Aegean Prehistory (Archaeology)

It was a February afternoon in 2009, in the prehistoric
antiquities room of the Archaeological Museum of Naxos,
when I first talked with Colin Renfrew about the publication
of all the Early Cycladic figurines found in excavations.
Our conversation took place among the cases in which
the antiquities from Keros, and all the large figurines
from Aplomata, Phiondas, and other sites are exhibited.
Renfrew, as the excavator of Keros, where a large number
of marble figurine fragments and vases have been recently
found, wanted to look for comparanda in the excavated
material. The author, as the then Ephor of the Ephorate
of Antiquities for the Cyclades but also the excavator of
Skarkos, wished to see all the excavated material published.
Thus we joined forces and after a long collaboration our
efforts materialized in the form of a symposium entitled
Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context, held at the Athens
Archaeological Society on 27–29 May 2014.

The results of this symposium are presented here.
The current volume aims to publish a very important
class of material, partly unknown to scholarship. At the
same time, it constitutes a break from the usual way of
treating and publishing Early Cycladic sculptures...

During the Minoan Neopalatial period (ca. 1700-1450 BCE) female figures are depicted in visual art sitting on rocks and stepped cult structures, both of which may be symbolic representations of mountains. Trees are also depicted in conjunction with rocks and stepped altars, sometimes replacing the female figure, and suggesting a tree-and-mountain combination. These scenes echo a tradition in the iconography of Syro-Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt of an association betweenand even the interchangeability of-trees, or more broadly vegetation, and female figures. While the Minoan female figures are unidentified, the east Mediterranean examples are associated with known goddesses. This paper suggests that, along with cult structures, Cretan Neopalatial female garments also belong to this tree-and-mountain symbolic visual language. Not only do abstract mountain forms appear on female garments, but the combination of female torso and elaborate skirt forms a silhouette that evokes the cult scenes in which women sit on rocks and stepped altars and platforms. Examination of the decoration, structure, and shape of Minoan Neopalatial garments as depicted in glyptic, wall painting, and three dimensions, will demonstrate their suitability for incorporation into the classification of landscape epiphany.

Luvian is the language of Anatolian hieroglyphic inscriptions and a close relative of Hittite. This book explores the Luvian ethnic history through sociolinguistic methods, with an emphasis on the interpretation of contacts between Luvian and its linguistic neighbors, such as Hittite, Hurrian, and Greek. It is concluded that Luvian was originally spoken in the central part of Anatolia. Subsequent Luvian migrations were connected with the expansion of the Hittite state, where Hittite was the socially dominant language, but the Luvian speakers were more numerous. The unstable balance between the Hittite and the Luvian speakers continued to shift in favor of the second group, to the point that the Hittite elites were fully bilingual in Luvian.

The end of the Early Bronze Age, in other words the EBA III, is one of the significant turning points in the cultural history of the Anatolian Peninsula. Metal objects that indicate social class differences, advancements in architecture, and finds that point to connections with distant regions all demonstrate that a political structure began to emerge in Anatolia during this period. Parallel to these developments, especially with the increase in interregional relations, the use of new vessels indicates a novelty in eating and drinking habits. Tankards, bell-shaped cups and depas amphikypellon stand out within this group and are referred to as the new drinking vessels. In addition to these, it is noteworthy that beakers or goblets, and also container amphorae started to become widespread. All these types are considered to be associated with new drinking habits, and the new drink type is suggested to be wine. However, the suggestions proposed regarding the use of these vessels are not supported by any archaeometric studies until now. In this study, we share results from total lipid extraction analyses (TLE) performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) on a group of depa vessels from the archaeological site of Küllüoba located in Eskişehir, Turkey, and re-evaluate at the possible purposes of these vessels. Biomolecules such as fatty acids, salicylic acids, organic acids, hydrocarbons, n-alkanes, and herbal steroids identified as a result of these analyzes provided the first direct evidence of the use of fermented products such as wine and herbal analgesics in Early Bronze Age Anatolia. Additionally, we present the first archaeological data of the period and the region regarding the use of salicylic acid.

