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NEW: Uno sguardo su Pisa ellenistica da piazza del Duomo Lo scavo del saggio D 1985-1988 by Emanuele Taccola. Paperback; 203x276mm; 410pp; 39 figures; 95 plates (22 colour pages). 103 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789694000. £60.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789694017.
The Etruscan character of the city of Pisa has been questioned for a long time. However, thanks to a thriving period of archaeological investigations undertaken in the mid-1980s, it was possible to definitively confirm the ancient Etruscan origin of the settlement.
One of the main excavations was carried out between 1985 and 1988 a few steps away from the Leaning Tower (saggio D), where a complex and uninterrupted stratigraphy dating from the middle of the 6th century BC and the end of the 5th century AD was brought to light. The anthropic installations and wall structures unearthed share the same alignments and the same orientation, within an apparently orthogonal urban network designed at least from the end of the 5th century BC and knowingly respected until the end of the Roman imperial age.
Uno sguardo su Pisa ellenistica da piazza del Duomo, dedicated to the Hellenistic period documented in the excavation of saggio D, presents a substantial catalogue of the ceramic repertoire therein recovered, most of which are still not attested in the city. Due to the results of this work, it is now possible to redefine the role of Pisa in this period as one of the major trade centres of northern coastal Etruria.
About the Author
Dr. Emanuele Taccola is a Teaching Assistant of Etruscology and Italic Archaeology, and an Adjunct Professor of Methodology of Survey and Representation in Archaeology at the University of Pisa.
Italian Description:
Il carattere etrusco della città di Pisa è stato messo in discussione per molto tempo. Tuttavia, grazie a un periodo intenso di indagini archeologiche sistematiche intraprese a metà degli anni Ottanta del secolo scorso, è stato possibile confermare definitivamente l'antica origine etrusca dell'insediamento, come già riportato da numerose fonti storiche antiche.
Uno dei principali interventi di scavo è quello effettuato tra il 1985 e il 1988 a breve distanza dalla torre pendente (saggio D), dove è stata portata alla luce una complessa e ininterrotta sequenza stratigrafica compresa tra la metà del VI secolo a.C. e la fine del V secolo d.C.
I resti degli edifici delle varie fasi identificate dall’indagine archeologica condividono lo stesso orientamento, inseriti all'interno di una rete urbana apparentemente ortogonale progettata almeno dalla fine del V secolo a.C. e consapevolmente rispettata fino alla fine dell'età imperiale romana. Questo libro, dedicato al periodo ellenistico documentato nello scavo del saggio D di Piazza del Duomo, presenta un consistente catalogo del repertorio ceramico ivi recuperato, gran parte del quale non ancora attestato in città.
Grazie ai nuovi dati emersi da questo lavoro, è possibile ridefinire il ruolo di Pisa in questo periodo come uno dei maggiori centri commerciali dell'Etruria costiera settentrionale.
Emanuele Taccola ha completato il suo intero percorso di studi presso l’Università di Pisa, dove ha ottenuto due Lauree con lode in Lettere Classiche e Archeologia (2003, 2006) e il Dottorato con lode in Scienze dell'Antichità e Archeologia (2019). È Cultore della Materia in Etruscologia e Archeologia Italica e Professore a contratto di Metodologia del Rilievo e della Rappresentazione in Archeologia all'Università di Pisa. Emanuele Taccola ha partecipato a numerosi scavi in Italia e all'estero come archeologo e responsabile del rilievo topografico e fotogrammetrico. È autore di numerose pubblicazioni su riviste scientifiche e importanti conferenze internazionali. Dal 2008 Emanuele Taccola è impiegato come tecnico laureato e responsabile del Laboratorio di Disegno e Restauro (LADIRE) presso il Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere dell'Università di Pisa.NEW: Invisible Archaeologies: Hidden aspects of daily life in ancient Egypt and Nubia edited by Loretta Kilroe. Paperback; 203x276mm; ii+128 pages. 100 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693751. £35.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693768.
The papers use a range of archaeological and textual material and span from the Predynastic period to the Late Period. By applying methodology used so successfully within the discipline of archaeology over the past 20 years, they offer a different perspective on Egyptological research, and demonstrate how such theoretical models can broaden scholarly understanding of the Nile Valley.
About the Editor
Loretta Kilroe is an Egyptologist who completed her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2019. She specialises in ancient Egyptian and Nubian ceramics and has participated in several excavations in Sudan with the Sudan Archaeological Research Society. She now works as Project Curator: Sudan and Nubia at the British Museum.
NEW: Public Archaeology: Arts of Engagement edited by Howard Williams, Caroline Pudney and Afnan Ezzeldin. Paperback; 203x276mm; xiv+270 pages; 82 figures, 5 tables (101 pages in colour). 99 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693737. £58.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693744.
This collection provides original perspectives on public archaeology’s current practices and future potentials focusing on art/archaeological media, strategies and subjects. It stems from the 2nd University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference, held on 5 April 2017 at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester: Archaeo-Engage: Engaging Communities in Archaeology.
About the Editors
Howard Williams is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester and researches mortuary archaeology, archaeology and memory, the history of archaeology and public archaeology. He regularly writes an academic blog: Archaeodeath.
Caroline Pudney is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Chester with research interests in Iron Age and Roman Britain, material culture, public archaeology and applied archaeology.
Afnan Ezzeldin graduated with a BA (Hons) Archaeology degree in 2017 from the University of Chester. Subsequently, in 2018, she completed the MA Archaeology of Death and Memory from the University of Chester, with a thesis focused on manga mortuary archaeology.
NEW: Dating Urban Classical Deposits: Approaches and Problems in Using Finds to Date Strata by Guido Furlan. Paperback; 205x290mm; xiv+288 pages; 153 figures, 6 tables (71 pages in colour). 576 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692525. £48.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692532.
