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Abstract
The fortress at Eleutherai is an iconic example of ancient Greek military architecture. Our knowledge of the site, however, is limited by several problems related to its date, construction, function, and identity. The Mazi Archaeological Project has undertaken a detailed, multicomponent study of the fortress and its surroundings using a combination of intensive field survey, architectural mapping, and photogrammetry. A new architectural plan clarifies construction phases and building techniques, while surface finds and epigraphy inform the history of the occupation of Eleutherai, which is especially tied to Boiotia. In the second part of this article we provide new insights concerning the economics of constructing major fortifications and their role in regional politics.
... "Site-level" surveys use similar techniques (especially detailed gridded collection) to map surface remains and artifact distributions at and around already identified sites. While we focus here on larger-scale projects, we note that site-level surveys have been particularly effective and innovative in Mediterranean contexts by extracting the maximum possible information from surface assemblages and deploying a suite of pedestrian, geophysical, and remote sensing techniques (e.g., Alcock 1991;Bintliff et al. 2017;Fachard et al. 2020;Vermeulen et al. 2012). By contrast, "extensive" survey focuses on the identification of sites, usually through more selective approaches (e.g., targeted reconnaissance or ground truthing of predicted site locations). ...
... Rurality and the ancient Greek countryside were key themes, as researchers looked to survey for insights on the nonurban landscapes that were not well represented in texts, visual media, or architecture (e.g., Jameson et al. 1994;Mee and Forbes 1997;Osborne 1987). Intensive methodologies and artifact collection were also well suited to surveys of single sites, which have provided detailed chronological and functional information and contrasts in surface assemblages related to urban and rural life (e.g., Alcock 1991;Fachard et al. 2020;Foxhall 2014;Snodgrass and Bintliff 1991;Vermeulen et al. 2012). Some projects have also embraced thematic concerns such as political territory and movement. ...
... Some projects have also embraced thematic concerns such as political territory and movement. Recent studies of borders and borderlands, such as in the Mazi Plain on the borders of Attica and Boeotia, have overturned assumptions concerning the attribution of fortifications to one polity or another and highlighted shifting levels of engagement between larger polities and rural communities (Knodell et al. 2017b;Fachard et al. 2020). While regional survey began mainly with prehistorians leading the way (even if in classical contexts), many projects are now also concerned with the more recent past, employing approaches derived from documentary archaeology (especially Venetian and Ottoman tax documents and land records) and ethnography (e.g., Davis 1991;Erny and Caraher 2020;Galaty et al. 2013). ...
In this paper, we describe the development and state of archaeological surface survey in the Mediterranean. We focus especially on surface survey as a means of documenting long-term settlement patterns at various scales, as an approach to the archaeology of regions, and as a pathway to the interpretation of past landscapes. Over the last decades, the literature on Mediterranean survey has increasingly emphasized a distinct set of practices, viewed both favorably and critically by regional archaeologists in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. We show that Mediterranean survey in fact comprises several discrete regional traditions. In general, these traditions have much to offer to wider dialogs in world archaeology, particularly concerning sampling and research design, the interpretation of surface assemblages, and the integration of complex, multidisciplinary datasets. More specifically, survey investigations of Mediterranean landscapes provide comparative data and potential research strategies of relevance to many issues of global significance, including human ecology, demography, urban–rural dynamics, and various types of polity formation, colonialism, and imperialism.
The 2023 fieldwork in the area of Palamas, Thessaly, was severely hampered by catastrophic weather events affecting the area. In spite of this, the project managed to conduct excavations, surface and architectural surveys, as well as geophysical prospection at a number of sites in the region. The work continues to highlight the chronological breadth of archaeological remains in the area, as well as further details regarding little-known periods of Thessalian history.
An area of recent concern in economic history has been the development of approaches and mechanisms for measuring economic performance in the past. One such approach focuses on energy capture, the quantity of energy per capita that a given economic system can extract from the human and environmental resources available in the surrounding ecosystem. Societies and states that capture more energy score higher in terms of economic performance. The current paper argues that this system of assessing performance requires more nuance, and that the human costs of increased energy capture must be considered alongside its benefits. Via a series of case studies, the paper proposes a system for assigning an overall human benefit score to ancient building projects, integrating both the positive and negative impacts of investing human energy in large-scale architecture.
