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Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1984"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Party slogan of controlling the past and controlling the future was coined by George Orwell in the Nineteen Eighty-Four book "1984" as mentioned in this paper, where the lie passed into history and became truth.
Abstract: ‘ . . . the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting.’ (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four , Penguin, p. 31).

98 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In a recent broadcast on Human Evolution, Nick Humphrey as mentioned in this paper made the following comments (slightly paraphrased from my notes of the radio broadcast): ‘Man, in comparison to the chimp is a forgetful ape.
Abstract: Nick Humphrey, of King’s College, Cambridge, in a recent broadcast on Human Evolution, made the following comments (slightly paraphrased from my notes of the radio broadcast): ‘Man, in comparison to the chimp is a forgetful ape. Chimps in experiments have a remarkable visual memory, recalling for example 25 complex patterns. Some humans can do the same, but rarely, and often where there is a brain malfunction as with epilepsy or damage to the parietal lobes. In effect it is characteristically pathological. Why was this facility suppressed? In order to replace this means of storing knowledge with a new way of thought. Not one of counting objects or observations as particular, but instead ordering such data into general models of things and situations, as with the Platonic Ideal forms. This was the birth of symbolic thought.’

41 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The metics of Athens represent by far our best-known example of a community of free immigrants - neither citizens nor slaves - in any classical Greek polis ; however, a thin scatter of data reveals that the existence of groups comparable in name (oikoi) was widespread.
Abstract: The metics of Athens represent by far our best-known example of a community of free immigrants - neither citizens nor slaves - in any classical Greek polis ; however, a thin scatter of data reveals that the existence of groups comparable in name (---oikoi) was widespread. The way to approach these data is not, as in M. Gere's study of 1 898, to assume the universality of the Athenian metic-system in all its details, but to construct a model of logical and chronological choices for any polis thrown up by the evolution of the status-structure of the polis itself.

40 citations


Journal ArticleDOI

33 citations



Journal ArticleDOI

24 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Les definitions que les sociologues et politicologues donnent du patronage, quand ils parlent de societes contemporaines, s'appliquent a merveille au patronat municipal and nous aident a mieux comprendre cette institution as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Les definitions que les sociologues et politicologues donnent du patronage, quand ils parlent de societes contemporaines, s'appliquent a merveille au patronat municipal et nous aident a mieux comprendre cette institution. Ici aussi, il s'agit d'une relation de reciprocite entre partenaires controlant des ressources differentes qu'ils echangent : influence aupres des autorites contre reconnaissance publique de la superiorite sociale du patron. Les rapports, en outre, sont asymetriques : le patron offre un service qui ne lui coute que marginalement, mais qui est inestimable pour la cite-cliente, alors que cette derniere lui fournit une contrepartie qui n'a qu'une valeur marginale, le patron pouvant s'en passer aisement.

24 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Lascaux cave was discovered by four youths who kept the secret for a few days, then decided to inform their former schoolmaster as mentioned in this paper, who reported the discovery to the AcadCmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on 12 September 1940.
Abstract: On 12 September 1940 Lascaux was discovered accidentally by four youths. They kept the secret for a few days, then decided to inform their former schoolmaster. Crowds of visitors came quickly: 1,500 during the first week. The abbC Breuil, who had moved to Brive because of the war, came on 21 September and drew up a report which was read to the AcadCmie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on 10 October. From that point on, Lascaux received official recognition. It is quite a large cave, and the decoration starts about 25 m beyond the entrance. All of the chambers and the main galleries are decorated with figures of animals and symbols: over I 50 paintings and about 1,500 engravings are more or less well preserved, but the cave is particularly famous for the remarkable quality of the painted figures in the Hall of the Bulls and in the Painted Gallery (Diverticule Axial). Unlike most palaeolithic decorated caves, the sanctuary of Lascaux has been dated with precision. In fact, the cave was frequented in only one period, about 17,000 years ago. Its porch collapsed some time afterwards, thus sealing in the parietal figures and protecting the traces which the magdalenian artists and visitors had left behind.

