Susan Sherratt

Last updated

Susan (Sue) Sherratt

Born
Elizabeth Susan Dobson

(1949-09-26) September 26, 1949 (age 74)
NationalityBritish
Education New Hall, Cambridge
Somerville College, Oxford
Employer University of Sheffield
Known forarchaeologist of Bronze Age Greece, Cyprus, and the eastern Mediterranean
Spouse
(m. 1974;died 2006)

Susan Sherratt FSA FSA Scot (born 26 September 1949) is Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the archaeology of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages of the Aegean, Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, especially trade and interaction within and beyond these regions.

Contents

Early life and education

Elizabeth Susan Sherratt (née Dobson; known as Sue), was born on 26 September 1949 in Houston, Scotland. She studied for a BA in Classics at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), University of Cambridge, from 1968 to 1971, and then moved to Somerville College, University of Oxford, for a Postgraduate Diploma in Classical Archaeology (1973) and a DPhil on 12th century BCE Mycenaean pottery, supervised by Mervyn Popham (1982). [1] [2]

Academic career

After completing her DPhil, Sherratt held a range of academic positions in Oxford including as a research assistant on various projects, Sackler Research Fellow (1993-1995), Director of Studies for Archaeology and Anthropology for several colleges (1994-2002), and Assistant Curator and Honorary Research Assistant to the Arthur Evans Archive in the Ashmolean Museum. [1] In 2004 she held a Visiting Fellowship at Heidelberg University, and took up an Academic Fellowship and then a permanent lectureship in the Department of Archaeology at Sheffield in 2005. [1] She has published on a wide range of topics in Late Bronze Age Greek, Cypriot, and eastern Mediterranean archaeology, including the economy of pottery, metals, and other aspects of material culture; the relationship between the Homeric epics and archaeological evidence; trade and other cultural interactions; and the history of museums and collecting. [1] She is a member of the Sinop Regional Archaeological Project, which is investigating long-term patterns of land-use and settlement and communication networks in the Black Sea coastal region of Sinop, Turkey, [3] and of the Palaepahos Urban Landscape Project studying the site of Ancient Paphos. [4] [5] [6]

A collected volume of essays celebrating Sherratt's important contributions to archaeology, 'ΑΘΥΡΜΑΤΑ Critical Essays on the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of E. Susan Sherratt', was published in 2014. [7] In the same year, Sherratt was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the British Academy for the project 'Silver before coinage: a history of silver from the fifth millennium to the mid-first millennium BC'. [8] She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. [2]

Personal life

Sherratt married Andrew Sherratt, also an archaeologist and Assistant Keeper of Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, in 1974; they had two sons and one daughter, and published articles together on topics such as Indo-European origins, the economy of the eastern Mediterranean, relationships between the Aegean and the wider world, technological change and exchange. [1]

Selected publications

Books

Edited volumes

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherden</span> 2nd millennium BC Mediterranean ethnic group

The Sherden are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea Peoples were said to be composed of, appearing in fragmentary historical and iconographic records from the Eastern Mediterranean in the late 2nd millennium BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minoan civilization</span> Bronze Age civilization on Crete and other Aegean Islands

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phaistos</span> Ancient Greek city in Crete

Phaistos ), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. It is notable for the remains of a Minoan palace and the surrounding town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek Dark Ages</span> Era in Greece from c. 1050 to c. 750 BC

The Greek Dark Ages was the period of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic age, around 750 BC, It followed the so-called Late Bronze Age collapse of civilisation in the Eastern Mediterranean world in c. 1200-1150, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. At around the same time, the Hittite civilization also suffered serious disruption, with cities from Troy to Gaza being destroyed. In Egypt, the New Kingdom fell into disarray, leading to the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. Following the collapse, there were fewer, smaller settlements, suggesting widespread famine and depopulation. In Greece, the Linear B script used by Mycenaean bureaucrats to write the Greek language ceased to be used, and the Greek alphabet did not develop until the beginning of the archaic period. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler, generally geometric styles (1000–700 BC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mycenaean Greece</span> Late Bronze Age Greek civilization

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Sherratt</span> English archaeologist, best known for his theory of the secondary products revolution

Andrew George Sherratt was an English archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation. He was best known for his theory of the secondary products revolution.

The Cypro-Minoan syllabary (CM), more commonly called the Cypro-Minoan Script, is an undeciphered syllabary used on the island of Cyprus and at its trading partners during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The term "Cypro-Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on Minoan Crete, from which CM is thought to be derived. Approximately 250 objects—such as clay balls, cylinders, and tablets which bear Cypro-Minoan inscriptions, have been found. Discoveries have been made at various sites around Cyprus, as well as in the ancient city of Ugarit on the Syrian coast. It is thought to be somehow related to the later Cypriot syllabary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minoan chronology</span> Measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization

Minoan chronology is a framework of dates used to divide the history of the Minoan civilization. Two systems of relative chronology are used for the Minoans. One is based on sequences of pottery styles, while the other is based on the architectural phases of the Minoan palaces. These systems are often used alongside one another.

