Curtis Runnels
Biographic Data
| ID | 3616664 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Curtis Runnels |
| GIVEN NAMES | Curtis |
| FAMILY NAME | Runnels |
| SIGNATURE | RUNNELS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 59 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 539 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 59 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Afterword: The Aegean Nexus for Hominin Dispersals in the Middle Pleistocene
An Historical Sketch of Paleolithic Research in Greece
Evidence for Paleolithic humans in Greece was discovered in 1867 soon after the recognition of human antiquity in Europe in 1859. Systematic research was delayed until 1928 when Adalbert Markovits excavated caves with late Paleolithic and Mesolithic deposits in Megara and the Peloponnese and Rudolf Stampfuss excavated Upper Paleolithic strata in a Boeotian cave in 1942. Sustained Paleolithic research began in 1962 when Eric Higgs undertook system…
From sagas to voyages: Prospecting, agency, and the Paleolithic exploration of the Greek islands
Demic dispersals of humans into new regions are often carried out in phases, some exploratory and others aimed at establishing a resident population. Here we propose that "prospecting" characterizes human and hominin behavior connected with the early exploratory phases of human migratory behavior. Along with behavioral epigenetic factors, prospecting is a form of agency and intentional action in human behavior that drove the exploration of previo…
The indigenous paleolithic of the Western hemisphere
The indigenous paleolithic of the Western hemisphere." The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
Flaked Stone Tools and Domestic Economy in a Classical Polis: Lithics from the Lower Town at Halieis, Greece
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 91, Number 2, April-June 2022
The Piney Branch site (District of Columbia, U.S.A.) and the significance of the quarry-refuse model for the interpretation of lithics sites
In the 1870s the amateur archaeologist Dr Charles Abbott discovered roughly-flaked bifacial artefacts that he called “paleoliths” near Trenton, New Jersey, which he claimed were artefact types similar to Lower Palaeolithic handaxes being found in western Europe at that time. This interpretation gave rise to what has been called the Great Palaeolithic War, a debate in the United States about the existence of an “American Palaeolithic” that only en…
Deposit-centered archaeological survey and the search for the Aegean Palaeolithic: A geoarchaeological perspective
New evidence for the Palaeolithic in Attica, Greece
Despite Greece’s key geographic position between southeast Europe and southwest Asia, and its potential for documenting hominin dispersals, Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites are rare. This suggests the need for research to identify deposits that may contain Palaeolithic artefacts. Here we describe 165 quartz and quartzite artefacts with Palaeolithic characteristics (based on technical and morphotypological definitions) from a private collection…
Maritime hominin dispersals in the Pleistocene: Advancing the Debate
To what extent is there spatial and temporal patterning in the spread of our genus around the planet, and what environmental and behavioural factors specify this patterning? The prevailing model of Pleistocene dispersals of Homo holds that this process was essentially terrestrial, with oceans and seas inhibiting and directing the movement of hominins out of Africa (e.g. Mellars 2006; Dennell & Petraglia 2012; Gamble 2013), although some scholars …
Middle Pleistocene sea-crossings in the eastern Mediterranean
Response: Where Do We Stand?
Discussion and Debate
Within a 48-hour period during January 2014, the JMA co editors received two papers—those of Curtis Runnels and Thomas P. Leppard printed above—that, quite fortuitously, each addressed the topic of Mediterranean island colonization by archaic hominins, albeit from radically different perspectives. Neither author was aware of the other’s paper, nor has either article subsequently been revised to take account of the other. Realizing the widespread …
Experimental Three-Dimensional Printing of a Lower Palaeolithic Handaxe: An Assessment of the Technology and Analytical Value
Chipped stone tools are difficult to illustrate in publications with line drawings or analog photographs, and previous attempts to improve on stone tool illustration with stereoviews, coatings, or casts have not been widely adopted by lithic analysts. New software makes it possible to create interactive photorealistic 3D digital images of stone tools in the field or laboratory without specialized or expensive equipment. These images can be replic…
Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands
Humans evolved in Africa and colonized Eurasia in successive adaptive radiations, establishing themselves in Europe ca. one million years ago. It is assumed that these dispersals were by land through southwest Asia, or secondarily across the Strait of Gibraltar, because early hominins lacked the cognitive faculties and technical skills needed to cross the open Mediterranean. Such crossings are thought to have occurred only at the end of the Pleis…
Early Prehistoric Landscape and Landuse in the Fier Region of Albania
