Display Full Text | Download Full Text
21.71 MB PDF file

Degree

PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences : Classics, 2008.

Abstract

Archaeological practice has a major impact on the production of archaeological knowledge, as demonstrated by analysis of the stratigraphy of the Northern Sector of Ayia Irini (Kea, Greece), a small Bronze Age center in the Greek islands that flourished throughout much of the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. The stratigraphy of the Northern Sector, a small, but long-occupied part of the settlement, has largely remained unpublished since being excavated in the 1960s and early 1970s. Studies of particular categories of artifacts, such as ceramics, depend on a firm understanding of find contexts. For this reason, one significant contribution of my thesis is to document thoroughly the stratigraphy of the Northern Sector, a well-defined complex of rooms built next to the stone fortification wall that enclosed the site ca. 1700 B.C. In the context of a discussion of the cultural history of the entire site, I explore the formation processes that have been responsible for the stratigraphy which the excavators of the site observed. I argue that the archaeological practices of the excavators have shaped the archaeological record of Ayia Irini and the potential interpretations of the record every bit as much as have past natural and cultural formation processes. My analysis thus contributes to filling a lacuna that has existed in archaeological publications of sites in the Mediterranean, where archaeologists have rarely concerned themselves either with the history of archaeology or archaeological practice. I intend this study to speak to archaeologists working in other places and time periods, as well as to my fellow Aegean prehistorians.

Subject Headings

Archaeology; Classical studies

Keywords

Ayia Irini; archaeological practice; archaeological knowledge; Kea; Bronze Age; Greek archaeology; Cyclades

Committee / Advisors

Jack L. Davis (Advisor)
Kathleen M. Lynch (Committee Member)
Gisela Walberg (Committee Member)

Pages

453p.

Document number: ucin1227155046
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1227155046

This ETD has been downloaded 398 times (through March 2013)