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Palaikastro Building 1

Palaikastro Building 1

This book is the fourth volume in a series of publications on the excavations conducted at Palaikastro, Crete, during seven excavation seasons carried out between 1983 and 2003. Other volumes in the series have examined the Palaikastro Kouros, Block M, and two Late Minoan wells. In this volume, the authors present their study of Building 1, a once elegant monumental building whose complex history mirrors that of the town as a whole.

Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

The vastness of the Sahara, a formidable natural barrier, has often contributed to conceptualizations of isolated cultural developments with limited interregional interactions. At the core of this edited volume is an argument that challenges that contention.

Violence and the Sacred in the Ancient Near East: Girardian Conversations at Çatalhöyük

Violence and the Sacred in the Ancient Near East: Girardian Conversations at Çatalhöyük

René Girard was a French anthropologist known for the theories of the scapegoat mechanism and mimetic desire. Hodder’s edited volume is a long-awaited attempt to apply the anthropological theories of Girard to the Neolithic in Southwest Asia. This effort was initially made by Girard himself, who interpreted the Çatalhöyük paintings as forms of representation of the “victimary mechanism” (4), namely the social processes of selecting a victim to sacrifice in order to benefit the social environment.

Archaeologies of Gender and Violence

Archaeologies of Gender and Violence

In cultures as hierarchical as European and Mediterranean prehistory, the Graeco-Roman world, the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods, and Prehistoric Peru, it is probably impossible to discuss the role of violence without understanding underlying gender politics. This new edited volume is a collection of 13 papers (three theoretical discussions and 10 archaeological case studies) that present the interwoven nature of gender and violence in the ancient world.

The Evolution of Fragility: Setting the Terms

The Evolution of Fragility: Setting the Terms

With the present edited volume, Norman Yoffee has delivered another important contribution to the theory of and literature on collapse and historical change, and the nature of early cities, states, and civilizations. The contributions in The Evolution of Fragility explore collapse, but they also importantly tie this in explicitly with critical perspectives on what it was that collapsed; thus, they focus on how the units in question were put together and constituted, what fracture points there may have been, and how “disintegration” ensued.

Memory and Nation Building: From Ancient Times to the Islamic State

Memory and Nation Building: From Ancient Times to the Islamic State

As Benedict Anderson argued in 1983 (Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso Editions), nations are imagined communities, although one could argue that all social groups draw on constructed identities. In Memory and Nation Building, Galaty explores how aspiring leaders of states and nations have mobilized their pasts through collective memory work and the ways that groups have resisted these narratives through counter-memory.

Volume 124 (2020) Index

Volume 124 (2020) Index

Download Article PDF (Open Access)

Abell, N., Rethinking Household-Based Production at Ayia Irini, Kea: An Examination of Technology and Organization in a Bronze Age Community of Practice: 381–416

Anderson, E.S., The Poetics of the Cretan Lion: Glyptic and Oral Culture in the Bronze Age Aegean: 345–379

Aravecchia, N., The Changing Sacred Landscape of Egypt’s Western Desert in Late Antiquity: The Case of ʿAin el-Gedida: 301–320

Beckmann, S.E., The Idiom of Urban Display: Architectural Relief Sculpture in the Late Roman Villa of Chiragan (Haute-Garonne): 133–160

Brown, N.G., The Living and the Monumental on the Anaglypha Traiani: 607–630

Burke, B., B. Burns, A. Charami, T. Van Damme, N. Herrmann, and B. Lis, Fieldwork at Ancient Eleon in Boeotia, 2011–2018: 441–476

Burns. See Burke et al.

Cahill. See Ledger et al.

Carter, J.B., A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief: 1

Carter, J.B., A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief: Revised Editorial Policy on the Publication of Unprovenanced Antiquities: 175–178

Cassibry, K., The Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes: The Roman Empire, Rhetorical Archaeological Museums, and UNESCO’s World Heritage Program: 161–170

Charami. See Burke et al.

Chorghay. See Murray et al.

