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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > European archaeology > Classical Greek & Roman archaeology
Athens dominates textbook accounts of ancient Greece. But was it, for the Greeks themselves, a model city-state or a creative, even a corrupt, departure from the model? Or was there a model? This book reveals Epizephyrian Locri--a Greek colony on the Adriatic coast of Italy--as a third way in Greek culture, neither Athens nor Sparta. Drawing on a wide range of literary and archaeological evidence, James Redfield offers a fascinating account of this poorly understood Greek city-state, and in particular the distinctive role of women and marriage therein. Redfield devotes much of the book to placing Locri within a more general account of Greek culture, particularly with the institution of marriage in relation to private property, sexual identity, and the fate of the soul. He begins by considering the annual practice of sending two maidens from old-world Locris, the putative place of origin of the Italian Locrians, to serve in the temple of Athena at Ilion, finding here some key themes of Locrian culture. He goes on to provide a richly detailed overview of the Italian city; in a set of iconographic essays he suggests that marriage was seen in Locri as a life transformation akin to the eternal bliss hoped for after death. Nothing less than a general reevaluation of classical Greek society in both its political and theological dimensions, "The Locrian Maidens" is must reading for students and scholars of classics, while remaining accessible and of particular interest to those in women's studies and to anyone seeking a broader understanding of ancient Greece.
Our conception of the culture and values of the ancient Greco-Roman world is largely based on texts and material evidence left behind by a small and atypical group of city-dwellers. The people of the deep Mediterranean countryside seldom appear in the historical record from antiquity, and almost never as historical actors. This book is the first extended historical ethnography of an ancient village society, based on an extraordinarily rich body of funerary and propitiatory inscriptions from a remote upland region of Roman Asia Minor. Rural kinship structures and household forms are analysed in detail, as are the region's demography, religious life, gender relations, class structure, normative standards and values. Roman north-east Lydia is perhaps the only non-urban society in the Greco-Roman world whose culture can be described at so fine-grained a level of detail: a world of tight-knit families, egalitarian values, hard agricultural labour, village solidarity, honour, piety and love.
Kommos, located on the south coast of Crete, is widely known for its important sanctuary of the Greek period. and for its earlier role as a major Minoan harbortown. Volumes II and III of this series on the results of the major excavations there have already been published. Now Part I of Volume I offers a general introduction to the site with chapters on the history and character of its excavation seen within the context of earlier archaeological exploration of the Mesara Plain and specifically in the Kommos area (Joseph W. Shaw) and studies on the geomorphology (John A. Gifford), the flora (C. Thomas Shay and Jennifer M. Shay, with Katherine A. Frego and Janusz Zwiazek) and the fauna (David S. Reese, with contributions by Mark J. Rose and Sebastian Payne) of the Kommos region, and ancient and modern land use (Michael Parsons, with John A. Gifford), A catalogue and analysis of finds from a foot survey in the Kommos area are included (Richard Hope Simpson, with Philip P. Betancourt, Peter J. Callaghan, Deborah K. Harlan, John W. Hayes, Joseph W. Shaw, Maria C. Shaw, and L. Vance Watrous). A final chapter by Harriet Blitzer treats Minoan implements and industries. This excavationwas conducted by the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Originally published in 1995. 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 paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback 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.
Building the Bronze Age analyses Early Helladic III, Middle Helladic and Late Helladic I domestic architecture with reference to social organization and social change. This book covers domestic architecture from the southern and central Greek mainland up to southern Thessaly. Site-specific and regional developments are explored. The results are brought together to reconstruct architectural developments during Early Helladic III, Middle Helladic I-II and Middle Helladic III-Late Helladic I. This timeframe enables us to consider how a 'simple' society eventually developed into a society that was socially differentiated. Architectural patterns and changes are highlighted and especially related to social and economic circumstances. In addition, the symbolical aspects of some architectural features are also emphasized.