Were Athenians and Boiotians natural enemies in the Archaic and Classical period? The scholarly consensus is yes. Roy van Wijk, however, re-evaluates this commonly held assumption and shows that, far from perpetually hostile, their relationship was distinctive and complex. Moving between diplomatic normative behaviour, commemorative practice and the lived experience in the borderlands, he offers a close analysis of literary sources, combined with recent archaeological and epigraphic material, to reveal an aspect to neighbourly relations that has hitherto escaped attention. He argues that case studies such as the Mazi plain and Oropos show that territorial disputes were not a mainstay in diplomatic interactions and that commemorative practices in Panhellenic and local sanctuaries do not reflect an innate desire to castigate the neighbour. The book breaks new ground by reconstructing a more positive and polyvalent appreciation of neighbourly relations based on the local lived experience. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
This paper presents the preliminary results from the 2022 fieldwork of the Palamas Archaeological Project, an ongoing Greek–Swedish collaboration in the region of Karditsa, Thessaly. Working over the course of two separate field seasons, the project team conducted aerial, architectural, fieldwalking, and geophysical surveys at a number of sites within the survey area, including at the important multi-phase fortified settlements at Metamorfosi and Vlochos. Limited excavations were also conducted at the latter site, producing new evidence for the Hellenistic and Early Byzantine phases of the ancient city, including a probable cemetery. The work continues to add to the knowledge of the archaeology of the region, highlighting the long and dynamic history of human habitation in western Thessaly.
The discipline of Greek architecture has been changing rapidly since the time of a major review published in 2011. The current study examines research published since 2012 about the prehistoric through to the Hellenistic eras in mainland Greece and the Aegean, along with the expansion of Greek architectural systems throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea in the first millennium BC. A narrative discussing close to 300 works from recent years is bolstered by a quantitative analysis of the subjects treated in nearly 1,000 studies from the previous decade. Traditional foci of the discipline, such as palaces and sanctuaries, are being approached in new and methodologically sophisticated manners. A notable rise in the scrutiny of material remains suggests diverse new interests in planning and construction, from the scale of an individual architectural member up to a territorial defence network. The integration of recent digital and scientific methods has been remarkable, including widespread adoption of 3D recording and modelling, remote sensing, and compositional analysis. Certain architectural types – in particular fortifications, harbours, and urban planning – have received a great deal more attention than in past decades.
From the Trojan War to the sack of Rome, from the fall of Constantinople to the bombings of World War II and the recent devastation of Syrian towns, the destruction of cities and the slaughter of civilian populations are among the most dramatic events in world history. But how reliable are literary sources for these events? Did ancient authors exaggerate the scale of destruction to create sensational narratives? This volume reassesses the impact of physical destruction on ancient Greek cities and its demographic and economic implications. Addressing methodological issues of interpreting the archaeological evidence for destructions, the volume examines the evidence for the destruction, survival, and recovery of Greek cities. The studies, written by an international group of specialists in archaeology, ancient history, and numismatic, range from Sicily to Asia Minor and Aegean Thrace, and include Athens, Corinth, and Eretria. They highlight the resilience of ancient populations and the recovery of cities in the long term.
An important part of architectural heritage and especially architectural ornaments are faced with the challenge of destruction or neglect in studies due to the rapid construction, urban development, physical interventions in buildings, and finally due to the diversity and dispersion of works across the country. Therefore, it is necessary to find a fast and cheap way to document. "Architectural photogrammetry" as the knowledge of extracting dimensions and size from photographs, is an accurate and well-known method in documenting architecture worldwide. However, its applications are not very widespread in Iran. Today, "Mobile (smartphone) Photogrammetry" can be a substitute replacement for professional and expensive cameras in photogrammetry, along with the development of digital technologies in mobile phones. In this research, while introducing this method and its implementation stages, the collection of tiles of Shiraz Quran Gate has been documented as a surviving work from the twentieth century. Designed and executed by Mohammad Baqer Jahanmiri, a prominent late Qajar and Pahlavi painter, these tiles are a glorious example of an architectural decoration that, due to its size and location, makes it impossible to obtain ortho photographs and documentary drawings. In this research, a three-dimensional model based on mobile (smartphone) photography of this work has been prepared in Agisoft Metashape Professional software version 2019 and by extracting "orthophoto", the process of scaling them has also been done. Scaled outputs are the basis for drawing and preparing accurate drawings of the work. The findings of this case study show that "Mobile (smartphone) Photogrammetry" can be a cost-effective, fast and accurate way to record architectural heritage, especially building-related decorations, and generate valuable data for research and restoration purposes.
