ancientplanet

To Live Forever: a journey through

the Egyptian Amduat
Digital archaeology taking over?
Digging up Troy
Minoan Lily: the spiral story of
perpetual power
Inannas Descent: a balm for the
sting of injustice
How re made us smarter
Women in Situ: the role and representation
of women and their status in archaeology
IN THIS ISSUE
... and more
www.ancientplanetmag.com
ONLI NE JOURNAL
Hi stor y Archaeol ogy Sci ence
VOL. 01 MARCH/APRIL 2012
2
38 To Live Forever
A journey through the Egyptian Amduat
22 Digging Up Troy
81 How Fire Made Us Smarter
Early Human cognition in light of controlled fire use
AncientPlanet Online Journal
Volume 01
March/April 2012
Editor/Publisher: Ioannis Georgopoulos
Email: editor@ancientplanet.com
Web: www.ancientplanetmag.com
Notice:
The editors accept no responsibility for any loss,
injury or inconvenience sustained by persons
using the resources contained within the journal
and/or websites mentioned herein. Editorial and
contributors views are independent and do not
necessarily reect those of AncientPlanet.
2012 AncientPlanet Online Journal, founded by
Ioannis Georgopoulos. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
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Unless stated otherwise, all photos and illustrations
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copyright.
Front Cover: The burial mask of Ka Nefer Nefer at
the St. Louis Art Museum in St. Louis. Mohammed
Zakaria Ghoneim, who oversaw excavations at the
Saqqara pyramids, discovered the mask in 1952. It
resurfaced in 1998 when the St. Louis Art Museum
acquired it. Egypt says the mask was stolen and
wants it returned. Photo: St. Louis Art Museum
ISSN: 0000-0000
3
Regul ar s
06 Opinion
Heritage Under Siege
72 Conversation
Prof. Larry Swain talks about the
importance of the Staordshire hoard
78 Biography
Willian Matthew Flinders Petrie
92 Sites and Sounds
An Egyptologist in Milan
102 Whats On
Exhibitions in Europe & the USA
106 Spotlight
Six Great Websites
64 Women in Situ
The roles and representations of women
and their status in the archaeological
record
46 Minoan Lily
The spiral story of perpetual power
58 Inannas Descent
A balm for the sting of injustice
12 Digital Archaeology Taking
Over?
C
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4
Meet the Team. . .
Ioannis Georgopoulos, MA
Archaeologist / General Editor whose
research interests include Aegean
archaeology and the writing systems of
Bronze Age Crete and Greece.
Monty Dobson, Phd
American archaeologist, historian
and lmmaker, whose curiosity and
passion for the human story has led
him to travel the world.
Lisa Swart, Phd
Egyptologist specializing in the Egyptian
Third Intermediate Period, Egyptian art
and iconography, funerary customs and
theology
Aikaterini Kanatselou, MA
Archaeologist whose research interests
are mainly focused on Aegean prehistory,
religion, language and art.
Jesse Obert, BA
Classical Archaeologist specializing
in Warfare in Antiquity and currently
sitting for an MA in Ancient History.
Melanie E. Magdalena
Archaeology student who loves writing
thought provoking articles about
controversial topics in the eld of
archaeology.
Joshua J. Mark, MA
Historian and published author
with advanced degrees in both
English and Philosophy.
Charlotte Booth, MA
Egyptologist who has written
extensively on Egyptology, including
magaizine articles as well as eleven
books.
Jame Blake Wiener, MA
Historian who is passionate about
research and the dissemination of
knowledge to scholars and laymen
alike.
Terrence Twomey, Phd
Anthropologist whose research
interests include the evolution of
human language, consciousness
and cooperation, and the ecological
impacts of large and small scale
societies.
Amy Talbot
Archaeology student interested in
Palaeopathology, Biblical Archaeology
and Gender Studies.
Melanie Chalk
Freelance proofreader and owner of
Spellsure Proofreading Services, based
in the Costa del Sol, Spain.
5
From the Editor
Welcome to the first edition of the AncientPlanet, a bi-monthly
online journal featuring original research papers on a wide gam-
ut of subjects relating to history, archaeology and science.
The purpose of this publication is twofold. In the first instance, it
is intended to provide a platform for both professional academ-
ics and students to present their research to the wider public. As
such, we welcome contributions from individuals from all walks
of life, whether undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, mu-
seum staff .. and also from the general public. Second to this, but
equally as important, it is hoped that this journal will promote a
greater understanding of this ancient planet we call home.
As someone somewhere once said: Never forget the importance
of history. To know nothing of what happened before you took
your place on Earth is to remain a child forever and ever. We at
AncientPlanet are dedicated to this axiom to preserve and fos-
ter a greater understanding of our planets past, to protect and
preserve our planets future!
Although the present issue is clearly anthropocentric and archae-
ological in nature, it is hoped that future editions of this journal
will include research from such diverse fields as palaeontology,
biology, ecology and also astronomy.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the first issue of the Ancient-
Planet Online Journal!
Ioannis Georgopoulos
Welcome...
6
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
T
he worldwide economic downturn and
its accompanying trend toward austere
budgets have left few areas of public
services untouched. Indeed, the culture and
heritage sectors have been particularly hard
hit. In recent weeks we have seen American
politicians slashing away at the Transportation
Enhancements funds in the Highway Bill. I
know it sounds odd, but due to the strange
appropriations system in the US, that has been
where the funds for historic preservation have
been housed for several decades. Meanwhile,
some American state governments like Utah
have used the current budget challenges
to gut their state archeology staffs. While it
was surely an unintended consequence, this
has effectively silenced critics of high profile
development projects. In Britain the coalition
has repeatedly chipped away at public finding
for museums and cultural heritage projects.
Perhaps no country has seen its heritage
funding more drastically slashed than Greece.
In the last few weeks we have seen threats to
Greek cultural heritage ranging from daylight
raids on museums to archaeologists and
curators re-burying artifacts because there
are no funds to house and care for them.
However, not all the threats are due to lack of
funding. The competing interests of develop-
ment and preservation are ever present and
the motivations of political leaders who set
the agenda can be complex. In Russia, the rush
to celebrate the countrys 1150th anniversary
has meant that the archaeological heritage at
iconic sites like the Izborsk Fortress are threat-
ened by the desire to build new visitor centers
and amenities. In Bulgaria, the Prime Minister
has publicly feuded with archaeologists who
are working in advance of the new highway
project and in Utah questions are being asked
about the motives of the Governor in sacking
the states most respected archaeologist in the
midst of controversy over development plans.
In the case of Russia, and the Izborsk Fortress
site, the challenges are not budgetary, but
arise from national policy and the desire to
promote heritage tourism. Izborsk occupies
an important, foundational place in Russias
cultural memory. In terms of the chronology
of Izborsk, we have the documentary sources
that tell us about its early associations with
Scandinavians, but we know relatively little
about the archaeology of the early medieval
phases there. According to the Russian
Primary Chronicle, Izborsk was the seat of one
of the three Rus brothers, Rurik, Sineus and
Truvor, who were invited to found the first
kingdom in the 9th century. That being said,
the fragile state of preservation of the fortress
is cause for concern. Recent preservation work
undertaken by the Global Heritage Fund, The
Ministry of Culture, Russian Federation and
the General Directorate, Pskov Reconstruction
Office appears to have stabilized some of the
worst affected areas. However, the planed
festivities, while celebrating the site, may
bring more tourists than are healthy for its
long-term preservation. How damaging any
potential increase in visitors would be to
the site depends on the steps taken by the
Russian officials to protect it. Whatever the
motives, there needs to be a balance between
restoration and research in order to understand
and preserve the history of any ancient site.
Once the archaeology is disturbed it is lost
forever, along with any hope of understanding
the site fully.
Despite the budgetary challenges and
questionable political influence, there are
successful examples out there in which
communities have both leveraged heritage sites
for economic benefit while accommodating
the needs of research and preservation. Two
models in the US and UK are also examples of
how the public interest can be served through
a combination of public and private partners.
In the US, the early French colonial settlement
at Michilimackinac in northern Michigan and in
the UK, the City of York are two such examples.
Heritage under siege
By Monty Dobson
7
O P I N I O N
At Michilimackinac the original French
settlement was founded in 1690 on the Upper
Peninsula side of the Straits of Mackinac and
is the earliest European settlement west of
the Appalachian Mountains. The site of the
Colonial Fort museum was founded in 1715 as
a French fort and fur trading post. The fortified
community there became the fur trade center
of the Northwest until its relocation to nearby
Mackinac Island in 1781. The fort reflects the
ebb and flow of French and English colonial
dominance in North America and the site
changed hands with negative repercussions
for the Native Americans who had closer
ties to the French. Today the two sites form
the centerpieces of tourism and economic
development in the region. This has been
achieved while fostering archaeological
research and preservation which has been
ongoing since the 1950s.
In the UK, the city of York is home to the
Jorvik Viking Centre. In the 1980s developers
were constructing a shopping center on a
former urban brownstone site when they
unearthed the Viking remains. As it turned
out, the Coppergate Shopping Centre was
planned for the exact site of the Viking age
street of the cupmakers- the literal translation
of Coppergate. Rather than abandon the
development, archaeologists from the York
Archaeological Trust conducted rescue and
research excavations on the site. Due to the
high levels of public interest, decided to
partner with the developers and open the
museum. Today the museum is an integral
part of the citys tourism mission drawing
more than 600,000 visitors annually. The city
of York continues to partner with private
partners such as YAT to mitigate the threat to
the cultural heritage from development.
Threats to cultural heritage are many and
even in this era of economic austerity it is not
just the lack of funds that threaten cultural
heritage sites. Development and tourism can
both benefit and harm culturally significant
sites and objects. There is always tension be-
tween preservation of a site in pristine condi-
tion, probably the professional archaeologists
preferred option, and development of the site
as part of the tourism economy. It would be
disingenuous to claim that such development
has no impact on a site. At the Angkor Archae-
ological Park , a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
the unexpectedly high levels of tourism have
been both a boon to the national economy
and the bane of preservationists. The massive
numbers of tourists in the last decade or so
have placed the Angkor Wat temple site in dan-
ger. However, without the tourists and their
hard currency, the site would not have access
to much the preservation funding it presently
receives. Clearly what is needed in these cases
is a sustainable plan that is effectively imple-
mented and adhered to by all stakeholders.
To be sure, the current economic troubles
mean that there are real threats to heritage
as in Greece and development demands
in places like Utah, Russia, and Bulgaria
can threaten to overwhelm underfunded
heritage professionals. But the prospects
for preservation are not at all bleak. As we
have seen with the historic city of York and
Mackinaw in Michigan, there are real economic,
educational, and social benefits to be derived
from supporting research and preservation at
heritage sites.
Further Reading
Russian Primary Chronicle:
http://web.ku.edu/~russcult/culture/handouts/chronicle_
all.html#rurik
Mackinac Historic Parks:
http://www.mackinacparks.com/colonial-michilimackinac/
York Archaeological Trust:
http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/
Ankor Wat Site:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668
8
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13
Digital Archaeology
Taking Over?
Wi ll technology replace
tradi ti onal archaeology?
By Melanie Magdalena
D
igital archaeology is competing with traditional
archaeology practices. Digital archaeology has the
potential to advance the archaeological practice in the
coming years, but traditional archaeology should not be replaced.
The following research has revealed that the general public
wants digital archaeology to work with traditional archaeologists
and not replace them. Archaeology is becoming a computer
game. Technology has become the norm of all scientific practice.
According to Dr. Harry Schafer, 99% of history can only be revealed
by archaeology, since written history only occurred recently
and we have little to no documentation about the past. Digital
archaeology is leaving sites underground hidden away from the
world. Lack of public interest in archaeology has caused a shortage
of funding for projects and the transition into cyberspace. The
purpose of this article is to increase public awareness about the
impact of digital archaeology on our cultural heritage.
14
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
What is archaeology?
Archaeology is one of the four branches of
anthropology - the study of all aspects of
humankind - biological, cultural, and linguistic;
extant and extinct - employing a holistic,
comparative approach and the concept of
culture. Specifically, archaeology is the study
of the past through the systematic recovery
and analysis of material remains. This means
that archaeologists rebuild forgotten history
by going out and finding places where history
has been literally buried and reconstructing
the past so we can define our cultural heritage.
What Is digital archaeology?
Fifty years ago no one would believe that in
2011 we would be able to reconstruct entire
cities and collections of artifacts as 3D models
on a computer. Digital archaeology - a new
branch of non-invasive archaeology - has done
just that. Non-invasive techniques are also
known as remote sensing. Remote sensing,
in Robert Kellys words, refers to an array of
photographic and geophysical techniques
that rely on some form of electromagnetic
energy - it might be raw electricity, light,
heat, or radio waves - to detect and measure
characteristics of archaeological targets.
Digital archaeology is an advanced form of
common remote sensing practices that does
not require uncovering sites; everything is
processed by a computer and stays in the
computer.
The non-invasive practice
Over the years, scientists are becoming more
aware of the environment that envelops
archaeological sites. Excavation poses two
threats: the first is the potential harm to the
surrounding environment and ecosystems,
the second is the potential harm that can
destroy a site that is not properly preserved.
Money is a large factor that makes preservation
possible.
Digging is destructive. As archaeologist
Kent Flannery once remarked, archaeologists
murder their informants (their sites) when they
question them! The archaeological deposits so
carefully examined during a dig are destroyed
forever [] A chemist can readily recreate the
conditions of a basic experiment, a biographer
can return to the archives to re-evaluate
the complex events of a politicians life, but
an archaeologists archives are destroyed
during the dig [] Increasingly, the ethics
of archaeology research require absolutely
minimal excavation consistent with acquiring
Results from the survey conducted regarding what is archaeology. Thirty-two people responded.
The majority of the people who responded identified the definition of archaeology correctly.
Melanie Magdalena
15
A R C H A E O L O G Y
essential scientific evidence, stated Brian M.
Fagan, Archaeology, page 236.
Non-invasive archaeology revolves around
remote sensing. Remote sensing enables
archaeologists to not expose a site until
invasive archaeology is absolutely necessary,
therefore increasing the lifespan of a site. There
are various methods: aerial photography,
electrical resistivity, false colour infrared,
ground penetrating radar, proton precession
magnetometer, side-looking radar, soil
resistivity, standing wave technique, among
others. Digital archaeology is the newest non-
invasive technique. Although it encompasses
many of the previously listed techniques, it is
the newest and possibly most perilous in the
end.
Non-invasive archaeology used to be a
method for discovering sites without having
to dig without knowing if there was really
a site underground. Digital archaeology
now makes digging somewhat unnecessary.
Instead of using radars to discover sites
and then dig, radars can now create virtual
models of what is underground and provide
rather detailed imagery; everything from
creating simulations of sinking ships to
community lifestyle. Michael Bawaya claims
virtual archaeology is a highly visual way
to recreate lost worlds, helping researchers to
imagine environments long past. He notes
in his article Archaeology: Digital Digs that
Donald Sanders, President of the Institute for
the Visualization of History in Massachusetts,
spent nearly $30,000 to produce a simulation
for sinking his virtual ship from Cyprus.
Computers have drastically improved allowing
researchers to use cheaper equipment but
software is still very expensive.
Site preservation and the
virtual past
Virtual archaeology is a spectacular way to
recreate past lifeways. It is not entirely cost-
effective at this time. Until costs go down,
archaeology is still in danger. Sites are being
left underground because there is not enough
funding for archaeologists to do research.
Why are sites staying underground? First, non-
invasive archaeology began as a method for
finding sites. Ground penetrating radars help
pinpoint locations of sites before opening up
the ground. Technology provides answers
about sites without having to worry about
preservation costs. So a site is found and
dug up...what next? If the team has money
for preservation, it stays out in the open. If
the government has money and the team
does not, they step in and preserve the site.
Sites are a tourist attraction that will bring in
money for the national economy. Most of the
time, there is not enough money to preserve
sites.
If a team finds a site and only has money for
research, a site can be preserved digitally.
Sometimes sites do not make it on the
National Registrar for preservation and are
destroyed. Digital archaeology can save the
site in cyberspace.
Technology provides archaeologists with the
chance to reconstruct a past civilization and
create simulations to help determine what life
was like; structures can be rebuilt, people can
be added interacting with their surroundings,
and you can even view the effects of different
transportation routes on trade.
Digital images are becoming increasingly
popular. Photographs reveal textures and,
with special lighting techniques, they can
reveal details that are not visible to the
naked eye. Larger scales are also made
possible, such as maps and site plans. The
Archaeology Coursebook states that the
landscape we encounter in the field has been
shaped by humans and by nature, Observing
the morphology (shape) of the modern
landscape is the starting point for research.
16
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Major investigations will also use GIS to
produce digital maps and 3D models of past
environments. Digital archaeology embraces
the research design method however, as
Survey Responder #25 said, If [research] is
only done by computer you will always have
sceptics that will refuse to believe until they
have actually seen it.
Chauvet-Pont-dArc Cave is a classic example
of an archaeological site that is too delicate to
be opened up to the elements and even to the
climate. The cave has been sealed. Scientists
can only conduct studies five days every year.
Its pristine condition preserves the oldest
cave paintings of human culture. Even the
scientists and archaeologists that visit the
cave during the five day period are limited
to a two foot wide metal platform walkway
installed on the ground. Cave of Forgotten
Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010) is a unique
film that the public can access and view this
spectacular cave since it is not open to the
public.
Digital archaeology does provide opportunities
for people to access sites that they would
otherwise be unable to see. In the film, the
1,300 foot long cave is also presented as a three
dimensional model that was mapped with
laser scanners and has all the cave features.
With this model, archaeologists can study
the features without having to intrude and
risk damaging the history contained within.
Even with these now completed models after
twelve years of documentation, archaeologists
still have to enter in order to interpret the
paintings. No matter how much technology
is involved, human presence is necessary for
interpretation. Digital archaeology simply
assists the Chauvet Cave Project but does not
replace traditional methods.
Public Interest
People want to see the results of their
money. An adult interested in archaeology
also probably does not want to pay money
to see a simulation of a ship or a 3D model
of the pyramids of Giza. Survey results have
A research design is the scientific formula
archaeologists use for investigating sites.
Melanie Magdalena
17
A R C H A E O L O G Y
Above: Plaza A, Altun Ha, Belize. Most of Altun Ha has been excavated and restored. Melanie
Magdalena; Below: Plaza B, Altun Ha, Belize. Unfortunately, many structures have been destroyed
and others have yet to be excavated and reconstructed. Melanie Magdalena
18
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
revealed that most people understand what
archaeology is, feel digital archaeology
can help improve results when money for
preservation is an issue, and do not want
digital archaeology to replace physical
results.
Chauvet-Pont-dArc Cave is sealed so that
the remains of the past are preserved. The
paintings are fragile. Lascaux Cave had to
be shut down because of excess moisture
caused by tourist breath. It is necessary to
leave some sites closed, not because of lack
of funding but because people, the climate,
and even nature can damage sites.
Non-invasive archaeology assists archaeol-
ogists when sites cannot be opened up but
a lot of sites that can be preserved and left
open are ignored, only digitized, or left to
collapse due to poor preservation.
Visible cultural heritage is being stripped
away from the public due to non-invasive
archaeology. Archaeology has been
reserved purely for archaeologists who are
granted the privilege to excavate and then
rebury sites and is evolving into a game. If
archaeologists only have enough money to
recover data, they choose to digitize sites.
Technology does not have the ability
to interpret a site like an archaeologist.
Precise details cannot be revealed with
technology. As Katelyn Bleiweiss said
during our interview, Technology does not
have the ability to reproduce all five senses.
Our five senses give us more details about
artifacts than technology. Intuition by an
archaeologist is lost in the digital world
and interpretations can face flaws. Digital
archaeology cannot inform on interpreting
the minds of prehistoric people.
Digitization has become a priority. Lack of
public interest has decreased available funds
for uncovering the past. Without public
interest, our cultural heritage will remain
lost in time until someone takes action.
Archaeology and technology can work side
by side, they can also work together. The key
is to find a balance so that both techniques
strengths are used to recreate the most
accurate history.
Further Reading
