Papers by Evan I Levine
Surveying Aegean Thrace in the Digital Era. Proceedings of the Workshop held for the Research Project Archaeological and Geophysical Research at the Peraia of Samothrace (HFRI-FM17-750), 2023
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American Journal of Archaeology, 2023
The small, second-century BCE temple of Herakles at Kleonai has long been a landmark in the south... more The small, second-century BCE temple of Herakles at Kleonai has long been a landmark in the southern Corinthia, visited by early travelers in Greece and thoroughly studied and published. Less attention, however, has been paid to the in situ fragmentary colossal cult statue of Herakles, and questions concerning its date, artist, and sculptural “type” remain unresolved. The fragmentary nature, colossal scale, and significant context of the
fragment have made these interrelated issues difficult to study using traditional means of documentation. This article presents a novel reexamination of the cult statue in its architectural and archaeological contexts, employing methods drawn from both traditional sculptural study and recent innovations in digital object documentation. In September 2020, the authors undertook a complete restudy of the Kleonai torso, collecting detailed measurements and photographs. This data set was used to create a scaled 3D photogrammetric model that illuminates previously undocumented traces of facture and offers new evidence for the display context of the complete statue. These results resituate this fragmentary sculpture as one of the most notable examples of a Hellenistic sculptural type, the Herakles Epitrapezios, popular across the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.
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The Batn el-Hagar (Belly of Stone) is a 160 km stretch of the Nile Valley above the Second Nile C... more The Batn el-Hagar (Belly of Stone) is a 160 km stretch of the Nile Valley above the Second Nile Cataract where the river churns through rapids and around islands as it passes over a shallow bed in the exposed granite basal complex. Characterized by difficult communication, hyperaridity, a dearth of arable land and a very low carrying capacity, it appears to have always been a challenging environment for human habitation, especially since the introduction of agricultural subsistence strategies (i.e. Hewes 1966: 42-43). In the area of the Semna Cataract, where our work is focused, larger populations are limited to the Nubian Christian Period (641-1400 CE), when new irrigation technology and cultural factors favored settlement; and the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (2010-1685 BCE) when the cataract itself became Egypt’s southern border with the state of Kush (Kerma). Since 2012, the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project (URAP) has been excavating the Middle Kingdom fortress of Uronarti (e...
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Digital Archaeologies, Material Worlds (Past and Present), 2020
Bactria, a region today comprised of parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikist... more Bactria, a region today comprised of parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, has historically been the homeland for a wide range of cultural groups that have produced a palimpsest of archaeological sites. Focusing on those parts of Bactria within the northern provinces of Afghanistan, this paper draws on decades worth of archaeological survey and excavation to investigate the history of land use in this region and its relationship to the highly variable landscape. Periods of increase and decline in site frequency are identified which, through analysis of topographic, environmental, and ecological data derived from remote sensing, are examined in respect to where increases are occurring and how that may reflect land-use and subsistence strategies of different groups. By doing so, a better understanding of how these different groups historically utilized the landscape is achieved, while also emphasizing the significant changes that occurred during transitions between different historical periods.
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Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2020
The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of numerous small... more The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of numerous small, uninhabited islands in the Cycladic archipelago. There is a rich history of archaeological survey and comparative island archaeology in the Aegean. SCIP narrows the size of an individual island survey, and at the same time expands the conceptual and comparative scope by surveying multiple islands with the same set of methods and in the context of the same project. All target islands are currently uninhabited, and many probably never sustained any habitation. We know from other cases, however, that such places were used for a variety of purposes in the past, including as goat islands, cemeteries, stopovers, and pirate hideaways. In its initial field season in 2019, SCIP carried out comprehensive surveys of 10 islets in the vicinity of Paros. This comparative program of research provides new insights concerning various types of human activities—habitation and non-habitation, diachronic and incidental—that took place in marginal island environments.
