PLATO'S ATLANTIS ACCOUNT - A DISTORTED RECOLLECTION of the TROJAN WAR

Summary: Parts of the lower town of Mycenaean Tiryns, Greece, became devastated and buried 3-5 meters deep during a torrential flood which coincided with a major earthquake at the transition from Late Helladic IIIB2 to Late Helladic IIIC1 (c. 1200 BC). These catastrophes contributed locally to the rapid demise of the Mycenaean civilization which commenced at this chronological boundary. Such a collapse of an early Greek civilization accompanied by a simultaneous earthquake and flood is described by Plato (Timaeus 25D) in the legendary Atlantis account. Plato's report revolves around a war between an ancient Greek civilization and a mighty force abroad, called Atlantis. If the former coincides with Mycenaean Greece, the most obvious candidate for the latter must be Troy. Hence, the thus far inexplicable story of Atlantis might well represent an Egyptian recollection of Troy and the Trojan War, distorted by transmission and translation.     

MYCENAEAN POTTERY FROM CILICIA IN OXFORD

Summary. The Ashmolean Museum possesses a small group of Late Mycenaean (Late Helladic IIIC) sherds from Kazanli in Southern Cilicia, which it acquired in 1930. These are of interest since, although similar pottery is known from nearby Tarsus, they appear to be slightly later in date than most of the other pottery from Kazanli recovered by excavation or surface survey. One of them has a pictorial representation of an unusual nature.
The appearance of Mycenaean pottery in Cilicia has often been associated with the arrival of Mycenaean settlers (particularly refugee settlers) around 1200 B.C. However, it is doubtful whether the pottery really justifies this interpretation. Where identifiable, the Cilician Mycenaean seems to display closer links with Cyprus and the East Aegean than with the Greek Mainland; and, when other evidence is taken into account, there seems little reason to suppose that it is necessarily the result of colonisation from Mycenaean Greece.     

Variability of Ceramic Production and Consumption on the Greek Mainland During the Middle Stages of the Late Bronze Age: The Waterpots from the Menelaion,Sparta

The article examines pottery groups manufactured in non‐Mycenaean traditions from the site of the Menelaion in Laconia (southern Peloponnese, Greece) during the middle stages of the Late Bronze Age. Pottery traditions are first defined using macroscopic study of surface and break features. Two distinct handmade traditions, and another one employing the wheel but with some links to traditional handmade pottery manufactured on the island of Aegina, were recognized and subjected to petrographic analysis. Its results confirmed that potters’ choices regarding clay preparation were different in the case of each identified tradition, being most distinct for the largest group of handmade undecorated water jars. The study highlights survival of pottery traditions with roots in the Middle Helladic period well into the Late Bronze Age, a fact that has not received appropriate attention in the scholarly discourse. It captures the very last stage of their existence, as just a few decades later the production and consumption are entirely dominated by Mycenaean pottery.     

MYCENAEAN PICTORIAL POTTERY FROM CYPRUS IN OXFORD

Summary. Six fragments of Mycenaean pictorial vases picked up at different sites in Cyprus are described and discussed. Comparison with other such material and chemical analysis of most of the fragments lead to the conclusion that the original vases were made in the north-east Peloponnese. These and other findings suggest the possibility of a pottery export trade during the 14th–earlier 13th century BC (Late Helladic IIIA2–IIIB1), such as is documented for 6th century BC Athens.     

Fragmented Images: The Last Tomb Paintings of Tarquinia

Cultural decline as a result of the Roman conquest is usually invoked to explain the gradual disappearance of Tarquinian tomb paintings during the third century BC. By contrast, this paper argues that, first, the late tomb paintings of Tarquinia markedly differed from their predecessors by decorating individual burials (fragmentation), as opposed to entire chamber tombs, which should be seen as a culturally meaningful development in the iconographic approach towards representing the deceased; and that, second, the disappearance of this time‐honoured type of monument be seen as part of wider changes in the ways in which Tarquinian and other Etruscan elites chose to materialize their ideologies during the cultural and political realignments of the period of the Roman conquest.     

