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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > European archaeology
The study of Roman sculpture has been an essential part of the
disciplines of Art History and Classics since the eighteenth
century. From formal concerns such as Kopienkritic (copy criticism)
to social readings of plebeian and patrician art and beyond,
scholars have returned to Roman sculpture to answer a variety of
questions about Roman art, society, and history. Indeed, the field
of Roman sculptural studies encompasses not only the full
chronological range of the Roman world but also its expansive
geography, and a variety of artistic media, formats, sizes, and
functions. Exciting new theories, methods, and approaches have
transformed the specialized literature on the subject in recent
decades. Rather than creating another chronological ARCH15OXH of
representative examples of various periods, genres, and settings,
The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture synthesizes current best
practices for studying this central medium of Roman art, situating
it within the larger fields of art history, classical archaeology,
and Roman studies. This volume fills the gap between introductory
textbooks-which hide the critical apparatus from the reader-and the
highly focused professional literature. The handbook conveniently
presents new technical, scientific, literary, and theoretical
approaches to the study of Roman sculpture in one reference volume
and complements textbooks and other publications that present
well-known works in the corpus. Chronologically, the volume
addresses material from the Early Republican period through Late
Antiquity. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture not only
contributes to the field of classical art and archaeology but also
provides a useful reference for classicists and historians of the
ancient world.
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.
The Greek Bronze Age, roughly 3000 to 1000 BCE, witnessed the
flourishing of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, the earliest
expansion of trade in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean Sea, the
development of artistic techniques in a variety of media, and the
evolution of early Greek religious practices and mythology. The
period also witnessed a violent conflict in Asia Minor between
warring peoples in the region, a conflict commonly believed to be
the historical basis for Homer's Trojan War. The Oxford Handbook of
the Bronze Age Aegean provides a detailed survey of these
fascinating aspects of the period, and many others, in sixty-six
newly commissioned articles.
Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with Background and
Definitions, which contains articles establishing the discipline in
its historical, geographical, and chronological settings and in its
relation to other disciplines. The second section, Chronology and
Geography, contains articles examining the Bronze Age Aegean by
chronological period (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late
Bronze Age). Each of the periods are further subdivided
geographically, so that individual articles are concerned with
Mainland Greece during the Early Bronze Age, Crete during the Early
Bronze Age, the Cycladic Islands during the Early Bronze Age, and
the same for the Middle Bronze Age, followed by the Late Bronze
Age. The third section, Thematic and Specific Topics, includes
articles examining thematic topics that cannot be done justice in a
strictly chronological/geographical treatment, including religion,
state and society, trade, warfare, pottery, writing, and burial
customs, as well as specific events, such as the eruption of
Santorini and the Trojan War. The fourth section, Specific Sites
and Areas, contains articles examining the most important regions
and sites in the Bronze Age Aegean, including Mycenae, Tiryns,
Pylos, Knossos, Kommos, Rhodes, the northern Aegean, and the
Uluburun shipwreck, as well as adjacent areas such as the Levant,
Egypt, and the western Mediterranean.
Containing new work by an international team of experts, The Oxford
Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean represents the most
comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date single-volume survey
of the field. It will be indispensable for scholars and advanced
students alike.
This is the first comprehensive and fully illustrated study of
silver vessels from ancient Macedonia from the 4th to the 2nd
centuries BC. These precious vessels formed part of dining sets
owned by the royal family and the elite and have been discovered in
the tombs of their owners. Eleni Zimi presents 171 artifacts in a
full-length study of form, decoration, inscriptions and
manufacturing techniques, set against contemporary comparanda in
other media (clay, bronze, glass). She adopts an art historical and
sociological approach to the archaeological evidence and
demonstrates that the use of silver vessels as an expression of
wealth and a status symbol is not only connected with the wealth
spread in the empire after Alexander's the Great expedition to the
East, but constitutes a practice reflecting the opulence and
appreciation for luxury at least in the Macedonian court from the
reign of Philip II onwards.
