PDF Download

This book is a study of the house tombs of Crete based on a reexamination of the extant remains at the cemeteries of Gournia and Mochlos. Excavated in the beginning of the century by Harriet Boyd Hawes (Gournia) and Richard B. Seager (Mochlos), the cemeteries underwent cleaning operations in 1971, 1972, and 1976. These later investigations resulted in a more thorough understanding of the sites; actual-state plans and sections of the tombs and over-all maps of the cemeteries were produced. Chapters I and II present the excavations of the cemeteries of Gournia and Mochlos. A description of the cemetery as a whole unit is followed by a discussion of each tomb that includes bibliography, a description of location and excavation, a description of architecture, information about burials and chronology, and a catalogue of new and reexamined finds. Chapter III is a catalogue of all known tombs of this type in Crete. These two sections are tied together by the architectural discussion in Chapter IV. Chapter V, Offerings and Shrines, and Chapter VI, Burials and Social Ranking, explore the uses of house tombs and their significance in the religious and political life of early Greece. The volume has a comprehensive index, map and plans of the sites, line drawings of many of the catalogued objects, and photographs of the tombs and found objects.

The Plain of Phaistos presents the results on an interdisciplinary regional field project (1984-1987) carried out on the island Of Crete. This volume traces the changing patterns of settlement and cycles of social complexity from the Late Neolithic period to the present day within the heartland of the state of Phaistos. The authors and contributors publish geological, archaeological, environmental, botanical, historical and ethnographic studies that establish the regional identity of the Western Mesara. Using a combination of empirical, processual and post-processual theoretical approaches, the volume investigates a central problem - how and why did the Bronze Age and Classical states arise at Phaistos?

A new look at the Cult of the Saints in late antiquity: Did it really dominate Christianity in late antique Rome?

The island of Crete was an important place for cultural and economic exchanges between Greeks and Near Easterners in the Aegean during the 1st millennium BC. This book aims to understand the Phoenician presence and trade in Aegean temples, as well as how Crete shaped its role within the context of Mediterranean trade routes from East to West.

The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History p>“Drawing extensively on the latest archaeological data from the entire Mediterranean basin, Nancy Demand offers a compelling argument for situating the origins of the Greek city-state within a pan-Mediterranean network of maritime interactions that stretches back millennia.” Jonathan Hall, University of Chicago “Nancy Demand’s book is a remarkable achievement. Her Heraklian labors have produced stunning documentation of the consequences of the vast spectrum of interaction between the peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea from the Mesolithic into the Iron Age.” Carol Thomas, University of Washington Were the origins of the Greek city-state – the polis – a unique creation of Greek genius? Or did their roots extend much deeper? Noted historian Nancy H. Demand joins the growing group of scholars and historians who have abandoned traditional isolationist models of the development of the Greek polis and cast their scholarly gaze seaward, to the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History reveals the role the complex interaction of Mediterranean cultures and maritime connections had in shaping and developing urbanization, including the ancient Greek city-states. Utilizing, and enhancing upon, the model of the “fantastic cauldron” first put forth by Jean-Paul Morel in 1983, Demand reveals how Greek city-states did not simply emerge in isolation in remote country villages, but rather, sprang up along the shores of the Mediterranean in an intricate maritime network of Greeks and non-Greeks alike. We learn how early seafaring trade, such as the development of obsidian trade in the Aegean, stimulated innovations in the provision of food (the Neolithic Revolution), settlement organization (“political form”), materials for tool production, and concepts of divinity. With deep scholarly precision, The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History offers fascinating insights into the wider context of the Greek city-state in the ancient world.

This study considers the massive importance of glyptic in Aegean culture, often undermined by more 'convenient' evidence - such as architecture, frescoes, figurines and gold jewellery. The sealstones, sealings and finger rings so commonly associated with Minoan civilisation can be viewed as important markers of socioeconomic, technological, and artistic significance. This book focuses on the typology of seals in different periods, the deposits in which the most important seal groups have been found, and their iconography and religious significance. The typology of the Late Minoan glyptic iconography according to its most important and representative religious and decorative elements is also tabulated and catalogued.