Clinton, K., L. Laugier, A. Stewart, and B.D. Wescoat, The Nike of Samothrace: Setting the Record Straight: 551–573

Emberling, G., Exhibiting Ancient Africa at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: “Ancient Nubia Now” and Its Audiences: 511–519

Gorham. See Taylor et al.

Green, J.D.M., The Petra Museum: A New Approach to Archaeological Heritage in Jordan: 333–342

Hakanen, V., Normative Masculinity and the Decoration of the Tepidarium of the Forum Baths in Pompeii: 37–71

Hanson, J.W., and S.G. Ortman, Reassessing the Capacities of Entertainment Structures in the Roman Empire: 417–440

Herrmann. See Burke et al.

Isidori. See Taylor et al.

Judson, A.P., Scribes as Editors: Tracking Changes in the Linear B Documents: 523–549

Karambinis, M., Gladiatorial and Beast-Fight Monuments from Mytilene: 73–103

Laugier. See Clinton et al.

Ledger, M.L., E. Rowan, F.G. Marques, J.H. Sigmier, N. Šarkić, S. Redžić, N.D. Cahill, and P.D. Mitchell, Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity: 631–693

Lis. See Burke et al.

Littman. See Lorenzon et al.

Lorenzon, M., J.L. Nitschke, R.J. Littman, and J.E. Silverstein, Mudbricks, Construction Methods, and Stratigraphic Analysis: A Case Study at Tell Timai (Ancient Thmuis) in the Egyptian Delta: 105–131

MacPherson. See Murray et al.

Marlowe, E., The Reinstallation of the Getty Villa: Plenty of Beauty but Only Partial Truth: 321–332

Marques. See Ledger et al.

Martens. See Melfi and Martens.

Melfi, M., and B. Martens, A Colossal Cult Statue Group from Dobër, Albania: Visual Narratives of East and West in the Countryside of Butrint: 575–606

Mitchell. See Ledger et al.

Murray, S.C., I. Chorghay, and J. MacPherson, The Dipylon Mistress: Social and Economic Complexity, the Gendering of Craft Production, and Early Greek Ceramic Material Culture: 215–244

Mylona, D., Marine Resources and Coastal Communities in the Late Bronze Age Southern Aegean: A Seascape Approach: 179–213

Nitschke. See Lorenzon et al.

O’Neill. See Taylor et al.

Ortman. See Hanson and Ortman.

Papadopoulos, J.K., Alexander Cambitoglou, 1922–2019: 695–698

Redžić. See Ledger et al.

Rinne. See Taylor et al.

Rowan. See Ledger et al.

Šarkić. See Ledger et al.

Sigmier. See Ledger et al.

Silverstein. See Lorenzon et al.

Stewart. See Clinton et al.

Taylor, L.R., E. O’Neill, K.W. Rinne, G. Isidori, M. O’Neill, and R.B. Gorham, A Recently Discovered Spring Source of the Aqua Traiana at Vicarello, Lazio: 659–693

Tsingarida, A., Oversized Athenian Drinking Vessels in Context: Their Role in Etruscan Ritual Performances: 245–274

Van Damme. See Burke et al.

van Rookhuijzen, J.Z., The Parthenon Treasury on the Acropolis of Athens: 3–35

Walsh, D., Military Communities and Temple Patronage: A Case Study of Britain and Pannonia: 275–299

Wescoat. See Clinton et al.

Wilson, R.J.A., The Baths on the Estate of the Philippiani at Gerace, Sicily: 477–510

Online Only

Supplementary Content

Beckman, S.E., Image Gallery: The Idiom of Urban Display: Architectural Relief Sculpture in the Late Roman Villa of Chiragan (Haute-Garonne)

Burke, B., B. Burns, A. Charami, T. Van Damme, N. Herrmann, and B. Lis, Image Gallery: Fieldwork at Ancient Eleon in Boeotia, 2011–2018

Cassibry, K., Image Gallery: The Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes: The Roman Empire, Rhetorical Archaeological Museums, and UNESCO’s World Heritage Program