Little was known until recently about regional patterns of early prehistoric occupation in Albania, making it difficult to situate the Albanian record within existing, general models of early prehistoric landuse. An intensive regional survey, the Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project (MRAP), carried out in the Fier region of central Albania from 1998-2003, gathered widespread evidence for human occupation during the Palaeolithic and Mesolit…
Stone Age Seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence from the Plakias Region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Habitation of Crete
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 79, Number 2, April-June 2010
The paleoanthropology of Greece
European paleoanthropology and paleolithic archeology were already well‐established by the early twentieth century. The human fossil record from this continent is the longest known and perhaps most intensively studied. Nonetheless, important gaps remain to this day in the map of Pleistocene Europe; perhaps the most glaring of these is located in the southeastern corner of the continent. This region's record is critical for addressing questions ab…
Mesolithic Sites and Surveys in Greece: A Case Study from the Southern Argolid
Regional surveys in Greece have only rarely identified Mesolithic sites, which consist typically of small, unobtrusive scatters of microlithic artifacts. Recently, a site location model was used along with targeted surveys to identify Mesolithic sites in the Argolid, Epirus, and the Sporades, and the results suggest that the Mesolithic may have been overlooked in some early surveys because, in part, the characteristic features of Mesolithic assem…
Warfare in Neolithic Thessaly: A Case Study
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 78, Number 2, April-June 2009
George Finlay's Contributions to the Discovery of the Stone Age in Greece
In 1869, the historian George Finlay published a small pamphlet in Greek, entitled Παρατηρήσεις ἐπἰ τῆς ἐν Ἑλβετίᾳ και Ἑλλάδι Προϊστορικῆς Ἀρχαιολογίας ( Observations on Prehistoric Archaeology in Switzerland and Greece ), describing the discovery of Neolithic artefacts from Greece. This pamphlet is largely forgotten today, and the discovery of the Greek Stone Age is usually accorded to twentieth-century prehistorians (see e.g. Tsountas's excavat…
Harold North Fowler and the Beginnings of American Study Tours in Greece
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 76, Number 3, July-September 2007
A Mesolithic Landscape in Greece: Testing a Site-Location Model in the Argolid at Kandia
A survey was conducted in southern Greece in 2003 to test a predictive Mesolithic site-location model. We selected the coastal region of Kandia in the Argolid because the present shoreline is near the position of the early Holocene shoreline (c. 9,000 to 10,500 Cal BP). Marine transgression brought the shoreline near its present position by 9,000 Cal BP, flooding low-lying areas and creating a dynamic system of wetlands fed by springs and rivers.…
Karstic Wetland Dwellers of Middle Palaeolithic Epirus, Greece
The coastal zone of western Greece from the Ambracian Gulf to the Albanian border is the, foreland of the great Pindos range. It is a complicated, actively rising landscape of limestone mountains and closed intra-montane basins. Archaeologically, this karst landscape is distinguished by numerous Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites embedded in the red sediments of the basins. In contrast,further inland, the river valleys of the western flank of the…
The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Albania: Survey and Excavation at the Site of Kryegjata B (Fier District)
In the Balkans archaeologists until recently have neglected Pleistocene and early Holocene remains in open-air contexts in favor of excavations in caves. As a consequence, they have reconstructed patterns of settlement and land use that in many areas are misleading. The authors of this paper suggest that a systematic examination of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic open-air sites through intensive surface survey has the potential to transform entirely …
The Early Stone Age of the Nomos of Preveza: Landscape and Settlement
Curtis N. Runnels, Tjeerd H. van Andel, The Early Stone Age of the Nomos of Preveza: Landscape and Settlement, Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 32, Landscape Archaeology in Southern Epirus, Greece 1 (2003), pp. 47-134
The Historical Dimension in Mortuary Expressions of Status and Sentiment [and Comments and Reply]
The earliest farmers in Europe
Some 9000 years ago the first European farmers established themselves in the empty plains of Thessaly, the only region in Greece that provided a reasonably assured harvest and was large enough for significant population growth. They flourished there and after more than a thousand years spread to the Balkans and beyond. The recognition that their success may have depended on the natural irrigation of river and lake floodplains leads us to a modifi…
Five Thousands Years of Land Use and Abuse in the Southern Argolid, Greece
Tjeerd H. van Andel, Curtis N. Runnels, Kevin O. Pope, Five Thousands Years of Land Use and Abuse in the Southern Argolid, Greece, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 103-128
Stone Age Seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence from the Plakias Region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Habitation of Crete
