Destruction is an element of human behaviour that is universally present throughout our history. But what are the driving forces behind these violent acts? Can an underlying motivation be recognised in the archaeological record? This article focuses on the destruction and mutilation of monumental architecture and figurative works, and puts them…[Read more]

A didactic poster (written for schools) presented on the occasion of the conference “La città com’era, com’è, e come la vorremmo”, organized within the project “Pavia 100 Torri – Osservatorio Permanente sull’Antico”, held at the UNIPV on February 8th, 2013.

Review of: I. von Bredow 2017, Kontaktzone Vorderer Orient und Ägypten. Orte, Situationen und Bedingungen für primäre griechisch-orientalische Kontakte vom 10. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr.”, Stuttgart

Review of: I. von Bredow 2017, Kontaktzone Vorderer Orient und Ägypten. Orte, Situationen und Bedingungen für primäre griechisch-orientalische Kontakte vom 10. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr.”, Stuttgart

Review to: R. Parker (ed.) 2013, Personal Names in Ancient Anatolia, Oxford

Niğde-Kınık Höyük: Excavation Report of Season 2017

Report of excavation at Kınık Höyük (Turkey), season 2016 (specifically, paragraph “Operation B”, together with L. d’Alfonso, pp. 591-592).

The paper presents the report about the excavation campaign at Qumran cave 11Q, carried out from 9th to 19th March 2017 by the Istituto di cultura e archeologia delle terre bibliche of the Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano (ISCAB-FTL) and by the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). Previous archaeological excavations, undertaken by Roland de V…[Read more]

The present paper analyses the mutual influences between Egypt and the city of Karkemish (present Jarabulus) during both the 2nd and the 1st Millennium BC. This Syrian city was indeed an important site located on the Euphrates river, along the border between modern Turkey and Syria and is surely better known for its strong relationship with the…[Read more]

A brief reflection on the concept of pre-classical antiquity square, analyzing some archaeological and textual sources.

Review of Kings, Countries, Peoples: Selected Studies on the Achaemenid Empire, by Pierre Briant, translated by Amélie Kuhrt. Oriens et Occidens, vol. 26. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017. Pp. xxv + 633. €99.

This paper discusses a letter found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which contains the earliest documented reference to the Artaxerxes phialai first published by Ernst Herzfeld in 1935.

Much of the surviving text of the Epic of Etana tells the story of an eagle and a snake. The eagle and snake are extraordinary creatures, and their story abounds with mythological subtext. This paper argues that the Neo-Assyrian recension of Etana was amended to include explicit references to the eagle and the snake by the names of their…[Read more]

Evidence for some ephemeral, Roman, ritual practices, particularly using organic materials, is lost to us. This paper will introduce a case study which has not been previously considered as a platform to explore the material relationships between invertebrates and their use in magical or medicinal practices. Through a combination of discussing the…[Read more]

Ages of patriarchs in Genesis 5 and 11 are usually interpreted as literal, symbolic or fictional. We suggest alternative interpretation of literal one. In Genesis 5 not only age of patriarch is abnormally long but also the ratio of maximal age to minimal begetting age is unrealistic from common human experience (the ratio is approximately 15).…[Read more]

This is the first page only. Full article is available at https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.124.4.0523 (JSTOR subscription required) or https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/310940 (open access).

Abstract:
A wide variety of edits can be identified in the Linear B administrative documents from Mycenaean Greece. The writers of these documents…[Read more]

This is the first page only. Full article is available at https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.124.4.0523 (JSTOR subscription required) or https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/310940 (open access).

Abstract:
A wide variety of edits can be identified in the Linear B administrative documents from Mycenaean Greece. The writers of these documents…[Read more]

Whilst gold is the metal that is most commonly associated with Mycenae -mostly because of Homer’s reference to that city, but also because of the fabulous death masks that were uncovered by Schliemann in the shaft graves of Grave circle A, relatively little is known about the role and appreciation of silver in the Mycenaean world. Silver artefacts…[Read more]

Review of the 6th edition of the Linear B tablets from Knossos in transcription.
This is the accepted manuscript; the published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2020.32.

I wrote the first version of this guide in the summer of 2018. For the first time in my career I had received a multi-year fellowship, and I had been told that the position had a good chance of continuing beyond the initial fellowship period, if not of becoming permanent. So, since I did not expect to have to search for employment again, it seemed…[Read more]