Bawaya, Michael. 2006. Archaeology: Digital
digs. Nature. 440 (7088): 1106-07.
Boon, P., Maaten, L. van der, Paijmans, H.,
Postma, E. and Lange, G. 2009. Digital Support
Results from the survey conducted regarding the potential of digital archaeology. Twenty-
eight people responded. The majority of the people who responded said digital archaeology
can help save our history but do not want digital archaeology to replace digging in the field.
Melanie Magdalena
19
A R C H A E O L O G Y
for Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Science
Reviews. 34 (2/3): 189-205.
Cassen, Serge and Robin, Guillaume. 2010.
Recording Art on Neolithic Stelae and Passage
Tombs from Digital Photographs. Journal Of
Archaeological Method & Theory. 17 (1): 1-14.
Fagan, Brian M. Archaeology: A Brief
Introduction. 5th ed. New York: HarperCollins
College Publishers, 1994.
Grant, Jim, Gorin, Sam and Fleming, Neil.
Communicating Archaeological Knowledge.
The Archaeology Coursebook. 3rd ed.
(London and New York: Routledge, 2008.),
373. http://issuu.com/doc555/docs/the_
archaeology_coursebook_an_introduction_to_
them?mode=window&pageNumber=373
Grant, Jim, Gorin, Sam and Fleming, Neil.
Reconstructing Ancient Landscapes. The
Archaeology Coursebook. 3rd ed. (London
and New York: Routledge, 2008.), 200. http://
issuu.com/doc555/docs/the_archaeology_
coursebook_an_introduction_to_
them?mode=window&pageNumber=200
Haviland, William A., Prins, Harald E. L.,
McBride, Bunny and Walrath, Dana Cultural
Anthropology: The Human Challenge. 13th ed.
Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, The. Digital Dead
Sea Scrolls. Digital Dead Sea Scrolls. http://dss.
collections.imj.org.il/
Bleiweiss, Katelyn (Anthropology student,
University of Texas), in discussion with the
author, 18 November 2011.
Kelly, Robert L. and Tomas, David Hurst.
Archaeology. 5th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning, 2010.
Powell, Eric A. 2009. Digital Archaeology 2.0.
Archaeology. 62 (1): 27.
Shafer, Harry. Archeology 101. San Antonio:
Texas Archeological Society, 2011.
Stewart, R. Michael. Archaeology Basic Field
Methods. (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing
Company, 2002), 229-32.
Temple, James. 2011. Digital tools expand
view. San Francisco Chronicle (10/1/2007 to
present), 09 November 2011, D1.
Velios, Athanasios, and Harrison, John. 2007.
Digital Reconstruction of Fragmented
Archaeological Objects. Studies In
Conservation. 52 (1): 19-36.
20
For more information visit the Association of Greek Archaeologists website
http://www.sea.org.gr/press/pages/viewpress.aspx?PressID=107
21
For more information visit the Association of Greek Archaeologists website
http://www.sea.org.gr/press/pages/viewpress.aspx?PressID=107
22
Ramp of Troy (Courtesy Brian Harrington Spier)
23
0lggl0g u L|0g
T
he Iliad had a profound and fundamental
impact on the development of the West.
In the ancient world, the story was a
guide to everyday life. It is said that Alexander
the Great always kept a copy close at hand
when he invaded Persia. Julius Caesar traced
his family lineage to Homers characters in
order to prove his heroic status.
The myths influence has continued through
the ages. In the 19th century, Europeans still
taught and adored Homer, and this intrigue
led several individuals to leave their families
in search of the lost city of Troy.
The story of the site is a tragedy. Early
excavations left Troy damaged and only
raised more questions about the site. It
was a unique site in the field of classical
archaeology because, until only recently,
excavators were desperately trying to justify
a piece of writing. For theses excavators, the
discovery of another layer was often greeted
with dread and not excitement. The prospect
of discovering a Homeric Troy corrupted the
archaeology. Excavators referred to the text
as an archaeological guideline and, more
often than not, conclusions were made with
the intention of making the myth seem
more real. The archaeologists at Troy had an
agenda, making their work less of a scientific
exploration and more of a prejudiced treasure
hunt.
The significance of the site remained important
through the Hellenistic and Roman periods. At
the end of the Roman Republic, Virgil wrote
The Aeneid connecting the Roman people
and ultimately the Julio-Claudian dynasty to
ancient Troy. Although this justified Augustus
dictatorial position, he built the Roman city
of Ilium Novum over the ruins of Troy. The city
flourished due to its imposing position over
the Hellespont. The eventual establishment of
Constantinople to the north-east weakened
Ilium Novums control in the area and the city
slowly deteriorated. When the Roman city
was ultimately abandoned in the 4th century
CE, the location of Troy was forgotten.
0g ]0SS0 000|L
24
The story continued to capture hearts, minds,
and imaginations. In 1829, the Instituto di
Corrispondenza Archeologica was founded in
Rome. This was the first association of classical
archaeologists and created an official forum
for learned speculation (Allen 67). Almost
immediately, academics began to discuss the
location of Troy.
By the mid 19th century, the general consensus
was that Ilium Novum had been built over
the ancient city of Troy. However, the
location of Ilium Novum was still unknown,
so the argument remained heated. Several
academics predicted the mound of Hissarlik
to be the location of the Roman city, but
proper excavations were needed before any
conclusions could be made.
In the late 1840s, an English consular named
Frederick Calvert purchased the farmland
around Hissarlik with his brothers, James
and Frank. Frank Calvert was a published
amateur archaeologist and a member of the
archaeological institute in Rome. No one knows
whether the Calvert brothers purchased the
land for its fertility or in the hope of finding
Troy (Allen 75).
Frank Calvert adamantly believed that the
ancient city of Troy was in fact real, but was
not convinced that Hissarlik was the location
of Ilium Novum and, ultimately, Troy. Almost
immediately after acquiring the land he
began crude archaeological surveys.
During the Crimean War in 1855, a British
Army Works Corps was ordered to build a
hospital near Calverts property. The leader
of the team was a railroad engineer from
London, named John Brunton. Brunton was
welcomed by the Calverts and shared Frank
Calverts excitement about Hissarlik. After
construction was suspended by peace talks
with Russia, Brunton decided to keep his men
occupied and out of trouble by having them
excavate various locations that Calvert had
previously surveyed. Thus, the first official
25
excavations in the area were unorganized,
unscientific, and shallow (Allen 78).
Brunton discovered an extensive Roman site
at Hissarlik. He found high quality artifacts
in a fairly large area around the mound. This
early probing appears to have excluded
Calvert. Ultimately, Bruntons work at Hissarlik
should be classified as looting, not scientific
excavation.
Bruntons finds solidified Calverts theories
about Hissarlik. A large scale excavation
required money, but the Calverts were having
severe financial issues. During the Crimean
War, Frederick, the English consular, lost many
trade opportunities. Additionally, he was
involved in a food shortage conspiracy and
he was accused of trying to profit from and
defraud the War Office. This huge disgrace and
the subsequent court trials forced Frederick
to move to London, leaving the Calvert estate
ruined and shamed. Frank Calvert was left
to rebuild the family name and pay off their
immense debts, so the excavation of Hissarlik
was postponed (Allen 88-95).
While the Crimean War bankrupted and
disgraced the Calvert family, a German
businessman named Heinrich Schliemann
View of the northern part of the Plain of Troy from the Hill of Hissarlik
(Courtesy Brian Harrington Spier)
26
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
greatly profited. Schliemann was the son
of a Lutheran preacher but, early in life, his
family fell on bad times and Schliemann had
to drop out of school. He became a grocer
and was reportedly introduced to Homer by
a drunken milkman (Allen 111). Like many of
his contemporaries, he found a deep love for
ancient Greece and the classics.
As a young man, Schliemann made a name for
himself in the indigo trade. Later, he became
wealthy as the owner of a bank in San Francisco
during the Gold Rush. Throughout the
Crimean War, Schliemann transported goods
that had been lost in the British blockade to St.
Petersburg. This risky but lucrative enterprise
essentially doubled his wealth (Allen 113).
In the late 1860s, Heinrich Schliemann began a
tour of classical archaeology sites throughout
the Mediterranean. During his journey he
became deeply interested in the process
and possibility of amateur archaeological
excavation. When Schliemann arrived at the
area around Hissarlik, he met Frank Calvert.
Calvert was desperate to continue his work at
Hissarlik but lacked the necessary funds and
needed a partner.
Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert were
similar in that they were both obsessed with
finding Homers Troy, but their similarities
ended there. Though they began excavation
together, Schliemann would ultimately claim
to be solely responsible for Troys discovery.
View of Hissarlik from the North (above) and South (below), adaped from
Heinrich Schliemann, 1875.
27
B R O N Z E A G E | A N A T O L I A
In 1871, Schliemann began excavations at
Hissarlik. Previous excavation had revealed
a wealthy Roman city, but Schliemann was
not interested in Ilium Novum. He decided
to bypass everything until he reached the
Homeric layer. Unfortunately, Schliemann
knew very little about archaeology, and
commanded a massive team of unskilled
locals. In addition, his eagerness to find
Homers Troy made him biased and careless.
Schliemanns team worked for seven seasons
over the span of twenty years. In that time, he
excavated a twenty metres (sixty-five feet)
deep trench that ran right through the middle
of the site. He dug until he hit bedrock, then
labelled and measured what he had revealed.
Schliemann broke the site into nine layers,
which he labelled from the bottom up,
instead of using the accepted technique of
numbering the layers from the surface down.
His first layer belonged to the first settlers, an
Aryan race (Schliemann 16). The second was
Homers Troy, and the next layers belonged
to Greek and Roman occupation. Schliemann
declared the second layer, or Troy II, to be
the Homeric layer based on several factors
which he pulled from the Iliad. Troy II had a
fortification wall, evidence of destruction by
fire, human remains, and a large gold hoard.
In his mind, these factors confirmed the site
as Troy because it loosely resembled the
Troy he had always imagined. Nevertheless,
Schliemanns discovery became international
news. As respect for the field of classical
archaeology grew, Schliemann smuggled the
artifacts back to Europe.
Archaeologists now know that Schliemanns
trench ultimately destroyed a large portion
of the site. What he labelled as Troy I dates
back to the beginning of the Bronze Age, but
Troy II was built only a few hundred years later
and at least one thousand years too early to
be the legendary Troy. If there was a Homeric
Troy, Schliemann dug right through it.
Heinrich Schliemann would go on to
excavate at Mycenae, undoubtedly hoping
to find Clytemnestras axe still lodged in
Agamemnons skull. It is important to note that
Schliemanns crude techniques and manners
have led several scholars to question his
reports and the authenticity of his discoveries.
Additionally, Calvert was outraged when
Schliemann dug his massive trench. Their
partnership dissolved but Schliemann had
the permits and the money. He took full credit
for Troys discovery and Calvert was left with
nothing (Bryce 37).
In 1882, Schliemann invited a German
archaeologist named Wilhelm Drpfeld to
Hissarlik. Drpfeld and Schliemann became
fast friends, united by their passion for
prehistoric Aegean archaeology. Many
scholars would later praise Drpfeld for
attempting to keep Schliemann under control.
Drpfeld was a family man who had dug at
sites across the Aegean. He often shared
his experiences with Schliemann and was
ultimately hired by Schliemanns widow to
finish excavations at Hissarlik. In 1893 and
1894, Drpfeld returned to the site to further
Heinrich Schliemann.
28
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
General view of the treasures of Priam (after Schliemann)
29
B R O N Z E A G E | A N A T O L I A
Views from Heinrich Schliemanns excavations at Hissarlik, 1881.
30
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
explore the stratigraphy and test Schliemanns
rash conclusions.
One of the first archaeologists to effectively
use stratigraphic dating, Drpfeld traced
the presence of pottery sherds through the
various occupations of the site. Drpfeld
added over 40 sublevels to Schliemanns nine.
In addition, he concluded that Troy II was far
too old to be Homers Troy (Drpfeld 29).
Like Schliemann, Drpfelds main purpose at
Hissarlik was to discover the Late Bronze Age
Troy described in the Iliad. Consequently, he
dedicated most of his time searching for the
mythical city. Drpfeld classified Troy IV as
prehistoric villages and declared Homers
Troy to be Troy VI. Further excavation of this
layer had revealed a large city surrounded
by massive and elaborate fortification
walls. Most importantly, Drpfeld identified
large quantities of Mycenaean pottery. This
suggested steady interactions with the
Greek mainland, which was controlled by the
Mycenaean Empire (Drpfeld 31).
Drpfeld calculated that Troy VI existed from
1500 to 1000 BCE. He then placed Troy VII from
1000 to 700 BCE and Troy VIII from 700 to 0
(Drpfeld 31). In Troy VII, Drpfeld discovered
two distinct cities. The first, Troy VIIA, was
smaller than Troy VI and was ultimately
consumed in a fiery destruction. Troy VIIB was
even smaller and also met a violent end. The
subsequent Troy VIII was a large and successful
Greek city, and the Roman Troy IX was even
wealthier (Drpfeld 29 30). Drpfelds idea
was that the site radically declined over a
relatively short time but then suddenly rose
to be a great power. Many scholars believed
that a timeline with such drastic shifts in
wealth was incomplete. Drpfelds conclusion
also suggested continuous occupation, which
differed from the common archaeological
trend of sites being destroyed and abandoned
in the Greek Dark Age, 1000 to 700 BCE.
Drpfelds publication caused grumblings
amongst classicists and Homer enthusiasts.
While Troy VI was large it did not meet a fiery
end, and though the cities in Layer VII were
burned, they were relatively small. Neither
layer neatly fit Homers description.
These inconsistencies and archaeological
mysteries remained unexplained over the
following decades until a well respected
archaeologist from the University of
Cincinnati reopened excavations. In 1932, Carl
Blegen began excavation at Hissarlik with the
intention of solving the chronological issues.
Blegen was the first true archaeologist to
direct excavations at Troy. He had worked at
sites throughout Greece, held a doctorate
from Yale, and taught classical archaeology at
the University of Cincinnati. Nevertheless, his
interest in proving the existence of a Homeric
Troy still motivated many of his actions and
interpretations.
Blegens initial conclusions simply moved
the beginning of Troy VIIA back to 1200 BCE
from 1000. This allowed for a longer period of
decline which fit better with the trend of Late
Bronze Age collapse. Additionally, Blegen
decided that the Homeric Troy must have
been Troy VIIA (Velikovsky).
Wilhelm Drpfeld.
31
B R O N Z E A G E | A N A T O L I A
Eastern bastion of Troy VI, Drpfeld at the base (after Drpfeld)
32
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Two decades after Blegen finished excavation,
his findings were finally published. He
concluded that Troy VI was destroyed by an
earthquake around 1300 BCE. The survivors
built Troy VIIA, a less lavish and significantly
smaller city, but this was destroyed around
1260 BCE by war. Then Troy VIIB was built,
but only survived until around 1100 BCE. The
Greek city of Troy VIII was built in 700 BCE
on top of the four hundred year old ruins
(Velikovsky).
Blegens conclusion was radical. While the
break in occupation fit with other Dark
Age sites, there were many similarities
between Troy VIIB and Troy VIII which
suggested a continuous occupation. Blegen
himself admits that the artifacts suggest a
continuation of cultural heritage and, most
surprisingly, pottery style (Blegen 251). This
style originally appeared in Troy VI, about the
same time as Mycenaean pottery. It stays in
every subsequent layer including Troy VIII.
Plan and section of the archeological site of Troy (Courtesy
Bibi Saint-Pol)
33
Some scholars believe that the inhabitants
of Troy VIIB moved inland and retained
their culture. Their descendants eventually
moved back to build Troy VIII, perhaps even
building their homes amongst the ancient
ruins. Another answer might be found in
the hill of Hissarlik itself. After five known
excavations over about one hundred years,
the site was not in an ideal condition. Blegen
admits that several layers must have been
corrupted by upper layers, as Greek pottery
was occasionally found in Bronze Age levels
(Blegen 181).
Despite these various reservations, Blegens
publication was generally well received.
His conclusions placed the Homeric Troy at
the right time and in one of the only layers
to be destroyed by war. Additionally, the
abandonment of Troy in the Dark Age fits
with the mass destruction and abandonment
of sites across Greece and the Middle East. In
Carl Blegen
Excavation of the Eastern Wall at Hissarlik by Carl Blegen, 1932.
34
Greece, the residents of these destroyed sites
appeared to have migrated inland, away from
coastlines. This fits Blegens explanation for
the continuation of cultural heritage from
Troy VIIB to Troy VIII.
Scholars continued to argue over the exis-
tence of Troy for several decades. Turkey for-
bade excavations at Hissarlik after World War
II, but mysteries still remained. Archaeologists
were forced to find alternative methods to an-
swer their questions.
Troy and Ilium Novum were reported to
be immensely wealthy due to their con-
trol of the Hellespont, but the site at His-
sarlik resembled a small castle, not a huge
metropolis. Schliemann had opened vari-
ous test pits around the mound, but found
nothing (Schliemann 18). Although many of
Schliemanns other conclusions were contest-
ed, his successors did not look for settlements
beyond the fortification walls.
In 1984, a German archaeologist named
Manfred Korfmann published a paper about
his experiences excavating in a bay north of
Hissarlik. He argued that the large bay, which
had been silted over since ancient times,
would have been a natural port. The bay
would have been easily defended and a small
fleet could have controlled all traffic through
the strait. Additionally, the abundant natural
springs in the area could have sustained a
large military force (Korfmann 7 9).
Korfmanns paper brought new insight to the
economic and military standing of the site,
and four years later, Turkey gave him a permit
to reopen excavations at Hissarlik. Since 1988,
Project Troia has excavated huge portions of
the site and made many important discoveries.
The most significant to Homer enthusiasts
is the discovery of massive settlements
extending from the previously excavated
Bronze Age layers. These settlements suggest
that previous archaeologists had only been
The Bronze Age remains were found at the lower city, below the remains of Hellenistic and Roman houses.
Courtesy Project Troia
35
excavating the sites citadel or acropolis, thus
creating an image of Troy that better fits the
Homeric description.
The city Schliemann thought was Homers
Troy has been revealed to be a massive
Bronze Age settlement positioned on the
water. The settlement covered an area of
about ninety thousand square metres and
was encircled by a palisade wall. Schliemann
had only uncovered a small stone fort in the
north-westernmost corner of the settlement.
This Early Bronze Age site has evidence of a
wealthy upper class and the presence of Greek
imports suggests a successful trade network
(Jablonka).
Drpfelds Troy, Troy VI, extended across
twenty hectares and had an estimated
population of about seventy-five hundred.
The outer wall was large and well fortified
and surrounded by a deep trench, probably
to defend against chariots and early siege
engines. Unfortunately, most of the citadel
has been destroyed, but the few buildings
that remain suggest a wealthy aristocracy.
This might suggest that the citadel had a
social function, in addition to a military one
(Jablonka).
Troy VI was destroyed by an earthquake,
and Troy VIIA was constructed almost
immediately. This site is slightly smaller
than its predecessor, but excavations of the
surrounding settlement generally reveal more
wealth and an improved standard of living.
Troy VIIA is eventually destroyed by warfare. A
quick Troy VIIB is built before being destroyed
again during the collapse of the Bronze Age
(Jablonka). The last settlements at Hissarlik
do not appear to become significant until
after Alexander the Greats campaign into
Persia. The city was renamed Ilium Novum by
Augustus and became an important trade city
until the 5th century CE.
Manfred Korfmann at the site of Troy/Hisarlik.
Courtesy. Project Troia
36
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Reconstruction of Troy VI and map showing the excavations and test holes
from the 2010 season at Hisarlik. Courtesy Project Troia.
37
B R O N Z E A G E | A N A T O L I A
Whether Hissarlik is the mythical Troy or not
is still a heated subject amongst classical
archaeologists. Like many arguments in
archaeology, we may never know the truth.
Though Frank Calvert may not have found the
legendary Troy, Hissarlik has become one of
the most important sites in history.
The story of Hissarlik and Troy is a story about
learning from the past. The obsessed amateurs
of the 19th century chased a myth and let
their thirst for proof cloud their judgement.
Over the past twenty years, Project Troia has
made significant discoveries with careful
and efficient excavation. Nevertheless, vital
portions of the site will remain a mystery
forever due to the excavations of Schliemann,
Drpfeld, and even Blegen, who in his
desperation to find Homers Troy overlooked
and disregarded the topmost layers.
However, it cannot be denied that the
desperate hopes and absurd claims of these
men instilled a deep and powerful connection
between the West and its classical roots. In
fact, archaeologists still look to them as the
creators of modern classical archaeology.
They made the mistakes that we can learn
from, and their biased conclusions will always
give us a reason to go back and explore these
fascinating and mysterious sites.
Further Reading
Allen, Susan Heuck. Finding the Walls of Troy:
Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlk.
Berkeley: University of California, 1999.
Bryce, Trevor. The Trojans and Their Neighbours.
London: Routledge, 2006.
Drpfeld, Wilhelm. Troja und Ilion. Athens: Beck
& Barth, 1902.
Jablonka, Peter. TroiaVR. Universitt Tbingen
- Landingpage. Troia Project at University of
Tbingen and ART+COM AG Berlin. http://www.
uni-tuebingen.de/troia/vr/index_en.html
Korfmann, Manfred. Troy: Topography
and Navigation. Troy and the Trojan War: A
Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College, October
1984 (1986): 1-16
Schliemann, Heinrich. Troy and Its Remains: A
Narrative of Researches and Discoveries Made on
the Site of Ilium, and in the Trojan Plain. Trans. L. D.
Schmitz. J. Murray, 1875.
Velikovsky, Immanuel. The Archaeology of
Hissarlik. The Immanuel Velikovsky Archive.
Shulamit V. Kogan & Ruth V. Sharon. http://www.
scribd.com/doc/59180793/A-The-Velikovsky-
Archive
38
To Live Forever
A journey through the Egyptian Amduat
Into the Beautiful West
The ancient Egyptians believed that upon
dying, the dead crossed the threshold into the
west or the beautiful west. This Egyptian
euphemism for death was also the moniker
for a cemetery or tomb. When the sun set
in the west each evening, the Egyptians
believed it descended into the depths of the
netherworld to be miraculously reborn and
rejuvenated in the east every morning. It
was through this cyclical process that all life
on earth was regenerated and renewed. It is
thus no accident that the kings of the New
Kingdom chose to have their tombs cut out
of the steep cliffs in the Valley of the Kings on
By Lisa Swart
T
he ancient Egyptian Amduat is the oldest of several funerary
texts depicted on the walls of the pharaohs tombs in the Valley
of the Kings during the New Kingdom. The Amduat was one
