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23 April 2025, 12:00 pm EDT

Online Zoom lecture, co-sponsored by the AIA-New York Society

Cyprus in Flux: Shedding Light on the 12th Century BCE through New Discoveries from Palaepaphos-Marchello, Cyprus (2021–2024)

KONSTANTINOS KOPANIAS (Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

The archaeological site of Marchello-Palaepaphos, located near the village of Kouklia in Cyprus, has a rich history of excavations carried out by a British (J.H. Iliffe and T.B. Mitford: 1950-1955), Swiss-German (F.-G. Maier: 1966-1995), and a Cypriot archaeological team (M. Iacovou: 2006-2008). Among the most significant discoveries at Marchello are a long defensive wall, approximately 175 meters in length, a monumental gate, and a large deposit of stones containing fragments of architectural elements, inscriptions, and sculptures primarily from the Cypro-Archaic period.

Since 2021, the University of Athens (Greece) has initiated a new excavation program at Marchello to gain a deeper understanding of the site's complex stratigraphy and architectural finds. This recent work has revealed new evidence suggesting that the earliest phase of the wall dates back not to the Cypro-Archaic period, but rather to the Late Cypriot IIC horizon (14th-13th century BCE). The wall fell out of use during the transition to the LC IIIA period. Furthermore, excavations have revealed a cluster of two tombs from the early LC IIIA (early 12th century BCE), both belonging to the shaft-niche type commonly found in Crete and mainland Greece. These tombs contained four inhumation burials with rich offerings from Egypt, the Levant, and the Aegean. Detailed micro-excavation and subsequent analysis of the human, animal, and plant remains have allowed for a precise reconstruction of the burial process. Close to the tombs, a contemporary monumental ritual structure was erected. Notably, carvings of two ships were discovered on one side of this structure, closely resembling the ship depictions on the exterior walls of the sanctuary of Kition-Kathari. These findings provide valuable new insights into the 12th century BCE, a time of crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean.

There is no evidence of activity at the site from the LC IIIB to the end of the Cypro-Geometric period. However, during the Cypro-Archaic period, the defensive wall was repaired and widened. During this time, a large trench was dug vertically through the wall, where a pit containing the complete skeleton of a horse and at least two dogs was discovered. This discovery challenges the older theory that connected the tunnels found at Marchello with the Persian siege of Paphos.

To register, please click here.

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Tuesday, 18 March 2025, 12:00 pm, EST

Online Zoom lecture

Climatic Variability and Its Impact on Mycenaean Greece: Evidence from the North Slope of the Athenian Acropolis

TREVOR VAN DAMME (Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick)

In the last decade, high-resolution climatological data from ancient tree rings and cave speleothems have documented the so-called 3.2ka BP climate event across the eastern Mediterranean region. At the same time, expanding corpora of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data have revealed new evidence for human resilience and responses to the changing climate. This paper brings these data into dialogue with the archaeological evidence from Athens and Attica. Building on observations from my study of the Late Bronze Age finds from the north slope of the Athenian Acropolis, I argue that climate variability offers a plausible model for understanding the rapid growth and abrupt decline of Athens in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE. Special attention is paid to the Mycenaean Fountain, the lone water source accessible from inside the fortifications on the Acropolis.

To register, please click here.

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11 February 2025, 6:00 pm EST

Online Zoom lecture

My Precious! Bronze Hoards and Other Buried Treasures of Minoan Crete

EMILIA ODDO (Department of Classical Studies, Tulane University)

Research on the Bronze Age Aegean has pointed out how, in various phases, people chose to conceal bronze objects into what we call hoards, intentional burials of artifacts of importance to a given society. However, new investigations of some of these hoards from Knossos indicate that in the Late Bronze Age this phenomenon may be tied to a more generalized concern to remove from circulation more than just metal; rather, it appears as an attempt to respectfully bury (some of?) the cultural emblems of palatial elites. Was this a marker of a socio-political shift?

