In two short publications from the early 1940s, Carl Blegen characterized the development of prehistoric culture in Greece as a continuous process of racial mixing that laid the foundations for classical, and even modern, Greece. This article situates Blegen’s narrative of racial mixing within a longer tradition in Aegean prehistory, as it developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and especially how 19th-century ideas about race influenced archaeological understandings of culture. Along with his friend and collaborator the British archaeologist Alan J.B. Wace, Blegen additionally used archaeological practice—vertical stratigraphy and ceramic evolutionary typologies—to buttress an argument for progressive racial mixing that ultimately preserved a continuity of culture between prehistoric and historic Greece. Despite disciplinary shifts in the decades after World War II, I argue Blegen’s narrative had a degree of staying power both because of its emphasis on language as an indicator of culture, which was strengthened by the decipherment of Linear B, and because it appealed to those who rejected notions of racial purity. This study therefore reveals how racialized understandings of culture can persist without the word “race,” and why it is important to interrogate the entangled relationship between archaeological practice and intellectual history.

Of the 12 cities that were active in Cyprus during the Roman Imperial period, current archaeological data indicates that gladiatorial and related spectacles were held only in Paphos, Salamis, and Kourion. The first two were the most important cities of the island and most probably organized such shows from the first century CE; in Kourion this happened later, in the first half of the third century CE. Concerning the venues where these events took place, there is evidence suggesting that the theaters of all three cities received provisional or permanent modifications to host these events. Additionally, Paphos boasted an early oval amphitheater. Salamis was also believed to have had an amphitheater, as suggested by late first-century CE inscriptions. Here it is argued that the “amphitheater” referenced in these inscriptions was actually a stadium, partially uncovered during excavations in the 1960s. Furthermore, an actual amphitheater excavated in Salamis, often associated with the inscriptional amphitheater, is now proposed to be a later structure, integrated into the preexisting stadium, likely dating from the mid fourth century CE. These revised interpretations have significant implications for the understanding of Roman spectacles in Cyprus.

This article examines water management and control by the Roman army in arid environments, with a focus on southern Jordan. It presents the results of an aqueduct survey at Khirbet al-Khalde (Wadi al-Yutm, Aqaba Governorate), situated 26 km to the northeast of modern Aqaba. The aqueduct, which is the best surviving example of its kind in the Wadi al-Yutm, connected the site’s small fort (castellum) to a spring located approximately 1 km to the southeast. The aqueduct is notable because of its steep incline, and its construction is further evidence for the complex water management systems that are found in this region. The article argues that the aqueduct at Khirbet al-Khalde facilitated the control asserted by the army over water points along the Via Nova Traiana and, by extension, over trade and movement along this frontier zone.

This article presents the results of the last eight seasons of work at Gordion in west central Türkiye, focusing primarily on architectural conservation, excavation, and remote sensing on the Citadel Mound. The recently discovered South Gate appears to have been in use for over 1,200 years, from the ninth century BCE to the fourth century CE, and with an approach road nearly 100 m long. New excavations in the Mosaic Building Complex, first unearthed in the 1950s and dated at that time to the late fifth century BCE (Persian period), have demonstrated that it was actually constructed a century and a half earlier (ca. 575 BCE) and reconstructed after Gordion came under Persian control. The discoveries within the complex include a stone omphalos and two gilded ivory sphinxes that probably adorned a throne. The Mosaic Building may also have housed the cart with the Gordian Knot cut by Alexander in 333 BCE. The eighth-century Tumulus 52 included more than 3,000 amber beads imported from the Baltic, and the decedent may have been a member of Midas’ family. Gordion was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 2023, the 20th site in Türkiye to be so honored.

The rock-cut Midas Monument at Midas City, about 150 km west of Gordion, appears to reproduce the kind of megarons that were in operation in Iron Age Phrygia. In a 2023 article in the AJA, Geoffrey Summers argued that the Midas Monument was carved in the early sixth century BCE, when the surrounding area was under Lydian control. In this note, we address his arguments in detail and maintain that the available evidence supports a late eighth-century BCE date for the carving of the Midas Monument, when Midas served as king of Phrygia.

Since its discovery during Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at Troy, the depas amphikypellon, a cylindrical goblet with two curved handles which is thought to be the goblet mentioned in Homer’s epics, has been considered a potential drinking vessel for wine. Recent biomolecular investigations by the Institute of Prehistory, Early History, and Medieval Archaeology in Tübingen confirm this hypothesis by identifying high concentrations of fruit acids indicative of regular use specifically for wine—though these same acids were also found in cups and beakers from Troy. This raises questions regarding the social and cultural significance of the beverage: while previously perceived as an exclusive emblem of the Early Bronze Age elite, wine consumption may have been more widespread than previously assumed. Further examinations at other sites could reveal whether a wider range of vessels were utilized for wine elsewhere, potentially challenging current assumptions about the distribution and consumption of wine during the third millennium BCE.

The Museo Nazionale Jatta in Ruvo di Puglia reopened late in 2023 following a two-year closure for work on the refurbishment of the galleries in the 19th-century Palazzo Jatta and the reinstallation of the collection. The organization of the collection and its display cases and pedestals follow the original scheme from when the museum was formed and its catalogue published by Giovanni Jatta, Jr., in 1869. Rather than reconceive the gallery and exhibition design, the museum focused on restoring the original design, with discreetly installed upgrades for utilities and environmental systems to bring the museum to contemporary standards. In doing so, the museum brings attention to the specific circumstances of the collection’s formation in the 19th-century, which were aimed at preserving some of the ancient cultural patrimony of Ruvo di Puglia. Further, the museum has preserved an important historical viewing context from that period and in so doing provides an occasion to think about how to engage viewers with artifacts in the 21st century. Providing the viewer with the opportunity to see the majority of the collection is admirable, but one needs to consider the best way of providing information to viewers today, when a printed catalogue is in some ways obsolete.