American School of Classical Studies at Athens – serie

In spring 1939, as the prospect of war loomed, a joint Greek-American archaeological expedition began excavation on the hill of Epano Englianos, high above the modern town of Pylos in southwest Greece. Almost immediately more than 600 tablets bearing inscriptions in Linear B script were uncovered, as well as stone walls, fragments of frescoes, and stucco floors. The discoveries were kept secret during the war years and it was only in 1952 that the project could return to uncover, over 15 seasons, the Mycenaean building now know as the Palace of Nestor. This beautifully illustrated colour guide surveys the buildings and objects discovered and reconstructs life in the citadel and its associated tombs. It also describes the surrounding landscape, using evidence uncovered by the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project which surveyed the wider area around the palace between 1992 and 1995.

This definitive guide to the archaeological remains in the civic and commercial centre of ancient Athens is an essential companion to the interested visitor, as well as to students of the topography of the classical city. A large-scale map provides an overview of the site, keyed to descriptions and plans of every monument still visible from the majestic Temple of Hephaistos to the utilitarian Great Drain.The fifth edition retains many of the elements that made the earlier editions so popular, but also takes full account of new discoveries and recent scholarship. It is intended for visitors touring the site, and is arranged topographically, monument by monument. Also included are an overview of the historical development of the site and a history of the excavations. A companion guide to the Agora Museum in the Stoa of Attalos is also available (The Athenian Agora: Museum Guide, by Laura Gawlinski, 2014).

As well as being an archaeological guide, this beautifully illustrated volume tells the story of 30 years of fieldwork and study at one of the lesser known, but most intellectually fascinating, sites in Crete. In prehistory, Kommos was a busy harbor town with trading links extending to Egypt and Sardinia. The author traces the development of the settlement, its mysterious abandonment, and then resurrection as a religious site around 1000 B.C.

A chronicle of the second 50 years in the life of the American School (originally founded in 1881). Conceived as a companion volume to Louis Lord's 1947 history of the first half century, the text outlines the activities of the School both in Greece and in the United States, beginning with an absorbing account of the affairs of the School during World War II and continuing through the Centennial in 1981, with chapters on the Summer Session, the School's excavations, its publications, and the Gennadeion. The extensive appendixes include lists of all the Trustees, Cooperating Institutions, members of the Managing Committee, staff, fellows, and members of the School since its inception in 1881, and add greatly to the usefulness of this volume. The author's first-hand knowledge of the people and events of the period discussed contributes materially to its depth and detail.

The large-scale, formal consumption of huge quantities of food and drink is a feature of many societies, but extracting evidence for feasting from the archaeological record has, until recently, been problematic. Now new techniques of scientific analysis are being combined with greater theoretical sophistication to shed exciting new light on this conspicuous social practice. This collection of essays, also published as a special issue (73:2) of the journal Hesperia, investigates the rich evidence for the character of the Mycenaean feast. While much of the evidence discussed comes from the Palace of Nestor near Pylos, the authors also present new material from Tsoungiza near Nemea, and from other Bronze Age sites on mainland Greece and Crete. Textual evidence (from Linear B tablets) for the collection of raw materials, and the stocktaking of equipment, is complemented by discussions of the faunal and artifactual assemblages feasts left behind. Specially commissioned papers put Mycenaean practice in context by comparing it to contemporary activities on Cyprus and in Minoan Crete, while a final chapter compares Bronze with Iron Age Greece, especially as seen through the lens of Homeric epic. While not claiming to be a comprehensive survey of the practice of feasting, this volume offers, nonetheless, a rich and detailed collection of evidence, from a variety of sources, for conspicuous consumption in the Mycenaean period. As well as being core reading for Aegean prehistorians, it will be of interest to students of later Greek culture, anthropologists, and other scholars interested in the wider social aspects of eating and drinking.

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.

This book traces the archaeological history of Pylos and surrounding regions in Messenia from the Palaeolithic to the present. Designed as much for general readers and travelers interested in ancient Greece as for scholars, the volume presents the findings of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP), which has intensively studied the region over the past 15 years. The 1998 edition, originally published by the University of Texas Press and widely used as a textbook in undergraduate classes, is reprinted with a new preface assessing PRAP's impact and outlining new discoveries in the region.

In 1947, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens commissioned a colour movie (Triumph over Time) to accompany its fundraising campaign. Directed by the archaeologist Oscar Broneer and produced by numismatist Margaret Thompson with the aid of staff from Fox Studios, the documentary shows Greece rebounding from the horrors of World War II and the staff of the American School hard at work preparing archaeological sites for presentation to post-war tourists. Footage of excavations at the Athenian Agora and ancient Corinth are mixed with scenes from everyday agricultural life. Famous people in the history of the School and Greece move in and out of the film's frames: King Paul and Queen Frederica attend a public lecture; the Librarian of the Gennadius Library, Shirley H. Weber, shows donor Helene Stathatou some of its priceless manuscripts; Homer A. Thompson, newly appointed Director of the Agora Excavations, displays treasures from the site. Such scenes from the American School's academic and social year show an institution at the forefront of Greece's march back to normality after almost a decade of unrest. In an accompanying essay, Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, the American School's Archivist, describes the making of the movie, the historical background to its production, and its place in both the institutional history of the ASCSA and the political history of Greece. She presents fascinating excerpts from previously unpublished correspondence and memoirs, as well as contemporary photographs. (This is the North American edition, with NTSC format DVD.)