NEW: Ceramics in Transition: Production and Exchange of Late Byzantine-Early Islamic Pottery in Southern Transjordan and the Negev by Elisabeth Holmqvist. Paperback; 205x290mm; vi+196 pages; 61 figures, 4 tables + illustrated appendices (25 pages in colour). (Print RRP £35.00). 552 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692242. £35.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692259.
Ceramics in Transition focuses on the utilitarian ceramic traditions during the socio-political transition from the late Byzantine into the early Islamic Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, c. 6th–9th centuries CE in southern Transjordan and the Negev. These regions belonged to the Byzantine province of Palaestina Tertia, before Islamic administrative reorganisation in the mid-7th century. Cooking ware and ceramic containers were investigated from five archaeological sites representing different socio-economic contexts, the Jabal Harûn monastery, the village of Khirbet edh-Dharih, the port city of ‘Aqaba/Aila, the town of Elusa in the Negev, and the suburban farmstead of Abu Matar. The ceramics were typo-chronologically categorised and subjected to geochemical and micro-structural characterisation via X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (ED-XRF) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) to geochemically ‘fingerprint’ the sampled ceramics and to identify production clusters, manufacturing techniques, ceramic distribution patterns, and material links between rural-urban communities as well as religious-secular communities. The ceramic data demonstrate economic wealth continuing into the early Islamic periods in the southern regions, ceramic exchange systems, specialized manufacture and inter-regional, long-distance ceramic transport. The potters who operated in the southern areas in the formative stages of the Islamic period reformulated their craft to follow new influences diffusing from the Islamic centres in the north.
About the Author
ELISABETH HOLMQVIST holds a PhD (2010) in Archaeological Science from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and MA and BA degrees in Archaeology from the University of Helsinki. She works as a post-doctoral researcher at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests are broadly in archaeological science, ancient craft technologies and identifying mobility of objects and people in archaeological data. She carries out archaeological fieldwork in Finland, Israel and Jordan.
NEW: Current Research in Egyptology 2018 Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, 25–28 June 2018 edited by Marie Peterková Hlouchová, Dana Belohoubková, Jirí Honzl, Vera Nováková. Paperback; 203x276mm; x+252 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (104 colour pages). 88 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692143. £55.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692150.
Current Research in Egyptology 2018 is a collection of papers and posters presented at the nineteenth symposium of the prestigious international student conference, held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague on 25th–28th June 2018. The Prague conference was attended by more than 100 people from various countries and institutions. The range of topics discussed was wide, covering all periods of ancient Egyptian and Nubian history and various topics concerning their society, religious life, material culture and archaeological excavations. The event also included six keynote lectures by experts from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, the FA CU (Prof. Mgr. Miroslav Bárta, Dr., Doc. PhDr. Hana Vymazalová, Ph.D., Doc. PhDr. Jana Mynářová, Ph.D., Prof. PhDr. Ladislav Bareš, CSc., and PhDr. Filip Coppens, Ph.D.) and the University of Vienna (Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter-Christian Jánosi). The Egyptological meeting was enriched with a visit to the Karolinum, historical buildings of Charles University.
Production and provenance of Gulf wares unearthed in the Old Doha Rescue Excavations Project by José C. Carvajal López, Marcella Giobbe, Elizabeth Adeyemo, Myrto Georgakopoulou, Robert Carter, Ferhan Sakal, Alice Bianchi & Faisal Al-Na’īmī. Pages 51-67 from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 49 2019 edited by Daniel Eddisford.
In this paper, a science-based study of ceramic wares discovered in the Old Doha Rescue Excavations (ODRE) is presented. The ODRE project, run by Qatar Museums and UCL Qatar, discovered a stratigraphic sequence running from the earliest occupation of Doha in the early nineteenth century until the most recent archaeological levels. A strategic selection of ceramic wares from this sequence was studied to shed light on the technological background and provenance of the pottery utilized in Doha between the late nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century. The petrographic study of these wares has provided insight into their mineralogical and petrological composition and their textural characteristics. The textural elements have been used to understand the technology of production of the ceramics, which come from different places around the Gulf. The identification of components has moved us a step closer to the location of places of production by matching compositions and geological backgrounds. The study of glazes with hhXRF, SEM-EDS, and optical microscopy has given us further insight on technological processes in the application of glaze. Finally, a comparison between the macroscopic and microscopic analyses carried out has been produced to shed some light on the inherent difficulties associated with the identification of wares in Gulf ceramics.
Keywords: Islamic archaeology, archaeological science, Qatar, Gulf archaeology, ceramics
Hasanlu, the Southern Caucasus and Early Urartu by Megan Cifarelli. Pages 144-156 from Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday edited by Pavel S. Avetisyan, Roberto Dan and Yervand H. Grekyan.
Abstract: The past decades witnessed an increasing recognition of the complexity of Hasanlu’s place in the Iron Age world that it shared with Assyria, due to research in the highlands to the north of Hasanlu and the proliferation of studies about the kingdom of Urartu. This paper explores evidence, ‘circumstantial’ and archaeological, for interaction between Hasanlu during Period IVb (1050-800 BC) and the incipient Urartian state. There is little question that during the latter half of Period IVb at Hasanlu, the entity that would become the kingdom of Urartu was coalescing in eastern Anatolia and northwestern Iran. The material culture of Hasanlu Period IVb provides hints of interaction between Hasanlu and the larger southern Caucasus region, and between Hasanlu and Urartu. The impact of this cultural contact is bilateral, although it is challenging to trace the steps by which the material culture of northwestern Iran contributed to the development of that in Urartu. This paper argues that material connections between Urartu and Hasanlu, the objects displayed on its citadel and the bodies of its citizens, in the rich and diverse collections safeguarded in storerooms and presumably taken as spoils by its destroyers, indicate the debt Urartu owed to northwest Iran.
Keywords: Hasanlu, Urartu, Iron Age, South Caucasus, trident, bident, lion pin
NEW: Bridging Science and Heritage in the Balkans Studies in Archaeometry and Cultural Heritage Restoration and Conservation edited by Nona Palincaş and Corneliu C. Ponta. Paperback; vi+156 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. 541 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691962. £34.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789691979.
In a period when, particularly in the West, the study of archaeological remains is enriched through new methods derived from the natural sciences and when there is general agreement on the need for more investment in the study, restoration and conservation of the tangible cultural heritage, this book presents contributions to these fields from South-Eastern Europe. This region is characterised by a contrast between the rather limited development of the above scientific methods and the particularly rich and diverse material remains of its past societies, as well as by an obvious need to bring closer together traditionally-trained archaeologists with specialists in natural sciences interested in the research and conservation of ancient material remains. The title ‘Bridging Science and Heritage in the Balkans’ intends to show that the volume is part of this effort.
The departing point of this volume is the 5th Balkan Symposium of Archaeometry (25–29 September 2016, Sinaia, Romania), where most of the papers published here were presented in preliminary form. The contributors are specialists from South-Eastern Europe as well as from other European countries working there. Some chapters focus on methods (in the research of glass, restoration of stone monuments affected by contemporary graffiti, conservation by irradiation of organic materials such as wood and human and animal body remains); most chapters present case studies (analyses of ceramics, metals, soils, wood anatomy, isotope-based reconstruction of human diet, ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating, technology assisted field survey, as well as restoration of paper and pigments); sometimes several methods are combined. The volume covers nearly all aspects of heritage sciences employed in this part of Europe.
About the Editors
NONA PALINCAŞ is senior researcher with the Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest. Her research interests include both social archaeology (particularly gender, body practices, power, knowledge, agency and creativity in the south-east European Bronze and Iron Ages and in contemporary archaeology) and archaeometry (primarily radiocarbon dating and analysis of archaeological ceramics). She has conducted excavations in the pre- and protohistoric settlement at Popeşti (Romania), the Late Iron Age habitation of which was identified with Argedaon/Argedava − the residence of the father of the Dacian king Burebista. In various publications she has pleaded for stronger development of archaeological theory and of archaeometry in Romania and in South-Eastern Europe in general.
CORNELIU C. PONTA, PhD, chemical engineer, has worked for more than 40 years at the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) in Măgurele, Romania. He established, developed and led the IRASM Radiation Processing Centre – a department orientated to research and development, treatments, consulting, promotion and implementation of applications of gamma irradiation. Among these the disinfection of cultural heritage by gamma irradiation is now an accepted conservation alternative in Romania. Recently he contributed to the book Uses of Ionizing Radiation for Tangible Cultural Heritage Conservation (IAEA, Radiation Technology Series No. 6, 2017).
NEW: Execution by Styrax in Ancient Thasos by Anagnostis P. Agelarakis. Paperback; 203x276mm; vi+42 pages; 33 figures, 5 graphs (27 plates presented in full colour). 86 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692129. £24.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692136.
Searching through interdisciplinary research to recover echoes of the human condition ingrained as they may be in the skeletal record of the ancients, there have been few cases in the forty year experience of the author which in defiance to the relentless passage of Chrόnos and even the chthonic potency of the waters of Léthe to dissolve all strings relating to Mnenosỳne could offer compelling evidentiary data, critical for generating meaningful interpretive answers as a nexus to life pathways and experiences in antiquity, reflective of dynamics and circumstances, that were not always possible to be recorded or spoken of by the attendants of Cléo. And yet in rare cases, millennia later, ostensibly through the works of Láchesis, a synergy between the fields of Archaeological Anthropology and Bioarchaeology may offer a unique portal whereby the dictum mortui vivos docent may be reiterated.
Sharing in the objectives of an ongoing archaeo-anthropological endeavor, aiming to better decipher and elucidate facets of the human condition while carrying out funerary archaeological research of Hellenistic to Roman periods family graves at the extensive ancient necropolis of Thasos, the most northern Aegean island, this essay addresses a case of unique forensic / bioarchaeological interest involving an older male individual, a member of one of the clusters of burials, who had been placed as a single interment in a most conspicuous limestone cyst grave of the Hellenistic period.
While odontological, cranio-infracranial skeleto-anatomic manifestations and palaeopathologies revealed a detailed rostrum on aspects of his developmental growth, of acquired and degenerative somatic changes, reflective of his life experiences which involved long term most active participations in physically demanding yet specialized activities, a staggering ‘through and through’ sternal trauma of astonishing preservation, provided for a distinct opportunity to conduct a unique cross-disciplinary investigation on the nature of the weapon reconstructed in bronze, the archaeometry on the trajectory and factors of speed and force at the deliverance of the strike, along with the diagnostic assessments of the thoracic tissues pierced consecutively and their moribund consequences.
