Eighth Century BC Research Articles

The Cumae armour group: a South Italic panoply at the Royal Armouries

In 1853, at the sale of the collection of the Count of Milan of Sicily, the Ordnance Office at the Tower of London purchased a South Italic panoply, ostensibly from Cumae, for £200. The set included a winged helmet, a cuirass, a pair of greaves, thigh protectors, a belt, a sword and scabbard, and a spearhead. The Cumae armour, belonging to a high-status warrior, can be broadly dated on stylistic grounds to about 375–25 BC and exhibits a sophisticated interplay of imagery relating to Hermes, Gorgons, and boars. The weapons date to the eighth century BC and are thought to have been added to the panoply in the nineteenth century to make a more attractive and visually ‘complete’ collection for display or sale.

The settlement of Yauna, ‘Ionian’ identity and the Greek presence on the Syrian coast in the second half of the eighth century BC: a reassessment of two letters from the Nimrud correspondence

AbstractWe offer a reassessment of two letters from the state correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria (r. 744–727 BC) with the earliest references to a town called Yauna and a people called the Yauneans, as encountered on the eastern Mediterranean coast by the newly established imperial administration. Past scholarship connected these Assyrian terms with the ethnonym ‘Ionians’ and/or the toponym ‘Ionia’. The study narrows down the location of Yauna, drawing also on a review of the coastal sites that have produced Greek ceramic imports: although identification remains elusive, Yauna was certainly situated in the territory of the kingdom of Hamath, and later the Assyrian province of Ṣimirra. Discussion of the historical and cultural background of Yauna’s foundation highlights its significance for the ‘transfer debate’ and the phenomenon of the ‘Greeks overseas’. We argue that the Assyrians first encountered the Yauneans in this locality and that, to them, they were originally simply the inhabitants of Yauna. Due to the similarities perceived between them and (other?) Greeks appearing in the eastern Mediterranean, the Assyrians came to apply the ethnonym universally to all these people, who eventually adopted it for themselves. Thus, we support the argument that the term ‘Ionian’ originated in external nomenclature.

From royal court to ancestral shrine: transposition of command documents in Early Chinese epigraphy

While the earliest attested Chinese manuscripts date only from the late fifth century BC, bronze inscriptions cast between the tenth and eighth centuries BC provide abundant evidence of the administrative use of manuscripts at the royal court, especially during the appointment ceremonies in which the royal secretaries read out the king's command to the aristocratic elite. These command documents were sometimes quoted at length in inscriptions cast on the ritual bronze vessels by these appointees, who had them displayed in their ancestral shrines and used them in ancestral sacrifices and ensuing feasts. Based on the epigraphic evidence, this paper explores various aspects of manuscript production in the Western Zhou administration (1045--771 BC) and investigates the complex editorial process behind the textual transfer from the command documents onto bronze ritual paraphernalia. Through an analysis of various editorial approaches to the composition of bronze inscriptions, the value and status imputed to manuscripts by Western Zhou aristocracy has been further discussed. Such reconstruction of lost manuscript practices can enrich our understanding of textual production not only during the Western Zhou period but in Early China in general.

The Syro-Anatolian City-States: An Iron Age Culture

The Syro-Anatolian City-States: An Iron Age Culture

Sarah C. Murray, The Collapse of the Mycenaean Economy. Imports, Trade and Institutions 1300–700 BCE.

This book derives from a PhD dissertation defended at Stanford University in 2013, added to by further research in following years. It treats a topic of considerable importance in any discussion of the degree of continuity between the civilisations of the Aegean Bronze Age and that of the early Greeks, which was becoming well established in the eighth century BC (all dates cited subsequently are BC), and the reality or otherwise of an intervening ‘dark age’.

Technological change and cultural resistance among southeast Iberian potters: analytical characterisation of Early Iron Age pottery from Castellar de Librilla

The beginning of relationships between autochthonous communities and Phoenicians from the earliest contacts in the eighth century BC made possible the exchange of ideas, technologies and people. This work analyses the development of the Early Iron Age potteries of the Iberian Southeast, the impact of the Phoenician presence and the agency that these local groups exercised on their ceramic assemblages until the fifth century BC. The incorporation of new archaeometric data from Castellar de Librilla, one of the region’s main autochthonous settlements, has been essential to improve our approach to these cultural encounters. A total of 63 representative individuals have been analysed through X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), thin-section petrography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results point to the local production of ceramics previously considered as Western Phoenician pottery, and to the degree of specialisation of the potters established in the autochthonous settlements, combining traditional and new techniques from early in the period of contact.

