Joanne Clarke

Decorating the Neolithic: an Evaluation of the Use of Plaster in the Enhancement of Daily Life in the Middle Pre-pottery Neolithic B of the Southern Levant

During the Middle Pre-pottery Neolithic B in the southern Levant the use of lime plaster in both ritual and domestic contexts increased significantly relative to previous periods. Its properties of whiteness, purity, plasticity and antisepsis would have made it a natural choice for decorating, and through the act of colouring disparate categories of objects were linked together. Plaster appears to have transcended its own inherent value as a material due to its interconnectedness with mortuary ritual. Because of its ubiquity, this socially ascribed value was accessible to everyone. This article will claim that plaster, and the act of plastering both ritual and domestic contexts played a key role in the creation and maintenance of community cohesion and social well-being.

Town and country in the southern Carmel : Report on the Landscape Archaeology Project at Dor (LAPD)

Abstract This report deals with the results of a project of landscape archaeology in the hinterland of Tel Dor (Tanturah) in the northern coastal plain of Israel. An introduction to previous research made in the region is followed by a description of the survey methods employed during the project and the characteristics of the five geographical subunits investigated (Zones I–V) The patterning of settlement remains and the chronology of landscape features forms the main part of the article, with information on changes occurring in the Dor landscape from the Chalcolithic through to Ottoman periods. Brief mention is made regarding groups of features examined, such as wells, cisterns, aqueducts, fields, oil presses, wine presses, columbaria, quarries and burial caves. Reports are given on the pottery from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I, the Middle Bronze Age IIA, and the Roman and Byzantine periods. Appendices also deal with Chalcolithic basalt vessels, Hellenistic stamped amphora handles, Ottoman co...

The archaeology of Western Sahara: results of environmental and archaeological reconnaissance

Western Sahara has one of the last remaining unexplored prehistories on the planet. The new research reported here reveals a sequence of Holocene occupation beginning in a humid period around 9000 bp, superceded around 5000 bp by an arid phase in which the land was mainly given over to pastoralism and monumental burial. The authors summarise the flint and pottery assemblage and classify the monuments, looking to neighbouring cultures in Niger, Libya and Sudan.

Site Diversity in Cyprus in the Late 5th Millennium cal. BC: Evidence from Kalavasos Kokkinoyia

Abstract Sixty years after the excavations of Porphyrios Dikaios at the prehistoric site, Kalavasos Kokkinoyia in Cyprus, recent excavations are revealing new information on the poorly understood transition from the Late Neolithic period to the Early Chalcolithic period (ca 4000-3900 cal. BC). Kalavasos Kokkinoyia features at least two anomalous traits: an extensive chamber and tunnel complex and the complete absence of any animal or botanical remains. These features set the site apart from other sites of the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods in Cyprus. This paper summarises recent findings at Kalavasos Kokkinoyia in the wider context of Cyprus in the late 5th and early 4th millennia BC and poses some questions regarding the nature of site diversity at this time.

Late Bronze Age Gaza: prestige production at el-Moghraqa

The Bronze Age locale of el-Moghraqa lies in an area of farmland and sand dune north of the wadi Gaza, approximately 700 m north of Tell el-‘Ajjul. This area, the Palestinian terminus of the ‘Ways of Horns’ (Oren 1987; 1993), was a key point of economic and military contact between Egypt and southern Palestine. El-Moghraqa was discovered in 1996 (Clarke & Steel 1999: 2 2 3 4 ) and the Gaza Research Project has completed two seasons of fieldwork at the site: survey in 1999 and preliminary soundings in 2000. Unfortunately, given recent developments in Palestine, fieldwork has been suspended. A variety of Bronze Age artefacts were found in the survey: small quantities of pottery, Canaanite blades, ground stone fragments and finished prestige objects (carnelian beads and an alabaster kohl bottle). The exotica apes Egyptian New Kingdom luxuries of funerary character, a phenomenon also observed in the Dynasty XVIII cemetery at ‘Ajjul (Steel 2002: 41-2,45). However, this funerary aspect was not confirmed in subsequent excavations. The most significant remains are fragments of terracotta cones stamped with the prenomen of Thutmose 111 (c. 1479-1425 BC). Two cone-fragments were also identified with broken stamps of his co-regent Hatshepsut’s prenomen. Such cones are unique in SyroPalestine, but are extremely similar in form, construc-

The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara Survey Project 1993-1995

The National Museums of Scotland is engaged in producing an up-to-date archaeological and sub-surface geophysical map of an interesting and little explored area of the necropolis of Memphis at Saqqara. The area concerned comprises the Gisr el-Mudir (also known as the ‘Great Enclosure’) at the southern boundary, the open valley between the Sekhemkhet complex and the Gisr el-Mudir stretching north to the Serapeum and containing the L-shaped enclosure at the Old Kingdom tombs around the mastaba of Ptahhotep, the area of the Serapeum and its dependencies and the valley to the north-west of the Sacred Animal complex down to the edge of the remnant lake at Abusir in the north. Structural details, ceramics, archaeological contexts, human and animal skeletal remains from sondage trenches excavated to confirm geophysical anomalies are described and discussed.

