These two handsome volumes stem from the landmark exhibition ‘Idolos: Miradas Milenarias/Ídolos: Olhares Milenares’ (Idols: Millenary Gazes), which assembled an impressive collection of figurines and decorated artefacts from Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia. A total of 270 archaeological artefacts from 27 museums (plus one private collector) were displayed together for the first time, with the aim of bringing current understanding of these artefacts and the communities that made and used them to the general public (statistics can be found here: https://www.museunacionalarqueologia.gov.pt/?p=8813). The exhibition was an ambitious project and initially sparked by conversations between Jorge Soler, Head of Exhibitions at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) and Enrique Baquedano, Director of the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid (MAR)—both award-winning museums—and later joined by Primitiva Bueno, Professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares, a leading expert in late prehistoric art in Iberia and António Carvalho, Director of the National Museum of Archaeology of Portugal (NMA). The international exhibition travelled between Alicante (January to July 2020), Madrid (July 2020 to January 2021) and Lisbon (April to October 2021) and was well attended despite subsequent COVID-19 lockdowns (e.g. the exhibition at the MARQ had 29 000 in-person and 60 000 virtual visitors). If you did not have the chance to visit the exhibition, you can still take the NMA virtual tour here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=vd8nAmTpg85&play=1&title=1&ts=3&help=0, or here: https://mpembed.com/show/?m=r1G1HjKBeDT.

This paper deals with a solution to the infamous liar paradox, usually known in the Arabic literature as Maġlaṭat al-ǧaḏr al-aṣamm. The solution is raised by a fifteenth-century Ottoman treatise that is attributed, among others, to Ḫaṭībzāde Muḥyiddīn Efendī. The paper also compares it with the solution by the contemporary Persian philosopher, Ǧalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī. The short treatise devoted to the paradox is one of the few works by Ottomans on the subject and it comprehensively addresses the paradox in its two forms. An analysis of the solution offered by the treatise to the paradox, the paper aims to bring Ottoman discussions of the liar to the attention of contemporary scholarship and contribute to filling the obvious gap in the literature on the paradox in Islamic thought.

The Letter on the Soul is interesting and significant; it attempts to tackle fundamental problems that fall on the borderlines of psychology, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and logic. The consensus among Avicenna scholars is that The Letter is Avicenna’s. In this paper, I will argue against this consensus. I will examine the philosophical and logical content of The Letter, as well as Avicenna’s view on the impossible forms in his authentic works, and construct a content-based argument against the authenticity of The Letter. This study, I hope, sheds some light on Avicenna’s view on the impossibilia, what they are, and how they can be apprehended.

A relatively well-known medieval Latin innovation is the doctrine of distributive supposition. This notion came to be used in syllogistic theory in the late medieval and early modern periods, as Latin logicians sought to establish general rules for syllogistic productivity across the various figures. It is much less well-known that some logicians in the medieval Arabic tradition also attempted to establish general rules for the syllogism, appealing to what they called “subject generality.” In the present article, I introduce this use of “subject generality” in some influential Arabic works on logic from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth, specifically Al-ǧumal by Afḍal al-Dīn al-Ḫūnaǧī (d. 1248) and Tahḏīb al-manṭiq by Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī (d. 1390) and some of their commentators. I also compare this concept of “subject generality” to the Latin concept of “distribution.”

Kitāb muḫtaṣar waǧīz fī l-usṭuqussāt § 1, 1 p. 63, l. 6ff. Bos-Langermann:

Cet article démontre que la théorie de l’expérience (taǧriba) d’Ibn Sīnā nécessite une référence croisée entre la logique et la psychologie. Suivant la tradition linguistique basrane, il paraphrase les noms dérivés (ism muštaqq) dans la formule li-x y (« y appartient à x ») : par exemple, ʿālim (« savoir ») est paraphrasé en lahu ʿilm (« un acte de savoir lui appartient »). Sa théorie de l’expérience emploie cette formule pour arranger les phénomènes observés dans une certaine forme de syllogisme et décrire les fonctions des sens internes du cerveau. Ibn Sīnā arrange les phénomènes observés dans la formule li-x y ou la proposition dont un prédicat est un nom dérivé de y. En même temps, il soutient que le sens du souvenir est impliqué dans le processus de l’expérience. Le souvenir est un sens interne du cerveau, qui préserve maʿnā perçue par le sens de l’estimation. L’estimation consiste à percevoir maʿnā (y) qui est inhérente à un sujet (x), et à porter un jugement sur x en fonction de y. Ainsi, dans ce processus, l’analyse des noms dérivés range les phénomènes observés dans un ordre rationnel, et le sens interne établit la causalité entre l’appréhension et l’affirmation logique. L’article se termine par une discussion sur la relation de cette philosophie avec la médecine.

This paper considers the structure and priorities of the Carthaginian state in its imperial endeavours in both North Africa and across the Mediterranean, focusing especially on the well-documented period of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC.). It suggests that Carthaginian constitutional structures, in particular the split between civil shofetim (‘judges’) and military rabbim (‘generals’), impacted the strategic outlook and marginal bellicosity of the city, making it less competitive against its primary peer-rival in the Western Mediterranean, Rome.

