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James Whitley  MA, PhD

Professor James Whitley

(he/him)

MA, PhD

Professor in Mediterranean Archaeology, Deputy Head of Archaeology and Conservation

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Research and scholarly interests

  • Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece, particularly Crete
  • Ethnicity and material culture
  • Eastern Crete and Praisos
  • Knossos from the Neolithic to the present day
  • Archaeological History
  • History of Archaeology, particularly Classical Archaeology
  • Art and Agency in the Greek World
  • Ancient literacy, epigraphic habits and inscriptions
  • Personhood, agency and iconography
  • Archaeological theory
  • Commensality, ancient politics and the citizen-state (polis)
  • Homer, history and archaeology
  • Mortuary Practices and gender (e.g. 'warrior graves')
  • Tomb cults, hero cults, ancestors and the uses of the past (social memory)

Research projects

  • The Praisos Project
  • Pottery Production and Consumption in Iron Age Crete: Knossos and Sybrita
  • ZOOCRETE (developed from Feasting and States in the Aegean World)
  • Research Network: The Aegean from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic Period (for PhD students and Early Career Scholars) 

My principal research and scholarly interest lies in the art and archaeology of the Mediterranean world (particularly the Aegean) in the Early Iron Age and Archaic periods (1100-450 BCE).   I am interested in two relationships: one between archaeology and history in the ancient world; the second between an explicitly theoretical prehistoric archaeology and a Classical archaeology which has, traditionally, disdained 'theory'.   So, while my published work embraces specifically archaeological topics such as burial archaeology, other contributions cover subjects and themes, such as tomb cults, hero cults and ancestors, the relationship between art and society, and early literacy in Greece.  The contribution of archaeology to our understanding of antiquity lies not so much in addressing questions arising from the study of ancient texts, but rather in explaining 'strange cases', such as the fact that most early Greek inscriptions address the reader in the first person (I am the lekythos of Tataie).   My interests in archaeological theory stem from a belief that interpretations of Greek material should be informed by anthropological concepts such as personhood, agency, gender, and ethnicity. Equally, my interest in the history of archaeological thought arises from a desire to explain the different paths taken by Classical and prehistoric archaeology.

I also believe that a university should be a community of scholars, scientists and students working together to search for the truth about things, a search to be conducted with moral vigour and intellectual seriousness. I am therefore not a believer in the gods of Metropolitan Secularism -- Progress, Art, Literature, Management, the Economy, or Success -- and have never been a participant in the recent Cult of Big, Shiny Buildings.

Publication

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • Whitley, A. J. 2019. Homer and history. In: Pache, C. O. et al. eds. The Cambridge Guide to Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 257-266.
  • Whitley, A. 2019. Chapter 2.3: The re-emergence of political complexity. In: Lemos, I. and Kotsonas, A. eds. A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean. Companions to the Ancient World John Wiley, pp. 161-186.

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

  • Whitley, A. J. M. 1998. From Minoans to Eteocretans: the Praisos region 1200-500 BC. Presented at: Post-Minoan Crete First Colloquium, London, UK, 10-11 November 1995 Presented at Cavanagh, W. G. and Curtis, M. eds.Post-Minoan Crete : proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995. British School at Athens Studies Vol. 2. London: British School at Athens pp. 27-39.

