Valia Tsikritea, a graduate student at the UC Department of Classics, received a GSG Research Fellowship Award for research she will be conducting this summer at the BSA Research Center at Knossos, Crete. The Fellowship supports study towards her dissertation degree, titled "An Archaeology of Cult on Mt. Juktas, Crete in the Early Iron Age: Tradition, Pottery, and Figurines from the 'Tomb of Zeus.'" Her research focuses on the Greek archaeological site of Mt. Juktas, Crete, during the 12th-7th centuries BCE. It aims at producing one of the few comprehensive studies of material from an Early Iron Age sanctuary on Crete, a period in which the island underwent major changes in material culture and religious activity. Mt. Juktas, the peak sanctuary of Knossos, was one of the sanctuaries with the most long-lasting cultic activity in Crete and was frequented without interruption during the 12th-7th centuries. Through the study of pottery and ceramic figurines Tsikritea investigates the changes in cult practices during the Early Iron Age period and the role of Mt. Juktas in the formation of local identity. While on Crete this summer she will use the award to support her study of the pottery from the site at the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos.