The rich and splendid culture of the ancient Greeks has often been described as emerging like a miracle from a genius of its own, owing practically nothing to its neighbors. Walter Burkert offers a decisive argument against that distorted view, replacing it with a balanced picture of the archaic period "in which, under the influence of the Semitic East, Greek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean". Burkert focuses on the "orientalizing" century 750-650 B.C., the period of Assyrian conquest, Phoenician commerce, and Greek exploration of both East and West, when not only eastern skills and images but also the Semitic art of writing were transmitted to Greece. He tracks the migrant craftsmen who brought the Greeks new techniques and designs, the wandering seers and healers teaching magic and medicine, and the important Greek borrowings from Near Eastern poetry and myth. Drawing widely on archaeological, textual, and historical evidence, he demonstrates that eastern models significantly affected Greek literature and religion in the Homeric age.

The first volume from the Adriatic Islands project comprises the results from a thorough survey and mapping of the Dalmatian island of Hvar in Croatia. The area has long played an important role on trade routes between Italy and Illyria and Greece. There is a great deal of Neolithic archaeology, Bronze and Iron age burial monuments and much Greco-Roman material. The bulk of this book is a gazetter of around 800 sites, each of them having been visited by members of the team. The entries include plans, descriptions and references.

Contents:
List of illustrations, List of plates, Preface and acknowledgements, 1. Sources, 2. Origins, unit strength, organization and titulature, 3. Equipment and unit armament styles, 4. Recruitment, 5. Conditions of service, 6. Training, 7. The hippika gymnasia, 8. The employment of cavalry in peacetime and wartime, 9. Military records and the supply of horses, 10. Roman cavalry mounts, 11. Stables and grooming, 12. Water and food supply, 13. Welfare, 14. Baggage animals, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

By studying various aspects of the material culture found in Crete, the Cycladic islands and mainland Greece during the early Bronze Age, Karantzali hopes to produce a tighter typological chronology than has previously been established. He believes that by placing developments in parallel and tying up the timescale of changes, a tighter sequence can be obtained and thus a more useful framework for the dating of artefacts of unknown provenance or insecure contexts can be set in place. After cataloguing the sites of Crete and the Cyclades, he proceeds to lay down chronologies for the deramic, matallic and sculptural products of the regions. Comments are offered on theoretical culture models, and all this information is finally amalgamated to establish a model for the direction of influence and indications of exchange (ideas and items) between the coexisting cultures.

An extensive catalogue of graves, sarcophagi, larnakes, funerary customs and artefacts from Late Bronze Age Greece, with a limited amount of discussion on their significance for our understanding of LBA Cretan culture.

In this book Richard Eldridge presents a clear and compact survey of philosophical theories of the nature and significance of art. Drawing on materials from classical and contemporary philosophy as well as from literary theory and art criticism, he explores the representational, expressive, and formal dimensions of art, and he argues that works of art present their subject matter in ways that are of enduring cognitive, moral, and social interest. His discussion, illustrated with a wealth of examples, ranges over topics such as beauty, originality, imagination, imitation, the ways in which we respond emotionally to art, and why we argue about which works are good. His accessible study will be invaluable to students and to all readers who are interested in the relation between thought and art.

This volume presents for the first time in the archaeological history of Greece a full and detailed analysis of the artifacts discovered in the course of a large-scale and intensive regional survey. It sets out the results of a ten-year study of tens of thousands of ceramic and lithic artifacts recovered in the course of the Argolid Exploration Project, an environmental and archaeological survey of the Argolid peninsula in southern Greece conducted by Stanford University.

Why did Roman Britain collapse? What sort of society succeeded it? How did the Anglo-Saxons take over? And how far is the traditional view of a massacre of the native population a product of biased historical sources? This text explores what Britain was like in the 4th-century AD and looks at how this can be understood when placed in the wider context of the western Roman Empire. Information won from archaeology rather than history is emphasized and leads to an explanation of the fall of Roman Britain. The author also offers some suggestions about the place of the post-Roman population in the formation of England.

