artikelen
A Late Bronze Age passport? A re-evaluation of the diptych from the Uluburun shipwreck
This brief contribution argues that the diptych from the Uluburun shipwreck is best interpreted as a Late Bronze Age diplomatic document – as a passport – and not as a merchant’s register. Passports were used by diplomats and royal traders throughout the Late Bronze Age world, and are referred to in various cuneiform and Egyptian texts. The argument that the Uluburun diptych was, in fact, such a diplomatic document is supported by a discussion of the materiality of the object. The use of boxwood and ivory, as well as its modest size suggest that this was an object of a certain status, whereas the absence of a stylus on board, and the likelihood that the tablets were closed and sealed when the ship sank, further suggest that their content was meant to be read only at the port of arrival.
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Women on symposion images. An iconographic study of red-figure pottery from the Attica region during the period 530 and 440 BC
From 550 BC, Attic painters started to depict women on symposion images. Although women are only seen on a small percentage of symposion images, they are always shown performing a range of activities. This article aims at understanding the role of women on symposion images through iconographic analysis of 45 red-figure vases from the Attica region from the period 530-440 BC. This study has shown that females on symposion images can be divided into three categories: women in serving, entertaining and participating roles. Furthermore, it appears that not all women had an equal status or an equivalent degree of freedom. Despite the level of freedom for women shown on symposion images, full control remains with the men. The images often show women having explicit physical contact with men, giving symposion images depicting women on red-figure pottery an erotic character.
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Tanagras figurines: a mystery unravelled
This article aims to add a partially new view onto the interpretation of the Tanagra figurines. These figurines were produced in the Hellenistic period (ca. 330-200 BC) and were widely distributed across the Mediterranean. Their appearance is appealing, even to the modern eye. In the nineteenth century, sites were looted to meet the high demand for these beautiful figurines. Since hardly any of the figurines have been found in situ, interpretation of the (social-cultural) meaning of the female figures is difficult. This article discusses information from different sites and find contexts in order to reconstruct the social meaning of the Tanagras. Information from find contexts in graves, houses and a sanctuary are used to sketch the picture of figurines used as vessels to invoke religious presence even though their appearance is quite secular. I argue that the figurines represent everyday women, rather than a goddess. The Tanagras seem to be a representation of an ideal for these everyday women. And their presence in a house, grave or sanctuary invokes the help of a goddess in order to become this ideal woman. Tanagras represent the hope of being and becoming something, or rather someone: a mother and wife. This article will argue for a review of the meaning of the Tanagra figurines, towards this new interpretation.
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The remarkable life of the Dying Niobid. A biography of a Greek statue in Rome
This article explores the biography of the Dying Niobid, a Classical Greek statue that was found in Rome. A great body of Greek statues was brought to Rome during the last two centuries BC, where many of them were displayed for centuries. Previous research has mainly studied these statues as representatives of Greek culture. However, when studying the Dying Niobid through time it becomes clear that this sculpture has functioned in a variety of contexts; the Classical Greek context being just one of them. Writing a cultural biography of this object enables us to take all these contexts into consideration and illustrate how meaning, values and functions change as the object makes its way through space and time.
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The Battle of Marathon as lieu de mémoire
The Battle of Marathon was not immortalised because of its historical relevance, but because of how its ‘afterlife’ was treated in landscape, literature, iconography, sports, and politics. Both in Antiquity, as well as by scholars today, it has been claimed that the battle was a decisive moment in the history of the free, democratic, western world. The fact that ceremonies are still being held at the tumulus of the fallen 192 Athenian hoplites, keeping the (collective) memory of the significance of the Battle alive, makes it clear that even after 25 centuries Marathon still actively functions as a lieu de mémoire.
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Prehistory and politics: class struggle, production processes and conflict in the Italian Bronze Age
This paper discusses the influence of Marxist thought on prehistoric research in Italy. It provides a brief overview of theoretical developments in Italian prehistoric and protohistoric research in the 20th century, before zooming in on the ideals and political engagement of a group of young archaeologists in post-Second World War Rome. While most members of this group dropped their Marxist theories in the 1980s, Marx’ thoughts remained influential in the research group centered around Renato Peroni (1930-2010). This lasting influence is illustrated by a review of Peroni’s work in Calabria (Southern Italy). Finally, Peroni’s model for protohistoric societies in Calabria is discussed in the light of recent discoveries and theoretical developments.
