An international peer-reviewed English-language journal specializing in synthetic articles and in long reviews, the Journal of Greek Archaeology appears annually each Autumn. The scope of the journal is Greek archaeology both in the Aegean and throughout the wider Greek-inhabited world, from earliest Prehistory to the Modern Era. Thus we include contributions not just from traditional periods such as Greek Prehistory and the Classical Greek to Hellenistic eras, but also from Roman through Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman Greece and into the Early Modern period. Outside of the Aegean contributions are welcome covering the Archaeology of the Greeks overseas, likewise from Prehistory into the Modern World. Greek Archaeology for the purposes of the JGA thus includes the Archaeology of the Hellenistic World, Roman Greece, Byzantine Archaeology, Frankish and Ottoman Archaeology, and the Postmedieval Archaeology of Greece and of the Greek Diaspora.
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Mapping the past plotting the future. GIS in archaeology, maturity and implementation, Proceedings of the workshop organised by the AeGIS Athena Lab, at the British School at Athens, Thursday 30 March 2023
Conference proceedings comprise nine of the thirteen papers that were initially presented at the international workshop entitled ‘Mapping the Past, Plotting the Future. GIS in archaeology, maturity and implementation’, organized by the AeGIS Athena Lab along with one additional contribution from one of the moderators who actively participated in the concluding discussion. The workshop took place on March 30, 2023, at the British School at Athens.
The polymorphism of archaeological GIS. Unfolding the archaeological dimensions of GIS
Having travelled through more than 30 years on the chariot of GIS, archaeology has benefited significantly from its tools and functionalities, trying to identify its matching with it on both a theoretical and practical level. Independent of the applications that have been carried out, micro or macro, 2D, 3D, 4D, geostatistical or descriptive, locational, and predictive analyses or monitoring, GIS has unfolded new dynamics in archaeological research, moving away from simple mapping, visualization and geotagging to address challenging tasks of analysis that combined diverse geographic, temporal, environmental, climatic, and cultural datasets. It has been an expected evolution as the science of Geoinformatics has been accelerated through the recent developments of smart sensors and imaging technologies from space, air, land and underwater, the fusion of different datasets, the exponential increase of data that led to the rise of Big Data, and the advancement of processing algorithms though ML and AI techniques. We are experiencing the impact of the new generation of GIS in archaeology. But is the archeological community ready for the next step?
From intra site to macro scale GIS analysis. The work of the AeGIS Lab
The AeGIS Laboratory, established by the Athena Research Center in Xanthi, stands as a reflection of the enduring commitment of the Center to the realm of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, dating back to 2002. This commitment has revolved around the application of GIS techniques in recording and analyzing archaeological data. By employing an array of methods including mapping, geospatial databases, photogrammetry, and archaeometry, the laboratory endeavors to equip archaeologists, historians, and cultural heritage practitioners with GIS tools for the high-resolution documentation and meticulous mapping analysis of archaeological sites and landscapes. It seeks to underscore the immense potential of GIS in addressing specific archaeological challenges by pioneering novel approaches, and to serve as a valuable resource and model for other institutions in Greece by demonstrating the transformative potential of GIS in addressing these challenges, offering a blueprint for integrating advanced digital processes in similar contexts.
Methodology and guidelines for geovisualizing archaeological excavation data: the case of Sikyon, Greece
To the best of our knowledge, most platforms or apps that geovisualize archaeological excavations are limited to displaying the excavated areas and providing a brief description and interpretation of the remains. Even though the validity of this information is not in question, there are usually no details available to the end user nor is the information in any way connected to the relevant excavation data. As Huvila and Huggett point out, the limiting factor in such cases is the insufficient understanding of the archaeological remains and the poor level of documentation. As a result, the end user is effectively a passive recipient of a digested knowledge without being able to access the source of that knowledge.
A holistic solution for the analysis of excavation and specialist data in a 3D GIS framework
This paper seeks to summarise the development and showcase the uses of a 3D GIS-based tool used by the Keros Project in our work at the Early Bronze Age site of Dhaskalio, Keros. While reflexivity and born-digital tools were built into the design of the 2016-2018 excavations, the issue of how appropriately to use, analyse and make accessible the vast quantities of digital data, especially the over one thousand 3D SFM photogrammetric models, came to the forefront of the post-excavation programme. This tool aims to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for the interpretation of the excavation, including multi-layered 3D views of the site and all geo-located data resulting both from the excavation and from subsequent specialist studies. This is a true 3D GIS system, encapsulating all the abilities of a traditional GIS, including data entry, database management, data analysis and manipulation, while giving access to all excavation and specialist data within a single platform, making the tool data- driven and research-oriented.
