Books by Eleftheria Pappa
The monograph reconstructs the excavations that took place in one location in Tavira by the Cámpo... more The monograph reconstructs the excavations that took place in one location in Tavira by the Cámpo Arqueológico de Tavira, under the direction of Dra Maria Pereira Maia (1999-2002). It is based on my study of the available archival material of the excavations (excavation reports, field notes, finds forms) and the excavated pottery. My research and fieldwork took place in Tavira and Castro Verde (three study seasons in 2012- 2013). The pottery stored was recorded in a catalogue, described, quantified and attributed to its excavated context with the aim of publishing an as much accurate excavation report as possible of the site and its contextual assemblages.
Beyond the interest that the excavated contexts have for the proto-history of Iberia, and the Phoenician expansion, pertaining to a settlement surrounded by huge fortification walls of the Phoenician casemate type of construction, it is worth remarking on the presence of Greek pottery (rare find in Portugal) among the fragments. The ostracon probably belongs to the black-figure style but due to its size further details regarding its attribution are not possible.
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The so-called Phoenician 'expansion' in the western Mediterranean is treated here from the point ... more The so-called Phoenician 'expansion' in the western Mediterranean is treated here from the point of view of the social and economic factors that led to the phenomenon and the way it evolved over a period of approximately 300 years. To this end, the book gathers, collates and analyses the disparate evidence for networks of interaction in the western Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of Europe and north Africa in the period from the 9th to the 7th century BC. The focus form the less-well known areas of the expansion, the Iberian Peninsula and north-west Africa, which are studied within the broader context of Mediterranean interactions in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age periods from the Near East to the Atlantic. The discussion is detailed and takes into account some of the latest archaeological discoveries, along with previously unpublished material. Detailed descriptions of selected sites are provided in an appendix.
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Book Reviews by Eleftheria Pappa
Athens Journal of History , 2019
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Bibliotheca Orientalis, 2018
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Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2011
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Papers by Eleftheria Pappa
In Maria Beatriz Borba Florenzano (ed), Ocupação territorial e definição de fronteiras no Mediterrâneo antigo. São Paulo: Intermeios, 2023
The present article focuses on the westernmost adaptation of the Phoenician abjad into a local sc... more The present article focuses on the westernmost adaptation of the Phoenician abjad into a local script, the South-Western (SW), contextualizing the evidence for the transmission of the alphabet into its historical setting, and taking into account archaeological finds in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and the Aegean. That the script recorded a Celtic language was recognized over three decades ago and recent advances into its deciphering mark a turning point in the understanding of the proto-history of Iberia. A trans-Mediterranean perspective is necessary so as not to misinterpret the broader historical dynamics that led to the development of the SW script, but has remained a rarity. Thus, here the earliest transmission of the alphabet in south-western Iberia is embedded into its historical and archaeological setting, discussing relevant archaeological finds across the two ends of the Mediterranean in parallel, as the emergence of literacy in Iberia was an expression of interregional phenomena with repercussions across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic fringes of Iberia. Subsequently, a regional focus is adopted in comparing the information provided by the epigraphic studies on the social organization of the indigenous communities that used the SW script with the archaeological evidence that corresponds to their presence in southern Portugal.
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https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/323/article/860964#info_wrap
The article revisits some Athenian Bla... more https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/323/article/860964#info_wrap
The article revisits some Athenian Black-Figure vases that depict Herakles and a monster. While it is indebted to previous iconographic analyses, it adopts a broader, contextual methodology, firmly situating them within the socio-religious setting of Archaic Athens. Adducing relevant data, it opens new lines of investigation. The implications of visual humour for civic theology are explored in light of recent studies, rejecting a postulated derivation of these scenes from theatrical plays. Rather, it is proposed that the vases had a cultic function, with their imagery deployed as an allusion to the rites of the Panathenaia, referencing the aetiological myth of the festival.
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Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies Volume 18, Number 2 ISSN 1740-2743, 2020
The article discusses the position of classical antiquity in higher education in Brazil, taking ... more The article discusses the position of classical antiquity in higher education in Brazil, taking into account post-colonialism in South America and calls for ‘decolonisation’ in the field of classical archaeology globally. It is concerned with
how the subject of classical antiquity in Brazil intersects with ideals of classical antiquity as European heritage developed during the colonial period, and its perceived embodiment of colonial, eurocentric ideals. This particular inflection in the study of classical antiquity is here referred to as tropicalismo. Situating the discussion within
the philosophy of historiography, intellectual and cultural history, it combines empirical ethnography, theory in archaeology and classical reception studies, touching on themes stretching from colonial-era policies to modern-day Amazonian anthropology. The study shows that the emergence of classical archaeology in
Brazilian university education, rather than propping up a colonial elitist perspective, helped the foundation of indigenous archaeology at the time of the last dictatorship, thus aligning with progressive social movements. It also documents how the perspective of classical archaeology in Brazil differs from dominant euro-centric models, therefore offering an intrinsic, if not explicit, form of decolonised classical archaeology at a time that the ‘decolonisation’ of archaeology as a discipline remains a hotly debated topic – and largely a desideratum – in European and north American theoretical movements.
