V. Tourloukis, P. Karkanas & J. WallingaJournal of Archaeological Science 57 (May 2015), 355-369
The red-bed site of Kokkinopilos is an emblematic and yet also most enigmatic open-air Palaeolithic site in Greece, stimulating controversy ever since its discovery in 1962. While early research raised claims for stratigraphically in situ artifacts, later scholars considered the material reworked and of low archaeological value, a theory that was soon to be challenged again by the discovery of in situ lithics, including handaxes.
A neglected aspect of ‘miniaturization’ is the development of the so-called ‘pictographic’ or ‘iconographic’ writing systems. ‘Picture-writing’ is the term used to describe the beginnings of various scripts, whereby the initial inspiration for the visual rendering of the signs is suggested to have been an array of tangible objects, or parts thereof.
Louise A. Hitchcock, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Elisabetta Boaretto & Aren M. MaeirNear Eastern Archaeology 78.1 (March 2015), 12-25
The identification of feasting events in the archaeological record has relied upon a fairly consistent repertoire of features that relate to four crucial elements identified by Hayden (2001) based on the ethnographic literature on feasts: (a) it is a communal event; (b) it is time- and place-specific and occurs in celebration of a distinctive occasion;
Aren M. Maeir, Brent Davis, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Yotam Asscher & Louise A. HitchcockWorld Archaeology 2015, 1-25
In 2013, an ivory bowl was discovered in a chalky matrix in the Early Iron Age (Philistine) levels in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Conservation revealed it to be a shallow vessel with a single lug handle, decorated in the interior and on the base with an incised twelve-petal lotus-rosette surrounded by five concentric circles.
Jennifer M. WebbJournal of Field Archaeology 40:1 (February 2015), 22-36
Metallurgical production sites are often difficult to identify in the archaeological record because ore beneficiation and slag processing in the past involved the use of ground stone tools that were similar to those used in other contexts to prepare cereals and foods.
Despite much intensive archaeological fieldwork, several regions of Greece still have not yielded any evidence for palatial structures. It may be, therefore, that they never gave rise to full palatial states.
