Nestor is an international bibliography of Aegean studies, Homeric society, Indo-European linguistics, and related fields. It is published monthly from September to May (each volume covers one calendar year) by the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. Nestor is not published during the months of June, July, and August, on the assumption that the staff and many of the readers will be engaged in the field work that will result in future bibliographic items to be listed in Nestor. It is currently edited by Carol Hershenson.
The primary geographic nexus of Nestor is the Aegean, including all of Greece, Albania, and Cyprus, the southern area of Bulgaria, and the western and southern areas of Turkey. Nestor includes publications concerning the central and western Mediterranean, southeastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, western Asia, and other regions of archaeological research, if the specific bibliographic items contain Aegean artifacts, imitations, or influences, or make reference to Aegean comparanda.
Nestor's chronological range is the prehistoric period in the regions covered, from the Paleolithic through the end of the Geometric period. As with publications concerning geographic regions outside Nestor's direct range, so with bibliography regarding chronological periods beyond these limits, Nestor includes items concerned with other periods if they discuss comparisons or questions of continuity involving the prehistoric period, or if they involve geological developments whose effects were felt in the prehistoric period. Within the topographic and chronological scope defined above Nestor attempts to list all publications on any aspect of human activity. These include, but are not limited to, human interactions with the environment; material culture; social, political, and economic activities, structures, and organizations; and languages and systems of measurement, recording, writing, and accounting. Related topics such as Philistine culture, 'Archaeolgica Homerica', the Classical Cypriot syllabary, and Indo-European linguistics especially concerning the development of Greek are also covered.
In a similar vein publications concerning scientific analysis, archaeological methodology and theory, and ethnoarchaeology are included in Nestor if they cite comparisons, data, or examples from Aegean prehistory.
The core of each monthly issue of Nestor is the bibliography of recent publications that are within the geographic and chronological scope defined above. Each month the bibliographic listings from the current issue are reformatted and up-loaded into the searchable database of Nestor, accessible at http://classics.uc.edu/nestor/. In addition, the COMMUNICATIONS section of each monthly issue of Nestor lists grants and fellowships, calls for papers, future conferences and lectures, and past conferences and lectures, and museum announcements and special exhibitions, which may be of interest to scholars conducting research within the geographic and chronological scope of Nestor.
Volumes 1-4 (1957-1977) were edited by Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., and were published by the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin. Volumes 5-21 (1978-1994) were published by the Program in Classical Archaeology, Indiana University, Bloomington, and were edited by Tom Jacobsen (1978-1980, 1981-1986), Wolf Rudolph (1978-1987), Karen Vitelli (1980-1981, 1987-1991, 1992-1995) and Michaelis Fotiadis (1991-1992). Volume 22 (1995) was published at Indiana University (Jan-May) and the University of Cincinnati (Sept-Dec); Nestor moved to the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati in September 1995, where it is currently located (Volume 23-present). Michaelis Fotiadis (1995-1996) and Eric H. Cline (1996-2000) served as editors of NESTOR at the University of Cincinnati, and Carol R. Hershenson is the current editor.
In 2009 (Volume 36-present) issues have been available for free download as PDF files from this website; since 2013 (Volume 40-present) they have been distributed only in digital PDF format. Since 2022 all past issues have been available as PDF files at this website. Beginning in 2014 (Volume 41-present), the bibliographic data has been available for direct download, and the reformatting of legacy data for direct download is an ongoing project.
Assistant Editors during the period from 1978-present have included: Natalie Abell, Eleni Androulaki, K. Mark Armstrong, Brad Ault, Jeffrey Ryan Banks, MaryBeth Banovetz, Anna Belza, Haley Bertram, Deirdre Beyer, Maura Brennan, Robert Chavez, Tracey Cullen, Dan L. Davis, Christopher De Simone, Sarah Dieterle, Ed Dietrich, Hartmut Doehl (Guest Editor), Kalliopi Efkleidou, Emily Catherine Egan, Jacob M. Engstrom, John Forg, Michaelis Fotiadis, Yuki Furuya, Constantine Gianikos, Shoki Goodarzi-Tabrizi, Evi Gorogianni, P. Tyler Haas, Fritz Hemans, Fran Huber, Julie Hruby, Olga Kalentzidou, Ada Kalogirou, Rebecca Kerns, Philip Kiernan, Sam Kincaid, Charlie J. Kocurek, Christina L. Kolb, Jeffrey L. Kramer (Guest Editor), Steve Krebs, Anne Kugler, Ols Lafe, Shannon LaFayette, Charlotte Lakeotes, Benjamin Leonard, Alexandra Lesk, Sarah Lima, Sean Lockwood, Erin W. Lopp, Michael Ludwig, A.J. Lyons, Nora J. Madrigal, Benedetta Mariotti, Margaret Milhous, Melissa Moore, Joanne Murphy, Jim Newhard, Emilia Oddo, Daniel Osland, Hüseyin Çinar Öztürk, Eirini Paizi, Libby Percival, Bice Peruzzi, Cinzia Presti, Dan Pullen, Mark Rose, Dimitris Sagias, David Schwei, Christine Shriner, Margaret Sneeringer, Margo Stavros, Peter J. Stone, Tom Strasser, Anna Stroulia, Charles J. Sturge, William Weir, Anna Werner, J.M. Wickens, Aaron Wolpert, Christine Wong, and Paschalis Zafeiriadis.
The original computerization of the entire Nestor database, completed at Indiana University, was made possible through receipt of a generous grant from the Institute of Aegean Prehistory. Subsequently, INSTAP made it possible to move the office of NESTOR from Indiana University to the University of Cincinnati in 1995 and continued to support it in its new home.
Complete copies of volumes 1-4 are available from University Microfilms at the following addresses:
University Microfilms
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
U.S.A.
University Microfilms, International
White Swan House
Godstone, Surrey RH9 8LW
United Kingdom
Suggestions from collegues about titles for inclusion in the bibliography are welcome, as are announcements of conferences. Correspondence should be addressed to Nestor, Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, ML 0226, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0226, U.S.A . Email: