A study of archaeology and the early Church in Greece is long overdue. So far, no book has been published in English that examines the growth of Christianity in southern Greece from New Testament times until the medieval period, taking into account both contemporary theological expertise and a detailed knowledge of the numerous and exciting current archaeological excavations. Situated between Israel and Italy, Greece is now yielding vital evidence of the development of early Christianity. Mainland Greece and its surrounding islands is a vast region, and I have chosen to focus on an area rich in early Christian remains, namely the region stretching from Athens southwards. The book examines evidence relating to Christianity in New Testament times, particularly through the writings of St Paul and early theologians, and juxtaposes these texts with recent and current excavations at Corinth, with its twin ports of Kenchreai and Lechaion, and its chief sanctuary beyond the city at Isthmia, where St Paul worked during the celebration of the pan-Hellenic Games. Much of the excavation at Lechaion has been carried out underwater by divers pioneering new methods of preserving submerged material, since most of the harbour is entirely submerged. Later, particularly from the sixth century onwards, Christian basilicas were built throughout Greece. A number of these are examined, including those at Nemea and Epidaurus. Nemea provides unique evidence of an agricultural community guided by a bishop; numerous Christian artefacts have been excavated at the site. Epidaurus was honoured as the birthplace of the healing god Asclepius, and early Christians inherited and developed these healing skills in unexpected ways. At other locations, monks developed a wide variety of lifestyles that were little known in the Western Church. The archaeology of Christian sites in Greece is a new and unfolding discipline; this book will hopefully encourage scholars and students to take these studies further.

The role of the Phoenicians in the economy, culture and politics of the ancient Mediterranean was as large as that of the Greeks and Romans, and deeply interconnected with that 'Classical' world, but their lack of literature and their Oriental associations mean that they are much less well-known. This book brings the state of the art in international scholarship on Phoenician and Punic studies to an English-speaking audience, collecting new papers from fifteen leading voices in the field from Europe and North Africa, with a bias towards the younger generation. Focusing on a series of case-studies from the colonial world of the western Mediterranean, it is the first volume in any language to address the questions of what 'Phoenician' and 'Punic' actually mean, how 'Punic' or western Phoenician identity has been constructed by ancients and moderns, the coherency of Punic culture, and whether there was in fact a 'Punic world'.

Excavated from Traprain Law, East Lothian, Scotland, in May 1919, was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman silver ever made in Europe - and the biggest hoard of `hacksilver': 23kg, battered, crushed and chopped up. Blame for the destruction has hitherto been laid at the door of `barbarians' but this study changes that view. An international team of scholars has reviewed the hoard's origins and manufacture, its use as elite tableware, its hacking and later reuse. A century of new discoveries and ideas allow fresh conclusions, especially about the hacking. With wide-ranging parallels from across Europe, the authors argue that hacking was a deliberate Roman policy to create bullion at times of economic crisis, turning valued vessels into weights of silver to be used in frontier politics, to pay off groups from beyond the empire, or hire them as mercenaries

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. This work in 'The Semitic Series', intended to present 'a knowledge of the more important facts' in the history of the Near Eastern civilisations, was published in 1900. Sayce's account begins with the geographical and historical background, and then surveys life in the cities, from the family and its home to the government, the law and the army, economic issues such as slavery, prices and banking, the extent and relevance of literacy, and the importance of religion. Scholarly, but written for a popular audience, this work remains of relevance to anyone interested in studying the everyday lives of ordinary people in this ancient society.

Ezzo presents a detailed study of the bone chemistry of individuals buried at the 14th century Grasshopper Pueblo site. A wide range of elements were measured from these skeletons as indicators of diet, stress, and nutrition. The different concentrations of these elements were then related to parameters of age, sex, social differences, space, time, environmental change, and possible resource depletion. The major relationships were found to be with sex, space, and time, with significant changes in male and female diets over time, but also with patterned spatial differences in burials suggesting household differences in access to food. This is a data-rich study which provides much information for social and economic reconstructions of prehistoric Pueblo adaptation to their environment.

