Mediterranean (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (290 Records)
The mountains of southern Calabria above 1400 m were used throughout prehistory and history, but except for an attempt to found highland agricultural settlements in the Greek period, they were always used for special purposes rather than as primary centres of habitation. The 20th century saw a massive transformation in land use, with intensive state investment in creating new kinds of mountain landscapes dedicated to special purposes. These purposes included political control, economic...
3D Comparison of Attic Head Vases (2018)
Several hundred attic head vases are known worldwide and stored in museums and collections. In 1929, Beazley has categorized twenty groups based on stylistic properties and historic methodology. Head vases are assembled in several steps, most important for our comparison is the moulding of the head area. Since moulds were used to shape the heads, our initial hypothesis was to perform a quantitative comparison of head shapes based on digital scan data. Comparison of scan data is straight forward...
About Islands and Islanders: Mobility, Connectivity, and Identity in the Balearic Islands (Mediterranean Sea) during the Bronze Age (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeologies and Islands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Bronze Age, the archaeological record of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea reveals a conspicuous prevalence of similarities across all the islands within the archipelago. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying this convergence phenomenon within the archaeological record, we developed a study centered on the analysis of mobility and...
Accidental Innovation? Using Isotopic Analysis to Test Possible Iron Production as a By-Product of Advanced Copper Smelting (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of Technical Knowledge: Cross-Craft Perspectives on Mobility and Knowledge in Production Technologies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Faynan region of Southern Jordan is one of the largest copper ore deposits in the Levant. These ores were exploited throughout history, and during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-800 BCE), copper production in Faynan reached an industrial scale. However, excavations at Khirbat...
Acquedotto Vergine: Stewardship of Ancient Water Infrastructure in the Modern Roman Periferia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Aquedotto Vergine is the only ancient aqueduct still functioning in Rome. Commissioned under Emperor Augustus, and privately financed by Agrippa as part of a larger urban water infrastructure improvement program, the aqueduct was dedicated on June 9, 19 BCE and supplied water for both public structures and private concessions....
The Agricultural Economy of the Iron Age Southern Levant: Contrasting Preliminary Archaeobotanical Data from Tel Abel Beth Maacah and Khirbat al-Balu’a (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The agricultural economy of the Iron Age Southern Levant remains underexplored archaeobotanically, especially at an integrated, regional level. The data that is available suffers from few abundance datasets and is often difficult to access or unpublished. Out of 26 Iron Age sites with available data, only 6 have abundance values and other quantitative...
Agricultural Wealth, Food Storage, and Commensal Politics at Azoria an Archaic City on Crete (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Azoria (630-480 BC) is a small urban center on the island of Crete. Ten seasons of large-scale excavations have shed light on the formation, organization and operation of this Archaic city. At its heart is a massive civic complex with shrines, assembly halls, public dining rooms with associated kitchens and storerooms, a large free-standing storehouse, and an...
Agropastoral Resource Management in the Negev Heartland toward the Close of Late Antiquity (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We report new geoarchaeological evidence for a community-scale response to changing agropastoral economics in the Negev Desert during Late Antiquity (c. fourth–tenth century CE). Sustainable resource management is of central importance among agrarian societies in marginal drylands. In the Negev, the importance of hinterland trash deposits as archives of...
AMFOrA: Computer Vision for Macroscopic Ceramic Fabric Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The prospect of using computer vision to aid or automate the production of archaeological data is not new to archaeology. Computer vision offers a number of advantages compared to traditional approaches to quantifying archaeological data, including replicability, precision without fatigue, and the ability to expand the size of datasets analyzed. The...
Analyzing Urban and Industrial Threats to Heritage in Turkey Using Remote Sensing and GIS (2018)
In Akçalar, Turkey, the location of the Neolithic-Chalcolithic Aktopraklık site, urban and industrial development present shocking social, cultural, and economic changes to the community. The local landscape is transforming as towering apartment complexes are quickly expanding into areas previously occupied by sprawling fields of crops. As documented ethnographically, these processes have heightened local awareness of the decline of community heritage values, like neighborliness, agricultural...
Ancient and Medieval Agricultural Terraces in Italy: Chronology, Geoarchaeology, and sedaDNA (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Agricultural terraces are ubiquitous in the Mediterranean. The pan-European TerrACE Project has been using new methods to deepen our understanding of the chronology and cultural ecology of terraces. The terraces investigated in Italy span later-prehistory to the post-medieval period. We have applied portable luminescence (pOSL/pIRSL), luminescence dating...
Ancient DNA from Etruscan Tombs and Beyond: A Case Study from San Giuliano (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ever since the Etruscans disappeared, their origins have been heavily discussed and debated and several hypotheses have been put forward that utilizes their language and culture as a source. Recently DNA have been use to try and solve this mystery. Modern DNA in...
