SOMA 2016 focused on the archaeology of the Northern Black Sea; while rich in archaeological sites, the region is also subject to active industrial development. In addition to archaeological finds in various parts of the Mediterranean, papers focus on new ideas for the conservation and management of sites of historical and cultural heritage.
A groundbreaking study of the interaction of poetry, performance, and the built environment in ancient Greece. Winner of the PROSE Award for Best Book in Classics by the Association of American Publishers In this volume, Richard Neer and Leslie Kurke develop a new, integrated approach to classical Greece: a "lyric archaeology" that combines literary and art-historical analysis with archaeological and epigraphic materials. At the heart of the book is the great poet Pindar of Thebes, best known for his magnificent odes in honor of victors at the Olympic Games and other competitions. Unlike the quintessentially personal genre of modern lyric, these poems were destined for public performance by choruses of dancing men. Neer and Kurke go further to show that they were also site-specific: as the dancers moved through the space of a city or a sanctuary, their song would refer to local monuments and landmarks. Part of Pindar's brief, they argue, was to weave words and bodies into elaborate tapestries of myth and geography and, in so doing, to re-imagine the very fabric of the city-state. Pindar's poems, in short, were tools for making sense of space. Recent scholarship has tended to isolate poetry, art, and archaeology. But Neer and Kurke show that these distinctions are artificial. Poems, statues, bronzes, tombs, boundary stones, roadways, beacons, and buildings worked together as a "suite" of technologies for organizing landscapes, cityscapes, and territories. Studying these technologies in tandem reveals the procedures and criteria by which the Greeks understood relations of nearness and distance, "here" and "there"—and how these ways of inhabiting space were essentially political. Rooted in close readings of individual poems, buildings, and works of art, Pindar, Song, and Space ranges from Athens to Libya, Sicily to Rhodes, to provide a revelatory new understanding of the world the Greeks built—and a new model for studying the ancient world.
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.
Papers present research from different regions ranging from ancient Mauritania, through Africa, Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, as well as sites in Crimea and Georgia. Topics include: topography, architecture, interiors and décor, religious syncretism, the importance of ancient texts, pottery studies and conservation.
Excavations at ancient Methone since 2003 by the Greek Ministry of Culture have uncovered remains from the Late Neolithic period through the fourth-century B.C. destruction by Philip II of Macedon. These discoveries extend the history of the city, a colony of Eretria (Euboia) since the late eighth century B.C., by nearly three thousand years into Greek prehistory. This volume presents results of the project in selected artefacts, burials, and structures representing the chief phases of the city, in chronological order. An introduction covers historical sources, excavations from 2003 to 2013, and the unique location of Methone. Part I details the prehistoric settlement at Methone, from the fourth millennium to 1000 B.C., and the Bronze Age burials. Part II focuses on the copious artifacts and ecofacts from the Early Iron Age "Hypogeion" shaft. Part III presents artifacts and architecture from the Archaic and Classical periods, through the final daysof the siege of the city in 354 B.C. The significance of this work lies in its interdisciplinary methods, combining stylistic analysis of artifacts and source-critical philology with natural history, bioarchaeology, materials analysis, and geochemistry, whose results reveal the long-term history of a site crucial to the economic and political history of Classical Greece and the north Aegean.
New Directions and Paradigms for the Study of Greek Architecture comprises 20 chapters by nearly three dozen scholars who describe recent discoveries, new theoretical frameworks, and applications of cutting-edge techniques in their architectural research. The contributions are united by several broad themes that represent the current directions of study in the field, i.e.: the organization and techniques used by ancient Greek builders and designers; the use and life history of Greek monuments over time; the communication of ancient monuments with their intended audiences together with their reception by later viewers; the mining of large sets of architectural data for socio-economic inference; and the recreation and simulation of audio-visual experiences of ancient monuments and sites by means of digital technologies.
The period of Anatolian history between the death of the semi-legendary king Midas of Gordion ca. 700 BC and the advent of the Achaemenid Persian Empire ca. 550 BC is dominated by certain narratives: the rise of the Mermnad Lydian Kingdom, from Gyges to Croesus; the demise of the Urartian Kingdom and Neo-Hittite-type culture and polities; and the invasion of shadowy forces from the Steppe: Cimmerians, Scythians and Medes. The discoveries of Geoffrey and Francoise Summerss project at the massive walled city on Kerkenes Da?? have changed the cultural history and texture of Anatolia during this time period, opening up insights into the spread of Phrygian culture and language and inviting further discussion of how the period is framed. This book honors their accomplishments by presenting papers addressing the dynamics and events of that period from various angles, and in various regions and places, as well as other interventions on Iron Age Anatolia, from dating of kings to rare and potentially influential medical techniques. The volume sheds light on and also advocates for further synthesis of the regional dynamics affecting the Mediterranean, Near East and Anatolia together, toward the production of revised, more nuanced narratives.
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.
Presents the results of the main ongoing archaeological and historical research focusing on medieval suburbia and rural sites in Sicily. The volume is divided into thematic areas: Urbanscapes, suburbia, hinterlands; Inland and mountainous landscapes; Changes in rural settlement patterns; and Defence and control of the territory.