of the first completely illustrated texts that defined what the Egyptian
underworld was imagined to look like, and depicted the nightly journey
of the sun god, Re through the twelve hours of the underworld. Through
looking at the Amduat in the tomb of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, this article
takes the reader along on the journey through the Egyptian underworld.
39
the West Bank of Luxor. This act of locational
symbolism clearly demonstrates the pharaohs
expectations for everlasting life. The Valley of
the Kings has been described as the largest
cemetery built by human hands, save that
of the pyramid fields near Memphis, Egypt
(Hornung, 1992: 11).
Located at the head of the southernmost wadi
(a narrow dry gorge) in the Valley of the Kings,
the entrance to the tomb of Pharaoh Tuthmosis
III (or KV 34 as it is known to Egyptologists) is
carved 30 metres above ground level. Carefully
hidden in antiquity, modern visitors can now
access it by clambering up a steep flight of
wooden steps. Unfortunately, raising and
concealing the entrance did not stop thieves,
and the tomb was plundered in ancient
times. Visitors follow in the footsteps of the
ancient priests who came to inter the mummy
of the Tuthmosis III. The 76 metre journey
deep into the bowels of the earth begins
by descending down a steep roughly hewn
stairway, and slowly moving down a sloping
corridor. With great care, visitors advance
downhill along another poorly preserved
stairway and through a steeply inclined
corridor before crossing over the shaft or well
chamber. No one is quite sure what purpose
this shaft serves; some archaeologists point
out that it could have been created to deter
thieves, and call it a robbers shaft. If it
were indeed a deterrent, it did not work very
well. Some believe the shaft symbolized an
area of transition into the afterlife. In fact,
according to textual evidence, the tomb
was seen as a model of the netherworld,
each area symbolized specific regions the
dead encountered on their journey through
the afterlife. The shaft is well cut and partly
painted with a decorative kheker frieze on
the walls, and white stars on the ceiling in
imitation of the heavens. One may notice that
this is the first area containing decoration
since entering the tomb. In keeping with the
trend of 18th Dynasty royal tomb decoration,
many of the walls of Tuthmosis IIIs tomb
were deliberately left unfinished and the
decoration was limited to very specific areas.
Once past the shaft, visitors now have to make
a sharp 90 degree turn into the antechamber,
which is decorated with paintings of the
deities found in the Amduat, the earliest Book
of the Netherworld. Beyond the antechamber
is the large oval burial chamber.
The crooked layout of this tomb is not
random, nor is it dictated by the local
geology. Tombs from the 18th Dynasty were
purposely designed to have a sharply curving
axis with steep alternating stairs and sloping
passageways in order to imitate the winding
pathways of the netherworld. Thus, the
curvature of the burial chamber corresponds
to the curved shape of the Amduat, and
resembles a cartouche (the format for
40
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
designating the names of royalty). The burial
chamber contains Tuthmosis IIIs red quartzite
sarcophagus; red was considered a sacred
colour and often monuments dedicated to
the pharaohs and deities were carved in red
hued stone. Once again, the ceiling is painted
blue with yellow/white stars. The walls are
what interest us most; they are completely
decorated from floor to ceiling in the form
of a huge, unrolled papyrus scroll onto which
the complete illustrations of the Amduat have
been beautifully painted in black and red.
Map of Egypt and the Theban area, the Valley of the Kings is located in the west, at the fringes of cultivation in
the desert.
Plan of the Tomb of Tuthmosis III (KV 34)
41
E G Y P T O L O G Y
Travel Guide for the Afterlife
Reading like a script from a movie, the Egyptian
Amduat depicts a voyage of epic proportions.
The adventure takes place, not in the great
open seas or mighty mountains and deserts
of the temporal world, but in the darkest
depths of the Egyptian underworld, the Duat.
The central theme of the Amduat (or Book of
the Hidden Chamber, as it was known to the
ancient Egyptians) is the nocturnal journey
of the sun. The ancient Egyptians imagined
the sun god, Re, old and clearly exhausted
in the evening, descending into the western
underworld as a tired old man, who arose
the next morning, young and renewed in the
eastern horizon. The death and renewal of
the sun echoed the path taken by humankind,
in that they die, enter the afterlife and are
renewed. However, this journey was fraught
with danger and the enemies who attempted
to prevent the progress of the sun had to
be vanquished. The Amduat had a threefold
function; not only did it enable the deceased
pharaoh to be regenerated as a blessed akh
(a blessed spirit who never dies), but also
provisioned him with land, food and clothing,
so he may exist forever and leave the tomb
at will. Furthermore, the Amduat assisted
in warding off enemies, all those who may
harm the pharaoh and endanger his chances
of regeneration in the afterworld. The
ultimate goal of the Amduat was to provide
a description of all aspects of the underworld
and record them in pictures with captioned
text, so he may use this knowledge in his
journey in the netherworld. The final words
of the Amduat emphasize the importance of
this knowledge:
Whoever knows these mysterious images is
a well-provided Akh-spirit.
Always [this person] can enter and leave the
netherworld.
Always speaking to the living ones.
Proven to be true (just), a million times.
The Amduat depicts, in graphic detail, an
exhaustive description of the underworld:
lists of all the deities, guardians and enemies
the deceased would encounter along the way,
specific measurements of the various regions,
graphic descriptions of the topography, and
climate, etc. It is sequentially divided into
the twelve hours of the night. Each hour
was envisioned as being a separate region
with its own gateways, which are typically
arranged in three registers with the sun
gods boat (the solar barque, his primary
form of transportation) always appearing in
the middle. According to precise instructions
included within the text, the Amduat was
meant to be distributed according to the four
cardinal directions, however, in many tombs
this was not always the case.
The Amduat was first used in the New Kingdom,
and the earliest copy is found in the tomb
of Tuthmosis I, however, the most complete
version is in Tuthmosis IIIs tomb. Evolving
from a long line of funerary texts (such as
the texts in the pyramids), the Amduat was
the first mortuary text that gave a complete,
unchanging view of what the underworld
looked like, and was reserved almost purely
for royalty. It was the source of the most
important decoration in the royal tombs for
centuries. However, during the 21st Dynasty
it was usurped by the high priests of Amun
and their families, and used to decorate their
coffins and funerary papyri.
The Journey Through the Afterlife
The journey into the afterlife begins in the
evening when the sun god, Re, in the form
of a tired, old ram-headed god with his crew
of dedicated deities, descends into the First
Hour of the Amduat on his solar barque. This
First Hour is an interstitial realm, a buffer zone
between the underworld and the world of the
living, referred to by the ancient Egyptians as
a portico, an entranceway. Here, Re is greeted
by jubilant rejoicing of the netherworld deities
42
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
and the dead. His time here is spent tending
to the denizens of this region, and granting
of plots of land to his followers (having land
meant that the deceased was able to grow
enough food to sustain themselves in the
afterlife). When his tasks are complete, Re has
travelled a total of 1,140 kilometres.
Sailing through a gateway called the
Devourer of All, Re enters the Second Hour.
It is at this point where the underworld truly
begins. The mountains and waterways of this
realm form a mirror of the Nile Valley, with
its verdant waterways, flanking mountain
ranges and surrounding red desert. However,
as everything here is a mirror image, the
dead have to protect themselves against the
inversion of the normal order of nature, such
as being turned upside down and eating their
own faeces, a more horrific fate could not be
imagined. This hour is dominated by the great
Lake of Wernes. It is a paradise, and symbols
of lush vegetation and great abundance are
depicted everywhere. The light of the sun
god awakens the residents, who proclaim the
beauty of earthly existence and the desire that
the joys of life not end. Re proceeds to give
the inhabitants provisions, and sails on his
way into the Third Hour. This is another fertile
area, the Lake of Osiris; and is dominated by
the Lord of the Underworld, Osiris.
The regenerative powers of the flooding of the
Nile, symbolizing chaos, and the establishment
of order are emphasized. Throughout the
journey through these paradisiacal regions,
Re is constantly on guard, protected by
knife-wielding vengeful guardians ready to
slaughter all his enemies.
The landscape changes dramatically as Re
enters the desert of Rosetau in the Fourth
Hour. It is Land of Sokar, an especially dark,
dry and inhospitable area crawling with
winged and multi-limbed snakes. Res boat,
the solar barque, runs aground in the shallow
water and, in order to proceed, the barque is
towed through the rest of the hour by four of
the crew. To assist the crew, the solar barque
is turned into a fire-spitting serpent whose
fiery breath breaks a path through a twisted
road blocked by doorways. The darkness
is so intense that Re has lost the ability to
see, his light has been extinguished. He
communicates to the residents here solely by
voice. Through the twisted, zigzagging paths,
the sun god and his crew proceed slowly
to the Fifth Hour. The Fifth Hour continues
through the Land of Sokar and its fiery path,
symbolizing the West (the realm of the Dead).
The sun god, as a tired, ram-headed god in his solar barque. From the co n of Pashedkhonsu
(21st Dynasty)
43
E G Y P T O L O G Y
The sun god entreats the Goddess of the West
for mutual protection, and the menacing
guardians of the region, the slaughterers,
and threatening serpents are persuaded to
allow the sun god safe passage through the
narrow pass in the middle of the hour. The
gods imminent renewal is depicted by a
scarab (the form of the young sun) emerging
from the burial vault of Osiris.
Signaling the approaching midnight, the
sun god reaches Sixth Hour, the darkest
and deepest point of the Underworld. It is
comprised of a waterhole filled with the
primeval waters of Nun (the original ocean
from which the world was created). At
this point, Re and Osiris, the Lord of the
Underworld, unite, effectively resurrecting
the sun god. And once again, the light of the
sun is rekindled.
The regenerated and renewed young sun god
is in grave danger, and the overarching theme
of the Seventh Hour is the punishment of his
The deceased stands before Osiris, the Lord of the Underworld. He is always depicted mummiform symbolizing
his role as the judge of the dead, and protector in the underworld.
44
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
enemies and those of Osiris. The crew of the
solar barque is tasked with ensuring the safe
passage of the sun from the evil intentions of
the serpent, Apophis. Apophis is depicted lying
on a huge sandbank. He attempts to prevent
the barque from proceeding (threatening the
existence of the cosmos), by drying up the
waterway. With the magical help of Isis and
the great Magician, the sun god advances
forward. Apophis is bound and fettered by
the goddess Sekhmet, and other deities hack
his body to pieces. Osiris is depicted judging
the dead and punishing decapitated kneeling
enemies. Res journey proceeds without a
hitch into the Eighth Hour, however, the
theme of protecting the sun god from his ever
present enemies is continued. Res first order
of business is to open the crypts of all the
deceased in the netherworld so they may feel
his light. They awaken with cries of joy that
sound to human ears like that of animals or
water splashing. The gods main task here is to
distribute clothing to the deceased. Clothing
was considered a necessary precondition for
a blessed existence in the afterlife. Nakedness
was a condition reserved as punishment for
enemies and evil-doers. Most of the deities in
this hour are depicted with the hieroglyph for
clothing, indicating that they themselves are
newly clothed and regenerated.
The theme of provisioning the deceased is
carried through into the Ninth Hour with the
supplying of clothing and food by the nine
field gods. There is also a law court, which
fells the enemies of Osiris and repels enemies.
This is the final consolidation of the renewal
of the sun god, and all the figures face in the
direction of the rising sun. The determined
crew of the solar barque grasp rudders in
The deities of the Eighth Hour sit on the hieroglyph for clothing indicating their subsequent rejuvena-
tion and renewal.
45
E G Y P T O L O G Y
their hands and sail the sun god into the next
hour. The Tenth Hour is named with deep
water and high banks; it is dominated by
a rectangular body of water filled with the
regenerating waters of Nun, the primeval
ocean. Thus highlighting the creative power
found in this region. In these waters, all
those who drowned are renewed and given a
blessed existence in the afterlife. This echoes
the myth of Osiris who drowned and was
saved from decay by his son, Horus. Due to
the drowning of Osiris, people who drowned
had a very special place in the afterlife, and it
was not necessary for them to be mummified
and given a proper burial in order to achieve
eternal life. The dark and the danger it holds
are still of great concern here; the sun god is
well guarded by many deities armed with an
assortment of weapons to protect him.
Anxiety heightens in the Eleventh Hour, and
the hour is packed with intensive preparations
to ensure that the sun does not miss the exact
moment for the new sunrise. Even here, fire-
breathing guardian deities are ever watchful
for potential attacks on the sun god. Any
threat to the new rising sun is averted by
once again punishing the enemies and evil-
doers in fiery pits. These are the damned;
they have been condemned and thrown into
the place of destruction, the Egyptian hell.
The preservation of the physical body was
an essential precondition for a successful
afterlife, hence the preoccupation with
mummification. Death by fire, decapitation
and mutilation were deemed some of the
worst punishments and condemned the
deceased to non-existence.
The Eleventh Hour of the Amduat
46
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Finally, after a long and dangerous journey,
the sun completes the process of rebirth in
the Twelfth Hour. Re has regained his full
power and is ready for the transformation.
This takes place in the body of the World
Encircler a giant snake, where thirteen
female and twelve male deities
(representing the millions of deceased) tow
the barque backwards, from tail to mouth,
indicating the reversal of time. The sun god,
in the form of a scarab, flies into the arms
of Shu, the earth god, who raises him anew
into the morning sun, thus completing his
regeneration.
The citizens of the Twelfth Hour rejoice en-
thusiastically at this final transformation.
The entrance to the underworld is subse-
quently sealed and the residents go back to
the sleep of the dead.
Imaginary Worlds and Psychic Images?
How did the Egyptians come up with such
fantastical landscapes? Was the Amduat
meant to show an actual landscape situated
beneath the western and eastern horizon?
Are these psychic landscapes? These
questions have puzzled Egyptologists
since the discovery and translation of the
Amduat in the late 1800s. Several popular
theories state that these landscapes are
ultimately depictions of the odyssey
of the soul, the ancient antecedents of
modern psychotherapy (Hornung, 1982:
27), moreover, the Amduats investigation
into the realm of the underworld can be
seen from a psychological point of view as a
symbolic representation of an inner psychic
process of transformation and renewal
(Abt and Hornung, 2003: 9).
Thomas Schneider of the University of
British Columbia does not believe so. His
latest research has led him to conclude
that the first three hours of the Amduat
depicted actual trade routes to areas south
west of Egypt. These routes stretch from
Egypt to the palaeo-lakes, which gave
birth to todays Lake Chad. Clues such as
the length of distances mentioned in the
Amduat and actual distances to this region
The nal scene from the Amduat. The sun god is fully regenerated and is ready to rise and sail the heavens.
47
E G Y P T O L O G Y
are consistent. The topography is also quite
accurately described. Furthermore, the use
of the foreign expressions, such as Apophis
and Wernes, which are not indigenous
Egyptian words, have led him to explore
similarities with the native dialects of the
Lake Chad area. Thus, to him, the physical
landscape in which the Egyptians interacted
played a major role in the development of
the Amduats topography.
Conclusion
Whichever ways the Egyptians came up
with the imagery for the netherworld, they
stressed the importance of knowledge
throughout the Amduat in the quest for
eternal life.
Know the way of the sun god [through the
beyond]! This is a very true remedy, proved
a million times because, Whoever knows
these pictures is the image of the great god
himself, which was the ideal state that the
deceased could wish for, thereby allowing
them to live forever.
Further Reading
Abt, T. and Hornung, E. Knowledge for the
Afterlife: The Egyptian Amduat A Quest for
Immortality. Zurich: Living Human Heritage
Publications (2003).
Clagett, M. Ancient Egyptian Science. Volume 1:
Knowledge and Order. Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society (1992).
Hornung, E. The Valley of the Kings. New York:
Timkin Publishers (1982).
Hornung, E. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the
Afterlife. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (1999).
Schweizer, A. and Lorton, D. The Sungods
Journey Through the Netherworld: Reading
the Ancient Egyptian Amduat. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press (2010).
Wells, R. A. Origin of the Hour and the Gates of
the Duat. SAK 20 (1993), 305 326.
48
LMIA Fresco of the Lilies from Amnisos
49
Mi noan l i l y: t he s pi r al s t or y
of per pet ual power
Abstraction and Naturalism in Bronze
Age Crete
Bronze Age Aegean iconography
Bronze Age Cretan culture has been characterised
by H. Groenewegen-Frankfort as the culture
of the Homo Ludens. Indeed, there is a
remarkable phenomenon of playing, movement
and shift. Both on scriptural depictions and
on monumental representations, we keep
detecting a swinging aesthetic, almost always
within a human dimension, while interwoven
with nature. The Aegean artist (Cycladic, Minoan,
Mycenaean) worked either on metal, clay or
paint, to produce a naturally inspired image,
memorable and artistically satisfying. But was
this just a practical human-environmental
relation, or maybe a part of a narration, a myth, an
emblematic nature? In the case of Mycenaean art
there are clear associations with Homeric poetry.
Minoan iconography is more recondite since
there is the language impediment. However,
Minoan scenes most often depict running acts.
The scenes on frescoes present a consistency,
if not a narrative. Metaphor is a key word here,
somehow connecting figural art with poetry.
The structure is common: both manipulate a
theme, create formulas and shapes (poetry
with grammar and metre, iconographic art with
form and design). Axis for both is the hiring of
T
he natural aspect of Bronze Age Cretan culture has been thoroughly
examined since the foundation of Minoan archaeology. After a century
of alternating views and successive stereotyping processes, the
young scholar of Aegean prehistory is called upon to make innovative remarks
on traditional elds such as iconography, symbolic expression and religious
concepts. In this article, a common feature of Minoan art - the lily ower - is
being viewed as a dual sign of power and continuity, combining geometrical
abstraction and naturalistic infusion in constant motion. A short overlook at
material evidence and theoretical approaches attempts to imply the probable
importance of a single shape for the insight of Minoan cognition and codication.
By Aikaterini Kanatselou
50
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
The evolution of the lily motif (after Furumark)
51
B R O N Z E A G E | C R E T E
a stimulus, the deconstruction and deduction of
the significant, the processing and the creational
reproduction in new, distorted dimensions.
Between natural phenomena and figurative
structures there is not a difference of technique,
but a difference of thought. Minoan artists were
proved capable of imitating nature. However,
this is not their case. A close examination
of Bronze Age Cretan art reveals a duality: a
regression from naturalism to abstraction; a
natural conception, which overdraws nature and
creates new combinations.
In order to get deeper in the Minoan
iconographic/symbolic phenomenon, by setting
an example, we will examine the case of Minoan
lily depictions. A short overview of the flowers
representations on different media (pottery,
frescoes, seals), as uncovered in Crete and
Thera, will permit a primary understanding of
the process through which a natural element is
chosen among others and consequently obtains
a symbolic value by gradual repetition.
The lily hybrid
Jack Goody in The Culture of Flowers
interestingly describes how flowers have been
markers of an astonishing variety of meanings
through time. The Egyptian King-God R
emerged with his solar disc from the blossoming
lotus. Peace and wisdom is epitomised in the
single representation of Athenas olive branch.
Christianity expresses purity through the fleur-
de-lis. Red and blue cornflowers have been used
as nationalist symbols during the 20th century,
while the red poppy is the fashionable logo of
the Royal British Legion.
The amount of direct evidence on BA Crete
vegetation is quite small. Pollen evidence refers
basically to Early and Middle Minoan periods
(c.3100-1600 BCE) coming from a handful of
sites. Many of the depicted Minoan flowers are
fabricated, sort of hybrids, combining different
plant species, or based on geometrical design.
The most indicative example is that of the Minoan
lily, which is considered as an artistic combination
of lily and papyrus, the so called waz-lily. The
actual plant which inspired the Minoan lily is
not clearly identified. On one hand there is the
white Madonna Lily, Lilium candidum, which has
upright flowers. On the other hand, we have the
red lily, Lilium chalcedonicum, with downcurved
petals. Peter Warren notes that the latter is rarely
native on mainland Greece and he assumes that
it was cultivated in BA Crete.
Additionally, there is the Pancratium maritum, or
else Sand Lily/Lily of St. Nicholas, very common
on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
Nevertheless, iconography does not support any
of the interpretations about the natural origin of
the lily. When lilies are depicted in colour (i.e. on
frescoes), they are either white or red, depending
on the composition. According to some scholars
this depends on the concept of colour contrast.
Lilies are white when the ground is buff or red,
while upon bright ground they are red. They are
always depicted with upright petals and mostly
growing in rocky landscapes. Thus, none of the
natural species seems to fully match with the lily
design. Arne Furumark in The Chronology of
Mycenaean Pottery suggests that the Minoan lily
is most probably the product of pictorialization,
rather than a direct representation of the real
world. Floral motifs in general were a product of
primarily spiral elements. The earliest depictions
of the lily pattern are attested on the Kamares
Male (?) hand carrying a lily; LMI-II
seal (CMS-II8-285-1)
52
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
ware, in the MMIIB-MMIII period (c.1750-
1600BCE). The spiral coils turn into discs, which
develop into triangular, opposed leaves. These
designs are not a product of organic nature,
but rather an ornamental element, a whirling
composition with a syntactic function.
It is worth discussing the parallel development
of the lily motif on different media. Scholars raise
the question of whether the naturalistic feeling