The Roman imperial hoard from Gruia, Romania (former Roman province of Dacia) is among the largest ever discovered in this part of the Roman Empire. 1,509 silver coins dated from Vespasian to Gordian III were accidentally discovered while digging in a private garden. Wealthy or not in a Time of Turmoil? The Roman Imperial hoard from Gruia in Roman Dacia (Romania) presents a catalogue of each of these coins, photos included, with their complete descriptions. A comparative analysis with other similar hoards throughout the Roman Empire reveals general and specific patterns for hoarding in this period. At the same time, looking at the prices and salaries around the time the hoard was buried, the authors aim to establish whether such an amount of silver coins could have represented someone's entire wealth. In addition, analysing the distribution of hoards in the provinces from the Middle and Lower Danube and the history of this area, some possible reasons for concealing and not recovering this hoard are discussed. One excited aspect emphasised in this book is the presentation of so the called 'weird' coins meaning those pieces that have been minted with various errors, by mistake or deliberately, such as engraving errors, coin-die malfunction, plated coins etc.
Roman and Late Antique Wine Production in the Eastern Mediterranean is devoted to the viticulture of two settlements, Antiochia ad Cragum and Delos, using results stemming from surface survey and excavation to assess their potential integration within the now well-known agricultural boom of the 5th-7th centuries AD. Interdisciplinary and ethnographic data supplements the main archaeological catalogue and provides a rounded understanding of production and use. The publication of an excavated vinicultural vat in Rough Cilicia for the first time, along with the first complete discussion of the viticultural industry on Delos in Late Antiquity, underscores the significance of this book. The combined catalogue, analysis and discussion reinforce the noteworthy position viticulture held in Late Antiquity as an agricultural endeavour, sociocultural and economic factor engrained within eastern Mediterranean settlements.
Since the publication of Eliza May Butler's "Tyranny of Greece over Germany" in 1935, the obsession of the German educated elite with the ancient Greeks has become an accepted, if severely underanalyzed, cliche. In "Down from Olympus," Suzanne Marchand attempts to come to grips with German Graecophilia, not as a private passion but as an institutionally generated and preserved cultural trope. The book argues that nineteenth-century philhellenes inherited both an elitist, normative aesthetics and an ascetic, scholarly ethos from their Romantic predecessors; German "neohumanists" promised to reconcile these intellectual commitments, and by so doing, to revitalize education and the arts. Focusing on the history of classical archaeology, Marchand shows how the injunction to imitate Greek art was made the basis for new, state-funded cultural institutions. Tracing interactions between scholars and policymakers that made possible grand-scale cultural feats like the acquisition of the Pergamum Altar, she underscores both the gains in specialized knowledge and the failures in social responsibility that were the distinctive products of German neohumanism. This book discusses intellectual and institutional aspects of archaeology and philhellenism, giving extensive treatment to the history of prehistorical archaeology and German "orientalism." Marchand traces the history of the study, excavation, and exhibition of Greek art as a means to confront the social, cultural, and political consequences of the specialization of scholarship in the last two centuries."
In Incidental Archaeologists, Bonnie Effros examines the archaeological contributions of nineteenth-century French military officers, who, raised on classical accounts of warfare and often trained as cartographers, developed an interest in the Roman remains they encountered when commissioned in the colony of Algeria. By linking the study of the Roman past to French triumphant narratives of the conquest and occupation of the Maghreb, Effros demonstrates how Roman archaeology in the forty years following the conquest of the Ottoman Regencies of Algiers and Constantine in the 1830s helped lay the groundwork for the creation of a new identity for French military and civilian settlers. Effros uses France's violent colonial war, its efforts to document the ancient Roman past, and its brutal treatment of the region's Arab and Berber inhabitants to underline the close entanglement of knowledge production with European imperialism. Significantly, Incidental Archaeologists shows how the French experience in Algeria contributed to the professionalization of archaeology in metropolitan France. Effros demonstrates how the archaeological expeditions undertaken by the French in Algeria and the documentation they collected of ancient Roman military accomplishments reflected French confidence that they would learn from Rome's technological accomplishments and succeed, where the Romans had failed, in mastering the region.
Here are over 1,000 pages of authoritative information on the archaeology of Greek and Roman civilization. The sites discussed in the more than 2,800 entries are scattered from Britain to India and from the shores of the Black Sea to the coast of North Africa and up the Nile. They are located on sixteen area maps, keyed to the entries. The entries were written by 375 scholars from sixteen nations, many of whom have worked at the sites they describe. Until now our knowledge of the Classical period has been scattered in hundreds of sources dating from antiquity to our own times. This volume provides essential information on work accomplished, in progress, and still to be undertaken. Originally published in 1976. 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.
