<p>The modern coastline provides few clues as to the ancient harbour configuration since Kalamianos has been partially submerged by > 6 m of relative sea-level rise since the Early Helladic. In 2009, a detailed marine geophysical survey and underwater diver search was conducted in the inshore waters to identify potential anchorage sites and to examine evidence for coastal subsidence. Single-beam bathymetry and magnetic gradiometer data were acquired and integrated within a detailed digital bathymetric model (DBM).</p> <p>The DBM revealed two submerged beachrock platforms (BR-1, BR-2) paralleling the modern shoreline and a submerged isthmus connecting the mainland with small island 200 m offshore. The BR-1 platform (3.5-3.7 m depth) contained abundant Late Helladic (LH; 1300-1190 BC) pottery sherds (30-50%) and wood charcoal fragments.¹⁴C dating of the extracted charcoal yielded an AMS ¹⁴C uncalibrated age of 3250±40 BP, consistent with the LH ceramics. The BR-2 platform (5.8-5.9 m depth) contained less pottery (<20%) and included well-preserved fragments of Early Helladic (EH) jars.</p> <p>The beachrock elevations and ¹⁴C and pottery ages were used to reconstruct a sea level curve and a series of paleogeographic maps of the EH to LH shorelines. The presence of abundant pottery and wood charcoal in the BR-1 beachrock indicates that shipping activity during the LH was focused at the south end of the site in a western harbour basin. This is supported by magnetic gradiometer results, which identified several magnetic anomalies in the western harbour basin. These were investigated by diver search and found to be concentrations of ship ballast stones (mainly andesite) and clay pottery.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Prehistoric Town Planning in Crete" was published in 1950 by Richard Hutchinson. He determined there was no evidence of town planning on Minoan Crete except for two instances. Hutchinson's approach compared the layout of the few excavated Minoan towns to other contemporary sites, such as Kahun, Egypt and Harrappa, India. These towns were laid out in grid-like squares, on flat, level ground. Compared to these sites the settlements on Crete appeared as an amalgamation of disorganized, organic growth. More than half a century has elapsed between Hutchinson's article and this study. Within that time many more Minoan sites and towns have been excavated and published. This greater corpus offers an opportunity to examine Minoan town planning with a new eye. This greater number of excavated Minoan towns allows for a study of town planning by comparing Minoan communities to one another. When an investigation is done comparing sites within Crete only, a pattern starts to emerge. To accomplish this analysis nine elements of Minoan town planning are defined, examined at individual sites, and compared among settlements. These nine elements are: 1. A street system adhering to the natural contours of the land 2. Buildings arranged in irregular, attached blocks defined by the street system 3. A large plateia or centrally located community court easily accessible from all parts of the town 4. Other open public spaces throughout the settlement 5. An elite building near the plateia 6. Public buildings in which there is no habitation 7. Semi-public buildings 8. Built fortifications 9. Extramural dependencies, which are structural features or natural areas outside the borders of the town proper but are an integral part of the community This comparison elucidates a very specific and existing type of Minoan town planning. It began at least as early as Early Minoan II and reached its apogee in Late Minoan I. What at first glance looks random, is not. Minoan towns were laid out within the constraints of the local landscape and with the desired aesthetic. The result was a lifestyle in LM I far beyond subsistence living. / Art History

Tripods constituted a specific group of pottery within the Bronze Age Aegean tradition. The shape was typically associated with ritual and cooking activities. This study presents an examination of Minoan tripod cooking pots from Crete. By tracing the morphological changes that occur from one period to the next, this research seeks to discuss the relationship between the form and function of these vessels. It is hoped that the following analysis may also shed light on the origin and practicality of tripod cooking pots. / Art History

This dissertation examines monkey and ape iconography in Minoan art during the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3,000–1,100 B.C.). Although a broad range of animals exist for depiction, Minoan artists carefully selected each subject in order to fulfill specific roles. Monkeys and apes appear to function differently than the other creatures that are depicted in art. Rather than subscribing to the general roles played by other animals, these primates may be shown outdoors, behaving like wild animals, or in a ceremonial context, participating in a ritual. Monkeys also imitate human activities. The deviation of primates from the typical roles of other animals found in Minoan art invites a deeper investigation of the role and iconography of apes and monkeys. In this study, three types of media that bear depictions of primates are considered. These media include figurines, glyptic art, and wall paintings. First, a review of the stylistic features of Minoan art and the possibility for the use of pattern books is discussed. Next, monkey and ape iconography in Egyptian art is explored. A thorough review of the creatures’ iconography in Minoan art follows, which includes the identification of figures as either ape or monkey, as well as a detailed description and conclusions about each type of representation. A new possible reconstruction of the Saffron Gatherer fresco is also included. Finally, the possible origins of Minoan primate iconography are considered, as well as the possible implications of the creature’s history, development, and roles. With this information in mind, the Offering to the Seated Goddess scene is then examined. The possible reconstruction of a crocus ceremony is proposed and explained, and the Levantine parallels for the compositional arrangement of the scene are also addressed. These conclusions may directly inform greater themes in Minoan culture, such as religion and cult practices. / Art History

Five seals come from a Minoan site on the island of Chryssi, just off the southeastern coast of Crete. Four of these seals are sealstones, and one is the bezel of a metal seal ring. These seals are important as individual objects to allow for a deeper understanding of the people that inhabited Chryssi Island during the Bronze Age, but a further understanding of the site itself is also garnered by expanding the focus to include all of the seals of Crete. By doing so, this study allows for the discussion of regional interactions among the people of Chryssi and various other Minoan sites throughout Crete. The various approaches to seals come together to suggest the same conclusions, most notably that at least some of the people on Chryssi enjoyed a life of limited luxury through the control of various industries on the island, particularly the production of murex purple dye. / Art History