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Romanitas, 2020
The article reviews the evidence for cultic activity at the Orientalizing settlement of Alcácer d... more The article reviews the evidence for cultic activity at the Orientalizing settlement of Alcácer do Sal (Portugal). It offers new comparanda for the assemblage of cultic artefacts identified at two locations and then interprets it in the broader context of Mediterranean interconnections. It
is suggested that a cult brought by Phocaean Greek merchants, perhaps from southern Iberia where such cults are archaeologically attested during the same period, may explain the evidence better than the hypotheses so far formulated.
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Revista do Museu da Arqueologia e Etnologia, 2020
Advances in research into the origins of monetisation in the Mediterranean have shown that even ... more Advances in research into the origins of monetisation in the Mediterranean have shown that even with state-controlled currency circulating, (coinage-less) credit economies existed in parallel, using written documents for transactions well into the Roman period. The current paper documents that a credit economy facilitated the Phoenician commercial expansion in the Mediterranean (9th-7th c. BCE), becoming the vehicle by which the Phoenician 'alphabet', a West Semitic abjad, was rapidly adopted and adapted into various phonetic and syllabic scripts in the Mediterranean. This led to the rapid spread of literacy in societies that had reverted to full illiteracy by then, such as the Greek one, or that had never developed literacy. In contrast with previous explanations that saw the spread of literacy in the Mediterranean as a corollary to international trade, the present study postulates that literacy played a functional role within the credit economies that grew with international commerce, thereby providing the impetus for the spread of literacy, given that it offers documentation that substantiates this hypothesis. In essence, the study links the rapid spread of literacy to the institutional role of the script within the context of monetised commercial transactions, utilising archaeological evidence from both ends of the Mediterranean, and interpreting it within its historical context.
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Dossiê "Fenícios" - M. Kormikiari (Éd.), 2019
Our core knowledge concerning the Phoenician diaspora in northwestern Africa centers around the a... more Our core knowledge concerning the Phoenician diaspora in northwestern Africa centers around the archaeological and historical evidence of the sites of Lixus and Mogador in Morocco, as well as the necropoleis of Tangier and the site of Rachgoun in Algeria. A less clear picture has been formed for the subsequent, so-called Punic phase. Yet ongoing surveys of large areas and archaeological investigations of sites are enhancing our knowledge of the Phoe-nician and Punic periods in northwestern Africa, weaving a complex picture of various degrees and types of involvement in the local milieu by people of a Near Eastern heritage. Here, the earliest Phoenician presence and developments down to the Punic period (associated with the Carthaginian expansion) are presented, taking into account the local context as well as the settlement and mercantile activities of Phoenicians in the wider Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
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Hélade
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Two chronological phases can be discerned during the time under discussion, of vital importance f... more Two chronological phases can be discerned during the time under discussion, of vital importance for understanding the exchange dynamics with the Aegean. These correspond to the period prior to and after the so-called Phoenician colonization or expansion, the Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Early Iron Age periods respectively. The main types of evidence used to infer pre-colonial activity consists in metalwork, imported pottery and their local adaptations. They come from settlements, tombs, or hoards. The “warrior stelae” of southwestern Iberia have been seen for decades as a main indicator of contacts between Iberia and the Aegean or the Near East. Early Cypriot trips to the Iberian Peninsula may account for contacts between the eastern and western Mediterranean during the LBA and should be interpreted within the context of the metallurgical trade and the need for tin.
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Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 2019
The study departs from recent suggestions that locally produced balance weights from settlement s... more The study departs from recent suggestions that locally produced balance weights from settlement sites in central Portugal, dated to the Final Bronze Age (1200-900) are based on a Late Bronze Age Syrian/Ugaritic metrological system (13th-12th c. BCE). These proposals have been based on the comparative studies of the weights of these Atlantic objects, but have not been examined rigorously in comparison with Near Eastern metrological systems, despite the claims they make. This has repercussions for the conclusions drawn so far.
