John K. Papadopoulos - Böcker

This volume, the first of two dealing with the Early Iron Age deposits from the Athenian Agora, publishes the tombs from the end of the Bronze Age through the transition from the Middle Geometric to Late Geometric period. An introduction deals with the layout of the four cemeteries of the period, the topographical ramifications, periodization, and a synthesis of Athens in the Early Iron Age. Individual chapters offer a complete catalogue of the tombs and their contents, a full analysis of the burial customs and funerary rites, and analyses of the pottery and other small finds. Maria A. Liston presents the human skeletal material, Deborah Ruscillo presents the faunal remains, and Sara Strack contributes to the pottery typology and catalogue. In an appendix, Eirini Dimitriadou provides an overview of the locations of burial activity in the wider city.

This volume presents selected material associated with potters' workshops and pottery production from some 14 Early Iron Age contexts northwest of the Athenian Acropolis that range in date from the Protogeometric through Archaic periods. Located in the area that was to become the Agora of Classical Athens, these deposits establish that the place was used for industrial activity until it was formally transformed into the civic and commercial center of the city in the early 5th century B.C. The Early Iron Age potters' debris published in this volume sheds light on many aspects of pottery production, in prehistory as well as in the Classical and later periods. The material includes test-pieces, wasters and other production discards. There is also a reassessment of the evidence associated with the kiln underlying the later Tholos.

The archives of the American School excavations in the Athenian Agora contain a remarkable series of watercolours and drawings (well over 400) by Piet de Jong, one of the best-known, most distinctive, and influential archaeological illustrators of the 20th century. They show landscapes, people, and, above all, objects recovered during many seasons of fieldwork at one of the longest continuously running archaeological projects in Greece. This volume brings these illustrations out of the storage drawers and assembles in colour a representative sample of some of the finest of Piet de Jong's contributions. Along the way, the book tells the story of the Agora excavations and assesses their contribution to scholarship. It includes essays by 15 scholars currently working at the Agora, and surveys the entire span of the material they are studying, from Neolithic pottery to the Late Byzantine and post-Byzantine frescoes from the Church of Ayios Spyridon.

Theory and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives brings together leading scholars from the Old World and the Americas to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing archaeology today. These topics include archaeology and text, the future of large-scale archaeological fieldwork at individual sites, interpretation and preservation of archaeological sites and landscapes, past trajectories and new approaches to regional survey, and debates surrounding landscape and settlement archaeology. Essays by Old World archaeologists provide an overview of these themes, as well as a history of research over the last hundred years. These scholars review the major successes and shortcomings of that work, identifying critical issues that determine and define the field. These essays serve as a springboard for discussion and response by archaeologists working in the Americas and in other parts of the world. The combination of an Old World focus with responses from New World archaeologists provides a uniquely broad assessment of contemporary archaeological theory, methods, and practice throughout the world.

Theory and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives brings together leading scholars from the Old World and the Americas to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing archaeology today. These topics include archaeology and text, the future of large-scale archaeological fieldwork at individual sites, interpretation and preservation of archaeological sites and landscapes, past trajectories and new approaches to regional survey, and debates surrounding landscape and settlement archaeology. Essays by Old World archaeologists provide an overview of these themes, as well as a history of research over the last hundred years. These scholars review the major successes and shortcomings of that work, identifying critical issues that determine and define the field. These essays serve as a springboard for discussion and response by archaeologists working in the Americas and in other parts of the world. The combination of an Old World focus with responses from New World archaeologists provides a uniquely broad assessment of contemporary archaeological theory, methods, and practice throughout the world.

Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize This volume publishes the excavation and analysis of the Early Iron Age cemetery at Torone in Chalkidike, in the north Aegean, Greece. Spanning the period between the twelfth or eleventh century down to ca. 850 BC, the cemetery represents one of the few burial grounds of the period in Greece to have been excavated virtually in its entirety (yielding 134 tombs, of which 118 were cremations and 16 inhumations).

Recipient of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.

The burial tumulus of Lofkend lies in one of the richest archaeological areas of Albania (ancient"Illyria"), home to a number of burial tumuli spanning the Bronze and Iron Ages of later prehistory. Some were robbed long ago, others were reused for modern burials; few were excavated under scientific conditions. Modern understanding of the pre- and protohistory of Illyria has largely been shaped by the contents of such burial mounds. What inspired the systematic exploration of Lofkend by UCLA was more than the promise of an unplundered necropolis; it was also a chance to revisit the significance of this tumulus and its fellows for the emergence of urbanism and complexity in ancient Illyria. In addition to artifacts, the recovery of surviving plant remains, bones, and other organic material contribute insights into the environmental and ecological history of the region.

Ancient Methone is situated in the northern Aegean in Greece, in the historical province of Macedonia; from the late eighth century B.C. it was a colony of the ancient Greek polis of Eretria (on the island of Euboia). Excavations carried out at the site 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 by nearly three thousand years, into Greek prehistory. This 2-volume work presents results of the project in selected artifacts, 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 days of 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. It reveals the long-term history of a site crucial to the economic and political history of Classical Greece and the north Aegean.