scholarly journals Underwater Surveys in Northern Menorca: Material Assemblages and Shipwrecks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Scuba Diving ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Balearic Sea ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Archaeological Analysis ◽  
Material Evidence

A plethora of archaeology currently resides unfound at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Artifacts and material assemblages distributed throughout this sea serve as preserved time-capsules, representing a relatively underrepresented source of historical and archaeological analysis. This paper analyzes shipwrecks of the Balearic Sea along Menorca’s coastline to foreground the role that archaeology plays in reconstructing historical trade routes and ancient climatic during the late Roman period (4th – 7th CE). Implementation of this research occurred in the summer of 2016, using methodologies of underwater survey to investigate Menorcan shelf bathymetry and material evidence. Position fixing and visual search techniques formed the bulk of methodological fieldwork, principally completed underwater through scuba diving. Complementing this study and its framework is the use of materiality from the adjoining Roman sites of Sanisera and Port de Sanitja. Pairing material analysis of unearthed amphorae with geospatial study allows for a partial recreation of ancient maritime climates and sea conditions, as well as macroeconomic scenarios of Menorcan late antiquity. Such an investigation opens up untouched and unobserved histories.

Livestock plagues in late antiquity, with a disassembling of the bovine panzootic of A.D. 376-386

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 490-508
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Newfield
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Livestock Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Material Evidence

The history of late-antique animal plagues requires a fresh start. Over the last 30 years, scholars have amassed copious quantities of written and material evidence for major shifts in the natural world experienced, or reported, as disasters in late antiquity. They have read textual passages more critically and interwoven written with physical data more meticulously than researchers before them. As a result, much more is known now about human plagues, climatic downturns and tectonic perturbations in the Late Roman period. Yet knowledge of late-antique livestock disease remains pretty much where animal health specialists left it in the 18th and 19th c. There are, to be sure, histories of late-antique animal plagues, but they are long out of date, unreliable and altogether of poor quality.

Ceramics from Late Roman Contexts in Durrës

2006 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 427-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brikena Shkodra
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Local Production ◽  
The West ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
East And West ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
The City ◽  
Late Roman

What seems to be the case is that Durrës during the late Roman period was incorporated in the network of Byzantine state-controlled supply which operated throughout the east and west Mediterranean, suggesting that the city was more open to the east than to the west in late Antiquity. By contrast, the supply of Tunisian fine ware and amphorae is smaller then the imports from the eastern Mediterranean. However, the persistence presence of Tunisian wares throughout late Vandal and Byzantine period argues for sustained interaction between east and west within the Byzantine world. The presence of local production in the 6th century contexts merits further analysis.

THE PIRAEUS FROM 86 BC TO LATE ANTIQUITY: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE LANDSCAPE, FUNCTION AND ECONOMY OF THE PORT OF ROMAN ATHENS

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 239-268
Author(s):  
Dimitris Grigoropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
And Function ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Roman Ports

Modern perceptions of the ancient Piraeus have been monopolised by the urban image and function of the port as the naval stronghold of Classical Athens. Existing scholarship so far has tended to consider the post-Classical centuries, especially the era following the sack of the port in 86bcby the Romans, as a period of decline. Such preconceptions, based on largely superficial readings of a few ancient literary texts and a near-total disregard of the material evidence, have created a distorted image of the Piraeus and its significance in the Roman period. Drawing upon textual sources as well as archaeological evidence, this paper explores the changing nature of urban settlement, maritime functions and the economy of the port from the time of its destruction in 86bcto around the sixth centuryad. Particular emphasis is placed on a re-examination of the existing evidence from rescue excavations conducted by the Greek Archaeological Service as they relate to the topography of the Roman port and its long-term evolution. This combined study offers a more complex picture of the infrastructure, urban image and operational capability of the port during the Roman period than was hitherto possible. It also permits a more balanced understanding of the port's function at local, regional and provincial levels, and thus enables comparisons with other Roman ports in the Aegean and the rest of the Mediterranean.