An esteemed teacher offers a major reassessment of the history of Greece from prehistoric times to the rise of Alexander. This is a work of prodigious scholarship written in grand style.

John Fine surveys the archaeological work that has revealed so much about the civilization of Crete and Mycenaean Greece, and discusses the age of colonization during which Greek colonies were established from the Crimea to the Nile, from the Caucasus to Spain. Analyzing social and economic developments, as well as foreign and inter-city affairs, he assesses the history, culture, and democracy of Athens, and Sparta's institutions and military exploits; recounts the Greeks' relations and then war with the Persian empire; details alliances, struggles, and the varying fortunes of the Greek city-states; and relates the rise of Macedon. Fine treats the Greeks' story in the context of events elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Throughout he indicates the nature of the evidence on which our present knowledge is based, masterfully explaining the problems and pit-falls in interpreting ancient accounts. "The Ancient Greeks" is a splendid narrative history and a refreshing reinterpretation that will please students of ancient history, and everyone interested in early civilizations.

In this volume, Felipe Rojas examines how the inhabitants of Roman Anatolia interacted with the physical traces of earlier civilizations in their midst. Combining material and textual evidence, he shows that interest in and knowledge about pre-classical remains was deep and widespread. Indeed, ancient interaction with the remnants of even more ancient pasts was a vital part of life for many and diverse people in Roman Anatolia. Such interaction ranged from the purported translation of Bronze and Iron Age inscriptions to the physical manipulation of monuments and objects, including prehistoric earthen mounds and archaic statues. Occasionally, it even involved the production of fake antiquities. Offering new insights into both the archaeology and history of the Roman Mediterranean, Rojas's book is also an innovative contribution to the archaeology and anthropology of memory.

The first three centuries of Christianity are increasingly seen in modern scholarship as sites of complexity. Sacred Ritual, Profane Space examines the Christian meeting places of the time and overturns long-held notions about the earliest Christians as utopian rather than place-bound people. By mapping what is known from early Christian texts onto the archaeological data for Roman domestic spaces, Jenn Cianca provides a new lens for examining the relationship between early Christianity and sites of worship. She proposes that not only were Roman homes sacred sites in their own right but they were also considered sacred by the Christian communities that used them. In many cases, meeting space would have included the presence of the Roman domestic cult shrines. Despite the fact that the domestic cult was polytheistic, Cianca asserts that its practices likely continued in places used for worship by Christians. She also argues that continued practice of the domestic cult in Roman domestic spaces did not preclude Christians from using houses as churches or from understanding their rituals or their meeting places as sacred. Raising a host of questions about identity, ritual affiliation, and domestic practice, Sacred Ritual, Profane Space demonstrates how sacred space was constructed through ritual enactment in early Christian communities.

Pocket Museum: Ancient Greece presents more than 200 objects currently housed in public collections around the world that offer both context and immediacy to the rich culture of Ancient Greece. From the bifacial hand tools of the Lower Palaeolithic to the Hellenistic Great Altar of Pergamon, the artifacts presented here reveal a complex sociocultural history of shifting priorities, spiritual beliefs, and cultural traditions; the influence on material culture of isolation and internationalism, of technological advance and decline, and of prosperity and adversity. They also reflect the transmission of shared social-cultural ideals across vast distances through relationships maintained for centuries at a time - objects from across the Greek world, valued in life and in death. Pocket Museum: Ancient Greece also offers an insight into the history of collecting and methods of interpretation, examining how the perception of objects has changed over time. Beautifully illustrated with photographs of each featured artifact, this is an absorbing introduction to a culture that has exerted an unparalleled influence on Western civilization.