A review of historical references on the implementation of capital punishment either through the decision of a dicastic or ephetic court, and/or execution carried out as a result of outlawry are evaluated in relevance to funerary practices as these pertained to the interment of the Thasian male within the context of the burial ground, offering in retrospect assessments on the probable cause of his violent death.
About the Author
ANAGNOSTIS P. AGELARAKIS is Professor of Anthropology at Adelphi University in New York. He studied Classical Archaeology and European Ethnology as an undergraduate, and as graduate Environmental Studies at Lund University and Lund Polytechnic Institute in Sweden. He holds a M. Phil. and Ph.D. (1989) in Anthropology from Columbia University, New York.
In the earlier years of his career, he carried out field and/or lab archaeo-anthropological research projects focusing on the organizational abilities, capacities, and adaptations of the human condition during the Holocene in SE and SW Asia, the Middle East, the American Northeast, and the Caribbean.
The central area of his research remains however the Eastern Mediterranean with emphasis on the ancient world of the Greeks, at the cross roads and sea routes between Africa, Asia, and Europe. Under the domains of Anthropological Archaeology, Funerary Archaeology, Bio-Archaeology and Forensics he studies the biological profiles, the demographic dynamics, and palaeopathological records of human skeletal populations from prehistoric periods to the late medieval era. Based on the skeletal record, he i
NEW: RACTA 2018: Ricerche di Archeologia Cristiana, Tardantichità e Altomedioevo edited by Chiara Cecalupo, Giovanna Assunta Lanzetta and Priscilla Ralli. Paperback; 203x276; 248 pages; illustrated throughout in black & white with 20 plates in colour. Papers in Italian, English, French and German. Introduction and abstracts in English. (Print RRP £45.00). 84 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691740. £45.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789691757.
RACTA (Ricerche di Archeologia Cristiana, Tardantichità e Altomedioevo) was the first international conference for PhD students of Christian Archaeology. It took place in Rome in February 2018, hosted by Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana and gathered more than 50 multidisciplinary talks and posters from PhD students from Europe, America and Russia. The engagement shown at the well-attended event, and the interest of several institutions, proved that Christian archaeology continues to be important to new generations of archaeologists, art historians, and researchers of the ancient world.
About the Editors
CHIARA CECALUPO has a PhD in History of Christian Archaeology from the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana (‘La Roma Sotterranea di Antonio Bosio e i primi collezionisti di antichità cristiane’), and is a researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Pisa. Her work concerns the history of archaeology and collections.
GIOVANNA ASSUNTA LANZETTA is a PhD student at The Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana (‘La basilica di Santa Eufemia a Grado’). Her research focusses on early Christian architecture with the support of new technologies (such as 3D reconstructions) and on Christian and medieval topography.
PRISCILLA RALLI is a PhD student at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana (thesis “L’architettura paleocristiana del Peloponneso”) in agreement with the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene (SAIA-IASA) and with a scholarship (related to the study of Argos and the Argolid during the Late Antiquity) from the Ecole Française d’Athènes (EFA).
Was Knossos a Home for Phoenician Traders? by Judith Muñoz Sogas. Pages 408-416 from Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday edited by Rui Morais et al.
Odysseus claims a Phoenician ship brought him to Ithaca twice. In one of those instances, he specifies they sailed along the north coast of Crete en route from Phoenicia to Libya. Knossos, a site in the north of the island, also mentioned in the Odyssey, was a much-frequented port by Phoenicians sailing towards the West. Even though some Phoenicians presumably only used Knossos as a stopping point, some archaeological finds indicate a more permanent character of their stay during the 9th-8th centuries BC.NEW: The Geography of Gandhāran Art Proceedings of the Second International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, University of Oxford, 22nd-23rd March, 2018 edited by Wannaporn Rienjang and Peter Stewart. DOI: 10.32028/9781789691863. Paperback; 203x276mm; xii+186 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (60 plates in colour). (Print RRP £38.00). 533 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691863. £38.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789691870.
Gandhāran art is usually regarded as a single phenomenon – a unified regional artistic tradition or ‘school’. Indeed it has distinctive visual characteristics, materials, and functions, and is characterized by its extensive borrowings from the Graeco-Roman world. Yet this tradition is also highly varied. Even the superficial homogeneity of Gandhāran sculpture, which constitutes the bulk of documented artistic material from this region in the early centuries AD, belies a considerable range of styles, technical approaches, iconographic choices, and levels of artistic skill.
The geographical variations in Gandhāran art have received less attention than they deserve. Many surviving Gandhāran artefacts are unprovenanced and the difficulty of tracing substantial assemblages of sculpture to particular sites has obscured the fine-grained picture of its artistic geography. Well documented modern excavations at particular sites and areas, such as the projects of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Swat Valley, have demonstrated the value of looking at sculptures in context and considering distinctive aspects of their production, use, and reuse within a specific locality. However, insights of this kind have been harder to gain for other areas, including the Gandhāran heartland of the Peshawar basin. Even where large collections of artworks can be related to individual sites, the exercise of comparing material within and between these places is still at an early stage. The relationship between the Gandhāran artists or ‘workshops’, particular stone sources, and specific sites is still unclear.
Addressing these and other questions, this second volume of the Gandhāra Connections project at Oxford University’s Classical Art Research Centre presents the proceedings of a workshop held in March 2018. Its aim is to pick apart the regional geography of Gandhāran art, presenting new discoveries at particular sites, textual evidence, and the challenges and opportunities of exploring Gandhāra’s artistic geography.
About the Editors
WANNAPORN RIENJANG is Project Assistant of the Gandhāra Connections Project at the Classical Art Research Centre, Oxford. She completed her doctoral degree in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge on Buddhist relic cult in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before starting her PhD, she worked as a research assistant for the Masson Project at the Department of Coins and Medals, the British Museum. Her research interests include the art and archaeology of Greater Gandhāra, Buddhist studies, and working technologies of stone containers and beads.
PETER STEWART is Director of the Classical Art Research Centre and Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He has worked widely in the field of ancient sculpture. His publications include Statues in Roman Society: Representation and Response (2003) and The Social History of Roman Art (2008). Much of his research concerns the relationship between Gandhāran art and Roman sculpture.
Godlike Images: Priestesses in Greek Sculpture by Iphigeneia Leventi. Pages 69-77 from Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday edited by Rui Morais et al.
The first almost certain depiction of a priestess in action can be found on the east frieze of the Parthenon. There is general consensus among scholars concerning the identification of the mature female figure in the middle of slab V as the priestess of Athena Polias, shown with her back turned to the man in priestly garment who is dealing with the peplos. Even though the iconographic type of this priestess is a generic one with no evident relation to the sculptural representations of the female deity she serves, also lacking identifying attributes like the temple key or the xoanon of the goddess, her identity is established by the context in which she appears, and especially her interaction with the two female attendants, who are recognised as arrephoroi or kanephoroi. A similar scene can be seen on the early Classical clay Locrian pinakes, where a priestess is depicted with one or more attendants, or with a host of devotees in a ritual performance.
Revisiting a Plate in the Ashmolean Museum: A New Interpretation by Marianne Bergeron. Pages 174-184 from Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday edited by Rui Morais et al.
Set prominently on display in the ‘Heroes and Myths’ case in the Ashmolean Museum’s Greece gallery, plate AN1934.333 has been published numerous times but almost only ever in passing. Previously, there was some disagreement regarding the subject matter. Is the scene depicting the Capture of the Keryneian Deer or is it a Struggle for the Hind? The caption in the display case prefers the former interpretation but the general consensus seems to favour the latter. The different narrative composition used for scenes of the Capture is different from that for the plate. Yet, the composition on the Oxford plate is equally different from that of the Struggles.
This present paper will examine the conventional compositions and cast of characters used for scenes related to the Hind and Tripod Struggles and compare them with the ambiguous scene and cast members on the plate. This paper will also take a closer look at Attic black-figure plates and examine their uses based on the contexts in which they were found. My aim is to determine whether the scene on the plate may not more appropriately be classified as a scene of everyday life, perhaps one related to cult activity and initiation rites.
Journal of Hellenistic Pottery and Material Culture Volume 3 2018 edited by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom and Patricia Kögler. Paperback; 210x297mm; xvi+208 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (43 plates in colour). Papers in English and German. 3 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691719. £30.00 (No VAT). Institutional Price £50.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 2399-1852-3-2019.
ARTICLES
Notes on a Hellenistic Milk Pail – by Yannis Chairetakis
Chasing Arsinoe (Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus): A Sealed Early Hellenistic Cistern and Its Ceramic Assemblage – by Brandon R. Olson, Tina Najbjerb & R. Scott Moore
Hasmonean Jerusalem in the Light of Archaeology – Notes on Urban Topography – by Hillel Geva
A Phoenician / Hellenistic Sanctuary at Horbat Turit (Kh. et-Tantur) – by Walid Atrash, Gabriel Mazor & Hanaa Aboud with contributions by Adi Erlich & Gerald Finkielsztejn
Schmuck aus dem Reich der Nabatäer – hellenistische Traditionen in frührömischer Zeit – by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom
ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS AND PROJECT
Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project: Excavations at Pyla-Vigla in 2018 – by Thomas Landvatter, Brandon R. Olson, David S. Reese, Justin Stephens & R. Scott Moore
Bookmark: Ancient Gems, Finger Rings and Seal Boxes from Caesarea Maritima. The Hendler Collection – by Shua Amorai-Stark & Malka Herskovitz
BOOK REVIEWS
Nina Fenn, Späthellenistische und frühkaiserzeitliche Keramik aus Priene. Untersuchungen zu Herkunft und Produktion – by Susanne Zabehlicky-Scheffenegger
Raphael Greenberg, Oren Tal & Tawfiq Da῾adli, Bet Yerah III. Hellenistic Philoteria and Islamic al- Ṣinnabra. The 1933–1986 and 2007–2013 Excavations – bY Gabriel Mazor
Mohamed Kenawi & Giorgia Marchiori, Unearthing Alexandria’s archaeology: The Italian Contribution – by Carlo De Mitri
Taymāʾ I: Archaeological Exploration, Palaeoenvironment, Cultural Contacts edited by Arnulf Hausleiter, Ricardo Eichmann, Muhammad al-Najem. Hardback; 210x297mm; xii+268 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (66 plates in colour). 499 2018 Taymāʾ: Multidisciplinary Series on the Results of the Saudi-German Archaeological Project 1. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690439. £55.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690446.
