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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

ARTICLES | 2026

Colour in Minoan faience

M.S. Tite, Y. Maniatis, D. Kavoussanaki, M. Panagiotaki, A.J. Shortland & S.F. Kirk Journal of Archaeological Science 36.2 (February 2009): 370-378.

The microstructures and chemical compositions of some 15 faience objects from Crete spanning the period from Middle Minoan IIIA through to Late Minoan IA are determined using analytical scanning electron microscopy. The Minoan faience is compared with replicate faience beads produced in the laboratory using various combinations of manganese, copper and iron as colorants. The alkali contents of the replicate beads are varied so that the colorants are present both as ions in a glass phase and as particulate oxides.

New light on old pumice: The origins of Mediterranean volcanic material from ancient Egypt

Johannes H. Sterba, Karen Polinger Foster, Georg Steinhauser & Max Bichler Journal of Archaeological Science 36.8 (August 2009): 1738-1744.

This paper presents and discusses the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) results newly obtained from pumice pieces found decades ago at the Egyptian sites of Maiyana, Sedment, Kahun, and Amarna – now in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London – which could be successfully related to several volcanic eruptions in the Mediterranean. The work contributes to the constant accumulation of knowledge concerning the first appearance of pumice from the so-called Minoan eruption of the Santorini volcano.

Approaching Levantine shores. Aspects of Cretan contacts with Western Asia during the MM-LM I periods

Annette Højen Sørensen Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens VI (2009): 9-55.

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the foreign relations of Crete towards the Levant and beyond, from their first en­counter to the end of the New Palace Period, with the main focus on the MM-LM I periods. The ar­chaeological material indicates contacts during the EM II and from the MM I period onwards, whilst the textual evidence strongly indicates direct royal connections perhaps from the Old Palace Period or early New Palace Period, and furthermore offers a mythological remembrance of these contacts dur­ing the Late Bronze Age.

The Ayia Triadha cave, Southern Euboea: Finds and implications of the earliest human habitation in the area (a preliminary report)

F. Mavridis & Ž. Tankosić The Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry (MAA) 9:2 (2009): 47-59.

The Ayia Triadha cave excavation project aims to explore early maritime connections in the Aegean during the Late Neolithic I and II and the Early Bronze Age. The cave lies in a strategic position close to the crossroads that connect insular regions and the mainland. We also aim to explore the manifestations of the so-called Saliagos culture of the Cyclades and the Aegean. This culture is connected to the White-on-Dark pottery horizon (late sixth to early fifth millennium B.C.) found in the cave.

La città ellenica sovrapposta al palazzo minoico di Festo in Creta (con Appendici nn. 1-3) (The Greek town superimposed on the Minoan palace of Phaistos in Crete)

L. Pernier Creta Antica 10/I (2009): 37-47.

This typed-script is the transcription of a lecture given by Pernier at Berlin, in April 1929, on the occasion of the jubilee of the DAI. The lecture was published the following year, in German, in a periodical of limited distribution, which is therefore difficult to find. It is undoubtedly a popularising work, which contains a series of otherwise unpublished informa­tion about the most recent phases of the Phaistian settlement. Attention is focused on the cis­terns and water catchment system in general, with the clear intention of proposing a sort of continuum between the palatial and Hellenistic periods.

Per Luigi Pernier (con Appendice dal primo taccuino cretese) (For Luigi Pernier)

V. La Rosa Creta Antica 10/I (2009): 19-35.

This paper re-examines the opinions so far expressed about the person and work of L. Pernier, excavator and editor of the ruins of the palace at Phaistos. His positivistic formation as a field archaeologist is emphasized, together with his objectivity and with the deci­sions made about the restoration of the ruins of the palace, which were opposite to the line followed by Evans at Knossos.

Il disco di Festòs: un centenario autentico! (The Phaistos disc: an authentic centenary!)

V. La Rosa Creta Antica 10/I (2009): 13-17.

This paper originates in the recent resumption of the debate about the presumed fal­sity of the Phaistos disk, and aims at demonstrating that it is indeed authentic. The claims about the particular ‘psychological’ relationship between Pernier and Halbherr are demonstrated to be lacking in foundations, and decisive proof for the authenticity of the discovery is looked for in Pernier’s excavation daybooks. The time and circumstance of the discovery, the character of the persons involved and the preliminary remarks written by Pernier allow any hypothesis about the falsity of the disk to be categorically refuted.

Paleoenvironmental evolution and prehistoric human environment, in the embayment of Palamari (Skyros Island, Greece) during Middle-Late Holocene

Kosmas Pavlopoulos, Maria Triantaphyllou, Panagiotis Karkanas, Katerina Kouli, George Syrides, Kostantinos Vouvalidis, Nikos Palyvos, Theodora Tsourou Quaternary International 216.1-2 (1 April 2010): 41-53.