3D GIS in archaeological excavations: linking documentation with analytic and synthetic workfows
Over the past two decades 3D GIS has progressively assumed a more significant role in archaeological excavation documentation. Several case studies have experimented with 3D documentation workflows, while concurrent developments in 3D data capture and GIS software have greatly improved their integration into intra-site archeological research. However, there is still much to discover regarding the possibilities of 3D GIS in archaeological excavations. While we have been successful in bringing data to 3D, we still face challenges in using them for stratigraphic analysis, patterning exploration, interpretive work and, ultimately, knowledge building. This contradiction between increased technological adoption and the challenges in transforming digital practice mirrors findings from recent systematic reviews of peer-reviewed publications on GIS applications in archaeology. These reviews highlight a lack of theoretical engagement, an emphasis on visualization and information management over spatial analysis, difficulties in keeping up with technological advances and education gaps. This is also evident in the Greek context, where the adoption of digital methods varies significantly across the archaeological sector.
Born-digital field survey data: using a KoBoToolbox workflow in the West Area of Samos Archaeological Project
Since 2021, the west part of Samos, located between Mt Karvounis and Mt Kerkis, has been under archaeological investigation by the British School at Athens, as part of the West Area of Samos Archaeological Project (WASAP).The project’s sizeable study area, covering two basins in the environs of the contemporary settlements of Karlovasi (in the north) and Marathokampos (in the south), has variously featured in ancient and Early-Modern texts and in the occasional reports from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture; but the work of WASAP represents the first systematic, multi-period and broad-coverage landscape study of the area. A core research goal of the project, therefore, is to conduct reconnaissance survey, to map as widely as possible loci of archaeological interest across this vast plain.
ARCH_DATA APK: Mobile computing in the service of archaeological research
The ARCH_DATA application is a mobile computing application developed with the aim of creating a more manageable and simplified process of data collection through archaeological field survey. The name comes from ‘Archaeological Data’ and refers to the application’s archaeological survey functions. It’s a program for collecting, analyzing, and maintaining all of the field survey’s data – archaeological, cultural, and environmental. Furthermore, it creates a geospatial archaeological database that is simple to integrate into a GIS environment. The ARCH_DATA application has a number of benefits, first and foremost its simplicity of use. Like all mobile applications, it only requires the user to have a mobile device as their primary logging device. It adapts to the requirements of each archaeological survey by simply modifying the fields of interest to correspond to the demands of each team. There is no limit to the number of entries a user can import, and there is no restriction on the number of people who can use the app at the same time.
Exploring optimal paths, slope-dependent functions and digital elevation models in the greater Knossos area
In the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age (LBA), a period marked by a significant upheaval in the Aegean region, Knossos emerged as a resilient and stable settlement. This resilience is evident in the prosperity demonstrated in burials of that era. Recent archaeological finds from the Knossos Urban Landscape Project (KULP) suggest the presence of a substantial settlement during the Protogeometric (PG) period near the abandoned Minoan palace. Two methods of examining evidence contribute to our understanding of the spatial extent of the settlement: the ongoing study of the KULP survey pottery and spatial analysis of tomb clusters around the Early Iron Age (EIA) settlement. The Knossos Medical Faculty site (KMF), forming part of the extensive Knossos North Cemetery (KNC), stands out among burial groups by revealing the earliest and richest burials, alongside a concentration of later chamber tombs. Importantly, these EIA burial sites were established independently of Minoan cemeteries The distribution of EIA burial clusters, primarily chamber tombs, across the Knossian valley and low hills perplexed archaeologists. The topography of Knossos and the nature of its EIA settlement were initially deduced from the spatial distribution of cemeteries. Early interpretations proposed that scattered villages formed the town of Knossos, while others advocated for a small, nucleated settlement. The debate gained depth through the contributions of Antonis Kotsonas and Todd Whitelaw, who argued for a larger Knossos without associated hamlets, underlining the role of terrain morphology in burial site selection.
Embedding spatial analyses in culture-historical discourse. Experiences from Jordan and Cyprus
Before discussing specific case studies, some general remarks on the application of computer-based, spatial analytical methods within landscape archaeological research seem appropriate. Particularly, the underlying understanding of the term ‘landscape archaeology’ must be clarified, which is often only very vaguely defined. As landscape archaeology has grown increasingly en vogue in recent years, a universally valid definition remains elusive. Serving ‘[…] as an envelope for anything […]’, landscape archaeology continues to act as ‘[…] a reasonable umbrella term for all research in the social construction of space’. However, one consensus seems to understand it not merely as an environmental archaeology which is only concerned with the physical landscape, but – importantly – also as an approach that studies the meaningfulness of landscapes for past human societies, and the interactive role of landscapes and human activities through time. Considering landscapes both as a ‘product of natural features’ as well as ‘the result of human actions’, it becomes clear that past peoples lie at the centre of landscape archaeology. Although distinctly interdisciplinary, its core is therefore deeply rooted in the humanities, aiming at researching past human-environmental relations on the basis of material culture within its natural environmental context. Landscape archaeological studies research the genesis of cultural landscapes (Kulturlandschaftsgenese), i.e. all forms of natural landscape changes that were caused or influenced (by) humans, from a distinctly archaeological, material-based perspective. In addition to traditional archaeological research of material remains (i.e. archaeological surveys, excavations, detailed material studies), landscape archaeological studies employ different methods from (a) other disciplines of the humanities (e.g. ancient history, epigraphy or numismatics), (b) the natural and geosciences (e.g. geography, biology or ecology), as well as (c) computer sciences, including remote sensing methodologies, spatial statistics and other computer-based spatial analyses.
