Carolyn Perry

East Gate of Apollonia Pontica found at Sozopol, Bulgaria

2011-12-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

Digging has gone on way past the usual archaeological season at Sozopol in Bulgaria, but the archaeologists have been well rewarded by a series of fascinating finds.

The excavation works, organised by the National Museum of History under the Direction of Professor Bozhidar Dimitrov, were carried out because two restaurants which had been illegally constructed in the 1970s were scheduled for demolition.

Sozopol's South Tower and wall. Photo: Novinite.com

Sozopol is a town on the Black Sea on the site of the ancient town of Apollonia Pontica (see my post of 17 July – an Apollonia in Bulgaria) and though the ancient fortifications have long been one of the town’s attractions, archaeologists have previously been unable to locate the East Gate. A French team working in the mid 20^th century failed to find the gate despite a concerted effort.

Thanks to the new discoveries it will now be possible to understand the complete extent of the fortifications surrounding the ancient city. The walls have been rebuilt many times and precise dating of the standing remains needs to be ascertained. The original city of Apollonia was walled in classical times, however in 72 BC it was taken by the Romans under Lucullus and the walls were destroyed. Thanks to the patronage of a wealthy Thracian named Metok the walls were soon rebuilt, but clearly there has been a great deal of rebuilding and restoration over the centuries. In relatively recent years locals raided the walls for building material for their houses.

When the illegal buildings were demolished, the monumental remains of the walls were revealed. A rescue excavation was carried out by archaeologists Tsonya Drazheva and Dimitar Nedev and in the space of three months they managed to excavate a considerable area in front of the curtain wall.

The remains of the curtain wall flanking the East gate were almost fully preserved to a height of almost 8 metres – the tallest of all the (3,000) fortresses in Bulgaria. In the centre the main entrance gate of the town was seen, 4 metres wide and flanked with two massive towers, also very well preserved.

The construction of the gate shows how sophisticated the fortifications were. If the enemy managed to enter the gate they would find another gateway within and be overlooked by the flanking towers. This system is also found in Illyrian fortifications in Albania.

The archaeologists also made other discoveries including a medieval church around 10 metres beyond the outer curtain wall and a small building facing the gate which may have been a customs post. This hypothesis is suggested by the fact that a quantity of customs seals was found on the floor of the building and in two jars. According to a treaty of 716 between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, the goods traded between the two states had to have lead customs seals to show that the required duties had been paid.

The excavation works will resume next year, and by the end of June it is hoped that the gate will be restored as part of the tourism programme of Sozopol.

Well preserved Roman fort discovered on Channel Islands

2011-11-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

This summer saw excavations on the island of Alderney to investigate what was traditionally believed to have been a Roman structure – with surprising results.

Local tradition has indeed suggested that the site was Roman, but until recently any investigations had proved inconclusive. The site, known as the Nunnery, has had various uses over time including military works, a farm, the residence of the island's governor and holiday homes. In 2008 Guernsey Museums and the Alderney Society joined forces to investigate and excavate and have managed to prove that the Nunnery is actually an extremely well-preserved Roman military structure.

The 2008 excavation put a trench against the outer face of the north wall of the structure. Whilst only two fragments of tile and 11 small Roman sherds were found the trench did show that the fort wall continued for almost 2m below the modern surface, giving the rampart a height of 6.8m. The foundations were made up of a layer of beach stones in mortar and built directly on sand. It may have been that the foundations were built on timber piles, a common Roman technique.

In 2009 attention turned to a wall that was thought to be ‘new’, that is, a later addition thought to have been built to replace the collapsed east rampart. The ‘new’ wall did not seem to make sense militarily, and some scholars had previously observed that its outer face looked older than the fort it was repairing. When the overgrown ivy was stripped from the ‘new’ east wall it revealed a double tile-bonding course with two buttresses and running for 17m. It was a Roman wall. This proved there was a Roman building inside the Nunnery and the excavators began to suspect that it was a tower since all northern English Roman forts have a tower in the middle.

In 2010 the excavators went back to try and find the tower - and found it. Dr Monaghan of Guernsey Museums said, "The walls are 2.8m (9ft) thick, we don't know how high it was, but it would have been a very big structure - it's as thick as Hadrian's Wall." The tower was around 18 sq m.

Old postcard showing 'The Nunnery'

The fort is in an extremely good state of preservation: "It's in a better state than what they call the Saxon shore forts off southern England, it's in better nick than most of Hadrian's Wall” said Dr. Monaghan.

As with the Saxon shore forts, this was build to guard the shore, in this case the entrance to Longis Bay, Alderney's only natural harbour. The fort is also placed to control the sea between the island and the French coast, some 8 miles away. It dates to the late 4^th century, a period of anxiety for the Romans that led to the construction of these forts in various locations.

The extent of the Roman presence on the island of Alderney is still not well understood. There is some sparse evidence for Roman settlement on Alderney but it is known from literary sources that the Channel Islands were visited by Roman officials and traders. The traditional Latin name of the island is Riduna though the exact etymology of the Island's name is obscure.

Roman supply camp from Drusus' campaigns in Germany discovered

2011-11-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

In 1890, archaeologists discovered a bronze Roman military helmet near Olfen, a spectacular find which led them to hope that a Roman camp might be nearby. The river Lippe, which runs through the area, was a natural defense which provided an excellent site for military camps, and several other camps were known which extended in a chain across the country.

Photo: DPL

Olfen is a small town, not far from Münster near the Ruhr Valley, and the find of the helmet in 1890 has led archaeologists to the area ever since to look for the camp, the ‘missing link’ in the chain. It was known from literary sources that Olfen was strategically important for the legions during Drusus’ campaigns in Germania. Drusus, a Roman General, waged a long and bloody war against the tribes that inhabited what is now western Germany. But, until recently, archaeologists had not been able to locate the camp, used from 11 to 7 B.C. as a base to control the river crossing.

This year, volunteers discovered pottery sherds from the Roman period in the area, causing the Westphalia-Lippe Municipal Association (LWL) to initiate aerial photography to search for traces of building works. At the same time, archaeologists and volunteers field-walked, looking for artefacts which could confirm the location of the camp.

They found convincing evidence including coins, pottery and fibulae, but were also able to trace a moat surrounding the camp and the remains of a wooden wall that could have protected 1,000 legionaries from attack within an area the size of seven football fields.

Photo: DPL

The camp was relatively small in comparison to other Roman military establishments in the area and this factor, along with the construction of its wood and earthen wall and location on the Lippe River, suggest that it may have functioned as a supply depot.

“It’s a sensational discovery for Roman research in Westphalia,” LWL Director Wolfgang Kirsch said in a statement. LWL is also responsible for five other Roman military ruins along the Lippe and finds from Olfen, including the bronze helmet and latest material, will join artefacts from the other sites on display in the Roman Museum in Haltern.

LWL's chief archaeologist Dr. Michael Rind said “The monument has up to this point been allowed to lie in the ground widely undisturbed for over 2,000 years – an absolute rarity, and from an archaeological point of view, absolutely ideal.

“Our primary concern is to protect and preserve this monument for the future – and not, to completely excavate it as soon as possible,” Rind said in a statement. “The exploration of the camp will probably take several decades to complete.”

Around 2,000 years ago, the region now known as Westphalia became the focus of Roman campaigns aimed at expanding territory and Roman troops marched up the Lippe river. The campaign to make Germany into a Roman province failed in the year 9 AD when Publius Quinctilius Varus was defeated in the Teutoburg Forest. An alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius of the Cherusci ambushed and annihilated three Roman legions, along with their auxiliaries, in the forest.

Farmers found buried with their animals in Macedonia

2011-10-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

An excavation in north Macedonia has brought to light a group of graves where the farmers were buried with their livestock. The burials, near the town of Mavropigi, and 21km from Kozani, date from the late 6^th or early 5^th century.

Individuals have been found buried with horses before, but these types of burials are usually associated with prominent citizens or warriors. In the case of Mavropigi it seems that “these were simple people, farmers, who were buried with their horse, their buffalo, deer, dogs and pigs," according to the Head of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, archaeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mentesidi.

At least 11 burials associated with 16 animals have been found at the side of the cemetery, and it is the extent of the occurrence of the animals, and the range of them, that marks it from other similar burials. There have been examples of people buried with their horses in Doxipara Evros which seems to be linked to the high esteem in which the individuals were held, and Rhodes has yielded examples of children buried with their dogs. What makes Mavropigi different is that these are ordinary people buried with the animals they worked and lived with.

The cemetery has been excavated over the past season and extends over 100 metres. It consists of nine pit burials with eight animals (five horses and three dogs) and the other two burials have eight animals (two horses, three dogs, two cattle and one pig). The animals were placed around the burials and within walking distance, from about 0.5 to 1.3 metres.

Some of the burials were at a shallow depth and were initially disturbed by tillage and later from the roots of trees planted in more recent years. The pits include pottery vessels, copper earrings, bracelets, anklets and pins. Iron blades and spearheads were found in the male burials.

The area of Kozani has been inhabited since the Neolithic era, and a number of sites have been identified in recent years. In 2005/6 the Neolithic settlement of Fyllotsairi was excavated, which is among the most ancient in the Balkans. The area was important for early agriculture, and also as a crossroads between the North-South and East -West.

Nowadays the area is extensively mined for lignite by the Public Power Corporation, and this has led to the identification of a number of sites, like the one at Mavropigi.

A Dionysiac mosaic found in Bulgaria

2011-10-07T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yet more exciting finds are coming to light in Bulgaria this season. Dimitar Yankov, chief curator of the Museum of Stara Zagora, recently revealed the discovery of a beautiful mosaic depicting dancing Bacchantes.

The mosaic was discovered during excavations made in advance of the construction of a new apartment block just outside the northern gate of the ancient Roman settlement of Augusta Traiana, modern day Stara Zagora.

There has been a settlement in the vicinity of Stara Zagora since at least the 6th millennium BC, thanks partly due to the fact that copper was mined just to the east of the city and traded across the continent. The history of the Roman city dates back to around106 AD when it was founded by the Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD). Augusta Traiana was the second largest city in the Roman province of Thrace during the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. The city occupied an area of 38 hectares and was strongly fortified.

Roman Forum of Augusta Traiana

The mosaic has been dated to the late 2^nd or early 3^rd century AD, when the town was flourishing. The archaeologists, led by Dimitar Yankov, are still unsure of the exact nature of the building in which the mosaic was found. It may have been either a private building or perhaps a temple. If a temple, it would seem to be that of Dionysus, since the mosaic depicts one male and two female followers of the god. The location may also be key, since the building is 30 meters away from the walls of the forum of the ancient Roman city. The mosaic is in a fragmentary state, measuring seven by three metres, but it is hoped that further excavation will reveal more images, including a figure of the god Dionysus himself.

Yankov expects to find a representation of Dionysus, one of the most popular Thracian deities, in a part of the mosaic to the north. Unfortunately there is a problem with the land adjacent to the current excavation with regard to permission to dig, but Yankov hopes to resolve this shortly.

Община Стара Загора

The part of the mosaic that has been excavated depicts two dancing maenads following a satyr, perhaps processing in a Dionysiac ritual. The women hold musical instruments including finger cymbals.

The mosaic shows a degree sophistication in terms of colour range. The clothes have varying shades of blue and red, and there is an attempt to show shade. The mosaic is constructed from small stone cubes but glass tesserae have also been used for the finer parts of the figures, for example the chaplets and girdles of the two dancing maenads. This is the first mosaic of this type to be found in Bulgaria.

The mosaic will now be dismantled, since it cannot remain on the ground during the winter. After conservation and restoration, it will be exhibited in the new museum building in Stara Zagora.

New finds from Perperikon in Bulgaria

2011-09-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

There have been a series of exciting finds at the ancient Thracian city of Perperikon this season. Perperikon is in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in modern day Bulgaria, near the town of Kardzhali, and has been excavated since 2000 by Professor Nikolay Ovcharov.

The first traces of human activity on the acropolis of the site (at 470 m) have been dated to around 5000BC, and the evidence of cult activity continues through the millennia with the development of a sanctuary with rock altars that seems to have been in use from the 2^nd millennium BC until the advent of the Christian era. At the foot of the hill there is evidence for a Thracian occupation, and the substantial remains of a medieval fortress (village of Gorna Krepost ‘Upper Fortress’). Thus the city had a very long life, and its prosperity may have been linked to it location on a route through the mountains and also the nearby gold-bearing River Perpereshka.

Prof. Ovcharov speculates that the earliest activity centred on a ‘high place’ sanctuary of the cult of the sun. As evidence for his theory he cites images on ceramics from the Stone-Copper Age.

One of the main characteristics of this sanctuary are the rock altars, which were first cut into the sanctuary in the Bronze Age. The altars are certainly impressive: one is 3 metres high. The round altar is almost 2 metres in diameter, all are hewn from the rock.

