The Hellenistic Period witnessed striking new developments in art, literature and science. This volume addresses a particularly vibrant area of innovation: the study of animals and the natural world. While Aristotle and his followers had revolutionized fields such as zoology and botany during the fourth century BC, these disciplines took on exciting new directions during Hellenistic times. Kings imported exotic species into their royal capitals from faraway lands. Travel writers described unusual creatures that they had never previously encountered. And buyers from a range of social levels chose works of art featuring animals and plants to decorate their palaces, houses and tombs. While textual sources shed some light on these developments, the central premise of Art, Science and the Natural World in the Ancient Mediterranean is that our surviving artistic evidence permits a fuller understanding. Accordingly, the study brings together a rich body of visual material that invites new observations on how and why knowledge of the natural world became so important during this period. It is suggested that this cultural phenomenon affected many different groups in society: from kings in Alexandria and Pergamon to provincial aristocrats in the Levant, and from the Julio-Claudian imperial family to prosperous homeowners in Pompeii. By analysing the works of art produced for these individuals, a vivid picture emerges of this remarkable aspect of ancient culture.

This handsome volume describes and illustrates the excavation of an artificial rock shelter in Crete, Greece. Minoan pottery and small finds such as stone tools, loomweights, and ecofactual remains were recovered. The ceramics elucidate the style and chronology of East Cretan White-on-Dark Ware, which dates to the end of the Early Bronze Age.

Kommos, located on the south coast of Crete, is widely known for its important sanctuary of the Greek period for its earlier role as a major Minoan harbortown. Volumes II and III in this series, dealing with the Minoan pottery, have already been published. Volume I, Part I (1995), offered a general introduction to the site, followed by chapters on the archaeological exploration of the area, its geology, fauna and flora, land use, as well as on the Minoan implements and indsutries. Now Volume I, Part II introduces the Kommos town (Joseph W. Shaw), and analyzes and interprets the houses on the hilltop (Maria C. Shaw and Lucia F. Nixon) and hillside (James C. Wright and John McEnroe). There is a catalog of miscellaneous finds from the houses (Mary K. Dabney, Katherine A. Schwab, Maria C. Shaw, John Bennet, Helene Whittaker, David Reese, and Olga Kryszowska), followed by synthetic chapters on town planning and domesetic architecture (Maria C. Shaw) and site development (Joseph W. Shaw). Combined, the interrelated Kommos volumes present an unusually thorough, interdisciplinary interpretation of a prehistoric site in Greece. An excavation by the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Originally published in 1996. 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.

Before the creation of the Agora as a civic center in the 7th century B.C., the region northwest of the Acropolis was a vast cemetery. Over 150 ancient burial places have been found by excavators, and a few of the more remarkable are described here. These range from a wealthy Mycenaean chamber tomb, filled with the vases and jewelry of a rich noblewoman, to the poignant pithos burial of an infant from around 725 B.C., accompanied by eight tiny vases. As well as describing the assemblages found, the author discusses the symbolism of funeral rites and the information about social status and identity that burials reveal.

The frontiers of the Roman empire together form the largest monument of one of the world's greatest states. They stretch for some 7,500km through 20 countries which encircle the Mediterranean Sea. The remains of these frontiers have been studied by visitors and later by archaeologists for several centuries. Many of the inscriptions and sculpture, weapons, pottery and artefacts created and used by the soldiers and civilians who lived on the frontier can be seen in museums. Equally evocative of the lost might of Rome are the physical remains of the frontiers themselves. The aim of this series of books is not only to inform the interested visitor about the history of the frontiers but to act as a guidebook as well. The aim of this publication is not only to inform about historical and archaeological facts on the Limes in Serbia but also to act as a guidebook as well through the Danubian Limes.

Ancient Sikyon, in the northeastern Peloponnese, was a major player on the Mediterranean stage, especially in the Archaic and Hellenistic periods. This important topographical study combines substantial background information with original research from many years of archaeological fieldwork. After discussing the physical environment and resources of the region, the author traces the history of Sikyon from the Mycenaean to the early modern period. The book then expands to discuss the place of the city in its surrounding landscape, especially in the creation of fortifications to protect property and control the flow of trade. A series of elegant maps plot the position of many previously unknown settlements and sanctuaries.