In the mid 1990s, the site of the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum at Wroxeter, Shropshire, was subjected to one of the most intensive campaigns of geophysical survey ever carried out on a Roman town. The result was a complete plan of the city using magnetometry but also significant deployment of other technologies including resistance, GPR and more experimental technologies. Since that time, geophysical survey has continued intermittently, using the site as a geophysical laboratory. This volume reports on the archaeological interpretation of this work, marrying the extensive and nuanced geophysical data with a detailed analysis of the existing aerial photographic record created by Arnold Baker during the 1950s to 1980s. The resulting work is the first insula by insula description of all the visible buildings in the town, the first time that this has been attempted for a Romano-British town, and one of the few attempted anywhere in the Empire. The analysis has enabled a complete reinterpretation of the historical development of the town that links it to its surrounding hinterland and to wider concerns about Roman Urban development. The volume also contains detail of small-scale excavations that have been carried out since 1999 on the site, many in previously unexplored areas, and completes the publication of all outstanding archaeological work on the monument.
This volume celebrates the centenary of Classical Archaeology as a University discipline in Denmark by presenting nineteen articles on classical archaeological research within Greek, Etruscan and Roman archaeology, ranging from fieldwork and research projects to the publication of material in Danish collections.
This beautifully illustrated book offers a wide-ranging, yet detailed overview of the greatest archaeological sites and discoveries from ancient Greece - with contributions from both those who have excavated the sites and scholars who have spent a lifetime studying the monuments."Great Moments in Greek Archaeology" explores the legendary sites of ancient Greece, including the Athenian Acropolis, Olympia, and the Athenian Agora; the most iconic sculptures in the Greek world, such as the Aphrodite of Melos and the Nike of Samothrace; as well as several fascinating chapters on underwater archaeology of the Kyrenia and Uluburun shipwrecks and the astonishing bronze masterpieces raised from the sea.This is the first book to bring together the archaeological legacy of ancient Greece in a concise and accessible way while still preserving the excitement of discovery.
In the series of final publications for the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, this book presents ceramic material from Roman Corinth (primarily from the middle of the first century to the end of the fourth century A.D.) in which is included the relatively small number of Roman lamps. Since even small fragments of lamps can be easily identified, the author has chosen them for the chronological framework of the volume, cataloguing 62 examples of some 876 found. The catalogue of 214 pieces selected from the vast amounts of pottery unearthed forms a corpus of common and unique finds from the Sanctuary, with attention to sources, chronology, and possible light on the nature of the cult. The history of the Roman Sanctuary is reflected in the lamps and fine wares, which are paralleled elsewhere; a preliminary typology is developed for the coarse wares, which are primarily local in origin. A lot list follows giving the inventory numbers of the catalogued Roman objects and context coins, with context descriptions. The concordance is divided into lamps and pottery, within and outside the Sanctuary, the latter with references to any previous publications. A general index precedes those of text references to catalogued objects, signatures and potter's stamps, and findspots mentioned in the text.
Democracy's Ancient Ancestors examines the political landscape of the ancient Near East through the archive of over 3000 letters found in the royal palace of Mari. These letters display a rich diversity of political actors, encompassing major kingdoms, smaller states and various tribal towns. Mari's unique contribution to the ancient evidence is its view of tribal organization, made possible especially by the fact that its king Zimri-Lim was first of all a tribal ruler, who claimed Mari as an administrative base and source of prestige. These archaic political traditions are not essentially unlike the forms of pre-democratic Greece, and they offer fresh reason to recognize a cultural continuity between the classical world of the Aegean and the older Near East. This book bridges several areas of interest, including archaeology, ancient and classical history, early Middle and Near East, and political and social history.
