This book is a definitive architectural study of Roman theatre architecture. In nine chapters it brings together a massive amount of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic information under one cover. It also contains a full catalogue of all known Roman theatres, including a number of odea (concert halls) and bouleuteria (council chambers) which are relevant to the architectural discussion, about 1,000 entries in all. Inscriptional or literary evidence relating to each theatre is listed and there is an up-to-date bibliography for each building. Most importantly the book contains plans of over 500 theatres or buildings of theatrical type, as well as numerous text figures and nearly 200 figures and plates.

This book, first published in 1958, aims to describe Greek art and poetry within this ambiguous period of ancient history (often referred to as the Greek 'Dark Ages'), and to explore the possibilities of learning about Mycenaean civilisation from its own documents and not only from archaeology. Specifically, Webster utilises Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B in 1952 - which proved that Greek was spoken in the Mycenaean world - to determine the general contours of aesthetic development from Mycenae to the time of the written composition of the Homeric epics. Because they record Mycenaean civilisation in Mycenaean terminology, while Homer was writing in Ionian Greek at the beginning of the polis civilisation, they show how much in Homer is in fact Mycenaean. Further, where it is clear that these Mycenaean elements cannot have survived until Homer's time, they tell us something about the poetry which connected the two.

Think of a souvenir from a foreign trip, or an heirloom passed down the generations - distinctive individual artefacts allow us to think and act beyond the proximate, across both space and time. While this makes anecdotal sense, what does scholarship have to say about the role of artefacts in human thought? Surprisingly, material culture research tends also to focus on individual artefacts. But objects rarely stand independently from one another they are interconnected in complex constellations. This innovative volume asserts that it is such 'networks of objects' that instill objects with their power, enabling them to evoke distant times and places for both individuals and communities.
Using archaeological case studies from the Bronze Age of Greece throughout, Knappett develops a long-term, archaeological angle on the development of object networks in human societies. He explores the benefits such networks create for human interaction across scales, and the challenges faced by ancient societies in balancing these benefits against their costs. In objectifying and controlling artefacts in networks, human communities can lose track of the recalcitrant pull that artefacts exercise. Materials do not always do as they are asked. We never fully understand all their aspects. This we grasp in our everyday, unconscious working in the phenomenal world, but overlook in our network thinking. And this failure to attend to things and give them their due can lead to societal 'disorientation'.

In this survey of the burial and settlement evidence of late Iron Age Etruria, Corinna Riva offers a new reading of the socio-political transformations that led to the formation of urban centres in Tyrrhenian Central Italy. Through a close examination of burial ritual and the material culture associated with it, Riva traces the transformations of seventh-century elite funerary practices and the structuring of political power around these practices in Etruria, arguing that the tomb became the locus for the articulation of new forms of political authority at urban centres. Challenging established views that deem contact with eastern Mediterranean regions crucial to these developments, Riva offers a radically new interpretation of the so-called Orientalizing material culture, taking a long-term perspective on local changes and east-west contact across the Mediterranean.

In this book, an international team of experts draws upon a rich range of Latin and Greek texts to explore the roles played by individuals at ports in activities and institutions that were central to the maritime commerce of the Roman Mediterranean. In particular, they focus upon some of the interpretative issues that arise in dealing with this kind of epigraphic evidence, the archaeological contexts of the texts, social institutions and social groups in ports, legal issues relating to harbours, case studies relating to specific ports, and mercantile connections and shippers. While much attention is inevitably focused upon the richer epigraphic collections of Ostia and Ephesos, the papers draw upon inscriptions from a very wide range of ports across the Mediterranean. The volume will be invaluable for all scholars and students of Roman history.

One of the most visited places in the world, Rome attracts millions of tourists each year to walk its storied streets and see famous sites like the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Trevi Fountain. Yet this ancient city's allure is due as much to its rich, unbroken history as to its extraordinary array of landmarks. Countless incarnations and eras merge in the Roman cityscape. With a history spanning nearly three millennia, no other place can quite match the resilience and reinventions of the aptly nicknamed Eternal City. In this unique and visually engaging book, Jessica Maier considers Rome through the eyes of mapmakers and artists who have managed to capture something of its essence over the centuries. Viewing the city as not one but ten "Romes," she explores how the varying maps and art reflect each era's key themes. Ranging from modest to magnificent, the images comprise singular aesthetic monuments like paintings and grand prints as well as more popular and practical items like mass-produced tourist plans, archaeological surveys, and digitizations. The most iconic and important images of the city appear alongside relatively obscure, unassuming items that have just as much to teach us about Rome's past. Through 140 full-color images and thoughtful overviews of each era, Maier provides an accessible, comprehensive look at Rome's many overlapping layers of history in this landmark volume. The first book ever published in English to tell Rome's rich story through its maps, The Eternal City beautifully captures the past, present, and future of one of the most famous and enduring places on the planet.

