scholarly journals Preliminary report on the 2008 and 2009 excavation seasons at Jiyeh (Porphyreon)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Gwiazda

Report from archaeological excavations in 2008 and 2009 carried out at the coastal site of Jiyeh in Lebanon, following up on earlier investigations, by Polish archaeologists.Remains of late Roman –Byzantine dwellings in the central part of the site, excavated originally by a Lebanese mission in 1975, were re-explored including documentation of finds in local museum collections, said to have come from these excavations. Testing in this part of the habitation quarter produced a provisional stratification, from the Iron Age (8th–7thcentury BC) directly on bedrock, through the Persian–Hellenistic period (5th–2nd centuries BC) to the late Roman–Byzantine age when the quarter has reoccupied. A curious feature consisting of pots sunk in the floor in several of the late Roman and Byzantine-age houses is discussed in the first of two appendices. The other appendix treats on stone thresholds from these houses, five types of which have been distinguished, reflecting different technical solutions used to close doors

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-457
Author(s):  
Bernard Mees
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  

Abstract The inscriptions on two late Roman Iron Age coins conserved in the Ossolineum in Wrocław appear to record an early Gothic noun and name respectively. One, an imitation of an aureus of Severus Alexander, bears a runic text that seems best to be taken as [h]rustis ›adornment‹. The other, an aureus of Postumus, appears to feature a name Gunþeis or Gutteis scratched into it recorded in Greek letters. Both of the coins feature holes bored in them, indicating that they were formerly worn as pendants, much like the later Migration Age bracteates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-499
Author(s):  
Matthew J Korpman

The Tribe of Dan has always appeared to biblical scholars and archaeologists as something of an enigma. For decades, certain scholars, beginning with Yigael Yadin, have proposed a connection between the Denyen/Danaoi Sea People and the Danites of Ancient Israel, arguing that the former became the latter and were adopted into Israel at a later date than the other 11 tribes. Focusing on recent archaeological excavations at Tel Dan and the connections between Samson and Hercules, with special attention specifically given to Dan’s traditional paired imagery with serpents, this study seeks to present a coherent case for the possibility that Yadin’s theory may soon carry weight.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-336
Author(s):  
Vakhtang Licheli ◽  
Giorgi Gagoshidze ◽  
Merab Kasradze

Abstract The article is devoted to the materials found during the excavations of St. George Church located in the southern part of Cyprus, near the village of Softades. In the cultural layers inside of this church, pottery belonging to the Roman period, Iron Age and Late Bronze Age has been discovered. It is discussed in this article.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-377
Author(s):  
Bertille Lyonnet ◽  
Michel Fontugne

Abstract The article reconsiders two major sites of the 1st millennium BC in southern Uzbekistan, Kyzyltepa and Kurganzol. It contests their recent dating – exclusively the Achaemenid and transitional Hellenistic period for the first one, and the end of the 4th c. BC for the second one – mainly based upon dendrochronological analyses relating the samples to the time of Alexander the Great’s conquest or slightly before, and ruling out the other dates given to these sites in previous publications. Our argumentation is based upon (1) various archaeological arguments and (2) scientific criteria that question the dendrochronological data and the supposed aging of the 14C results due to “old waters” from glaciers.


1996 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 27-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Sagona ◽  
Mustafa Erkmen ◽  
Claudia Sagona ◽  
Ian Thomas

Archaeological investigations this year at Sos Höyük, carried out by the University of Melbourne and Erzurum Museum, took place in the summer, between 2 June and 3 August. The aims for the 1995 season included activities both on the mound and off-site. Among the former objectives, was the need to expose further the Medieval settlement on the summit of the mound, and the burnt building of the Hellenistic period in trenches L14 and L13. Excavation was also required in the lower northeast trenches to clarify the depositions of the late third to second millennium B.C. In addition to these largely horizontal operations, we commenced an independent vertical sounding in J14 to obtain a immediate guide to the sequence of Iron Age deposits.The intensive field survey of the site environs continued, as did the search for the obsidian source in the hilltops around Pasinler. A detailed palaeoecological study of the region was initiated this year. Information from promising pollen cores taken at various altitudes in the Kargapazarı Dağları, the mountain range immediately to the north of the site, will no doubt complement the faunal and botanical data from the excavations. We also conducted a magnetic survey of the ancient cemeteries surrounding the site to better define their boundaries, but human and animal disturbance often made it difficult to discriminate between burials, pits and burrows of comparable magnetic intensity. Finally, there was a concerted effort to organize and establish a new exhibition at Erzurum Museum covering the campaigns at both Büyüktepe Höyük and Sos Höyük.


