The phenomenon of matt-painted pottery in the LBA prehistoric societies in Central Macedonia, Northern Greece, has often attracted researchers’ interest. The published material from excavations conducted during the second half of the 20th century, such as those at the toumbas of Kastanas, Agios Mamas, Assiros, and Thessaloniki, have significantly enriched our understanding of the Bronze Age in the region. However, until recently, a cohesive comparative study of pottery from the tell settlements of the region was lacking. The present paper focuses on studying the matt-painted tableware from several sites in Central Macedonia, applying an interdisciplinary methodological toolkit. A detailed macroscopic typological and technological examination is combined with the use of ceramic petrology to investigate technological aspects such as clay selection, manufacturing techniques, firing processes, and surface treatments, to improve the under standing of local production systems and technological traditions related to the only painted ware among handmade Late Bronze Age ceramics in Macedonia. The technological characterisation of the pottery and the reconstruction of the manufacturing process indicated that the matt-painted ware differed from the undecorated tableware due to its relative standardization, suggesting a consistent range of potter choices and a limited number of production locations. Furthermore, the analysis revealed some notable patterns concerning intra- and interregional mobility dynamics in Central Macedonia and new evidence regarding social cohesion and identity among the region’s communities at the end of the LBA.
Innovation in prehistoric pottery production and consumption is a subject of extensive discussion, particularly in relation to how the introduction of new attributes contributes to broader transformations in technology, production methods, and economic systems. The implementation of innovative features in ceramic traditions has implications, influencing production scale, community demand, and models of networks of exchange. Examining the introduction or adoption of technological and decorative innovations in relation to pottery production and consumption allows for a more comprehensive understanding of technological progress as well as the social and cultural dynamics within late prehistoric societies. A significant case study in this regard is the emergence and spread of matt-painted pottery, which first appears during the Middle Helladic period in Central and Southern Greece. By the Late Bronze Age, this style had spread to northern and northwestern Greece, western Macedonia, and southern Albania where it became increasingly popular during the Early Iron Age. The adoption of this aesthetic attribute within a predominantly handmade pottery tradition – largely defined by its functional attributes – does represent a breath of fresh air in the decoration of pottery. This paper examines to what extent the attributes of the matt-painted decoration contribute to the understanding of the socio-economic setting and development of late prehistoric southern Albania. By taking into account its stylistic development in a diachronic perspective, I argue that however innovative, the matt-painted decoration is largely defined by artisan expressions operating within secluded socio-cultural units that are marked by a non-specialized activity of production and informal networks of exchange.
Matt-painted pottery constitutes a significant category of archaeological material and represents one of the primary indicators of a strong Aegean influence in the Late Bronze Age within the territory of the Ulanci group in the Republic of North Macedonia. This pottery tradition emerges as an innovation and as a defining characteristic of the Late Bronze Age across the broader southern Balkan Peninsula. A distinctive feature of this pottery, in addition to its handmade production, lies in its decoration, executed through matt painting that diverges from both Mycenaean and Geometric motifs. Research on the Ulanci cultural group is still in its formative stage. To date, its principal characteristics have been established almost exclusively through the study of cemeteries, while investigations of settlements remain limited and unsystematic. The adoption of this pottery tradition had notable cultural and social implications for the communities of the Ulanci group. The present analysis has expanded the number of documented vessel forms within the matt-painted rep ertoire to seven, identified two developmental phases, and established a clearer chronological framework. At this stage of research, these results allow us to propose two developmental stages in the evolution of the Ulanci group.
