BernBabylon Volume 1 (2024)
Recorded papers presented at the 1st BernBabylon conference held from 7 to 9 November 2024 at the Haus der Universität Bern.
Victoria Birkner: Using Network Analysis for Morphological Research
Using Network Analysis for Morphological Research: An Analysis of the Sumerian Verbal Prefix Chain
Victoria Birkner (University of Innsbruck)
Date of presentation: 8 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15540016
Date of publication on Zenodo: tbd
Keywords: Network Analysis, Constructional Grammar, Sumerian
Abstract
This paper will use Network Analysis to showcase the connections between different morphemes contained within the Sumerian verbal prefix chain. It should also highlight the importance of Network Analysis for morphological research, especially in the field of constructional grammar.
In a first step, my research is focused on the group of Sumerian verbal prefix chains containing the so-called neutral prefix with its variants -i- and -e- and their connections – or lack thereof – to other morphemes. Recording and interpreting the difference of usage of these variants by using Network Analysis is the purpose of this paper. As a basis for my research I use the verbs occurring in royal inscriptions of the Early Dynastic period of ancient Mesopotamia. For this I rely on the ETCSRI database, and for the later visualization of my datapoints on the program Gephi. The results show that a clear rigidity is visible in the prefix chains following an -i- variant of the neutral prefix, while the -e- variant seems to head a more flexible chain.
By using Network Analysis for a more grammatical and morphological approach I was able to better visualize my results than it would have been possible with conventional methods.
Video Recording
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Bibliography
Edzard, Dietz Otto. 2003. Sumerian Grammar. Leiden: Brill.
Falkenstein, Adam. 1978. Grammatik der Sprache Gudeas von Lagash. Rom: Pontificium Institutum biblicum.
Foxvog, Daniel. 2008. Introduction to Sumerian Grammar. https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2013/PAPVB_13/um/40794275/40794512/Foxvog__Introduction_Sumerian_2008.pdf.
Jagersma, Abraham. 1955. A descriptive Grammar of Sumerian. Leiden.
Thomsen, Marie-Louise. 1984. The Sumerian Language: An Introduction to Its History and Grammatical Structure. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.
Zólyomi, Gábor. 2016. An introduction to the grammar of Sumerian. Budapest.
Diana Forcellino: Constructing Archaeolohically Based Chronology for Ceramic Productions
Constructing Archaeologically Based Chronology for Ceramic Productions: A Case Study of the Pendent Semicircle Skyphoi
Diana Forcellino (Università degli Studi di Napoli l’Orientale & Università degli Studi di Salerno)
Date of presentation: 7 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15590040
Date of publication on Zenodo: tbd
Keywords: Greek Pottery, Euboea, Early Iron Age
Abstract
Within the present talk I would like to summarise my research on the pendent semicircle skyphoi, a ceramic class produced in Euboea (Greece) between the 10th and the 8th century BCE, considered of great importance for the study of the Greek/Euboean trade within the Early Iron Age Mediterranean.
My approach has been that of tracking and studying all the available evidence about this class within a region-by-region survey, in order to reconstruct a diachronic map of distribution and to present an archaeologically based chronology for the ceramic class. Such work was felt necessary since the previous typological study, presented by Rosalind Kearsley during the late eighties, has been considered problematic in respect to the absolute chronology by several scholars soon after its publication, and a new proposal was still lacking despite the consistent growth of evidence that had since been discovered.
The new data acquired will be therefore presented critically, discussing the potentialities and the limits of the archaeological datum concerning the definition of an accurate and relatable chronology as well as its relation with the evolution of the vessel’s shape through time.
Video Recording
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Bibliography
Eder, B. and I. S. Lemos. 2020. From the Collapse of the Mycenaean Palaces to the Emergence of Early Iron Age Communities. In A companion to the archaeology of early Greece and the Mediterranean, eds. I. S. Lemos and A. Kotsonas, 133–160. New Jersey.
Forcellino, D. 2023. The Pendent Semicircle Skyphoi: an update. AION. Annali di Archeologia e Storia Antica Nuova Serie 30: 87–112.
Goldman, H. 1963. Excavations at Gözlü Küle, Tarsus: 3. The Iron Age. Princeton.