Methods of integration: combining archaeological and paleoenvironmental datasets within a GIS framework
Within Mediterranean archaeology there has been a growing interest in exploring various aspects of human-environment interactions. This research has highlighted how societal dynamics can be understood in light of environmental transformation. The increasing scholarly interest in such questions – in what is sometimes defined as the environmental turn in archaeology – can to a certain extent be linked with our own contemporary environmental concerns. Archaeological research may provide new perspectives on long term patterns of human-environment interactions and can therefore serve as an important tool for policy making in the present.
Soulana Maria Valamoti, Plant foods of Greece. A culinary journey to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
This is a truly exceptional book: although based on the most rigorous scientific research, it reads like the best fiction or travel book and leads the reader from surprise to surprise. It is also written in a very literary, sometimes poetic styles, which constantly betrays not only the love of the author for plants, but even more for human beings, whether long dead or well-alive. The book has also been well served by the publisher, with an elegant layout, numerous colour pictures and a detailed index.
David Michael Smith, William G. Cavanagh and Angelos Papadopoulos, The Wider Island of Pelops. Studies in Prehistoric Aegean Pottery in Honour of Professor Christopher Mee.
The core of this collection of 17 contributions is made up of papers presented at a conference organised by two of Chris Mee‘s former students and held at the British School at Athens in 2017 to honour his memory; other papers were offered by friends and colleagues who had worked with him. The result may be a bit more wide-ranging than the original conference was, but this is a positive outcome, for despite the impression that might be given by the secondary title of the book, the majority of them are concerned with much more than just pottery, often presenting essentially new material of considerable interest. A useful preface by the editors summarises their topics and where they fit into the Neolithic-Bronze Age sequence of the Aegean.
Susan E. Poole. A Consideration of Gender Roles and Relations in the Aegean Bronze Age Interpreted from Gestures and Proxemics in Art
This is a difficult book to review, partly because of the sheer mass of material covered. Besides the figures in the text, there are many more in the Part II downloadable from BAR (this contains 3 appendices listing figures from frescoes (905), from glyptic material (157), and three-dimensional items (31) that were considered, all given some description, also 17 tables). Surprisingly, only a few figurines out of the many from Aegean contexts receive much attention. The explanation may be found in the word “proxemics” in the title (a new word, to the reviewer), which means spatial interaction between individuals; but interesting evidence is offered by some classes of figurine for the interpretation of gestures and poses, and this does receive some attention. The difficulties of coping with this mass of material and the discussion of it are compounded by the lack of an index, typical of BAR but making consultation and checking of references to a wide range of instances and to complex theoretical approaches a lengthy and often frustrating business.
Soles, J, The House of the Metal Merchant and Other Buildings in the Neopalatial Town
In 1908, Richard Seager commenced excavations on the prehistoric promontory of Mochlos (now an islet off Crete’s northeast coast) which was inhabited between at least the Early Bronze Age (Early Minoan I/II) and the Late Minoan IIIB period - i.e. c. 2900- 1200 BC, with Hellenistic and Roman re-settlement. This volume mainly addresses the results of further, systematic investigations, using more modern methodologies, of up to fifteen Middle Minoan IIIA-Late Minoan IB (c. 1750-1500 BC) domestic and ceremonial buildings partially excavated by Seager (some houses being multi-storey by their final use, with ashlar masonry construction, colour-plastered walls and floors; stone staircases; roof and street drains; kitchens with cooking holes/platforms and stone processing basins; storage and living rooms) located on the south coast of the present-day islet. Occupation was already present on the Cretan coast immediately south of the promontory by the LM IB period, and both areas had continued settlement and cemetery use into LM III.
Philippa M. Steele, Exploring writing systems and practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean.
This book represents the work conducted by the author as principal investigator of the project Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS), funded by the European Research Council, and is the culmination of a series of CREWS open access volumes published with Oxbow Books. As the title and Introduction make clear, it is concerned with the Aegean Bronze Age scripts, and particularly with the interrelated problems of the relationship between Linear A and Linear B, and the failure of Linear B to survive the downfall of the palatial societies, whereas a script developed in Cyprus from Linear A during the Late Bronze Age survived in use into at least Late Classical times.
