Blowin’ in the Wind

This study provides a critical and interdisciplinary review of the archaeological record of the Aeolian Islands (Italy), from their earliest settlement in the mid-sixth millennium BC (Middle Neolithic) to the establishment of trans-Mediterranean networks at the end of the second millennium BC (Final Bronze Age). We combine archaeological, archaeometric, bioarchaeological and environmental data to explore the interplay between different prehistoric practices and their spatial settings, revisiting old evidence and presenting new data. The resulting picture reveals different levels of interaction and the critical role of these small island communities in establishing and/or facilitating networks at the local and (inter)regional scale. Ceramic networks allow us to trace connections between the islands and their neighbours, underscoring the centrality of the island of Lipari, which is further supported by the spatial analysis of the settlement data, in particular concerning the growing web of intervisibility between contemporary settlements on the Aeolian Islands, Sicily and Calabria. We also highlight significant environmental factors, such as arid phases and volcanic events, and assess their impact in light of the islanders’ responses, underscoring their long-term adaptability to the challenges of insularity. The study is supported by a new and up-to-date database of 50 prehistoric sites, incorporating unpublished results of ongoing archaeological investigations by the authors.

Contextualizing an Iron Age IIA Hoard of Astragali from Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Israel

Astragali, the knuckle or ankle bones of mammals, have been collected, used and modified by humans in different parts of the world for millennia. Large hoards dating from Iron Age IIA (tenth–ninth centuries BC) are attested at a number of sites in the southern Levant, and a recently discovered hoard of 406 astragali at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel presents an opportunity to investigate this phenomenon, shedding light on the function of these bones and why they bore special status and meaning that crossed cultural and temporal boundaries. In this study, the zooarchaeological analysis of the astragali provides the basis for an extensive discussion of the hoard’s formation process and function that explores ethnographic literature, archaeological data and ancient Near Eastern and classical documentary sources. The findings of this study demonstrate that while the individual bones had many different functions, once deposited together the astragali took on a new meaning, possibly related to divinatory practices.

Perils, Potential and Perspectives of Bioarchaeological Analyses in the Study of Mediterranean Mobility

The resolution of bioarchaeological analyses has improved dramatically in recent years, and bioarchaeology is increasingly employed in areas of the world where preservation issues and disciplinary traditions had previously hindered its application. One such area is the Mediterranean region. Bioarchaeological analyses arguably are the most direct indicator of human behavior in the past, and as a result the full integration of bioarchaeology and archaeology into Mediterranean research shows much promise. However, several methodological, theoretical and practical challenges have emerged: (1) discrepancies between cultural and biological variability; (2) discrepancies in the dating of skeletal samples and of migration events in the two subdisciplines; (3) diverging interpretations of (collective) identities; and (4) the fostering of effective cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration. While the first two points are especially salient for Mediterranean research, the third and fourth are relevant for the archaeological discipline more generally. In this paper, we discuss each challenge in turn, focusing on the first millennium bc Greek diaspora in the Mediterranean. We believe that both disciplines would benefit from open discussion of these issues, which we hope might spur more collaborative efforts towards their resolution.

Biriai

The materiality of forced migration and resettlement have understandably moved to the forefront of archaeological research recently, although data from prehistoric refugia remain limited. One potentially informative example is the west Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where remains of the later third millennium BC document discontinuities associated with the appearance of Bell Beaker elements in local cultural modalities. Employing an augmented version of Aaron Burke’s ethnographically based approach, this study examines the Sardinian record, first toward identifying the contexts and factors that may have induced forced migration, such as agonistic relations with Beaker-bearing entities, then toward identifying likely refugia. Diagnostic correlates are derived in terms of the material consequences of adaptations to anthropologically documented risks encountered by refugees (e.g. landlessness, homelessness, marginalization). On these criteria, the eastern Sardinian settlement of Sa Sedda de Biriai in Oliena is identified and investigated as a possible refuge settlement of the Monte Claro culture. Evidence is marshalled with the aim of discovering temporal, spatial and material patterns consistent with Burke’s model in an augmented form, emphasizing non-local source venues, homelands or pre-flight affiliations, pre-flight or transitional objects, post-flight/refuge integrative expressions, security-adapted house architecture, residential enclaves or districts and removals of iconic pre-flight cult spaces. The social identity of the bearers of Beaker material culture on Sardinia is discussed briefly.

Reviewing Christopher Witmore’s Old Lands: A Chorography of the Eastern Peloponnese (London: Routledge, 2020)

a) A Journey to A Chorography: Christopher Witmore b) Old Ways in Old Lands: William Caraher c) Manifesting the Infraordinary: Alfredo González-Ruibal d) This Old Land: Johanna Hanink e) Re-Grounding Chorographically: Christopher Witmore

From Texts and Iconography to Use-Wear Analysis of Ceramic Vessels

While handwashing is attested in the Bronze Age cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and appears in both Linear B records and Homeric epics, the custom has not been discussed with regard to the material culture of Mycenaean Greece. On analogy with Egyptian handwashing equipment, we explore the possibility that a conical bowl made of bronze and copied in clay was introduced in Greece early in the Late Bronze Age for this specific use. We integrate epigraphic, iconographic and formal analyses to support this claim, but in order to interrogate the quotidian function of ceramic lekanes, we present the results of use-wear analysis performed on 130 examples. As use-wear develops from repeated use over a long time, it is a good indicator of normative behaviour, particularly when large datasets are amassed and contrasted with other shapes. While not conclusive, our results allow us to rule out a function as tableware for food consumption, and in combination with all other analyses support the interpretation of lekanes as handwashing basins. We then trace the development of this custom from its initial adoption by elite groups to its spread among new social classes and venues after the collapse of the palace system: at home, as part of communal feasting and sacrifice or as an element of funerary rites. The widespread distribution of handwashing equipment after 1200 bc closely mirrors the situation in our earliest surviving Greek Iron Age texts and joins a growing body of evidence pointing to strong continuity in social practices between the Postpalatial period and the early Iron Age in Greece.