Kearsley, R. 1989. The Pendent Semi-Circle Skyphos. A Study of its Development and Chronology and an Examination of it as evidence for Euboean Activity at Al Mina. London.
Kerschner, M. 2014. Euboean Imports to the Eastern Aegean and Eastern Aegean Production of Pottery in the Euboean Style: New Evidence from Neutron Activation Analyses. In Archaeometric Analyses of Euboean and Euboean Related Pottery: New Results and their Interpretations, Proceedings of the Round Table Conference held at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Athens, 15 and 16 April 2011, eds. M. Kerschner and I. S. Lemos, 109–140. Wien.
Kourou, N. 2021. Pots and graves: The lost cemeteries of Early Iron Age Tenos. Bruxelles.
Catling, R. W. V. and I. S. Lemos. 1990. The Pottery. In: Lefkandi II: The Ρrotogeometric Building at Toumba, Part I, eds. Popham, M. R., L. H. Sackett, and P. G. Calligas. London.
Popham, M. R. and I. S. Lemos. 1992. Review of KEARSLEY 1989, Gnomon 64 (2): 152–155.
Popham, M. R. and I. S. Lemos (eds.). 1996, Lefkandi III: The Toumba Cemetery: The Excavations of 1981, 1984, 1986 and 1992-1994: Plates, Supplementary Volume (British School at Athens) 29: i–205.
Reber, K. 2011. Céramique eubéenne à Naxos au début de l’Âge du Fer. In The “Dark Ages” Revisited, Acts of an International Symposium in Memory of William D. E. Coulson, University of Thessaly, Volos, 14–17 June 2007, ed. A. Mazarakis Ainian, 929–942. Volos.
Riis, P.J. and I. Sūkās. 1970. The North-East sanctuary and the first settling of Greeks in Syria and Palestine. Copenhagen.
Reber, K., S. Huber, and S. Fachard. 2008. Les Activités De L'école Suisse D'archéologie En Grèce 2007, Antike Kunst 51: 146–179.
Verdan, S., A. Kenzelmann Pfyffer, and C. Léderrey. 2008. Céramique géométrique d’Érétrie. Gollion.
Voza, G. 1999. Nel segno dell’antico. Archeologia nel territorio di Siracusa. Palermo
Zanini, E. and S. Costa. 2011. Ceramica e contesti nel Quartiere Bizantino del Pythion di Gortina (Creta): alla ricerca della “complessità” nella datazione. In Late Roman fine wares: solving problems of typology and chronology: a review of the evidence, debate and new contexts, ed. M.A. Cau Ontiveros, 33–44. Oxford.
Cynthia Marti: Where the Heaven Meets the Earth
Where the Heaven Meets the Earth: Mountains as Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity
Cynthia Marti (Philipps University of Marburg)
Date of presentation: 7 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15534895
Date of publication on Zenodo: 30 May 2025
Keywords: Mountains, Sacred Landscapes, Religious Atmospheres
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the sacredness of remote mountainous landscapes in the Mediterranean, with a special focus on Attica and the Peloponnese during antiquity, from the Geometric to the Hellenistic era. Since large parts of Greece consist of mountainous regions, mountains did not only have an economic and social relevance, but are also places where sanctuaries were located, making them into sacred landscapes and places of ritual practices of ancient communities.
The exploration of mountains as sacred spaces prompts the questions about the human-environment interactions in these remote areas at the margin of the polis. In these sanctuaries, both the natural features such as altitude, visibility or vegetation as well as built architecture like temples, altars or temenos play an important role in creating a sacred atmosphere and offer insights into the ways in which ancient communities engaged with their environment. Moreover, mountains also play an important role in ancient myths and, in addition to their significance as places frequented by humans, making them into imaginary landscapes inhabited by deities and mystical creatures.
In summary, this paper aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of mountains as sacred landscapes, exploring the interconnections between mountainous regions, cult architecture and practices in peripheral areas.
Video Recording
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Bibliography
Belis, Alexis. 2015. Fire on the Mountain. A Comprehensive Study of Greek Mountaintop Sanctuaries. Princeton.