Archaeological investigations in the north-western part of the Arabian Peninsula has increased during the last 15 years. One of the major sites in the region is the ancient oasis of Taymāʾ, known as a commercial hub on the so-called Incense Road connecting South Arabia with the Eastern Mediterranean. In the context of this new research a multidisciplinary project by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has been investigating the archaeology and ancient environment of Taymāʾ since 2004. A major aim of this project was the development of new perspectives of the site and the region, characterised by elaborating the local socio-cultural and economic contexts. So far, Taymāʾ has been known mainly through exogenous sources.
The present volume is the first of the publication series of the Saudi-German archaeological project and focuses on three fundamental aspects of research at Taymāʾ: the current archaeological exploration of the oasis is contextualised with previous and ongoing research within the region, while at the same time offering a first overview of the settlement history of the site, which may have started as early as more than 6000 years ago. New information on the palaeoenvironment has been provided by multiproxy- analysis of sediments from a palaeolake immediately north of the settlement. The results indicate an Early Holocene humid period in the region that is shorter than the so-called African Humid Period. The abrupt aridification at around 8 ka BP, known from other regions in the Near East, is also attested in north-western Arabia. The reconstruction of the past vegetation of the site and its surroundings demonstrates that oasis cultivation at Taymāʾ started during the 5th millennium BCE with grapes and figs, rather than with the date palm. According to hydrological investigations on water resources, groundwater aquifers provided the main source of local water supply. These were exploited through wells, some of which have been identified in the area of the ancient oasis. Finally, since the time of early travellers to Northwest Arabia evidence of cultural contacts has been observed in the records from the site, which had been occupied by the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (556–539 BCE) for ten years. A historical-archaeological essay on Egypt and Arabia as well as a study on the ambiguous relationship between Assyria and Arabia – characterised by conflict and commerce – shed new light on the foreign relations of ancient Taymāʾ.
About the Editors
ARNULF HAUSLEITER is researcher at the DAI’s Orient Department for the Taymāʾ project, funded by the German Research foundation (DFG). He has been field director of the excavations at Taymāʾ since 2004 and has co-directed the project with Ricardo Eichmann.
RICARDO EICHMANN is director of the Orient Department at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. He is the head of the German component of the Taymāʾ project and has co-directed it with Arnulf Hausleiter.
MUHAMMAD AL-NAJEM is head of the Antiquities Office of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) and director of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at Taymāʾ, Province of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Bridging the Gap in Maritime Archaeology: Working with Professional and Public Communities edited by Katy Bell. Paperback; 203x276mm; viii+148 pages; 62 figures (15 plates in colour). (Print RRP £35.00). 77 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690859. £35.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690866.
Bridging the Gap in Maritime Archaeology: Working with Professional and Public Communities marks the publication of a conference session held at CIfA 2014. The session was organised by the Marine Archaeology Special Interest Group which is a voluntary group of CIfA Archaeologists which exists to promote greater understanding of marine archaeology within the wider archaeological community. The session focused on ways in which it is possible, given the obvious constraints of working in the marine environment, to engage with a wider audience in the course of maritime archaeological work. The volume presents a series of case studies exhibiting best practice with regard to individual maritime projects and examples of outreach to local communities, including the creation of accessibility to remote and hard-to-reach archaeological sites.
About the Editor
KATY BELL is an archaeologist with 15 years’ experience of British Archaeology. She is a qualified scuba diver holds an MA in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Winchester and is examining the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition on the Isle of Wight. She has recently finished working on a community project ‘Dodnor Rediscovered’ training community archaeologists and recording the buildings of the Medina Cement Mills, Isle of Wight, which sent hydraulic cement all around the country via the Medina River and the Solent.
Archaeological Heritage Conservation and Management by Brian J. Egloff. Paperback; viii+330 pages; 8 tables, 34 figures (32 plates in colour). 76 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691054. £55.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789691061.
Archaeological heritage conservation is all too often highly conflicted and fraught with pitfalls in part due to a poor understanding of the historical and current underpinnings that guide best practice. When heritage places are managed with international principles in mind the sites stand out as evidencing superior outcomes. The International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management expresses concern in the Salalah Guidelines of 2017 with the persistent problems facing archaeological sites that are open to the public. National heritage icons face overwhelming pressure to provide the mainstay of local, national and international tourism economies while in some instances being situated in locations destined for major development or military conflict. Leaders in the field of archaeological heritage conservation, particularly with respect to World Heritage listed properties, assert that economic interests often are at the forefront of management decision making while heritage values are given lesser, if any, consideration. Continuing and future zones of discomfort such as the impact of war, theft of national cultural property, over-development, unconstrained excavation, extreme nationalism, uncontrolled visitation and professionalisation need to be addressed if future generations are to be afforded the same heritage values as are available today.
About the Author
BRIAN J. EGLOFF is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and has been active in both field research and heritage management since the 1960s. He has undertaken studies on the cultural and ecological base of the Cherokee Nation, the prehistory of Eastern Papua and on Australian Aboriginal land rights as well as participated in projects in Wisconsin, Tasmania, Pohnpei, Mauritius and Laos. His current interests lie in Aboriginal land management and the implement of international heritage conservation and management programmes. Brian’s most recent publications focus on the illicit trade in cultural property.
Images of Dionysos, Images for Dionysos: The God’s Terracottas at Cycladic Sanctuaries Taken from Greek Art in Motion edited by Rui Morais, Delfim Leão, Diana Rodríguez Pérez with Daniela Ferreira. Pages 115-126.
By Erica Angliker
A recent survey of cult practices in the Cyclades has revealed that Dionysos was worshipped in both the private and public sphere on at least eleven islands of the Cycladic archipelago (Amorgos, Andros, Delos, Ios, Kea, Melos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Siphnos and Thera).2 Six of these (Amorgos, Andros, Delos, Kea, Naxos, Thera) had sanctuaries dedicated to Dionysos, three of which (Amorgos, Kea, Naxos) were of considerable size. The existence of large Dionysian sanctuaries in the archipelago is remarkable because though Dionysos was worshipped throughout Greece, he was generally granted small sanctuaries. Substantial ones, therefore, were exceptional.3 Although not all material retrieved from Cycladic sanctuaries has been fully published, what is currently available offers a unique opportunity to examine tangible traces of the god.
Pavlovsk Imperial Villa and its Collections: From the First Stage of Antiquities Collecting and Archaeology in Russia Taken from Greek Art in Motion edited by Rui Morais, Delfim Leão, Diana Rodríguez Pérez with Daniela Ferreira. Pages 441-452.
By Anastasia Bukina and Anna Petrakova
The paper deals with the collection of the Empress Maria Fyodorovna (1759-1828), the spouse of Pavel Petrovich, who reigned from 1796 to 1801 as Paul the 1st. The collection is now in the Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve near St. Petersburg, located in the picturesque valley of the river Slavyanka. The land was presented in 1777 to the Gran Duke Paul by his mother (Empress Catherine the Great) to celebrate the birth of her first grandson – the heir of throne and the future Emperor Alexander the 1st. The Court architect Charles Cameron designed an English park and pavilions, romantic ruins and a palace in a shape of an elegant Palladian mansion to which later wings were added. Due to its beauty and history the Pavlovsk ensemble is now an object of the UNESCO World Heritage.
Hellenistic Alexandria: Celebrating 24 Centuries Papers presented at the conference held on December 13–15 2017 at Acropolis Museum, Athens edited by Christos S. Zerefos and Marianna V. Vardinoyannis. Hardback; 205x290mm; xx+296 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (56 plates in colour). 493 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690668. £68.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690675.
Hellenistic Alexandria: Celebrating 24 Centuries presents the proceedings of a conference held at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, on December 13–15, 2017, and includes high-level dialogues and philosophical discussions between international experts on Hellenistic Alexandria. The goal was to celebrate the 24 centuries which have elapsed since its foundation and the beginning of the Library and the Museum of Alexandria. The conference was divided into two parts, to include in the first part archaeology, history, philosophy, literature, art, culture and legal issues and in the second part science, medicine, technology and environment. A total of 28 original and peer-reviewed articles point to the importance of the brilliantly-original ideas that emerged during the Hellenistic age and the curious modernity of the whole atmosphere of the time. The range of presented topics covers a variety of new data on the foundation of Alexandria to comparison between Ptolemaic Alexandria and Ptolemaic Greece through philosophy, culture and drama to the forgotten revolution of science, medicine and the prevailing climatological and geophysical conditions throughout the Hellenistic Period. The conference and its proceedings were co-sponsored by the Μarianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation, the Acropolis Museum, the Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies at Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences.
The Publication also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies, a joint collaboration between the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Vardinoyannis Foundation and the University of Alexandria. Scholars from around the world follow the Center’s programme in various specialisations, ranging from historyliterature- art, to archaeology and architecture-philosophy, and science.
About the Editors
Christos Zerefos is Head of Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens and president-elect of the General Assembly of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation; Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Physics at the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki; Visiting Professor, Universities of Minnesota and Boston; Samarbeidspartnere (Scientific Collaborator), University of Oslo. He is known for his research into ozone, UV, ozone-climate interactions and climate-extreme events. He is member of the Academy of Athens, Academia Europaea, Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, European Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and other distinguished scientific societies. He is recipient of the UNEP Global Ozone Award, 1997 and of a number of distinctions, awards and medals from WMO/UNEP, and various scientific societies (e.g. Blaise Pascal Medal, European Academy of Sciences; AGU Kaufman Award; European and Balkan Physics Societies’ Award; European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage-Europa Nostra Award, and others). He received the Award Certificate and Letter from UNEP and IPCC for substantial contribution to the reports of IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the former Vice President of USA, Al Gore (December 2007). He is honorary professor, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; has an honorary doctoral degree from the Physics Department, University of Patras; honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, university division of the American College ANATOLIA, Thessaloniki. He has supervised 50 MSc and 30 PhD degrees and has originated eight international research centres. His research work in peer-reviewed scientific journals is acknowledged widely by the scientific community. (For more see www.christoszerefos.com/)
Marianna V. Vardinoyannis is a Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO for the protection of children, founder and president of the ‘Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation’, of the ‘ELPIDA Friends’ Association of Children with cancer
Human Mobility in Archaeology: Practices, Representations and Meanings Ex Novo: Journal of Archaeology, Volume 3, 2018 edited by Maja Gori, Martina Revello Lami and Alessandro Pintucci. 3 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691214. £45.00 (No VAT).