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Environmental Archaeology, 2020
This paper explores the concept of suitability within applications of Ideal Distribution Models (... more This paper explores the concept of suitability within applications of Ideal Distribution Models (IDMs). Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of single measures of suitability in contexts where diverse local populations practised a range of subsistence strategies with different environmental requirements and sociocultural consequences. To do so, we draw on legacy survey data from northern Afghanistan, within the historic region of Bactria. This region of Central Asia has a rich history of nomadic pastoralism as well as dense urban settlement, with these two lifeways often occurring concurrently with complex social and economic interdependencies developing between pastoral and agricultural societies. Conceptually, we predict that such diversity should be difficult to model by conventional IDMs, as what may be defined as a low ranked habitat by one definition of suitability may be highly ranked in another. On the other hand, identifying strong deviations from IDMs may in fact indicate shifts in subsistence strategies and settlement patterns occurring across various periods of sociopolitical and cultural change. Based on our analysis, we conclude that single measures of suitability do not sufficiently model settlement patterns as predicted by IDMs but do in fact help highlight long-term processes of ecological engineering and inheritance.
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Antiquity, 2019
The Batn el-Hagar in Sudan has traditionally been characterised as sparsely occupied during the M... more The Batn el-Hagar in Sudan has traditionally been characterised as sparsely occupied during the Middle Kingdom Period, with most activity limited to the Egyptian fortresses along the Second Cataract. A new survey programme undertaken by the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project offers evidence for a more richly occupied landscape.
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Afghanistan, 2019
The Sasanian rock-cut relief of Rag-i Bibi, located in northern Afghanistan, offers a unique oppo... more The Sasanian rock-cut relief of Rag-i Bibi, located in northern Afghanistan, offers a unique opportunity to reconsider issues of audience, memory, and power in rupestral art. Found over 1,000 kilometers east of the nearest attested Sasanian rupestral relief, Rag-i Bibi is geographically and iconographically distinct, displaying elements of local subject matter, artistic style, and political symbolism. Through comparison to reliefs in the Sasanian west and local artistic traditions, the stylistics and location of Rag-i Bibi are mobilized to offer a perspective that characterizes this relief as the product of Sasanian Persia and the local artistic traditions of Bactria, actively designed to appeal to a diverse audience. This perspective builds upon previous readings of Rag-i Bibi as a conventional marker of political power, arguing instead for its role as mediating between local, regional, and international audiences.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2018
This article demonstrates the utility of high temporal and spatial resolution satellite imagery f... more This article demonstrates the utility of high temporal and spatial resolution satellite imagery for the detection and study of the effects of intense surface runoff, particularly in respect to mitigation efforts to protect archaeological sites. We make use of PlanetScope imagery, which has recently become available as a freely available remote sensing data source with a revisit time of less than 24 hours, almost global coverage, and spectral and spatial resolution on par with other commercially available sensors. The high temporal resolution of PlanetScope data allows for better detection of changes in land cover that are the result of severe weather events, whose effects may be cleared up within several days of occurring or are more pronounced in the immediate aftermath of disturbances. Focusing on two severe storms that struck the island of Samothrace, in the northern Aegean, on July 17 and September 25/26 2017 respectively and which caused considerable damage to local infrastructure and archaeological sites, we test the utility of these data for detecting the island-wide distribution of the effects of these weather events. We find that these data are sufficiently sensitive to detect and quantify the extent of surface runoff processes and argue that the detection and monitoring capabilities of these data provide a useful tool for outlining policies to mitigate future damages to cultural heritage sites.
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Cuadernos de Arqueología de la Universidad de Navarra, 2015
Contemporary scholarship on the female dedicatory habit in the archaic Greek world has engaged wi... more Contemporary scholarship on the female dedicatory habit in the archaic Greek world has engaged with this subject as a means to discuss broader social questions regarding the roles of women in this period. This study proposes that current approaches to ancient gender can be strengthened through a critical shift in perspective, achieved through the application of innovative archaeological theory and modern feminist social and literary theory. To support this assertion, two dedications by a certain Telestodike of Paros (CEG 413 and 414) are presented as case studies, through which we argue that hints of an Écriture féminine can be found in the texts of archaic Greek dedicatory and funerary epigrams, through the exhibition of femininity in what is otherwise a seemingly formulaic, masculine genre.
