American Journal of Archaeology

An ambitious exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Pharaon des Deux Terres: L’épopée africaine des rois de Napata, presented a history of the kings of Napata who conquered Egypt and ruled there as its 25th Dynasty (ca. 720-664 BCE). This dynasty ruled over an empire properly known as Kush, centered in northern Sudan. While acknowledging the challenging circumstances through which the exhibit was developed, this review questions the vestiges of colonialism that shaped it. In particular, it criticizes the presentation of Kushites as important only insofar as they interacted with Egypt. It also questions absences in the exhibit: perspectives from heritage communities on the significance of Kush, or engagement (beyond the title) with its African setting.

In the winter of 2021, a previously unknown and almost inaccessible cave called Aškawt-i Daya was discovered in the heart of Bakhakuh Mountain in the west central Zagros Mountains of Iran. An exceptional feature of the cave is its collection of paintings on the walls and ceiling with animal and human motifs, rendered in black pigment, both singly and in groups involved in scenes of hunting and slaughter. As with other rock paintings in Iran, establishing a date for these paintings is difficult, but there are hints both from the presence of certain motifs and from accompanying inscriptions that the paintings were probably created from the Achaemenid (550–330 BCE) to the Parthian period (247 BCE–224 CE). A depiction of a bull-man, as well as the appearance in the inscriptions of the names of divinities such as Nergal, Marduk, Sin, and Šamaš, suggest that the original gods to be worshiped in the cave were Mesopotamian. The use of the cave as a place of worship continued into the Seleucid (312–63 BCE) and then the Parthian and early Sassanian periods, by which time the cave had been transformed into the setting for a cult of Mithra.

Examining several hundred samples of internal red-slip vessels from the Roman sites of Musarna, Populonia, Cetamura del Chianti, Gabii, and Pompeii, this article presents a study using morphology, use-wear, and ceramic petrography to consider why this ware was produced for such a long period of time (third century BCE until at least the first century CE) and why it was so widespread in the empire. The article looks at this ware in the context of the other pottery types that were popular at the same time and that were visually similar. Considering the aesthetics of glossy red Roman cooking pans engages with the idea of the ceramic service of matching vessels and allows us to fruitfully explore the possibilities for multifunctionality in object use, bringing us closer to the ancient consumer’s experience in the kitchen and at the table. The study includes more than 50 thin sections and presents the first petrographic examination of any pottery from Musarna or Populonia.

This article revisits the well-known monument of Eurysaces in the context of the Roman funerary landscape. By focusing on its structure and original context, our research demonstrates that the monument, far from being a unicum, instead conformed to contemporary commemorative practices and was in many ways typical. Analysis of comparable monuments and funerary areas, as well as characterization of the concrete used, indicates that the monument of Eurysaces was originally an aedicula tomb with a superstructure, now missing. This reconstruction allows for a more convincing and traditional positioning of the relief images known as “Eurysaces and his wife” at the crowning level of this structure. While our research focuses on the monument of Eurysaces, an important and unexpected result has been the likely identification of several full-length portrait reliefs whose distinctive features suggest that they belong to a previously unrecognized corpus in Rome: aedicular statues. This designation explains the characteristics differentiating them from freestanding statues and helps fill the lacuna of evidence for Rome’s once robust group of funerary structures and ornamentation. The identification of these aedicular statues, in turn, reiterates the fact that aedicula tombs were once popular in the city’s funerary landscape, as they were across the Roman empire.

During the late eighth and the seventh centuries BCE, objects worked from animal materials became a common form of offering at sanctuaries across the Greek world. Contemporary dedication practices of modified bone shafts at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta and at two sanctuaries on Rhodes (Athena Kameiras and Athena Lindia) indicate that during this period there was an emphasis on creating and offering conspicuously organic objects made from the remains of animals. This article argues that perceptions of corporeality in the early Greek world permitted an understanding of the human body as a collection of separate parts. Examining the dedication of the modified bone shafts along with other ritualized acts (e.g., sacrifice and meat consumption) reveals that animal bodies could also be divided into distinct parts with separate functions. By repeatedly disassembling and transforming animal bodies, individuals in the Greek world offered bone objects that functioned as extensions of once-living animals, structuring and maintaining the relationships among humans, animals, and the divine.

In this study, we examine the emergence and role of merchants and mercantile society on Late Bronze Age Cyprus. We present various site features that reflect the presence or daily practices of merchants, and we consider objects such as weights, scales, seals, and writing implements, discussing how these may signal links to merchants or mercantile practices. We evaluate the relevant data within two different frameworks: elite conflict and class conflict. Cypriot elites played a fundamental role in establishing the politicoeconomic organization of copper production, and it has been argued that Late Bronze Age Cyprus was made up of autonomous regional polities, with an implicit role for elite conflict. We also assess whether a newly formed merchant class may have come into conflict with the existing elite. We argue that a new economic class—that of the merchant—was in the process of formation throughout the Late Cypriot period (ca. 1650–1100 BCE). Whether this mercantile class emerged from the existing (landed) elite or was constituted by newly powerful actors within Cypriot society, or some combination of the two, forms a key point of discussion.

The Ta tablets are a series of Linear B documents from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos that inventory vessels, fire implements, slaughtering paraphernalia, and furniture. This article argues that all the equipment documented on the Ta tablets pertains to a single large-scale ritual cattle sacrifice and was not equipment for the banquet that would have followed the sacrifice. The argument is rooted in a reanalysis of the tables listed on the Ta tablets that concludes that they were used for the slaughter and butchery of sacrificial cattle. Discussion proceeds from there to the sacrificial ritual use of the other items listed on the Ta tablets. Finally, speculative conclusions are drawn about the political ceremony that employed these objects and a possible smaller event taking place within the larger ceremony. This study draws on a wide range of sources, including other materials found in the same archival room, relevant iconography, archaeological comparanda, experimental archaeology, and a study of comparative butchery techniques.