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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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.
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ItemThe Maritime and Riverine Networks of the Eurotas River Valley in Lakonia(Penn, 2020-08-01)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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ItemE-Qe-Ta: Conceptions of Warrior Beauty and Constructions of Masculinity on Postpalatial Crete(Peeters, 2020)This article examines the evidence for constructions of warrior beauty and masculinity in Crete at the time of the Bronze to Iron Age transition (ca. 1300-1100 BCE).
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ItemChronology and Archaeology in the Ancient Aegean The Palace Cultures(Karwansaray Publishers, 2020-02-01)An introduction to the chronology and geography of the ancient Aegean.
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ItemRise of the Minoans and Mycenaeans: The Global Aegean(Karwansaray Publishers, 2020-02-01)This article introduces the emergence of the Minoan (ca. 1900-1450 BCE) and Mycenaean civilizations (ca. 1600-1200 BCE). They are viewed against the background of their interactions with each other and with surrounding regions. Technology transfer accompanied their quest for copper that began in the Aegean by the Neolithic era, followed by the quest for tin and other exotic items such as spices and raw materials. These quests were key drivers in the development of complexity in Aegean society. They were accompanied by advances in maritime technology beginning with the change from the long boats of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, to the acquisition deep-hulled ship with mast by the Minoans (ca. 1900 BCE), to the Mycenaean galley of the late 15th century BCE, to the galley with brailed sail (ring attachment that improved maneuverability of the sail) by the end of the Bronze Age (12th century BCE). Interactions driven by trade, diplomacy, and raiding promoted the emergence of globalized maritime trading networks. Such networks played a key role in linking the Aegean with Anatolia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the Levant to the east and the cultures of Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily to the west.