The ‘Monster of Troy’ Vase: The Earliest Artistic Record of a Vertbrate Fossil Discovery?

This note proposes a new interpretation of a scene on a well-known Corinthian vase illustrating the Homeric legend of Herakles rescuing Hesione from the Monster of Troy. Commentators have assumed that the artist intended to depict the monster as a ketos, an imaginary sea monster, but the features of the beast do not conform to the traditional imagery of sea monsters in Greek art. I suggest that instead of creating a typical hybrid sea monster by mixing the features of various living creatures, this artist used for his model the large fossil skull of a prehistoric mammal. The vase was painted in the midst of widespread interest in large fossil remains, which the ancient Greeks identified as relics of giants and monsters of the mythological age. The features of the odd head on the vase match the basic skull anatomy of a large mammal of the Tertiary age, such as the Samotherium, a giant giraffe of the Miocene epoch. Numerous literary accounts describe exposures of these and similar large mammal fossils in antiquity along the Turkish coast, on Aegean islands, and on the Greek mainland. I conclude that this vase painting is the earliest artistic record of such a discovery.     

The composition of the copper alloys used by the Greek,etruscan and Roman civilisations: 2. The Archaic,Classical and Hellenistic Greeks

This paper is the second dealing with the composition of copper alloys used by the Greeks. About 500 analyses of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic objects are published here pp. 117–123 together with comments upon the alloys used. The data are arranged chronologically within broad limits and further subdivided typologically. The techniques of sampling and analysis are discussed in depth in the first part of this project (Craddock, 1976).The development of casting technology is one of the principal features of bronze-working during this period. Our knowledge of Greek casting technology comes both from archaeological excavation and from a careful examination of the castings themselves. Evidence from these sources has been brought together here for the first time together with the comments of medieval, renaissance, and modern technical authors to attempt a coherent picture of the way the superb Greek bronzes were produced and adorned.It was during this period that the Greeks started using mercury gilding on copper and bronze; and the techniques and range of gilded metal are discussed.     

Athenian Black Gloss Pottery: A View from the West

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 communicated back to Greek producers, and that it also reflects the particular local interests of non‐Greeks, who associated metallic features not only with wealth, but also with their own ancestral traditions.     

To Avenge the Burnt Statues and Temples of the Gods: The Religious Background of the Greek Wars with the “Barbarians”

Abstract

In The Clash of Civilizations (1996) Samuel Huntington placed the Persian Wars at the beginning of the long line of clashes between civilizations. To the modern reader the emphasis Huntington puts on the role played by religion in defining Athenian civilization and its conflict with the “barbarians” appears to be consistent with Herodotus’ position on these wars. However, this position overlooks the fact that the ancient polytheistic beliefs and cults implied a particular attitude to religion, unlike that of monotheistic religions. In the ancient Mediterranean world the temples and sacred places were to be universally respected and any violation of this rule was regarded as sacrilege that justified persecution of the wrongdoers, whose ethnicity was of no, or only of secondary, importance. The purpose of this article is to survey the main passages in Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon that treat the wars between the Greeks and Persians and between Greek city-states, and to demonstrate that the line dividing defenders (or avengers) of divine cults from offenders of the gods was not drawn between Greeks and barbarians, but between defenders and offenders.     

EARLY EUBOEAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE CARTHAGE AREA

Summary.   There is growing archaeological evidence that Greeks and Phoenicians cooperated, or at least were not serious rivals in early days of exploration of the western Mediterranean, before the sixth-century trade wars, even to the point of settling side-by-side. The geographical, textual and material evidence for Greek presence close to, and at Carthage in early days is here reviewed.     

First comprehensive peat depositional records for tin,lead and copper associated with the antiquity of Europe's largest cassiterite deposits

Tin, as a constituent of bronze, was central to the technological development of early societies, but cassiterite (SnO₂) deposits were scarce and located distantly from the centres of Mediterranean civilizations. As Britain had the largest workable ore deposits in the ancient Western world, this has led to much historical speculation and myth regarding the long-distance trading of tin from the Bronze Age onwards. Here we establish the first detailed chronology for tin, along with lead and copper deposition, into undisturbed ombrotrophic (rain-fed) peat bogs located at Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor in the centre of the British tin ore fields. Sustained elevated tin deposition is demonstrated clearly, with peaks occurring at 100–400 and 700–1000 calendar years AD – contemporaneous with the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods respectively. While pre-Roman Iron Age tin exploitation undoubtedly took place, it was on a scale that did not result in convincingly enhanced deposition of the metal. The deposition of lead in the peat record provides evidence of a pre-Roman metal-based economy in southwest Britain. Emerging in the 4th century BC, this was centred on copper and lead ore processing that expanded exponentially and then collapsed upon Roman colonization during the 1st century AD.     

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE FALL OF KNOSSOS IN 1375 B.C.