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Eisodos, 2015
This paper proposes that there are certain thematic shifts within the Greek poetic corpus, mirror... more This paper proposes that there are certain thematic shifts within the Greek poetic corpus, mirroring the transition of verse from an Archaic and Classical popular art to a form of elite Hellenistic entertainment. These shifts are mapped through a survey of gluttony and overindulgence as a poetic device from an Archaic Epic, Lyric, and Iambic means of attack and shame to a Hellenistic and New Comedic form of quasi-impolite comic endearment. Finally, a brief examination of late antique Greek verse exhibits that the implications of these themes continue to shift alongside larger social changes in the ancient world. As these poems began to be composed for an elite audience, gluttons take on new identities. No longer are they the Other, someone in the out-group to be attacked and ostracized, but elite members of the author’s own social circle, satirized but not shunned.
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Rosetta, 2014
Often, contemporary archaeological research is adapted to fit antiquated notions of time and plac... more Often, contemporary archaeological research is adapted to fit antiquated notions of time and place. This is a development demonstrated atop the Mycenaean acropolis and throughout the surrounding landscape. This paper explores the temporal boundaries that have traditionally forced the direction or scope of archaeological study, using Mycenae as a case study.
When historically dealing with the historical narrative of a place it is often most efficient and useful to assign strict chronological limitations to a site or a region. At Mycenae, this system is represented by the orderly chronological classification of various ages (Early, Middle, and Late Helladic, etc.). However, I argue that, archaeologically, these traditional boundaries hinder the modern researcher in creating an image of the site that is completely faithful to the data on the ground. While certain pasts may be temporally far removed from one another, they can often be in close archaeological proximity. Inhabitants of Mycenae regularly interacted with the physical remains of their past. Due to the polychronic nature of material culture, these chronological phases rarely end archaeologically in the clean manner which history provides them.
Consequently, the use of these temporal boundaries inhibits modern excavators in their ability to tease out the subtle nuances for which archaeology is uniquely proficient. I argue that archaeologists should unshackle their research from these historic boundaries which persist from archaic archaeological research. Instead, archaeological focus must turn to the examination of a site or feature as a whole, devoid of temporal limitations. In doing so, features of the past which escape historical perception may exhibit themselves, and otherwise unattainable connections can be explored.
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Book Reviews by Evan I Levine
Antiquity, 2020
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Cartographic Perspectives, 2018
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Conference Presentations by Evan I Levine
121st Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 2020
This paper presents the methods and results of the second field season of the Brown University Pe... more This paper presents the methods and results of the second field season of the Brown University Petra Terraces Archaeological Project (BUPTAP). The 2019 field season focused primarily on the settlement and ritual site of Ras al-Silaysil and its associated systems of agricultural terraces, where we examined the connections between these agricultural and religious landscapes. Through the integration of survey, excavation, and architectural documentation, we document and analyze the immense typological and chronological variability of agricultural terraces in Petra’s northern hinterlands. We investigate this variability through extensive mapping of terrace features, combining satellite and drone-based remote sensing and terrestrial LiDAR to document the morphological and associated geomorphological characteristics of terraces in different wadi systems. We augment these digital approaches with architectural and landscape drawing, experimenting with different methods to capture the topographic complexity of Petra’s landscape. At the scale of individual terraces, we document the stratigraphy of terraced sediments through excavation of test units along terrace risers. We employ optically stimulated luminescence and micromorphological study to date terraced sediments and characterize the sequence and nature of their accumulation. Archaeobotanical study of phytoliths also allows us to investigate the vegetation present within wadi systems through time, providing some clues about the kinds of crops grown there over the centuries. Through the integration of these various methods, we shed light on the long-term and dynamic history of land-use at Petra. The persisting use of agricultural terraces underscores their multi-faceted roles in semi-arid environments, serving functions relating to both soil retention and irrigation and allowing for the cultivation of a wide variety of crops.
