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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

ARTICLES | 2026

Rapid cooling effects in Early Bronze Age copper smelting slags from Chrysokamino

M.G. Clinton, S. Martino, G.H. Myer, D.O. Terry, Jr. & P.P. Betancourt Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 21-30.

During the Early Bronze Age, the promontory of Chrysokamino in the Mirabello Bay area of Crete housed a small copper smelting installation. Under the direction of Philip P. Betancourt, a team from Temple University excavated the site from 1996 to 1997. Slag from the smelting operations was abundantly present, up to sixty centimeters deep. Initial analyses of the slag suggested that the smelting operation, although relying upon simple technology, was nonetheless effective. With chimneys and artificial draft, the furnaces probably reached temperatures of up to 1230° C, sufficient to separate copper from its ores and produce slag.

A reconsideration of depositional practices in Early Bronze Age Crete

E. Miller Bonney Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 31-50.

Aegeanists typically argue that the state formed on Crete as it did in the ancient Near East. Hierarchical structures developed over the course of the Bronze Age culminating in the centralization of civil and religious power at Knossos near the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Already at EM I Knossos emerging elites competed in the conspicuous consumption of food, drink and fine pottery to legitimate their authority.

Inferences for use of Skotino Cave during the Bronze Age and later based on a speleological and environmental study at Skotino Cave, Crete

L. Tyree, F.W. McCoy, A. Kanta, D. Sphakianakis, A. Stamos, K. Aretaki & E. Kamilaki Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 51-63.

Inferences for the use of Skotino Cave in the Bronze Age are based on a speleological and environmental study of the cave conducted in 2007. Level II of the cave, an area excavated by Davaras, was the focus of the inquiry.

From the ground up: Earth in Minoan construction. The case of Building 5 at Palaikastro

M. Devolder Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 65-80.

The violent destruction by fire of Building 5 at Palaikastro, Crete, provided an interesting and varied collection of well-preserved fired-earth elements. Those include fragments of mudbricks, mud coatings, roofs/ceilings, doorjambs, and other samples which bear impressions of wooden elements, probably from installations made of a combination of earth and wood.

The ownership of hard stone seals with the motif of a pair of recumbent bovines from the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland: A contextual approach

E. Drakaki Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 81-93.

Hard stone seals with the motif of a pair of side-to-side recumbent bovines form one of the most recognizable groups of Late Bronze Age Aegean glyptic. In an attempt to shed some light on aspects of their ownership, this paper examines in detail the contextual associations of a small corpus of these seals from eight Late Bronze Age burials and burial assemblages of the Greek mainland.

2006–2007 Excavations of the Mycenaean cemetery at Ayia Sotira, ancient Nemea

R.A.K. Smith, E. Pappi, M.K. Dabney, S. Triantaphyllou & J.C. Wright Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 95-109.

During the summers of 2006 and 2007 the Canadian Institute in Greece sponsored the excavation of a Mycenaean chamber tomb cemetery at Ayia Sotira near Koutsomodi in the Nemea valley. The cemetery was discovered in 2002, when the 4th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities discovered illegal digging in an olive grove above the small church of Ayia Sotira, and immediately conducted salvage excavations of one of the chamber tombs.

Mycenae revisited part 2. Exploring the local versus non-local geographical origin of the individuals from Grave Circle A: Evidence from Strontium Isotope Ratio (87Sr/86Sr) Analysis

Argyro Nafplioti The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 279-291.

Strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) analysis was applied to dental enamel samples from eleven adults from Grave Circle A at Mycenae in order to investigate their local versus non-local geographical origin. The results of this analysis suggest a relatively high intra-sample variation in 87Sr/86Sr values for the Grave Circle A Mycenaeans.

Mycenae and Tiryns: the pottery of the second half of the thirteenth century BC – contexts and definitions

Ε.Β. French, Ph. Stockhammer & U. Damm-Meinhardt The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 175-232.

Since 1950 widespread and important excavation has taken place in the Argolid. For Mycenae and Tiryns much of the post-excavation study has now been completed but has not yet reached final publication. The use of material from the preliminary reports has, however, led to conclusions which are not justified.

Mycenae revisited part 1. The human remains from Grave Circle A: Stamatakis, Schliemann and two new faces from Shaft Grave VI

L. Papazoglou-Manioudaki, A. Nafplioti, J.H. Musgrave, R.A.H. Neave, D. Smith & A.J.N.W. Prag The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 233-277.

Building work at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens in 2003 led to the rediscovery of the two male skeletons from Shaft Grave VI at Mycenae, found by Panayiotis Stamatakis in 1877 as he completed the excavation of Grave Circle A begun by Schliemann.

Kinship in Aegean Prehistory? Ancient DNA in human bones from mainland Greece and Crete

A.S. Bouwman, Κ.Α. Brown, Τ.Α. Brown, E.R. Chilvers, R. Arnott & A.J.N.W. Prag The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 293-309.

Attempts were made to detect ancient DNA (aDNA) in samples of 89 human skeletons from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and Crete. Ancient DNA was absent in specimens from Nea Nicomedia, Lerna, Kato Zakro: Karaviadena, and Mycenae Grave Circle A.

Casting finger rings in Mycenaean times: Two unpublished moulds at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Elena Konstantinidi-Syvridi & Maria Kontaki The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 311-319.

The recording of two unpublished moulds in the storeroom of the Prehistoric Collections of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, presented here, provide the stimulus for a re-examination of the construction method of the bezeled/signet rings of Mycenaean times. The moulds, one of semi-cylindrical shape and the other rectangular, belong to a limited class of items from Crete, Mainland Greece, and Enkomi, Cyprus.

Prehistoric Laconia: A note on the location of the site of Souroukla

R. Hope Simpson The Annual of the British School at Athens 104 (2009) [February 2010]: 321-324.

In 1921, Carl Blegen found Mycenaean and other ancient sherds at a site then named Souroukla, near Skala in Laconia. William Coulson and others have mistakenly assumed that Souroukla is to be identified as Ayios Stephanos, the important site surveyed by the author in 1956 and later excavated by the British School under Lord William Taylour.

Wild nature? Human–animal relations on Neopalatial Crete

Andrew Shapland Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20.1 (February 2010): 109–127.

The Neopalatial period of Middle to Late Bronze Age Crete is marked by a dramatic increase in the depiction of non-human animals. In contrast to the domesticates listed in the Linear A documents, the animals which appear on frescoes and seals are largely wild or supernatural, or in non-domestic scenes (particularly bull-leaping).

Depending on 14C data: Chronological frameworks in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of southeastern Europe

Agathe Reingruber & Laurens Thissen Radiocarbon 51.2 (September 2009): 751-770.

With the introduction of the radiocarbon method in 1949 and the calibration curve constantly improving since 1965, but especially due to the development of the more accurate accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating some 30 yr ago, the application of the 14C method in prehistory revolutionized traditional chronological frameworks.