In this book, Akkermans provides a systematic overview of the Halaf culture in the Syrian portion of the valley of the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates. Following a broad exposition of the geography of the region, excavation results, definition of chronological periods within the Halaf, and patterns of site distributions, interpretive questions are explored. These include site types and the problems of determining site hierarchies, the nature of Halaf subsistence, and the role of exchange in the Halaf culture.

Many types of written records are found in the Agora, and this booklet presents a sample of the more than 10,000 inventoried inscriptions written on stone. The texts illustrated include diplomatic agreements, commemorative plaques for athletic victories, records of court judgements, boundary stones identifying different buildings, and fragmentary inscriptions featuring names (over 30,000 individual Athenians are now recorded).

Throughout the pharaonic period, hieroglyphs served both practical and aesthetic purposes. Carved on stelae, statues, and temple walls, hieroglyphic inscriptions were one of the most prominent and distinctive features of ancient Egyptian visual culture. For both the literate minority of Egyptians and the vast illiterate majority of the population, hieroglyphs possessed a potent symbolic value that went beyond their capacity to render language visible. For nearly three thousand years, the hieroglyphic script remained closely bound to indigenous notions of religious and cultural identity. By the late antique period, literacy in hieroglyphs had been almost entirely lost. However, the monumental temples and tombs that marked the Egyptian landscape, together with the hieroglyphic inscriptions that adorned them, still stood as inescapable reminders that Christianity was a relatively new arrival to the ancient land of the pharaohs. In Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination, Jennifer Westerfeld argues that depictions of hieroglyphic inscriptions in late antique Christian texts reflect the authors' attitudes toward Egypt's pharaonic past. Whether hieroglyphs were condemned as idolatrous images or valued as a source of mystical knowledge, control over the representation and interpretation of hieroglyphic texts constituted an important source of Christian authority. Westerfeld examines the ways in which hieroglyphs are deployed in the works of Eusebius and Augustine, to debate biblical chronology; in Greek, Roman, and patristic sources, to claim that hieroglyphs encoded the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood; and in a polemical sermon by the fifth-century monastic leader Shenoute of Atripe, to argue that hieroglyphs should be destroyed lest they promote a return to idolatry. She argues that, in the absence of any genuine understanding of hieroglyphic writing, late antique Christian authors were able to take this powerful symbol of Egyptian identity and manipulate it to serve their particular theological and ideological ends.

In this book, Akkermans provides a systematic overview of the Halaf culture in the Syrian portion of the valley of the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates. Following a broad exposition of the geography of the region, excavation results, definition of chronological periods within the Halaf, and patterns of site distributions, interpretive questions are explored. These include site types and the problems of determining site hierarchies, the nature of Halaf subsistence, and the role of exchange in the Halaf culture.

Ezzo presents a detailed study of the bone chemistry of individuals buried at the 14th century Grasshopper Pueblo site. A wide range of elements were measured from these skeletons as indicators of diet, stress, and nutrition. The different concentrations of these elements were then related to parameters of age, sex, social differences, space, time, environmental change, and possible resource depletion. The major relationships were found to be with sex, space, and time, with significant changes in male and female diets over time, but also with patterned spatial differences in burials suggesting household differences in access to food. This is a data-rich study which provides much information for social and economic reconstructions of prehistoric Pueblo adaptation to their environment.

This is the first book-length study of the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Japan (c.600 BC-AD 700), in which the introduction of rice paddy-field farming from the Korean peninsula ignited the rapid development of social complexity and hierarchy that culminated with the formation of the ancient Japanese state. The author traces the historical trajectory of the Yayoi and Kofun periods by employing cutting-edge sociological, anthropological and archaeological theories and methods. The book reveals a fascinating process through which sophisticated hunter-gatherer communities in an archipelago on the eastern fringe of the Eurasian continent were transformed materially and symbolically into a state.

The Viking Age (c. 750-1050 AD) is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver, and exotic commodities. Until relatively recently, archaeologists and textual scholars had the tendency to weave a largely male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians - for instance in craftsmanship, exploration, cross-cultural trade, warfare and other spheres of life - would not have been possible without the active involvement of women. Extant textual sources as well as the perpetually expanding corpus of archaeological evidence thus demonstrate unequivocally that both within the walls of the household and in the wider public arena women's voices were heard, respected and followed. This pioneering and beautifully illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The multifarious motivations and circumstances that led women to engage in armed conflict or other activities whereby weapons served as potent symbols of prestige and empowerment are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the wider Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields - lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.

