The Makrakomi Archaeological Landscapes Project. A preliminary report on investigations carried out in 2010–2012

Author(s):  
Maria-Foteini Papakonstantinou ◽  
Arto Penttinen ◽  
Gregory N. Tsokas ◽  
Panagiotis I. Tsourlos ◽  
Alexandros Stampolidis ◽  
...  

In this article we provide a preliminary report of the work carried out between 2010 and 2012 as part of the Makrakomi Archaeological Landscapes Project (MALP). The programme of research is carried out in co-operation between the Swedish Institute at Athens and the 14th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities at Lamia. The interdisciplinary project started in the summer of 2010, when a pilot survey was conducted in and around the hill of Profitis Elias, in the modern municipality of Makrakomi, where extensive traces of ancient fortifications are still visible. Systematic investigations have been conducted since 2011 as part of a five-year plan of research involving surface survey, geophysical survey and small-scale archaeological excavation as well as geomorphological investigation. The primary aim of MALP is to examine the archaeology and geomorphology of the western Spercheios Valley, within the modern municipality of Makrakomi in order to achieve a better understanding of antiquity in the region, which has previously received scant scholarly attention. Through the archaeological surface survey and architectural survey in 2011 and 2012 we have been able to record traces of what can be termed as a nucleated and structured settlement in an area known locally as Asteria, which is formed by the projecting ridges to the east of Profitis Elias. The surface scatters recorded in this area suggest that the town was primarily occupied from the late 4th century BC and throughout the Hellenistic period. The geophysical survey conducted between 2011 and 2012 similarly recorded data which point to the presence of multiple structures according to a regular grid system. The excavation carried out in the central part of Asteria also uncovered remains of a single domestic structure (Building A) which seems to have been in use during the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The combined data acquired through the programme of research is thus highly encouraging, and has effectively demonstrated the importance of systematic archaeological research in this understudied area of Central Greece.

Author(s):  
F. Bianconi ◽  
M. Filippucci ◽  
G. Amoruso ◽  
M. Bertinelli

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The object of the study is the survey of minor historic settlements through integrated architectural survey techniques, the BIM modelling for the management of information at multiple levels, and the definition of pattern books to describe the qualities of the place. The research on cultural heritage representation made in Umbria, taking as a case study the historic hamlet of Lizori, a settlement located over the hill between Foligno and Spoleto in the town of Campello sul Clitunno (PG). It was selected as a paradigm of minor village and an experimental model to provide useful reference to reconstruct strategies, which is so important in the area recently affected by seismic events. The purpose of the research is therefore focused on finding a modus operandi in the management of multiple and uneven information. The goal is then to create a digital informative model functional to the conservation and restoration process and a knowledge-based reference for further study.</p>


1972 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 196-238
Author(s):  
John Ward-Perkins ◽  
Bryan Ward-Perkins ◽  
David Andrews ◽  
Sheila Gibson ◽  
David Whitehouse

On 6 February 1971 the small town of Tuscania, twenty miles west of Viterbo and the same distance north-east of Tarquinia, was the scene of a local but very violent earthquake, which killed a number of people and rendered much of the old town totally uninhabitable.Tuscania (until 1911 Toscanella) is best known to most visitors to Italy for its two magnificent medieval churches, that of San Pietro on the ancient acropolis and that of Santa Maria Maggiore, both of them fine romanesque buildings on the site of earlier churches. San Pietro has been thought by some writers to incorporate parts of the earlier structure, and both churches contain a number of earlier fittings. The town itself is less familiar, although it is still enclosed within the circuit of its medieval walls, and inside these walls it has retained a large number of medieval and later buildings in a setting largely unspoilt by modern development. Almost all the growth of the last forty years has taken place northwards and westwards, outside the medieval walls, so that the visitor still has very much the impression of the old walled city, dominated in the foreground by the hill of San Pietro itself, with its picturesque group of towers and other buildings, and spreading up the ridge beyond it the compact mass of the old town.


1999 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 265-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Beaumont ◽  
Aglaia Archontidou-Argyri

The first two fieldwork seasons of the Kato Phana Archaeological Project took place in 1997 and 1998 as a collaborative venture between the British School at Athens and the Mytilene Ephorate of the Greek Archaeological Service. The work comprised archaelogical surface survey and mapping of the lower Kato Phana Valley, cleaning and planning of the sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios and geophysical testing of selected areas around the sanctuary site. This article first sets out the aims of the Project and describes earlier work at the cult centre (Geometric to Early Christian periods) by K. Kourouniotes and W. Lamb. This is followed by an account of the survey methodology and of the results gained: these include the location of Bronze Age findspots NE and SW of the cult centre and a dense concentration of sherds, tile and ancient masonry, ranging in date from the Archaic to Early Christion periods, radiating out from the sanctuary, particularly to the S and SE. To the NW, the survey also succeeded in identifying the ancient quarry site from which grey limestone blocks were cut for the sanctuary constructing. The paper concludes with an account of the geophysical testing carried out at Kato Phana, and looks forward to the next projected phase of the Project's fieldwork.