T. Spawforth, What the Greeks Did For Us.
Asking after the influence of prior civilisations on modern society is a long-established historical practice, one that regularly spills over into the world of what nowadays may be called popular publication. Open the curtains for What the Greeks Did For Us, Anthony Spawforth’s dazzling tour de force across numerous facets of ancient Greek influence on or, more often, resemblances and receptions in the modern world. Written by one of the great connoisseurs of all things ancient Greek for an ‘informed general readership’ (291), the more than 300 pages go on a treasure hunt after, as the author puts it, ‘the ways in which ancient Greece is present in our culture and society now’ (3, original emphasis).
Richard Stoneman, Ursula Sims-Williams, Adrian S. Edwards and Peter Toth (eds) Alexander the Great: the Making of a Myth.
The reign of the Macedonian king Alexander III is marked by destruction: razing Thebes to the ground, the overthrow of the Persian empire, the burning of Persepolis, the murder and execution of his associates (Clitus, Parmenio, Callisthenes, etc.), and the killing of countless others who remain unnamed and unknown. Seven years after his final victory over the Persian king Darius, he was dead with no heir capable of taking his place. In his famous and no doubt apocryphal last words he envisaged the wars for his empire as his funeral games. The legacy of this short and violent reign was the establishment of Greco-Macedonian political and cultural dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean, albeit not as a unified Macedonian empire, but rather as a group of kingdoms ruled by rival Macedonian warlords. In spite of this, Alexander has emerged as one of the most well-known and heroic figures from antiquity.
Christelle Fischer-Bovet and Sitta von Reden (eds) Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires: Integration, Communication, and Resistance.
This volume is a welcome addition to the comparative study of Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms. In the introduction, the editors present the aims of the book, its structure and the approaches taken by the 10 contributions, most of which are co-authored. The volume is divided into three sections, which deal with the internal organization of the kingdoms, the forms of communication and exchange and the manifold relationship between the local elites and the kings.
Lucia Athanassaki and Frances B. Titchener (eds) Plutarch’s cities.
This book, a collective volume, is the fruit of a revisited conference held in Delphi in 2013 in honour of Anastasios Nikolaidis, Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Crete, who has taken a particular interest in Plutarch throughout his career. This book has all the qualities needed for use by amateurs and specialists alike: a common bibliography for all the articles and two detailed indices: “index locorum” on the one hand, “names and subjects” on the other. It brings together an international panel of excellent specialists, most of whom focus mostly on classical Greek philology and literature, with the exception of the historian Katerina Panagopoulou.
Vassilis Evangelidis, The Archaeology of Roman Macedonia. Urban and Rural Environments.
A new book on the archaeology of Roman Macedonia should not occasion too much apologetics. As pointed out by Grigoropoulos in the Introduction, there still lacks an integrated study of the archaeology of Roman Macedonia, comparable to those of the neighbouring provinces. Because it rarely came into the focus of scholarly research, very little is known about the archaeological heritage of Roman Macedonia, and what is known so far, is not easily synthesized. Admittedly, in the Foreword, the author hastens to explain that the scope of this book is limited to the built environment, both urban and rural, and does not aspire to provide an overarching synthesis of economic life and society in Roman Macedonia. This is also implied in the book’s subtitle. In other words, this book is concerned primarily with the built heritage of Roman Macedonia, created in the period between the Roman conquest and the early 4th century AD. But even if it falls short of fulfilling Grigoropoulos’ vision of an integrated study of the history and archaeology of Roman Macedonia, the study by Evangelidis is a most-welcome addition to the existing corpus of studies on Roman Macedonia.
Dimitri Van Limbergen, The Resilience of the Roman Empire: Regional case studies on the relationship between population and food resources (BAR International Series 3000).
Studies attempting to better understand the ancient economy have become increasingly popular amongst archaeological researchers in recent years. It is a broad, complex and often daunting topic to engage with, but one which can produce extremely insightful results with wide reaching implications for studies of past societies and archaeology more broadly. The Roman Empire represents a particularly fertile ground for understanding ancient economies, with a relatively long and stable history covering a large expanse of diverse landscapes, with complex economic networks connecting the disparate corners of the Empire.
Georgios Deligiannakis, A Cultural History of Late Roman Cyprus
The title of A Cultural History of Late Roman Cyprus does not do justice to its content. The cultural element is dominated by religious questions. The introduction places the book among the work of historians, and the study draws largely on written sources and epigraphy, but also on archaeological evidence. The book discusses specifically the period from the reign of the emperor Diocletian (283-305) to the year 431 when the Church of Cyprus was granted the status of autocephaly. Finally, the analyses place the study of the island firmly in its wider Eastern Mediterranean context.
Panayiotis Panayides and Ine Jacobs (eds) Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity: History and Archaeology Between the Sixth and the Eighth Centuries.
The 17 chapters in this volume are organised into five sections: Introduction (two chapters), Cyprus in between Empires (five chapters), Urban and Rural Perspectives (five chapters), Production and Objects in Use (four chapters) and one concluding chapter.
Sarah Bassett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Constantinople (Cambridge Companion to the Ancient World).