As well as the Little Owl or glaux, so often seen accompanying the goddess Athena, many other birds played an important role in Greek art and symbolism. This booklet describes the ways in which the Greeks viewed birds, from useful hawks and fowl to exotic parakeets and peacocks. Some of the birds most often depicted are imaginary, from the griffin to the phallos bird, whose head and neck consisted of an erect penis. The book ends with a field guide to species likely to be seen on a visit to the Agora archaeological park today.
The modern Cypriot town of Polis Chrysochous-"City of Gold"-lies above the city of Arsinoe and the earlier city-kingdom of Marion. In 1885 excavators began exploring the extensive cemeteries of these cities. Since 1983 the Princeton Cyprus Expedition has focused on the remains of sanctuaries, public buildings, workshops, and private residences spanning the Geometric through Classical periods of Marion and the Hellenistic through Roman, early Christian, and medieval periods of Arsinoe. Combining archaeological investigation and historical analysis, City of Gold relates the discoveries establishing that these cities had close ties with Greece and with regions from Egypt to Anatolia, findings best represented by the painted vases and terracotta sculptures of Marion and the architecture of Arsinoe. Nearly half of the 110 artifacts included in the catalogue are previously unpublished, and another third are published in detail for the first time. Distributed for the Princeton University Art Museum Exhibition Schedule: Princeton University Art Museum(10/20/12-01/20/13)
This second edition of Alison E. Cooley's accessible introduction to Pompeii takes into account the major new theories and discoveries that have emerged since the first edition was published 20 years ago. Italy's third most popular tourist destination, Pompeii attracts millions of visitors each year, and images of the town are familiar all around the world. However, even today our picture of the site is being impacted by new archaeological discoveries. This book focuses particularly on the date of the eruption, the natural environment of Pompeii, the recovery of skeletal remains and plaster casts, and Pompeii in the popular imagination. In addition, three new chapters look at the popularization of Pompeii, archaeological reconstruction of the Roman town, and how we know what we know about the people who lived there. The technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have transformed our understanding of the urban environment of Pompeii, raising new questions even as they dig ever deeper into the surviving material evidence. This volume offers a succinct and insightful exploration of the impact of these scientific and archaeological innovations, as well as that of contemporary politics, upon interpretations of Pompeii over the last 250 years, including the ways in which advances in volcanology have transformed our picture of its last moments.
The most famous conspiracy of silence in the history of antiquity is examined here by one of the three archaeologists entrusted by the Archaeological Society of Athens with the final excavations of the Sanctuary. He traces the history of the cult in the archaeological remains, from the first traces of habitation at the site in the Middle Bronze Age (around 1900 B.C.) to its final grandeur and decay in Imperial Roman times. A guided tour of the Museum at Eleusis, illustrated with photographs of objects in the Museum, as well as air views, plans, and detailed photographs of the ruins closely correlated with the text, takes into account the needs of the visitor at the site as well as the reader at home. Originally published in 1961. 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.
Bodies of Maize, Eaters of Grain provides a comparative study of the earliest urban civilisations of the Maya lowlands and the Greek mainland. It builds upon earlier comparative studies by Gordon Childe, Robert Adams and Bruce Trigger, extending their work into new directions. Specifically, the focus lies on the art styles of the Late Preclassic lowland Maya and Mycenaean Greece. The approach used here seeks to combine more traditional iconographic approaches with more recent models on metaphor and the social agency of things. Comparing Maya and Mycenaean art styles through the three aspects of metaphor, semiotics and praxis, their differences and similarities are made clear. The book shows art to have played a more active role in the development of the earliest urban civilisations, rather than passively reflecting economic and political trends. In that way, the social role of art provides a key to understanding the relations between the different factors in the development of the two societies, as they played out at different temporal and geographical scales. To understand this, the notion of distinct Maya and Mycenaean 'material worlds', involving both materials and ideas, is proposed, with consequences for models about the earliest urban civilisations in general.
Hittite is the earliest attested Indo-European language and was the language of a state which flourished in Asia Minor in the second millennium BC. This exciting and accessible introductory course, which can be used in both trimester and semester systems, offers in ten lessons a comprehensive introduction to the grammar of the Hittite language with ample exercises both in transliteration and in cuneiform. It includes a separate section of paradigms, a grammatical index, as well as a list of every cuneiform sign used in the book. A full glossary can be found at the back. The book has been designed so that the cuneiform is not essential and can be left out of any course if so desired. The introduction provides the necessary cultural and historical background, with suggestions for further reading, and explains the principles of the cuneiform writing system.