The Movement of People and Things between Britain and France

2020 ◽  
pp. 369-388
Author(s):  
Robin Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Irish Sea ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
The Irish Sea ◽  
Material Evidence

Archaeological evidence for the economic links between Britain and France in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries suggests that networks of exchange were dramatically reordered during this period. A close examination of material evidence suggests that the networks of exchange, which bound Britain, northern Gaul, and the Rhineland together during the late-Roman period into a single economic zone, collapsed in the early fifth century. By the second half of the fifth century, however, archaeological evidence suggests that new trans-sea networks of exchange were beginning to emerge, which stretched across the Channel and the North Sea and from western Francia to the Irish Sea. The people, places, and goods entangled in these new networks were different from those of the Roman period, and the scale of exchange was much smaller. Franks would be important players in both western Britain and eastern lowland Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, but their roles in the two zones were very different.

Samuel and Saul at Gilgal: a new interpretation of the Elephant mosaic panel in the Huqoq synagogue

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 524-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. Gordon ◽  
Zeev Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Religious Art ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
News Releases ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Late Roman

The mosaic carpets decorating Palestinian synagogues in late antiquity took various forms but tend to focus on three recurring visual themes: the zodiac, a motif with origins in Greco-Roman religious art; the Jerusalem Temple, long in ruins but still very much alive in the Jewish imagination; and the Biblical story, often classics and easily identifiable to those well-versed in scripture. The latter was the programmatic focus of the frescoes of the Dura Europos synagogue and would maintain hegemony in episodic art on synagogue floors through late antiquity. The paradigm was thought to have shifted in 2013-14 when excavations at Huqoq uncovered a mosaic panel featuring war elephants that was claimed to portray the first extra-Biblical scene ever found in an ancient synagogue. Huqoq was a thriving Jewish village in the Late Roman period. Its basilica-type synagogue was paved twice with mosaic, the earlier of which is better preserved and includes the “elephant panel”. Most of the rest of the floor has not been fully published, although news releases and preliminary reports mention them and assign the floor a date in the 5th c. The floor does include well-known Biblical scenes along with a zodiac panel and two undated dedicatory inscriptions with decorative framing elements that include putti.

Royal Purple Industry in Lod during the Late Roman Period as Reflected in the Lod Mosaic

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 582-606
Author(s):  
Amir Gorzalczany ◽  
Baruch Rosen ◽  
Naama Sukenik
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Late Roman

Abstract A mosaic discovered in luxurious Roman domus in Lod (Lydda, Diospolis) in Israel, depicted among other maritime creatures Royal Purple yielding mollusks and wicker traps used to catch them. Historical sources indicating that during Late Antiquity residents of Lod dealt in dyeing and exporting textiles (also Royal Purple) were reexamined. Clearly many city inhabitants were involved with textiles, and some of them had their hands permanently dyed. The mosaic hints that the mollusks contributed to their wealth. The problem of inland dyeing with Royal Purple was discussed, as well as the continuation of this industry in the area into the Islamic period.

Plyshchan microregion of settlements of the Late Roman period in the Upper Don region

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Grigory L. Zemtsov ◽  
◽  
Dmitry V. Sarychev ◽  
Vladimir O. Goncharov ◽  
Ekaterina V. Fabritsius ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Late Roman

The Reception of Ancient Egypt and Its Script in Renaissance Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-204
Author(s):  
Lucie Jirásková
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Successful Attempt ◽  
Symbolic Approach

The chapter focuses on the perception of ancient Egypt and its culture through the eyes of Renaissance scholars and humanists. They could have known ancient Egypt from personal experience, including travels to Egypt or visits to Egyptian monuments that had been brought to Italy in the Roman period. The hieroglyphic script engraved into obelisks became a source of inspiration for the emblematics, but in fact never led to any successful attempt to decipher the ancient script. The symbolic approach to hieroglyphs was also supported by the philosophical trend of the time, Hermetism. It was a “construct” of Late Antiquity, resurrected and elaborated by Renaissance humanists, who were able to apply it to various branches of Renaissance science.

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