Bintliff, John. 2009. The Implication of a Phenomenology of Landscape. In Die Landschaft und die Religion, ed. Eckart Olshausen and Vera Sauer, 27–46. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Bradley, Richard. 2000. An Archaeology of Natural Places. London: Routledge.
Breitwieser, Rupert, Monika Frass, and Georg Nightingale (eds.). 2013. Calamus. Festschrift für Herbert Graßl zum 65. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Brück, Joanna. 2005. Experiencing the past? The development of a phenomenological archaeology in British prehistory. Archaeological Dialogues 12 (1): 45–72.
Buxton, Richard. 1994. Imaginary Greece : the contexts of mythology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buxton, Richard. 2013. Myths and tragedies in their Ancient Greek contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cardete, María Cruz. 2019. Long and Short‐distance Transhumance in Ancient Greece: The Case of Arkadia. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 38 (1): 105–121. doi: 10.1111/ojoa.12162.
Cole, Susan Guettel. 2005. Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: the ancient Greek experience. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Eidinow, Esther, and Julia Kindt (eds.). 2017. The Oxford handbook of ancient Greek religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Guggisberg, Martin (ed.). 2013. Grenzen in Ritual und Kult der Antike: Internationales Kolloquium, Basel, 5-6 november 2009. Basel: Schwabe Basel.
Halstead, Paul, and Charles Frederick (eds.). 2000. Landscape and land use in postglacial Greece. Sheffielf: Sheffield Academic Press.
Häussler, Ralph, and Gian Franco Chiai. 2020. Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity: Creation, manipulation, transformation. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Hölscher, Tonio. 2013. Die griechische Polis und Ihre Räume: Religiöse Grenzen und Übergänge. In Grenzen in Ritual und Kult der Antike: Internationales Kolloquium, Basel, 5-6 November 2009, ed. Martin Guggisberg, 47–68. Basel: Schwabe Basel.
Kokkorou-Alevras, Georgia, Eirene Poupki, Alexis Eustathopoulos, Efstathia Rigatou, and Αchilleas Chatziconstantinou. 2019. An Overview on ancient Quarries of Southeastern Attica: The Ancient Quarries of Hymettus Revisited. Athens University Review of Archaeology 2 (2): 117–136.
König, Jason. 2022. The Folds of Olympus: Mountains in ancient Greek and Roman culture. Princeton.
Langdon, Merle. 2000. Mountains in Greek Religion. The Classical World 93 (5): 461–470.
Mylonopoulos, Ioannis. 2022. Natur als Heiligtum – Natur im Heiligtum. Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 10 (1).
Olshausen, Eckart, and Vera Sauer (eds.). 2009. Die Landschaft und die Religion. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Papantoniou, Giorgos, Athanasios K. Vionis, and Christine E. Morris (eds.). 2019. Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Religious and Insular Identities in Context. Nicosia: Astrom Editions.
Psychoyos, Olaga, and Yannis Karatzikos. Mycenaean cult on Mount Arachnaion in the Argolid, 261–276.
Psychoyos, Olaga, and Yannis Karatzikos. 2015. Mycenaean cult on Mount Arachnaion in the Argolid. In Mycenaeans up to date: The archaeology of the northeastern Peloponnese―current concepts and new directions, ed. Ann-Louise Schallin and Iphiyenia Tournavitou, 261–276. Stockholm.
Radermacher, Martin. 2018. „Atmosphäre“: Zum Potenzial eines Konzepts für die Religionswissenschaft. Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 26 (1): 142–194. doi: 10.1515/zfr-2017-0018.
Romano, David Gilman, and Mary E. Voyatzis. 2014. Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, Part 1: The Upper Sanctuary. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 83 (4): 569. doi: 10.2972/hesperia.83.4.0569.
Romano, David Gilman, and Mary E. Voyatzis. 2015. Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, Part 2: The Lower Sanctuary. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 84 (2): 207. doi: 10.2972/hesperia.84.2.0207.
Rupp, David. 1976. The Altars of Zeus and Hera on Mt. Arachnaion in the Argeia, Greece. Journal of Field Archaeology 3 (3): 261–268.