The book reviews the present state of archaeological practice and follows this with a theoretical discussion of the key concepts involved in the issue of dating deposits; the main methodological tools which can be employed (quantitative, qualitative and comparative) are then discussed in detail. The text presents a problem-oriented taxonomy of deposits, with depositional models for assessing how different assemblages can be analysed for dating; each type of deposit is accompanied by case studies where the methodological tools used are explained. Finally, a structured working method is proposed.
The topic of dating deposits crosses the chronological and spatial borders of many archaeologies, but the book focusses on Classical cities (particularly Roman), as they present specific traits (continuous occupation, high rates of residuality, high impact architecture, waste management etc.) making them unique fields for study.
About the Author
Guido Furlan is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Padova, where he achieved his doctorate in 2015. His current research focuses on Roman archaeology and post-excavation methodologies. He was involved, among others, in the investigation of the forum of Nora (Sardinia) until 2008, and in the excavation of the House of Titus Macer, Aquileia, from 2009 to 2013. He is currently working on the theatre of the ancient city.
NEW: Pottery from Roman Malta by Maxine Anastasi with contributions by David Cardona and Nathaniel Cutajar. Paperback; 205x290mm; viii+176 pages; 87 figures, 7 tables. 574 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693294. £35.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693300.
About the Author
Maxine Anastasi is a Lecturer at the Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta. She was awarded a D.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Oxford for her thesis on small-island economies in the Central Mediterranean. Her research primarily focuses on Roman pottery in the central Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on Maltese assemblages.
NEW: Architectures of Fire: Processes, Space and Agency in Pyrotechnologies edited by Dragoş Gheorghiu. 98 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693676. £30.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693683.
Fire is located at the centre of all pre-modern architecture. It creates the living or technological space. Fire creates architectures since it imposes geometry, from the simple circles of stone or clay, which control its spread (and which are the geometrical figures of its optimal efficiency), to cone trunks, cylinders, half-spheres, half-cylinders or parallelepipeds, circular geometric figures that efficiently control the air-draught process required for combustion. All these forms involving the circle are determined by the control and conservation of thermal energy.
We should not imagine that the term ‘architecture’ evokes only constructed objects that delimit human action. Architecture means not only the built space, but also the experienced space, in the present case around the pyro-instruments. Pyro-instruments involve an ergonomic, kinesthetic and visual relationship, as well as the rhythmic actions of feeding or maintaining fire at a certain technological tempo. The technological agency is structured both by the physics of the combustion phenomenon, and by the type of operation to be performed.
About the Author
Dragoş Gheorghiu is an historical anthropologist/archaeologist and experimentalist whose studies focus on the process of cognition, material culture and ancient technologies.
He has edited books on fire in archaeology, fire as material culture, fire as an instrument, also on ceramics, figurines and stamps. He has contributed articles on ceramic technology, kilns and burned houses in the Chalcolithic, and during the last two decades has carried out experiments with the building and burning of wattle and daub houses, with kilns and with other structures involved with combustion.
Professor Gheorghiu is the Secretary of the UISPP Commission ‘Neolithic Civilizations of the Mediterranean and Europe’, and is a member of the European Association of Archaeologists. He is a Paul Mellon Fellow at the Centre of Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
NEW: Arab Settlements: Tribal structures and spatial organizations in the Middle East between Hellenistic and Early Islamic periods by Nicolò Pini. Paperback; xii+252 pages; 88 figures, 13 plates. 97 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693614. £50.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693621.
About the Author
Nicolò Pini PhD (Cologne, 2017) is external Research associate with the Islamic Archaeology Unit at the University of Bonn and collaborates on several projects in the Near East (among which Tall Hisban in Jordan and Khirbet beit Mazmil near Jerusalem).
NEW: Imágenes, lengua y creencias en Lusitania romana edited by Jorge Tomás García and Vanessa Del Prete. Paperback; 203x276mm; illustrated throughout (51 pages in colour). 94 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692945. £48.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692952.
La presente publicación pretende suponer un acercamiento transversal y generoso a la cultura visual, lingüística y religiosa de la provincia romana de Lusitania. La influencia romana fue especialmente notable en la religión y en las manifestaciones artísticas. Las ciudades fueron una de las instituciones más importantes impuestas a Lusitania durante la ocupación romana. Fue en las ciudades donde los lusitanos adquirieron la civilización romana: aprendieron latín, la lengua franca de la península; fueron introducidos a la administración y religión romanas; y en el siglo III, cuando Roma se convirtió al cristianismo, también lo hicieron los lusitanos. La lengua latina se impuso como la lengua oficial, funcionando como factor vinculante y comunicación entre los diferentes pueblos. Al ser un área bastante grande, y al carecer de un estado unificado que promoviera un idioma determinado en la administración o la educación, en Hispania convivieron diferentes lenguas simultáneamente. Los sujetos siguieron usando sus idiomas nativos, aunque los negocios oficiales se realizaron en latín o griego. Las religiones indígenas persistieron, aunque los sacrificios se ofrecían en todas partes para el emperador y los dioses del panteón romano. La cultura visual también reflejó el carácter híbrido de la civilización provincial. Las imágenes del estilo y el mensaje romanos circulaban ampliamente y, sin embargo, los artesanos y los consumidores de las provincias mantenían sus propias tradiciones, adoptando las técnicas y los gustos romanos como les convenía. Este y otros problemas están recogidos en los capítulos de esta obra, que permite establecer una mirada amplia y generosa sobre la relación entre las imágenes, la lengua y la visión religiosa y cultural de la sociedad lusitana. Los autores de este volumen tratan así de entender este panorama tan complejo, utilizando con gran énfasis las imágenes y el lenguaje, fuentes de relevancia para acometer una visión transversal de la cultura y religión de Lusitania.
