Understanding of early farming societies in Greece has been revolutionized by major field projects, by the growing application of specialist 'scientific' studies, and by new approaches to interpretation. This volume reviews the most significant recent field research, ranging from regional survey, through large-scale excavation of an extensive open settlement, to the investigation of caves. Contributors critically evaluate or revise current ideas on the nature of these early societies at a range of scales from the individual to the region.>

This volume includes a description, and the results, of a field survey in the Albegna Valley and Ager Cosanus area of southern Tuscany, focusing on evidence from the first millennium BC. Philip Perkins describes the methodology, aims and GIS approaches to the field study and then presents the evidence in terms of the Etruscan settlement patterns, burials, farming and subsistence, ceramic evidence, finally reconstructing a population and economic history for the study area. The survey project has revealed a highly organised and hierarchical settlement pattern in the Etruscan period, with an evolving and diversifying agricultural system.

Raybould aims to test the hypothesis that literacy was largely an accomplishment of an educated, literate, social elite in Roman Britain, by examining surviving inscriptions from the area of religion, working and domestic life, and funerary customs. Secondly, she investigates the nature (content and style) of this small sample of surviving written material for clues on who produced it. Includes catalogue.

Prehistoric objects were for many years, viewed as curiosities, symbols of an ancient past, collected and desired because of their rarity and longevity. In the 16th century prehistoric objects were making their way into private collections, endowed with the interpretations and beliefs of their owners. Robin Skeates discusses the development of these collections throughout the 16th to 19th century, the various social and political agendas and of the collectors and the different types of collections formed: state, regional, provincial, local museums, university collections, permanent exhibitions and private collections.

A collection of ten papers on northern England presented at the Roman Archaeology Conference in Durham in 1999. The essays largely represent summaries of work in progress, designed to promote debate, and are written by excavators, finds specialists, environment specialists and scholars with a particular interest in the late Roman transition. Topics include: Late Roman Binchester (Iain Ferris & Rick Jones); the Late Roman transition at Birdoswald and on Hadrian's Wall (Tony Wilmott); the end of the Roman town of Catterick (Pete Wilson); Coin supply in the north (R J Brickstock); the end of Roman pottery in the north (Jeremy Evans); the remnants of Roman material culture in the 5th century (H E M Cool); the palynological evidence for the late Roman transition (J P Huntley); the environmental animal and human evidence (Sue Stallibrass); the late Roman transition in the north (KEn Dark); conclusions (Simon Esmonde Cleary) .

The non-monumental, simple' graves of the Mycenaean world have not been widely studied or discussed in the literature on the Aegean Bronze Age. In this study, Kazimierz Lewartowski focuses on these simple' graves, producing a catalogue of more than 1200 examples and discussing various aspects of their nature, design, location and contents in a statistical and descriptive way. The graves are discussed in terms of the different types (construction, context, chronology and topography), the nature of the deceased (age, sex, posture, orientation), the grave assemblages found within the burials, and the customs, beliefs, symbolism and ceremonies associated with the burials.

Studies of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northwestern Greece have relied heavily on evidence from rockshelter sites and a single open-air site, Asprochaliko. Papagianni's study aims to redress this and focuses on lithic assemblages recovered from open-air sites in the Epirus and Corfu areas. The results of her analysis are used to make inferences on industrial variability, regional adaptations, technological developments and, ultimately, the human baehaviour associated with these.

A detailed study of a pottery deposit found during investigations on the Palatine Hill. This material was used and discarded during the period c.AD 290-315, at a time when a number of reforms were underway in light of the early years of the new imperial system and associated changes in economic organisation. The six campaigns of excavation, between 1989 and 1994, revealed a substantial quantity of material which is presented here. A general introduction to the urban economy of the time is followed by an in-depth analysis of the ceramic material.

