Surveying the Greek Chora: The Black Sea Region in a Comparative Perspective

This volume is the outcome of an international conference on landscape archaeology. It includes 15 contributions from participants from six different countries, who analyse the territories of the main ancient cities of the west, north and south coasts of the Black Sea region, discussing them also in a comparative, Mediterranean perspective. The particular aim of the conference was to join the forces of Eastern as well as Western researchers in establishing an overview of the relationship between the larger ancient cities and their territories. During the past 40 years this particular field of archaeology has developed into a highly specialised and sophisticated discipline. Based on a systematic sampling strategy, it aims at understanding regions beyond the individual site, frequently on a city-state, regional or landscape level. The methodological debate on this approach that is current in Mediterranean archaeology has, however, only had a limited impact so far on Black Sea region research, with most Western researchers still lacking a fundamental knowledge about Black Sea data and how they are generated.