Archaeology of the Hellenistic East Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by Achim Lichtenberger
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- Classical Archaeology, Classics, Jewish Studies, Hellenistic History
- by Rubina Raja
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- Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Roman History, Hellenistic History

In Kleinasien und Syrien gibt es zahlreiche Tempel, deren Architektur Hinweise auf eine Kultausübung auf dem Dach gibt. Dabei handelt es sich zum einen um Treppenhäuser, die zum Tempeldach emporführen, zum anderen um Türöffnungen in den Giebelfeldern von Tempeln. Beide Eigenschaften treten bisweilen auch an ein und demselben Tempel auf, so dass zunächst ein Zusammenhang zwischen diesen beiden Eigenschaften naheliegend erscheint. Im folgenden soll jedoch gezeigt werden, dass Treppenhäuser und Giebeltüren unterschiedlichen Kulttraditionen und Funktionen dienten. Die Treppenhäuser entstammen der religiösen Tradition Mesopotamiens und Syriens und führen auf Flachdächer oder Terrassen auf den Tempeln, auf denen Opfer und andere Rituale stattfanden. Die Herkunft der Giebeltüren liegt dagegen in Anatolien. Hier wurde die Epiphanie der jeweiligen Gottheit durch Schauspieler aufgeführt, der Tempelgiebel wurde dabei zur Bühne eines rituellen Dramas. Die Verbreitung beider Architekturformen und damit Kulttraditionen fand in hellenistischer Zeit statt und ist Ausdruck der seleukidischen Religionspolitik.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

- by Nikolaus L Overtoom
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- History, Ancient History, European History, Military History

Sardis became a city sometime in the early first millennium BCE, and it remained the largest urban center in Lydia for a period of about 1500 years. Over that time its fortunes and character changed, as did its relationship with its large, fertile, rural surroundings. In this paper I examine this relationship during a span of three to four hundred years, from the 5th/4th through the 2nd/1st centuries BCE. I compare locally produced and imported pottery recovered in excavations at Sardis itself with that found by the Central Lydian Archaeological Survey (CLAS), an intensive field project covering about 350 km2 around the Gygean Lake. There is an odd, counter-intuitive, correlation between the political importance of Sardis and its rural settlement. During the city's years of political stature, survey results show that many people lived out in the hinterland, far from the city. In the second century BCE the pattern switched. After the Seleucid defeat at Magnesia (190 BCE), when Pergamon took control of Sardis and its territory, and the city became just another urban center, its political glory became a thing of the past. At this precise time, according to the CLAS survey data, the countryside emptied out and people moved back into the city. I consider the reasons behind this paradoxical situation, in which political stature and urban prosperity are seemingly at odds with one another.

- by Lyuba Kirakosyan and +1
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- Architecture, Armenian Studies, Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Art
- by Anna Kouremenos
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- History, Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology
- by Joan Breton Connelly
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Cypriot Archaeology, Cyprus

VOLUME TEN of the Proceedings of the Tocharistan Expedition is dedicated to the history of the ancient city-site on the river Oxus – Kampyrtepa – in the Hellenistic period, from the conquests
of Alexander the Great, in the late 4th century BC, through to the last Graeco-Bactrian king of the city, in about the late 2nd or early 1st century BC. It sums up the results of the long-term archaeological excavations carried out at the site to date and gives an account of the site layout,
fortifications, stratigraphic evidence and collected material, all relating to the period under review.
In particular, three building periods have been identified for Hellenistic Kampyrtepa. During the first period, dating from the end of the 4th century BC up to 235/230 BC, a strongly fortified phrourion was built – – with towers, gates, bastions, and other defences. At the same time a
large sanctuary was established inside the fortress. Based on written sources and archaeological records, the author claims that the first Graeco-Macedonian ever built in Transoxiana by Alexander the Great was at the site of Kampyrtepa.
Besides this, the book provides a survey of data which throws light upon the localization of Alexandria Oxiana, in particular the correlation of the archaeological assemblages from Ai Khanum and Kampyrtepa. Also described are the chief characteristics of the Post-Hellenistic period in
the history of the site, and discussions on a range of questions regarding the presence of Sakas and Parthians in the Oxus valley and in Kampyrtepa.

- by Edvard Rtveladze
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- Archaeology of the Hellenistic East

Throughout history, the Seleucid military might demonstrated
many times its importance for the maintenance, expansion and defense of the Empire. Rarely the Seleucid army was defeated in a campaign and it happened in front of the almighty Rome. After the defeat at Thermopylae and Magnesia, and following the imminent withdrawal must conquer the Ptolemaic Empire, the new king Antiochus IV Epiphanes held a military parade as never been done before, its real purpose is unknown, but the Seleucids showed the world the power that still had the Empire. Through the stories of several classic sources, we can come closer to this event and what
it could entail.