The latest finds are from a sanctuary in the Thracian settlement which Prof. Ovchavov considers may have links with the sanctuary on the acropolis. On the basis of the finds from recent excavations Prof. Ovchavov believes that he has discovered the Thracian temple of Dionysos mentioned by ancient writers such as Herodotus and Suetonius, but not so far located. The temple was famed in the ancient world, and was a major sanctuary, but its location remains a mystery. The local deity called Sabazios, came to be associated with the Greek god Dionysos over time. The sanctuary was a oracular shrine due to this particular aspect of Sabazios. A representation of Sabazios may be seen on an ivory from the tomb of Alexander IV at Vergina, perhaps because of the time spent by Roxane and Alexander IV in Thrace.

Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov with marble relief. Photo by BGNES

The recent finds at Perperikon include tiles, coins, and fibulae in quantities suggesting intense occupation of the site, but Ovcharov believes the marble reliefs of a Thracian horseman to have greater significance and to be proof of a sophisticated sanctuary at Perperikon. The fragmentary reliefs show a Thracian horseman being welcomed by a goddess. The back of the marble is not smooth, leading Ovcharov to believe that it is an architectural relief.

The sanctuary building includes a chamber and an altar, and the relief was found 4 metres from the chamber. It was found together with an amulet of the sun, perhaps providing a link with the sanctuary on the acropolis. The horseman is a common motif in Thracian iconography, and may represent the supreme deity of Thrace: a small bronze figure of a horseman from the 3rd-2nd century BC was a previous find at the excavation.

Other finds of interest include a surgical instrument from Roman times used for plucking parasites from bodies and a miniature model of a stone grinder dated back to the 5^th millennium.

Quite what evidence Prof. Ovcharov is relying on for the attribution of the sanctuary as that of Dionysos is not clear at present – all evidence so far is circumstantial, but it is certainly fair to say that the site is informing our knowledge of Thracian settlements, their continuity, way of life and religious practices.

Museion discovered on the Oppian Hill in Rome?

2011-07-30T05:49:00.000-07:00


Images from http://www.comune.roma.it/

Discoveries made during the excavations under the Baths of Trajan on the Oppian Hill were announced in Rome yesterday.

Archaeologists were excavating in the southwest tunnel under the Baths of Trajan when they discovered a large wall mosaic dating to the second half of the first century AD. The mosaic covers a section of the wall almost 16 metres in length and was excavated at a depth of almost 2 metres, but the archaeologists of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali di Roma Capitale who are conducting the excavation, consider that the excavation will continue to a much greater depth.

The subject matter of the mosaic, which depicts Apollo and the Muses, is thematically linked to the wall paintings discovered in the 1998 excavations in the same area that featured a philosopher and a Muse against an architectural background.

The god Apollo

The themes of the decoration of the two areas, along with a number of architectural clues, suggests that this may be the site of a Museion – a building devoted to the arts and philosophy under the patronage of Apollo and the Muses. The building complex is of very high quality and includes water features, sophisticated decoration and places for the artistic elite to gather.

However, use of the complex appears to have been very short lived, since along with other buildings in this sector of the ancient city it was built over as part of the construction of the Baths of Trajan. The excavations under the Baths are revealing information about a huge hitherto unknown part of the city (over one thousand square metres) whose life was interrupted at the end of the first century AD.

The wall mosaics cover a large area

The excavation is part of a project of upgrading and enhancing the archaeological centre of Ancient Rome. The idea is to re-imagine the monumental heart of the city as a single, accessible, protected areas, with more sites open to the public. It is hoped that this will give added value to the historical city and increase tourist income. The central area includes the Circus Maximus, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Capitol, Roman Forum, and Palatine, the Colosseum, and the Oppian and Caelian Hills.

An Apollonia in Bulgaria

2011-07-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

I have written previously about the lovely city of Apollonia in present day Albania, a Greek city ‘founded’ by Corinthians and Corcyraeans colonists invited in by the locals to form a new community, presumably ratified by the god Apollo himself via his oracle at Delphi.

As with other colonies, it seems that there was a pre-existing settlement. After all, the locals would know a good site better than newcomers. Often the locals already have contact with the colonists, through trade or other activity, and invite them into the city for a good reason. In the case of the Albanian Apollonia it may have been because the existing settlement was on the border of the Illyrian and Epirote tribes and the locals may have wished for protection.

Once a colony was founded the city was often renamed, with Apollonia being a popular choice if the new venture came about from, or was blessed by, an oracular pronouncement from Delphi. This is the reason for the prolific number of cities named Apollonia in the Greek world of which there are more than 30 that we currently know about.

In addition to the name, the city would also celebrate their connection to Apollo with a temple or sanctuary to the deity, and often feature the god on their coinage. This is the case with Apollonia Pontus Euxinus, in Bulgaria, a site on the Black Sea at the present day resort town of Sozopol.

Coin of Apollonia Pontica with Apollo and anchor

The ancient sources reveal differing dates for the founding of the colony. Pseudo-Skymnos says that it was founded 50 years before Cyrus which would give a date of 610. Aelianus, on the other hand, says it was founded by Anaximander who was born around 610 or 609 BC so this would give a later foundation date. Both agree that the colonists were from Miletus in Turkey. The earliest pottery on the site is dated to the end of the 7^th C BC, which appears to support Pseudo-Skymnos’s account.

The colony was founded on a small island that was ideally situated to give shelter to ships making their way along the Black Sea coast, also easily defensible and with access to agricultural land. Today Sozopol is on a peninsula, reflecting the changing coastline since ancient times. There is some confusion about the name of the earlier settlement, with some sources naming it as Antheia after a misreading of Pliny, however, the name became Apollonia, with a major sanctuary dedicated to Apollo in the town, in which was a famous colossal statue of the god by Kalamis, 30 cubits high, later carried off to Rome by Marcus Lucullus and placed in the Capitol.

Little is known of the city in the 6^th century BC, but by 425BC it is important enough to be mentioned in an Athenian assessment list, but the city seems to have flourished during the Hellenistic period.

Since 2010 a French-Bulgarian team has been excavating on the hill of St Marina, a site that appears to be outside the main area of the ancient town (above). They have found the remains of a villa dating to the 4^th-3^rd century BC, showing all the signs of a typical Hellenistic house. Within the villa, however, was an unexpected find: a cache of 30 bronze coins. The coins feature the head of Apollo, unsurprising for an Apollonia, and on the other side they show the god sitting on an omphalos. This is in contrast with most of the city’s coinage, which featured an anchor, emphasising the city’s links with the sea (see above). The choice of the omphalos is interesting, and may relate to the founding of the colony.

In Greek, omphalos means ‘navel’. According to Greek mythology, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world to meet at its centre or navel. Although several sites claimed this honour, the most famous was at the oracle in Delphi. The place itself was marked with a stone, a Roman copy of which is now in the Delphi museum.

Roman copy of omphalos at Delphi

Apollonia choosing to feature the god seated on the omphalus, and therefore at Delphi, may hark back to the earliest colonists obtaining the god’s direction or blessing in the founding of their city. Why the shift from the anchor to the omphalos was made must remain conjecture at this stage, but it is just possible that this is in some way related to alliances with the successors of Alexander the Great, some of whom put this image on their coinage. Further excavation may be able to shed light on the change of symbol.

The excavations are part of a project to create a map of archaeological sites from the Ropotamo River in the south to Cape Atiya in the Sozopol municipality. It is to be hoped that projects of this kind will give extra protection to the archaeological sites in the area, some of which are said to be under threat due to the rapid development of tourism.

Site in town of Sozopol at risk due to development

Tomb II at Vergina - who was the woman?

2011-03-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

So, back to Tomb II at Vergina. Since its discovery by Andronikos in 1977, Tomb II has fascinated archaeologists and historians because it offers us the rare hope of being the tomb of a famous ancient individual – and not just any figure from history, but the father of Alexander the Great: Philip II of Macedon.

Arguments have raged back and forth, as discussed in a previous post (Tomb II at Vergina.... the mystery rumbles on, Friday, September 10, 2010) but few people have taken the line that the key to the identity of the male may actually lie with the identification of the female whose bones were in the gold larnax in the outer chamber. Obviously, the woman needs to be connected in some way to the man whose remains lie in the inner chamber. Those who think that the male is Philip Arridaios, son of Philip II and half brother of Alexander, must presumably believe that the bones are of Eurydice, his wife.

The bones of the female have been examined by Xirotiris and Langenscheidt and also Musgrave. These authorities agree that they belonged to a woman aged between 20 and 30, and probably about 25 years old. What is very striking is that they two sets of bones survive in very different quantities. The male is a virtually complete skeleton including whole limb bones, whilst the total fragments from the female weigh only 1312g and are small fragments, such as can be found in many ancient Greek cremations. The reason for this difference can be explained by the fact that the male seems to have been burnt in an enclosed space, a hypothesis since given weight by Dr Angeliki Kottaridi’s excavation of the funeral pyre remains, including the construction of a small building in which to burn the body.

On the other hand, it seems the woman was cremated on an open pyre. The cremains show that she was burned ‘fleshed’, that is, with the flesh still on the bones at the point of cremation. Scholars who would like this female to be Eurydike, wife of Philip Arrhidaios have, therefore a problem here, as she and her husband were reinterred, and cremated dry. At 25ish, she is also considerably older than Eurydike was at her death (her age at death was estimated at between 18 and 19 and some months).

Scholars who believe that the male occupant of the tomb is Philip II have often presumed that the woman must be Cleopatra, Philip’s last wife who was murdered, or forced to commit suicide, on the order of Olympias, Philip’s wife and the mother of Alexander, early in 335. She would have been between 20 and 30 at her death. But would Alexander have treated with such honour the young wife who supplanted his mother and whose marriage to Philip caused Alexander to fall out with his father and leave court in self-imposed exile? And where is her child Europa, who died with her mother?

An alternative answer to the question of the woman’s identity was put forward by the late great Nicholas Hammond, and is now at last gaining some credibility. The only other wife of Philip who was of the right age was Meda, whom he married in probably 339. Meda was of the tribe named Getae, neighbours of the Scythians, and there is at least one object in the antechamber that is of Scythian origin – the beautifully worked gold quiver cover.

There is a gold neck fitting also of a Scythian type, and a Greek archaeologist has also suggested that the small pair of mis-matched greaves (sometimes thought to be reflective of Philip’s leg injury, but actually smaller that the other sets in the tomb) might have belonged to an archer – since ancient archers bent on one knee to fire their arrows and would need greater flexibility at the ankle, therefore one greave could be shorter.

The Scythians and their neighbours were famed for their archery skills and it is possible that these objects could have belonged to Meda. Further, and perhaps the most compelling and chilling, evidence for Meda is that the Getae are known to have practiced suttee – by which custom the wife voluntarily submits to be burned on an open pyre on the death of her husband. This would explain why the cremains of the man and the woman are so different.

And of course, if we accept that the female is Meda, then the male must be Philip II, her husband. What a life Meda must have led, sent far from her homeland and married to a man who was often away on campaign, while she was left in Pella, vying with the other wives of Philip for her position at court. At least in death she achieved the greatest prize of all the wives – buried with great honour and privilege near to her husband and king, one of the greatest figures in ancient history.

More on the necropolis at Archontiko, near Pella

2011-01-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

More information is emerging about the 2010 season’s finds from the necropolis at Archontiko near Pella. I’ve previously reported on the 37 new burials found during the season, but now more detailed information has become available.

Helmet in situ. Bones and a glazed dish are also visible.

Of the 37 burials excavated, six belong to the Late Iron Age (circa 650-580 BC) and thirty-one to the Classical and Hellenistic periods (5th-3rd century BC). Sixteen of the graves contain burials of the elite of Macedonia: both men and women buried with impressive assemblages of personal and precious items. The martial aspects of men’s lives are attested by the inclusion of iron weapons such as spearheads and knives, but they also include luxury items such as jewellery, gilded bronze wreaths, iron strigils, bronze coins and ceramic vessels. Women are buried with a greater range of jewellery, gilded bronze wreaths of myrtle, bronze coins, glass and ceramic vessels, ceramic busts and figurines, and knucklebones, which were used to play a game similar to 'jacks'. There are also examples of amber beads and faience vessels in the women’s graves.

Perhaps the finest burials are those of nine male warriors, including one that dates to around 650 BC. The quantity and range of material found in the burial of this individual is astonishing. He was buried with a bronze helmet decorated with gold strips, a sword with a gold-covered handle, two spearheads, four knives, a gold ring, a gold mouthpiece, gold hand coverings decorated with spirals and gorgons, gold shoe covers adorned with gold strands; three iron fibulae (one gold topped), iron models of a two-wheeled farm cart, furniture and roasting spits and ceramic vessels.

With only about 5% of the 20 hectare site excavated to date, it is difficult to imagine just how wealthy this area must have been in ancient times. Given that many of the richer burials date back into the 7^th century (including the one described above) it is perhaps time to rethink the current position on the ‘backward’ nature of Macedonia before the time of Philip II and Alexander. Excavations at sites like Aiane have already led to a rethink, and the necropolis at Archontiko must surely add weight to the new theories.

One of the gold decorated helmets from the site

Boy reconstructed: 'Ariche' the Carthaginian

2010-10-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

After ‘Myrtis’, the Athenian girl, we now have ‘Ariche’, the Carthaginian man. Ariche is the product of a co-operation between France and Tunisia following on from the excavation of the site of the cemetery of Byrsa, in ancient Carthage, by a joint team.