بخش مهمی از میراث معماری و بهویژه تزئینات وابسته به معماری به دلیل رشد شتابان
ساختوساز، توسعه شهرها، مداخلات کالبدی در بناها و درنهایت به دلیل تنوع و پراکندگی آثار در سطح کشور با چالش تخریبِ پیش از مستندسازی یا نادیده انگاشتن در مطالعات مواجه هستند. ازاینروی یافتن راهی سریع و ارزان برای مستندنگاری ضروری است. «فتوگرامتری معماری» بهعنوان دانش استخراج ابعاد و اندازه از روی عکس، روشی دقیق و شناختهشده در مستندسازی معماری در سطح جهان به شمار میرود. بااینحال کاربردهای آن در ایران چندان فراگیر نیست. امروزه «موبایل فتوگرامتری» همزمان با پیشرفت فناوریهای رقومی در تلفنهای همراه میتواند جایگزینی برای دوربینهای حرفهای و گرانقیمت در فتوگرامتری مرسوم باشد. در این پژوهش ضمن معرفی این روش و مراحل اجرای آن، مجموعه کاشیکاریهای دروازه قرآن شیراز بهعنوان اثری برجایمانده از دهۀ بیست قرن چهاردهم خورشیدی مستندسازی شده است. این کاشیکاریها که به دست محمدباقر جهانمیری -کاشینگار شاخص اواخر عصر قاجار و پهلوی- طراحی و اجرا شدهاند، نمونهای فاخر از تزئینات وابسته به معماری هستند که به دلیل ابعاد و مکان قرارگیری، امکان تهیه عکسهای تخت و نقشههای مستند از آن بهآسانی ممکن نیست. در این پژوهش مدلی سهبعدی بر پایۀ عکاسی با موبایل از این اثر در نرمافزار Agisoft Metashape Professional نسخه 2019 تهیه گردیده و با استخراج «اُرتوفُتو (عکس تخت)»، فرآیند مقیاسدهی به آنها نیز انجام شده است. خروجیهای مقیاسدار، مبنایی برای ترسیمها و تهیه نقشههای دقیق از اثر هستند. یافتههای این مطالعه میدانی نشان میدهند که «موبایل فتوگرامتری» میتواند روشی مقرونبهصرفه، سریع و دقیق برای ثبت میراث معماری و بهویژه تزئینات وابسته به بنا بوده و دادههای ارزشمندی برای مقاصد پژوهشی و مرمتی تولید نماید.
Construire en Crète minoenne. Une approche énergétique de l’architecture néopalatiale AEGAEUM 35, Annales liégeoises et PASPiennes d’archéologie égéenne, 2013, Peeters, Leuven/Liège L’architecture crétoise néopalatiale (XVIIe-XVe s. av. J.-C.) est étudiée selon une approche énergétique qui permet de déterminer le temps nécessaire à la construction d’un édifice. Le nombre total d’heures de travail dévolues à l’accomplissement des différentes tâches sur le chantier, depuis l’acquisition des matériaux jusqu’à leur mise en place, est estimé. L’approche permet d’appréhender les comportements des bâtisseurs tels qu’ils se révèlent dans le choix et l’utilisation de matériaux distincts ou dans les travaux d’aménagement du terrain préalables à l’érection du bâtiment. Les résultats de l’application de l’approche énergétique à une sélection d’édifices illustrent la participation des habitants à la construction de leur propre maison, à la différence de la main-d’œuvre abondante et en partie spécialisée impliquée dans la construction de bâtiments aux traits architecturaux élaborés. La diversité des résultats obtenus suggère l’accès ouvert à la main-d’œuvre spécialisée, à laquelle l’élite néopalatiale disposait d’un accès certes privilégié, mais non pas exclusif.
In three field seasons, between 2010 and 2012, the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP) conducted a diachronic archaeological survey of the northern hinterland of Petra, Jordan. While regional reconnaissance has a long history in Jordan, it has rarely been conducted with the "intensive" methodologies today characteristic of projects elsewhere, most proximately in the Mediterranean. Such an approach is ideally suited for the territory north of Petra, the setting for a wide-ranging variety of human activity from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. The survey component of BUPAP, the Petra Area and Wadi Silaysil Survey (or PAWS), covered some 1, 000 ha (10 km²), most of which was traversed by closely spaced (10 m) fieldwalking in 1, 321 individual survey units. In the course of this work, PAWS recorded patterns in the distribution of tens of thousands of artifacts. In addition, more than 1, 000 individual archaeological features were identified and documented; geophysical survey was conducted in several areas; and test excavations were carried out in 10 locations of particular interest. This article provides an overview of the PAWS survey and related activity - discussing motivations, methods, and results - and touches on key issues concerning the long-term human history of the study area.