About the Editors
Jorge Tomás García PhD (Murcia, 2010) is Professor of Ancient Art at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Art History Department).
Vanessa Del Prete Mainer PhD (Madrid, 2016), is Chief Editor of the academic journal Gods and Men (interdisciplinary studies regarding the sciences of religions), launched in 2018.
NEW: Carving Interactions: Rock Art in the Nomadic Landscape of the Black Desert, North-Eastern Jordan by Nathalie Østerled Brusgaard. Paperback; 205x290mm; xii+206 pages; 216 figures, 32 tables (129 colour pages). 577 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693119. £45.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693126.
About the Author
Nathalie Østerled Brusgaard (PhD, Leiden University) is an archaeologist specialising in rock art studies and social zooarchaeology. Nathalie has worked on excavations in the Netherlands and Germany and on rock art surveys in Jordan and the USA.
NEW: New Global Perspectives on Archaeological Prospection 13th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, 28 August – 1 September 2019, Sligo – Ireland edited by James Bonsall. Paperback; 205x290mm; 366 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. 567 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693065. £45.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693072.
This volume is a product of the 13th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection 2019, which was hosted by the Department of Environmental Science in the Faculty of Science at the Institute of Technology Sligo. The conference is held every two years under the banner of the International Society for Archaeological Prospection and this was the first time that the conference was held in Ireland. New Global Perspectives on Archaeological Prospection draws together over 90 papers addressing archaeological prospection techniques, methodologies and case studies from 33 countries across Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America, reflecting current and global trends in archaeological prospection. At this particular ICAP meeting, specific consideration was given to the development and use of archaeological prospection in Ireland, archaeological feedback for the prospector, applications of prospection technology in the urban environment and the use of legacy data.Papers include novel research areas such as magnetometry near the equator, drone-mounted radar, microgravity assessment of tombs, marine electrical resistivity tomography, convolutional neural networks, data processing, automated interpretive workflows and modelling as well as recent improvements in remote sensing, multispectral imaging and visualisation.
About the EditorJames Bonsall uses geophysical and remote sensing technology to investigate ancient people and landscapes. James is particularly interested in challenging upland and coastal environments that require technical expertise combined with novel methodological approaches to enhance the interpretation of past environments. James has twenty years of archaeological geophysical experience acquired in the commercial and academic sectors. His PhD, a fellowship from the National Roads Authority, focused on aspects of prospecting driven by legacy data collected during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom. James is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the Institute of Technology Sligo. His recent publications include a geoarchaeological study of shell middens on the west coast of Ireland; mapping pauper burials in the UK; and the challenges of surveying remote upland sites in Ireland and Italy.
NEW: Mobile Peoples – Permanent Places: Nomadic Landscapes and Stone Architecture from the Hellenistic to Early Islamic Periods in North-Eastern Jordan by Harmen Huigens. Paperback; 203x276mm; 270 pages; 183 figures, 25 tables (152 pages in colour). (Print £65.00). 96 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693133. £65.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693140.
Mobile Peoples – Permanent Places explores the relationship between nomadic communities who resided in the Black Desert of north-eastern Jordan between c. 300 BC and 900 AD and the landscapes they inhabited and extensively modified. Although these communities were highly mobile, moving through the desert following seasonal variation in natural resources, they significantly invested in the landscapes they frequented by erecting highly durable stone architecture, and by carving rock art and inscriptions. Although these inscriptions, known as Safaitic, are relatively well studied, the archaeological remains had received little attention until recently.This book focuses on the architectural features, including enclosures and elaborate burial cairns, that were created in the landscape some 2000 years ago and which were used and revisited on multiple occasions. It explores how nomadic communities modified these landscapes by presenting new data from remote sensing, field surveys, and excavations. To better understand the purpose of these modifications and how this changed through time, the landscape is further analysed on various temporal and geographic scales.This book particularly deals with the archaeological landscapes of the Jebel Qurma region of north-eastern Jordan. It is part of the Landscapes of Survival project, a research programme based at Leiden University that has brought together both archaeologists and epigraphers to work on this fascinating region.About the AuthorHarmen Huigens is a landscape archaeologist who investigates processes of modifying and encountering human living space in the ancient Near East. He received his doctorate from the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University (2018).
NEW: Why Did Ancient States Collapse? The Dysfunctional State by Malcolm Levitt. Paperback; 203x276mm;56 pages; 4 tables, 1 diagram (black & white throughout). 93 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789693027. £18.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789693034.
Ancient states were rooted in agriculture, sedentism and population growth. They were fragile and prone to collapse, but there is no consensus on the causes or meaning of collapse, and there is an ongoing debate about the importance, nature and even existence of state-wide collapse.Explanations of collapse in terms of the competing mono-causal factors are found inferior to those incorporating dynamic, interactive systems. It is proposed that collapse should be explained as failure to fulfil the ancient state’s core functions: assurance of food supplies, defence against external attack, maintenance of internal peace, imposition of its will throughout its territory, enforcement of state-wide laws, and promotion of an ideology to legitimise the political and social status quo.To fulfil these functions certain necessary conditions must be met. The legitimacy of the political and social status quo, including the distribution of political power and wealth, needs to be accepted; the state should be able to extract sufficient resources to fulfil its functions such as defence; it must be able to enforce its decisions; the ruling elite should share a common purpose and actions; the society needs to reflect a shared spirit (asibaya) and purpose across elites and commoners who believe it is worthy of defence.Weaknesses and failure to meet any condition can interact to exacerbate the situation: maladministration, corruption and elite preoccupation with self-aggrandisement can induce fiscal weakness, reduced military budgets and further invasion; it can induce neglect of key infrastructures (especially water management). Inequality, a commonly neglected factor despite ancient texts, can erode asibaya and legitimacy and alienate commoners from the defence of the state.These themes are explored in relation to the Egyptian Old Kingdom, Mycenae, the Western Roman Empire (WRE), and the Maya. They all exhibit, to varying degrees, weaknesses in meeting the above conditions necessary for stability.