The Phoenician diaspora in the westernmost Mediterranean: recent discoveries

Important discoveries over the past 15 years in the coastal area between Huelva and Málaga in Spain have illuminated the beginnings of the eighth-century BC Phoenician diaspora into the Western Mediterranean. Here, the authors combine Bayesian modelling of recently published radiocarbon dates with the latest archaeological data to investigate the Phoenician presence in southern Iberia. Their assessment of its significance for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the Western Mediterranean contributes not only to understanding the integration of the Phoenicians into local communities, but also to apprehending the mechanisms of colonisation and pre-colonial situations elsewhere in protohistoric Europe and other world contexts.

POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE TO WEALTH IN HOMER’S ODYSSEY

This article examines the ways in which poverty, as a condition, and as represented by poor individuals, poses a challenge to wealthy, elite characters in the Odyssey. Great, almost revolutionary, changes took place in Greece in the eighth century BC, when the Odyssey was most likely composed. The audience of the epic, it is argued, comprised both wealthy, elite and poor, non-elite persons. The bases of wealth and poverty in the Odyssey were land, or the lack of it. Reflecting the instability of the eighth century, the Odyssey repeatedly presents a fall into poverty as a very real, challenging possibility for wealthy individuals. In the epic, the presence of poverty in their midst, as represented by the ‘beggar’ (Odysseus in disguise), tests the humanity and compassion of the characters whom he meets. The suitors fail the test, reacting with cruelty and contempt to the poor man. Eumaios and Penelope rise to the challenge, showing pity and generosity of spirit. The Odyssey thus indicates that moral goodness is independent of wealth and status, and thatpity and compassion are the appropriate responses to the poor.

Atmospheric and anthropogenic deterioration of the İvriz rock monument: Ereğli-Konya, Central Anatolia, Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine the extent of deterioration of the limestone on which the Ivriz rock monument is engraved. This monument is near Aydinkent (Ivriz) village and located 12 km from the Eregli district of Konya. The height of the Ivriz Hittite monument is 4.20 m and its width is 2.40 m. It dates back to the second-half of the eighth century BC. The rocks on which the reliefs are engraved are limestone; the lower parts are brecciated with open cracks, and the upper parts show fewer cracks with smaller gaps. To enable the identification of the characteristics of the rocks on which the figures are located, non-destructive methods were used. Surface humidity, P wave velocity, thermal imaging, and Schmidt hardness measurement were applied to the wall surface of the monument, and mapping studies were conducted. Surface humidity varied between 26 and 58% with the highest values measured in the sections where the cracks are densest. The P wave velocity measured at the rock monument varied between 1.6 and 5.8 km/s, with the lowest values found in the sections where cracks were denser. Schmidt rebound values varied between 18 and 42, with higher values obtained in those sections with fewer effects of deterioration. According to the detailed observations and data obtained from non-destructive techniques (NDT) and laboratory data, the most significant deterioration has resulted from atmospheric conditions and damage by humans. The most common effects of degradation in this area are erosion by water, granular disintegration, cracks, microkarst, black crust, biodegradation (lichen, algae, and higher plants), and vandalism.

A unique cultic complex of the transitional period from the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in Western Siberia

Abstract

Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel

Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel

When the Sun Meets Okeanos

In the Aegean, a landscape of small islands and peninsulas means that views of theSun rising or setting over the sea are commonplace. Yet this everyday occurrence can produce adazzling spectacle known as the “glitter path” – a line of bright sunlight reflected on the water,linking the seashore and the horizon. This paper explores how this phenomenon was elaboratedas a form of seascape by the Aegean Greeks from Late Bronze Age (LBA) III through to the Archaicperiod, examining how it was incorporated into their worldview as something natural assimilatedinto the cultural. The diachronic perspective focuses on elements of continuity and discontinuityregarding beliefs about the world beyond. First, funerary pottery iconography from LB III (ca.1400–1100 BC) is examined: in particular, a close relationship between the Sun and the sea can beinferred from imagery on Octopus Style funerary jars, where abstract representations of glitterpaths seem to appear in the shape of hybrid octopuses. The evidence suggests that the octopuswas depicted as the light-bearer within the darkness of the sea, with marked eyes to emphasisevision. The second part of the study gathers proof of allusions to the phenomenon of the glitterpath in early Greek poetry as suggested by the descriptions of the door of Hades and gates of theSun in the first literary documents produced in Greece from the eighth century BC, most notablyin the works of Homer and Hesiod, but also in the poetry of Pindar, Mimnermus and Stesichorus.

