This is the first extended study in English of Theophrastus' Characters , one of the briefest but also most influential works to survive from classical antiquity. Since the seventeenth century, the Characters has served as a model and an inspiration for authors as diverse as La Bruyère, Thackeray, George Eliot and Elias Canetti. This study aims to locate Theophrastus and his Characters with respect to the political and philosophical worlds of Athens in the late fourth century, focusing on later imitators in order to provide clues to reading the Theophrastan original. Special attention is paid to the problems and possibilities of the Characters as testimony to the culture and society of contemporary Athens, integrating the text into the extensive fragments and testimonia of Theophrastus' other writings. The implications for the historian of the elusive humour of the Characters , dependent in large measure on the device of caricature, are explored in detail. What emerges is a picture of the complex etiquette appropriate for upper-class citizens in the home, the streets and other public places in Athens where individuals were on display. Through their resolutely shaming behaviour, the Characters illuminate the honour for which citizens should, by implication, be striving. A key theme of the study is Theophrastus' ambivalent position in Athens: a distinguished philosopher and head of the Lyceum, yet still subject to the disabilities of his metic status.

These two volumes report on five season's excavation and four millennia of occupation at Kilise Tepe, from the Early Bronze Age through the rise and fall of the Hittite Empire and into the Byzantine era when the mound was crowned by a substantial church. The site takes its importance from its position guarding the Göksu Valley, one of the two main routes from the interior of Anatolia to the Mediterranean opposite Cyprus, so that it gives a record of relations between the interior and the seaboard. Of particular interest are the sequence from the Hittite Empire through the end of the Bronze Age and into the classical world, and the Byzantine levels associated with the church. The multi-authored report gives a full account of the stratigraphy and architecture, the ceramics and other artefacts, and various environmental studies.

Redevelopment of Paternoster Square in 2000-2001 provided the opportunity to reassess 1960s work at the site and review Roman activity on the western hill, south of the main east-west road from London to Silchester. Natural stream channels recorded at Paternoster and nearby sites drained south-westwards towards the Fleet river, rather than to the Thames as had been previously thought. The earliest Roman activity was associated with the c. AD 50 establishment of the main road, contemporary quarries and boundary ditches. One ditch contained two young male inhumation burials and a dog skeleton. Rudimentary buildings south of the road may have been briefly used during initial construction activity. Clay and timber strip buildings along the south side of the main road, and secondary roads leading southwards, date to the pre-Boudican period. The roads and roadside properties were re-established after the Boudican fire. Late 1st-century buildings included residential, commercial and small-scale industrial activities. Two 2nd-century kilns may be associated with brass making and include a crucible. Glassworking debris and furnace material was probably redeposited from nearby. Post-Hadrianic occupation included substantial buildings with tessellated floors and painted plaster walls set back from the roads. Activity declined in the later Roman period and five 4th-century burials cut into a disused secondary road. The southwest part of the site was largely external, with evidence for animal husbandry and bread wheat preparation, rare within Roman contexts. The large assembly of pre-Boudican pottery and other finds from the site includes Lyon ware and types of hinged brooches often associated with the military. A copper-alloy name-tag identified an auxiliary soldier, probably from the lower Rhineland or Cologne, and the early animal bone assemblage was made up of high status kitchen waste of the sort produced by army supply trains, but the overall evidence could indicate a civil context which includes some military involvement.

An area of 6 ha just east of Kempsford was examined in 2000-2001 in advance of gravel extraction. The earliest features belonged to a field system defined by ditches probably dug in the late Iron Age. This was replaced in the early Roman period by a very regular layout of trackways linking field systems to settlements lying just outside the excavated area, all part of a programme of radical landscape reorganisation in the wider region. The nearby settlements probably went out of use in the 3rd century, but the fields probably remained in use for pasture. The main trackway was re-established in the later Roman period and a substantial timber stockade built alongside it. Occasional human and animal burials made both in the fields and at trackway junctions are an interesting aspect of the use of this landscape.

The papers in this book result from a conference held in Istanbul in 2004, and are the product of collaboration between the British Academy Black Sea Initiative (BABSI) and the City and Regional Planning Department of Istanbul Technical University. They cover a period from the first appearance of human settlers in the Black Sea region to the present day, and all emphasize the significance of the Black Sea itself as a source of unity, linking communities and histories in a wider regional context, extending westward along the Danube basin, northward into the Ukraine and south Russia, east into the Caucasus and southward over the Anatolian hinterland. A major introductory paper re-examines the evidence for the Black Sea flood hypothesis. A group of four papers evaluate new evidence for the economic and cultural relationships between Greeks and native populations in the Black Sea region from the seventh to the fourth centuries BC. The next group of studies is concerned with the interconnectedness of the Black Sea between medieval and modern times, highlighting Seljuk and Ottoman trade, and the roles of the ports of Odessa and Trabzon. Four papers deal with the economic and social development of the Turkish Black Sea region in recent times. The final section places Black Sea history in a long perspective both from a cultural and a political viewpoint.