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84th Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019
Session: Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Mod... more Session: Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Models
This paper explores the concept of suitability as a guiding parameter for applications of the Ideal Free/Despotic Distribution (IFD/IDD) in cases of mixed pastoral and agricultural economies. We briefly review recent archaeological survey data and research from Central Asia to contextualize how pastoral societies intersect and complement agricultural societies and discuss how suitability can be generally defined for a region and time period given the different requirements and environmental constraints of these different subsistence strategies. While pastoralism is inherently a more mobile and less archaeological visible lifestyle, recent research has demonstrated the interdependencies between pastoralist and agricultural societies, such that suitability parameters of agricultural settlements may be influenced by parameters necessary for pastoral strategies. Drawing on legacy diachronic survey data from ancient Bactria, located in Central Asia, we consider the efficacy of a singular definition of suitability for explaining shifts in settlement pattern occurring across various periods of sociopolitical control and organization. We conclude that agriculturally-relevant parameters alone fail to sufficiently model changes in settlement pattern, as predicted by the IFD/IDD, and proxies of suitability must take into consideration parameters relevant to pastoralism as well.
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120th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 2019
This paper presents the results of the first field season of the Brown University Petra Terraces ... more This paper presents the results of the first field season of the Brown University Petra Terraces Archaeological Project. BUPTAP examines the vast agricultural terracing systems that allowed the ancient city of Petra to thrive in the semi-arid environment of southern Jordan. Those terraces vary widely in size and function. Some occupy large open plains to the north and south of the city; smaller ones were built on the steep canyon walls around it. Together these structures not only provided food and water for the inhabitants of the city, but also constituted a massive anthropogenic artifact. The main aim of BUPTAP’s first season was to refine scholarly understanding of the history and dynamics of the Petra terraces as a huge and complex landscape monument, one that was much grander and, at least in terms of expended effort and technical know-how, more sophisticated than the tomb facades for which the city is now famous. Due to the various challenges in studying terraces, which in many cases resist conventional dating approaches and have unclear purposes, our survey methodology aims to integrate a variety of multiscalar, remote, and intrusive approaches to assess their chronology, function, and construction from a variety of perspectives. Through satellite and UAV remote sensing, we contextualize the terraces within their broader spatial context and investigate how they functioned as hydrological and soil retentive systems. Individual terraces were studied through integrated photogrammetric and architectural recording to study construction techniques and to evaluate differences between terraced areas. Finally, targeted excavations provided us with stratigraphic contexts from which micromorphological and phytolithic samples were extracted and analyzed. Our findings will be of interest to archaeologists and other specialists working on terraces both in the Levant and beyond. In addition to providing insight into the long-term history of human–landscape interaction in southern Jordan, we aim also to add the evidence from ancient Petra to global archaeological and anthropological discussions about the monumentality of agricultural landscapes.
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19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology in Cologne/Bonn, Germany, 2018
The rugged and varied topography of the island of Samothrace is the setting for a complex history... more The rugged and varied topography of the island of Samothrace is the setting for a complex history of human-environment interaction and settlement over time. The small size of the island and its long history of archaeological investigation make it a suitable case study for investigating the relationships between land-use and settlement patterns through time. Drawing on historical CORONA and modern multispectral satellite data, we characterize the distribution of land-use areas and topography on the island, which we then integrate with data provided by archaeological investigation. The use of legacy and modern remote sensing data allows for the identification and description of parameters typical to anthropogenic landscape modifications, such as terraces, which can then be queried on a landscape scale. While such features are notoriously difficult to date, their spatial distribution relative to archaeological sites and areas of cultural importance can better inform our understanding of what areas were considered suitable for settlement and exploitation during different periods, taking account of use, reuse, and abandonment. The integration of these data provides a more nuanced understanding of land-use change, economy, and settlement history on Samothrace.
