Classics Commons^™

Interpreting Megalithic Tomb Orientations And Siting Within Broader Cultural Contexts, Frank Prendergast

Articles

This paper assesses the measured axial orientations and siting of Irish passage tombs. The distribution of monuments with passages/entrances directed at related tombs/cairns is shown. Where this phenomenon occurs, the targeted structure is invariably located at a higher elevation on the skyline and this could suggest a symbolic and hierarchical relationship in their relative siting in the landscape. Additional analysis of astronomical declinations at a national scale has identified tombs with an axial alignment towards the rising and setting positions of the Sun at the winter and summer solstices. A criteria-based framework is developed which potentially allows for these types …

Burial Klinai And Totenmahl?, Elizabeth P. Baughan

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

How can burial furnishings help to clarify the meanings of banqueting imagery in funerary art and the place of banqueting in funerary ideologies? Should tombs furnished with klinai or replicas of banquet couches be understood as representations of banqueting, meant to equip the dead for an eternal ‘Totenmahl’? Or do funeral couches mark their occupants as members of the elite class that enjoyed banqueting and/or luxury furniture while alive? These questions are not so easily answered, because klinai in the ancient Greek world were multifunctional furnishings, used for sleeping and resting as well as for dining and revelry, …

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2016 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Cooking, Cooking Pots, And Cultural Transformation In Imperial And Late Antique Italy, Andrew Donnelly

Dissertations

An examination of archaeological and textual evidence for cooking—specifically, cooking pots—in Italy reveals a significant amount of information about transforming status, culture, and identity under the later Empire and Late Antiquity. There was never was one “Roman” diet or form of cooking, even under the early Empire. The diet of the poor was often in flux, and depended on local resources, traditions, and economic conditions. Elite cooking, meanwhile, is easily identifiable both archaeologically and textually, and marked by the use of multiple vessels in conjunction to prepare elaborate, sauce-rich meals.

By the fifth century there was a winnowing of ceramic …

Picrolite And The Cypriot Neolithic: An Experimental Study, Forrest Dayton Jarvi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Picrolite, a fibrous green stone originating in the Troodos mountains on the island of Cyprus, appears in the archaeological record almost from the very earliest sites on the island. Thus far, few publications have addressed the material from anything but a descriptive perspective. Research at the Aceramic Neolithic site of Kritou Marottou Ais Giorkis has uncovered a wide variety of picrolite artifacts since excavations began in 1997. Preliminary experimental studies have begun to explore the ease of both obtaining and manipulating the material using only local materials and unassisted manpower. This thesis presents a three-part investigation into the place of …

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2015 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Geophysical Explorations On And Near The Ismenion Hill, Thebes, Greece, 2011, Robert W. Jacob, Stephanie Larson, Kevin Daly, Emily Bitely

Faculty Journal Articles

Το άρθρο αυτό παρουσιάζει τις πρώτες κοινές έρευνες στη Θήβα, στην περιοχή του ναού του Απόλλωνος Ισμηνίου, που κρίθηκαν επιβεβλημένες, πριν από την υποβολή μιας ολοκληρωμένης και τεκμηριωμένης πρότασης Συνεργασίας, για τη διενέργεια εργασιών πεδίου και πιό συγκεκριμένα ανασκαφών. Οι έρευνες αυτές έλαβαν χώρα το καλοκαίρι του 2011, μετά από ευγενική πρόσκληση του Διευθυντή τότε ένατης Εφορείας, Καθηγητή κυρίου Βασίλειου Αραβαντινού, που χρονολογείται το 2010. Σκοπός μας ήταν ωα αναλάβουμε μαζί την προσπάυεια διερεύνησης τοπογραφικών και αρχαιολογικών ζητημάτων, σχετικών με την παλαιά ανασκαφή του Ισμηνίου και τη νεώτερη του Ηρακλείου των Θηβών.