In 1994 the necropolis of Byrsa was discovered by chance on the southern flank of Bursa hill when a man planting trees fell into a grave. In ancient times Byrsa was the walled citadel above the harbour of ancient Carthage and was also the name of the hill itself. The word is derived from the Phoenician word for citadel and the area was the major military installation of the city of Carthage. Byrsa was besieged by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus ‘Africanus’ in the Third Punic War and eventually destroyed by Rome in146 BC.

Under the direction of Jean-Paul Morel and his team the excavation brought to light from a depth of five metres below the modern surface the skeleton of a young man aged between 19 and 24 years old. The skeleton (below right) was more than 2,500 years old, thus the young man died sometime in the 6th century BC.

Nat. Museum Carthage

The Tunisian Ministry of Culture allowed the transfer of the young man’s remains to France for scientific examination and reconstruction, and Elisabeth Daynès, a sculptor who specialises in hyper-realistic reconstructions was commissioned to restore the young man to a semblance of his living self. Daynès is an expert in dermoplastic reconstruction, a scientific technique that enables the restoration of the features of an individual with 95 percent accuracy. Some aspects of these reconstructions remain partially subjective however, such as the colour of the eyes and the hair.

An anthropological study of the skeleton showed that the man had a pretty robust physique and was 1.7 metres (five feet six inches) tall. The cause of his death is not known. He was buried with gems, scarabs, amulets and other items, and therefore may have belonged to the Carthaginian elite.

The young man, whose actual name is not known, was given the name Ariche, meaning ‘the desired man’ by Minister of Culture Abderraouf Basti, and was repatriated to Tunisia on September 24 to appear in an exhibition at Byrsa alongside the objects found in his tomb.

Ariche is dressed in a white linen tunic, sandals in the ancient Carthaginian style, and a pendant and beads like those found with his skeleton. He will be on show at Byrsa until the end of March 2011 when he will travel to Lebanon, the land of the Phoenicians who founded Carthage, for an exhibition at the American University of Beirut. In the meantime, he is proving a popular attraction for Tunisians, providing them with a visible link to their Carthaginian roots.

Byrsa

A Royal tomb discovered in Daskyleion, Turkey?

2010-09-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

The current round of excavations at the ancient town of Daskyleion (or Dascylium) are in their 22nd season, and this persistence has been amply rewarded by the recent amazing discovery of a stone built tomb under a tumulus. Dr. K İren, of Mugla University and director of the excavation, has announced that two tumuli have been excavated and one appears to have the hallmarks of a ‘royal burial’.

The ancient city of Daskyleion, situated to the southeast of Lake Dascylitis on the bank of a river, was rediscovered in 1952. Preliminary excavations took place from1954-1960 and have continued since 1988. Excavations have shown that the town was settled by the Bronze Age, a good fit with the history of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who mentions the settlement at the time of the Trojan War. Strabo, on the other hand, says that it was settled by Aeolian colonists after that war (13.1.3).

According to legend the town is named after Dascylus, father of King Gyges, famous from Herodotus’ history. When the Persians took over the Lydian Empire Daskyleion became the seat of the Persian satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia and the residence of the Pharnacid dynasty. Although sections of the terrace walls of the acropolis have been found, the most important archaeological finds to date have been several fifth-century reliefs, showing Magi performing sacrifices and stele, one with an Aramaic inscription. Persian suzerainty came to an end with the capture of the town by Parmenion, general of Alexander the Great, after the battle of the River Granicus in 334.

So the discovery of a ‘royal tomb’, thought to date from around 2,500 years ago is of great interest, since we know that the site was the seat of the famous Pharnacid dynasty. The entrance to the tomb was found in the side of the tumulus which faced the town. The tomb consists of an antechamber in front of a burial chamber containing two skeletons. Speculation of the ‘royal’ nature of the occupants lies not only in the grandiose nature of the tomb (the marble door to the tomb was approximately 9.5 meters into the tumulus) but also in the fact that the bodies were wrapped in purple. The marble ‘couch’ on which the skeletons lie is stained purple – the colour traditionally worn by Persian and other royalty.

Other finds include the remains of carved wooden furniture, ceramic perfume bottles, glass and silver jewellery and gold coins. The archaeologists intend to carry out DNA analysis of the skeletons and there is the possibility that they will be subjects for facial reconstruction.

Exciting new finds from a Macedonian necropolis

2010-09-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

It’s the time of year when archaeologists announce the most important finds of the season, and it has been another extremely productive season for Greek archaeologists working on the necropolis near on the ancient Macedonian capital of Pella.

More than 1,000 tombs have been discovered at the necropolis since excavations began in 2000, and yet it is estimated that only 5% of the site has so far been excavated. This season has seen the discovery of 37 ancient tombs dating back to the iron age and down to the Hellenistic period.

The tombs are incredibly rich in finds, reflecting the wealth of Macedonia over several centuries. As in previous seasons, there is consistent placement of iron swords, spears and daggers, plus vases, pottery and jewellery made of gold, silver and iron in the tombs, allowing the dead to have access to their precious belongings in the afterlife. Macedonia was (and is) an area of Greece rich in minerals, with access to various gold and silver mines, and therefore there is an abundance of gold grave goods from the 6^th century onwards.

Further information on the grave goods excavated in this and recent seasons is needed before conclusions can be drawn, but it is looking increasingly that the excavations outside Pella will prove that the Macedon kingdom advanced towards the Axios River region much earlier than previously anticipated. Many scholars had proposed that this area did not come under the Argead dynasty of Macedon (the dynasty that will later produce Philip II and Alexander the Great) until after the Persian Wars, but the consistency of the type of grave goods and the form of burial seem to suggest that the accession of the area should be pushed back into the 6^th century BC.

The discoveries at the site included the bronze helmet with gold mouthplate, shown here, from a tomb of a warrior from the 6^th century BC which also included the warriors weapons and jewellery.

The gold mouthplate is particularly fine. A visit to museums in Macedonia will show the prevalence of the use of such mouthplates or ‘lozenges’. The use of them, and on occasion more full gold masks (such as at Sindos) has drawn parallels with the Mycenaeans, in line with the fact that there are many other aspects of Macedonian life and funeral practice that have parallels with Mycenaean culture. But there are other theories about the mouthplates too. The most obvious is that they are to be connected with the coin that was placed in the mouth in order to pay Charon, the ferryman whose job it was to guide souls across the river Styx.

Another intriguing theory has arisen via a remark by an author who, in the 12^th century, was detailing heresies of early Christian sects and remarked that one of the accusations of heresy against the Phrygian Christian movement known as the Montanists was that they sealed the mouths of their dead with plates of gold like initiates into the mysteries. This is very interesting, since we know that Macedonia was a region of Greece that wholeheartedly embraced various mystery cults to an extent that some southern Greeks viewed as suspicious. Orphic texts were discovered in the famous Derveni burials, and legend has it that Philip II met his wife Olympias, future mother of Alexander, whilst they were celebrating the mysteries on Samothrace. The important point here, of course, is that initiates were not allowed to divulge anything about the mysteries to those who had not been initiated. Perhaps the gold lozenge is there to stop them from doing so, even in death? It is to be hoped that further research will enable us to understand whether there is a link between the use of the gold lozenges and particular cult.

Girl Reconstructed: 'Myrtis', a victim of the plague and the Peloponnesian War

2010-09-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

The long and drawn-out struggle between Athens and Spartan known as the Peloponnesian War has always fascinated me. Chronicled by Thucydides, who himself played a part in the conflict, the war represented a bitter struggle between a sea-power and land-power and their respective allies which proved catastrophic for the eventual losers, the citizens of Athens.

The war lasted from 431 to 404BC and ranged across the Greek city states of the mainland, islands and even Sicily. Thucydides’ unfinished account is detailed and impressive and still causes controversy over its veracity, particularly of the speeches he reports. Fortunately for us, archaeology continues to throw light on this period and sometimes we get a neat fit between text and the archaeological record. My group and I recently stood at the well preserved bridge of Amphipolis whilst I read Thucydides’ account of the Spartan general Brasidas’s relief of the town in 424 and his entry via that very structure.

Earlier in his account of the war Thucydides had given us a very chilling account of the plague that had struck Athens in 430BC. In Book II Chapter 7 we hear that many Athenians had fled inside the city walls from the countryside when the Spartans invaded Attica, and that then plague broke out inside city. He describes the horror of the outbreak and the symptoms of the illness, and also how normal burial procedures could not be adhered to in the face of so much contagion:
“All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the stranger's pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off.”

Therefore when Greek archaeologists discovered a mass grave near the ancient Athenian cemetery of Keramikos whilst the new Athens subway was being built in 1995, the question was raised as to whether this could have been connected with the plague of 430BC. The grave contained the bones of 150 men, women and children.

Scholars had long suspected, based on Thucydides account and of what they knew of conditions in the city in the late 5th century, that the plague was actually typhoid fever, and the well-preserved remains in the grave meant that scientists had the opportunity to test DNA from the teeth of some of the skulls in the grave so that they could identify the cause of death. Professor Manolis Papagrigorakis of the University of Athens undertook this study in 2006 and it was indeed found to be typhoid fever that had killed the occupants.

Since some of the skeletons were exceptionally well-preserved it was decided that facial reconstruction would be possible. Professor Papagrigorakis and his team chose three subjects, one of whom was an 11 year old girl. The girl was not one of those who had contributed DNA - the team had not wanted to damage her intact teeth.

Facial reconstruction is an interesting and controversial part of archaeology. As a science to reconstruct the face of a particular individual it really started with the work of Wilhelm His (1831-1904) in the 19th century and then was taken forward by the Russian palaeontologist Mikhail Gerasimov in the 20th century. However, it was really the ‘Manchester’ team, led by Richard Neave in the later 20th century that saw the subject advance as an essential tool in forensic science and archaeology.

Using a 3-D technological program called the ‘Manchester method’ for the reconstruction process, Papagrigorakis and his team worked with the girl’s complete skull, jaw, teeth and milk teeth and believes that the results are 95 percent close to reality. The underlying tenet of facial reconstruction is that the skull forms the armature for the facial flesh and therefore dictates its form. This is supplemented by information collected from data on such things as the varying fleshiness due to age, gender, ethnic origin etc.

It was the job of Greek archaeologist Efi Baziotopoulou, who excavated the Keramikos site, to contribute information to suggest the colour of the girl’s hair and eyes, and she even provided her with a name: Myrtis. Her hair has been styled in a manner familiar from classical vase paintings and reliefs, and her dress based on the tunics of the times.

Myrtis is now the subject of an exhibition "Face to Face with the Past", and because of her death from typhoid fever Myrtis has even been made a representative of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to raise awareness of child health issues. The exhibition has proved very popular in Greece, though it has to be said that facial reconstructions are still an issue of controversy. As Musgrave, a member of the Manchester team, has pointed out there are archaeologists and museum curators who are increasingly concerned at the ethics of working with human remains, and some people find these types of reconstructions distasteful. He believes that it is not offensive to the dead if the reconstruction reveals their stories or historical or scientific truths. It is clear that this new study from Keramikos will add to knowledge of the population of Athens at this time and how they suffered during the war, though it could be argued that there is little to be added by the physical reconstruction of this unfortunate child’s features.

It is not known how many Athenians were killed by the plague during the Peloponnesian War – some scholars put the loss as high as a quarter of the population. What is known though, is that it killed their famous statesman: Pericles, one of the architects of the war. The loss of their most able general at such an early stage in the war was a real disaster for Athens. And of course, as Thucydides pointed out – the plague did not touch Sparta or its allies, so it is interesting to speculate on just how much it did affect the early stages of the war.

Classical Greek hydria found in Nessebar, Bulgaria

2010-09-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

Bulgarian archaeologists have made an exciting find during their excavations n the Necropolis of Mesambria in the Black Sea city of Nessebar. A small stone built tomb was opened to reveal a bronze hydria dating back to 4th century BC.

Mesambria (sometimes spelt Messembria) was a Greek colony of around 510 B.C. on the site of an older Thracian settlement. The Black Sea was an important area to the southern Greeks as it gave access to corn producing lands and also mineral rich areas. Mesambria remained a Greek city until annexed by Rome in 72AD.

The hydria is the first find of its kind from the excavations at the necropolis and will doubtless lead to speculation of the status of the person whose remains lie within it.

The hydria was, as its name suggests, a vessel for water, but hydria often have a secondary purpose as a funerary urn. The cremated bones of the dead would be placed within the hydria, and then buried within the tomb.

The hydria from Mesambria is well-preserved with three decorated handles and was once also decorated with applied metal figures. Luckily the metal figures, though they had become detached from the body of the vessel were also discovered in the tomb. The figures are of a winged male and female, a common motif on hydria – see the example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, below. Also found within the tomb was a strigil, suggesting that the occupant was male.

4th C hydria from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

According to Aneliya Bozhkova, co-director of the excavation, cremation was very rare in the Necropolis of Mesambria and in the area, and so this may raise questions as to the ethnicity of the occupant of the tomb. The excavations continue.

Tomb II at Vergina.... the mystery rumbles on

2010-09-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Professor Jonathan Musgrave's recent article in the International Journal of Medical Sciences on the occupants of tomb II at Vergina is sure to ruffle a few feathers. A while ago I attended a lecture by Professor Musgrave on this very subject, and only last week I was standing outside tomb II with my group, discussing his findings, so I was pleased to see the article at last, complete with wonderful illustrations of the ancient remains.

Since Manolis Andronikos' amazing discoveries in the Great Tumulus of Vergina in 1977 there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the identity of the occupants. Andonikos firmly believed that one was none other than Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, and cited such evidence as a 'royal' diadem, a hunting scene depicting Philip and Alexander and other circumstantial evidence. The identity of the other occupant, a young woman, has been more problematic, not least because Philip had 7 or 8 wives (Macedonian kings practised polygamy). If the tomb is a royal one, and if we accept that Vergina is actually ancient Aegeae, the resting ground of all Macedonian kings of the Argead line (except Alexander the Great - but that's another story) then the couple in the tomb must be either Philip II and one of his wives, or Philip III Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydike. Andronikos was convinced it was Philip II, and Musgrave's evidence seemed to support his view.

Tomb II - the male was in the main chamber, the female in the antechamber

Musgrave and other members of a British team examined the bones at the time of their discovery and seemed to confirm Andronikos' view of the male. The skeleton was of a male in his mid to late 40s - but this could be either of the two Philips. However, they noted that the skull appears to have a healed fracture on the right cheekbone and a marked asymmetry in the wall of the right maxillary sinus. We know that Philip II lost his right eye at the siege of Methone in 355-4 BC and this injury which would be consistent with the damage to the skeleton. It has to be said that another team also examined the remains and thought that this damage was caused by the warping during cremation.

However, other archaeologists consider that several aspects of the tomb and its very rich contents point to a period some years later, after Alexander's conquests of Asia and this would preclude the possibility of the male being Philip II. For example, the appearance of some salt cellars dated only in other contexts to between 320-280. They propose therefore that the occupants of the tomb should be Philip II's son Philip III Arrhidaios, and his wife Eurydice.

Professor Musgrave has now had a chance to re-examine the bones, and his findings are extremely important. He points out that the colour and fracture lines of the bones suggest they were cremated 'green' (with flesh still around them) rather than 'dry' (after the flesh had been decomposed by burial). We know that Philip II was cremated very soon after he was assassinated, and the funeral pyre has been excavated at the site, whereas Arrhidaios was murdered on the borders of Epirus and Macedonia in 317 BC and sources suggest his remains were subsequently exhumed and reburied between four and 17 months later at Vergina. Given that the the funeral pyre indicates that the bodies were cremated at Vergina, Arrhidaios could not have been exhumed, moved and then cremated 'green'.

Furthermore, the literary sources indicate that Arrhidaios was buried along with his wife Eurydice and her mother Kynna and this tomb contains remains of only two individuals. The female remains belong to a woman aged between 20 and 30 and Eurydice is thought to have been no more than 19 years old when she died.

So, the mystery of the occupants of Tomb II continues...... in another post I shall move on to the question of the identity of the female!

A tiny ivory portrait, believed to be of Philip II, from the tomb at Vergina

A Roman athlete from Apollonia, Albania

2010-08-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

As you know, I’ve just returned from a few days in Albania, so I was intrigued to see new discoveries announced from the important site of Apollonia. My sister and I noticed a new sondage as we walked up to the acropolis, but is seems that the discoveries were not made there, but in the residential area in the west part of the town.

The excavations, which are being undertaken by joint French and Albanian teams, have unearthed an intact bust of an athlete dating from the 2nd C AD. The French have been involved with the site of Apollonia since 1924 when Leon Rey started his campaigns. He excavated there until the Italian conquest of Albania in 1939. On the fall of communism in 1991, the French returned and are now working under Jean-Luc Lamboley from Grenoble University. Lamboley hails the discovery as the most important in the last 50 years in Albania because of the quality and condition of the bust.

The bust is large, being 84cm high and 53cm wide, and was discovered upright in a drain in the west part of the town which was a residential area in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. The archaeologists also discovered the foot of a bronze statue wearing a roman sandal in the same sewer.

Apollonia was a Greek colony, founded by settlers from Corinth and Corcrya (Corfu) in the 7th C BC. At that time it had a navigable river and large harbour and as well as trade it also exploited the bitumen which occurred naturally in the area. However, the river silted up and, once the harbour was lost and the plain unhealthy, the city gradually fell into disuse, gaining prominence again only for a short time as a bishopric.

For archaeologists, this is an advantage, the fact that no modern town was built on its ruins makes for excellent excavating conditions. If you visit the site you can see several sculptures and stele of very good quality on show in the nearby monastery. Other finds can be seen in Tirana, which is where the newly discovered bust will reside at present until there is a properly secure museum at the site.

I rather like the fact that the bust depicts an athlete. We know games took place at Apollonia, and the famous bouleterion was commissioned by an organiser of games. It's a pleasing fit, even if he is not exactly a handsome brute!

The team of French and Albanian archaeologists are trying to study how Apollonia evolved from a Greek colony to a Roman settlement. "This site spans a thousand years of history and we can study here how the classic Greek civilisation was transmitted and evolved into a Roman city” said Lamboley.

Wall paintings discovered in Nabataean Jordan

2010-08-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

As part of my preparation for my tour to ancient Macedonia this week I’ve been reading up on Greek painting so I was really interested to find that some very high quality wall paintings dating back around 2000 years have been revealed near to the world heritage site of Petra in Jordan.

The paintings, which were discovered some time ago, had been very difficult to see as they had been obscured by soot, smoke and other matter (including graffiti) over the centuries. Now, thanks to the expertise of conservation specialists from the Courtauld Institute in London their full glory has been revealed. The image below is courtesy of the Courtauld Institute and shows a 'before and after' of a putto playing a flute.

Unsurprisingly, not many paintings survive from ancient Greece, although we know that painting was an art even in the classical period and the tradition of illustrating key points in history such as battles goes back at least as far as the representation of the Battle of Marathon in the Stoa Poikile (Painted Stoa) in Athens.

Most of the information on Greek painting comes from later, usually Roman, sources but Xenophon in his Memorabilia reports Socrates discussions with a painter, sculptor and cuirass maker. The craftsmen are listed in descending order of esteem – there was not a very high view of craftspeople generally in the classical world, but artists were viewed as higher than most, possibly because painting involved less physical labour.

Socrates points out that a good cuirass maker serves the physical demands of men, a good sculptor succeeds in representing man’s emotions by imitating bodily actions, but only the painter is capable of representing what seems to have ‘neither shape nor colour’ - the essence of man.

It was the judgement of later authors (including Cicero, Diodorus and Quintilian) that painting came to perfection not before the 4th century BC and authors tell us many names and describe masterpieces. They also tell us that copies were made and that sometimes these copies were passed off as originals!

By the 2nd century BC, there were collections of paintings in the great Hellenistic centres of Pergamon, Alexandria and elsewhere but the paintings were all on panels and so they have perished. Paintings would also have hung in temples, and possibly other public buildings, so we should not consider that all ancient painting was of the nature of frescoes. Many of them would have been encaustic on panel, such as the mummy portraits from Fayuum and other places in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

However, it is true Macedonian tombs have preserved for us a whole variety of paintings, including the masterly scenes of Hades’ Rape of Persephone at the royal tombs in Vergina. Moreover, some Greek paintings were copied and appear preserved on the walls of houses in Pompeii and the surrounding area. Not all were straight painted copies – the famous Alexander mosaic is a mosaic version of a lost painting of Alexander the Great’s victory at the battle of Issus.

So, the survival of these examples from Petra is very important as it shows the spread and extent of Hellenistic art and techniques. Petra was a Nabataean town. The Nabataeans were great traders who were the middle men between the incense growers of south Arabia and the market for the product in the Mediterranean, which was extremely profitable. They built a kingdom on the profits from this trade which stretched from Jordan down into the Arabian peninsula, including the amazing site of Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia, and they were at their height in the 1st centuries BC and AD (the suggested approximate date of the paintings) until conquest by the Romans. They absorbed artistic influences from all of their contacts, so it is not surprising that they should adorn their dwellings with wall paintings.

Just as with the Macedonian paintings, there is a great deal of naturalistic intricacy to the Jordanian paintings: flowers, birds and insects can be all identified. Grape vines, ivy and can be discerned. The paintings are even embellished with gold leaf.

The paintings are not at the main site of Petra, but at Siq al-Barid in Beidha, about 5km away and are located within an area where ritual dining is thought to have taken place. The discovery of their true beauty and high quality following this three year conservation programme is to be welcomed for adding to the corpus of ancient paintings and it is hoped that continued study of the paintings will help to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of the transition from Greek to Roman paintings.

Where to stay in Durres, Albania

2010-08-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a long weekend in Albania. I went with my sister Rosemary as she had never been to the country before and I wanted to show her what an amazing place it is. We had a really fabulous time, and I wanted to share with you a hotel recommendation if you are planning to visit Durres.
Durres is a very old city - it was founded by Greek colonists from Corcyra and Corinth as Epidamnus and a dispute over its relationship with its mother city was one of the causes of the Peloponnesian War. In Roman times it was known as Dyrrachiuim and amongst other things was a backdrop for Caesar and Pompey's struggles in the Civil War, with Pompey landing his troops there. It was the start of the Via Egnatia, the famous Roman road that led to Byzantium (Istanbul), and later Venetian Durazzo. So there is plenty to see there, and it is also a good base for day trips to other places of interest.
We stayed at the Aragosta hotel in Durres. The hotel is on a relatively quiet street, the Rruga Taulantia, and is ideally situated for walking into the town to see the Byzantine walls, late Roman Forum and Roman Amphitheatre, and of course the archaeological museum. Some parts of the town get really busy in high season, but this is a little out of the really crowded beach areas and situated so that you can sit on the terrace and enjoy the beautful sunset whilst overlooking the beach, which is not very wide but very well maintained and clean. As a guest at the hotel you can reserve an umbrella and sunbeds on the beach at no extra cost - and it gets busy onthe beach so if you are there in high season and you want to use the beach you must make sure you reserve a space.
Staff at the hotel speak English and the rooms are well-equipped and furnished to a very high standard. Breakfast can be eaten on the terrace overlooking the beach and is substantial (including bacon and eggs!) The restaurant is also excellent, and reasonably priced. For more information and to book, have a look at the website http://www.aragosta.al/.
I think that this is the only time I have been quoted a price online which had actually gone down when I came to pay. It really was very good value and I would highly recommend it as a base for visiting Durres and the surrounding areas.

The oldest house in Britain is brought to light

2010-08-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Archaeologists working at Star Carr near Scarborough in Yorkshire have uncovered the oldest house in Britain to date. The circular structure, 3.5 metres in diameter, dates back to between 9200 and 8500 BC and pre-dates other Stone Age buildings in Britain by up to a thousand years.

Starr Carr is one of Britain's most important prehistoric archaeological sites. In an astonishing season in 1950, archaeologists discovered twenty one head-dresses made of deer skulls and antlers and dating to the Stone Age. It is thought that they were used for hunting-related rituals or ceremonial dances. Precious beads fashioned from deer teeth, shale and amber have also been found on the site and these are often associated with ritual activity in this period.

This season has been equally fruitful. Archaeologists have brought to light the remains of a well-built wooden platform on the edge of a now long-vanished lake. They believe this may have been used as a location from which precious objects were thrown into the water as offerings to their ancestral spirits or deities.

The recent discovery of the remains of the house is challenging views of the level of sophistication achieved at this time in Britain. It was clearly a permanent structure rather than a temporary wigwam-style building and consisted of up to 18 upright posts, each around 20 centimetres in diameter.

Inside there was a living/sleeping area defined by a 20-30 centimetre thick layer of moss, reeds and other soft organic material placed in a shallow 2.5 metre diameter depression. The presence of burnt flints suggests that the building also had a small hearth.

So who was the occupant? Perhaps a hunter - excavations at the site reveal that the inhabitants were hunting and eating animals - including deer, elk, aurochs and smaller animals such as beaver, wild boar, badger, hare and pine marten. The discovery of a wooden paddle suggests that they may also have used boats.

Another suggestion is that it may have been the home of a shaman. Parallels from hunter-gatherer societies in other parts of the world suggest that whilst other members of the tribe would have less permanent structures, the shaman was provided with a more well-built home, presumably in order to safeguard the welfare of the whole community.

Only a small percentage of the site has been excavated to date, and therefore it is hoped that more structures will be unearthed in the future, increasing our knowledge of life in prehistoric Britain.

Jade sculptures found at Roman town of Viminacium

2010-07-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

Excavations at the Roman amphitheatre of Viminacium, east Serbia, have brought to light two remarkable rare jade figures amongst other finds.

