Paleogeographic and historical aspects of the ancient polis functioning on the example of the study of the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis

The earliest evidence of synagogue institutions consists of two inscriptions and one papyrus text from mid- to late 3rd-century bce Egypt mentioning the term proseuchē, one of seventeen Greek, Latin, and Hebrew terms used in antiquity that are translated into English as “synagogue.” (It should be noted, however, that some scholars would argue that the term proseuchē—at this time—referred to Jewish temple institutions rather than synagogues.) In the 2nd and 1st century bce, we find an increase in the number of inscriptions and papyri referring to synagogues as well as a greater geographic spread of the remains of synagogues. During this time we also find the first mention of these institutions in literary texts. The earliest architectural remains identified by a majority of scholars as synagogue buildings date from the 2nd or 1st century bce. By the 1st century ce, in addition to the continued and increasing presence of architectural and inscriptional evidence, we find frequent mention of synagogues in literary texts, both Jewish and non-Jewish: Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and Greco-Roman texts. Geographically, evidence from this time period come from most parts of the Mediterranean world, making a circle with Italy in the west, Hungary and the northern shores of the Black Sea in the north, Syria in the east, and Egypt and Libya in the south. Intriguingly, there are few archaeological remains dating from the 2nd century in the land of Israel (only one edifice, if we follow the dating proposed by the excavators). From the 3rd century onward, and particularly in the 4th and 5th centuries, there is a dramatic increase in synagogue construction. In addition, most of these late antique buildings are, in contrast to earlier synagogues, richly decorated.

The discoveries at Cape Beikush allow us to significantly expand and refine our understanding of the nature and extent of local influence on the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region. The decisive factor in the formation of the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region at the initial stage was the meeting of the colonists with a powerful ideological phenomenon – the veneration of the local tribes (relic Aryans) almost continuously, since the IV millennium BCE, AXI-the Serpent – the first Ancestor and personification of the Indo-European worldview born in the Northern Black Sea region. The earliest archaeological evidence of the Achilles worship in the Northern Black Sea region dates from the end of the VII – early VI centuries BC and is associated with a cult complex of Achilles in the Lower Buh region (‘Lower Pobuzhzhia’), combining Berezan’, Beikush and Velyka Chornomorka II. This allows us to distinguish a special and earliest stage in the development of the cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region: the end of the VII – early V centuries BCE, when the sanctuary of Achilles on Beikush ceased to exist. After that, in other places of Achilles’ worship in the Northern Black Sea region, the «Serpent» features of the cult of Achilles on Beikush were no longer repeated. In other words, the image and cult of Achilles was no longer associated with serpents. This indicates a gradual loss of syncretism of these images and cults due to the decline of local, «barbaric» influence on them after the 5th century BCE. This is also due to the fact that AXI-the «Serpent-ancestor» was for the Greek colonists, obviously, an alien deity. The subsequent transfer of the center of the veneration of Achilles to the Island of Levke seems to be the realization of the need to bring the cult important for further colonization (to completely abandon the cult of AXI-the Serpent – the «master» of the Northern Black Sea Region to the colonists, surrounded by «barbarians», was clearly unprofitable) in accordance with the already existing legends about the White Island and Homer’s Achilles, as well as with the «norms» of the Delphic oracle, which clearly did not meet the «barbarian» Beikush. The appearance in Roman times of the cult of Achilles Pontarchus – the «Lord of the Black Sea» and God cannot be explained by anything other than the great importance of the prototype of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region in previous times, from the beginning of the formation of the Indo-European community.