Malcolm H. Wiener is an American attorney, prehistorian and philanthropist. Most notably, Wiener has served as general counsel of the Archaeological Institute of America, as an advisor for the United States Department of State and as principal and chairman of The Millburn Corporation and ShareInVest, both investment management firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxhide ingot</span> Mediterranean Late Bronze Age metal slabs

Oxhide ingots are heavy (20–30 kg) metal slabs, usually of copper but sometimes of tin, produced and widely distributed during the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age (LBA). Their shape resembles the hide of an ox with a protruding handle in each of the ingot’s four corners. Early thought was that each ingot was equivalent to the value of one ox. However, the similarity in shape is simply a coincidence. The ingots' producers probably designed these protrusions to make the ingots easily transportable overland on the backs of pack animals. Complete or partial oxhide ingots have been discovered in Sardinia, Crete, Peloponnese, Cyprus, Cannatello in Sicily, Boğazköy in Turkey, Qantir in Egypt, and Sozopol in Bulgaria. Archaeologists have recovered many oxhide ingots from two shipwrecks off the coast of Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achaeans (tribe)</span> Inhabitants of the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese

The Achaeans were one of the four major tribes into which Herodotus divided the Greeks, along with the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians. They inhabited the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, and played an active role in the colonization of Italy, founding the city of Kroton. Unlike the other major tribes, the Achaeans did not have a separate dialect in the Classical period, instead using a form of Doric.

The Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology (OCMA) is a specialist research group within the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford in England.

Diamantis Panagiotopoulos is an Aegean Bronze Age archaeologist and Director of the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg.

Stephanie Mary Dalley FSA is a British Assyriologist and scholar of the Ancient Near East. Prior to her retirement, she was a teaching Fellow at the Oriental Institute, Oxford. She is known for her publications of cuneiform texts and her investigation into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and her proposal that it was situated in Nineveh, and constructed during Sennacherib's rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bennet (archaeologist)</span> British archaeologist (born 1957)

Donald John Logan Bennet,, known as John Bennet, is a British archaeologist, classicist, and academic, who specialises in the Aegean civilisations. He has been Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield since 2004, and was Director of the British School at Athens from 2015 to 2022. He previously taught at the University of Cambridge, the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oxford.

Linda Hulin is a lecturer in Archaeology in Magdalen College, Oxford, a research officer at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology and a Supernumerary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford. Her focus of research is in the eastern Mediterranean in the second and first millennia BC, which includes the archaeology of Cyprus, the Levant, Egypt and Libya.

Yannis Hamilakis is a Greek archaeologist and writer who is the Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies at Brown University. He specialises in archaeology of the prehistoric Aegean as well as historical archaeology, including ethnography and anthropology. His research interests include nationalism, postcolonialism, and migration studies.

Helen Hughes-Brock is an independent scholar working in the archaeology of the Minoan civilization of Crete and Mycenaean Greece.

The Ptolemaic navy was the naval force of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and later empire from 305 to 30 BC. It was founded by King Ptolemy I. Its main naval bases were at Alexandria, Egypt and Nea Paphos in Cyprus. It operated in the East Mediterranean in the Aegean Sea, the Levantine Sea, but also on the river Nile and in the Red Sea towards the Indian Ocean.

John C. Barrett, is a British archaeologist, prehistorian, and Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield. His research has primarily focussed on archaeological theory, European Prehistory from early agriculture to Romanisation, and the development of commercially funded archaeology in the UK. Barrett has been seen as an influential figure in the development of archaeological theory, critiques of archaeological practice, and British Prehistory.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Athyrmata : critical essays on the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean in honour of E. Susan Sherratt. Galanakis, Ioannis, 1979-, Wilkinson, Toby C.,, Bennet, John, 1957-, Sherratt, Susan. Oxford. pp. 1–2. ISBN   9781784910181. OCLC   894139720.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. 1 2 Sheffield, University of. "Sherratt,S - Our Staff - Archaeology - The University of Sheffield". www.sheffield.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  3. "Reports and News | Sinop Regional Archaeological Project" . Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  4. "Department of Antiquities - Excavations". www.mcw.gov.cy. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  5. "PULP". ucy.ac.cy. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  6. "Collaborators". ucy.ac.cy. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  7. "Archaeopress: Publishers of Academic Archaeology". archaeopress.com. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  8. "Senior Research Fellowships - Past Awards: 2014". The British Academy. Retrieved 8 May 2019.