It has been abundantly demonstrated that theories and paradigms in the humanities are influenced by historical, economic and socio-cultural conditions, which have profoundly influenced archaeology’s representation of migration. This was mostly conceived as the study of the movement of large and homogenous population groups, whose identity was often represented as ethnically characterized. The present-day shift of attention from collective to individual agency and the countless facets of migration goes hand in hand with new socio-political and cultural scenarios such as the extraordinary migratory flows into Europe, shifting boundaries, alternative forms of citizenship and identity, and the emergence of emotive reactionism.
The third issue of Ex Novo gathers multidisciplinary contributions addressing mobility to understand patterns of change and continuity in past worlds; reconsider the movement of people, objects, and ideas alongside mobile epistemologies, such as intellectual, scholarly or educative traditions, rituals, practices, religions and theologies; and provide insights into the multifaceted relationship between mobile practices and their shared meanings and how they are represented socially and politically.
Table of Contents
Maja GORI, Martina REVELLO LAMI & Alessandro PINTUCCI
Editorial: Practices, Representations and Meanings of Human Mobility in Archaeology
Paraskevi ELEFANTI & Gilbert MARSHALL
Mobility during the Upper Palaeolithic Greece: Some Suggestions for the Argolid Peninsula
Maurizio CRUDO
Greek Migrations along the Ionian Coast (Southern Italy)
Anna RAUDINO
Variation in Material Culture: Adoption of Greek Ceramics in an Indigenous Sicilian Site (8th century BC)
Maria ÁLVAREZ-FOLGADO
The Jewish Diaspora in the Roman Empire. Diaspora, Social Agents and Social Networks: Towards the Creation of a New Analytical Toolkit
Domiziana ROSSI
A Road to Fīrūzābād
Marijn STOLK
Exploring Immigrant Identities: The Link between Portuguese Ceramics and Sephardic Immigrants in 17th Century Amsterdam
Jesùs GARCÍA SANCHEZ
From War Material Culture to Popular Heritage, and Beyond. The PSP “Cancelli di Venosa” as paradigms of Object Biography Theory.
Reviews
A. Falcone & A. D’Eredità (eds.) ARCHEOSOCIAL L’Archeologia Riscrive il Web: Esperienze, Strategie e Buone Pratiche, Rende (CS): Dielle Editore, 2018, 195 pp. Reviewed by Paola DI GIUSEPPANTONIO DI FRANCO
Practices of Personal Adornment in Neolithic Greece Πρακτικές Προσωπικής Κόσμησης στη Νεολιθική Ελλάδα by Fotis Ifantidis. Paperback; xxxvi+596 pages; 121 figures + fully illustrated catalogue (31 plates in colour). Greek text with English Summary. 75 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789691139. £80.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789691146.
The objective of this book is the reconsideration of the practices of personal adornment during the Neolithic period in Greece, through the assemblage, extensive bibliographic documentation, and critical evaluation of all the available data deriving from more than a hundred sites in the mainland and the Aegean islands –an archaeological archive of wide geographical and chronological scope. In addition, a thorough study of the personal ornament corpus from the Middle-Late Neolithic Dispilio in Kastoria, an important lakeside settlement in north-western Greece, was conducted.
The book begins with an overview of the anthropological and archaeological literature on theoretical and methodological issues concerning practices of personal adornment. Then follows an examination of the problems and key points of study regarding personal adornment in Neolithic Greece, as well as a critical evaluation of the methodological approaches and classification schemes that have been applied in previous archaeological works. Subsequently, the technologies and processes of production, consumption, recycling, deposition, and distribution of personal ornaments in Neolithic Greece are discussed. Finally, the social correlates of personal adornment are explored, as they are reflected in the choice of different raw materials (shell, clay, bone, stone, and metal) and ornament types (beads, pendants, annulets, and so forth).
About the Author
FOTIS IFANTIDIS studied archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His academic research is focused on personal adornment practices in prehistory, and on the interplay between photography and archaeology, with case studies the Athenian Acropolis, the ancient city of Kalaureia on the island of Poros, and the Neolithic settlements of Dispilio and Koutroulou Magoula. Among his publications are Spondylus in Prehistory (co-authored with M. Nikolaidou), Camera Kalaureia (co-authored with Y. Hamilakis) and Archaeographies: Excavating Neolithic Dispilio.
Greek description
Στόχος του βιβλίου είναι η επανεξέταση των πρακτικών προσωπικής κόσμησης κατά τη νεολιθική περίοδο στην Ελλάδα μέσω της επανεκτίμησης των διαθέσιμων στοιχείων που προέρχονται από περισσότερες από εκατό ανεσκαμμένες νεολιθικές θέσεις, καθώς και η λεπτομερειακή μελέτη του corpus κοσμημάτων που προέρχονται από τη λιμναία θέση της Μέσης-Νεότερης Νεολιθικής περιόδου στ&#
Le classi ceramiche della “tradizione mista” a Kos nel Tardo Bronzo IA by Salvatore Vitale. Paperback; 203x276mm; 232 pages; 24 tables, 13 colour plates, 38 black & white line drawings, 24 black & white plates. Italian text with English abstract. 51 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784918859. £38.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784918866.
This volume focuses on the pottery classes of the ‘Entangled Tradition’, recovered at the settlement of the ‘Serraglio’ on Kos during the early Late Bronze Age period. The results reveal new information on the chronology, typology, and decoration of Koan Painted Fine (PF) and Painted Medium-Coarse to Coarse (PMC-C) ceramics. Moreover, the analysis of manufacturing processes and consumption patterns contributes to a better comprehension of the socio-cultural and political context in which Koan entangled classes were produced.
The data presented in this volume indicate that PF and PMC-C ceramics represent a unique case of fully entangled classes in the Aegean, which merge features of the Koan ‘Local Tradition’ with characteristics of the Minoan potting tradition into a new technological and stylistic language. Contacts between these different cultures are explained based on the theoretical model provided by ‘human mobility’. The specific Koan cultural synthesis was endorsed and promoted by the local elites of the ‘Serraglio’, who aimed to participate in the ‘new environment’ determined by the economic and cultural expansion of Neopalatial Crete.
In this respect, the manufacture of Koan entangled classes served a dual role. On the one hand, using transport containers made in the PMC-C class, Koan products were exported and exchanged throughout the Aegean. In addition, the finer vessels of the Koan ‘Entangled Tradition’ were utilized for promoting Minoan-type social practices at the ‘Serraglio’. Through these practices, Koan elites reshaped their identity and portrayed an image of higher status within the local social arena.
About the Author
Dr SALVATORE VITALE completed his MA in Classical Literature and PhD in Classical Archaeology at the University of Pisa in 2001 and 2007. After his PhD, Dr Vitale held post-doctoral and research fellowships at the Universities of Calabria, Cincinnati, and Pisa and at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens.
Dr Vitale has taught Aegean Archaeology at the University of Milan and the Italian Archaeological School at Athens, as well as Greek and Roman Archaeology at the University of Pisa. At Pisa, he has also served as one of the editors of the journal ΑΓΩΓΗ.
Since 2009, Dr Vitale has been the director of the ‘Serraglio, Eleona, and Langada Archaeological Project’ (SELAP), a research endeavour under the auspices of the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. In addition, he is currently a senior staff and a chief pottery expert for the Mitrou Archaeological Project in Phthiotida and the Palace of Nestor Excavations at Pylos.
Palmyra, Pastoral Nomads, and City-State Kings in the Old Babylonian Period: Interaction in the Semi-Arid Syrian Landscape by Kristina J. Hesse. Pages 1-9 from Palmyrena: City, Hinterland and Caravan Trade between Orient and Occident Jørgen Christian Meyer, Eivind Heldaas Seland and Nils Anfinset.
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to inhabit the semi-arid landscape of Palmyrena in the Old Babylonian period, by describing some of the surveyed archaeological remains and relate this to inhabit and events in this area described in ancient documents. Some examples from the area of Jebel Bishri will also be discussed. Besides landscape surveys and climate studies, the research draws upon several ancient tablets describing the interaction between pastoral nomads and urban societies originating from the Mari Archives during the reign of Zimri-Lim and Yasmah-Addu. The study shows that pastoral nomadic tribes, called the Suteans, inhabited these mountainous areas, which in this period might have been wetter than today and sparsely covered with bushy woodland. These people were engaged in escorting caravans through the desert, but they also had a reputation as raiders, hence the Jebel Bishri plateau was avoided by travellers. Palmyra, was an important stop over for caravans and an advanced station guarding the desert route between Mari and Qatna, and seems to have been located within the territory of the latter. The settled and nomadic people of Palmyra were engaged as messengers as well as in pastoralism, escorting, guarding, and with the provisioning of caravans.
Journal of Hellenistic Pottery and Material Culture: Subscription Portal for Online Access by One volume published annually. Edited by Dr Patricia Kögler, Dr Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom and Prof. Dr Wolf Rudolph (Heads of Editorial Board). ISBN 2399-1844-PORTAL.
Welcome to the online portal for access to volumes of the Journal of Hellenistic Pottery and Material Culture (JHP).
For the Hellenistic Period ceramics and other commodities of daily life represent probably the most neglected objects in archaeological research. Yet, the study of Hellenistic material culture has intensified during the last twenty years, with a focus clearly on what is by far the largest category of finds, pottery. Meanwhile research has gained momentum, but still there has unfortunately been no parallel development in the media landscape. Apart from monographs, the publication of conference proceedings, which usually follow several years after the event, have remained the principal method of disseminating research results. Still lacking is a publication appearing regularly and at short intervals, that focusses research on Hellenistic pottery and is easily accessible.
The Journal of Hellenistic Pottery – JHP – wants to close this gap.
JHP is scheduled to appear once a year, more often if necessary. It should provide a forum for all kinds of studies on Hellenistic pottery and everyday objects. Apart from professional articles, the journal will contain book reviews, short presentations of research projects (including dissertations) and general news. The Editorial Board is headed by Dr Patricia Kögler, Dr Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom and Prof. Dr Wolf Rudolph.
