Publications by Year: 2015

2015
Naukratis: Greeks in Egypt (British Museum Online Research Catalogue)
Villing, Alexandra, Marianne Bergeron, Giorgos Bourogiannis, Alan Johnston, François Leclère, Aurélia Masson, and others, Naukratis: Greeks in Egypt (British Museum Online Research Catalogue), 2015 . WEBSITEAbstract
The Greek-Egyptian town of Naukratis in the Nile Delta was a major centre of cross-cultural contact in the ancient world. This catalogue presents the wealth of archaeological finds made in late 19th and early 20th century excavations at the site, well over 17,000 objects that are today dispersed in museums worldwide. Comprising Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Cypriot objects dating from the 7th century BC to the 7th century AD, it illustrates the rich and varied history of this important site.
The late prehistory of Malta: Essays on Borġ in-Nadur and other sites
Tanasi, Davide, and Nicholas C. Vella, ed. The late prehistory of Malta: Essays on Borġ in-Nadur and other sites (Oxford, England, Archaeopress, 2015), pp. vii+199; illustrated throughout in B&W.Abstract

     Borġ in-Nadur, on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, is a major multi-period site, with archaeological remains that span several thousand years.  In the course of the Late Neolithic, the steep-sided ridge was occupied by a large megalithic temple complex that was re-occupied in the succeeding Bronze Age.  In the course of the second millennium BC, the ridge was heavily fortified by a massive wall to protect a settlement of huts. Excavations were carried out here in 1881 and again in 1959. This volume brings together a number of contributions that report on those excavations, providing an exhaustive account of the stratigraphy, the pottery, the lithic assemblages, the bones, and the molluscs. Additional studies look at other sites in Malta and in neighbouring Sicily in an effort to throw light on the late prehistory of the south-central Mediterranean at a period when connections with regions near and far were increasing. The volume forms a companion to another monograph which concentrated on the temple remains at Borġ in-Nadur (D. Tanasi and N. C. Vella (eds), Site, artefacts and landscape: prehistoric Borġ in-Nadur, Malta. Praehistorica Mediterranea 3. Monza: Polimetrica, 2011)

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Sir Aurel Stein and the 'Lord of the Marches' : New Archival Material
Olivieri, Luca Maria, Sir Aurel Stein and the 'Lord of the Marches' : New Archival Material (Lahore, Pakistan, Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2015), pp. 402.Abstract

     In 2008, during the cataloguing of some pre-Partition documents at Malakand Fort - in the former North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan - the author unveiled a significant group of unpublished documents referring to archaeological matters. The archival study, focused on three folders containing a total of 348 documents covering a period spanning from 1895 to 1937.

The corpus covers nearly forty years of British rule over the Malakand territories, and diplomatic contacts with the nearby Native States, like Swat. The corpus contains documents of different characters: from official notifications, to demi-official letters, annotated proofs and drafts, minutes, and copies of telegrams. The corpus documents in a very detailed way, often day by day, the genesis and evolution of the archaeological research in Malakand and Swat. The character of the protagonists, the evolution of the legal context, but also the gradual expansion of the field research, is revealed throughout the entire corpus. Contrasts and solutions concerning the protection of the archaeological heritage, the different approaches of the officers and scholars involved in the field over the years, as well as the feedback received from faraway head offices, all and more than this is accurately registered in that remote British outpost that was Malakand Fort.

At Malakand Fort three generations of brave British officers proved themselves within a complex environment, and a surprisingly vast range of duties. Moreover, the special interest attached to the corpus derives from some groups of documents, letters from and to Sir Aurel Stein, some of them in copy, others in original autographed manuscripts. These documents are all connected to the explorations of Sir Aurel Stein in Swat. A first group is linked to his 1926 trip to Swat and to his identification of the Indian Aornos of Alexander’s historians. The other three groups are related to three failed plans by Stein to carry out new explorations in Swat in 1928, in 1931, and in 1933.

The work presents the archival material in chronological order, and - through them - it attempts at reconstructing the history of the archaeology of the Malakand area and Swat.

