Nonetheless, they remain alive over time.

Spanish description: En tiempos lejanos, ahora sepultadas bajo la caída de los años, comienzan a formarse las primeras comunidades, sociedades y civilizaciones que se irán desarrollando en la Península Ibérica, por una progresiva evolución local, sin descuidar la atención de los contactos foráneos previa contrastación arqueológica. Refugiándonos en figuras creadas por los antiguos poetas, tratamos de discernir entre lo que comúnmente se ha denominado mito-leyenda y lo real, buscando un vínculo de certeza entre los datos que revelan las fuentes literario-históricas y los vestigios que se desentierran de nuestra primera historia, aquella que tratamos de reconstruir. La épica occidental apoyada en los relatos homéricos de la Ilíada y la Odisea, son la base de las primeras conjeturas que con un hilo, unen a las sociedades que conviven en el Mar Mediterráneo desde Oriente hasta Occidente. Pero ¿cuántas veces hemos oído contar relatos sobre míticas ciudades de gran esplendor e inigualable progreso cultural? ¿Existió aquella tierra denominada por Platón “Atlántida” y que fue asociada por Adolf Schulten a Tartessos? Estas respuestas quizá nunca lleguen a desvelarse (tampoco están en la vanguardia de los intereses de la investigación), por ahora sólo están inmersas en un mundo mítico y legendario, pero es cierto que se mantienen vivas, nostálgicas, con el paso del tiempo.
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A Crowded Desert: early results from survey and excavation of nomadic sites in north-west Qatar (poster) Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 47 2017 edited by Julian Jansen van Rensburg, Harry Munt, and Janet Starkey. Pages 43-50.
By Jose C. Carvajal Lopez, Kirk Roberts, Gareth Rees, Frank Stremke, Anke Marsh, Laura Morabito, Andrew Bevan, Mark Altaweel, Rodney Harrison, Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, Robert Carter, Richard Fletcher & Faisal Abdullah al-Naimi

This paper presents the results and preliminary conclusions of the 2016 season of the Crowded Desert Project, which aimed to find out about nomadic occupation and its relations with settled peoples in the region. Activities included extensive and intensive surveys and excavations in the area delimited by the areas of Umm al-MāΜ and MulayΉa in the north-west desert of the Qatar peninsula. Conclusions so far complement and expand the ideas developed during the pilot season of the project in 2015, and also provide finer chronological detail and a wider coverage of the area of research than before. The distribution of glass, metal, and pottery recovered showed important chronological differences in the patterns of occupation of the landscape. The paper also presents observed differences in the spatial distribution of features, showing how cairns (presumably pre-Islamic tombs), Islamic burials and cemeteries, and mosques and places of prayer (sing. muΒallā, pl. muΒallayāt) are distributed with respect to the tents and spaces habitation found. Finally, this paper introduces the first stratigraphic and geoarchaeological assessments undertaken in the area. Stratigraphic sequences are hard to find, and often nothing remains of them around any preserved structures. In cases where some have been found, their interpretation is restricted by their poor state of preservation and the constraints imposed by small trenches. A geoarchaeological programme is being developed in the hope of overcoming these problems and providing environmental information that might be useful for the understanding of the history of the region.

 

Auxiliaries and their forts: expression of identity? Taken from Roman Frontier Studies 2009 edited by Nick Hodgson, Paul Bidwell and Judith Schachtmann. Pages 229-235.
By Julia Chorus

Little is known about the origin of the pre-Flavian troops in the auxiliary forts in the Lower Rhine delta (The Netherlands). For the greater part this also applies to the transition phase just after the Batavian Revolt, in the early seventies AD. At that time the forts were all built in timber, so hardly any epigraphic evidence shows up during excavations. Can research on building techniques and their possible background fill a gap in the knowledge on the military occupation in the Rhine delta? When comparing the defences and internal buildings of the forts in the research area and also outside that region, the variety of building techniques is striking. Instead of environmental circumstances this must above all be due to the differences between the soldiers. Comparison with late Iron Age building techniques (fortifications, houses) shows some interesting relations between forts, soldiers, their possible recruitment area and building traditions. The ramparts of the forts, for instance, provide information on their builders and seem to show the origin of the builders/soldiers in the fort. They must have built their forts according to the tradition of their ancestors and meanwhile expressed their identity.

 

SOMA 2014. Proceedings of the 18th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology Wrocław – Poland, 24-26 April 2014 edited by Blazej Stanislawski and Hakan Öniz. viii+192 pages; illustrated throughout with 35 plates in colour. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784914950.
The 18th annual meeting of the Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA) was held in Wrocław-Poland, 24th to 26th April 2014.

Since prehistoric times the Mediterranean has acted as a stage for intense interactions between groups inhabiting regions that are now studied mainly within various sub-fields of ancient studies. In recent years, however, the development of research techniques and analytical models of archaeological evidence have identified similar historical paths that are similar, if not, in some cases, common to these disparate areas of the ancient world from West (Iberian peninsula) to East (Anatolia and Levant), from North (Europe, Black Sea Coast) to South (Maghreb and Egypt).

