The Pottery from Dhaskalio

The Pottery from Dhaskalio
Author: Panagiōta I. Sōtērakopoulou
Publisher: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Dhaskalio Kavos Site (Greece)
ISBN: 9781902937762

This volume treats in detail the pottery from the settlement on the islet of Dhaskalio, whose excavation is described in Volume I of the series. Much of the importance of this material lies in the undisturbed stratigraphy of the settlement, a fact that allowed for the recognition of three successive phases of occupation of the site with considerable ceramic continuity between them, as well as for safe inferences about its chronology, with wider implications for the later early bronze age of the Cyclades. Other important aspects of this pottery are its considerable regionalism and the fact that it is almost in its entirety imported. The study of the pottery and other finds from the site suggest that the settlement at Dhaskalio may have operated primarily as a place for periodic rather than permanent habitation and that its function was most probably connected with the rituals practised at the opposite Special Deposits at Kavos. The character of Deposits at Kavos seem to havw declined, and the site may increasingly have grown to be a centre of commercial exchange with other islands and areas.

Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context

Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context
Author: Marisa Marthari
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 949
Release: 2017-01-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785701967

The sculpture of the early bronze age Cyclades has been systematically studied since the time of Christos Tsountas at the end of the 19th century. But that study has been hampered by the circumstance that so many of the subsequent finds come from unauthorized excavations, where the archaeological context was irretrievably lost. Largely for that reason there are still many problems surrounding the chronology, the function and the meaning of Early Cycladic sculpture. This lavishly illustrated and comprehensive reassessment sets out to rectify that situation by publishing finds which have been recovered in controlled excavations in recent years, as well as earlier finds for which better documentation can now be provided. Using the material from recent excavation projects, and drawing on the papers presented at a symposium held in Athens in 2014, it is possible now to undertake a fresh overview of the entire body of sculpture from the Cycladic islands which has been found in secure archaeological contexts. Beginning with early examples from Neolithic settlement sites and extending into a consideration of material found in later contexts, the 35 chapters are divided into sections which examine sculpture from settlements, cemeteries and the sanctuary at Kavos, concluding with a discussion of material, techniques and aspects of manufacture.

The Wider Island of Pelops

The Wider Island of Pelops
Author: David Michael Smith
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2023-03-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1803273291

This volume explores the myriad ways in which pottery was created, utilized, and experienced in the prehistoric Aegean, across a period of more than 4000 years between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age transition.

Symbols and Models in the Mediterranean

Symbols and Models in the Mediterranean
Author: Aneilya Barnes
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-08-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1527502716

This collection spans a vast chronology and territory, ranging from Old Kingdom Egypt to modern-day Slovenia and moving geographically from the centres to the peripheries of the Mediterranean and back again, including Antinoë, Calabria, Belgrade, and Paris. While this volume can be situated well within the context of Mediterranean studies, each essay serves as a micro-study that demonstrates one of the many ways in which Mediterranean communities have co-opted, appropriated, and adapted symbols from one another. As a result, this interdisciplinary volume adds something unique to each discipline represented within it (including history, anthropology, art history, literature, and philosophy, among others) while contributing to the greater discourse of Mediterranean studies. Furthermore, the essays collectively illustrate how symbols were distributed widely among Mediterranean communities and, consequently, further a dialogue about what “Mediterranean” might mean. Overall, the original content and its accessibility make the volume valuable to academics, graduate and undergraduate students, and general audiences alike.

Far from Equilibrium: An archaeology of energy, life and humanity

Far from Equilibrium: An archaeology of energy, life and humanity
Author: Michael J. Boyd
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789256062

Archaeology is in crisis. Spatial turns, material turns and the ontological turn have directed the discipline away from its hard-won battle to find humanity in the past. Meanwhile, popularised science, camouflaged as archaeology, produces shock headlines built on ancient DNA that reduce humanity’s most intriguing historical problems to two-dimensional caricatures. Today archaeology finds itself less able than ever to proclaim its relevance to the modern world. This volume foregrounds the relevance of the scholarship of John Barrett to this crisis. Twenty-four writers representing three generations of archaeologists scrutinise the current turmoil in the discipline and highlight the resolutions that may be found through Barrett’s analytical framework. Topics include archaeology and the senses, the continuing problem of the archaeological record, practice, discourse, and agency, reorienting archaeological field practice, the question of different expressions of human diversity, and material ecologies. Understanding archaeology as both a universal and highly specific discipline, case-studies range from the Aegean to Orkney, and encompass Anatolia, Korea, Romania, United Kingdom and the very nature of the Universe itself. This critical examination of John Barrett’s contribution to archaeology is simultaneously a response to his urgent call to arms to reorient archaeology in the service of humanity.