This study re-examines the matt-painted pottery tradition of the Great Lakes region, encompassing the Ko rçë basin in Albania and the Ohrid basin in North Macedonia, through a multidisciplinary lens combining stratigraphy, typology, and absolute chronology. Originating in the Korçë valley during the transitional period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, matt-painted pottery has often been interpreted within isolated, nationally framed archaeological narratives. This research challenges such interpretations by demonstrating the regional coherence and synchronicity of the phenomenon across modern political borders. Drawing upon recent excavations and updated radiocarbon and dendrochronological data – particularly from the site of Sovjan – this study situates the initial appearance of matt-painted pottery in the second half of the 11th century BC. It further clarifies the absence of such ceramics in pile-dwelling/wet-land settlements along Lake Ohrid, which were abandoned following a seismic event around 1200 BC. This event, along with a similar hydrological shift in the Korçë valley during the 8th century BC, played a crucial role in shaping the region’s settlement patterns and material culture. The study also critiques the continued use of the term ‘Devoll style’ pottery, proposing instead the more geographically inclusive designation ‘matt-painted pottery of the Great Lakes region’. This reframing helps to deconstruct older nationalist and cultural-historical frameworks while affirming the shared cultural development of the region. By integrating material, environmental, and chronological data, the study redefines the matt-painted pottery tradition as a key marker of Early Iron Age cultural identity in the Great Lakes region.
This paper focuses on the detection of gifts that Ragusan ambassadors presented to their hosts at various places: European courts, private residences and the Sublime Porte, covering the period from the mid-14th to the mid-15th century. The material culture of diplomatic gifts is seen as a determinant of power and a visible sign of the recipient’s status. Of particular interest is the comparison of specific gifts presented to various political actors with whom the Dubrovnik authorities conducted diplomatic communication, and who resided within the same courts. This comparison allows for conclusions regarding gift¬ giving among different genders or age groups, if the recipients are of the same gender. In this sense, diplomatic gifts could be seen as a distinguishing factor of an individual’s power within the hierarchical power relations. Finally, such an analysis allows conclusions about how these gifts underwent diachronic alterations, based on the recipient’s importance in Dubrovnik’s foreign policy, the city’s economic power, or the recipient’s preferences and cultural background.
Sanctuaries during the 1st millennium BC in the Mediterranean supported numerous formative socio¬ political and economic processes extending far beyond cultic ones. Among their various roles, they functioned as in¬ between grounds and stages for (re)making social (self)image through community meetings, and iden tity expression and negotiation. A large body of material offerings at sanctuary deposits, including copious amounts of metal votives, represents these social dynamics in the archaeological record. Here, we focus on the permanency and materiality of metallic dedications as a proxy to examine three Greek and EtruscoRoman sanctuaries as cultural settings of social antagonism. First, bronze fibulae offered at the sanctuary of Enodia and Thavlios Zeus in Thessaly, central Greece (9th–7th c. BC), show the importance of expressing community identity through metallurgical technology. Next, iron weapons dedicated to the sanctuary at the Greek subcolony Kasmenai in Sicily (6th c. BC) illustrate the dynamics between Greek and local populations. Finally, inscriptions on bronze statues from the sanctuary at Bagni di San Casciano near Siena (2nd c. BC – 1st c. AD) reveal the socio¬ political dynamics between the Etruscans and the Romans. Overall, this detailed investigation of metal votives attests to the opportunities for (inter-)cultural communication in the context of ritual behaviour at Greek and Etrusco¬ Roman sanctuaries, which served as safe spaces for the commingling of group identities leading to social negotiation and tolerance.
A new type of archaeological site in Galicia called ‘Roda’ type site, which might be translate as ‘wheel type site’ in English, was discovered in 2006. The objective of this study is reviewing the interpretations of this type of sites using different sources of data. On the one hand, the current study will present the results of the excavation of Os Castrullos site (Parada de Sil, Ourense, Spain), that was partially excavated in 2022. This includes its architectural features, its radiocarbon dates and the material culture recovered during excavation. On the other hand, the results of this excavation will be compared with the current data regarding these sites, which was recovered using various methodologies, especially the analysis of fieldwork data and the use of aerial photo, LiDAR and GIS. The analysis of these two types of data will enable us to provide a new perspective of the Late Bronze Age in NW Iberia, including a hypothesis about how this type of sites could have acquired a key role in structuring territories and communities in Galicia.