Walking served as an occasion for the display of power and status in ancient Rome, where great men paraded with their entourages through city streets and elite villa owners strolled with friends in private colonnades and gardens. In this book-length treatment of the culture of walking in ancient Rome, Timothy O'Sullivan explores the careful attention which Romans paid to the way they moved through their society. He employs a wide range of literary, artistic and architectural evidence to reveal the crucial role that walking played in the performance of social status, the discourse of the body and the representation of space. By examining how Roman authors depict walking, this book sheds new light on the Romans themselves - not only how they perceived themselves and their experience of the world, but also how they drew distinctions between work and play, mind and body, and Republic and Empire.

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

Rome's Capitoline Hill was the smallest of the Seven Hills of Rome. Yet in the long history of the Roman state it was the empire's holy mountain. The hill was the setting of many of Rome's most beloved stories, involving Aeneas, Romulus, Tarpeia, and Manlius. It also held significant monuments, including the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, a location that marked the spot where Jupiter made the hill his earthly home in the age before humanity. This is the first book that follows the history of the Capitoline Hill into late antiquity and the early middle ages, asking what happened to a holy mountain as the empire that deemed it thus became a Christian republic. This is not a history of the hill's tonnage of marble and gold bedecked monuments, but rather an investigation into how the hill was used, imagined, and known from the third to the seventh centuries CE. During this time, the imperial triumph and other processions to the top of the hill were no longer enacted. But the hill persisted as a densely populated urban zone and continued to supply a bridge to fragmented memories of an increasingly remote past through its toponyms. This book is also about a series of Christian engagements with the Capitoline Hill's different registers of memory, the transmission and dissection of anecdotes, and the invention of alternate understandings of the hill's role in Roman history. What lingered long after the state's disintegration in the fifth century were the hill's associations with the raw power of Rome's empire.

Even though, at death, identity and social status may undergo major changes, by studying funerary customs we can greatly gain in the understanding of a community's social structure, distribution of wealth and property, and the degree of flexibility or divisiveness in the apportionment of power. With its great regional diversity and variety of community forms and networks, ancient Greece offers a unique context for exploring, through the burial evidence, how communities developed. Mortuary Variability and Social Diversity in Ancient Greece brings together early career scholars working on funerary customs in Greece from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period. Papers present various thematic and interdisciplinary analysis in which funerary contexts provide insights on individuals, social groups and communities. Themes discussed include issues of territoriality, the reconstruction of social roles of particular groups of people, and the impact that major historical events may have had on the way individuals or specific groups of individuals treated their dead.

John J. Dobbins, Professor of Roman Art and Archaeology, taught at the University of Virginia in the Department of Art from 1978 until his retirement in 2019. His legacy of research and pedagogy is explored in A Quaint & Curious Volume: Essays in Honor of John J. Dobbins. Professor Dobbins' research in the field of Roman art and archaeology spans the geographical and chronological limits of the Roman Empire, from Pompeii to Syria, and Etruria to Spain. This volume demonstrates some of his wide-reaching interests, expressed through the research of his former graduate students. Several essays examine the city of Pompeii and cover the topics of masonry analysis, re-examinations of streets and drains, and analyses of the heating capacity of baths in Pompeii. Beyond Pompeii, the archaeological remains of bakeries are employed to elucidate labor specialization in the Late Roman period across the Mediterranean basin. Collaborations between Professor Dobbins and his former students are also explored, including a pioneering online numismatic database and close examination of sculpture and mosaics, including expressions of identity and patronage through case studies of the Ara Pacis and mosaics at Antioch-on-the-Orontes. A Quaint & Curious Volume not only demonstrates John Dobbins' scholarly legacy, but also presents new readings of archaeological data and art, illustrating the impact that one professor can have on the wider field of Roman art and archaeology through the continuing work of his students.

In this book, Ellen Swift uses design theory, previously neglected in Roman archaeology, to investigate Roman artefacts in a new way, making a significant contribution to both Roman social history, and our understanding of the relationships that exist between artefacts and people. Based on extensive data collection and the close study of artefacts from museum collections and archives, the book examines the relationship between artefacts, everyday behaviour, and experience. The concept of 'affordances'-features of an artefact that make possible, and incline users towards, particular uses for functional artefacts-is an important one for the approach taken. This concept is carefully evaluated by considering affordances in relation to other sources of evidence, such as use-wear, archaeological context, the end-products resulting from artefact use, and experimental reconstruction. Artefact types explored in the case studies include locks and keys, pens, shears, glass vessels, dice, boxes, and finger-rings, using material mainly drawn from the north-western Roman provinces, with some material also from Roman Egypt. The book then considers how we can use artefacts to understand particular aspects of Roman behaviour and experience, including discrepant experiences according to factors such as age, social position, and left- or right-handedness, which are fostered through artefact design. The relationship between production and users of artefacts is also explored, investigating what particular production methods make possible in terms of user experience, and also examining production constraints that have unintended consequences for users. The book examines topics such as the perceived agency of objects, differences in social practice across the provinces, cultural change and development in daily practice, and the persistence of tradition and social convention. It shows that design intentions, everyday habits of use, and the constraints of production processes each contribute to the reproduction and transformation of material culture.

