Thrace Through The Ages

This volume draws attention to the importance of pottery evidence in evaluating archaeological material from Thrace. The volume considers the informative value of pottery in tracing cultural and political phases, by providing us with important data about production centres, commercial relations, daily life, religious rituals and burial customs.

A Companion to Ancient Thrace presents a series of essays that reveal the newly recognized complexity of the social and cultural phenomena of the peoples inhabiting the Balkan periphery of the Classical world. • Features a rich and detailed overview of Thracian history from the Early Iron Age to Late Antiquity • Includes contributions from leading scholars in the archaeology, art history, and general history of Thrace • Balances consideration of material evidence relating to Ancient Thrace with more traditional literary sources • Integrates a study of Thrace within a broad context that includes the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, southwest Asia, and southeast Europe/Eurasia • Reflects the impact of new theoretical approaches to economy, ethnicity, and cross-cultural interaction and hybridity in Ancient Thrace

Drawing on a variety of sources of evidence and over-coming many difficulties with the data, this study provides a good factual account of the Late Iron Age in North-West Thrace. It is at this time that the Thracian tribes reached the peak of their cultural development and Nikola Theodossiev assesses the major events and achievements of this period. Her reconstruction of cultural and historical development focuses on the archaeological and written evidence, and on the subjects of spatial organisation and territories, chronology, mortuary practices and settlement. The evidence is collated and interpreted, frequently with statistical analysis, and is well presented.

Turkish archaeology, under the influence of the German archaeological tradition, is not founded upon innovative theoretical ideas but the documentation and collection of data. In this work the author attempts to break the traditional views and concentrates on archaeological interpretation and a theoretical discussion on the archaeology of Eastern Thrace. This study is the product of intensive fieldwork undertaken in the Edirne region of Eastern Thrace, and it offers new information and theories on the prehistoric settlements of the region.

When reconstructing the past, the archaeologist needs to take into account all kinds of relevant information. Where no written sources are available, the natural sciences play an indispensable role. Troia is a remarkable site in this respect. The present excavation project at Troia, under the directorship of Manfred Korfmann, integrates various disciplines including geoarchaeology, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, anthropology, geophysical prospection as well as chemical and technological studies of metal, stone and pottery. Hardly any other archaeological project is supported so intensely and on such a broad scale by archaeometric investigations as the international research group in Troia. In April 2001 an International Symposium was held in Heidelberg, Germany, with the aim of promoting scientific discussion and providing synopses of the various disciplines engaged in Troia. This volume contains most of the contributions presented at the symposium. Due to its broad natural scientific as well as its cultural-historic scope, not only will the specialist but also the interested layman find the book rewarding.