Opuscula 9 (2016) is now available for purchase and free download at bokorder.se Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Later, laterculus, and testa. New perspectives on Latin brick terminology By Henrik Gerding Abstract For centuries antiquarians and archaeologists have tried to reconcile the terminology of ancient writers on architecture, such as Vitruvius, with the perceived realities of the material record. One particular issue of debate concerns the interpretation of different words for “brick” in Latin. In this paper it is argued that earlier attempts to settle this question are unsatisfactory and leave several problems unresolved. A thorough examination of literary and epigraphic sources, combined with new insights in Hellenistic brick usage, suggests that primary distinctions in Latin brick terminology were based on shape and size, rather than on a mere division between fired and unfired bricks. Thus, it is argued that later basically signified a large moulded block, but normally was used to indicate mud bricks; that laterculus changed over time from being a diminutive (a small later) to becoming the standard term for the relatively thin fired bricks of the Roman Imperial period; and that tes­ta originally and primarily signified a fragment of a roof tile (or…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Terenz’ Hecyra—Spiel der Voreiligkeiten By Gregor Maurach Abstract Rashness was one of the most urgent themes and most poignant reproaches in Greek experience and reasoning from the 5th century BC onwards: Thucydides complained of rash actions during the Peloponnesian War that led to disaster; Sophocles showed Deianeira rashly sending the lethal garment to her husband on his return with Iole, and Plato made his Socrates expose the rashness of his interlocutors’ assertions again and again. Small wonder, then that Comedy, especially the New Comedy, seized upon this all-pervading deficiency, as can be seen for example in Menander’s Perikeiromene and Epitrepontes, where impulsive young men nearly destroy their lives by acting and judging precipitately. Roman Comedy naturally followed suit, for example Terence in Heautontimorumenos as well as in his Hecyra, where he followed Apollodorus: time and again his characters assert what they do not know for certain and time and again they act according to unwarranted assumptions, a pivotal theme that hitherto seems to have been underrated. Bibliographical information Gregor Maurach, ‘Terenz’ Hecyra—Spiel der Voreiligkeiten’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. The Swedish Jordan Expedition 2014 at Tall Abu al-Kharaz. Preliminary results from Areas 12 and 13 By Peter M. Fischer & Teresa Bürge Abstract In previous seasons excavations have concentrated on the periphery of the city of Tall Abu al-Kharaz, a multi-period tell in the Central Jordan Valley. Tall Abu al-Kharaz flourished from the Early Bronze to Islamic times, from roughly 3200 BC to the 10th century AD. The main object of the field work in 2014 was to investigate the area around the geographical centre of the city (Area 12). Preference was given to further investigation of the Iron Age sequence, i.e. the period from the 12th to the 7th centuries BC (local Phases IX–XV). Another task was to extend the excavations in the northern part of the city, Area 7, which produced essential information on the Iron Age, towards the south (Area 13) in order to generate a coherent picture of Iron Age occupation in the city’s northern half. Domestic structures and a system of fortified walls were uncovered. The rich find assemblage confirmed connections with the Cypriote…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Loom weights in Archaic South Italy and Sicily: Five case studies By Hedvig Landenius Enegren Abstract Textiles are perishables in the archaeological record unless specific environmental conditions are met. Fortunately, the textile tools used in their manufacture can provide a wealth of information and via experimental archaeology make visible to an extent what has been lost. The article presents and discusses the results obtained in a research project focused on textile tool technologies and identities in the context of settler and indigenous peoples, at select archaeological sites in South Italy and Sicily in the Archaic and Early Classical periods, with an emphasis on loom weights. Despite a common functional tool technology, the examined loom weights reveal an intriguing inter-site specificity, which, it is argued, is the result of hybrid expressions embedded in local traditions. Experimental archaeology testing is applied in the interpretation of the functional qualities of this common artefact. Bibliographical information Hedvig Landenius Enegren, ‘Loom weights in Archaic South Italy and Sicily: Five case studies’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 8, Stockholm 2015,…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Cutting the Gordian knot. The iconography of Megaron 2 at Gordion By Susanne Berndt Abstract This article examines the incised drawings of Early Phrygian Gordion, and in particular those of Megaron 2. Aspects of their iconographic and archaeological contexts are taken in to consideration, as well as literary sources and especially the story of the Gordian knot. The focus of the study is a series of incised labyrinths, which have hitherto not been recognized as such, but which are of particular interest for the analysis of this building. The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth helps to throw light on both the images of Megaron 2 but also on the story of the Gordion knot, and how these are interlinked with each other. It is suggested that Ariadne’s ball of thread and the Gordian knot are two different expressions of a similar concept; both represent sovereignty provided by a Goddess. Megaron 2 seems to have been a building that was intimately connected with both the king and the Phrygian Mother Goddess. Bibliographical information Susanne Berndt, ‘Cutting the…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Two new Proto-White Painted ware vases of the pictorial style from Palaepaphos, Cyprus By Vassos Karageorghis & Efstathios Raptou Abstract The publication of two Proto-White Painted ware pictorial style vases found at the necropolis of Palaepaphos-Skales in Cyprus is preceded by a discussion of several issues relating to this style which appeared early in the 11th century BC. In recent years scholars have expressed conflicting views about the origin of the silhouetted pictorial motifs (birds, quadrupeds, human figures etc.), which appear next to the linear geometric decoration on such vases, usually amphorae and kraters. Some have expressed the view that the influence comes from Syria. Here it is proposed that the silhouetted figures of Proto-White Painted ware are derived from a Cypriote style with both local and Aegean characteristics, which developed in the 12th century BC. The pictorial motifs of this style, drawn both in outline and silhouette, are combined with linear geometric motifs, also in panels. In Proto-White Painted ware the pictorial motifs become rare and small. In order to be distinguished from the dominant linear geometric motifs they…

