Formerly the Classics Department
Research at the archaeological site of Ancient Nemea (Sanctuary of Zeus) in 2024 included the architectural study of the Early Christian Basilica (5thc. CE), the installation and opening of the exhibit Nemea 100 commemorating 100 years of excavation at the site, and the study of unpublished legacy finds from the sanctuary.
An open-air sanctuary used between the Protogeometric and the Classical periods (roughly 1000 to 400 BCE) was recently identified on the western part of the summit of the Anavlochos massif in East Crete. The sanctuary was first located in 2016 by the Anavlochos Project, which is directed by Florence Gaignerot-Driessen (University of Cincinnati) and operates under the auspices of the École française d’Athènes and with the permission of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. It was excavated in 2017 and 2018.
The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project (PALHIP) carried out its tenth and final fieldwork season at Pompeii (Napoli), Italy, between June 30 and July 27, 2024.
The PALHIP team, which consisted of four persons (Ted Peña, Aaron Brown, Susanna Faas-Bush, Francesca LaPasta), completed its description of the portable artifacts recovered in the various residences in the block identified as Regio I, Insula 11 (I.11 in the Pompeii address system), expanding its coverage to include the items from residences I.11.11, I.11.12, I.11.13, I.11.14, I.11.15.9 and I.11.16.
For its ninth field season the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project advance its research on the residential properties in Insula (block) I.11 at Pompeii on various fronts. The team completed its evaluation of the portable artifacts and furniture components from the Casa della Venere in Bikini (I.11.6.7) and the unnamed bar/residence at I.11.1.2 stored at the Casa di Bacco storage facility.
The multi-year project of the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology (DAGRS), the Excavation and Conservation of the Early Christian Basilica, at the Sanctuary of Zeus in Ancient Nemea, Greece, continued in 2023. The center and east ends of the 5thc. CE building were investigated including the nave, aisles, and apse, had been excavated in the 1920s and 1960s. We recorded all of the walls and individual blocks by drawing, photographing, and 3D scanning.
The multi-year project of the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology (DAGRS), the Excavation and Conservation of the Early Christian Basilica, at the Sanctuary of Zeus in Ancient Nemea, Greece, began in 2022. The west end of the 5thc. CE building was investigated including the
PALHIP is a long-term program of research designed to elucidate aspects of the life history of Roman material culture in the town of Pompeii and at some of the sites in its environs through the detailed characterization of sets of artifacts recovered in the course of previously completed excavations in contexts that promise to be particularly informative in this regard.
My dissertation uses Performance Theory as a tool to examine the three major innovations to mortuary practices which take place at the beginning of the Mycenaean period: the creation of new tomb types, the use of these tombs for multiple burials, and the transition from intramural to extramural cemeteries. In particular, I use the work of performance theorists such as Schechner, Schneider, Austin, Butler, and Taylor, to explore how these developments altered the Mycenaeans’ experience of and relationship to death, as well as the wider cultural and social impacts of these innovations.