Emberling, G., Image Gallery: Exhibiting Ancient Africa at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: “Ancient Nubia Now” and Its Audiences

Green, J.D.M., Image Gallery: The Petra Museum: A New Approach to Archaeological Heritage in Jordan

Hanson, J.W., and S.G. Ortman, Appendix: Reassessing the Capacities of Entertainment Structures in the Roman Empire

Marlow, E., Image Gallery: The Reinstallation of the Getty Villa: Plenty of Beauty but Only Partial Truth

Taylor, L.R., E. O’Neill, K.W. Rinne, G. Isidori, M. O’Neill, and R.B. Gorham, Image Gallery: A Recently Discovered Spring Source of the Aqua Traiana at Vicarello, Lazio

Wilson, R.J.A., Image Gallery: The Baths on the Estate of the Philippiani at Gerace, Sicily

Book Reviews

Allen, P.S., Rev. of McHugh, The Ancient Greek Farmstead

Andreou, G.M., Rev. of Yasur-Landau, Cline, and Rowan, eds., The Social Archaeology of the Levant: From Prehistory to the Present

Andrews, M.M., Rev. of Batty, The Domus del Ninfeo at Ostia (III, VI, 1–3): Structure, Function, and Social Context

Becker, M.J., Rev. of von Mehren, The Orientalizing and Lucanian Tombs from Loc. De Santis I at Pontecagnano

Bell, S.W., Rev. of Carroll, Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World: “A Fragment of Time”

Britt, K., Rev. of Abdallah, Les Mosaïques Romaines et Byzantines de Syrie du Nord: La Collection du Musée de Maarrat al-Nu‘man

Brown, N.G., Rev. of Jashemski, Gleason, Hartswick, and Malek, eds., Gardens of the Roman Empire

Bundrick, S.D., Rev. of Tonglet, Le kyathos attique de Madame Teithurnai: Échanges artisanaux et interactions culturelles entre Grecs et Étrusques en Méditerranée archaïque

Carlson, D., Rev. of Empereur, ed., The Hellenistic Harbour of Amathus: Underwater Excavations, 1984–1986. 2 vols.

Cartolano, M., Rev. of Hodder, ed., Violence and the Sacred in the Ancient Near East: Girardian Conversations at Çatalhöyük

Cerutti, S.M., Rev. of van der Graaff, The Fortifications of Pompeii and Ancient Italy

Christ, A., Rev. of Krag and Raja, eds., Women, Children, and the Family in Palmyra

Clarke, J.R., Rev. of Levin-Richardson, The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society

Daniels, M.J., Rev. of Lucas, Murray, and Owens, eds., Greek Colonization in Local Contexts: Case Studies in Colonial Interactions

Decker, M.J., Rev. of Haldon, Elton, and Newhard, eds., Archaeology and Urban Settlement in Late Roman and Byzantine Anatolia: Euchaïta-Avkat-Beyözü and Its Environment

Donev, D., Rev. of Szabó, Sanctuaries in Roman Dacia: Materiality and Religious Experience

Driscoll, E., Rev. of Zachari, Lehoux, and Hosoi, eds., La cité des regards: Autour de François Lissarrague

Emerson, T.E., Rev. of Gonlin and Nowell, eds., Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World

Emerson, T.E., Rev. of Gyucha, ed., Coming Together: Comparative Approaches to Population Aggregation and Early Urbanization

Emmerson, A.L.C., Rev. of Puddu, Funerary Archaeology and Changing Identities: Community Practices in Roman-Period Sardinia

Evans, J.M., Rev. of Tabolli, ed., Veii

Filis, K., Rev. of González Cesteros and Berni Millet, Roman Amphorae in Neuss: Augustan to Julio-Claudian Contexts

Francis, J., Rev. of Baldwin Bowsky, Stamps on Terra Sigillata Found in Excavations of the Theatre of Aptera, Crete

Franks, H.M., Rev. of Tang, Decorating Floors: The Tesserae-in-Mortar Technique in the Ancient World

