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251 results in Classical Archaeology

Page 1 of 13

Palmyra, the Mediterranean and Beyond
  • Edited by Rubina Raja
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    August 2025
    Print publication:
    31 August 2025
  • Palmyra is one of the most famous sites of the ancient world and played a major role in the overland trade between the Mediterranean and the East. This volume explores fascinating aspects of Palmyrene archaeology and history that underline the site's dynamic relations with the Roman world, whilst simultaneously acknowledging its extremely local nature. The chapters explore Palmyra as a site, but also Palmyrene society both at home and abroad – as travellers in the then known world and contractors and businesspeople as well as innovative political and military leaders of their time. They illuminate Palmyra's and Palmyrene society's negotiations, struggles, benefits and disadvantages from being part of the Roman Empire, situated on the fringes between the East and the West, and their use of this location to recreate themselves as a central power player – at least for a time – within a rapidly changing world.

The Archaeology of the Cyclades in the Roman and Late Antique Periods
  • Globalization, Christianization and Resilience
  • Rebecca Sweetman
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    July 2025
    Print publication:
    31 July 2025
  • The Cycladic islands have traditionally been considered as backwaters during the Roman and Late Antique periods. Through analysis of the material culture produced from the late first century BCE through to the seventh century CE, however, Rebecca Sweetman offers a fresh interpretation of Cycladic societies across this diachronic period. She demonstrates that the Cyclades remained vibrant, and that the islands embraced the potential of being part of wider political, economic and religious networks that were enabled as part of the Roman Empire. Sweetman also argues that the Cyclades were at the forefront of key social developments, notably, female social and physical mobility, as well as in the islands' early adoption of Christianity. Drawing on concepts related to Globalization, Christianization, and Resilience, Sweetman's analysis highlights the complex relationships between the islands and their Imperial contexts over time. The gazetteer of archaeological sites will be fundamental for all working on archaeology of the Roman and Late Antique periods as well as those interested in the Mediterranean.

The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology
  • Volume 2, Settlements, Regions, Peoples and Debates
  • Edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil J. C. Christie, Robin M. Jensen, Jodi Magness
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    June 2025
    Print publication:
    30 June 2025
  • Late Antiquity marked one of the most significant transitions in European history-one that saw the rise of Christianity and the transformation of the classical Mediterranean world of ancient Rome. The richness of its art and the wealth of its archaeological remains have increasingly been recognised in recent decades and new discoveries and ongoing research are currently altering the ways in which we perceive the period. These two volumes provide a wide-ranging guide to the art and archaeology of the period 300-700 CE. Key monuments and artifact-types are discussed and placed in their historical contexts, but significant attention is also paid to the main cities, regions and peoples playing a prominent role in the history of the period as well as to some key issues and debates in its study. The chapters are written by leading experts and will be invaluable for any student or scholar interested in the period.

The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology
  • Volume 1, Architecture, Artifacts and Evidence
  • Edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil J. C. Christie, Robin M. Jensen, Jodi Magness
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    June 2025
    Print publication:
    30 June 2025
  • Late Antiquity marked one of the most significant transitions in European history-one that saw the rise of Christianity and the transformation of the classical Mediterranean world of ancient Rome. The richness of its art and the wealth of its archaeological remains have increasingly been recognised in recent decades and new discoveries and ongoing research are currently altering the ways in which we perceive the period. These two volumes provide a wide-ranging guide to the art and archaeology of the period 300-700 CE. Key monuments and artifact-types are discussed and placed in their historical contexts, but significant attention is also paid to the main cities, regions and peoples playing a prominent role in the history of the period as well as to some key issues and debates in its study. The chapters are written by leading experts and will be invaluable for any student or scholar interested in the period.

The World of Homer
  • Archaeology, Social Memory, and the Emergence of Greek Epic Poetry
  • Michael B. Cosmopoulos
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    June 2025
    Print publication:
    30 June 2025
  • Epic poetry, notably the Iliad and the Odyssey, stands as one of the most enduring legacies of ancient Greece. Although the impact of these epics on Western civilization is widely recognized, their origins remain the subject of heated debate. Were they composed in a single era or over the course of centuries? Were they crafted  by one or by many poets? Do they reflect historical reality? These and other important questions are answered in this book. Using a fresh, dynamic approach, Michael Cosmopoulos reconstructs the world of the Homeric poems and explores the interplay between poetry, social memory, and material culture. By integrating key insights from archaeology, philology, anthropology, and oral tradition, he offers a nuanced perspective of the emergence and early development of Greek epic. His wide-canvas approach enables readers to appreciate the complexity of the Homeric world and gain a deeper understanding of the intricate factors that shaped these magnificent poems.

