American Journal of Archaeology

This book is the result of an analytical research program on Mycenaean-type pottery in Italy, which has spanned several decades, since the first presentation by Jones at the conference Traffici micenei nel Mediterraneo in 1984 (Traffici micenei nel Mediterraneo: Problemi storici e documentazione archeologica. Atti del Convegno di Palermo, 11–12 maggio e 3–6 dicembre 1984 [Taranto 1986] 205–14). Several of the results of the research program have already appeared in a range of publications.

Cynthia Shelmerdine is one of the foremost Aegeanists of our time. The wide-reaching influence of her research is clearly evident in the Festschrift under review, which contains 24 papers by former students and colleagues. The papers are ordered into five sections—KE-RA-ME-JA: Ceramic Studies; TA-RA-SI-JA: Industry and Craft Specialization; I-JE-RE-JA: Religion and Iconography; TI-MI-TI-JA: Pylos and Messenia; WA-NA-KA-TE-RA: Writing and Administration—the titles and themes of which are intended to reflect the research interests of the honorand.

This volume is the second of a pair dedicated to a comprehensive presentation of Aegean art, from the Neolithic through the end of the Bronze Age. In an age when handbooks and companions comprised of chapters written by area specialists proliferate, it is a little surprising to see so ambitious a project undertaken by a sole author. Poursat demonstrates one of the great advantages of the latter approach, maintaining a taut organization and consistent tone throughout, providing a coherence often lacking in edited collections.

The volume under review contains the long-awaited final reports of the excavations at Jebel Qaʿaqir on the western flanks of the Judean Hills, directed by William G. Dever, and at Beʾer Resisim in the central Negev, codirected by Dever and the late Rudolph Cohen. The first part (chs. 1–8) focuses on Jebel Qaʿaqir and discusses the site and excavations, the cemeteries and occupied caves, cairns, boundary walls and kiln, a dolmen, and a bamah (chs.

Publication of finds from old excavations is always welcome, although this sometimes poses difficulties with regard to context and chronology. The book under review is no exception. Volume 4 of the Danish Archaeological Investigation on Failaka, Kuwait, deals with the stone vessels of the third- and second-millennium B.C.E. settlements on Failaka and provides a coherent descriptive account of an unusual assemblage of meticulously made stone bowls.

This volume assembles 46 papers presented at the conference of the same title, which took place at the National Museum of Archaeology, Leiden, in March 2009. All contributions have been peer reviewed prior to publication. At first glance, this publication attracts the reader’s attention with its title, which promises to cover a period and region of considerable length and extent.

As we see archaeological sites and artifacts destroyed with alarming rapidity in today’s Middle East, the question of to whom the past belongs is more relevant, and more troubling, than ever before. When applied to artifacts, the very idea of ownership gives them financial value as commodities, saleable by terrorist groups, dealers, and auction houses.

This volume represents a tremendous effort to bring together vast amounts and kinds of data to address ongoing debates about the nature and causes of culture change. The volume draws upon principles of archaeology, ethnography, history, and the environmental sciences to trace strategies of isolation and interaction in the Shala Valley of northern Albania. The major themes of isolation and interaction as strategies of cultural resilience and adaptation are carefully interwoven throughout, with two recurring elements.

The definition of urbanism is a topic long debated by scholars in numerous historical disciplines, but almost all of these discussions are derived from textual sources and are based on examples that postdate the introduction of writing. This volume, edited by Fernández-Götz et al., extends that analytical perspective into a context where primary written sources are not available and the archaeological record is the only key to determining the level of social complexity.

This volume offers readers a broad collection of works that detail the complexity and variation of herding and animal husbandry systems across the globe. The book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Mark Shutes, a key organizer and contributor of the volume who passed during the early phases of its planning.