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.
Maurizio Del FreoRevue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 82:1 (2008 [2010]): 63-69.
Les tablettes Ed 847 et Ep 539.10-12 de Pylos enregistrent respectivement le total des o-na-ta des e-qe-si-jo do-e-ro /hekwesioi doheloi/ « esclaves de l’e-qe-ta » et les o-na-ta de ke-ke-me-na ko-to-na de trois personnages appelés e-ni-to-wo, to-wa-te-u et wi-dwo-i-jo et caractérisés par l’appellatif d’a-pi-mede-o do-e-ro /Amphimēdehos doheloi/ « esclaves d’Amphimēdēs».
Maria PhilokyprouThe Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry 11:2 (2011): 37-53.
In Cyprus stone was the primary building material, either as rubble or in a dressed form (called ashlar), since the Neolithic period. Initially stone was used only as rubble but later during the Late Brone Age ashlar stone appeared for the first time on the island.
Palaeomagnetic and anisotropy measurements were carried out on Minoan ash deposits obtained from the deep-sea cores, (V10-50 and V10-58), South Aegean Sea. Three distinct layers have been reported within the ash deposit in core (V10-50). Based primarily on grain-size differences, a link to three separate eruptive phases of Santorini has been suggested.
Nena GalanidouJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24:2 (2011): 219-242.
This paper discusses the Greek Mesolithic record in the light of refinements to the international calibration curve and recent archaeological research. Central to the discussion are the time frame used for this period of Greek prehistory, and the diagnostic potential, or visibility, of Mesolithic stone tools.
Emily Miller BonneyJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24:2 (2011): 171-190.
The two reconstituted faience figurines from the Temple Repositories at Knossos were restored by Sir Arthur Evans as epitomes of elite women of the Neopalatial period and objects of an indigenous palatial cult of the Snake Goddess.
David Frankel & Jennifer M. WebbJournal of Archaeological Science 39:5 (May 2012): 1380-1387.
Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of over 400 samples of Early and Middle Bronze Age Cypriot pottery from four widely separated sites identifies both local and non-local products at each. A series of analyses of sub-sets of the data highlights differences in the clays used at each site and for some distinctive types and wares.
Paula L. MartinoJournal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4:1 (March 2012): 31-50.
The Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a painted limestone larnax, has been an enigma in the Minoan artistic canon since the time of its discovery in 1903. It is the only larnax found to date made of limestone, and the only one to contain a series of narrative scenes of Minoan funerary rituals.
