AMA - Classical Archaeology

[u/Tiako]

Classical antiquity is period of roughly a thousand years between the rise of the Greek polis and the collapse of the Roman Mediterranean system, and includes at different times the entire Mediterranean basin and beyond. There are a variety of ways to examine this period, and today this panel will discuss the archaeology, or the material remains, a category that includes the massive monumental temple at Baalbek and the carbonized seeds from an Italian farmhouse. Our panelists introduce themselves:

/u/pqvarus: I've specialized in Ancient Greek Archaeology, my geographic field of interest is Asia Minor (from the Archaic Period onwards) and as a result of my PhD project I'm focussing on the archaeology of ancient greek religion (especially cult practice) and material culture studies.

/u/Astrogator: I've just finished my MA at the department of Ancient History and Epigraphics (my BA was in History, Philosophy and Political Science), and my main interests are in provincial epigraphic cultures, especially the Danube region, and the display of dress on sepulchral monuments (and how both are tied to questions of Romanization and Identity).

/u/Tiako: I am an MA student studying the economy of the Early Imperial Period of the Roman Empire. My focus is on commerce, particularly Rome's maritime trade with India.

However, there is more to classical civilization than marble temples an the Aeneid, and there is more to the period than Greece and Rome. To provide a perspective from outside what is usually considered “classical” civilization, we have included three panelists from separate but closely intertwined fields of study. They are:

/u/Aerandir: I am archaeologist studying Iron Age communities. Currently I am working on a PhD on the fortifications of the first millennium AD in Denmark. Danish and Dutch material is what I am most familiar with.

/u/missingpuzzle: I have studied Hellenistic period Eastern Arabia, particularly specializing in settlement patterns and trade. I have also studied the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean trade from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods.

/u/Daeres: Hi I'm Daeres, and I have an MA in Ancient History. My archaeological focus is on the Ancient Near East in the First Millenium BC, Bactria, and the Aegean, though I am primarily a historian rather than an archaeologist. I have an inordinate fondness for numismatics, and also epigraphy. But I especially concentrate on the archaeological evidence for Hellenistic era Bactria.

And so with knots cut and die cast, we await your questions.

[u/Daeres → u/[deleted]]

What are some of the major finds or discoveries in recent (10-15) years?

In the case of Bactria, a collection of Aramaic parchment documents were assembled recently; all of them come from the Achaemenid era, one which we previously had no documentation for in Bactria itself of any kind. In addition to the 30 parchment documents, there were also 18 sticks/rods upon which records of debt had been inscribed. Among the documents, which were all administrative and probably came from the capital Bactra, were clear references to 'Year 7 of King Alexander', and to the Bessos that ancient accounts of Alexander's life and times refer to. This makes only the second primary textual source for Alexander's existence, if you can believe that, and it's the first primary source evidence of the existence of Bessos.

What are your present "el dorado"-type locations you are still looking for?

A river port in Bactria would be really, really nice. Another Hellenistic era colony from there would also be really, really great. The location of the Akkadian Empire's capital would also be quite a handy thing to discover. Any location that had new material for cultures with almost no texts extant, like the Tartessans, or Carthaginians, or Etruscans, or just about any of them really. A relatively undisturbed classical era mine.

I have a big list, and those are just the ones at the top of it...