Italy's Lost Greece is the untold story of the modern engagement
with the ancient Greek settlements of South Italy--an area known
since antiquity as Magna Graecia. This "Greater Greece," at once
Greek and Italian, has continuously been perceived as a region in
decline since its archaic golden age, and has long been relegated
to the margins of classical studies. Giovanna Ceserani's evocative
and nuanced analysis recovers its significance within the history
of classical archaeology. It was here that the Renaissance first
encountered an ancient Greek landscape, and during the "Hellenic
turn" of eighteenth-century Europe the temples of Paestum and the
painted vases of South Italy played major roles, but since then,
Magna Graecia--lying outside the national boundaries of modern
Greece, and sharing in the complicated regional dynamic of the
Italian Mezzogiorno--has fitted awkwardly into the commonly
accepted paradigms of Hellenism. The unfolding of this process
provides a unique insight into three developments: the humanist
investment in the ancient past, the evolution of modern Hellenism,
and the making of classical archaeology. Drawing on antiquarian and
archaeological writings, histories and travelogues about Magna
Graecia, and recent rewritings of the history and imagining of the
South, Italy's Lost Greece sheds new light on well known figures in
the history of archaeology while recovering forgotten ones. This is
an Italian story of European resonance, which transforms our
understanding of the transition from antiquarianism to archaeology,
of the relationship between nation-making and institution-building
in the study of the ancient past, and of the reconstruction of
classical Greece in the modern world.
This book contains catalogues, analyses, photographs and drawings
of some 2,000 archaeological artefacts excavated from the Insula of
the Menander in Pompeii. The catalogues, and analyses are organized
by provenance - buildings, rooms, and location within rooms - so
that the reader can understand the artefacts as household
assemblages. The functions of artefacts and groups of artefacts are
discussed, as are the Latin names which are often given to these
artefacts, and the relationships of these assemblages to the state
of occupancy of the buildings in the Insula during the last years
of Pompeii. This study, therefore, provides a wealth of
information, not only on the range and use of artefacts in Pompeian
houses but also on Roman artefacts, and Roman society, more
generally.
In June, 1973, a group of eleven teachers, students and pupils from
Glasgow boarded a new school minibus and began a trip - across
Europe, Turkey, Syria and Iraq - to Persepolis, in Iran, the
ceremonial capital of the great king Darius of Persia and his son
and successor Xerxes. This is the story, based on the diary and
photographs of one of the teachers. A fascinating mix of
archaeology and culture, the practicalities of travel on a tight
budget, bureaucracy, political disruption, and food and drink.
Liberally illustrated with maps of the route and photographs of
ancient sites, cities and landscapes, and of the minibus and its
inhabitants.
In June, 1973, a group of eleven teachers, students and pupils from
Glasgow boarded a new school minibus and began a trip - across
Europe, Turkey, Syria and Iraq - to Persepolis, in Iran, the
ceremonial capital of the great king Darius of Persia and his son
and successor Xerxes. This is the story, based on the diary and
photographs of one of the teachers. A fascinating mix of
archaeology and culture, the practicalities of travel on a tight
budget, bureaucracy, political disruption, and food and drink.
Liberally illustrated with maps of the route and photographs of
ancient sites, cities and landscapes, and of the minibus and its
inhabitants.
The Roman Remains of Brittany, Normandy and the Loire Valley is the
third in a series of companion guides. The only specialist
guidebook to the region, it provides context to many sites that
deserve to be better known, some only recently conserved for the
public. There are plenty of places to chose from: fifty-four
treated at length plus fourteen shorter entries. There is an
extended chapter dealing with the historical background and two
feature sections. The book is easy to use as there are a large
number of maps, plans and colour photographs. To ensure accuracy,
the author personally followed aqueduct routes, visited hidden
temples, admired ramparts, and visited all the museums. Through his
writing a visit is transformed into an experience.
Gordion is frequently remembered as the location of an intricate
knot ultimately cut by Alexander, but in antiquity it served as the
center of the Phrygian kingdom that ruled much of Asia Minor during
the early millennium B.C.E. The site lies approximately seventy
kilometers southeast of Ankara in central Turkey, at the
intersection of the great empires of the East (Assyrians,
Babylonians, and Hittites) and the West (Greeks and Romans).
Consequently, it occupied a strategic position on nearly all trade
routes that linked the Mediterranean and the Near East. The
University of Pennsylvania has been excavating at Gordion since
1950, unearthing a wide range of discoveries that span nearly four
millennia. The vast majority of these artifacts attests to the
city's interactions with the other great kingdoms and city states
of the Near East during the Iron Age and Archaic periods (ca.
950-540 B.C.E.), especially Assyria, Urartu, Persia, Lydia, Greece,
and the Neo-Hittite city-states of North Syria, among others.
Gordion is thus the ideal centerpiece of an exhibition dealing with
Anatolia and its neighbors during the first millennium B.C.E.
