Presents papers presented at an international workshop dedicated to the study of Roman common ware pottery in the Near East held in Berlin on 18th and 19th February 2010.

After Alexander: The Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods at Pella in Jordan details the excavation of Hellenistic and Early Roman period horizons carried out at Pella in Jordan by the University of Sydney since 1979. It deals with both the stratigraphy of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels at Pella, and catalogues the pottery recovered from them. Short summaries of relevant work by the College of Wooster are also included. After a brief introduction to the site and history of excavations, a detailed description of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels on the main mound of Khirbet Fahl, on nearby Tell Husn, and in select hinterland locations, then follows. The heart of the study centres on a detailed catalogue of the corpus of some 900 individual Hellenistic-Early Roman pottery fragments, accompanied by outline drawings for each fragment, and a smaller number of images of the more important pieces. Discussion of the relevance and importance of the material remains to the history and archaeology of the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods at Pella and more broadly to Jordan and the southern Levant concludes the study.

This book focuses on the utilitarian ceramic traditions during the socio-political transition from the late Byzantine into the early Islamic Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, in southern Transjordan and the Negev. Production clusters, manufacturing techniques, distribution patterns, and material links between communities are analysed.

Culinary Technology of the Ancient Near East discusses the technical aspects of meal preparation, cooking, and baking in the ancient Near East, exploring a wide range of topics including kitchens, cooking equipment, cooking and baking vessels, and serving and eating utensils. Chapters explore and describe the culinary technologies and techniques employed by the peoples of the ancient Near East from the Neolithic to the Early Roman period, considering their unique and pioneering contributions to the development and evolution of gastronomic devices and apparatus and highlighting some of the foods prepared by them, recognizing their application and influence in contemporary cooking and baking. Baker brings together in a single volume what is known about the culinary technology of the ancient Near East based on the archaeological, textual, historic, and scientific data drawn from a wide range of studies and discusses this data in terms of its cultural, historic, and socio-economic context. She emphasizes these technologies as the foundation upon which modern culinary technology is based and applies relevant ancient techniques to modern systems. Overall, the volume acknowledges the ingenuity of the ancient mind in order to understand their culinary technology, which in turn helps us better understand our own and apply these, and new, ideas to the present and future. This is a fascinating study suitable for students and scholars working on food and households in the ancient Near East, as well as those working on the history of food, cooking and dining, and the history of technology more broadly.

Acta 46 comprises 64 articles. Out of the 120 scheduled lectures and posters presented at the 31st Congress of the Rei Cretariæ Romanæ Favtores, 61 are included in the present volume, to which three further were added. Given the location of the conference in Romania it seems natural that there is a particular focus on the Balkans and Danube.

Presents results from the Finnish-Swedish Archaeological Project in Mesopotamia (FSAPM) pilot study of Tūr Abdin, Turkey. Aiming to record and document sites in this endangered area to save its cultural heritage, the sites consist of fortified remains in an ancient border zone between the Graeco-Roman/Byzantine world and Parthia/Persia.

Provides analysis of production trends and complex, quantified distribution patterns of the principal traded sigillatas and slipped table wares in the Roman East, from the early Empire to Late Antiquity.

The Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies offers in three volumes the first comprehensive discussion of economic development in the empires of the Afro-Eurasian world region to elucidate the conditions under which large quantities of goods and people moved across continents and between empires. Volume 3: Frontier-Zone Processes and Transimperial Exchange analyzes frontier zones as particular landscapes of encounter, economic development, and transimperial network formation. The chapters offer problematizing approaches to frontier zone processes as part of and in between empires, with the goal of better understanding how and why goods and resources moved across the Afro-Eurasian region. Key frontiers in mountains and steppes, along coasts, rivers, and deserts are investigated in depth, demonstrating how local landscapes, politics, and pathways explain network practices and participation in long-distance trade. The chapters seek to retrieve local knowledge ignored in popular Silk Road models and to show the potential of frontier-zone research for understanding the Afro-Eurasian region as a connected space.

This is the first monograph devoted solely to the ceramics of Cyprus in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The island was by then no longer divided into kingdoms but unified politically, first under Ptolemaic Egypt and later as a province in the Roman Empire. Submission to foreign rule was previously thought to have diluted - if not obliterated - the time-honoured distinctive Cypriot character. The ceramic evidence suggests otherwise. The distribution of local and imported pottery in Cyprus points to the existence of several regional exchange networks, a division that also seems reflected by other evidence. The similarities in material culture, exchange patterns and preferential practices are suggestive of a certain level of regional collective self-awareness. From the 1st century BC onwards, Cyprus became increasingly engulfed by mass produced and standardized ceramic fine wares, which seem ultimately to have put many of the indigenous makers of similar products out of business - or forced them to modify their output. Also, the ceramic record gradually became less diverse during the Roman Period than before - developments which we today might be inclined to view as symptoms of an early form of globalisation.

A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of ancient material culture from the late Pleistocene to Late Antiquity. This expansive two-volume work includes 58 new essays from an international community of ancient Near East scholars. With coverage extending from Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indo-Iranian borderlands, the book highlights the enormous variation in cultural developments across roughly 11,000 years of human endeavor. In addition to chapters devoted to specific regions and particular periods, many contributors concentrate on individual industries and major themes in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, ranging from metallurgy and agriculture to irrigation and fishing. Controversial issues, including the nature and significance of the antiquities market, ethical considerations in archaeological praxis, the history of the foundation of departments of antiquities, and ancient attitudes towards the past, make this a unique collection of studies that will be of interest to scholars, students, and interested readers alike.