- by Arturo Sanchez Sanz
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- Religion, History, Ancient History, Sociology

The present study explores the origins of Jewish ritual immersion – inquiring when immersion first appeared as a rite of purification and what the reasons may have been for this development specifically at this time. Textual and archaeological evidence suggest that immersion emerged at some point during – or perhaps slightly prior to – the first half of the first century B.C.E. It is suggested here that the practice grew out of contemporary bathing practices involving the Hellenistic hip bath. Through a process of ritualization, full-body immersion emerged as a method of purificatory washing clearly differentiated from profane bathing. By way of a subsequent process of 'hyper-ritualization', some ventured further to distinguish purificatory ablutions from profane bathing by restricting use of 'drawn water' for purification and by assigning impurity to anyone who bathed in such water. Before us is an enlightening example of one of the many ways wherein Jewish religious practices evolved and adapted in response to Hellenistic cultural innovations.

- by Yonatan Adler
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- Religion, Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology

Ab ca. 300 v. Chr. entstehen im Mittelmeerraum Heiligtümer, die – mittels
aufragender Terrassen auf Fernsicht konzipiert – als ansteigende Sakralräume inszeniert sind. Trotz des großen Effektes auf die Architekturgeschichte bleibt die Genese dieses Bautyps im Unklaren. Dies verwundert, wenn man auf ein berühmtes ägyptisches Bauwerk blickt, das in eben dem Moment zu neuer Bedeutung kam, als in der Ägäis die ersten Terrassenheiligtümer entstanden.

- by Wolfgang Thomas Filser
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- Egyptology, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Asclepius, Greek sanctuaries

In this dissertation, I investigate the relationships between Greek, Sanskrit, and local religious practices in the Gandhara region of Northwest India as expressed in a set of the so-called Gandharan palettes (also known as cosmetic or toilet trays, Falk, 2012, 89-92). I will specifically look at how different artistic and religious tropes were utilised in the palettes’ imagery, which traditions they drew from, and how the balance between said tropes changed over the timespan of the palettes’ use from the 2nd Century BCE to the 2nd Century CE. I will then use these insights to show how specifically these tropes were re-appropriated or mixed to create a truly local tradition. My main questions revolve around what the palettes were used for and how their iconography borrowed and re-interpreted tropes from other cultural spheres. I use these to understand how these tropes were mixed together to bring forth a new symbolic vocabulary.

- by Christos Nicolaou
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- Buddhism, Hinduism, Classical Archaeology, Classics

Η εργασία αυτή, διδακτορική διατριβή του Σωτήρη Ραπτόπουλου εξετάζει ζητήματα οικονομικής ιστορίας των Κυκλάδων, μέσω της επαναξιολόγησης των παλαιότερων ερευνών και της παρουσίασης νέων. Στόχος είναι η εύρεση των βασικών στοιχείων των οικονομιών των Κυκλάδων –αλλά και οι διαφοροποιήσεις που τα συστήματα αυτά υφίστανται κατά το πέρασμα από τους ελληνιστικούς στους ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους.

- by Sotirios Raptopoulos
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- Historical Geography, Archaeology, Greek History, Historical Archaeology

“Cyprus in the Age of Empires: Hellenistic and Roman Periods, 310 B.C. – A.D. 330,” in S. Hadjisavvas, Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations (Nicosia, 2010) pp. 173-195.

Mythology facilitated encounters with the Unknown in the Hellenistic East. Alexander’s campaigns ushered in an epoch where Greeks and Easterners not only warred and traded with one another but lived together in large numbers. This meeting of the minds, as I aim to show, was facilitated by mythology. Eastern and Hellenic peoples were able to negotiate their distinct cultures with the aid of mythical kinship, stories, and figures. Myths acted as an intermezzo between Greeks and unacquainted races and locations. However, even before this interaction took place, myths were a source of solace for Alexander during his campaign in unfamiliar territory. History regularly describes the general as either imitating or communing with mythical heroes. The mythological was often called upon as a form of guidance for Alexander, illuminating his mysterious past and calling.