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2017 Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology International Conference, 2017
Bactria, a region comprising parts of modern-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajik... more Bactria, a region comprising parts of modern-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, has long been described—by ancient and modern scholars alike—as existing at the end of the proverbial world. Pronounced by Strabo as the land of a thousand cities, periods of political instability in the region over the last half-decade have prevented more rigorous archaeological investigation of Bactrian urban development. Drawing on a wide array of publically available satellite imagery datasets, as well as data from the handful of published archaeological surveys in the region, we seek to address the question of urban development in this region from the Achaemenid period to the modern day. We then evaluate the spatial distribution of urban sites through time with respect to local and external factors. In so doing, we highlight the extent to which political, environmental, or topographic variables influenced the development of settlement in Bactria, and how these patterns of urban development changed over time. Simultaneously, this study explores the potential of engaging with “big data” in an archaeological context, drawing from large-scale, publicly available datasets to conduct research on a regional scale. Finally, we hope to highlight the usefulness of this methodology for regional studies whose subjects span multiple contemporary countries or within whom fieldwork opportunities are limited.
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118th Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Archaeology, 2017
The settlement structure of Classical Greece is characterized by a diversity of settlement hierar... more The settlement structure of Classical Greece is characterized by a diversity of settlement hierarchies, territorial sizes, and urban densities. These differences in settlement organization are often characteristic of specific geographic regions, suggesting a relationship between regional environmental variables and local settlement pattern. Settlement hierarchies and territorial sizes remain, however, difficult to study due to their propensity to change, as well as the paucity of archaeological remains that relate to these aspects of settlement pattern. The study of urban densities, on the other hand, requires little more than the known location of a settlement and evidence confirming its occupation during a specific time period. Utilizing available and publicly accessible datasets of ancient Greek sites, we focus specifically on addressing the density of those mainland sites occupied during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE through a variety of geostatistical analyses and making use of several environmental datasets. These datasets include indices of agricultural productivity (NPP and NDVI) and measures of proximity to features such as coasts and mountains.
In doing so, we identify those variables that may have been most influential in determining the settlement structure of Classical Greece, while also quantifying and highlighting the scale of regional diversity present on mainland Greece. The results of such exploratory geostatistical analyses serve as important foundations for further studies on settlement pattern in other regions and time periods, allowing for interesting comparisons to be drawn with broader anthropological implications. Additionally, through this analysis we hope to highlight the potential of utilizing publicly accessible “big data" datasets for archaeological analysis and the relative ease with which broad scale regional analyses of hundreds of sites can be done, without the collection of new data.
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Papers by Evan I Levine
fragment have made these interrelated issues difficult to study using traditional means of documentation. This article presents a novel reexamination of the cult statue in its architectural and archaeological contexts, employing methods drawn from both traditional sculptural study and recent innovations in digital object documentation. In September 2020, the authors undertook a complete restudy of the Kleonai torso, collecting detailed measurements and photographs. This data set was used to create a scaled 3D photogrammetric model that illuminates previously undocumented traces of facture and offers new evidence for the display context of the complete statue. These results resituate this fragmentary sculpture as one of the most notable examples of a Hellenistic sculptural type, the Herakles Epitrapezios, popular across the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.
When historically dealing with the historical narrative of a place it is often most efficient and useful to assign strict chronological limitations to a site or a region. At Mycenae, this system is represented by the orderly chronological classification of various ages (Early, Middle, and Late Helladic, etc.). However, I argue that, archaeologically, these traditional boundaries hinder the modern researcher in creating an image of the site that is completely faithful to the data on the ground. While certain pasts may be temporally far removed from one another, they can often be in close archaeological proximity. Inhabitants of Mycenae regularly interacted with the physical remains of their past. Due to the polychronic nature of material culture, these chronological phases rarely end archaeologically in the clean manner which history provides them.
