A comprehensive archaeological study of the ceramic finds from a house in Amheida The House of Serenos: Part I: The Pottery (Amheida V) is a comprehensive full-color catalog and analysis of the ceramic finds from the late antique house of a local notable and adjacent streets in Amheida. It is the fifth book in the Amheida series. Amheida is located in the western part of the Dakhla oasis, 3.5 km south of the medieval town of El-Qasr. Known in Hellenistic and Roman times as Trimithis, Amheida became a polis by 304 CE and was a major administrative center of the western part of the oasis for the whole of the fourth century. The home’s owner was one Serenos, a member of the municipal elite and a Trimithis city councillor, as we know from documents found in the house. His house is particularly well preserved with respect to floor plan, relationship to the contemporary urban topography, and decoration, including domestic display spaces plastered and painted with subjects drawn from Greek mythology and scenes depicting the family that owned the house. The archaeology from the site also reveals the ways in which the urban space changed over time, as Serenos’s house was built over and expanded into some previously public spaces. The house was probably abandoned around or soon after 370 CE. The pottery analyzed in this volume helps to refine the relationship of the archaeological layers belonging to the élite house and the layers below it; it also sheds light on the domestic and economic life of the household and region, from cooking and dining to the management of a complex agricultural economy in which ceramics were the most common form of container for basic commodities. The book will be of interest to specialists interested in ceramology, Roman Egypt, and the material culture, social history, and economy of late antiquity.

A comprehensive archaeological study of the ceramic finds from a house in Amheida The House of Serenos: Part I: The Pottery (Amheida V) is a comprehensive full-color catalog and analysis of the ceramic finds from the late antique house of a local notable and adjacent streets in Amheida. It is the fifth book in the Amheida series. Amheida is located in the western part of the Dakhla oasis, 3.5 km south of the medieval town of El-Qasr. Known in Hellenistic and Roman times as Trimithis, Amheida became a polis by 304 CE and was a major administrative center of the western part of the oasis for the whole of the fourth century. The home’s owner was one Serenos, a member of the municipal elite and a Trimithis city councillor, as we know from documents found in the house. His house is particularly well preserved with respect to floor plan, relationship to the contemporary urban topography, and decoration, including domestic display spaces plastered and painted with subjects drawn from Greek mythology and scenes depicting the family that owned the house. The archaeology from the site also reveals the ways in which the urban space changed over time, as Serenos’s house was built over and expanded into some previously public spaces. The house was probably abandoned around or soon after 370 CE. The pottery analyzed in this volume helps to refine the relationship of the archaeological layers belonging to the élite house and the layers below it; it also sheds light on the domestic and economic life of the household and region, from cooking and dining to the management of a complex agricultural economy in which ceramics were the most common form of container for basic commodities. The book will be of interest to specialists interested in ceramology, Roman Egypt, and the material culture, social history, and economy of late antiquity.

A comprehensive study of the archaeology of the House of Serenos The House of Serenos, Part II is the second of four books devoted to publishing the archaeology of the House of Serenos, a richly decorated, late antique villa of a local élite, located in Amheida (ancient Trimithis) in the Dakhla Oasis of Egypt. The House of Serenos, Part II synthesizes the archaeological information presented in detail in other volumes in a comprehensive study of the architectural and archaeological history of the house and its relationship to its natural and built environments, from construction through expansion and renovation to its eventual abandonment around the end of the fourth century. The volume includes discussions of archaeological method, stratigraphy, architecture, and the archaeological assemblages discovered in the House of Serenos—and reveals what all this can tell us about the inhabitants and their experience living in this high-status residence at the edge of the Roman Empire.

The House of Serenos, Part II is the second of four books devoted to publishing the archaeology of the House of Serenos, a richly decorated, late antique villa of a local elite, located in Amheida (ancient Trimithis) in the Dakhla Oasis of Egypt. The House of Serenos, Part II synthesizes the archaeological information presented in detail in other volumes in a comprehensive study of the architectural and archaeological history of the house and its relationship to its natural and built environments, from construction through expansion and renovation to its eventual abandonment around the end of the fourth century. The volume includes discussions of archaeological method, stratigraphy, architecture, and the archaeological assemblages discovered in the House of Serenos-and reveals what all this can tell us about the inhabitants and their experience living in this high-status residence at the edge of the Roman Empire.

An archaeological study of Greek and Roman pottery recovered from the excavation of Syme Viannou The Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme Viannou VII: The Greek and Roman Pottery presents in two volumes the Greek and Roman pottery recovered from the excavation of Syme Viannou. The sanctuary of Syme Viannou is renowned as one of the most long-lived and important cult sites of ancient Crete and the Aegean, dedicated to Hermes and Aphrodite in the Greek and Roman periods. The sanctuary was active from the early second millennium BC to the late first millennium AD and attracted visitors from much of the eastern half of Crete. This study catalogs and analyzes a body of approximately 865 pieces, dating from across the entire period in which the sanctuary was in use and exhibiting a wide range of shapes and types. Integrating traditional typological and chronological inquiries, contextual considerations, macroscopic and petrographic analyses of ceramic fabrics, and quantitative studies, this work provides detailed documentation of the pottery from Syme Viannou and explores its ritual and other roles within the diachronic panorama of cultic and other activities at the site.

New results and interpretations challenging the notion of a uniform, macroregional collapse throughout the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean Ancient Western Asia Beyond the Paradigm of Collapse and Regeneration (1200–900 BCE) presents select essays originating in a two-year research collaboration between New York University and Paris Sciences et Lettres. The contributions here offer new results and interpretations of the processes and outcomes of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age in three broad regions: Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia, and the Levant. Together, these challenge the notion of a uniform, macroregional collapse throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by the regeneration of political powers. Current research on newly discovered or reinterpreted textual and material evidence from Western Asia instead suggests that this transition was characterized by a diversity of local responses emerging from diverse environmental settings and culture complexes, as evident in the case studies collected here in history, archaeology, and art history. The editors avoid particularism by adopting a regional organization, with the aim of identifying and tracing similar processes and outcomes emerging locally across the three regions. Ultimately, this volume reimagines the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition as the emergence of a set of recursive processes and outcomes nested firmly in the local cultural interactions of western Asia before the beginning of the new, unifying era of Assyrian imperialism.