A little souvenir: the Marquess and the Mycenaean columns

This is a study of change over time, both in attitudes to objects, and in the manner of their collection. The example of a pair of columns from a Mycenaean tholos tomb, the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' at Mycenae, serves as a point of departure for discussion of the value of material culture in the context of archaeology's emergence as a discipline.     

THE ORIGIN OF THE PICTORIAL KRATER FROM THE ‘MYCENAEAN’ TOMB AT TEL DAN

A Late Bronze Age Mycenaean pictorial krater, decorated with a chariot procession, from tomb 387 at Tel Dan, Israel, was examined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The origin of the krater is placed in the Argolid, very likely in the region of Mycenae or Berbati.     

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.     

THE EMERGENCE OF WANAX IDEOLOGY IN THE MYCENAEAN PALACES

Summary. The following approach tries, as far as the Greek mainland is concerned, to discuss the prominent position of the wanax from the archaeological record in Mycenaean palaces, in the burial grounds and in the Linear B tablets. Multivariate analysis and explanatory methods related to repeated patterns reveal different stages in the Mycenaean ideological setting from the LH III A 1 period onwards, despite its roots in earlier stages of Mycenaean civilization. The complex and more sophisticated social position of the wanax points to historical implications associated with the rise of the centralized Mycenaean kingdoms.     

A Late Bronze Age Ship from Liman Tepe with Reference to the Late Bronze Age Ships from İZMIR / Bademgediği Tepesi and Kos / Seraglio

In this article, a Mycenaean pottery sherd from Liman Tepe is discussed. The piece, which was locally produced, probably belongs to a ring‐based crater (FS 281). Comparisons with other, similar sherds suggest that warriors aboard a ship are depicted. As one of the few examples of its period decorated in this way, the sherd has been dated to the early or middle phase of LH III C, belonging to the period after the collapse of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and the Mycenaean kingdoms in mainland Greece. The depictions on this sherd are highly significant, as they contribute to the corpus of evidence for migrations from the western to the eastern Mediterranean and the unrest which characterized the period.     

Notice of an Example of Decorative Coloured Brickwork in the Neighbourhood of Rouen

The Mycenaean world of the late Bronze Age was one of domination and expansion. Such expansion can be seen in the distribution of Mycenaean ceramics in the eastern and western Mediterranean basin. In contrast to the west, Mycenaean culture in the east came into contact and perhaps conflict with well established cultural traditions and civilizations which had achieved a marked degree of sophistication. These native cultural traditions effectively limited the external growth of the Mycenaean world to the coastal fringes of the Near East. However, the impact of Mycenaean culture is evident, especially in the adaptation and imitation of ceramic styles and motifs typically classified as Mycenaean. Such influence is readily seen in south-western Turkey as Mycenaean cultural traditions penetrated inland to distant inland sites in the lower Maeander river valley.     

北京石景山八角村魏晋墓的年代及墓主问题

石景山八角村魏晋墓是北京地区发现的一座出有特殊壁画石龛的重要墓葬。石龛出现的原因必与墓葬的时代背景及墓主人身份密切相关。本文从"晋制"演变发展的角度考察该墓墓葬形制和随葬品的年代范围,首先进一步研究充实魏晋都城洛阳地区"晋制"墓葬的演变序列和阶段性特点,然后以之为参照,建立北京地区魏晋墓葬的演变系统,从而认为该墓的年代为西晋晚期,下限可到十六国初期。石龛壁画的中心图像是执麈尾正坐的男墓主人,这一形象是改进东汉旧样后、创新于幽州地区的新图式,体现了与幽州鲜卑的文化联系。本文由此进一步推测,八角村墓墓主人为遇害于蓟城的西晋并州刺史刘琨,该墓为二次改葬墓,石龛为段部鲜卑单于供奉的祭龛。     

Rescue excavation of a third‐millennium BC tomb at Al‐Khubayb,Sultanate of Oman

A third‐millennium BC tomb was subject to a rescue excavation in connection with the construction of a new road near the village of Al‐Khubayb in the Sultanate of Oman. It yielded a small number of finds, especially small metal objects that belonged to a later reuse of the tomb in the Samad period. As all diagnostic finds from the tomb date to the reuse, its architectural elements were the only indicator for the construction date of the tomb. Besides its small size and large wall thickness, which might suggest that the tomb is a transitional type between the Hafit and the Umm an‐Nar periods, its separation into two chambers and its facade made of white, dressed stones, can be seen as a clue for a construction date of the tomb in the Umm an‐Nar period.     

