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66 results in Archaeology

Page 1 of 4

Cultural Property
  • Law, Policy, and Markets
  • Amnon Lehavi
  • Published online:
    05 November 2025
    Print publication:
    30 October 2025
  • While nations, societies, and individuals have always been engaged with both the tangible and intangible aspects of cultural objects, such as archaeological artifacts, artworks, and historical documents, the twenty-first century is seeing a significant shift in the law, ethics, and public policy that have long characterized this field. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of recent developments concerning cultural property. It identifies the underlying forces that drive these changes, focusing on the new political balance between source countries and market countries, the strengthening of cross-border lawmaking and law enforcement, the growing impact of provenance research and due diligence as legal, professional, and ethical norms, and the transformative role of digital databases. The book sets out normative principles for designing a better synergy of the hard law and soft law mechanisms that govern cultural property policy and markets. It proposes a property theory of ownership and custody of cultural objects and outlines a model of 'new cultural internationalism' to promote cross-border collaboration on cultural heritage, including new restitution frameworks.

The Archaeology of the Cyclades in the Roman and Late Antique Periods
  • Globalization, Christianization and Resilience
  • Rebecca Sweetman
  • Published online:
    23 October 2025
    Print publication:
    06 November 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.
Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally

Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally
  • Responses - Attachments - Communities
  • Rebecca Madgin
  • Published online:
    22 October 2025
    Print publication:
    13 November 2025
    • Element
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  • This Element explores why historic urban places matter emotionally. To achieve this the Element develops a conceptual framework which breaks down the broad category of 'emotion' into three interrelated parts: 1. Emotional responses, 2. Emotional attachments, and 3. Emotional communities. In so doing new lines of enquiry are opened up including the reasons why certain emotional responses such as pride and fear are provoked by historic urban places; the complex interplay of the physical environment and everyday experiences in informing emotional attachments, as well as the reasons why emotional communities coalesce in particular historic urban places. In addition, the Element explores the ways in which emotion, in the form of responses, attachments, and communities, can be considered within heritage management and concludes with a discussion of where next for heritage theories and practices. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Palmyra, the Mediterranean and Beyond
  • Edited by Rubina Raja
  • Published online:
    21 October 2025
    Print publication:
    16 October 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.
Between Yahwism and Judaism

Between Yahwism and Judaism
  • Judean Cult and Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period (332–175 BCE)
  • Yonatan Adler
  • Published online:
    18 October 2025
    Print publication:
    04 December 2025
  • This Element seeks to characterize key aspects of the cult and culture of the Judean populace at large, in Judea and the diaspora, during the Early Hellenistic period (332–175 BCE). It asks if this period signals cultural continuity with the Yahwism of the past, or cultural rupture with the emergence Judaism as known from later times. It investigates: administrative structures, whether Torah was widely observed, how and where Judeans performed cultic worship of YHWH and if this had become exclusive of other deities, adoption of Greek cultural elements and what literature was well-known and influential, including “Biblical” literature. It concludes that while no rupture is evident, and the Early Hellenistic period marks a strong degree of continuity with the Yahwism of Persian times, in some senses the era paved a way for the subsequent transition into the Judaism of the future.

Ancient Assyrians
  • Identity and Society in Antiquity and Beyond
  • Jonathan Valk
  • Published online:
    09 October 2025
    Print publication:
    23 October 2025
  • In this book, Jonathan Valk asks a deceptively simple question: What did it mean to be Assyrian in the second millennium bce? Extraordinary evidence from Assyrian society across this millennium enables an answer to this question. The evidence includes tens of thousands of letters and legal texts from an Assyrian merchant diaspora in what is now modern Turkey, as well as thousands of administrative documents and bombastic royal inscriptions associated with the Assyrian state. Valk develops a new theory of social categories that facilitates an understanding of how collective identities work. Applying this theoretical framework to the so-called Old and Middle Assyrian periods, he pieces together the contours of Assyrian society in each period, as revealed in the abundance of primary evidence, and explores the evolving construction of Assyrian identity as well. Valk's study demonstrates how changing historical circumstances condition identity and society, and that the meaning we assign to identities is ever in flux.
Peasant Economies and Societies in Ancient Roman Iberia

