Classics

Since 2010 the Petra Area and Wādī Silaysil Survey (PAWS) has undertaken a systematic regional survey of some of the immediate environs of Petra, as part of the wider Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP). This survey is designed to investigate the changing natural and cultural landscapes of the Petra area in diachronic fashion and from a multidisciplinary perspective, employing intensive pedestrian survey methods more familiar in the Mediterranean than the Middle East. The first season (2010) focused on three areas, all north of Petra proper: Wādī BaqΚah; the vicinity of Little Petra and the Neolithic and Islamic villages at BayΡā; and Wādī Silaysil, site of a Nabataean sanctuary and settlement (RaΜs al-Silaysil). The second season (2011) prioritized closing gaps between these three zones and expanded coverage eastwards towards the Sharā Mountains. The study region contained several known sites and features, some even cursorily published. Shifting from a site-oriented to a landscape perspective, however, we recovered evidence of human activity from the Palaeolithic to the present, as well as several unexpected patterns: a wide distribution of late prehistoric lithics, an Iron Age presence, and an early (Hellenistic) occupation at RaΜs al-Silaysil and several other locations throughout the landscape. We also initiated geological and ethnographic studies, as well as programmes of architectural study and route-based analysis of the built and natural environment. This paper summarizes the goals, methods, and results of PAWS.

The Petra Area and Wadi Silaysil Survey (or PAWS) undertook its initial season of fieldwork in the summer of 2010 as a major component of the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP).  The PAWS research area is located some three to ten kilometers north of the Petra city-center, between the modern village communities of Umm Sayhun and Bayda, within which three zones were intensively surveyed: Areas a, b, and c (Fig. 1).  Given its close proximity to Petra, it is no surprise that previous travelers, explorers, and archaeologists have investigated this region, with the earliest accounts going back to the 19th century (Robinson and Smith 1841).  However, the diachronic, systematic, and intensive design of the PAWS survey represents a novel approach to the documentation of this landscape that has yielded substantial and provocative results after only a single season of fieldwork.

In approximately a month long period between 28 June and 31 July 2010, the PAWS team systematically surveyed 133 hectares, in which material culture from all periods (from Paleolithic to the present) was counted and collected for some 334 Survey Units, and over 240 features, ranging from tombs to water management structures to agricultural installations, were recorded.  The intention of this article is briefly to review previous research concerning the survey area, to discuss our methodological and theoretical concerns, and to summarize the preliminary results of the 2010 season.

This dissertation employs aspects of network theory to study social complexity in the Euboean Gulf from the Mycenaean Palatial period through the Protohistoric Iron Age (c. 1400-700 BCE).  The Euboean Gulf and its surrounding lands were unique in the Mediterranean during this time span with respect to their social and geographical context, connectivity with the wider world, and changes in societal organization. In particular, this study focuses on the inter-relationship of conceptual, social, and technological networks on multiple scales (local, regional, and trans-Mediterranean).

The first part of the dissertation (Chapters 1-4) introduces the project and discusses current disciplinary issues, its theoretical framework, and its geographical context. The second part (Chapters 5-9) provides a diachronic explication of network dynamics in the Euboean Gulf, ranging across local, regional, and trans-Mediterranean scales. These chapters provide synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of a variety of related, though seemingly divergent, social phenomena, including the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces and the eighth-century political revolution, the disappearance of Linear B and adaptation of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician script, the technological transition from bronze to iron as the dominant utilitarian metal, and a major shift in the nature of maritime interactions – from being predominantly eastern Mediterranean phenomena to encompassing nearly all the shores of the Middle Sea.

In sum, I argue first that human interactions across multiple scales feed into one another to shape the major social, political, and technological changes seen throughout the period in question, and second that networks provide a strong means of modeling and explaining these changes. In particular, the networks in which the Euboean Gulf operated increasingly exhibit characteristics of “small worlds” and “the strength of weak ties,” where the addition of even a single connection into a wider system can result in the relatively rapid diffusion of political, cultural, and technological ideas. At the same time, these networks go through phases of higher and lower degrees of centrality and stability, resulting in occasional societal upheaval and restructuring in explainable (though not necessarily predictable) patterns in the dynamics of social complexity.