The city of Constantinople, which played a central role in the eastern Mediterranean as the capital of the Byzantine empire, has been the subject of very many scholarly studies from the sixteenth century onwards, and this has generated a vast number of books, papers and other contributions in many languages. Thus, compiling a synthesis of this massive body of work is a daunting task, but is here attempted by bringing together 20 historians, art historians and archaeologists to give a thematically structured overview of current knowledge.
Kevin Lygo, The Emperors of Byzantium, with introduction by Bettany Hughes and foreword by Robert Peston.
In the popularization of archaeology and ancient history through various media, we are familiar with many accounts of the Greek achievements, of the Roman Empire, and intertwined with it, of ancient Egypt. The strange world of Byzantium, by contrast, lacks either a sustained interest in its archaeology by the public, or the adoption of its history in popular culture. Coinciding with the West’s dark ages, Byzantium is by contrast too ‘Eastern’. Even within academia, Byzantium is often subsumed by ‘Christian history’. While it is known to specialists, the fact that Byzantines saw themselves as Romaoi, Romans, generally escapes popular consciousness. There have been attempts to remedy this aporia.
Vicky Foskolou and Sophia Kalopissi-Verti (eds) Intercultural Encounters in Medieval Greece after 1204: The Evidence of Art and Material Culture. Byzantios: Studies in Byzantine History and Civilization.
The origins of this volume can be traced back to a roundtable discussion on the archaeological and artistic evidence for interrelations between Latins and Greeks in post-1204 Greece and the Aegean, held at the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, in Belgrade in 2016. Despite recent advances in the field, the art and material culture of medieval Greece have been studied in a rather piecemeal fashion, and the roundtable discussion highlighted the need for a more unified approach to the question of cross-cultural interactions, which is what the present volume aims to achieve. Indeed, in bringing together fourteen chapters on various aspects of artistic production, architecture and archaeology, including contributions on understudied areas, such as song and music, and dress and fashion, the volume certainly succeeds in this endeavour.
Krzysztof Nawotka, The Nourisher of Apollo.
The polis Miletos, praised by Herodot (V 28,1) as the “ornament of Ionia”, is especially acknowledged for its political role in Archaic times. In this period, it is known as the founder of numerous colonies along the coasts of the Black Sea area, as well as the birthplace of Ionian philosophy (“Ionian Enlightenment”). It was a centre of extensive art and craft production and home of the renowned sanctuary of Apollo and his oracle at Didyma. The period of prosperity came to a harsh end when, in 494 BCE, Miletos and its territory were devastated by the Persians to put an end to the Ionian revolt – and this is where research on Miletos usually fades out. In over 100 years, the post-Archaic phases of Miletos have been the subject of only selective studies.
Judith M. Barringer, Olympia. A Cultural History.
When the modern iterations of the Summer Olympics come round, there is often detectable a string of publications, more and less scholarly, on the ancient (summer-only) quadrennial Games and their original, unique and immovable, site. Professor Barringer’s severely scholarly and academic volume is no exception, if only by accident. It first appeared in the same year that the Tokyo Olympics (officially XXXII) actually occurred, though – thanks to the covid-19 pandemic – that was not the year for which they had been scheduled. The ancient version of the Games lasted for over 1100 years without a single break (give or take a couple of reorganizations and Emperor Nero’s gross interference in CE 66/67), but celebrations of the modern version running since 1896 have been either totally omitted several times (1916, 1940, 1944) or (2020) postponed. That very fact should give rise to the thought that maybe the modern Olympics really aren’t very much like the ancient, notwithstanding the wishes and claims of its founding father, Pierre Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937).
N.B. Papadopoulou (ed.), Molottis. Archaeological Atlas of the ancient settlements in the municipal region of Ioannina.
This book is effectively a gazetteer of ancient sites in the municipal area of Ioannina, which was the centre of the territory of the Molossoi (in some later sources Molottoi), a landlocked people who were the most prominent among the tribal groups of Epirus in Classical antiquity; their territory extended to include the famous oracle of Zeus at Dodona by historical times. It is a collaborative work by many archaeologists working at the Ephorate of Ioannina, aiming to shed light on this poorly known region, and is entirely in Greek. It covers both excavated sites and those identified in various ways, often simply by the appearance of some casual find, from remote prehistory (there are some well-known Palaeolithic sites) to the end of the Roman period.
J. Whitley, Knossos. Myth, History and Archaeology.
This account of the history of Knossos forms part of a wider series of Archaeological Histories that discusses the history of sites, buildings and towns from their construction to the present day and it is in this context that Whitley’s pleasantly written – with a style somewhere between the academic and the personal – and instructive book should be approached. Knossos, or rather its studies, are very much alive. It not only forms the core of two other, recently published books on Minoan civilization,1 and even after the completion of this book in 2021, new studies have appeared on some of the Knossos remains, not included in this account (Oddo 2022; Knappett et al. 2023).