To register, please click here.

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5 December 2024, 12:00 pm EST

Online Zoom lecture

The Hill of Ariadne? The Minoan Peak Sanctuary of Stelida, Naxos

TRISTAN CARTER (Department of Anthropology, McMaster University)

Stelida comprises a distinctive, double-peaked hill on the northwest coast of Naxos, some 3.5 km linear distance from Grotta, the island’s Bronze Age center and main harbor. While best known as a Palaeolithic chert source, excavations in 2019 atop the 151 masl southern peak revealed a religious complex, whose character is heavily Minoanized. This talk details the excavation, architecture, chronology, and range of ritual practices performed at the site, then considers the significance of Stelida within the larger context of Neopalatial socio-economic dynamics, with a brief nod to the island’s mythic backdrop of Theseus, Ariadne, and Dionysus.

To register, please click here.

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29 October 2024, 12:00 pm EDT

Online Zoom lecture

Emerging Complexity in Prehistoric Samos and Beyond

OURANIA KOUKA (Department of History and Archaeology, Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus)

The East Aegean islands and the littoral of western Anatolia display a geographically marginal zone characterized by continuous movement of peoples, raw materials, and technological innovations that resulted in local or regional economic and social phenomena well attested in the third millennium BCE. Based on rich data sets from older and particularly from recent archaeological discoveries and interdisciplinary approaches of data from Samos Island and western Anatolia, this lecture will debate the emergence and development of cultural complexity in this part of the Aegean from the Chalcolithic through the Middle Bronze Age (4500–1700 BCE) and discuss this within the palimpsest of the prehistoric Aegean.

To register, please click here.

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2024–2025 CALENDAR

October 29: OURANIA KOUKA, “Emerging Complexity in Prehistoric Samos and Beyond”

December 5: TRISTAN CARTER, “The Hill of Ariadne? The Minoan Peak Sanctuary of Stelida, Naxos”

February 11: EMILIA ODDO, “My Precious! Bronze Hoards and Other Buried Treasures of Minoan Crete”

March 18: TREVOR VAN DAMME, “Climatic Variability and Its Impact on Mycenaean Greece: Evidence from the North Slope of the Athenian Acropolis”

April 23 (co-sponsored with the AIA-NYS): KONSTANTINOS KOPANIAS, “Cyprus in Flux: Shedding Light on the 12th Century BCE through New Discoveries from Palaepaphos-Marchello, Cyprus (2021–2024)”

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Thursday, 11 April 2024, 6:30 pm EDT

Online Zoom lecture

Terraces, Technology, Land, and Labor in Mycenaean Greece

LYNNE KVAPIL (Department of History, Anthropology and Classics, Butler University)

For the Mycenaean palatial period, we understand, to some extent, palatial involvement in food production. Elites managed land and animals and focused on the production of crops like wheat, barley, and figs. But the cultivation practices of actual farmers are less clear. I propose that the Mycenaean palaces played a role in the widespread adoption of technology (the plow, traction animals, and agricultural terracing) that significantly changed how farmers farmed. This technology, while advantageous in some ways, may also have played a role in deeper social changes, including the distribution of work and the division of labor.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Monday, 11 March 2024, 6:30 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

The Remarkable Contributions of Marion Rawson to Our Understanding of Destruction and Reuse in the Palace of Nestor Main Building

SHANNON LAFAYETTE HOGUE (Department of Classics, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

During the 1953–1956 seasons, Marion Rawson supervised the excavation of more than half of the spaces inside the Palace of Nestor Main Building and her excavation notebooks are invaluable to ongoing research at the site. In this paper, I will take the audience on a tour of the Main Building rooms whose excavation Rawson oversaw and illustrate some of the ways in which her remarkably consistent, detailed recording practices have contributed to my new conclusions regarding the upper story collapse and reuse inside the building.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Monday, 26 February 2024, 12 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