Two Exhumations and an Attempted Theft: The Posthumous Biography of St Cuthbert in the Nineteenth Century and its Historicist Narratives

The tomb, body and relics of the Anglo-Saxon St Cuthbert (d. AD 687) are best known for their miraculous preservation and migration across North East England in flight from Viking raiders throughout the period AD 795–995, before coming to rest at Durham Cathedral (Cramp 1980; Campbell 1991, 79). Their current display emphasizes their role as ‘Treasures’ of the Cathedral and as symbols of England's conversion and early Christianity. What are not mentioned are the modern interactions with the tomb that led to the creation of their modern display as a key attraction of the World Heritage Site. As this article will argue, post-medieval examinations and uses of the tomb have also been important in attempts to control and produce very particular meanings at the site of display. I offer an examination of nineteenth-century engagements with the tomb and body of St Cuthbert, showing how the saint's remains were a locus of conflicting claims of authenticity and ownership. Through antiquarian practices of exhumation and detailed publications of their findings, curator-custodians were engaged in a distinctively local struggle to produce an authoritative narrative for the saint.     

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.     

陕西西安侧坡南村唐墓（M1）发掘简报

为配合城市建设,西安市文物保护考古研究院在西安市长安区侧坡南村发掘了一座唐代墓葬,形制为斜坡墓道四天井砖砌前后室墓,地面残留有封土,葬具为庑殿顶石椁,出土有兽面纹塔式罐等高等级器物。墓葬规模大、等级高,推测墓主为唐皇室家族成员。值得一提的是,该墓墓室遭到了严重的人为破坏,可能与当时的政治派系斗争有关。     

从墓葬结构谈狮子山西汉墓的几个问题

本通过对狮子山汉墓墓葬结构的分析,认为该墓尚处于竖穴墓向横穴式崖洞墓的过渡阶段,早期特点明显;墓葬仍采用了西汉时期的前堂后室葬制,墓主为第二代楚王刘郢(客)。同时由于楚国较早地采用了凿山为藏的横穴式崖洞墓的形式,并以其在西汉早期的政治影响力,加速了这种墓葬形式的发展和传播。     

A provenance study of Mycenaean pottery from Northern Israel

The occurrence of imported Mycenaean pottery in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant is one of the most conspicuous aspects of Eastern Mediterranean trade connections during this period. A group of 183 Mycenaean pottery vessels from 14 sites in northern Israel, from both coastal and inland settlement contexts were analyzed by Neutron Activation Analysis. The results indicate that the vast majority of these vessels have a similar profile and can be provenanced to the north-eastern Peloponnese or more specifically, to the Mycenae/Berbati workshop in the Argolid. Possible interpretations of these results are presented and discussed against the historical and cultural background of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.     

RADIOCARBON DATING OF MORTARS FROM ANCIENT GREEK PALACES

This study deals with radiocarbon dating of lime mortars which were used as supports for Mycenaean and Minoan paintings. The ¹⁴C dates are. on the whole, compatible with the historical data. and thus show that a large proportion of the Mycenaean surficial coatings can be dated by the radiocarbon method. However. in order to determine the age of the mortars accurately. it is necessary to evaluate the amount of sedimentary carbonate which may have been added to them. It is shown here that the oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of lime mortars are significant indicators that such a mixing actually took place.     

Mycenaean Burnt Animal Sacrifice at Eleusis

Burnt animal sacrifice is well attested in Greek historical times, but whether it was practised in the Mycenaean period is debated. Until now, the lack of architectural structures suitable for the ritual burning of animals and the ambiguity surrounding the interpretation of burnt faunal assemblages have been used as arguments against the occurrence of such sacrifices in the Late Bronze Age. In this paper, it is proposed that the platform in front of the Mycenaean Megaron B at Eleusis was an altar used for burnt animal sacrifices and that a group of burnt pig bones found in a drain in front of this platform was burnt ritually on the platform and then swept into the drain.