Mycenaean Civilization
  • Dora Vassilikou
  • Translated by Doniert Evely, Colin MacDonald
  • Preface by Yannis Galanakis
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    June 2025
    Print publication:
    30 June 2025
  • The Bronze Age of Greece was unknown until the end of the nineteenth century, when Heinrich Schliemann's excavations stunned the world by bringing to light the glamour of Mycenaean elite society. This book, by one of Greece's most distinguished archaeologists, provides a complete introduction to Mycenaean life and archaeology. Through both chronological and thematic chapters, it examines the main Mycenaean centres, the palaces and kingship, the social structure, writing, religion and its political implications, and the contacts and relations of the Mycenaeans with neighbouring countries, especially Asia Minor, Egypt, the coast of Syria–Palestine, and Italy. Attention is paid to the distinctive Mycenaean art, including monumental architecture, gold and silver metalwork, and jewellery, and the book is supported by over 300 colour illustrations. Dora Vassilikou concludes by examining the simultaneous catastrophes that brought the Bronze Age of the Eastern Aegean to its end and opened up a new era.

The Temple of Artemis at Sardis
  • The Hellenistic Temple Tradition in Asia Minor
  • Fikret Yegul, Diane Favro
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2025
    Print publication:
    31 May 2025
  • Nestled beneath the 'pointed peaks' of the legendary Tmolos Mountains, the temple and sanctuary of Artemis at Sardis is one of the most impressive monuments of classical antiquity. Dating to the Hellenistic period, it was undertaken, not by a king, but by Stratonike, a 'fiery' Hellenistic queen, and redesigned under the Roman emperor Hadrian, when it became the center of an imperial cult. In this volume, Fikret Yegül and Diane Favro explore the Temple of Sardis from multiple perspectives. Offering a close archaeological analysis of the temple, they also provides new insights into its unique design; the changing nature of religious and cult practices at the temple; the relationship to its setting; and its benefactors. Attention is paid to place this extraordinary temple in the larger context of Greek and Roman religious architecture in Asia Minor. Richly illustrated with over 200 color images, including historical paintings and drawings, it also includes digital reconstructions of the temple are published here for the first time.

Rome in the Tenth Century
  • A History in Art
  • John Osborne
  • Published online:
    01 April 2025
    Print publication:
    24 April 2025
  • This is the third and final volume in a series examining the history of Rome in the early Middle Ages (700–1000 CE) through the primary lens of the city's material culture. The previous volumes examined the eighth and the ninth centuries respectively. John Osborne uses buildings (both religious and domestic), their decorations, other works of painting and sculpture, inscriptions, manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, and coins as 'documents' to supplement what can be gleaned from more traditional written sources such as the Liber pontificalis. The overall approach is particularly appropriate for tenth-century Rome, which has traditionally been considered a 'dark age', given recent research on standing monuments and the large amount of new material brought to light in archaeological excavations undertaken over the last four decades. This magnificent and beautifully illustrated volume provides a triumphant conclusion to a series which will be indispensable for all those interested in early medieval Rome.

Amazons
  • The History Behind the Legend
  • David Braund
  • Published online:
    26 March 2025
    Print publication:
    24 April 2025
  • The idea of the Amazons is one of the most romantic and resonant in all antiquity. Greeks were fascinated by images and tales of these fierce female fighters. At Troy, Achilles' duel with Penthesilea was a clash of superman and superwoman. Achilles won the fight, but the queen's dying beauty had torn into his soul. This vibrant new book offers the first complete picture of the reality behind the legends. It shows there was much more to the Amazons than a race of implacable warrior women. David Braund casts the Amazons in a new light: as figures of potent agency, founders of cities, guileful and clever as well as physically impressive and sexually alluring to men. Black Sea mythologies become key to unlocking the Amazons' mystery. Investigating legend through history, literature, and archaeology, the author uncovers a truth as surprising and evocative as any fiction told through story or myth.

The Pottery Industries of the Roman East
  • Craft Communities and Working Practices
  • Elizabeth A. Murphy
  • Published online:
    20 March 2025
    Print publication:
    03 April 2025
  • What was the social experience of work in the ancient world? In this study, Elizabeth Murphy approaches the topic through the lens offered by a particular set of workers, the potters and ceramicists in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Her research exploits the rich and growing dataset of workshops and production evidence from the Roman East and raises awareness of the unique features of this particular craft in this region over several centuries. Highlighting the multi-faceted working experience of professionals through a theoretically-informed framework, Murphy reconstructs the complex lives of people in the past, and demonstrates the importance of studying work and labor as central topics in social and cultural histories. Her research draws from the fields of archaeology, social history and anthropology, and applies current social theories --- communities of practice, technological choices, chaîne opératoire, cultural hybridity,  taskscapes – to interpret and offer new insights into the archaeological remains of workshops and ceramics.