The Mazi Archaeological Project (MAP) is a dia-chronic regional survey of the Mazi Plain (Northwest Attica, Greece), operating as a synergasia between the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attika, Pireus, and Islands and the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece. This small mountain plain is characterized by its critical location on a major land route between central and southern Greece, and on the Attic-Boeotian borders. Territorial disputes in these borderlands are attested from the Late Archaic period1 and the sites of Oinoe and Eleutherai have marked importance for the study of Attic-Boeotian topography, mythology, and religion. Our approach to regional history extends well beyond the Classical past to include prehistoric precursors, as well as the later history of this part of Greece. Building upon a first season of fleldwork in 2014, in the summer of 2015 MAP undertook intensive and extensive archaeological survey throughout the Mazi Plain. This season included a variety of other methods: photogrammetric modeling, drone-based aerial photography, multi-spectral satellite imagery analysis, differential GPS mapping (DGPS), and geological studies. Highlights include the comprehensive, intensive survey of the eastern and western portions of the Mazi Plain, the discovery of a large prehistoric settlement at Kato Kastanava, new work at Eleutherai, and the location of two substantial Byzantine-period settlements at Aghios Georgios and at Kon-dita. This article summarizes the results of the 2015 field season and presents preliminary interpretations concerning the long-term history of the Mazi Plain².
Literary sources have long provided ample evidence that breeding was at the heart of the ancient Greek world's agriculture and economic life. However our understanding of the role of breeding in the Greek world can be greatly improved by looking at other sources. In the first part this book draws up an inventory of the epigraphic evidence available ; inscriptions have been reprinted, translated and commented. Such texts lead to several questions and issues analyzed in the second part o... Lire la suite
This chapter discusses the inscribing construction for the financing and administration of public building in Greek sanctuaries. The modern visitor to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens can share with their ancient counterparts the experience of viewing the sculptures and architectural members from the Periclean program in close proximity to the inscribed marble stelai that tell the story of their design and construction. The epigraphic category of “building inscriptions” covers a variety of monumentalized texts from ancient construction projects and includes: decrees setting up committees of officials and architects to administer projects; and legal prosecutions for defaulting or fraudulent builders. The publication of building contracts in such a fashion was laborious and very expensive, and the expenditure of so much time and money on inscribing something somewhat unnecessary, if the sole purpose of the inscriptions was to allow the various interested parties to examine the documents of the project.
William Martin Leake (1777-1860) was a British military officer and classical scholar specialising in reconstructing the topography of ancient cities. He was a founding member of the Royal Geographical Society and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. After his retirement in 1815 he devoted the rest of his life to topographical and classical studies. First published in 1821, this pioneering volume contains Leake's reconstruction of ancient Athens. Leake analyses and compares ancient descriptions of the city with the archaeological remains as they existed at the time of publication, identifying ancient structures and suggesting where the remains of other buildings may be found by excavation. This book was regarded as authoritative for the structures of ancient Athens for most of the nineteenth century, with Leake's work being influential in shaping perceptions of classical archaeology and historical topography into the twentieth century.
The electrum coins of Thebes are unique among Boiotian coins for their metal and in having a head of Dionysos as their obverse type. Their rarity and the lack of provenances have inhibited attempts to place them in a historical context other than that of 395 BC suggested by Head, but improvements in our knowledge of Boiotian history and numismatics now suggest that they belong to the 360s and were minted to help achieve Boiotian military hegemony in mainland Greece and the Aegean.
The streams of Greek history in the fourth century are highly controversial. Sandwiched between the Classical fifth century and the Hellenistic period, the era has invited various readings, most prominently the verdict of decrepitude and decline. Recent discoveries, however, indicate that the period was not simply illustrative of the political, social, and economic weaknesses of the Greek city-state. This book examines the fourth century from an area with its own regional dynamics: Central Greece, a region often considered as a backwater for macro-politics. The authors disclose a vivid tension between regional politics in Boeotia and its adjacent territories and Greek affairs. They provide a meticulous and, at times, microscopic investigation into the region's military and political history, together with detailed analyses of the topography of the places ‘where history was made.’ The result is a dazzling account of Greece's power transition crisis on the eve of the Macedonian conquest. © John Buckler and Hans Beck 2008 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Contrairement à l'opinion reçue les hoplites athéniens se rendirent à Marathon par la route de Palléné. Cela est démontré par une analyse du contexte historique et des trouvailles archéologiques. L'erreur de Datis fut de sous-estimer la force de l'armée athénienne.
