Archaeology Odyssey

See the exchange “Who Invented the Alphabet?” in Archaeology Odyssey, Premiere Issue, 1998: Barry B. Powell, “The Greeks”; P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., “The Semites.”

See Theodore H. Feder and Hershel Shanks, “Iphigenia and Isaac: Saved at the Altar,” Archaeology Odyssey, May/June 2002.

For more on the subject, see Sturt W. Manning, A Test of Time: The Volcano of Thera and the Chronology and History of the Aegean and East Mediterranean in the Mid Second Millennium BC (Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books, 1999).

Dendrochronology involves counting the annual growth rings of trees, enabling scholars to study not only chronology but also climate. The nature of the annual growth ring formed by a tree reflects the climate during the growth year. Warm, wet years produce thick rings; cold, dry years produce thin rings.

Mallia is, in many respects, the best published of all the Minoan palace sites, with 33 volumes of preliminary and final reports.

Although the Germans have never played any significant role in Cretan field archaeology, they have made major contributions to the study of Minoan art and architecture. The Americans got off to a great start in the first two decades of the 20th century, with Harriet Boyd and Richard Seager, who dug at Mochols, Pseira and Vasiliki. But they lost interest in Crete after 1920 and were not to return to the island for more than 50 years.

See Susan Heuck Allen’s review of two books—Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of Minoan Myth (Hill and Wang, 2000) and Duncan Mackenzie: A Cautious Canny Highlander & the Palace of Minos at Knossos (Univ. of London, 1999)—in Archaeology Odyssey, September/October 2003, p. 60.

Nectanebo refers to either Nectanebo I (380–362 B.C.) or Nectanebo II (362–343 B.C.), two Egyptian pharaohs of the 30th Dynasty.

Antoine Barthélemy Clot was an eminent physician.