In dominant archaeological discourse, looting has been primarily discussed in connection with its assumed profit-related motives and the destruction it causes to the archaeological context of antiquities. Such ways of thinking, however valid they may be in some instances, result in an inadequate representation and understanding of looting, which conflates diverse forms of non-professional digging and search for antiquities, ignores the socio-cultural contexts they are embedded within, and undermines or disregards the objectives or perspectives of those perceived as ‘looters’. This thesis addresses these problems and attempts to deconstruct the blanket conceptualisation of looting that assimilates and denounces a range of acts, from a failure to register an antiquity, the unauthorised possession of an artefact, to an object’s sale for subsistence purposes. In light of this, I present and interpret cases of non-professional digging and collection (but not sale) of relics gathered from ethnographic research amongst local communities in Kozani in north-western Greece. The results of the ethnographic research, interwoven with the critically analysed impact of official archaeology’s epistemology and practice (applied in Greece and elsewhere), offers a multi-layered understanding of looting, which goes beyond professionalised notions and ethics. I contend that rather than being inspired by economic objectives, looting phenomena often involve an array of diverse, complex and ambiguous social activities, embedded in daily practices. This study of looting is essentially a study of non-professionals, who physically engage with the material past, in order to control the past’s materiality and symbolic meaning and eventually construct social power for themselves. On one level, it attempts to scrutinize the complex forms of reaction and resistance of ordinary people towards official archaeology. On a deeper level, it hopes to reveal the hybrid character of seemingly opposing practices. The control over antiquities and the desire for the symbolic and social power it generates, transcend professional and non-professional behaviours towards the material past.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis considers the perception of maritime space in the SW Aegean area of Greece during the Late Bronze Age, analysing and linking issues of coastline morphology and harbour location and maritime ideology. Drawing heavily on the concept of the maritime cultural landscape, the thesis reviews the state of knowledge about the nature of coastal settlement during the Mycenaean period in the SW Aegean and how the coastline has altered since antiquity due to geomorphological processes. The thesis presents the results of a coastal and offshore (snorkeling) survey carried out along several stretches of coast in Messenia and Laconia in the Peloponnese, the island of Kythera and in West Crete with the aim of assessing the location of possible harbours/anchorages dating to the Late Bronze Age. These results are compared with those available for comparable harbour locations in the Cyclades, Central and East Crete, the Dodecanese, East Aegean and parts of Italy dating to the Late Bronze Age period. The survey included the coastal sites of Pavlopetri and Epidauros Limera in the South Peloponnese and Kastelli, Chania and Phalasarna in West Crete. In the research presented in this thesis, harbours/anchorages of the Late Bronze Age should be considered as located at promising ancient sandy beaches, river outfalls and promontories. As there are no stone built harbour structures the default landing place was the beach. This thesis adopts a maritime perspective, viewing the coastal littoral from the sea. It examines various parameters including natural processes on the coast and hinterland that were, and remain, vital to the connectivity of cultures through the sea during the Late Bronze Age and thereafter. The intention is to contribute to a fuller understanding of seascapes and the maritime cultural landscape as seen through the evidence of potential harbours, and to gain insight into how maritime space may have impacted on the issue of harbour installations in the Late Bronze Age Aegean world.

This dissertation examines the hero-cults in Sparta in the Archaic and Classical periods on the basis of the archaeological and literary sources. The aim is to explore the local idiosyncrasies of a pan-Hellenic phenomenon, which itself can help us understand the place and function of heroes in Greek religion. Although it has long been noted that hero-cult was especially popular in Sparta, there is little known about the cults, both in terms of material evidence and the historical context for their popularity. The first, second and third chapters query the origin and development of herocults and challenge the traditional assumption that Helen, Menelaos and Hyakinthos were 'faded gods‘. They also question the Dorian Spartan adaptation of Achaian heroes for political propaganda. Instead, the evidence at the Menelaion and the worship of Agamemnon and Alexandra/Kassandra, Orestes and others who remain anonymous to us, are viewed as a local phenomenon reflective of the developing communal and social consciousness in Archaic and Classical Sparta. The fourth chapter deals with the heroisation of the recently dead in the context of the possible posthumous heroisation of the Spartan kings and other important communal personalities. Thus, hero-cults are explained and interpreted as a changing phenomenon, which are influenced and shaped by societal dynamics at any given time. It is concluded that in Sparta the boundaries of the divine/heroic/mortal were fluid, which allowed a great variation in the expression of cults. The fifth and sixth chapters study the more intimate relationship of the individual to the hero through a survey of the votive deposits dedicated to heroes and an iconographical analysis of the votives, such as the stone and terracotta reliefs. The study of the archaeological record permits an analysis of the kinds of offerings to hero cults and an evaluation of the architecture that housed such cults. Because of the material and spatial distribution of the votive deposits, I conclude that Sparta had a large number of hero shrines scattered throughout the polis which attests to an enthusiastic and long-lasting local votive practice at a popular level.

