Papers by Daniel J. Pullen
Thinking the Bronze Age: Life and Death in Early Helladic Greece. By Erika Weiberg
American Journal of Archaeology, Apr 1, 2009
Measuring Ceramic Change and Variability at Final Neolithic Diros
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
The Collapse of the Mycenaean Economy: Imports, trade, and institutions 1300–700 bce, by Sarah C. Murray, 2017. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; ISBN 978-1-107-18637-8 hardback; £90.00. xiv+354 pp., 16 b&w figs, 10 b&w maps, 42 tables
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Feb 21, 2018
from an ‘eyewitness account’, this work was derived almost entirely from the writings of Cortés. ... more from an ‘eyewitness account’, this work was derived almost entirely from the writings of Cortés. The work was so full of errors that it was banned by Philip II, and it inspired Bernal Díaz del Castillo to write his well-known history of the Spanish conquest to set things straight. In another example, Hirth criticizes Lawrence Feldman for drawing conclusions about markets from lists of terms alone (pp. 183–4). Yet in chapter 2, Hirth himself is guilty of just this practice. He interprets a list of 17 native terms for land tenure (p. 37) as indicating 17 different types of land. But James Lockhart (1992), working from additional evidence, shows that this diversity of terms can be reduced to two basic types of land tenure. Partly because of historiographical issues like this, the discussion in chapter 2 is not up to the same empirical standards as the rest of the book. My second criticism is Hirth’s adherence to the old view of a powerful state that controlled society and the economy, except in the commercial realm. One manifestation is his use of the term ‘tribute’ to describe regular, institutionalized payments to the state that are normally— outside Mesoamerican scholarship—called taxes. Although he does cite mywork on this topic and gives a reason for his choice of terms (pp. 35–6), I am not convinced by his argument. Hirth further claims that everyone was a member of a ‘tribute cadre’ that determined a person’s economic position and activity. He suggests that the state organized labour and regulated communities through these institutions. But his description of ‘tribute cadres’, the tlaxiclacalli and calpolli (pp. 35, 197, 225), does not fit standardmodels of Aztec local groups and structures as analysed by Hicks, Berdan, Lockhart, or me. Hirth views these institutions as top-down impositions by the state, whereas most others view themmore as bottom-up structures generated from local social and economic forces. The ‘tribute cadre’ concept is used to justify one of the more controversial assertions in the book: that the longdistance merchants and elite artisans were not organized into guilds or guild-like institutions (pp. 153, 192–4, 209). Nearly every scholar who has written on the pochteca and elite artisans concludes that they organized themselves into something very much like European guilds. Yet Hirth claims that ‘craft guilds did not exist in Mesoamerica’ (p. 153). His argument seems to be that, because merchants and crafterswere already organized into tribute cadres, they could not also have formed guilds (p. 192). It is unfortunate that Hirth does not develop a more systematic comparative approach. He makes scattered comparisons with medieval European traits. In some cases, he sees similar patterns (e.g. p. 266, on exchange dealers), and in other cases—such as tax/tribute and the lack of guilds—he claims major differences. But in the absence of a more systematic comparative method, it is hard to judge the extent to which his comparative claims are based on evidence, as opposed to adherence to a statist view of Mesoamerican economies. In sum, The Aztec Economic World is an outstanding treatment ofAztecmerchants and their institutional context. Additional attention to a few key historiographical and conceptual issues would improve the volume, but these issues affect his general contextual discussions more than his key chapters on merchants and their trade.
The Political Geography of the Late Bronze Age Argolid
Political Geographies of the Bronze Age Aegean
Measuring Ceramic Change and Variability at Final Neolithic Diros
The Prehistoric and early iron age pottery and the lithic artifacts
Stanford University Press eBooks, 1995
Introduction Curtis Runnels, Daniel J. Pullen, and Susan Langdon 1. The pottery of the Neolithic,... more Introduction Curtis Runnels, Daniel J. Pullen, and Susan Langdon 1. The pottery of the Neolithic, Early Helladic I, and Early Helladic II periods Daniel J. Pullen 2. The pottery of the Early Helladic III and Middle Helladic periods Gullog C. Nordquist 3. The pottery of the Late Helladic period P. A. Mountjoy 4. The pottery of the early Iron Age and Geometric periods Susan Langdon 5. The Lithic artifacts: flaked stone and other nonflaked Lithics P. Nick Kardulias, and Curtis Runnels Conclusions Curtis Runnels, Daniel J. Pullen, and Susan Langdon.
A Greek Countryside: The Southern Argolid from Prehistory to the Present Day
Journal of Field Archaeology, 1997
Page 1. BOOK REVIEWS MICHAEL H. JAMESON, CURTIS N. RUNNELS and TJEED H. VAN ANDEL. A Greek Countr... more Page 1. BOOK REVIEWS MICHAEL H. JAMESON, CURTIS N. RUNNELS and TJEED H. VAN ANDEL. A Greek Countryside: The Southern Argolid from Prehistory to the Present Day, with a Register of Sites by Curtis N. Runnels and Mark H. Munn. ...
Ox and Plow in the Early Bronze Age Aegean
American Journal of Archaeology, 1992
Abstract Agricultural change was an important part of the overall social and cultural changes tak... more Abstract Agricultural change was an important part of the overall social and cultural changes taking place in the Aegean during the Early Bronze Age. One hypothesized change is the introduction of new agricultural technologies such as the plow and traction, but evidence has been ...