When The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods first appeared in 1962, it was hailed by the critics for it erudition, historical imagination and boldness. Subsequently, this comprehensive study of Greek temples and site-planning has been widely accepted as a landmark of architectural history, for it offers an inspired and arresting insight into nature and function of Greek sacred architecture. Vincent Scully, one of America's most brilliant and articulate scholars, understands the temples as physical embodiment of the gods in landscapes that had for the Greeks divine attributes and sacred connotations. He explores the meanings inherent in the calculated interaction between man-made sculptural forces and the natural landscape, and he relates this interaction to our understanding of Greek culture from the pre-Greek Aegean to the Hellenistic period. Years of research and travel were devoted to The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods. Scores of sites were restudied on the spot, including many lesser-known sanctuaries throughout the Hellenic world. The study includes reconstruction drawings, plans, and maps along with its richly illustrated, detailed discussions of major sites.

This book is the preliminary part of a great work titled «THE BOOK OF THE EGYPTIAN: The beginning of the basic Egyptology or a key to the understanding of history, philosophy and world religion». Usually, the introduction is made in the form of a brief preface or foreword, but I got a whole book as the first step in a multi-volume publication of the study. The purpose of this specific introduction as the beginning of serious research – is right at the level of the opening to inspire a reader, showing him in a clear visual and comprehensible form, the whole true mechanism of the hieroglyphic writing. To achieve this, I will completely dispel the myth created by the modern science that hieroglyphs do not convey any meaning (of words, the whole idea), but only individual sounds (letters), or their combination (syllables). This scientific myth will be finally deprived of the status of scientific knowledge, and the translation of the Phaistos disc, on the contrary, will be clearly shown, what is called «broken apart», and will be read in the ancient hieroglyphic language united by the principle of construction – in the language of the ancient Egyptians. I can say that it will not be two simultaneously existing systems of hieroglyphs translation, as well as two Egyptologies, one will be false, and the other – true! To prove the validity of the system of translation I wanted to give you immediately not only a complete translation of the text of the Phaistos disc, where the number of occurrences of each hieroglyph is not big (1 to 19 times), but the translation of the whole ancient Egyptian writing, because the number of times it is used in there is thousands, if not even millions. And each such use of each hieroglyph is translating in the same way, so it creates the full reading of the hieroglyphic texts – writing, which will be easily read by everyone with the dictionary of hieroglyphs in the future. The main reason why I wanted to do it – is because, at first, I read the ancient Egyptian texts and only then, by chance, came across with the hieroglyphs of the Phaistos disc. But then, I decided to set a different aim – to teach the reader to think, and not just to read hieroglyphs. Since we have no ancient Egyptian temple, and you're not its novice, the method of achieving the aims will be different than in the antiquity. First of all, I would suggest not a translation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but a complete translation of the Phaistos disc, and at the same time to give them a sort of test of common sense to modern science in the face of particular academies and universities of the world. Let them answer me the question, not knowing the translations of ancient Egyptian texts, – whether they think this translation of the Phaistos disc is correct? So when I completely publish «The Book of Egyptian», it will become clear who they are and where do they lead all of you. As they always test the students, it's a time to test them as well. Will they pass the test, I do not know, but any way, you, my reader, will get to know about it, (in the main manuscript) and will be able to draw your own conclusions about their intellectual level. Therefore, I recommend you to take this message of the book, at least with the attention, because not every day the science gets a ready revelation, designed in the form of scientific study. And here the attention and common sense will help the reader to re-look the original, pure, uncomplicated meaning of the Hieroglyphs, which through the veil of delusion will finally begin to appear in their true, original and vibrant colors – and finally, get from the nether world – into the realm of the living!

Thirteen leading archaeologists have contributed to this innovative study of the socio-political processes - notably imitation, competition, warfare, and the exchange of material goods and information - that can be observed within early complex societies, particularly those just emerging into statehood. The common aim is to explain the remarkable formal similarities that exist between institutions, ideologies and material remains in a variety of cultures characterised by independent political centres yet to be brought under the control of a single, unified jurisdiction. A major statement of the conceptual approach is followed by ten case studies from a wide variety of times and places, including Minoan Crete, early historic Greece and Japan, the classic Maya, the American Mid - west in the Hopewellian period, Europe in the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, and the British Isles in the late Neolithic.