Religious Architecture and Roman Expansion
  • Temples, Terracottas, and the Shaping of Identity, 3rd-1st c. BCE
  • Sophie Crawford-Brown
  • Published online:
    06 March 2025
    Print publication:
    06 March 2025
  • Religious Architecture and Roman Expansion uses architectural terracottas as a lens for examining the changing landscape of central Italy during the period of Roman military expansion, and for asking how local communities reacted to this new political reality. It emphasizes the role of local networks and exchange in the creation of communal identity, as well as the power of visual expression in the formulation and promotion of local history. Through detailed analyses of temple terracottas, Sophie Crawford-Brown sheds new light on 'Romanization' and colonization processes between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE.  She investigates the interactions between colonies and indigenous communities, asking why conquerors might visually emulate the conquered, and what this can mean for power relations in colonial situations. Finally, Crawford-Brown explores the role of objects in creating cultural memory and the intensity of our need for collective history-even when that 'history' has been largely invented.

The Ruins of Rome
  • A Cultural History
  • Roland Mayer
  • Published online:
    02 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025
  • The beguiling ruins of Rome have a long history of allure. They first engaged the attention of later mediaeval tourists, just as they do today. The interest of travellers was captured in the Renaissance by artists, architects, topographers, antiquarians, archaeologists and writers. Once the ruins were seen to appeal to visitors, and to matter for their aesthetic quality, their protection and attractive presentation became imperative. Rome's ruins were the first to be the object of preservation orders, and novel measures were devised for their conservation in innovative archaeological parks. The city's remains provided models for souvenirs; paintings of them decorated the walls of eighteenth-century English country houses; and picturesque sham Roman ruins sprang up in landscape gardens across Europe. Writers responded in various ways to their emotional appeal. Roland Mayer's attractive new history will delight all those interested in the remarkable survival and preservation of a unique urban environment.

Aeolic and Aeolians
  • Origins of an Ancient Greek Language and its Community of Speakers
  • Roger D. Woodard
  • Published online:
    21 November 2024
    Print publication:
    21 November 2024
  • Aeolic and Aeolians explores the origin of an ancient Greek language and the beginnings and evolution of the community of its speakers – the Aeolians. Roger Woodard argues that the starting point for both is situated in Asia Minor during the period of the Late Bronze Age, and that the ancestral Aeolic speech community can be identified with the Mycenaean peoples of Anatolia called the Ahhiyawans in Hittite records. These Bronze-Age Asian Greeks would intermarry with local Luvian peoples of western Anatolia, and the Aeolian language and identity – an identity encoded in myth-emerged from the intermixing of the two societies. Aeolian myths are central to Woodard's ground-breaking investigations presented in this volume. He demonstrates how assemblages of mythic components, what Lévi-Strauss called bricolage, enabled early Aeolians to give intellectual expression to their distinctive Greek identity.  With the collapse of Bronze-Age societies in Mycenaean Greece, some of the early Aeolians of Anatolia would migrate to Europe, introducing their language and myths into Hellas.

The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE
  • Using Coins as Sources
  • Andrew Burnett
  • Published online:
    14 November 2024
    Print publication:
    14 November 2024
  • Provincial coinage gives us a unique insight into the Roman world, reflecting the values and concerns of the elites of the many hundreds of cities in the Roman empire. Coins offer a very different perspective from written history, which usually represents the views of the senatorial class, and which was usually composed long after the events that are described. The coins, in contrast, provide evidence without hindsight, and uniquely allow a systematic examination across the whole Roman world. This volume makes it possible for instructors and students and scholars to deploy a complex set of material evidence on many historical topics. It includes over two hundred illustrations of coins with detailed captions, so providing a convenient sourcebook of the most important items, and covers topics such as the motivation for Roman conquest, the revolution of Augustus, the world of the Second Sophistic and the crisis of the third century.

Recycling the Roman Villa
  • Material Salvage and the Medieval Circular Economy
  • Beth Munro
  • Published online:
    08 November 2024
    Print publication:
    31 October 2024
  • Though abandoned between the third and seventh centuries CE, many Roman villas enjoyed an afterlife in late antiquity as a source of building materials. Villa complexes currently serve as a unique archaeological setting in that their recycling phases are often better preserved than those  at urban sites. Building on a foundational knowledge of Roman architecture and construction, Beth Munro offers a retrospective study of the material value of and deconstruction processes at villas. She explores the technical properties of glass, metals, and limestone, materials that were most frequently recycled; the craftspeople who undertook this work, as well as the economic and culture drivers of recycling. She also examines the commissioning landowners and their rural networks, especially as they relate to church construction. Bringing a multidisciplinary lens to recycling practices in antiquity, Munro proposes new theoretical and methodological approaches for assessing architectural salvage and reprocessing within the context of an ancient circular economy.