Palamari Bay is located on the northeastern coast of Skyros Island (Sporades Islands, Aegean Sea). At the northern edge of the bay a fortified prehistoric settlement is found, dated between 2800 and 1700 BC (Early Bronze Age II–Middle Bronze Age I). Detailed geomorphological mapping of the coastal alluvial plain and paleontological, micropaleontological, palynological, sedimentological and micromorphological studies of the Holocene coastal deposits have been conducted in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment and the landscape evolution of the broader area of Palamari Bay.

14C dating of the Early to Late Bronze Age stratigraphic sequence of Aegina Kolonna, Greece

E.M. Wild, W. Gauß, G. Forstenpointner, M. Lindblom, R. Smetana, P. Steier, U. Thanheiser, F. Weninger Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268.7-8 (April 2010): 1013-1021.

Aegina Kolonna, located in the center of the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Mediterranean (Greece), is one of the major archaeological sites of the Aegean Bronze Age with a continuous stratigraphic settlement sequence from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Due to its position next to the maritime cross roads between central mainland Greece, the northeast Peloponnese, the Cyclades and Crete, the island played an important role in the trade between these regions.

A new type of Early Iron Age fibula from Albania and Northwest Greece

John K. Papadopoulos Hesperia 79.2 (April 2010): 233-252.

This article presents a hitherto unknown type of Early Iron Age fibula from Lofkënd in Albania, together with related examples from Kënet in northeastern Albania and Liatovouni in northwestern Greece. Dubbed the “Lofkënd type”, this group of fibulae can be securely dated to the late 10th or 9th century BC. The author discusses the evidence provided by archaeological context, as well as the date, distribution, and cultural affinities of the new type.

Holocene palaeoenvironmental changes in Agia Paraskevi prehistoric settlement, Lamia, Central Greece

K. Vouvalidis, G. Syrides, K. Pavlopoulos, M. Papakonstantinou, P. Tsourlos Quaternary International 216.1-2 (1 April 2010): 64-74.

Holocene palaeoenvironmental changes in the area of the prehistoric settlement of Megali Vrysi close to the village of Agia Paraskevi in Central Greece, 5 km east of Lamia City, were investigated. The area is situated in the low flat alluvial plain on the outskirts of Sperchios Valley that is bordered NNW to ENE by a rocky, hilly ridge of the Othrys Mountain foothills, 5.5 km away from the present coastline.

Paleoenvironmental changes since 3000 BC in the coastal marsh of Vravron (Attica, SE Greece)

M.V. Triantaphyllou, K. Kouli, T. Tsourou, O. Koukousioura, K. Pavlopoulos, M.D. Dermitzakis Quaternary International 216.1-2 (1 April 2010): 14-22.

The coastal area of the Vravron Bay, in the vicinity of the homonym archaeological site, is a marshy plain located on the eastern part of the Attica Peninsula (eastern Greece). In order to provide evidence for palaeoenvironmental changes and landscape evolution of the area, detailed micropaleontological, palynological and sedimentological analyses have been conducted at the underlying Late Holocene coastal deposits. The recovered sediments (lithostratigraphic Units A–D) represent a continuous record of the environmental history of the area since the Early Bronze Age, covering all subsequent historical periods.

Mycenaean and Cypriot Late Bronze Age ceramic imports to Kommos: An investigation by Neutron Activation Analysis

Jonathan E. Tomlinson, Jeremy B. Rutter & Sandra M. A. Hoffmann Hesperia 79.2 (April 2010): 191-231.

The results of a small-scale program of neutron activation analysis of 69 ceramic fragments from the Minoan harbor town of Kommos are presented and critically evaluated. Prior to analysis, the vessels represented in the sample were thought to be imports from outside of Crete, manufactured either on Cyprus or in the Mycenaean cultural sphere.

Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence from the Plakias region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete

Thomas F. Strasser, Eleni Panagopoulou, Curtis N. Runnels, Priscilla M. Murray, Nicholas Thompson, Panayiotis Karkanas, Floyd W. McCoy & Karl W. Wegmann Hesperia 79.2 (April 2010): 145-190.

A survey in 2008 and 2009 on the southwestern coast of Crete in the region of Plakias documented 28 preceramic lithic sites. Sites were identified with artifacts of Mesolithic type similar to assemblages from the Greek mainland and islands, and some had evidence of Lower Palaeolithic occupation dated by geological context to at least 130,000 years ago.

Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, part VIII: Lithics and landscapes: A Messenian perspective

William A. Parkinson & John F. Cherry Hesperia 79.1 (January 2010): 1-51.

The authors document and discuss the chipped stone assemblage collected by the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project in Messenia, Greece, during three seasons of surface investigations conducted between 1992 and 1994. The article begins with a brief description of the basic characteristics of the PRAP chipped stone assemblage. This section is followed by a discussion of the diachronic social processes that can be inferred from the patterns in the assemblage, from the Middle Palaeolithic through historical periods.