This article presents the results of a coring operation which brought to light new evidence for the evolution of the coastal plain of Aulis (Boeotia, Central Greece) in the Holocene. Thanks to Homer, Aulis is best known as the gathering point of the Achaean fleet before it sailed to Troy and a sanctuary of the goddess Artemis. Ancient sources and archaeological evidence suggest the presence of an ancient marine bay, potentially used as a harbor. In the course of investigation, we drilled two cores, to a maximum depth of 4.20 m in the marshy lowlands and performed mollusc and micro-paleontological identifications, laser grain size analyses, and magnetic susceptibility measurements in order to reveal the facies evolution of the area. We obtained a chronostratigraphy sequence through a series of seven AMS 14 C radiocarbon dates. Our study shows that the area was affected by a shallow marine incursion from the first half of the 6th millennium BC and gradually turned into a succession of shallow marine/lagoon environments from ca. 5000 cal. BC to the 2nd Century AD, and into a confined lagoon environment during the Roman and Byzantine periods.

This article examines the shoreline evolution and human occupation in the vicinity of the important archeological site of Amarynthos (Euboea Island, Greece) over the last six millennia. Archeological evidence indicates a continuous occupation of the site from the Bronze Age to the Roman period and the site is well-known, thanks to the existence of a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Based on the study of four boreholes, a paleogeographic reconstruction of the coastal landscape is proposed. Facies were determined based on mollusc identification, and sedimentology based on grain-size measurements (hand sieving for the fraction above 2 mm and LASER technique for particles below 2 mm) and loss-on-ignition. In addition, a series of 12 AMS radiocarbon dates define a reliable chronostratigraphy. Results suggest the presence of a fully marine environment from the early Holocene to ca. 2600-2400 cal. BC, which developed into a brackish environment from ca. 2600-2400 cal. BC to ca. 750 cal. BC due to the deltaic progradation of the nearby stream (Sarandapotamos River). From ca. 750 cal. BC onward, coastal swamps prevailed in the study area. Human-environmental interaction is discussed and particular attention is paid to the paleolandscape configuration of Amarynthos.

In this paper I present research through experimental archaeology into what kind of fat was used to wrap the thighbones in Homeric and Classical sacrifice. The textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources clearly indicate that an important element of the ritual of sacrifice was the burning of thighbones twice wrapped in fat. Until now, the precise meaning of 'twice-wrapped fat' around these thighbones was not clearly understood. I burned 38 fat-wrapped thighbones in a reconstructed altar over 17 months to explore what fat was wrapped around the thighbone and why. The findings are then used to elucidate and clarify textual and iconographic sources.

This book examines the rise and fall of Mycenaean palatial society in central Greece, with a particular focus on the area of the Euboean Gulf. It employs a dual theoretical approach that draws on aspects of network theory to explain large-scale societal transitions and agency theory to investigate the role of individual actors in such processes, chiefly through iconographic analysis. The goal is to deliver a historical and explanatory account of social change in this part of Greece during the Late Bronze Age.

One of the recent trends in ancient Greek and Latin drama interpretation is “metatheatre.” “Metatheatre” or “metadrama” is the kind of theatre that refers to itself and reveals in several ways its own theatricality, the mechanisms of both the tragic text and the theatrical performance. This new hermeneutic approach is applied to Euripides' and Seneca's 'Medea.' Medea, the leading character, emerges as an on stage poet by organizing a revenge plan-plot based on deceit, a “sub-play.” The success of Medea's “sub-play” depends on her power to deceive her opponents and her on stage audience by creating the illusion of reality. Therefore the “sub-play” becomes a reflection of the tragedy in which it is “written,” as it allows the audience/readers to distinguish between appearance and reality, lie and truth, and recognize the deceit, which is the core and goal of tragedy. Euripides' and Seneca's Medea is a character that transcends or integrates the identities of the girl in love, a betrayed wife, a heartless mother, a witch, or a cosmic power. Medea is a creator-poetess, and in this light her final act of the children's murder as an act of a mother and wife is not only reprehensible but monstrous, but as an act of a poetess is eminently superb, because it summarizes her artistic perfection and achieves the much coveted supremacy of her own project, her “sub-play.”