Ancient Roads in the Territory of San Giuliano (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the evidence for Etruscan and Roman roads in the territory of San Giuliano and evolving strategies for control of the surrounding landscape. Road survey conducted as part of the San Giuliano Archaeological Project (SGARP) has problematized...
The Anthropogenic and Geogenic Coproduction of Seismically Triggered Soft Sediment Deformation Structures (SSDS) in Helike, Greece (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Political Geologies in the Ancient and Recent Pasts: Ontology, Knowledge, and Affect" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Factors of earthquakes in archaeology are often relegated to disaster and collapse narratives. Causality runs from the “natural” extreme to its human impacts. Following political ecology and Science and Technology Studies literatures and using the case of Helike, Greece, from the third millennium BCE to...
Anthropogenic Fire and the Origins of Agricultural Landscapes during the Neolithic Period (7,700–4,500 cal. BP) in Eastern Spain (2018)
Humans have intentionally set fires for millennia to transform the arrangement and diversity of resources within their landscapes, often altering the relationship between fire and ecosystems at multiple scales. Although scholars regularly identify human-altered fire regimes through paleoecological studies, archaeological research has not yet fully incorporated the spatial, temporal, and cultural dimensions of human-caused fire into discussions of the development of agricultural landscapes. This...
Approaching Identity and Gender Roles through the Alimentation Sphere in the Iberian Culture (5th - 1st century BC) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The alimentation sphere presents a relevant context for the examination of sociopolitical dynamics within heterarchical agricultural societies of the Iberian Culture. Historically, alimentation practices have been associated with tasks primarily undertaken by women. However, there is a need to examine whether the extent of the presence of women is related...
An Archaeogenetic Approach to Studying the Demographic History of Rome (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From shipwrecks to monuments, coins to mosaics, the Aeneid to the Satyricon, classicists, archeologists, and historians draw on a range of media to study ancient Rome. As a new media to study the past, ancient genomes provide direct insight into the demographic histories of Rome’s inhabitants. This talk highlights our team’s interdisciplinary...
Archaeology and Organic Residue Analysis: Formulations, Considerations, and Interpretations in Researching Psychoactive Substances (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over that last 30 years, organic residue analysis has transitioned from the occasional experimental project to a key component of scientific archaeological investigations. Methodologies have advanced, frequencies of studies have increased, and the range of investigated substances and characterized biochemicals expanded. Still, in some circles, the great...
The Archaeology of Pastoral Landscapes in Mountain Areas of the Central Pyrenees and North of Spain (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Seasonal pastoralism is a livestock strategy which shaped Mediterranean landscapes since ancient times. The recent development of archaeological research in mountain chains of south-west Europe has provided us with new data and interpretative models to study the livestock practices starting from their pre-historic...
Archaeology of the Town Square and the Emergence of Democracy in the Phoenician Mediterranean (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking Big in the Andes: Papers in Honor of Charles Stanish" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Popular government, or “democracy,” spread from Lebanon to the rest of the Mediterranean in the early first millennium BC. This form of state-level, consensus-based sociopolitical organization emerged as a face-to-face practice where members or citizens witnessed and participated in communal debates and decisions. While the...
The Archaic Period Diet: Preliminary Isotope Results for Adult Individuals from the Phaleron Cemetery (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While the Archaic (700–480 BCE) was a transformative and tumultuous period in ancient Greece, there is a considerable lack of paleodietary studies for this time. The recent excavation (2012–2016) of ~1,500 individuals from the Archaic period Phaleron cemetery in Athens provides a means of...
Around the Neighboring Watering Hole: Comparative Analysis of Fountains in Pompeii and Herculaneum (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Substantial urban development is linked to the first century CE in Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as throughout the Bay of Naples. An important component of this development included the construction of the Aqua Augusta, or Serino Aqueduct as it is known today. The associated lead pipe network supplied pressured water for private...
Around the Watering Hole: An In-Depth Analysis of Pompeii’s Fountains (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Drinkable water and the strategies used to get it are at the heart of every sustainable society, and Roman Pompeii is no exception. Pompeii’s remarkable water distribution system shapes the very character of the city from its network of water towers to its overflowing fountains. By the 1st century CE the Aqua Augusta, or Serino Aqueduct as it is known today,...
Artifacts of Motherhood: Revisiting the AUB Museum Collection (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Motherhood" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The AUB Museum collection of motherhood encompasses amulets, infant feeding bottles, and figurines. All these items are connected to the maternal body and specifically to motherhood. However, finding and identifying such artifacts is challenging as they might resemble ordinary objects: Infant feeding bottles could have been used as oil lamp fillers, droppers,...
Assessing the Origin of Wares from Sardis through Sr-Pb Isotopic Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Geological and Technological Contributions to the Interpretation of Radiogenic Isotope Data" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of isotopic analysis of ceramic sherds and locally sourced soils that contribute to our understanding of the origin of ancient Sardis’s ceramic corpus and help clarify the site’s role within the larger interaction network of western Anatolia. A previous study...