comes outside the ceramic traditions, probably
under the influence of frescoes, or exactly the
inverse. An old naturalistic tradition is already
represented on MMII-III (c.1900-1600BCE) seals,
simultaneously with a subtractive one. In the case
of lilies and other plants, clear representations
are rare. On the contrary, there are many spiral
designs which are similar and, in some cases,
identical to the contemporary pottery. The only
central representation of a lily on a Cretan seal
depicts a male hand holding a lily. It is dated in
LMI-II (c.1600-1400BCE) and it actually depicts
four spirals in antithetical pairs, forming the
petals of the flower.
In LMIA, a new fashion develops. The floral style,
as part of the special palatial tradition, becomes
widely common (img.3). The motif of the lily
becomes popular and stylized. There are two
types: one with three stamens and flat anthers
(considered to be corresponding to the lily of the
frescoes) and a second, with many stamens and
round anthers, deriving from the palmette class
of Kamares ware. In LMII-IIIA1 (c.1450-1350BCE)
the motifs become stereotyped. Stamens and
anthers are multiplied and the volutes develop
into spiral coils. These features and combinations
continue generally in the Mycenaean material,
though quite differentiated. The calyx gets
dissolved; the petals become a pair of antithetic
stemmed spirals. The triple radiating group,
the curve-stemmed and the fleur-de-lis are
new types, with clearly Mycenaean features. In
general, we observe two artistic strains: the first
one is of a fundamentally abstract character,
geometrical and mostly syntactical. The second
is quite naturalistic and pictorial. However, it is
quite short, since we observe standardization
after LMII. Plus, even in its zenith, the naturalistic
strain never depicts an actual plant; it just
imitates sharply the natural forms. Consequently,
the lily motif is basically schematic, though often
influenced by the artistic trends.
Arthur Evans thought that the lily had similar
qualities to Egyptian sacred plants. The lily has
traditionally been considered as the Minoan
symbol of regeneration, just like the lotus. Notably,
the sea lily opens its flowers in the afternoon and
closes them in the morning (exactly the opposite
to the lotus). Lilies in general are usually present
in scenes that have been given a religious/ritual
interpretation, and the lily is connected to female
figures considered as goddesses, priestesses and
initiates.
Theran and Knossian frescoes
The Theran frescoes have offered ample
material for the religious viewpoint, expressed
thoroughly by Nanno Marinatos. The lily is
depicted on the wall paintings of Xeste 3, the
West House and the Building Complex Delta.
From these three buildings, only Xeste 3 has an
apparent religious character. Xeste 3 includes 13
Jar from Knossos; Lily Vase Deposit (Betancourt)
53
B R O N Z E A G E | C R E T E
rooms on the ground floor, which were evidently
continued on the first floor. The north-east
corner is occupied by a lustral basin, common
in Cretan buildings, but unique in the case of
Akrotiri. The scenes that interest us here are
those depicted on the walls of room 3a (ground
floor). In brief, the decoration includes three
female figures proceeding towards an altar. The
altar is surmounted by a pair of sacral horns, from
the tips of which drip red drops, probably blood.
Around the altar there are running spirals and two
rows of lilies. The westernmost figure advances
towards the altar with her upper body in a three-
quarter pose. She is wearing a sleeved bodice
decorated with what seems to be crocus or lily
stamens. A parallel to that comes from Knossos
and the North Threshing Floor fresco, where
the holy robe is decorated with a row of lilies
(both dated in LMIA). Interestingly, the middle
figure of the Thera fresco is also associated with
plants. She is seated while looking at her injured
toe. She wears a myrtle branch upon her head
and her hair seems to have been fixed with a
pomegranate finial pin that is dropping off. The
first floor is decorated with the famous crocus
gatherers fresco.
In the Miniature Frieze, room 5 of the West
House, a coastal landscape is the scene of what
has been interpreted as a (religious) festival. The
ships depicted in the frieze have triple emblems
attached to their cabins. Interestingly on the Ikria
(a similar tripartite structure) we have depictions
of lilies. Lilies also decorate the Flower Vase
frescoes, in the North and South Jambs. Room
2 of the Building Complex Delta was decorated
with the famous Spring Fresco. A wide range of
colours (red, black, yellow, blue) have been used
probably to represent the rocky landscape of the
island. The blossoming lily flowers have yellow
leaves and stalks and red flowers, while they are
depicted in clusters of two or three. Swallows
shown in profile are flying among them in
a diversity of positions. A vase from Xeste 3
interestingly resembles the fresco as it depicts
flying swallows, lilies and crocuses. A religious
significance of the theme has been argued, but
the contents of the room do not support such
an opinion. The actual use of the room when the
murals were created remains unknown.
A conclusive comment on fresco depictions of
lilies is the Fresco of the Garlands from Knossos,
dated in LMIA-B (c.1600-1450 BCE). It comprises
five circular garlands of flowers and plants (lily,
papyrus, rose or poppy, and probably olive or
myrtle plant). The most important aspect of the
fresco is the depiction of circular garlands. It has
been suggested that the garlands and flowers
had decorative but also symbolic value, probably
Left: Altar from Xeste 3; Thera (after Marinatos);
Above: Detail from the Fresco of the Garlands,
Knossos (after Warren)
54
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
employed in rituals and ceremonies of death
and renewal. We could indeed note the circular
shape, which is often connected to flowers
(spirals, concentric circles, necklace rows), with
the notion of repetition and continuity.
Seals
A second source of representations including
lilies (and other plants) that have been
traditionally seen as religious scenes is the
sealing stones and rings. The golden ring found
in one of the chamber tombs at Isopata, near
Knossos, has been much discussed about its
problematic reading. There is a debate as to
whether there is a certain narrative expressed by
the scene, or just a visual imprint. It seems very
probable that there is a story behind the scene,
though it is difficult to distinguish events of the
real world from those of the spiritual experience,
since we are not privy to Minoan codification.
The scene depicts four female figures (dressed
and adorned in the Minoan style) in different
postures within a landscape of blooming plants.
The plants have the shape of the lily, mostly
visible on the plant in the foreground. It is again
depicted in clusters of three and each flower is
made up of two petals and three (or more) dots
- stamens. The scene is also supplemented by
several other elements (an eye, sky lines and
possibly insects). It has been considered as a
religious representation and specifically as an
epiphany, also in comparison to other, similar
seal rings.
Mycenaean parallels of similar representations,
though of different context may benefit our
study. Aidonia cemetery near Nemea provided
rich material of LBA Aegean seals. On a gold
seal ring, two female figures are depicted, once
more dressed in the Minoan fashion (flounced
skirts, bare breasts). They have identical size
and body posture. One of them holds a huge
lily flower with her one hand, while next to the
other there is a papyrus flower, of the same
big size. A second one depicts two women
in procession towards a shrine crowned with
horns of consecration. One woman holds a lily
and the other a papyrus while they move amidst
the same plant types over what appears to be
a paved surface. On a gold ring from Mycenae
Acropolis, the scene depicts female figures and
a variety of symbolic elements. One of them is
seated and two others bring to her offerings
of flowers. The first woman offers poppies and
the second lilies, while in her other hand she
holds two other flowers that resemble papyri.
Two smaller figures are also depicted in the
scene. One of them touches the branches of a
tree behind the seated woman and the other
stands in front of her, offering a plant as well. In
front of the goddess there is a double axe and
above this there is a line which includes the sun
and moon. In the upper part of the ring, there
is also a tiny figure in the shape of a figure of
eight shield. Behind the female offering bearers
there are six frontal lion heads. Livia Morgan
interprets the seated figure as a goddess and the
small figures as children. She considers the sun
and moon as symbols of day and night, life and
death. She suggests that the central symbolism
combines vegetation and sacrifice (double axe).
In general, she argues that the scene reflects
the duality, the continuum of existence. Another
seal, from Messinia (probably of Minoan origin
though found in the Peloponnese) depicts a
bare breasted female figure in a flounced skirt
standing in front of an altar topped with sacred
Gold sealing ring from Aidonia (Demakopoulou)
55
B R O N Z E A G E | C R E T E
horns. The woman holds close to her face two big
lilies growing from the altar, as if smelling them.
Here we could note the importance of sensory
experience in the relations between humans
and nature in BA Crete. Colour and smell might
have been crucial properties, placing flowers
high in the symbolic scale.
Clay Vessels
Two sarcophagi, from Hagia Triada and Knossos
respectively, of the same later date, are crucial
to the study of the lily motif. The first one is a
limestone coffin depicting ritual processions on
four sides. On one side there are two processions
towards different directions. In one of the
processions there is a female figure carrying a
vessel and wearing the so-called plumed crown
(adorned with lilies). On the other side there is
a sacrificial scene. Again, a woman of the same
type wears the plumed crown and she stretches
her hands, palms downwards. The same pose
is repeated by a second woman in front of the
carcass. The two scenes have been seen as
connected to funerary practices, death and
renewal.
The clay coffin from Knossos is decorated on
one long and two short sides. The long side is
divided into two panels by vertical zones with
spiral decoration (img.7). Both depict female
figures. The woman in the left hand panel
raises her hand to her forehead in a gesture of
adoration. Behind the womans head there is a
plant with curving petals and a pointed stem. In
the right hand panel there is a second woman,
taller than the first, with upraised arms. In her
right hand she holds the same flower. In front
of her, between her other hand and her head,
is a stylized bird. Both women face to the right,
towards the short end of the larnax. The short
side is divided into three vertical zones, which
echo the panels of the long side. The border
zones are filled with retorted spirals. The central
zone is decorated with a structure formed by a
series of downcurved petals growing opposite
one another. The motif is apparently that of
the lily. The second short side is once more
decorated with two running spirals. In fact the
spiral, as an abstract design, or as part of a motif
(the downcurving lily petals) is a key pattern.
Looking again into pottery, there are two
considerable examples from Phaistos: a
Protopalatial set of bowls and fruit stand, each
depicting three female figures. The figures are
semi-aniconic, especially those on the bowl. The
central figure is exquisite, in both cases. Hands
and hair have a semicircular or loop semblance.
The central figure on the stand displays flowers
of the lily type, while the same flower is also
recognised in the bottom right of the scene.
Clay co n from Knossos (after Morgan)
56
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
The plumed crown
Probably the most publicly famous scene
depicting the Minoan lily is the so-called Prince
of Lilies, used as an emblem by Evans for his
Palace of Minos. The figure depicted on this
relief fresco wears a necklace made of lily beads.
Close to the figure there is a fragment of what
must have been a lily flower. The composition
also includes a crown adorned with lilies. The
figure has traditionally been reconstructed as a
male, quite reasonably, given the anatomy of the
preserved body. However, the exact posture and
the status of the man (religious/secular authority)
are tricky and the reconstructions proposed are
questionable. In any case a question accrues:
could the lily be connected to males? Is it just a
religious symbol or maybe a symbol of power?
The plumed crown is worn by a man on a seal
from Knossos, but it is also worn by a sphinx on
a mirror handle, on a lentoid seal of unidentified
origin and by the two female figures on the
sarcophagi (v.s.). On a seal from Knossos, a male
figure in a posture of authority (the right hand
bent and the left holding a stick) is flanked by
lilies. On a jar from Pseira we have a depiction
of ox heads carrying double axes which sprout
into lilies. In all these representations, the
combination of the lily motif with the male
figure, the authority posture, the sphinx, the
double axe and the crown, probably has further
implications, apart from the cult. Marinatos,
quite persuasively, connects the plumed crown
representations with gods and royalty. But is it
just the crown that is associated with authority,
or the lily as well?
The spiral
Stephan Hiller has demonstrated the spiral as
a symbol of sovereignty and power in Minoan
culture (axe sceptre from Malia, pyxis from Melos
depicting a building decorated with spirals,
Zakros rhyton, adyton and room 2 in Xeste 3,
sarcophagus of Hagia Triada, daggers from the
Mycenaean Acropolis, one decorated with spirals
and the other with lilies). Of course the spiral
motif is not restricted to a few objects; it is an
abstract design, widely common in Aegean art.
It is a symbol that conveys a fluent repetition,
the notion of evolution and involution. The
mathematical definition of the Archimedean
spiral is a curve which emanates from a central
point, getting progressively farther away as it
revolves around the point. The use of the spiral
shape in prehistoric Aegean is revealed through
knowledge of its geometric qualities. The
continuity and consistency of its structure should
at least alert us to the possibility of immutability
or perpetuity signification.
Conclusion
This sense of continuity, possibly expressed by
the spiral and the sense of rebirth, expressed by
a blooming symbol, a flower, could be abridged
in one icon, the lily. In this case, perpetuity could
be connected both with a natural and a secular
power. The lily, the spiral flower, probably is
not just the flower of the goddess, reflecting a
regenerative circle. It might also be the symbol
of a recurrent vigour, spiritual and practical. A
flower usually recalls sensitivity and elegance. But
let us not take this as a rule: the fleur-de-lis, with
its steady spiral form and its sword-like calyx has
been a symbol on the coats of arms of countless
states and royal European houses. The case of
the lily reveals the principles of the Cretan art of
the second millennium BC: change and mobility.
The icon is not stable and grandiose. It is fluent
and liberate on the details. There is tension that
leads to the crash of the static form. Its value lies
in evolution and complexity, contradiction and
whirling movement. Iconographic development
comprises naturalism, geometry, linearity
and stylization. The forms are transforming,
becoming merged, as recurrent and common as
unique and new.
Further reading:
Baumann H. Von Lilienblten aus minoischer Sicht.
Willdenowia, Annals of the Botanic Garden and
Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem 36, 2006, 389-395.
57
B R O N Z E A G E | C R E T E
http://www.bgbm.org/willdenowia/w-pdf/wi36-
1Baumann.pdf
Goody, J. The Culture of Flowers, Cambridge
University Press 1993.
Groenewegen-Frankfort, H. Arrest and Movement.
London: Faber and Faber 1951.
Herva, V.P. Flower Lovers, After All? Rethinking
Religion and Human-Environment Relations in
Minoan Crete. World Archaeology 38 (4), 2006, 586-
598. http://www.jstor.org/pss/40024057
Hiller, S. The spiral as a symbol of sovereignty
and power. In A. Dakouri-Hild, S. Sherratt (eds.)
Autochthon: papers presented to O.T.P.K. Dickinson on
the occasion of his retirement. Institute of Classical
Studies, University of London, 9 November 2005,
260-270.
Marinatos, N. Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess,
A Near Eastern Koine, University of Illinois Press 2010.
http://books.google.gr/books/about/Minoan_
kingship_and_the_solar_goddess.html?id=_
wa3WSXjQU4C&redir_esc=y
Morgan, L. Form and Meaning in Figurative Painting.
In S. Sherratt (ed.) The Wall Paintings of Thera, II.
Athens: Thera Foundation 2000, 925-946.
http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/art/
Warren, P. M. From Naturalism to Essentialism in
Theran and Minoan Art. In S. Sherratt (ed.) The Wall
Paintings of Thera, I. Piraeus: Thera Foundation 2000,
364-380. http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/art/
fromnaturalismtoessentialismintheranandminoanart/
view?searchterm=warren
58
Original artwork by Ashley Maurer for AncientPlanet
59
Inannas Descent
A Balm for the Sting
of Injustice
In recent years, the Sumerian poem, The Descent
of Inanna, has received some careful attention
from critics claiming that the poem is an allegory
of the journey of the self toward wholeness.
Following Joseph Campbells lead in his work,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1964) writers
such as Sylvia Perera (1981) and Diane Wolkstein
(1983) paved the way for others who now
regularly publish pieces on the internet and in
print interpreting the work along Jungian lines.
A careful examination of the text of the poem,
however, placed in its original, ancient context,
refutes this modern interpretation.
The Descent of Inanna (c. 1900-1600 BCE)
chronicles the journey of Inanna, the Queen
of Heaven, to earth and then the underworld
to visit her recently widowed sister Ereshkigal,
Queen of the Dead. She is accompanied, part
of the way, by her faithful servant and advisor
Ninshubur. Inanna is dressed in her finest attire
and wears the crown of heaven on her head,
beads around her neck, her breastplate, golden
ring and carries her scepter, the rod of power.
Just before she enters the underworld, she gives
Ninsubur instructions on how to come to her aid
should she fail to return when expected.
Upon her arrival at the gates of the underworld
Inanna knocks loudly and demands entrance.
Neti, the chief gatekeeper, asks who she is and,
when Inanna answers, I am Inanna, Queen of
Heaven, Neti asks why she would wish entrance
to the land from which no traveler returns.
Inanna answers, Because of my older sister,
Ereshkigal/Her husband, Gugalanna, the Bull of
Heaven, has died/I have come to witness the
funeral rites(Wolkstein and Kramer,1983,55).
Neti then tells her to stay where she is while he
goes to speak with Ereshkigal.
T
he Sumerian poem, The Descent of Inanna, has been
interpreted by some modern writers as depicting a
`psychological journey toward wholeness. This modern-day
interpretation cannot be supported by the text itself and, certainly,
the poem would not have been understood in such a light by an
ancient audience. This paper explains the reasons why this is so
through analysis of the poem in historical context.
By Joshua J. Mark
60
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
When Neti delivers the news to Ereshkigal that
Inanna is at the gates, the Queen of the Dead
responds in a way which seems strange: She
slapped her thigh and bit her lip. She took the
matter into her heart and dwelt on it (Wolkstein
and Kramer, 1983, 56). She does not seem
pleased to hear the news that her sister is at the
gate and her displeasure is further evidenced
when she tells Neti to bolt the seven gates of the
underworld against Inanna and then let her in,
one gate at a time, requiring her to remove one
of her royal garments at each gate.
Neti does as he is commanded and, gate by
gate, Inanna is stripped of her crown, beads,
ring, sceptre, even her clothing and, when she
asks the meaning of this indignity is told by Neti,
Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are
perfect/They may not be questioned(Wolkstein
and Kramer,1983, 58-60).
Inanna enters the throne room of Ereshkigal
naked and bowed low and begins walking
toward the throne when The annuna, the judges
of the underworld, surrounded her/They passed
judgment against her./Then Ereshkigal fastened
on Inanna the eye of death/She spoke against her
the word of wrath/She uttered against her the
cry of guilt/She struck her./ Inanna was turned
into a corpse/A piece of rotting meat/And was
hung from a hook on the wall(Wolkstein and
Kramer,1983, 60).
After three days and three nights waiting for
her mistress, Ninshubur follows the commands
Inanna gave her, goes to Inannas father-god
Enki for help, and receives two `galla, two
androgynous demons, to aid her in returning
Inanna to the earth. The galla enter the
underworld like flies and, following Enkis
specific instructions, attach themselves closely
to Ereshkigal. The Queen of the Dead is seen in
distress: No linen was spread over her body/Her
breasts were uncovered/Her hair swirled around
her head like leeks and the poem continues to
describe the queen experiencing the pains of
child birth (Wolkstein and Kramer,1983 63-66).
The galla sympathize with the queens plight and
she, in gratitude, offers them whatever gift they
ask for. As ordered by Enki, the galla respond,
We wish only the corpse that hangs from the
hook on the wall (Wolkstein and Kramer, 1983,
67) and Ereshkigal gives it to them. The galla
revive Inanna with the food and water of life and
she rises from the dead.
As in the Greek myth of Demeter and
Persephone, however, one who has sojourned
in the underworld cannot just leave it so easily.
Someone must be found to take Inannas place
and so the galla demons of the underworld
accompany her up to the earths surface to
claim her substitute. The demons try to take
Ninshubur first, then Inannas sons Shara and
Lulal and even Inannas beautician Cara but,
in all these instances, Inanna prevents them
because Ninshubur, Shara, Lulal and Cara are
all dressed in sackcloth and are in mourning
for her apparent death. When Inanna comes
upon her husband Dumuzi, however, and finds
him dressed in his shininggarmentson his
The Sumerian Hymn to Inanna on a cuneiform tablet
[MS 2367/1] from Babylonia, 20th-17th c. BC, The
Schyen Collection.
61
magnificent throne she becomes enraged that
he, unlike the others, is not mourning her and
orders the demons to seize him. Dumuzi appeals
to the sun god Utu for help and is transformed
into a snake in order to escape but, eventually,
is caught and carried away to the underworld.
Dumuzis sister, Geshtinanna, volunteers herself
to go in his place and so it is decreed that Dumuzi
will spend half the year in the underworld and
Geshtinanna the other half. In this way, as, again
with the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the
seasons were explained. Yet why so elaborate a
myth simply to explain the seasons? The Greek
tale of Persephone (though, also, about much
more than seasonal change) accomplishes the
same end more succinctly.
Modern readers of this poem have available to
them a wealth of interpretation of the piece
through writers applying a psychological,
specifically, Jungian, view to the poem as an
archetypal myth of the journey each individual
must take to reach wholeness. Inanna in this
piece, so the interpretation goes, is not a `whole
person until she appears vulnerable before
her `darker half, dies, and returns to life. At the
poems end, this interpretation asserts, Inanna,
through her descent into darkness, the shedding
of the trappings of her former self, confrontation
with her `shadow, death of who she was, and
final re-birth, is now a complete individual,
wholly aware. Writers who have popularized this
interpretation in recent years, besides the two
previously mentioned, are so numerous that
naming them all would be pointless; any reader
acquainted with The Descent of Inanna will
have already, or will eventually, come across one
version or another of this interpretation.
The archetypes of Carl Jung have proven
enlightening tools in understanding and
explicating ancient myths for a modern audience
(most notably through the works of Joseph
Campbell). Such an interpretation of a text,
however, must always keep in mind the text itself;
the words on the page, the arrangement of those