Frey, J.M., Rev. of Rous, Reset in Stone: Memory and Reuse in Ancient Athens

Gensheimer, M.B., Rev. of Ng and Swetnam-Burland, eds., Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture: Functions, Aesthetics, Interpretations

Goldthwaite, L.H., Rev. of Moser, The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium: Sacrifice and the Materiality of Roman Religion

Gosner, L.R., Rev. of Cruz Andreotti, ed., Roman Turdetania: Romanization, Identity and Socio-Cultural Interaction in the South of the Iberian Peninsula Between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE

Grossman, J.B., Rev. of Angelicoussis, Reconstructing the Lansdowne Collection of Classical Marbles

Harrell, K., Rev. of Matić and Jensen, eds., Archaeologies of Gender and Violence

Hobson, M.S., Rev. of Amraoui, L’artisanat dans les cités antiques de l’Algérie: Ier siècle avant notre ère–VIIe siècle après notre ère

Hopkins, J.N., Rev. of Bernard, Building Mid-Republican Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Karambinis, M., Rev. of Di Napoli, Camia, Evangelidis, Grigoropoulos, Rogers, and Vlizos, eds., What’s New in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the Islands in the Roman Period: Proceedings of a Conference Held in Athens, 8–10 October 2015

Kontokosta, A.H., Rev. of Gensheimer, Decoration and Display in Rome’s Imperial Thermae: Messages of Power and Their Popular Reception at the Baths of Caracalla

Kosso, C., Rev. of Düring and Stek, eds., The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Empires in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean World

LaBianca, O.S., Rev. of Boivin and Frachetti, eds., Globalization in Prehistory: Contact, Exchange, and the “People Without History”

Laird, M.L., Rev. of De Ruyt, Morard, and van Haeperen, eds., Ostia Antica: Nouvelles études et recherches sur les quartiers occidentaux de la cité. Actes du colloque international Rome-Ostia Antica, 22–24 septembre 2014

Lancaster, J., Rev. of Pfuntner, Urbanism and Empire in Roman Sicily

Laurence, R., Rev. of Tucci, The Temple of Peace in Rome

Lillios, K.T., Rev. of Galaty, Memory and Nation Building: From Ancient Times to the Islamic State

Locicero, M.A., Rev. of Holt, Water and Power in Past Societies

Mallon, K., Rev. of Pettegrew, Caraher, and Davis, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology

McEnroe, J.C., Rev. of MacGillivray and Sackett, eds., Palaikastro Building I

Middleton, G.D., Rev. of Yoffee, ed., The Evolution of Fragility: Setting the Terms

Munzi, M., Rev. of Dyson, Archaeology, Ideology, and Urbanism in Rome from the Grand Tour to Berlusconi

Murray, S.C., Rev. of Small, Ancient Greece: Social Structure and Evolution

Naeh, L., Rev. of Ataç, Art and Immortality in the Ancient Near East

Paleothodoros, D., Rev. of Schierup and Sabetai, eds., The Regional Production of Red-Figure Pottery: Greece, Magna Graecia and Etruria

Parker, S.T., Rev. of Fiema, Frösen, and Holappa, Petra, The Mountain of Aaron: The Finnish Archaeological Project in Jordan. Vol. 2, The Nabataean Sanctuary and the Byzantine Monastery

Pearson, S., Rev. of Barrett, Domesticating Empire: Egyptian Landscapes in Pompeian Gardens

Peña, J.T., Rev. of Lyding Will and Warner Slane, Cosa: The Roman and Greek Amphoras

Pettegrew, D.K., Rev. of Todd, ed., Vasilikos Valley Project 10: The Field Survey of the Vasilikos Valley. Vol. 2, Artefacts Recovered by the Field Survey

Radloff, L., Rev. of Leidwanger and Knappett, eds., Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Salminen, E.M., Rev. of Chemsseddoha, Les pratiques funéraires de l’Âge du Fer en Grèce du Nord: Ètude d’histoires régionales

