Jason Walker EarleJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology 25:1 (2012): 3-25.
Recent discussions of Mycenaean long-distance exchanges with the ‘East’ have focused on the goods exchanged, their means of production and shipment, and their significance for consumers. Despite voluminous research on these topics, consideration of Mycenaean long-distance exchanges with the eastern Mediterranean vis-à-vis the Cycladic islands during the Palatial Period has been minimal.
Cynthia EllerJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology 25:1 (2012): 75-98.
Recent biographies of Sir Arthur Evans and histories of his excavations at Knossos have made it clear that Evans’s description of Minoan religion was not solidly based on the material evidence at Knossos. By the time Evans wrote The Palace of Minos he was fully committed to the belief that the Minoans worshipped a single Great Mother Goddess in many guises, along with a subordinate male deity, her son.
L. Astruc, R. Vargiolu, M. Ben Tkaya, N. Balkan-Atli, M. Özbaşaran & H. ZahouaniJournal of Archaeological Science 38:11 (December 2011): 3415-3424.
Tribological analysis is employed in a pilot study of the technological steps involved in the manufacture of a polished obsidian bracelet from Aşikli Höyük, an Aceramic Neolithic site in Central Anatolia (8300–7500 cal. B.C.).
Chloë N. Duckworth, Julian Henderson, Frank J.M. Rutten & Kalliopi NikitaJournal of Archaeological Science 39:7 (July) 2012: 2143-2152.
Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is applied to the study of four samples of opaque glass of Late Bronze Age date. The technique is uniquely capable of identifying compositional heterogeneity at a sub-micron resolution within the crystalline opacifiers dispersed through homogeneous glass matrices.
George Ferentinos, Maria Gkioni, Maria Geraga & George PapatheodorouJournal of Archaeological Science 39:7 (July 2012): 2167-2176.
This paper summarises the current development in the southern Ionian Islands (Kefallinia and Zakynthos) prehistory and places it within the context of seafaring. Archaeological data from the southern Ionian Islands show human habitation since Middle Palaeolithic going back to 110 ka BP yet bathymetry, sea-level changes and the Late Quaternary geology, show that Kefallinia and Zakynthos were insular at that time.
L. Vance WatrousAmerican Journal of Archaeology 116:3 (2012): 521-541.
In 1901, Harriet Boyd excavated several Minoan structures on the coast at Gournia. She subsequently focused her attention on the Late Bronze Age town of Gournia and did not publish her work on the coast. In 2008 and 2009, the Minoan remains investigated by Boyd along the shore and coastal plain of Gournia were cleaned, mapped, and photographed.
Doniert Evely, Anno Hein & Eleni NodarouJournal of Archaeological Science 39:6 (June) 2012: 1821-1836.
The recovery of two groups of crucibles from the Neopalatial and Postpalatial phases of the Bronze Age settlement at Palaikastro on Crete permits the investigation not only into how their fabric was made up, how they were used and what materials they were producing, but also to what extent these matters had changed in the two intervening centuries in the third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC.
Patricia L. Fall, Steven E. Falconer, Christopher S. Galletti, Tracy Shirmang, Elizabeth Ridder & JoAnna KlingeJournal of Archaeological Science 39:7 (July) 2012: 2335-2347.
We investigate the temporal and environmental relationships between the terraced hill slopes of Politiko-Koloiokremmos and the adjacent Bronze Age settlement of Politiko-Troullia in foothills of the Troodos Mountains, central Cyprus. Mapping of 102 stone walls on Koloiokremmos is compared with 66 walls farther afield on Cyprus to create a six-part terrace typology.
H. Brecoulaki, A. Andreotti, I. Bonaduce, M.P. Colombini & A. LluverasJournal of Archaeological Science 39:9 (September) 2012: 2866-2876.
This paper presents the results of an investigation of organic binding media detected in samples from the Mycenaean wall-paintings at the “Palace of Nestor” in Pylos (Western Messenia, Greece): samples dated from the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BC).
Andreas SchachnerArchäologischer Anzeiger 2011/1: 31-86.
The excavations concentrate on the southern section of the Lower City. Enlargement of the excavation area has allowed to us to establish more precisely the chronological and structural development of this section.
Alan SimmonsJournal of Field Archaeology 37:2 (May 2012): 86-103.
For over a century, archaeologists have been intrigued by the inception of food production and sedentary lifeways, the so-called “Neolithic Revolution.” Research focused on the Near Eastern and Anatolian mainlands has documented some of the earliest Neolithic cultures known.
Brandon L. DrakeJournal of Archaeological Science 39:6 (June 2012): 1862-1870.
Between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE, most Greek Bronze Age Palatial centers were destroyed and/or abandoned. The following centuries were typified by low population levels. Data from oxygen-isotope speleothems, stable carbon isotopes, alkenone-derived sea surface temperatures, and changes in warm-species dinocysts and formanifera in the Mediterranean indicate that the Early Iron Age was more arid than the preceding Bronze Age.
Panagiotis Karkanas, Mary K. Dabney, R. Angus K. Smith & James C. WrightJournal of Archaeological Science 39:8 (August 2012): 2722-2732.
This study presents a revised methodology for the excavation and analysis of the stratigraphy in Mycenaean chamber tombs and other multi-use burials. For our excavation of chamber tombs at Ayia Sotira and Barnavos, Nemea, we followed a geoarchaeological approach to provide details about the process of backfilling and re-opening of the tombs and to identify the location, number, and slope of these re-openings.
During the Middle Pre-pottery Neolithic B in the southern Levant the use of lime plaster in both ritual and domestic contexts increased significantly relative to previous periods. Its properties of whiteness, purity, plasticity and antisepsis would have made it a natural choice for decorating, and through the act of colouring disparate categories of objects were linked together.
Gert Jan van WijngaardenQuaternary International 251 (February 2012): 136-141.
To understand the human perception of landscapes in the past, archaeologists would require knowledge of the immaterial landscape elements: the stories that are connected to physical landscape features. One way of acquiring access to such stories is through written literature (poetry, prose), which has survived centuries and is connected to specific landscapes.
