Academic literature on the topic 'Greek pottery; Waveline style'

The paper deals with a sub-species of the so-called “Magenta Group” of plastic pottery vessels, that is, handled flasks in the shape of a human head, developing an idea voiced by Demetrios Michaelidis in an authoritative study of the vases known from Cyprus, that at least these vessels could have been produced on the island. The head vases fall into two broad categories: displaying Egyptian stylistic traits (Category I) and in Greek style (Category II). Upon review of the evidence, it seems that the Cypriot workshops producing such vases (pending petrographic analyses of the clay fabric) were located somewhere in the central part of southern Cyprus, from at least the last quarter of the 3rd century BC most probably through the 1st century AD. The earliest vases display Egyptian stylistic traits; later specimens in the Greek style, which emerged in the (second half?) 2nd century BC, represent figures associated with wine consumption, which may suggest their production for a special occasion like a cultic feast.

Both the fall of Troy and the Sea Peoples have been the subject of a vast literature. They were part of a common series of developments that affected the entire eastern Mediterranean and possibly the western Mediterranean too. Troy had been transformed at the end of the eighteenth century BC with the building of the most magnificent of the cities to stand on the hill of Hisarlık: Troy VI , which lasted, with many minor reconstructions, into the thirteenth century BC . The citadel walls were nine metres thick, or more; there were great gates and a massive watchtower, a memory of which may have survived to inspire Homer; there were big houses on two floors, with courtyards. The citadel was the home of an elite that lived in some style, though without the lavish accoutrements of their contemporaries in Mycenae, Pylos or Knossos. Archaeological investigation of the plain beneath which then gave directly on to the seashore suggests the existence of a lower town about seven times the size of the citadel, or around 170,000 square metres, roughly the size of the Hyksos capital at Avaris. One source of wealth was horses, whose bones begin to appear at this stage; Homer’s Trojans were famous ‘horse-tamers’, hippodamoi, and even if he chose this word to fit his metre, it matches the archaeological evidence with some precision. In an age when great empires were investing in chariots, and sending hundreds of them to perdition at the battle of Kadesh (or, according to the Bible, in the depths of the Red Sea), horse-tamers were certainly in demand. Opinion divided early on the identity of the Trojans. Claiming descent from Troy, the ancient Romans knew for sure that they were not just a branch of the Greek people. Homer, though, made them speak Greek. The best chance of an answer comes from their pottery. The pottery of Troy is not just Trojan; it belongs to a wider culture that spread across parts of Anatolia.

Few visitors seek out the ancient site of Lystra. Neither its unexciting location in the Anatolian plain nor its unexcavated mound offer much enticement except to the hard-core adventurer seeking to trace the route of the Apostle Paul. The ancient city of Lystra was located near the modern village of Hatunsaray, approximately 24 miles southwest of Konya in south-central Turkey. In 1885, about a mile north of Hatunsaray, on a mound called Zoldera (or, variously, Zordula), J. R. Sitlington Sterrett discovered a stone block approximately 3.5 feet tall and 1 foot thick. On the stone was the Latin inscription “DIVVM AVG COL IVL FELIX GEMINA LVSTRA CONSECRAVIT D D,” which uses the Latinized version “Lustra” for the name of the city. The discovery of this monument, erected to honor Caesar Augustus, who founded the Roman colony of Lystra, made identification of the site of ancient Lystra possible. Lystra was a part of the Lycaonian region of Asia Minor, an area bordering Phrygia on the west, Cappadocia on the east, and the ethnic Galatian region on the north. To the south were the Taurus Mountains. Earlier made a part of the province of Cilicia, Lycaonia was put under the control of Amyntas, an ally and client king of the Romans, in 36 B.C.E. When Amyntas died in 25 B.C.E., Lycaonia became a part of the Roman province of Galatia. Because the site of Lystra has yet to be excavated, little can be said with certainty about the earliest settlements on the site. The evidence of Hellenistic-style pottery and Greek inscriptions from the Roman period would suggest that at least a small village existed here during the Hellenistic period. Of the coins that have been found that originated from Lystra, none predates the time of the Roman colony, perhaps indicating that any pre-Roman settlement was not significant enough to issue coins. Emperor Augustus established Lystra as a Roman colony, likely in 25 B.C.E. at the same time that several other Roman colonies, including Pisidian Antioch, were founded. While all the colonies were established to help secure Roman control over Asia Minor, Lystra was likely founded specifically to suppress the Homanadenses and other mountain tribes in south-central Asia Minor who were hindering Roman control of the area.