Seaman, K., Rev. of Keesling, Early Greek Portraiture. Monuments and Histories

Simandiraki-Grimshaw, A., Rev. of Rousioti, Ιερά και Θρησκευτικές Τελετουργίες στην Ανακτορική και Μετανακτορική Μυκηναϊκή Περίοδο (Sanctuaries and Cult Practices in the Palatial and Postpalatial Mycenaean Period)

Stannish, S.M., Rev. of Nongbri, God’s Library: The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts

Stark, R.J., Rev. of Gatto, Mattingly, Ray, and Sterry, eds., Burials, Migration, and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

Stark, R.J., Rev. of Williams and Gregoricka, eds., Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia

Stern, K.B., Rev. of Magness, Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth

Stewart, D., Rev. of Bintliff, Farinetti, Slapšak, and Snodgrass, eds., Boeotia Project. Vol. 2, The City of Thespiai: Survey at a Complex Urban Site

Sulosky Weaver, C.L., Rev. of Tabolli, ed., From Invisible to Visible: New Methods and Data for the Archaeology of Infant and Child Burials in Pre-Roman Italy and Beyond

Tanasi, D., Rev. of Mazza, Il cosiddetto “Relitto di Pignataro di Fuori” di Lipari: Una revisione del contesto dell’età del Bronzo a cinquant’anni dalla sua scoperta

Terrenato, N., Rev. of Smith, Cities: The First 6,000 Years

Vila, E., Rev. of Wesselingh, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Vol. 6, A Zooarchaeological Analysis

Walas, A.H., Rev. of Baird, Dura-Europos

Watrous, L.V., Rev. of Chalikias and Oddo, eds., Exploring a Terra Incognita on Crete: Recent Research on Bronze Age Habitation in the Southern Ierapetra Isthmus

Woodhull, M.L., Rev. of Barrow, Gender, Identity and the Body in Greek and Roman Sculpture

Books Received

January 2020

April 2020

July 2020

October 2020

Volume 124 (2020) Index

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 124, No. 4 (October 2020)

Published online at www.ajaonline.org/aja-index/124

DOI: 10.3764/ajaonline1244.Index

Alexander Cambitoglou, 1922-2019

Alexander Cambitoglou, 1922-2019

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Alexander Eleutherios Cambitoglou died on Friday, 29 November 2019, in Sydney, Australia, from natural causes. He was born 15 February 1922 in Thessaloniki to Antonios and Eleni Cambitoglou, almost a century earlier and in another world, some seven months before the Asia Minor crisis that irrevocably changed the demography and landscape of the Aegean. With his passing, classical archaeology has lost one of its finest exponents—an active excavator, a sensitive connoisseur and curator of ancient art, a fine teacher and mentor, an academician in two countries, and a visionary administrator. 

The family was from Veroia in Macedonia, his father ran a thriving fur and leather business, with property in Thessaloniki that included a hotel and a commercial stoa that bore the family name, and they would spend summers in Pelion. More importantly, the family held in high esteem the study of the classics, languages, and music. The family also had its fair share of tragedies: Alexander’s oldest brother, Minos, was killed in the early years of World War II on the Albanian frontier, which spared Alexander from active military service during the war (he completed his military service in 1950). He was the youngest of four children (his elder siblings being Minos, Jason, and Hero). 

Alexander was tutored in French (his first and favorite European language), German, English, and Italian, and in theology, while learning ancient Greek and Latin at the classical gymnasium, before attending the University of Thessaloniki. His knowledge of European languages and literatures, as well as the classical languages, was well known (his English was impeccable, and he deplored split infinitives and the use of the possessive for inanimate objects), and he was exceedingly well read. It was he who introduced me to, among others, Marcel Proust and Gustave Flaubert. One of the very few times I was able to take Alexander out for dinner—he was very generous in feeding his students and would never let us pay—was at an Italian (Sicilian) eatery I frequented in Sydney, where I practiced my own poor Italian. While serving us, the waiter was glad to see Italian customers, to which Alexander responded, with that characteristic glint in his eye: “I am the only Italian here!” 