Contemporary literary and epigraphical sources provide evidence that both one choinix of wheat and two choinikes of (barley-meal) were considered sufficient for the daily grain consumption of classical Greek sailors and soldiers. Recent studies, however, reject the ancient evidence for two choinikes of being a usual rate of daily grain consumption on the basis of some grain milling experiments performed by L. Foxhall (L Foxhall - H. A. Forbes, The Role of Grain as a Staple Food in Classical Antiquity, Chiron 12,1982,41-89). This article demonstrates that an error in the calculation of the weight per volume of barley-meal in these experiments means that we no longer have to reject the weight of the ancient evidence. It then builds on this to use data unavailable to Foxhall and Forbes to provide an estimate of the wheat equivalent of, which can allow us to compare the provisioning efforts of Greek military forces to those of other pre-industrial military forces. This figure for the wheat equivalent of is confirmed by an analysis of currently available data on the caloric value of wheat, the average stature and weight of classical Greek males, and human energy requirements.
Exploiting the abundant primary sources available, this book examines the diverse ways in which war shaped the Hellenistic world. An overview of war and society in the Hellenistic world. Highlights the interdependence of warfare and social phenomena. Covers a wide range of topics, including social conditions as causes of war, the role of professional warriors, the discourse of war in Hellenistic cities, the budget of war, the collective memory of war, and the aesthetics of war. Draws on the abundance of primary sources available.
This is the name of (members of) an elite Macedonian infantry regiment. Anaximenes (FGrH 72 F4) tells us that one king Alexander, probably Alexander I of Macedon (Errington in Milns 1976: 131) created the hetairoi (”companions”) and pezhetairoi (”foot companions”). Theopompos (FGrH 115 F 348) informs us that the pezhetairoi were chosen from the ranks of the king's spearbearers (doryphoroi), being the tallest and strongest among them. The pezhetairoi are first mentioned in a firm historical context in 349 bce, as being in the army of Philip II of Macedon and as having “the reputation of being remarkably well trained in military matters” (Dem. Ol. 2.17).Keywords:Greek history;military history;war
Our knowledge of Greek Architecture depends almost entirely on its actual remains. Undoubtedly the Greeks themselves were much concerned with its more theoretical aspects, and in pursuit of this wrote a large number of treatises, descriptive and analytical, which are frequently referred to by our chief authority for ancient architectural theory, Vitruvius. Since, with one exception—and that only in part (Philo Mechanicus, named by Vitruvius vii praef. 14 as an author ‘de machinationibus’)—none of Vitruvius' Greek sources survives, we experience considerable difficulty in controlling the information he gives us about these aspects of Greek architecture, especially when we try to apply his various theories to the actual remains. First, for all we know, theories and techniques described with some prominence by Vitruvius may not have had a corresponding prominence in the Greek authorities, or actual practice. Secondly, a theory described by Vitruvius as apparently universal may actually have been very limited, either in scope or time. It is in fact true to say that many of Vitruvius' ideas of Greek architecture apply to the Hellenistic period only. Thus the passage on the spacing of columns (iii 3) must owe much to Hermogenes, two of whose temples are given as examples.
Wood used in the construction of Chacoan great houses represents a class of bulk artifact collected and prepared for use in buildings that can be reasonably argued to be public structures. The organization of production is generally held to be within the framework of a corporate chiefdom, as defined by cross-culturally inspired position papers for the "Organization of Production" symposium on the Chaco phenomenon. The organizational requirements for the acquisition, processing, and transport of construction elements are discussed through the examination of harvest schedule, the description and comparison of beam treatments, and labor investment for the processing, transport, and stockpile management of the beams. The timing of harvest and the labor effort invested in construction wood is found to be different and more intense than in a sample of comparable-scale non-Chacoan buildings but within the means of self-paced, corporately motivated task groups operating under the parameters of seasonal household schedules. Because of the consistency of handling, and quality of treatment, we envision the development of skilled task groups, perhaps at the level of a formal fraternal society, under the guidance and organizing skill of a limited number of leaders or specialists. More centralized corporate direction may have been an aspect of organization for only a brief period after A.D. 1070.