Consequently, the use of these temporal boundaries inhibits modern excavators in their ability to tease out the subtle nuances for which archaeology is uniquely proficient. I argue that archaeologists should unshackle their research from these historic boundaries which persist from archaic archaeological research. Instead, archaeological focus must turn to the examination of a site or feature as a whole, devoid of temporal limitations. In doing so, features of the past which escape historical perception may exhibit themselves, and otherwise unattainable connections can be explored.
Book Reviews by Evan I Levine
Conference Presentations by Evan I Levine
This paper explores the concept of suitability as a guiding parameter for applications of the Ideal Free/Despotic Distribution (IFD/IDD) in cases of mixed pastoral and agricultural economies. We briefly review recent archaeological survey data and research from Central Asia to contextualize how pastoral societies intersect and complement agricultural societies and discuss how suitability can be generally defined for a region and time period given the different requirements and environmental constraints of these different subsistence strategies. While pastoralism is inherently a more mobile and less archaeological visible lifestyle, recent research has demonstrated the interdependencies between pastoralist and agricultural societies, such that suitability parameters of agricultural settlements may be influenced by parameters necessary for pastoral strategies. Drawing on legacy diachronic survey data from ancient Bactria, located in Central Asia, we consider the efficacy of a singular definition of suitability for explaining shifts in settlement pattern occurring across various periods of sociopolitical control and organization. We conclude that agriculturally-relevant parameters alone fail to sufficiently model changes in settlement pattern, as predicted by the IFD/IDD, and proxies of suitability must take into consideration parameters relevant to pastoralism as well.
In doing so, we identify those variables that may have been most influential in determining the settlement structure of Classical Greece, while also quantifying and highlighting the scale of regional diversity present on mainland Greece. The results of such exploratory geostatistical analyses serve as important foundations for further studies on settlement pattern in other regions and time periods, allowing for interesting comparisons to be drawn with broader anthropological implications. Additionally, through this analysis we hope to highlight the potential of utilizing publicly accessible “big data" datasets for archaeological analysis and the relative ease with which broad scale regional analyses of hundreds of sites can be done, without the collection of new data.
fragment have made these interrelated issues difficult to study using traditional means of documentation. This article presents a novel reexamination of the cult statue in its architectural and archaeological contexts, employing methods drawn from both traditional sculptural study and recent innovations in digital object documentation. In September 2020, the authors undertook a complete restudy of the Kleonai torso, collecting detailed measurements and photographs. This data set was used to create a scaled 3D photogrammetric model that illuminates previously undocumented traces of facture and offers new evidence for the display context of the complete statue. These results resituate this fragmentary sculpture as one of the most notable examples of a Hellenistic sculptural type, the Herakles Epitrapezios, popular across the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.
When historically dealing with the historical narrative of a place it is often most efficient and useful to assign strict chronological limitations to a site or a region. At Mycenae, this system is represented by the orderly chronological classification of various ages (Early, Middle, and Late Helladic, etc.). However, I argue that, archaeologically, these traditional boundaries hinder the modern researcher in creating an image of the site that is completely faithful to the data on the ground. While certain pasts may be temporally far removed from one another, they can often be in close archaeological proximity. Inhabitants of Mycenae regularly interacted with the physical remains of their past. Due to the polychronic nature of material culture, these chronological phases rarely end archaeologically in the clean manner which history provides them.
Consequently, the use of these temporal boundaries inhibits modern excavators in their ability to tease out the subtle nuances for which archaeology is uniquely proficient. I argue that archaeologists should unshackle their research from these historic boundaries which persist from archaic archaeological research. Instead, archaeological focus must turn to the examination of a site or feature as a whole, devoid of temporal limitations. In doing so, features of the past which escape historical perception may exhibit themselves, and otherwise unattainable connections can be explored.