Late antique Corinth was on the frontline of the radical political, economic and religious transformations that swept across the Mediterranean world from the second to sixth centuries CE. A strategic merchant city, it became a hugely important metropolis in Roman Greece and, later, a key focal point for early Christianity. In late antiquity, Corinthians recognised new Christian authorities; adopted novel rites of civic celebration and decoration; and destroyed, rebuilt and added to the city's ancient landscape and monuments. Drawing on evidence from ancient literary sources, extensive archaeological excavations and historical records, Amelia Brown here surveys this period of urban transformation, from the old Agora and temples to new churches and fortifications. Influenced by the methodological advances of urban studies, Brown demonstrates the many ways Corinthians responded to internal and external pressures by building, demolishing and repurposing urban public space, thus transforming Corinthian society, civic identity and urban infrastructure. In a departure from isolated textual and archaeological studies, she connects this process to broader changes in metropolitan life, contributing to the present understanding of urban experience in the late antique Mediterranean.

The site of medieval Euchaita, on the northern edge of the central Anatolian plateau, was the centre of the cult of St Theodore Tiro ('the Recruit'). Unlike most excavated or surveyed urban centres of the Byzantine period, Euchaita was never a major metropolis, cultural centre or extensive urban site, although it had a military function from the seventh to ninth centuries. Its significance lies precisely in the fact that as a small provincial town, something of a backwater, it was probably more typical of the 'average' provincial Anatolian urban settlement, yet almost nothing is known about such sites. This volume represents the results of a collaborative project that integrates archaeological survey work with other disciplines in a unified approach to the region both to enhance understanding of the history of Byzantine provincial society and to illustrate the application of innovative approaches to field survey.

This volume traces the lives, health, and diseases of Winchester's inhabitants as seen in their skeletal remains from the mid-third century to the mid-sixteenth century, a period of over 1,300 years. Although the populations of other British urban areas, York and London in particular, have been studied over an extended period, this volume is unique in providing a continuous chronological window, rather than a series of isolated studies. It is particularly notable for the large sample of Anglo-Saxon burials dated to the 8th - 10th centuries, which provide a bridge between the earlier Romano-British material and the later medieval samples. This study includes information on demography, physical characteristics, dental health, disease, and trauma collected from over 2,000 skeletons excavated from the Roman Cemetery at Lankhills and the Anglo-Saxon and medieval cemeteries of the Old and New Minster and Winchester Cathedral, as well as other Early Anglo-Saxon sites in neighbouring areas of Hampshire. The study establishes the underlying continuity of the population in spite of massive culture change between the Roman and Early Saxon periods, and delineates the increasing tendency to rounder skulls seen in the medieval period, a trend which is found in continental Europe at the same time. There were also significant differences through time in disease patterns and trauma. Leprosy, for example, is found only in post-Roman skeletons, while decapitations are seen only in Roman skeletons. Weapons injuries are confined to Anglo-Saxon and medieval individuals, although broken bones were common during the Roman period.

Excavations conducted at Morgantina by Princeton University and the University of Illinois have revealed substantial Iron Age remains beneath the Greek town on the Cittadella hilltop. In this volume Robert Leighton presents a full study of this extensive protohistoric settlement in Sicily. The broad scope of evidence, particularly the survival of long houses and tombs with much of their structures and contents preserved, permits an unusually thorough examination of indigenous cultural traditions prior to the foundation of the Greek town in the Archaic period. An illustrated catalogue of the finds presents more than 700 artifacts from the site, most of which are previously unpublished. The author discusses all the excavated protohistoric areas in detail, and presents a full range of maps, plans, excavation photographs, reconstruction drawings, and radiocarbon dates. The diverse body of finds includes a wide variety of pottery forms as well as tools and ornaments of both metal and stone that document local crafts, metallurgy, and numerous aspects of daily life. In studying these objects, Leighton draws on parallels with material from the Italian peninsula and considers the evidence of the historical sources, revealing links between Sicily and Italy in the protohistoric period. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Troy: one of the most captivating and mysterious stories of antiquity...But was Troy an actual place or just a legend of Homer's epic? It took the most unlikely of people, Heinrich Schliemann - a grocer's-apprentice turned self-made archaeologist, courageous and driven - to solve one of the greatest puzzles in history. His extraordinary discovery of the ruins of fabled Troy and the magnificent treasure of King Priam anointed Schliemann as the 'father of pre-history', but was also beset by controversy that persists to this day. The fate of the treasure itself is no less troubled. In 1945 it was spirited out of Berlin by the Red Army, to be hidden for 50 years in the vaults of the Pushkin Museum until the breakup of the Soviet Union. In this fast-paced account, Caroline Moorehead describes one of the most remarkable adventures of the 20th century, tracing Schliemann's footsteps to Troy and the convoluted journey across Europe taken by the treasure itself.