The Sabir Archa/Baymaktepa site, located in the Kugitang piedmonts of southern Uzbekistan, was investi gated as part of the Czech¬ Uzbekistani archaeological expedition. Excavations conducted in 2023 aimed to obtain stratigraphic data and refine the chronology of Medieval pottery. The site, occupied from the 6th to the early 13th century AD, reveals two main settlement phases: the Early Medieval (6th–8th centuries) and the High Medieval (9th–early 13th centuries). A substantial fortification wall and a complex structure (BR1) were identified in the Early Medieval phase, indicating a well- structured settlement. The High Medieval phase is primarily represented by material culture and occupation layers but lacks substantial architectural remains. After its abandonment, the site was reused as a cemetery, which can only be broadly dated between the late 13th and 19th centuries AD. Stratigraphic analysis and the study of material culture, complemented by radiocarbon dating, contribute to understanding settlement development in the Kugitang and Baysuntau piedmonts. The findings shed light on regional settlement dynamics and transformations associated with broader historical events, such as the Mongol conquest.
Tools have always played an extremely important, defining role in human life. A closer look at Small Craft Tools (SCTs), such as drills, awls, punches, and small chisels, not only allows us an insight into the exact production techniques of artefacts but can also provide information on regional exchanges of goods and craft specializations in individual settlements. Nevertheless, these artefacts have been largely neglected in previous studies, and there seems to be no agreement among the few authors who have described such small bronze tools in more detail. The large number of middle and late Bronze Age SCTs found at Kaymakçı (Türkiye) was used as an opportunity to study their typology, characteristics, and use¬ wear. A total of 31 SCTs were found in only six years of excavation (2014–2021). In relation to the years of excavation, this is comparable to the number of SCTs found at Hattusa. This indicates the importance of Kaymakçı as a potential leather/textile production center. This study describes and characterizes the SCTs from Kaymakçı in detail. The authors are able to identify distinct differences between these tools and make suggestions for a more unified classification, underlining that such items are worthy of closer consideration in future studies.
The analysis of power dynamics and how they interact with landscape organization and environmental factors is a topic of major interest in archaeology. More recently, there has been growing research into nonélite and middling groups, and their interactions with/within landscapes affected by environmental shifts. We outline two case studies from very different ecosystems in 1st¬ millennium BC Italy: riverine, flood¬ prone Veneto in a phase of potential climate cooling, ca. 800/750–625/500 BC; and drought¬ prone northern Puglia (Daunia) in a phase of potential warming, ca. 325–200 BC. In Veneto, a well¬ off/middling burial group acted upon flooding to potentially ameliorate their social standing in a phase of growing inequality. In Puglia, non¬ élite communities occupied two arid¬ prone plateaus with small farms, concomitantly with Rome’s rising hegemony. By looking at the way in which these different social groups interacted in such challenging environments, we explore how social dynamics moulded the landscape and how the environment affected inequalities in return. Ultimately, our work contributes to exploring the interplay between environmental and social factors in creating past inequalities, while addressing limitations in evidence and methods.
The oracular sanctuary of Delphi, in Central Greece, attracted thousands of worshippers from the entire Greek world throughout Antiquity: private pilgrims, sacred embassies, athletes, merchants… According to a well¬ known myth, Delphi was believed to represent the centre of the world, where two eagles sent by Zeus from the opposite ends of the universe would meet. Strabo has rationalised this legend by reckoning the sanctuary was sitting in the middle of the Greek world, being thus easily reachable from any part of Hellas. This point of view is commonly accepted in modern historiography and the prestige of the oracle has sometimes been linked with its situation at a crossroad between long¬ reaching regional axes. But this apparent determinism must be challenged by investigating the materiality of the road¬ network around Delphi. Is the site of the oracle a nodal point in supra¬ regional itineraries? Was it served by significant roads? Was Delphi an important sanctuary because of this alleged road¬ network, or should we also consider the hypothesis that roads and circulations centred around Delphi due to its religious significance? This paper aims to reconsider the dynamics of circulations to and from ancient Delphi, by acknowledging the major contribution of recent works about ancient Greek roads.
