Sarah Wenner, a Ph.D. Candidate in Classical Archaeology, recently accompanied the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Curator of South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities, Ainsley Cameron,  on a research trip to Jordan funded through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The museum, which houses the largest collection of Nabataean material outside of Jordan, has embarked on a multi-year project to reinstall their Ancient Middle East collections. The research trip included visits to Madaba, Petra, the Dead Sea, and Amman, as well as meetings with staff from the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, The Petra Museum, and The Jordan Museum. The group also climbed Khirtbet et-Tannur, a Nabataean temple excavated by Cincinnati-native Nelson Glueck, where they documented the current state of the temple.

Alice Crowe, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Department of Classics, has received the Archaeological Institute of America’s Harriet and Leon Pomerance Fellowship in the archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean for the AY 2020-2021. The award supports her dissertation project, entitled “Beyond the Walls of the Labyrinth: A Site-wide Perspective on Final Palatial and Postpalatial Knossos,” which is a study of the Greek archaeological site of Knossos (Crete) in the 15th through 12th centuries B.C. Rather than focus on Knossos’ palace, where most scholarly attention has been directed, her dissertation looks at how the site in its entirety functioned, examining developments in both elite and non-elite parts of the city. She analyzes assemblages from the “mansions” and “villas” of Knossos’ city center and material discovered in more peripheral areas of the site, including surface finds collected by an intensive survey of the Knossos valley. During the Fall semester, she will use the award to fund her stay at the Knossos Stratigraphical Museum, where she will examine artifacts held in the museum’s storerooms.

Crowe is the third UC Classics graduate student in the last decade to win this award. 

On January 2, 2020, Kathleen Lynch gave the "Opening Night Lecture" for the Archaeological Institute of America meetings in Washington, D.C. Her lecture, "Conversations with a Pot Whisperer: Archaeological Ceramics and the Stories they Tell," demonstrated the many ways that archaeological pottery can inform us about its ancient users. She emphasized that pottery is the most humanizing of all artifacts because it exists only to serve human needs, and it survives in great abundance. The lecture was well-attended and an opening night reception followed. See the UC news article for more about the lecture.

Students from the UC Honors course, "Past & Present in Greece an Egypt: An Inquiry of History, Culture, and the Economy," traveled to Greece and Egypt in December. In Greece students visited the sites of Athens, had a behind the scenes tour of the Agora Excavations, and took a field trip to the UC excavations at Pylos, where Jack Davis and Shari Stocker gave them a fantastic tour the day before their tholos tomb press conference.

UC Honors Students Examining Pottery at the Athenian Agora UC Honors Students visiting Pylos, Greece with Jack Davis and Shari Stocker

In Egypt they met faculty and students from our strategic partner in Cairo, Future University of Egypt. The warm hospitality of our Egyptian friends made this first ever student trip to Egypt truly memorable and strengthened the connection between universities. Highlights included, of course, a visit to the great pyramids and sphinx, and a Nile dinner cruise. Kathleen Lynch, co-instructor Prof. Constantine Polychroniou (International Business), and Honors Assistant Director Neil Choudhury led the students on this unforgettable trip.

UC Honors Student Isabelle Reynolds

Isabelle Reynolds, (Classical Civilization), especially appreciated the opportunity to see sites she has studied in class. She will join another Honors study tour to London over spring break, where she will see the rest of the Parthenon sculptures!

It isn't a surprise to find archaeologists in a bar, but on the 20th of November, the award-winning Classics Outreach program broke new ground on two fronts: an outreach presentation in a bar, which happens to be in a church. The Urban Artifact taproom is in the basement of the historic St. Patrick's church in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, and is known for its gose (sour) beers. Prof. Kathleen Lynch gave a talk on the history of archaeology in the department to a capacity crowd as part of a series called, "Science on Tap." The presentation started with the Semples and Blegen and focused on methodological innovations over the years. Graduate student and outreach presenter, Anna Belza, displayed artifacts from the Classics study collection, and Prof. Steven Ellis brought some animal bones from Pompeii. Attendees enjoyed seeing the objects, especially the bronze dagger, and learning about restaurant dishes at Pompeii. There was great interest in the Griffin Warrior discoveries, and Prof. Jack Davis was on hand to answer questions and reveal new developments. We were pleased to share our history and current projects with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd, and we can now say, "Will lecture for beer."

On November 27, Daniel Markovich will lecture on "Exhortations to Philosophy is Seneca's Letters" at The University of Rome La Sapienza. The lecture focuses on Seneca's original adaptation of exhortation to philosophy as a kind of writing in Greek and Roman literature.