Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino [Paperback]

Jack L. Davis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1998

Pylos is a natural harbor located on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece. Homer's Odyssey describes "Sandy Pylos" as the seat of King Nestor, who welcomed Telemachos as he searched for his father, Odysseus, ten years after the Trojan War. Millennia later, modern Greece won its independence from Turkey there in the 1827 naval battle of Navarino.

This book traces the archaeological history of Pylos and surrounding regions in Messenia from the Stone Age to the present. Designed for general readers and travelers interested in ancient Greece, as well as scholars, it presents the findings of a consortium of archaeologists, natural scientists, historians, and art historians who joined forces to study the history of not just one archaeological site, but of an entire landscape, and not just in a single period, but at all times in the past.

This approach, based on understanding a whole regional system over an extended time from many disciplinary perspectives, represents the state-of-the-art in archaeological research. It clearly demonstrates how historical and archaeological evidence can be synthesized to offer richer insights into the past.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is much more than a standard-issue guide.... While it most explicitly aims to give the general public new eyes by which they might understand what they see in the Greek landscape, it could also cause professional archaeologists and historians to rethink what they do. (Susan Buck Sutton, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292715951
• ISBN-13: 978-0292715950
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,822,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent archaeological analysis in an easy-to-read format, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino (Paperback)

In this book, Dr. Davis and his contributors bring to the general public the cultural omplexities of a region in Greece in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format. From the introduction and discussion of archaeological methods to the individual chapters outlining particular facets of research or particular chronological periods, the reader is taken on a journey into the world of modern regional studies. As opposed to other books that deal with archaeological subjects, Dr. Davis et al. treat the region of Messenia as a continuum, giving no shrift to any period of history, treating all equally well. The book is well illustrated and photographed. Overall, this is an excellent book for the avocational archaeologist, for classroom use and for those archaeologists for whom Greek archaeology is not their forte.