New Perspectives on Settlement Patterns in the Bronze Age Cyclades: A View from the Margins

ALEX KNODELL (Department of Classics, Carleton College)

This talk will present new evidence for Bronze Age settlement and land use, collected by the Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP). Since 2019, SCIP has carried out systematic intensive surveys of 68 small, currently uninhabited islands throughout the Cyclades. Some of the most exciting results of the project pertain to prehistory, including new settlements and other sites from all phases of the Bronze Age. Together, these results from long-forgotten places, usually considered marginal, lead us to rethink systems of settlement and connectivity across the archipelago as a whole.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Thursday, 30 November 2023, 12 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

70 Years of Wa/ondering: The Pylos Ta series and Mycenaean Ceremonies

TOM PALAIMA (Department of Classics & Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory, University of Texas at Austin)

The thirteen tablets of the Ta series at Pylos are arguably the most informative set of documents pertaining to paraphernalia used in ceremonies and rituals in the Linear B corpus.

The contents of the Ta tablets are diverse and significant for research in Aegean cultural history. There are a. clearly drawn ideograms of ceremonial vessels along with phonetic renderings of their names: pouring vases, receptacle vases, ritual heirloom tripods; b. references to the materials used to construct and decorate pieces of furniture; c. descriptions of abstract or figural motifs of decoration; d. observations on the state of repair of specific objects; e. likely identification of the region of manufacture of particular items (ke-re-si-jo); f. entries referring to implements connected  with sacrificial actions (pa-sa-ro, wa-o and qi-si-pe-e) and equipment to use with fire (au-te, pu-ra-u-to-ro, -qa-ra-to-ro and e-ka-ra); g. inlaid tables (whether slaughtering tables or banqueting tables is now under discussion) with varying numbers of ‘feet’; h. throne and stool ‘sets’, other stools.

All this rich and detailed, if occasionally tantalizingly opaque, information was registered as the results of an inspection inventory involving a person named pu2-ke-qi-ri, whose status as an elite functionary, perhaps even a collector, is undebatable, although whether he is the actual tablet-writer of the Ta series and other important tablets that are identified as the work of Hand 2 is still being discussed.

Moreover, the header line for the Ta set specifies that the records were written on the occasion when the king (wa-na-ka) did something important (te-ke) with regards to an individual named au-ke-wa and the significant office of da-mo-ko-ro. What he did is in my view no longer a settled matter nor should it ever have been thought to be.

There are also other important socio-political terms embedded in the descriptions of individual items: for example, wa-na-se-wi-ja and ­a-mo-te-wi-ja.

I have myself turned to this series periodically since I wrote 49 years ago, as an advocatus diaboli, my M.A. thesis in fall semester 1974 trying to prove to myself and Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., that the tablet writer of the Ta series really was not Hand 2, but Hand 1, the master record-maker, whom Hand 2 closely resembles.

What I will do here today is give a reading of these texts that demonstrates how problematical it is (1) to address critical questions relating to their interpretation looking for either-or solutions; and (2) to keep the forest in mind when studying the roots, bark, branches and leaves of the trees and vice versa.

For seventy years now, the full Ta series of thirteen tablets (discovered in the 1952 excavation season at Pylos) has hardly ever not been under discussion. However, the last five years have seen a veritable renaissance. Behold:

Pierini, Bernabé, Ercoles (eds) 2021. THRONOS: Historical Grammar of Furniture in Mycenaean and Beyond.

Morton, J., N. Blackwell and K. Mahoney 2023. “Sacrificial Ritual and the Palace of Nestor: A Reanalysis of the Ta Tablets,” AJA 127.2, 167–187

Palaima, T.G. and N.G. Blackwell 2020. “Pylos Ta 716 and Mycenaean Ritual Paraphernalia: A Reconsideration,” SMEA NS 6, 67–95.