Caria, located in the southwest of Anatolia, is a partly neglected region in terms of prehistoric studies. However, it is possible to make some general evaluations about the Early Bronze Age by compiling the current archaeological data. This article aims to understand the change in the Carian Early Bronze Age and the interactions with the surrounding regions. In the Early Bronze Age cemeteries in the region, specifically produced pithoi as burial vessels were used, multiple burials were made, there are grave markers marking the location of the graves, and some drinking rituals were performed at the graveside. In ceramics, new features appear in the Early Bronze Age II. The appearance of the Carian one-handled tankards and the first two-handled cups at the end of EBA II indicates that a new drinking culture, which began to spread throughout Anatolia, reached here and was adapted locally. The relations of Carian communities with the surrounding cultures in the Chalcolithic period gradually intensified in the Early Bronze Age. Caria took its place in a wide network of relations established between the Aegean, Anatolia and the Near East in the Early Bronze Age. Karia lacks traditional elements (citadel, central building, executive tombs, treasures, etc.) that prove the existence of elites in Western Anatolia. However, its location, especially at the intersection of important land and sea routes, has enabled communities here to engage in long-distance networks and adapt some practices popular among the elite. It should be considered that the elites who knew how to establish long-distance relations in the region, providing both product and possibly technology transfer, existed at least from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.

Anadolu’nun güneybatısında yer alan Karia, prehistorik dönem araştırmaları açısından kısmen ihmal edilmiş bir
bölgedir. Bununla birlikte, az sayıdaki arkeolojik verinin derlenmesi ile Erken Tunç Çağı hakkında bazı genel
değerlendirmeler yapmak mümkündür. Bu makale, tüm bu verileri genel olarak değerlendirip, Erken Tunç Çağı’ndaki
değişimini ve Karia’nın çevresindeki bölgelerle etkileşimlerini anlamayı hedeflemektedir. Bölgedeki Erken Tunç
Çağı mezarlıklarında, çoğunlukla özellikle mezar kabı olarak üretilmiş pithosların kullanıldığı, çoklu gömmelerin
yapıldığı, mezarların yerini işaretleyen mezar belirteçlerinin var olduğu ve mezar başında bazı içki ritüellerinin
yapıldığı görülmektedir. Seramikte, Erken Tunç Çağı II’de yeni özellikler ortaya çıkar. ETÇ II sonunda Karia tipi
tek kulplu tankardlar ile ilk çift kulplu kadehlerin de repertuvara eklenmesi, Anadolu genelinde yaygınlaşmaya
başlayan yeni bir içki kültürünün buraya da ulaşmış ve yerel olarak uyarlanmış olduğu gösterir. Karia topluluklarının
çevre kültürlerle Kalkolitik Çağ’da var olan ilişkileri Erken Tunç Çağı’nda giderek yoğunlaşır. Bunun sebebi, Ege,
Anadolu ve Yakındoğu arasında Erken Tunç Çağı’nda kurulan geniş bir ilişkiler ağının içerisinde Karia’nın da yerini
almasıdır. Karia, Batı Anadolu’da elitlerin varlığının kanıtı olan tipik unsurlardan (sitadel, merkezi bina, yönetici
mezarları, defineler vb.) yoksundur. Bununla birlikte, özellikle önemli kara ve deniz yollarının kesişiminde yer
alması, buradaki toplulukların uzak mesafeli ağlara dahil olması ve elitler arasında sevilen bazı uygulamaları adapte
etmesini sağlamıştır. Bölgede uzak mesafe ilişkiler kurmayı bilen hem ürün hem de olasılıkla teknoloji transferini sağlayan elitlerin, en azından Erken Tunç Çağı başından itibaren var olduğu düşünülmelidir.