About the Author
Malcolm Levitt held posts as lecturer in economics at Liverpool and Hallsworth Fellow at Manchester University (where his interest in state collapse originated) before joining HM Treasury where he became Senior Economic Adviser. He then moved to the OECD and later served as Chef de Division in the European Commission.Since completing his MA in Archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology in 2018 he has concentrated on deepening the theoretical basis of his dissertation on why ancient states collapsed.
Il sito di Aïn Wassel e il contesto rurale: inquadramento della ricerca by Mariette de Vos Raaijmakers. Pages 1-55 from Rus Africum IV. La fattoria Bizantina di Aïn Wassel, Africa Proconsularis (Alto Tell, Tunisia) edited by Mariette de Vos Raaijmakers and Barbara Maurina.
In 1891 Louis Carton discovered a Severian copy of the lex divi Hadriani de rudibus agris in the rural site of Aïn Wassel, and this is why in 1994 this site was chosen in order to investigate the work and living conditions of the sharecroppers who had asked Septimius Severus the application of that lex. The lex granted the land for cultivation to the coloni who had requested this application, allowing them to bequeath it to their heirs. Many historic and juridical studies had analyzed this and other six (now seven) so-called ‘great agrarian inscriptions’, which were found in the Medjerda valley, but so far no field research had been conducted.
The 252 m2 excavated during three campaigns between 1994-96 have revealed part of a Byzantine farm built around 600 AD on top of a previous structure and abandoned in the early 8th c. This chronology is based on the in-depth analysis of a conspicuous amount of pottery, amphoras, coins, glass and metal finds. The excavation also aimed at providing a stratigraphic model to apply to the other sites discovered during the field survey of Map 33 (Téboursouk) of the Carte Nationale des Sites Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques in progress, on behalf of the Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunisie, s. http://rusafricum.org
Thanks to the excavation we have a precise chrono-typology of pottery and amphoras, the stratigraphic sequence of the Vandal and Byzantine period was outlined, which was confirmed by other data coming from the field survey. The size of the excavated area -252 m2 -, is rather limited compared the 8000 m2 of the whole settlement, but all the same significant. Until today Aïn Wassel is the only rural site of Africa Proconsularis which has been excavated with stratigraphic method, published in detail and thanks to archaeological field survey related to the surrounding rural region. The field survey outlined the history of the settlement, which started on or near the estate of the Late Republican triumphator, Titus Statilius Taurus, who was the brilliant general of Octavian. After the transfer from Statilius’ great-grandson to Agrippina or Nero, the estate took the name of Saltus Neronianus. Its farmers worked as sharecroppers in accordance with the tenure arrangement, known as lex Manciana, with remarkable success. When their neighbours of the Aïn Djemala settlement asked Emperor Hadrian to apply that same tenure arrangement to their estate, they referred to the [i]ncrementum habita[torum] in the Saltus Neronianus. By 200 AD the farmers of Aïn Wassel asked Septimius Severus to apply the lex divi Hadriani, which had extended the exploiting rights also to fields which were uncultivated for ten continuous years. The application of the lex was probably monitored by Caius Rossius Crescens, emissary of Marcus Rossius Vitellus, who was a collaborator of Septimius Severus, and at the end of his carreer decurio, flamen perpetuus and patronus of Bulla Regia. He became also procurator tractus Carthaginiensis and procurator ducenarius IIII publicarum provinciae Africae. Crescens was buried in or near the settlement and his funerary stele with epitaph was reused as building material in the Byzantine farm.
Reperti lapidei by Mariette de Vos Raaijmakers. Pages 339-362 from Rus Africum IV. La fattoria Bizantina di Aïn Wassel, Africa Proconsularis (Alto Tell, Tunisia) edited by Mariette de Vos Raaijmakers and Barbara Maurina.
The archaeology of North Africa is so rich of evidence because of the use of limestone and sandstone, local stones that can be easily found everywhere. This high quality and strong material is suitable for every use, abundant, and close to the settlements, with affordable costs of transportation. Given the durability of the stone, ancient artifacts have been reused or reshaped, and even today are recycled in modern buildings. Therefore, many elements of previous buildings and tombs have been reused in the Byzantine reconstruction or enlargement of Aïn Wassel, sometimes with a different function. This reuse is well studied as part of the North African urban transformation which took place during the 170 years of the Byzantine Empire. The Thugga survey and Aïn Wassel excavation provide evidence of large scale recycling of stone artifacts in the countryside; quite often they are preserved because they were reused in a more recent context. Some artifacts were reused as building material, for example to make thresholds; funerary stelae became the vertical blocks of opus africanum walls; hand mills and mortars were also used as small filling blocks in those same walls; a moulded column base could be re-used to support a roof or a table. The counterweight of the oil press, which was found during the excavation, was rotated 90° and reshaped, and its two dovetail wedges were recut. A sun dial was found in court n. 14, but since the excavation of the court was not complete we do not know if it was intact and still in use or if it was reused as building material. The flour or oil catcher was broken in two pieces, which were stored in two adjacent rooms. Slabs of one or more press beds, made of red sandstone, were kept in place and used as a pavement during the most recent phases.
Objects of the Past in the Past: Investigating the Significance of Earlier Artefacts in Later Contexts edited by Matthew G. Knight, Dot Boughton and Rachel E. Wilkinson. Paperback; 203x276mm; 77 figures, 11 tables (43 pages in colour). 89 2019. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781789692488. £40.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781789692495.