Athens and Attica in Prehistory: Proceedings of the International Conference, Athens, 27–31 May 2015

Athens and Attica in Prehistory: Proceedings of the International Conference, Athens, 27–31 May 2015
Author: Nikolas Papadimitriou
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 698
Release: 2020-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789696720

This book provides the most complete overview of the Attica region from the Neolithic to the end of the Late Bronze Age. It paves the way for a new understanding of Attica in the Early Iron Age and indirectly throws new light on the origins of what will later become the polis of the Athenians.

Ayia Irini

Ayia Irini
Author: Natalie Abell
Publisher: Lockwood Press
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2022-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1948488671

Area B, in the southeastern part of the Bronze Age town of Ayia Irini, Kea, preserves evidence for human activity from the mid-Early Bronze Age to the mid-Late Bronze Age, or Periods III-VII in the parlance of the site. This volume summarizes the results of excavation in the area and provides an overview of the stratigraphy, architecture, and artifacts found in it. Owing to its status as one of the best-excavated and best-documented sectors of the site, Area B also provides an excellent opportunity to consider diachronic changes in the ceramic assemblage through time. Analysis of macroscopic and petrographic fabrics and evaluation of how fabric, ware, and shape categories intersect enables a detailed, diachronic study of changes in pottery production, trade, and consumption patterns at the site in view of broader shifts in Aegean economy and society.

Islands and Communities

Islands and Communities
Author: Anastasia Christophilopoulou
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2024-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Major re-examination of issues of island identity and interaction with case studies from Crete, Cyprus and Sardinia covering a long time span and key cultural periods. Water may separate islands and the mainland, but the sea also offers a vital link. This volume is one of three major outputs of the research and public engagement project ‘Being an Islander’: Art and Identity of the Large Mediterranean Islands, implemented between 2019 and 2024 at the University of Cambridge. This project aimed to elucidate what defines island identity in the Mediterranean. It explored how insularity affects and shapes cultural identity by integrating transdisciplinary research methodologies, for example, by producing an awarded documentary on insularity and island identity, drawing on the principles of visual anthropology, social anthropology and environment studies. This volume is the culmination of the project’s research strands, undertaken by our key research teams in Cambridge, Cyprus, Greece and Italy. It disseminates our research across our main project themes: insularity, connectivity, mobility, migration, island art and material culture production, hybridity and diachronicity, and provides cross-disciplinary arguments and suggestions on the future of island archaeology and associated disciplines. Contributions included suggest that the relationship between people, place and material culture is what reveals important aspects of island identity and reframe the concept of the islands as a dynamic interplay shaped by social and historical episodes, connectivity and mobility, rather than geography or political boundaries. The volume advocates that the complex histories of the Mediterranean islands can also be a story of connections.

Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from beyond the Cyclades

Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from beyond the Cyclades
Author: Marisa Marthari
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 884
Release: 2019-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789250617

This second volume on Early Cycladic (and Cycladicising) sculptures found in the Aegean, examines finds from mainland Greece, along with the rarer items from the north and east Aegean, with the exception of those discovered in the Cyclades (covered in the preceding volume), and of those found in Crete. The significance of these finds is that these are the principal testimonies of the influence of the Early Bronze Age Cycladic cultures in the wider Aegean. This influence is shown both by the export of sculptures produced in the Cyclades (and made of Cycladic marble), and of their imitations, produced elsewhere in the Aegean, usually of local marble. They hold the key, therefore, to the cultural interactions developing at this time, the so-called ‘international spirit’ manifest particularly during the Aegean Early Bronze II period.This was the time when the foundations of early Aegean civilisation were being laid, and the material documented is thus of considerable significance. The volume is divided into sections wherein contributions examine finds and their archaeological, social, and economic contexts from specific regions. It concludes with an overview of the significance and role of these objects in Early Bronze Age societies of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region. This will be the first time that this material has been systematically gathered together. Highly illustrated, it follows and builds on the successful preceding volume, Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context (Oxbow 2016).

Horizon

Horizon
Author: Neil Brodie
Publisher: McDonald Institute Monographs
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

The Cycladic Islands of Greece played a central role in Aegean prehistory, and many new discoveries have been made in recent years at sites ranging in date from the Mesolithic period to the end of the Bronze Age. In the well-illustrated chapters of this book, based on the recent conference held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, international scholars including leading Greek archaeologists offer new information about recent developments, many arising from hitherto unpublished excavations. The book contains novel theoretical insights into the workings of culture process in the prehistoric cultures of the islands. It will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars interested in the prehistory of the Aegean and in the contributions made to its development by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Cyclades.