Arising from a conference organized by the British Archaeological Association in Palermo in 2012, this book includes 16 papers that explores points of contact across the Latin, Greek and Islamic worlds between c. 1000 and c. 1250.

Discussions and scientific exchange are crucial for the advancement of a young discipline such as the study of Roman pottery in the Near East. Therefore, in addition to large conferences such as the 'Late Roman Coarse Ware Conference' (LRCW) where the Near East plays only a marginal role, an international workshop with 20 participants dedicated solely to the study of Roman common ware pottery in the Near East was held in Berlin on 18th and 19th February 2010. The goal of this workshop was to provide researchers actively engaged in the study of Roman common wares the possibility to meet and discuss the current state of research as well as questions and problems they are facing with their material. Some of the participants were able to bring pottery samples, which provided the possibility to compare and discuss the identification and denomination of specific fabrics on a regional and supra-regional scale. This volume presents 17 papers from this stimulating event. The Archaeopress series, Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery (RLAMP) is devoted to research of the Roman and late Antique pottery in the Mediterranean. It is designed to serve as a reference point for all potential authors devoted to pottery studies on a pan-Mediterranean basis. The series seeks to gather innovative individual or collective research on the many dimensions of pottery studies ranging from pure typological and chronological essays, to diachronic approaches to particular classes, the complete publication of ceramic deposits, pottery deposit sequences, archaeometry of ancient ceramics, methodological proposals, studies of the economy based on pottery evidence or, among others, ethnoarchaeological ceramic research that may help to understand the production, distribution and consumption of pottery in the Mediterranean basin.

This study (the second volume in the Archaeopress series devoted to the publication of ceramics in the Roman Mediterranean and outlying territories from the late Republic to late Antiquity) addresses the level of interregional trade of ceramic building material (CBM), traditionally seen as a high bulk low value commodity, within the ancient Mediterranean between the third century BC and the seventh century AD. It examines the impact of different modes of production, distribution and consumption of CBM and how archaeological assemblages differ from what is predicted by current models of the ancient economy. It also explores how CBM can be used to investigate cultural identity and urban form. CBM has great potential in investigating these topics. It survives in large quantities in the archaeological record; it is transported as a commodity in its own right, not as a container for other products like amphorae. The amount of CBM used in a building can be estimated, and this can be extrapolated to urban centres to model consumption in ways that are not possible for other goods. This allows the potential derivation of economic information to a higher level of precision than is the case for other materials. The material used in this study derives from stratified assemblages from two major ports of the ancient Mediterranean: Carthage and Beirut. CBM as a material is comparable to pottery, only it does not exhibit the same range of forms. This leaves fabric as a major means of analysing CBM samples. For this reason a programme of petrological thin sectioning has been carried out on these assemblages. These data have been combined with the taphonomic and dating evidence from the excavations. The results showed that the levels of imports of CBM into these two cities were much higher than would normally be expected from the orthodox model of the consumer city. They also suggest that CBM can be used as a tool to investigate cultural identity.