1997

1996

1995

1994

1991

1988

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

  • Whitley, A. J. M. 2008. Identity and sacred topography: the sanctuaries of Praisos in Eastern Crete. Presented at: BOMOS Conferences, 2002-2005 Presented at Holm Rasmussen, A. et al. eds.Religion and Society: Rituals, Resources and Identity in the Ancient Graeco-Roman World: The BOMOS-Conferences 2002-2005. Analecta Romana Instituti Danici Supplementum Vol. 40. Rome: Edizioni Quasar pp. 235-248.
  • Whitley, A. J. M. 2006. The Minoans: a Welsh invention? A view from East Crete. Presented at: Archaeology and European Modernity: Producing and Consuming the 'Minoans', Venice, Italy, November 2005 Presented at Hamilakis, Y. and Momigliano, N. eds.Archaeology and European modernity: Producing and Consuming the 'Minoans'. Ausilio: Bottega d'Erasmo pp. 55-67.
  • Whitley, A. J. M. 2000. Style wars: towards an explanation of Cretan exceptionalism. Presented at: Knossos: Palace, City, State, Heraklion, Greece, November 2000.
  • Whitley, A. J. M. 1998. From Minoans to Eteocretans: the Praisos region 1200-500 BC. Presented at: Post-Minoan Crete First Colloquium, London, UK, 10-11 November 1995 Presented at Cavanagh, W. G. and Curtis, M. eds.Post-Minoan Crete : proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995. British School at Athens Studies Vol. 2. London: British School at Athens pp. 27-39.

Research

Projects

The Praisos Project, 1992-2020

The Praisos Project is an integrated survey and excavation project focussing on the site and environs of the ancient city of Praisos in Eastern Crete,  famed in antiquity as the city of the Eteocretans ('True Cretans'). The aims of the project are; first to understand the history of settlement in the region, from Neolithic times until the present; second to understand the urban structure and use of domestic space within the settlement and city; and third to understand how the material culture of the 'Eteocretans' differed, if at all, from their Greek neighbours to the North-East and West. It is funded by the British School at Athens; the British Academy; the Society of Antiquaries of London; the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Philadelphia (INSTAP); Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; the Packard Humanities Institute (for excavation).

Project publications (all publications by J. Whitley unless otherwise stated)

2022

Contribution to Fest/Todschrift: ‘Dictaean Zeus? Political communities, ritual feasting and animal sacrifice in Eastern Crete from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period’. For Jan Driessen and Carl Knappett (eds), Megistos Kouros: Studies in Honour of Hugh Sackett (Aegis 23), 321-31. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.

 

  Encyclopaedia entry: ‘Praisos’. In Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, (5th edition, 2015 onwards. Article published March 07, 2016; last modified July 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780199381135.013.8716 

  Encylopaedia entry: ‘Eteocretans’. In Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, (5th edition, 2015 onwards. Article published March 07, 2016; last modified July 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780199381135.013.8717

 

2018

Chapter in conference volume (jointly with R. Madgwick). ‘Consuming the wild: more thoughts on the andreion’. In F. Van den Eijnde, J. Blok and R. Strootman (eds), Feasting and Polis Institutions (Memnosyne Supplement 414), 125-148. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

2016

Article: Fusing the horizons, or why context matters: The interdependence of fieldwork and museum study in Mediterranean archaeology.’ Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 29: 247-61.

2015
Chapter in book: ‘Scholarly traditions and scientific paradigms: Method and reflexivity in the study of ancient Praisos’. In Donald C. Haggis and Carla M. Antonaccio (eds), Classical Archaeology in Context: Theory and Practice in Excavation in the Greek World, 23-49. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

2014
Article:‘Chapter 7: Commensality and the “Citizen State”: The Case of Praisos.’ In  F. Gaignerot-Driessen and J. Driessen (eds), Cretan Cities: Formation and Transformation (Aegis 7), 141-63. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.

2011
Report: 'Praisos V: A preliminary report on the 2007 season of excavation'. Annual of the British School at Athens 106 [2011]: 3-45.

2010
Contribution to festschrift: 'Eteocretans and Eteobritons: the intellectual prehistory of the Minoans. In N.V. Sekunda (ed.), Ergasteria: Works Presented to John Ellis Jones on his 80th Birthday, 36-43. Gdańsk: Institute of Archaeology, Gdańsk University.

2008
Article: 'Identity and Sacred Topography: The Sanctuaries of Praisos in Eastern Crete,' in Anders Holm Rasmussen and Susanne William Rasmussen (eds), Religion and Society: Rituals, Resources and Identity in the Ancient Graeco-Roman World: The BOMOS-Conferences 2002-2005 (Analecta Romana Instituti Danici Supplementum XL), 233-246. Rome: Edizioni Quasar.