The papers in this volume examine the sociocultural, socioeconomic and environmental factors that condition spatial patterning of human behavior in food-producing (both agricultural and pastoral) societies. The spatially patterned material manifestations of that behavior are considered in the light of archaeological and ethnographical examples. Most papers combine both sources of data, drawn primarily from Africa, while one paper focuses on the ancient Near East.

The papers in this volume examine the sociocultural, socioeconomic and environmental factors that condition spatial patterning of human behavior in food-producing (both agricultural and pastoral) societies. The spatially patterned material manifestations of that behavior are considered in the light of archaeological and ethnographical examples. Most papers combine both sources of data, drawn primarily from Africa, while one paper focuses on the ancient Near East.

The study of early China has been radically transformed over the past fifty years by archaeological discoveries, including both textual and non-textual artifacts. Thanks to the huge fund of new data provided by archaeology, historians are now keenly aware that traditional accounts of the period are inadequte because they are partisan, prescriptive, and incomplete. Excavations of settlements and tombs have demonstrated that most people did not lead their lives in accordance with the rituals canons, while previously unknown documents have shown that most received histories were written retrospectively by victors, and present a correspondingly skewed and anachronistic perspective.

This handbook provides an authoritive survey of Chinese history from the Stone Age to A.D. 220. It is the first volume to include not only a comprehensive review of political history, but also detailed treatments of topics that transcend particular historical moments, such as warfare, cities, literature, and science. The contributions from doyens in the field and up and coming scholars reflect the cutting edge research that is redefining the study of Early Chinese history.

This volume represents a more Africanist approach to the framework of maritime landscapes and challenges of adapting international heritage policy such as the UNESCO convention. While the concept of a maritime landscape is very broad, a more focused thematic strategy draws together a number of case studies in South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, and Nigeria with a common thread. Specifically, the contributors address the sub-theme of sea ports and sea power as part of understanding the African maritime landscape. Sea ports and surrounds are dynamic centers of maritime culture supporting a rich diversity of cultural groups and economic activities. Strategic locations along the African coastline have associations with indigenous maritime communities and trade centers, colonial power struggles and skirmishes, establishment of naval bases and operations, and World War I and II engagements.

Amongst the civilizations to participate in the dynamic processes of contact and interchange that gave rise to complex societies in the ancient Near East, Elam has remained one of the most obscure, at times languishing in the background of scholarly inquiry. In recent years, however, an increasing body of academic publications have acknowledged its relevance and suggested that its legacy was more considerable and long-lasting than previously estimated. The Elamite World assembles a group of 40 international scholars to contribute their expertise to the production of a solid, lavishly illustrated, English language treatment of Elamite civilization. It covers topics such as its physical setting, historical development, languages and people, material culture, art, science, religion and society, as well as the legacy of Elam in the Persian empire and its presence in the modern world. This comprehensive and ambitious survey seeks for Elam, hardly a household name, a noteworthy place in our shared cultural heritage. It will be both a valuable introductory text for a general audience and a definitive reference source for students and academics.

Reconstructing the past of intentional communities from across the United StatesUtopian and intentional communities have dotted the American landscape since the colonial era, yet only in recent decades have archaeologists begun analyzing the material culture left behind by these groups. This volume includes discussions of the Shakers, the Harmony Society, the Moravians, the Oneida community, Brook Farm, and Mormon towns. Also featured is an expanded case study of California's late nineteenth-century Kaweah Colony, offering a new perspective on approaches to the study of utopian societies. Surveys of settlement patterns, the built environment, and even the smallest artifacts such as tobacco pipes and buttons are used to uncover what daily life was like in these communities. Archaeological evidence reveals how these communities upheld their societal ideals. Shakers, for example, constructed homes with separate living quarters for men and women, reflecting the group's commitment to celibacy. On the other hand, some communities diverged from their principles, as evidenced by the presence of a key and coins found at Kaweah, indicating private property and a cash economy despite claims to communal and egalitarian practices. Stacy Kozakavich argues archaeology has much to offer in the reconstruction and interpretation of community pasts for the public. Material evidence provides information about these communities free from the underlying assumptions, positive or negative, that characterize past interpretations. She urges researchers not to dismiss these communal experiments as quaint failures but to question how the lifestyles of the people in these groups are interpreted for visitors today. She reminds us that there is inspiration to be found in the unique ways these intentional communities pursued radical social goals.