Forthcoming April 2017

http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462701052

Chapters by:
Simon Jusseret (The University of Texas at Austin, Université catholique de Louvain)
Manuel Sintubin (KU Leuven)
Jan Driessen (Université catholique de Louvain)
Susan E. Hough (U.S. Geological Survey)
James P. McCalpin (GEO-HAZ Consulting Inc.)
Christoph Grützner (RWTH Aachen University, University of Cambridge)
Thomas Wiatr (RWTH Aachen University, German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy)
Charalampos Fassoulas (Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete)
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (National Observatory of Athens)
Jack Mason (RWTH Aachen University)
Klaus Reicherter (RWTH Aachen University)
Clairy Palyvou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eleftheria Tsakanika (National Technical University of Athens)
Jeffrey S. Soles (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Floyd W. McCoy (University of Hawaii – Windward)
Rhonda Suka (Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii)
Colin F. Macdonald (The British School at Athens)
Tim Cunningham (Université catholique de Louvain)

The institution of feasting in the Bronze Age Aegean, as in much of the world, has been the subject of considerable recent scholarship, with a broad consensus that feasts provided a locus for the negotiation and performance of sociopolitical and religious hierarchies. Despite the publication of numerous edited volumes, monographs, and journal articles on the subject, the relationship between feasting and gender has been explored only minimally. In the very few cases where gender has been discussed in the context of feasting, the assumption or argument has been that women were excluded from public feasting activities, with the implication that women were excluded from a critical venue for the creation and reinforcement of social and political status. While iconographic evidence for Mycenaean women feasting is almost nonexistent (and indeed, iconographic evidence for anyone at all feasting may also be, insofar as we have no images of anyone in the Bronze Age Aegean eating), there are a few hints that at least elite women and probably most or all women were present at some prehistoric feasts. Comparable public feasts in both the contemporaneous Near Eastern world and in later Greek contexts often included women, including in feasts honoring some of the same divinities whom Linear B tablets tell us were worshipped in the Late Bronze Age. The Ta tablets from Pylos, representing the paraphernalia for a feast, include footstools, which are iconographically and archaeologically associated with women; this suggests that women did indeed participate. The presence of lower status women who attended feasts is more difficult to identify, but the vast quantities of food and wine known to have been provided suggest that access must have been broadly inclusive.

During the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3,200-1,100 B.C.), blue pigments are rendered from a myriad of different sources across distinct media: from naturally-occurring minerals such as riebeckite and lapis lazuli to man-made compounds like Egyptian blue, and even plant- and animal-based pigments, such as murex purple and indigo. The ways in which these colors are employed in wall painting, however, often leaves modern viewers with more questions than answers. For instance, why render the shaved scalps of young individuals in blue? The fur of monkeys and cats, and the feathers of birds are not blue in reality either, so why depict them as such? One might turn to color theory, which is well established for the art of neighboring regions (Egypt, Mesopotamia), yet no such over-arching theory exists for the Aegean. Previous, cursory explanations for the choice to show a pictorial element as blue either regard Aegean artistic norms as mildly derivative of Egyptian artistic convention, or simply state that blue is more visually appealing than gray or brown. Rather than entertain reductionist notions, this paper seeks to propose a new, polyvalent understanding for the use of Aegean color. Not only might the pigments themselves serve as material references to the places from which they come (mostly The East), but blue may also be considered a luxury pigment, perhaps evocative of inextricable notions of personal or regional identity, access to far-flung trade networks, and participation in or belonging to an elite, international lineage.

The Neolithic period in the Aegean has not yielded any textile remains. Thus, we know very little about textile production itself and even less about the identities of the earliest Aegean weavers. Some related information derives from their contemporary toolkit and from textile imprints on wet clay and, to this indirect evidence, pottery decoration may be added. This often shows symmetrically painted or relief systems, which are interpreted as textile patterns based on their strong similarity to patterns present on textile products throughout the ages. Such ornamentation can be considered to be representations of patterned textiles, and they sometimes enable us to recognise specific textile techniques. Moreover, textile patterns reveal the abilities of the weavers to calculate, conceptualise and represent geometrical shapes, to create hierarchies and to estimate sizes, volumes and values. This observation is the key to the connection between the Neolithic textile art and measuring systems, as yet unknown or unrecognised in this cultural stage of the Aegean area. This paper approaches the tracing of early metric systems in the Aegean Neolithic through the analysis of textile patterns and discusses the calculating abilities of textile workers in a culture whose calculating and metric systems are as yet unknown.