Access journal issues and articles via the links below:
JHP Volumes:
JHP Volume 1, 2016
JHP Volume 2, 2017
JHP Volume 3, 2018
CAA2016: Oceans of Data Proceedings of the 44th Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology edited by Mieko Matsumoto and Espen Uleberg. Paperback; 205x290mm; vi+562 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (228 plates in colour). 495 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784917302. £95.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784917319.
CAA2016: Oceans of Data gives an up-to-date overview of the field of archaeology and informatics. It presents ground-breaking technologies and best practice from various archaeological and computer science disciplines. The articles in this volume are based on the foremost presentations from the 44th Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference 2016, held in Oslo. The theme of CAA2016 was ‘Exploring Oceans of Data’, alluding to one of the greatest challenges in this field: the use and reuse of large datasets that result both from digitalisation and digital documentation of excavations and surveys.
The volume contains 50 peer-reviewed and highest-ranked papers that are divided in eight parts, including an introduction and seven chapters. The introduction sets the stage with Oceans of Data (C.-E. Ore) and Theorising the Digital (S. Perry and J. S.Taylor), discussing the current status of overall CAA research. These two papers present the current developments, challenges, and potential that lies ahead from different perspectives. Ore points to the importance of common authority systems and ontologies. Common conceptual data models will ease curation and secure long-term reusability. Perry and Taylor address the need to bring together theoretical and digital archaeology. In the following chapters, different topics are presented under the headings Ontologies and Standards, Field and Laboratory Data Recording and Analysis, Archaeological Information Systems, GIS and Spatial Analysis, 3D and Visualisation, Complex Systems Simulation, and Teaching Archaeology in the Digital Age.
About the Editors
Mieko Matsumoto is a member of the scientific staff at the Museum of Cultural History, the University of Oslo. With an education and research background from Japan, Norway, and Poland, she is an archaeologist with a wide knowledge of international lithic technology. Her research specialty focuses on the European Palaeolithic and the Norwegian Stone Age. She is a long-standing member of CAA International and CAA-Norway, with numerous publications on ICT and archaeology.
Espen Uleberg is the coordinator of the Digital Documentation Section at the Museum of Cultural History, the University of Oslo. With an education and research background from Germany and Norway, he is an archaeologist working with digitising museum collections since the early 1990s. He has international experience and knowledge over the use of field GIS and databases. He was chair of the organising committee of CAA2016, and is a long-standing member of CAA International and CAA-Norway, with numerous publications on ICT and archaeology.
Bronze Age Metalwork: Techniques and traditions in the Nordic Bronze Age 1500-1100 BC by Heide W. Nørgaard. Paperback; 205x290mm; xii+502 pages; 290 figures (244 plates in colour). 474 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690194. £85.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690200.
Bronze ornaments of the Nordic Bronze Age (neck collars, belt plates, pins and tutuli) were elaborate objects that served as status symbols to communicate social hierarchy. The magnificent metalwork studied here dates from 1500-1100 BC. An interdisciplinary investigation of the artefacts was adopted to elucidate their manufacture and origin, resulting in new insights into metal craft in northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Based on the habitus concept, which situates the craftsmen within their social and technological framework, individual artefact characteristics and metalworking techniques can be used to identify different craft practices, even to identify individual craftsmen. The conclusions drawn from this offer new insights into the complex organisation of metalcraft in the production of prestige goods across different workshops. Several kinship-based workshops on Jutland, in the Lüneburg Heath and Mecklenburg, allow us to conclude that the bronze objects were a display of social status and hierarchy controlled by, and produced for, the elite – as is also seen in the workshops on Zealand. Within the two main metalworking regions, Zealand and central Lower Saxony, workshops can be defined as communities of practice that existed with an extended market and relations with the local elite. Attached craft, in the sense that the craftspeople fully depended on a governing institution and produced artefacts as a manifestation of political expression, was only detected on Zealand between 1500-1300 BC.
The investigation presented here showed that overall results could not be achieved when concentrating only on one aspect of metalwork. Highly skilled craft is to be found in every kind of workshop, as well as an intensive labour input. Only when considering skill in relation to labour input and also taking into account signs of apprenticeship and cross-craft techniques, as well as the different categories of mistakes in crafting, can a stable image of craft organisation be created.
About the Author
HEIDE W. NØRGAARD is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, where she graduated and received her PhD in 2014. With the background as an educated goldsmith, she is working with metal artefacts trying to solve craft technical problems from the Bronze to the early Iron Ages in Northern Europe. Heide W. Nørgaard is currently working on reconstructing the earliest metal trading routes towards Scandinavia, based on over 500 lead isotope analysis of the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.
Etnicidad vs. Aculturación: Las necrópolis castellanas de los siglos V-VI d.C. y el asentamiento visigodo en la Península Ibérica. Una mirada desde la meseta sur by Rafael Barroso Cabrera. Paperback; 203x276mm; 238 pages; illustrated throughout in black & white. Spanish text with English summary. (Print RRP £35.00). 72 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690798. £35.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690804.
The Visigoth settlement in the Iberian Peninsula and its relationship with the archaeological record of the 5th-6th centuries AD continues to be one of the most controversial issues in Spanish archaeology. The controversy relates to politics as much as it relates to archaeological research with two points remaining particularly controversial: the alleged use of the Visigoth past by the Francoist intelligentsia as an ideological affirmation of the regime and the contribution of archaeologist Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla in supporting and enabling this re-interpretation of Visigothic archaeology.
The purely archaeological aspect of the controversy relates to an archaeological interpretation, stemming from the ranks of the so-called New Archeology, of the Castilian necropoleis containing grave goods of Pontic-Danubian type. This interpretation places special emphasis on social and cultural phenomena above the ethnic criteria defended by the Vienna School.
This volume approaches the ideological question that underlies these controversies, as well as their repercussions in the direction adopted by later archaeological investigations in relation to the history of Spain. The author attempts to deconstruct the work of Martínez Santa-Olalla and places it in the context of the scientific production of his time. At the same time, it relativizes the role played by the Visigoth period in the Francoist ideological construction.
Once the discussion is framed in these terms, the author dedicates his study to a refutation of the cultural interpretation of the phenomenon of the Visigothic necropoleis of the Castilian plateau based on the archaeological data and by comparing this data with literary sources. The study also addresses two other historical problems that could be related to the Gothic settlement in the Castilian plateau: the creation of the bishopric of Segovia and the flourishing of the city of Toledo.
El asentamiento visigodo en la Península Ibérica y su relación con el registro arqueológico de los siglos V-VI d.C. continúa siendo en la actualidad una de las cuestiones más controvertidas de la arqueología española. Gran parte de esa controversia tiene que ver con aspectos que trascienden a la propia investigación arqueológica y nos sitúan en el plano de la política. Así, a la hora de abordar el problema hay dos puntos que han resultado especialmente polémicos: la presunta utilización del pasado visigodo por parte de la intelectualidad franquista como afirmación ideológica del régimen y la contribución del arqueólogo burgalés Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla en la fijación del esquema de arqueología visigoda.
Por otro lado, el aspecto puramente arqueológico de la controversia tiene que ver con la interpretación que desde las filas de la denominada New Archaeology se viene realizando de las necrópolis castellanas con ajuares de tipo póntico-danubiano. Dicha interpretación hace especial hincapié en fenómenos sociales y culturales por encima de los criterios étnicos defendidos por la Escuela de Viena. El presente estudio aborda de forma lúcida la cuestión ideológica que subyace detrás de la polémica, así como las repercusiones que ha tenido en la posterior dirección adoptada por la investigación arqueológica en relación con la propia historia de España. En este sentido, el autor realiza un ejercicio de deconstrucción de la figura de Martínez Santa-Olalla y lo sitúa en el contexto de la producción científica de su época. Al mismo tiempo, relativiza el papel desempeñado por el periodo visigodo en la construcción ideológica franquista.
Una vez situada la discusión en estos términos, el autor dedica su estudio a una refutación de la interpretación en clave cultural del fenómeno de las necrópolis visigodas de la meseta castellana desde los propios datos arqueológicos y a partir del cotejo de estos datos con los testimonios que proporcionan las fuentes literarias. Además, el presen
Han Dynasty (206BC–AD220) Stone Carved Tombs in Central and Eastern China by Chen Li. Paperback; 203x276mm; xiv+216 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (146 colour plates). (Print RRP £58.00). 71 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690774. £58.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690781.
Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) stone carved tombs were constructed from carved stone slabs or a combination of moulded bricks and carved stones, and were distributed in Central and Eastern China. Such multi-chambered stone tombs were very popular among the Han people, but they were entirely new, and were a result of outside stimuli rather than an independent development within China. The stone carved tombs were a result of imitating royal rock-cut tombs, while the rock-cut tombs were stimulated by foreign examples. Moreover, many details of stone carved tombs also had Western features. These exotic elements reflected the desire to assimilate exotica within Chinese traditions. Some details within stone carved tombs showed high level of stone working technologies with Western influences. But in general the level of stone construction of the Han period was relatively low. The methods of construction showed how unfamiliar the Western system was to the Han artisans. Han Dynasty stone carved tombs were hybrids of different techniques, including timber, brick and stone works. From these variations, Han people could choose certain types of tombs to satisfy their specific ritual and economic needs. Not only structures, but also pictorial decorations of stone carved tombs were innovations. The range of image motifs was quite limited. Similar motifs can be found in almost every tomb. Such similarities were partly due to the artisans, who worked in workshops and used repertoires for the carving of images. But these also suggest that the tombs were decorated for certain purposes with a given functional template. Together with different patterns of burial objects and their settings, such images formed a way through which the Han people gave meaning to the afterworld. As the Han Empire collapsed, stone carved tombs ceased being constructed in the Central Plains. However, they set a model for later tombs. The idea of building horizontal stone chamber tombs spread to Han borderlands, and gradually went further east to the Korean Peninsula. In this book, the origins, meanings and influences of Han Dynasty stone carved tombs are presented as a part of the history of interactions between different parts of Eurasia.