Schallin, Ann-Louise, and Iphiyenia Tournavitou (eds.). 2015. Mycenaeans up to date: The archaeology of the northeastern Peloponnese―current concepts and new directions. Stockholm.
Sporn, Katja. 2013. Der göttliche Helikon: Bergkulte oder Kulte auf den Bergen in Griechenland? In Calamus. Festschrift für Herbert Graßl zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Rupert Breitwieser, Monika Frass and Georg Nightingale, 465–478. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Surface-Evans, Sarah, and Davin White (eds.). 2012. Least Cost Analysis of Social Landscapes: Archaeological Case Studies. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Thommen, Lukas. 2009. Umweltgeschichte der Antike. München: C. H. Beck.
Tilley, Christopher. 1994. A phenomenology of landscape: places, paths and monuments. Oxford.
Weiberg, Erika, Ryan E. Hughes, Martin Finné, Anton Bonnier, and Jed O. Kaplan. 2019. Mediterranean land use systems from prehistory to antiquity: a case study from Peloponnese (Greece). Journal of Land Use Science 14 (1): 1–20. doi: 10.1080/1747423X.2019.1639836.
Zinn, Frank. 2020. Griechische Heiligtümer: Kult, Architektur und Funktion. Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH.
Julien Rösselet: Stone Pedestal Secrets
Stone Pedestal Secrets: Zooarchaeology of Iron Age Sirkeli Höyük
Julien Rösselet (University of Basel)
Date of presentation: 7 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15589934
Date of publication on Zenodo: tbd
Keywords: Zooarchaeology, Cilicia, Functional Analysis
Abstract
During the 2018 campaign, a large collection of animal bones was found within Building D1 of Sirkeli Höyük. Laid down on a stone installation, the accumulation of animal bones comprises mostly sheep and goat bones, which can be assigned to the NCI 3 period (950–720 BCE) and the construction phase D6 of Building D1. Building D1 was originally founded in the NCI2 period (1130–950 BCE). Initially, it consisted only of one large room, with an open space lying to the south of the building. In the construction phases D7 and D6, five further rooms were added. With this expansion, Building D1 was given a public character.
The study presented here focuses on the analysis of the animal bone spectrum as well as the taphonomic factors that influenced the bones during the time the stone installation was in use. This study aims to reconstruct the function and cultural meaning of the stone installation and its animal bone collection. A further goal is to understand whether the architectural changes observed in Building D1 are also reflected in the animal bone assemblage.
Video Recording
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Bibliography
Deschler-Erb, S. 2006. Leimsiederei- und Räuchereiwarenabfälle des 3. Jahrhunderts aus dem Bereich zwischen Frauenthermen und Theater von Augusta Raurica. Jahresberichte aus August und Kaiseraugst 27: 323–346.
Ekroth, Gunnel, and Jenny Wallensten (eds.). 2013. Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond. Stockholm.
Mouton, A. 2004. Anatomie animale: le festin carné des dieux d’après les textes Hittites I: les membres an- térieurs. Colloquium Anatolicum 2: 67–92.
Novák, Mirko. 2019. Urbanistik. In Sirkeli Höyük. Ein urbanes Zentrum am Puruna-Pyramos im Ebenen Kilikien. Vorbericht der schweizerisch-türkischen Ausgrabungen 2006–2015, eds. Mirko Novák, E. Kozal, and D. Yaşin, 368–379. Wiesbaden.
Novák, Mirko, E. Kozal, and D. Yaşin (eds.). 2019. Sirkeli Höyük. Ein urbanes Zentrum am Puruna-Pyramos im Ebenen Kilikien. Vorbericht der schweizerisch-türkischen Ausgrabungen 2006–2015. Wiesbaden.
Orton, D. C. 2010. A New Tool for Zooarchaeological Analysis: ArcGIS Skeletal Templates for Some Common Mammalian Species. Internet Archaeology 28. doi: 10.11141/ia.28.4.
Popkin, P. 2013. Hittite animal sacrifice. Integrating zooarchaeology and textual analysis. In Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond, eds. Gunnel Ekroth and Jenny Wallensten, 102–114. Stockholm.