Molluscs are an important part of environmental archaeology, especially in Greece where little analytical work was done until fairly recently. Molluscs are critical environmental indicators on climate, ecology, morphology of the marine environment and are discussed in ancient sources such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. Material from the Aegean are is now being studied with greater regularity and this volume brings much important information together in one place. Karali discusses methods of collection of study samples, their analysis and potential information to be gleaned, and their use in archaeological dating. Their archaeological context also provides information on food procurement strategies, the use of shells for decorative purposes and their trade and distribution away from the coast. 138p, b/w figs

"As might be expected from the caliber of the contributors, this is a first-rate collection of essays.... Like I, Claudia, this book will appeal to many others besides classicists. The two volumes will be a must for anyone interested in social history or women's history; the treatment, style, and illustrations make this volume accessible to general readers." -- Karl Galinsky, Floyd A. Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics, University of Texas at Austin

I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome-- an exhibition and catalog produced by the Yale University Art Gallery-- provided the first comprehensive study of the lives of Roman women as revealed in Roman art. Responding to the popular success of the exhibit and catalog, Diana E. E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson here gather ten additional essays by specialists in art history, history, and papyrology to offer further reflections on women in Roman society based on the material evidence provided by art, archaeology, and ancient literary sources.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Cornelius C. Vermeule, Rolf Winkes, Mary T. Boatwright, Susan Wood, Eve D'Ambra, Andrew Oliver, Diana Delia, and Ann Ellis Hanson. Their essays, illustrated with black-and-white photos of the art under discussion, treat such themes as mothers and sons, marriage and widowhood, aging, adornment, imperial portraiture, and patronage.

The Libruni were a group that inhabited the Adriatic coast and islands of modern day Croatia in the first millennium BC. This report deals specifically with relief decorated ceramic imports to the area in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The descriptions of pottery types, their origin, date and production, are brief, with more than eighty pages of catalogue and over one hundred figures and photographs.

A large number of the contributors to the Ravenna (1997) meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists spoke about the explosion of research interest and new discoveries on the island of Sardinia. This book groups their papers together, providing a useful snapshot of current work.

Independent city-states (poleis) such as Athens have been viewed traditionally as the most advanced stage of state formation in ancient Greece. By contrast, this pioneering book argues that for some Greeks the ethnos, a regionally based ethnic group, and the koinon, or regional confederation, were equally valid units of social and political life and that these ethnic identities were astonishingly durable.

Jeremy McInerney sets his study in Phokis, a region in central Greece dominated by Mount Parnassos that shared a border with the panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi. He explores how ecological conditions, land use, and external factors such as invasion contributed to the formation of a Phokian territory. Then, drawing on numerous interdisciplinary sources, he traces the history of the region from the Archaic age down to the Roman period. McInerney shows how shared myths, hero cults, and military alliances created an ethnic identity that held the region together over centuries, despite repeated invasions. He concludes that the Phokian koinon survived because it was founded ultimately on the tenacity of the smaller communities of Greece.

A study of Imperial Roman funerary altars in Northern Italy (from the ancient regions of Emilia, Venetia et Histria, Transpadana and Liguria) dating from the late Tiberian and Antonine periods. Stylistic epigraphic, chronological and typological analyses, and an illustrated catalogue of 243 examples.

This book first examines the figure of Orpheus in Graeco-Roman art and culture before exploring how he has been employed in late antique mosaic. Wide-ranging with lots of line-drawings and photographs.

This study of Roman Republican military castramentation evaluates both historical and archaeological evidence. There are two main areas of enquiry. The first is a description of a Roman army camp given by the Greek historian Polybius. The second is concerned with the only significant body of published archaeological evidence of Republican camps, largely the work of Adolf Schulten, who reported on the excavations which he conducted in Spain during the early years of the 20th century. The present author offers some kajor new interpretations of the archaeological evidence together with some fresh observations derived from fieldwork.

This monograph is intended to contribute to the study of the orientalizing phase in archaic Greece, through a systematic examination of the evidence provided by copper alloy and iron helmets. Dezso also provides a framework for other material indicators of eastern contacts with Greece, by defining four distinct levels of orientalization as the basis of his analysis.

This book consists of a discussion of the features of the North Italian domus and a catalogue of over sixty examples. George examines the components of the domus such as atria, porticoes, peristyle gardens and triclinia as well as interior decoration, construction, the houses in their urban context and how they fit into the overall picture of Roman domestic architecture. The catalogue consists of sixty-two plans of houses which builds up a good picture of the range and complexity of the buildings under scrutiny.

The Etruscans are one of the enigmas of history. A cultured, artistic, socially adept and seemingly tolerant and pleasure-loving people, they dominated Central Italy for 800 years until their civilization was absorbed and their identity obliterated by the growing power of Rome in the fourth and third centuries BC. During the last 400 years their art has come to be appreciated and enjoyed; rich archaeological evidence survives despite a continuing history of pillage, with the emergence of richly frescoed tombs, exquisite jewelry and sculpture, metalwork and painted vases at sites such as Ceverteri, Tarquinia and Vulci paying testament to the rich artistic culture of the Etruscans. The author has also written "Understanding Greek Sculpture".