16 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The metal detector is an electronic instrument that is incapable of any independent act of free will as mentioned in this paper, it is outside the reference of a system of good and evil: it is neither benign nor malign, ethical nor unethical, as neutral in such matters as a stone.
Abstract: The metal-detector is an electronic instrument; it is incapable of any independent act of free will. It is outside the reference of a system of good and evil : it is neither benign nor malign, ethical nor unethical, as neutral in such matters as a stone. It is capable merely of indicating the presence of certain objects on or below the soil. It bears no responsibility for human action consequent upon such indications. If this appears to be superfluous comment, it must be borne in mind that the very mention of the words ‘metal-detector’, with no reference at all to the machine's user, is guaranteed to raise the hackles of many archaeologists. Readers of this journal are surely aware of the wide range of archaeological opinion on metaldetecting; the issue of the relationship between orthodox archaeology and nietal-detecting has been aired at considerable length over the last few years and does not directly concern us here. Rather we intend to examine the practical application of the instrument to archaeological procedures.

15 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Romanization of Roman Britain this paper was an elegant distillation of Haverfield's painstaking researches into the minutiae of Romano-British archaeology, presented against the background of the wider Empire.
Abstract: In 1905 Francis Haverfield, Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford, read, before the British Academy his now-famous paper, ‘The Romanization of Roman Britain’ (later published in the second volume of the Academy's Proceedings and in book form: second, enlarged, edition 1912). It was an elegant distillation of Haverfield's painstaking researches into the minutiae of Romano-British archaeology, presented against the background of the wider Empire. His vision was clear ‘. . . Romano- British life was on a small scale. It was, I think, normal in quality and indeed not very dissimilar from that of many parts of Gaul. But it was in any case defective in quantity. We find towns in Britain, as elsewhere, and farms or country-houses. But the towns are small and somewhat few, and the country-houses indicate comfort more often than wealth . . , We have before us a civilisation which, like a man whose constitution is sound rather than strong, might perish quickly from a violent shock.