The study of Hellenistic Central Asia is, in many ways, an engagement with various kinds of inbetweenness: spatial, temporal, cultural, disciplinary, and historiographical. One of the most persistent keywords to characterize this macroregion is that of a crossroads of sorts – a crossroads of cultures, religions, histories, civilizations, and ancient worlds at large. Immersed in exotic appeal, the crossroads motif is not only prevalent in popular narratives on Central Asia but also in scholarly discourse, although in more subtle and diverse ways. As Sv. Gorshenina analysed in her monumental book, the idea of Central Asia was ‘invented’, and its conceptual itinerary has been deeply entangled with shifting geopolitical interests that framed and shaped its history in distinct colonial and Orientalist ways throughout time. This remains profoundly relevant for the study of Hellenistic Central Asia, particularly the historiography of Baktria and Parthia, both in the past and in the present. Writings of their histories has been dominated by a complex legacy of meaning -making concepts and cultural ideas about Hellenism, nomadism, the North and the East – constructs laden with ideologies of inbetweenness. This paper reflects on the entanglements of ancient and modern perceptions of the North -East as a macroregion of inbetweenness and its impact on interpretive methods in the study of Hellenistic Central Asia.
This report presents the Kulal Tepa Archaeological Project of the Czech-Uzbekistani Archaeological Expe dition and preliminary results for the first season of archaeological excavation in autumn, 2023. Concerned with broader questions of the scope and catalysts of economic development in northern Bactria under the Kushan Empire, the project’s fieldwork programme investigates the rural settlement of Kulal Tepa and its micro -oasis in the eastern foothills of the Kugitang through archaeological excavation and survey. We discuss the regional setting of this work, past research and the topography of the tepa, before presenting an overview of the results of excavation, and finds from this season, including from a metal detector survey of the surface. In Trench 1 on the northwestern sector of the tepa, we found poorly preserved layers attesting to successive periods of reoccupation (Phase 2), perhaps largely of the 5th–6th centuries AD in the Early Medieval period. These activities occurred on the ruins of a large building complex probably constructed and used in the 3rd–4th centuries AD, i.e., the Kushano -Sasanian/Late Antique period (Phase 3). Part of the structure revealed includes an inner building, covered passageway, and utility area with cooking and storage facilities. The structure suggests a relatively elite residential context, and a dominant point of this site during its last major building phase. Finds from the excavation, surface, and metal detector survey include a diverse ceramic repertoire, and material suggesting various production activities, other special finds, and base metal coins dating at least from the 1st–4th centuries AD. Overall they suggest historical occupation of the tepa primarily between the 1st–6th centuries AD; a few may suggest an earlier date. The 3rd–4th centuries (Kushano -Sasanian period) likely represents a major period of the site’s occupation. This corresponds to survey data from the site’s vicinity suggesting substantial development of the micro -oasis at the same time.
The composition of the finds of Hellenistic coins in Sogdiana suggest that Greeks lost control over this coun try during or right after the revolt of Euthydemus (ca. 230–226 BCE). Yet the standard type of the Bukharan imitations of Euthydemus’ tetradrachms, on which modern scholars base their dates of “Sogdian indepen dence”, was minted around the time of Bactra siege – the peak of the eastern anabasis of Antiochus III (ca. 206 BCE). In other words, there is a gap of some 20 to 30 years between the dates derived from two different categories of numismatic evidence. The current article removes this seeming contradiction by presenting, chronologically arranging, and linking to their prototypes a series of Bukharan imitations that reproduces the early types of Euthydemus’ tetradrachms. This numismatic data allows the author to date the collapse of the Greek rule in Soghd to 230–226 BCE.