Juan Carlos Moreno García (ed.), From house societies to states: early political organisation, from antiquity to the Middle Ages (Multidisciplinary approaches to ancient societies 3).
The intention behind this volume (and others in the series) is to break compartmental divisions in the study of societies by multidisciplinary comparative approaches. By bringing together a number of chronologically-, culturally- and geographically-diverse focussed papers, the editor succeeds brilliantly in this aim and almost all of the authors have played the game by focussing on aspects of political organisation.
Michael. L Galaty, Lorenc Bejko (eds) Archaeological investigations in a northern Albanian province. Results of the Projekti Arkeologjik i Shkodrës (Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 64). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2023. Volume 1: Survey
This two-volume monograph presents the results of a multidisciplinary regional archaeological project in the Upper Shkodër Basin, in North Albania. Importantly, PASH, the Albanian acronym for this project, continues the series of regional archaeological projects in Albania, initiated over two decades ago with the Albanian-American collaboration in the hinterlands of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, the Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project, or MRAP and the Durrës Regional Archaeological Project, or DRAP. It is all the more pleasing to see the integral results of PASH published in a single, richly illustrated edition and the project data made freely accessible at the Deep Blue data repository. This is entirely in tune with recent calls for data transparency and the need to publish, curate and preserve archaeological datasets.
Eleni-Anna Chlepa, Byzantine Monuments in Modern Greece. Ideology and Practice of Restorations 1833-1939.
This important book was first published in Greek in 2011, and it was immediately obvious that the author had systematically worked through archives and other sources to produce the most detailed account of restorations made in Byzantine monuments since 1833. I should say that the 2011 publication helped significantly to improve articles I myself wrote in 2013 about the mosaics of the monastery at Daphni. With welcome support from the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the Greek publisher Kapon has now brought out this English translation. The text is unchanged and there is a list of some related publications which have appeared since 2011. Without doubt it can be said that any work on Byzantine monuments in Greece must check any material evidence recorded in this systematic and detailed survey.
Anna Frangoudaki and Caglar Keyder (eds) Ways to Modernity in Greece and Turkey. Encounters with Europe, 1850-1950. (Library of European Studies 1).
This book is the second volume in the series “Social and Historical Studies on Greece and Turkey,” which aims to provide a platform for dialogue between Greek and Turkish social scientists and historians on “issues of major theoretical importance” that concern the international academic community, by conveying and commenting on experiences from both sides of the Aegean. The first volume explored institutional aspects in the course of nation formation and the emergence of civil society. The second volume delves more into the experiential aspects of this process from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. Specifically, this volume focuses on the experience of modernity, the reaction to an unqualified Europeanization perspective, and the convergence through a nationalism-forged “tradition“.
Greek women in archaeology: a chronicle of achievement
This article sketches a historic panorama of Greek women’s contributions to archaeology, and elaborates on some of our previously published ideas. In 1993 our first collaborative efforts resulted in the first book on gender in Aegean prehistory, which still remains one of the few syntheses on the topic. In 1998 we recounted the (then) untold achievement of pioneer Greek female archaeologists and their legacy. In 2009 we registered the progress – or absence thereof – towards feminist alignment in a scholarly field that has seen ever-larger female participation since the 1960s. Some fifteen years later, developments call for an updated appraisal of long-standing issues, this time in a more optimistic spirit. Female archaeological activity in Greece, in the course of more than a century, is an extensive terrain to cover. In these pages, we can only highlight selected examples which, we believe, are representative of the whole picture. The narrative is organised in chronological sections, each one starting with a summary of the broader historic context, within which female involvement in archaeology has to be assessed.
The role of the Aegean Thrace and Central Northern Greece as natural corridors for early hominin dispersals: current evidence and prospects
The Balkan peninsula is often considered as one of the possible crossroads between Africa and Eurasia for early hominin dispersals. While the rest of the Balkans e.g., Bulgaria has provided secure chronostratigraphic data for the Lower Palaeolithic (LP), e.g., Kozarnika, and later phases of the Pleistocene e.g., Temnata and Bacho Kiro, evidence from Greece was until very recently based on a few isolated lithic findings, and the Petralona cranium which is most commonly dated between 0.3-0.2 Mya. The recent excavations and the emerging new data from the Peloponnese, Marathousa I and II, and the Aegean, Rodafnidia, have provided robust and secure chronostratigraphic data for Middle Pleistocene hominins, shaping a new dynamic picture for the Aegean and the Greek mainland from at least 0.5-0.2 Mya. The LP of Stelida, and Plakias, on the other hand is subjected to an ongoing debate as it has not been adequately addressed by archaeological or absolute dating evidence, and more importantly from securely stratified and contextualized data to support the presence of Middle Pleistocene hominins.