Since its conquest by Rome in the 2nd century BCE, Roman notables were a constant presence in Greece. While various sites on the mainland served as battlegrounds for Roman civil wars during the 1st century BCE (e.g., Pharsalus, Actium, Philippi), the early imperial period was characterized by the use of various Greek islands as places of – often self-imposed – exile and/or isolation for such notables as M. Vipsanius Agrippa (Lesbos) and Tiberius (Rhodes). Other imperial Romans sojourned in the Aegean islands for different reasons. Augustus spent a winter on Samos after his victory at Actium, using it as a temporary powerbase for the refinement of his imperial plans, and he visited it and other islands again as emperor. While the first two Julio-Claudian emperors maintained close contacts with the Greek world, in the 2nd century CE Hadrian took this connection a step further and promoted Hellenism as a major part of his imperial policy. Naturally, the Greek islands played an important role in imperial politics during his reign, but only as components of the wider Hellenic world and not as isolated entities. Hadrian visited Rhodes and Paros to restore and venerate older Hellenic monuments – the Colossus and the tomb of the poet Archilochus respectively – and possibly Samothrace in order to be initiated into the Mysteries of the Great Gods. He also visited other islands in Greece, but his exact travel itinerary can only be speculative given our fragmentary literary and epigraphic evidence. In this paper, I focus on Hadrian’s presence on the Aegean islands and argue that during his reign they served mainly as sites that allowed for the implementation of his imperial plans by virtue of their easy access from the mainland Greek and Asian provinces. Accordingly, by promoting certain aspects of older Hellenic culture on specific islands, Hadrian conferred renewed prestige to these islands in the Roman Empire.

The contacts of the population of the Scythian times, both settled and nomads, with the Greeks of the Northern Black Sea region left a corpus of various finds, including ancient coins. Among the corpus of ancient Greek coin finds on the territory of the North-Eastern Kirovohrad region, that is the border of the forest-steppe and the steppe, a special place belongs to the early coins of the ancient Greek policies from the Kerch Strait. The article analyses the hoard of 12 small silver tetartemorions coins of Panticapaeum and Hermonassa the end of 6th -beginning of 5th centuries BCE with the diameter of a coins near 5-9 mm and weight 0,13-0,38 g, which was found near the urban-type settlement of Nova Praha, Oleksandriia district, Kirovohrad region, in September 2019. The tetartemorions of Panticapaeum has stylized image of an ant on the obverse, and quadratum incusum on the reverse. The tetartemorions of Hermonassa (city-poleis in the Northern Black Sea region located a few miles of Panticapaeum, on the opposite shore of the sea) has uncertain image, possibly it is a silhouette of a sea animal (?), possibly it is a bow (?), under the picture is a line on the obverse, on reverse there is a quadratum incusum with four points. The complex of small coins of Panticapaeum and Hermonassa the end of the sixth – beginning of the fifth centuries BCE as well as a whole corpus of other finds of ancient Greek coins testify to the existence of economic, particularly, trade relations of the population of the Steppe and Forest-Steppe zones of the Scythian era with the ancient world. The find of the hoard of the small coins of Panticapaeum and Hermonassa on border of the forest-steppe zone near the other known single finds of the Bosporan Kingdom coins in this region indicates the use of these petty silver coins in trade operations of representatives of the Greek apoikias of the Northern Black Sea region with the surrounding population of the Scythian era

Scholars frequently cite fuel scarcity after deforestation as a reason for the abandonment of most of the Roman iron smelting sites on Elba Island (Tuscan Archipelago, Italy) in the 1st century bce. Whereas the archaeological record clearly indicates the decrease in smelting activities, evidence confirming the ‘deforestation narrative’ is ambiguous. Therefore, we employed a stochastic, spatio-temporal model of the wood required and consumed for iron smelting on Elba Island in order to assess the availability of fuelwood on the island. We used Monte Carlo simulations to cope with the limited knowledge available on the past conditions on Elba Island and the related uncertainties in the input parameters. The model includes both, wood required for the furnaces and to supply the workforce employed in smelting. Although subject to high uncertainties, the outcomes of our model clearly indicate that it is unlikely that all woodlands on the island were cleared in the 1st century bce. A lack of fuel seems only likely if a relatively ineffective production process is assumed. Therefore, we propose taking a closer look at other reasons for the abandonment of smelting sites, e.g. the occupation of new Roman provinces with important iron ore deposits; or a resource-saving strategy in Italia. Additionally, we propose to read the development of the ‘deforestation narrative’ originating from the 18th/19th century in its historical context.