The Making of a Byzantine Monastic Landscape

In this study, we present some results from the Mazi Archaeological Project (MAP), a diachronic regional survey in northwest Attica, Greece. We focus our discussion on the presence of the Middle Byzantine Monastery of Hosios Meletios and its relationship to local communities as well as to the surrounding natural and built environment. In doing so, we focus on three main strategies employed by the monastery: (1) large-scale building projects, (2) the redirection of movement in the area and (3) the exploitation of the natural environment and its economic resources. We also pay attention to the establishment of the paralavria (monastic dependencies) as a fundamental mechanism employed by the monastery to map its presence and influence and connect it to other sites of economic and religious importance in the region. We argue that the spatial, material and symbolic connections between the paralavria, the main monastery and key natural features in the area created a visually, spiritually and economically coherent and distinct monastic landscape.

The Bioarchaeology of Migration in the Ancient Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is often regarded as characterized by high levels of human mobility and migration, which are in turn considered to have driven large-scale cultural effects. However, this supposition is problematic, in that it relies on various types of proxy for human movement, rather than on direct bioarchaeological evidence. Accordingly, in this study we attempt to quantify diachronic Mediterranean mobility and migration by undertaking the first meta-analysis of the burgeoning radiogenic isotope datasets now available from the Mediterranean. We gathered 87Sr/ 86Sr data derived from funerary populations from the Neolithic to the late Roman period. We imposed a data-hygiene regime, discarding low-quality, methodologically idiosyncratic, or other potentially erroneous data; this resulted in a cleansed and trimmed dataset (n = 899). Within this dataset, we find that mean rates of post-juvenile migration are relatively low. Utilizing the methodologies specific to individual studies, the mean nonlocal rate is 9.57%. Imposing a standard methodology on the most statistically robust data (resulting in n = 702) allows us to recompute a mean nonlocal rate of 5.84%. In both the data as originally reported and as recomputed, we detect comparatively higher levels of migration in the period 7000–3500 BC, followed by decreasing levels of migration in the later Holocene. We discuss the implications of these results for how we understand longterm cultural and behavioral change in the Mediterranean.

A Haunted Landscape and Its Drained Souls

Although the ultimate aim of the dominant heritage discourse and practice is to preserve culture in a way that contributes to peace and human prosperity, its paradoxical outcome has been to erase the variety of ways that people can relate to the past and to normalize ethnic and religious conflicts as well as globally deepening inequalities of class, race and gender. In this context, searching for civilization in the past has become an increasingly irrational activity, specifically in geopolitically important zones such as the Middle East and Turkey, where millions of immigrants, along with numerous minorities and economically impoverished populations, are currently denied access to the living standards of modern civilization. This paper aims to highlight these paradoxes inherent in the dominant heritage discourse and practice through the example of a recent heritage awareness-raising and capacity-building project, Safeguarding Archaeological Assets of Turkey (SARAT). Furthermore, based on two ethnographic case studies of treasure hunting from Turkey and Greece, it is also argued that the past is embodied in our questions of who we are and in our difficulties of belonging in today’s social landscape. Heritage, therefore, will continue to be in conflict and danger, unless people come to understand that they relate to the past in a variety of ways as regards the very core of the thick history of world politics.

Evidence of Absence or Absence of Evidence?

The last hunter-gatherers of the central and western Mediterranean are associated with the Castelnovian technocomplex, which developed during the seventh millennium BC and is characterized mainly by its lithic industries, which reflect important changes that occurred during the Late Mesolithic: debitage from this time is oriented towards blade production by pressure-flaking and the manufacture of special tools, such as trapezes (made by the microburin technique) and notched blades. Although rare, Castelnovian sites have been identified in the wider Adriatic region of south-central Italy, Albania, Montenegro and the Italian and Slovenian Karst. However, it seems that the Croatian coast and its hinterland in the eastern Adriatic lack any traces. No sites were found in Dalmatia and only a few questionable surface finds come from Istria. This study explores whether this absence is due to historical factors, such as depopulation during the Late Mesolithic or the region being outside the Castelnovian expansion route, or whether it is because of a combination of taphonomic causes (such as loss of sites by marine transgression) and lack of previous research. The paper also focuses on the hypothesis that the presence of the last hunter-gatherers can be detected indirectly through the persistence of Castelnovian elements in the oldest Neolithic Impressed Ware assemblages of the eastern Adriatic. I further propose that Castelnovian traits are observable in the Impressed Ware assemblages of Istria. This Mesolithic tradition consists of the use of local flint, blade production by indirect percussion and ‘simpler’ forms of pressure flaking in lithic production, while marine resources remain an important food resource.