Women and the Army in the Roman Empire
  • Edited by Lee L. Brice, Elizabeth M. Greene
  • Published online:
    24 October 2024
    Print publication:
    07 November 2024
  • The presence of women in Roman military contexts has been established beyond doubt by scholars in recent decades. Nevertheless, very little sustained attention has been paid to who these women were, how they fit into the fabric of settlements, and what their contributions were to these communities. This volume offers new insights into the associations, activities, and social roles of women in the context of the Roman army, emphasizing the tangible evidence for the lived realities of women and families at different social levels. The various chapters adopt dynamic perspectives and shed new light on archaeological and historical evidence to provide novel conclusions about women's lives in antiquity. Histories of the Roman army can no longer ignore the women who lived and worked in its midst and histories of Roman women must acknowledge their important military role.

Cretan Hieroglyphic
  • Edited by Matilde Civitillo, Silvia Ferrara, Torsten Meissner
  • Published online:
    17 October 2024
    Print publication:
    31 October 2024
  • Nearly 4000 years ago a hieroglyphic script was used on Crete which predates Linear A and Linear B, indeed any other writing in Europe, but remains undeciphered since its discovery at the beginning of the twentieth century. This is the first comprehensive account of this script, which is analysed by the leading experts through an array of lenses, including archaeology, philology, palaeography, cognitive studies and decipherment theory, in order to showcase its importance in the history of writing. The book takes a broad approach to writing, understanding it not solely or even mainly as a visual tool to convey language, but primarily as a social and cultural phenomenon rooted in agency, materiality, and semiotics. The volume will provide an invaluable tool for scholars and will facilitate further research. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Decolonizing Roman Imperialism
  • The Study of Rome, Romanization, and the Postcolonial Lens
  • Danielle Hyeonah Lambert
  • Published online:
    03 October 2024
    Print publication:
    17 October 2024
  • The framework of 'Romanization' developed by Haverfield in 1905 - that Romans 'civilized' their imperial subjects, particularly those in the 'barbarian' western provinces - remains hegemonic, notwithstanding multiple attempts at revisionism. It has been reasserted, rejected, or modified, but still frames the debate. Decolonizing Roman Imperialism investigates how the postcolonial challenge to decolonize the production of historical knowledge has motivated Roman scholars to question the paradigm of Romanization: to review its historiography, to seek fresh approaches, and to rewrite it. The book provides an intellectual genealogy of the debate valuable for every student of the Roman Empire and of Roman Britain, and invites them to rethink the legacy of ancient Roman imperialism.

Antioch on the Orontes
  • History, Society, Ecology, and Visual Culture
  • Edited by Andrea U. De Giorgi
  • Published online:
    06 June 2024
    Print publication:
    06 June 2024
  • Antioch on the Orontes was one of the most important cities of the ancient Mediterranean world.  A hinge between the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and the Far East, its commercial and cultural prominence spanned centuries, from its Seleucid foundation to the Islamic conquest and beyond. This volume offers an archaeological and historical overview of Antioch from its origins through late antiquity. Drawing on a vast body of modern research, it explores the city's built environment, the institutions that shaped it in fundamental ways, intellectual currents, and ecological setting. Significantly, analysis of Antioch's defining ecology is incorporated into accounts of imperial building programs, religious rifts, and the agency of the local community. The study also foregrounds the cultural responses to the environmental downturns and disasters that have continually wreaked havoc on the city. At its center is the Antiochene population, whose fierce determination enabled the city to overcome repeated episodes of desolation and destruction.

Greek Iron Age Pottery in the Mediterranean World
  • Tracing Provenance and Socioeconomic Ties
  • Edited by Stefanos Gimatzidis
  • Published online:
    30 May 2024
    Print publication:
    06 June 2024
  • Greek pottery is the most visible archaeological evidence of social and economic relations between the Aegean and the Mediterranean during the Iron Age, a period of intense mobility. This book presents a holistic study of the earliest Greek pottery exchanged in Greek, Phoenician, and other Indigenous Mediterranean cultural contexts from multidisciplinary perspectives. It offers an examination of 362 Protogeometric and Geometric ceramic and clay samples, analysed by Neutron Activation, that Stefanos Gimatzidis obtained in twenty-four sites and regions in eight countries. Bringing a macro-historical approach to the topic through a systematic survey of early Greek pottery production, exchange, and consumption, the volume also provides a micro-history of selected ceramic assemblages analysed by a team of scholars who specialise in Classical, Near Eastern, and various prehistoric archaeologies. The results of their collaborative archaeological and archaeometric studies challenge previous reconstructions of intercultural relations between the Aegean and the Mediterranean and call into question established narratives about Greek and Phoenician migration.

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