11 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Museo Bicknelli as mentioned in this paper was built by an English amateur botanist, who was the first adequate work on an Alpine rock-art tradition, and the forerunner of the astonishing discoveries over the last 30 years in Valcamonica (Anati, 1961; 1980), at Sion (Gallay, 1972) and now in the Aosta valley (Daniel, 1983).
Abstract: The Italian resort of Bordighera, on the Riviera close by the French border, still has a little to show from the time, a century ago, when its British population-at least in the winter ‘invalid season’- ran to more than 3,000 and outnumbered the native Italians. The Hotel T. Windsor (‘T’ stands for tennis; the Bordighera tennis club, founded by the British, is the oldest in Italy) flourishes; prim municipal notices-‘A polite behaviour will be enjoyable for everybody’ and ‘Free bathing, clean holidays’-assert Edwardian proprieties. And tucked away in a side-street among the villas, its pink-washed facade frothing with wisteria, stands the Museo Bicknell, built in 1886 by an English amateur botanist, Clarence Bicknell. His foundation continues as the regional research institute, the Istituto lnternazionale di Studi Liguri. Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918) appears in none of the histories of archaeology, but his work deserves to be remembered. His study of the bronze age rockengravings of Mont BCgo, in the Maritime Alps above Bordighera, was the first adequate work on an Alpine rock-art tradition, and the forerunner of the astonishing discoveries over the last 30 years in Valcamonica (Anati, 1961; 1980), at Sion (Gallay, 1972) and now in the Aosta valley (Daniel, 1983). Bicknell's life and work, beyond its intrinsic interest, is an illuminating case-study in the history of the discipline, during that crucial late 19thcentury period when antiquarianism was everywhere giving way to the new science-based archaeology. Finally, Bicknell-though not in the major league with Buckland or Petrie-in his quiet way deserves a place in the gallery of archaeological characters.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, auteur etudie la visite faite par Dion a Olbia-Borysthene ; il en discute le rapport avec le retour d'exil and la chronologie des discours 12, 13, 40, 44.
Abstract: L'auteur etudie la visite faite par Dion a Olbia-Borysthene ; il en discute le rapport avec le retour d'exil et la chronologie des discours 12, 13, 40, 44. Il passe ensuite en revue les autres œuvres concernant la Bithynie et suggere, pour le discours 38, la date de 81 environ. Enfin, il tente une biographie politique de Dion pour les annees 101-110.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The relatively naturalistic representation of animals of the cervidae family has long been recognized as dominating much of the prehistoric art of Siberia as discussed by the authors, and it is possible to identify the species of animals the artists were intending to represent.
Abstract: The relatively naturalistic representation of animals of the cervidae family has long been recognized as dominating much of the prehistoric art of Siberia. These animals are found in the petroglyphs which date from the Neolithic, but are, perhaps, better known in the bronze items that have been so much sought after in the last 1OO years. I t is my purpose here to examine these artistic products in an attempt to identify the species of animals the artists were intending to represent. In the analytical literature dealing with this subject one finds a noticeable lack of unanimity among the critics, who might be forgiven some biological imprecision, were they not frequently very confident in the ascriptions that they make. Identification of the species of cervidae will enable us better to understand the cultural background of the artists, and may lead to a greater understanding of the purpose underlying their creative activity. I can claim only one special qualification for this task, namely that I have spent almost two years of my life as a reindeer herder during anthropological fieldwork. This experience may, perhaps, better enable me to recognize the species of deer intended by the artist than can other scholars, whose acquaintance with the animal has been restricted to the museum.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Schliemann's firing-squad has been getting quite active in recent years as mentioned in this paper and it is worth noting that the conduct of the Berlin clique was quite as reprehensible as any failing of Schliemmann's (Dohl, 1981, 16-75).
Abstract: David Traill's article in Antiquity, LVII, debunking ‘Priam's Treasure’, will no doubt be seen by some as one more bullet in the chest for Schliemann. In recent years the firing-squad has been getting quite active. Now that Schliemann's archaeology has become the target it is time to ask: how accurate are the shots? Schliemann's new executioners trace their pedigree back to their nineteenth-century predecessors. This is unwise, for Hartmut Dohl has shown very clearly that the conduct of, among others, the Berlin clique was quite as reprehensible as any failing of Schliemann's (Dohl, 1981, 16-75). Perhaps their problem was indeed, as Calder has evidenced (Calder, 1972, 347-8; 1980, ‘so), that they found him just too provincial, too common and too rich. The new wave of disaffection actually has its genesis in a series of articles by W. G. Niederland, a Freudian psycho-analyst with a research interest in the psychology of exploration (Niederland, 1964- 5 ; 1965; 1966-7; 1967; 1971). Niederland's papers make fascinating reading. He highlights some very unusual features in Schliemann's writings, and pinpoints a number of recurrent themes. His work is of undoubted interest to anyone concerned with Schliemann. He also comes up with the startlingly original suggestion that Schliemann was all along suffering from an unresolved Oedipus complex. His relentless exploration of Mother Earth, his fascination with cemeteries and his libidinous recollection of his early love-play among them with Minna, indicate a life-long search for his dead mother.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a relecture of l'inscription d'Eleusis IG, IIµ, 1673 (comptes de construction du Prostoon de Philon), along with l'iconographie du charroi utilitaire, permettent de rendre au vehicule antique and a son efficacite economique une plus juste place.
Abstract: L'histoire des moyens de transport terrestre dans l'Antiquite souffre souvent d'un prejuge defavorable. La mediocrite technologique generale autant que les deficiences du harnais constitueraient les causes principales de cette «stagnation». Une relecture «archeologique» de l'inscription d'Eleusis IG, II², 1673 (comptes de construction du Prostoon de Philon), sa confrontation avec l'iconographie du charroi utilitaire, permettent de rendre au vehicule antique et a son efficacite economique une plus juste place. La mechane d'Eleusis, dont est propose un essai de reconstitution graphique, etait un châssis monte sur galet, tire par un attelage de bœufs en file, qui transportait sur 35 km un tambour de colonne de huit tonnes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum at Wroxeter was purchased for the nation in 1973 to protect its remains, which mainly lay in arable land, from further damage by the plough as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Most of the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum at Wroxeter (Shropshire) was purchased for the nation in 1973 to protect its remains, which mainly lay in arable land, from further damage by the plough. This part of the city, beyond the limits of the Department of the Environments's Guardianship site, is known very largely from crop-mark photography, tracing the lines of buried foundations by corresponding patterns in a growing cereal crop (Frere & St Joseph, 1983, 162–6). This technique continues to yield results, for ploughing at Wroxeter is regulated rather than prohibited, and never to better effect than in the dry summer of 1975, when excellent marks developed to west and north of the Baths (PLS. XIV, XVI), and in 1976, which afforded new details to south and east of them (PL. xv). At the request of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings vertical photographs were taken by the University of Cambridge to form the basis of a new plan of the known remains. The potential of air photography for reconstructing such a plan had been shown by Webster and Stanley (1964), using the photographs of Mr Arnold Baker, but much more had been learnt about certain areas both by Mr Baker and by Cambridge University since then.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, le passage en question ne se fonde pas sur une connaissance reelle des masques utilises at the theâtre, but instead concentrates on a series of masques comiques and tragiques speciaux.
Abstract: L'article commente, tant au point de vue litteraire qu'au point de vue archeologique, la description de masques tragiques speciaux que l'on trouve dans Pollux, Onomasticon, 141-142. Il semble que, contrairement a ce qui est perceptible, chez Pollux, pour d'autres series de masques comiques et tragiques, le passage en question ne se fonde pas sur une connaissance reelle des masques utilises au theâtre.