words, characterization and dialogue. However
interesting, and even enlightening, the modern
Jungian view of The Descent of Inanna may be,
it is not supported by the text. Among other
glaring omissions, this modern interpretation
of the ancient story in no way accounts for the
last lines of the poem which praise, not Inanna,
but Ereshkigal: Holy Ereshkigal! Great is your
renown!/Holy Ereshkigal! I sing your praises!
(Wolkstein and Kramer, 1983, 89). The text of
the poem clearly states Inannas intention of
journeying to the underworld to attend the
funeral of her brother-in-law, specifies her sisters
displeasure at her visit, clearly demonstrates
Ereshkigals humiliation of Inanna in stripping
her naked at the gates, further specifies how
the Annuna of the dead pass judgment against
Inanna and how, after that, she is killed by
Ereshkigal through the word of wrath and the
cry of guilt and a blow, after which Inanna is
hung on a hook, a rotting piece of meat. The
story continues to detail how Inanna is saved by
her father-god Enki and how, finally, two people,
Dumuzi and Geshtinanna, who had nothing to
do with Inannas decision to visit the underworld,
end up paying the price for it.
M Y T H O L O G Y | M E S O P O T A M I A
Seal-impression, depicting the fertility goddess
Inanna/Ishtar with her cult animal the lion. Her
warlike character is indicated by the scimitar and
weapons at her back. Oriental Institute Chicago,
Illinois.
62
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
A clearer understanding of The Descent of Inanna
is available to any reader acquainted with the
Sumerian work The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2700-
1400 BCE) which, whether extant in written form
at the time of the composition of The Descent of
Inanna was certainly known by oral transmission.
In the Epic, after the great heroes Gilgamesh and
Enkidu have killed the demon Humbaba in the
Cedar Forest, their fame is great and Gilgamesh,
after washing and dressing himself in royal
robes, attracts the attention of Inanna
(who, in the Epic, is known by her
Akkadian/Babylonian name,
Ishtar). Inanna ties to seduce
Gilgamesh to become her lover,
promising him all good things
but Gilgamesh spurns her citing
the many lovers she has had in
the past whom she discarded
when they no longer interested
her and who all met with bad
ends. He says to her, Your
lovers have found you like a
brazier which smoulders in the
cold, a backdoor which keeps out
neither squall of wind nor storm,
a castle which crushes the garrison,
pitch that blackens the bearer, a water
skin that chafes the carrier then, after
detailing the misery her lovers have endured at
her hands, Gilgamesh concludes saying, And if
you and I should be lovers, should not I be served
in the same fashion as all these others whom you
loved once?(Sandars,1973, 85-87).
Inanna, upon hearing this, falls into a bitter
rage and appeals to her father-god Anu (as she
has Ninshubur do to Enki in the Descent) in tears
over the insults Gilgamesh has heaped upon her.
Anus answer is that she has only gotten what she
deserved through her abominable behavior
(Sandars, 1973, 87). Inanna, in no way pacified
by this response, demands that Anu give her
Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, that she might
avenge herself on Gilgamesh and threatens that,
if she does not get her way, she will break the
doors of the underworld open, there will be
confusion of people, those above with those
from the lower depths. I shall bring up the dead
to eat food like the living; and the hosts of the
dead will outnumber the living (Sandars, 1973,
87). When Anu consents and gives her the Bull of
Heaven she brings Gugalanna down to the city
of Uruk to destroy Gilgamesh. The bull snorts
and the earth opens and a hundred young men
fell down to death. With his second snort cracks
opened and two hundred fell down to
death (Sandars, 1973, 88).
Gilgamesh and Enkidu then join in
battle with the Bull of Heaven and
kill him. Inanna, enraged further,
appears on the walls of Uruk and
curses the heroes, prompting
Enkidu to tear off the bulls right
thigh and hurl it at her. This
presumption, on the part of a
mortal, cannot be endured by the
gods and they decree that Enkidu
must die lest more mortals come to
think more highly of themselves than
they should. Enkidu is stricken with
illness and suffers for days before finally dying
(Sandars, 1973, 88-95).
If a reader is acquainted with the story of
Gilgamesh then The Descent of Inanna is more
easily understood within the context and culture
of ancient Mesopotamia. Inanna, showing no
more regard for her sisters feelings than she
did for the three hundred innocent young men
she killed with the Bull of Heaven, decides she
will attend the funeral of the brother-in-law
whose death she is, herself, responsible for.
Once a reader understands that Inanna caused
the death of Ereshkigals husband, the Queen of
the Deads response upon hearing of her arrival
is completely understandable, as is Inannas
subsequent judgment by the Annuna and death
at Ereshkigals hands. The word of wrath and the
Left: Babylonian relief depicting
the marriage of Inanna and
Dumuzis.
63
cry of guilt make perfect sense in this context
as Ereshkigal is confronting the one responsible
for her present grief; a grief made even greater
by her pregnancy and the imminent birth of a
child who will have no father.
As in The Epic of Gilgamesh, however, Inanna
is able to manipulate the father-god figure
into getting her what she wants; in that case
the Bull of Heaven and, in this, a return to life.
Inanna is resurrected and, in the same way that
Enkidu and the three hundred young men paid
the price for Inannas indignation, Dumuzi and
Geshtinnana pay for her insensitivity and rashness
in deciding to attend Gugalannas funeral.
The moral which an ancient hearer of The Descent
of Inanna might take away from it, far from a
`symbolic journey of the self to wholeness is
the lesson that there are consequences for ones
actions and, further, might also be consoled in
that if bad things happened to gods and heroes
due to the unpredictability of life, why should a
mortal bemoan unhappy fate?
In ancient Mesopotamia, humans regarded
themselves as co-workers with the gods and the
gods lived among them; Inanna lived in the city
of Uruk, Enki at Eridu, and so on. The gods were
not far away beings but were intimately tied to
the daily lives of the people of the land and what
affected a god would, invariably, affect those
people directly. Though one of the gods could
have only the best intentions, another god could
thwart whatever good was hoped for. Ereshkigal
is praised at the end of the poem because she
sought justice in killing Inanna. The fact that this
justice was denied, even to a goddess of such
power as the Queen of the Dead, would have
ameliorated the sting of the daily injustices and
disappointments suffered by the people hearing
the tale. The Descent of Inanna, then, about
one of the gods behaving badly and other gods
and mortals having to suffer for that behavior,
would have given to an ancient listener the same
basic understanding anyone today would take
from an account of a tragic accident caused by
someones negligence or poor judgment: that,
sometimes, life is just not fair.
Acknowledgements: A version of this article was first
published in Ancient History Encyclopedia [http://
www.ancient.eu.com/] on-line, February 2011. Grateful
acknowledgement to editor Jan van der Crabben.
Further Reading:
Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons
and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated
Dictionary. University of Texas Press, Texas, 2011.
Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces,
Meridian Books, NY, 1964.
Dalley, Stephanie, Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford
University Press, England, 2008.
Leick, Gwendolyn, Mesopotamia: The Invention of the
City, Penguin Books, England, 2002
Nagle, D. Brendan, The Ancient World: A Social and
Cultural History, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey,
2010.
Perera, Sylvia, Descent to the Goddess: A Way of
Initiation for Women, Inner City Press, Toronto, 1981.
Sandars, N.K., The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Classics,
Great Britain, 1973
Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah, Inanna:
Queen of Heaven and Earth, Harper & Row, NY, 1983.
M Y T H O L O G Y | M E S O P O T A M I A
64
The skull and jewellery of Queen Puabi just as it was
found in her tomb at Ur. (Penn Museum)
65 65
Women in Situ
The roles and representation of women
and their status in the archaeological
record
Queen Puabi
Between 1922 and 1934 Leonard Woolley excavated
a series of royal tombs in Ur (White 2004), dating them
to the Ubaid period (White 2004). Through the tomb
excavations it appears that the cemetery at Ur had
been in use for 500 years, dating to 2600-2100 BCE,
with the Early Dynastic III period dating to 2600-2350
BCE (Pollock 1991). In its wider context Ur is part of the
Sumerian civilization which, in itself, descended from
the Neolithic settlement of Catal Huyuk (Rohrlich
1980). Women in Sumeria were dependent on men
(Rohrlich 1980); however, there were a few female
rulers that have come to light due to the archaeology
of Sumer. The cylinder seals found within the tomb
of Queen Puabi (also sometimes known as Shubad)
have Nin written on them, which meant a woman
of status and so Nin Shubad and Nin Banda were
both thought to be Sumerian queens, or priestesses
(Pollock 1991). However, it is obvious that they are
rare examples of women with status in a male
dominated society. By the Ur III dynasty, which the
tomb of Queen Puabi relates to, Sumer was starting a
500 year male dominated period (Rohrlich 1980).
Sixteen royal Early Dynastic tombs dating to 2600
BCE (White 2004) were identied in the excavations,
with three graves being marked out as particularly
By Amy Talbot
D
espite continuing breakthroughs in gender archaeology, it
is vital that it stays in an area focused on current research,
in order to completely dispel the old myths of women
staying at home to forage, or for women to not have high status
in their communities. In fact this article intends to show some rare
examples of independent women ruling within a male society, and
women shown in high and equal regard, not just as homemakers and
mothers. These four brief examples will hopefully demonstrate four
very different instances in the archaeological record of intelligent
and strong women to help dispel any myths out there.
66 66
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
spectacular as they consisted of stone built chambers;
human sacricial pits. We can tell that the stone
structures depict status from the comparison of the
three outstanding stone structures, compared to an
ordinary grave containing a co n or a mat wrapped
burial (Pollock 1991). Beautiful artefacts made from
lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, carnelian from the
Indus Valley and gold from Anatolia and Egypt are
also found in the tombs (White 2004).
The tomb labelled PG800 is now identied as that of
Queen Shubad (White 2004) and, in the archaeological
record, we can identify her as being a lady of status
or a Queen as she lay in a stone built tomb chamber
(one of the unusual three tombs recorded in the
excavations) and was buried with three attendants in
the tomb, as well as oxen and goods (White 2004).
In his rst examination Woolley believed a beautiful
structure made up of lapis and gold was a diadem,
however, it turns out that the thousands of tiny lapis
beads and gold pendants make up six individual
objects (White 2004). She was also buried with a
golden headdress and a beautifully crafted beaded
cape (White 2004, Pollock 1991). However, to add to
her royal status, tomb PG1237 is now seen as Queen
Shubads own personal death pit, where 73 sacricial
victims were all buried alive (White 2004).
Rare Mayan Queen?
In 2011, the Nakum Archaeological project, as
directed by Jaroslaw Zralka and Wieslaw Koszkul
from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow,
unearthed a burial site in Nakum later known as
Structure 15, Burial 1. Nakum was a densely packed
Mayan centre (National Geographic 2011), and may
have been ruled from a town 17 km away known
as Yaxha according to ancient glyphs found upon a
gorget (throat protector) (Maya Royal Tombs Found
With Rare Woman Ruler 2011). The dating of the site
is that of the Late Classic period, 600-800 AD from
the sealing and covering of the structure, according
to radiocarbon dating (Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011).
It was rare for women to be rulers and so this nd
of a possibly royal woman would have a profound
impact upon Mesoamerican archaeology. We can tell
that the tomb is royal due to elements including the
formal construction and eastern facing axis, as well as
being based in the Acropolis of the temple pyramid
(Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011). The use of the colour jade
in the mass of beads and artefacts in the tomb also
shows royal status, as the colour was associated with
the maize god (Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011).
The occupant of the 2000 year old tomb has their
head placed between two bowls which is an unusual
occurrence (National Geographic 2011) (Image 3:
Koszkul 2011). A small ring was also found with
the body, too small to t a male nger (National
Geographic, Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011), which points
towards the sex of the occupant to be that of a status
female. Excavations have found many wonderful
items; some dated two centuries after the burial,
making the woman of an important status. (Zralka,
Koszkul et al 2011). The excavations also revealed
the gorget which, as told above, is possibly a 300
year old heirloom for the occupant, with the glyphs
commemorating the maize snake-god, Ixim Chan,
as well as the city of Yaxha (Maya Royal Tombs
Found With Rare Woman Ruler 2011, Zralka, Koszkul
et al 2011). The spindle whorls are a metaphor for
weaving; in Mayan culture weaving symbolised a
new birth, linking closely with associations to the
Queen Puabis headdress, made of gold, carnelian
and lapis lazuli (Penn Museum)
67 67
maize god (Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011). The jade
pectoral is believed to show the legitimate power of
the ruler and is thought to have been constructed
in the Olmec period, pre 600 BCE (Zralka, Koszkul et
al 2011). The nding of spindle whorls, commonly
found in lowland female Maya burials, also indicated
that the royal body was that of a woman (Scott 2011,
Zralka, Koszkul et al 2011) however, we cannot rule
out the occupant being a male.
Cretan Priestess Burial
Orthi Petra at Eleutherna in Crete, which since 2007
has been under the watchful eye of director Nicholas
Stampolidis (Bonn-Muller 2010), has unearthed
three wonderful jar burials containing the remains
of a dozen females, as well as a monumental
funerary structure where it is believed a priestess
and her protgs were placed after their deaths
(Bonn-Muller 2010). Orthi Petra or standing stone
is dated to the Iron Age, specically the 9-7th c. BCE
(Bonn-Muller 2010), also known as the Dark Ages of
Crete for the lack of information known. Knossos in
Crete is often an area of focus in archaeology, so it is
pleasant to hear of another important site and burial
in this fascinating and rich culture.
Three Pithoi (jars) were uncovered in this tomb,
containing the remains of three generations of
richly adorned female individuals who all share
genetic characteristics (Stampolidis 2010). The
funerary structure unearthed in 2009 clearly shows
a status burial due to its uniqueness, and contained
amphorae for liquids and oils as well as a number of
intricate and beautiful bronze vessels (Stampolidis
2010). About four female skeletons have been found
along with various burial artefacts including bead
necklaces, scarabs and ne jewellery, made with
precious materials such as gold, silver and quartz
(Stampolidis 2010). The unique pattern depicted
upon this jewellery of gods and warriors, as well
as a bronze statue of a bull, all point to a burial
of status (Stampolidis 2010), most likely to be a
priestess and her protgs. As this is a status, but
not a royal burial, we can place the main occupant
in the context of Minoan society in a high priestess
or sorceress role. This was an honour for women
to be, as Crete is the birth home to the mighty god
Zeus, and so plays a pivotal role in religion and
mythology (Olsen 1998). Therefore a woman of such
G E N D E R A R C H A E O L O G Y
The Mayan queen from Guatemala. (Wieslaw Koszkul/National Geographic)
68 68
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
high status and regard in a matriarchal society must
have connotations with the priesthood (Olsen 1998),
judging by her great rich internment.
The Minoan Mother Goddess was a huge part of
religion in Crete at this time (Olsen 1998), and so
her priestesses are often depicted in jewellery and
costumes; an administrative regalia (Olsen 1998).
This mirrors the well adorned tomb of the priestess
unearthed in Orthi Petra. In the Minoan civilization
the image of kourotrophos, or the woman nurturing
a child, is very rarely seen, particularly in Minoan art
(Olsen 1998). This shows that the role of the woman
was not just to care for a child and that Minoan
culture was more matriarchal and centred around
themes of a Mother Goddess.
Eurasian Steppe Women
These are the remains of a society lost to history,
where gender roles were not dened according to
sex, (Davis-Kimball 1998).
The women belonging to the Sauromatian and the
early Sarmation pastoral nomadic tribes are excellent
examples of women with status in their respective
communities. It is apparent that some women in this
society also held the pleasure of being tribal leaders.
Findings from this utopian society come from
Prof. N. Ch. Stampolidis excavating the grave of the Cretan priestess at Eleutherna
(Stampolidis)
Gold pendant from the burial of the priestess at
Eleutherna (Stampolidis)
69 69
kurgans, the burial mounds used by the tribes (Davis-
Kimball 1998). They help to give a sense of locality
and identity to the tribes, as they would return to the
same location year after year when moving around;
pastoral nomadism is the moving of domesticated
animals to new pastures each season (Davis-Kimball
1997). Horses were a huge part of nomadic life as
without them it was hard for the tribes to move and
go with the animals to new pastures. They helped the
tribes to defend their locality, leading to the women
of the Sauromatian tribes becoming archetyped as
the Amazon warriors by the Greeks (Davis-Kimball
2001).
Many excavations and ndings of these people have
been undertaken, with help from the Centre for
the Study of the Eurasian Nomads, under director
Jeannine Davis-Kimball. In 1969, a kurgan burial
unearthed at Pokrovka in Kazakhstan (a known area
of Nomadic tribal activity) contained a rich collection
of typically female artefacts, including a headdress
(Davis-Kimball 1997, Davis-Kimball 1998). Items such
as household objects, religious and cultic items,
horse trappings and weaponry, are the usual items
to be found in these burials (Davis-Kimball 1998) and
have no gender attributed to them. 3% of the men
found had a child with them, an unusual number
(Davis-Kimball 2001), while there were no women
burials found with children (Davis-Kimball 2001).
There are three known status female burials, which
clearly show that all the women in that society had at
least an equal status with men (Davis-Kimball 2001).
Hearth women burials had a range of artefacts
including beautiful imported gold and stones (Davis-
Kimball 1998, Davis-Kimball 2001); a priestess burial
G E N D E R A R C H A E O L O G Y
Frieze from Thessaloniki depicting a mythical battle between Amazons and Greeks
(Jeannine Davis-Kimball)
Pokrovka Cemetery 2, Kurgan 8, Burial 5, 1994
Excavations (Jeannine Davis-Kimball)
70 70
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
from Cemetery 2 at Pokrovka was buried with a
stone carved altar (Davis-Kimball 2001), along with
other cultic objects, and a female warrior was found
buried with 40 bronze arrowheads (Davis-Kimball
1998, Davis-Kimball 2001). Other artefacts found
include spindle whorls (Davis-Kimball 1998), which
are believed to have had a magical connotation and
may be the origin of the straw into gold myth, as well
as oyster fossilized seashells found in the priestess
burial (Davis-Kimball 1998).
Conclusion
With Queen Shubad it is thrilling to nd such an
ancient example of an independent woman, who
ruled well and was obviously popular, according to
the size of her sacricial pit, in a male dominated
nation. The Mayan Queen, if that is what she turns
out to be, is a wonderful nd for Mesoamerican
archaeology; if other examples of female rulers are
found, it would reassess Mesoamerican gender roles
from women being priestesses to taking an active
leadership role. While the Cretan priestess represents
where the power lies in the kingdom and the
reverence in which priestesses in Minoan ages were
held, the most interesting and fascinating section
is that of the Sarmation women. The Amazons,
as they were known to the Greeks, belonged to a
genderless society in which being a woman was not
a disadvantage, and so they were treated as equals.
This article has been an informative pleasure to write
and research and it is clear that there is still much to
be found in gender archaeology.
Further Reading
Bonn-Muller E., 2010, Dynasty of Priestesses,
Archaeology: March Online feature. [http://www.
archaeology.org/online/features/eleutherna/]
Davis-Kimball J., 2001, Statues of Sauromatian
and Sarmatian Women. [http://www.csen.org/
WomenWarriors/Statuses_Women_Warriors.html]
Davis-Kimball J., 1998, Ancient nomads, female warriors
and princesses. [http://popgen.well.ox.ac.uk/eurasia/
htdocs/davis.html]
Davis-Kimball J., 1997, Chieftain or Warrior-Princess,
Archaeology 50:5 [http://www.archaeology.org/9709/
abstracts/gold.html]
National Geographic, 2011, Maya Royal Tombs Found with
Rare Woman Ruler. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2011/09/pictures/110922-rare-mayan-female-ruler-
tomb-found-guatemala/]
Olsen B., Women, Children and the Family in the
Late Aegean Bronze Age: Dierences in Minoan and
Mycenaean Constructions of Gender, World Archaeology
29:3, 1998, p380-392
Pollock S., Of Priestesses, Princes and Poor Relations:
The Dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 1: 2, 1991, p171-189
Rohrlich R., State Formation in Sumer and the
Subjugation of Women, Feminist Studies 6: 1, 1980, p76-
102
Stampolidis N., 2010, Sacred Adornments: Introduction,
Archaeology: March Online feature. [http://www.
archaeology.org/online/features/eleutherna/
adornments.html]
White S., Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur: A
traveling exhibition of the University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Journal
of Near Eastern Archaeology 67: 4, 2004, p229-231
Zralka J., Koszkul W., Martin S., Hermes B., In the
path of the Maize God: a royal tomb at Nakum, Petn,
Guatemala, Antiquity 85: 329, 2011, p890-908
71 71
G E N D E R A R C H A E O L O G Y
An Amazon, Tondo of an Attic red-gure kylix,
510500 BC. [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]
72
The Staordshire Hoard (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
73
The Anglo-Saxons dazzled
in the Dark Ages
An Interview with Professor
Larry Swain on the Importance
of the Staffordshire Hoard
O
n July 5, 2009, Terry Herbert tried his luck with an old metal
detector in a farmers eld outside Licheld, in Staordshire,
England. On that day, he would uncover the largest collection
of Anglo-Saxon objects ever found: a hoard of over 3,900 objects cast
primarily in gold and silver, and richly decorated with animal patterns
crafted in gold-leaf ligree and cloisonn gems. Archaeologists and
historians theorize that the artifacts from the Staordshire Hoard
date from between 600-800 CE, during the time the Kingdom of
Mercia reached its apogee. With the presentation of over one hundred
objects from the United Kingdom at at the recent exhibition, Anglo-
Saxon Hoard: Gold from Englands Dark Ages, held at the National
Geographic Museum in Washington D.C., interest in Anglo-Saxon
Britain continues to grow in the United States. In this article, James
Wiener takes the opportunity to interview Professor Larry J. Swain,
of Bemidji State University, about the importance of the Hoard to
historians and archaeologists alike. Swain is an expert in the culture,
history, and languages of late antiquity and early Medieval Europe.
By James Wiener
74
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
JW