2006
Article: 'Praisos: political evolution and ethnic identity in Eastern Crete, c.1400-300 B.C.' in S. Deger-Jalkotzy and I. Lemos (eds), Ancient Greece from the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer(Edinburgh Leventis Studies 3), 597-617. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Article: 'The Minoans: A Welsh Invention? A View from East Crete', in Y. Hamilakis and N. Momigliano (eds), Archaeology and European Modernity: Producing and Consuming the 'Minoans', 55-67. (Creta Antica 7). Padua: Bottega D'Erasmo.

1999
Report: (with M. Prent and S. Thorne):  "Praisos IV: A Preliminary Report on the 1993 and 1994 Survey Seasons," Annual of the British School at Athens 94 (1999), 215-64.

1998
Article: "From Minoans to Eteocretans: The Praisos Region 1200-500 B.C." In W.G. Cavanagh, M. Curtis, J.N. Coldstream and A.W. Johnston (eds) Post-Minoan Crete: Proceedings of the First Colloquium, 27-39. London: British School at Athens.

1996
Report: (with K. O'Conor and H. Mason) "Praisos III: A Report on the Architectural Survey Undertaken in 1992," Annual of the British School at Athens 90 (1995), 405-428.

1992
"Praisos," in J. W. Myers, E.E. Myers and G. Cadogan (eds) The Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete, 256-61. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press.

ZOOCRETE (Feasting, Urbanism and States in Crete, circa 1000-67 BCE)

ZOOCRETE developed out of an earlier project proposal Feasting and States in the Aegean World (1000-140 BC). This proposed a new model for the role of public feasting in the maintenance of ancient Greek citizen-states, examining the resilience of the Greek citizen state drawing on concepts from both anthropology and ancient history. The success of the polis can best be understood through public commensality: what poleis lacked in administration they made up through participation (that is citizenship). Citizens were created and defined through commensality.

ZOOCRETE takes up some of these ideas and applies them to Cretan political communities from the earliest Iron Age down to the end of the Hellenistic period. It is funded through a Marie Curie fellowship for Dr Flint Dibble who has worked at the Wiener Laboratory at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Dr Dibble has made extensive macroscopic studies of deposits of animal bones at the major site of Azoria in Eastern Crete. He will extend these studies to assemblages from Knossos, Praisos, Itanos and Anavlochos. He will also work with Dr Richard Madgwick to develop the application of various forms of isotopic analyses to understand a range of questions about the catchment of animals consumed in feasts, the time of their slaughter and so forth. He will work with Dr Laurence Totelin to relate this bioarchaeological data with relevant ancient texts about the role of animals in Greek life; and he will work with me on how feasting relates to political communities in Crete (particularly at Praisos). Several publications put forward in relation to the earlier ERC application are relevant to this project.

Publications (all by J. Whitley unless otherwise stated)

2019

Chapter in book: ‘Chapter 2.3: The re-emergence of political complexity’. In I. Lemos and A. Kotsonas (eds), A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean, 161-86. London, Chichester and Malden: John Wiley.

2018

Chapter in conference volume (jointly with R. Madgwick). ‘Consuming the wild: more thoughts on the andreion’. In F. Van den Eijnde, J. Blok and R. Strootman (eds), Feasting and Polis Institutions (Memnosyne Supplement 414), 125-148. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Pottery Production and Consumption in Iron Age Crete: Knossos and Sybrita, 2005-2016

This project is essentially a petrological (primarily petrographic) analysis of the coarser and plainer pottery from Early Iron Age Knossos and Sybrita in Crete. The study of Early Iron Age coarsewares in the Aegean has suffered from comparative neglect as compared to those of the Bronze Age. The aim is an improved understanding of patterns of production and consumption of the coarse and plain pottery used in everyday life, especially in domestic contexts, in Knossos and Sybrita. It is funded by The Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) and the British School at Athens. This is a collaborative project involving J. Whitley (Cardiff), Dr Anna Lucia D'Agata (National Research Centre, Rome) and Dr Marie Claude Boileau, of the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens.

