Jennifer M. Webbin Frankel, D., Webb, J.M. & Lawrence S. (eds), Archaeology in Environment and Technology: Intersections and Transformations (New York, 2013): 135-148.
Two major archaeologically recognisable cultural entities are visible in mid-third millennium BC Cyprus: an indigenous Late Chalcolithic dependent on hoe-based agriculture and a migrant Philia Early Bronze Age with a radically different social and technological system, including the cattle/plough complex.
Steven E. Falconer & Patricia L. Fallin Frankel, D., Webb, J.M. & Lawrence S. (eds), Archaeology in Environment and Technology: Intersections and Transformations (New York, 2013): 123-134.
The development of early civilisations in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East is particularly noteworthy for the variety of paths whereby agrarian societies became increasingly differentiated, often invoking the periodic amalgamation and abandonment of urban communities.
Christos Doumasin Alexopoulos, G. & Fouseki, K. (eds), Managing Archaeological Sites [Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 15:1 (2013)]: 109-120.
This article deals with the archaeological site of Akrotiri on the Cycladic island of Thera (Santorini), Greece, and demonstrates, in particular, how the construction of a new protective shelter has provided an opportunity for enhancing the present and future conservation and management of the site in accordance with, among other values, the aspirations of the local community.
Excavators have put forward opposing interpretations of the architectural sequence at the Early Bronze Age site of Troy. C.W. Blegen suggested that freestanding 'megaron' houses determined the visual pattern of the earliest settlement, while M.O. Korfmann compared Troy I to the circular layout of the Early Bronze Age site at Demircihüyük (the ‘Anatolian settlement plan’).
Hector Catling, who died on 15 February 2013 aged 88, was one of the great archaeologists of his generation. He made major contributions to our understanding of the past of Greece and Cyprus.
Giorgos VavouranakisCultural History 2.2 (2013): 213-231.
Landscape has been defined as ‘a usefully ambiguous concept’, being both the medium and the outcome of the dynamic relation between people and their environs. Human agency shapes the landscape and imbues it with meaning.
Ann BrysbaertOxford Journal of Archaeology 32:3 (August 2013): 233-256.
This paper reviews the environmental circumstances of the ostrich and its eggs, in order to provide a geographical overview of past human usage and modification of ostrich eggshells in the Aegean and, more specifically, at Tiryns, while placing this craft in its contemporary context in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean basin.
Aren M. Maeir, Louise A. Hitchcock & Liora Kolska HorwitzOxford Journal of Archaeology 32:1 (February 2013): 1-38.
Recent discussion of the formation and alteration of Philistine identity in the Levantine Iron Age continues to reference primarily pottery styles and dietary practices. Such traditional narratives propose that the Philistines comprised one group of the ‘Sea Peoples’ and that the cultural boundary markers that distinguished their society in the Iron Age I (twelfth–eleventh century BC) diminished in importance and disappeared suddenly in the early Iron Age IIA (tenth century BC), with the ascendancy of the Judahite kingdom.
Malcolm WienerAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
The upheavals and transformations in Greece and the Cyclades during the late third millennium B.C.E. must be considered in the light of related events throughout the eastern Mediterranean, as well as in regions farther east and west.
Ourania KoukaAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
Gaps are not desirable in archaeology, whether they refer to cultural gaps or to gaps in research. When Rutter defined a "gap" between the Early Cycladic IIB and Middle Cycladic I/Middle Helladic I assemblages, it was evident that there existed a real gap in archaeological research of the prehistoric landscapes and islandscapes of the northern and eastern Aegean and of western Anatolia, to the south of Troy.
Thomas M. BroganAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
The proposed Early Cycladic III "gap" was identified through careful correlations in the late Early Bronze II ceramic records of the mainland and the Cyclades. The absence of Cretan material was noteworthy when viewed against the rich Early Minoan (EM) I–II record, revealing that large amounts of material in the Kampos and Keros-Syros styles was reaching the island via Cycladic colonies or trade.
Daniel J. PullenAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
In one of the arguments about the Early Cycladic (EC) III "gap" in material culture, Jeremy Rutter recognized the Anatolianizing Kastri/Lefkandi I assemblage to be of great importance for developments in ceramics on the Early Helladic mainland.
Cyprian BroodbankAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
Thirty years on, "Rutter's gap" remains a challenge for Aegean prehistorians. With a precision commonly overlooked by his critics, Rutter originally set out to draw attention to a lacuna in our knowledge of material from stratified sites in the Cyclades, or of Cycladic material exported elsewhere, at the end of the third millennium B.C.E. and to a consequent hiatus in our ability to trace how island culture and behavior shifted from the Early to Middle Bronze Age.
Jack L. DavisAmerican Journal of Archaeology 117.4 (October 2013): Online Forum.
The articles collected in this Forum were presented in Jeremy Rutter's honor in a Gold Medal Colloquium held at the 114th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (Seattle, 2013).
