Agricultural Sustainability and Environmental Change at Ancient Gordion

Agricultural Sustainability and Environmental Change at Ancient Gordion
Author: John M. Marston
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 193453692X

This book publishes the results of 220 botanical samples from the 1993-2002 Gordion excavations directed by Mary Voigt. Together with Naomi Miller's 2010 volume (Gordion Special Studies 5), this book completes the publication of botanical samples from Voigt's excavations. The book aims to reconstruct agricultural decision making using archaeological and paleoenvironmental data from Gordion to describe environmental and agricultural changes at the site. John M. Marston argues that different political and economic systems implemented over time at Gordion resulted in patterns of agricultural decision making that were well adapted to the social setting of farmers in each period, but that these practices had divergent environmental impacts, with some regimes sponsoring sustainable agricultural practices and others leading to significant environmental change. The implications of this book are twofold: Gordion will now be one of the best published agricultural datasets from the entire Near East and, thus, serve as a valuable comparable dataset for regional synthesis of agricultural and environmental change, and the methods the author developed to reconstruct agricultural change at Gordion serves as tools to engage questions about the relationship between social and environmental change at sites worldwide. Other books address similar themes but none in the Near East address these themes in diachronic perspective such as we have at Gordion. University Museum Monograph, 145

Ancient Gordion

Ancient Gordion
Author: Lisa Kealhofer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2022-09-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 110849031X

Explores the formation of power during secondary polity formation by integrating multifaceted ceramic and material analyses of Gordion.

The Rural Landscapes of Archaic Cyprus

The Rural Landscapes of Archaic Cyprus
Author: Catherine Kearns
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2022-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 100908156X

The ninth to the fifth centuries BCE saw a series of significant historical transformations across Cyprus, especially in the growth of towns and in developments in the countryside. In this book, Catherine Kearns argues that changing patterns of urban and rural sedentism drove social changes as diverse communities cultivated new landscape practices. Climatic changes fostered uneven relationships between people, resources like land, copper, and wood, and increasingly important places like rural sanctuaries and cemeteries. Bringing together a range of archaeological, textual, and scientific evidence, the book examines landscapes, environmental history, and rural practices to argue for their collective instrumentality in the processes driving Iron Age political formations. It suggests how rural households managed the countryside, interacted with the remains of earlier generations, and created gathering spaces alongside the development of urban authorities. Offering new insights into landscape archaeologies, Dr Kearns contributes to current debates about society's relationships with changing environments.

Oil, Wine, and the Cultural Economy of Ancient Greece

Oil, Wine, and the Cultural Economy of Ancient Greece
Author: Catherine E. Pratt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2021-03-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108835643

Provides a diachronic account of the changing roles of surplus oil and wine in the economies of pre-classical Greek societies.

The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume III

The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume III
Author: Sharon R. Steadman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2019-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527544028

This third volume in the Archaeology of Anatolia series offers reports on the most recent discoveries from across the Anatolian peninsula. Periods covered here span the Epipalaeolithic to the Medieval, and sites and regions range from the western Anatolian coast to Van, as well as the southeast. The contributors offer nearly real-time updates on their ongoing excavations and surveys across the Anatolian landscape. A new section in this third volume, “The State of the Field,” presents the latest findings in critical areas of Anatolian archaeology. The Archaeology of Anatolia series represents a forum for scholars to report their most recent data to a global audience, allowing for productive engagement with others working in and near Anatolia. Published every two years, it is an invaluable vehicle through which working archaeologists may carry out their most critical task: the presentation of their fieldwork and laboratory research in a timely fashion.

The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume II

The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume II
Author: Sharon R. Steadman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2018-07-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527515656

This second volume in the Archaeology of Anatolia series offers reports on the most recent discoveries from across the Anatolian peninsula. Periods covered span the Epipalaeolithic to the Islamic, and sites and regions range from the western Anatolian coast to Van, as well as the southeast. Also included here are both reviews of recent work at ongoing excavations and data retrieved from the last several years of survey projects. This series presents a forum in which scholars report their most recent data to a global audience, allowing for productive engagement with others working in and near Anatolia. Published every two years, The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Discoveries Series is an invaluable vehicle through which working archaeologists may carry out their most critical task: the presentation of their fieldwork and laboratory research in a timely fashion.

The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume IV

The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume IV
Author: Sharon R. Steadman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2021-12-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527578089

This fourth volume in the Archaeology of Anatolia series offers reports on the most recent discoveries from across the Anatolian peninsula. Periods covered span the Epipalaeolithic to the Medieval Age, and sites and regions range from the western Anatolian coast to Van, and on to the southeast. The breadth and depth of work reported within these pages testifies to the contributors’ dedication and love of their work even during a global pandemic period. The volume includes reviews of recent work at on-going excavations and data retrieved from the last several years of survey projects. In addition, a “State of the Field” section offers up-to-the-moment data on specialized fields in Anatolian archaeology.

