A Dignified Passage through the Gates of Hades: The Burial Custom of Cremation and the Warrior Order of Ancient Eleutherna

A Dignified Passage through the Gates of Hades: The Burial Custom of Cremation and the Warrior Order of Ancient Eleutherna

By Anagnostis P. Agelarakis

Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with a drómos into the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of “fossilized” behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of life’s journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes of ante mortem conduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of, post mortem life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times.

Contents

Prologue; Introduction; Anthropological insights on monumental tomb A1K1; The warrior order of ancient Eleutherna; Deciphering conferred funerary whispers; Standing upright in Hades; Epilogue; Acknowledgements

H 276 x W 203 mm

24 pages

Illustrated throughout in colour and black & white

Published Jun 2016

Archaeopress Access Archaeology

ISBN

Paperback: 9781784913830

Digital: 9781784913847

 

Geometric Period Plithos Burial Ground at Chora of Naxos Island, Greece: Anthropology Report

Geometric Period Plithos Burial Ground at Chora of Naxos Island, Greece: Anthropology Report

By Anagnostis P. Agelarakis

This report aims to offer glimpses of the human condition on Naxos island, Greece, focusing on the archaeoanthropologic study of the human skeletal remains along with associated contexts of faunal materials recovered from the Geometric (9th -7th c BC) component of the burial ground site of Plithos in Chora at Naxos island.

Contents

Prologue; Geometric Component Burial Contexts and Anthropological Remains; Anatomic Distribution of Preserved Skeletal Remains; Aspects of Population Sample Demographic Profile; On Skeletal Morphology; Palaeopathological Profile; Non-Anthropological Organic Materials of Burial Contexts with Emphasis on Faunal Remains; Epilogue; Graphs; Tables.

H 276 x W 203 mm

98 pages

Illustrated throughout in colour and black & white

Published Feb 2016

Archaeopress Access Archaeology

ISBN

Paperback: 9781784913038

Digital: 9781784913045

 

Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue – Volume 3: Sessions 4 and 6 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 Held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019

Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue – Volume 3: Sessions 4 and 6 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 Held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019

Edited by Costanza Coppini, Georg Cyrus, Hamaseh Golestaneh

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

Volume 3 contains 14 papers from Session 4 — Crossing Boundaries: Connectivity and Interaction; and Session 6 — Landscape and Geography: Human Dynamics and Perceptions.

Contents

Foreword ;

Introduction – Costanza Coppini, Georg Cyrus, and Hamaseh Golestaneh ;

Session 4: Crossing Boundaries: Connectivity and Interaction ;

Oman Peninsula and the Indus Valley: An Assessment of Material Exchanges during the Iron Age (c. 1300–300 BC) – Carlos Fernández Rodríguez ;

Seleucid Rule over the Gulf – Miguel Pachón Barragán ;

Identity and Interaction at Togolok 1 in the Murghab Region (Southern Turkmenistan) during the Bronze Age – Luca Forni and Roberto Arciero ;

The Structure of the Urartian Territory as Seen through the Distribution of Inscriptions – Dan Socaciu ;

Do I Know You? Points of Contact between Northern and Central/Southern Mesopotamian Ceramic Traditions in the 2nd Millennium BC – Valentina Oselini ;

Deconstructing Supportive Korai: Denoting Karyatids as Agalmata of Khthonie, Ge-Earth Goddess – Sevil Çonka ;

From Athirat to Aphrodite. The Feminine Side of the Sea in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean – Mari Yamasaki ;

Messengers and Envoys within Egyptian-Hittite Relationships – Marco De Pietri ;

Deportation Policies in Egypt’s Late Bronze Age Empire, 1500–1300 BCE – Christian Langer ;

Session 6: Landscape and Geography: Human Dynamics and Perceptions ;

Mountains for the Gods: Mimicking Landscape with Architecture. Mesoamerican Pyramids and Mesopotamian Ziqqurats in a Cross-Cultural Examination – Felix Levenson and Mónica Pacheco Silva ;

Beyond Dimorphic Chiefdom. An Alternative View of the Site Distribution during the Early Iron Age in the Southern Levant – Maria Tamburrini ;

The Mountain Sanctuary of Šami and the Relationship with the Settlement Pattern – Francesca Giusto ;

Some Considerations on Workers and Officials Involved in the Circulation of Fish in the Ur III Umma Province – Angela Greco ;

The Transformation of the Urban Landscape at Hatra (5th/4th Cent. BC – 3rd Cent. AD) – Enrico Foietta

H 276 x W 203 mm

230 pages

134 figures (colour throughout)

Published Sep 2022

Archaeopress Access Archaeology

ISBN

Paperback: 9781803273402

Digital: 9781803273419

 

Structured Deposition of Animal Remains in the Fertile Crescent during the Bronze Age

Structured Deposition of Animal Remains in the Fertile Crescent during the Bronze Age

By José Luis Ramos Soldado

 

Although most of the animal remains recorded throughout the archaeological excavations consist usually of large assemblages of discarded and fragmented bones, it is possible to yield articulated animal skeletons in some cases. Most of them have been usually picked up from sacred and/or funerary contexts, but not all of them might fit necessarily in ritual and symbolic interpretations, and not all of the structured deposit of animal remains may be explained due to anthropic factors. In addition, zooarchaeology has traditionally focused on animal domestication, husbandry and economy, and species identification above all, shutting out further discussion about these type of findings. Moreover, the limited condition of the data is also another issue to bear in mind. Thus, the aim of this study has been to draw up a literature review of the structured deposits of animal remains during the third and second millennia BC in the Ancient Near East for its subsequent classification and detailed interpretation. In this survey it has been attested that not only most of the articulated animal remains have been found in ritual and/or funerary contexts but also that all species recorded- but some exceptions-are domestic. Hence there is a broad religious attitude towards the main domesticated animals of human economy in the Ancient Near East, based on the closeness of these animals to the human sphere. Therefore, it seems that domesticated animals were powerful constituents in the cultural landscape of these regions, never simply resources.

Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Historical and archaeological context; 3. Structured deposition of animal remains in the Fertile Crescent during the III Millennium BC; 4. Structured deposition of animal remains in the Fertile Crescent during the II Millennium BC; 5. Discussion; 6. Conclusions; Bibliography; Appendix A. Number of articulated animal individuals recorded at each site classified by species, region and period; Appendix B. Identification of equid species classified by site and period

H 297 x W 210 mm

68 pages

Illustrated throughout in colour and black & white

Published Jan 2016

Archaeopress Access Archaeology

ISBN

Paperback: 9781784912727

Digital: 9781784912697

 

Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology Proceedings

Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology Proceedings

SOMA 2013. Proceedings of the 17th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology

ed. Sergey Fazlullin et al.

Papers from the 17th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, SOMA 2013 held in Moscow, 25-27 April 2013. READ MORE

Paperback: £45.00 | Free Download | eBook Institution: £10.00

SOMA 2014. Proceedings of the 18th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology

ed. Blazej Stanislawski et al.

Presents 22 papers from the 18th annual meeting of the Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA), held in Wrocław-Poland, 24th to 26th April 2014. READ MORE

Paperback: £38.00 | Free Download | eBook Institution: £10.00

SOMA 2015: Time, Space and People

ed. Murat Arslan

The proceedings of SOMA 2015 contain eighteen interdisciplinary articles on themes from underwater archaeology to history, archaeometry and art history, and chronologically, the subjects of these articles range from the Bronze Age to the 20th century. READ MORE

Paperback: £44.00 | Free Download | eBook Institution: £10.00

SOMA 2016: Proceedings of the 20th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology

ed. Hakan Öniz et al.

SOMA 2016 focused on the archaeology of the Northern Black Sea; while rich in archaeological sites, the region is also subject to active industrial development. In addition to archaeological finds in various parts of the Mediterranean, papers focus on new ideas for the conservation and management of sites of historical and cultural heritage. READ MORE

Paperback: £35.00 | Free Download | eBook Institution: £9.99

 

 

 

News from the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms

News from the Collection of Greek Ritual Norms

Those familiar with the CGRN will notice some changes, effective from the end of summer 2022.

A substantial update of the website has been carried out, with 25 new inscriptions (nos. 226-250), substantially updated versions of several existing files (nos. 1, 25, 43, 137, 213, 225), other necessary but more limited revisions, and adjustments to the formal presentation.

As their authorship makes clear, several of the new files are the work of an expanded CGRN team. Beyond the original trio of Carbon, Peels(-Matthey) and Pirenne-Delforge, the team currently includes Julien Dechevez, Manfred Lesgourgues, Luca Lorenzon, Elie Piette, Zoé Pitz, and Rebecca Van Hove.

Another important change is the addition of a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to the site itself (https://doi.org/10.54510/CGRN0) and to each of the files. The referencing now corresponds to international standards and offers a unique identifier for each inscription.

Those who are unfamiliar with the CGRN will continue to find below all the information they need to understand the objectives of the project and how to cite it.

As ever, we remain very interested and grateful to hear your general feedback or comments on individual files (quoting the relevant CGRN number). Please write to us at cgrn@ulg.ac.be.

 

Ancient Egypt in Kyiv mirrored on glass : (collection of glass photonegatives from the Scholarly Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of NAS of Ukraine) - Стародавній Єгипет у Києві: відображення на склі : (колекція скляних фотонегативів Наукового архіву Інституту археології НАН України)

Ancient Egypt in Kyiv mirrored on glass : (collection of glass photonegatives from the Scholarly Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of NAS of Ukraine) - Стародавній Єгипет у Києві: відображення на склі : (колекція скляних фотонегативів Наукового архіву Інституту археології НАН України)

Romanova, Olena
Stanytsina, Halyna 

Bilingual (Ukrainian and English) book is a catalogue of a unique “Ancient Egypt” Сollection of photonegatives on glass from the Scholarly Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The catalogue includes 143 photos of the ancient Egyptian artefacts and sites supplied with their required data, and chapters about the ancient Egyptian objects and sites shown on the photos. Additionally, the study of the history of the negatives production together with the history of collections of the Ancient Egyptian objects in Kyiv museums of ХІХ–ХХ centuries are added. The conclusion was made that the collection and its history uncovers an unknown page of Ukrainian humanities and culture. The book is aimed at the audience of Egyptologists, historians who study Museum Egyptology, Ukrainian humanities and culture in ХІХ–ХХ centuries, and for the general audience. ISBN 978-617-78-10-27-7 (paper) ; ISBN 978-617-78-10-28-4 (eBook).

Information on rights of use:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Extent:	335 Seiten
Publisher:	Institute of archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Publisher place:	Kyiv
Issue date:	2021
ISBN:	978-617-78-10-27-7