Through a special agreement signed between the Republic of Turkey
and the University of Pennsylvania, Turkey has loaned the Penn
Museum more than one hundred artifacts gathered from four museums
in Turkey (Ankara, Gordion, Istanbul, and Antalya) for an
exhibition titled The Golden Age of King Midas. The exhibition
features most of the material recovered in Tumulus MM, or the
"Midas Mound" (ca. 740 B.C.E.), which was the burial site of King
Midas's father, as well as a number of objects found in a series of
Lydian tombs. The Turkish loan has made possible a uniquely
comprehensive and elaborate exhibition that also features a
disparate group of rarely seen objects from the Penn Museum's own
collections, particularly from sites in the Ukraine, Iran, Iraq,
Turkey, and Greece. With the historic King Midas (ca. 740-700
B.C.E.) as its guiding theme, the exhibition illuminates the
relationships Phrygia maintained with Lydia, Persia, Assyria, and
Greece. The accompanying catalog includes full-color illustrations
and essays that expound on the sites and objects of the exhibition.
This book uses both succinct, informative essays and beautiful,
detailed photography to reveal how recent archeological discoveries
in the ancient country of Armenia have transformed our
understanding of the origins of human civilization and humanity
itself. It also tells the story of a heroic team of Armenian
archeologists who have singlehandedly created a new golden age of
archeology in their country. Their work demonstrates that Armenia
has hosted a continuous human presence for at least 2 million
years. They have succeeded in documenting the evolution of humanity
and human culture across this vast span of time in minute detail.
Their discoveries include the oldest known winemaking complex, the
recreation of the first wines, the oldest known work of art, the
oldest shoe yet discovered, and one of the oldest known religious
documents. This book chronicles their achievements in a manner that
lets the reader become part of the process of exploration and feel
the excitement of discovery.
The The Olsztyn Group in the Early Medieval Archaeology of the
Baltic Region: The Cemetry at Leleszki deals with a much neglected
problem of the archaeology of the early Middle Ages. Between the
5th and the 7th century, the region of the Mazurian Lakes in
northeastern Poland witnessed the rise of communities engaged in
long-distant contacts with both Western and Eastern Europe. Known
as the Olsztyn Group, the archaeological remains of those
communities have revealed a remarkable wealth and diversity, which
has attracted scholarly attention for more than 130 years. Besides
offering a survey of the current state of research on the Olsztyn
Group, Miroslaw Rudnicki introduces the monographic study of the
Leleszki cemetery (district of Szczytno, Poland) as one of the most
representative sites. The prosperity and long-distance contact
revealed by the examination of this cemetery shows that the West
Baltic tribes had considerable influence in early medieval Europe,
much more than scholars had been ready to admit until now.
Two precious Gold Horns were sacrificed by a group of Angles in
South Jutland shortly before they migrated to England. The pictures
on the horns offer a substantial explanation of the pre-Christian
religion of the Angles. This book describes how many Anglian groups
from the continent migrated to England and brought with them their
culture and English language. It provides an original analysis of
archaeological finds and documentation of the Anglo-Saxon religion.
This can be observed in finds from the heathen Anglo-Saxons, - the
Sutton Hoo ship burial, Franks Casket, the square-headed brooches,
idols, amulets and ceramics. The book also explores Runes - the
most remarkable invention of the Angles. The book will be enjoyed
by anybody interested in English heritage and especially those with
an interest in pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons.
Over the past decades, archaeological field surveys and excavations
have greatly enriched our knowledge of the Roman countryside
Drawing on such new data, the volume The Economic Integration of
Roman Italy, edited by Tymon de Haas and Gijs Tol, presents a
series of papers that explore the changes Rome's territorial and
economic expansion brought about in the countryside of the Italian
peninsula. By drawing on a variety of source materials (e.g.
pottery, settlement patterns, environmental data), they shed light
on the complexity of rural settlement and economies on the local,
regional and supra-regional scales. As such, the volume contributes
to a re-assessment of Roman economic history in light of concepts
such as globalisation, integration, economic performance and
growth.
In Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean, Anna Collar
and Troels Myrup Kristensen bring together diverse scholarship to
explore the socioeconomic dynamics of ancient Mediterranean
pilgrimage from archaic Greece to Late Antiquity, the Greek
mainland to Egypt and the Near East. This broad chronological and
geographical canvas demonstrates how our modern concepts of
religion and economy were entangled in the ancient world. By taking
material culture as a starting point, the volume examines the ways
that landscapes, architecture, and objects shaped the pilgrim's
experiences, and the manifold ways in which economy, belief and
ritual behaviour intertwined, specifically through the processes
and practices that were part of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage
over the course of more than 1,500 years.