Viminacium was the provincial capital of the Roman province of Moesia (now Serbia). The city, which dates back to the 1st C AD, lay on the Roman road the Via Militaris, and was clearly a site of major importance. The archeological site occupies a total of 450 hectares and includes temples, an amphitheatre, government buildings and Roman baths.
Its location on the Via Militaris gives a clue to its importance – it was a military camp of considerable size and troops may have been stationed here as early as the reign of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD). The Emperor Claudius (41-54) garrisoned Viminacium, along with other Moesian cities , for the Moesian legions. The first legion to be stationed there seems to have been the VII Claudia that came there in 52 AD from Dalmatia.
During the Dacian Wars Trajan made Viminacium his headquarters and the town became a colonia with minting privileges in 239 AD housing Legions IV and VII.
The Roman amphitheatre gives some idea of the size of the settlement, since it could house 12,000 people. The ongoing excavations are directed by Miomir Korać of the Viminacium Archaeological Park and it was he who made the announcement of the find of not one, but two, rare jade sculptures.
The first figure, 35 centimeters long, was not complete but was of interest in that it was made out of a single piece of jade. The second figure, found shortly afterwards, was also incomplete, but of excellent craftsmanship. Both figures are missing their heads and one is broken off at the torso. Korac speculates that they are of local production and hopes to find more evidence to support this claim.
The amphitheatre itself is in an excellent state of preservation with walls up to five metres high and other finds include a gilded eagle that seems to have been part of a chariot and massive iron door fittings.
The use of jade for sculptures at this time is quite unusual, in Europe it was used by Neolithic lake dwellers for axes and other tools, but is not well attested in later periods. The first source of European jade was discovered in 1885, near Jordansmuhl in Silesia, Poland. Until then, it was thought that the material for European Neolithic jades was imported from Asia.
Now research has shown that both forms of jade, jadite and nephrite, occur in Poland, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. Prehistoric jade ceremonial weapons have been found in Spain, Portugal, Germany and Great Britain. More information on jade can be found at http://arts.jrank.org/pages/9688/Jade.html
There is anecdotal evidence of the use of jade in ancient Egypt, but this is unconfirmed though nephrite is also reported in the Eastern Desert. So, we eagerly await Professor Korac’s finding on the local working of jade in ancient Serbia, as this would open up an entirely new area for enthusiasts of this beautiful mineral.

Classical Age ‘Palace’ discovered in ancient Thrace.

2010-07-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Thrace is an area of the ancient world known, amongst other things, for being the birthplace of Spartacus who was famed for leading a rebellion against Rome in 73-71BC.

However, the real flowering of Thracian culture was between the 5th and the 3rd century BC when the tribes came together to form a union under the Odrysians.
The Odrysian kingdom in Thrace existed as a distinct political entity until 46AD when the Emperor Claudius replaced it with the Roman province of Thracia. The heyday of the kingdom was the 5th to 4th centuries until its annexation by Philip II of Macedon in 341/340BC.

Archaeologists have uncovered a residence which they consider to be the seat of the rulers of the Odrysian Kingdom at its height. The site is located on the Sredna Gora mountain, close to the town of Hissar in central Bulgaria.

It is thought that the initial construction of the ‘palace’ dates to the time of king Cotys I (384-359BC). Though given the name of ‘palace’ since it is thought to be the residence of the king, the construction is actually a well-built fortress.
The photograph shows the substantial stone construction of the lower courses of the walls.

Its location near to the village of Starosel, the site of some of the largest tombs in Thrace, and also near to a sanctuary site, suggest that the area may be a ceremonial capital. The archaeological team have announced the fortress to be the palace of the Odrysian kings Amatokos II (359 BC - 351 BC) and Teres II (351 BC - 342 BC) who came into conflict with Philip II of Macedon and his expansionist policy.

Two of the towers of the citadel, which stand to circa 2metres high, have so far been excavated. The excavation is ongoing and more information will be forthcoming.

Caesar and Pompey in Albania

2010-06-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

I've recently returned from taking a group on a cultural heritage tour of Albania, and it was good to see that there have been lots of positive changes since the last tour. The most important change is the upgrading of several main roads, and in particular the beautiful coast road from Saranda to Vlore.

Our group was quite small, but some of them had a particular interest in the Roman Civil War, so I made sure to point out as many of the pertinent places as possible. There are quite a few - Caesar and Pompey played cat and mouse up and down the coastal plain of Albania before heading East to meet up at Pharsala in Thessaly.

The stretch of coast where Caesar landed his troops is today a long, white almost deserted beach between Saranda and Vlore, and I suppose pretty it looked much as it would have done two thousand years ago - apart from the fact that Caesar landed in the midst of winter. You can imagine the ships coming in to the beach with the waves lashing the sterns and the wind howling into the ears of the troops as they stood on deck. Nor was there respite when they reached dry land - they then had to face a climb of awe-inspiring steepness up into the hills and across the quarry-pitted Karaburuni peninsula to reach the relatively safe harbour of Orikum. You can still see the path the estimated 30,000 troops took, and the narrowness of the track makes you wonder how many hours it took for the whole army to wind its way over the heights of LLogara.

(You can just make out the horizontal track in this photograph)

Having left a garrison at Orikum, and ships in the harbour, Caesar headed north to meet up with Marc Antony who had landed at Shengjin, the harbour of ancient Lissus. They would join up, or else they would make a pincer movement on Pompey's forces, which were stationed near Dyrrachion (Greek Epidamnus), where Pompey taken his troops on hearing that Caesar had crossed the Rubicon. Pompey headed back to try and stop the two forces joining up, but (as often happens in ancient warfare) bypassed the two armies and was then forced to make camp in Asparagium (Rroghozina) in order to regroup and re-assess. However, he did receive the good news that his son Pompey Junius had taken Orikum and destroyed 30 of Caesar's ships. There was no turning back for Caesar.

Caesar, inland from Dyrrachion, ordered his troops to build earthworks, hoping to immobilise Pompey, but Pompey realised that he could not allow himself to be trapped and so, in a bold move, broke through the newly erected earthworks and fortifications and gave battle somewhere near Petra (Kavaje?). It was a hard fought engagement, but with no definite conclusion, and Caesar withdrew his men, leaving 690 of them dead on the field of battle. He led his troops south east and into Macedonia, passing Apollonia, a town famed for its School of Rhetoric, which was staunchly pro-Caesar.

Pompey, buoyed by Caesar's haste to get away, calmly took the Via Egnatia, the famous road leading from Dyrrachion all the way to Byzantium, and also crossed the mountains into Macedonia, thence down into Thessaly to meet his fate. Albania's role in the Civil War was over.

There is a post-script to the story, however. Later, when Caesar had defeated not only Pompey but Marc Antony too, he sent his heir Octavian away from Rome, to toughen up a bit and to gain some experience abroad. He sent him to Apollonia, and it was in that city that the young Octavian heard of the assassination of Julius Caesar and returned to Rome to take up his destiny.

Gladiators in the North of England

2010-06-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

Knowledge of the Roman period in Britain is growing all the time, thanks to new excavations and the application of scientific techniques. Human remains from the site at Driffield Terrace in York have been the subject of speculation for some time: were the 80 plus skeletons of young men exhumed over the last decade a group of aristocrats punished for their part in a revolt against the Roman Emperor Caracalla? That was one theory, but it seems that forensic science has revealed that the truth is something quite different – it was a graveyard for gladiators.

The group of well-built young men had been decapitated, leading to bizarre theories about pagan rites, or punishment for outsiders such as Christians. They also had evidence of hammer blows to the head, which became of greater interest when a group of burials of gladiators with the same type of blows, and also decapitation, were discovered in Ephesus, Turkey, three years ago.

The result of forensic work on the skeletons, recently announced, show a variety of evidence which would support the view that the men were gladiators. Many of the 1,800-year-old remains indicate much stronger muscles in the right arm, a condition to be expected in men who had been subjected to years of training. Analysis of the tooth enamel showed that the men came from a wide range of Roman provinces, including North Africa, also a normal feature of gladiator recruitment.

Imagine coming from North Africa to fight in York! York was a provincial capital and major military base for the Romans, and is famous for the fact that the Emperor Constantine took the purple there is AD306. It seems that the town was a flourishing place with a social life which included watching man pitted against beast in the amphitheatre. And it seems that the residents ate well too, if the funeral feasts are anything to go by. Literary sources tell us that gladiators were the ancient equivalent of premier footballers, with huge followings and lavish lifestyles for those who survived long enough. The funeral feasts for these Northern ‘stars’ included beef, pork and horsemeat and they were provided with a variety of grave goods for the afterlife.

Decapitation was a common way to meet one’s death at the end of a contest (witness also the skeletons excavated in the amphitheatre in Durres, Albania) and the coup-de-grace was often delivered by a hammer to the head. But it was the evidence of a bite from a large animal that really sealed the interpretation – probably from a lion, tiger or bear. There were also a broad range of other healed and unhealed injuries associated with violence found on the skeletons. As Dr Michael Wysocki, senior lecturer in forensic anthropology and archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire, put it: "It would seem highly unlikely that this individual was attacked by a lion or tiger as he was walking home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago." So, gladiators it is then……

Life on the frontier in the Roman Empire

2010-05-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

Publication of the Millennium excavations in the grounds of Carlisle castle has shed new light on what life must have been like for a Roman soldier posted to Britannia, at the edge of the empire.

The report details the 80,000 artefacts discovered in the five trenches on the Castle Green and Eastern Way. One of the most important aspects of the excavations is that, because of the waterlogged soil, a great deal of wood was preserved, including 2,000 large pieces of timber and there were also significant leather remains including shoes and tents. Other finds included pottery, coins, animal bone, spearheads and arrowheads, and jewellery.

The timber, wooden posts and leather tent fragments are significant because the survival of wooden structures from this period is uncommon, not only Britain but beyond, and the amount and condition of the material has added significantly to knowledge of the construction and appearance of Roman military buildings in the first and second centuries AD. In addition, articulated armour was also found, a first for a British Roman site.

The Roman fort is thought to have been built in72 or 73AD and housed around 500 soldiers. The good condition of the wood fragments enabled archaeologists to work out how the smaller pieces were used in building construction and that the internal walls of the fort could be changed to suit the differing needs of the soldiers housed within it.

The finds have helped build up a picture of the everyday life of the soldiers. They hunted deer for food, and preferred mutton to lamb (as attested by the age of the sheep bones). They spent some of their spare time playing a Roman version of draughts, but also devoted some of their time to their appearance: finds include razor blades, combs and fragments of mirrors. A touch of reality was provided by the fact that one of the combs still had a louse attached.

July 2010 will see the opening of a new Roman gallery at Tullie House in Carlisle, where some of the finds will be on display, and which will place Carlisle in its broader Roman context. In fact, the city was an important Roman town with civitas status, and the finds from this excavation, including this beautiful piece from a horse harness, have helped to illustrate this and throw light on the lives of the soldiers who served there.

A 'mermaid' sanctuary in the UAE.. evidence of neolithic fishing rituals?

2010-04-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

This week saw the publication of some amazing news from the Arabian pensinsula. French archaeologists have recently discovered the oldest sanctuary in Arabia near the Strait of Hormuz and evidence of ritual practice involving the marine mammal often believed to be the source of the legend of the mermaid.

The latest edition of Antiquity reveals the results of the French Archaeological Mission’s expedition to the UAE, namely a site on the island of Akab, the oldest sanctuary in Arabia, as well as the oldest known ceremonial site dedicated to a very particular marine mammal, the dugong.

The island of Akab is located 50km north of Dubai in the large lagoon of Umm Al Quwain and the ancient sanctuary provides us with the first evidence of the rituals practised by the prehistoric coastal societies of the Gulf. Akab was a fishermen’s village between 4700 and 4100BC. The locals lived in circular dwellings and fished with nets and lines using hooks made from the shell of the pearl oyster. The fishermen exploited the resources of the lagoon and the nearby mangrove but they also fished tuna, which meant venturing out into the open sea.

However, perhaps the most interesting news relates to a mound of bones discovered in the 1990s. Test excavations then interpreted the mound as a sea cow butchering site. The excavation was resumed between 2006 and 2009 by a new team of prehistorians and faunal experts and their work has shown that far from being an unorganized mound, but a complex structure of intentional form.

Carbon dating on a dugong bone has attributed it to the second half of the fourth millennium (3500-3200 BC). The structure consists of an ovoid platform extending to nearly 10 square metres and contains the remains of at least 40 dugongs.

There appear to be a full range of dugongs represented, from calf to mature animal, yet no complete animal has been found. That there was an intentional selection is clear from the fact that certain anatomical parts, such as the ribs, vertebrae or limbs, are under-represented. Furthermore, evidence shows that the bones were deposited shortly after the animal was killed.

In addition to anatomical remains, 1,862 small finds were also present in the structure, including beads and tools, and some remains of other animals namely gazelle, sheep and goat.

That this is a ritual site is clear – the dugong skulls are all oriented eastwards (as are human skulls in Neolithic necropolises in other sites in UAE). There are also echoes of the site in the green turtle necropolis at Ra’s al-Hamra in Oman, which is contemporary with the Akab monument.