The present study has a threefold aim. First, it examines this hypothesis of a Syrian derivation of metrological systems underlying the local production of balance weights in Atlantic Iberian settlements (ca. 1200-900 BCE). Secondly, it investigates whether these local balance weights bear any metrological relationship to those balance weights of Phoenician typologies encountered in Atlantic Iberian sites of the colonial period (8th-6th c. BCE). Thirdly, taking as a case study the better documented evidence from Alcácer do Sal, it examines for the first time whether these metrological systems, in use for centuries in Atlantic Iberia, underlie the metrologies of the earliest, pre-Roman, locally-minted coinage, which follows Phoenician iconography but is struck using the syllabary of the indigenous languages, developed in the 8th c. BCE as an adaptation of the Phoenician script. The study suggests that the dating of the earliest group of balance weights needs to be lowered. In addition, it documents a likely derivation of the metrological system of coinage from the Phoenician milieu of Iberia, rather than the 3r dc. BCE Carthaginian metrologies, as advocated so far. This is supported by the metrological continuity between balance weights and coinage, and the latter's iconography, as the present study documents.
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Radical History Review, Jan 1, 2018
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Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2017
Debates on cultural heritage and collective memory emphasize the contested role of archaeology in... more Debates on cultural heritage and collective memory emphasize the contested role of archaeology in national narratives to the exclusion of other parameters. Yet, cultural heritage can be made visible or remain invisible for reasons other than (un)conscious ideological preoccupations. The representation of the Phoenician archaeological record in Portugal is used to demonstrate that, despite its detachment from collective memory, the ancient cultural heritage can transcend its distance from the past, attaining significance within the contemporary social milieu. The Portuguese embrace their links with Phoenician cultural heritage, investing in academic research and cultural heritage. The corresponding ancient culture remains an adjunct of the archaeological evidence, researched and publicized, but not as an extension of the ‘collective self’ of modern society. Shifting this devoid-of-symbolic-meaning archaeological record onto the level of contemporary reality accords it visibility, even as the long-forgotten Phoenician origins of some still practiced traditions remain an unacknowledged, ‘invisible’ heritage.
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Books by Eleftheria Pappa
Beyond the interest that the excavated contexts have for the proto-history of Iberia, and the Phoenician expansion, pertaining to a settlement surrounded by huge fortification walls of the Phoenician casemate type of construction, it is worth remarking on the presence of Greek pottery (rare find in Portugal) among the fragments. The ostracon probably belongs to the black-figure style but due to its size further details regarding its attribution are not possible.
Book Reviews by Eleftheria Pappa
Papers by Eleftheria Pappa
The article revisits some Athenian Black-Figure vases that depict Herakles and a monster. While it is indebted to previous iconographic analyses, it adopts a broader, contextual methodology, firmly situating them within the socio-religious setting of Archaic Athens. Adducing relevant data, it opens new lines of investigation. The implications of visual humour for civic theology are explored in light of recent studies, rejecting a postulated derivation of these scenes from theatrical plays. Rather, it is proposed that the vases had a cultic function, with their imagery deployed as an allusion to the rites of the Panathenaia, referencing the aetiological myth of the festival.
how the subject of classical antiquity in Brazil intersects with ideals of classical antiquity as European heritage developed during the colonial period, and its perceived embodiment of colonial, eurocentric ideals. This particular inflection in the study of classical antiquity is here referred to as tropicalismo. Situating the discussion within
the philosophy of historiography, intellectual and cultural history, it combines empirical ethnography, theory in archaeology and classical reception studies, touching on themes stretching from colonial-era policies to modern-day Amazonian anthropology. The study shows that the emergence of classical archaeology in
Brazilian university education, rather than propping up a colonial elitist perspective, helped the foundation of indigenous archaeology at the time of the last dictatorship, thus aligning with progressive social movements. It also documents how the perspective of classical archaeology in Brazil differs from dominant euro-centric models, therefore offering an intrinsic, if not explicit, form of decolonised classical archaeology at a time that the ‘decolonisation’ of archaeology as a discipline remains a hotly debated topic – and largely a desideratum – in European and north American theoretical movements.
is suggested that a cult brought by Phocaean Greek merchants, perhaps from southern Iberia where such cults are archaeologically attested during the same period, may explain the evidence better than the hypotheses so far formulated.