2008 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 299-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Hulin

AbstractThis paper reports the preliminary results of a brief survey east of Tobruk over Easter 2008. The survey concentrated upon two areas: between Wadi Qseirat and Wadi Gabar, north of Kambut and around Marsa Lukk. Thirty-four sites were identified, ranging from larger settlements near good harbours (one each at Wadi Duma and Marsa Lukk), to farmsteads, farms and larger inland villages. Eleven sites provided evidence of industrial activity through the presence of kiln waste and at four of them, of the kilns themselves. Dated sites belong to the Early and Late Roman periods, Iron Age and Hellenistic sherds are present in small quantities. Marmaric ware, first identified along the coast of the western desert of Egypt, is shown to extend into this area and may be associated with cairn and enclosure burials.


Author(s):  
Semenov ◽  
◽  
Aleksei Kasparov ◽  

he article deals with faunal remains from the Late Bronze — Early Iron Age buri- als of Tuva (from the middle of the 2nd to the end of the 1st mil. BC.) obtained in the course of archaeological excavations con- ducted by the Tuva Expedition of IHMK RAS in 2010–2018. The authors analize both scat- tered bone fragments of various animals and intact skeletons or skeletal parts found in situ in burial contexts. In some cases these bones seem to represent leftovers of funeral food, whereas in other cases the animals might have been buried to serve as livestock in the “other world”. Some of the burials contain accumulations of sheep and goat skulls be- longing to all the main age and sex groups: newborn, young and old animals, males and females. These accumulations are thought to symbolize the herds. One of the promising ways for extracting cultural information from osteological collections is associated with the possibility to determine the seasonali- ty of funerals based on the age of young an- imals whose bones were found in burial con- texts. This method has been extensively used by the authors and produced interesting re- sults which are discussed in the inal section of the paper.


Author(s):  
Maria Ntinou

Wood charcoal analysis at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros aims to provide information on the vegetation of the area and its management and on the range of plants used in the activities taking place at the sanctuary. During the excavations of 2003–2005 in Areas D and C, systematic samples from fills and features from all the excavated strata were recovered and water flotation was used for the separation of wood charcoal from the sediment. Wood charcoal was found in two pits dated to the Early Iron Age, near the supposed altar of the Archaic period (Feature 05), in a deposit of the Hellenistic period (the “dining deposit”), in floor deposits (Early Iron Age and Late Classical/Early Hellenistic periods), and fills of different chrono-cultural periods (Archaic–Early Roman). All the taxa identified in the wood charcoal assemblages are thermophilous Mediterranean elements, most of them evergreen broad-leaved. The assemblages show that the most frequent taxon is the olive, followed by the prickly oak, the Fabaceae, and the heather. In most assemblages mock privet/buckthorn, strawberry tree, the pear and Prunus family species are present, while Aleppo pine, lentisc, the fig, and the carob trees are less frequent. Olive cultivation was an important economic activity during the whole life of the sanctuary and probably olive pruning constantly provided the sanctuary with fuel. The woodland would be the additional source of firewood for the sanctuary’s needs for fuel for mundane activities such as heating and cooking, for more formal ones, such as sacrifice, but also for industrial activities such as tile firing. Activities related to the reorganization of space and the expansion of the sanctuary may be reflected in charcoal of carpentry by-products as the fir, cypress, and maybe pine remains.


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.


1955 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 106-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Caputo ◽  
Richard Goodchild

Introduction.—The systematic exploration of Ptolemais (modern Tolmeita), in Cyrenaica, began in 1935 under the auspices of the Italian Government, and under the direction of the first-named writer. The general programme of excavation took into consideration not only the important Hellenistic period, which gave the city its name and saw its first development as an autonomous trading-centre, but also the late-Roman age when, upon Diocletian's reforms, Ptolemais became capital of the new province of Libya Pentapolis and a Metropolitan See, later occupied by Bishop Synesius.As one of several starting-points for the study of this later period, there was selected the area first noted by the Beecheys as containing ‘heaps of columns’, which later yielded the monumental inscriptions of Valentinian, Arcadius, and Honorius, published by Oliverio. Here excavation soon brought to light a decumanus, running from the major cardo on the west towards the great Byzantine fortress on the east. Architectural and other discoveries made in 1935–36 justified the provisional title ‘Monumental Street’ assigned to this ancient thoroughfare. In terms of the general town-plan, which is extremely regular, this street may be called ‘Decumanus II North’, since two rows of long rectangular insulae separate it from the Decumanus Maximus leading to the West Gate, still erect. The clearing of the Monumental Street and its frontages revealed the well-known Maenad reliefs, attributed to the sculptor Callimachus, a late-Roman triple Triumphal Arch, and fragments of monumental inscriptions similar in character to those previously published from the same area.


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