This dugong construction is unique in the Middle-East in its scale, though other dugong bones have been found Al Markh, a fourth-millennium settlement site in Bahrain and the Bronze Age the sites of Umm An Nar, Tell Abraq, Shimal and Ra's Ghanadha in the UAE. But it has no parallel in the Neolithic in other parts of the world. The Australian coast of the Torres Strait has some comparable ceremonial sites, but they date to the 14th C AD at the earliest.

Animal lovers will be pleased to note that the dugong is now protected by the UAE, having previously been hunted for its flesh, oil and hide.

New light on the neolithic era in the Euphrates valley

2010-03-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

I have long been championing the cause of rethinking the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ in Greece and elsewhere, but it seems more and more to me that we should take a long look, and perhaps reappraise, exactly what was happening in the late Neolithic era in the Mediterranean and fertile crescent.

In Deir Ezzor, 432kms northeast of Damascus in Syria, a village named Tal Bokrous shows a level of sophistication which exemplifies why this period is thought of as a time of rapid development in human technology.
This site is the only one of the Middle Euphrates region which belongs to this particular phase beginning about 9500BC, considered the latest phase of the Stone Age.

The village has clear architectural features, and numbers an astonishing 188 houses (to date) along two sides of an open area within the urban setting. Each house, according to archaeologist Yarub al-Abdullah, includes three rooms made of sun-dried brick, painted with mud and plaster on both the wall and floor surfaces.
There are even traces of colourful wall-paintings representing fowl. The population of the village apparently depended on agriculture and livestock and both plaster louvers (part of feeding stalls?) and the remains of charred plants have been discovered.
Studies showed that barley grew naturally in the area, and then the locals developed agriculture with the cultivation of grain and lentils. They also worked such raw materials as they had to make various artefacts, including stone needles, drills, sculptures and utensils. The inhabitants also shaped and baked mud to make sculptures of women (two have been found) and a man's head.
The findings from the site have amplified our view of the agricultural societies in the Middle Euphrates and enriched our understanding of how people lived at this time. Further excavations at the site are eagerly anticipated!

Keeping Warm in the Ice Age - Oldest Wall found in Greece!

2010-03-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

As my friends know, I love old walls. So I was very excited to hear the announcement by the Greek Ministry of Culture on Monday 22nd March that a 23,000 year old wall had been discovered in Thessaly.

Paleoanthropologist Dr. N. Kiparissi has been excavating in the cave of Theopetra near Kalambaka for the past 25 years (another life’s work – see my blog 2 March) and amongst other discoveries revealed the remains of a wall (below) which had apparently been built to partially block the entrance to the cave.

The wall was built to restrict the entrance to the cave by two-thirds, and this suggests that its purpose was to protect the inhabitants from the cold, given that the wall’s age matches the coldest period of the most recent ice age. The wall was dated by optical luminescence, a method which determines how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to daylight, and the result means that this is the oldest man made wall in Greece and probably one of the oldest in the world.

The cave can be found near Kalambaka, the town usually more associated with the monasteries of Meteora in Thessaly, Greece.

Further re-evaluation of ‘the Dark Age’ in Greece, this time from Crete

2010-03-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a site becomes a ‘life’s work’ for an archaeologist. Such has been the case for Nicholas Stampolidis, who has been excavating the necropolis of Orthi Petra at Eleutherna on Crete for more than 25 years. But whilst some archaeologists dig for years and never greatly add to the corpus of knowledge, this excavation has been immensely rewarding for Professor Stampolidis, and his findings have certainly added to the scholarly debate around the so-called ‘Dark Age’ of Greece.

Within a single tomb, between 1992 and 1996, Professor Stampolidis and his team discovered a massive assemblage of 141 cremated individuals, all but two of whom were aristocratic men who may have met their death in battle. Tomb A1K1 is an elaborate rock-cut tomb containing fantastic burial goods dating from the ninth to the seventh century B.C., including bronze vessels, gold and silver jewellery, and military trappings.

However, it is the discoveries made since 2007 that are really exciting scholars: three jar burials containing the remains of more than 10 related female individuals and a monumental funerary building where a female of high status was buried with three others.

The four females ranged in age from about seven to seventy and were found in an eighth-century B.C. monumental funerary building. The floor of the building was stewn with thin strips of gold from the burial garments, and the women were surrounded by bronze vessels, figurines, and jewellery of gold, silver, glass, ivory, and semiprecious stones from Asia Minor, the Near East, and North Africa.

Other artefacts from the tomb: a stone ‘altar’, ritual bronze tools, and a glass phial for libations have led to the speculation that these women may have been priestesses or females from a family involved with the ritual welfare of the community. Clearly, women played an important role in the religious life of Eleutherna.

Anagnostis Agelarakis is a forensic anthropologist from is Adelphi University. She has discovered that all four women shared a genetic dental trait. Interestingly, the women buried in the three pithoi (large jars) also had this trait, and further research is expected to establish that they were also related.

Agelarakis has discovered a matrilineage of two centuries – an unprecedented find. The imported artefacts, such as the Mesopotaian phial, suggest that the women were of high social standing. The continuity of the wealthy grave goods, imported from afar, combined with the sophistication of many of the burials, certainly does not fit with past preconceptions of the ‘Dark Age’.

So, who did these priestesses serve? Mount Ida, home of the sacred cave of Zeus, can be seen from the site of Eleutherna. There is intriguing, but at present there is no evidence to point to a particular deity, but perhaps further work from the indefatigable Professor Stampolidis will uncover some.

Further information can be found on the website of the Archaeological Institute of America: Archaeology.

New evidence for religious continuity through ‘Dark Age’ Greece

2010-02-12T03:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I attended a lecture at The British Museum given by Professor Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier on his continuing excavations at Kalapodi in Phokis, Greece.

Professor Niemeier’s excavations have secured the recognition of the Kalapodi as the site of one of the most famous sanctuaries of ancient Greece, that of Apollo at Abai. Numerous ancient sources attest to the importance of the oracle and sanctuary and talk of the offerings made to the god there, clearly putting the site on the same level as Delphi or Olympia, but until Niemeier’s excavations, the location and of the site and remained a mystery to scholars, and Abai seemed to be reduced to a footnote in ancient history.
Now, however, the excavations have revealed not only the huge wealth of the sanctuary, but also a huge amount of new evidence for ritual practice at sanctuaries and a clear continuity of cult from Mycenaean through the Dark Age. The question of religious continuity has been a subject of debate amongst scholars for many years. Some held that in around 1200 BC when the Mycenaean civilization ended, a period of discontinuity, decrease in population, and poverty followed, known as the Dark Ages. These scholars presumed a discontinuity in religion and cult, and believed that it was not until the second half of the 8th century BC when a sudden economic and cultural advance occurred, forming the basis of Classical Greece, that factors allowed for the emergence of ‘the Greek sanctuary’.

Excavations over the last few decades have begun to demonstrate more continuity than was previously thought, and now findings from the sanctuary of Apollo at Abai at Kalapodi show, for the first time on the Greek mainland, clear evidence of continuous cult activity from at least the Mycenaean Age, through the 'Dark Age', to the Archaic period and beyond - even to the Roman temple built by Hadrian (see below).
Whilst many truly exciting finds have been made, including votive trophies of weaponry and even chariot wheels, and painted pottery with images of battle and loot, the most interesting aspect of the excavation for me is the way continuity of worship and cult activity was ensured, even through disruption in the use of the temple: be it through the erection of a new building, or destruction by enemy or earthquake. Temporary ritual areas seem to have always existed in between building phases, ensuring that rituals could still be carried out and perhaps even allowing for consultation of the oracle wihout interuption. The meticulous excavation also shows how previous temple buildings were ritually ‘buried’, preserving a great number of votives and other artefacts associated with cult. Perhaps the most astonishing preservation is a unique wall-painting of the 7th century BC with the representation of a battle scene between hoplites. This is a significant find for the history of Greek painting and also lends weight to the theory that many vase painters were influenced by wall paintings.
The wealth of evidence from the site is going to add to current knowledge in many different subject areas, and for this Professor Niemeier is to be lauded. I am looking forward to hearing more, and also to visiting the site!

An 'early Muslim settlement' discovered in Saudi Arabia

2010-02-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

A fascinating settlement, believed to date to the 7th century CE, has been discovered in Damman, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ali I. Al-Ghabban, Deputy Secretary-General for Antiquities and Museums, made the announcement on Monday and was confident in the dating of the site due to the ceramics and other artefacts unearthed so far.

The site is in the Al-Raaka district and within 1km of the Arabian Gulf, but it is not evidence for a fishing industry that is provoking interest, but rather evidence for the the processing of dates.

Although the existence of the site has been known for some time, actual excavation commenced only three months ago and is taking place in cooperation with Saudi Aramco which holds title to the land and which hopes to build a contractor training centre on the site. The excavation team, however, is solely Saudi.

The settlement seems to have been well planned, with about 20 separate 'houses' discovered to date, all of four to five rooms. A well is also located with each cluster of buildings, with 5 being discovered so far. The exciting aspect of the construction of the buildings is that each has a special room which Al-Ghabban considers to be for conserving dates. The floors of these rooms are in the form of furrows and it is proposed that dates were stored thereon and juice collected through the furrows. Whether this hypothesis is supported by known practice in ancient or modern date processing was not mentioned by Al-Ghabban.

Arttefacts recovered from the site so far include clay utensils, pottery with inscriptions, seashells, iron bars and, bizarrely 'a pair of scissors'. Al-Ghabban says that the settlement, which is not mentioned in any literature, ancient or modern, is a very early Muslim village. He does not cite his evidence for this, but perhaps the inscribed pottery gives a clue. This would be a very early Muslim settlement indeed (the Islamic calendar starts in the equivalent of 622 CE) so it will be extremely interesting to hear more of the evidence for this proposition as the excavation continues. In the meantime, the image of the furrowed floor provides a fascinating glimpse into an early highly developed agriculture processing system.

Vespasian's birthplace, and scene of his death, discovered in Italy

2010-01-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

In the year that sees the bimillennial anniversary of the birth of the Emperor Vespasian, it is very exciting to think his country palace in the town of his birth may have been discovered. Vespasian is the emperor best known for the construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre, or Colosseum, in Rome, but he was of relatively humble origin and came from a village called Falacrinae in modern Lazio.

Archaeological teams from the British School at Rome and the University of Perugia have excavated part of a large villa with baths and colonnades at a place they believe to be ancient Falacrinae. The existence of the villa is known from literary sources but until recently no traces had been found of the emperor’s birthplace.

The excavations revealed an ancient cemetery, a chapel of (probable) medieval origin and the villa. The villa is notable for the paving of what appears to be the principal room. The pavement is made up of polychrome marbles quarried in North Africa of the most precious quality. It seems as though the walls of the room were also lined with marble. Two other rooms are decorated with very fine mosaics, and the general luxury of the villa, plus its age, seem to point to an imperial residence.

Dig Director Professor Coarelli signals caution since there is no absolute evidence, such as an inscription, but considers that the dating, the quality of the environment, the place and the outstanding decoration of the villa, all point to the fact that it may be a residence of the Flavian dynasty.

Suetonius tells us that every summer Vespasian retired to his country villa near Rieti, and it was there that he died of an intestinal inflammation. On 23 June of 79, Vespasian knew he was dying and asked to be helped to stand as he believed "an emperor should die on his feet". His last words were said to be “oh dear, I think I am becoming a god”: a good example of his reputation for being down to earth and a great wit. We don’t really know that much about the details of his 10 year administration of the Empire, apart from the fact that he turned his attention to fiscal matters, including the famous tax on public toilets (a wonderful story I may have to retell another day!).

Professor Coarelli hopes that the villa and the surrounding excavations will throw light on how a large residence like this affected the surrounding rural community in these relatively early days of the empire. I will aim to follow the story here.

A New View of the Alexander Mosaic

2010-01-22T03:53:00.000-08:00

A Canadian scholar has come up with a theory about the wear patterns on the famous Alexander mosaic. In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, Martin Beckmann of the University of Western Ontario suggested that the wear patterns allow us to reconstruct exactly how ancient Romans viewed the mosaic.