This paper explores the concept of suitability as a guiding parameter for applications of the Ideal Free/Despotic Distribution (IFD/IDD) in cases of mixed pastoral and agricultural economies. We briefly review recent archaeological survey data and research from Central Asia to contextualize how pastoral societies intersect and complement agricultural societies and discuss how suitability can be generally defined for a region and time period given the different requirements and environmental constraints of these different subsistence strategies. While pastoralism is inherently a more mobile and less archaeological visible lifestyle, recent research has demonstrated the interdependencies between pastoralist and agricultural societies, such that suitability parameters of agricultural settlements may be influenced by parameters necessary for pastoral strategies. Drawing on legacy diachronic survey data from ancient Bactria, located in Central Asia, we consider the efficacy of a singular definition of suitability for explaining shifts in settlement pattern occurring across various periods of sociopolitical control and organization. We conclude that agriculturally-relevant parameters alone fail to sufficiently model changes in settlement pattern, as predicted by the IFD/IDD, and proxies of suitability must take into consideration parameters relevant to pastoralism as well.
In doing so, we identify those variables that may have been most influential in determining the settlement structure of Classical Greece, while also quantifying and highlighting the scale of regional diversity present on mainland Greece. The results of such exploratory geostatistical analyses serve as important foundations for further studies on settlement pattern in other regions and time periods, allowing for interesting comparisons to be drawn with broader anthropological implications. Additionally, through this analysis we hope to highlight the potential of utilizing publicly accessible “big data" datasets for archaeological analysis and the relative ease with which broad scale regional analyses of hundreds of sites can be done, without the collection of new data.
The study of Greek funerary or dedicatory practice usually involves two distinct data sets, one concerned with art and material culture (sculpture, tombstones, objects dedicated to divinities, etc.) and the other with the text associated with such objects. However, rarely are the two systemically reintegrated and examined in scholarly treatments. There are two main hurdles to such a composite account of these practices. First, the material remains and their archaeological context are published in a variety of scholarly works in an equally various number of languages. In addition, much of this material was published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making the few published photographs and plans very difficult to access for anyone but the specialist. The second hurdle involves the poems inscribed on the objects. In this case, the poems have been collected in one volume: Peter Hansen’s Carmina Epigraphica Graeca (1983). Nonetheless, the material is written in several dialects of Greek and is often fragmentary. This collection endeavors to the reader a baseline of philological commentary, but provides very little archaeological or spatial information. Moreover, since the publication of this volume several very important inscribed poems have been published in a wide array of periodicals with no means of systematic collation and comparison. This paper, then presents a methodology which aims to bring these two data sets together in an innovative digital presentation, allowing scholars to take account of them as the early Greeks would have experienced them. In short, it allows us to recreate one aspect of the Archaic and Classical Greek cultural landscape. In addition, this method of presentation is of value to a broader audience, which we encourage by incorporating fully translated and appropriately annotated paths through the map.
In this paper, using the dedicatory and funerary landscape of Thasos as a case study, we set out to exhibit our methodology for the collection, synthesis, analysis, and presentation of textual, spatial, archaeological, and temporal data. All extant and recorded instances of archaic epigram on this island will be documented both spatially and visually. Where possible, spatial data will be gathered from the original contexts of deposition; when the original context is unrecoverable, we will provide speculative locations of these monuments based on an analysis of the recoverable funerary and dedicatory landscape. This information will be collated in a GIS and exhibited through a series of interactive three-dimensional landscapes containing accurate models of the monuments and their overall contexts. This method provides a novel opportunity for the interaction with and study of archaic Greek inscribed poetry, potentially uncovering aspects of archaic epigraphy that have been overlooked in traditional scholarly editions.
In his survey of the genre of epigram, Alan Cameron (1993, p. 4) remarked that, “the epigram was in fact destined by its very nature to be anthologized.” This quote summarizes the traditional perspective of epigrammatic scholarship, the vast majority of which has been focused only on the textual or historical implications of these inscriptions. However, recent scholarship of inscribed Greek verse has begun uncovering new facets of this genre, through the exploration of the implication of relative epigrammatic context (c.f. Lavigne, forthcoming; Day, 2007; Petrovic 2013). With this novel perspective, it is clear that competition was a critical component in the formation and development of archaic epigram.