The fifth season of excavations of Oponice Castle in 2020 was located in the lower castle’s courtyard. The research led to discovery of an original clay floor being heavily burned with charred plank and a rectangular stone-brick construction. The construction has collapsed upper part with a fallen low brick arch. The whole area was covered with numerous stove tiles and one clay mold for the production of stove tiles. The construction was identified as a pottery kiln dated to the second half of the 16th until the first half of the 17th century AD by the findings from excavated layer identified to the kiln destruction. Also, written sources mention a large fire in 1645 which destroyed the castle. The aim of this article is to use different methods of dating and refine the chronology of the context through microarchaeology and Bayesian modeling. For these purposes different types of samples were collected. The sampling focused on site formation process determination of pottery kiln use and the way of its destruction. Applying Bayesian analysis improved overall dating, through modeled time interval of the three individual sequences and helped recreated historical events during the period, when the calibration curve fluctuates.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in both the historical and archaeological dimensions of the destruction of cities. The destruction of the principal settlement of a polis is one thing, the effective eradication of the political community quite another. What did it take to destroy a political community? The historical record is full of references to destructions of one polis by another in late Classical to Hellenistic times in Crete. And though not all of these destructions led to the end of the political community in question, some did, and between the Classical period (where we know of 49 poleis) and the Roman conquest of Metellus (where we know of only 24) the numbers of Cretan poleis were drastically reduced. The destruction of Praisos by Hierapytna between 145 and 140 BC (Strabo 10.4.12) was one such case. This seems to form part of a horizon of destructions (of Dreros, Apollonia and Phaistos) that took place between 200 and 140 BC. Florence Gaignerot-Driessen has demonstrated that there is a clear ritual dimension to this in the case of Dreros, a dimension indicated elsewhere by the use of the verb κατέσκαψαν. Excavations at Praisos have shed light on this question. This paper argues that, while there is no evidence for a widespread destruction by fire, there is clear evidence for the ending of Praisian sanctuaries and the forced abandonment of houses and (most intriguingly) the abandonment of large storage vessels. A particular archaeological ‘signature’ of these abandonments, evident at Dreros, Phaistos and Praisos, is the abandonment of the ‘household pithos’, which in many cases seem to be older than the houses in which they have been found. The paper also argues that these archaeological signatures of what had to be destroyed in order to eradicate a political community in turn shed light on what made this particular form of ‘citizen state’ so resilient.

This article presents the results of a preliminary bioarchaeological study of 10 funerary urns containing human burned remains from the Los Tamarindos urn-field cemetery dated to the Postclassic period. I was able to determine the basic biological profile data. In addition, I determined the fragmentation rate as well as the thermal alternation of bones from funerary urns from Los Tamarindos, which allowed me to propose the first observations about the Pretarascan cremation burial practices in this region. The low weight of bones indicates that burials should be determined as partial burials; however, they contain fragments of bones from each anatomical region. The structure of the bones and the chromatic discoloration caused by the thermal alternation indicate that temperature during the cremation did not exceed 900°C, given that the cremains did not exhibit the recrystallization structure, which is interpreted as a characteristic feature of the high maximum temperature of a funerary pyre during the cremation.

This research aims to contribute to our knowledge of the chronology of the main cultural entities of the Bronze Age in the Southern Urals. The objectives of this work include the verification of earlier conclusions regarding individual sites, expanding the date series for the key cultures with reliable dates, and creating reference series for the Bayesian modeling of key archaeological sites. Thirty-two samples were selected from reliable contexts. They reflect seven different cultural traditions of the 2nd millennium calBC (Sintashta, Srubnaya, Alakul, Fedorovka, Cherkaskul, Final Bronze Age1, Transition to Early Iron Age2). Collagen (human and domestic animal bones), charcoal, and wood samples were used for radiocarbon dating. Pairs of different-type samples (human bone – animal bone, animal bone – charcoal) were obtained for the same undisturbed burial and the building floor at the time of its abandonment. The data and the composition of δ15N and δ13C isotopes allow the new dates to be considered reliable. Furthermore, the new results do not conflict with the previously obtained accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates. Determining boundary intervals for the main cultures of the Andronovo cultural community (Alakul and Fedorovka) resulted in statistically reliable conclusions on their relationship. The Alakul culture appeared earlier than the Fedorovka culture. The latter has a migratory origin in the Southern Urals. The two traditions have a long history of interaction, but the Alakul culture ending earlier. The series of dates for the Final Bronze Age, divided into two sub-periods, has been significantly expanded. Bayesian modeling of the chronology of the stratified settlement Sintashta II (Levoberezhnoe) made it possible to determine the intervals of the main phases of its history: 2004–1852 calBC (Sintashta culture) and 1410–1170 calBC (Final Bronze Age). Intermediate Cherkaskul phase is represented by a single date (1731–1541 cal BC).

In this article, the authors investigate the effectiveness of glass and metal recycling in Roman towns. The comparison of sealed primary deposits (reflecting what was in use in Roman towns) with dumping sites shows a marked drop in glass and metal finds in the dumps. Although different replacement ratios and fragmentation indices affect the composition of the assemblages recovered in dumps, recycling appears to have played a fundamental role, very effectively reintroducing into the productive chain most glass and metal items before their final discard. After presenting a case study from Pompeii, the authors examine contexts from other sites that suggest that recycling practices were not occasional. In sum, recycling should be considered as an effective and systematic activity that shaped the economy of Roman towns.

This is the first comprehensive publication of the Knaresborough 1864 hoard of copper-alloy vessels and tools. A consideration of the circumstances of the hoard’s discovery, along with a biographical account of Thomas Gott (the man who deposited the hoard in the Yorkshire Museum), for the first time enables a case to be made for a findspot. A consideration of the vessels and other objects establishes the hoard as one of the most unusual assemblages of its kind from late Roman Britain. pXRF analysis of the vessels sheds light on their composition. Finally, a discussion of the hoard places it within the international context of late Roman deposition practices.