1st Edition

Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory

Edited By Stella Souvatzi, Athena Hadji Copyright 2014
    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory addresses these two concepts as interrelated, rather than as separate categories, and as a means for understanding past social relations at different scales. The need for this volume was realised through four main observations: the ever growing interest in space and spatiality across the social sciences; the comparative theoretical and methodological neglect of time and temporality; the lack in the existing literature of an explicit and balanced focus on both space and time; and the large amount of new information coming from prehistoric Mediterranean. It focuses on the active and interactive role of space and time in the production of any social environment, drawing equally on contemporary theory and on case-studies from Mediterranean prehistory.

    Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory seeks to break down the space-time continuum, often assumed rather than inferred, into space-time units and to uncover the varying and variable interrelations of space and time in prehistoric societies across the Mediterranean. The volume is a response to the dissatisfaction with traditional views of space and time in prehistory and revisits these concepts to develop a timely integrative conceptual and analytical framework for the study of space and time in archaeology.

    1. Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory and Beyond Athena Hadji and Stella Souvatzi  2. Working with Time and Space in Later Mediterranean Prehistory Robert Chapman  3. What Does a Settlement’s Layout Show about the Society that Inhabits it? On the Importance of Thinking-Through-Images Stavros Stavrides  4. On Stone Houses and the Co-Creation of Worlds and Selves Rachel Harkness  5. Bodies of Evidence? Re-imagining a Phenomenological Approach to Space and Time in Prehistoric Malta Eimear Meegan  6. Time and Place, Memory, and Identity in the Early Neolithic of Southwest Asia Trevor Watkins  7. Constructing the present past in the Anatolian Neolithic Bleda S. Düring  8. Communicating Over Space and Time in the World of the Iceman Robin Skeates  9. Sharing Space and Time with the Ancestors at an Early Bronze Age Tomb in South Central Crete Emily Miller Bonney  10. Time and Space in the Middle Bronze Age Aegean World: Ialysos (Rhodes), a Gateway to the Eastern Mediterranean Τoula Marketou  11. Space and Temporality in Herding Societies: Exploring the Dynamics of Movement during the Iberian Late Prehistory Patricia Murrieta-Flores  12. Space and Time in the Architecture of Prehistoric Enclosures: The Iberian Peninsula as a Case Study José E.Márquez-Romero and Víctor Jiménez-Jáimez  13. The Four-Dimensional Palace: The Middle Bronze Age Palace of Kabri through Time Assaf Yasur-Landau and Eric H. Cline  14. Semiotic Approaches for the Study of the Urban Environment of the Late Bronze Age Settlement of Akrotiri on Thera Konstantinos Athanasiou  15. Discussion: Space – Time and the Mediterranean in Contexts: Historical, Interdisciplinary and Interpretive Stephanie Koerner

    Biography

    Stella Souvatzi is Adjunct Professor at the School of Humanities, Hellenic Open University. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge (Archaeology). She has taught on the theory of archaeology and on Mediterranean archaeology in Britain, Greece and Cyprus, and has conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork all over Greece. Her research interests include the Neolithic archaeology of Greece, SE Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, and the theory of archaeology and anthropology. She is the author of A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece: An Anthropological Approach (2008) and of many publications in international journals and edited volumes.

    Athena Hadji is Co-ordinator of the e-learning program in the History of Prehistoric Aegean Art at the University of Athens, Greece, and is a Research Associate of the University of the Aegean (Aegean Prehistory). She is the recipient of prestigious fellowships and awards from the Fulbright and the Alexander S. Onassis Foundations, among others. She has collaborated with many cultural institutions and organizations, both public and private. On occasion she curates art exhibitions and publishes extensively on art, archaeology, anthropology and beyond.

    "This is a remarkable contribution worth reading by all those interested in theoretical issues dealing with the two chief
    dimensions of human perception: space and time.  It is a bold and thought-provoking attempt to overcome the conceptual limitations of current discussions on the space-time relationships in the prehistoric past. In short, it really contributes to setting a comparative and integrative framework which transcends boundaries (both political and disciplinary) and rearticulates our understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of social phenomena in the past, yielding more sound and nuanced narratives."

    -Antonio Blanco-Gonz´alez, University of Valladolid, Spain