Sofia Voutsaki | |
---|---|
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Athens (BA) University of Cambridge (MPhil) (PhD) |
Thesis | Society and culture in the Mycenaean world: an analysis of mortuary practices in the Argolid, Thessaly and the Dodecanese |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Archaeology |
Sub-discipline | Bronze Age Aegean and Classical Greek archaeology |
Institutions | University of Groningen |
Sofia Voutsaki is Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Groningen and a specialist in the archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean and classical Greece. She has directed excavations and surveys in the Argolid and at the Mycenaean site of Ayios Vasileios near Sparta,and has also published works on social change,mortuary archaeology,archaeological science,and the history of 19th- and 20th-century Greek archaeology.
Sofia Voutsaki studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens (1979–84),followed by an MPhil (1984–85) and PhD (1985–92) in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD thesis,supervised by Colin Renfrew,was entitled Society and culture in the Mycenaean world:an analysis of mortuary practices in the Argolid,Thessaly and the Dodecanese. [1]
Sofia Voutsaki held a Lectureship in Archaeology in the Faculty of Classics,University of Cambridge,from 1993 to 2003,during which time she was also a senior fellow at Newnham College. Since 2003 she has worked in the Faculty of Arts in the University of Groningen,becoming Professor of Greek Archaeology in 2011. [1] She is a member of the Dutch Institute at Athens, [2] has directed projects on the Middle Helladic Argolid [3] [4] and on the Argos tumuli, [5] and is currently the director (with Adamantia Vasilogamvrou) of the excavation of the Northern Cemetery at Ayios Vasileios,Sparta,and of the surface survey of the surrounding area. [6] [7] [8] Her excavations of the Ayios Vasileios cemetery have been featured in the Greek and Dutch media. [9] [10] [11] Voutsaki is an expert on the Middle Helladic period and on mortuary archaeology in particular, [12] [13] [14] [15] and in 2015 delivered a keynote address on 'Death,disembodiment and immateriality:some reflections on recent developments in mortuary theory and methodology' at the 22nd Archaeology &Theory Symposium. [16] She also researches a wide range of themes in Aegean Bronze Age archaeology such as social change, [17] diet, [18] [19] gender, [20] and the economy, [21] [22] as well as the application of scientific analysis to archaeological investigations, [18] [19] and the history of archaeology in Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries. [23] [24]
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term:Crete,the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cycladic civilization converges with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From c. 1450 BC,the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete,probably by military conquest. The earlier Aegean farming populations of Neolithic Greece brought agriculture westward into Europe before 5,000 BC.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and its energetic art,it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe.
In Greek mythology,the Minyans or Minyae were a group of legendary people who were the inhabitants of the city Orchomenus in Boeotia,and who were also associated with Thessaly. They were named after their eponymous ancestor,Minyas.
Tiryns is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese,and the location from which the mythical hero Heracles was said to have performed his Twelve Labours. It lies 20 km (12 mi) south of Mycenae.
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,and Midea in the Peloponnese,Orchomenos,Thebes,and 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,and on Cyprus,while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant and Italy.
In classical Greece,Lerna was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus,south of Argos. Even though much of the area is marshy,Lerna is located on a geographically narrow point between mountains and the sea,along an ancient route from the Argolid to the southern Peloponnese;this location may have resulted in the importance of the settlement.
Aigeira is a town and a former municipality in northeastern Achaea,West Greece,Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been a municipal unit of the Aigialeia municipality,with an area of 103.646 km2. The municipal unit stretches from the Gulf of Corinth,where the town of Aigeira is located,to the mountains in the south. The town of Aigeira is 26 km (16 mi) southeast of Aigio,55 km (34 mi) northwest of Corinth and 55 km (34 mi) east of Patras.
A shaft tomb or shaft grave is a type of deep rectangular burial structure,similar in shape to the much shallower cist grave,containing a floor of pebbles,walls of rubble masonry,and a roof constructed of wooden planks.
The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large tholos or beehive tomb constructed between 1300 and 1250 BCE in Mycenae,Greece.
Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a historical framework. Whereas Minoan chronology is specific to Crete,the cultural and geographical scope of Helladic chronology is confined to mainland Greece during the same timespan. Similarly,a Cycladic chronology system is used for artifacts found in the Aegean islands. Archaeological evidence has shown that,broadly,civilisation developed concurrently across the whole region and so the three schemes complement each other chronologically. They are grouped together as "Aegean" in terms such as Aegean art and,rather more controversially,Aegean civilization.
Christos Tsountas was a Greek classical archaeologist. He is considered a pioneer of Greek archaeology and has been called "the first and most eminent Greek prehistorian".
A Mycenaean chamber tomb is the type of chamber tomb that was built in Mycenaean Greece. Mycenaean chamber tombs originated in Messenia at the end of the Middle Helladic period,and were built and used throughout the Late Bronze Age across the Aegean area.
The House of the Tiles is a monumental Early Bronze Age building located at the archaeological site of Lerna in southern Greece. It is notable for several architectural features that were advanced for its time during the Helladic period,notably its roof covered by baked tiles,which gave the building its name. The building belongs to the "corridor house" type.
Minyan ware is a broad archaeological term describing varieties of a particular style of Aegean burnished pottery associated with the Middle Helladic period. The term was coined in the 19th century by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann after discovering the pottery in Orchomenos,Greece. Excavations conducted during the 1960s confirmed that Minyan ware evolved from the burnished pottery developed by the Tiryns culture of the Early Helladic III period.
The Middle Bronze Age Migrations are postulated waves of migration during the Middle Bronze Age. This proposal was advanced in the mid-20th century by scholars such as Mellaart,who argued for a connection between the spread of the Indo-European languages and archaeologically attested destructions and cultural changes around the 20th century BC. However,more recent research has disfavored the notion of Indo-European invasions,interpreting the evidence as favoring a more gradual process of assimilation.
Neolithic Greece is an archaeological term used to refer to the Neolithic phase of Greek history beginning with the spread of farming to Greece in 7000–6500 BC. During this period,many developments occurred such as the establishment and expansion of a mixed farming and stock-rearing economy,architectural innovations,as well as elaborate art and tool manufacturing. Neolithic Greece is part of the Prehistory of Southeastern Europe.
Cynthia Wright Shelmerdine is an American classicist and archaeologist,known for her researches into Mycenaean culture and history. She is Robert M. Armstrong Centennial professor emerita at the University of Texas,Austin.
Agios Vasileios is the site of a Mycenaean palace,located near the village of Xerokambi in Laconia,Greece. It was discovered after a Linear B tablet was found accidentally on the slope of a hill,near the Byzantine chapel of Agios Vasileios,in 2008;two more tablet fragments were found in a survey conducted the same year. Excavations,carried out by the Archaeological Society of Athens and directed by archaeologist Adamantia Vasilogamvrou,began in 2009 and have brought to light a palace complex with a large central courtyard with colonnaded porticos along the sides. This palace was first constructed in the 17th-16th BCE,destroyed in the late 15th-early 14th century BCE,rebuilt,and finally destroyed again in the late 14th or early 13th century BCE. Finds include an archive of Linear B tablets,kept in a room adjacent to the colonnade;cult objects such as figurines made of clay and ivory;a collection of twenty bronze swords;and fragments of wall frescoes. The discovery of Agios Vasileios was chosen by the 2013 Shanghai Archaeology Forum as one of its 10 most important archaeological discoveries worldwide.
Adamantia Vasilogamvrou is a Greek archaeologist. She studied at the universities of Athens and the Sorbonne and worked as an archaeologist for the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports for 35 years. She is Honorary Ephor of Antiquities in the Ephorate of Laconia and director of the archaeological excavations and surveys at the site of Agios Vasileios,a Mycenaean palace discovered near Sparta in 2009. Her work at Ayios Vasileios has been featured in the Greek media and the palace's discovery was chosen as one of the 10 most important archaeological discoveries worldwide by the 2013 Shanghai Archaeology Forum.
Emporio is a prehistoric settlement in the southeastern part of the island of Chios in the Mastichochoria municipality of Greece. Pyrgi is the largest village nearby. It was inhabited since the early Neolithic times,around 6000 BC. The fertile valley with drinking water,a natural harbor nearby and the associated access to the sea were favorable conditions for settlement.
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