This collection of essays looks beyond the focus of existing works on ancient travel and its documentation, to examine its social and cultural implications. For travel (and the reasons behind it) offers a window on to many features of ancient societies - sense of place, perceptions of space, administration, relations with foreign powers, engagement with other cultures, and representation of homelands. Also of import is the study of ancient geographical knowledge, as well as ancient travel writing (an increasingly popular genre today), its popularity and purpose. All of the papers presented here show that ancient travel was considerably more widespread than is often assumed.

Excavation between 1983-5 at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire recorded three distinct phases of activity: a prehistoric monument complex (already published in Volume 1), a Romano-British cemetery and an early Anglo-Saxon settlement. The Romano-British cemetery consisted of 69 burials dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries and occurring as distinct burial groups and isolated graves; both inhumations and cremations were found. The report considers the evidence for the organisation of the cemetery, orientation, age and sex, body position, decapitation, coffins, inhumation versus cremation, grave goods, chronology and location. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was composed of post-built structures, sunken-featured buildings, two inhumations, pits, debris dumped into the prehistoric barrow ditches and various other features. The settlement is dated by finds evidence to the 4th - early 7th centuries. The Anglo-Saxon features at the nearby site of Barton Court Farm may have been part of the same settlement. The finds and archaeological deposits are described in a series of gazetteers.

The gravel terraces of the river Thames have revealed a wealth of archaeological information about the evolution of the landscape of the region, the development of the settlement pattern, and past human occupation. Much of this has come to light in the course of gravel quarrying, which has been so extensive that the Thames Valley now provides one of the richest resources of archaeological data in the country. This volume provides an up to date overview of the archaeological evidence from the valley for the late Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods, broadly speaking the first millennium AD. The area studied in detail comprises the Upper Thames Valley, from the source of the river to the Goring Gap, and the Middle Thames Valley, from the Goring Gap to the start of the tidal zone at Teddington Lock. A summary of evidence for the character of the river and the vegetation and environment of its floodplain is followed by a detailed account of the evolving settlement pattern as currently understood from archaeological evidence. The authors then consider what archaeology can reveal about the late Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon populations of the valley, and their changing lifestyles, culture, identities and beliefs. This is followed by a review of the evidence for production, trade, transport and communication, and the archaeology of power and politics. The volume concludes with a discussion of the state of knowledge today and its limitations, and emerging themes and problem areas for future research.

Mortarium studies have enormous value in addressing a variety of themes including source, chronology, function, distribution, and as an index to trade and Romanisation. This comprehensive volume, commissioned by English Heritage, provides an over-view of mortarium studies for England, Scotland and Wales. Presented in twelve regional chapters designated by modern county boundaries, each comprises a bibliography, synthesis and recommendations for future research. Imported mortaria are covered in a separate chapter. It will provide an important resource for those working on Roman pottery both in Britain and elsewhere.

The Cotswold Water Park Project is a landscape study centred upon parts of the Upper Thames Valley within what is now the Cotswold Water Park. The report is based upon four key excavated rural settlements, the most extensive being that at Claydon Pike, which dated primarily from the middle Iron Age to the late Roman period. A number of middle Saxon burials were also found. The other Water Park settlements dated to the late Iron Age-Roman period and the 2nd to 3rd century AD. The report has incorporated the results of these excavations into a wider synthesis of landscape development in the region, including aspects of material culture, environment and the economy.

The sixteenth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference was held in Cambridge in March 2006. Sixty papers were given during the two-day conference and covered the breadth and length of the Roman world. The issues of identity, its expression and recognition, were at the forefront of consideration. Sessions also looked at public and private religion, 'Romanisation' from a zooarchaeological perspective, how theoretical archaeology works in the field and the ways in which all of this (and more) is presented to the public. This volume contains a selection of the papers from all of the sessions that ran during the course of the conference.

Butrint, ancient Buthrotum , has taken many forms in different ages, shaped by the near-constant interaction between the place, its lagoonal landscape and the Mediterranean. Though Butrint does not appear on any of the records of early Greek colonisation to identify it as a Corcyrean settlement, strong links must have existed between it and the metropolitan Corinthian colony of Corfu. Blessed with springs that possessed healing qualities, a small polis was created - extended to incorporate a healing sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius. Julius Caesar, harbouring at Butrint in urgent need of supplies to sustain his struggle against Pompey, must have viewed the sanctuary, ringed by largely dried-out marshland, as the perfect site to settle veterans as a colony. It was an obvious cornerstone in controlling the passage from the Adriatic to the Aegean. The early settlers seem to have been limited in number and possibly mainly of civilian status. However, the political changes to the city's magistrature were immediate, and within a relatively short time-span fundamental changes to the physical make-up of the city were set in motion. Its new Roman status also located Butrint as a directly before the highest authorities in Rome, and within fifteen years or so, under Augustus's guidance following his victory at Actium, the city was refounded as a colony and awarded a pivotal role in Virgil's court-sponsored foundation epic, The Aeneid . Now linked to the Victory City of Nicopolis rather than in the shadow of Corfu, Butrint prospered. The urban fabric evolved, sometimes faltered, but was essentially sustained until the later 6th century A.D. This present volume is an assessment of the Roman archaeology, a compilation of studies and field reports that focuses upon the foundation and early history of the colony.