Peasant Economies and Societies in Ancient Roman Iberia
  • Jesús Bermejo Tirado, Ignasi Grau Mira
  • Published online:
    19 September 2025
    Print publication:
    09 October 2025
  • This Element revisits the historiographical and archaeological paradigms of Roman rural economies, with a particular focus on the peasant communities of Roman Iberia. Traditionally overshadowed by the dominance of the villa schiavistica model, which centers on large-scale slave-operated agricultural estates, recent interdisciplinary research has unveiled the complexity and persistence of peasant economies. By integrating data from archaeological surveys, rescue excavations, and textual analyses, this volume highlights the significance of dispersed settlements, small-scale farms, and sustainable agrarian strategies that defined the peasant landscape. Case studies from diverse sectors of the Iberian Peninsula demonstrate diverse modes of land use, such as intensive cultivation, crop rotation, and manuring, which contrast with the economic assumptions tied to elite-dominated production models. Furthermore, the author explores Roman peasants' socio-economic structures and adaptive strategies, emphasizing their pivotal role in shaping landscapes. This Element advocates for reexamining Roman peasantries as active and complex agents in ancient history.

Leadership in the Ancient World
  • Concepts, Models, Theories
  • Edited by Melina Tamiolaki
  • Published online:
    14 September 2025
    Print publication:
    16 October 2025
  • Leaders abounded in the ancient world, from kings, pharaohs, emperors, tyrants, politicians, and orators to generals, minor officials and intellectuals. This book opens fresh perspectives on leadership by examining under-explored topics, posing new questions and revisiting old concepts. In particular, it seeks to shift attention from constitutional issues stricto sensu (such as kingship, monarchy, tyranny, etc.) or, more productively, to prompt a re-examination of these issues through the lens of leadership. The volume includes chapters on a range of cultures from across the ancient world in order to promote comparative reflection. Key questions include whether some models of good and bad leadership were universal among ancient cultures or exhibited differences? Why did a certain culture emphasise one leadership quality while another insisted on another? Why did only some cultures develop a theoretical discourse on leadership? How did each culture appropriate, define, redefine (or react) to existing concepts of leadership?
Ceramic Analysis

Ceramic Analysis
  • Laboratory Methods
  • Irmgard Hein, Mustafa Kibaroğlu, Michaela Schauer, Anno Hein, Georgios Polymeris, Judit Molera, Trinitat Pradell
  • Published online:
    10 September 2025
    Print publication:
    09 October 2025
  • This Element, authored by a team of specialist researchers, provides an overview of the various analytical techniques employed in the laboratory for the examination of archaeological ceramic materials. Pottery represents one of the earliest technical materials used by humans and is arguably the most frequently encountered object in archaeological sites. The original plastic raw material, which is solidified by firing, exhibits a wide range of variations in terms of production methods, material, form, decoration and function. This frequently presents significant challenges for archaeologists. In modern laboratories, a variety of archaeometric measurement methods are available for addressing a wide range of archaeological questions. Examples of these include determining the composition of archaeological materials, elucidating the processes involved in manufacturing and decoration, estimating the age of archaeological material, and much more. The six sections present available methods for analysing pottery, along with an exploration of their potential application.
AI and Image