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition 2014. Excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke. Preliminary results. By Peter M. Fischer & Teresa Bürge. With contributions by B. Stolle, I. Trinks, L. Mazzotta, L. Recht, A. Lindqvist & D. Kofel. Abstract The initial aim of the project—the search for the oldest city of Hala Sultan Tekke—continued in 2014. Geophysical methods were used, which led to the discovery of new city quarters, and a broadening of the research objectives, to include revealing the total extent of the city. The GPR survey indicated a huge stone compound of at least 50 m × 40 m to the west of a probable street. Excavations continued in Area 6 West, where in 2013 a domestic and industrial compound was excavated as part of a hitherto unknown city quarter. The 2014 field work exposed stone-built structures and rich find contexts with locally made and imported pottery, numerous tools and several items of gold and silver jewellery. The violent destruction of the most recent layer of occupation, Stratum 1, which had been observed during previous seasons, was once again confirmed….

Opuscula 8 (2015) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. The Charitonidis Class: A group of large Athenian Late Protogeometric skyphoi By John K. Papadopoulos Abstract This article assembles and publishes a group of distinctive large Athenian Late Protogeometric skyphoi. Aspects of shape and decoration are fully discussed, so too the evidence for establishing the date of the group, as well as their distribution. The group, if not the potter, is named after the man who published two complete examples of the class from the South Slope of the Athenian Acropolis: Serapheim Charitonidis. Bibliographical information John K. Papadopoulos, ‘The Charitonidis Class: A group of large Athenian Late Protogeometric skyphoi’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 8, Stockholm 2015, 7–26. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977798-7-6. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-08-02

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. A note on domestic vs communal grain storage in the Early Helladic period By Monica Nilsson Abstract This paper sets out to propose an alternative model of economic management at settlements of Early Helladic I–II date, where evidence of socioeconomic hierarchies is not prominent in the archaeological material. It is suggested here that the remains of certain original structures within the boundaries of settlements were once granaries which served the whole community. If this reading of the material is accepted, then communal storage seems to have supplemented domestic storage or constituted the sole method of grain keeping at a number of settlements during the initial stages of the EH period. The practice was then abandoned and, with one exception, after the EH II–III break there is instead a strong case for domestic storage only. A potential EH I–II communal management of basic food supplies thus carries wider implications for the interpretation of the general management of settlements. Bibliographical information Monica Nilsson, ‘A note on domestic vs communal grain storage in the Early Helladic period’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age By Sarah P. Morris Abstract This article assembles examples of an unusual vessel found in domestic contexts of the Early Bronze Age around the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Identified as a “barrel vessel” by the excavators of Troy, Lesbos (Thermi), Lemnos (Poliochni), and various sites in the Chalkidike, the shape finds its best parallels in containers identified as churns in the Chalcolithic Levant, and related vessels from the Eneolithic Balkans. Levantine parallels also exist in miniature form, as in the Aegean at Troy, Thermi, and Poliochni, and appear as part of votive figures in the Near East. My interpretation of their use and development will consider how they compare to similar shapes in the archaeological record, especially in Aegean prehistory, and what possible transregional relationships they may express along with their specific function as household processing vessels for dairy products during the third millennium BC. Bibliographical information Sarah P. Morris, ‘Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish…