This paper sets out to propose an alternative model of economic management at settlements of Early Helladic I-II date, where evidence of socioeconomic hierarchies is not prominent in the archaeological material. It is suggested here that the remains of certain original structures within the boundaries of settlements were once granaries which served the whole community.
Chris Mee, Bill Cavanagh & Josette RenardAnnual of the British School at Athens 109 (2014), 65-95
The site of Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, is one of the main Neolithic sites in Laconia. It was first settled in the Middle Neolithic period and developed into a large village with remains occupying some 4–5 hectares. A joint team from the British School at Athens and the Ecole française d'Athènes carried out excavations at the site in 2001–6.
Nicoletta Momigliano, Laura Phillips, Michela Spataro, Nigel Meeks & Andrew MeekAnnual of the British School at Athens 109 (2014), 97-110
This article presents the curatorial context of a newly discovered fragment of Minoan faience, now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (BCMAG), and the technological study conducted on this piece at the British Museum. It also discusses the British Museum study of comparable fragments, now in the Ashmolean Museum, belonging to the Town Mosaic from Knossos, an important and unique find brought to light during Sir Arthur Evans's excavations of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Irini Papageorgiou Annual of the British School at Athens 109 (2014), 111-128
Among the hunting scenes that the Aegean iconography of the second millennium bc offers us, representations related to bird hunting seem to be absent. Newer information has emerged, however, from the restoration of the frescoes from Xeste 3 in the Late Cycladic I / Late Minoan IA settlement of Akrotiri on Thera. On the first floor of Xeste 3, a community sanctuary whose function has been connected with initiation rites, the Great Goddess of Nature (the Potnia) was depicted appearing among young crocus gatherers, possibly during a religious festival related to the regeneration of nature.
Konstantina AktypiAnnual of the British School at Athens 109 (2014), 129-157
This paper presents evidence for the later (mostly Geometric) use of the Μycenaean cemetery at Agios Vasileios, Chalandritsa, at the eastern side of the Pharai plain, 20 km south-east of Patras. This evidence comprises surface material and a burial in the dromos of Tomb 17 (with a preliminary analysis of the human skeletal remains), plus finds from the tomb chamber, and finds from the chamber of Tomb 24.
Human history has been marked by major episodes of climate change and human response, sometimes accompanied by independent innovations. In the Bronze Age, the sequencing of causes and reactions is dependent in part on dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating.
Tomasz Ważny, Brita Lorentzen, Nesibe Köse, Ünal Akkemik, Yurij Boltryk, Tuncay Güner, Josef Kyncl, Tomaš Kyncl, Constantin Nechita, Severin Sagaydak & Jeni Kamenova VasilevaRadiocarbon 56.4 (2014), 39-50
Dendrochronological research in North-Central Europe and the East Mediterranean has produced networks of long regional oak (Quercus sp.) reference chronologies that have been instrumental in dating, provenancing, and paleoclimate research applications. However, until now these two important tree-ring networks have not been successfully linked.
Charlotte L. Pearson, Tomasz Ważny, Peter I. Kuniholm, Katarina Botić, Aleksandar Durman & Katherine SeuferRadiocarbon 56.4 (2014), 51-59
A total of 272 oak (Quercus sp.) samples have been collected from large subfossil trees dredged from sediment deposited by the Sava and various tributary rivers in the Zagreb region of northwestern Croatia, and in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Measurement series of tree-ring widths from these samples produced 12 groups, totaling 3456 years of floating tree-ring chronologies spread through the last ca. 8000 years.
Ramzi Touchan, David M. Meko & Kevin J. AnchukaitisRadiocarbon 56.4 (2014), 61-68
Dendroclimatology in the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region has made important contributions to the understanding of climate variability on timescales of decades to centuries. These contributions, beginning in the mid-20th century, have value for resource management, archaeology, and climatology.
Pearce Paul CreasmanRadiocarbon 56.4 (2014), 85-92
A fundamental aspect of ancient Egyptian history remains unresolved: chronology. Egyptologists (and researchers in related fields that synchronize their studies with Egypt) currently rely on a variety of insufficiently precise methodologies (king lists, radiocarbon dating, etc.) from which to derive seemingly “absolute” dates.
Peter Ian Kuniholm, Maryanne Newton, Hend Sherbiny & Hussein BassirRadiocarbon 56.4 (2014), 93-102
We assess the state of and potential for expansion of dendroarchaeological research in Egypt. We also report previously unpublished findings, which we hope will assist with the new effort in constructing tree-ring chronologies in Egypt. In doing so, we explain briefly some of the problems and potential of the future enterprise.
Dispilio is the only excavated Neolithic lakeside settlement in Greece. Archaeological research provided evidence that the site was continuously used from the Early Neolithic (~6000 BC) to the Late Chalcolithic period (~1200 BC, Mycenaean period).
John BennetBulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 57.2 (December 2014), 127-137
Inaugurated in January 1954, the ‘Minoan Linear B Seminar’ explored the information emerging from Ventris' decipherment of Linear B in 1952. The new academic discipline of ‘Mycenaean Studies’ rapidly moved on from questions influenced by the field's ‘pre-history’ dating back a further 60 years to Evans' first publication on Aegean scripts.
Nick AllenBulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 57.1 (June 2014), 1-19
Students of the narrative content of Greek epic usually ignore the hypothesis that it shares a common origin with the Sanskrit epic, and even Georges Dumézil, the best known Indo-European cultural comparativist of the last century, emphasized the contrast between the two traditions. However, since Dumézil's death, it has been argued that his ‘trifunctional’ theory of Indo-European ideology needs to be subsumed within a pentadic framework.
Thomas LeppardJournal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27.2 (2014), 231-254
It has been suggested that the islands of the Mediterranean were first settled during the Pleistocene. Attention has in particular been paid to recent claims that the occupation of Crete by hominins dates to the Middle Pleistocene.