A Mediterranean Mosaic: The Archaeological Evidence For Ethnic Diversity At Pithekoussai, Rachel Dewan

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Roman Baths At Antiochia Ad Cragum: A Preliminary Evaluation Of Bath Architecture As Social Signals In The Ancient Mediterranean World, Holly J. Staggs

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In Rough Cilicia, monumental public architecture was built in the initial phase of the social and political formation of Asia Minor into the Roman Empire during the Imperial Period. As bathing complexes are the most abundant and diverse types of architecture in this region, it would be beneficial to analyze the role of the baths along with their importance in this new Greco-Roman society. This study will focus on two baths at the site of Antiochia ad Cragum, seating this effort in multi-level signaling theory to understand local scale patterning and revised world systems theory to understand regional scale patterning. …

Athenian Black Glass Pottery: A View From The West, Justin St. P. Walsh, Carla Antonaccio

Art Faculty Articles and Research

Excavation of archaic Morgantina (c.700–450 BC), Sicily, has brought to light a significant pattern in the distribution of imported Greek pottery. This pattern, which shows a preference for imports with features that referred to metal vessels, is echoed at sites around the western Mediterranean. We argue that the preference for certain types was communicated back to Greek producers, and that it also reflects the particular local interests of non-Greeks, who associated metallic features not only with wealth, but also with their own ancestral traditions.

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2014 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Effectiveness Of Problem-Based Learning In 3d Virtual Worlds. A Preliminary Report On The Hadrian’S Villa Project, Lee Taylor-Helms, Lynne. Kvapil, John Fillwalk, Bernard Frischer

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This paper discusses a recent study to test the effectiveness of combining 3D virtual worlds (VWs) with Problem Based Learning (PBL) in archaeological education of undergraduate college students at two American universities. The testbed used was a virtual world of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli (Italy), a World Heritage Site dating to the reign of Hadrian (117-138 CE). At both universities courses were offered on the villa using a PBL approach in such a way that the relative strengths and weaknesses of learning based on face-to-face, 2D, and VW presentations could be assessed. The study helped to clarify ways in which …

Late Antique Residences At Golemo Gradište, Konjuh, R. Macedonia, Carolyn S. Snively, Goran Sanev

Ancient Greek and Roman Studies Faculty Publications

The systematic excavations that began at Golemo Gradište in 2000 were the first major, legal investigations on the site itself. Through survey of the site, researchers had reached a number of conclusions and hypotheses about lines of fortification walls, location of gates, and roads associated with the site. But almost nothing was known about the buildings or the internal arrangement of the site, and there were questions about dating. Therefore, both on the acropolis (2000-2004) and on the northern terrace (2005-present), the first step was to set trenches in several places, to investigate the architecture and the urban plan and …

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2013 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Prehispanic Water Management At Takalik Abaj, Guatemala, Alicia E. Alfaro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land and water use at archaeological sites is a growing field of study within Mesoamerican archaeology. In Mesoamerica, similar to elsewhere in the world, landscapes were settled based partially upon the characteristics of the environment and the types of food and water resources available. Across Mesoamerica, landscape concepts were also important to religious beliefs and ritual activity in a manner that may have had the potential to influence the power dynamics of a site. This thesis focuses on the management of water at the site of Takalik Abaj in Guatemala during the Middle to Late Preclassic periods (c. 1000 B.C. …

Nationalism, Archaeology, And The Antiquities Trade In Turkey And Iraq, Miranda Pettengill

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The illicit antiquities trade is a vast and complex network comprising a large number of participants across the globe. This paper focuses specifically on looters and illegal excavators, those who first retrieve ancient objects from the ground to be traded on the black market. My research examines the reasoning and motivation behind looting; specifically, I evaluate how nationalistic ideologies in Turkey and Iraq affect the choices and actions of illegal excavators living there. I also discuss the benefits of community archaeology, an approach that includes local people in the practice and presentation of excavation, as a strategy to minimize the …

Alexandria And The Construction Of Urban Experience, Sara L. Bacon

Scripps Senior Theses

Early Ptolemaic Alexandria provides a unique perspective on cultural interactions during the Hellenistic Period. With this idea in mind, I have tracked the cultural affiliation of the city from its foundation through the early years of the Ptolemaic dynasty. In order to do this, both literary and archaeological evidence, including various foundation myths for the city, the poetry of Theocritus and Herodas, papyrological evidence as well as the city plan and archaeological remains of the Serapeum, were analyzed. Using this evidence, this thesis attempts to describe the cultural state of the ancient city and the surrounding area in its early …

Appendix Iv: Potmarks, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

I. Potmarks from the Limassol area tombs

The excavation of any Late Cypriote site settlement, tomb, shipwreck usually yields pottery marked with incised, impressed, or painted signs. The collection of marked pottery presented here is significant especially because it fills in the heretofore geographic lacuna between the substantial assemblages of Late Cypriote potmarks discovered in the Kouris (Smith 2012) and Vasilikos (E. Masson 1989; Cadogan, Driessen, and Ferrara 2009, 145) River Valleys. Smith has demonstrated how much marked pottery, considered in the context of other indications of administrative control, can reveal about the administrative, economic, and political organization of a …

