Papers from the 17th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, SOMA 2013 held in Moscow, 25-27 April 2013.

This volume draws attention to the importance of pottery evidence in evaluating archaeological material from Thrace. The volume considers the informative value of pottery in tracing cultural and political phases, by providing us with important data about production centres, commercial relations, daily life, religious rituals and burial customs.

This volume explores the myriad ways in which pottery was created, utilized, and experienced in the prehistoric Aegean, across a period of more than 4000 years between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age transition.

Excavations at ancient Methone since 2003 by the Greek Ministry of Culture have uncovered remains from the Late Neolithic period through the fourth-century B.C. destruction by Philip II of Macedon. These discoveries extend the history of the city, a colony of Eretria (Euboia) since the late eighth century B.C., by nearly three thousand years into Greek prehistory. This volume presents results of the project in selected artefacts, burials, and structures representing the chief phases of the city, in chronological order. An introduction covers historical sources, excavations from 2003 to 2013, and the unique location of Methone. Part I details the prehistoric settlement at Methone, from the fourth millennium to 1000 B.C., and the Bronze Age burials. Part II focuses on the copious artifacts and ecofacts from the Early Iron Age "Hypogeion" shaft. Part III presents artifacts and architecture from the Archaic and Classical periods, through the final daysof the siege of the city in 354 B.C. The significance of this work lies in its interdisciplinary methods, combining stylistic analysis of artifacts and source-critical philology with natural history, bioarchaeology, materials analysis, and geochemistry, whose results reveal the long-term history of a site crucial to the economic and political history of Classical Greece and the north Aegean.

This volume presents almost 100 papers deriving from the 6th International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean. Themes comprise sea and land routes, workshops and production centres, and regional contexts (western Mediterranean, eastern Mediterranean, Sicily and the Mediterranean islands).

Between 2007 and 2012 the Department for Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Conservation Institute from Zagreb and the Department of Humanistic Studies of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice collaborated in the recording, underwater excavation and analysis of the unusually well-preserved wreck of a 16th century Venetian merchantman in the Svetti Pavao shallow off the southern shore of the island of Mljet, Croatia. The shipwreck preserved many personal possessions of the crew as well as a number of bronze artillery pieces and the remains of a cargo of luxury and richly decorated ceramic material from Iznik and other oriental workshops. Although the excavation is not complete, this volume presents the results of the project so far. The methodological and technical aspects of the underwater investigation of the site, mainly by photogrammetry, are described; the historical and archaeological context of navigation in the late Medieval period in the eastern Mediterranean discussed; and the recovered artefacts described and catalogued in detail, together with the remains of the ship and its equipment that, because of depth and of problems of conservation, have been left in situ. The conservation and restoration of the finds are described in an appendix.

This volume substantiates the island of Cyprus as an important player in the history of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, and presents new theoretical and analytical approaches. The Cypriot Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age are characterised by an increasing complexity of social and political organisation, economic systems and networks. The book discusses and defines how specific types of material datasets and assemblages, such as architecture, artefacts, and ecofacts, and their contextualisation can form the basis of interpretative models of social structures and networks in ancient Cyprus. This is explored through four main themes: approaches to social dynamics; social and economic networks and connectivity; adaptability and agency; and social dynamics and inequality. The variety and transition of social structures on the island are discussed on multiple scales, from the local and relatively short-term to island-wide and eastern Mediterranean-wide and the longue durée. The focus of study ranges from urban to non-urban contexts, and are reflected in settlement, funerary, and other ritual contexts. Connections, both within the island and to the broader Eastern Mediterranean, and how these impact social and economic developments on the island, are explored. Discussions revolve around the potential of consolidating the models based on specialised studies into a cohesive interpretation of society on ancient Cyprus and its strategic connections with surrounding regions in a diachronic perspective from the Neolithic through the end of the Bronze Age, i.e. from roughly the seventh millennium to the eleventh century BCE. Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus is intended for researchers and students of the archaeology and history of ancient Cyprus, the Aegean, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

This is the second volume arising from the 1994–2003 excavations of the Triconch Palace at Butrint (Albania), which charted the history of a major Mediterranean waterfront site from the 2nd to the 15th centuries AD. The sequence (Butrint 3: Excavations at the Triconch Palace: Oxbow 2011) included the development of a palatial late Roman house, followed by intensive activity between the 5th and 7th centuries involving domestic occupation, metal-working, fishing and burial. The site saw renewed activity from the 10th century, coinciding with the revival of the town of Butrint, and for the following 300 years continued in intermittent use associated with its channel-side location. This volume reports on the finds from the site (excluding the pottery), which demonstrate the ways in which the lives, diet and material culture of a Mediterranean population changed across the arc of the late Roman and Medieval periods. It includes discussion of the environmental evidence, the human and faunal remains, metal-working evidence, and the major assemblages of glass, coins and small finds, giving an insight into the health, subsistence base and material culture of the population of a Mediterranean site across more than 1000 years. The findings raise important questions regarding the ways in which changes in the circumstances of the town affected the population between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They illustrate in particular how an urban Roman center became more rural during the 6th century with a population that faced major challenges in their health and living conditions.

The Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Florence, Italy, 1-3 March 2012. [No other information found for this title].