New discoveries in the Mediterranean

The book New Discoveries in the Mediterranean comes to readers as an echo of the publication of the Czech classical archaeologist Jan Bouzek (1979), which strongly impressed the young generation of the time and led some of them to the path of study and practice of archaeology. All of the authors of this book are former students of Jan Bouzek, and with this book they are trying to continue his work of promoting archaeology. Marika Tisucka's chapter presents the history and archaeology of the Syrian Bronze Age site of Quatna. Věra Klontza-Jaklová brings the reader to the Aegean island of Santorini, where, thanks to a volcanic eruption in the Bronze Age, a uniquely preserved Minoan city with houses, their decoration and furnishings. The exact dating of the disaster still raises numerous expert debates. The following chapter by Lenka Vacinová focuses on modern approaches to uncovering the mostly lost polychromy of ancient sculpture and architecture. The chapter presents a growing body of scholarly evidence on how polychrome painting contributed to the impressiveness of the sculptural creations of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The following chapter by Marína Zubajová and Stanislava Kučová brings us to Etruscan Velzna, today's Oriveta in Tuscany, Italy. Here, the archaeological excavations of recent years have shed light into the depths of the past and helped us to better understand the functioning of the Etruscan city or some of its parts. Sagalassos is an ancient city recently discovered and explored in the mountains of southwestern Turkey. Helena Svoboda's chapter presents the fascinating history and monuments of this city, which from a local Pisidian centre became an important economic and cultural element of the globalised world in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Karel Kůt presents a varied collection of new archaeological findings relating to the efforts of the armies of the Emperor Augustus to subdue free Germania and its tribes. Many of these new findings change what we learn from the reports of Latin authors and thus alter our understanding of the history of Central Europe in this period. The final chapter by Jaroslava Schmidtová is an invitation for the reader to visit the important Roman site of Gerulata (today Rusovce) on the outskirts of the Slovak capital Bratislava. Archaeological excavations in recent years have made a significant contribution to understanding how the area looked and functioned under Roman rule.

New Discoveries in the Mediterranean brings readers a varied but limited selection of topics covered by contemporary classical archaeology. But it also shows that even in the 21st century, not all questions about antiquity have been answered. In the future, we will learn many interesting things thanks to the work of archaeologists and their collaborators.