The present study has a threefold aim. First, it examines this hypothesis of a Syrian derivation of metrological systems underlying the local production of balance weights in Atlantic Iberian settlements (ca. 1200-900 BCE). Secondly, it investigates whether these local balance weights bear any metrological relationship to those balance weights of Phoenician typologies encountered in Atlantic Iberian sites of the colonial period (8th-6th c. BCE). Thirdly, taking as a case study the better documented evidence from Alcácer do Sal, it examines for the first time whether these metrological systems, in use for centuries in Atlantic Iberia, underlie the metrologies of the earliest, pre-Roman, locally-minted coinage, which follows Phoenician iconography but is struck using the syllabary of the indigenous languages, developed in the 8th c. BCE as an adaptation of the Phoenician script. The study suggests that the dating of the earliest group of balance weights needs to be lowered. In addition, it documents a likely derivation of the metrological system of coinage from the Phoenician milieu of Iberia, rather than the 3r dc. BCE Carthaginian metrologies, as advocated so far. This is supported by the metrological continuity between balance weights and coinage, and the latter's iconography, as the present study documents.
Beyond the interest that the excavated contexts have for the proto-history of Iberia, and the Phoenician expansion, pertaining to a settlement surrounded by huge fortification walls of the Phoenician casemate type of construction, it is worth remarking on the presence of Greek pottery (rare find in Portugal) among the fragments. The ostracon probably belongs to the black-figure style but due to its size further details regarding its attribution are not possible.
The article revisits some Athenian Black-Figure vases that depict Herakles and a monster. While it is indebted to previous iconographic analyses, it adopts a broader, contextual methodology, firmly situating them within the socio-religious setting of Archaic Athens. Adducing relevant data, it opens new lines of investigation. The implications of visual humour for civic theology are explored in light of recent studies, rejecting a postulated derivation of these scenes from theatrical plays. Rather, it is proposed that the vases had a cultic function, with their imagery deployed as an allusion to the rites of the Panathenaia, referencing the aetiological myth of the festival.
how the subject of classical antiquity in Brazil intersects with ideals of classical antiquity as European heritage developed during the colonial period, and its perceived embodiment of colonial, eurocentric ideals. This particular inflection in the study of classical antiquity is here referred to as tropicalismo. Situating the discussion within
the philosophy of historiography, intellectual and cultural history, it combines empirical ethnography, theory in archaeology and classical reception studies, touching on themes stretching from colonial-era policies to modern-day Amazonian anthropology. The study shows that the emergence of classical archaeology in
Brazilian university education, rather than propping up a colonial elitist perspective, helped the foundation of indigenous archaeology at the time of the last dictatorship, thus aligning with progressive social movements. It also documents how the perspective of classical archaeology in Brazil differs from dominant euro-centric models, therefore offering an intrinsic, if not explicit, form of decolonised classical archaeology at a time that the ‘decolonisation’ of archaeology as a discipline remains a hotly debated topic – and largely a desideratum – in European and north American theoretical movements.
is suggested that a cult brought by Phocaean Greek merchants, perhaps from southern Iberia where such cults are archaeologically attested during the same period, may explain the evidence better than the hypotheses so far formulated.
The present study has a threefold aim. First, it examines this hypothesis of a Syrian derivation of metrological systems underlying the local production of balance weights in Atlantic Iberian settlements (ca. 1200-900 BCE). Secondly, it investigates whether these local balance weights bear any metrological relationship to those balance weights of Phoenician typologies encountered in Atlantic Iberian sites of the colonial period (8th-6th c. BCE). Thirdly, taking as a case study the better documented evidence from Alcácer do Sal, it examines for the first time whether these metrological systems, in use for centuries in Atlantic Iberia, underlie the metrologies of the earliest, pre-Roman, locally-minted coinage, which follows Phoenician iconography but is struck using the syllabary of the indigenous languages, developed in the 8th c. BCE as an adaptation of the Phoenician script. The study suggests that the dating of the earliest group of balance weights needs to be lowered. In addition, it documents a likely derivation of the metrological system of coinage from the Phoenician milieu of Iberia, rather than the 3r dc. BCE Carthaginian metrologies, as advocated so far. This is supported by the metrological continuity between balance weights and coinage, and the latter's iconography, as the present study documents.
