The Heracles-Melqart Head from The Hatay Museum

Introduction The preceding chapters have emphasised the deliberate nature of the creation of all aspects of material culture. In this way, changes in Etruscan material culture are accorded particular importance in the transformation of late sixth-century Etruria. As a result, such changes cannot be explained simply in terms of a natural evolution towards a more ‘sensible’ form, or in terms of the importation of ‘superior’ models; instead, the changes in Etruscan material forms are characterised by an increased concern with surface as a means of expressing difference. I have argued that the boundaries of physical entities became, in the sixth century bc , condensed to their visible, exterior surfaces, and further, that such physical distinctions echoed ontological ones. Thus, the outer, visible surface of the body, the tomb, the temple, the house and the city became the point at which these entities conceptually began. Surface thus became crucial for the expression of difference and identity in late sixth-century Etruscan material culture. The importance of surface is not absolute or universal: the treatment of surfaces and boundaries changes over time and space, and is therefore relational. In the areas of Etruscan material culture examined here, for example, the treatment of surface in the late sixth century is more acute than that in the seventh century. The multiplicity of choices and decisions that were made by artisans in the creation of material culture led to objects and spaces that emphasised, to a greater extent than before, boundaries and distinctions through the explicit manipulation of their visible surfaces.

THE FIND OF ANCIENT COINS IN THE TIASMYN RIVER BASIN FROM THE SIXTH TO THE FIRST CENTURY BC

Three unfinished column drums discovered at the Kalaureia Research Program excavations in 2007–2009 can be shown to have been intended for a monumental Archaic Ionic votive column. All drums have systematic masons’ marks on the contact surfaces. The latter parts of the inscriptions indicate the position of the drum in the shaft. Two alternative readings for the first part of the inscription are suggested: the first interprets it as a building instruction and the second as a price indication. The start of the building project took place very likely in the second half of the sixth century BC, and the deposit date of the fill surrounding the blocks indicates that the unfinished project was abandoned in the late sixth century BC. Reconstruction of the column shaft from the known drum dimensions demonstrates that the finished shaft would have been constructed with a slight entasis.

Klazomenai, in North Ionia, is unique in comparison to the other city-states in the region because of diverse archaeological evidence. Current data from the settlement suggest a smooth transition from the end of the second into the first millennia BC. In this article, we discuss the development of the defense systems of Klazomenai dating to the Early Bronze Age II (EBA) and the Archaic period. Excavations in the area close to the Olive Oil Plant of the sixth century BC revealed a bastion of the EBA II, protecting the lower town of a site (Level 1), which has an upper citadel located at Liman Tepe. Following its termination, the area was used for pottery production and as a cemetery during the Early Iron Age (from ca. 11th century into the early 7th century). In the early seventh century BC, the construction of the fortification wall protecting Klazomenai, define the limits of the asty and marks the formal design of the urban layout of the site (Level 3a). The use of the area as a burial ground was terminated following the construction of the defense system. The formation of the various extramural cemeteries surrounding Archaic site is linked with this change. Architectural features of the fortification wall of the seventh century BC, with a glacis, reflect a well-rooted tradition of Iron Age Anatolia. The construction of the gateway with a deep corridor marks the final phase and belongs to the late sixth century BC (Level 3b).

The aim of this paper is to provide an update to the debate concerning the production technology of bucchero pottery, as well as presenting new data on the use of raw material for its manufacture and the temperatures of firing. This interdisciplinary research focused on a period of technological changes in bucchero production during the sixth century BC, by applying a quantitative analytical approach using X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Thermogravimetric Analysis and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTG), and multivariate statistical analyses. A series of samples from northern Etruria (mainly the area of Volsinii) were compared with products from Veii, Ardea, Segni and Pompeii. XRF and XRD analyses provided quantitative results, statistically analysed, concerning the use of raw material, both calcareous and non-calcareous, and the technology of firing where temperatures reached 950°C or above. TG analysis proved that the black surface of bucchero was due to reduced iron oxides and the presence of carbonaceous material on the surface. However, XRD results demonstrated that firing occurred at a high temperature and the ratio between aluminium and iron in the samples led to the formation of hercynite, an iron-aluminate spinel. The results of the study show that during the sixth century BC the changes in technology to obtain a quality bucchero production were related to a sufficiently long soaking period at a high temperature in a reduced atmosphere, regardless of the presence of calcite in the source material.