The article focuses on the search for the necropolis of Absyrtus (Apsaros), the son of King Aietes of Colchis, who, according to the myth of the Argonauts, was treacherously killed. The search is located within the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological and architectural reserve, situated on the banks of the Chorokhi River on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Based on the study of museum exhibits, aerial photographs, and writings by authors from various historical periods, and using simulation modeling, a hypothetical model of Absyrtus necropolis has been developed. This model brings together the following structures into one architectural ensemble: the Mausoleum of Absyrtus, the Temple of Artemis, a theater, and a hippodrome. None of these structures have been discovered to date. History of construction/reconstruction of the hippodrome and theater treated as a single functional system is considered across several working hypotheses, distributed chronologically as follows: during the Roman period (1st century BCE 2nd century CE); from the 8th to 1st centuries BCE; in the 13th century BCE in connection with the concept of Absyrtus necropolis and/or Circe’s mystical space (“Circus Campus”); or even prior to the 13th century BCE. The proposed model is intended for archaeologists, as well as specialists in the history of sports, arts, religion, politics, onomastics, cartography, science management, cognitive studies, and international relations, along with politicians and business figures.

One of the most notable features of ancient Sagunto (Valencia) is its toponymic duality, especially remarkable in coin legends from the 130s BCE onwards, which is an exceptional fact for Hispania Citerior, in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Both toponyms, Arse and Saguntum, are not simultaneously attested in other sources: they are virtually absent in Republican epigraphy and literature only mentions the second one, in diverse variants. This paper analyses the data relative to this double toponymy in order to historically contextualize this phenomenon, linking it with the Latinization of the city and its explicit movements towards Rome during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, a process that we propose to articulate in four main milestones, according to the preserved documents. Besides, this paper offers an explanation to the prevalence of the toponym Saguntum (of local origin and possibly referred to the port) regarding Arse (also local and referred to the city), independent from the elaboration of the foundational myth that links the Iberian settlement with the Ionian island of Zacynthos, since it is very likely that this legend was not created until the 1st century BCE

The main focus of this study was to examine 25 samples of archaeological ceramic materials currently preserved in the Archaeological Museum of the Ancient Capua and Mitreo investigated in the framework of an international project. These samples primarily consist of architectural terracotta from the Fondo Patturelli extra-urban sanctuary, as well as architectural terracotta, pottery and waste material from the nearby Alveo Marotta furnace.To investigate these artifacts, a multi-analytical mineralogical-petrographic approach was performed. Thin section observations revealed that almost all samples exhibit a coarse-grained paste. The fragments were categorized into three petrographic groups based on the type and quantity of temper, which is mostly composed of volcanic grains. They include lithics and juvenile fragments (obsidians and pumices) ascribed to the products of the major Campanian eruptions as detected via FESEM-EDS. Bulk chemical analyses (WD-XRF) show that almost all samples form a homogeneous group made with Ca-rich clayey raw materials, also including three wastes of tiles from the Alveo Marotta. By contrast, other two wastes from Alveo Marotta were produced with Ca-poor clay suggesting the use of a different raw material.From a technological point of view the samples are characterized by a thermal range that varies from 750 to 900 °C, notably different between the earlier and later production periods, with the former fired at lower temperatures.