The belief that a lost Greek legacy could be discovered in remote regions of Central Asia has long been popular in Western culture. This paper delves into the adventure tale The Lost Valley of Iskander by American pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936). The story unfolds in Afghanistan during the peak of the Great Game, and involves a concealed valley where the descendants of Alexander’s army have endured across centuries with their ancient culture and ethnic purity intact. I contextualize The Lost Valley of Iskander as an exemplary literary reflection of the European (and American) preoccupation with the presence of Alexander and the Greeks in Baktria and India, highlighting the racial stereotypes Howard employs to juxtapose the ancient Greeks to the surrounding ‘barbaric tribes’. At the heart of Howard’s story lies the conflation of Classical Greece and contemporary western Europe. On a broader scale, my paper addresses the impact this preoccupation had on modern scholarship (both colonialist and anticolonial historical narratives related to ‘Hellenistic’ Baktria and India). I contend that in the depiction of the Greco -Baktrian kingdoms as European or ‘Western’, scholarship, travel writing, and adventure fiction mutually informed one another.
This report introduces the background and methods of the survey part of the Kulal Tepa Archaeological Project of the Czech-Uzbekistani Archaeological Expedition, which combines extensive surface survey, systematic surface collection, and remote sensing, and outlines the preliminary results of its first season in 2023. The surface assemblages show in the valley of Kulal Tepa only a limited past activity related either to the Prehistory or to the High Medieval and Pre -Modern periods. On the other hand, this area seems to have been steadily occupied in the Antique and Early Medieval periods. Although only a small portion of the valley was used during the Hellenistic and Transitional/Early Kushan period (the site of Iskandar Tepa), the collected material suggests a substantial development dated from no later than the Kushano -Sasanian period, resulting in an identified artefact scatter stretching on around 80 ha around Kulal Tepa. A combination of more or less stable settlement activities and irrigated agriculture is suggested as a preliminary interpretation.
The Bactrian epigraphic and numismatic material from the Kušān period, despite its scarce, eclectic and scattered nature, contains a wealth of information about cultural and ethnic identities in Bactria at the time. The Kušān interacted with Iranian and Greek legacies while adding their own heritage to the mix. Kušān inscriptions and seals document the presence of individuals with names from all three spheres in the Kušān imperial hierarchy, while the numismatic pantheon is assembled from deities from these various religious backgrounds. There are several indicators showing that the Kušān possessed active awareness of this cultural heterogeneity and used it to shape a definition of Bactria for their own purposes. This paper examines this evidence and concludes that the Kušān saw the Iranian and Greek elements as equally indigenous to Bactria and that they did not employ a deliberately anti -Greek policy.
The massacre of the Branchidae in Sogdiana still stands as one of the most controversial milestones of Alexander’s career. Modern assessments of this event have been highly polarized, but how was it perceived both by contemporary writers and the citizens of Miletus, the Branchidae’s homeland? Demodamas, as a writer and as a Milesian, gathers both aspects. Barely known through some inscriptions from Miletus and scattered fragments of his work, Demodamas is attested as a Seleucid officer in Central Asia – erecting an altar to Apollo Didymeus – and India, and he could have participated in Alexander’s expedition. It is plausible that he wrote his own version of the massacre and, therefore, he could be regarded as one of the earliest sources about the episode. This paper, first, aims to clarify if his version could be the origin of the extant traditions. Besides this, it seeks to address how the writer’s background could have shaped his version, and the place this story took in the history of Miletus and its somehow thorny dealings with Alexander. To sum up, this paper will assess how Demodamas could have conveyed this episode that happened in faraway Sogdiana and how it was incorporated into the Milesian collective memory.
A combination of surface survey, geophysical prospection and excavation was used to investigate a site dated to the Roman period in North Macedonia nearby the Ohrid Lake. The site is placed in the territory of Leskoec village, in an area locally known as St. Petkina Niva. The excavation uncovered stone foundations of a house, with stone destruction inside the house and likely a pavement on its outer side. At the ground level inside the house, just above the bedrock into which the foundations were dug, fragments of several storage vessels (dolia) were found, some in situ, some in fragments, scattered over the inner space. The dolia, as well as the accompanied material including various pottery classes, glass fragments, bone pin and few metals, might be dated from the 1st till 4th c. AD. The same chronology might be anticipated for the investigated house, which revealed only one construction phase. Due to the lack of diagnostic material the construction or habitation period of the house cannot be narrowed down.
