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This textbook is a compilation of the author's more than 35 years of teaching and excavation experience in the field of Aegean Bronze Age art history and archaeology. It is geared toward an audience of undergraduate and graduate students as an introduction to the Bronze Age art objects and architecture that have been uncovered on Crete, the Greek peninsula, and the Cycladic Islands.
The Description for this book, The History of Minoan Pottery, will be forthcoming.
This detailed report describes archaeological fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 1997 in rural northeast Crete. Excavations were made in two locations: a metallurgy workshop (abandoned in EM III) and a nearby rural habitation site, perhaps a farmhouse (used until LM III). An intensive survey of the vicinity revealed other activities in the area from the Early Neolithic onwards, and placed the sites in a micro-regional context. A publication of the Minoan farmhouse will appear subsequently, but this volume stands on its own as both an overview of the project and as a detailed study of the copper smelting workshop.
This book focuses on economic and social changes, particularly during the opening phase of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. New developments in ceramics that reached Crete at the end of the Neolithic period greatly contributed to the creation of economic, technological, social, and religious advancements we call the Early Bronze Age. The arguments are two-fold: a detailed explanation of the ceramics we call Early Minoan I and the differences that set it apart from its predecessors, and an explanation of how these new and highly superior containers changed the storage, transport, and accumulation of a new form of wealth consisting primarily of processed agricultural and animal products like wine, olive oil, and various foods preserved in wine, vinegar, honey, and other liquids. The increased stability and security provided by an improved ability to store food from one year to the next would have a profound effect on the society.
Philip P. Betancourt revolutionised the study of Minoan pottery--just one of the many aspects of his career that led to his Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement. This volume presents some of the most recent studies in Minoan pottery using the techniques and methodologies pioneered by Betancourt. An essential collection for any scholar of Minoan pottery or of Aegean Prehistory in general.
Excavations at the Bronze Age seaport on Pseira Island uncovered the remains of sophisticated water retention systems that included the addition of retaining walls to prevent erosion, massive dams with associated reservoirs, and small check-dams to ravines that reached over one hundred meters in length in order to control water runoff and make it available for human use. Agriculture was one of the cornerstones of the Bronze Age Cretan economy, and it is no surprise that the ancient inhabitants of the island went to great lengths to control water runoff and make it available for human use. Despite the application of traditional archaeological survey methods, the full extent of the water management systems was not understood fully as the island's rugged topography prevented intensive and thorough survey of many places. The use of a differential Global Positioning System (dGPS) unit provided the opportunity to take a fresh look at the evidence for water management on the island. The results of this study contribute substantial amounts of new information on the little known subject of Minoan water conservation and control.
Prof. James D. Muhly has enjoyed a distinguished career in the study of ancient history, archaeology, and metallurgy that includes an emeritus professorship at the University of Pennsylvania and a term as director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens as well as receiving the Archaeological Institute of America's Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology. In Muhly's honor, a total of 38 eminent scholars have contributed 30 articles that include topics on Bronze and Iron Age metallurgy around the Eastern Mediterranean in such places as Crete, the Cyclades, Cyprus, and Turkey.
Richard B. Seager excavated the Minoan town and cemetery at Pseira in 1906-1907, but the work was not fully published. The Temple University excavations (1985-1994) under the direction of Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras conducted an intensive surface survey of the island. The results of the survey on the small island off the northeast coast of Crete are published in two volumes. Pseira VIII presents the results from the corollary studies that accompany the surface survey. Pseira IX presents the results from the intensive surface survey.
Joseph and Maria Shaw received the Archaeological Institute of America's Gold Medal for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in January of 2006. This volume is a collection of the papers presented at the Gold Medal Colloquium held in their honor during the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Montreal, Quebec. Additional articles have also been written for this volume. Many of the articles pertain to different aspects of Aegean Bronze Age architecture, harbors, frescoes, and trade, which are all keen interests of the Shaws.