AJA

This article rethinks the presence of the lion in Bronze Age Crete and its participation in poetic culture in the Aegean. In the absence of living lions on the island, representational embodiments were the basis of people’s encounters with the species, and the peculiarities of these object-bodies powerfully contributed to the characterization of the beast. Throughout the Bronze Age, the vast majority of Cretan lion representations occurred in glyptic.

Analyses of the organization of craft production in prehistoric societies have tended to build on evolutionary, typological models that see domestic, household-based production as simple, small-scale, and unspecialized in contrast to workshop production. Such models, however, overlook archaeological and ethnographic evidence for craftspeople in domestic contexts who operate at intensive scales of production and participate in regional exchange networks.

In recent years, scholars have become increasingly skeptical of the idea that there is any relationship between the capacities of entertainment structures such as theaters and amphitheaters and the populations of Graeco-Roman cities. In this article, we begin by offering a model of information percolation in cities grounded in settlement scaling theory.

This article presents the results of the first excavations at the site of ancient Eleon in eastern Boeotia, Greece. Fieldwork focused on the elevated limestone ridge on the western edge of the village of Arma about 14 km east of Thebes. The chronological framework of the excavated remains includes pottery dating from Early Helladic II through early Middle Helladic found in secondary contexts and not associated with any architectural remains.

At Gerace near Enna in Sicily, excavation on a Roman villa-estate has revealed a freestanding bath house erected ca. 380 CE. It may never have been completed; one of three pools in its cold room was never installed, and the room’s wall decoration was left unfinished. An unusual feature is the use of pisé (rammed earth) construction in one internal wall as insulation material. The baths were in use until an earthquake struck between 450 and 500 CE.