‘Neglected’ macrolithic toolkits: polishing pebbles from the Neolithic sites of Avgi and Makri, Northern Greece
During the last twenty years, or so, macrolithic artifacts (also known as ground stones), a rather significant but neglected category of the prehistoric material culture, have begun to attract global academic interest. The relevant literature is rapidly expanding, as new macrolithic data from sites all over the world are constantly emerging. Moreover, radical developments in the field of methodology, including the application of innovative analytical techniques (e.g., petrography, geochemistry, use-wear, micro-botany, experimentation), and challenging theoretical concepts (e.g., network theory, entanglement, biographical approach, technology) have altered the former ‘static’ view of the macrolithics, and shed new light on the ‘dynamic’ character and varied meaning that these artifacts held for the communities of the past. The Aegean area was not excluded from this global advancement of macrolithic studies. Several assemblages, some of which are counting thousands of artifacts, became the focus of systematic and often interdisciplinary research. Innovative methodological protocols and state-of-the-art analytical techniques have been applied, thus leading to the formation of a rather significant corpus of publications regarding macrolithic implements of the Prehistoric Aegean.
Thera, the Aegean, Egypt, the Hyksos and Anatolia: rethinking the orthodox synchronisations and histories
The Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has come to offer a pivotal event in the synchronisation of Aegean and East Mediterranean civilizations. In relative (ceramic) terms the eruption occurred late in or around the end of the Late Minoan (LM) IA period. The date was traditionally placed around 1500 BCE, not from any specific evidence, but because some subsequent (late) LMIB objects were found in Egypt in contexts associated with Tuthmosis III, and, since his reign of almost 54 years was placed, give or take debates of up to 25 years, around the first half of the 15th century BCE, this led to a minimum date for the end of LMIA and Thera conveniently summarized as ca. 1500 BCE (Marinatos 1939; Warren 1984). This placed much of the LMIA period during the earlier New Kingdom. Radiocarbon dates from the 1970s onwards upset this position by suggesting an earlier date for Thera. This raised the prospect of an alternative cultural synchronisation for LMIA (and indeed MMIII-LMIA overall) with the Hyksos era (Second Intermediate Period, SIP): the Aegean high chronology (AHC). The AHC in turn would affect surrounding cultural groups and their dates in the Aegean and East Mediterranean, from Greece to Cyprus (Manning 1999). Much effort has gone into refining the radiocarbon situation. Since 2020 the options are an ‘earlier’ date maybe 1611 BCE (when a major Northern Hemisphere volcanic eruption is attested in ice-core evidence) or broadly around 1600 BCE (if, for example, the Thera eruption is not represented in the available ice-core evidence investigated so far), and a later date perhaps about 1561 BCE (when another major Northern Hemisphere volcanic eruption is attested in ice-core evidence) (Manning 2022; 2024a; 2024b; Pearson et al. 2022; 2023). Either of these dates basically places LMIA contemporary with the Hyksos/SIP (i.e. the point of the AHC critique starting in the 1980s: Kemp and Merrillees 1980; Betancourt 1987; Manning 1988). Overall, the general scope of debate or ‘dispute’ is much narrowed to around 50 years, versus the gap of over a century in scholarship a couple of decades ago. A re-analysis now of radiocarbon dates recently published on an olive shrub from Therasia likely killed by the Thera eruption (Pearson et al. 2023), bringing to bear an appropriate integration of the temporal constraints on these dates from both the growth sequences of the olive branches in question and the contextual circumstance of their common death event (the eruption) (Manning 2024b), along with analysis of the data and temporal sequence in the period between final human occupation and abandonment at Akrotiri on Thera through to the Thera volcanic eruption (Manning 2022; 2024a), suggest to the author that we can in fact more likely resolve the date of the Thera eruption around the earlier date of 1611 BCE (or more broadly around 1600 BCE).
Θαλεροί τ᾽ αἰζηοί: hunting scenes in Mycenaean pictorial tradition and Homeric epic
This paper addresses the visual language of a specific set of Mycenaean wall-paintings that depict hunting scenes. Specifically, it aims to investigate the purposes and modes of their depiction. It will be argued that the recurrence of hunting scenes, and specifically boar hunting scenes, in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Greek wall painting tradition refers to a set of common values and ideals, linked to the visualisation of an elite, or palatial ideology, whose elevated status these scenes have to convey and celebrate. To better understand the mechanisms through which these aspects relate to each other, the analysis of Homeric epic, where hunting, warfare, and the expression of human excellence are deeply intertwined, will offer a stimulating field of comparison.
Sphinx or warrior? A small, bronze head from Pyla-Kokkinokremos, Cyprus
The coastal hill-site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos, located in the east part of Larnaka Bay on the island of Cyprus, occupies a special position in the discussions about the collapse of Late Bronze Age societies around 1200 BCE, the Crisis Years, and the potential role of the “Sea Peoples” mentioned in Egyptian and Near Eastern sources in this collapse. The successive excavation campaigns that have taken place on the hill thus far have revealed the remains of a short-lived, well-organised settlement with an abundant material culture that testifies to relations with several regions of the Mediterranean.
