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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

BOOKS | 2012

Feasting Practices and Changes in Greek Society from the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age

Rachel Sarah Fox Oxford 2012

Feasting Practices and Changes in Greek Society from the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age A feast is a sensory, sacralised and social occasion. Its multiple resonances and experiences extend far beyond the nutritive consumption of food and drink by a group of people. To reduce the act of feasting to functional terms overlooks the vivid tastes and smells, the bonds created and broken between fellow-participants, the awe induced by dining in the presence of the dead, the gods or a powerful leader, and the embedding of bodily memories in the diners to be recalled long after the event.

Geophysical Survey as an Aid to Excavation at Mitrou: A Preliminary Report

Gregory N. Tsokas, Aleydis Van de Moortel, Panayiotis I. Tsourlos, Alexandros Stampolidis, George Vargemezis & Eleni Zahou Hesperia 81:3 (2012): 383-432.

Various geophysical methods were used to explore the subsurface of the prehistoric site of Mitrou. Geophysical research was essential for selecting significant areas for excavation as well as for guiding archaeological fieldwork and complementing its results.

Petras, Siteia – 25 years of excavations and studies

Edited by Metaxia Tsipopoulou Athens

Petras, Siteia – 25 years of excavations and studies The conference was hosted at the Danish Institute at Athens in October 2010, on the occasion of the 25 years of excavations and studies at the Minoan palatial site of Petras, Siteia (1985-2010). A team of scholars from six countries (Greece, United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark, USA and Canada) participated and presented material from the settlement, the palace and the cemetery.

A Cycladic Perspective on Mycenaean Long-Distance Exchanges

Jason Walker Earle Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 25:1 (2012): 3-25.

Recent discussions of Mycenaean long-distance exchanges with the ‘East’ have focused on the goods exchanged, their means of production and shipment, and their significance for consumers. Despite voluminous research on these topics, consideration of Mycenaean long-distance exchanges with the eastern Mediterranean vis-à-vis the Cycladic islands during the Palatial Period has been minimal.

Two Knights and a Goddess: Sir Arthur Evans, Sir James George Frazer, and the Invention of Minoan Religion

Cynthia Eller Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 25:1 (2012): 75-98.

Recent biographies of Sir Arthur Evans and histories of his excavations at Knossos have made it clear that Evans’s description of Minoan religion was not solidly based on the material evidence at Knossos. By the time Evans wrote The Palace of Minos he was fully committed to the belief that the Minoans worshipped a single Great Mother Goddess in many guises, along with a subordinate male deity, her son.

Opacifiers in Late Bronze Age glasses: the use of ToF-SIMS to identify raw ingredients and production techniques

Chloë N. Duckworth, Julian Henderson, Frank J.M. Rutten & Kalliopi Nikita Journal of Archaeological Science 39:7 (July) 2012: 2143-2152.

Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is applied to the study of four samples of opaque glass of Late Bronze Age date. The technique is uniquely capable of identifying compositional heterogeneity at a sub-micron resolution within the crystalline opacifiers dispersed through homogeneous glass matrices.

Early seafaring activity in the southern Ionian Islands, Mediterranean Sea

George Ferentinos, Maria Gkioni, Maria Geraga & George Papatheodorou Journal of Archaeological Science 39:7 (July 2012): 2167-2176.

This paper summarises the current development in the southern Ionian Islands (Kefallinia and Zakynthos) prehistory and places it within the context of seafaring. Archaeological data from the southern Ionian Islands show human habitation since Middle Palaeolithic going back to 110 ka BP yet bathymetry, sea-level changes and the Late Quaternary geology, show that Kefallinia and Zakynthos were insular at that time.

The Harbor Complex of the Minoan Town at Gournia

L. Vance Watrous American Journal of Archaeology 116:3 (2012): 521-541.

In 1901, Harriet Boyd excavated several Minoan structures on the coast at Gournia. She subsequently focused her attention on the Late Bronze Age town of Gournia and did not publish her work on the coast. In 2008 and 2009, the Minoan remains investigated by Boyd along the shore and coastal plain of Gournia were cleaned, mapped, and photographed.