Style and Society in Ceramic Neolithic Cyprus

Abstract The Ceramic Neolithic period in Cyprus is distinctive because of the multifaceted similarity observable in the surviving material culture. It is only in the ceramic repertoire that regional variation is clearly detected and this is most evident in the surface treatment on decorated pottery. Regional variation in material culture is known to have occurred in prehistoric societies where external influences acted upon internal social and economic structures, thereby contributing to diversity. In Ceramic Neolithic Cyprus there is little evidence for external influences and consequently the specific diversity in surface treatment on painted pottery would appear to have been caused by other factors. The aim of this study is to examine the archaeological evidence from Ceramic Neolithic Cyprus with a view to understanding why regional variation can be observed in the decoration on pottery while the society as a whole was essentially homogeneous in all other aspects of its material culture. It is argued that regional variation in the decoration on pottery is expressed as style and that it represented formally structured social behaviours that evolved as a way for individuals and groups to negotiate their economic and social space.

Gaza Research Project: 1998 Survey of the Old City of Gaza

Abstract This article presents results of the first season of fieldwork conducted by the Gaza Research Project in 1998. Fieldwork comprised small-scale topographic survey around the old city of Gaza and reconnaissance of other second millennium tell sites in the region, namely Tell Ali Muntar. The primary aims were to examine the chronological and topographical relationship of two proximate tell sites lying at the southern limits of the Levantine coastal plain, between the Wadi al-Hasi and the Wadi Gaza, and to assess the feasibility of excavation of ancient Gaza.

Ceramic Neolithic pottery in Cyprus—origin, technology and possible implications for social structure and identity

This paper presents the results of a petrographic study conducted on a selection of 88 Cypriot ceramic Neolithic vessels, originating at seven sites, representing various geographic regions on the island. The study is aimed at determining their place of origin and disclosing details about the technology of their production. All the vessels studied were found to be locally made on the island. There are, however, indications that there was restricted movement of ceramic vessels within defined regions of the island. In addition, a clear distinction between the production technologies of coarse ware and painted ware was observed, reflecting island-wide shared technological traditions. However, even within these seemingly uniform technological traditions, regional variations can be observed. These observations support previous interpretations suggesting a division between ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ social groups on the island during the Ceramic Neolithic period.

New volumes on the Vasilikos Valley in CyprusIan A. Todd. Vasilikos Valley Project 9: The Field Survey of the Vasilikos Valley Volume I (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology LXXI: 9). xviii+210 pages, 50 figures, 51 plates. 2004. Sävedalen: Paul Åström; 91-7081-125-3 paperback

An interesting observation is that in some areas, (Lower Franconia is mentioned), the incidence of inhumations in warrior graves is much higher than that for the buried population as a whole – suggesting that such people attracted special attention in more ways than just their grave-goods. In some periods, indeed, mounds were erected over their burials, which were usually cremations (the norm for Urnfield burial). Clausing is concerned to show that warrior graves were different in a series of ways, not least because some of them attracted a wide range of other rich accoutrements (such as the famous wagons from the graves at Poing or Hart an der Alz). Items of symbolic significance – the Kesselwagen from Acholshausen or the modelled birds from Hart and Poing – were also provided. Not all areas were treated in quite the same way in terms of warrior gravegoods, as Clausing goes on to demonstrate. Whether this variation is a real reflection of different fighting traditions is a matter that cannot easily be resolved, though Clausing is able to make some suggestions. This is a thorough piece of work, which opens the prospect for far-reaching conclusions about warrior society in the Urnfield period in central Europe. The level of detail is too great for easy reading, and some of the material might have been better presented in tables. Nevertheless, there is much to value in this work, and it will prove a very useful source for those interested in the Bronze Age warrior phenomenon. With perseverance it will also be possible to move further into the world of the warrior, and through a contextual approach even to put flesh on the bare bones of the burial record. That is a task which Clausing did not undertake; but thanks to his efforts, and those of Wüstemann, those who want to will find a rich vein of material to mine.