AI and Image
  • Critical Perspectives on the Application of Technology on Art and Cultural Heritage
  • Anna Foka, Jan von Bonsdorff
  • Published online:
    10 September 2025
    Print publication:
    09 October 2025
    • Element
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  • AI and Image illustrates the importance of critical perspectives in the study of AI and its application to image collections in the art and heritage sector. The authors' approach is that such entanglements of image and AI are neither dystopian or utopian but may amplify, reduce or condense existing societal inequalities depending on how they may be implemented in relation to human expertise and sensibility in terms of diversity and inclusion. The Element further discusses regulations around the use of AI for such cultural datasets as they touch upon legalities, regulations and ethics. In the conclusion they emphasise the importance of the professional expert factor in the entanglements of AI and images and advocate for a continuous and renegotiating professional symbiosis between human and machines. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The Archaeology of Pastoralism, Mobility, and Society
  • Beyond the Grass Paradigm
  • Emily Hammer
  • Published online:
    04 September 2025
    Print publication:
    18 September 2025
  • Though mobile pastoralists were long a significant component of many societies in Eurasia and Africa, scholars have long considered them to be materially and documentarily 'invisible.' The archaeological study of pastoralism across these regions has relied on ethnographic analogies and environmentally deterministic models, often with little or no data on historically specific herding communities. This approach has yielded a static picture of pastoralism through time that has only recently been challenged. In this book, Emily Hammer articulates a new framework for investigating variability in past pastoral practices. She proposes ways to develop a more rigorous relationship with pastoralist ethnographies and illustrates new archaeological and scientific methodologies for collecting direct data on herding, mobility, and social complexity in the past. Hammer's approach to the archaeology of pastoralism promotes efforts to dismantle the legacy of evolutionary classifications of human societies, which have drawn sharp distinctions between farmers and herders, and to investigate how diverse non-agricultural and mobile groups have shaped complex society and environment.

Der Orient - Fiktion oder Realität? / The Orient - Fiction or Reality?
  • A Critical Analysis of Nineteenth Century German Travel Reports
  • Mohammed Khalifa
  • Published by:
    Gerlach Press
    Published online:
    30 August 2025
    Print publication:
    30 June 2015
  • Following the great expeditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, travel activity in general increased from the end of the eighteenth century onwards. In addition to European destinations, the Orient and above all Egypt now became the goal of this movement embracing travel and exoticism. This work centers on the question of the received patterns of thought and argumentation that were applied consciously or unconsciously by those travelers. By way of example, the reports of the Austrian scholar and scientist Joseph (Ritter von) Russegger are examined. Russegger's visits to Egypt are notable because he traveled the country as a scientist on behalf of the Egyptian government.

Egypt and the Gulf
  • A Renewed Regional Policy Alliance
  • Edited by Robert Mason
  • Published by:
    Gerlach Press
    Published online:
    29 August 2025
    Print publication:
    30 September 2016
  • Egypt continues to be cultural and political beacon in the Middle East. Its control of the Suez Canal, cold peace with Israel, concern about Gaza, mediation and interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the marginalization of the Muslim Brotherhood are all points of significance. There is a close, and expanding, defence and security relationship between Egypt and the GCC states, most evident in the inclusion of Egypt in Saudi Arabia's new Sunni counter-terrorism alliance.

    The authors of this book contextualise historical linkages, and allies add to this the real postures (especially contentious relations with Qatar and Turkey) and study Egypt's strategic relations with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE in particular.

    The book's main argument derives from a complex web of political, socio-economic and military issues in a changing regional and international system. It states that the Egyptian regional policy under Sisi will generally remain consistent with existing parameters (such as broad counter-terrorism efforts, including against the Muslim brotherhood). There is strong evidence to support the idea that Cairo wishes to maintain a GCC-first policy.
Bioarchaeology of Infants and Children

Bioarchaeology of Infants and Children
  • L. Creighton Avery
  • Published online:
    25 August 2025
    Print publication:
    25 September 2025
  • The study of infant, child, and adolescent remains (non-adult remains) is a topic of growing interest within the fields of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Many published volumes and articles delve into the experiences of childhood and what these small remains may tell us about life, more broadly, in the past. For those interested in exploring infant and child remains, it is an exciting period as more methods and approaches are constantly being incorporated into the archaeological toolkit. This Element introduces the reader to the topic and to common methodological approaches used to consider non-adult remains from archaeological contexts. With this toolkit in hand, readers will be able to begin their own explorations and analyses of non-adult human remains within archaeological contexts.
Writing in Bronze Age Crete