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 79, Number 2, April-June 2010
A Prehistoric Survey of Thessaly: New Light on the Greek Middle Paleolithic
As part of a research program aimed at clarifying the date of the Middle Paleolithic in Greece and its relationship with contemporary industries in the Balkans, a survey of the Larisa area of Thessaly for Paleolithic remains was undertaken in 1987. The results of this survey are reported, along with a reinterpretation of the available evidence in Greece for the date of the Middle Paleolithic. The banks and terrace system of the Peneios River were…
Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands
Humans evolved in Africa and colonized Eurasia in successive adaptive radiations, establishing themselves in Europe ca. one million years ago. It is assumed that these dispersals were by land through southwest Asia, or secondarily across the Strait of Gibraltar, because early hominins lacked the cognitive faculties and technical skills needed to cross the open Mediterranean. Such crossings are thought to have occurred only at the end of the Pleis…
The Evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic Explanation
Curtis N. Runnels, Tjeerd H. van Andel, The Evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic Explanation, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1987), pp. 303-334
Maritime hominin dispersals in the Pleistocene: Advancing the Debate
To what extent is there spatial and temporal patterning in the spread of our genus around the planet, and what environmental and behavioural factors specify this patterning? The prevailing model of Pleistocene dispersals of Homo holds that this process was essentially terrestrial, with oceans and seas inhibiting and directing the movement of hominins out of Africa (e.g. Mellars 2006; Dennell & Petraglia 2012; Gamble 2013), although some scholars …
Karstic Wetland Dwellers of Middle Palaeolithic Epirus, Greece
The coastal zone of western Greece from the Ambracian Gulf to the Albanian border is the, foreland of the great Pindos range. It is a complicated, actively rising landscape of limestone mountains and closed intra-montane basins. Archaeologically, this karst landscape is distinguished by numerous Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites embedded in the red sediments of the basins. In contrast,further inland, the river valleys of the western flank of the…
A Mesolithic Landscape in Greece: Testing a Site-Location Model in the Argolid at Kandia
A survey was conducted in southern Greece in 2003 to test a predictive Mesolithic site-location model. We selected the coastal region of Kandia in the Argolid because the present shoreline is near the position of the early Holocene shoreline (c. 9,000 to 10,500 Cal BP). Marine transgression brought the shoreline near its present position by 9,000 Cal BP, flooding low-lying areas and creating a dynamic system of wetlands fed by springs and rivers.…
Piltdown: An Appraisal of the Case against Sir Arthur Keith [and Comments and Reply]
The Organization of Flaked Stone Production at Bronze Age Lerna
A study of nearly 12,000 lithic artifacts from Lerna was undertaken to determine if the lithics were produced by craft specialists. Analysis indicates that the production of lithics was controlled by part-time craft specialists based in individual households and not controlled by an elite central authority. The evidence of continuity in Bronze Age flintknapping does not support a hypothesis of discontinuity or cultural replacement at Lerna. Any i…
The Bronze-Age Flaked-Stone Industries from Lerna: A Preliminary Report
The Olive in the Prehistoric Aegean: The Evidence for Domestication in the Early Bronze Age
In 1972 Colin Renfrew suggested that the rise of Mycenaean civilization may have been made possible by the development of a polycultural triad of wheat, vine and olive in the Early Bronze Age. A careful examination of the botanical and archaeological evidence for the domestication of the olive lends little support to this aspect of the thesis. The palynological evidence from various points in Greece is inconclusive, but for most areas it would se…
The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Albania: Survey and Excavation at the Site of Kryegjata B (Fier District)
In the Balkans archaeologists until recently have neglected Pleistocene and early Holocene remains in open-air contexts in favor of excavations in caves. As a consequence, they have reconstructed patterns of settlement and land use that in many areas are misleading. The authors of this paper suggest that a systematic examination of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic open-air sites through intensive surface survey has the potential to transform entirely …
Trade and the Origins of Agriculture in the Eastern Mediterranean
Trade and social stratification appeared more or less simultaneously in different parts of the Eastern Mediterranean prior to the advent of agriculture-based village economies. This formulation places trade at the head of a list of factors that favored the adoption and dispersal of agriculture, and contrasts with previous views that regarded the development of complex societies as the consequence of the chance innovation or evolution of agricultu…
An essay on the 'emergence of civilization' in the Aegean world
