A Danish eighteenth-century find of some bronze figurines tells the story of the practising of similar ritual performances across Bronze Age Europe from Egypt to Scandinavia. The Danish figurines, as well as Swedish rock carvings, show backwards-bending female acrobats doing backward handsprings.
Peter Grave, Lisa Kealhofer, Ben Marsh, Ulf Dietrich Schoop, Jürgen Seeher, John W. Bennett & Attila StopicAntiquity 88:342 (December 2014), 1180-1200
The island of Cyprus was a major producer of copper and stood at the heart of east Mediterranean trade networks during the Late Bronze Age. It may also have been the source of the Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware that has been found in mortuary contexts in Egypt and the Levant, and in Hittite temple assemblages in Anatolia.
David Frankel & Jennifer M. WebbAntiquity 88:340 (June 2014), 425-440
When fire swept through a workshop at Ambelikou Aletri on Cyprus in the nineteenth or twentieth century BC it brought a sudden halt to pottery production, leaving the latest batch of recently fired vessels.
Paolo Cherubini, Turi Humbel, Hans Beeckman, Holger Gärtner, David Mannes, Charlotte Pearson, Werner Schoch, Roberto Tognetti & Simcha Lev YadunAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 267-273
The massive eruption of the volcano beneath the island of Thera (Santorini) in the middle of the Aegean Sea provides a fundamental datum point in the history of the Late Bronze Age civilisations of the eastern Mediterranean.
Walter L. Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Michael Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier, Tom Pfeiffer & Sahra TalamoAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 274-277
Cherubini et al. question the reliability of identifying annual growth increments in olive trees, and therefore voice caution against the result of the wiggle-match of the four sections of a branch of an olive tree to the 14C calibration curve.
Hendrik J. Bruins & Johannes van der PlichtAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 282-287
An olive branch is traditionally a symbol of peace, but not necessarily in the context of chronological problems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and the Near East during the second millennium BG. Cherubini et al. (above) strongly attack the radiocarbon dating by Friedrich et al (2006) of an ancient olive branch, buried by volcanic tephra during the Minoan Santorini eruption.
Peter Ian KuniholmAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 287-288
Olive wood is difficult to date for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that one cannot tell visually what is an annual growth increment (usually referred to as a 'ting') and what is a sub-annual growth fiush of which there may be any number in one growing season.
J. Alexander MacGillivrayAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 288-290
Paolo Cherubini and colleagues have demonstrated convincingly that the identification of olive wood tree-rings from Santorini is 'practically impossible'.
Paolo Cherubini & Simcha Lev YadunAntiquity 88:339 (March 2014), 290-291
We are glad to see that our paper has stimulated a lively debate, and we acknowledge the appreciation of our work by Bietak, Kuniholm and MacGillivray as well as that of those who oppose our hypothesis
E. Frahm, R. Doonan & V. KilikoglouArchaeometry 56:2 (April 2014), 228-260
We tested two portable XRF instruments (with different technologies) using two correction schemes (‘soils’ and ‘mining’) with both factory-set calibrations and linear regression calibrations derived from published data.
Michael MacKinnonHesperia 83:2 (April-June 2014), 189-255
This synthetic investigation of a large sample of zooarchaeological remains, collected chiefly over the years 1934 through 1996, highlights the range of human cultural, social, and behavioral aspects involving animals and their products over time and space for the Athenian Agora. Evidence supports the hypothesis that specialized husbandry and dietary schemes focusing on domestic sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle began in Neolithic times.
Guy D. R. Sanders, Sarah A. James, Ioulia Tzonou-Herbst & James HerbstHesperia 83:1 (January-March 2014), 1-79
This article is a synthetic discussion of the Neolithic through Hellenistic phases of the Panayia Field excavated by the American School of Classical Studies between 1995 and 2007. The Late Neolithic to Early Helladic II periods are represented by pottery and other finds from a layer of alluvium that was deposited across the site.
V. Renson, D. Ben-Shlomo, J. Coenaerts, K. Charbit-Nataf, M. Samaes, N. Mattielli, K. Nys & Ph. ClaeysArchaeometry 56:2 (April 2014), 261-278
Lead isotopes, thin- and sherd-section analyses are coupled on pottery-vessel fragments excavated from the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke (south-east Cyprus) and representing fabrics used for the production of storage and trade containers.
Sturt W. Manning, Felix Höflmayer, Nadine Moeller, Michael W. Dee, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Dominik Fleitmann, Thomas Higham, Walter Kutschera & Eva Maria WildAntiquity 88:342 (December 2014), 1164-1179
The date of the Late Bronze Age Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has provoked much debate among archaeologists, not least in a recent issue of Antiquity (‘Bronze Age catastrophe and modern controversy: dating the Santorini eruption’, March 2014).