The fully revised second edition of this successful volume includes updates on the latest archaeological research in all chapters, and two new essays on Greek and Roman art. It retains its unique, paired essay format, as well as key contributions from leading archaeologists and historians of the classical world. * Second edition is updated and revised throughout, showcasing the latest research and fresh theoretical approaches in classical archaeology * Includes brand new essays on ancient Greek and Roman art in a modern context * Designed to encourage critical thinking about the interpretation of ancient material culture and the role of modern perceptions in shaping the study of art and archaeology * Features paired essays one covering the Greek world, the other, the Roman to stimulate a dialogue not only between the two ancient cultures, but between scholars from different historiographic and methodological traditions * Includes maps, chronologies, diagrams, photographs, and short editorial introductions to each chapter

Houses are often assumed to be reliable mirrors of society, fossils of family structures, social hierarchies and mental maps of worlds now vanished. This is particularly true of the elite houses of the third to sixth centuries AD, which have been read as material symptoms of Rome's decline. The great dining and reception halls of urban houses sound the death-knell of participatory government and the rise of patronage politics, while in their sheer size and splendour later Roman houses seem to encapsulate a fin-de-siecle world of have and have-nots, separated by unbridgeable social chasms. Kim Bowes debates this image of later Roman houses as reflections of decadence and despotism, suggesting that the principal interpretive model, which reads such houses as reflective of a newly hierarchical, ritualized society, finds little support either from the archaeological evidence or from new readings of historical sources. Drawing on the most recent archaeological data and new theoretical models, she offers instead a less sharply periodized view of later houses, stressing their continuity with houses of the early empire.

Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall defined the edge of the Roman Empire in Britain. Today, the spectacular remains of these great frontier works stand as mute testimony to one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. This new accessible account, illustrated with 25 detailed photographs, maps and plans, describes the building of the walls, and reconstructs what life was like on the frontier. It places these frontiers into their context both in Britain and Europe, examining the development of frontier installations over four centuries.Designed for students and teachers of Ancient History or Classical Civilisation at school and in early university years, this series provides a valuable collection of guides to the history, art, literature, values and social institutions of the ancient world.

At the time of its creation in the Hadrianic period, the Corinth Theater presented the most elaborate form of Roman theater architecture to date; a three-storied columnar facade made of multicolored marble. The polychrome architecture did not stand alone, for the scaenae frons was also impressively embellished with painted marble reliefs beneath the columns, with painted statuary between the columns and in the niches, and with painted busts in the pediments. This blaze of color would have conveyed many different messages to ancient audiences since the sculptural complex evoked the Theater's political, religious, and cultural function as well as the self-identification of the city. A colossal seated portrait of the deified emperor Trajan dominated the display, surrounded by other members of the Roman imperial family. However the depiction of Gigantomachy, Amazonomachy, and Herakles scenes on podia and the Greek character of other sculptures around the building made a conscious link to indigenous culture. As the author's reconstruction shows, the entire assemblage, arranged in thematic segments, would have attempted to resolve in symbolic form the real cultural negotiation at the heart of Roman Corinth. This book presents in detail the freestanding sculptures, assembled from fragmentary remains, and reveals an additional group of architectural sculptures as well as figures in niches and between columns. With Corinth IX.2 it completes the publication of sculptures excavated from the theater by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Drawing on over 30 years of study, the author also presents her ideas about sculptural decoration in the Corinth theater and throughout the Roman East. Using epigraphical as well as architectural evidence she explores questions of dedication and patronage to shed important new light on the social role of Roman theater, a forum for far more than just entertainment.

Not only is one of the most famous pieces of ancient Greek art-the celebrated gold and ivory statuette of the Snake Goddess-almost certainly modern, but Minoan civilization as it has been popularly imagined is largely an invention of the early twentieth century. This is Kenneth Lapatin's startling conclusion in Mysteries of the Snake Goddess-a brilliant investigation into the true origins of the celebrated Bronze Age artifact, and into the fascinating world of archaeologists, adventurers, and artisans that converged in Crete at the turn of the twentieth century. Including characters from Sir Arthur Evans, legendary excavator of the Palace of Minos at Knossos, who was driven to discover a sophisticated early European civilization to rival that of the Orient, to his principal restorer Swiss painter Emil Gillieron, who out of handfuls of fragments fashioned a picture of Minoan life that conformed to contemporary taste, this is a riveting tale of archeological discovery.