This thesis addresses building technology and the social implications of house construction contributing to the understanding of past societies. The spatiotemporal context of the study is the Neolithic period (ca. 6600/6500–3300/3200 cal BC) in northern Greece (Macedonia and Thrace). All available evidence from various excavations in the region is assembled and synthesised. The principal house types (semi-subterranean structures and above-ground dwellings) and their technological characteristics in terms of materials and techniques are discussed. In addition, the building remains from the late Middle/Late Neolithic settlement of Avgi (Kastoria, Greece) are thoroughly examined. Their study highlights the potentials of a detailed, micro-scale investigation and puts forth a methodology for the technological analysis of house rubble in the form of fire-hardened daub. The data deriving from both the survey of dwelling remains in northern Greece and the case study are examined within their wider sociocultural context. The technological repertoire of the region, although indicating the sharing of a common ‘architectural vocabulary’, reveals alternative chaînes opératoires and variability in different stages of the building process. Variability and patterning are more pronounced during the later stages of the Neolithic. The distribution of architectural choices does not suggest the existence of established and region-wide shared architectural traditions. However, the circulation of specific techniques and conceptions points to the operation of overlapping networks of technological and social interaction. At the site-specific scale, sameness and standardisation in building technology are the prominent themes. Nevertheless, different trends towards standardisation or variability are observed and are approached in terms of social interaction and intra-community dynamics. What is more, domestic architecture is not necessarily static in the long term. Change occurs and is often associated with the transformation of these dynamics. Occasional evidence of intra-site variability in building techniques and the more pronounced anchoring into space during the later stages of the Neolithic period are considered as a result of the changing relationship between social units and the community. The appearance of stone and mud(brick) architecture in Late Neolithic central Macedonia is approached in these terms.

This thesis provides a first attempt to bring together archaeological and literary sources from two main Artemis sanctuaries in the hope of contributing to building a clearer picture of her cult. First Artemis’ character is described as that of a mother of the gods, a goddess of wilderness, animals and hunt; a goddess of birth, infants and children (and young animals); as well as a goddess of youths and marriage:rites of passage. These descriptions are followed by a section that provides an up-to-date account of the archaeological record of the sanctuaries of Artemis Orthia at Sparta and Artemis Ephesia at Ephesus. For comparison with those the site of Athena Alea at Tegea is brought in. These three accounts are a full study of the architectural development and the range of artefacts in different materials. In the analysis, the different characters of Artemis are further explored by looking at the aspects of her cult through the archaeology relating to the cult and the rites of passage taking place at the sites. These rites of passage are reconstructed by using the literary accounts. The conclusion is a description of Artemis and her cult based on the character of this distinctive goddess through archaeological and literary evidence.

This thesis presents an analysis of glyptic motifs of a religious nature attested on the Greek mainland in the Late Helladic period and on Crete post Late Minoan IB. Its purpose is to ascertain to what extent such an analysis can, firstly, expand our knowledge of religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and, secondly, elucidate the nature of the relationship between Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece. This was achieved through the classification and analysis of five glyptic themes generally regarded as possessing religious significance in scholarship. These are anthropomorphic figures and non-anthropomorphic elements flanked by animals, seated women, figures with architecture, and animal sacrifice. This contention was critically appraised by developing a widely applicable methodology that demonstrated that many possessed religious aspects. The comparative analysis between the glyptic iconography of the Cretan Neopalatial Period and that of the Greek mainland and post-Late Minoan IB Crete identified specific changes that occurred from \(circa\) 1470 BCE onwards and established which of these originated on the mainland. As a result, I have defined a group of iconographic representations that provide specific information regarding religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and clarified the relationship between religious iconography and reality.

No description available.

The focus of this dissertation is the design, construction and function of the South Stoa at Corinth in its initial phase. The South Stoa was first published in a monograph by Oscar Broneer in 1954.1 In addition to dealing with the Greek and Roman phases of the building, Broneer’s study also dealt with the “pre-stoa” remains. Certain aspects of the architecture of the stoa, however, were either treated only briefly or were entirely left out of the publication. While it was one of the first attempts at a full study of a secular Greek building, several conclusions deserve re-evaluation, including the date of construction and the design of the building in its initial phase, which has an impact on subsequent phases of remodeling, the function of the building, as well as its place in the historical development of stoas. Re-evaluation of the in situ remains of the stoa combined with newly identified architectural fragments of the building, particularly from the superstructure, provide important evidence to suggest an alternative reconstruction to that previously put forward. This new reconstruction is presented as the most likely solution, in awareness of the possibility that future finds may give rise to modification. As will be shown, the staircases inside the first and last front rooms of the stoa do not belong to the initial building phase as previously thought, but instead date to the Roman period, while evidence in the form of foundations and cuttings for a staircase inside the colonnade at the west end of the stoa, dated prior to 146 B.C., belongs to the initial phase of the building and calls for an entirely different interior reconstruction. The date of the stoa, which has fluctuated from sometime after the middle of the fourth century B.C. (340-320 B.C.) to the early decades of the third century B.C., can now be more precisely determined in view of recent examination of pottery deposits from beneath the stoa terrace, which was built prior to the stoa’s construction. These deposits have been dated between 300-290 B.C., which would push the date of the stoa’s construction to the beginning decades of the third century B.C. This has considerable bearing on the early development of Hellenistic stoas and on the stylistic chronology of several other buildings built around the end of the fourth century B.C. Having resolved aspects of the reconstruction and situated the stoa chronologically, the focus of this study moves on to design considerations, including examination of the proportions and of the ancient foot unit used in the design of the building. Construction and statics of the building are also considered.