Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1984 - 68

The Bookshelf
continued from page 66
book, given the claim that this is the
first application of a formal probabilistic
sampling strategy to a survey in the
Aegean.
The survey technique- a set of 20
percent randomly sampled transects, intensively surveyed by teams of walkers
25 meters apart- is explained in language, and with results, which demonstrate the virtues of probabilistic sampling. Artifact collection was limited to
special finds, with chronological evaluation often made in the field, rather than
by total recovery of ancient evidence.
Unfortunately, few sites and artifacts
are illustrated and the few photographs
are poor. Maps and chronological charts
are copious (over 200)and form the major
frame of reference for citations of evidence, but these are interpretative and
schematic, increasing one's distance from
the ancient material.
The history of Melos fluctuates between rich and poor documentation, and
so coverage is predictably uneven. Eight
pages are devoted to prehistoric lithic
technology, but less than a page to a
thousand years of Byzantine history (and
"Post-Roman Melos" as a chapter title
for the last 1,600 years promotes an
unnecessary antiquarian bias). The neglect of Classical and Roman Melos is
disappointing. Familiar antiquities inevitably, the Louvre's Venus - are
illustrated, but not the theater, architectural fragments or fortification walls
unseen by many scholars.
The historical sections of the book
make clear how much of the island's
history depends on extrapolation from
literature and comparative evidence,
sometimes with dangerous results. For
example, Sparkes compares the increase
in Geometric pottery during the eighth
century B.c. to Snodgrass' theory of a
"population explosion" based on Athenian statistics. This theory, which claims
an annual growth rate of four percent in
Late Geometric Athens (760-700 B.c.),
presumes an increase (a trebling of
population within three generations)
impossible in pre-industrial societies and
has been challenged by demographers,
yet has crept into scholarship as "good
evidence."
Part II, "Environmental System and
Constraints," on the geology and geomorphology of Melos, provides the two
most technical chapters. Important information that emerges here includes the
role of micro-plates in Aegean tectonics
and the fact that Melos' deep northern
bay was not produced by a volcanic collapse, but is the result of block faulting
and collapsing during the island's history
of disjunctive tectonism. The description of the island's volcanic minerals in
Chapter 7 is critical to an understanding
of the economic history of Melos.
Geomorphologists also produced important conclusions for settlement his68

Archaeology

Book Briefs
tory in Chapter 8. Alluvial deposits
continued from page 67
indicate an acceleration in soil erosion
of a very old and successful but now
and a corresponding increase in coastal
vanishing lifeway. The author makes
A.D.
B.c.
and
1000
between
deposition
continual reference to archaeological
500, a new date for the Mediterranean
data and archaeological problems, careFill."
as
known
"Younger
phenomenon
fully relating the ethnographical inforIn the Bronze Age, erosion seems to
mation to them. She also includes a
have been accelerated through intensive
chapter on prehistoric villages with
cultivation and could in fact have choked
attention to their physical and social
the bay of Phylakopi with silt, causing
settings.
its abandonment. Later habitation and
This well-written volume is intended
cultivation shifted to the lower alluvial
for specialists in Near Eastern
primarily
and expanded coastal plains, which were
and ethnography, who will
prehistory
Roman
the
settled
period.
by
thickly
find
it
a
skillfully
wrought, richly deSuch evidence dramatically expands the
of information. The
tailed
compendium
sources of explanation for settlement
author is to be congratulated for comlocations.
pleting and publishing a very demandIn the evaluation of the island's reing
study in exemplary fashion. Village
sources (Chapter 9), Melos presents an
is a highly significant
Ethnoarchaeology
estimated potential of cultivable land
literature on
to
addition
anthropological
that is high for Greece (20 percent ) and a
Near East.
and
the
ancient
contemporary
diversity of minerals which make proJo Watson, Washington UniverPatty
duction beyond subsistence possible.
sity, St. Louis , MO
Chapter 10 compares this potential to
recent figures on land use, a valuable set
Cypriote Ships from the Bronze
of evidence on the location, size and yield
Age to c. 500 b.c., by Karin Westof modern cultivated land.
Part III ("Intra-Systemic Relations")
erberg . 119pages, 56 black-and-white
photographs, 6 text figures, 1 map,
shifts to a diachronic perspective, the
bibliography. Paul Äströms Förlag,
population of Melos and its fluctuations
Gothenburg, Sweden 1983 100 Crowns
through time, where certain patterns
'
($12.25)
on
settlement
In
particular,
emerge.
Melos shows distinct cycles of dispersion
Artisans on Cyprus produced a number
and nucleation. In the Early Bronze Age
of representations of ships from the
(3300-2300 B.c.) a few hundred inhabiMiddle Cypriote (ca. 2000 b.c.) to the
tants were scattered over the island;
end of the Cypro-Archaic (ca. 475 B.c.)
thereafter, Phylakopi dominated the
island as the primary nucleated settleperiods. Clay models, vase paintings and
ment, with a concentration of about 2,000
graffiti on stones make up the corpus.
Westerberg presents 56 examples in her
people for a thousand years. Severe
depopulation in the Dark Ages (1100-800 catalogue. Grouped by period, but seemB.c.) was reversed by eighth-century
ingly without any other rationale to their
organization, each of the depictions is
expansion and increase (exaggerated by
well described, and an exhaustive bibliSnodgrass' "exponential growth," but
nonetheless substantial). Population
ography is provided for every object.
once again concentrated on a single site,
Usually small in scale and coarsely
this time ancient Melos, a defensible
made, the representations lack elements which might permit a meaningful
acropolis on the sheltered bay of Melos.
analysis of how ancient Cypriote ships
In the Roman period settlements again
were constructed. Appreciating this
increased and dispersed, then clustered
situation, the author nonetheless asat two primary settlements in Ottoman
sumes that in all probability the Cypin
effect
still
dual
a
today.
times,
primacy
riote shipwrights followed the general
Two chapters on prehistoric agricultradition of boatbuilding in the eastern
ture and animal husbandry depend
Mediterranean, namely the shell-first
heavily on floral and faunal remains
technique. Fault is not to be found with
recovered from Phylakopl. Excavations
her conclusion but rather with basing it
tested stratigraphy in selected areas
on such imprecise data.
limited in size, which produced poor
Westerberg concludes by grouping the
samples of seeds and bones without the
representations into three types of ships:
wider expanse of industrial floors recomlarge sailing vessels for carrying cargo
mended as context or a probabilistic
on the high seas, smaller sailing translocations.
of
Moreover,
despite
sample
ports grouped with non-sailing coasters,
the fact that 50 percent of Phylakopi 's
and small rowed boats. However, she
sea
in
the
lies
catchment
(the
potential
states that "the distinctions between
fish
site is located on a seaside cliff),
various types sometimes seem rather
bones were scarce at the site.
vague." The value of this book lies more
The final chapter in this section,
in its thorough descriptive catalogue
"Alternative Subsistence Strategies,"
than in the author's interpretation of the
extends modern and ancient evidence to
material. Michael L. Katzev, Institute
estimate the island's supportive capacity
Acof Nautical Archaeology, College Stabased on site catchment analysis.
tion, TX
continued on page 79

Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1984