For the ancient Maya, food was both sustenance and a tool for building a complex society. This collection, the first to focus exclusively on the social uses of food in Classic Maya culture, deploys a variety of theoretical approaches to examine the meaning of food beyond diet-ritual offerings and restrictions, medicinal preparations, and the role of nostalgia around food, among other topics. For instance, how did Maya feasts build community while also reinforcing social hierarchy? What psychoactive substances were the elite Maya drinking in their caves, and why? Which dogs were good for eating, and which breeds became companions? Why did even some non-elite Maya enjoy cacao, but rarely meat? Why was meat more available for urban Maya than for those closer to hunting grounds on the fringes of cities? How did the molcajete become a vital tool and symbol in Maya gastronomy? These chapters, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, showcase a variety of approaches and present new evidence from faunal remains, hieroglyphic texts, chemical analyses, and art. Thoughtful and revealing, Her Cup for Sweet Cacao unlocks a more comprehensive understanding of how food was instrumental to the development of ancient Maya culture.

The Swahili World presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. It covers a 1,500-year sweep of history, from the first settlement of the coast to the complex urban tradition found there today. Swahili towns contain monumental palaces, tombs, and mosques, set among more humble houses; they were home to fishers, farmers, traders, and specialists of many kinds. The towns have been Muslim since perhaps the eighth century CE, participating in international networks connecting people around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Successive colonial regimes have helped shape modern Swahili society, which has incorporated such influences into the region's long-standing cosmopolitan tradition. This is the first volume to explore the Swahili in chronological perspective. Each chapter offers a unique wealth of detail on an aspect of the region's past, written by the leading scholars on the subject. The result is a book that allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to explore the diversity of the Swahili tradition, how Swahili society has changed over time, as well as how our understandings of the region have shifted since Swahili studies first began. Scholars of the African continent will find the most nuanced and detailed consideration of Swahili culture, language and history ever produced. For readers unfamiliar with the region or the people involved, the chapters here provide an ideal introduction to a new and wonderful geography, at the interface of Africa and the Indian Ocean world, and among a people whose culture remains one of Africa's most distinctive achievements.

Carlisle charts the city's emergence as an urban centre under the Romans and traces its vicissitudes over subsequent centuries until the high Middle Ages. Arguably, the most important theme that differentiates its development from many other towns is its position as a 'border' city. The characteristics of the landscape surrounding Carlisle gave it special significance as a front-line element in the defence of the Roman province of Britannia and later at the frontier of two emerging kingdoms, England and Scotland. In both cases, it occupied the only overland route in the west between these two kingdoms, emphasising the importance of understanding its landscape setting. This volume sheds light on the processes of urbanization under the Romans beginning with a fort, developing into a major nodal hub, and ending as the capital city of the local tribe, the Carvetii. The story continues with the collapse of Roman rule and the city's re-emergence first as a monastic centre, then as a proto-town in the period of Anglo-Scandinavian settlement. Finally, the Norman Conquest confirmed Carlisle's importance with the establishment of a castle, a diocese, and an Augustinian Priory, as well as the granting of specific rights to the citizens. Carlisle uses a combination of archaeological discoveries and historical data to explore the history and legacy of this fascinating city.

Much of what is known about Malta’s ancient material culture has come to light as a result of antiquarian research or early archaeological work—a time where little attention was paid to stratigraphic context. This situation has in part contributed to the problem of reliably sourcing and dating Maltese Roman-period pottery, particularly locally produced forms common on nearly all ancient Maltese sites.  This book presents a comprehensive study of Maltese pottery forms from key stratified deposits spanning the first century BC to mid-fourth century AD. Ceramic material from three Maltese sites was analysed and quantified in a bid to understand Maltese pottery production during the Roman period, and trace the type and volume of ceramic-borne goods that were circulating the central Mediterranean during the period. A short review of the islands’ recent literature on Roman pottery is discussed, followed by a detailed contextual summary of the archaeological contexts presented in this study. The work is supplemented by a detailed illustrated catalogue of all the forms identified within the assemblages, presenting the wide range of locally produced and imported pottery types typical of the Maltese Roman period.

