The lines between death and life were neither fixed nor finite to the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. For most, death was a passageway into a new and uncertain existence. The dead were not so much extinguished as understood to be elsewhere, and many perceived the deceased to continue to exercise agency among the living. Even for those more…[Read more]

The story of the Philistines as Mycenaean or Aegean migrants, refugees who fled the Aegean after the collapse of the palace societies c.1200 BC, bringing an Aegean culture and practices to the Eastern Mediterranean, is well known. Accepted as essentially true by some, yet rejected as little more than a modern myth by others, the migration…[Read more]

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition…[Read more]

The collapse of palatial society at the end of the Greek Bronze Age in c.1200 BC has long been a subject of fascination and contention. This monograph re-evaluates the different theories on this collapse and possible areas of continuity, making full use of recent archaeological data as well as the latest theoretical work on collapse in the…[Read more]

A case study in how small projects use digital tools.

An article on Slow Archaeology for a volume of North Dakota Quarterly dedicated to Slow.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the authorial persona of Jordanes: who he was, what was his religious/political position and how he identified himself. With this information, frequently overlooked or glossed over by Late Antique and Early Medieval scholarship, I intend to bring his famous work, called Getica, under updated scrutiny. By…[Read more]

This paper describes a peculiar set of objects from the “La Elvira” site, also known as The Bicentennial House in La Matanza, the most populated county in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina (Figure 1). These objects were found in the last standing building from “La Elvira”, a 19th century productive ranch in the countryside near Buenos…[Read more]

Additive manufacturing poses a number of challenges to conventional understandings of materiality, including the so-called archaeological record. In particular, concepts such as real, virtual, and authentic are becoming increasingly unstable, as archaeological artefacts and assemblages can be digitalised, reiterated, extended and distributed…[Read more]

This chapter is an introduction to two of the major aspects of the study of Achaemenid Persian art, namely its definition, and the analysis of quotations of other artistic traditions. Achaemenid art is best defined as consisting of two categories of material. One is the art of the empire, i.e. art produced in furtherance of imperial goals. The…[Read more]

This chapter is an introduction to two of the major aspects of the study of Achaemenid Persian art, namely its definition, and the analysis of quotations of other artistic traditions. Achaemenid art is best defined as consisting of two categories of material. One is the art of the empire, i.e. art produced in furtherance of imperial goals. The…[Read more]

The vast territorial extent of the Achaemenid Empire is often assumed to have impeded connectivity and communication within the empire. This paper challenges the validity of this assumption. Two factors in particular favor this conclusion—the presence of an extensive road network and the high communication speed in the empire, made possible by t…[Read more]

This article is a reconsideration of the Second Persian Period in Egypt (c. 340-332 BCE) in light of Ptolemaic propaganda and the reliefs of the Tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel.

In his recent study of religion and imperialism in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Bruce Lincoln depicts the Achaemenids as savage and decadent in order to make a point about contemporary American foreign policy. This paper challenges Lincoln’s vision of the empire by examining the severe methodological flaws that underlie it, especially his…[Read more]

It has recently been argued that a group of five monuments at S. Omobono were part of a single building program, attributed to the Roman consul M. Fulvius Flaccus in 264 BCE, a program that also included a monument at Orvieto, loc. Campo della Fiera. The monuments in question include two altars, a circular ‘donarium’ and fragments of two bases car…[Read more]

This article addresses how current archaeological approaches to political boundaries potentially misconstrue evidence for mobile kingship.

The article deals with the tumba (or tomba) and with the diffusion of this building type in the medieval rural territory of Rimini. By tumba we normally mean a fortified settling of modest dimensions, built on high ground in order to protect cultivated areas: its characteristics are well described into the De Agricoltura, a treatise written by…[Read more]

Slow archaeology situates contemporary, digital archaeological practice both in the historical tradition of the modern discipline of archaeology and within a discourse informed by calls for Taylorist efficiency. Rather than rejecting the use of digital tools, slow archaeology calls for archaeology to embrace a spirit of critical engagement with…[Read more]

Excavation of archaic Morgantina (c.700–450 BC), Sicily, has brought to light a significant pattern in the distribution of imported Greek pottery. This pattern, which shows a preference for imports with features that referred to metal vessels, is echoed at sites around the western Mediterranean. We argue that the preference for certain types was c…[Read more]