Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens – serie

Ascending and Descending the Acropolis – Mobility in Athenian Religion provides new perspectives on religious mobilities within the geographically limited region of Attica in Greece from the Late Bronze Age to the second century AD. Attica is a particularly fruitful region to study these forms of mobility, as it provides rich evidence across a range of material and textual sources for a variety of different mobile situations – both inside the city of Athens itself (such as on and circumnavigating the Acropolis) and to sanctuaries in its hinterland (such as Eleusis and Brauron), as well to as more distant sanctuaries, such as Delphi.

Volume 15,3: Architecture, Topography, Finds. Expanding on the publication of the shipsheds and slipways found in the northern half of Group 1 (Area 1) on the eastern side of Zea Harbour in Volume I.1–2 (2011) of the peer-reviewed Ancient Harbours of the Piraeus series, Volume II presents further results of the archaeological investigations conducted by the Zea Harbour Project (ZHP) in 2004-2010 and 2012 of ancient shipsheds and slipways in Zea Harbour (Pashalimani), both identified and possible, making them the best documented structures in Athens’ naval bases and in the wider Mediterranean. Approximately half of Volume II is devoted to the remains of shipsheds and possible shipsheds in the southern half of Group 1 (Area 2), while studies of structures identified as wide unroofed slipways in Group 2 (Area 3) on the south-eastern side of the same harbour basin occupy the balance of the book. After Chapter 1’s introduction to terminology and methodology, Chapter 2 presents the architecture of the shipsheds and possible shipsheds found in the southern half of Group 1 (Area 2), along with the arrangement and topography of this massive naval complex, which in the 4th century BC covered between 11,630 m2 and 11,989 m2. Chapter 3 examines and catalogues the ceramics and other small finds discovered in the same area, discussing their excavation contexts, composition, and chronological significance. Chapter 4 focuses on the architecture and topography of seven wide, unroofed slipways found in Group 2 in the northern part of Area 3 that represent a building type previously unknown in the Piraeus, probably designed either for a larger warship known as the penteres (‘five’), introduced into the Athenian navy between 329/8 BC and 326/5 BC, or for a larger Hellenistic-period warship type. Chapter 5 analyses and catalogues the ceramic small finds recovered during the excavation of the structures featured in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 presents the new evidence regarding relative sea-level change in the harbours of Zea and Mounichia and its impact on the reconstructed lengths and layouts of the slipways and shipsheds at Zea in Group 1 (Areas 1–2) along with the wide slipways of Group 2, including greater accuracy in the recalculated lengths of the Group 1 shipsheds and slipways presented in Volume I; furthermore, it reaffirms the validity of the ZHP’s methodology and published results in relation to shipsheds around the Mediterranean. Chapter 7 recapitulates the authors’ topographical, architectural, and chronological conclusions regarding the complexes at Zea and Mounichia, which contain the only identifiable shipsheds for triremes anywhere in the ancient world. Descriptive catalogues of the Area 2 and 3 quarries and Area 2 trenches (Appendices 1–2), Figures, and Plates complete the volume.

Denmark and Greece both possess vast territorial waters that hold irreplaceable tangible cultural heritage including shipwrecks and submerged settlements. These countries have therefore been at the global forefront of developing the discipline of underwater archaeology. Underwater Archaeology and Cultural Resources: Methodology, Preservation and Communication – A Dialogue Between Denmark and Greece presents shared and distinct approaches to underwater cultural heritage. This publication features contributions from leading Danish and Greek specialists, based on a series of double lectures held at the Danish Institute at Athens, and captures vital cross-cultural and scientific exchanges that highlight best practices and innovations in exploring, preserving and communicating underwater cultural heritage. Designed to engage both academic audiences and the wider public, the book provides valuable insights into how underwater heritage can be studied, protected, and meaningfully shared with society.

The volcanic eruption of Santorini was the greatest in historical times. Assigned to the Late Minoan IA period, archaeological correlations implied a date late in the 16th century BC. Yet indirect natural science evidence suggested a date in the 17th century. The dating ceased to be indirect when branches of olive trees were found buried in the debris of the eruption. The radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating technique and the intcal04 calibration curve suggested a two-sigma range date between 1600 and 1627 BC. The debate continues; the papers here cover the radiocarbon results, the ice cores, the geology, and the archaeology, offering in-depth access to a controversy linking the natural sciences and the humanities. Aside from volcanologists, it will interest scholars of Bronze Age Aegean archaeology, the chronology of the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium BC, archaeological methodology, the principles of radiocarbon dating and its application to Bronze Age sources.

This book is about the relationship between the people and the sea in the prehistoric Aegean. It explores how people understood the sea as an integral part of their way of life and examines the role the sea played in the prehistoric societies of the archipelago. It may at first seem obvious -- even self-evident -- that there had been a close relationship between people and the sea, since the Aegean Archipelago is the dominant feature of its wider area. It spreads over at total area of about 214,000 sq km. This large area of water includes over 1000 islands, many of which are populated today. The Aegean Sea and its islands epitomise Greece in the minds of many people today. Nonetheless, we should remember that the land that borders the Aegean features the important mountain range of Pindos, the plains of Thessaly and Macedonia and, next to Greece, Turkey, with the solid landmass of Asia Minor. These places have always accommodated extensive and flourishing communities that were not related to the sea at all. Furthermore, many people on Mount Ida in Crete had never seen the sea in the recent past, despite being on an island, while until recently many Greeks living close to the coast had not known how to swim. A maritime way of life may be an obvious option, but it is neither the only nor an inevitable one in the Aegean. There is always room for choice in the relation between people and the sea and this relation may acquire various forms and different degrees of intimacy.