Summary. During the first quarter of the fourteenth century B.C., a series of violent destructions seems to have occurred in the Aegean, affecting sites including Knossos, Khania, Mycenae, Pylos, Sparta, Nichoria, Thebes, Athens, Ayia Irini, Phylakopi, and a number of sites in Cyprus and Anatolia. This followed a period in which certain artifacts and burial practices were relatively uniform throughout these sites, and in which Knossos appears to have held a position of particular prominence.
It was during the period of these destructions that the Mainland Greeks began their most notable era of contact with the Eastern Aegean, possibly prompted by a desire to secure access to commodities such as copper from the Eastern Mediterranean. Competition to control such trade may have contributed to warfare between Mycenaean centres, which resulted in destruction at several locations, including Knossos.     

From commodity to money: The rise of silver coinage around the Ancient Mediterranean (sixth–first centuries bce)

The reasons why the Western Mediterranean, especially Carthage and Rome, resisted monetization relative to the Eastern Mediterranean are still unclear. We address this question by combining lead (Pb) and silver (Ag) isotope abundances in silver coinage from the Aegean, Magna Graecia, Carthage and Roman Republic. The clear relationships observed between ¹⁰⁹Ag/¹⁰⁷Ag and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁶Pb reflect the mixing of silver ores or silver objects with Pb metal used for cupellation. The combined analysis of Ag and Pb isotopes reveals important information about the technology of smelting. The Greek world extracted Ag and Pb from associated ores, whereas, on the Iberian Peninsula, Carthaginians and Republican‐era Romans applied Phoenician cupellation techniques and added exotic Pb to Pb‐poor Ag ores. Massive Ag recupellation is observed in Rome during the Second Punic War. After defeating the Carthaginians and the Macedonians in the late second century bce , the Romans brought together the efficient, millennium‐old techniques of silver extraction of the Phoenicians, who considered this metal a simple commodity, with the monetization of the economy introduced by the Greeks.     

Toward redesigning national health systems

Four recent books on myth, like myth itself, range well beyond anthropology. One is a précis that defines myth as both ubiquitous and ultimately insoluble, regardless of one's disciplinary tools. It uses a single myth, that of Adonis, to show how interpretation can swing wildly from theory to theory. Giving us vertigo atop its intricate scaffolding of technical devices, a second book wrangles with creation myths as it ascends to a stellar interpretation of the biblical flood. The third and fourth books, with Job-like patience, take it upon themselves to thoroughly address all the points lightly aired in the first book.     

Creating the world: the origins of all things in ancient Greek myth and medicine

Abstract

In the sixth and fifth centuries BC, a series of dramatic shifts in science and the arts took place in the Greek world, and history, medicine, philosophy, and science came into being. This paper examines 'the Greek miracle', looking at how new ideas about 'the origin of all things' were rooted in traditional mythic patterns of thought. In particular, it examines how medical writers thought about the origins of the cosmos, and of disease. The multiple creations of the world present in Greek myth, where the origin of all things was seen as a process of differentiation out of original similarity, may have predisposed the Greeks to be open to the new theories of early scientific thinkers.     

Telling Stories: The Mycenaean Origins of the Philistines

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 narrative retains a central place in the archaeology and historiography of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (LBA/EIA). In recent years, and despite an increasingly shaky theoretical basis, the migration hypothesis has nevertheless seemed to drown out other interpretations and characterizations of the period, claiming a normative position that is undeserved. In this paper I explore the continuing power of this nineteenth century narrative and seek to show why it is less convincing than its prominent status would suggest.     

THE HOPE HERAKLES RECONSIDERED

Summary. The Hope Herakles, hitherto thought to be a Roman copy of a statue by Skopas, is here shown to be a pastiche. The head is tentatively recognised as a classicising portrait, while the body type, having come down to us in a variety of reproductions carrying a different head, is associated with the Argive School of the late 5th c BC. A dating of the latter's prototype close to the plague of 429 as well as the Attic provenance of some of the copies suggest a possible connection with Hageladas'Herakles Alexikakos at Melite.     

纳尔迈调色板和古代埃及统一

在埃及学领域 ,人们通常认为埃及的统一是由第一王朝的第一位国王通过武力征服来实现的 ,这一观点的重要依据就是纳尔迈调色板。文献和考古资料证明这种传统观点是不可靠的。纳尔迈调色板展示了埃及统治者对利比亚人的征服 ,而且它还是对相同主题的更早版本的复制 ;第一王朝的建立是和平过渡的结果 ,同时也不乏武力冲突。     

Ancient and Non-Western International Thought

Summary

In early and prehistoric times, human groups cooperated among themselves and competed viciously with other groups. Concepts of international relations, notably universal hegemony and exclusive nationalism, go back to the earliest recorded history. Only the ancient Greeks experienced inter-state relations somewhat analogous to those of modern Europe; and the first reflections on these may be found in Thucydides. The Greeks, and later the Romans, above all Cicero, developed a notion of cosmopolitanism. During the Latin Middle Ages, the papacy perpetuated the idea of universal hegemony. The principle of state sovereignty was also formulated. The pre-modern Chinese empire was held to rule ‘all-under-Heaven’; Confucian ethics contributes the notion of humanity (ren) as the fundamental category. Muslims deepened the us–them distinction by claiming sole legitimacy for their religious community under the Caliph (Deputy of Muhammad). Today, Muslims veer between this and a more Western approach to international relations.     

