School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications
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ItemAll in All, It’s Just Another Stone in the Wall: From Safi to Sicily, 12th-Century Monumental Architecture in the Mediterranean(De Gruyter, 2021-10-25)Worked stone in Philistia has been frequently limited to highly visible elements such as column bases, pavements, and ritual features such as altars (Hitchcock andMaeir 2017). This contribution presents a study of a selected group of Iron I monu-mental buildings and building elements in Areas A and C at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfī/Gath.1These remains can be potentially situated within the context of what is known about Sea Peoples’ architecture in the Mediterranean, as seen at the 12thcentury B.C.E.“Anaktoron”at Pantalica, Sicily, and in changes in Final Bronze Age Sardinia. Strati-graphic excavations of the Iron IIB siege tower in the lower city in Area C at Telleṣ-Ṣâfī/Gath indicate that the tower was built on the foundations of an earlier Iron I building (Gur-Arieh and Maeir 2020).
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ItemMigration and Colonization in the Mediterranean Bronze Age(Karwansaray, 2022)This article discusses categories of migration and colonization in the Mediterranean Bronze Age, through a discussion of archaeological evidence, fragmentary texts, and theoretical models. Different categories of migration and colonization are defined and illustrated with examples.
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ItemThe Eurotas Valley, Laconia, in the 2nd Millennium BC The Area of Vapheio-Palaiopyrgi in Context(Sidestone Press, 2022)Palaiopyrgi is the most prominent hill in the chain of hills marking the centre of the Eurotas valley, rising to a height of 214 m, about 7 km south of Sparta; its summit offers an unhindered view to all directions, towards the Menelaion to the north, Ayios Vasileios to the south-west and Vouno Panayias to the east. About 350 m to the north lies the famous Mycenaean tholos tomb of Vapheio, one of the very few tholos tombs known and the only one thoroughly excavated so far in Laconia, with which the hill has been associated. Midway between the Vapheio tholos tomb and Palaiopyrgi lies a quarry of conglomerate, consisting of a semi-worked column base, curved cuttings and separation channels. Based on the stone quarried, the extraction technique, the size of the column base, part of the pottery found in association with it and its proximity to the tomb and the hill of Palaiopyrgi, the quarry was dated in the Mycenaean times, leading to the conclusion that material extracted from this and other conglomerate shelves exposed in the wider area, may have been used for extensive building activities on the hill itself in that period. In 2016‑2017, an intensive survey was carried in the area between the tholos tomb and Palaiopyrgi, having the quarry at its centre. The article discusses existing archaeological evidence from the area of Vapheio-Palaiopyrgi and its implications for social and political change in the Eurotas valley, with special reference to its central location in the valley and to the transition to the Mycenaean era, taking into consideration recent developments of research in the area.
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Item“There Really Are 50 Eskimo Words For ‘Snow’”: 1177, Big Data, and the Perfect Storm of Collapse(The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022-01-01)Invited contribution to an academic forum discussing the book 1177 BC, by Eric Cline. This contribution discusses models of collapse, specifically self-organized criticality and discusses a way forward for collapse studies in the ancient Mediterranean.
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ItemSharing Your Adventures Has Been an Interesting Experience Indiana Jones and Professional Archaeology(John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2023)The adventures and real ethical issues that confront archaeologists in comparison and contrast with the fictional character of Indiana Jones.
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ItemThe Accidental Archaeologist Becoming Lawrence of Arabia(Karwansarway Publishers, 2021-12-01)My tongue and cheek biography
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ItemAll in All, It’s Just Another Stone in the Wall: From Safi to Sicily, 12th century Monumental Architecture in the Mediterranean(De Gruyter, 2021-12-09)Worked stone architecture in Philistia is rare and usually limited to highly visible elements such as column bases, ritual features such as altars, and pavements. Our contribution presents a study of a selected group of minimally preserved but nonetheless important Iron I monumental buildings in Areas A and C at Tell es-Safi/Gath. These remains are situated within the context of what is known about “Sea Peoples’” architecture in the Mediterranean as seen at the 12th century BCE “Anaktoron” at Pantalica, Sicily and architectural changes in Sardinia. Our study demonstrates that monumental architecture was more widespread in the early Philistine period than originally thought.
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ItemPlagues and the Bronze Age Collapse Naue II Swords Germs and Iron(Karwansaray Publishers, 2021-01-01)This article is the first to use evidence from the Coronavirus to look at the role of pandemic in contributing to social and economic collapse that marked the end of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, ca. 12th century BCE. This was an event that resulted in the destruction of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the desolation of the Cretan coastline, the fall of Troy, and the destruction of many maritime and coastal gateway cities around the Mediterranean.
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ItemThe maritime and Riverine networks of the Eurotas river valley in Lakonia(The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2020-01-01)Lakonia is remembered in Homeric epic as the locale where Queen Helen was abducted to Troy, becoming the face that launched 1,000 ships. In Bronze Age reality (ca. 3000-1200 BCE), Lakonia was one of the earliest areas on the Greek mainland to be influenced by Minoan civilization, achieve social complexity, and progress toward Mycenaean statehood. We examine how these cultural developments were supported by Lakonia’s riverine topography. The perennial Eurotas River connected intervisible Bronze Age sites in the Spartan Plain with coastal port cities, thereby facilitating flows of ideas, people, and trade, particularly with Minoan Crete via the island of Kythera. We argue that Minoan interest in Lakonian raw materials resulted in the acquisition of finished prestige goods and specialized knowledge by Lakonian elites and contributed to emerging Lakonian social complexity. We conclude that Lakonia’s riverine landscape was an important factor in its early development toward Mycenaean statehood.
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ItemGlobalization, Capitalism, and Collapse in Prehistory and the Present(Jameson Books, Inc, 2021)This paper, which is based on my professorial lecture, considersr the emergence of globalized connectivities in the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1700–1300 BCE) which was arguably the first age of globalization in human history. It was also one of the first ages of social acceleration characterized by a confluence of increasing technological and economic interdependency, yet fragile in its susceptibility to climate change, plagues, authoritarian city-states, and small empires ruled by kings claiming divinity or divine authority. Thus, the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean was also an economically fragile era with a high concentration of wealth distributed among supra-regional global elite plutocrats unified more by wealth and shared symbolism than by cultural tradition or ideology. That era was susceptible to populist resistance in the form of piratical activity and banditry. This paper explores the globalist and populist aspects, along with the effects of plagues and pandemics on the ancient Mediterranean and in current times. It is published in a collection of papers dedicated to my former teacher, Professor John Hospers.