Rosenbauer, R. and S. Rutishauser. 2019. Fernerkundung. In Sirkeli Höyük. Ein urbanes Zentrum am Puruna-Pyramos im Ebenen Kilikien. Vorbericht der schweizerisch-türkischen Ausgrabungen 2006–2015, eds. Mirko Novák, E. Kozal, and D. Yaşin, 46–52. Wiesbaden.
Vogler, U. 1997. Faunenhistorische Untersuchungen am Sirkeli Höyük/Adana, Türkei (4.-1. Jahrtausend v. Chr.), PhD diss., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Julia Schönicke: Living in Ruins
Living in Ruins: Abandonment and Ruin Interactions at the Settlement of Göbekli Tepe (Türkiye) in the Neolithic and Anthropocene
Julia Schönicke (University of Zürich & Free University of Berlin)
Date of presentation: 7 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15589973
Date of publication on Zenodo: 7 June 2025
Keywords: Resilience, Memory, Abandonment
Abstract
TFor decades, it was assumed that the special buildings at the Neolithic settlement of Göbekli Tepe (9500-8000 calBCE) were intentionally backfilled (“buried”) at the end of their use. But considering the landscape, earthquakes, and climate with strong winter rainfalls, severe land slide events led to their recurring destruction in Neolithic times. Yet, the inhabitants managed to repair the structures over hundreds of years, while others became abandoned. But were they?
My research at Göbekli Tepe reveals that ruins were in fact dynamic interaction spheres where the inhabitants intensively extracted building materials – pillar fragments, grinding stones, re-used wall stones – to maintain others. This, over time, led to the constant re-production of the site and the creation of memory spaces. But ruin interactions at Göbekli Tepe still take place nowadays – by archaeologists, conservation specialists, and countless visitors.
While focusing on the past, we often oversee that fieldwork forms a distinctly detectable re-occupation layer that I refer to as the Anthropocene horizon. While documenting its dimensions during a survey, I highlight to which degree the Anthropocene has already infiltrated the stratigraphy and raise awareness about the impact of excavations today. So, is there anything such as abandonment at all?
Video Recording
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Bibliography
Breuers, J., and M. Kinzel. 2022. „[…] but it is not clear at all where the […] debris had been taken from […]“ Chipped Stone Artefacts, Architecture and Site Formation Processes at Göbekli Tepe. In Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East: Lithic Perspectives on its Origins, Development and Dispersals. The Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the PPN Chipped and Ground Stones Industries of the Near East, Tokyo, 12th-16th November 2019, ed. Y. Nishiaki, O. Maeda and M. Arimura, 469–488. Leiden.
Clare, L. 2020. Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. A brief summary of research at a new World Heritage Site (2015-2019). https://publications.dainst.org/journals/index.php/efb/article/view/2596.
Editorial Collective (ed.). 2023. What does this have to do with Archaeology? Essays on the Occasion of the 65th Birthday of Reinhard Bernbeck. Leiden.
Gebauer, A. B., L. Sørensen, A. Teather, and A. de Valera (eds.). 2020. Monumentalizing life in Neolithic Europe: Narratives of continuity and change. Oxford.
Hansen, S. (ed.). 2010. Leben auf dem Tell als soziale Praxis. Beiträge des Internationalen Symposiums in Berlin vom 26.-27. Februar 2007. Bonn.
Hess, C. W., and F. Manuelli (eds.). 2022. Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue Vol. 1. Sessions 1, 2, and 5 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019. Oxford.
Kinzel, M. 2022. Göbekli Tepe – World Sensation between Scientific Research and Media Demands. In World Heritage Sites – Transnational Conservation, Communication, Cooperation, ed. A. Riedel and S. Winghart, 104–109. Berlin.
Kinzel, M., and L. Clare. 2020. Monumental—Compared to what? A perspective from Göbekli Tepe. In Monumentalizing life in Neolithic Europe: Narratives of continuity and change, ed. A. B. Gebauer, L. Sørensen, A. Teather and A. de Valera, 31–50. Oxford.
Kinzel, M., L. Clare, and Sönmez D. 2021. Built on rock—Towards a reconstruction of the ’Neolithic’ topography of Göbekli Tepe. Istanbuler Mitteilungen 70: 9–45.