E. Galili, D. Syon, G. Finkielsztejn, Varda Sussman and G.D. Stiebel, Late Ptolemaic Assemblages of Metal Artifacts and Bronze Coins Recovered off the Coast of ‘Atlit, Israel, 'Atiqot 87, 2016, pp. 1-35

- by Guy Stiebel and +1
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- Hellenistic History, Metallurgy, Metal Finds (Archaeology), Hellenistic Roman and Byzantine Archaeology in the Land of Israel

Abstract – The site of Ashdod-Yam is located on the coast of Israel, ca. 5 km northwest of Tel Ashdod, serving as its main coastal settlement during the Iron Age. Following the uprising of Yamani, the rebel king of Ashdod against the Assyrians, Ashdod was destroyed in 712/711 BCE and the region’s center of gravity was shifted from Ashdod to Ashdod-Yam. The Iron Age enclosure of Asdod-Yam was tested archaeologically between 1965 and 1968, under the
directorship of Jacob Kaplan and according to him, the impressive fortifications were built at Ashdod-Yam by Ashdod’s rebels in anticipation of the Assyrian attack. Following the first season of renewed excavations, the remains of massive ancient fortifications have been rediscovered. The construction, however, appears too impressive to have been done in hurry and the fortifications were probably erected in order to protect a man-made harbor, created either before the rebellion or slightly afterwards. During the period of Assyrian domination, Ashdod-Yam became one of the most important Assyrian international emporia at the empire’s Mediterranean frontier. More recent ruins from the Hellenistic period were also discovered. These buildings were found destroyed as a result of an earthquake, most probably accompanied by a palaeo-sunami.

- by Alexander Fantalkin
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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Earth Sciences, Assyriology

The mosaic pavements in the House of Leukaktios in Ptolemais (Cyrenaica, Libya), newly discovered - by a Polish team from the University of Warsaw under the direction of T. Mikocki (1954-2007), have shed new light on the decoration of dining rooms in Ptolemais during the Roman period. It seems that in the principal triclinium of this house klinai were arranged in the Greek manner (according to E. Morvillez) and the second room, identified as an andron/triclinium, might have occasionally had klinai placed inside it. The authors propose to compare these
mosaics with pavement mosaics discovered in two others houses in Ptolemais: two in the Palazzo delle Colonne and three in the Roman Villa, both these structures having been excavated and published by Pesce and Kraeling in the 20th century.

- by Marek Titien Olszewski (Marek Tycjan Olszewski) and +1
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- History, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Mythology

Among the 45 cisterns and other underground chambers that are known to exist within the area of the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif, the only ones to have been securely dated hitherto on stylistic and other criteria are those of Medieval date. Many of the others are difficult to assign due to the very limited archaeological information that is available. However, there is a pair rock-cut cisterns (Schick nos. 15 and 29; Warren nos. 22 and 34) which are of a distinctive kidney shape, conforming to a type known to date to the second century BCE. Drawings of these cisterns made by Conrad Schick over a century ago, preserved in the PEF archives in London testify to the resemblance in several particulars.

The small Hellenistic sanctuary at Vau i Dejës (Northern Albania) was discovered in only 2015. The small village is located in the northeast of the Zadrima plain which extends between the modern cities of Shkodra and Lezha, formerly the ancient poleis of Skodra and Lissos. The site which is situated on a hill is marked by a rugged rock surface. The remarkably rich finds consist chiefly of sherds from fine Hellenistic ceramics and further of terracotta fragments from a female deity as well as Hellenistic coins and metal objects. In addition, there were some vessel fragments and coins from the period of Late Antiquity. Not one single object could be attributed to the Roman Period (1st–3rd centuries AD).

The Ituraeans first came to the notice of the Classical writers as highland bandits who disrupted Alexander the Great’s siege of Tyre. Throughout the later Hellenistic and early Roman periods, the Ituraeans are referred to only in their capacity as rapacious brigands and this negative bias is perpetuated by most modern publications in which they are discussed. The outward expression of the Ituraeans, as displayed through their coinage (produced between 73/2 and 20 BC), presents a picture which contrasts with the written history: Hellenisation rather than barbarian recalcitrance and legitimacy in the face of external imperialism rather than insurrection. This paper examines the imagery employed on Ituraean coinage in its political and cultural context and discusses the significance of the exploitation of different dating conventions. It demonstrates that the Ituraean tetrarchs prized their political autonomy above all else and perceived themselves to be the legitimate successors of the Seleukid state.

- by Claus Ambos
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- Archaeology, Assyriology, Ancient Religion, Hellenistic Bactria

This article presents a preliminary study of the pottery collected during the 2012 and 2013 campaigns of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project (University of Udine, Italy) in Iraqi Kurdistan. The report examines the morphology, distribution and relative implications of a wide spectrum of ceramic types, whose chronological range spans from the Early Pottery Neolithic to the Sasanian period. In particular, it focuses on the local aspects of the material culture - as well as on regional and trans-regional connections - and thus aims at placing the pottery assemblages in the broader perspective of Upper Mesopotamia's diverse ceramic traditions.
Despite its preliminary nature, this report embodies a substantial overview of the ceramics surveyed, which will serve as a departure point for future inquiries and more detailed analyses of the ceramic traditions of the Upper Tigris region between the 7th mill. BC and the 7th century AD.