THE BOOK OF ESTHER: A PERSIAN STORY IN GREEK STYLE

This dissertation examines the influences of systemic pressures and spatial perspectives on state decision-making through a multi-layered study of the rise of the Parthian state within the Hellenistic Middle East (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) and of the military conflicts within the Hellenistic Near East (1st century BCE) in two parts. By examining domestic policy and international relations in this period through this theoretical and methodological approach, this study clarifies the process by which the Parthians and Romans became the two remaining powers of the ancient world and eventual rivals. It uses two major research strategies: (1) a reevaluation of the available literary, epigraphical, and numismatic evidence, for instance Babylonian colophons and Parthian coin sequences, to challenge Graeco-Roman perceptions and literary traditions of these events and (2) an introduction of modern international relations theory to reevaluate the composition and impact of the international environment in this period. This project bridges gaps in Roman and Parthian studies and challenges the generally Roman-centric viewpoint of modern scholarship toward these events. Further, it rejects the popular argument that the Romans were belligerent aggressors against weak and passive eastern polities, including the Parthians. Instead, it contends that Parthia and other ancient states in the Near East exercised considerable agency in their domestic and foreign policies and possessed the will to pursue aggressive policies against one another and against Rome but ultimately lacked the Roman capability to do so on such a large and sustained scale. This dissertation reevaluates the actions not only of Rome and Parthia, but also of numerous Greek and Eastern states, especially the Seleucid Empire, Bactria, Armenia, and Pontus. It concludes that, prior to the middle 50s BCE, the Romans and Parthians, despite their eventual mutual interest in dominating the Near East, had separate, isolated geopolitical perspectives that rarely concerned one another. As their geopolitical interests began to overlap in the Near East in the 90s-60s BCE, a new interstate system suddenly emerged as an indirect result of the military ambitions of Mithridatic Pontus and the Kingdom of Armenia and as a direct result of Crassus’ disastrous invasion of Mesopotamia in 53 BCE.

The work presents the results of the anthropological and paleopathological analysis carried out on human skeletal remains of an individual (T-173) found in a burial from the necropolis “sector 96”, Messina, Sicily, dating back to the Roman Empire (1st century BCE – 1st century CE). The study aimed to acquire the information necessary for the reconstruction of the biological profile. In fact, T173 is an adult male which is particularly interesting from a paleopathological point of view, showing skeletal anomalies from the cranial to the post-cranial skeleton probably caused by variations of genetic, neoplastic, articular and dental nature. Furthermore, the analyses have highlighted the possible cause of death, related to two perimortem traumatic lesions on parietal bones.

Can we speak of a canopy—an architectonic object of basic structural and design integrity, most often comprising four columns and a roof—as a ‘primitive hut’ in Byzantine architecture? This chapter posits that Byzantine canopies can indeed be viewed in this way. The primitive hut—the essential architectural unit and the ideal principle for architecture—was first outlined by Vitruvius in the 1st century BCE, further theorized by Laugier in the 18th century and elaborated as a hut-tent-cave by Quatremère a century later. The role of a canopy as a hut-tent, examined within the general concepts of space and place of the Byzantines, may be extrapolated from biblical texts as well as from preserved 6th-century texts by Dionysius the Areopagite, who first introduced the philosophical notion of type and archetype, and is also manifest in texts by early Christian and Byzantine theologians, such as Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (2nd century), and Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople (8th century). Augmented by visual and spatial models of the canopy, which were strongly related to the Ark, the Tabernacle, and the Temple, and further enriched by Christological and Marian concepts, the canopy emerges as an architectural parti, invested with its own material-immaterial complexity and particularly highlighted within the performative contexts of the religious traditions of the Byzantine-rite churches. The Byzantine canopy should be considered in relation to biblical architectural references, enhanced by the pervasive influences of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic philosophies, which reiterate the notion of Vitruvius’s hut, in contrast to the rationalist and positivist elaboration of the primitive hut by Laugier and Quatremère. In this context, the origins of the Byzantine canopy—both the hut and the tent—cannot be located in the natural world, however, but in nature as absolute, in divine creation. Yet both the canopy of the Byzantines and the primitive hut of Laugier, Quatremère, and other modern architectural thinkers promote the pursuit of the truth in the matter by giving type (shape) to the typeless (shapeless) archetype. Such an understanding of the primitive hut is also the basis for understanding tectonics in architecture as suspended between its physical and metaphysical realms. The canopy of the Byzantine-rite church can and should be understood as a ‘primitive hut,’ this chapter suggests, as a theoretical house, an intellectual exercise, an aesthetic concept, and a design principle in architecture, which is critical for including Byzantine accomplishments within revised architectural typologies and for the more inclusive systematization of architectural knowledge.