Treaty of Zohab, 1639: Foundational Myth or Foundational Document?

Beginning with their first confrontation in 1514, the Ottomans and the dynasties ruling over Iran fought over the borderlands extending from the Persian Gulf to Mount Ararat. The transformation of this indeterminate borderland into a clearly defined and increasingly monitored border took almost four centuries. It became an internationally recognized border only after seven decades (1843–1914) of intermittent work by mixed international commissions. Despite such a tangled history, a well-entrenched tradition of Middle Eastern history suggests that the Iranian–Ottoman frontier was firmly established by the Qasr-i Shirin/Zohab Treaty of 1639; and it is one of the oldest boundaries of the world. The myth of 1639 is powerfully enshrined in the historiographies and nationalisms of the countries sharing this boundary. Questioning this myth in the light of Ottoman–Iranian relations, this paper analyzes different versions of 1639 Treaty that were brought to boundary negotiations and exist in various chronicles, and suggests an alternative reading of this foundational myth.     

论神话意象意蕴衍生的基本类型

神话意象的意蕴衍生可分为整体性意蕴衍生和个体性意蕴衍生两种基本类型。整体性意蕴衍生是神话意象与特定历史情境相结合的结果,体现出社会群体的认知、情趣和理想;个体性意蕴衍生既有单个神话意象意蕴发生衍生的情况,也有作为个体的哲学家、文学家和艺术家等对神话意象进行再创作进而形成的意蕴衍生情况。这两种类型相互交织、共同发展,构成了神话意象意蕴衍生的基本模式。     

Self-reflection,Egyptian Beliefs,Scythians and “Greek Ideas”: Reconsidering Greeks and Barbarians in Herodotus1

This article addresses the debate between Afrocentrists like Martin Bernal and classical scholars such as Mary Lefkowitz and Robert Palter concerning the origins of ancient Greek civilization. Focusing on the first half of Herodotus’ Histories, I argue that, although Greek cultural developments can be attributed to the Greeks themselves, Herodotus indicates that the conditions that made these developments possible were due to the prior Greek absorption of important aspects of Egyptian religion. Herodotus shows that the Greeks learned from the Egyptians to individualize their gods and to appreciate the humanity of women. This Egyptian influence, Herodotus suggests, is what allowed the Greeks, in contrast to the Scythians, to become an object to themselves within the context of stable city life. I conclude that this habit of self-reflection is the source of the uniquely Greek contribution to the art, philosophy, science and politics of the West.     

Patterning and Its Causation in the Pre-Neolithic Colonization of the Mediterranean Islands (Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene)

In 1981 one of us (Cherry) first attempted to identify spatial and temporal patterning in the human colonization of the Mediterranean islands. Since the 1980s, slowly accumulating evidence has suggested that the Mediterranean islands were sporadically inhabited by hunter-gatherers during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Here we seek to establish whether or not these data exhibit regularity. We suggest that evidence for Upper Palaeolithic to Mesolithic activity, tending to cluster on larger or less remote islands, indicates that while humans were clearly capable of reaching the Mediterranean islands prior to the Neolithic, their general reluctance to do so can be explained in terms of the variable environmental attractiveness of the insular Mediterranean. Tending to be relatively small, dry, and biologically depauperate, the Mediterranean islands were largely inhospitable to mobile groups preferring extensive territories with diverse and robust biotas. Sedentism only became a widely viable strategy in the insular Mediterranean with the development in the Neolithic of what we might regard as “terraforming”—that is, the introduction of cereals, pulses, and ovicaprids, all tolerant of xeric environments.     

Spinoza’s Democratic Imagination

Spinoza is the great philosopher of the imagination and the first great philosopher of democracy. Rather than seeing democracy as a form of government that has overcome the need for imagination and symbols, he shows in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus that an enlightened state depends on three myths: the myth of the sovereignty of the people so as to reconcile democracy as rule by the people with each individual living as he or she wants to live; the myth that we are a people, emotionally and morally tied to some people more than to others; and, finally, the myth that the people comprises individuals who are responsible for their own destinies. The democratic imagination differs from earlier forms of politics in that the people construct the social imaginary for themselves and are guided by it without deception. It is the social imaginary thus created, or these three myths, that make room for freedom of thought and therefore for democracy.