(1) Contextualizing Research at Notion, Turkey: A Museum and Archival Approach AND (2) The Roman Period of the Western Argolid: Initial Analysis and Interpretations of an Intensive, Siteless Field Survey

(1) DeFabio: The Notion Archaeological Survey, started in 2014 and directed by Prof. Christopher Ratté, is the first comprehensive study of the ancient port-city of Notion in western Turkey. Our surface collection results have found that the main dates of occupation at Notion were the Hellenistic to early Roman periods (3rd c. BCE to 1st c. CE). Our survey, however, was not the first investigation of Notion. Several earlier projects conducted limited excavations within and around the city. While preliminary results of these excavations have been published, there have been no detailed artifact studies. This talk will present the preliminary results of an ongoing project that uses museum collections and archival documents related to these previous projects to complement what we know about Notion from our survey.

(2) Frankl:The Western Argolid Regional Project (WARP) is an Intensive, siteless pedestrian survey investigating a 30 km² area of the Inachos River Valley in Greece’s North-East Peloponnese. The project seeks a diachronic understanding of the city of Argos’ hinterland with attention to settlement patterns, land-use, and microregional paths of movement. WARP conducted three field seasons between 2014 and 2016 and has now moved into the first stages of data analysis and publication. This brown bag will highlight the project’s methodologies as well as its initial analysis of Roman period data (1st BCE-7th CE). Our analysis of the Roman period begins with the examination of landscape-wide artifact distributions. These distributions are rendered at multiple chronological scales with attention to different artifact function types and measures of diversity. Additionally, these findings will be contextualized with other survey data collected in the region, which remains one of the most extensively investigated areas in Greece. WARP’s findings can, thus, revise and add further texture to existing narratives of Roman Imperialism.