BOB2025MIOT

The XVI International Numismatic Congress, held in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2022, was a landmark event, drawing the largest number of participants in its history. With over 550 papers presented during thematic sessions and round tables, this congress showcased the latest advancements and research in the field of numismatics from leading experts and scholars in their field.

A curated selection of papers from the conference have now been drawn together into peer-reviewed conference proceedings, representing a comprehensive spectrum of numismatic studies from antiquity to modern times. Each paper is meticulously illustrated with high-quality images, often of unique specimens, along with detailed diagrams, maps, and die/typological chains. Topics covered include coins and coin finds, medals, tokens, banknotes, the history of collections and collecting, and cutting-edge chemical analyses and technologies used in coin examination.

This volume, the last in four thematic volumes, comprises fifty-five chapters that explore modern numismatics, as well as medal making and tokens. It also includes discussions that touch more broadly on the general field of numismatics, among them digital numismatics, counterfeit coins, coin finds, and the history of coin collecting.

Landscape archaeology has, in recent years, expanded as a discipline to include various aspects of human-environment interactions in the past. In line with this trend, this volume offers a comprehensive perspective on three topics: theoretical and textual approaches to landscape, which provides an important framework for interdisciplinary research; the use of land and resources, which, while a popular topic in Southwest Asian archaeology, remains relatively understudied in connection to ancient technologies; and human impact on the highlands. The contributions gathered in this volume cover topics as diverse as agricultural practices, metallurgy, trade, and environmental research, and draw together evidence from both textual and material evidence to shed light on different places and periods from the Bronze Age through to the Roman era. Together, these varied case studies offer new insights into how different methods can be utilized to assess unique patterns in human-environment interactions in Southwest Asia.

Veneration of the supernatural was, in ancient times, interwoven into the fabric of the surrounding landscape. Caves, rivers, lakes, mountains, and water springs all formed conduits for a relationship between divinity and nature, and sanctuaries were established as dedicated sites of worship. Taking Central Italy as its main focus, this volume unravels layers of history and archaeology in order to shed light on the religious practices, sacred sites, and profound connections that have long existed between landscapes and religious places in this region. Through a synthesis of archaeological evidence and scholarly analysis, the chapters gathered here unveil the significance of temples, sanctuaries, ex-votos, religious productions, and ritual spaces, and provide a comprehensive understanding of how Etruscan and Roman societies engaged with their sacred surroundings. The result is an important reassessment of the religious dimensions that helped to shape the antique landscape of Central Italy.

From the Chalcolithic onwards, the culture and society of Sumer flourished along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, with communities living close to the ancient shoreline in an environment that was closely linked to the exploitation of fluvial systems, the sea, and the unique marshlands of the area. This volume gathers together research first presented as part of a workshop, entitled Sumer and the Sea: Deltas, Shoreline, and Urban Water Management in 3rd Millennium Mesopotamia, to explore the interaction between Sumerians and their water-dominated environment. The chapters gathered here offer updates on methodologies and the most recent research from the field to provide new understanding and fresh insights into how the Sumerians adapted to the world in which they lived.

The Pal.M.A.I.S. Syro-Italian joint project at Palmyra, established in 2007, aimed to shed light on private housing in the Roman East. Through excavations in Palmyra’s southwest quarter, the remains of a residential complex, the ‘Peristyle Building’, were uncovered; this site was built in the Roman period but was inhabited up to the eighth century ad.

This volume, dedicated to Prof. Maria Teresa Grassi (Università degli Studi di Milano), who co-directed the project together with Dr Waleed al-As‘ad (Museum of Palmyra), presents selected studies stemming from the Pal.M.A.I.S. project. It draws together contributions dedicated to the topography of the southwest quarter, the excavation of the Peristyle Building, and selected classes of material. Through detailed analysis and the presentation of fresh data, this volume sheds new light on a relatively unexplored sector of a threatened UNESCO World Heritage site.

While the role of the city in Late Antiquity has often been discussed by archaeologists and historians alike, it is only in recent years that scholarship has begun to offer a more nuanced approach in our understanding to how such cities functioned, stepping away from the traditional paradigm of their decline and fall with the collapse of the Roman Empire. In line with this approach, this deliberately interdisciplinary volume seeks to provide a more multifaceted understanding of urban history by drawing together scholars of literary and material culture to discuss the concepts of imagery and aesthetics of late antique cities.