The Alexander mosaic, now on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples but originally from the floor of the exedra of the House of the Faun in Pompeii, is one of the most famous extant ancient mosaics. The mosaic, which measures 19’ x 10’ was a copy of a Hellenistic painting showing Alexander facing the Persian King Darius in battle (probably the Battle of Issus) which was executed around 300BC. The mosaic itself, which features the “opus vermiculatum” technique was made around 100 BC from circa 4 million tesserae.
Several areas of the mosaic were repaired in antiquity (around 100AD) with mortar, and in particular a large piece of the mosaic around the figure of Alexander was repaired as seen in the image. Beckmann’s theory is that the main patterns of wear, as annotated below (1,2,a,b and c), show where the Romans stood to look at the mosaic with the owner of the house acting as a tour guide.
“Once the visitors had entered the room - we might imagine a group of dinner-guests led by their host - the tour would begin with Darius and his Persians. The host would have stood above Darius' horses (1), explained why the great king was fleeing, and pointed out the artistic novelties in the lower portion of the mosaic. The guests would have milled about at the foot of the mosaic, taking in the overall scene, and then briefly concentrated themselves around the figures of the two doomed Persians (a - b). Then the host moved to the left and stationed himself in the area above the figure pair composed of Alexander and the unfortunate Persian he is spearing (2). The guests marched right onto the mosaic and crowded around the image of the Macedonian king, standing right on top of his body (c), being careful however not to step on his head or that of his horse. The guests arranged themselves in a semicircle, so as to leave a line of sight open between them and their host, who was also able to see Alexander's head from his vantage point above."
Hmm, I’m afraid I just don’t agree with this explanation. A Roman exedra was a large, elegant room usually located off the garden used for formal entertainments and dinner parties. In the case of the House of the Faun, the exedra is between two peristyle gardens and would have been used as a place where the hosts could relax and entertain special guests. Given its location in the house, as a sort of meeting place, or axis, it would be strange if there were not at least some furniture for the guests to relax and dine and I think it is entirely possible that moving furniture caused the damage. In Roman villas it was more common for rooms to have a plain or geometric floor mosaic with a small pictorial element or ‘emblema’ of opus vermiculatum in the middle and this would mean that furniture would usually be on the larger, more stable, tesserae, rather than on the opus vermiculatum. The opus vermiculatum section would be quite fragile because the tesserae are small. Since in this case the opus vermiculatum covers the whole floor, the furniture would have to be placed on it, and could have caused damage.
I think that Beckmann’s theory also falls down on a practical level: the repaired areas where people are supposed to have milled around to look at the Persians (a and b) don’t seem big enough to equal where they all stood to look at Alexander (c). I also think that to view Alexander properly, you would have stood to the right of him to look him in the face full on (he is shown in a right facing profile) rather than to the left and below. Surely the best vantage point for viewing the mosaic (even if we are prepared to consider that this was viewed as a piece of ‘art’, which is another debate which could be held) would be in the middle of the bottom edge of the view of the battle, under the black horse’s head. To stand so far to the left upsets the balance of the composition as intended by the original painter, and would not be a natural vantage point at all.
So, comments please….. what do you think?

A mystery of Antony and Cleopatra solved?

2009-12-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday 17th December under the watchful eyes of Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosney and, of course, Dr. Zahi Hawass, a 9-tonne pylon which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis was lifted from the water of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour.
However for me a much more interesting piece of information was the announcement by Harry Tzalas, head of the Greek archaeological mission, of the discovery of a piece of a giant granite threshold. Tzalas believes that this 15-tonne monolith was actually the threshold of the mausoleum that Cleopatra VII had built for herself shortly before her death.
The size of the threshold indicates that the doors would have been 7metres high, giving an idea of the magnificence of the queen's mausoleum. The Guardian quoted Tzalas, as saying.“As soon as I saw it, I thought we are in the presence of a very special piece of a very special door."
The most intriguing thing about the door is that Tzalas believes that the discovery sheds new light on an element of the dying hours of Cleopatra and Marc Antony which has been a mystery for two thousand years. In the 1st century AD Plutarch wrote that after Mark Antony had been erroneously informed that Cleopatra had killed herself he had tried to take his own life. On learning that his love still lived, Mark Antony wished to see her before he died, and as she was hiding inside the mausoleum with her ladies-in-waiting. But Plutarch tells us that he had to be “hoisted with chains and ropes” to the upper floor of the building and brought in through a window. “When closed the door mechanism could not open again.”
Tzalas believes that a door of such a size would be impossible for only Cleopatra and her ladies-in-waiting to open it. “Like Macedonian tomb doors, when it closed, it closed for good.”
Plutarch's account was based largely on the testimonies of eyewitnesses and he tells us that Antony died within seconds of seeing Cleopatra, his last hour probably not helped by having been hoisted up and into a building through a window! Days later, Cleopatra took her own life, and large parts of the story of Antony and Cleopatra passed into murky legend, but it seems that even after two thousand years with the help of archaeology it is sometimes possible to shed new light on, or have new theories about, what really happened.

More finds at Vergina, ceremonial capital of Macedonia

2009-12-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

The digging season at Vergina is over for 2009, and it has been an eventful one. The latest information to be revealed is that the substantial remains of the town's defensive wall have been discovered.

A team from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki have been excavating the North East section of the wall, which is situated in privately owned land. This particular part of the wall is in an excellent state of preservation and at times reaches a height of 1.90m.

Some of the wall-towers reach a thickness of 2.80m: evidence of a very substantial fortification built to withstand threat from siege engines. Stone stairs gave access to the second storey. An interesting feature are the small protected gateways next to the towers, which perhaps allowed the defending troops to make forays against their attackers.

Of further interest is the fact that much of the construction material of the wall appears to be re-used masonry from public buildings in the ancient city. Thorough examination of this masonry should add to our knowledge of the city in the period prior to the wall's construction, which, from the dating of small finds and other evidence, is thought to be of the time of Cassander, or the early 3rd C BC. This was a time when Macedonia experienced unrest due to both civil conflicts and external invasions. The city had a strategic position on the route from the ports of Pydna and Methone to Upper Macedonia and this may have contributed to its need for fortification, in addition to its status as ancient capital and royal burial ground.

Apart from the discovery of the fortifications, a number of artifacts threw further light on city life during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, including food residues such as the seeds of legumes, cereals and olive stones.

Ancient sites.... new markets........

2009-11-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

The concept of cultural tourism is an old one – from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries many wealthy noblemen completed their education with a period of European travel known as the Grand Tour. The main destination was Italy, considered one of the birthplaces of classical civilization. These aristocratic gentlemen traveled to see ancient Roman monuments and wonders of nature like the volcanic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples. If they were a little more adventurous, then they might venture to Greece, and as the 19th century wore on travelers went even further to North Africa, Turkey or the Levant. Some wrote poems or accounts of their journey, such as Byron or Keats, others drew sketches or painted what they saw, for example Frederick Lewis or Delacroix, and museum collections owe much to the intrepid early tourists who brought back souvenirs, notably Sir William Hamilton and Lord Elgin.
Nowadays ‘the world is our oyster’ and modern technology has made it easy for us to see the world and seek out new destinations. Independent travel is now easy – often it is no longer necessary to go to even far flung places as part of a group, and the advent of e-commerce means that even travel agents are becoming redundant: a flight or a hotel booking is just a click away. Cultural tourism is no longer something for the brave adventurer, but a choice for everyone who has the desire to learn a little about a place by visiting it as well as reading about it or seeing it through someone else’s eyes on television.
With cheap flights and the ease of booking on the in internet, the business of organized tour groups being led by experts is facing increasing competition from individuals doing their own thing. Anyone, it seems, armed with a tourist guide book (or even hiring a guide on the spot) and the confidence to travel independently can seek out all of the places that previously would only have been visited with as seasoned guide in tow. And of course there is the question of whether older markets have reach saturation point: the old destinations of Italy and Greece no longer seem exotic when we consider that we are all part of the same economic entity. I have been working in the field of cultural tourism for more than a decade now and I spend several weeks of the year as a guest lecturer taking groups of people to various destinations. I also occasionally find myself working as an advisor to travel companies on the subject. A great deal of my work is done in Greece, one of the oldest and most established markets in this area, and one of the most saturated. There are more companies than ever who give added value to trips to Greece, Italy, Egypt and beyond by including experts on them, whether they are archaeologists, ornithologists or another kind of specialist academic.
Including expert lecturers on a trip also means an increase in price. Expertise is expensive, but for some people having someone on hand to explain exactly what they are seeing is vital to their enjoyment of travel. The typical profile of people joining these tours is that of well-heeled professionals who tend to be in their fifties or retired. They often have been educated to tertiary level and in a led tour are seeking an engaging companion who can satisfy their need for information and discussion. For the lecturer, taking a group can be a pretty full-on experience: clients feel quite at liberty to ask you the date of the battle of such and such before your lips have even touched their breakfast coffee! But it is not only the services of your very own academic that is the attraction. Some tour operators offer other extras, such as themed itineraries, access to sites unavailable to the general public, or the services of a tour manager as well as the resident expert. The tour manager’s job is to make sure that everything goes smoothly, from check-in at the airport to collecting your bags at the end of the trip and all points in between. These hardy souls do all the tedious little chores that can be boring on holiday – buying tickets for attractions, making sure luggage is on the coach and that the right suitcase appears in your room, and providing an aspirin/safety pin/plastic bag/whatever just when you need one.
The world is ever changing, with new horizons appearing all the time as political and social changes in different countries open (or close!) the doors to tourists. Tourism is a vital source of income for many countries, and an unfortunate incident, whether by design or by accident, may completely change the climate for those wishing to visit the area. Egypt is one country that has suffered in this respect. Once visitor figures are lost it is a long climb back, and there are always other, perhaps new, markets trying to muscle in.
For me it is the new markets that are particularly interesting. Several years ago I was invited by Saudia, the Saudi Arabian airline, to visit the Kingdom on a preliminary familiarization trip. Saudi Arabia was seeking to expand its programme of international tourism. In these cases, it is normal practice for the Ministry of Tourism or other such agency to invite representatives of cultural tourism in various chosen countries to visit, and then to get feedback on the choice of sites and facilities offered.
Saudi Arabia does not seem a typical tourist destination. Of course, the Kingdom receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year for the Hajj, but it has also much to offer to those wishing to visit for leisure purposes with many sites of architectural and archaeological interest. The Kingdom has had a rich and varied history, but lack of access to the country in the past has meant that this is little known and appreciated. In ancient times the wealth of the Arabian peninsular was based not on oil, but on the control of lucrative trade routes: luxury goods from the Far East and India followed a route around the south and west of the Arabian peninsula. There was also a thriving incense trade: frankincense and myrrh occur naturally only in Southern Arabia and the horn of Africa and were in great demand in the ancient Mediterranean for religious and funerary purposes, for example, Egyptian mummification rituals rely heavily on both spices.

The inhabitants of Arabia, and especially a people called the Nabataeans who flourished between the 1st centuries BC and AD, controlled this trade and left behind spectacular rock cut tombs and other remains. The site of Madain Saleh, to the North of Medina, was along the main trade route. It is a spectacular archaeological site, with large sandstone massifs rising out of the desert as you approach, dotted with the classical facades of tombs housing the elite of the society. Soldiers, doctors, administrators and land-owning women are amongst the professions of those inside the tombs and the inscriptions also detail fines for anyone who desecrates the structures. One of the wonderful things about visiting a country with few tourists is that you can explore a site in relative isolation. Every time I have visited Madain Saleh we have been the only group on the site, a sharp contrast to the most famous Nabataean site, Petra in Jordan, which always seems to be busy.

The site is crossed by the remains of the Hejaz railway, which was built by the Ottoman sultan, to take pilgrims from Damascus to the holy city of Mecca. The railway began operating in 1908 and part of it was famously destroyed by Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab revolt in 1916. Several stations along the route have now been restored and can be visited, both at Madain Saleh and further south towards Jeddah. Jeddah has received more tourists than other parts of the Kingdom since cruise ships have docked there for some time. The city is notable for its traditional architecture of the Ottoman period (which is being carefully restored under the stewardship of the energetic Sami Nawar) and also for the fantastic modern sculptures which line the Corniche.

In the al-Jawf region in the north of the kingdom, in ancient times the Nabataeans were also to be found controlling the trade route into Iraq. These routes were vast, and in fact to visit the different parts of Saudi Arabia tourists need to take internal flights, something which underlines just how impressive these ancient traders were. The town of Doumat al Jandal was on the caravan route to Babylon and is a site of great antiquity, first mentioned in the annals of the Mesopotamian kings in the 8th century BC. The records show that Doumat al Jandal was the capital city of a series of powerful Arab queens who were accorded the same respect and status as the Egyptian pharaoh. The city was obviously wealthy and important, and came under attack many times, so it is not surprising that a large walled fortress is to be found there. On one occasion when I was with a group we were asked by a local to eat at his home. This act of generosity provided an insight into Arab hospitality and culture which is difficult to find in more developed tourist destinations, and the group felt very privileged indeed to feast on chicken and rice with a local family.

A short distance from Doumat Al Jandal is a dramatic complex of standing stones near the town of Sakaka. Al-Rajajil is the local name for this ancient site and means ‘the men’ a reference to the fact that from a distance the stones look like clusters of men in conversation. More than fifty groups of stone pillars, now toppled or broken in many cases, appear to be strewn across the complex, yet on close inspection it seems that the groups were originally carefully aligned on a North-South axis and oriented to face East. On the basis of flint tools and pottery sherds found in the area around the pillars, the site has been dated to the mid 4th millennium BC – at least one thousand years older than the famous standing stones at Stonehenge in England. It is an extremely evocative site, and the fact that you are likely to be the only people for miles around makes this even more special.

