American Journal of Archaeology

113.3 (July 2009)

Bernice Jones reconstructs two Mycenaean frescoes using experimental costume replications and digital imaging to argue that they are not as they appear to be.

In 1970, fresco fragments were unearthed near the House of the High Priest at Mycenae, which was destroyed at the end of Late Helladic IIIB/beginning of Late Helladic IIIC. The fragments stylistically predate the building’s destruction, especially the largest and most significant, known as the Mykenaia, which is illustrated here. In the early 1980s, the Mykenaia and its associated fragments were together identified as a seated goddess who has just received jewels from a procession of women, although some remarked that the design of the skirt on the figure was “curious.” Indeed, to this author’s knowledge, there is no parallel in Aegean art either for a flounced garment so arranged or for what, at that time, was interpreted as an "outside band of cloth with vertical decorations." This study thus proposes a new arrangement of the fragments and a reinterpretation of the fresco that is more consistent with the corpus of female figures in Minoan and Mycenaean art.

Jorrit M. Kelder shows that royal gift exchange between Mycenae and Egypt was highly organized, and that olives or olive oil were a crucial part of this Late Bronze Age interstate interaction.

Brice Erickson examines votives from a sanctuary site near Roussa Ekklesia in east Crete to shed light on archaic, classical, and Hellenistic cult practices.

William Cavanagh uses the Fractal Dimension to investigate settlement structure in rural Attica and Laconia at the end of the Archaic period.

Miltiades B. Hatzopoulos and Pierre Juhel analyze Hellenistic funerary stelai from Gephyra to provide information about the armament and equipment of cavalry and infantry in Hellenistic Macedonia.

Molly Swetnam-Burland examines the meanings of the Vatican Nile, a monumental marble sculpture displayed in Rome.

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Nissim Amzallag proposes a new theory for the spread of furnace metallurgy and its influence on Bronze Age societies.

Barbara A. Barletta challenges the suggestion that the Ionic Sekos frieze of the Parthenon was originally planned as Doric.

Jeffrey A. Becker, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato investigate the ancient city of Gabii to yield information about urbanism in the Italian peninsula in the first millennium B.C.E.

Angeliki Lebessi studies the archaeological evidence surrounding the Erotic Goddess of the Syme sanctuary, Crete.

Elizabeth A. Meyer discusses writing paraphernalia, tablets, and muses in Campanian wall-painting.

John H. Oakley presents a synthesis of the developments in the field of Greek vase-painting and comments on emerging practices, trends, and major problems in the field.

About the AJA

The American Journal of Archaeology is one of the world's most distinguished and widely distributed classical archaeology journals. It was founded in 1885 and continues to devote itself to the advancement of archaeological studies and to the promotion of interest in them. Circulation of the AJA reaches 53 countries and almost 1,000 universities, learned societies, departments of antiquities, and museums. It is published quarterly in both print and electronic (PDF) formats in January, April, July, and October and is available through membership in the Archaeological Institute of America or by subscription.