Social or collective memory has recently become a much debated subject in academic disciplines and in the popular media. People in antiquity surely possessed similar shared memories, but except for the limited accounts of elite authors--they are notoriously difficult to recover. This book explores how material culture, in particular the evidence of landscape and of monuments, can reveal commemorative practices and collective amnesias in past societies. Three case studies are considered--Greece in the early Roman period, Hellenistic and Roman Crete, and Messenia from Archaic to Hellenistic times.

The Villa of the Papyri is a unique archaeological site and has been very influential in the field of classical studies. The papyri (the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity) and bronze sculptures found in the villa have contributed to our knowledge of the ancient world and the villa has become for us the "ideal model" of Roman luxury villa culture. This volume brings together papers delivered by experts in various fields addressing the cultural significance of this ancient site in its contemporary Roman context as well as its cultural reception from its discovery over two hundred and fifty years ago to the most recent excavations in the late twentieth century. They also explore the ways in which digital archaeology can assist our efforts to understand and investigate ancient sites. Topics treated include the Villa's architecture, decoration, and content (i.e., wall-paintings, sculptures, and papyri); their reception since the 18th century; and the current state of knowledge based on the recent partial excavations in the Villa, presented here in English for the first time. Furthermore, the use of digital models of the Villa that incorporate the data from the new excavations and a discussion on the ways in which such models may be used for educational and research purposes are also presented.

Julius Frontinus was appointed by the Emperor Nerva to the post of water commissioner for the city of Rome in 97 CE. In On the Water-Rights of the City of Rome he documents his duties, responsibilities and accomplishments during his first year in office. He also sketches the history of the aqueducts and furnishes a wealth of technical data. This is the most authoritative edition of this work to be published to date.

While European scholarship in the Classics has a long and established tradition, very little has been written on the history of classical scholarship in North America. By providing profiles of some 600 North American Classicists, this reference book presents a starting point for defining the history of Classical scholarship in Canada and the United States. Included are those Classicists who made significant contributions to the field and those who are representative figures. The people profiled were either born in the United States or Canada, or were born in other countries but had careers in North America. They were either founding fathers of the profession, scholars known more for their specialized contributions, or members of smaller or remote institutions who achieved at least regional distinction for their work. The first part of each entry provides basic biographical and professional information. A narrative summary of the person's career follows, and each profile closes with a short bibliography. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order and were written by expert contributors.

This 2007 study explores how modern scholars came to write Greek history from a Eurocentric perspective and challenges orthodox readings of Greek history as part of the history of the West. Since the Greeks lacked a national state or a unified society, economy or culture, the polis has helped to create a homogenising national narrative. This book re-examines old polarities such as those between the Greek poleis and Eastern monarchies, or between the ancient consumer and the modern producer city, in order to show the fallacies of standard approaches. It argues for the relevance of Aristotle's concept of the polis, which is interpreted in an intriguing manner. Finally, it proposes an alternative way of looking at Greek history as part of a Mediterranean world-system. This interdisciplinary study engages with debates on globalisation, nationalism, Orientalism and history writing, while also debating developments in classical studies.

This book delineates the contours of molecular and structural archaeology as an emergent interdisciplinary field based on structural analysis at the molecular level and examines novel methodologies to reconstruct the synthesis and long-term transformation of materials used in antiquity. The focus of this volume is on cosmetic and therapeutic materials.

In this book, Efrosyni Boutsikas examines ancient Greek religious performances, intricately orchestrated displays comprising topography, architecture, space, cult, and myth. These various elements were unified in a way that integrated the body within cosmic space and made the sacred extraordinary. Boutsikas also explores how natural light or the night-sky may have assisted in intensifying the experience of these rituals, and how they may have determined ancient perceptions of the cosmos. The author's digital and virtual reconstructions of ancient skyscapes and religious structures during such occurrences unveil a deeper understanding of the importance of time and place in religious experience. Boutsikas shows how they shaped emotions, cosmological beliefs, and ritual memory of the participants. Her study revolutionises our understanding on ancient emotionality and cognitive experience, demonstrating how Greek religious spaces were vibrant arenas of a shared experience of the cosmos.