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The style classicisant a, en outre, marque particulierement les œuvres de l'argenterie et les plats en argile qui s'inspirent de cette derniere.
Abstract: L'illustration de la legende d'Achille, qui connut un regain de faveur au Bas-Empire, s'est alors enrichie de themes qui n'avaient pas ete traites auparavant, mais a connu aussi la reprise d'episodes exploites dans la litterature et dans les arts figures des Ve et IVe siecles avant notre ere. Le style classicisant a, en outre, marque particulierement les œuvres de l'argenterie et les plats en argile qui s'inspirent de cette derniere.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The recit herodoteen relatif a la rupture de Polycrate et d'Amasis est un conte dont la signification profonde ne doit etre cherchee ni dans un rite d'alliance avec la mer, ni dins une operation de dactyliomancie, nor dans une tentative d'elimination d'un dangereux anneau magique.
Abstract: Le recit herodoteen relatif a la rupture de Polycrate et d'Amasis est un conte dont la signification profonde ne doit etre cherchee ni dans un rite d'alliance avec la mer, ni dans une operation de dactyliomancie, ni dans une tentative d'elimination d'un dangereux anneau magique. Ce qu'il met en evidence, c'est la notion de cachet, l'impossibilite ou se serait trouve le tyran de faire accepter par les dieux le sceau qui symbolisait son pouvoir monarchique et auquel il voulait donner la valeur d'une offrande compensatoire destinee a prevenir leur phthonos. En recueillant une tradition samienne qui, pour laver la memoire de Polycrate, imputait a Amasis la denonciation du traite, Herodote ne s'est pas avise qu'elle etait en contradiction avec la chronologie de l'attaque perse contre l'Egypte et que, dans la realite, Polycrate avait rompu avec le fils et successeur d'Amasis, Psammetique III.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hembury is one of the finest hillforts of the Iron Age in the South-West as mentioned in this paper, located at the southern tip of a long, narrow promontory extending southwards from the Greensand mass of the Blackdown Hills and overlooking the broad valleys of the Otter and the Culm.
Abstract: Hembury is chiefly noted as the site of a neolithic settlement and one of the finest hillforts of the Iron Age in the South-West (PL. XXIV & FIG. I ) . These prehistoric works lie at the southern tip of a long, narrow promontory extending southwards from the Greensand mass of the Blackdown Hills and overlooking the broad valleys of the Otter and the Culm. Beyond these to the west lies the Exe valley and further west still (and visible in clear weather) the Haldon ridge and the eastern tors of Dartmoor. Excavations by Miss D. M. Liddell (Liddell, 1930; 1931; 1932; 1935) between 1930 and 1935 revealed the significance of Hembury for the south-western Neolithic in particular, the material culture of the early neolithic settlement being plainly related to that of Windmill Hill. Miss Liddell's examination of the iron age fort was centred upon the two fine gates, on the western side and at the north-west angle. Little work was devoted to the interior except to trace the ditch of the neolithic causewayed enclosure and to explore the extreme southern tip of the promontory.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a set of libations rituelles inspired by Thucydide's libations: "the action de verser des boissons en l'honneur des dieux soit l'action de boire a la sante des convives en invoquant les dieux".
Abstract: Spondai / spendein exprimait primitivement soit l'action de verser des boissons en l'honneur des dieux soit l'action de boire a la sante des convives en invoquant les dieux. Le nom donne a differentes formes d'accord parait s'etre inspire de ces libations rituelles. Au Ve siecle deja, spondai / spendein avait pris une valeur de terminus technicus dans les dialectes ionien, attique et dorien qu'utilisait le jargon politico-militaire. Le terme gardait neanmoins assez de souplesse lexicale pour qu'un ecrivain precis comme Thucydide ait pu jouer sur ses multiples nuances.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Eschasseriaux as discussed by the authors described the discovery of rock-cut ditches, remains of stone ramparts and traces of gateways in a low hill in rollingchalkland overlooking the marshland which has formed where the River Seugne meets the River Charente, a little way to the south of Saintes.
