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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

ARTICLES | 2009

Luigi Pernier: direttore “pel bene e l’avvenire”

Stefania Berutti Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente LXXXVII (2009) [2010]: 69-77.

The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens was born at a difficult moment both from the historical point of view of the Italian military participation in the Eastern Mediterranean and from the more specific political one of academic machinations and complicated bureaucracy. The fundamental stages of this genesis involved personalities who created the history of Italian archaeology and made an important contribution to the international discipline, such as Luigi Pernier, first Director of the School, who is linked in the archaeological bibliography with the Minoan palace of Phaistos, in Crete.

Federico Halbherr and Knossos

Catherine Morgan Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente LXXXVII (2009) [2010]: 43-67.

The article examines the political and scientific importance of Federico Halbherr’s excavation at Knossos in October-November 1885. It is one of his first excavation, just a year after his arrival in Crete. His excavation that is often overlooked in the history of research at Knossos, lasted 10 days, during which Halbherr revealed significant Roman and Christian walls, parts of at least one peristyle domus, a mosaic with the representation of the four seasons, a basilica and a church.

La Scuola Archeologica di Atene nell’ambito della politica estera italiana tra XIX e XX secolo

Nicola Labanca Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente LXXXVII (2009) [2010]: 17-40.

The article reviews the publications in the last two decades on this topic. Indeed, the perspectives and the proposals of a previous study phase have been radically renewed. The field is open to necessary new research, on the condition that old nationalistic schemes are overcome forms. The general historical contexts related to Italy and Greece between the 19th and the 20th century are examined, and the recent publications on archaeology in liberal Italy and during the fascist regime are discussed.

A sword of Naue II type from Ugarit and the historical significance of Italian-type weaponry in the Eastern Mediterranean

R. Jung & M. Mehofer Aegean Archaeology 8 (2005-2006) [2009]: 111-135.

In this paper we treat changes in weaponry and armament, which occurred in the Aegean and Levantine regions between the late 14th and the early 12th century BC. We aim at reconstructing these changes in a sequence as fine-phased as possible and try to identify the regions in which they originated. As a case study we use a sword of Naue II type found at Ugarit.

Animal bodies and ontological discourse in the Greek Neolithic

Stratos Nanoglou In S. Nanoglou & L. Meskell (eds), The Materiality of Representation, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 16.3 (September 2009): 184-204.

The present article tries to assess the ways that animal bodies were represented in the Neolithic of Northern Greece. Contending that representations always have a material presence (be they spoken, depicted or anything else), an attempt is made to sort out how the specificity of this presence constitutes a frame of reference for the deployment of social action. Animal representations seem to be particularly related with certain materials, especially clay, and certain objects, mostly clay vessels. It is suggested that these objects allow animals to be incorporated in social action in a very specific manner, one that is further defined by the contexts of their use.

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean

Eric H. Cline Oxford

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean A reissue of Eric H. Cline’s highly regarded study of trade in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, first published in 1994 and out-of-print since 2000. The monograph is composed of three principal parts: 1) an analytical section discussing the trade and contacts which occurred between the Aegean, Italy, Egypt, and the Near East during the latter half of the second millennium BC, and the social, economic and cultural implications of such contacts; 2) first, a catalogue of literary and pictorial references to the LBA Aegean found in outside areas – primarily Egypt and the Near East – with transliterations and translations of the appropriate texts, and second, a compilation of the references to, and loanwords from, other areas of the Mediterranean found in the Linear B texts in the Aegean; and 3) a catalogue, by object type, of all the Orientalia and Occidentalia found in LBA contexts within the Aegean area.

Articulate bodies: Forms and figures at Çatalhöyük

Carolyn Nakamura & Lynn Meskell In S. Nanoglou & L. Meskell (eds), The Materiality of Representation, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 16.3 (September 2009): 205-230.

This paper examines the materializing practices of bodies at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. We focus on the clay and stone figurine corpus (over 1,800 total, with over 1,000 of those being diagnostic), but also consider other media such as wall paintings and sculptured features, as well as the skeletal evidence.

The materiality of representation: A preface

Stratos Nanoglou In S. Nanoglou & L. Meskell (eds), The Materiality of Representation, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 16.3 (September 2009): 157-161.

Issues of materiality are gaining ground in archaeology, although there are still conflicting views over the usefulness of the concept. Despite the controversy over the concept itself, all interlocutors converge in the need to focus on the material aspect of the world, on the material part of material culture. Historically, this could be seen as a counteraction to an overt emphasis upon the cultural as an intellectual construct that has dominated many recent attempts to reconstruct the past, but the move does not restrict itself to that. Accordingly, in this issue our understanding and use of the term is on the broadest level. It pertains to the “thingness” of things, to that aspect of things that gives them a material presence in the world.