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2012 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

The “Villa Of The Antonines” Project 2010: The First Season Of Investigation, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

The Cypriot Ceramic Cargo Of The Uluburun Shipwreck, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

The ship that sank at Uluburun was carrying about 130 pieces of Cypriot pottery in its cargo, mostly fine bowls and juglets but also lamps and wall brackets. Some coarse-ware bowls, pitchers, kraters, and the pithoi may also have been intended as cargo. This ceramic shipment is diverse in substance and unassuming in quality. By tracing how the Cypriot vases spilled and broke apart during the shipwreck, it has been possible to determine that they were originally packed into three pithoi for transport. The odd assortment of vases suggests that this cargo was not acquired at a manufacturing center. More …

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2011 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Cyprus, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

Strabo described Cyprus as “second to none of the islands of the Mediterranean: it is rich in wine and oil, produces grain in abundance and possesses extensive copper mines.…” (14.6.5). Geographical proximity placed Cyprus within the orbit of the Levant; currents and winds situated the island in the flow of peoples and ideas between the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. But at the same time, Cyprus’ insularity and large size fostered idiosyncratic developments. This tension—between native and imported ideas, and invention in a middle ground—informs studies of ancient Cyprus.

Villa Degli Antonini: Excavation Season 2010 Summary, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Timothy Renner

Department of Classics and General Humanities Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Cypro-Minoan, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

There are approximately two hundred identified Cypro-Minoan inscriptions (excluding potmarks). Most are very short (one or two sequences totaling fewer than ten signs). They are impressed, incised, or painted on a variety of objects and materials in an assortment of lengths and formats and are found in a diversity of contexts widely dispersed across the island of Cyprus and at Ras Shamra-Ugarit on the mainland. They span the entire Late Bronze Age (16th-11th centuries BC) and perhaps continue into the very early Iron Age.

The earliest discoveries were made at the end of the 19th century; most recently, Cypro-Minoan has …

Teaching Archaeological Pragmatism Through Problem-Based Learning, Lynne. Kvapil

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This article outlines the application of problem-based learning, or PBL, to a freshman-level course in Aegean prehistory. The project described demonstrates how PBL can be used to tap into college-level students’ natural curiosity about the ancient world while training them to use practical, broadly applicable writing and research skills.

The Many Ways Between Late Bronze Age Aegeans And Levants, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

Interactions between the "Aegean" and "Levant" cannot be discussed in monolithic terms. The physical realities of sea travel, the vocabulary and accounts preserved in texts, and the objects found in foreign earth and under the seas point to many routes among the diverse communities that inhabited the eastern Mediterranean littoral in the Late Bronze Age, and give hints of the different peoples forging the connections. They interacted in a multiplicity of ways, their relationships shifting through time. Focusing in on the specifics of interactions reveals complexities that should be the basis for alternative ways of classifying interactions across the Aegean …

Events Not Processes: Reassessing And Redating The Lower Fills Of The South Stoa Wells At Corinth, Guy D.R. Sanders, Yuki Furuya, Lynne. Kvapil

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Abstract from paper presented at: Pottery, Peoples and Places: the Late Hellenistic Period, c. 200-50 BC Between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, International Conference at Sandbjerg Manor House, Aarhus, Denmark, November 2008. Available from: digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/415/

The Potmarks From Troy Vi-Vii In The Berlin Schliemann Collection, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

More than a century of excavations on and around the citadel of Troy have uncovered a total of only fifteen Late Bronze Age (LB) ceramic vases with non-decorative mark(s) incised into their rim, handle, belly or base. Surely potmarks have been Overlooked or lost in the course of the tremendous labors of digging and sorting. On the other hand, in the absence of the discovery of archives, the excavators of Troy have been on the look-out for signs of writing of the briefest sort on the humblest kinds of objects. For example, already the first volume of Schliemann's publications is …

Navigation And Transportation, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Classical Studies Faculty Research

Water was the most efficient means of transportation and travel in the ancient Greek world. Evidence of the movement of commodities and people comes from a combination of literary, iconographical, and archaeological sources.