Giza. Eastern Necropolis III. : Tombs of Tjenty II, Khufuhotep, and Anonymous Tombs GE 17, GE 18, GE 47, GE 48, and GE 49
Kormysheva, Eleonora, Svetlana Malykh, Sergey Vetokhov, and Maksim Lebedev, Giza. Eastern Necropolis III. : Tombs of Tjenty II, Khufuhotep, and Anonymous Tombs GE 17, GE 18, GE 47, GE 48, and GE 49 (Moscow, Institue of Oriental Studies RAS, 2015), pp. 400, ill.Abstract

The third volume of the publication series of the Russian Archaeological Mission at Giza contains the results of the archaeological research of the ancient Egyptian rock-cut tombs of the Old Kingdom, located to the south from the tomb of Khafraankh (G 7948), on the eastern edge of the Eastern Field of Giza Necropolis. In the course of excavations cult chapels with epigraphic material and burial shafts were discovered. The book consists of the publication of the excavated tombs and the analytical part. It includes the analysis architecture, epigraphy and archaeological context of the burials, the study of ceramic and anthropological materials and finds, discussion problems of dating the tombs, aspects of architecture and relief decoration.

Tell Qudadi: An Iron Age IIB Fortress on the Central Mediterranean Coast of Israel (with References to Earlier and Later Periods)
Fantalkin, Alexander, and Oren Tal, Tell Qudadi: An Iron Age IIB Fortress on the Central Mediterranean Coast of Israel (with References to Earlier and Later Periods) (Leuven, Belgium, Peeters, 2015), pp. xx + 242.Abstract

Final Report on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Excavations Directed by E.L. Sukenik and S. Yeivin, with the Participation of N. Avigad

This monograph presents the final excavation report of the Iron Age fortress at Tell Qudadi (Tell esh-Shuna) situated on the northern bank of the Yarkon river estuary in the central coast of Israel. The main excavations were conducted in 1937-38 and were published in a very preliminary form, dating the first phase of the fortress to the 10th or 9th century BC, whereas the second phase, attributed by the excavators to the northern Israelite kingdom, was ascribed to the latter part of the 9th century BC until 732 BC, when it was destroyed during the military campaign led by Tiglath-pileser III. Such a reconstruction of events was unreservedly accepted by other scholars. The present authors offer a new chronological scheme for two architectural phases of this impressive Iron Age fortress, suggesting a new chronological affiliation of the fortress to the period between the second half of the 8th and the first half of the 7th centuries BC. Accordingly, the site formed an integral part of the sophisticated logistical network that was created on behalf of the Neo-Assyrian rule. The study of the site's Iron Age IIB pottery assemblages enables a reassessment of a number of contested chronological issues in a wider Mediterranean setting.

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Shechem V: The Late Bronze Age Pottery from Field XIII at Shechem/ Tell Balâtah
Duff, Catherine A. Shechem V: The Late Bronze Age Pottery from Field XIII at Shechem/ Tell Balâtah, ed. Edward F. Campbell Jr. (American Schools of Oriental Research, Archaeological Reports 23, 2015), pp. 524 (89 b/w illus., 168 b/w plts., 31 tbls.).Abstract
Substantial ceramic and architectural remains attributable to the Late Bronze Age were excavated in Field XIII in 1968 by the Drew-McCormick Expedition. The Late Bronze Age sequence spanning the Late Bronze I, IIA, and IIB contains ceramics from occupational contexts and also from a cache of 850 restorable and complete vessels from a Basement Chamber sealed below destruction debris. This analysis provides data on the ceramic typological development and the technological processes or <em>chaîne opératoire</em> at a Northern Hill Country site. While mostly domestic in nature, the ceramic assemblage also comprises imported Cypriot White Slip and Base Ring Wares that place the territorial kingdom, governed by the ambitious ruler Lab'ayu, within a wider regional trade system encompassing the Dothan-Jezreel and Beth Shean Valley routes. The findings from this investigation align with recent scholarship that shows the early Late Bronze I was defined by contracted settlement over a protracted period of time, in contrast to the architectural and ceramic complexity exhibited in the Late Bronze IIA, and to a limited extent in the Late Bronze IIB. This report continues the effort to publish the excavation findings from ten seasons of excavations spanning 1957 to 1972 and originally led by Expedition Director G. Ernest Wright.

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Tell er-Rumeith: The Excavations of Paul W. Lapp, 1962 and 1967
Barako, Tristan J., and Nancy L. Lapp, Tell er-Rumeith: The Excavations of Paul W. Lapp, 1962 and 1967 (American Schools of Oriental Research, Archaeological Reports 22, 2015), pp. 444 (207 b/w illus. & 38 tbls.).