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Pottery technology in the Iron Age: the production of Oenotrian matt-painted pottery in the Sibaritide (Northeastern Calabria, Italy)
This study investigates the production of Oenotrian Geometric pottery, also known as matt-painted pottery, during the Early Iron Age at three sites of the Sibaritide region in Northern Calabria, Italy (Francavilla Marittima, Torre Mordillo and Castrovillari). The main purpose of the research is to identify the chaîne opératoire of this decorated pottery category, and to identify its modes of production through the application of macroscopic, microscopic and X-ray analyses. In this way a representative sample of the full range of shapes produced in the period between the second half of the ninth and seventh centuries BC was investigated, taken from different functional contexts (domestic, funerary and ritual). The approach chosen allowed to determine various partly contemporary modes of production that over time evolved from handmade to wheel-turning manufacture. Based on these observations, aspects of the changing practical and social organization underlying the production of Geometric pottery in the Sibaritide could be inferred as well as the distribution of specific productions within the Sibaritide and outside of it.
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Liquid footprints. Water, urbanism and sustainability in Roman Ostia
The past three decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the awareness of the intrinsic link between landscape and human actions both in archaeological research and in the modern globalizing world. This research introduces the application of sustainable resource models to the evidence of Roman urbanism to identify what forces shaped ancient water use. By creating this urban dialogue across two millennia a more tessellated view is given of Roman water usage that emphasizes the flexibility, continuity, and cultural forces of ancient water use. The city of Ostia has been chosen as the case study for this project, given the wealth of archaeological and natural water features present at the site. Within Ostia, a well preserved city block (insula IV, ii) is studied in high definition to recreate its water system over time. This has revealed four distinct, albeit fragmentary snapshots of the acquisition, distribution, and drainage of water. It is hoped that this dialogue between ancient and modern urbanism can provide valuable insights into what forces shaped and continue to influence the way we use and think about our valuable natural resources.
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‘As above, so below?’ Linking surface finds to sub-surface evidence of Republican farmsteads
This paper discusses the inherently assumed relationship between surface and sub-surface finds. By focusing on a specific site-class, i.e. the Republican farmstead (sixth – first century BC), the author aims to re-assess the use of site-classes and add to the general theoretical discussion on the comparability of both methodologies. The dataset is comprised of a variety of archaeological projects: field surveys, excavations and comparative studies. Combined, these projects give insight into the practice of site-labeling, material interpretation and data-publication. The analysis shows how the practice of classification works within both methodologies. Special attention is given to the defining site-type characteristics (e.g. the presence/absence of object-classes and site-size). Unfortunately, the author has to conclude that a true definition of the discussed site-class, spanning both survey and excavation practices, remains elusive, as both methodologies implement extremely different site-classes. The methodological issues that the project raises however provide a detailed insight into the inner workings of site-classification practices, and pave the way for further standardisation in publication and site-classification.
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Social Complexity in Sagalassos and Düzen Tepe during the Classical and Hellenistic periods
The origin of polis is a commonly used narrative for scholars studying community formation in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially for the Hellenistic period. However, this narrative tends to favour certain ‘hellenocentric’ biases. It would be better to use a social complexity approach. Social complexity is studied here through an analysis of interactive forces steering institutional development and change on the macro-level of social organisation. The workings of some of these forces are presented here through some examples from the material culture of Sagalassos and Düzen Tepe, two nearby settlements located in Pisidia in Southwest Anatolia. The presented argument illustrates the potential of this type of research and is to serve as a first step towards a full examination of social complexity in past societies.
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recensies
Archaeological Theory in a Nutshell / Paradigm Found. Archaeological Theory – Present, Past and Future
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Triangular Landscapes. Environment, Society and the State in the Nile Delta under Roman Rule
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Religion and Society in Middle Bronze Age Greece
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The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
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Egypt in the First Millennium AD. Perspectives from new fieldwork
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introducties op lopend onderzoek
Carving Communities in Stone: inscripties als medium van Hellenistische globalisering
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Inland pathways towards societal complexity: a science-based analysis of Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age ceramics of Geraki, Southern Greece (ca. 4100-2000 BC)
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Hidden Landscapes of Roman colonization: New methods for assessing inter-site variability and improving site detectability in forested areas in two colonial landscapes in Central-Southern Italy
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Ex memoria praecedentium saeculorum. The Roman past and the coming about of a collective cultural identity in Late Antique and Early Medieval Rome
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Chlorakas-Palloures, research into the Middle and Late Chalcolithic of Cyprus
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