Alexander Cambitoglou obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Thessaloniki in 1946, before moving to Great Britain for graduate work with a British Council scholarship. He studied with some of the luminaries of 20th-century classical archaeology, obtaining a master of arts degree from the University of Manchester (1948), where he studied with the great Tom Webster (while there he also had a private tutorial on Protogeometric pottery with Vincent Desborough); he followed Webster to University College, London, where he completed his first doctorate in 1950 under Webster and Martin Robertson. He earned his second doctorate at Oxford in 1958, where he was among the last students of John Davidson Beazley (with two Ph.D. degrees, he was at least once referred to in German as Herr Doctor Doctor). His primary passion was Greek painted pottery, especially South Italian red-figure pottery, and it was this that led to his long collaboration with Arthur Dale Trendall, whom he first met in London in 1951. Raised in a cosmopolitan Thessaloniki, surrounded by Greek and Jewish elders and peers, with his learning and etiquette honed in England, Alexander was the quintessential European gentleman, urbane and always well dressed. 

With doctorate in hand, he came to the United States and held his first two teaching positions here. From 1954 to 1956 he served as Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi, where he taught with David Moore Robinson, before the death of the latter in 1958. He then moved to Bryn Mawr College, where he taught with, among others, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway and Machteld Mellink, between 1956 and 1961 (he received his Oxford D.Phil. degree in 1958 while on the faculty of Bryn Mawr). Wishing to thank his hosts and colleagues at Ole Miss before his move to Pennsylvania, Alexander hosted a dinner party, for which he drove over various county lines in search of wine and Campari. Having acquired a bottle of the aperitif with great difficulty, together with several bottles of wine, he welcomed his guests, only to learn that their drink of choice at dinner was coffee. His time in the United States was both rewarding and difficult, especially in the south during the Jim Crow era. He often described the United States of the period as a “cultural desert, but with some magnificent oases.” 

In 1961, at Trendall’s urging, Alexander joined the faculty of the University of Sydney as a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, and in 1963 he was appointed Professor of Classical Archaeology,  becoming the first person of Greek origin to be appointed professor in Australia. That same year, he was also appointed Curator of the Nicholson Museum. He fell in love with Australia and in time acquired Australian citizenship. It was also in Sydney in 1962 that he met the person who became his life-long companion, Dr. John Atherton Young (1936–2004). John went on to become Professor of Physiology at the University of Sydney, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University. Alexander and John lived together until John’s untimely death in 2004. Their relationship was always discreet, and Alexander deeply mourned John’s passing. Generous patrons of the arts, they were regular subscribers to the Australian Opera at the Sydney Opera House (the first opera performance I ever attended was as a guest of Alexander and John). 

Drawing on his experience at Bryn Mawr, Alexander helped shape the Department of Archaeology in Sydney into one of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, and from 1970, he alternated as head of the department with John Basil Hennessy, the Edwin Cuthbert Hall Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology. In 1978, Alexander was appointed as the inaugural Arthur and Renee George Professor of Classical Archaeology, an endowed chair he helped establish. In an era of mandatory retirement, he was forced to retire in 1989, but he continued as Curator of the Nicholson Museum until 2000. For many of us born in Australia, our first introduction to Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman material culture and art was at the Nicholson Museum, and Alexander was instrumental in making the museum what it is today. During his time at the University of Sydney, Alexander was a veritable dynamo, mobilizing the Greek-Australian community and many Antipodean philhellenes. He had an uncanny ability to charm the bird from the tree, working quietly and effectively, often behind the scenes, and always with those people who mattered the most in achieving the task at hand. He befriended senior university officials, ambassadors and consuls-general of Greece and Australia, as well as governors-general of his adopted homeland. He was a consummate and dedicated administrator. 