Professor Swain, standard historical

narrative has often presented Anglo-
Saxon Britain (c. 4101066 CE) as a cultural
backwater, teeming with political unrest, social
instability, and the bloody subjugation of the
Celtic Britons. Does the discovery of these objects
overturn preconceived notions of Anglo-Saxon
culture and social organization?
LS
This is an exciting time for study in
the early Anglo-Saxon period, what
has often been called the Dark Ages simply
because we have so few literary references.
Those literary references, Gildas the Wise
and the Venerable St. Bede, the latter using
the former, painted a picture for us of Anglo-
Saxons invading the island and pushing the
inhabitants, the [Celtic] Britons now without
the support of Rome, into the West or even out
of the island altogether to Brittany [in France].
But this traditional picture, hoary and xed
in text-books and in popular imagination, is
being challenged by a number of things from
discoveries like the Staordshire Hoard to
genetic testing that suggests the utter downfall
of culture and economy in the wake of an
invading force needs at the very least signicant
adjustment if not complete rejection.
Regarding the Hoard itself, what it tells us in
large part depends on when it is dated. The
earliest date given is sometime in the last sixth
century to the latest in the 8th or even 9th
centuries. The dating depends largely, though
not exclusively, on comparison of the artistic
styles in the Hoard to other more or less dated
objects with similar styles and on the date of the
biblical inscription on the single piece. Some
have argued that the inscription is seventh
century, others much later.
So if the Hoard is dated to the sixth century, it
tells us a lot about a period on which our sourc-
es are few and late. But it seems more likely
that the Hoard is later, in the seventh century
or even early eighth. By this time, large parts of
the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have at least been
nominally converted to Christianity, there are
literary texts in addition to Bede that cover the
period, and such a dating puts the Staordshire
Hoard after Sutton Hoo and the Prittlewell
Prince rather than before or contemporary with
those burials. It is rather impossible to call An-
glo-Saxon culture of the late seventh and early
eighth centuries, the period of the so-called
Northumbrian Renaissance a cultural back-
water, though some of the other descriptions
might yet be apt.
There are some things that the Hoard does
tell us regardless of date. There are no objects
judged to be feminine and most of the objects
are identiable as a soldiers equipment
material from helmets, sword pommels and the
like. It was found near Watling Street, in what
would have been the Anglo-Saxon kingdom
of Mercia. We know in the seventh and early
eighth centuries that Mercia and Northumbria
had a number of battles as each sought to be
the leading kingdom; in fact, in order to produce
the exquisite books of the Northumbrian
Renaissance such as the Lindisfarne Gospels,
Codex Amiatinus and its sister pandects, and
other manuscripts, not to mention other works
of art such as reliquaries, St. Cuthberts pectoral
crosswell the list could go on. Bede in another
of his works on the history of his monastery
talks about the importation of craftsmen from
Frankia to work in stone, to teach the Roman
Churchs method of chant, to work gems
and precious metals. And as we look over
Northumbria of this period and the number
of books produced, the number of monastic
foundations built, the number of books and
special artisans and scholars imported, the
image one builds is one of extreme wealth.
If the Hoard does indeed date from the late
seventh century, imagine that this is one
warriors take on one raid from Mercia into
Northumbria (or vice versa) in that period. That
image gives one pause as to how much more
there must have been and gives one an idea
how much we have lost! All that said, once the
75
Hoard has been ruminated over, the results will
undoubtedly change some of what we think
now. Certainly in the immediate aftermath of
the discovery it was thought to be even more
signicant than Sutton Hoo. But honestly, it is
too early to tell just how important and how
much the contents of the Hoard will change our
views.
JW
Larry, the Staordshire Hoard holds
over 5,000 kilos of gold and over 1,400
kilos of silver. These are truly remarkable gures.
Moreover, the decoration found on the objects
shields, swords, scabbards, pieces of armor, etc.
is simply breathtaking. No other discovery like
it has been made in either the British Isles or in
continental Europe. Does it surprise you that such
a discovery was made in the British Midlands and
not elsewhere, especially given the past discoveries
in Kent and East Anglia?
LS

On a general geographic scale, no,

not at all. First, while much less well
known and containing much less material,
there have been other hoards discovered all
over territories of Anglo-Saxon England. So
while the general public knows about the great
discovery of Sutton Hoo in East Anglia (1939)
or about things in Kent, the British Midlands
were the home of one of the most powerful
and important Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercia.
So it is no surprise really that a hoard should
be found there. Further, the old Roman road,
Watling Street, is nearby and was still in use,
and so again lessens the surprise that the hoard
rested in Mercia.
It is when we turn to the specic locale that the
surprise of the discovery hits. As you mention,
James, the hoard is huge containing more than
1500 artifacts most of precious metals. Yet,
this hoard of treasure is not associated with a
religious locale or ceremony as far as we can tell;
nor is it located in a grave site such as we have
at Sutton Hoo, nor near any major fortication,
monastery, habitation, or city. Now, things like
rings or sword pommels have been found in
contexts like this, seemingly abandoned,
possibly as an oering to the gods. But there
has been nothing even close to this scale. It is
that lack of context and location that makes the
hoard so tantalizing and curious.
JW

What can these objects tell us about the

Kingdom of Mercia vis--vis the other
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms?
LS

Thats a big question of importance to

historians, and honestly, the answer to
that depends on when the Hoard is dated and
what we make of it. Is it a one-time hoard from
a single raid hidden in haste as a very real threat
catches up to the raider, so he hides his prize for
retrieval later and is prevented from doing so?
Or is it rather an old warriors collection of prizes
from a long career? Is it a collection leaving
Mercia or coming to Mercia from Northumbria
or Pictland [Scotland]? There are so many
unanswered questions. What it does tell us
though is that the wealth of these kingdoms is
incredible.
One scholar, Nicholas Brooks, has made an
intriguing suggestion that the hoard was the
C O N V E R S A T I O N
76
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
property of the armorer of the Mercian king.
When a retainer, and warrior, died, the king
would receive some piece of treasure like a
sword or pommel, or a ring, and so on. These
items would then be reused and distributed to
new men coming into service, a system called
heriot, war-gear (from OE heregeat). If so,
then the armorers trove here would show that
Mercia was a very rich and powerful kingdom
indeed, which it was in the 8th century.
JW

Many scholars and archaeologists

were quite surprised by the complete
absence of feminine objects in the hoard. Unlike
other Anglo-Saxon sites, there were no golden
brooches, necklaces or pendants for women.
Instead, the objects in the hoard seem to have
been originally designed for martial purposes.
Archaeologists also never uncovered any evidence
of scaolding, nor any human or animal remains.
What are some possible explanations for this in
your opinion?
LS

In the other cases you allude to, the

hoards have been burials or near
habitation. This one is quite dierent. One
suggestion was that this was a sacrice to the
gods, an oering. But against that is that there is
no nearby temple or grove, that while individual
objects have been found seemingly fullling
this function, nothing on this scale or even
approaching this scale has been discovered.
Finally in my view, the absence of human or
animal remains also argues against something
this large being a religious oering since we
know that such sacrices were still being
made. But without further contextualization,
it remains a possibility. I have suggested some
others above: a warriors cache of booty from a
raid or raids, or belonging to the kings armorer.
Which of these options is most likely at this
point is really anyones guess.
JW

Larry, something which has astonished

archaeologists and scholars alike is
overall quality of the workmanship that went
into the creation of these artifacts. Where did this
gold come from and how did it get there? Was it
coveted because it was so highly valued in Anglo-
Saxon lore and society?
LS
All good questions. Gold and treasure
were certainly important in early Anglo-
Saxon society. Literary texts paint an image of
kings and lords dispensing treasure as rewards
for service and on the occasions that we get
glimpses into actual history, this literary picture
does not seem to be too distorted from reality.
But it must be remembered that for this society
wealth was not wealth unless given away. That
is, a king or leader who did not handsomely
reward his followers was not much of a leader
and might nd himself without many followers
no matter how successful. So while coveted,
the value was in the relationship it signied
between lord and retainer in contrast to a
hoard of wealth in the sense of someone hiding
something like this for their own personal
wealth or use.
I think the best explanation is a raid or series
of raids into Northumbria that the Mercians
won and that some kind of danger presented
itself the Northumbrians in pursuit, a
competing nobleman seeing an opportunity
for advancement, well, the imagination could
run away with one. But for whatever the
danger, the man carrying this hoard of goods
left it probably with an intent to retrieve it and
was prevented by any of reasons from doing so.
And so it became an accident of history to be
uncovered again in 2009.
JW

Can you comment, Larry, on what

dierentiates the style and artistic
design of these Anglo-Saxon artifacts from those
found during the same period in Europe and
Scandinavia?
LS
There has been no comparable nds so
far in Scandinavia or the continent. The
famous bog nds tend to be quite a bit earlier;
the Scandinavian nds a bit later, but without
the metal objects with the gems and ne work.
77
C O N V E R S A T I O N
There are certainly some nds though: Oseberg
(in Norway) for example or the Niederberg
(Germany) nds. Looking at the metal work in
the latter, there are certainly some similarities
between the Staordshire Hoard and these: the
animal interlacing, the gem inlays, and so on.
But without question, the Anglo-Saxon work
is superior: more intricate, of gold and silver
rather than iron with silver inlays for example.
Over a century ago, the stages of artistic
decoration were outlined for Germanic artifacts;
most of the Hoard belongs to what is called
Salin II, after Bernard Salin who developed
it. It used to be said that Salin II was found
mostly in Scandinavia. A reassessment in the
1990s revised that conclusion a little. The
Staordshire Hoard signicantly increases the
number of objects that are classied in Salin
II from England. Much of stylistic engraving
seems to have connections to the materials we
know from Kent and East Anglia; in a few cases
there are denite analogues with items from
Scandinavia. So the hoard seems to t Salin II
style for Germanic art, some of the items are
early, others late in that style.
JW

Finally Larry, scholars are torn as to

why the hoard is so large and to which
purpose it served. Is it possible that these beautiful
objects could merely be loot or part of some sort
of treasury? Could it be just an oering to a pagan
deity? Could you comment a little further?
LS
I think I answered most of this above.
In addition to what I said there, one
of the curators said something along the lines
that stu ng this much gold and silver into the
ground as an oering seems like overkill. And
that truly does seem the case!
JW