Across the Roman Empire, ubiquitous archaeological, art historical, and literary evidence attests to the significance of bathing for Romans' routines and relationships. Public baths were popularly viewed as necessities of daily life and important social venues. Given the importance of bathing to the Roman style of living, by endowing eight magnificent baths (the so-called imperial thermae) in the city of Rome between 25 BCE - 315 CE, imperial patrons greatly enhanced their popular and political stature. Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae presents a detailed analysis of the extensive decoration of the best preserved of these bathing complexes, the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE). Maryl B. Gensheimer takes an interdisciplinary approach to existing archaeological data, textual and visual sources, and anthropological theories in order to generate a new understanding of the visual experience of the Baths of Caracalla and show how the decoration played a critical role in advancing imperial agendas. This reassessment of one of the most ambitious and sophisticated examples of large-scale architectural patronage in Classical antiquity examines the specific mechanisms through which an imperial patron could use architectural decoration to emphasize his own unique sociopolitical position relative to the thousands of people who enjoyed his benefaction. The case studies addressed herein-ranging from architectural to freestanding sculpture and mosaic-demonstrate that sponsoring monumental baths was hardly an act of altruism. Rather, even while they provided recreation for elite and sub-altern Romans alike, such buildings were concerned primarily with dynastic legitimacy and imperial largess. Decorative programs articulated these themes by consistently drawing analogies between the subjects of the decoration and the emperor who had paid for it. The unified decorative program-and the messages of imperial power therein-adroitly honored the emperor and consolidated his reputation.

Despite the size and location of the island of Lesbos, little research and even less publication has been afforded to its archaeological relevence. This volume aims to present a gazetteer derived from the complete corpus of work on its sites - including that data which is available only on Lesbos itself - with the hope of facilitating further research. Also included are two appendices, one listing sites attested to in Hellenistic or Roman inscriptions, the second discussing the appearance and characteristics of the Lesbian polygonal' style of masonry.

Once the most important Roman city in continental Croatia, Sisak's subsequent history was marked by stormy and dramatic events, yet its Roman remains survived the onslaught of Avars, Franks and Turks. Part I of this volume summarises earlier published finds from the site, Part II charts the metalwork finds, here considered from the standpoint of their production, and Part III constitutes the first full publication of the Terra Sigillata, currently housed at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.

This mammoth study of regional trends in imports of pottery and foodstuffs in the Western Mediterranean in the late Roman, Visigothic and Early Arab periods grows out of the author's fieldwork in the Vinalopo Valley (Alicante). Discerning significant differences to other West Mediterranean contexts in the sources of imported pottery there, Reynolds went on to explore the composition of fine ware, coarse ware and amphora assemblages in a large sample of other, mainly coastal, sites. Out of this mass of material (the catalogue of which takes up about two thirds of the volume) significant trends over time emerge, reflecting changes in taxation, shipping routes and the waxing and waning geopolitical influence of the North African litoral.

The decline of Mithraism in the fourth century AD is used as a case-study for understanding the end of other classes of paganism' in the Roman western provinces. The author reviews epigraphic and numismatic evidence to date the final uses of Mithraea. He then discusses examples of wilful damage to Mithraic monuments. Drawing all this archaeological evidence into a historical framework, Sauer argues that rather than losing its social function as the Roman army became splintered, Mithraism was a healthy religion with active shrines until the very late fourth century. Rather than fading away, its desecrated monuments indicate that the religion was the victim of a sustained Christian attack which was also directed at other established faiths in the western provinces.

Final report of a surface survey project conducted in central Italy during the early 1980's under the direction of Edith Wightman. The few known sites in this region were revisited and a restricted amount of systematic intensive survey was carried out to discover new sites and to trace ancient roads. Innovative features of the methodology include the collaboration of a geomorphologist to explore the relationship of settlements to soils and local geology. Whilst the book traces the history of the valley from Prehistoric to Medieval times, it concentrates on the Roman period with 3 chapters on communications, settlement patterns and society, and economy and the environment. It will provide useful comparative material to survey projects in other parts of Italy.