Project publications

2015
Article (jointly with M.C. Boileau): ‘True grit: production and exchange of cooking wares in the 9th century BC Aegean’. In M. Spataro and A. Villing (eds), Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: The Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean, 75-90. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow.

2010
Article (written jointly with M.C. Boileau): 'Patterns of production and consumption of coarse to semi-fine pottery at Early Iron Age Knossos,' Annual of the British School at Athens 105: 225-68.

Article (written jointly with M.C. Boileau and A.L. D'Agata). 'Pottery production in Iron Age Crete viewed in the context of regional and external trade networks: a ceramic petrology perspective'.Bollettino di Archeologia Online: Volume Speciale.

2009
D'Agata, A.L. and Boileau, M.-C. 2009. 'Pottery production and consumption in Early Iron Age Crete: The case of Thronos Kephala (ancient Sybrita)', Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 51, 145-202.

(jointly with M.C. Boileau and A. L. D'Agata): 'Pottery technology and regional exchange in Early Iron Age Crete', in P.S. Quinn (ed) Interpreting Silent Artefacts: Petrographic Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics, 157-72. Oxford: Archaeopress.

 

Research Network: The Late Bronze Age to Archaic Aegean (circa 1600 to 450 BC)

This is a network set up by myself along with Dr Michael Loy (British School at Athens/Cambridge), Professor Irene Lemos (Oxford) and Professor Robin Osborne (Cambridge). It is designed to provide a support network for younger scholars, largely but not exclusively based in the UK, interested in these periods. It was developed during the Covid lockdown in order to help these younger scholars (in particular PhD students and Early Career Researchers -- to keep in touch and to benefit from feedback from others. The network has organized one introductory session ('speed dating') where researchers simply introduce themselves and their topic, and three online mini-conferences (where five or so younger scholars give papers). The first in-person mini-conference was held in Cambridge in April 2023 just before the Classical Association meeting. 

Transformations in the Mediterranean 1200-500 BC, 2010-2015

This is an umbrella project, run by Professor Manfred Bietak (Vienna) and Professor Hartmut Matthäus (Erlangen), whose purpose is to understand the social and economic processes that led to a 'connected' Mediterranean in the Iron Age. The principal aim of the project is primarily to understand the processes by and through which the Mediterranean became transformed (or 'got connected'). Providing an improved chronological framework is a first step in this understanding. Activities include: workshop in Vienna, January 2008; workshop in Cambridge 'Bridging the Divide', 6th-7th November 2009. Dr Simon Stoddart (Cambridge), Dr Alexandra Villing (British Museum) and myself represent the British branch of this largely Austrian/German enterprise.

Research group

Strategies, Structures and Ideologies of the Built Environment: Regionalism and Continuity in the History and Prehistory of Greece

Research on houses, including excavation of houses at Praisos,  forms part of this AHRB-funded project on houses and settlements in Greece and the Aegean from the Middle Bronze Age to the late Hellenistic period, directed by Nick Fisher and myself and largely conducted by Ruth Westgate. The aim of the project is to investigate the structures of domestic space and the internal arrangement of settlements in three regions of the Aegean (central Greece, Crete and Macedonia) between 2000 and 100 BC.

Publications

2011
Report: 'Praisos V: A preliminary report on the 2007 season of excavation'. Annual of the British School at Athens 106 [2011]: 3-45.