Thank you so much for your time and

expertise Larry!
LS

Thank you!
Larry J. Swain is a Professor of English at Bemidji
State University in Bemidji, Minnesota. Previously,
he taught at Harry S. Truman College in Chicago,
Illinois. He received his BA in ReligionGreek
and Linguistics from Seattle Pacic University
(1985), his MA in Medieval Studies from Western
Michigan University (2001), and his PhD in English
Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago
(2009). Currently, Swain is the Editor-in-Chief of
The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Northwestern
Europe and a reviewer for Years Work in
Old English Studies, Old English Newsletter,
Archaeology Section.
78
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
William Mathew Flinders Petrie
(18531942)
By Lisa Swart
A
seminal figure of Ancient Near Eastern
archaeology, William Mathew Flinders
Petrie, has been affectionately
described as both the father of pots and
the father of Palestinian archaeology. He is
considered one of the greatest contributors to
the science of archaeology, and is renowned
for pioneering archaeological methods still
utilized in the field today, along with making
major discoveries in Egypt and Palestine.
Flinders Petrie was born in Kent, England on the
3 June 1853, to William Petrie and Anne Flinders.
Throughout his childhood he suffered from
ill-health, and was not permitted to attend
school or play sports. His parents were both
well-educated, and they played a major role in
his schooling. Thus, he became interested in
history through his mothers hobbies of coin
collecting, minerals and classification. Hailing
from a family of engineers and explorers, he
credited his grandfather, Matthew Flinders
(a renowned explorer of Australia), with his
love of exploration. From his father, a civil
engineer, he developed a love of surveying
and planning.
Stonehenge and the Pyramids
As a teenager, Petrie taught himself geometry,
and his father showed him how to survey.
Eager to apply this knowledge, he embarked
on extended walking tours across England,
systematically recording and surveying
earthworks, tumuli and other ancient remains.
When he was nineteen, he with the help of
his father undertook the first survey and
mapping of Stonehenge. From young, he
was a voracious reader, and spent much of
his early adult life researching in the reading
room of the British Museum. At thirteen, his
interest in ancient Egypt was piqued when he
read Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid
by Piazzi Smythe. This work centered on the
premise that the plan of the Great Pyramid
hid prophecies regarding the British-Israelites.
Petrie and his father were highly intrigued by
this book, and his father strongly encouraged
him to go to Egypt. Petrie set off at the age
of twenty-seven with the goal of measuring
and surveying the pyramids in order to prove
Piazzi Smythes hypothesis. After two seasons
of carefully recording detailed and systematic
measurements of the Giza Plateau, in addition
to their construction methods and materials,
Petries data proved conclusively that Piazzi
Smythes theory was incorrect. The pyramid
survey was no trivial feat, with the help of
one assistant; Petrie created the first accurate
survey of the Giza Plateau. The plans of which
were submitted to the Royal Society in 1883,
and he received 100 pounds towards their
publication.
Petrie in Egypt and Palestine
His work on the pyramids brought him to
the attention of the newly founded Egypt
Exploration Fund, where he formed a life-
long friendship with the co-founder, Amelia
Edwards. In 1883, he was assigned by the
Egypt Exploration Fund to excavate in the
Egyptian Delta. In the ancient town of Tanis,
he set out to record and draw-up plans of
temples. During this time, he came across
the site of Naukratis, the first-known Greek
colony in Egypt before the time of Alexander
the Great. This auspicious beginning led him
to spend several seasons working in the Delta.
By 1890, Petries relationship with the Egypt
Exploration Fund had severely deteriorated
and he was encouraged do some work in
Palestine for the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The Father of Egyptian Archaeology
79
This was to prove to be a major turning point for
Petrie. While excavating at Tell el-Hesi, Petrie
found that the Wadi Hesi (a narrow gorge)
had cut away a cross-section through the site,
which enabled him to view the various layers
of occupation. He was able to determine that
the pottery contained in each occupation
layer corresponded to the sequence of soil
layers, thus, he could see how the pottery
evolved over time. This observation led to
the construction of a chronological series or
sequences of pottery types.
After one season in Palestine, he returned to
work in Egypt. In 1892, Petrie was awarded the
newly created professorship of Egyptology
at the University College of London through
an endowment of his friend, Amelia Edwards.
He married Hilda Urlin in 1897. He set up an
archaeology school, the Egyptian Research
Account to fund his excavations in Egypt,
where Hilda worked as the secretary, camp
director and fundraiser.
He worked continuously in Egypt until 1926,
excavating an impressive list of sites, such as
the temples at Thebes, Amarna, Abydos, Sinai,
and Memphis (Smith, 1945: 6). Petries biggest
problem in the field was dating the thousands
of tombs flanking the Nile Valley. Using the
lessons he learned in Palestine, he arranged
the pottery in groups based on their style, and
noticed gradual changes in pottery trends. He
then gave them sequence dates. Sequence
Dating is one of Petries best known and most
important contributions to the knowledge of
prehistoric Egypt.
During the First World War, when all excavations
were suspended, Petrie contented himself
creating vast catalogues of materials he had
excavated over the thirty years he had spent in
the field. These catalogues continue to serve
as invaluable references to archaeologists.
Due to the amount of correspondence,
publications and public lectures, Petries
archaeological work received wide acclaim in
the scholarly and public sphere, and he was
knighted in 1923. He returned to Palestine
in 1926, where he excavated at Tell el Ajjul,
Ghazzeh, Tell Jemmeh and Tell el Farrah. He
retired from fieldwork in 1935, but took up
teaching at the American School in Jerusalem,
where he and his wife remained until his death
in 1942.
A Giant in his Field
There can be no doubt that Petrie was a giant in
his field. Born into an era when archaeologists
were no more than treasure-hunters, he set
the standards for archaeological work in the
field by insisting that all artifacts, no matter
how great or insignificant, be documented
carefully, and stressed the importance of
pottery in establishing a chronology for finds.
He was a prodigious writer, and has over 1,024
publications to his name (Uphill, 1972: 356-
379). He firmly believed he owed it to his
sponsors and the academic community to
publish his findings as soon as possible. It is
estimated he had trained over one hundred
archaeologists through his fieldwork, and
influenced many, many more his work is still
used by archaeologists today.
Further Reading:
Drower, M. Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology.
London: Victor Gollancz (1985).
Fargo, V. M. BA Portrait: Sir Flinders Petrie. The
Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec., 1984),
220-223.
Smith, S. William Matthew Flinders
Petrie.1853-1942. Obituary Notices of Fellows of the
Royal Society, Vol. 5, No. 14 (Nov., 1945), 3-16.
Stinespring. W. F. Flinders Petrie: 1853-1942. The
Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1942), 33-
36.
Uphill, E. P. A Bibliography of Sir William Matthew
Flinders Petrie (1853-1942). Journal of Near Eastern
Studies, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Oct., 1972), 356-379.
B I O G R A P H Y
Flinders Petrie in Giza c.1880 [Credit: Margaret S. Drower,
Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology, 1995, p.60]
80 80
81 81
Fire use and cognition in the
Middle Pleistocene
C
ontrolling re is a fundamental aspect of
human life with ancient roots. We need
re to survive and it plays a central role
in our cultural traditions. Evidence for domestic
res and human adaptations to re use suggest
controlling re has a deep evolutionary history. Our
species, Homo sapiens, and our Neanderthal cousins
probably never knew a world without a cooked meal
and the comforting warmth of campre.
This article outlines how we can investigate the
cognitive demands of controlling re and describes
the cognitive abilities they imply. While the cognitive
implications of re use are thought to be important
they have not been a focus of anthropological
research. We need to consider the kind of problems
early humans re users had to solve, how they
might have solved them and the cognitive demands
associated with solutions that would have su ced. I
begin by outlining a general approach to inferring
cognition from prehistoric evidence and suggesting
that humans living between 200-800 thousand years
ago (kya) were probably the earliest to depend on
re for their survival. Then I consider re related
How f ire made us smarter
Early Human cognition in light
of controlled fire use
By Dr Terrence Twomey
82 82
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
behaviors, and the conditions and contexts of Middle
Pleistocene re use. I propose that from these we can
infer the cognitive demands associated with the kind
of problems early human re users had to overcome.
Controlling re and our higher mental functions
such as language, complex social awareness and
forethought are uniquely human and it is reasonable
to think these adaptations have coevolved with re
use.
Inferring Cognition from Prehistoric
Evidence
Inferring cognition from ancient remains is not
straightforward. Evidence is rare and often
ambivalent with respect to cognitive abilities.
We are also unsure how best to model cognitive
processes and we do not usually dene them
operationally in relation to their practical functions.
Because we cannot infer cognition directly,
arguments must be based on a series of persuasive
Pleistocene Epoch
Early
1.806 mya 781 kya
Middle
781 kya 126 kya
Late
126 kya 11.24 kya
Date ranges for the Pleistocene Epoch. Dates are
given in million years ago (mya) and thousand years
ago (kya). Adapted from information provided by the
Geowhen database.
fand explicit inferences from archaeological and
fossil evidence to conditions and behaviors, and
rom these to cognitive processes. Behaviors should
be explained in terms of the minimum cognitive
competence required to produce them (Coolidge
and Wynn 2009). Behavioral criteria that reliably
indicate human mental faculties are the key to
Map of important Middle Pleistocene fire sites in Western Europe and Israel dated to before 200 kya.
Dates indicate earliest levels at which domestic fire is evident. (See Rolland 2004 and Twomey 2011 for
more information about these and other sites, and primary sources)
1. Bolomor Cave, Spain 250 kya; 2. Menez Dregan, France 400 kya; 3. Beeches Pit, England 400 kya;
4. Organc 3, France 300 kya; 5. Schoningen, Germany 400 kya; 6. Bilsingsleben, Germany 350 kya 7.
Qesem Cave, Israel 400 kya; 8. Misliya Cave, Israel 200 kya; 9. Hayonim Cave, Israel 300 kya; 10. Gesher
Benot Yaaqov, Israel 800 kya
83 83
A N T H R O P O L O G Y
making a reasonable argument from prehistoric
evidence to cognition.
With these considerations in mind, my research
(Twomey 2011) focuses on the simplest behaviors
that early humans could have used to control re.
My reasoning is that, while we cannot know exactly
how early humans managed to control re, they
must have used the simplest means that would have
su ced. These can serve as a sound behavioral basis
for making inferences about cognition because early
human re users would have employed them or
more cognitively demanding strategies. My research
relates re related activities to future directed
behaviors that are generally accepted by cognitive
scientists to indicate distinctively human cognitive
abilities. In particular, planning ahead, self control
and cooperation directed at future goals indicate
features of modern human cognition associated
with our enhanced social cognition and executive
functions.
Humans today know what other people intend and
can keep these intentions distinct from their own.
We can monitor and update information about the
behavior of others in cooperative activates. We can
communicate information about third parties, social
norms and things that are remote in space or time.
Modern humans also have executive or regulating
cognitive functions that govern our ability to make
plans, focus attention in spite of interference, switch
strategies and override responding to innate or
learned motivations. These abilities are not evident
or very limited in other animals relative to humans.
They also would have been highly adaptive in a
re using context and perhaps necessary for early
humans to control re eectively.
The Evidence for Early Human Fire
Use
Evidence for domestic res, human brain evolution,
and migrations into cool temperate regions suggest
that the common ancestor of the Neanderthals and
Homo sapiens living between about 200-800 kya
could control re (Rolland 2004, Wrangham 2009,
Gowlett 2010). There are some archaeological sites
with evidence for re from the Early Pleistocene, al-
though it is not always clear if these represent natural
or domestic res. They may also indicate intermittent
opportunistic re use rather than habitual controlled
re use.
The earliest compelling evidence for domestic re
comes from the site at Gesher Benot Yaaqov in Israel
around 800 kya (Alperson-Al & Goren Inbar 2010).
However, evidence is rare before about 400 kya.
There are several sites with compelling evidence for
domestic re between 200-400 kya and evidence is
relatively common after this period (Rolland 2004).
When considering the apparent lack of evidence for
controlled re use from the early part of the Middle
Pleistocene, we must remember that clear evidence
for domestic re will only survive in exceptional
preservation conditions. There are many later
prehistoric sites where re must have been used, but
there is no evidence for it (Wrangham 2009).
While direct evidence for controlled re use is
rare from the rst half of the Middle Pleistocene,
humanbrain evolution suggests some humans from
this time could control re. Around the beginning
An artists impression of Kabwe I human skull in
profile. The fossil from Zambia, designated as
Homo Heidelbergensis or Rodesiensis, is thought
to be between 120-300 kya. It is reasonable to think
that relatively large brained humans such as Homo
heidelbergensis and populations of late Homo erectus
needed to eat cooked food to meet their metabolic
demands. Adapted from privately owned replica.
Illustration by Julie Twomey.
84 84
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Fossil Specimen Age - cc -
Ceprano (Italy) Homo
heidelbergensis
800 kya 1165
Bodo (Zambia) Homo
heidelbergensis /
rodesiensis
600 kya 1250
Arago XXI (France)
Homo heidelbergensis
400 kys 1166
Yunixian (China) Homo
erectus
400 kya 1200
Zhoukoudian I, L (China)
Homo erectus
400 kya 1225
Atapuerca IV (Spain)
Homo heidelbergensis /
antecessor
350 kya 1390
Jinniushan (China)
Homo erectus
280 kya 1390
Swanscombe (England)
Homo heidelbergensis
250 kya 1325
Narmada (India) Homo
erectus
236 kya 1260
Steinheim (Germany)
Homo heidelbergensis
225 kya 1200
Petralona I (Italy) Homo
heidelbergensis
210 kya 1230
Reilingen (Germany)
Homo heidelbergensis
200 kya 1430
Kabwe I (Zambia)
Homo heidelbergensis /
rodesiensis
180 kya 1280
Cranial capacity of Middle Pleistocene humans
falling just below or within the modern human
range. Where the date range is uncertain the mean
is provided. While the average relative brain size of
these people may have been smaller than Homo
sapiens and the Neanderthals when correlated
for body size, this still represents a substantial
increase on Early Pleistocene Homo. Adapted from
information provided in Holloway et. al. 2004 and
Schoenemann 2008.
of the Middle Pleistocene the absolute brain size of
some early humans is beginning to fall within the
modern human range. Neural tissue is metabolically
expensive to grow and maintain. Cooking improves
diet quality and breadth, and was probably required
for relatively large brained foragers of the Middle
Pleistocene to meet their metabolic demands
(Schoenemann 2008, Wrangham 2009). This means
large brained humans of the Middle Pleistocene
probably depended on cooking to survive. The
conditions that allow a few dedicated individuals
today to survive on raw food, such as easy access
to high quality foods and modern processing
technologies, were not available to early humans
(Wrangham 2009).
It is di cult to account for the rapid increase in
relative human brain size that seems to occur about
200-750 kya. These people do not seem to be
dramatically dierent in their culture or behavior than
humans of the Early Pleistocene, and major changes
in technology are not evident till about 300 kya.
Regular re use may be the key. Given the increased
cognitive load and demands associated with re
use, enhanced social and general intelligence would
have been adaptive. Cooking would have removed
the metabolic constraints on evolving large brains.
Therefore, controlling re meets the two conditions
required for our large brains to evolve, a context
in which enhanced cognition was adaptive and a
substantial increase in energy intake.
Some Middle Pleistocene humans were living in
environments where the light and warmth of a
re would probably have been required at times.
Evidence now suggests humans began occupying
cool temperate regions from the beginning of
the Middle Pleistocene. In light of all the available
evidence, we can be reasonably sure that populations
of competent re users who largely depended on re
to survive existed between 200-800 kya. This is not
to say that all Middle Pleistocene humans controlled
re, or that re use did not evolve much earlier.
However, we can be condent that some humans
from this time controlled re and were not just using
it opportunistically on an intermittent basis.
85 85
Fire Related Behaviors and
Problems
Fire Related Behaviors
My model of Middle Pleistocene re use assumes
that people depended on re, but could not make
it and they kept communal res that serviced all
members of a local group. Although we cannot be
certain of this, re making or keeping private res for
individual use would be more cognitively demanding
(Twomey 2011). It is also reasonable to think a period
of controlled re use without re making preceded
the invention of ignition technologies (Goudsblom
1992, Ofek 2001, Burton 2009), although this may
not have been during the Middle Pleistocene as I
am suggesting. My model considers those intrepid
humans who controlled re without being able
to make it. Our accounts of human evolution have
not paid due attention to this critical period of our
ancient past (Ofek 2001).
If early humans depended on re, but could not
make it, then controlling re involved maintaining
re, and accessing it if required. Individuals would
need to tend, transport and protect the re, and
gather rewood. Individuals could have accessed re
from nature if their re went out because of neglect,
bad weather or other contingencies. However, for
re dependent humans who could not aord to wait
months or years for a fortuitous lightening strike,
wildre or volcanic eruption, natural re would not
have been reliable. In a population of re using
humans domestic res would have been a far more
readily available source of ignition. This means if
individuals needed to access re, they probably
relied on other humans. Access may not have been
required often if individuals were good at keeping
the re going, but would have been important for
re dependent humans if a groups re went out.
Controlling re also involved using re in some
benecial way because costly behaviors like keeping
re do not evolve unless they are advantageous.
There are many ways early humans could have
beneted from re. Light and heat would have
been adaptive in some contexts, but not when the
climate was warm and days were long. Cooking was
The excavation site at Qesem Cave. Courtesy: Tel Aviv University.
86 86
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
probably the primary reason early humans kept re
because cooked foods provide a net increase in
energy intake relative to foods consumed raw and
were probably preferred because they taste better
(Wrangham 2009). Cooking would have provided
the consistent return for eort and incentive that
motivated individuals to perform re related tasks.
In summary, my model considers how early humans
went about accessing, provisioning, transporting
and protecting re, and cooking.
My dissertation describes at length the least
cognitively demanding strategies early humans
could have used to control re and compares these in
terms of their eectiveness and e ciency in dierent
contexts (Twomey 2011). For example, individuals
could have accessed re through stealth or force from
other groups, or through more amicable interactions.
Individuals could have shared the workload evenly or
divided their labor to ensure the re was maintained,
and they may have transported re using a burning
log. However, here I will focus on some general
problems associated with re use before considering
the cognitive implications.
Fire Related Problems
There are several conditions that would have made
re related tasks more di cult and resulted in
social, ecological, logistic and economic re related
problems. Evidence suggests that Middle Pleistocene
humans lived mostly in small local groups of 10 to
25 individuals that would often have been isolated
from each other (Twomey 2011). This means re use
was a social activity that eected all members of a
local group (Goudsblom 1992, Ronen 1998). If the re
burned continually it was open to free riding (Ofek
2001). That is, individuals could benet from the re
without incurring re keeping costs so long as others
in the group maintained the re. This presented
individuals with a social dilemma because they
were better o free riding, but if everyone did, then
everyone missed out on the benets re provided.
Ofek (2001) has proposed that the problem of free
riding before the invention of re making would
have demanded re specialists who traded in re.
Gamble et. al. (2011) have proposed that overcoming
the problem of free riding was a major driver of
human social cognition. We have no reason to think
early humans were any less inclined to free ride or
more cooperative than people today. This means
free riding was very likely a problem early re users
had to overcome.
Middle Pleistocene humans lived in a range of
environments as mobile foragers who exploited
resources from a central location. Controlling re
may be implicated in the evolution of central place
foraging in human societies (Rolland 2004). Some
had to deal with snow cover and reduced hours
of daylight during winter, others the long hot dry
seasons associated with tropical regions. All early
humans had to contend with rain and storms that
would extinguished an unprotected re in the open.
Food would not always have been abundant and
individuals would have faced seasonal or contingent
food shortages. Many early humans lived in open
tropical savannah or temperate grasslands. This
means the distribution of food and fuel would often
have been patchy, and fuel loads would often have
been low. Fuel would become increasingly harder
to nd the longer a group remained in the same
location. Early humans would have used mostly
low quality fuel that could be easily gathered. A re
burning continually, that was not prone to going out
and eective for cooking, light and warmth, would
require relatively large amounts of fuel (Ofek 2001).
There is evidence to suggest that some Middle
Pleistocene re users brought in large amounts
of fuel from remote locations (Gamble et. al. 2001).
All things considered, controlling re would have
required a large investment in time and energy
relative to other activities to ensure su cient fuel
supplies were gathered (Ofek 2001, Gowlett 2010).
These conditions presented early humans with
logistical and organizational problems that had
to be coordinated at the group level. For example,
decisions had to be made about who gathered
fuel and when was it gathered in relation to other
activities.
The benet associated with re related tasks would
often have been delayed (Goudsblom 1992, Ronen
1998). Cooking delays the consumption of food,
and fuel would not always have been used as soon
87 87
as it was gathered (Ronen 1998). Fire related tasks
would need to be conducted hours, days or even
weeks prior to the intended goal. Unlike other early
human behaviors, such as foraging for food or tool
making, re related tasks are often detached in
that need and trigger are not clearly associated in
time and space (Ronen 1998: 443). Fire related tasks
provide only deferred gratication in that they were
not always performed in an individuals immediate
interest (Goudsblom 1992). This was a problem
because future intentions and goals would need to
be understood and represented, and inclinations to
seek more immediate rewards or act selshly would
sometimes need to be suppressed.
All these conditions would have made controlling
re more cognitively demanding. When considering
early human re use it is important to recognize
the conditions and constraints early humans had
to overcome. To enjoy the benets re provided
individuals had to meet the associated costs, focus
on future rewards and coordinate with fellow group
members.
Fire Related Cognition
The Cognitive Implications of Controlling
Fire
Controlled re use implies future directed planning
because the goal associated with accessing,
transporting, protecting and provisioning re may
not have been realized for hours, days or even weeks.
In many cases the goal would have been to access
or sustain a re for use at some future time, not to
benet from the re directly. Fire related tasks
would also have been directed at uncertain future
contingencies, such as nding re, running out of
fuel or rain. This is cognitively demanding because
the future goal must be mentally represented in
the absence of any clear reference to the goal. For
example, an individual might gather fuel for cooking
later in the day when they were not hungry and had
no food. Individuals could have waited until they
wanted to use the re or when it was about to go
out. However, the problem with waiting until the
last minute is that you might need fuel for the re
Early Man Gathering Around Fire. Courtesy of Listverse
88 88
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
when fuel was di cult or impossible to gather,
such as at night, when it was hard to nd or when
conditions restricted mobility. In most contexts
large amounts of fuel would have to be gathered
during the day for the re to be eective at night.
Like us, early humans would probably not want to
gather rewood when they were about to cook a
meal, or after they had eaten. For these reasons
gathering fuel in response to an immediate need
would not always have su ced to ensure fuel was
gathered. Preparing for a future need that may not
have been realized for hours or days in the absence
of any proximate motivation implies a degree of
forethought that is not evident in other animal
species.
The delayed nature of re related goals also implies
individuals could inhibit responding to more
immediate rewards when they were engaged in a
re related activity. Sometimes the temptation to
seek more immediate rewards had to be inhibited
to ensure the success of re related behaviors.
Individuals would often have been motivated to
rest, gather food, play, socialize, seek a mate or
make a tool. These behaviors oer more immediate
rewards than say gathering fuel or transporting a
re. The problem is compounded because fuel
gathering is often a laborious and unpleasant task
that may have exposed individuals to increased
risk of injury or being preyed upon. Although the
rewards of re related tasks are high, individuals
would often have preferred to do something else
or avoid them altogether if they could. Today many
of us prefer to avoid menial tiresome tasks if we can.
This is not to say individuals could not interrupt
a re related task to satisfy some need or take
advantage of an opportunity at times, then return
to the task. However, if individuals never inhibited
responses to proximate rewards, they would often
neglect re related duties or leave them to the last
minute, which may have been too late. When food
and fuel were hard to nd individuals may have had
to forego looking for food, even if they were hungry,
to ensure enough fuel was gathered to keep the re
burning at night.
Controlling re implies group level cooperation
for practical and economic reasons. An individual
working alone would have often struggled to feed
themselves and the re without assistance. Even
if such individuals existed, they would sometimes
need assistance from other group members to
ensure that neither the re nor re provider died.
Cooperation greatly increases e ciency in a re
using society. Whereas one individual may spend
a few hours a day gathering fuel and tending
the re, many individuals may spend only a few
minutes. More critically, altruistic individuals who
cooperated unconditionally would have been at a
distinct disadvantage relative to individuals who
beneted from the re for free. Fire providers would
be less likely to survive and reproduce and you end
up with all free riders, no providers and no re (Ofek
2001). In a small local group of re users, either most
people helped out, or those who maintained the
re were compensated in some way. For example,
an individual who stayed at camp to tend the re or
spent the afternoon gathering fuel might be given a
An artists impression of a contemporary women
carrying rewood. Still today people in many
societies must spend considerable time and eort
gathering enough rewood to meet their household
needs. Similarly, early humans must have invested
considerable time and energy gathering fuel and
tending the re. Illustration by Julie Twomey.
89 89
A N T H R O P O L O G Y
share of the food gathered by others. Gowlett (2010)
has proposed that controlled re use presupposes a
division of labor.
Free riding and anti social behaviors, such as food
stealing, would have undermined cooperative
eorts directed at re related tasks. Central placed
foraging and cooking presupposes a degree of trust
and social awareness. Individuals will not return
to a central location with food if there is a chance
they will lose it (Sterelney 2003). Mechanisms
to monitor and discourage free riding would
probably have been required for re use to evolve
(Ofek 2001). Fire related cooperation would have
been cognitively demanding for several reasons.
Individuals needed to understand the intentions
of others towards the re, trust each other and be
able to communicate information about re related
goals and uncooperative individuals. Social norms
that reiterated re related values and obligations,
and coalitions prepared to punish free riders
and uncooperative individuals were probably
required to control re eectively and e ciently.
This involves complex social awareness and proto
symbolic communication skills that are not evident
in other animals.
Concluding Remarks
Many aspects of controlled re use by early humans
imply future directed planning, self control and
group level cooperation (Twomey 2011). Keeping
re in the Middle Pleistocene was never simply
a matter of nding re when it was needed and
keeping it burning until it was not. Investigating
the cognitive demands of re use can shed new
light on the cognitive abilities of early humans. It
may provide insights into how and why modern
human language, consciousness and societies
evolved. While inferring cognition from prehistoric
evidence is di cult, controlling re provides a
sound behavioral basis for making inferences about
cognition that can complement and extend on
more traditional forms of inquiry. The approach
and ideas presented here and elsewhere (Twomey
2011) require further qualication, testing and
development. However, they provide a framework
and starting point for further research in this
direction. Domesticating re changed the way
our ancestors interacted with each other and the
environment. Thinking about re facilitated the
evolution of human minds and our ancient planet
has not been the same since.
Authors Affiliation
