The Gebelein Archaeological Project in 2019: Northern necropolis and the temple complex

Continued archaeological surveys at two sites in the Gebelein area, the Northern Necropolis and the temple complex, have contributed new data for a better understanding of the ancient remains. Geophysical anomalies detected in 2015 in the western part of the Northern Necropolis should now be interpreted most probably as tombs with mud-brick walls. Mounds of earth in the central part of the necropolis yielded numerous artifacts dating from between the Naqada I and the early Old Kingdom periods; they are likely to have been dumped from a nearby settlement site, probably the ancient town of Sumenu. Work in the temple complex was aimed at protecting the structure made of inscribed mud-bricks dating from the Twenty-first Dynasty.

Gourimadi Archaeological Project. The results from the first excavation season

The Norwegian Institute at Athens received a permit from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2018 to conduct a five-year excavation project at the site of Gourimadi in southern Euboea. The first field season, conducted in June 2018, lasted for four weeks during which two trenches were opened at the site and partially excavated by a Norwegian-Greek team of researchers and students. The aim of the project is to understand the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in this part of the Aegean in the light of emerging regional maritime interaction networks and lasting settlement of the Cycladic islands. In addition, data collected from both the surface and excavation indicate that Gourimadi can contribute potentially crucial information needed for examining the Aegean prehistoric obsidian exchange and the introduction of metallurgy in the same region. Finally, the project is the first systematic (i.e. non-rescue) excavation of a prehistoric site in southern Euboea. The 2018 excavation confirmed our expectations about the importance of the site and has added to our understanding of prehistoric Euboea and the Aegean. The paper contains a brief preliminary but comprehensive report of the 2018 Gourimadi Archaeological Project results.

Some preliminary notes on the limited 2020 campaign of the Palamas Archaeological Project (PAP)

This paper presents a short summary of archaeological operations carried out in 2020 in the area of the modern village of Vlochos on the western Thessalian plain, Greece, as part of the Palamas Archaeological Project (PAP). Initially, the project aimed to conduct a significant campaign of fieldwork during the 2020 season, but operations were severely scaled back by limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, only a small-scale campaign, aimed at method testing and exploratory investigation, could be carried out. Fieldwork included an evaluation of complimentary geophysical techniques, cleaning operations, and oral history enquiries. The work—despite its limitations—highlighted the value of using multiple geophysical techniques, as well as proving the importance of a systematic cleaning of the site. Overall, the first season of PAP highlighted the productivity of the research project and will act as a strong foundation for the forthcoming field seasons.

Matching Pragmatic Lithic Analysis and Proper Data Architecture

The documentation and analysis of archaeological lithics must navigate a basic tension between examining and recording data on individual artifacts or on aggregates of artifacts. This poses a challenge both for artifact processing and for database construction. We present here an R Shiny solution that enables lithic analysts to enter data for both individual artifacts and aggregates of artifacts while maintaining a robust yet flexible data structure. This takes the form of a browser-based database interface that uses R to query existing data and transform new data as necessary so that users entering data of varying resolutions still produce data structured around individual artifacts. We demonstrate the function and efficacy of this tool (termed the Queryable Artifact Recording Interface [QuARI]) using the example of the Stelida Naxos Archaeological Project (SNAP), which, focused on a Paleolithic and Mesolithic chert quarry, has necessarily confronted challenges of processing and analyzing large quantities of lithic material.

Ontwikkelingen in de mediterrane landschaps-archeologie aan het GIA. Waar komen we vandaan en waar gaan we naartoe?

Developments in Mediterranean landscape archaeology at the GIA: Where have we come from and where are we heading? In this paper, I discuss in brief the development of Mediterranean landscape archaeology in Italy as this has taken shape at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) from the 1980s onwards in the Pontine Region Project, in southern Lazio, in central Italy, and in the Raganello Archaeological Project, in northern Calabria, in southern Italy. I do this against the theoretical and methodological background of the rise of systematic artefact survey and the fruitful discussions that practitioners have about the interpretation of the archaeological surface record, multidisciplinarity in landscape archaeology research, and the application of new methods and techniques. I end with a few words on the importance of data integration, as is now happening within the framework of the Rome Hinterland Project, an undertaking that is being carried out by the universities of Groningen (coordinator), Durham (in cooperation with the British School at Rome), St. Andrews, Rome (La Sapienza), Leiden and Melbourne.

Pre-oil Globalization in a Rural Community

This article aims to study whether the increase of agricultural settlements in the Sultanate of Oman during the Late Islamic period (c. 1500-1950) was related to pre-oil globalization, as attested in the wider Gulf region. This is done by analysing the archaeological dataset of the agricultural village of Sahlat, with a focus on the ceramic material, located in the Suhar region. The assemblages collected by the Wadi al-Jizzi Archaeological Project, point to its occupation from c. 1750 to 1930. During this time period, the coastal towns of southeastern Arabia were heavily influenced by globalization processes, but the effects and reach of trade on rural communities remains poorly known. In this paper, Sahlat is compared to two contemporary sites connected to the same falaj system, and two other sites in the Gulf region. The results indicate that pre-oil globalization did not only impact coastal towns, but that rural settlements such as Sahlat experienced similar transformations. It is suggested that pre-oil globalization was not only linked to the pearling trade, but that the export of dates should also be taken into consideration when studying this topic.