Simone Agrimonti, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Department of Classics, has received a Graduate Student Government Research Fellowship for interdisciplinary research. The award supports his dissertation project, “Interstate Arbitrations in Hellenistic Messenia.” This study examines a specific type of diplomatic interaction between Greek city-states and sheds new light on their use. Third-party arbitrations were not only an instrument of peace-keeping among the litigious city-states. Through them, ancient Greeks made powerful ideological statements about their communities and their political and cultural identity. Simone’s dissertation is the first scholarly project to focus on the traditionally-overlooked ideological aspects of these documents. This award will support his research by allowing him to travel to Greece during the summer of 2020. There he will visit several museums, archaeological sites, and mountainous areas (Messene, Olympia, Taygetos), to examine in person Greek legal documents inscribed on stone.
This year, the Graduate Student Government Research Fellowship is also funding another UC Classics dissertation project by Valia Tsikritea.

Curious about our course offerings for Fall 2020? Check out our Course Catalog website, which gives you a description of the class, as well as the time, days, instructor, and BoK codes. You can also sort by graduate or undergraduate level courses, Greek or Latin, and specific BoK codes.

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!