Oxbow says: From 1993, the North Somerset Levels Project sought to investigate the origins and development of this area of reclaimed coastal marshland during the first and second millennia AD. The inter-disciplinary approach taken has added archaeological (survey and excavation) data, palaeoenvironmental evidence, studies of documentary sources, architecture, cartography and field- and place-names, to what was already known about the historic landscape. This report, which publishes the findings of the project, examines local and regional changes and variations in the landscape, focusing on two major phases of exploitation, modification and transformation during the Roman and medieval periods. Factors such as agriculture, grazing, salt production, fishing, draining, flood defence, and the establishment of settlements, roads, commons, field systems, as well as cultural factors, are all discussed, as evidence from the local area is placed within a wider regional context. An excellent study which exemplifies all that is new and exciting in landscape study.

This is the third volume of a periodical that is published every two years on the archaeological activities of the Danish Institute at Athens, and contains articles by scholars in the fields of Greek archaeology, history, philology and literature. This volume reports on prehistoric Tummuli at Portes in Achaea, early Minoan Clay Strips and a sealing at Psathi, an early Etruscan Bronze Throne in Olympia, the Utopia of Xenophon, Cultic theatres and ritual drama in Ancient Greece, Greek theatre building in late classical and Hellenistic times, the gardens and marginal lands of classical Attica, the foundation of Nea Paphos, all in English, and, in French, La collone du Dôdékathéon à Délos (Reconstruction of the columns of the Temple of Twelve Gods on the island of Delos). The section on Greek-Danish Excavations in Aetolian Chalkis 1997-98 contains articles on the excavations on the hill of Haghia Triadha, geological investigations of the area, coins and roof tiles found there and the registration process of finds. Other articles discuss the final Neolithic pottery from the excavation at Pangali on the eastern slope of Mt. Varassova, in 1996 and the recent rescue excavation of the cemetary of Ancient Chalkis.

This volume contains over 150 papers presented at the Classical Congress held in Boston, Massachussetts in August 2003.

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Land, People, Mountains-Plateaux, Ravines, Plains, Rivers and Lakes, Coastline, Communications, Climate, Cultivation and Production, Geological Past, Flora, Fauna.CRETAN MYTHS,Gods and Heroes, Birth of Zeus, Zeus and Europa, Kingdom of Minos, Talos, Art during the Minoan Period, Pasiphae and the Minotaur, Ariadne and Theseus, Daidalos and Ikaros. HISTORICAL REVIEW. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS - HISTORY: Neolithic Period (6000-2600 B.C.), Pre-Palace Period (2600-2000 B.C.), Old Palace Period (1900-1700 B.C.), New Palace Period (1700-1450 B.C.), Post-Palace Period (1450-110 B.C.), Proto-Geometric Period (1100-900 B.C.), Geometric and Orientalizing Periods (900-650 B.C.), Archaic Period (650-500 B.C.), Classical and Hellenistic Periods (500-67 B.C.), Roman Period (67 B.C.-A.D. 330), First Byzantine Period (330-824), Arab Occupation (824-961), Second Byzantine Period (961-1204/10), Venetian Occupation (1204-1669), Turkish Occupation (1669-1898), Modern Times. TOURING HERAKLEION: History of the Town, Tour of the Town, THE MUSEUMS - Archaeological Museum , Historical Museum of Crete, Church of Saint Catherine -Collection of Byzantine Icons, EXCURSIONS: Archaeological Site of Knossos, Archaeological Site of Archanes, Archaeological Site of Phaistos, Archaeological Site of Aghia Triada, Archaeological Site of Tylissos, Sedoni Cave, Idaian Cave, Kastelli Pediados (Venetian fortress), Eileithyia Cave, Archaeological Site of Malia, Milatos Cave, Diktaian Cave. AGHIOS NIKOLAOS: History of the Town, Archaeological Museum, Connections for Spinalonga, Church of Panaghia Kera at Kritsa, Archaeological Site of Gournia, Chamezi Folk Museum. SITEIA: Archaeological Museum, Archaeological Site of Zakros, Toplou Monastery,Kapsa Monastery, Melidoni Cave. RETHYMNON: History of the Town, Archaeological Museum, Arkadi Monastery, Amari Valley, Preveli Monastery, Kourna Lake. CHANIA: History of the Town, Tour of the Town, Archaeological Museum, Gouverneto Cave, Chrysopigi Monastery, Askyphou Plateau, Samaria Ravine, Graeco-Roman town of Elyros, Kasteli (Kisamos), Chrysoskalitissa Monastery, Kastelli Selino.