This paper attempts to bridge the gulf between two often separate research agendas in Archaic period Etruria, one concerned with the archaeology of wine and agricultural production and redistribution, the other with figured representations of drinking and the associated symbolic visual language. It does so by examining the relationship between changing processes of production, consumption and exchange and the symbolism of drinking in the visual and material culture of sixth-century bc Tyrrhenian Etruria. In this analysis, I maintain that changing modes of agricultural production and distribution had an impact on such symbolism in elite funerary and domestic contexts, with key evidence also coming from sanctuaries. In particular, it is argued that during the seventh century bc, the visual language related to wine drinking alludes to experiences of bodily otherness; this is indicated by the symbolic correlation between accessibility to wine, the dangers of maritime travel and death. From the sixth century bc, we can trace a shift towards a visual language that centred on cultural difference or otherness: this is noticeable in the introduction of Dionysiac imagery and new mythological narratives of cross-cultural encounters, as well as in a new emphasis on codified drinking and culturally differentiated drinking vessels. This shift is more or less contemporary with other changes, namely the production and distribution of agricultural surplus in the Tyrrhenian region and beyond, and shifting values of objects in that exchange.

An international team of researchers show how high-precision radiocarbon dating is liberating us from chronological assumptions based on Biblical research. Surface and topographic mapping at the large copper-working site of Khirbat en-Nahas was followed by stratigraphic excavations at an ancient fortress and two metal processing facilities located on the site surface. The results were spectacular. Occupation begins here in the eleventh century BC and the monumental fortress is built in the tenth. If this site can be equated with the rise of the Biblical kingdom of Edom it can now be seen to: have its roots in local Iron Age societies; is considerably earlier than previous scholars assumed; and proves that complex societies existed in Edom long before the influence of Assyrian imperialism was felt in the region from the eighth – sixth centuries BC.

<p>The VESTA project (Valorizzazione E Salvaguardia del paTrimonio culturAle attraverso l’utilizzo di tecnologie) deals with the experimental integration of advanced technologies designed for safeguarding and prospecting sub-soil and ancient structures as well as the management of the information derived from the carried out investigations. The final goal is to support the end users with regard to their conservation, safeguard and discovery activities.</p><p>The pilot site test of the Project is the Archaeological Park of Paestum, which is located in the Southeast of the Gulf of Salerno, Italy, and was built by the Greeks and later strengthened by the Lucani and the Romans. Today, the Archaeological Park of Paestum is recognised by UNESCO as part of the World Cultural Heritage thanks to the excellent state of conservation of its structures, especially the three majestic temples: the Temple of Hera (sixth century BC), the Temple of Neptune (fifth century BC) and the Temple of Ceres (sixth century BC). These are remarkable examples of Doric style architecture.</p><p>The technological skills made available by the VESTA team are based on:</p><ul><li>Earth observation tools, such as satellites (optical and radar) for the large-scale identification of critical issues, both natural and anthropic, involving cultural heritage and around them;</li> <li>Mini-micro UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) equipped with multispectral, thermal and radar optical sensors and aimed at detailed soil and wall structure analysis;</li> <li>High and low frequency terrestrial radar (GPR - Ground Penetrating Radar) for inspections of masonry and subsoil structures respectively;</li> <li>Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) for the investigation of the subsoil.</li> </ul><p>These technological solutions are key tools for identifying and mapping possible degradation phenomena of ancient structures identifying dangers related to the surrounding environment that could compromise the state of conservation of the monuments inside the park. Therefore, their use as well as the cooperative exploitation of the provided results allow an improvement of knowledge about the critical aspects of the territory and the state of conservation of the artefacts, in order to facilitate the planning of maintenance interventions. Specifically, the gathered data are made available to site manager via St’ART ™ web platform, which allows a simple consultation of results collected during VESTA project campaigns thanks to reports and thematic maps.</p><p>Acknowledgment: The authors would like to thank the VESTA project “Valorizzazione E Salvaguardia del paTrimonio culturAle attraverso l’utilizzo di tecnologie innovative” by which the present work has been financed. The VESTA project is co-founded by the Campania Region within the POR-FESR 2014-2020 program.</p><p> </p>

The historic territory of Valencia is being analysed in the frame of a new research project, Valentia Landscape Project, aiming to characterise the dynamics of the Valencian Cultural Landscape from the Iron Age (seventh - sixth century BC) to the Modern period. An important part of the project is focused on Antiquity and one of its major goals is reviewing through a new archaeomorphological analysis, the ancient road network, in order to study historical field systems and to analyse the centuriation hypothesis proposed up to now. The archaeomorphological analysis has allowed us to propose new hypothesis about the origin and dynamics of the Valencian Cultural Landscape. In this sense, the study has attested the presence, in the present landscape, of many axes whose origin is related to the Roman centuriated road system. Multidisciplinarity and a long-term approach have brought a high level of precision to this work’s results.