The accumulation of sediments is an inevitable consequence of human occupation at a specific locality. A wide range of results is possible with the most spectacular being the formation of mounds or tells which consist primarily of unconsolidated sediments, usually calcareous. Tells are primarily associated with the Middle East extending from the eastern Mediterranean to modern Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Lloyd was an early writer to describe their nature and distribution and he attributed their formation primarily to the collapse of mudbrick houses, an opinion still widely accepted. Tells are distinctive landscape features, often standing 10 to 15m above the local plain.
­A Byzantine shipwreck from Kasos Island (Greece): the ceramic evidence
Between 2019-2024 the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities (EUA) conducted an underwater archaeological survey in the waters of Kasos Island. The aim of the Kasos Maritime Archaeological Project (KMAP) is to locate and document ancient to Early-Modern shipwrecks, harbors, and submerged architectural remains, but also isolated ceramic, and other finds attempting to understand and assess maritime networks and hierarchies in the southern Aegean through time. Kasos is one of the smaller islands of the Dodecanese. It is located on the south-eastern part of the Aegean, next to the far larger Karpathos Island, between Rhodes and Crete.
Tracing the aqueduct of Koroni Castle in Messenia, southern Greece
Water management has been a focal point of recent studies dealing with ancient and medieval societies. In the rich in water resources region of Messenia the question of water management is now being investigated. However, the important large-scale infrastructures have not received sufficient attention. Aqueducts supplied water to the most prominent medieval castles of Messenia and/or their extra muros settlements (Niokastro, Koroni / Coron, Methoni / Modon, Kalamata and Androusa). The ruins of these aqueducts are more or less visible today. However, only the Ottoman aqueduct of Niokastro has been fully mapped and studied, while the other aqueducts are either partially published (Methoni, Kalamata) or not published at all (Androusa). It is important to explore and record these hydraulic infrastructures in order to protect them from further deterioration that might result from neglect, human activities (such as construction of buildings or roads) and the simple passage of time. This article presents the results of the investigations that were carried out in order to trace the route of the aqueduct of Koroni, provides an analysis of this significant building, and attempts to define the date of its construction and use.
Outdoor living: a preliminary survey of outdoor, multifunctional domestic spaces in mainland Greece
This paper focuses on the identification, diversity, and use of multifunctional domestic spaces in ancient and prehistoric Greece. One particularly common yet frequently underexplored type of multifunctional domestic space is the outdoor activity area. The lack of attention given to such spaces is largely owed to the fact that, in most periods and places, domestic structures lacked clear definitions around exterior spaces that overtly signaled their use by one or more households. As a result, it can be difficult for archaeologists to identify such spaces. Making the identification even more difficult, artifacts left behind in exterior spaces are typically more exposed to the elements than objects stored inside and are thus more likely to be poorly preserved and/or out of their original contexts. Archaeologists, therefore, often rely upon indirect evidence, such as specially prepared surfaces and other built infrastructure (e.g., hearths, bothroi [dug/constructed pits]), to identify the use of such spaces and their domestic associations.
Digging up the Amazons?: The dangers of viewing Scythian material remains through the lens of Classical Amazon Mythopoesis
In a world as heavily dominated by male heroes as Ancient Greece, the legend of the Amazons stands out in high relief. Fearsome female warriors from abroad, the Amazons conducted their lives in a manner entirely antithetical to Greek gender roles. They were skilled horsewomen, capable archers, and worthy opponents in close combat. They trained their daughters not to weave, but to fight, and not only were they uninterested in the prospect of marriage, they eschewed the society of men completely. Instead they chose to live apart in a matriarchal world of their own devising, complete with queens, generals, and fortified cities. For the Greeks, the Amazons were a paradox: objectionable in that they were barbaric foreigners, whose unnatural, belligerent and matriarchal society stood in opposition to what women ought to be, but simultaneously lauded for their beauty, athleticism, and mastery of the martial arts.
The house of Fourni on Delos: an interdisciplinary approach on a multi-functional complex
This paper presents some of the results of an ongoing study of the house of Fourni on Delos (Greece), a large architectural complex, built and inhabited from the end of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st centuries BC, in which multiple use and functions are attested. Our work is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining the study of the architecture and the instrumentum of the house, in order to understand the chronology of its occupation, its use and its social and cultural background. Ph. Bruneau previously used such an approach, with tremendous results, for the study of the Delian insula of the house of the Comedians, as well as N. Cahill in his major analysis of the Olynthian houses. We will focus here on two aspects of the multi-functional nature of the house of Fourni, first on the fact that the house is an early example of the combination of a luxurious living area, with all the signs of dignitas, and agricultural / commercial installations, and then, on the results of an investigation into the identification of cooking areas, based on contextualized archaeological findings. These two aspects will enable us to examine the economic role of this particular house in its natural and built environment, as well as the different categories of people it housed.