The Black Sea in the Light of New Archaeological Data and Theoretical Approaches contains 19 papers on the archaeology and ancient history of the Black Sea region, covering a vast period of time, from the Early Iron Age until the Late Roman – Early Byzantine Periods.

This volume presents essays on the ancient history and classical archaeology of the Black Sea. Like a Periplus, it offers a journey throughout the Pontus. The introductory chapter provides an overview of developments across the region over the last 20 years in the study of Greek colonisation, the local population and the relationship between them. The following chapters take the journey to the Cimmerians and Thrace, and how we understand them from written sources. Next to the southern Black Sea and recent surveys and excavations there, local peoples and the early Greek presence; then to the west and an account of archaeological research from the Archaic period to the Roman conquest. To the north, with an essay on recent archaeological research, a chapter on one of the local peoples, the Taurians, and another on the economy of the Greek colonies of the region, presented through an examination of Kerkinitis in the Crimea. The northern and western shores are combined in a consideration, based on epigraphic sources, of religious experience there. The final journey is to the eastern Black Sea, and a survey of recent discoveries and studies in Colchis.

Contributions to this volume, covering all shores of the Black Sea, draw on a mix of archaeological evidence, epigraphy and written sources to explore the activities and characteristics of those that inhabited or colonised the Black Sea area, as well as those that visited, acted in, or influenced the region, from the archaic to Roman periods.

The proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Constanţa, 2017) is dedicated to the 90th birthday of Prof. Sir John Boardman, President of the Congress since its inception. The central theme returns to that considered 20 years earlier: the importance of the Pontic Region for the Graeco-Roman World.

Several papers focus on Tios (the Acropolis, the lower city and coin finds). Its place in ancient geography/cartography is considered before moving on to the indigenous inhabitants of the surrounding area, the immediate and greater region, then the Turkish Black Sea region, and outwards to the western, northern and eastern shores of the Black Sea.

This book aims to thoroughly discuss new directions of thinking in the arena of environmental archaeology and test them by presenting new practical applications. Recent theoretical and epistemological advancement in the field of archaeology calls for a re-definition of the subdiscipline of environmental archaeology and its position within the practise of archaeology. New technological and methodological discoveries in hard sciences and computer applications opened fresh ways for interdisciplinary collaborations thus introducing new branches and specialisations that need now to be accommodated and integrated within the previous status-quo. This edited volume will take the challenge and engage with contemporary international discussions about the role of the discipline within the general framework of archaeology. By drawing upon these debates, the contributors to this volume will rethink what environmental archaeology is and what kind of input the investigation of this kind of materiality has to the reconstruction of human history and sociality.

Presents a landmark study combining key specialists around the region with well-established international scholars, from a wide range of disciplines.