2007. Conference volume (edited jointly with R. Westgate and N. Fisher), Building Communities: House, Settlement and Society in the Aegean and Beyond (British School at Athens, Studies Series 15). London: British School at Athens

Teaching

Part one BA/BSc undergraduate modules

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Societies (Egypt, Greece and Rome)

Part two BA/BSc undergraduate modules

  • History of Archaeological Thought (level 5)
  • Introduction to Greek Art and Archaeology (level 5)
  • Art and Archaeology of Archaic Greece (level 6)

Postgraduate

  • Themes in Classical Archaeology
  • The Ancient World

Teaching profile

The main areas of my teaching are:-

  • Greek Archaeology (from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period)
  • The interface between archaeology and ancient history
  • Archaeological Theory and the History of Archaeological Thought

I have been teaching at the interface of Classics, Archaeology and Ancient History full-time since 1990. My early teaching experience (as a tutor for undergraduates) took place in Cambridge University (where I also taught in 1995) and at the British School at Athens (where I taught on the undergraduate summer course). I have also taught for one semester at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie in the United States. I therefore have over 30 years of teaching experience -- though no formal teaching qualifications (a form of unnecessary credentialism, in my view). 

In Cardiff I have taught on a range of courses on Greek Archaeology, the History of Archaeology and Archaeological Theory. Themes that inform my research also inform my teaching. I like to mix up the practical with the theoretical -- so students on my courses go on museum trips (to Oxford and the British Museum, where they sometimes handle objects) and either asked to write them up (as object biographies) or discuss them in seminars. Students are given a wide choice as to subjects to pick for essays, or when asked to write a summary of a book. I am more interested in effective teaching than innovation for innovation's sake.

The subject I like to teach best relates to Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece, a period where prehistory meets history and the material record meets poetry (in the form of the Homeric poems). This produces a endless series of fascinating questions which have been explored for hundreds of years.

I have also taught postgraduates and teachers when I was Director of the British School at Athens on various courses. These courses were very enjoyable - and effective -- because they involved field trips (and a direct encounter with the relevant material evidence). I would like to explore if it might be possible to run similar courses from Cardiff.

Biography

Education and qualifications

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University 1976-1980

BA (now MA), part I Classics, Part II Archaeology

Cambridge University 1981-1986   PhD. in Archaeology

Career overview

My career has principally been defined by integrating Classics and Archaeology,  disciplines that have distinct research cultures.  I was trained as a classicist, and normally make use of original Greek texts in my published work. I have also excavated at sites of Neolithic to Medieval date in Britain, Late Bronze Age to Iron Age in Italy (Gubbio) and Iron Age to Hellenistic in Greece (Tzakona near Sparta and Praisos).  I have (through teaching, individual research, supervision and mentoring of younger scholars, research collaboration and publications), been instrumental in developing a theoretically informed, historically relevant and scientifically engaged Classical Archaeology that links prehistory, anthropology and Alterthumswissenschaft. I have been at the forefront of the ‘social turn’ in Classical Archaeology from the early 1990s, acquiring considerable field experience in Britain, Greece and Italy. I have collaborated closely with archaeological scientists (bioarchaeologists and petrologists) and made use of models taken from anthropology. Important milestones in this development have been: the 'Building Communities' project in the 1990s; in 2001, the first (and only) general book on Archaic and Classical Greek Archaeology (as opposed to Greek Art); and my role (2002-07) as Director of the British School at Athens.

Professor in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff,  from 1st September 2008 onwards.

Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff, from 1st September 2004 - 2008.

Director of the British School at Athens, 1st October 2002 – 30th September 2007

(an institute for advanced research for all aspects of Hellenic Studies: see https://www.bsa.ac.uk )

Senior Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff, 1st September 2001 until 31st August 2004

Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff,  September 1993 – September 2001

Tutorial Fellow in Archaeology, Cardiff, 1990-1993

Visiting Assistant Professor, Vassar College, New York State, Spring 1990

Macmillan-Rodewald Student at the British School at Athens 1988-89

School Student at the British School at Athens 1986-87

Honours and awards

Awards and Honours

  • Award in recognition of contribution to 'Greek culture' awarded by Mr Giorgios Voulgarakis, the Greek Minister of Culture,  at the Athenian Agora, 20th June 2007
  • Antiquity Essay Prize for 2003, for article 'Too many ancestors'
  • Sir Steven Runciman prize awarded June 2002, for book The Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cambridge 2001)

Professional memberships

Professional Memberships

  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2002 onwards
  • Member, Archaeological Institute of America, 1988- present
  • Member, British School at Athens, 1982 to present

Academic positions

Previous (and current) Academic Positions

Professor in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff,  from 1st September 2008 onwards.

Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff, from 1st September 2004 - 2008.

Director of the British School at Athens, 1st October 2002 – 30th September 2007 (on secondment from Cardiff University). The British School at Athens (founded 1886) is an institute for advanced research for all aspects of Hellenic Studies: see https://www.bsa.ac.uk), 52 Odhos Souedhias, Athens GR 106 76, Greece . Here I was responsible for managing an annual budget of circa £ 1.1m, for co-ordinating the archaeological, historical, scientific (Fitch Laboratory) and ethnographic strands of the institution's research, for maintaining an interdisciplinary research culture and for developing major, long-term archaeological field projects (Lefkandi excavations, Knossos survey). Other duties included acting as co-editor for the Annual of the British School at Athens and compiling and editing ‘Archaeology in Greece’, the only annual digest of discoveries in Greece then published. By the end of my tenure the institution's finances and academic reputation were in rude health.

Senior Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff, 1st September 2001 until 31st August 2004

Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology, Cardiff,  September 1993 – September 2001

Tutorial Fellow in Archaeology, Cardiff, 1990-1993

Visiting Assistant Professor, Vassar College, New York State, Spring 1990

Macmillan-Rodewald Student at the British School at Athens 1988-89

School Student at the British School at Athens 1986-87

Committees and reviewing

  • INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
  • 2016-19, 2010-11 and 2007-09: Chair of Board of Studies and of BA/BSc Exam Board in Archaeology and Conservation, SHARE, Cardiff University
  • 2012-2015 Academic member of Council (the governing body of), Cardiff University, UK.
  • 2011-2015 Director of Postgraduate Studies, SHARE, Cardiff University, and chair of MA/MSc exam board in SHARE.
  •  
  • REVIEWING ACTIVITIES
  • 2019, 2018 and 2017 – External review panel member, Danish Council for Independent Research (Det Frie Forskingsgråd, Copenhagen) in the Humanities and Social Sciences (panel 2) covering anthropology, ancient to modern history, sociology, archaeology and classical studies.
  • 2017 – July onwards: Invited by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (Paris) to review proposals for the establishment Graduate Schools for French universities.
  • 2017 (June) - external reviewer on jury for Alain Duplouy's Habilitation, Paris 1 (Panthéon Sorbonne).
  • 2008 – 2020: Invited expert reviewer for research proposals from the Swiss, Dutch (NWO), Francophone Belgian, Franco-German, Canadian and Polish research councils, the European Science Foundation and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.
  • 2008 -2020: Expert reviewer for book manuscripts for the Athenian Agora (Princeton), Princeton University Press, INSTAP Academic Press (Philadelphia), Cambridge University Press and the University of California Press.
  • 2008-2020: Expert reviewer for submissions to journals, including American Journal of Archaeology, Hesperia, Annual of the British School at Athens, Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina (Czech Academy of Sciences), Studi Micenei e Egeo Anatolici and the Journal of Hellenic Studies.

Supervisions

Supervised Areas

Geographical and Chronological Range

  • Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece (1200-500 BCE)
  • Crete from the Neolithic to the end of the Hellenistic Period
  • Early Iron Age Mediterranean World (1200-500 BCE)
  • Aegean Bronze Age (2000-1100 BCE)

Thematic/Theoretical Range

  • Ethnicity and Material Culture
  • Commensality and Political Structures
  • The interface between ancient history and archaeology
  • Agency, Gender and Personhood
  • Gender and Burial
  • Social Memory and the Uses of the Past
  • The history of archaeology (particularly Classical Archaeology)
  • Scripts and Literacy
  • Art, narrative and iconography
  • The Orientalizing phenomenon in the ancient Mediterranean world

Current supervision

Thanasis Gkaronis

Thanasis Gkaronis

Research student

Specialisms

  • Archaeology of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant
  • Art history
  • Classical Greek and Roman history