Figurines have always constituted a distinct class of archaeological material both literally, as far as researchers have differentiated them from other artefacts, and in terms of value, as they have been given a special power: the ability to act as a proxy for ancient people’s minds.
Although the area of Marathon has been largely treated in studies, either general works or more specialized monographs and collective volumes, the period that we are largely refer to as the Early Iron Age (11th to late 8th and early 7th century BC) is almost entirely missing.
Over 100 years after Stephanos Xanthoudides undertook the first archaeological research at Minoan Koumasa, a 5-year research project started in 2012 under the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society.
The excavations of the Neopalatial strata at Mochlos, Crete, produced a very large number of animal remains. These include mammal bones and molluscan remains, along with fish and bird bones. They represent a wide range of activities that took place in several different houses and open spaces all over the settlement.
The lecture will take place at the British School at Athens, as part of the Annual Meeting of Aegeus
One problem with written materials in the Aegean Bronze Age is that they are asked to fulfil a dual interpretative function: on the one hand, we use the content of documents we can read (mostly Linear B, less so Linear A and barely at all Cretan Hieroglyphic) to construct text-based narratives, while, on the other, we use the archaeological contexts in which documents are found to situate interpretations in particular spaces (e.g., ‘Archives’) or sites (e.g., ‘administrative centres’).
The Neopalatial period in Crete, a time that exhibits all the characteristics of the culture that we have come to think of as Minoan, is a period that saw a number of social innovations being introduced and established.
The discovery of the palatial complex in Ayios Vasileios, excavated since 2009 under the direction of A. Vasilogamvrou and the auspices of the Archaeological Society at Athens, is rapidly changing our understanding of the political organisation of Mycenaean Laconia.
Pyla-Kokkinokremos at the south-east coast of Cyprus was only founded a few decades prior to its eventual abandonment at the beginning of the 12th c. BC and presents hence an excellent case study to explore the impact of the so-called crisis years on the island.