Gathering together contributions by historians, philologists, archaeologists, literature specialists, and art historians, the volume aims to explore the imagery and aesthetics of cities in Late Antiquity within a strong theoretical framework. The different chapters explore the aesthetics of cityscape representations in literature and art, asking in particular whether literary representations of late antique urban landscapes mirror the urban reality of eclectic ensembles of pre-existing architecture and new buildings, as well as questioning both how the ideal of the city evolved in the imagination of the period and if imperial ideology was reflected in literary depictions of cities.

The ancient city of Neapolis (modern Kavala, Greece) was founded by Thasos in the seventh century BCE at a strategic location where the Thracian hinterlands meet the Aegean Sea. The patron deity of this North Aegean polis was Parthenos (the Maiden), a goddess often associated with Artemis and known to us through epigraphic and archaeological evidence. Her sanctuary came to light in the twentieth century, during rescue excavations, and yielded numerous finds, most of which date from the Archaic period.

This edited volume draws together the material evidence from the Sanctuary of Parthenos, with a particular focus on the ceramic wares, stone inscriptions, and small finds from the site. Published as a counterpart to an earlier publication in this series, Amalia Avramidou’s monograph, The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala): Incised and Painted Ceramic Inscriptions from the Sanctuary and in Aegean Thrace, the essays gathered here nonetheless form a stand-alone volume that sheds light on both the importance of the site as a place of cult, and more broadly the role that it played within the commercial networks and cultural dynamics of the Aegean.

The focus of the Latin Vulgaire – Latin Tardif book series lies on the complex and multifaceted problem of late and so-called vulgar Latin. Specifically, starting out from a wide range of methodological approaches involving all levels of language, the series’ main purpose is to investigate how Classical Latin (i.e. the language used in the period from ca. 100 BC to AD 100 by authors such as Cicero, Horace and Vergil) underwent the changes during the late period (i.e. mainly between the 3rd and the 7th century AD) that resulted in (the early stages of) the Romance languages. To this purpose, three main types of linguistic sources are taken into consideration. First, direct Latin sources, which include for instance texts written by people with a lesser level of literacy (e.g. inscriptions, soldiers’ letters), or by fully literate authors reproducing colloquial language deliberately (e.g. Petronius, Apuleius). Second, indirect Latin sources, which consist of metalinguistic testimonies of ancient authors (mainly, but not exclusively, grammarians) dealing with the language variation typical of their time and region. And third, the Romance idioms themselves: by comparing sources in at least two Romance varieties, one may reconstruct Latin words or forms which were used widely in spoken usage but, for different reasons, are not attested in any extant source.

While archaeology is often considered to focus on the land that lies beneath our feet, significant amounts of material culture have been lost to us beneath water, whether in seas, lakes, rivers, or submerged caves. The world of underwater archaeology, however, is increasingly recognized as a field that is vital to our understanding of the past. The chapters gathered together into this volume draw on research first presented at the Fourth Warsaw Seminar on Underwater Archaeology, held at the University of Warsaw on 18–20 November 2021. From the seas of the Caribbean through to the Mediterranean and Norway, and from Antiquity through to contemporary times, the chapters presented here offer a dazzling array of different approaches to underwater archaeology and outline the potential that changing technology presents in this expanding field.

By the late Middle Ages, architecture became an increasingly important means of representation of princely rule and institutions. In addition to their symbolic significance, the ruler’s buildings served a host of practical purposes. Obviously, castles and fortresses defended the territory, while urban and rural residences served the itinerant court during its proceedings, but their possessions also comprised a wider network of estates that included infrastructure and agricultural, commercial, industrial, and administrative buildings. Together, these networks of sites became a significant means of consolidating the sovereigns’ power and served as key instruments for promoting their rule. To tighten the control over their possessions and to ensure their upkeep, rulers set up Offices of Works, permanent administrative bodies entrusted with their management.

These building administrations have not yet been systematically studied, and it remains unclear to what extent such centralised institutions developed autonomously, responding to local conditions and requirements, or were part of international developments facilitated by the close networks of the European courts.

This volume, with contributions from architectural historians, administrative historians, and court historians, represents a first attempt to compare these institutions on a pan-European scale from the late Middle Ages up to the end of the seventeenth century. It aims to explore the relationships between the local specificities of these organisations and their shared characteristics. From a multidisciplinary perspective, it addresses questions concerning the nature of such administrations, their purpose, organisational structure, and judicial powers, as well as their role in the formation of the state.