The fascicules of the final report on Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, the key Aegean sequence for the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, are starting to appear, along with the publications of the Stanford survey of the region. Here, those reports prompt a wider review of existing explanations for the emergence of Greek social complexity, and the identifying of a new and major impetus as the basis for a revised model
Mesolithic Sites and Surveys in Greece: A Case Study from the Southern Argolid
Regional surveys in Greece have only rarely identified Mesolithic sites, which consist typically of small, unobtrusive scatters of microlithic artifacts. Recently, a site location model was used along with targeted surveys to identify Mesolithic sites in the Argolid, Epirus, and the Sporades, and the results suggest that the Mesolithic may have been overlooked in some early surveys because, in part, the characteristic features of Mesolithic assem…
Early Upper Palaeolithic Spilaion: An Artifact-Rich Surface Site
Curtis N. Runnels, Evangelia Karimali, Brenda Cullen, Early Upper Palaeolithic Spilaion: An Artifact-Rich Surface Site, Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 32, Landscape Archaeology in Southern Epirus, Greece 1 (2003), pp. 135-156
The Palaeolithic of the Bosphorus Region NW Turkey
A survey of open-air sites in NW Turkey identified 16 Palaeolithic sites. Analysis of nearly 2000 lithics identified Lower, Middle, and Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) components. The Lower Palaeolithic is represented by a core-chopper/flake assemblage at one site and an assemblage with small bifaces at another. Middle Palaeolithic assemblages similar to the typical Balkan Mousterian were found at most sites, and an EUP assemblage similar to the B…
Coastal Paleogeography of the Central and Western Mediterranean during the Last 125,000 Years and Its Archaeological Implications
In this paper we present paleogeographic maps of the central and western Mediterranean for 18,000 B.P. at the height of the last glacial maximum, and for 9,000 B.P. near the end of the rapid phase of the postglacial rise of the sea. Sea-level data for the past 125,000 years indicate that, in addition, the 18,000 B.P. map reasonably represents preceding cold stadials, while the 9,000 B.P. map depicts the configuration of intervening warm periods. …
The Archaeology of V. Gordon Childe: Contemporary Perspectives
The Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Thessaly, Greece
A combined geological/stratigraphical and archaeological survey was carried out in June, 1991, in the Larisa basin of Thessaly, Greece, as the last in a series of surveys begun in 1987. An age range of 60–30 thousand years (kyr) was also established for in situ Middle Paleolithic sites exposed by the down cutting of the Peneios River valley between the Kalamakiou gorge and Larisa. The environmental settings for these sites were reconstructed by m…
Warfare in Neolithic Thessaly: A Case Study
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 78, Number 2, April-June 2009
Experimental Three-Dimensional Printing of a Lower Palaeolithic Handaxe: An Assessment of the Technology and Analytical Value
Chipped stone tools are difficult to illustrate in publications with line drawings or analog photographs, and previous attempts to improve on stone tool illustration with stereoviews, coatings, or casts have not been widely adopted by lithic analysts. New software makes it possible to create interactive photorealistic 3D digital images of stone tools in the field or laboratory without specialized or expensive equipment. These images can be replic…
Flaked-Stone Artifacts in Greece during the Historical Period
The evidence for historical flaked-stone artifacts in Greece is summarized. In recent years a number of such artifacts have been recognized in stratified deposits of the early Iron Age, the Protogeometric, Geometric, and Classical periods. Historical flaked-stone artifacts were probably used for making agricultural tools and were low-cost substitutes for metal. The evidence indicates that an ancient Greco-Roman flaking tradition may bridge the ga…
Bronze Age Population Fluctuations in the Argolid from the Evidence of Mycenaean Tombs
Coastal Paleogeography of the Central and Western Mediterranean during the Last 125,000 Years and Its Archaeological Implications
In this paper we present paleogeographic maps of the central and western Mediterranean for 18,000 B.P. at the height of the last glacial maximum, and for 9,000 B.P. near the end of the rapid phase of the postglacial rise of the sea. Sea-level data for the past 125,000 years indicate that, in addition, the 18,000 B.P. map reasonably represents preceding cold stadials, while the 9,000 B.P. map depicts the configuration of intervening warm periods. …
The Bronze-Age Flaked-Stone Industries from Lerna: A Preliminary Report
Lithic Studies: Some Theoretical Considerations
In this paper it is argued that there is an implicit definition of lithic studies as the study only of flaked chert and obsidian artifacts belonging to hunter-gatherer or early agricultural societies. This definition reflects the sorts of questions asked by most archaeologists: questions formulated to make use of the principal components of the archaeological record. A unified field of lithic studies, however, may be expanded to include the entir…