In this article the view is advocated that archaeologists should focus less on a three-dimensional reconstruction of architecture. Instead, we ought to think more about the reasons why buildings are shaped and organized the way they are. To achieve this, we should move beyond a mere functionalistic explanation, and incorporate behavioral studies and environment psychology, as suggested by Amos Rapoport. These reflections are taken into consideration in a case study of Greek Bronze Age house. The two-dimensional data of house plans are turned into reconstructions, but not only of the way in which people shaped their house. A reconstruction is also given of how people used their built environment to communicate and construct their identity. The data suggest that during Early Helladic III and the early Middle Helladic (ca. 2200-1800 B.C.) people identified primarily with their household but also with the community at large. Architectural changes towards the later Middle Helladic (ca. 1800-1700 B.C.) suggest that some households started to distance themselves from the collective identity. It seems they started to construct a new identity (possibly based on a larger social group), which led to competition between households.

The performance of funerary ritual is one of the hallmarks of the Mycenaean period. The materiality and performative aspects have often been lost in typologies and classificatory approaches concerned with the identity and status of the dead. This paper focuses on the roles of material culture in the spectacle of performance of funerary rites. Strategies for engagement with mortuary processes through material culture are highlighted in the preparation of the corpse, the procession to the tomb, and the production of the interment context. It is argued that two different aspects of death are reconciled during the funeral. The earlier stages emphasise the subject of the funeral. The processes of interment and incorporation of the corpse within the reorganised context of the tomb emphasise the transformation of the individual characteristics of the dead, completed by later rites which incorporated the bones of the dead among the collective material of the tomb.

The objective of this book is the reconsideration of the practices of personal adornment during the Neolithic period in Greece, through the assemblage, extensive bibliographic documentation, and critical evaluation of all the available data deriving from more than a hundred sites in the mainland and the Aegean islands –an archaeological archive of wide geographical and chronological scope. In addition, a thorough study of the personal ornament corpus from the Middle-Late Neolithic Dispilio in Kastoria, an important lakeside settlement in northwestern Greece, was conducted.
The book begins with an overview of the anthropological and archaeological literature on theoretical and methodological issues concerning practices of personal adornment. Then follows an examination of the problems and key points of study regarding personal adornment in Neolithic Greece, as well as a critical evaluation of the methodological approaches and classification schemes that have been applied in previous archaeological works. Subsequently, the technologies and processes of production, consumption, recycling, deposition, and distribution of personal ornaments in Neolithic Greece are discussed. Finally, the social correlates of personal adornment are explored, as they are reflected in the choice of different raw materials (shell, clay, bone, stone, and metal) and ornament types (beads, pendants, annulets, and so forth).

Στόχος του βιβλίου είναι η επανεξέταση των πρακτικών προσωπικής κόσμησης κατά τη νεολιθική περίοδο στην Ελλάδα μέσω της επανεκτίμησης των διαθέσιμων στοιχείων που προέρχονται από περισσότερες από εκατό ανεσκαμμένες νεολιθικές θέσεις, καθώς και η λεπτομερειακή μελέτη του corpus κοσμημάτων που προέρχονται από τη λιμναία θέση της Μέσης-Νεότερης Νεολιθικής περιόδου στο Δισπηλιό Καστοριάς.
Αρχικά γίνεται κριτική παρουσίαση των θεωρητικών και μεθοδολογικών απόψεων της ανθρωπολογικής και αρχαιολογικής βιβλιογραφίας σε σχέση με το ζήτημα των πρακτικών προσωπικής κόσμησης. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται τα προβλήματα και τα βασικά σημεία της έρευνας των νεολιθικών κοσμημάτων στην Ελλάδα, καθώς και η κριτική ανασκόπηση των μεθοδολογικών προσεγγίσεων και ταξινομικών σχημάτων παλιότερων ερευνών. Στη συνέχεια συζητούνται οι πτυχές της παραγωγής, των τεχνολογικών επιλογών, των συνθηκών χρήσης, ανακύκλωσης και εναπόθεσης καθώς και οι ενδείξεις της ενδοκοινοτικής, διακοινοτικής και χρονολογικής διασποράς των κοσμημάτων στη Νεολιθική Ελλάδα. Εξετάζονται, τέλος, τα ερμηνευτικά προβλήματα παραγωγής και χρήσης των τεχνουργημάτων αυτών που σχετίζονται με τη σωματική κόσμηση, άμεσες αρχαιολογικές μαρτυρίες των οποίων αποτελούν οι οστέινες, οστρέινες, λίθινες, πήλινες και μετάλλινες χάντρες, περίαπτα και δακτύλιοι.