Blackwell, N.G. and T.G. Palaima 2021. “Further Discussion of pa-sa-ro on Pylos Ta 716: Insights from the Ayia Triada Sarcophagus,” SMEA NS 7, 21–37.

Perna, M. and R. Zucca 2021. “Il ta-ra-nu nel Mediterraneo antico,” in THRONOS, 97–104.

Petrakis, V. 2020. “Mycenaean thórnoi, Homeric θρόνοι: Textual Perspectives,” in L. Nosch, D. Brostowsky Gilboa (eds) The Ancient Throne: The Mediterranean, Near East, and Beyond, from the 3rd Millennium BCE to the 14th Century CE, 61–84.

Pierini, R. 2021. “Mycenaean Wood: Re-thinking the Function of Furniture in the Pylos Ta Tablets within Bronze Age Sacrificial Practices,” in THRONOS, 107–135.

Piquero, J. 2021. The Tables of the Pylos Ta Series: Text and Context, in THRONOS, 43–53

Díez Platas, F. 2021. “Imagining Chairs: Models and Representations of Mycenaean thronoi,” in THRONOS, 75–88.

Aura Jorro, F. 2021. Las interpretaciones de la serie Ta de Pilo en su context,” in THRONOS, 7–30.

Bernabé, A. 2021 How to Describe Things? Depictions of Tables on Mycenaean Tablets and in Present Day Furniture Catalogues, in THRONOS, 55–64.

Varias, C. 2016 “Testi relativi a mobilio e vasi pregiati,” in M. Del Freo, M. Perna (eds) Manuale di epigrafia  micenea. Vol. 2: 551–563.

Murphy, J.M.A., S. R. Stocker, J. L Davis and L.A. Schepartz 2020. “Late Bronze Age Tombs at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos,” in J. M. A. Murphy (ed.) Death in Late Bronze Age Greece, 26–44.

Palaima, T.G. 2021. “Mycenaean *a-mo-te-u, Greek ἁρμόζω, and the Ideology of Joining,” MASt@chs Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies February 5, 2021. https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/mastchs-winter-2021-seminar/  §§1–13.

Palaima, T.G. Forthcoming. “Historical Reflections on the Pylos Ta Series: Putting te-ke in Its Place,” in J. Bennet, A. Karnava and T. Meißner (eds) KO-RO-NO-WESA: 2021. Rethymno: School of Philosophy, University of Crete.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Monday, 6 November 2023, 12:00 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

Load-bearing Horizontal Timber Framing in Aegean Bronze Age Architecture and Its Anatolian Parallels

PAVOL HNILA (Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Freie Universität Berlin)

Based on analogies from Anatolia, this talk argues that in the Aegean horizontal timbers were used not only for reinforcing walls, but also for elaborate wooden frameworks as principal load-bearing components. The building process is fundamentally different from frameworks with vertical or sloping beams, since horizontal timbers and their fill can be built in layers. Although occasionally attested in large houses, the load-bearing horizontal timber framing technique was mostly reserved for monumental buildings. Its introduction, which can be traced to third millennium BCE Anatolia, is very likely to be interpreted as an anti-seismic measure. Selected examples from the Aegean are presented, and surprising motives for why this technique mostly goes unrecognized are discussed.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Tuesday, 18 April 2023, 6:00 pm

The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, 1 E. 78th Street, New York, NY 10075

The Rise and Fall of a Rich Minoan Town in Crete: 50 Years of Greek-American Collaboration Excavating at Mochlos

JEFFREY S. SOLES (Department of Classical Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

Settled as early as 3100 BCE, the small village of Mochlos grew into an important town in the Middle and Late Bronze Age partly because of its location on an important trade route that connected the Aegean to the Near East and allowed its inhabitants to prosper, and partly because of its function as a center of production that met the needs of the surrounding population and travelers passing through on ships. It also came to play an important role in the religious activities of the region and was a sacred place to those who lived there and to many visitors who came as pilgrims to its shrines.