Archaeological exploration was also at the heart of Alexander’s endeavors (while in the United States, he met George E. Mylonas, from whom he learned a great deal; he excavated with Mylonas at Eleusis, where he met other budding directors of future archaeological projects, not least T. Leslie Shear, Jr.). In 1967, Alexander initiated the excavations at the Geometric settlement of Zagora on the island of Andros as a collaboration of the Athens Archaeological Society, of which he was a long-time fellow, and the University of Sydney. In 1975, he moved to the north Aegean, initiating the excavations at Torone in Chalkidike, a project that continued into the mid 1990s. More importantly, in 1980, he established the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens (AAIA), which quickly became Australia’s major research facility in Greece, a center promoting Greek and Mediterranean studies, with a focus on archaeological fieldwork and research. It cannot be emphasized enough that without Alexander there would have been no AAIA, and from 1980 onward he worked tirelessly to promote the institute. He was not only the founding director of the AAIA, he stayed on as director well into his 90s, until 2016. Both Alexander and John Young gave and bequeathed substantial portions of their own personal fortunes to the institute. 

In addition to publishing two volumes on the excavations at Zagora, and coediting the three-volume Torone I, which appeared in 2001, Alexander was primarily known for his work on Greek painted pottery, especially the red-figure pottery of the Greek colonies of South Italy. To this end, he collaborated for more than 40 years with Dale Trendall, with whom he published numerous volumes (their first co-authored volume, Apulian Red-Figured Vase-Painters of the Plain Style, was published in 1961 by the Archaeological Institute of America). They both traveled all over Europe, the Americas, and beyond in search of, especially in the case of Alexander, Apulian red-figure pottery. Alexander also spent several weeks in the former U.S.S.R. studying Greek vases, and was given nightly tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet during his time there, which he much cherished. As collaborators, Dale and Alexander worked well together, publishing monographs that will remain for years to come seminal and standard works of reference. Despite this, Alexander always regretted not devoting more time to their collaboration, especially on account of his duties as director of the AAIA. As collaborators, they were in some ways an odd couple. Dale could not stand the heat of Australian summers, whereas Alexander could not abide the cold and often had a small space heater at his feet, even during the warm weather in Sydney. As for Dale, when the going got tough, he was known to venture into the kitchen, open the refrigerator, and poke his head inside for relief. 

Alexander’s scholarly and administrative acumen was well rewarded. In 1987—the year I completed my Ph.D. degree with Alexander as my Doctorvater—he was made Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his contributions to archaeology and international cultural relations in Australia. In 1991 he became the fourth person in the history of the University of Sydney to receive the prestigious title of Doctor of the University. (I still recall the over-the-top yellow silk academic gown that Alexander wore with his usual elegance for the ceremony.) In 1998, the Republic of Greece made him Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, and in 2003 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian society for his work as an archaeologist. In 2015, he was awarded the Ayios Kosmas o Aitolos Award for teaching excellence in Hellenic Studies. He was a founding member of the Council of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae and a member of the International Scientific Committee for the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum. In addition to being a Fellow of the Athens Archaeological Society, he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and a Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities of Australia (elected in 1968, serving as a member of the Council, 1974–1976), and a Member of the Athens Academy. In 1990, he was honored by his peers and students with a Festschrift volume, edited by Jean-Paul Descoeudres and entitled EYMOYΣIA: Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou (MeditArch, Suppl. 1, Sydney).1 The list of contributors includes not only his students and colleagues in Australia and New Zealand but also John Boardman, Hélène Cassimatis, Jacques Chamay, Nicholas Coldstream, R.M. Cook, Paul Courbin, Gianna Dareggi, Ettore De Juliis, Maurizio Harari, Ann Harnwell Ashmead, R. Ross Holloway, Spyridon Iakovidis, Lilly Kahil, Eva Keuls, George Korres, Anneliese Kossatz-Deissmann, Donna Kurtz, Veronika Mitsopoulou-Leon, David Ridgway, Martin Robertson, Konrad Schauenberg, Margot Schmidt, Erika Simon, J.G. Szilágyi, Michalis Tiverios, Cornelius Vermeule, Ioulia Vokotopoulou, and Nikolaos Yalouris. And the Tabula Gratulatoria read like a Who’s Who of classical archaeology of the mid and later 20th century.