How did past communities view, understand and communicate their pasts? And how can we, as archaeologists, understand this? In recent years these questions have been approached through studies of the extended occupation and use of landscapes, monuments and artefacts to explore concepts of time and memory. But what of objects that were already old in the past? Interpretations for these items have ranged from the discard of scrap to objects of veneration. Evidence from a range of periods would suggest objects of the past were an important part of many later societies that encountered them, either as heirlooms with remembered histories or rediscovered curiosities from a more distant past.
For the first time, this volume brings together a range of case studies in which objects of the past were encountered and reappropriated. It follows a conference session at the Theoretical Archaeological Group in Cardiff 2017, in which historians, archaeologists, heritage professionals and commercial archaeologists gathered to discuss this topic on a broad (pre)historical scale, highlighting similarities and contrast in depositional practices and reactions to relics of the past in different periods. Through case studies spanning the Bronze Age through to the 18th century AD, this volume presents new research demonstrating that the reappropriation of these already old objects was not anomalous, but instead represents a practice that recurs throughout (pre)history.
About the Editors
Matthew G. Knight is the curator of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age collections at National Museums Scotland and Chair of the Later Prehistoric Finds Group. He specialises in the production, use and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork and completed his PhD on the deliberate destruction of metalwork in south-west England in 2018. He continues to be fascinated by destructive practices across Europe and is currently preparing a monograph on the subject. Matt’s MA thesis concerned out-of-time Bronze Age metalwork and he is frequently distracted by the relationship people in the past held with their own pasts and their treatment of already old material culture in the Bronze Age, or indeed any other time period.
Dot Boughton originates from Germany and is a prehistoric metalwork specialist who now works as a freelancer and translator in Cumbria. Dot did her undergraduate degree at the Freie Universität Berlin and moved to England in 1999, where she completed an MSt (2000) and MPhil (2001) in Anglo-Saxon Archaeology at the University of Oxford. In 2015 she completed her PhD dissertation on Early Iron Age socketed axes in Britain at the University of Central Lancashire. Dot was the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Finds Liaison Officer for Lancashire and Cumbria from 2005–2017 and the Curator of Archaeology for Lancashire Museums 2017–2018. She worked for Oxford Archaeology (North) as their Finds, Archives and Environmental Officer from 2018–2019. Dot is now a freelance small finds specialist, writing metalwork reports for units and museums. She also translates historical German documents into English and vice versa.
Rachel E. Wilkinson is an archaeologist and numismatist and her AHRC-funded PhD examined the Iron Age metalwork object hoards from Britain (800 BC – AD 100), creating a national database for Iron Age object hoards which examined their contents, regional distribution and interaction with coin hoards. Previous positions during her PhD include Documentation Assistant and Project Curator: Romano-British collections at the British Museum, she currently freelances as a small finds specialist, editor and historical consultant.
An overview of the latest prehistoric research in Qumayrah Valley, Sultanate of Oman (poster) by Marcin Białowarczuk & Agnieszka Szymczak. Pages 25-31 from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 49 2019 edited by Daniel Eddisford. PSAS.
This paper concerns the prehistoric part of a project run by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology and the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of Oman, in the micro-region of Qumayrah. The project, instigated in 2016, includes a survey, testing, and excavations of selected sites. During two seasons of investigations, archaeological sites of varied chronology were recorded, three of which were attested to late Stone Age occupation. The largest site (QA 2), although deflated, yielded a rich collection of lithics found in the context of a stone hearth, a platform, and the remains of a shelter. The lithics included simple tools produced by direct-scaled retouch, rare tanged projectile points made on flakes, and bifacial foliated pieces. Tubular beads of stone and shell (including Akab-type beads), and worked seashells, attest to connections with coastal regions. The two other sites (QA 6 and QA 12) are less well preserved, but surface collection and limited testing yielded lithic collections, including tanged spear points. At this stage, techno-typological analysis of materials is the only means of establishing a chronology of these sites. However, new information from this region of Oman is significant considering the disproportion between the state of research at coastal areas and inland territories.
Keywords: Neolithic, Oman, al-Hajjar mountains, campsites, lithicsThe gendered household: making space for women in the study of Islamic archaeology in Qatar (poster) by Elizabeth R. Hicks. Pages 159-165 from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 49 2019 edited by Daniel Eddisford. PSAS.
This paper outlines the archaeological evidence for the activities of women within domestic compounds in Qatar, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The work of feminist scholars within Western archaeology has established that gender is an important component of a person’s social life. When the focus shifts to the archaeological literature of the Arabian Gulf, the narrative of women’s lives is lost.
This research paper presents evidence from recent excavations of domestic compounds at three key sites in Qatar: Fuwayrit, Furayḥah, and al-Zubārah. This investigation synthesizes historical, ethnographic, and archaeological research not only to envisage the presence of women, but also to explore the processes that create gender identity in the context of Qatar. This paper will demonstrate that in recognizing the activities of women within the archaeological record, a more complete understanding can be gained of the society and economy of Qatar during this period.
Keywords: gender, household activity, Islamic archaeology, Qatar, women
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.
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.
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. PSAS.
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.
Keywords: Hasanlu, Urartu, Iron Age, South Caucasus, trident, bident, lion pin
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.
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).
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
India in the ‘India Book’: 12th century northern Malabar through Geniza documents by Elizabeth A. Lambourn. Pages 71-84 from Sur les chemins d’Onagre: Histoire et archéologie orientales Hommage à Monik Kervran edited by Claire Hardy-Guilbert, Hélène Renel, Axelle Rougeulle et Eric Vallet.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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 o
Early Maritime Cultures in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Papers from a conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (African Studies Program) 23-24 October 2015, with additional contributions by Akshay Sarathi. Paperback; 203x276mm; viii+228 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (60 plates in colour). 66 2018. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784917128. £48.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784917135.