Hayat: Arkeolojiye Adamış bir yaşam / Hayat: A Life Dedicated to Archaeology, ed. by V. Şahoğlu et al. Ankara University., 2023
Babil'den İstanbul'a-İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri'nin Babil Koleksiyonuna İlk Bakış ..385 Andreas ... more Babil'den İstanbul'a-İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri'nin Babil Koleksiyonuna İlk Bakış ..385 Andreas Schahner Karaburun-Kömür Burnu Geç Tunç Çağı Mezarlığı .
The American Historical Review, 1996
The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend
The American Historical Review, 1993
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8 - Diros in Context: Alepotrypa Cave and Ksagounaki Promontory in the Neolithic Period
Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece
Book Reviews July 2006
American Journal of Archaeology, 2006
Book Reviews October 2005
American Journal of Archaeology, 2005
Book Reviews July 2007
American Journal of Archaeology, 2007
The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age: Archaeology, Radiocarbon and History. Sturt W. Manning
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1996
Chronology is one of the linchpins of archaeology. There are problems in constructing absolute ch... more Chronology is one of the linchpins of archaeology. There are problems in constructing absolute chronologies in the historical periods, while those who study prehistoric periods are perhaps luckier in that they need consider only "scientific" or analytical techniques for obtaining absolute dates. Those of us who study semi-historical periods such as the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean are at a disadvantage because we must reconcile chronologies derived from both historical and analytical sources. Manning attempts to do that, ostensibly for just the Early Bronze Age (EBA) of the southern Aegean, but he masterfully ranges far beyond, to Anatolia, the Near East, and Egypt, as well as down into the Middle Bronze Age. This work is in many ways a traditional one, concerned with the problem of constructing an absolute chronology for a particular cultural region. The book is essentially two. In the first he constructs a relative chronology for the EBA Aegean, and, with extensive correlations to neighboring regions with historical information, he suggests a set of dates for the various divisions of the EBA. In the second he analyzes the radiocarbon and thermoluminescence data and compares the resulting calibrated calendrical dates to the chronology constructed in the first part. One could hardly ask for a more detailed analysis: the bibliography is immense (over 1600 items) and the footnotes prodigious (over 1150 in some 200 pages of text). Probably the biggest surprise is how close to many of the traditional chronologies his conclusions are: he would have the EBA begin ca. 3100 B.c. (all dates are calibrated calendrical years) and the Middle Minoan IA period begin ca. 2050 B.c. In this respect his conclusions are very different from several recent chronologies, which have the EBA beginning as early as 4000/3800 B.c. (Treuil 1983: 139), 3700/3500 B.c. (Coleman 1992: figs. 2 and 4), or 3650/3600 B.c. (Warren and Hankey 1989: 169). I agree with Manning's chronology (e.g., Pullen 1985: 84, where I begin the EBA ca. 3200 B.c. and the MBA ca. 2050 B.c.). There is so much information packed into this book, especially in the first section, that I can only point to two of the many important contributions Manning makes. The first is his attempt to solve the problem of the chronological position of the "anatolianizing" Lefkandhi I/Kastri pottery assemblage [pp. 52-68]. This involves a great number of entangled problems, including the very different ceramic histories for the neighboring sites of Lerna and Tiryns, whether a ceramic "gap" exists in the EB3 period in the Cyclades, and the development of mainland pottery in the EB3 period. Manning suggests that the Lefkandhi I assemblage is late Early Helladic II (EH II = EB2), but he allows a slight overlap of the combined Lefkandhi I/Kastri assemblage (actually two separate phenomena, as he rightly points out) with the earliest EH III such as the Ubergangshorizont at Tiryns (of which he accepts, the validity) whilst at Lerna there is a slight gap between the destruction of the House of the Tiles (EH II) and the first occupation of EH III. The Early Cycladic (EC) III gap he fills by first pointing out its short duration and then suggesting a modification of the traditional EC III ceramic sequence from Phylakopi on Melos. Earliest EC III is represented by the overlap of the Kastri/ Lefkandhi I assemblage along with the beginning of the early Phylakopi I painted wares, which continue into midEC III; mature Phylakopi I incised wares and duck askoi would be late EC III into MC. While not an elegant solution, it is a deft and relatively convincing one that addresses nearly all the problems raised by the various sides in the debate.
Communication Uneven. Acceptance of and Resistance to Foreign Influences in the connected ancient Mediterranean
This volume has its origin in a similarly entitled session organised at the 24th Annual Meeting o... more This volume has its origin in a similarly entitled session organised at the 24th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Barcelona in 2018. The specific aim of both the session and this volume was to measure acceptance of, and resistance to, outside influences within Mediterranean coastal settlements and their immediate hinterlands, with an open time range, but with a particular focus on the processes not reflecting simple commercial routes, but taking place at an intercultural level, in situations of developed connectedness. Following a general discussion of the theoretical and long-lasting facets of the discussion on communication, and of some of the reasons for its unevenness, the contributions in the volume give a wide and stimulating view of the ongoing debate about Mediterranean interaction and communication. The papers’ timespan is large: from the Late Neolithic of Crete, in the 5th - 4th millennium BCE, to the Macedonian conquest of Thrace, in the 4th...
Diros in Context
Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece, 2018
Τσεπι Μαραθόνοσ: Το πρωτοελλαδικό νεκροταφείο. By Maria Pantelidou Gkofa
American Journal of Archaeology, 2007
A Companion to Archaeology. By John Bintliff
American Journal of Archaeology, 2005
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Papers by Daniel J. Pullen