Two of the most crucial and fundamental problems in proto-
-historical and anthropological research relate to the popularization of literacy and the origins of money. The reasons behind the sudden and sweeping spread of the Phoenician alphabet in the 8th-7th c. BCE remain unresolved, yet endlessly debated. At the same time, the scholarship paradox that the Phoenicians, the traders of antiquity par excellence, seemingly did not use any form of physical currency remains largely overlooked, despite their Mediterranean-wide commercial networks. Yet recent research points to the high degree of the monetization of Phoenician commercial networks, as well as to the fact that forms of ‘proto-currency’ were circulating in the Levant at least from the 8th c. BCE. This article aims to look at these two problems from an entirely novel perspective, exploring the links between them and testing whether causality can be established between the sudden popularization of literacy and the absence of currency in the Phoenician economy, focusing on the Western Mediterranean. It suggests that increasing monetization developed through patterns of commercial exchanges established in the Near East during the 3rd millennium BCE, which allowed for transactions using promissory notes, with payments made in various means, for example via an established index of value (e.g. to silver).
Português:
Dois dos problemas mais importantes e fundamentais na pesquisa proto-histórica e antropológica são relacionados à popularização da alfabetização e às origens do dinheiro. As razões por trás da propagação repentina e abrangente do alfabeto fenício no século VIII-VII a.C. permanecem sem solução, apesar dos debates contínuos. Ao mesmo tempo, permanece largamente ignorado na pesquisa acadêmica o paradoxo de que os fenícios, comerciantes da antiguidade por excelência, aparentemente não usaram nenhuma forma de moeda física, apesar de possuírem redes comerciais no Mediterrâneo. No entanto, pesquisas recentes suportam o alto grau de monetização das redes comerciais fenícias, bem como o fato de que formas de “protomoeda” circulavam no Levante pelo menos a partir do século VIII a.C. Este artigo pretende analisar esses dois problemas de uma perspectiva totalmente nova, explorando os vínculos entre eles e testando se uma causalidade pode ser estabelecida entre a repentina divulgação da alfabetização e a ausência de moeda física na economia fenícia, com foco no Ocidente. É sugerido que o aumento da monetização foi possível através dos padrões de intercâmbio comercial estabelecidos no Próximo Oriente desde o terceiro milênio a.C., que permitiram transações usando letras de crédito (notas promissórias), com pagamentos eventuais efetuados em vários meios através de um índice estabelecido de valor (por exemplo, relativo à prata)
Swift changes to the organizational structure, funding and teaching of the humanities in many countries across the EU, as well as of the cultural heritage sector, have resulted in many speaking of the future of the humanities as “endangered.” In particular, fields such as history, archaeology, anthropology, classics and modern languages have received some of the stronger blows. The present article deals with the challenges and outlook of a subset of the humanities (mainly archaeology, ancient history and anthropology) and the cultural heritage sector in the European Union (EU). It examines EU and national policies on academic research and heritage management, including the impact on its practitioners. Its aim is to delineate the current state of affairs, highlight efforts at the professional group, national and international levels so as to address some of the existing problems and suggest new avenues for tackling these issues. In a nutshell, it addresses the crux of the issue: why invest in something as “shaky” as the humanities dealing with the past, at a time of precarious present and future?
The ongoing economic crisis that has severely affected Europe has had a detrimental effect on the humanities and on the heritage management sector. Different approaches by national governments coalesce on the point of the curtailing and downsizing measures employed, albeit in different ways. These policies, despite glossy and high-pitched rhetoric as to the contrary, work in tandem with a broader tendency to undervalue and demote the role of the humanities in contemporary European societies, mediated via national and supra-national authorities. This tendency, however, goes hand-in-hand with the market-oriented and “technocratic” ethics of the neoliberal economic model that has permeated Europe, where the open, democratic political debate is being increasingly replaced by unchallenged, top-down decision-making by unelected agents of supra-national institutional structures that pursue specific sets of economic goals. These goals recurrently and consistently fail to address existing, large-scale social problems, while setting the precedent of substantial democratic deficiency. The severe repercussions of these developments have reached a visible zenith during the past five years. As such, the demotion of the humanities in Europe is symptomatic of a general crisis of values in Europe that is manifested in a wide array of social and political phenomena.
murals of the Upper Temple of Jaguars at Chichen ltza and views the implications of
their interpretation for its political development. It suggests that ballgame ideology can
sufficiently explain the scenes of the murals, deviating in this way from past
interpretations that see them as historical accounts of events postulated to have taken
place. Combined with archaeological and epigraphic evidence, as well as ethnohistoric
accounts, it supports the hypothesis for the existence of a new form of political
organization at Chichen ltza, most likely a confederate state.
*This is an undergraduate dissertation written for obtaining the degree of BA in Archaeology at the University of Bristol. The thesis studied copies of murals of the temple of Chichen Itza made in situ at the temple and held at the City Museum in Bristol, the original murals of which may not survive.*