- by Rocco Palermo and +2
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Pottery (Archaeology), Landscape Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology

This volume focuses on bronze and other metal finds from several ancient sites of Asia Minor and other regions in the Mediterranean. It consists of four main parts and 45 papers in total which deal with various genres of ancient bronze material. The papers include analysis of pre-Greek, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine bronzes from Anatolia, as well as studies of bronzes from Georgia, Greece, Iran, Italy, Serbia, and Slovenia. Key sites are covered, such as Allianoi, Arycanda and Olba, Roman and Early Byzantine cities in western and southern part of Turkey. The volume also contains a common bibliography for researchers interested in Asia Minor and neighbouring regions. Readers will discover numerous unpublished materials as well as new insights into the bronze archaeology of Anatolia and more broadly across the rest of the ancient eastern Mediterranean.

- by Ergun LAFLI and +7
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Classics

The Hellenistic era opens with Alexander the Great’s triumph over Achaemenid Persia, an event that inaugurates a millennium of western political hegemony over the Levant and paves the way for an infusion of western cultural ideas. This chapter explores the social repercussions of this juncture of politics and culture for five self-identifying ethnoi within the region: Tyrians, Sidonians, Samaritans, Idumeans, and Judeans. Material and written evidence reflects the development of individual agency, opportunity, status, and authority. In the later second century B.C.E., when waning imperial powers left the region’s ethnoi effectively autonomous, Judeans unleashed an aggressive program of territorial acquisition, most successfully against Idumeans and Samaritans. Contemporary writers turned these events into historical accounts that offered people templates by which to situate themselves in place and history, templates ill-suited for co-existence. By the later first century B.C.E., under Herod and successor Roman authorities, the social landscape was mined and ready to erupt.

Rohmer J. (2020), D'Aram à Rome. La Syrie du Sud de l'âge du Fer à l'annexion romaine, Beirut: Presses de l'Ifpo (Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 217). In French, with English summary.
In the vast basaltic region of Southern Syria commonly known as Ḥawrān, the long period spanning the Iron Age to the so-called ‘pre-provincial’ period (12th cent. BC – late 1st cent. AD) remains poorly known, especially compared to the neighboring regions of the Southern Levant. Based on excavations and surveys carried out in the region for nearly forty years, in particular by the French Archaeological Mission in Southern Syria, this study combines an archaeological approach with a critical review of relevant written sources in order to attempt a first comprehensive historical account of these South Syrian "dark ages". Regardless of the conventional division between the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, it adopts a longue durée approach in order to better characterize the continuities, evolutions and disruptions in the region’s settlement patterns and material culture between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the integration to the Roman Empire. Based on a chronological framework and dating criteria established in Chapter 1, this study provides a catalogue of Iron Age to pre-provincial sites identified in the different areas of Ḥawrān (Chapters 2 to 4), before presenting a first overview of the region’s history, historical geography, settlement cycles and material culture in the Iron Age (Chapter 5) and Hellenistic/pre-provincial periods (Chapter 6).

- by Jérôme Rohmer
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Hellenistic History, Settlement Patterns, Syria

This introductive chapter to the volume « The Archaeology of Central Asia during the 1st Millennium BC » outlines the circumstances of the organisation of this workshop during the 10ICAANE. It comes back on the main issues of the long period covered, which includes both the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, on a vast territory covering Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan), Afghanistan and Pakistan. He goes into detail about the sometimes obscure chronology of the period and outlines the main features of each chrono-cultural stage.

The Getty Villa holds one of the world’s largest collections of luxury silver vessels from the Parthian period of ancient Iran (ca. 238 BCE–ca. 224 CE). This article imparts several new insights into one of its most well-known objects: the stag rhyton. Discoveries include a new inscription on the vessel, technical observations from the first endoscopic examination of its interior, and a new correct weight. The main inscription has heretofore never been integrated into art historical discussions. In addition to presenting a new transliteration, transcription, and translation for the main inscription, this article establishes a more precise date for the vessel. The stag rhyton has served as an important point of reference for dating silver vessels from Hellenistic and Parthian Iran in collections worldwide. In several cases, however, the rhyton’s previously accepted date conflicts with other assessments. The new date range presented here may resolve such discrepancies. In addition, the article presents new corrected technical information for the Getty's two lynx rhyta, whose weights were recorded incorrectly in previous publications.

- by Matthew Canepa
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- Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Buddhist Art
- by Vasiliki Brouma and +1
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- Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Hellenistic Greece, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Hellenistic Sculpture