About the Author
Chen Li, DPhil (Oxon.), is an assistant professor at the School of Humanities, Tongji University (Shanghai, China). His main research interests include art and archaeology of early China, structures and contents of Chinese tombs, as well as interactions between Central China and Inner Asia. He has published English and Chinese articles in different peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes. His article Rethinking the origins of Han Dynasty stone carved tombs won the 2014 Young Scholar Award, European Association for Chinese Studies. Currently he leads a research project Constructing Stone Tombs in Early Imperial China funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China.
'Men, Friends': The Sociological Mechanics of Xenophontic Leaders Winning Subordinates as Friends Taken from At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture, and Religion: Papers in Memory of Carin M. C. Green edited by Sinclair W. Bell and Lora L. Holland. Pages 31-44.
By Robert Holschuh Simmons
Inquiries into the skills and effectiveness of leaders described in Xenophon’s works, particularly the Anabasis and Cyropaedia, have been popular in the past few decades, not just in classics, but also in the fields of political science, management, and public administration. Some of that attention has been dedicated to the particular techniques that Xenophon’s featured leaders use to win over their subordinates. One technique is their use of friendship (φιλία). What it actually means for a subordinate to perceive a leader as a 'friend' (φίλος), though, and not just an advocate, well-wisher, or panderer, tends not to be thoroughly explored...
Invisible Value or Tactile Value? Steatite in the Faience Complexes of the Indus Valley Tradition Taken from Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow. Pages 389-394.
By Heather M.-L. Miller and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
Objects made of faience (composition, frit or siliceous paste) were found across much of Eurasia for millennia, yet this material is hardly known today. Faience or siliceous paste objects were made with many different recipes and production methods, but there is an unusual, apparently unique, variation in faience composition for some objects in the Indus. Some Indus siliceous paste objects include steatite (talc) fragments, invisible on the surface and requiring laboratory analysis for detection. These invisible inclusions could have been valued as a symbol of Indus identity, as is suggested for other uses of steatite during the Indus period. Alternatively, these inclusions could be of technological value; although strength or special compositional requirements do not seem to fit this case, Kenoyer’s recent experiments suggest the addition of small amounts of steatite aids in the workability of some types of siliceous paste. Is this an either/or situation, or could both of these values be considerations in the addition of steatite fragments? This is an important option to consider beyond the usual oppositional approach to production and consumption explanations for material choices, and one that requires extra thought in archaeological research design and analysis.
Naturvorstellungen im Altertum Schilderungen und Darstellungen von Natur im Alten Orient und in der griechischen Antike edited by Florian Schimpf, Dominik Berrens, Katharina Hillenbrand, Tim Brandes and Carrie Schidlo. ii+285 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (56 colour plates). German text. 411 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784918255. £32.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784918262.
Everyone who investigates pre-modern concepts of nature cannot avoid a critical reflection on the ancient understandings of it. Here, “nature” is understood in the sense of a seemingly untouched space, largely independent of human culture. While this concept of “nature” is prevalent in modern times, the reconstruction of ancient ideas is difficult in that concepts of nature, if at all present, emphasize other aspects. For example, the Greek term φύσις in pre-Hellenistic times defines the nature of a thing rather than an untouched environment. A word for “nature” in this sense has not been handed down to us in the remaining texts of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity. Nevertheless, such concepts can certainly be reconstructed from descriptions of nature to be found in literature and the representations of natural elements in art.
The present volume aims at identifying these concepts of nature in texts as well as in archaeological remains of the Ancient Near Eastern and the Greek culture from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Contributions from the fields of archaeology and philology are juxtaposed for each time period in chronological order. This arrangement provides a good overview of the concepts of nature prevailing throughout different period and cultures.
GERMAN DESCRIPTION: Der Begriff „Natur“ wird in modernen, mitteleuropäischen Gesellschaften meist im Sinne eines vermeintlich unberührten Raumes verstanden, der weitgehend unbeeinflusst von menschlicher Kultur ist. Für vormoderne Kulturen lassen sich solche Vorstellungen bzw. Konzepte sehr viel schwieriger nachweisen, da beispielsweise ein Wort für „Natur“ mit der eben genannten Bedeutung in den erhaltenen Texten des Alten Orients und der griechischen Antike so nicht überliefert zu sein scheint. Gleichwohl werden durchaus Naturelemente in der antiken Literatur, der Flächenkunst sowie in antiken Monumenten beschrieben bzw. abgebildet sowie als integrative Bestandteile genutzt und funktionalisiert. Daraus lassen sich Konzepte von „Natur“ herausarbeiten und rekonstruieren. Der vorliegende Band möchte solche „Naturkonzepte“ in Texten, Artefakten und Denkmälern des Alten Orients und des griechischen Kulturraumes von der Archaik bis in den Hellenismus identifizieren und einen Überblick über die jeweils in einem bestimmten Zeit- und Kulturraum vorherrschenden Vorstellungen sowie deren diachrone Entwicklung geben.
About the Editors
FLORIAN SCHIMPF studied Classical Archaeology and History at the universities of Frankfurt and Istanbul, whilst gaining practical experiences by participating in excavations in Priene (Turkey), Portugal and on the Balkans. In 2013 he joined the Research Training Group “Early Concepts of Man and Nature” at the University of Mainz with a project on natural sanctuaries in ancient Greece and Asia Minor. His research interests lie in the fields of religious history, Greek cult practices and metrology.
DOMINIK BERRENS studied Classical Philology and Biology at the University of Freiburg. From 2013-2017 he was part of the Research Training Group “Early Concepts of Man and Nature” at the University of Mainz, where he received his doctorate with a dissertation on social insects in antiquity in 2016. Since October 2017 he has been a postdoctoral researcher working on the project “NOSCEMUS – Nova Scientia: Early Modern Science and Latin” funded by the European Research Council at the University of Innsbruck. His research interests lie in pre-modern scientific texts and ancient drama.
KATHARINA HILLENBRAND studied Classical Philology and German Studies at the Universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt. In 2014 she joined the Research Training Group “Early Concepts of Man and Nature” at the University of Mainz with a project on concepts of volcanic phenomena in Roman antiquity. Currently she is working at the department of Classical Philology at the University oDigital Imaging of Artefacts: Developments in Methods and Aims edited by Kate Kelley and Rachel K. L. Wood. Paperback; 203x276mm; 190 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (80 plates in colour). 65 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690255. £45.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690262.
This volume brings together new lines of research across a range of disciplines from participants in a workshop held at Wolfson College, Oxford, on 23rd May 2017. In light of rapid technological developments in digital imaging, the aim in gathering these contributions together is to inform specialist and general readers about some of the ways in which imaging technologies are transforming the study and presentation of archaeological and cultural artefacts. The periods, materials, geography, and research questions under discussion therefore are varied, but the contributions are united in shared interests surrounding the aims of these techniques for imaging objects: what advantages do they offer, whether in research or museum contexts, what limitations are still faced, and how can technological development encourage new types of research and public engagement?
About the Editors
Dr KATE KELLEY received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Assyriology from the University of Oxford in 2018 and is a specialist in the socio-economic history of early Mesopotamia. She is a Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of British Columbia (2018–19), and formerly a Research Associate at the Oriental Institute, Oxford for the project Seals and Their Impressions in the Ancient Near East (2016–17). Kate has been working for the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative since 2012, including digitizing cuneiform tablets in the Louvre, the National Museum of Scotland, and the Yale Babylonian Collection.
Dr RACHEL K. L. WOOD is Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, specialising in the art and archaeology of ancient Iran. In her previous position as a postdoctoral researcher with the British Museum and University of Oxford project Empires of Faith, she was an assistant curator of the Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition Imagining the Divine: art and the rise of world religions (October 2017–February 2018).Hatra: Il territorio e l’urbanistica Prefazione di Roberta Venco Ricciardi by Enrico Foietta. Paperback; 203x276mm; x+560 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (140 plates in colour). Italian text; Introduction and chapter summaries in English. 64 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789690057. £88.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789690064.
The ancient city of Hatra is located 80 km southwest of the modern city of Mosul. The site reached its apogee during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, arriving at the striking dimensions of c. 300 hectares and into a new role as the capital of a significant buffer state between the Parthian and Roman empires.
This volume is devoted to the study of the landscape surrounding Hatra and of the development of this important city, drawing on published information gathered by Iraqi and foreign expeditions, as well as unpublished data garnered from over fifteen years of fieldwork at the site by the Italian Archaeological Expedition.
The study of the landscape comprehends the morphology, hydrology and geology of the region and offers new proposals regarding the exploitation of natural resources and the development of regional and local routes through the territory under Hatra’s political and military control during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
The analysis of Hatra as an urban centre consists of a detailed study of the city’s hydrology, street network and urban areas, with the purpose of detecting the principles behind the planning and development of the city. The main elements of the urban space are treated in this book: the Temenos area and the Small Shrines, the Necropoles, the Fortifications, the Houses, and the Palaces. Due to the cross-referencing of archaeological, historical and epigraphic data, new ideas have been proposed regarding the chronological phases of urbanism at Hatra, from its foundation up to the destruction of the city by the Sasanian army in AD 241.
La città di Hatra si trova nella Jazira irachena a circa 80 km a sud-ovest di Mosul. Il centro raggiunse il suo apogeo durante il II-III sec. d.C., toccando l’impressionante estensione di quasi 300 ettari e divenendo la capitale di un influente stato cuscinetto, collocato tra l’impero partico e l’impero romano.
Questo volume è dedicato allo studio del territorio e dell’urbanistica di questo importante sito antico, impiegando contestualmente informazioni edite, raccolte dalle varie missioni irachene e straniere che si sono avvicendate sul terreno, e inedite, provenienti dal vasto Archivio della Missione Archeologica Italiana a Hatra in più di quindici anni di ricerche sul campo.
Lo studio del territorio definisce un quadro dettagliato della morfologia, idrologia e geologia della regione e dell’area prossima al centro, oltre a proporre alcune nuove ipotesi interpretative sullo sfruttamento delle risorse ambientali, sull’articolazione della rete viaria periurbana e regionale e sull’estensione del territorio sottoposto al controllo politico e militare della città durante il II e III sec. d.C.
L’analisi urbanistica comprende uno studio approfondito dell’idrologia cittadina, della rete stradale e delle aree urbane, allo scopo di individuarne le principali caratteristiche ed eventuali regole nella pianificazione e nello sviluppo della città. Nel libro sono inoltre analizzati i principali elementi che compongono il tessuto urbano: il Temenos e i templi minori, le necropoli, le difese cittadine, le case e i palazzi. Grazie all’utilizzo contestuale del dato archeologico, storico ed epigrafico, è stato inoltre possibile formulare nuove ipotesi sulle fasi urbanistiche e sulla cronologia di Hatra dalla fondazione alla sua distruzione, avvenuta per mano sasanide nel 241 d.C.
ENRICO FOIETTA è dottore di ricerca e borsista presso l’Università degli Studi di Torino. È membro di varie missioni archeologiche nel Vicino Oriente (Siria e Iran). Attualmente collabora attivamente con la Missione Archeologica Congiunta Italo-Iraniana in Khuzistan (ICAR - CRAST), con la Missione Archeologica Italiana a Hatra, con il Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino (CRAST) e la Missione Franco-Siriana a Europos-Dura (CNRs Paris).Warts and All: The Paratexts in the Iowa Lucan Taken from At the Crossroads of Greco-Roman History, Culture, and Religion edited by Sinclair W. Bell and Lora L. Holland. Pages 249-260.
By Samuel J. Huskey
In the introduction to his edition of Lucan, A. E. Housman raises our hopes of finding a new manuscript of the Pharsalia: 'It may be that somebody roaming through a library will one day stumble upon a hidden treasure . . . ' A couple of years after I graduated from the University of Iowa, exciting news came from Iowa City. The librarians in the Special Collections of the university’s Main Library had, in fact, stumbled upon a hidden treasure: a 15th-century manuscript of Lucan. Before anyone becomes too hopeful, it is important to remember the rest of what Housman had to say about such a prospect: '. . . but those are not the quarters from which Lucan most needs help nor from which most help is to be had.'Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan: An Introduction Taken from Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan edited by Thomas Knopf, Werner Steinhaus and Shin’ya Fukunaga. Pages 1-14.
By Werner Steinhaus and Thomas Knopf
This book originates from an international workshop held at Tuebingen in Germany between 4th and 6th of November 2015.1 The workshop gathered together for the first time specialists of the European Bronze and Iron Age, and Japanese archaeologists of the Yayoi and Kofun periods to discuss burial mounds as a phenomenon in both parts of the world. The workshop developed out of a growing partnership between German and Japanese archaeology, initiated in part through the development of an exhibition in Mannheim and Berlin organized and directed by Werner Steinhaus in 2004/05 (Wieczorek/Steinhaus/Sahara 2004). The exhibition, entitled ‘Die Zeit der Morgenröte’ (The time of Dawn), displayed the rich archaeology of the Japanese archipelago to a German audience for the first time. It also brought together the editors of this book (Knopf and Steinhaus). Since then, visits, lectures and meetings have taken place between the two countries in order to strengthen the knowledge of Japanese archaeology in Germany and Europe, and vice versa.Toponyms, Directions and Tribal Names in the Indus Script Taken from Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow. Pages 359-376.
By Iravatham Mahadevan and M. V. Bhaskar
Identification of ideograms in the Indus Script depicting the physical features ‘hills’ and ‘plains’, ‘high’ and ‘low’, and the directions ‘West’ and ‘East’, is proposed in the paper. It is also shown that the ideograms, when combined as pairs in the Indus texts, correspond to specific toponyms in the Indus Realm, especially ‘high mountains’, ‘highlands’, ‘western hills’ and ‘eastern hills’. Names of tribes, also serving as place names, depicted by the ideograms are also identified. In Dravidian languages, terms for ‘high’ also denote ‘West’, and terms for ‘low’ also denote ‘East’. The Dravidian usage reveals that the architecture of the Indus cities with the ‘high’ citadel in the west and the ‘lower’ town in the east is in conformity with the Dravidian world view. The results strongly support the Dravidian authorship of the Indus Civilization. The authors acknowledge their indebtedness to the studies by R. Balakrishnan, especially to his insight that it is the Dravidian linguistic usage ‘high-west’ and ‘low-east’ that must have influenced the architecture of the Indus cities.Multicultural interaction, colonial boundaries and changing group identities: contextualising inscriptions, languages and alphabets Taken from Papers in Italian Archaeology VII: The Archaeology of Death edited by Edward Herring & Eòin O’Donoghue. Pages 138-148.
By Ulla Rajala and Karin W. Tikkanen
This paper outlines a project that is building a model for assessing multicultural interaction, which will be used for the study of the expansion of Rome in central Italy in the wider context of Latin colonisation. Its theoretical framework incorporates Social Identity Theory and the concept of mental distance applied to geographically related groups. The key materials studied at this stage are funerary architecture and inscriptions, which reveal different nested aspects of group identities. Here we briefly present the local context of the study – Nepi and the Faliscan area – with the different languages and alphabets used in the area. This area will be compared with its neighbouring areas in order to analyse long-term changes in group identities from the precolonial period to the colonial period.The Stockholm Volterra Project: exploring a cityscape in an urban context Taken from Papers in Italian Archaeology VII: The Archaeology of Death edited by Edward Herring & Eòin O’Donoghue. Pages 553-562.
By Ulla Rajala, Arja Karivieri, Andreas Viberg, Elena Sorge, Alessandro Furiesi, Gianfranco Morelli and Gianluca Catanzariti
This article presents the Stockholm Volterra Project and its developments since 2013. This project, run by Stockholm University and the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, has carried out geophysical prospections in Volterra in collaboration with Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Pisa e Livorno. The aims and methods of the project are outlined together with a closer presentation of key sites from 2014 and 2015: the ‘Football Pitch’, the area in front of the church of San Giusto, the ruined church of Santo Stefano, the amphitheatre and Ortino sites.Cremation structures and funerary dynamics in Roman Veneto. New perspectives from Padua/Patavium Taken from Papers in Italian Archaeology VII: The Archaeology of Death edited by Edward Herring & Eòin O’Donoghue. Pages 465-476.
By Cecilia Rossi and Irene Marini
The present work is aimed to suggest some new perspectives on the funerary customs of Roman Veneto (North-Eastern Italy), with particular attention to the practice in use at the very beginning of the Imperial period, when the Romanisation comes to an end. Moving from a short discussion of the state of the art, the paper focuses on hints produced by a well-preserved burial plot recently discovered at Padua/Patavium, one of the capitals of the ancient Veneto. Dated to the first two centuries CE, the site is firstly introduced from a topographical point of view; then, the spatial arrangement is discussed, with description of structures and their development. Particular attention is given to cremation deposits, the main evidence in the cemetery. Burials are examined starting from the urned examples, followed by unurned deposits, and closing with the analysis of the most representative aspect in the context: busta-type cremation graves, i.e. deposits completely apart from the local tradition, that maybe arrived in Veneto as a result of cultural exchanges that occurred during the Romanisation process. A comparison between archaeological and anthropological data is finally proposed, suggesting several hints in order to better reconstruct both the interment steps and the real function of the great cremation structures.The Indus Script and Economics. A Role for Indus Seals and Tablets in Rationing and Administration of Labor Taken from Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow. Pages 518-525.
By Rajesh P. N. Rao
The Indus script remains one of the last major undeciphered scripts of the ancient world. We focus here on Indus inscriptions on a group of miniature tablets discovered by Meadow and Kenoyer in Harappa in 1997. By drawing parallels with proto-Elamite and proto-Cuneiform inscriptions, we explore how these miniature tablets may have been used to record rations allocated to porters or laborers. We then show that similar inscriptions are found on stamp seals, leading to the potentially provocative conclusion that rather than simply indicating ownership of property, Indus seals may have been used for generating tokens, tablets and sealings for repetitive economic transactions such as rations and exchange of canonical amounts of goods, grains, animals, and labor in a barter-based economy.Étude paléoanthropologique et analyse des rituels funéraires de deux sites laténiens valaisans Randogne – Bluche et Sion – Parking des Remparts by Tobias Hofstetter. Paperback; 205x290mm; x+240 pages; 171 figs + 6 tables (colour and black & white throughout). French text; English abstract. 444 2018 Laboratoire d’archéologie préhistorique UNIGE . Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784919375. £45.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784919382.
This volume concerns the bioanthropological analysis and the investigation of Second Iron Age (also known as the La Tène period: 470–25 BC) funerary practices in central Valais. More precisely, it deals with the study of two necropolises lately discovered in this mountainous region of southern Switzerland: Randogne–Bluche (excavated between 2001 and 2005) and Sion–Parking des Remparts (excavated in 2006). The matter of Second Iron Age funeral practices has been investigated since the late 19th century in Switzerland and has ever since yielded many exceptional finds. In archaeological terms, the research presented in this work introduces a consistent summary of the current archaeological and historiographical state of knowledge regarding Second Iron Age funeral practices in southern Switzerland.
Étude paléoanthropologique et analyse des rituels funéraires de deux sites laténiens valaisans : Randogne – Bluche et Sion – Parking des Remparts porte sur l’analyse bioanthropologique et l’étude des rituels funéraires laténiens en Valais central. Plus précisément, elle traite des ensembles funéraires de Randogne – Bluche (fouillé entre 2001 et 2005) et de Sion – Parking des Remparts (fouillé en 2006). Le premier objectif de cette étude a consisté à attribuer une identité et des caractéristiques biologiques aux individus inhumés au sein de ces deux ensembles. Ensuite, il s’est agi de caractériser ces deux ensembles funéraires par leur insertion au cadre géographique et archéologique, de s’intéresser à leur organisation chronologique et spatiale et à l’architecture des sépultures, ainsi qu’aux positions d’inhumation, de même qu’au mobilier funéraire présent. Par la suite, nous avons développé une vision comparative de ces deux ensembles funéraires, avant de finalement les confronter à l’intégralité du corpus funéraire laténien actuellement connu pour le Valais central et ainsi chercher à proposer une vision synthétique de la question.
About the Author
TOBIAS HOFSTETTER (B.A, M.Sc.) was born in Zürich in 1992. He currently works as consulting bioanthropologist to the Laboratory of Prehistoric Archaeology and Bioanthropology at the University of Geneva, where he has collaborated in various archaeological fieldwork operations and bioanthropological assessments, covering the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages, in Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Kuwait and Jordan.