These papers represent a multi-disciplinary effort to examine East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean. Multiple lines of evidence drawn from linguistics, archaeology, history, art history, and ethnography come together in novel ways to highlight different aspects of the region’s past and offer innovative avenues for future research. The papers cover a diverse array of topics, including but not limited to: subsistence, watercraft traditions, trade and exchange (especially concerning the Silk Routes), migration, food ways, and familial relationships. This volume is unique in that it includes some speculative research as well, intended to present novel methods to deal with data-poor topics and to start important conversations about understudied topics.
The goal of this volume is to showcase aspects of the complex cultures and histories of this vast region and to emphasize its importance to world history. Ideally, it will generate scholarly and popular interest in the histories and cultures of the region and bring to the fore Africa’s and the Western Indian Ocean’s important (yet often overlooked) role in world historical narratives. It may also serve as a more advanced introduction to East Africa’s and the Western Indian Ocean’s history of interaction with other regions of the Old World and as a survey of methods used to understand the region’s past.
About the Editor
AKSHAY SARATHI is a graduate student of Archaeology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include the zooarchaeology of maritime adaptations, Indian Ocean trade and exchange, and East African coastal archaeology. More specifically, his current research project focuses on the island of Zanzibar, where he has excavated the sites of Unguja Ukuu, Kizimkazi Dimbani, and Kuumbi Cave. Data from these sites will form the basis of his dissertation, which will examine how dietary preferences changed over time at each site in response to various stimuli over time. He currently resides in Madison, WI (USA) with his two feline overlords.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 illustrations
Dinamiche 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 perforatum is widespread throughout Europe and Turkey. Dioscorides recommended Hypericum spp. as a compress applied to the skin to heal burns. Examples from among the ninety-six members of the genus in Turkey are used to discuss the problems that arise when attempting a definite identification of the plants he described. Current ethno-botanic studies in Turkey have identified continuing usage of Hypericum spp. and, in conclusion, the role of Mūsā Jalīnum al-Isrāʾīlī in cultural transmission is briefly explored.
The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78 by A E Brown and H L Sheldon. Paperback; 205x290mm; xii+392 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (70 plates in colour). (Print RRP £60.00). 456 2018 Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 43. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784919788. £60.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784919795.
The report includes a very detailed analysis of the forms and fabrics of the pottery made at Highgate. Finds of prehistoric flintwork and pottery during the excavation, and of material of later date, together with the observation of earthworks and historical research, have been used to show the place of the pottery kilns as an element in the exploitation of the woodland of northern London over the last eight thousand years.
In addition to the full eBook being available as a free download in Open Access (click 'Download (pdf)' further down this page), these web pages take the published pottery illustrations, but rearrange them by their typological category rather than their archaeological context. This allows the full spectrum of Highgate pottery forms across all phases of the site to be compared, and parallels for vessels of possible Highgate origin from domestic sites can be identified.
About the Authors
TONY BROWN was a member of the academic staff of the University of Leicester for over thirty years, moving there in 1964 as an Assistant Staff Tutor (Organising Tutor for Leicestershire). In 1966 he became Organising Tutor for Northamptonshire and in 1968 Staff Tutor in Archaeology. From 1990 he held a joint appointment with the School of Archaeological Studies, retiring in 2001 as an Emeritus Reader.
Documenting the traditional architecture of Khatbah village in Saudi Arabia (poster) Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 48 2018 edited by Julian Jansen van Rensburg, Harry Munt, Tim Power, and Janet Starkey. Pages 7-11.
Summary: Saudi Arabia is known for its diversity of culture, environment, and architecture. Khatbah village is situated in a valley, in the mountainous south-western province of ΚAsīr. Accordingly, this environment determines the building materials, which are stone and local wood. This research paper focuses on building features and materials that reflect the environmental, social, religious, and security factors. These factors, however, are different from one region to another within ΚAsīr because of the changes in climatic conditions as well as the topography. The purpose of this poster is to document the traditional architecture of Khatbah village, including the main architectural features and materials used. Such research hopes to raise awareness and excite the interest of locals in the importance of maintaining their heritage and culture, especially as there is no previous documentation of Khatbah’s architecture.
Keywords: Khatbah village, traditional architecture, architectural features, building materials, historic buildings documentation
Five Thousand Years of Shell Exploitation at Bandar Jissah, Sultanate of Oman 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 547-647.
Bandar Jissah is a sheltered cove on the eastern side of the Muscat Capital Area of the Sultanate of Oman that was occupied from at least the Neolithic period (5th-4th millennia BC) through the Late Islamic era. Following investigations by the Uerpmanns and Paul Yule in the 1980s-90s and limited excavations by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in the 2000s, salvage excavations were conducted by the authors at Bandar Jissah in 2009 under the direction of Prof. Gregory Possehl. These test excavations at the Neolithic shell middens and the Iron Age settlement uncovered a substantial quantity and variety of seashells that suggest the exploitation of marine resources for both subsistence and craft working. In this paper, presented in honor of a scholar who began his career studying seashell crafting, a diachronic view of sea shell extraction and use is detailed from one small area of the Oman Peninsula.
Keywords: Oman Peninsula, Muscat, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, shell middens, seashells working.
Über Naturphänomene in der archaisch-griechischen Flächenkunst Taken from Naturvorstellungen im Altertum edited by Florian Schimpf, Dominik Berrens, Katharina Hillenbrand, Tim Brandes and Carrie Schidlo. Pages 57-151.
An inquiry concerning the capacity of orientation of early Greek vase painters with respect to ‘nature’ cannot be reduced to iconic representations of landscape elements. Rather it is essential to examine when and how a decorated area, in the process of becoming an ‘image’, starts showing features, which can be reconstructed as nature constants in the broad sense.