The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion

The Bone and Ivory Objects from Gordion
Author: Phoebe A. Sheftel
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2023-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1949057186

Gordion is a paramount site for understanding the culture of central Anatolia over more than 3,000 years, from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, but is most renowned for its Iron Age horizon, when it was royal capital of the mighty Phrygian kingdom. The hundreds of bone and ivory artifacts excavated at Gordion constitute a highly diverse body of material, and this publication presents one of the largest and most important assemblages of its kind in the Near East. The artifacts give remarkable insight into the tools used in crafts and manufacturing processes, a variety of decorative items, the artistic developments among local craftspeople, as well as indications of trading connections with other regions to the east and west. Ivory was a highly valued material used for decorative pieces in many areas around the eastern Mediterranean. The objects from Gordion are a significant addition to this corpus and illustrate both widely dispersed features common in other contemporary ivory-working centers, as well as the singular motifs and styles that developed in the Phrygian milieu. A unique assemblage of ivory horse trappings from the Early Phrygian Citadel are an important illustration of this cultural confluence. While bone was primarily used for strictly utilitarian objects, there are numerous pieces that show this lowly material could be used for high quality items such as inlays set into the wooden furniture exceptionally attested at Gordion. Even the sheep knuckle bone (astragal), decorated with incised designs and letters, gives a glimpse into the daily life in the community.

The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973

The Gordion Excavations, 1950-1973
Author: Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum
Total Pages: 760
Release: 2023-08-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 194905716X

This volume contains the excavation report for 12 cremation burials from the Phrygian site of Gordion in central Anatolia. These tombs, dating from the later seventh century to the third quarter of the 6th century BCE, were excavated by The University Museum between 1950 and 1969, and by the German brothers Alfred and Gustav Korte in 1900. The processes for interment through construction of tumulus and cremation procedure are carefully detailed, followed by an analysis of associated finds. Two tumuli of the Hellenistic period, both covering stone chambers with inhumation burials within, are included in an appendix. Further appendices discuss other specific materials excavated from the cremation burials. A discussion of the contemporary inhumation and cremation tumulus burials at Gordion in the Phrygian period, highlighting their continuities and significant differences, forms part of the conclusion, as does discussion of sociocultural developments at Gordion between ca. 650-525 BCE as illuminated by the mortuary remains. The tumuli afford insights into questions related to gender, religion, adult/child identity, trade, social status, ethnicity, transcultural affiliations, ceramic developments, jewelry manufacture, high-status artifact display (including ivory), feasting behaviors, animal sacrifice, hero cult, and widespread "killing" of artifacts associated with the cremation burials. This entirely new publication of Gordion's tumuli makes available at last the elite cremation burials of the later Middle and early Late Phrygian (Achaemenid) periods excavated by The University Museum. By including the two Korte tumuli, it provides a complete assemblage of the cremation tumuli at Gordion. They afford remarkable new insights into life, death, and an elaborate system of value at Gordion during this most turbulent century.

Lydian Painted Pottery Abroad

Lydian Painted Pottery Abroad
Author: R. Gül Gürtekin-Demir
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2021-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1949057143

This book is the first major study of Lydian material culture at Gordion and also the first published monograph on Lydian painted pottery from any site excavation. Richly illustrated, it provides a comprehensive definition and analysis of Lydian ceramics based on stylistic, archaeological, and textual evidence, while thoroughly documenting the material's stratigraphic contexts. The book situates the ceramic corpus within its broader Anatolian cultural context and offers insights into the impact of Lydian cultural interfaces at Gordion. The Lydian pottery found at Gordion was largely produced at centers other than Sardis, the Lydian royal capital, although Sardian imports are also well attested and began to influence Gordion's material culture as early as the 7th century BCE, if not before. Following the demise of the Lydian kingdom, a more limited repertoire of Lydian ceramics demonstrably continued in use at Gordion into the Achaemenid Persian period in the late 6th and 5th centuries BCE. The material was excavated by Professor Rodney Young's team between 1950 and 1973 and is fully presented here for the first time. Ongoing research in the decades following Young's excavations has led to a more refined understanding of Gordion's archaeological contexts and chronology, and, consequently, we are now able to view the Lydian ceramic corpus within a more secure stratigraphic framework than would have been the case if the material had been published shortly after the excavations.