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The seventh volume in the Institute of Classical Archaeology’s series on the rural countryside (chora) of Metaponto is a study of the Greek sanctuary at Pantanello. The site is the first Greek rural sanctuary in southern Italy that has been fully excavated and exhaustively documented. Its evidence—a massive array of distinctive structural remains and 30,000-plus artifacts and ecofacts—offers unparalleled insights into the development of extra-urban cults in Magna Graecia from the seventh to the fourth centuries BC and the initiation rites that took place within the cults. Of particular interest are the analyses of the well-preserved botanical and faunal material, which present the fullest record yet of Greek rural sacrificial offerings, crops, and the natural environment of southern Italy and the Greek world. Excavations from 1974 to 2008 revealed three major phases of the sanctuary, ranging from the Archaic to Early Hellenistic periods. The structures include a natural spring as the earliest locus of the cult, an artificial stream (collecting basin) for the spring’s outflow, Archaic and fourth-century BC structures for ritual dining and other cult activities, tantalizing evidence of a Late Archaic Doric temple atop the hill, and a farmhouse and tile factory that postdate the sanctuary’s destruction. The extensive catalogs of material and special studies provide an invaluable opportunity to study the development of Greek material culture between the seventh and third centuries BC, with particular emphasis on votive pottery and figurative terracotta plaques.

The fifth volume in the Institute of Classical Archaeology’s series on rural settlements in the countryside (chora) of Metaponto presents the excavation of a Greek farmhouse, illuminating the lifeways of fourth-century BC farmers of modest means.

This volume in the Institute of Classical Archaeology's series on rural settlements in the countryside (chora) of Metaponto presents the excavation of the Late Roman farmhouse at San Biagio. Located near the site of an earlier Greek sanctuary, this modest but well-appointed structure was an unexpected find from a period generally marked by large landholdings and monumental villas. Description of earlier periods of occupation (Neolithic and Greek) is followed by a detailed discussion of the farmhouse itself and its historical and socioeconomic context. The catalogs and analyses of finds include impressive deposits of coins from the late third and early fourth centuries AD. Use of virtual reality CAD software has yielded a deeper understanding of the architectural structure and its reconstruction. A remarkable feature is the small bath complex, with its examples of window glass. This study reveals the existence of a small but viable rural social and economic entity and alternative to the traditional image of crisis and decline during the Late Imperial period.

The seventh volume in the Institute of Classical Archaeology's series on the rural countryside (chora) of Metaponto is a study of the Greek sanctuary at Pantanello. The site is the first Greek rural sanctuary in southern Italy that has been fully excavated and exhaustively documented. Its evidence-a massive array of distinctive structural remains and 30,000-plus artifacts and ecofacts-offers unparalleled insights into the development of extra-urban cults in Magna Graecia from the seventh to the fourth centuries BC and the initiation rites that took place within the cults.Of particular interest are the analyses of the well-preserved botanical and faunal material, which present the fullest record yet of Greek rural sacrificial offerings, crops, and the natural environment of southern Italy and the Greek world. Excavations from 1974 to 2008 revealed three major phases of the sanctuary, ranging from the Archaic to Early Hellenistic periods. The structures include a natural spring as the earliest locus of the cult, an artificial stream (collecting basin) for the spring's outflow, Archaic and fourth-century BC structures for ritual dining and other cult activities, tantalizing evidence of a Late Archaic Doric temple atop the hill, and a farmhouse and tile factory that postdate the sanctuary's destruction. The extensive catalogs of material and special studies provide an invaluable opportunity to study the development of Greek material culture between the seventh and third centuries BC, with particular emphasis on votive pottery and figurative terracotta plaques.

From 1974 to the present, the Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICA) at the University of Texas at Austin has carried out archaeological excavations and surveys in ancient territories (chorae) in southern Italy. This wide-ranging investigation, which covers a large number of sites and a time period ranging from prehistory to the Middle Ages, has unearthed a wealth of new information about ancient rural economies and cultures in the region. These discoveries will be published in two multivolume series (Metaponto and Croton). This volume on the Neolithic settlement at Capo Alfiere is the first in the Croton series. The Chora of Croton 1 reports the excavation results of a remarkable Neolithic site at Capo Alfiere on the Ionian coast. Capo Alfiere is one of a very few early inhabitation sites in this area to have been excavated extensively, with a full team of scientific specialists providing interdisciplinary studies on early farming and animal husbandry. It provides comprehensive documentation of the economy, material culture, and way of life in the central Mediterranean in the sixth and fifth millennia BC. Most notable are the remains of a wattle-and-daub hut enclosed within a massive stone wall. Unique for this area, this well-preserved structure may have been used for special purposes such as ritual, as well as for habitation. The presence of Stentinello wares shows that the range of this pottery type extended further east than previously thought and casts new light on the development of ceramics in the area. JON MORTER was a field director for ICA excavations at Metaponto and Croton in southern Italy, and Chersonesos in Crimea. The ICA Croton project was the subject of his dissertation, for which he received a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He had taken up a position teaching at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) shortly before his death. JOHN ROBB is Reader in European Prehistory and editor of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal at Cambridge University.

This is a first report of an ongoing, collaborative study by the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos and the Institute of Classical Archaeology, Austin, Texas of the chora of the Greek colony of Chersonesos in southwestern Crimea, Ukraine. It presents an overview of the problems with the basic literature, the goals of this interdisciplinary project, and the preliminary results of the first five years of collaboration. The topics and methodologies covered include the historical development of the chora in light of nearly a century of archaeological investigation and scholarship; the geographic and geomorphic characteristics of the chora; the topographical and archaeological features and recent changes to the land surface through space-based remote sensing; the excavation and conservation of an early Hellenistic period farm site; and the excavation of a multiphase fortified site on the eastern border of the chora, now under way.

This analysis examines over one thousand bones recovered from the Pantanello Sanctuary. A pioneering study of this animal bone material was carried out by the late Sándor Bökönyi in connection with the 1974–1991 excavations; his preliminary faunal list from the site was published posthumously.¹ Erika Gál then revisited all animal remains from the chora of Metaponto and evaluated the material from a previously unexplored taphonomic point of view.² Finally, a detailed stratigraphic and zoological revision of the Pantanello finds has been carried out here, to analyze the recent fine-tuning of the chronology provided by excavated baulks, which provide most

Archaeological investigations by the Institute of Classical Archaeology that examine a unique collection of Greek funerary monuments from the Black Sea.

Well-dated ancient plant and faunal material provided much information about the agricultural economy in ancient times, and at the same time opened up the possibility of obtaining untapped material for genetic research on plants, animals, or humans from archaeological excavations. For the geomorphologist, studying the evolving land forms of this landscape, its history is a continuum, and the events of a well-documented past offer insights into today's problems and a much-needed prospective for those concerned with the region's future.