This is an in-person only event. All attendees must present proof of compliance with NYU's COVID-19 vaccination requirements (fully vaccinated and boosted once eligible). Advanced registration is required. To register, click here.

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Thursday, 6 April 2023, 12:00 pm EDT (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

An Exploration of Mechanisms of Interaction and Exchange in the Middle Bronze Age–Late Bronze Age Cyclades

NATALIE ABELL (Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Evidence for specialized craft production and the circulation of non-local goods is widespread in the Cyclades during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. This paper examines several categories of evidence in order to explore how different mechanisms of exchange, including down-the-line trade, periodic markets, and raiding may have contributed to the kinds of patterns that appear in the archaeological record.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Monday, 13 February 2023, 12:00 pm EST (US & Canada)

Online Zoom Lecture

Death and the Pylos Megaron

EMILY EGAN (Department of Art History & Archaeology, University of Maryland, College Park)

This paper re-examines one of the most iconic built environments of the Late Bronze Age Greek mainland, the megaron of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, and explores its possible connections to concepts of death and rebirth. Analysis focuses on iconographic evidence from the suite’s wall and floor paintings and considers connections with painted programs in both fixed and portable media on Crete. It is proposed that the megaron, historically identified as a locale celebrating the accomplishments of the living, was also a space used to illustrate and vivify the journey of the dead.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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Tuesday, 29 November 2022, 12:00 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom lecture

The Rich Early Mycenaean Burial at Staphylos (Skopelos) and Its Place in the Inter-regional Networks. First Thoughts after a Re-study of Finds

BARTŁOMIEJ LIS (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

The aim of this presentation is to share the first results of a restudy of the rich Early Mycenaean burial at Staphylos on the island of Skopelos, initially published in 1949 by N. Platon. Firstly, I will present the entire assemblage of finds stored at the National Archaeological Museum at Athens, with a special emphasis on those objects that have not been included or illustrated in the original publication. Secondly, I will discuss the chronology of the finds and, in the case of the pottery, possible provenance. Finally, I will attempt to place this extraordinary find assemblage within a broader picture of inter-regional networks operating at that time in the Aegean.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.

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2022–2023 Calendar

November 29: “The Rich Early Mycenaean Burial at Staphylos (Skopelos) and Its Place in the Inter-regional Networks. First Thoughts after a Re-study of Finds”, BARTŁOMIEJ LIS, Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

February 13: “Death and the Pylos Megaron”, EMILY EGAN, Assistant Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, University of Maryland, College Park

March 28: “An Exploration of Mechanisms of Interaction and Exchange in the MBA–LBA Cyclades”, NATALIE ABELL, Assistant Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

All lectures will take place on Zoom and begin at 12 pm Eastern Time (US and Canada).

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Thursday, 24 February 2022, 1:00 pm ET (US & Canada)

Online Zoom lecture

Middle Helladic Dawn to Mycenaean Palatial Dusk: Conceptualizations and Transformations in the Spatial Expressions of Mortuary Prestige in the Southwestern Peloponnese

VASSILIS PETRAKIS (Faculty of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

This lecture aims to survey evidence for the expression of prestige through the formation and transformation of specific spatial syntaxes and visual vocabularies in use in the southwestern Peloponnese during the Middle and Late Helladic periods (c. 2000–1200 BCE). The significance and prolific use of mortuary mounds (or tumuli) and the proliferation of diverse types of built tombs that appear at the late Middle Helladic and early Late Helladic phases will be discussed focusing on the explanation of the emergence and success of the (only seemingly innovative) tholos, an originally local form that was swiftly adopted to contribute to the formation of a cross-regional ‘Mycenaean’ identity. The apparent decline in such mortuary investments plausibly associated with radical architectural change at the ‘Palace of Nestor’ Epano Englianos (Pylos) in the course of the 13th century BCE will be viewed in the context of political strategies followed by contemporary Pylian elites.

Zoom participation is limited to 300 people and registration is required. To register, please click here.