The author's many years of research has led to two main conclusions: Firstly, in Keros was worshiped a pair of gods, the great Goddess of the earth and the wild beasts, who, depending on the people that arrived to the island, took the names Ishtar, Semele, Demeter, Artemis Maa, and her associate, who was also mentioned as Attis, Pappas (besides, the highest mountain of Keros is still called so), and Dionysus.
Secondly, after the submersion  of the narrow land corridor between Keros and its cape (or the elevation of the sea) due to an earthquake, people who resorted to the island named the cape "Δασκύλλιον" (today Daskalio).
Since 2700 B.C., specialized metals craftsmen were installed, who processed imported raw materials and made tools and objects. Because of their specialty, they needed goat and wild animal skins, animal protein to live on, and protection from god Dionysus (see Κουτελάκης, Θέατρο και μεταλλωρύχοι-μεταλλουργοί / Koutelakis, Theater and Miners - Metallurgists, Athens 2016), whom they continued to worship, as did the previous ones.
The abandonment of Daskalio is probably due to the collapse of the ecosystem, as the amount of fuel for the metallurgical furnaces was huge, and secondly because the population of goats and chamois (Kri-Kri) that lived for centuries in Keros went extinct.

Damnoni cave is a Mesolithic site located on the southwest side of Crete, in the Rethymnon district. The site was found by a targeted survey method used with success in the Kandia region of the East Peloponnese.  In this method, Mesolithic sites are located by exploring
coastal areas with abundant fresh water, south-facing limestone caves, and nearby coasts with very steep bathymetry. While the importance of factors like fresh water may be obvious, the final factor is especially important; if the bathymetry is gradual, the Mesolithic sites would have been closer to the modern shore and inundated by the ever-rising sea levels since the last glacial maximum. At Damnoni, however, the subduction of the African tectonic plate under the European forces the White Mountains of west Crete dramatically up. Consequently, the bathymetric drop-off is 100 meters within a short distance from the shore at Damnoni. The region around Plakias, and specifically around the Damnoni Bay, fits all the environmental  criteria for a Mesolithic site, and, in fact, the Plakias Mesolithic Surveydiscovered early Holocene tools in front of the cave in 2008.The survey, having met with such extraordinary success, moved on to the excavation phase in 2011. This paper presents the excavation method and the preliminary results of both the 2011 and 2013 field seasons.

Kotsonas, A. 2015. Showcasing new Trojan Wars: Archaeological exhibitions and
the politics of appropriation of ancient Troy, Z. Theodoropoulou Polychroniadis and
D. Evely (eds), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology presented to Matti Egon by the scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Oxford, Archaeopress, 235-242.

"Ex oriente nigri: "Captain of the Blacks" and the Fabrication of the Minoan Culture

The fabrication of the Minoan culture is the specifically modern phenomenon, closely linked to the imperial and colonial conquest and appropriation of Ancient Greece. The Greek war of independence created an arena in which Europe could take part in the fight for its cradle. In the postcolonial key, the paper situates the fresco "Captain of the Blacks" into the context of the fabrication of the Minoan culture and the colonial narratives inscribed into it. In the beginning of the 20th century, this colonial past of the notion, known today as the Minoan culture, played a major role in the definition of the European past, present and future. The Minoan culture, as a colonial discursive formation in archaeology, has remained in the framework of the culture-histori-cal paradigm, but beyond it as well. The paper argues that the reconstructionof the fresco "Captain of the Blacks" in the works of Arthur Evans is the consequence of the colonial racism, putting the emphasis on the colour of the skin as a racial/ ethnic category. The interpretation that the dark-skinned figures are of the African origin has rarely been questioned, but rather perpetuated as a given.

Key words: Minoan culture, racism, "Captain of the Blacks", Egypt,colonialism, post-colonial perspective"