In the late phase of Attic-geometric vase painting, indications of elementary geometry of natural space became gradually established in figured areas: The horizontal bottom line, formerly only separating ornamental zones, increasingly became semantically charged as a stable ground level. Heads of ‘grazing’ animals bent down to the bottom line and rows of triangles based on it, stimulate the viewer’s reconstruction of the primary spatial categories ‘bottom’–‘top’, and consolidate this by a basic material impression of vegetation, of overgrown soil. On representations of ships, horizontally arranged fish beneath and birds above the ships are features facilitating to reconstruct two other natural ‘elements’: the logically layered continua water and air.
Indus Stone Beads in the Ghaggar Plain with a Focus on the Evidence from Farmana and Mitathal 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 568-591.
This paper discusses the characteristics of stone beads of the Urban Indus period from the Ghaggar plain based on the evidence from Farmana and Mitathal. Our understanding of the stone beads of the Indus period have been so far limited to the samples from Harappa in Punjab, Pakistan, on which tremendous studies have been made by J. M. Kenoyer (Kenoyer 1991a, 1997, 2005). Needless to say, the site of Harappa is one of the most important urban centres of the Indus Valley Civilization and the evidence from this site have provided significant information for our understanding of the stone beads of the civilization. However, the holistic understanding of the stone beads of the urban society must include more evidence from other sites including minor urban centres and villages as well. The lack of basic information such as how many beads of what kind of forms and materials have been found at each site in the present state of our knowledge on stone beads still makes it difficult to understand the production and distribution system of stone beads during the Indus period and the stylistic and technological aspects of stone beads through time and across space.
Ceramic Analysis and the Indus Civilization. A Review 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 90-103.
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer has a long history of work with the ceramic vessels of the Indus Civilization and co-authored the most comprehensive assessments of the pottery from Mohenjo-daro yet attempted (Dales and Kenoyer 1986). For archaeologists, pottery is one of the most significant sources of data, not only for the durability and abundance of ceramic artefacts in the archaeological record, but also for the vast range of information on ancient societies that can be inferred from its study. Amongst various approaches to ceramic analysis, two main methods have dominated the field: the morphological approach, where pottery assemblages are grouped according to macroscopic attributes; and scientific analysis, where ceramics are understood in terms of composition and technologies. Even though the latter approach has been tentatively used in the study of ceramic industries in South Asia since the 1930s, it has become significant only in the past three decades. This contribution reviews the use and development of geochemical and petrographic methods for the study of South Asian ceramic traditions, with special emphasis on assemblages produced and used during the Urban and Post-Urban phases of the Indus Civilization (2500-1600 BC).
The Sincerest Form of Flattery? Terracotta Seals as Evidence of Imitation and Agency in Bronze Age Middle 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 19-25.
Terracotta seals that reprise the iconography and shape of seals produced in more prestigious materials are found throughout Southern and Central Asia. They are particularly common at the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC sites of the Ahar Banas culture in southwestern Rajasthan. All the seals found at these sites were made of baked clay, contrasting sharply with the stone or metal seals made by the cultures that surrounded them. Yet the shape and iconography of the Ahar Banas seals often imitate those of stone and metal seals from neighboring regions, suggesting that these seals were in fact a local adaptation of a foreign technology. Nonetheless, the people of the Ahar Banas were not alone in making terracotta seals. A closer examination of the material from the area shows that the archaeological record, particularly in the periods before and after the Mature Harappan Period, is littered with what may be considered prestige items made in the least prestigious material available. This paper examines the clay seals found in Southern and Central Asia and Iran in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC and contemplates the role that imitation and adaptation play in their production, as well as reconsidering the intrinsic value of the materials in which they are made and the role that technological styles play in defining local identities.
Private Person or Public Persona? Use and Significance of Standard Indus Seals as Markers of Formal Socio-Economic Identities 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 166-193.
Stamp seals made of fired steatite are one of the most distinctive standardized productions of the Indus Civilization. However, despite a century of continuous research and analysis, the system of semantic rules and socio-economic practices behind their sudden introduction and prolonged use with little variations for almost one millennium remains far from being fully decoded, with particular reference to the identity and roles of the individuals represented by these seals. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer addressed this topic in several sections of his seminal book Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (1998), as well as in later specific papers (2013), leaving space for alternative hypotheses. This paper attempts to deconstruct the most distinctive features of the standard Indus seals comparing the resulting patterns and trends with those of better-known contemporaneous administrative systems in order to isolate some basic concepts that might have regulated their use. The application of general models of brands development in different types of marketing systems allows to tentatively circumstantiate and further test the resulting hypotheses within a robust methodological framework.
The Smallest Scale of Stone. Pebbles as a Diminutive Form of Nature 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 536-546.
Of all the potential raw materials available in nature, stone is the most durable and has been used for both practical and symbolic constructions throughout the world. Much archaeological theorizing on stone has focused on portable objects such as tools, ornamental objects such as beads, and shaped architectural elements such as blocks. Unmodified stones such as pebbles also provide the opportunity to evaluate individual engagements with stone, in which pebble-carrying and pebble-deposition provide opportunities for all members of society to participate in monumental actions through the incremental addition of tangible devotional and construction elements. This paper examines pebbles as a measure of individual participation in archaeologically detectable religious and social rituals at the ancient city of Sisupalgarh in India where thousands of quartzite pebbles were transported and embedded into the plaster floors of the site’s central ritual structure.
Artifact Reuse and Mixed Archaeological Contexts at Chatrikhera, Rajasthan 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 486-494.
