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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

ARTICLES | 2009

Floor sequences in Neolithic Makri, Greece: micromorphology reveals cycles of renovation

Panagiotis Karkanas & Nikos Efstratiou Antiquity 83, No. 322 (December 2009): 955–967

Dating and examination of plaster floor sequences by micromorphology at a tell site in Greece shows when they were made and how they were composed. While numerous informal floor surfaces using recycled rubbish were put in place, as and when, by the occupants, formal floors rich in plaster seem to have been re-laid at regular intervals in reflection of a communal decision – even if the actual floors followed a recipe determined by each household. The authors rightly champion the potential of the technique as a possible indicator of social change at the household and settlement level.

For Gods or men? A reappraisal of the function of European Bronze Age shields

Barry Molloy Antiquity 83, No. 322 (December 2009): 1052–1064.

Are the imposing, decorated copper-alloy shields of Bronze Age Europe symbolic objects or functioning weapons? The author undertakes new analysis and experiments to conclude that whether bronze, leather or wood, all shields had a range of purpose in which the ceremonial and homicidal could rarely be completely isolated.

Helis and the adjacent region during the Mycenaean period (in Greek)

Ολυμπία Βικάτου In Η. Αndreou & Ι. Αndreou-Psychogiou (eds), 2009. Ήλις, παρελθόν, παρόν και μέλλον. Πρακτικά εκδήλωσης προς τιμήν Ν. Γιαλούρη (Ήλις, 13 Αυγούστου 2006) (Pyrgos): 21-36.

The author examines the region of Helis (Peloponnese) during the Mycenaean period. Most of the article focuses on the Mycenaean cemetery at Agia Triada, where 50 chamber tombs have been found (40 at the site Agiannis and 10 at the site Spilies). Many colour photographs of the finds from the tombs are also included.

Burial pithoi of a Geometric cemetery at the site of Trapeza in Aegium (in Greek)

Αναστασία Γκαδόλου Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene 2007 [2009]: 11-32.

Twelve funerary pithoi were excavated on the site of Trapeza, near Aegium, in Achaea. Pottery, bronze and iron jewellery as well as iron weapons were identified amongst the funerary gifts. The typological analysis of the grave offerings leads to the chronology of the pithoi from the latest years of the Protogeometric down to the Late Geometric period.

I sigilli del “Gruppo del suonatore di lira” dalla stipe dell’Athenaion di Jalysos (Lyre-Player Group seals from the repository of the Athenaion of Ialysos)

Μ.Α. Rizzo Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene 2007 [2009]: 33-82.

The repository of the sanctuary of Athana Ialysia at Rhodes, excavated between 1923 and 1926, yielded more than 6300 pieces and is thus the most important on the island. The offerings date from the middle of the eighth to the end of the fourth century BC. Among these materials is an especially interesting group of seals of the Lyre-Player Group, comprising all of 27 specimens.

La ceramica fine del MM IIA di Festòs (The ceramic phase of MM IIA at Phaistos)

Ilaria Caloi Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene 2007 [2009]: 303-330.

The aim of this article is the presentation of the MM IIA ceramic phase of Protopalatial Phaistos. Since 1994, V. La Rosa and F. Carinci have been directing a new programme of excava­tions and revision of 1950-1966 Levi’s work at Phaistos, with support from the Italian Archaeological School in Athens

Iklaina archaeological project 2009 season. Internet report

Michael B. Cosmopoulos Online article

The third excavation season of the Iklaina project took place for six weeks from May 29 to July 8, 2009. The project was conducted under the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society and funded by the Hellenic Government-Karakas Foundation Chair in Greek Studies of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation.

Warfare in Neolithic Thessaly: A case study

Curtis N. Runnels, Claire Payne, Noam V. Rifkind, Chantel White, Nicholas P. Wolff & Steven A. LeBlanc Hesperia 78 (2009): 165-194.