Writing in Bronze Age Crete
  • ‘Minoan' Linear A
  • Ester Salgarella
  • Published online:
    21 August 2025
    Print publication:
    18 September 2025
  • The Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus were home to a plethora of scripts, including Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B, Cypro-Minoan and Cypro-Syllabic. This Element is dedicated to the conventionally named 'Minoan' Linear A script, used on Crete and the Aegean islands during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 1800–1450 BCE). Linear A is still undeciphered, and the language it encodes ('Minoan') thus remains elusive. Notwithstanding, scholars have been able to extract a good amount of information from Linear A inscriptions and their contexts of use. Current ongoing research, integrating the materiality of script with linguistic analysis, offers a cutting-edge approach with promising results. This Element considers Linear A within an investigative framework as well as narrative, shedding light on a number of burning questions in the field, often the subject of intense academic debate.
Hieratic

Hieratic
  • An Ancient Egyptian Cursive Script
  • Fredrik Hagen
  • Published online:
    25 July 2025
    Print publication:
    14 August 2025
  • Hieratic was the most widely used script in ancient Egypt, but is today relatively unknown outside Egyptology. Generally written with ink and a brush, it was the script of choice for most genres of text, in contrast to hieroglyphs which was effectively a monumental script. The surviving papyri, ostraca and writing boards attest to the central role of hieratic in Egyptian written culture, and suggest that the majority of literate people were first (and not infrequently only) trained in the cursive script. This Element traces the long history of hieratic from its decipherment in the nineteenth century back to its origins around 2500 BC, and explores its development over time, the different factors influencing its appearance, and the way it was taught and used.
Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel

Reading Creation Myths Economically in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel
  • Eric J. Harvey
  • Published online:
    22 July 2025
    Print publication:
    04 September 2025
  • Creation myths in the ancient Middle East served, among other things, as works of political economy, justifying and naturalizing materially intensive ritual practices and their entanglements with broader economic processes and institutions. These rituals were organized according to a common ideology of divine service, which portrayed the gods as an aristocratic leisure class whose material needs were provided by human beings. Resources for divine service were extracted from the productive sectors of society and channeled inward to the temple and palace institutions, where they served to satiate the gods and support their human servants. This Element examines various forms of the economics of divine service, and how they were supported in a selection of myths – Atraḫasis, Enki and Ninmaḫ, and Enūma Eliš from Mesopotamia and the story of the Garden of Eden from the southern Levant (Israel).

Myth, Ritual, and Society in Mycenaean Anatolia
  • Identifying Asian Influences
  • Roger D. Woodard
  • Published online:
    18 July 2025
    Print publication:
    07 August 2025
  • Despite the Mycenaean Linear B script having been deciphered some seventy years ago, much has remained uncertain regarding the ritual ideology of Mycenaean society that the Linear B documents reveal. Roger Woodard here explores this problem by investigating a new range of sources from the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, together with processes of the transfer of knowledge between Anatolia and European Hellas. Bringing together evidence from Mycenaean culture with mythic and cult traditions of Iron Age Greek culture and Indo-Iranian sources, he reveals the close parallels between Mycenaean and Vedic ritual structures and practices, these being particular expressions of Mycenaean Asianism. He also demonstrates how features inspired from Indo-Iranian sources are present in Aeolian Greek epic traditions that emerged during the Iron Age, notably the Argonautic search for the Golden fleece.

The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology
  • Volume 1, Architecture, Artifacts and Evidence
  • Edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil Christie, Robin M. Jensen, Jodi Magness
  • Published online:
    04 July 2025
    Print publication:
    31 July 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 2, Settlements, Regions, Peoples and Debates
  • Edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, Neil Christie, Robin M. Jensen, Jodi Magness
  • Published online:
    04 July 2025
    Print publication:
    31 July 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.

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