The Olive in the Prehistoric Aegean: The Evidence for Domestication in the Early Bronze Age
In 1972 Colin Renfrew suggested that the rise of Mycenaean civilization may have been made possible by the development of a polycultural triad of wheat, vine and olive in the Early Bronze Age. A careful examination of the botanical and archaeological evidence for the domestication of the olive lends little support to this aspect of the thesis. The palynological evidence from various points in Greece is inconclusive, but for most areas it would se…
Five Thousands Years of Land Use and Abuse in the Southern Argolid, Greece
Tjeerd H. van Andel, Curtis N. Runnels, Kevin O. Pope, Five Thousands Years of Land Use and Abuse in the Southern Argolid, Greece, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1986), pp. 103-128
The Evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic Explanation
Curtis N. Runnels, Tjeerd H. van Andel, The Evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic Explanation, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1987), pp. 303-334
Trade and the Origins of Agriculture in the Eastern Mediterranean
Trade and social stratification appeared more or less simultaneously in different parts of the Eastern Mediterranean prior to the advent of agriculture-based village economies. This formulation places trade at the head of a list of factors that favored the adoption and dispersal of agriculture, and contrasts with previous views that regarded the development of complex societies as the consequence of the chance innovation or evolution of agricultu…
Early Bronze-Age Stone Mortars from the Southern Argolid
Beyond the Acropolis: A Rural Greek Past
A Prehistoric Survey of Thessaly: New Light on the Greek Middle Paleolithic
As part of a research program aimed at clarifying the date of the Middle Paleolithic in Greece and its relationship with contemporary industries in the Balkans, a survey of the Larisa area of Thessaly for Paleolithic remains was undertaken in 1987. The results of this survey are reported, along with a reinterpretation of the available evidence in Greece for the date of the Middle Paleolithic. The banks and terrace system of the Peneios River were…
An essay on the 'emergence of civilization' in the Aegean world
The fascicules of the final report on Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, the key Aegean sequence for the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, are starting to appear, along with the publications of the Stanford survey of the region. Here, those reports prompt a wider review of existing explanations for the emergence of Greek social complexity, and the identifying of a new and major impetus as the basis for a revised model
Trade Models in the Study of Agricultural Origins and Dispersals
The Historical Dimension in Mortuary Expressions of Status and Sentiment [and Comments and Reply]
From the Study of Its Past, Optimism about Archaeology's Future A History of Archaeological Thought. Bruce G. Trigger
Rotary querns in Greece
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Achilleion: A Neolithic Settlement in Thessaly, Greece, 6500-5600 B. C
Man's Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape . S. Bottema, G. Entjes‐Nieborg , and W. van Zeist
Piltdown: An Appraisal of the Case against Sir Arthur Keith [and Comments and Reply]
A Handaxe from Kokkinopilos, Epirus, and its Implications for the Paleolithic of Greece
A complete, well-preserved Micoquian-type handaxe was discovered in 1991 at Kokkinopilos, Greece, stratified 16 m below a paleosol of Last Glacial age containing abundant Middle Paleolithic artifacts. The handaxe was embedded in "redbeds" (very fine-grained) well-indurated red sediments, and is the same age as the redbeds. The lithology of the redbeds suggests slow sedimentation on the floor of a doline (sinkhole) with a variable but often high g…
The Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Thessaly, Greece
A combined geological/stratigraphical and archaeological survey was carried out in June, 1991, in the Larisa basin of Thessaly, Greece, as the last in a series of surveys begun in 1987. An age range of 60–30 thousand years (kyr) was also established for in situ Middle Paleolithic sites exposed by the down cutting of the Peneios River valley between the Kalamakiou gorge and Larisa. The environmental settings for these sites were reconstructed by m…
Tinderflints and Firemaking in the Historical Period
The Archaeology of V. Gordon Childe: Contemporary Perspectives
The earliest farmers in Europe
Some 9000 years ago the first European farmers established themselves in the empty plains of Thessaly, the only region in Greece that provided a reasonably assured harvest and was large enough for significant population growth. They flourished there and after more than a thousand years spread to the Balkans and beyond. The recognition that their success may have depended on the natural irrigation of river and lake floodplains leads us to a modifi…
Archaeology (51 works) · Geography (45 works) · History (38 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (35 works) · History (27 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (23 works) · Geology (21 works) · Ancient history (19 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (18 works) · Paleontology (14 works)