The 18th SOMA provided a forum for presentations related to the above-mentioned topics, as well as general themes such as the role of the sea, trade, colonization, even piracy, using archaeological data collected within contexts associated with the Mediterranean Basin and the area referred to as the Ancient Near East, ranging chronologically from the Prehistoric to Medieval periods. This current volume contains 22 papers selected from the 90 presented.
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The Creation of the First (Divinatory) Dream and Enki(g) as the God of Ritual Wisdom Taken from Ash-sharq - Bulletin of the Ancient Near East: Archaeological, Historical and Societal Studies edited by Laura Battini. Pages 155-161.
By Annette Zgoll

A close reading of the Sumerian version of the Flood Myth shows the god Enki(g) as the creator of the first divinatory dream. Enki(g)’s wisdom is precisely to be understood in this particular way, as ritual wisdom. In addition, Enki(g)’s/Ea’s trick in order to disclose the secrets of the gods without breaking his oath becomes comprehensible: it uses a clever combination of two different types of oracular devices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Archaeology of Time Travel Experiencing the Past in the 21st Century edited by Bodil Petersson and Cornelius Holtorf. viii+318 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784915018.

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This volume explores the relevance of time travel as a characteristic contemporary way to approach the past. If reality is defined as the sum of human experiences and social practices, all reality is partly virtual, and all experienced and practiced time travel is real. In that sense, time travel experiences are not necessarily purely imaginary. Time travel experiences and associated social practices have become ubiquitous and popular, increasingly replacing more knowledge-orientated and critical approaches to the past. Papers discuss the implications and problems associated with the ubiquity and popularity of time travelling and whether time travel is inherently conservative because of its escapist tendencies, or whether it might instead be considered as a fulfilment of the contemporary Experience or Dream Society. Whatever position one may take, time travel is a legitimate and timely object of study and critique because it represents a particularly significant way to bring the past back to life in the present.
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Introduction Chapter 1: The Meaning of Time Travel (Cornelius Holtorf)
Part One: Emerging Possibilities in Virtual Time Travels Chapter 2: Time Travel Using 3D Methodologies – Visualising the Medieval Context of a Baptismal Font (Nicoló Dell’Unto, Ing-Marie Nilsson† and Jes Wienberg) Chapter 3: The Kivik Grave, Virtual Bodies in Ritual Procession – Towards New Artistic Interactive Experiences for Time Travellers (Magali Ljungar-Chapelon) Commentary: Time Travel Paradoxes and Archaeology (Per Stenborg) Commentary: Taking Us to the Past and the Past to Us (Isto Huvila)
Part Two: Time Travel as an Educational Method Chapter 4: Use the Past, Create the Future – The Time Travel Method, a Tool for Learning, Social Cohesion and Community Building (Ebbe Westergren) Chapter 5: To Make and to Experience Meaning – How Time Travels are Perceived amongst Participants (Niklas Ammert and Birgitta E. Gustafsson) Commentary: Forming Bridges through Time Travel (Cecilia Trenter)
Part Three: Living the Distant Past Chapter 6: Performing the Past – Time Travels in Archaeological Open-air Museums (Stefanie Samida)

 

The Sunshade after the Old Kingdom – Female Attribute with Hathoric Connotation? Taken from Egypt 2015: Perspectives of Research by Mladen Tomorad and Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska. Pages 161-173.
By Lubica Hudáková

Abstract: The motif of a male sunshade bearer accompanying the tomb owner or his relatives is attested from the early 5th dynasty until the early Middle Kingdom, and in the related depictions the sunshade has a practical shielding function. The gradual abandonment of the motif coincides with the appearance of female sunshade bearers that start to be represented from the First Intermediate Period onwards. The context of the scenes in which these women appear, along with their iconography and associated inscriptions, indicate that the sunshade became a Hathoric attribute some time after the end of the Old Kingdom and fulfilled this function well into the 18th dynasty.

 

The Peshdar Plain Project, 2015-2016. A Major Neo-Assyrian Settlement on the Empire’s Eastern Border Taken from Ash-sharq - Bulletin of the Ancient Near East: Archaeological, Historical and Societal Studies edited by Laura Battini. Pages 124-130.
By Karen Radner, Janoscha Kreppner and Andrea Squitieri.

The Peshdar district is part of the province of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. It is situated directly on the border with Iran (Figure 1). The Peshdar Plain Project was inaugurated in 2015 and aims to uncover the ancient history of this understudied area with a focus on the 9th-7th centuries BC when the Neo-Assyrian Empire controlled the region. 