Klinkenberg, V. 2016. Reading Rubbish: Using Assemblages to reconstruct Activities, Modes of Deposition and Abandonment at the Late Bronze Age DUNNU of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. Leiden.
Knitter, D., R. Braun, L. Clare, M. Nykamp, and B. Schütt. 2019. Göbekli Tepe: A Brief Description of the Environmental Development in the Surroundings of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Land 8: 72.
Nishiaki, Y., O. Maeda, and M. Arimura (eds.). 2022. Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East: Lithic Perspectives on its Origins, Development and Dispersals. The Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the PPN Chipped and Ground Stones Industries of the Near East, Tokyo, 12th-16th November 2019. Leiden.
Riedel, A., and S. Winghart (eds.). 2022. World Heritage Sites – Transnational Conservation, Communication, Cooperation. Berlin.
Schmidt, K. 2010. Göbekli Tepe – der Tell als Erinnerungsort. In Leben auf dem Tell als soziale Praxis. Beiträge des Internationalen Symposiums in Berlin vom 26.-27. Februar 2007, ed. S. Hansen, 13–23. Bonn.
Schönicke, Julia. “All Places are Temporary Places”—Abandonment and Ruin Interactions at the Neolithic Settlement of Göbekli Tepe in the Neolithic and Anthropocene, Berlin.
Schönicke, Julia. 2022. There and Back Again – Towards a New Understanding of Abandonment Practices at the Neolithic Settlement Göbekli Tepe. In Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue Vol. 1. Sessions 1, 2, and 5 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019, ed. C. W. Hess and F. Manuelli, 212–239. Oxford.
Schönicke, Julia. 2023. Capitalizing Ruins or Ruins of Capitalism—Göbekli Tepe and the Impact of Excavations in the Anthropocene. In What does this have to do with Archaeology? Essays on the Occasion of the 65th Birthday of Reinhard Bernbeck, ed. Editorial Collective, 421–438. Leiden.
Marina Weiss: Towards an Archaeology of Dance on Iron Age Cyprus
Towards an Archaeology of Dance on Iron Age Cyprus: Methods and Approaches
Marina Weiss (Free University of Berlin)
Date of presentation: 8 November 2024
DOI of publication on Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.15590034
Date of publication on Zenodo: 7 June 2025
Keywords: Dance, Cyprus, Iconography
Abstract
Dance is a global phenomenon that appears all throughout human history in various contexts, with various purposes and in various forms. Archaeologically, despite the ubiquity of dance representations in ancient art and supporting evidence to dance as a social and cultic activity in ancient literary sources, only few approaches towards the subject have been made. The difficulty of reconciling one of the basic concepts of dance, movement, with the idea of stillness necessary for research, as well as an apparent lack in archaeological sources have caused researchers to shy away from the topic.
The primary objective of the PhD project Dance on Ancient Cyprus (DAnC) is to investigate the archaeological evidence of dance on the island of Cyprus during the Iron Age. The project aims to establish an understanding of how dance functioned within Cypriot society, what purposes it served, and how these aspects were conveyed iconographically.
In the present talk, the author reflects on past approaches to the study of dance in antiquity and examines the recently proposed methodology for analyzing ancient depictions of dance in Garfinkel’s Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture (2021). Furthermore, the talk discusses how Garfinkel’s methodology is applied and adapted for the DAnC project.
Video Recording
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Bibliography
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Garfinkel, Y. 2003. The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East. Near Eastern Archaeology 66 (3): 84–95.
Garfinkel, Y. 2021. Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture. New York.
German, S. 2007. Dance in Bronze Age Greece. Dance Research Journal 39 (2): 23–42.
Iacovou, M. 2008. Cultural and Political Configurations in Iron Age Cyprus: The Sequel to a Protohistoric Episode. American Journal of Archaeology 112 (4): 625–657.
Iacovou, M. 2013. Historically Elusive and Internally Fragile Island Polities: The Intricacies of Cyprus’s Political Geography in the Iron Age. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 370: 15–47.
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Schaeffer, C. F.-A. (ed.). 1971. Alasia I. Mission archéologique d’Alasia IV. Paris.
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