When all is said and done, Alexander Cambitoglou was a civilized man living during some of the most uncivilized episodes of the 20th century: the Asia Minor crisis, the rounding up and mass extermination of the Jews of Thessaloniki by the Nazis, World War II and the Greek Civil War that followed, not to mention his time in the segregated South of the United States in the mid 1950s. I will remember him most for his learning and erudition, his elegance (the old adage for the Hollywood legend George Sanders—if you covered him in garbage, he would still have style—could equally apply to Alexander), and, above all, his humanity.  

John K. Papadopoulos
Department of Classics
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
University of California, Los Angeles
jkp@humnet.ucla.edu

 

  • 1. A full bibliography of Alexander’s academic publications (1949–1989) was presented in the Festschrift volume (xx–xxii), and an updated bibliography is provided by Descoeudres in “Alexander Cambitoglou (15 February 1922–29 November 2019),” forthcoming in MeditArch 31, 2018 (2020).

Alexander Cambitoglou, 1922-2019
By John K. Papadopoulos
American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 124, No. 4 (October 2020), pp. 695–698
DOI: 10.3764/aja.124.4.0695
© 2020 Archaeological Institute of America

Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity

Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity

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While there have been numerous studies investigating intestinal parasitic infection in the Roman period, much of this work has been focused in northern Europe, with major gaps in the eastern empire. In order to further elucidate regional patterns in parasitic infection in the Roman empire, we looked for evidence for parasites in sites from Anatolia and the Balkans. Sediment samples from drains as well as coprolites were studied to find evidence for intestinal parasites in the Roman cities of Viminacium (Serbia) and Sardis (Turkey), and results were combined with previous work in these regions. Each sample was tested for preserved helminth (worm) eggs using microscopy and for intestinal protozoa that cause diarrhea, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Our analysis revealed a predominance of species spread by the contamination of food and water by human feces, namely roundworm and whipworm. The identification of these parasites (which are linked to sanitation and hygiene) in Roman cities in Anatolia and the Balkans is contrasted with the range of zoonotic species found elsewhere in the empire. It appears that variations in cooking practices, diet, urbanization, and climate throughout the empire may have contributed to differences in gastrointestinal diseases in different regions.

Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity
By Marissa L. Ledger, Erica Rowan, Frances Gallart Marques, John H. Sigmier, Nataša Šarkić, Saša Redžić, Nicholas D. Cahill, and Piers D. Mitchell
American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 124, No. 4 (October 2020), pp. 631–657
DOI: 10.3764/aja.124.4.0631
© 2020 Archaeological Institute of America

The Living and the Monumental on the Anaglypha Traiani

The Living and the Monumental on the Anaglypha Traiani

Of the many interpretive puzzles presented by the so-called Anaglypha Traiani, a pair of Roman imperial reliefs today located in the Curia Julia, one special curiosity is their depiction of a tree, commonly identified as the Ficus Ruminalis, otherwise rendered naturalistically but shown as if growing directly out of a stone base or pedestal. Close interrogation of this feature yields two important avenues of investigation. The first is a matter of historical realism, concerning how living trees were incorporated into the Forum Romanum in real life and thus how we should conceive of the Ficus Ruminalis itself. The second pertains to the use of the base as a formal device, one which activates—in concert with multiple architectonic platforms across the two panels—a sophisticated interplay between the “living” and the “monumental.” This approach reveals a careful design in which the monuments in the reliefs’ foregrounds were selected on both symbolic and historical grounds. Ultimately, this analysis paves the way for a new reading of the two panels as a pair of distinct ideological visions, united within an overarching temporal framework that emphasizes continuity among Rome’s origins (the Ficus Ruminalis) and republican institutions (the Marsyas statue) and its imperial present, as well as between one emperor and the next.

The Living and the Monumental on the Anaglypha Traiani

By Nicole G. Brown

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 124, No. 4 (October 2020), pp. 607–630

DOI: 10.3764/aja.124.4.0607

© 2020 Archaeological Institute of America

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