UMBC Ancient Studies Department
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Item Les concepts en sciences de l’Antiquité : mode d’emploi(Cairn, 2024-01) Dan, Anca; Jin, Shoufu; Huang, Yang; Ford, RandolphItem The Mycenaean Northeast Kopaïs Project: A Report from Ayia Marina Pyrgos(American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2023-12) Lane, Michael F.Between 2016 and 2018, the author led excavations at Ayia Marina Pyrgos, a site adjacent to the polder around the Late Helladic fortress of Gla in central mainland Greece. The excavations were part of the Mycenaean Northeast Kopaïs Project, or MYNEKO, realized in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. The author aimed to confirm the accuracy of his reconstruction of an irrigated field system in the polder, based on results of the prior AROURA project, and to compare the chronology and nature of occupation at Ayia Marina Pyrgos with those of the field system. Findings corroborated final Middle and Late Helladic dates previously obtained from the polder and showed the site to have experienced significantly different occupation phases.Item High-Resolution Spatial Analysis of Archaeobotanical Remains from a Kitchen Context in Imperial Late Antique (ca. a.d. 600) Dhiban, Jordan(Taylor & Francis, 2023-11-02) Farahani, Alan; Kutner, Melissa; Fatkin, Danielle Steen; Porter, Benjamin W.Archaeological plant remains are key data in the identification of the material consequences of imperial interventions in past local lifeways. In this paper, the spatial and stratigraphic analysis of plant remains preserved in a hypothesized kitchen context from the archaeological site of Dhiban, Jordan, is presented in detail. This context is dated to ca. a.d. 570–640 based on 16 AMS dates, a time when the Dhiban community was part of and located at the eastern edge of the Byzantine empire. Analysis of over 130 point-provenienced flotation samples reveals a local emphasis on the agricultural production of wheat, peas, and grape, in spite of the challenges of water management in a semi-arid landscape. Comparison with other nearby and contemporaneous sites indicates that while all grew a similar suite of crops, their frequencies vary, possibly indicating a community of agricultural practice specializing in different foodstuffs or crops.Item Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity, by Helen Rhee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2022(Springer, 2023-10-02) Jones-Lewis, MollyItem The AROURA Project: Discoveries in Central Greece, 2010–2014(The American School of Classical Studies at Athens) Lane, Michael F.; Aravantinos, Vassilis L.; Horsley, Timothy J.; Charami, AlexandraArchaeological Reconnaissance of Uninvestigated Remains of Agriculture (AROURA) consisted of field and laboratory research in the landscape around the Mycenaean (13th-century B.C.) fortress and storehouses of Gla in the Kopaic Basin, Boiotia, Greece. Central to fieldwork was the application of a topographical model of palace estates, based on the interpretation of Mycenaean landholding records. It was then possible to use geophysical technologies to detect the realities represented by the constituents of this model. The present article describes the archaeological and linguistic context of palace agriculture in which this model was developed. It then details the methodologies used, presents results, and draws conclusions about the trajectory of local social complexity compared with other parts of the Aegean.Item When It’s Bad Cess to Assess!(Digital Commons, 2006) Freyman, JayIt seems to me that efforts at outcome assessment in higher education are deficient because of a failure to understand what exactly it is that is being or should be assessed. Certainly, the object of such assessment should not be what, if anything, the student has learned in courses; grades for course work, grade inflation notwithstanding, should suffice to tell that tale.Item What is an Honors Student?(Digital Commons, 2005) Freyman, JayIt is first necessary to recognize the distinction between the questions “What is an honors student?” or better “What are the characteristics of an honors student?” and “How do you recognize a student with those characteristics?” The first of these two questions is easier to approach since it is more a matter of prescription than of description, a presentation of an ideal rather than a recognition of an actual state. We can all list characteristics which we would like or expect those special students to have who are worthy in our estimation of the designation “honors.” These expectations, I submit, are often informed by our own experiences as honors students ourselves or in association with others, when we were in college, who were considered to be honors students by official or by general agreement. It is quite another matter, however, to be able to detect, directly or indirectly, the presence of those qualities which constitute the character of an honors student; they may or may not be readily evident and, it seems, very often are not so. In my admittedly anecdotal experience, so-called objective criteria for judging the quality of students fail quite miserably when it comes to predicting success in honors curricula.