Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology - (Volume 16) - Sturt W. Manning

Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology - (Volume 16) - Sturt W. Manning

11. Mobility and Labour Efforts along Prehistoric Roads and Least Cost Paths in the Argolid, Greece

Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology - (Volume 16) - Sturt W. Manning

Ann Brysbaert [+-]
University of Leiden
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Ann Brysbaert is Professor of Ancient Technologies, Materials and Crafts and Principle Investigator of the ERC SETinSTONE project (Leiden University, 2015-2020). Previously, she has been PI of one of the sub-projects of “Tracing Networks” (Leicester University, 2008-2013). Her main research interests are linked to pre-industrial technologies, materials and social practices, painted plaster, pyrotechnological and relating crafts, and combining material culture with landscape approaches in economies of building. Apart from her monograph (2008: Power of Technology in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. The Case of Painted Plaster. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 12.London: Equinox Press), her recent publications include five edited volumes on these themes. The most recent two are: Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building. Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Built Environment. Leiden: Sidestone Press (2018: edited with V. Klinkenberg, A. Gutièrrez Garcia-M. and I. Vikatou); and Building BIG – Constructing Economies: from Design to Long-Term Impact of Large-Scale Building Projects. Heidelberg: Propylaeum (in press: edited with J. Pakkanen).

Description

This paper investigates the network of roads in the Argolid and especially in terms of quantifying and assessing the construction labour involved and considering this against the least cost paths for movement across the landscape. The study finds that factors other than simple economy of travel were important, especially in mountainous regions. It is evident that provision of mobility/transport and the control over this both reflects and reinforces socio-political and economic power and status. Mycenae stands out as considerably more connected via roads than Tiryns and Midea, and this may suggest both its dominant political role in the region, and likely a central, organizing, role in pooling and supporting the resources necessary to construct and maintain the road system.

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Citation

Brysbaert, Ann . 11. Mobility and Labour Efforts along Prehistoric Roads and Least Cost Paths in the Argolid, Greece. Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology - (Volume 16). Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 197-216 May 2022. ISBN 9781800500594. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=42487. Date accessed: 19 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.42487. May 2022

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