2013 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 297-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Hurst ◽  
Ian Leins

A large hoard of Iron Age coins was discovered by metal-detecting at Pershore, Worcestershire, in 1993. During small-scale archaeological excavation further Iron Age coins were recovered, including a likely second hoard. Further fieldwork in the same vicinity as the hoard(s) produced more Iron Age finds, including more coins, and a possible fragment of a twisted wire gold torc. In total 1494 Iron Age gold and silver coins were recovered. Geophysical survey indicated that the hoard(s) lay at the southern end of an extensive area of settlement which, based on the fieldwalking evidence, was mainly of Iron Age and Roman date. This covered an overall area ofc.10 ha, within which several areas of more intensive activity were defined, including enclosures and possible round-houses. It is suggested that the coin hoard(s) indicate the location of a Late Iron Age religious space in an elevated landscape position situated on the edge of a settlement which continued into the Roman period. As part of the archaeological strategy, specialist deep-search metal-detecting was undertaken in order to establish that the site has now been completely cleared of metalwork caches


Author(s):  
J.S. Grewal

An important result of the institution of the Khalsa was escalation of tension. The hill chiefs did not want Guru Gobind Singh to stay at Anandpur on his own terms. In the first battle of Anandpur they failed to dislodge him. But they requested him to leave Anandpur as the cow’s feed (gau-bhat). Two battles were then fought outside Anandpur: one at Nirmoh and the other at Basoli. Guru Gobind Singh returned to Anandpur. With the support of the Mughal authorities, finally, the hill chiefs laid a long siege to Anandpur. Seeing no end to the armed conflict, they gave offers of safe passage to Guru Gobind Singh for voluntary evacuation of Anandpur. Aurangzeb’s oath on the Qu‘ran was used for this purpose. In view of the pressure from the people of the town, including some of his Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh decided to leave Anandpur against his own judgment.


Author(s):  
Justin Leidwanger

This book offers an archaeological analysis of maritime economy and connectivity in the Roman east. That seafaring was fundamental to prosperity under Rome is beyond doubt, but a tendency to view the grandest long-distance movements among major cities against a background noise of small-scale, short-haul activity has tended to flatten the finer and varied contours of maritime interaction and coastal life into a featureless blue Mediterranean. Drawing together maritime landscape studies and network analysis, this work takes a bottom-up view of the diverse socioeconomic conditions and seafaring logistics that generated multiple structures and scales of interaction. The material record of shipwrecks and ports along a vital corridor from the southeast Aegean across the northeast Mediterranean provides a case study of regional exchange and communication based on routine sails between simple coastal facilities. Rather than a single well-integrated and persistent Mediterranean network, multiple discrete and evolving regional and interregional systems emerge. This analysis sheds light on the cadence of economic life along the coast, the development of market institutions, and the regional continuities that underpinned integration—despite certain interregional disintegration—into Late Antiquity. Through this model of seaborne interaction, the study advances a new approach to the synthesis of shipwreck and other maritime archaeological and historical economic data, as well as a path through the stark dichotomies that inform most paradigms of Roman connectivity and trade.


1845 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 297-299

This bed lies from 200 to 300 feet above the level of the sea, an arm of which extends to that town, but no shells are to be found upon its shores. It covers a space of several square miles, and is coated with soil, which in many places has been removed, the shells being taken to mend the roads, as well as for building purposes, and for manure. Such openings upon the surface are frequent on the hill just above the town, on the road to Gottenburg; but a mile or two on that to Wennersburg, and to the left, there is a large vertical opening, exposing to view from thirty to forty feet of the bed's depth, its entire depth being as yet unknown.


2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Muller ◽  
Q. A. Parker

AbstractWe present here a preliminary report and commentary of recently processed observations of Hα emission towards the Magellanic Bridge. These data have been analysed in an attempt to quantify the extent to which the stellar population is capable of reshaping the local ISM. We find that the Hα emission regions are small, weak and sparsely distributed, consistent with a relatively quiescent and inactive ISM where radiative and collisional ionisation is inefficient and sporadic. This suggests that energetic processes at the small scale (i.e. ∼tens of pc) do not dominate the energy balance within the ISM of the Bridge, which therefore hosts a pristine turbulent structure, otherwise inaccessible within our own Galaxy. We find Hα emission that is well correlated with detected 12CO(1–0) line emission (a proxy for molecular hydrogen), as well as other easily identified ring-like Hı features.


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