TOBIAS HOFSTETTER (BA ; MSc) est né à Zürich (Suisse) en 1992. Il a obtenu son Bachelor en archéologie préhistorique et classique ainsi qu’en anthropologie à l’Université de Neuchâtel (Suisse) en 2013. Il a poursuivi ses études en Master d’archéologie préhistorique et bioanthropologie à l’Université de Genève (Suisse) ; formation qu’il a terminée en 2016. Il travaille couramment en tant que bioanthropologue consultant pour le laboratoire d’archéologie préhistorique et d’anthropologie de l’Université de Genève. À ce titre, il a participé à de nombreuses campagnes de fouilles archéologiques et expertises bioanthropologiques, s’étendant du Paléolithique jusqu’à la période médiévale, en Suisse, France, Italie, Bulgarie, Koweït et Jordanie. En parallèle, il a repris un deuxième cursus de Master en histoire et littérature anglaise à l’Université de Neuchâtel.Perspectives on materiality in ancient Egypt – agency, cultural reproduction and change edited by Érika Maynart, Carolina Velloza and Rennan Lemos. Paperback; 203x276mm; iv+110 pages; illustrated throughout with 8 plates in colour. 62 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784919337. £30.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784919344.
Perspectives on materiality in ancient Egypt – agency, cultural reproduction and change expresses the authors’ broad theoretical interest on materiality and how it helps us to understand the crucial role of material culture in ancient Egyptian society in a more complex way. In the volume, mainly young scholars in Brazil, France, Germany and the UK approach the potential of materiality based on several case studies covering a wide range of topics such as Egyptian art, recent perspectives on sex and gender, hierarchies, and the materiality of textual sources and images.
The idea of gathering young scholars to discuss ‘materiality’ first took place in the form of a colloquium organised in São Paulo, but soon after became a more encompassing project aspiring to produce a publication. The editors’ aimed to include researchers from various places, which makes the volume a materialisation of fruitful collaborations between individuals coming from different scholarly traditions. The combination of different ways of looking at the ancient material culture can hopefully contribute to the renovation of theory and practice in Egyptology. The editors believe that the emphasis on diversity— of background histories, national traditions and mind-sets—is one the main elements that can be used to boost new perspectives in a connected, globalised and hopefully less unequal world.Oikèma ou pièce polyvalente: recherches sur une installation commerciale de l’Antiquité grecque by Pavlos Karvonis. Paperback; 203x276mm; 110pp; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. French text. 60 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784919399. £34.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784919405.
This volume discusses the evolution of oikema, which is the most common type of commercial facility in ancient Greece. The study covers a large area including Continental Greece, the Aegean islands, the Ionian islands and the west coast of Asia Minor. The author, after a thorough analysis, proposes a new terminology for commercial and industrial facilities. The book also presents the architectural characteristics and the equipment of oikemata and discusses their location and relationship with other buildings. The ownership, use and maintenance of oikemata are also discussed. It is argued that oikemata provided merchants and craftsmen with a suitable working space and contributed to the gradual abandonment of houses as working places, especially in cities that developed in the Hellenistic period. Their characteristics corresponded perfectly well to the needs of Greek commerce.
PAVLOS KARVONIS studied archaeology in Athens from 1994 to 1998. In 2000, he finished his Masters degree at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and in 2004 he defended a thesis entitled “Lieux et locaux de vente dans la Grèce égéenne du IVe au Ier siècle av. J.-C.” at the same University. In 2006, he worked for the Archaeological Society at Athens, and since 2007 he has been working for the Academy of Athens in the Tabula Imperii Romani program. He has published two volumes on the Aegean islands and Attica, and has published several articles on commercial architecture. He is also preparing the publications of two commercial buildings located on the western shore of the island and participates in a research programme on stone and its use on Delos.
Table of Contents
Avant-propos
English Summary
Nomenclature
Le vocabulaire antique des installations commerciales
Les critères d’identification des pièces polyvalentes
L’apparition de la pièce polyvalente
Les activités attestées dans les pièces polyvalentes
Les caractéristiques des pièces polyvalentes
La gestion des pièces polyvalentes
Les pièces polyvalentes et l’organisation du commerce
Conclusion
Bibliographie
Index des lieux
Index des mots grecs
Index des auteurs anciens
Index des inscriptions
Origine des illustrationsDinamiche insediative nelle campagne dell'Italia tra Tarda Antichità e Alto Medioevo by Angelo Castrorao Barba. Paperback; 203x276mm; ii+180 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Papers in Italian with English abstracts. 47 2018 Limina/Limites: Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365-1556) 6. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784918231. £30.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784918248.
This volume gathers together a series of selected contributions about settlement patterns in the Italian countryside between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. This volume aims to show a critical overview of a range of some of the most recent research carried out on late antique and early medieval Italy (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Apulia and Calabria), and to enhance our current knowledge as well as to provide innovative interpretative frameworks to gain a better understanding of rural settlement dynamics.
About the Editor
ANGELO CASTRORAO BARBA (Palermo, 1983) is currently a Fellow at the University of Palermo (Sicily, Italy). His principal fields of interest are Late Antique and Early Medieval Archaeology and the transformations of landscape and settlement patterns from Roman times to the Middle Ages in the Mediterranean area. In 2013, he obtained a PhD in Medieval Archaeology (University of Siena) with a dissertation about the end of Roman villas in Italy between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (AD 200-800). In 2014, he received a post-graduate Masters Diploma in GIS & Remote Sensing (Centre for Geo Technologies / Siena). In 2014-2015 he was a guest researcher at VU University Amsterdam and a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR). In summer 2018 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the DFG Center for Advanced Studies ‘Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages’ of the University of Tübingen. For the period 2018/2020 he is a postdoctoral scholar in the Getty-sponsored workshop series ‘Mediterranean Palimpsests: Connecting the Art and Architectural Histories of Medieval & Early Modern Cities’. Currently (2016-2018), he is a research fellow on the project ‘Harvesting Memories’ (University of Palermo / Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. of Palermo) which aims to study the ecology and archaeology of rural landscapes in the Sicani Mountains (C-W Sicily).Looking beneath the Veneer. Thoughts about Environmental and Cultural Diversity in the Indus Civilization Taken from Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow. Pages 453-474.
By Cameron A. Petrie, Danika Parikh, Adam S. Green and Jennifer Bates
There is clear evidence for degrees of uniformity in specific types of material culture that were used across the large area occupied by the populations that comprised the Indus Civilization. There is also evidence that there was considerable cultural diversity across its environmentally varied extent. J. Mark Kenoyer and others have described the cultural material that is widely attested across this area as a veneer that overlays a considerable degree of variation in material use and practices (e.g. Meadow and Kenoyer 1997). The tension between uniformity and diversity has significant ramifications for our understanding of a range of social, economic, and even political factors relating to Indus populations in the periods before, during and after South Asia’s first period of urbanism. This contribution considers the range of variability inherent during these periods by assessing the diversity evident in four different categories of data, and the relationships between those datasets.Personal Reflections on some Contributions of Jonathan Mark Kenoyer to the Archaeology of Northwestern South Asia Taken from Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow. Pages 384-388.
By Richard H. Meadow
Mark Kenoyer has made substantial and, indeed, remarkable contributions to South Asian Archaeology and especially to our understanding of the Indus Civilization and its technology. Many of these are evident in his published oeuvre. Others are less well known and often have been evident only to those who have worked with him in the field. In this short appreciation, I provide some personal recollections of working with Mark in Pakistan over the past 45 years with a focus on the sites of Balakot and Harappa.Roses, carnations, and ‘Prophet’s eggs’: Turkish needle lace flowers between decoration and non-verbal communication Taken from Travellers in Ottoman Lands edited by Ines Aščerić-Todd, Sabina Knees, Janet Starkey and Paul Starkey. Pages 337-349.
By Gérard J. Maizou & Kathrin Müller
When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu lived in Constantinople between 1716 and 1718, she discovered the so-called ‘language of flowers’ and reported about it in one of her famous embassy letters. Although since ancient times it has been known that people assign a special meaning to specific flowers, fruits, and other objects, the ‘language of flowers’ flourished in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To this day, the Turkish ‘language of flowers’ lives on as a special textile handicraft — the Oya lace. These colourful often three-dimensional lace flowers first appeared in the early nineteenth century. They spread quickly throughout the Ottoman Empire, decorating the edges of headscarves, shirts, and little bags. Today’s ethnologists have registered the meaning of different Oya blossoms and fruits which originated from the actual flora. The Oya names often reflect a woman’s thoughts, worries, and desires, and give us an insight into the life of an individual woman, her surroundings, the problems in her family, her village or her town’s mahalle (quarter).Infancy and urbanization in central Italy during the Early Iron Age and beyond Taken from Papers in Italian Archaeology VII: The Archaeology of Death edited by Edward Herring & Eòin O’Donoghue. Pages 197-206.
By Francesca Fulminante
A relatively large number of studies have dealt with suggrundaria (‘under eaves burials’) in Early Iron Age Latium vetus, while infancy in the funerary studies of central Italy has received generally less attention in the past as a specific topic of study. However things are changing rapidly in this field and infancy and childhood is becoming an important focus of Italian prehistoric and classical archaeology. Urbanization in Pre-Roman and Roman Italy on the other hand is a well-known and much studied phenomenon, whose effects have shaped the features of modern Western civilizations. Probably because of gendered biases the two themes have always remained separate and not connected. This paper for the first time will show how urbanization has changed the representation of children in burial practices and has affected mothers’ infant feeding practices; and will indicate how vice-versa infant feeding practices can affect the development of urban societies. In this way it will open new research agenda for urbanization and infancy studies in Pre-Roman and Roman Italy.Dioscorides’ legacy: a classical precursor to travellers in Ottoman lands Taken from Travellers in Ottoman Lands edited by Ines Aščerić-Todd, Sabina Knees, Janet Starkey and Paul Starkey. Pages 89-108.
By Alison Denham
Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus, the author of De Materia Medica, was born in what is now south-eastern Turkey in the first century AD. His five-volume work on plants, animals, and minerals used in medicine has been edited, translated, and retranslated over the ensuing 2000 years. Dioscorides probably qualified as a medical practitioner at Tarsus, capital of the Roman province of Cilicia. He is renowned for seeking out plants growing in the wild and referred to many places where plants grow. The chaste tree Vitex agnus-castus is used to discuss his plant descriptions. Dioscorides was concerned about the provenance and quality of medicinal plants, and his entry on myrrh Commiphora spp. explores this point. St John’s wort Hypericum
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