Cross-cultural archaeological and ethnographic evidence for warfare in farming societies invites us to reconsider the traditional picture of the Greek Neolithic (ca. 7000-3400 B.C.) as a period of peaceful coexistence among subsistence farmers. Archaeological correlates of intercommunal conflict in the prehistoric American Southwest and the widespread evidence for warfare in Neolithic Europe suggest that warfare is also likely to have taken place in Neolithic Greece. The well-known Neolithic record for Thessaly reveals evidence for warfare in defensive structures, weapons, and settlement patterns.

New reconstructions of the “Mykenaia” and a seated woman from Mycenae

Bernice R. Jones American Journal of Archaeology 113 (2009): 309-338.

Abstract

This study presents evidence for reconstructing two frescoes, including the well-known “Mykenaia”, found at the Southwest Building at Mycenae. It argues that the “Mykenaia” did not depict a seated goddess facing right but a life-sized, standing woman striding to the left and that the other fresco portrays a half-life-sized enthroned woman, likely a goddess, facing right and holding a

Royal gift exchange between Mycenae and Egypt: Olives as “greeting gifts” in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean

Jorrit M. Kelder American Journal of Archaeology 113 (2009): 339-352.

Contact between Egypt and the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age, especially the relationship between Minoan Crete and New Kingdom Egypt, has been the subject of numerous studies. The relationship between the Greek (Mycenaean) mainland and Egypt is generally regarded as a more elusive topic, and most scholars seem to consider interaction between the two, as a matter of irregular exchange via middlemen (e.g., via Cyprus or the Levant), rather than direct contact.

From metallurgy to Bronze Age civilizations: The synthetic theory

Nissim Amzallag American Journal of Archaeology 113 (2009): 497-519.

During the past few decades, evidence for the ancient smelting of copper has been discovered in areas isolated from one another. In most of them, the beginning of metallurgy had no substantial social and cultural consequences.

Christos Tsountas (1857-1934) (in Greek)

Βασίλειος Πετράκος Mentor 91 (April 2009): 6-34.

The article, written in Greek, presents a brief biography of one of the most important Greek archaeologists, Christos Tsountas. It refers to his studies, his relation with another Greek prominent archaeologist Stephanos Koumanoudis, his appointment to the Archaeological Society at Athens as well as to the Greek Archaeological Ephorate, and lastly his first publications.

Use of space in a Neolithic village in Greece (Makri): Phytolith analysis and comparison of phytolith assemblages from an ethnographic setting in the same area

Georgia Tsartsidou, Simcha Lev-Yadun, Nikos Efstratiou & Steve Weiner Journal of Archaeological Science 36.10 (October 2009): 2342-2352.

Phytolith analyses were conducted in a pottery Neolithic village (Makri) of Northern Greece in order to reconstruct aspects of past human activities as a function of both space and time. The analyses of phytolith assemblages were based on a reference collection of modern plant phytoliths, as well as an ethnographic study in an agropastoral community (Sarakini) in the same area that showed that many phytolith assemblages are characteristic of the activities carried out in different locations within and around the village.

Of stamps, loom weights and spindle whorls: Contextual evidence on the function(s) of Neolithic stamps from Ulucak, İzmir, Turkey

Çiler Çilingiroğlu Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 22.1 (2009): 3-27.

This study discusses the function(s) of Neolithic stamps and their designs by using two different lines of evidence. The function of the artifact itself is considered by using contextual information from the Neolithic site of Ulucak Höyük, located in the vicinity of İzmir in western Turkey. It will be argued that the co-occurrence of stamps with objects related to textile manufacturing – e.g. bone needles, spindle whorls and loom weights – at Ulucak allows us to interpret their function as stamps to make patterns, among other cultural media, on woven fabrics.

Considering living-beings in the Aceramic Neolithic of Cyprus

Paula Louise Jones Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 22.1 (2009): 75-99.

This paper seeks to provide an alternative perspective on the portrayal of as exclusively ‘resources’ in the existing archaeological literature; it also re examines the relationships between humans and non-human animals in the Early Aceramic Neolithic of Cyprus.