Documaci Tumulus, a spectacular early Hellenistic funerary monument recently excavated on the western Black Sea coast, was built at the threshold of the 4th to 3rd centuries BC in the cemetery of the Greek City of Callatis. Excavations offer a glimpse into a complex and interconnected world of Hellenistic architects and artists.
This volume addresses a wide range of issues concerning the economic exchanges that took place within the Black Sea region and between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean from about 600 BCE to 200 CE. Seeking to shed light on several central aspects of the economic relationship that existed between these two eminently important regions in antiquity, the contributors, who are scholars of ancient history and archaeology, consider old and new evidence, propose novel approaches and propound a number of fresh interpretations. Key issues are the types of commodities traded and the relative volume of that trade from one period to the next; the relations existing between points of production and points of consumption; the institutional settings defining the organization of exchanges; the impact of fiscal exactions (e.g. toll payments at the Bosporus Straits) on trade, etc. The overarching question is whether the Black Sea and the Mediterranean complemented each other in economic terms, and were thus organically linked.
In Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas, Laurent Bricault, one of the principal scholars of the cults of Isis, presents a new interpretation of the multiple sources that present Isis as a goddess of the seas. Bricault discusses a wealth of relatively unknown archaeological and textual data, drawing on a profound knowledge of their historical context. After decades of scholarly study, Bricault offers an important contribution and a new phase in the debate on understanding the “diffusion” as well as the “reception” of the cults of Isis in the Graeco-Roman world. This book, the first English-language monograph by the leading French scholar in the field, underlines the importance of Isis Studies for broader debates in the study of ancient religion.
The study of Roman imperial statues has made remarkable strides in the last two decades. Yet the field's understandable focus on extant portraits has made it difficult to generalize accurately. Most notably, bronze was usually the material of choice, but its high scrap value meant that such statues were inevitably melted down, so that almost all surviving statues are of stone. By examining the much larger and more representative body of statue bases, Jakob Munk Hojte is here able to situate the statues themselves in context. This volume includes a catalogue of 2300 known statue bases from more than 800 sites within and without the Roman Empire. Moreover, since it covers a period of 250 years, it allows for the first time consistent geographic, chronological and commemorative patterns to emerge. Hojte finds among other things that imperial portrait statues are connected chiefly with urban centres; that they were raised continuously during a given reign, with a higher concentration a couple years after accession; that a primary purpose was often to advertise a donor's merits; and that they increased sixfold in frequency from Augustus to Hadrian, an increase attributable to community erections. Jakob Munk Hojte is post.doc. and research assistant at the Danish National Research Foundations Centre for Black Sea Studies.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of the tourism market development in Central and Eastern European countries. It is divided into 13 chapters, including a chapter dedicated to Belarus, all richly illustrated with colorful maps and illustrations. The book presents the output of international conferences organized every two years by the Department of Regional Geography and Tourism of the University of Wroclaw which have served as inspiration for this book. Chapter 1 provides the characteristics of 20 post-communist countries of the region on the international tourism market and it sets the background and context for the following chapters. Chapters 2 to 13 present the condition of research on tourism, tourist attractions, tourist infrastructure, tourism movement, main types of tourism as well as tourist regionalization in 12 Central and Eastern European countries. All chapters have been updated with reference to the statistics. This book is a revised and updated version of “The Geography of Tourism of Central and Eastern Europe Countries” published by the Department of Regional Geography and Tourism of Wroclaw University in 2012. It has been developed by a group of specialists through their exchange of research experience in the scope of international tourism in Central and Eastern Europe.
A collection of primarily archaeological papers given at a 2000 conference in Taman, Russia. Topics explored include trade, colonisation, agriculture, art and cultural influences. Essays range from specific excavation reports to broader surveys of phases of history in the region.
This book examines foundation myths told about the Ionian cities during the archaic and classical periods. It uses these myths to explore the complex and changing ways in which civic identity was constructed in Ionia, relating this to the wider discourses about ethnicity and cultural difference that were current in the Greek world at this time. The Ionian cities seem to have rejected oppositional models of cultural difference which set in contrast East and West, Europe and Asia, Greek and Barbarian, opting instead for a more fluid and nuanced perspective on ethnic and cultural distinctions. The conclusions of this book have far-reaching implications for our understanding of Ionia, but also challenge current models of Greek ethnicity and identity, suggesting that there was a more diverse conception of Greekness in antiquity than has often been assumed.
The proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Constanţa, 2017) is dedicated to the 90th birthday of Prof. Sir John Boardman, President of the Congress since its inception. The central theme returns to that considered 20 years earlier: the importance of the Pontic Region for the Graeco-Roman World.
