Sharon R. Stocker | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | |
Known for | Discovery of Griffin Warrior Tomb and Pylos Combat Agate |
Spouse | Jack L. Davis |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Classical archaeology |
Institutions | University of Cincinnati |
Thesis | "Illyrian Apollonia: Toward a New Ktisis and Development History of the Colony" [1] |
Sharon (Shari) Stocker is an American archaeologist who is best known, along with her husband, archaeologist Jack L. Davis, for leading an international team of researchers who discovered a previously undisturbed tomb of a Bronze Age warrior in southwest Greece. The 3500 year old intact grave was named the Griffin Warrior Tomb by the research team during the initial excavation in May 2015. [2]
Stocker is currently a senior research associate and the director of publications for the University of Cincinnati's excavations at the Palace of Nestor in Greece. She was a co-director of archaeological surveys in the ancient cities of Epidamnos and Apollonia, Albania. Her professional expertise "lies in the analysis of ceramics of the Middle Bronze Age and Early Greek colonization in the Western Mediterranean." [3] In 2021 Stocker was named a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the Hellenic Republic.
Stocker majored in history and classics at Denison University (BA 1981). She did post graduate study in Classics at the University of Cincinnati (1982–1984) and at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1991–1993). From 1993 to 2009, Stocker furthered her studies at the University of Cincinnati, earning an MA in Classics in 1996 and a PhD in Greek Prehistory in 2009. [1]
The Griffin Warrior Tomb was discovered in May 2015 by an international team of researchers, led by Stocker and Davis, and sponsored by the University of Cincinnati. In October, 2015, Greece's Ministry of Culture announced the discovery: "More than 1,400 artifacts were uncovered, including a three-foot long bronze sword with an ivory hilt, four solid gold rings -- more than found at any single burial elsewhere in Greece -- and ivory combs and carvings, depicting griffons and a lion". [4]
Two years after the initial excavation of the Griffin Warrior Tomb, the University of Cincinnati team made another remarkable discovery which has become the most significant find to date: an intricately carved sealstone about 1.4 inches in length with details of the artifact visible only under magnification. Known as the Pylos Combat Agate, the seal was encrusted in limestone, and it took researchers over a year to clean and restore it. [5]
Pylos, historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It was the capital of the former Pylia Province. It is the main harbour on the Bay of Navarino. Nearby villages include Gialova, Pyla, Elaiofyto, Schinolakka, and Palaionero. The town of Pylos has 2,345 inhabitants, the municipal unit of Pylos 5,287 (2011). The municipal unit has an area of 143.911 km2.
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant, and Italy.
In Greek mythology Nestor of Gerenia was a legendary king of Pylos. He is a prominent secondary character in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, where he appears as an elderly warrior who frequently offers long-winded advice to the other characters.
Carl William Blegen was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey. He directed the University of Cincinnati excavations of the mound of Hisarlik, the site of Troy, from 1932 to 1938.
A heroön or heroon, also latinized as heroum, is a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. They were often erected over his or her supposed tomb or cenotaph.
Nichoria is a site in Messenia, on a ridgetop near modern Rizomylos, at the northwestern corner of the Messenian Gulf. From the Middle to Late Bronze Age it cultivated olive and terebinth for export. During the Helladic period it was part of the Mycenaean civilisation.
William Andrew "Bill" McDonald was a Canadian archaeologist.
The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project is a diachronic and multi-disciplinary archaeological expedition established in 1990. Its purpose is to study the history of prehistoric and historic settlement in southwestern Greece. The focus of the expedition entails surveying the Bronze Age administrative center known as the Palace of Nestor. Its directors were Professors Jack L. Davis, John Bennet, Susan E. Alcock, Cynthia Shelmerdine, and Yannis Lolos.
Jack L. Davis is Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and is a former Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
The Palace of Nestor was an important centre in Mycenaean times, and described in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad as Nestor's kingdom of "sandy Pylos".
Grave Circle A is a 16th-century BC royal cemetery situated to the south of the Lion Gate, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. This burial complex was initially constructed outside the walls of Mycenae and ultimately enclosed in the acropolis when the fortification was extended during the 13th century BC. Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B, the latter found outside the walls of Mycenae, represents one of the significant characteristics of the early phase of the Mycenaean civilization.
This page lists major archaeological events of 2015.
The Archaeological Museum of Chora is a museum in Chora, Messenia, in southern Greece, whose collections focus on the Mycenaean civilization, particularly from the excavations at the Palace of Nestor and other regions of Messenia. The museum was founded in 1969 by the Greek Archaeological Service under the auspices of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Olympia. At the time, the latter included in its jurisdiction the larger part of Messenia.
Elizabeth Denny Pierce Blegen was an American archaeologist, educator and writer. She excavated at sites in Greece and Cyprus, contributed reports on archaeological discoveries in Greece to the American Journal of Archaeology from 1925 to 1952, and was involved in several organisations promoting women's professional advancement in Greece and the United States.
Ida Carleton Hill was an American archaeologist, classical scholar and historian. Hill had a strong interest in the relationship between history, geography, and archaeology, which was reflected in her research and publications over her fifty-year career.
Marion Rawson was an American archaeologist. She is known for her work with Carl Blegen at Pylos in Greece and ancient Troy in modern Turkey. After her death, the University of Cincinnati established the Marion Rawson Professorship of Aegean Prehistory "in honor of her contributions to the field of Bronze Age Archaeology."
The Pylos Combat Agate is a Minoan sealstone of the Mycenaean era, likely manufactured in Late Minoan Crete. It depicts two warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with a third warrior lying on the ground. It was discovered in the Griffin Warrior Tomb near the Palace of Nestor in Pylos and is dated to about 1450 BCE. The seal has come to be known as Pylos Combat Agate.
The Griffin Warrior Tomb is a Bronze Age shaft tomb dating to around 1450 BC, near the ancient city of Pylos in Greece. The grave was discovered by a research team sponsored by the University of Cincinnati and led by husband-and-wife archaeologists Jack L. Davis and Sharon Stocker. The tomb site was excavated from May to October 2015.
Richard "Dick" Hope Simpson (1930–2016) was a British Classical archaeologist, known for his work in archaeological survey and the study of Mycenaean Greece. For most of his career, he taught at Queen's University at Kingston in Kingston, Ontario.
The University of Minnesota Messenia Expedition (UMME) was an archaeological expedition in Messenia, Greece conducted between 1953 and 1975. It was devised and begun by William McDonald, who also served as its director for most of its duration.