Abstract: Peu-Richard is the name of a low hill in rollingchalkland overlooking the marshland which hasformed where the River Seugne meets the RiverCharente, a little way to the south of Saintes. It washere in 1882 that a farm labourer came across tracesof a fortified enclosure rich in prehistoric material.The landowner, Baron Eschasseriaux, was anamateur archaeologist and when told of the discoveryimmediately arranged an excavation. A totalof 106 trenches was opened in the course of thiswork, and a good idea of the complexity of the sitelayout, with its multiple ditches, was obtained (FIG.I). A recent aerial photograph has contributedsome further details (PL. va). Eschasseriaux describedthe discovery of rock-cut ditches, remains ofstone ramparts and traces of gateways. Potsherds,animal bones and flints were collected in abundanceand some examples were illustrated in the report,though few details were given (Eschasseriaux,1882). This material included quantities of decoratedsherds of the type which came to be known as'Peu-Richardien'.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sehested (PL. LX) was 20 when the greatest gold treasure in Denmark was found on the family estate of Broholm, and it was largely through the efforts of his mother and himself that the treasure was saved as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: No one could wish for a more auspicious initiation into the world of archaeology than Frederik Sehested (PL. LX). He was 20 when the greatest gold treasure in Denmark was found on the family estate of Broholm, and it was largely through the efforts of his mother and himself that the treasure was saved. It must have been a great moment when he accompanied his mother to Copenhagen and witnessed the handing over of the treasure into the hands of the by then famous C. J. Thomsen in the rooms in Christiansborg Castle which housed the still infant Museum of Northern Antiquities. Many years later Sehested (1878) wrote a sober account of the event but the excitement still remained with him and couldn’t be drained from the account. The reader gets a lively impression of the atmosphere on the estate during those spring days of 1838.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a real theory of archaeology, based on the nature and limitations of the evidence, has to recognize that there are many aspects of the past, and particularly of the text-free past, which are absolutely unknowable and always will be, because the evidence is of its nature ambiguous.
Abstract: enquiry, but none the less has a meretricious attraction for those who treat jargon as a substitute for thought. I fear that even Hodder’s apologia for his own brand of symbolist ‘structuration’, which steers well clear of the wilder shores of ‘high’ structuralism, goes far beyond what the inherent limitations of inference in archaeology will allow. Archaeologists have long been guilty, though much to their benefit, of borrowing techniques from other disciplines. Now that we have apparently lost our innocence, do we have to steal theoretical underclothes from other peoples’ washing-lines to cover our shameful nakedness? Sir Edmund Leach prophesied correctly a few years ago that the next ‘-ism’ to be taken up by archaeologists in search of a theory would be structuralism; but nearly 30 years ago Christopher Hawkes and Margaret Smith showed separately, and with irrefutable logic, where the boundaries lie of valid inference from archaeological data. Nothing has happened since to shake their conclusions. A real theory of archaeology, based on the nature and limitations of the evidence, has to recognize that there are many aspects of the past, and particularly of the text-free past, which are absolutely unknowable and always will be, because the evidence is of its nature ambiguous. Why should we be ashamed of having failed to achieve the impossible? R . J. C . A T K I N S O N

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a dictionary homerique se caracterise par la mise en œuvre d'une technique formulaire, and the souplesse de ce systeme traditionnel ressort de l'etude des equivalences metriques de la guerre and des epithetes a distance qualifiant Ulysse and la war.
Abstract: La diction homerique se caracterise par la mise en œuvre d'une technique formulaire ; la souplesse de ce systeme traditionnel ressort de l'etude des equivalences metriques de la guerre et des epithetes a distance qualifiant Ulysse et la guerre. Une adaptation de nature semantique de l'epithete au contexte et une utilisation plus esthetique de celle-ci confirment la relative liberte du poete.