{"title":"British School at Athens","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780904887761","title":"Kouphovouno","description":"The excavations of 2001–06 at the site of Kouphovouno, near Sparta, have shed important new light on the prehistory of southern Greece. Finds span the Middle and Late Neolithic of the sixth millennium BC, the Greek Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC), an extended Middle Bronze Age cemetery (early-mid second millennium BC), as well as documenting Late Roman remains. The results from this open site provide a useful foil to those from cave sites, such as the Franchthi Cave and Alepotrypa, which hitherto have dominated the narrative for the Neolithic Peloponnese. \n\nModern archaeological techniques focused on Kouphovouno’s oikistic structure, the village economy and material culture, its chronological sequence, the site’s geomorphological and ecological context, and the comparison of pre-excavation survey (artefact collection, coring, sedimentology, geophysical prospection) with the results of excavation. Innovative methods of analysis include isotopic characterisation of plant and animal remains to investigate the farming regime, and the site’s chronology has been clarified through a combination of stratigraphy, seriation, and Bayesian analysis of 14C dates. Indeed, a full battery of scientific studies inform the interpretation of the findings: micromorphology of sediments, ceramic petrography, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, micro- and macroscopic study of the macrolithics.\n\nThe Volume presents a full account of the excavated areas and stratigraphic soundings. This feeds into an analysis of the site’s relative and absolute dating. There follow Chapters detailing ceramics, chipped stone artefacts, macrolithics, plus one on bone tools, figurines, metal objects and minerals, ornaments and other finds. These are contextualised with parallels in particular, but not solely, from southern Greece. Specialised overviews follow. The first covers the funerary and skeletal analyses (with an appendix on aDNA of human skeletal remains). Then the environmental evidence is presented with important conclusions on agriculture and animal husbandry. Next the architectural remains are discussed with reference to building materials, construction techniques, living spaces and site formation. The final Chapter presents a brief review of Kouphovouno in its chronological and geographic context. The archaeological detail which underwrites the analysis, including the full petrographic study of the ceramics, is available on the BSA website and it is intended that this should also be a quarry of data for future research.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295541145973,"sku":"9780904887761","price":210.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780904887761_d0d2ef29-368e-4678-91f5-858b0e64bb98.jpg?v=1786016116"},{"product_id":"9780904887747","title":"Knossos: From First to Second Palace","description":"This volume presents the pottery from a series of deposits excavated by Sir Arthur Evans in the palace at Knossos and assigned by him to the last part of the Middle Bronze Age or Middle Minoan III. The substantial architectural modifications seen in this period are examined along with stratigraphy to give proper context to the pottery deposits. Middle Minoan III was the time when Knossos appeared to expand its reach across Crete: from the First Palace Period, when palaces at Malia and Phaistos rivalled Knossos, to the Second Palace Period, when seemingly they diminished and other smaller palaces were built. These changes unfolded over the course of the Middle Minoan III period, divided by Evans into two sub-phases, MM IIIA and MM IIIB. He used many palatial deposits to define these phases. However, he did not present the pottery, stratigraphy and architecture in full, leading eventually to some ambiguity over the status of the period. This detailed study revisits more than a dozen of these contexts, to provide a more solid footing for the phasing and use of the Middle Minoan III palace. The investigation confirms that it is possible to distinguish not only between MM IIIA and MM IIIB, but also between early and late MM IIIA; this distinction enables a more nuanced understanding of the significant changes in architecture and material culture that were taking place. Furthermore, ceramic analysis highlights some of the functions of the palace at this time, with a plethora of conical cups and very few fine tablewares suggesting particular kinds of feasting; and a large number of imported transport and storage wares from off-island locales in the Aegean, such as the Cyclades, Dodecanese, and coastal Anatolia, pointing to a level of connectivity and exchange not previously recognised. This volume demonstrates that much new information can be extracted from legacy material excavated more than a century ago, through the use of a methodology that integrates ceramic, stratigraphic and architectural evidence.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295564050805,"sku":"9780904887747","price":140.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780904887747_8f92cf2a-b6e8-4dbe-a317-04da685cbbb6.jpg?v=1786016114"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-british-school-at-athens.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}