 

 

 

 

Continuity and Change in Etruscan Domestic Architecture by Paul M. Miller. xv+272 pages; illustrated throughout in black & white with 9 colour plates. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784915810.
Etruscan architecture underwent various changes between the later Iron Age and the Archaic period (c. 800-500 BC), as seen in the evidence from several sites. These changes affected the design and style of domestic architecture as well as the use of raw materials and construction techniques. However, based on a supposed linear progression from inferior to superior building materials, explanations and interpretations often portray an architectural transition in Etruria from ‘prehistoric’ to ‘historic’ building types. This perspective has encouraged a rather deterministic, overly simplified and inequitable view of the causes of change in which the replacement of traditional materials with new ones is thought to have been the main factor.

This book aims to reconsider the nature of architectural changes in this period by focussing on the building materials and techniques used in the construction of domestic structures. Through a process of identification and interpretation using comparative analysis and an approach based on the chaîne opératoire perspective, changes in building materials and techniques are examined, with special reference to four key sites: San Giovenale, Acquarossa, Poggio Civitate (Murlo) and Lago dell’Accesa. It is argued that changes occurred in neither a synchronous nor a linear way, but separately and at irregular intervals. In this monograph, they are interpreted as resulting mainly from multigenerational habitual changes, reflecting the relationship between human behaviour and the built and natural environments, rather than choices between old and new materials. Moreover, despite some innovations, certain traditional building techniques and their associated materials continued into the Archaic period, indicating that Etruscan domestic architecture did not undergo a complete transformation, as sometimes asserted or implied in other works. This study of building techniques and materials, while not rejecting the widely held view of a significant Etruscan architectural transition, argues for a more nuanced reading of the evidence and greater recognition of the nature of behavioural change during the period in question.
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Access Archaeology: This imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material ranges from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.
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L’arte rupestre dell’età dei metalli nella penisola italiana: localizzazione dei siti in rapporto al territorio, simbologie e possibilità interpretative edited by Renata Grifoni Cremonesi & Anna Maria Tosatti. 276 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Italian text. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784915575.
This volume presents the proceedings of the conference “L’arte rupestre dell’età dei metalli nella penisola italiana: localizzazione dei siti in rapporto al territorio, simbologie e possibilità interpretative” that took place in Pisa at the Cantiere delle Navi di Pisa under the aegis of the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana and of the University of Pisa on 15th June 2015. The addressed issues were related to the Post-Pleistocene rock art along the Apennine ridge; in recent years more and more evidence has been identified, which is different from the magnificent evidence found in the Alps such as, for example, the well-known Monte Bego and Val Camonica. This evidence, despite various and peculiar features, can be all related to the iconographic field whose main expressions are anthropomorphic figures, weapons, daggers, halberds and several other symbols, all similarly stylised. A peculiarity of these manifestations is their location in small shelters inappropriate for habitation or in places suitable for supervising mountain and territory roads, bearing comparison to evidence from Western Mediterranean coastal areas. An interpretative possibility has emerged: these sites could have been not only ceremonial places, but also spaces linked to the socio-economic fields or perhaps to the power of communities that occupied these territories.
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Access Archaeology: This imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material ranges from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.
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Large Scale Rhodian Sculpture of Hellenistic and Roman Times Η ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΡΟΔΙΑΚΗ ΠΛΑΣΤΙΚΗ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΡΩΜΑΪΚΩΝ ΧΡΟΝΩΝ by Kalliope Bairami. xviii+864 pages; 222 plates, 23 in colour. Greek text with 19 page English summary. Available both in print and Open Access.ISBN 9781784915773.

The Hellenistic society of the Rhodian metropolis, a naval aristocracy (Gabrielsen), dedicated bronze statues of their members in the sanctuaries and public buildings and used marble and -occasionally-lartios lithos to carve portrait-statues originally for funerary use and in a later period also for honorific purposes, figures of deities and decorative sculpture for the houses and the parks. The artists, local and itinerant, from Athens, the islands and the Asia Minor, established artistic workshops on Rhodes, some of them active for three centuries and for more than one generation. The impact of Rhodian art is evident on the islands of the Aegean and the cities of Asia Minor, due to the expansion of the Rhodian Peraia. Together with Pergamon, Rhodes emerges as a productive artistic centre of the Hellenistic era, creating statuary types and combining them with landscape elements. The radiance of its art is evident in the late Hellenistic period in Rome, the new capital of the world, where the Rhodian artists create mythological statuary groups set in grottoes.

This volume presents the large-scale Rhodian sculpture of the Hellenistic and Roman period through the publication of sixty unpublished sculptures of life size or larger than life size, together with forty-five sculptures already published. The sculptures are grouped according to their statuary type (gods, mortals and portraits), while those unable to be firmly identified due to their fragmentary condition are grouped under the category ‘uncertain identification’. The presentation of the sculptures is further supplemented by a technical description and an analysis of stylistic characteristics according to chronological development. Excavation data, wherever available, are also provided.

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