Studying the reuse and recycling of artifacts in contemporary contexts aids in the understanding of such actions in the past. Across South Asia, the reuse and repurposing of broken and discarded household items allows households to be thrifty; they can meet their material needs without purchasing new items. However, when items such as pots and grinding stones are removed from local trash deposits and archaeological sites they are separated from their original chronological and spatial context, and their repurposing often contradicts their original function and use. Since such acts of recycling are common across all time periods, a consideration of these actions is critical for robust archaeological interpretation of sites. In sum, studying contemporary recycling practices aids the understanding of site formation processes because it provides cautionary tales and interpretive pathways. One such cautionary tale was investigated at the site of Chatrikhera, in Rajasthan, India, where pottery and grinding stones continue to be recycled today.
The Role of Archaeology in National Identity: Muslim Archaeology in Pakistan 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 530-535.
A presentation on the same title was made in South Asia Conference at Wisconsin, Madison in October 2014 by the author. In the free conference focused on the Shared Archaeological Heritage of Pakistan and India project sponsored by the US state department. Now an attempt is made to present the archaeological profile of Pakistan, highlighting the landmarks of cultural development and its role in evolving national identity. The story of Muslim archaeology in Pakistan opens with Muhammad b. Qasim’s conquest of sind in the 7th century AD. But the major push came in the early 11th century when the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna brought North-western part and Panjab under his control. This gives us a complete sequence starting from Arabs and Ghaznavid to the Mughals with a short interval of the Suri dynasty.
Magnetometer survey of a Hafit monumental complex, al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman (poster) Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 48 2018 edited by Julian Jansen van Rensburg, Harry Munt, Tim Power, and Janet Starkey. Pages 119-124.
Magnetometer surveys carried out as part of the al-Khashbah Archaeological Project have revealed the plan of two monumental buildings dating to the third millennium BC as well as the surrounding landscape. Evidence from excavations confirms that this complex can be dated to the Hafit period, marking it as an important site for the development of social complexity in the interior of northern Oman. The results of two seasons of magnetometer surveys, conducted in 2015 and 2017, are instructive in two major ways. The fused magnetograms are a record of the prehistoric cultural landscape immediately surrounding Building I and Building XI. The two surveys provide a direct comparison of two different geophysical methods of magnetometer survey: fluxgate gradiometry (2015 survey) and total field magnetometry (2017 survey), which can aid analysis of survey results. The surveys took place near the geomagnetic equator where the shallow inclination of the Earth’s magnetic field can make archaeological interpretation of magnetic anomalies rather complex.
The development of complexity at third-millennium BC al-Khashbah, Sultanate of Oman: results of the first two seasons, 2015 and 2016 Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 47 2017 edited by Julian Jansen van Rensburg, Harry Munt, and Janet Starkey. Pages 215–226.
The transition from the Hafit to the Umm an-Nar period on the Oman peninsula in the third millennium BC is regarded as a period of substantial social and economic change. Although many thousands of tombs from the Hafit period remain, other archaeological evidence, such as settlements, is scarce. In 2015 therefore, a new archaeological research project conducted by the University of Tübingen and funded by the German Research Foundation was launched at al-Khashbah to investigate its Hafit and Umm an-Nar period remains. During the first two seasons research consisted of an intensive field survey, aerial survey, two geophysical surveys, as well as archaeological excavations in selected areas within the site. Among other archaeological remains, al-Khashbah features three Hafit-period stone towers and six towers from the Umm an-Nar period, including the famous rectangular building. The most important discoveries are a Hafit-period settlement with monumental mud-brick architecture and a stone-built tower dating to the end of the fourth millennium BC, associated with the oldest evidence of copper processing in Oman. Both findings testify to the importance of al-Khashbah for the investigation of the development of complexity at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the third millennium BC.
The reuse of tombs in the necropolis of Bat, Sultanate of Oman Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 45 2015 edited by Orhan Elmaz. Pages 83–92.
The reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs in later periods on the Oman peninsula is an often neglected phenomenon. Within the scope of this paper, the results from the excavation conducted by the University of Tübingen of two Umm an-Nar tombs in the necropolis of Bat, Sultanate of Oman — Tomb 155 and Tomb 156 — will be presented. In these two tombs, we find clear evidence for their reuse in the Iron Age. In addition, indications for the reuse of other tombs within the necropolis, excavated by the German Mining Museum Bochum and by the Danish expedition in the 1970s — Tombs 154, 401, 402, 403, 1142, and 1143 — will also be discussed. Together they give a broad picture of the different kinds of Iron Age reuse in the necropolis of Bat, consisting of individual inhumations within the Umm an-Nar tombs, the creation of new Iron Age tombs in the direct vicinity of the Umm an-Nar tombs and the reuse of their building materials, and scattered stray finds dating to later periods in the debris of the Umm an-Nar tombs. Finally, I will attempt to link the reuse of Umm an-Nar tombs to practices connected to collective memory.
Umm an-Nar pottery assemblages from Bāt and al-Zībā and their functional contexts Taken from Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 46 2016 edited by Janet Starkey and Orhan Elmaz. Pages 247–262.
By Conrad Schmidt & Stephanie Döpper
The sites of Bāt and al-Zībā (Zebah) in the Sultanate of Oman offer a range of different archaeological features dating to the Umm an-Nar period. In this paper we present the pottery assemblages from two burial pits detected just outside a group of Umm an-Nar tombs in the necropolis of Bāt, from the monumental Building II in Area B at Bāt, and from two house complexes in al-Zībā, which were all excavated by the University of Tübingen between 2010 and 2015. By comparing the assemblages with each other, it will be demonstrated that there is a clear distinction in shapes, wares, and decorations between the burial pits, on the one hand, and Building II and al-Zībā, on the other. We argue, therefore, for a functional difference between grave and non-grave pottery in the Umm an-Nar period. Furthermore, we show that the Umm
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