Oak wood degradation processes induced by the burial environment in the archaeological site of Biskupin (Poland)

The open-air Archaeological Museum in Biskupin (Poland) preserves and shows to the public a prehistoric settlement of Lusatian culture dating back to Early Iron Age (eighth century BC). The monitoring of the environment and dynamics of the wood degradation in the burial conditions at the site is fundamental for the in situ preservation of archaeological wooden materials. A monitoring program thus started in 2003 at the Biskupin site, using contemporary sound oak wood that was placed in two wet burial environments, characterised by different conditions. A multi-analytical protocol was exploited to obtain information on the structural, physical and chemical conditions of the buried wood. The study involved the application of gravimetric and wet chemical analysis, and instrumental techniques, including infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and analytical pyrolysis (Py–GC/MS) to evaluate alterations in the buried oak wood over a 10-year period. The results showed that, during the burial period in both monitoring stations, there was only limited chemical transformation of the polysaccharide component, mostly involving hemicelluloses. The differences observed might be due to the natural compositional variability and inhomogeneity of oak wood. The final condition of the wood was very similar in the two burial environments. It is therefore suggested that the wet burial conditions in the Biskupin site represent a safe conservation environment for the in situ preservation of the wood remains, at least those presenting a good initial preservation state. This supports the conservation strategy adopted in the Biskupin Museum site.

Same medium, different messages: stamped storage jar handles in Judea from the Iron Age to the Early Islamic period as evidencing regional memory and acquaintance with the past

ABSTRACTThis study provides an original cross-period theoretical perspective on the unique regional phenomenon of storage jar stamping in Judea between the Iron Age 2 and the Early Islamic period (eighth century BC to ninth/tenth century AD). A six century-long tradition of jar stamping for economic and administrative (and possibly religious) purposes under governmental initiative and control ended during the Hellenistic period, to be renewed under different circumstances and expressing different messages in the late Byzantine or the beginning of the Early Islamic period. Thus far, no attempt has been made to discuss together these two episodes of Judean jar stamping, or to interpret the renewal of this custom in the first millennium AD. As argued in this article, the key to understand the reappearance of jar stamping in Judea after a gap of at least 700 years is the existence of close, constant contact between local people and ancient remains and artifacts, in this case stamped jar handles. These region-specific objects had become part of the local cultural heritage, albeit in a level of a ‘dormant memory’ during the centuries which passed since their final phase of usage, and the idea of reviving this memory was apparently borne in the minds of local potters in late Byzantine or Early Islamic times.

From Pre‐Roman Bailo To Roman Baelo: Long‐Term Landscape Dynamics In The Straits Of Gibraltar

SummaryThe Straits of Gibraltar have been historically an important maritime axis of connection between the Mediterranean and Atlantic areas of the Iberian Peninsula. For this reason, most of the archaeological research has focused on the coastal settlements, but its broader archaeological landscape remains mostly unknown. In this paper, we present recent intensive surveys in which a wide range of sites was detected, dating from the eighth century BC to the fourteenth AD. The ancient landscape is thus reconstructed over a long‐term perspective. Prior to the Roman expansion, the earlier Bailo‐La Silla del Papa was an urban central place that supported a dense network of subordinate settlements. Later on, the central settlement was transported from inland to the coastal town of Baelo Claudia, but the territorial structure remained based on a similar pattern.

Greek Migrations along the Ionian Coast (Southern Italy)

In the previous century, ancient migration was explained on the basis of the occurrence and quantities of imported archaeological artefacts, and with interpretations made in alignment with the ancient written sources. This was so too with the Greek migration into Southern Italy, often referred to as ‘Greek colonization’. This paper will focus on the relations between indigenous peoples and Greek newcomers in Southern Italy, taking the Sibaritide area as its focal point, as well as on the methods for identifying these foreign newcomers through the analyses of the archaeological record. From the end of the ninth century BCE, a Euboean-Levantine presence is detectable in the Western Mediterranean, including Northern Africa, Spain and Italy. In the first half of the eighth century BC in the Sibaritide, a Greek-indigenous coexistence emerged in the settlement of Timpone della Motta. This coexistence entailed a shared and mixed cultural framework at the site, which is reflected in the local pottery production. Based on the study of the ceramic technology, this paper seeks to shed light on the possibilities and limitations of technological analysis for identifying migration features in the archaeological record.

