Societal transformations in European prehistory have traditionally been examined through evolutionary frameworks that depict a unilinear development from egalitarian to hierarchical social systems. While their specific claims are often contested, these interpretations are seldom reassessed from alternative interpretative perspectives. This paper offers such an alternative by drawing on anthropological and archaeological approaches informed by Anarchist Theory.
This paper aims to explore the potential of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) as applied to signs and marks engraved on hard materials, with particular focus on the writing systems of the Bronze Age Aegean (2nd millennium BC). These (para-)writing forms (the Arkhanes script, Cretan Hieroglyphic, the Phaistos Disc script, Linear A, Linear B, and Masons’ Marks) share the common feature of being incised onto hard surfaces, mainly clay and both hard and soft stones.
Eleon is located in east Boeotia, on mainland Greece. Research conducted by the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project has revealed a long-lasting occupational sequence at the site. At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, a monumental burial enclosure, the Blue Stone Structure, was constructed on the east side of the plateau. Settlement remains from both the Palatial and Post-Palatial periods have been documented, with the latter being more extensively explored and better understood.
Konstantinos P. Trimmis, Stavroula Fouriki, Patrick Quinn, Julie Dunne, Richard P. Evershed, Katie Faillace, Richard Madgwick, Morten Andersen, Marc-Alban Millet, Alexandra J. Nederbragt, Timothy Knowles, Paul Monaghan, Georgios Lazaridis, Christianne L. Fernée, Katerina Trantalidou Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports 73, 2026: 105798
Interactions between islands and mainland has long been the subject of numerous archaeological projects in the Mediterranean and beyond. The island of Kythera in Greece has been a focal point for such studies over the last century. This paper re-visits Kythera and presents an analytical study on pottery and skeletal assemblages from the Kataphygadi cave excavations in the central west Kythera, in order to further explore insular dynamics and long-range interactions in the area, during the Bronze Age.
Current knowledge on Early Bronze Age society in Attica (Greece) is limited, especially on human-animal interactions. Large faunal samples from Early Bronze Age Koropi in southeast Attica present a unique opportunity to address this gap. Their study contributes important insights into the economic and social practices at a large Early Bronze Age settlement, as well as the adaptations to the environment, landscape and regional networks.
Transport Stirrup Jars (TSJs) are emblematic maritime transport containers of the Aegean Late Bronze Age, usually associated with Cretan production places and tied to Mycenaean palatial exchange systems. Despite extensive research on palatial assemblages, TSJs from non-palatial and traditionally ‘peripheral’ regions of the Greek Mainland remain underexplored. This paper presents a petrographic provenance study of TSJs recovered from the harbour site of Pefkakia in the Pagasetic Gulf (Thessaly), contributing towards filling this research gap and assessing the site’s role within wider Aegean exchange networks.
This paper explores early broomcorn millet (hereafter millet) cultivation in Greece during the Bronze Age. The primary archaeobotanical data for this study derive from the site of Skala Sotiros on the island of Thasos in northern Greece.
To date, archaeobotanical records for Late Bronze Age Cyprus provide little insight into agricultural activity of the time, such as specific farming systems and cultivation practices. This paper presents the results of an archaeobotanical study for the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos (LC IIC, c. 1230–1170 BCE): a short-lived settlement that existed towards the end of the Late Bronze Age during a time often referred to as the crisis years on account of increasing mobility of people, violence and aridity throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.
Diego Capra, Isabella Caricola, Giulio Lucarini, Giuseppina Mutri, Evi Margaritis, Michael J. Boyd, †Colin RenfrewJournal of Archaeological Science: Reports 74, 2026: 105946
Dhaskalio is a small and steep-sided islet at the western end of the island of Keros in the central Cyclades. Excavations carried out between 2006–2008 and 2016–2018 brought to light the remains of extensive architecture on Dhaskalio and a ritual area of significant importance in the Kavos area of Keros, both dated to the mid-third millennium BCE.
Within the dynamic exchange networks of the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age, copper ingots are central to reconstructing the scale, organization, and intensity of economic and cultural contact. Yet, whether Late Bronze Age copper ingots derived from a single copper source or were mixed among sources has remained largely unresolved, obscuring their provenance.
This paper presents part of the research conducted in the framework of the MCSA LiTechAe project exploring the percussive tools and techniques used for stone dressing in monumental architecture in the 2nd millennium BC Aegean world on the basis of experiments and use-wear analysis.
The aim of this preliminary pilot study is to develop methods for the observation and characterisation of Aegean Bronze Age stone arrowheads. This will allow us to reconstruct the techniques employed for their manufacture.
Agios Vasileios, a major Late Bronze Age site in Laconia known since the late 1960s, has gained renewed scholarly attention over the past decade following the discovery of Linear B tablets.
Anja B. Frank , Ioanna Moutafi, Serena Sabatini, Robert Frei, Sofia Voutsaki, Raphaël Orgeolet, Vassilis Lambrinoudakis, Lazaros Kolonas, Jörg Rambach, Michael Boyd, Evi Margaritis, Kristian Kristiansen & Karin M. FreiPLoS One 21(9) 2026: e0357576
The Mediterranean region saw significant socio-economic and cultural transformations during the Bronze Age, varying across regions and through time. Expanding exchange networks played an important role in these developments by connecting distant communities.
This article reconstructs the stratigraphy of the Mycenaean Fountain on the North Slope of the Athenian Acropolis, excavated in 1937 and 1938 under the direction of Oscar Broneer. Although Broneer published a detailed report in 1939, his publication was not exhaustive, and the significance of the Early Iron Age finds was overlooked.