Neolithic zoomorphic vessels from eastern Macedonia, Greece: Issues of function

C. Marangou & B. Stern Archaeometry 51.3 (June 2009): 397-412.

Five fragments of Late Neolithic clay zoomorphic vessels from northern Greece have been analysed for organic residues by gas chromatography – mass spectrometry. The results showed that the containers had been used in connection with a number of substances, in particular lower terpenoids, an oil or fat, possibly fossil fuel and in one case possibly beeswax

Du phénotype au génotype. Analyse de la syntaxe spatiale en architecture minoenne (MM IIIB – MR IB)

Quentin Letesson Louvain-la-Neuve

Du phénotype au génotype. Analyse de la syntaxe spatiale en architecture minoenne (MM IIIB – MR IB) Âge d'or de la civilisation minoenne, la période néopalatiale (1600-1425 avant notre ère) révéla un paysage architectural foisonnant et complexe. Bien que cette architecture fut largement étudiée et commentée, à ce jour, elle reste l'objet de bon nombre d'interrogations et souffre de l'absence d'approches réellement systématiques et exhaustives. En se basant sur les principes de la théorie de la syntaxe spatiale et en les étoffant de méthodologies auxiliaires, cet ouvrage se propose d'analyser le bâti néopalatial sous ses formes les plus diverses.

Representations of Knossos and Minoan Crete in the British, American and Continental Press, 1900-c. 1930

S. Sherratt Creta Antica 10/II (2009): 619-649.

The Arthur Evans archive in the Department of Antiquities of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford contains 11 volumes of newspaper and journal cuttings which cover the years from roughly 1900 to 1930. Many of them refer to Evans’ work at Knossos or to other aspects of the Minoan civilization. It seems probable that Evans himself amassed most of these cuttings, which number well over a thousand, and kept them in a largely unsystematised state. Despite the number and range of these cuttings, they cannot be regarded as comprehensive.

A Mediterranean Connection. Nuovi dati sulle relazioni tra Malta e Creta agli inizi dell’età del Ferro (A Mediterranean Connection. New data on the relations between Malta and Crete in the Early Iron Age)

Davide Tanasi Creta Antica 10/II (2009): 519-538.

The topic of the relations between the Maltese Archipelago and the Aegean in the Bronze Age and in the Early Iron Age has been neglected due to the scant evidence available. Recent research on unpublished pottery coming from several Middle and Late Bronze Age Maltese sites, held at the National Museum of Archaeology of Valletta, offered new data for the interpretation of a Mediterranean connection that linked Malta and Crete in the Early Iron Age. In this paper three classes of objects, extraneous to the local tradition and probably of Cretan derivation, coming from the excavations of the Borg in-Nadur temple and from the Borg in-Nadur culture layers of the Bahrija village, are discussed.

A Late Minoan III Propylon at Agia Triada

Nicola Cucuzza & Nils Hellnerr Creta Antica 10/II (2009): 501-518.

A survey of the area around the Stoà dell’Agorà at Agia Triada has identified an H-shaped Propylon. Built in LM III A against the northern wail of the Bastione, the structure was located at the entrance of the large Piazzale dell’Agorà. The Propylon has no good comparison in Minoan architecture; instead it has many similarities with the propylaia known in the Mycenaean palatial sites of Mainland Greece. The presence of a propylon (the only one known up to now in Crete) confirms the importance of Agia Triada in LM IIIA-B. Moreover, it enlarges our knowledge of the LM IIIA-B architecture and its relationship with the contem­porary architecture of Mainland Greece.

The Absolute Chronology of the Egyptian S.I.P.- New Kingdom transition and its implications for Late Minoan Crete

Tiziano Fantuzzi Creta Antica 10/II (2009): 477-500.

The textual/archaeological based absolute chronology for the end of the Second Intermediate Period, and the first part of the Egyptian XVIII Dynasty, has been much refined in several studies over the last two decades, and offers a good chronological datum-line which reflects significantly on the absolute chronology of LM I-II Crete, through both direct and indirect archaeological arguments.

Pessoì vecchi e nuovi da Haghia Triada (Pessoì old and new from Agia Triada)

V. La Rosa Creta Antica 10/II (2009): 465-475.

This article deals with the LM I lithic pessoì from the old excavations at Agia Triada, which are characterised by the presence of signs incised on one face, and publishes two new examples retrieved from this site during the new excavations. The incised signs, which are always different from one other, are discussed, as well as the material and its provenance (Spartan or Cretan).