This volume brings together scholarship from many disciplines,
including history, heritage studies, archaeology, geography, and
political science to provide a nuanced view of life in medieval
Ireland and after. Primarily contributing to the fields of
settlement and landscape studies, each essay considers the
influence of Terence B. Barry of Trinity College Dublin within
Ireland and internationally. Barry's long career changed the
direction of castle studies and brought the archaeology of medieval
Ireland to wider knowledge. These essays, authored by an
international team of fifteen scholars, develop many of his
original research questions to provide timely and insightful
reappraisals of material culture and the built and natural
environments. Contributors (in order of appearance) are Robin
Glasscock, Kieran O'Conor, Thomas Finan, James G. Schryver, Oliver
Creighton, Robert Higham, Mary A. Valante, Margaret Murphy, John
Soderberg, Conleth Manning, Victoria McAlister, Jennifer L. Immich,
Calder Walton, Christiaan Corlett, Stephen H. Harrison, and
Raghnall O Floinn.
The Power of Cities focuses on Iberian cities during the lengthy
transition from the late Roman to the early modern period, with a
particular interest in the change from early Christianity to the
Islamic period, and on to the restoration of Christianity. Drawing
on case studies from cities such as Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville,
it collects for the first time recent research in urban studies
using both archaeological and historical sources. Against the
common portrayal of these cities characterized by discontinuities
due to decadence, decline and invasions, it is instead continuity -
that is, a gradual transformation - which emerges as the defining
characteristic. The volume argues for a fresh interpretation of
Iberian cities across this period, seen as a continuum of
structural changes across time, and proposes a new history of the
Iberian Peninsula, written from the perspective of the cities.
Contributors are Javier Arce, Maria Asenjo Gonzalez, Antonio
Irigoyen Lopez, Alberto Leon Munoz, Matthias Maser, Sabine Panzram,
Gisela Ripoll, Torsten dos Santos Arnold, Isabel Toral-Niehoff,
Fernando Valdes Fernandez, and Klaus Weber.
Roman cities have rarely been studied from the perspective of
women, and studies of Roman women mainly focus on the city of Rome.
Studying the civic participation of women in the towns of Italy
outside Rome and in the numerous cities of the Latin-speaking
provinces of the Roman Empire, this books offers a new view on
Roman women and urban society in the Roman Principate. Drawing on
epigraphy and archaeology, and to a lesser extent on legal and
literary texts, women's civic roles as priestesses, benefactresses
and patronesses or 'mothers' of cities and associations (collegia
and the Augustales) are brought to the fore. In contrast to the
city of Rome, which was dominated by the imperial family, wealthy
women in the local Italian and provincial towns had ample
opportunity to leave their mark on the city. Their motives to spend
their money, time and energy for the benefit of their cities and
the rewards their contributions earned them take centre stage.
Assessing the meaning and significance of their contributions for
themselves and their families and for the cities that enjoyed them,
the book presents a new and detailed view of the role of women and
gender in Roman urban life.
In Epigraphica Boeotica II John Fossey continues to treat results
of his nearly 50 years of research into the archaeology and
inscriptions of Ancient Boiotia (Epigraphica Boeotica I, Amsterdam,
1991). The first part of the volume discusses the relations between
Boiotia and other parts of the Greek world as seen in acts of
proxenia and agonistic victor lists. After a section on dedications
both religious and civic, there follows a series of studies of
ancient tombstones, many of them spolia used in more recent
buildings, with prosopographic and onomastic commentary on the
names contained in them. Discussion throughout features letter
forms and one specific example of this is an epigramme by the Roman
philhellene emperor Hadrianus. An unusual rupestral text concludes
the volume.
A fully illustrated catalogue of over 1000 Greek coins in the
collection of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, this
publication offers within a single volume a remarkably full survey
of the broad sweep of Greek coinage. The particularly rich
collection held at Newcastle contains a number of important and
rare coins, drawn from all areas of the Greek world, from Spain,
Numidia and Carthage in the West to Greece, Asia Minor and the
Levant in the East.
The Newcastle collection has its origins in the exceptional group
of Greek coins presented to the Society in 1852 by Algernon, 4th
Duke of Northumberland. The collection was further augmented in
1932 through the bequest of Mrs E. F. Streatfeild.
An important work of reference, this volume will be of interest to
numismatists, coin collectors, and scholars and students of the
archaeology and history of the Greek world.
This book investigates Hellenistic popular religion through an
interdisciplinary study of terracotta figurines of Egyptian
deities, mostly from domestic contexts, from the trading port of
Delos. A comparison of the figurines' iconography to parallels in
Egyptian religious texts, temple reliefs, and ritual objects
suggests that many figurines depict deities or rituals associated
with Egyptian festivals. An analysis of the objects' clay fabrics
and manufacturing techniques indicates that most were made on
Delos. Additionally, archival research on unpublished notes from
early excavations reveals new data on many figurines'
archaeological contexts, illuminating their roles in both domestic
and temple cults. The results offer a new perspective on
Hellenistic reinterpretations of Egyptian religion, as well as the
relationship between "popular" and "official" cults.
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