House X is by far the largest and best appointed of the Minoan houses excavated at Kommos in south-central Crete, a Minoan harbor and settlement that later became the site of a Greek sanctuary. Situated on the seacoast of the western Mesara Plain, Kommos faces west toward the Libyan Sea. House X stands on the southern edge of the Minoan town, separated by a large slab-paved road from the monumental civic buildings built and used between the Protopalatial and Postpalatial periods. The description of the stratigraphic excavation of this elite house is published with numerous architectural plans along with the cataloged small finds and tables of data on the floral and faunal materials. The excavated fresco fragments are also discussed and illustrated.
House X is by far the largest and best appointed of the Minoan houses excavated at Kommos in south-central Crete, a Minoan harbor and settlement that later became the site of a Greek sanctuary. Situated on the seacoast of the western Mesara Plain, Kommos faces west toward the Libyan Sea. House X stands on the southern edge of the Minoan town, separated by a large slab-paved road from the monumental civic buildings built and used between the Protopalatial and Postpalatial periods. The description of the stratigraphic excavation of this elite house is published with numerous architectural plans along with the cataloged small finds and tables of data on the floral and faunal materials. The excavated fresco fragments are also discussed and illustrated. This volume presents the Late Bronze Age pottery from in and around House X, a large Minoan house at Kommos situated not far from the sea in South-Central Crete. This volume is richly illustrated with drawings, photos, and tables of data. Rutter's contribution complements the publication of the architecture, stratigraphy, and small finds in Part 1 (Shaw and Shaw, eds., 2012). Together, this pair of volumes offers a conclusion to a series of monographs (volumes I-V) previously published about the site (Shaw and Shaw, eds., 1995-2006). The Kommos series is now completed by the two-volume publication on House X.
To celebrate thirty years of excavation, the director of the University of Toronto excavations at Kommos presents a personal view of the site and the archaeological investigations that have transformed our understanding of what daily life for more humble members of the Bronze Age population may have been like.
This publication presents the archaeological evidence from two associated Minoan sites situated at Apesokari in the Mesara Plain of South-Central Crete, Tholos Tomb A and the neighboring free-standing domestic complex on Vigla Hill. It thoroughly reconstructs the natural and social landscape of this Cretan community from the late Prepalatial to the early Neopalatial periods through its interdisciplinary character; this includes photogrammetric two- and three-dimensional models of the architectural remains, viewshed analysis of both monuments and of the earlier Tholos Tomb B, as well as A-DNA and stable isotope analysis of the bones. The study of the burial dataset provides insights into the social construction of collective memory and identity by the burying social group, whereas the habitational deposits from the building on Vigla hill establish the longevity and function of the site as a node of the southern Mesara communication and exchange networks.
The title of this volume, ke-ra-me-ja in Linear B, was chosen because it means ñpotterî (????????, from Greek ???????, ñpotterÍs clayî) and combines two major strands of Cynthia ShelmerdineÍs scholarship: Mycenaean ceramics and Linear B texts. It thereby signals her pioneering use of archaeological and textual data in a sophisticated and integrated way. The intellectual content of the essays demonstrate not only that her research has had wide-ranging influence, but also that it is a model of scholarship to be emulated.
This volume presents papers from the conference "Crete 2000: A Centennial Celebration of American Archaeological Work on Crete (1900-2000)," held in Athens from July 10-12, 2000. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) Study Center for East Crete organized the conference. Scholars participating in the American and joint Greek-American on Crete or studying material from these excavations were invited to present papers at the conference. The volume is divided into the following sections: Trade, Society and Religion, Chronology and History, Landscape and Survey, and Technology and Production.
Joseph and Maria Shaw received the Archaeological Institute of America's Gold Medal for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in January of 2006. This volume is a collection of the papers presented at the Gold Medal Colloquium held in their honor during the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Montreal, Quebec. Additional articles have also been written for this volume. Many of the articles pertain to different aspects of Aegean Bronze Age architecture, harbors, frescoes, and trade, which are all keen interests of the Shaws.
The mid second millennium BC material record of the southern Aegean shows evidence of strong Cretan influence. This phenomenon has traditionally been seen in terms of ‘Minoanisation’, but the nature and degree of Cretan influence, and the process/processes by which it was spread and adopted, have been widely debated. This new study addresses the question of ‘Minoanisation’ through a study of the adoption of Cretan technologies in the wider southern Aegean: principally, weaving technology. By the early Late Bronze Age, Cretan-style discoid loom weights had appeared at a number of settlements across the southern Aegean. In most cases, this represents not only the adoption of a particular type of loom weight, but also the introduction of a new weaving technology: the use of the warp-weighted loom. The evidence for, and the implications of, the adoption of this new technology is examined. Drawing upon recent advances in textile experimental archaeology, the types of textiles that are likely to have been produced at a range of sites both on Crete itself and in the wider southern Aegean are discussed, and the likely nature and scale of textile production at the various settlements is assessed. A consideration of the evidence for the timing and extent of the adoption of Cretan weaving technology in the light of additional evidence for the adoption of other Cretan technologies is used to gain insight into the potential social and economic strategies engaged in by various groups across the southern Aegean, as well as the motivations that may have driven the adoption and adaptation of Cretan cultural traits and accompanying behaviors. By examining how technological skills and techniques are learned and considering possible mechanisms for the transmission of such technical knowledge and know-how, new perspectives can be proposed concerning the processes through which Cretan techniques were taken up and imitated abroad.
Purpureae vestes estudia un element fonamental en la vida de qualsevol societat antiga com és el vestit i els colors utilitzats per a la seua ornamentació, especialment la púrpura. El luxe en el vestir implicava l'ús de materials com l'or per a la confecció de certs complements. Amb uns antecedents clarament orientals de recerca de la magnificència externa de reis i d'altres dignataris, el simbolisme del color en l'ornamentació personal va constituir, a les ciutats riberenques de la Mediterrània, un factor important de distinció social. Bé fossen de procedència vegetal, mineral o animal, els tints van donar sempre l'«ànima» als tèxtils. Per això, el poder imperial romà, en alguns períodes de la seua història, va controlar amb normes legals de major o menor duresa l'ús de determinats colors obtinguts a partir de gasteròpodes marins. L'obra tracta extensament els aspectes econòmics i tècnics relacionats amb l'elaboració i comercialització de vestits i teles per a altres usos (veles, adorns de la llar, etc.). A partir de diversos punts de vista, entre els que s'inclouen les dades arqueològiques o les referències etnograficocomparatives, s'hi incideix en les etapes de preparació de les fibres tèxtils, en les formes d'elaboració dels teixits més complexos a través de la reconstrucció experimental, en el treball dels pescadors i manufacturers que elaboraven en tallers costaners el tint més valorat, la púrpura, o en els qui treballaven en els tallers de la ciutat, així com en l'anàlisi i descripció detallada dels resultats extrets de les restes tèxtils aparegudes en jaciments, de l'Egipte romà sobretot, que ens mostren encara avui la riquesa i vivor dels seus colors.