The insula del menandro (pompeii I 10) is one of a number of large and slightly irregular blocks lying between the presumed old part of the city (the Altstadt, roughly equivalent to the area south of Via delle Terme and Via della Fortuna and west of Via Stabiana) and the regular rectangular grid which occupies the eastern part of the final walled city (the Neustadt) . It has traditionally been believed that the Altstadt was the original settlement, dating perhaps to the seventh or sixth centuries BC, and that this expanded during the fifth or fourth centuries to accommodate a massive rise in population; but research since the early 1980s has suggested that there was a circuit of walls on the present line as early as the sixth century BC, in which case the Altstadt should perhaps be regarded as a religious or commercial enclave marked off within the city—a ‘kind of acropolis’, as Kockel describes it. None the less, it is clear that the development of the walled area did not take place in one fell swoop but represents a series of successive phases spread over a period of time. A crucial phase In the process was the laying out, perhaps in the early third century BC, of the city’s three major streets: the principal cardo, Via Vesuvio/Stabiana, and the two main decumani, Via delle Terme/della Fortuna/di Nola and Via dell’Abbondanza. The creation of our quarter ought logically to have come soon after, since It is predicated upon the existence of the new thoroughfares. The positions of Via di Nola and Via dell’Abbondanza were determined by dividing the length of Via Stabiana into three; the divisions so created were then bisected by further decumani aligned upon the towers of the eastern defences, and the central and southern zones were further subdivided to establish a series of rhomboidal blocks roughly 60 m. wide and deep. This phase extended only a couple of blocks east of Via Stabiana, and our insula is one of those on the eastern periphery. The rectangular grid to the east is clearly later.

Article The Blacksmith of Fonteblanda. Artisan and Trading Activity in the northern Tyrrhenian in the Sixth Century BC was published on June 1, 2002 in the journal Etruscan and Italic Studies (volume 9, issue 1).

Educating our future generation-The role of nurse managers in encouraging civility.

Pindar and the Digital Economy. Recent interpretations of Pindar’s poems have highlighted their inclusion in the world of the elites in the late sixth and early fifth century BC. These interpretations have been favored by Pindar’s own insistence on social exchanges : charis is the ubiquitous word which characterizes them, and which appears also behind the metaphors of “ expenditure” (dapanè) and “ charge” (ponos). Thus Pindar himself encouraged modern interpreters to understand with socio-economic terms the values system that accompanies epinikion and that he broadcasts. But new economic theories can also bring new light to the socio-cultural phenomenon that is Pindar’s epinikion : redefining the concepts of “ good”, “ consumption” and “ market”, they help us to avoid the assimilation of the Pindaric expenditure to degradation, destruction and annihilation. The link made by Pindar between expenditure and glory takes on new meaning, which will not disappoint the advocates of information economy or of digital economy.

Around 7500 BC Mesolithic hunter-gatherers travelled across the land bridge that connected southwest Scotland with northern Ireland. From the sixth century BC, the island was invaded by Celtic tribes, including the Gaels, who established pastoral communities within massive stone forts. The Gaels also created settlements in Scotland (Dál Riata) and west Wales. Christian missionaries reached Ireland in the third century AD. St Patrick, born in Britain, lived and preached in Ireland from c. 432 until his death c. 465. Christianity found a haven in Ireland in contrast to much of northern Europe, ravaged by fragmentary forces following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Later, Irish missionaries took Celtic Christianity to Britain and continental Europe. By the fifth century AD there were five leading Gaelic kingdoms: Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Meath. Vikings first appeared on the Irish coast in the late seventh century. A full-scale Viking invasion in 795 heralded more than two hundred years of Scandinavian influence. Dublin became a key outpost in the Viking diaspora.

ARGOS, another of the important Archaic city-states, with its sanctuary of Hera nearby, also played an important role in the production of architectural terracottas. Some early roofs display a distinctive style based on the Protocorinthian system, a style which continues in its basic form from its inception around or before the mid-seventh century BC until the first quarter of the fifth century BC. A second style, which probably represents a second local workshop centred in the eastern Argolid, begins somewhat later, early in the sixth century BC, and favours Corinthian style rather than the local one. This Corinthianizing workshop also continues production until the end of the Archaic period, its quality rivalling that of Corinth itself by the third quarter of the century.