This is the first official guidebook to the site of ancient Corinth published by the ASCSA in over 50 years, and it comes fully updated with the most current information, colour photos, maps, and plans. It is an indispensable resource for the casual tourist or professional archaeologist new to the site. The guide begins with a history of Corinth and its excavations and then presents two tours. The first takes visitors through the archaeological site from the Temple of Apollo to the Forum, the Fountain of Peirene, and more. The second tour covers the ancient monuments outside the fenced area of the site, including the Odeion, the Theatre, and the Asklepieion, and then the various remains of ancient Corinth located within and outside the ancient Greek walls, including the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore and the Lechaion Basilica. Short bibliographic notes for many entries lead the reader to fuller descriptions of monuments, objects, and concepts; a glossary is also provided. Interspersed in the text are topographical notes and focus boxes on special topics such as geology, Pausanias, St. Paul, and prehistoric Corinth and the Corinthia.   Greek language edition

Brings together over thirty of the leading scholars in Post Medieval archaeology and examines how this relatively new discipline has developed and where it is going. The impetus for this volume lies in the expansion of interest in Post Medieval archaeology in university, commercial, and voluntary sectors. The study of Post Medieval archaeology is a relatively new discipline but, within archaeology as a whole, it represents one of the fastest growing areas of study. Archaeologists seek to avoid the fragmentation of a still small discipline into subfields such as pre-1750 post-medieval archaeology, post-1750 industrial archaeology, or the incorporation of theory as somehow outside of the purview of the work of the older organisations. This important and timely volume brings together articles that consider the commonalties between approaches as well as the unique contributions made by members of each organisation towards the study of the material heritage of the post-1550 period. The chapters in the volume derive from a well-attended three day conference held at the University of Leicester in April 2008 and sponsored by the Society for Post-medieval Archaeology, the Association for Industrial Archaeology, and the Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group. The aim of the discussion-focused conference was to foster enhanced understanding and cooperation between the organisations and their approaches; with in-depth consideration of the future of the broader field of historical archaeology. The volume will bring the debatefrom the conference to a wider academic, professional, and vocational audience and, it is anticipated, will act as a benchmark by which future development will be judged.

For a period of about week in February 1865, as the Civil War was winding down and Plains Indian communities were reeling in the wake of the Sand Creek massacre, combat swept across the Nebraska panhandle, especially along the Platte River. The fighting that marked this event barely compares to the massive campaigns and terrible carnage that marked the conflict that was taking place in the eastern states but it was a significant event at the opening on the ensuing Indian Wars. Operating on terrain they knew well, Cheyenne warriors and other Native forces encountered the US Cavalry who operated within a modern network of long distance migration and pony express trails and military stations. The North Platte Campaign offers a good basis for the application of landscape approaches to conflict archaeology if only because of its scale. This fighting is both easily approached and fascinatingly encompassed. There were probably far fewer than 1000 fighters involved in those skirmishes, but before, after, and between them, they involved substantial movements of people and of equipment that was similar to the arms and gear in service to other Civil War era combatants. They also seem to have used approaches that were typical of America's western warfare. Like many of the conflicts of interest to modern observers, the North Platte fights were between cultural different opponents. Archaeological consideration of battlefields such as Rush Creek and Mud Springs, bases, and landscapes associated with this fighting expose how the combat developed and how the opposing forces dealt with the challenges they encountered. This study draws on techniques of battlefield archaeology, focusing on the concept of 'battlespace' and the recovery, distribution and analysis of artifacts and weaponry, as well as historical accounts of the participants, LiDAR-informed terrain assessment, and theoretical consideration of the strategic thinking of the combatants. It applies a landscape approach to the archaeological study of war and reveals an overlooked phase of the American Civil War and the opening of the Indian Wars.