No / he two archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, which form the Northern Isles of Britain, are an active focus of archaeological research. The rich Neolithic heritage of Orkney has been acknowledged by the granting of World Heritage status. Although set in both a biogeographically peripheral position and within what may be considered to be marginal landscapes, these North Atlantic islands have a large number of settlement sites with long occupational sequences, often stretching from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age or into the Norse period. The mixed paleoeconomic strategy presented by three of these settlements—Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney (excavated 1985–1988); the Iron Age sequences at Old Scatness, Shetland (excavated 1995–2006); and Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultivated middens from Jarlshof, Shetland (investigated in 2004)—provide the core of the evidence discussed within this paper (the radiocarbon chronologies for the key sequences from these three sites are provided as Appendix 1). The role of the prehistoric paleoeconomy is argued to be of central importance in the longevity of these settlements. In particular, barley production is evidenced on all three sites by the plant macrofossils and by the human investment in the creation and management of manured soils, providing an infield area around the settlement. This paper focuses on the identification of these anthropogenic soils in the archaeological record. The investment in and management of these arable soils provides clear evidence for resource creation on all three sites. It is argued that these soils were a crucial resource that was necessary to support intensive barley cultivation. The intensive management implied by the presence of these soils is seen as a catalyst for sedentary living and sustainability within a marginal landscape. The evidence also demonstrates the continuity of agricultural practice from the Neolithic to the Iron Age together with the social dynamics that such a practice generates. This paper is in two parts: the first section examines in detail the evidence for the presence of anthropogenic soils and the mixed economic strategies for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age presented by the evidence from Tofts Ness and Jarlshof. The evidence for the continuity of this intensive strategy of soil management is seen from the later evidence of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age at Tofts Ness and the Middle Iron Age evidence at Old Scatness. The second part of the paper examines the importance of these soils as an inherited resource within the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age paleoeconomic system. Two models are presented. The first examines the cyclic importance of human creation and maintenance of small arable plots to high barley production yields and therefore to site viability, and the effect this has within a mixed resource system in providing settlement viability through time. The second explores the theoretical land and seascape that would provide this mixed resource base.

No / This study examines resinous deposits from the interior surfaces of sherds of imported Canaanite amphorae and locally produced bowls from the 18th Dynasty site of Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Canaanite amphorae were used for resin transport, whilst the bowls are associated with burning resin as incense. A number of characteristic triterpenoids identify all the resinous deposits from both vessel types as Pistacia spp. No other resins were observed and there was no evidence of mixing with oils or fats. The composition of the archaeological resins is more complex than that of modern pistacia resin, due to degradation and generation of new components. Experimental heating alters the relative abundance of the triterpenoid composition of modern pistacia resin. One component, the triterpenoid 28-norolean-17-en-3-one, is produced by such heating; however, an increase in its relative abundance in ancient samples is not matched by the archaeological evidence for heating. It is therefore not possible to use this component reliably to identify heated resin. However, additional unidentified components with a mass spectral base peak at m/z 453 have been associated with seven (out of 10) bowls and are not observed in resins associated with Canaanite amphorae. It is proposed that these components are more reliable molecular indicators of heating.

No / Excavation at a cropmark enclosure in the Upper Severn Valley was undertaken to try and obtain material from which to provide relative and absolute dating for the site. Lying within an area rich in Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology and in close proximity to a proven long barrow, the conventional later prehistoric date postulated for the enclosure was questioned. Excavation proved the site to have been a ditched enclosure with internal bank and a possible gate structure. Post-pits ran inside the bank. Finds were few but radiocarbon dates from the floor of the ditch proved the early Neolithic credentials of the monument which seemed to have continued in use for at least some 500 years.

No / Following Wheeler's excavations at Maiden Castle, the multivallate hillforts of Wessex came to be seen as responses to a specific form of warfare based around the massed use of slings. As part of the wider post-processual 'rethink' of the British Iron Age during the late 1980s and 1990s, this traditional 'military' interpretation of hillforts was increasingly subject to criticism. Apparent weaknesses in hillfort design were identified and many of the most distinctive features of these sites (depth of enclosure, complexity of entrance arrangements, etc) were reinterpreted as symbols of social isolation. Yet this 'pacification' of hillforts is in many ways as unsatisfactory as the traditional vision. Both camps have tended to view warfare as a detached, functional, and disembedded activity which can be analysed in terms of essentially timeless concepts of military efficiency. Consideration of the use of analogous structures in the ethnographic record suggests that, far from being mutually exclusive, the military and symbolic dimensions are both essential to a more nuanced understanding of the wider social role of hillforts in Britain and beyond.

Yes / This paper summarises 80 years of 'henge' studies. It considers the range of monuments originally considered henges and how more diverse sites became added to the original list. It examines the diversity of monuments considered to be henges, their origins, their associated monument types and their dates. Since the introduction of the term, archaeologists have often been uncomfortable with it. It was introduced in inverted commas and those commas continued to be used for over 30 years. With the introduction of the term 'hengiform' the strictures of definition that characterised the monument class collapsed and an increased variety of circular and oval monuments were included under the henge aegis. It is suggested here that the term 'henge' has outlived its usefulness as we no longer know what we mean by it. Instead we should adopt an objective viewpoint and recognise these earth circles as just one manifestation of the tradition of circularity that pervades the third and second millennia BC.