This volume presents the Late Classical through Roman pottery from the University of Chicago excavations at Isthmia (1952-1989). In a series of three chapters - on the Late Classical and Hellenistic pottery, the Roman pottery, and the pottery from the Palaimonion - a general discussion is followed by a catalogue presenting datable contexts and then by a catalogue of other noteworthy pottery. Appendixes discuss the stratigraphy of the Palaimonion and observations on new and previously published lamps. Amphora stamps are the focus of a further appendix, followed by a catalogue of the Slavic and Byzantine pottery found in the sanctuary area. Although the pottery is sometimes fragmentary, the range of materials over this thousand-year period is typical of Corinthian sites. The finds presented here provide critical information about the history of the Panhellenic sanctuary of Poseidon and the ritual activities that took place there.

The Roman period is where the past of the British Isles is first revealed through substantial written sources as well as aracheology. This book distils recent archeological and documentary discoveries and advances in an accessible, concise manner for anyone interested in finding out more about the Roman Era. A number of key themes are discussed within a chronological framework. The book features chapters contributed by a team of scholars amongst those most closely involved with discovery and analysis.

The 1931 excavation season at Olynthus, Greece, ushered a sea change in how archaeologists study material culture-and was the nexus of one of the most egregious (and underreported) cases of plagiarism in the history of classical archaeology. Alan Kaiser draws on the private scrapbook that budding archaeologist Mary Ross Ellingson compiled during that dig, as well as her personal correspondence and materials from major university archives, to paint a fascinating picture of gender, power, and archaeology in the early twentieth century. Using Ellingson's photographs and letters as a guide, Kaiser brings alive the excavations led by David Robinson and recounts how the unearthing of private homes-rather than public spaces-emerged as a means to examine the day-to-day of ancient life in Greece. But as Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal clearly demonstrates, a darker story lurks beneath the smiling faces and humorous tales: one where Robinson stole Ellingson's words and insights for his own, and where fellow academics were complicit in the theft.

This book studies the processes conventionally termed "Romanization" through an analysis of the experience of Roman rule over the Gallic province of the empire in the period 200 BC-AD 300. It examines how and why Gallo-Roman civilization emerged from the confrontation between the iron-age cultures of Gaul and the civilization we call classical. It develops an original synthesis and argument that will form a bridge between the disciplines of classics and archaeology and will be of interest to all students of cultural change.

Markets and fairs played a fundamental part in the commerce of the Mediterranean region in the Roman period. But where were they held, and what commodities were sold there? Using evidence from archaeology, inscriptions, and literary sources, Dr Frayn builds up a detailed and enlivening picture of stalls and stallholders, profiteering, and price control in ancient Italy, and invites comparison with medieval and modern practices. Besides the macella, or permanent markets in towns, Dr Frayn also looks at the much more numerous nundinae, or local markets, held every eight days, and the many fairs and festivals throughout Italy where retailing took place, often associated with shrines and characterized by religious motifs. The book includes a discussion of the economic and social effects of markets and fairs, including their relation to geography, demography, and modern `central place theory'. There is also a chapter on market law, which can be traced from the ius commercii to the supervision of weights, measures, and pricing. As trade contacts widened, and merchandise grew more diverse, markets and marketing evolved with increasing complexity into a highly developed system, which in the wake of conquest came to influence larger areas of inter-regional trade.

In Athens, most remains of the ancient city-wall were revealed during rescue excavations; as a result, documentation is scattered and fragmented. This book systematically investigates all published data, revealing the history and the nature of the surviving remains of this significant monument. The book provides an analysis of the ancient literary sources, the western travellers' accounts, and the history of archaeological research on the circuit walls of ancient Athens. It collects, records, and maps all archaeological data from systematic and rescue excavations of the physical remains of the wall as it evolved over eleven centuries and through more than a dozen construction phases. It reviews issues relating to structure, chronology and topography of the ancient city wall, as well as to the management of its remains by the state authorities. The enormous amount of primary evidence makes the book essential reading for scholars of the topography of ancient Athens. This monograph also aspires to increase community awareness of cultural heritage in everyday urban contexts, as the wall has been preserved in a number of ways: in basements of buildings, reburied in situ, in the open air or beneath glass floors.