This volume contains the proceedings of two international meetings held by the Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times (RIAB) in Ramat-Gan/Jerusalem (March 2017) and Leipzig (May 2018). Most of the papers relate to various aspects of the Aramaic epigraphy in different contexts with a second part of the volume dealing with Idumean ostraca. The papers will be of interest to ancient historians, archaeologists of the ancient Near East, scholars of Semitic and Biblical studies and the ancient Near East.

The Roman Town at Silchester, Calleva Atrebatum, was a working archaeological dig - the University of Reading Field School - which took place every summer for eighteen years. Taking advantage of the last opportunity to record 'life on the dig' in 2014, artist Jenny Halstead spent the summer creating and collating material for a beautiful and historic book. Jenny's superior draughtsmanship, her eye for colour and her wide variety of techniques produce evocative, lively images. The resulting book is a fitting and enduring record of this historic episode in the life of an ancient city.

The Hippos of Troy: Why Homer Never Talked About a Horse deals with one of the most famous episodes of the whole of Classical mythology, the Wooden Horse of Troy. Thanks to the analysis of words, images and wrecks, the author proposes a new interpretation of what Homer actually intended when he spoke of the hippos used by the Greeks to conquer the city of Troy. The archaeological, iconographic and philological evidence discussed by the author leads to the conclusion that Homer never talked about a giant wooden horse, nor a war machine. In fact, Homer referred to the use of a particular ship type, a merchant ship of Levantine origin in use in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Mediterranean, used to pay tribute to Levantine kings, as well as to trade precious metal around the Mediterranean coast.

Extremely comprehensive - covering a huge area geographically and chronologically (8500 BC to the fourth century AD) Well illustrated with nealy 300 line drawings, maps and photographs Can serve as background reading for further specialised reading in architecture, art, geography or as a stand alone introductory textbook

The Afterlives of Greek Sculpture is the first comprehensive, historical account of the afterlives of ancient Greek monumental sculptures. Whereas scholars have traditionally focused on the creation of these works, Rachel Kousser instead draws on archaeological and textual sources to analyze the later histories of these sculptures, reconstructing the processes of damage and reparation that characterized the lives of Greek images. Using an approach informed by anthropology and iconoclasm studies, Kousser describes how damage to sculptures took place within a broader cultural context. She also tracks the development of an anti-iconoclastic discourse in Hellenic society from the Persian wars to the death of Cleopatra. Her study offers a fresh perspective on the role of the image in ancient Greece. It also sheds new light on the creation of Hellenic cultural identity and the formation of collective memory in the Classical and Hellenistic eras.

The life cycle of a coin is long. One might even argue that its existence as a coin is only a minor part of the recycling of metal. In the field of archaeology, coin finds are evidence of connections between human beings. Coins were brought from one place to another by someone, with a reason to do so. Any object acquires new properties when moved from one cultural context to another, and the meaning of the Roman coin in the Danish Iron Age context no doubt differed greatly from its original significance. The Roman denarius was meant to be used as a coin in a monetary economy. Having left the area where the denarius was recognized as coin, it assumed new meanings. But, what were those new meanings? How was the denarius perceived in non-Roman communities? Which purposes did the coin serve? This book covers the later part of the Roman coin's existence - its arrival in Bornholm, its use there, and its deposition in and recovery from the soil.

This volume of essays focuses principally on the collection of books of British and Irish antiquarian scholars held in the Gennadius Library. Collectively, the essays are the product of two thematically-linked conferences: the first of these was held in Athens in June 2010, and was organised by the School of Art History and Cultural Policy, University College Dublin, in collaboration with the Gennadius Library, and graciously hosted by the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies; the second, held in Dublin in June 2011, was organized by the School of Art History and Cultural Policy, and hosted by the Humanities Institute of Ireland. The major premise explored in the paper sessions of those conferences, and in this volume, concerns the work of some of the most pioneering British and Irish 18th and early 19th century antiquarians, artists, and architects who voyaged into the Mediterranean. The publication of their findings in architectural treatises, travelogues and illustrated books came, in turn, to inform international movements of art and architecture; specifically, the Neoclassical and Greek Revival styles. Collectively, these books capture the allure of the broader Mediterranean world for scholars of antiquity - ever expanding beyond the well-traveled boundaries enjoyed by Grand Tourists - exploring issues such as topography, history, cultural mores, dress and, of course, art and architecture. Print and book culture was at the core of the early modern period, not least in the world of architecture, and the conscious effort to gather and disseminate knowledge of the wider classical world through this medium is remarkable. The significant contribution of British and Irish scholarship to this broader European discourse is here viewed through the lens of the extraordinary book collection held in the Gennadius Library.