The churches of Rome constitute arguably the most important manifestations of art and architecture in the Western world. This book is a detailed description of 251 churches in Rome and the Vatican City, built or decorated between 1527 and 1870, and is based on extensive research in state, church and private archives, as well as an exhaustive survey of modern and historical bibliographical sources. Its aim is to provide a more complete picture of the construction and decoration of these churches than previously known. This entails not only providing the names of the architects who designed the churches, but also the names of the masons (muratori) and stone cutters (scalpellini), who built the churches and whose skills were essential for realising the architect's plans. This depth of information is carried through to the interior decorations. The interior of each church is then described in depth, on a chapel-by-chapel basis, and includes stucco work, marble revetment, monuments, metal work, fresco and painted decorations and altarpieces. For each church, a brief historical introduction is given and a general bibliography supplied. Archival research has brought to light a great number of works of art whose authorship and/or dates have hitherto been unknown, including works by well-known artists but also many that are unknown to scholars. A great number of works of art whose authorship has hitherto been unknown are published in this volume for the first time. An alphabetic index of artists (consisting of over two thousand names) is supplied, and includes the churches where their works are to be found and accurate biographical information for each artist. In addition there is an index of patrons, and a street and rione index. Also provided are the names and contact details of the archives consulted in researching this book. The book is intended to be used as a reference and resource book, as well as to be used by visitors to these churches. It is lavishly illustrated with photographs. Michael Erwee was born in Zambia. He received his doctorate from the University of Sydney and was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt post doctorate scholarship from the German Government. At present he is an independent researcher.
Architecture and Politics in Republican Rome is the first book to explore the intersection between Roman Republican building practices and politics (c.509-44 BCE). At the start of the period, architectural commissions were carefully controlled by the political system; by the end, buildings were so widely exploited and so rhetorically powerful that Cassius Dio cited abuse of visual culture among the reasons that propelled Julius Caesar's colleagues to murder him in order to safeguard the Republic. In an engaging and wide-ranging text, Penelope J. E. Davies traces the journey between these two points, as politicians developed strategies to manoeuver within the system's constraints. She also explores the urban development and image of Rome, setting out formal aspects of different types of architecture and technological advances such as the mastery of concrete. Elucidating a rich corpus of buildings that have been poorly understand, Davies demonstrates that Republican architecture was much more than a formal precursor to that of imperial Rome.
Visions of the Roman North: Art and Identity in Northern Roman Britain is the first book to present an analysis of art from the northern frontier zones of Roman Britain and to interpret the meaning and significance of this art in terms of the formation of a regional identity at this time. It argues that a distinct and vibrant visual culture flourished in the north during the Roman period, primarily due to its status as a heavily militarized frontier zone. Artworks from forts and the frontier-works of Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, along with funerary monuments from military and civilian cemeteries, are analysed and discussed. The book also explores religious sculpture depicting classical deities, Romano-British gods and goddesses and eastern deities such as Mithras in terms of the use of imagery in various belief systems and in terms of the establishment of individual and group identities.
The author considers the Morgantina terracottas as representatives of one of the liveliest traditions of the Greek minor arts, and thus he examines questions of stylistic development and influence, workshop traditions, and technique. Originally published in 1982. 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 paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback 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.
No one disputes the centrality of cult activity in the lives of individuals and communities in ancient Greece. The significance of where people worshipped their gods has been far less acknowledged. In 1884 Francois de Polignac argued that the placing of cult centres played a major part in establishing the concept of the city-state in archaic Greece. The essays in this collection, headed by that of de Polignac himself in which he re-assesses his position, critically examine the social and political importance of sanctuary placement, not only by re-examining the case of the archaic Greece discussed by de Polignac, but by extending analysis both back to Mycenaean times and onwards to Greece under Roman occupation. These essays reveal something of the complexity of relations between religion and politics in ancient Greece, demonstrating how vital factors such as tradition, gender relations, and cult identity were in creating and maintaining the religious mapping of the Greek countryside. |
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