This paper offers a further step in this new perspective, emphasizing the need for discrete spatial context in the study of ancient epigram. Employing the dedicatory and funerary landscape of Thasos as a case study, recorded dedicatory and sepulchral epigrams are (re)placed in their original contexts, based on archaeological, geospatial, textual context analysis, and the concept of visual prominence (Llobera 2007). Through this explicit de-anthologizing of epigram, the implications of the original spatial and physical contexts of these inscriptions can be better understood, thereby providing a novel opportunity for the analysis of epigram as a whole.
However, it is with the less-well-known Ionian Iambic Poet, Hipponax, that the body begins to take on new poetic connotations. The Hipponactean corpus, for the first time in Greek Lyric Poetry, is rife with descriptions of presumably real contemporaries that are distinctly abject.
In so doing, Hipponax modifies the poetic body from a vehicle for conventional subject matter to a subject well-suited for discussions of the abject, grotesque, and otherwise seedy aspects of Ionian Greek life. In this paper, I argue that this shift marks a critical transitive moment in the development of the Greek literary tradition.
In fact, islands play a fundamental role in the understanding of the Mediterranean Sea in the transition from the Roman to the Medieval periods. The conference will explore the transformation of Mediterranean islands with a primary focus on settlement patterns and the transformation of landscapes and mindscapes. The idea is to explore how the models of occupation of the islands changed from the Roman to the Medieval Period focusing in change and resilience, in innovation and tradition, in the creation of new settlements and the reoccupation of prehistoric sites.
Synthesis on particular large islands or archipelagos will be prioritized as oral presentations by invitation only. However, the open submission of papers is accepted from scholars at any academic level. These papers will be accepted as posters, but the organization cannot cover the cost of travel and lodging. Scholars that will not be able to physically attend are also welcome to send posters that will be displayed and discussed. All oral and poster papers are invited to present a text for publication.
Although the major focus of this conference is on settlement patterns, landscape/environment and mindscape transformations, any contribution concerning other aspects of the archaeology of Mediterranean islands in Late Antiquity is also welcomed (see publication). The idea is to bring into light and to summarize the large quantity of research over the islands in the last decades and the recent advances in island archaeology in the Mediterranean for this fascinating period of deep transformation.
In his 2011 monograph The Dark Abyss of Time, Laurent Olivier remarks that, rather than following traditional historicist perspectives toward archaeological research, we should instead strive to direct the field of archaeology to develop into a true " science of the past " (Olivier 2011: 189). For Olivier, archaeologists must stop employing the concept of linear, sequential time— developed for the field of History—instead opting to employ a concept of time that fits the field of archaeology and the objects of archaeological study.
In order to facilitate this major paradigm shift in the field of archaeological scholarship, Olivier offers a new perspective with which archaeologists can approach the material of their study. Instead of treating archaeological matter as the remnants of the past—objects which have somehow found their way to the present, to be dug up and subsequently analyzed as a part of that past—Olivier suggests that this matter should be approached as a part of the present. Through this perspective, archaeology ceases to act as an agent of history, but rather as a field that deals with the inherent material memory held by archaeological matter.
Despite the popularity of Olivier's scholarship, and a community of strong supporters of his paradigms, there are still many archaeologists who allow history to guide their research, or who treat archaeological matter as nothing more than vestiges of an earlier era. In light of the concept of Bolder Theory, this session aims to bring together scholarship on these topics, addressing the themes of material memory, archaeological time as multilinear, and the nature of archaeological research in light of this work. We also welcome scholarship on the relationship between contemporary archaeological research and traditional historicist narratives.
It is our hope that this session will act as an opportunity for a diverse cadre of scholars to convene in order to discuss and further develop Olivier's theoretical concepts. In addition, we hope to foster a discussion that will encourage archaeologists to engage with material memory as something that escapes the conscious perspectives held by historicist research. In short, we hope to nudge the field of archaeology ever more slightly away from a sub-discipline of history, to a true discipline of things.