This book provides a twenty-first century perspective on Roman Britain, combining current approaches with the wealth of archaeological material from the province. This volume introduces the history of research into the province and the cultural changes at the beginning and end of the Roman period. The majority of the chapters are thematic, dealing with issues relating to the people of the province, their identities and ways of life. Further chapters consider the characteristics of the province they lived in, such as the economy, and settlement patterns. This Handbook reflects the new approaches being developed in Roman archaeology, and demonstrates why the study of Roman Britain has become one of the most dynamic areas of archaeology. The book will be useful for academics and students interested in Roman Britain.

This volume presents sculptural finds made by the University of Chicago at Isthmia during their excavations from 1952 to 1967. Sculpture found by the UCLA team in excavations from 1967 onwards are published elsewhere (Isthmia VI). The finds range in date from the seventh century B.C. to third century A.D. but are mostly fragmentary objects of Roman date. The two most important works are the Archaic perirrhanterion (a large shallow bowl) from the sanctuary of Palaimon, and a cult statue group of Amphitrite and Poseidon on a base decorated with reliefs depicting the Calydonian board hunt and the slaughter of the Niobids.

The Roman fort at Bearsden and its annexe, together with areas beyond its defences, were extensively excavated from 1973 to 1982. The report on these excavations was published in 2016. This 'popular' account of the discoveries looks at the material recovered from the site in a different way, examining the process of archaeological excavation, the life of the soldiers at the fort based on the results of the excavation as well as material from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, the presentation and interpretation of the bath-house and latrine, and a discussion of possible future work arising out of the excavation. The excavation report was well illustrated with reconstruction drawings and the process of creating these is also discussed.

Coinage played a central role in the history of the Athenian naval empire of the fifth century BC. It made possible the rise of the empire itself, which was financed through tribute in coinage collected annually from the empire's approximately 200 cities. The empire's downfall was brought about by the wealth in Persian coinage that financed its enemies. This book surveys and illustrates, with nearly 200 examples, the extraordinary variety of silver and gold coinages that were employed in the history of the period, minted by cities within the empire and by those cities and rulers that came into contact with it. It also examines how coins supplement the literary sources and even attest to developments in the monetary history of the period that would otherwise be unknown. This is an accessible introduction to both the history of the Athenian empire and to the use of coins as evidence.

From Zeus and Europa, to Diana, Pan, and Prometheus, the myths of ancient Greece and Rome seem to exert a timeless power over us. But what do those myths represent, and why are they so enduringly fascinating? Why do they seem to be such a potent way of talking about our selves, our origins, and our desires? This imaginative and stimulating Very Short Introduction goes beyond a simple retelling of the stories to explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical myths. It is a wide-ranging account, examining how classical myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, taking the reader from the temples of Crete to skyscrapers in New York, and finding classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the bible, and New Age spiritualism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Building Mid-Republican Rome offers a holistic treatment of the development of the Mid-Republican city from 396 to 168 BCE. As Romans established imperial control over Italy and beyond, the city itself radically transformed from an ambitious central Italian settlement into the capital of the Mediterranean world. Seth Bernard describes this transformation in terms of both new urban architecture, much of it unprecedented in form and extent, and new socioeconomic structures, including slavery, coinage, and market-exchange. These physical and historical developments were closely linked: building the Republican city was expensive, and meeting such costs had significant implications for urban society. Building Mid-Republican Rome brings both architectural and socioeconomic developments into a single account of urban change. Bernard, a specialist in the period's history and archaeology, assembles a wide array of evidence, from literary sources to coins, epigraphy, and especially archaeological remains, revealing the period's importance for the decline of the Roman state's reliance on obligation and dependency and the rise of slavery and an urban labor market. This narrative is told through an investigation of the evolving institutional frameworks shaping the organization of public construction. A quantitative model of the costs of the Republican city walls reconstructs their economic impact. A new account of building technology in the period allows for a better understanding of the social and demographic profile of the city's builders. Building Mid-Republican Rome thus provides an innovative synthesis of a major Western city's spatial and historical aspects, shedding much-needed light on a seminal period in Rome's development.