This superb survey of hunter-gatherer societies in Southwest Germany presents an overview of the archaeological record for three periods- the Late Paleolithic, the Early Mesolithic, and the Late Mesolithic. Michael A. Jochim employs his rigorously materialist orientation to suggest certain possibilities about the general organization of settlements, subsistence, and social relations of the cultures in question. He also discusses the data within the context of human events in western Europe during the same periods. The text is accompanied by 115 illustrations

This book, a guide and companion to the prehistoric archaeology of Greece, is designed for students, travelers, and all general readers interested in archaeology. Greece has perhaps the longest and richest archaeological record in Europe, and this book reviews what is known of Greece from the earliest inhabitants in the Stone Age to the end of the Bronze Age and the collapse of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.
The book describes the prehistoric cultures of Greece in chronological order, and illustrates with 98 detailed drawings each culture's typical artifacts, architecture, burial customs, and art. Written in an informal and accessible style free of scientific jargon, the book can be used in the classroom or as a guide for the traveler, or read simply for pleasure by anyone with a curiosity about the earliest ages of this fascinating region.
Although intended for a wide audience, the book has a solid scientific foundation. The authors are professional archaeologists with more than 25 years of experience in the field and with a first-hand knowledge of the methods and results of contemporary research. There is no other book today that covers the same range of periods and subjects, making it essential reading for anyone interested in the early civilizations that shaped the Greek landscape, laid the foundations for Classical Greek civilization, and contributed in many ways to the formation of the modern Greek world.
The authors have been careful to address the many questions concerning prehistoric Greece that have been asked them by students and visitors to Greece through the years. The illustrations were created especially for this book, showing familiar artifacts and sites from a new perspective, and selecting others for illustration that rarely, if ever, appear in popular publications.

This book aims to synthesize more than 600,000 years of Italian prehistory, beginning with the Lower Paleolithic and ending with the last hunter-gatherers of the early Holocene. The author treats such issues as the development of social structure, the rise and fall of specific cultural traditions, climatic change, modifications of the landscape, fauna and flora, and environmental adaptation and exploitation and includes detailed descriptions of the most important sites.

This volume offers a reappraisal of the topic of scientific and technological traveling and takes the viewpoint of the European peripheries, including case studies of Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Hungary and the Scandinavian countries. It contributes to the clarification of mechanisms of appropriation of scientific ideas, instruments, practices and of technological expertise. It is of interest to scholars and students of history and philosophy of science and technology, cultural and social history, science, technology and society studies.

History has many voices. In the words of Russian fur merchant Grigorii Shelikhov, who led the conquest of Kodiak Island, Alaska, in 1784 and sought to subjugate its indigenous Qikertarmiut population, "the arrival of the Russians in their land had brought them innumerable advantages, security, and prosperity" (Shelikhov 1981:121). Arsenti Aminak, a Qiker tarmiut elder in 1851, held a different view. He recalled a Russian ship that visited the island several years before Shelikhov as a "strange monster, never seen before, which we feared and whose stench made us sick. " In 1784, the dead of his people lay on the beach at a place called A'wauq meaning "to become numb" -where hundreds had been killed by Skeli khov's cannon and muskets (Holmberg 1985:57-59). The Russian hunters who built the Shelikhov-Golikov Company's first outpost on Kodiak Is land, at a small cove they called Gavan Trekh Svetitelei (as commonly translated, "Three Saints Harbor"), recalled their own miseries and de spair: "We . . . spent the winter in ceaseless labors and . . . suffered great shortages and real famine . . . . Many contracted fever, scurvy, and other ills, and died" (Pierce 1976:75). Eyewitness statements about what happened on Kodiak Island dur ing the Russian conquest and early years of colonial rule are important, but rare. They represent the experiences and views of a few individuals who lived through a time of turbulent change and traumatic contact between disparate cultures."

Despite the fact that the human life of the past cannot be understood without taking into account its ecological relationships, environmental studies are often marginalised in archaeology. This is the first book that, by discussing the meaning and purpose we give to the expression environmental archaeology', investigates the reasons for such a problem. This is achieved through the use of theoretical considerations and the aid of a number of case studies, which, by taking us from Anglo-Saxon England to pre-Columbian Venezuela, and from Classical Greece to late Antique Egypt, emphasise the potential of an integrated approach. The book is written by archaeologists with different backgrounds and is addressed to all researchers who care about the past relationship between people and the rest of Nature. Despite the complexity of some of the issues tackled, the book is written in an accessible manner and should be of interest to all students who want to understand the essence of archaeology beyond the boundary of the individual sub-disciplines.