The Kingdom has also many sites which celebrate its more recent past. Gazing on the ruins of Dir’aiyah, a short distance from the modern capital of Riyadh, it is difficult to imagine that the town was finally abandoned only just over twenty years ago. Now undergoing a major project of restoration, the town is of especial importance since it is the site of the founding of the first Saudi state under the al-Saud, the ruling family of the Kingdom, whose ancestors had settled in this oasis in the mid 15th century AD. It was from this oasis town in the Wadi Hanifa that the al-Saud and their followers waged a series of successful military campaigns until achieving domination and moving their capital to Riyadh. Most of the remains that can be seen today date from the last two centuries or so. The architecture of the town is formed of mud brick with occasional courses of stone laid onto foundations of limestone blocks. Riyadh too has its attractions: not least the wonderful National Museum, which is well worth a visit. For a visitor though, the atmosphere in Riyadh is slightly more constraining than other parts of the country. Women visitors, of course, need to wear an abaya and scarf (though not in their hotel) but none of my group have ever mentioned that they found this onerous. Male tourists should, of course, avoid shorts or other inappropriate attire.

Other regions of Saudi Arabia have their own distinctive character, and the Asir region is on the south is justifiably celebrated for its distinctive architecture. Here, there is a greater emphasis on stone rather than mud brick, reflecting the natural resources of the region, and also the fact that this part of the kingdom receives greater rainfall. The decoration of the houses, both internal and external has been the subject of various studies and publications: the interiors of the houses are painted in bright colours and this task is carried out by the women. Men, however, are responsible for the intricate carvings on the doors, and invest the decoration with symbols of various, and often long forgotten meanings. These are only a few highlights of the tourist attractions of the country, and it must be stressed that to join a cultural tour of Saudi Arabia you need to be prepared to cover huge distances and take some internal flights. It is a huge country – about five times the size of France.

People who are interested in cultural tourism are generally sympathetic to the local way of life and customs, and are ready to accept any restrictions for the length of their stay. For a guest lecturer, such as myself, spending time in the company of such individuals and being able to share one’s enthusiasm with them is very rewarding. I also like the way that tourism of this type builds bridges: on a recent trip to Iran I was pleased to see that there were a large number of groups of American tourists there. I hope that visitors to these less well known destinations, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, will return to their own country full of stories of the wonderful sights and fantastic hospitality they have received, and if this is the case then I consider myself successful in my role as a tour guide.

Cleopatra... or not?

2009-11-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

Since giving my gallery talk on 'Rome, city and empire' on 17th October, I've been thinking quite a lot about the limestone bust which is labelled as 'A woman resembling Cleopatra'. Within my memory, this bust used to be labelled as 'probably Cleopatra' but the lovely bust was downgraded at the time of the Cleopatra exhibition a few years ago.

The bust is Roman, and dates to around the time that Julius Caesar fought his African campaigns. The successful general returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph in 46BC and brought with him his most exotic prize, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. Cleopatra's arrival and residence in Rome caused quite a stir: on the one hand her very presence scandalised those Romans who considered the East a decadent place with morals that did not match those of Republican Rome, and on the other she sparked a phase of Egyptomania. Egyptian objects and themes became popular in domestic settings, cults such as that of Isis (established in Rome for a couple of hundred years) were revived and became popular, and even the queen's hairstyle was imitated by fashionable Roman women. This latter is one of the reasons why the identity of the bust has been thrown into doubt - scholars argue that although we know from coins and other media that Cleopatra wore her hair like this, we know that many other women did too.

Cleopatra's coins carried her image, as was common for rulers by that time. The first ruler to show his image on coins was probably Philip II of Macedon, but it was his son Alexander III (the Great) who really exploited this media for spreading the image of the ruler amongst his subjects. Cleopatra was, like these two great monarchs, Macedonian, and belonged to the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, Alexander's general. But the queen cared greatly for her subjects and was the first of the dynasty to learn Egyptian, the local language. She also foresaw the threat of Rome, and knew that the best way to try and protect her country was to ally herself with the powerful men of Rome - first Caesar and then Marc Antony. As usual, the coins show the queen in profile and in particular reveal her to have had a somewhat pointed and slightly hooked nose. As legend has it (rather spitefully), it was not her looks that made her attractive, but her other charms.... in fact, she was very intelligent as well as being a great queen. I should have thought that these attributes would make her attractive enough, and the fact that she had herself portrayed with such candour is also appealing. This bust, as you can see, has a hooked nose. In fact, it is remarkably like the coin profiles.

So why then, do the scholars discredit this as a portrait? They argue that the bust does not have a diadem, the 'crown' or royal regalia worn by Macedonian and Hellenistic rulers. This is indeed true, but in fact there are extant portraits in ivory, stone and bronze of other Macedonian rulers who are portrayed not wearing diadems. Diadems feature heavily on coins, to be sure, but I think that when it comes to actual portrait statues, context must be considered. The head may well belong to a sculpture which was of a type for which a diadem may have been inappropriate. It may also be the case that the Roman sculptor seeing Cleopatra installed in Rome as queen no longer, may have considered it unwise to depict her as a monarch - a status considered in the ancient world as having religious connotations. We simply cannot know. I suggest you come along to my next gallery talk on Rome on 28th November and judge for yourself.... if she looks like Cleopatra, and has her hair like Cleopatra, and is made at the right time for Cleopatra, then maybe she is Cleopatra!

Truffle hunting in Alba

2009-10-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

You can almost find the truffle fair in Alba by following your nose..... the fair, which takes place in the Cortile della Maddalena, is an annual event in which a huge variety of truffles and truffle-based products are displayed. As you enter the marquee you are hit by the distinctive aroma of the truffle which is pungent and not entirely pleasant. However, grated over a freshly fried egg, the taste of a good white truffle is just sublime. I'm very lucky because I don't have to pay through the nose (sorry!) for these delicacies: my friend Gino is, amongst other things, a trifolaio or truffle hunter. Gino and his little white dogs venture out into the rolling hills of the Langhe to hunt for truffles and they bring back small nuggets of the black and white truffles for family and friends. The dogs are trained from infancy and can detect a truffle up to a metre under the ground, even in the snow. The dog stops directly over the spot that the truffle is buried, and then Gino digs for the treasure. Wth careful instructions about storage and preparation, the truffles are handed over. I must keep them in paper in a jar in the fridge. The jar is important as the odour is so strong that even eggs stored nearby will absorb it through their shells. I need to buy a special truffle grater, as they must be served as thin slivers, much thinner than I could cut by hand. And finally the release of the flavour and perfume as the flakes fall onto freshly prepared pasta........
The lovely town of Alba goes back to prehistoric times, but was re-founded as a Roman town, Alba Pompeia, due to its strategic position on the road from Aquila to Turin. There are a few Roman remains, such as the temple of Pertinax, born in Alba, a governor of the province of Britain and also holder of the dubious honour of being the shortest reigning Roman emperor (86days). The loveliest buildings, however are the medieval towers and beautiful old churches. There are also a few fine examples of Italian fin de siecle architecture with well-preserved wrought iron balconies.
Now it is a thriving, stylish town with good shops, a huge market and a choice of traditional or modern bars. The town owes its air of well-being to the truffles, the wine industry (Barolo and Barbaresco are nearby) and also thanks to the fact that it is home to Ferrerro, the chocolatier. Chocolate addicts can visit the factory shop..... I, however, headed for the Fontanafredda vineyards and, after a tour of the cellars, sat down to a well earned degustazione - or wine-tasting - cheers!

Is there such a thing as Islamic Art?

2009-10-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

So, as I'm about to head off to the Algarve to give my lecture, I'm pondering the term 'Islamic Art'. I have to confess that I am not really happy with the term and I think that, as a definition, it would only apply to a small number of things in any 'Islamic Gallery' of a major museum.

If you visit the John Addis Gallery of Islamic Art at The British Museum, what you are actually seeing are objects made in lands where, at the time that the artifacts were made, the ruling body embraced Islam. Notwithstanding the great patronage of many of these rulers, which has produced a vast array of fine architecture and art, a good percentage of the pieces were made by, or for, non-Muslims: and several of the objects, for example wine cups, would not be associated with a Muslim way of life today.

The first collections of 'Islamic Art' as we know it today started to be assembled in the 19th century, with the Duc de Blacas, a French nobleman, being one of the first collectors to really acknowledge the worth of these pieces alongside classical artefacts. Interest grew, until it reached a pitch at the time of the Arts and Craft movement, whose practitioners admired and sometimes replicated the techniques, forms and themes of such things as lustre pottery and enamelled glass. Amongst collectors and admirers there was a certain amount of ignorance about the actual origins of some of the techniques and the objects themselves, and the scholar Oliver Watson would also argue for a degree of intellectual snobbery, with anything particularly fine being labelled (often erroneously) 'Persian', since this was somehow perceived to be more sophisticated than 'Arab'. This particular trait is still clouding the scholarship of lustrewares today.

So, back to Islamic art. Is it a valid term at all? For certain objects I think it is: take for example the beautiful Iznik mosque lamp made for the refurbishment of the Dome of the Rock by Suleyman the Magnificent. Mosque lamps have a distinctive form, being designed to hang in numbers from the ceiling of the mosque, and can be fashioned from glass, pierced metal or ceramic with a lit wick in oil casting the light. It is clear from the use of pottery, which clearly does not let the light shine through it, that the lamps had a symbolic as well as a functional purpose. This is underlined by the fact that many lamps are inscribed with the Surah, or Chapter, of Light from the Quran, in which Allah is likened to a light and is the only metaphor for God in the Quran. This particular example is inscribed with the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith and the first of the Five Pillars of Islam. The combination of the form and the use of Arabic calligraphy, which acquired almost the sanctity of a sacred script due to the fact that it was via Arabic by which the prophet Mohammed received the revelations of the Quran, give the object a meaning far beyond its function and associate it strongly with the Islamic religion. This, I believe, makes this particular object truly Islamic art, but such strong associations cannot really be applied to the majority of objects found in an 'Islamic Gallery' and the lumping together of all objects found in such a wide range of countries (Spain to India) and across so many centuries (7th AD to the present) seems to me to be a construct of 19th century Europe which needs revision today.

Recent work in Macedonia

2009-09-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Northern Greece it was apparent how much archaeological work is going on in Macedonia. In addition to the thrilling new finds at Vergina – where archaeologists think they may have found the tomb of Alexander the Great’s illegitimate son Heracles – many of the major sites have seen new activity, with the most noticeable changes at Pella and Philippi.

Pella is of course famous as the birthplace of Alexander the Great, but in the past several visitors found their visit a disappointment due to the main road intersecting the site which caused a distinct lack of atmosphere as lorries roared past. Today a new bypass has changed all that and continuing excavations have revealed new and exciting sectors of the city.

In its heyday, Pella ranked with Alexandria and Pergamum as a huge and thriving Hellenistic city. However, the city suffered due to the silting up of the Thermaic Gulf, the siting of a new capital at Thessalonika (named after Alexander’s sister) and a major earthquake. Today only a small proportion of the city has been brought to light, but the stunning pebble mosaics and vast Agora (262×238m) give you an idea of its former splendour.

With the asphalt road gone, the atmosphere of a bustling and prosperous city pervades the site, and the new excavations have revealed more of the residential area with its Hippodamian grid system, an industrial area with several kilns for terracotta production and some very well preserved Hellenistic baths. No-one has yet written a good account of Hellenistic baths and how they worked, but that they are different from the Roman type is clear. The baths feature semi-circles or circular rooms of what appear to be hip-baths, though clearly more investigation might point to a different use. Visitors to Thessalonika might have observed a small suite in the South-East corner of the Agora, but the scale of those in Pella are what sets them apart. One is reminded of the bath tub at the Mycenaean palace in Pylos in which, according to the Odyssey, Telemachos is said to have been bathed by King Nestor’s daughter. We know that the Macedonians preserved many Mycenaean customs….. was bathing somehow part of this?

The same archaeological magic has been worked at Philippi. This city, founded by Philip II, Alexander’s father, is now a site famous for those who want to follow in the footsteps of St. Paul as he was thrown into jail there. Visitors are often shown a small cave and told (without any evidence, I have to say) that this is where he was incarcerated. But once again any atmosphere was ruined by a main road cutting the site in two and causing a real hazard to visitors attempting to cross from one part to another. Unlike at Pella, where the modern road has been completely removed and excavated, at Philippi the tarmac has yet to be taken away, but the major improvement is that one now enters the site at the theatre built by Philip, so we can proceed through the site with some idea of the correct chronology. The theatre is very well-preserved, and is also being sensitively restored. It is a very atmospheric place, with the acropolis towering behind and the impressive basilicas in all their glory below, and beyond one can see the famous plain where Cassius and Brutus met their fates at the hands of Octavian and Marc Antony at the battle of Philippi: a place indeed steeped in history. Another innovation is the introduction of computers across the site to enhance orientation. I was initially dubious about these, wondering how they would stand up to the heat, but they are encased in boxes and all seemed to be working perfectly (and with useful information) on my visit.

All across Greek Macedonia it seems that a lot of work is being carried out on the sites: more Macedonian tombs are open to the public, the palace at Vergina is being re-excavated (with some really interesting news that isn’t yet in the public domain – watch this space…..) and the museum at Dion has been updated to include recent finds and a lot of wonderful inscriptions featuring Macedonian kings. For first time visitors, Macedonia is a wonderful place, very different to other parts of Greece in geography, sites and material culture, but nowadays there is plenty for the returning visitor too!