Greek protohistories

ABSTRACT Following some definitions and etymologies of key terms – archaeology, history, prehistory, protohistory – the purpose of this paper is to review the history of Greek protohistories, chronologically beginning with the earliest writing in the Greek world, in the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1800 BC). Ironically, this early writing did not lead to a period that anyone would call ‘historic’ or ‘protohistoric’. From there, the author traces the passage of writing through the ‘prehistoric’ period, into the Early Iron Age, and beyond, where we find the first constructions of narrative history. Several early historians will feature prominently in this story: Hekataios, Hellanikos, Herodotos and Thucydides, whose work follows on from that of the earliest Greek alphabetic writing in the eighth century BC in the time of Homer and Hesiod. By so doing, the author’s aim is not just to problematize ‘prehistory’ and ‘protohistory’ as meaningful terms or appropriate categories of analysis, but to suggest that they are, for Greek antiquity, irrelevant.

The Emergence of Time in Latin Literature

Asia Minor, were compelled by famine to emigrate to what is now Tuscany, where they established a new civilization with the native population. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (484- 425), these were the Etruscans. (Book I, 94) [1]. Their alphabet derived from Greek in the eighth century BC and it gave the Roman alphabet in the seventh century BC (FrA©dA©rix, Ch I) [2]. In order to situate themselves in relation to what they observed, the Romans unknowingly started conceptualizing some current phenomena and some familiar events. In this way and step by step, they enriched their language by introducing new concepts. The Latin literature allows one to observe the emergence of temporality in the Roman civilization, as well as to follow its gradual development.

Proteomic evidence of dietary sources in ancient dental calculus.

Archaeological dental calculus has emerged as a rich source of ancient biomolecules, including proteins. Previous analyses of proteins extracted from ancient dental calculus revealed the presence of the dietary milk protein β-lactoglobulin, providing direct evidence of dairy consumption in the archaeological record. However, the potential for calculus to preserve other food-related proteins has not yet been systematically explored. Here we analyse shotgun metaproteomic data from 100 archaeological dental calculus samples ranging from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period (eighth century BC to nineteenth century AD) in England, as well as 14 dental calculus samples from contemporary dental patients and recently deceased individuals, to characterize the range and extent of dietary proteins preserved in dental calculus. In addition to milk proteins, we detect proteomic evidence of foodstuffs such as cereals and plant products, as well as the digestive enzyme salivary amylase. We discuss the importance of optimized protein extraction methods, data analysis approaches and authentication strategies in the identification of dietary proteins from archaeological dental calculus. This study demonstrates that proteomic approaches can robustly identify foodstuffs in the archaeological record that are typically under-represented due to their poor macroscopic preservation.

Returning Heroes: Greek and Native Interaction in (Pre‐)Colonial South Italy and Beyond

SummaryThe cultural interaction between the native population of south Italy and the first immigrants from Greece and the Levant in the early first millennium BC has been exhaustively discussed in recent years. In most cases the debate has been focused on the native side of the encounter, on imports and imitations of Greek and Levantine products found in Italy and on the effects that these foreign goods and the ideologies attached to them had on the local population. Only rarely, however, has the question been asked of how the encounter affected the Greek and Levantine participants. New evidence from the necropolis of Francavilla Marittima, a pivotal point in the early trade and exchange network across the Mediterranean, reveals the adoption of Greek drinking and dining customs based on the notion of ritualized guest‐friendship by the local elite as early as the third quarter of the eighth century BC. As Greek xenia functions on the basis of equal rank of the participants involved, it follows from this discovery that Greek aristocrats must have been present in the pre‐colonial world from a very early time. In the second part of the paper the question is raised of the material evidence in Greece and the Aegean world for these early contacts with the native Italic population, focusing in particular on the evidence from Eretria, one of the leading powers in the early Greek exploration of the West.