A thorough investigation on Gandharan toilet-trays, taking into consideration archaeological, social and religious data along with iconographic, stylistic and technical issues, is still to be done. The following notes are mainly aimed at suggesting a new perspective in the chronology of these fascinating finds, which, according to an apparently unshakable assumption, have been and are still considered as a bridge linking the Hellenistic (i.e. Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek) period and the threshold of the Kushan epoch. Toilet-trays are commonly thought of as a pre-Gandharan (and pre-Buddhist) chapter in the art of the North-West of the Indian Subcontinent or a preparatory as well as experimental stage (2nd and 1st centuries BCE) of Gandharan sculpture in its proper sense (from the 1st century CE onwards). G. Erdosy’s reconsideration of the archaeological data yielded by J. Marshall’s excavations at Sirkap, and the chronological shift deriving from it, indicate that the picture sketched above might not be the right one: since a major percent of Sirkap toilet-trays is very likely to be dated into the 1st or even the early 2nd century CE, we are compelled to re-evaluate their relationship with Gandharan art.

The Romans developed an account of their early history which was organized by the reigns of seven kings. By the 1st century bce, they had settled on a standard chronology for these kings, and in the following sequence: Romulus 753–717, Numa Pompilius 716–674, Tullus Hostilius 673–642, Ancus Marcius 641–617, Tarquinius Priscus 616–578, Servius Tullius 578–534, Tarquinius Superbus 534–509. It is clear from archaeological evidence that Rome from the 8th to the 6th century bce was in a period of significant growth and transformation. There are a number of exciting finds which have been related to the historical account. This account however was the product of a long period of development, and the narrative as it developed came to reflect the contemporary concerns of Roman politics. So research on Roman kingship has to take account of both the possibility of genuine history underlying the account, and the literary and artistic motivations which led to the transformations of the story over time. The relationship between these two is the subject of significant methodological discussion, on a spectrum from attempts to directly relate the historical account to archaeological finds, to significantly more skeptical claims that connections are coincidental and that the historical record is wholly unreliable. The third strand of investigation is institutional history and includes the controversy over the so-called leges regiae, the alleged legal precursors to the codification of law in the Twelve Tables from the mid-5th century bce, and the transformation of the Roman constitution into one characterized by shared time-limited office-holding. A quite different approach sees the kings as encoding deep mythological structures, and argues for a reconceptualization of the early history of Rome as a mythical rather than a historical sequence. Although this has been less popular recently, aspects of this scholarly approach have been influential in other fields of study. This is particularly true of social anthropology and the history of religion, where Dumézil’s classification of the Roman kings has been influential but controversial (see section Roman Kings and Indo-European Mythology).

The topic of the publication is devoted to the process of forming the image of the Northern Black Sea region in European society in the times of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Northern Black Sea region had its own peculiarities of mental, verbal and artistic perception. It is revealed that many works are devoted to the perception of the region by representatives of other cultures, among which L. Wolff work dedicated to the study of transformations of mentally-geographical landmarks of Western Europeans should be noted. Wolff tried to prove that numerous traveler-diplomats, writers, adventurers, merchants, and scholars have laid the foundations for the image of the region and as a «civilized» West looked at the «backward» Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region. The Age of Enlightenment was merely a statement of the millennial genesis of this figurative perception. The roots of this process date back to ancient times. The research is based on an analysis of the works of antique, medieval and early modern authors, which have a clear positioning in relation to the Northern Black Sea region. The study of the genesis of perception of the Northern Black Sea region by representatives of «civilized» cultures is the main goal of this publication. It was defined that both «antique» and «medieval» European threat and trouble came from the east, while the closest «eastern» region to the Europe was the Northern Black Sea region. Like the Scythians and Sarmatians in ancient times, and the Huns during the Great Migration of Peoples, and the destruction of the Roman Empire, the Mongol invasion, the Tatar-Nogai raids firmly established in the minds of Europeans the image of this land as a «hellish» place. It is noted that the ancient «sivilis» clearly contrasted itself with the Black Sea «barbarus» and considered it dangerous. Subsequently, after the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire, along with the civilization criterion religious was added. Now, the «sivilis», which was associated with «christianitas» (Christianity), contrasted itself with the «barbarus», which consolidated «religia pagana» (paganism).