Terrence Twomey graduated from The University of
Melbourne with a doctorate in Anthropology in 2011.
Terrences research interests include the evolution of
human language, consciousness and cooperation,
and the ecological impacts of large and small scale
societies. He is currently affiliated with the School of
Social and Political Sciences Anthropology program
at The University of Melbourne.
Further Reading
Alperson-Al, Nira and Naama Goren-Inbar. The Acheulian
Site of Gesher Benot Yaaqov Volume II: Ancient Flames and
Controlled Use of Fire. Dordrecht: Springer, (2010).
An artists impression of an Acheulian handaxe.
These were a feature of early human stone tools
from around 1.6 to .3 million years ago. While the
size and proportions of these bifacial tools varied
the distinctive shape was remarkably consistent over
time and space. There is debate as to whether this is
due to a mental representation of the tool or results
from the functional properties of the tool and the
constraints of lithic materials. Fire users living before
about 300 kya would have used handaxes. Adapted
from artifacts held in The University of Melbournes
collection. Illustration by Julie Twomey.
90 90
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Burton, Frances D. Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human
Evolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
(2009).
Coolidge, Frederick L. and Thomas Wynn. The Rise of Homo
Sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking. Chicheseter:
Wiley-Blackwell, (2009).
Gamble, Clive, John Gowlett and Robin Dunbar. The
Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic. Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 21(1), (2011). 115-135.
Gowlett, John A. J. Firing Up The Social Brain. In Social
Brain, Distributed Mind, edited by Robin I. M. Dunbar, Clive
Gamble and John Gowlett, 341-66. (Proceedings of the
British Academy: 158) Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2010).
Goudsblom, Johan. The Civilizing Process and the
Domestication of Fire. Journal of World History. 3(1), (1992).
1-12.
Holloway, R. L., D. C. Broadfield and M. S. Yuan. The Human
Fossil Record: Brain Endocasts The Paleoneurological
Evidence, Volume 3. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley & Sons,
(2004).
Ofek, Haim. Second Nature: Economic Origins of Human
Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2001).
Rolland, Nicolas. Was the Emergence of Home Bases and
Domestic Fire a Punctuated Event? A review of the Middle
Pleistocene record in Eurasia. Asian Perspectives. 43(2) Fall,
(2004). 248-280.
Ronen, Avraham. Domestic Fire as Evidence for Language.
In Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western Asia,
edited by Takeru Akazawa, Kenichi Aoki and Ofer Bar-Yosef,
439-447. New York: Plenum Press, (1998).
Schoenemann, Thomas P. Evolution of the Size and
Functional Areas of the Human Brain. Annual Review of
Anthropology 35, (2008). 379-406.
Sterelny, Kim 2003. Thought in a Hostile World: The Evolution
of Human Cognition. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing,
(2003).
Twomey, Terrence. The Cognitive Implications of Controlled
Fire Use by Middle Pleistocene Humans. Unpublished
Doctoral Thesis, (2011) [http://repository.unimelb.edu.
au/10187/11103]
Wrangham, Richard. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us
Human. New York: Basic Books, (2009)
Scientists fnd evidence that human ancestors used fre one
million years ago
An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the
earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash,
alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago at the
Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa.
The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that
human ancestors as early as Homo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life, said
U of T anthropologist Michael Chazan, co-director of the project and director of U of Ts Archaeology
Centre.
Wonderwerk is a massive cave located near the edge of the Kalahari where earlier excavations by
Peter Beaumont of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, had uncovered an extensive
record of human occupation. A research project, co-directed by U of Ts Chazan and Liora Kolska
Horwitz of Hebrew University, has been doing detailed analysis of the material from Beaumonts
excavation along with renewed field work on the Wonderwerk site. Analysis of sediment by lead
authors Francesco Berna and Paul Goldberg of Boston University revealed ashed plant remains and
burned bone fragments, both which appear to have been burned locally rather than carried into
the cave by wind or water. The researchers also found extensive evidence of surface discoloration
that is typical of burning.
The control of fire would have been a major turning point in human evolution, says Chazan. The
impact of cooking food is well documented, but the impact of control over fire would have touched
all elements of human society. Socializing around a camp fire might actually be an essential aspect
of what makes us human.
This is the view from the bottom of the excavated area towards the entrance to
Wonderwerk Cave (Photo: R. Yates)
91
Scientists fnd evidence that human ancestors used fre one
million years ago
An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the
earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash,
alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago at the
Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa.
The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that
human ancestors as early as Homo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life, said
U of T anthropologist Michael Chazan, co-director of the project and director of U of Ts Archaeology
Centre.
Wonderwerk is a massive cave located near the edge of the Kalahari where earlier excavations by
Peter Beaumont of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, had uncovered an extensive
record of human occupation. A research project, co-directed by U of Ts Chazan and Liora Kolska
Horwitz of Hebrew University, has been doing detailed analysis of the material from Beaumonts
excavation along with renewed field work on the Wonderwerk site. Analysis of sediment by lead
authors Francesco Berna and Paul Goldberg of Boston University revealed ashed plant remains and
burned bone fragments, both which appear to have been burned locally rather than carried into
the cave by wind or water. The researchers also found extensive evidence of surface discoloration
that is typical of burning.
The control of fire would have been a major turning point in human evolution, says Chazan. The
impact of cooking food is well documented, but the impact of control over fire would have touched
all elements of human society. Socializing around a camp fire might actually be an essential aspect
of what makes us human.
This is the view from the bottom of the excavated area towards the entrance to
Wonderwerk Cave (Photo: R. Yates)
92
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93
Egypt in Milan
There are many places which are famous
throughout the world for their Egyptian
collections and Egyptianising monuments,
such as Paris, Rome or London. This article
introduces Milan, an Italian city with something
to offer the Egyptology tourist. The article will
describe the best places to visit in order to
view Egyptian in uenced funerary monuments,
Egyptomania in architecture, Egyptian themed
artwork and ancient artefacts.
By Charlotte Booth
94
A N C I E N T P L A N E T
F
or those wanting to visit Egyptian
museums and view Egyptianised
monuments, Milan is not the first place
one would think of. Instead, Paris, Berlin,
Turin, Rome or London, are the most obvious
cities to visit. However, Milan does have its
share of Egyptian artefacts, and Egyptian
influences. They are just better hidden than
they are in other European cities.
The most central, and perhaps the most
overlooked piece of Egyptomania, can be
found in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
II, a beautiful shopping mall in the historic
centre of Milan, with an entrance on Piazza
del Duomo. The Galleria was designed by
Giuseppe Mengoni, and the foundation
stone was laid by King Vittorio Emanuele II,
after whom it was named, in March 1865. It
was completed in December 1877, the day
after the tragic death of Mengoni who fell
from the top of the arch of the main entrance
whilst inspecting the work. The item of
interest was not added until 1911.
Just under the central dome are four
stunning mosaics, commissioned to replace
the original frescoes which had since faded.
These mosaics represent the four corners
of the world as viewed at that time; Europe,
America, Africa and Asia. The African lunette
shows a traditional orientalist view of Egypt
with a topless Egyptian queen wearing a cobra
headdress, reclining in front of a monument,
her pet lion recumbent behind her. In front of
her is her servant gathering wheat, wearing
the traditional nemes headdress, normally
reserved for kings. This mosaic was created
by Eleuterio Pagliano and was funded by an
English company known as the City of Milan
Improvements Company Limited, which was
dissolved once the Galleria was opened.
An earlier piece of Egyptian inspired
architecture can be found in Via dei
Boschetti. This obelisk has been in this
location, in the middle of the road, since
1787. It was commissioned in honour of Saint
Glicero (Glycerius), a Bishop of Milan, and
was created by Charles Borromeo in 1607. It
originally had a bronze cross on the top but,
when it was moved to the current location,
this was replaced with a bronze star which
still adorns the top of the obelisk.
Obelisks were also added to the roof of
the Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali, in
Piazza Cordusio, when it was constructed
by Luca Beltrami between 1897 and 1901.
Another four rather beautiful obelisks are
located in the sanctuary of Santa Maria della
Vittoria, on Via de Amicis. The sanctuary itself
is a seventeenth century reconstruction of
a thirteenth century Dominican monastery.
These four black marble obelisks decorate
the memorial of the Omodei family, a family
of cardinals in the seventeenth century.
There are numerous other funerary obelisks
to be found in the Cimitero Monumentale, a
rather ostentatious cemetery near Garibaldi
train station. It was designed by the architect
Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899), and was
opened in 1866. Although still a working
cemetery, the majority of the monuments
were built between the 1880s and 1930s and
there is a distinct art deco feel about them,
as well as a great abundance of Egyptian
motifs which were popular at the time.
Obelisks of course dominate in regards to
number and range from small and plain to
monumental in size. The largest obelisk, for
example, marks the Falck family memorial,
and towers above all the other monuments
in the area and was constructed at the end
of the nineteenth century. The entrance to
the monument is reached by a set of steps
leading to a subterranean doorway.
Although the Falcks cannot be beaten on
size, some of the smaller obelisks are more
attractive, decorated with carved wreaths,
Chi-Rho Catholic symbols, or photographs
of the dead buried beneath. Like the obelisk
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S I T E S A N D S O U N D S
Above left: Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali,
Piazza Cordusio; Above right: Obelisk of Saint
Glycerius, Charles Borromeo 1607, Via dei Boschetti;
Below: Africa by Eleuterio Pagliano, Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele II. Photograph by Brian Billington.
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A N C I E N T P L A N E T
of Saint Glicero, a number of obelisks at the
cemetery are raised on plinths with either
animal feet or balls, such as the monument
of Rosa de Pestalozzi, or the matching pair
belonging to Adolfo and Carolina Poilblan,
all from the 1880s.
Closely associated with obelisks in style are
pyramids, and they are also represented
at the cemetery in the form of Benben
stones, such as the Fedeli monument, which
comprises a Benben decorated with lotus and
papyrus plants, to the elongated pyramidion
belonging to Coizet (c.1870), who chose to
decorate the structure with a sword, helmet
and cloak demonstrating his profession
whilst alive.
The most elaborate pyramid is that of the
Bruni family, which is large and dominates
this corner of the cemetery. It was built by the
architect Angelo Colla in 1876 and is made of
Saltrio stone, with the only decoration being
a floral frieze reminiscent of the Ptolemaic
style near the base of the structure. The
entrance to the pyramid, on the other hand,
is rather monumental with a cavetto cornice
over the door. The door is flanked on the
right hand side by a sphinx wearing a nemes
headdress, collar and false beard, and on the
left hand side stands a female figure. These
figures were carved by Giulio Monteverde,
and are classical rather than Egyptian in
style, even though this is where the influence
lay. The door frame itself is decorated with
a frieze of musicians copied directly from
Ptolemaic images.
There are other sphinxes in the cemetery, two
on either side of the Fides family memorial,
Left: Omodei memorial, Santa Maria della
Vittoria, Via de Amicis. Photograph by Giovanni
DallOrto, Wikicommons; Right: Pyramid of the
Bruni family, Cimitero Monumentale
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S I T E S A N D S O U N D S
Above Left: Alberto Weill-Schott Sphinx, Cimitero
Monumentale; Above Right: Passoni family monument,
Cimitero Monumentale; Below: Striding figure on the
Vignola monument, Cimitero Monumentale
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A N C I E N T P L A N E T
dating to approximately 1910. Although
these figures may represent nuns, the
representation does have distinctly Egyptian
symmetry. Another, with no ambiguity of
representation, is the monument of Alberto
Weill-Schott (c.1904), the Swiss Banker,
designed by Enrico Butti. The monument
comprises three elements; a bronze figure of
Grief, leaning on a broken lotus bud column
capital and a stylized sphinx at the base, with
its eyes shut, wearing a nemes headdress.
One monument in the cemetery which is
particularly interesting is the monument
belonging to the Passoni family, (c.1950s).
However, whether there is Egyptian
influence here is uncertain. The statue shows
a shrouded body standing vertically, being
blessed by Jesus Christ. Whether intentional
or not, this image resembles the traditional
Opening of the Mouth ceremony. The mummy
traditionally stands upright before Anubis or
the oldest son, who holds the adze towards
the mouth in order to enable the deceased to
breathe, speak, eat and drink in the afterlife.
Although the face on this figure is exposed,
the wrappings resemble bandages rather
than a shroud and it is somewhat unusual for
the deceased to be presented vertically.
A figure, clearly influenced by the traditional
striding figure, popular from the Old Kingdom
to the Ptolemaic period, stands proudly over
the Vignola monument (c.1920s). The bronze
statue shows a man in the traditional striding
figure pose, with the right foot forward. In
his right hand he holds a roll of paper and
in the left hand, instead of the traditional
staff, he holds a book. Although the kilt,
muscle structure and face are not traditional
Egyptian the general pose is unmistakable.
As with many cemeteries in Europe, in
addition to these Egyptianising elements
there are a number of chapels created in
the Egyptian style with cavetto cornicing,
winged sun discs, and lotus and papyrus
emblems on the grated gateways. The most
impressive examples are the Salmoiraghi-
Bessone monument (c. 1920s) and the
Valenini familys edifice.
In addition to sculptures and architecture,
Milan has a great deal to offer in the form
of painted artwork, which can be found in
abundance in Milan. One particularly popular
theme is that of the death of Cleopatra or La
Morte di Cleopatra and there are numerous
paintings to be discovered showing different
interpretations of this legendary event. One
of the versions by Francesco Cairo (1607-
1665) can be viewed in the Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana, showing a distressed looking
servant approaching the half naked, very
pale Cleopatra on the bed with an asp
wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. The
Pinacoteca di Brera has a number of Cleopatra
offerings, including Guido Cagnacci (1601-
1663), showing a tranquil topless woman
seated in a high backed chair with the adder
moving towards her breast. This gallery also
holds another of his portraits (1660-1662)
showing Cleopatra in a red dress. She pulls
the dress down, exposing her left breast
to which she applies an asp. She has long
flowing red hair and is wearing large pearl
earrings, perhaps reminiscent of the story
told by Pliny the Elder where she dissolved
one of the biggest pearls in the world in
vinegar. This is in fact one of the few images
of the death of Cleopatra where she is not
naked. Dio Cassius in his Roman History
makes it clear that Cleopatra was dressed
when she died, but she is almost always
presented nude because it fits the myth of
an exotic and debauched woman.
Milan also has genuine Egyptian artefacts to
offer, in addition to the Egyptian influenced
monuments and art. The Castello Sforzesco
includes, in its seven museums, a small
museum of Egyptian Antiquities. The
museum is in the basement of the castle,
in the Sale Visconte, and whilst the space
99
is fantastic it has not been utilized to its
best potential. The walls are painted plain
white, with bright lights and air conditioning
ducts running across the ceiling. There are
approximately 250 objects on display, a
selection of the 3,000 held by the museum,
and they are displayed well, with a few
objects per case and information about
each artefact, although for the most part
this is written in Italian. However, the larger
information panels, mounted on the wall,
are bilingual in Italian and English.
A large number of the objects are from the
Late or Ptolemaic periods and were bought
on the open market in the nineteenth century,
so the provenance is often unknown. The
objects are divided into categories such as
writing, religion, burial and mummification.
Although there is little of importance from an
archaeological point of view there are some
beautiful and interesting pieces. The artist
trial pieces from the Ptolemaic period are
particularly stunning and an unusual statue
head of a dignitary from the twenty-fifth
dynasty is striking, although whether this
was intentional or due to bad craftsmanship
is uncertain. One wall of the museum is
occupied with papyri, some very clear albeit
fragmentary examples of the Book of the
Dead from the Ptolemaic period, written in
hieratic with some finely drawn vignettes.
The highlight of the collection is the funerary
assemblage collected by Legate Busca in the
nineteenth century, although it is for the
social history rather than archaeological
significance. He bought the assemblage of
S I T E S A N D S O U N D S
Above: La morte di Cleopatra by Guido Cagnacci (c.
1660) in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
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A N C I E N T P L A N E T
Above Left: ; Egyptian Museum, Castello Sforzesco
Above Right: Twenty-fifth dynasty official, Egyptian
Museum, Castello Sforzesco; Below Left: The living image,
Tutankhamun, Piazza del Duomo; Below Right: Advertisement
for TIM, with the image of Cleopatra
101
anthropoid coffin and mummy in Thebes and
returned with them to Italy. His son Ludovico
donated the coffin and mummy to the Ciceri
Hospital, who themselves in 1854, passed
it onto the Maggiore Hospital of Milan.
Here the mummy was used for the study of
anatomy and pathology but, in 1926, the
body was given to the Musocco cemetery for
burial. However, Italian bureaucracy would
not allow a burial without a death certificate.
So the mummy and coffin were donated to
the City of Milan where they came into the
possession of the Civic Collection of Castello
Sforzesco. However, despite this complex
history of ownership, study of the actual
assemblage has uncovered that it was in fact
a fake, put together by the entrepreneurial
dealers in Luxor to sell to tourists. The base
of the coffin belonged to Dihorkapet, of the
seventh to eighth century BCE, whereas the
lid of the anthropoid coffin belonged to
Padikhonsu of the ninth century BCE. The
mummy was Graeco-Roman and the name is
sadly lost.
Milan in general has more Roman and Greek
influenced architecture, monuments and
artwork than Egyptian but there is enough to
keep any Egyptologist or Egyptophile happy
for a weekend. It needs to be considered that
Egypt is as much a part of Italian culture as
any other Western country and, in addition
to the elements discussed, look out for
modern Egyptomania. For example, the
living statue of Tutankhamun prowls the
streets of Milan (somewhat slowly) collecting
money, and the advertisement campaign for
TIM, an Italian telecommunications company
that shows Cleopatra (and Mark Antony)
with the technology we could not possibly
live without, can be seen on hundreds of
billboards. These posters can bring a smile
if not only for the ludicrousness of the idea
of Cleopatra sending SMS messages with
her smartphone and checking her email on
her iPad, but also for the inaccuracy of the
imagery; but it goes to show that the image
of Egypt sells. It still represents the luxury,
decadence and exoticness that it did in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Further Reading
Berresford S. et al. 2004: Italian Memorial Sculpture
1820-1940: A Legacy of Love. Frances Lincoln.
London
Ceruti S. 2010: LAntico Egitto nel Castello
Sforzesco di Milano. Commune di Milano. Milan.
Ginex G. 1996: Il Cimitero Monumentale di Milano:
Guida storico-artistica. Silvana. Milano.
Websites
Castello Sforzesco: http://www.milanocastello.it/
ing/visitaSotterraneoEgizia.html
Monumental Cemetery: http://www.
monumentale.net/eng/home.aspx
Google Location Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/
maps/myplaces?hl=en&vpsrc=1&ctz=0&abauth=6
8397b35:NcMz6kYIWMkgRPYoP7pBWYQfbpo&vps
=1&ei=JlEtT4K7FYTasgbJmKy-Dw&num=10
S I T E S A N D S O U N D S
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As part of the London 2012 Festival, The Fitzwilliam
Museum, in Cambridge, UK, will host the largest and most
comprehensive exhibition of ancient objects ever to travel
outside China: The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures
of Han China. Showcasing more than 300 treasures crafted
from jade, gold, silver, bronze, stone, and ceramics, this
exhibition will reveal the hidden world of Chinas royal
Han dynasty tombs. Be sure not to miss this exhibition as
it will last from May 5 through November 11, 2012.
Link: http://www.tombtreasuresofhanchina.org/
The highlight of the 2012 BC: Cornwall and the Sea in the
Bronze Age exhibition hosted by the National Maritime
Museum Cornwall is the 4500-year-old Nebra Sky Disc,
presented to the general public for the first time. A single
bronze disc decorated with gold symbols that represent
the sun, moon, stars and a boat, the Nebra Sky Disc is
the worlds oldest representation of the cosmos. Other
artefacts displayed include tin and copper ingots that
were salvaged from a Bronze Age shipwreck in Salcombe
and which are said to be the first evidence in the UK of
metals being transported by boat. Also central to the
exhibition is the live reconstruction of the oldest boat
ever found in Western Europe. The exhibition opened on
13 April and will run until 30 September 2012.
Link: http://www.nmmc.co.uk/
Museu Nacional dArte de Catalunya (MNAC), in Barcelona,
Spain, is presenting Gods and Myths of Antiquity: The
evidence from Hispanic Coins until March 17, 2013. This
exhibition provides a unique perspective into the
religious beliefs, customs, cults, and mythologies of
Iberian peoples, from the 5th century BCE until the arrival
of the Visigoths in the 5th century CE, through ancient
coins. Special attention is given the religious beliefs of
the indigenous populations of the Iberian Peninsula.
Link: http://www.mnac.cat/exposicions/exp_presents_f.jsp
?lan=003&actualPage=null&id=00000057
Whats On . . . Exhibitions in Europe
103
Over a century after the wreckage of Antikythera was found
by chance (as often happens in the field of archaeology),
the archaeological finds brought to light are showcased
together in the exhibition The Antikythera Shipwreck: the
ship - the treasures - the Mechanism organised by Greeces
National Archaeological Museum. The exhibition, which
began on April 5, will run until the end of April 2013. It
boasts 378 finds, including sculptures, clay and bronze
vases, coins, jewels, fragments of the ship, and, of course,
the famous Antikythera Mechanism, considered the oldest
computer ever made.
Link: http://www.namuseum.gr/
Works of antiquity from the museums of Berlin are on
show at the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne for
the exhibition The Return of the Gods which began in
January and will run until the 25th of August 2012. Greek
mythology and the gods of Olympus continue to fascinate
both young and old. Accounts of the deeds of mighty
Zeus, his jealous wife Hera, the twins Apollo and Artemis,
beautiful Aphrodite, and Dionysos the god of wine, are
as enthralling as ever after more than 2000 years. The
exhibition presents marble statues, stone reliefs, bronzes
and luxurious vases from the Berlin collections a cross
section of outstanding European art from early Greek
times to the imperial Roman period.
Link: http://www.museenkoeln.de/roemisch-germanisches-
museum/
The Museum Rietberg, in Zrich, Switzerland, is currently
showing Heroes -- A New Perspective on the Art of Africa
until June 3, 2012. This exhibition has already traveled
throughout North America and Europe, delighting
museum-goers with the breadth of its scope and focus
(ancient times until the 20th century CE). Challenging
visitors to reevaluate previously held conceptions of
African art, this show includes rare and fascinating objects
like ancient Akan terracottas from Ghana.
Link: http://www.rietberg.ch/en-gb/foyer.aspx
Whats On . . . Exhibitions in Europe
104
Mummies of the World: The Exhibition makes its Florida
debut at the Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI), in
Tampa, Florida USA, on Friday, April 27 and will remain
on display until September 2012. This exhibition features
an impressive collection of mummies from Asia, Oceania,
South America, Europe, as well as ancient Egypt, some
dating back almost 7.000 years. This exhibition of mummies
and related artifacts is the largest ever assembled in the
world.
Link: http://www.mosi.org/
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will
be exhibiting Children of the Plumed Serpent: the Legacy
of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico until July 1, 2012. With
over 200 objects ranging from manuscripts and textiles
to gilded plates and jewelry, this show delineates the
importance of the Quetzalcoatl myth to the Nahua, Mixtec,
and Zapotec city-states and kingdoms of Pre-Columbian
Mexico. This geographical area of southern Mexico was
unique in retaining a separate cultural identity during the
apogee of the Mayans and Aztecs.
Link: http://www.lacma.org/
The Sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone at Morgantina
has just opened at the Getty Villa Museum, in Los Angeles,
California USA. This exhibition features over thirty-five
antiquarian objects, from Sicily, which will be on display
until January 21, 2013. The artifacts date from the 4th to the
2nd centuries BCE and are exquisite in their ornamentation.
Link: http://www.getty.edu/visit/
Whats On . . . Exhibitions in the USA
105
To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn
Museum of Art continues its journey across the United
States and is now at the Joslyn Art Museum, in Omaha,
Nebraska, USA, from February 10 through June 3, 2012.
Showcasing over 100 pieces of fine art, statues, jewelery,
and beautifully decorated coffins, this exhibition explores
the religious beliefs of ancient Egyptians, detailing how
royalty and commoner were united in a reverence for the
afterlife.
Link: http://www.joslyn.org/
Byzantium & Islam: Age of Transition will be on view at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, New York
USA, from March 14 through June 8, 2012. This compelling
show will focus on the interplay between art and culture
during an age of considerable transition (the seventh
century and eighth centuries CE). As the armies of Islam
conquered and made inroads into the wealthy, southern
provinces of the Byzantine Empire, a cultural dialogue
emerged, redefining both Byzantium and the Islamic
world. A variety of images and objects are to be displayed
and careful attention is to be given to the phenomenon of
iconoclasm in Byzantine, Islamic, and Jewish communities,
during this era.
Link: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming-
exhibitions
The Dawn of Egyptian Art will be exhibited at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, New York USA
from April 10 through August 5, 2012. This show will cover
the genesis and subsequent development of Egyptian art
from the Pre-dynastic and Early Dynastic Periods (c. 4000-
2650 BCE). With over 175 objects from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and twelve other museums from all
over the world, the odds are that this exhibition will be
spellbinding.
Link: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming-
exhibitions
Whats On . . . Exhibitions in the USA
106
The Institute for Field Research (IFR) is perhaps the best
online resource for aspiring students of archaeology
to gain hands-on experience in the discipline. The field
schools which the IFR presents are not simply training
excavations, but are instead part of actual research
projects. Each field school is directed by leading scholars
in the field and provides participants with at least 225
instructional hours. The IFR is a truly global program both
in scope and breadth. It allows students to choose from
a broad range of locations, time periods and theoretical
perspectives covering the full gamut of the archaeological
experience.
Link: http://www.ifrglobal.org/
Archaeologycourses.org was created by Doug Rocks-
Macqueen and Paolo Ciuchini to serve as a resource for
prospective students to find the archaeology program/
degree that best meets their needs. The website presents
comprehensive list of all institutions where you can
study archaeology at an academic level. This means that
it includes not only archaeology schools/departments,
but also schools/departments such as history, art history,
classics, anthropology, etc. that are partly staffed by
archaeologists who teach, conduct research, run field
schools and so on.
Link: http://www.archaeologycourses.org/
The Perseus Digital Library is maintained by Gregory R.
Crane of Tufts University and showcases collections and
services that cover the history, literature and culture of
the Graeco-Roman world. This is an invaluable resource
for classical historians and archaeologists alike.
Link: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
Spotlight . . . Six Great Websites
107
Earthwatch is an international non-profit organization
which recruits volunteers to assist scientists in the field as
research assistants in a diverse range of projects ranging
from archaeological excavations to protecting threatened
species and fragile habitats. Earthwatch has recruited
over 93,000 volunteers since 1971, who between them
have contributed more than 11 million hours of their time
to frontline environmental and other research projects all
over the world.
Link: http://www.earthwatch.org/
Then Dig is hosted by the Archaeological Research Facility
at the University of California, Berkeley and is a group blog
that centers on the archaeological short-form. Conceived
after a popular blog carnival leading up to the Blogging
Archaeology session at the 76th meeting of the Society
for American Archaeology, Then Dig brings the best of
archaeological blogging together in one place.
Link: http://arf.berkeley.edu/then-dig/
Dienekes Anthropology blog is dedicated to human
population genetics, physical anthropology, archaeology,
and history, providing valuable summaries of, as well as
links to, all the latest studies.
Link: http://dienekes.blogspot.com/
Spotlight . . . Six Great Websites
108