Michael Ventris Award 

On 1 February 2021 applications are due for the Michael Ventris Award for Mycenaean Studies for 2021 (up to £2000), to be awarded to scholars who have obtained a doctorate within the past eight years or postgraduate students about to complete the doctorate in the field of Mycenaean civilization or kindred subjects, to promote research in (1) Linear B and other Bronze Age scripts of the Aegean and Cyprus and their historical and cultural connections, or (2) all other aspects of the Bronze Age of the Aegean and Cyprus. Applications (6 pages maximum) should be sent by email, ideally as a PDF attachment to the Classics Manager, Valerie James (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. Further information, including detailed application instructions, is available at https://ics.sas.ac.uk/awards/award-prizes.

Beyond Cyprus

On 8-11 December 2020 an international digital conference entitled Beyond Cyprus: Investigating Cypriot connectivity in the Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Classical period will be hosted by the Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation (EEST). Further information is available at http://www.eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ihr/news/2020/2020_12_8-11_CycoMed_Programme_Abstracts.pdf. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
V. Kassianidou, “Tracing Cypriot connectivity with the east Mediterranean and beyond through the trade of copper”
J. M. Webb, “Precursors: Cyprus’ maritime connectivity before and during the transition to the Late Bronze Age”
G. Papasavvas, “Enkomi elites and Egyptian gold”
D. Pilides, “The Agios Sozomenos forts: An assessment of the phenomenon of their establishment and development in light of new evidence”
E. Mantzourani and G. Vavouranakis, “The anthropomorphic figurines of Cyprus in the Bronze Age: Style, local traditions and foreign associations”
A. Lekka, “Pottery fashion in the Late Bronze Age: Stylistic similarities between Cypriot and other local wares in Eastern Mediterranean”
E. Margaritis and C. Hankel, “Farming the big islands of the Mediterranean: Crete and Cyprus in the Bronze Age”
N. Papadimitriou, “Cyprus and the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age”
H. Charaf, “Disentangling the relationships between Cyprus and Lebanon during the second millennium BC: What Sidon can bring to the table”
T. Pedrazzi, “Canaanite jars in Cyprus in the 13th–11th century BC: Transfer of goods, transformation of networks”
A. Papadopoulos, “The Cypriot and Aegean pottery from Tell el-Hesi: Merchants from Cyprus in the southern Levantine trade networks?”
J. Sienkiewicz, “Cyprus and Rhodes in the Late Bronze Age: A Special Relationship?”
M. Artzy and H. Sha, “The Cypriot counterpart of Late Bronze Stratum V at Tell Abu Hawam?”
S. Vilain, “From trading connections to cultural exchanges: Cypriot imports and their imitations in the Levant and Egypt during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages”
P. Boyes, “The social context of Cypriot writing at Ugarit: Cypriot communities and Levantine elites”
G. Koiner, “Cypriot antiquities in Austrian collections: History and research”
S. Schmid, “On the composition and whereabouts of Max Ohnefalsch-Richter’s collection of Cypriot antiquities”
K. Kopanias, I. Voskos, D. Papageorgiou, and C. Theotokatou, “External contacts and a reassessment of socio-political evolution in the Kouris region during the LBA and EIA”
K. Kopanias, E. Vemou, and K. Sidiropoulou, “3D Model Analysis of some LBA and EIA Swords from Cyprus”
S. Demesticha, “Transport containers and maritime networks: The case of Cyprus”
A. Vacek, “Trading spheres, competition and cooperation within long distance trade in the Early Iron Age eastern Mediterranean: Examining the Cypriot’s share”
A. Orsingher, “Sailing East. Networks, Mobility, Trade and Cultural Exchange between Cyprus and the central Levant during the Iron Age”
A. Gilboa, P. Waiman-Barak, G. Lehman, A. Georgiadou, and G. Shalvi, “Cyprus and the Southern Levant in the Iron Age: A continuously changing story”
A. L. D’Agata, “Networks of similarities, worlds of shared practices: Re-interpreting the relations between Cilicia and Cyprus in the first centuries of the first millennium BC”
K. Spathmann, “Sidon and its relation with the Early Iron Age pottery of Cyprus”
F. Zervaki, “Cypriot imports and influence in Rhodes from the 11th – 10th century BC and links to the Aegean and the central Mediterranean”
G. Bourogiannis, “Cypriot Black-on-Red traits in the Aegean: In search of a beginning and an end”
A. Christophilopoulou, “Ancient migration or ancient mobility? Perspectives from Cyprus”

AIA 2021

On 5-10 January 2021 the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA 2021) will be held online. Further information is available at https://www.archaeological.org/programs/professionals/annual-meeting/. Papers and posters of interest to Nestor readers will include:
T. Maltas, “Agricultural Resilience and the Collapse of Bronze Age Citadels in Western Anatolia”
E. Oddo, ”Going Backward to Move Forward: Archive Archaeology and the House Of The Frescoes at Knossos”
C. Donnelly, ”Writers, Markers, and Merchants in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean”
S. E. M. Thorne, ”Geraki in Laconia: the Middle Helladic Period”
J. Meier, “‘Well off’ Animal Abundance and Context-Based Analysis of Depositional Histories at Petsas House, Mycenae”
S. Hilker, “A Spatial Analysis of Mycenaean Settlement Architecture”
E. Gorogianni and K. Psimogiannou, “Storage in the Prehistoric Aegean: A Diachronic View on Material Dimensions and Social Implications” (Workshop). Panelists: K. S. Christakis, E. Gorogianni, J. Hruby, D. Margomenou, K. Psimogiannou, and M. Roumpou
M. F. Lane, “The Offspring of Kephissos: The Middle and Late Bronze Age Settlements in the Northeastern Kopaic Basin in Regional Context”
A. Van de Moortel, “Ritual and Mortuary Practices at Mitrou During the Late Bronze Age”
Z. Tankosic, “Gourimadi, Karystos: The Results of the Third Season of Excavations at the Earliest Known Settlement in Southern Euboea, Greece”
F. Dibble, “Adapting to Ancient Climate Change. Animal Husbandry in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Greece”
K. Jarriel, “Disaster and Technologies of Resilience: Small World Interaction after the Theran Eruption”
D. M. Buell, “Minoans at Aghios Nikolaos: Preliminary Results of the Khavania Topographic and Architectural Mapping Project, Summer 2019”
A. Cabaniss, “Family Dinners: Constructing and Maintaining Cooking Micro-Traditions within an East Cretan Late Minoan IIIC settlement”
C. J. Sturge, “The Late Bronze Age Goblet on Crete and the Mainland: An Index of Similarity or Variation?”
V. Şahoğlu, “Liman Tepe: A Coastal Site in Western Anatolia where Land Routes meet the Maritime World”
C. Judson, “The Dorians Keep Invading: Confronting the Perpetuation of Migration Narratives in Cretan Archaeology”

18. Österreichischer Archäologentag (2021)

On 8-10 April 2021 the 18. Österreichischer Archäologentag (2021) will be held in Graz. Further information is available at https://homepage.univie.ac.at/elisabeth.trinkl/forum/forum0320/94intro.htm. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
J. Weilhartner, “Zur ‘Göttin mit Kylix’ in der ägäischen Ikonographie”
F. Blakolmer, “Der minoische Genius beim Stieropfer vor der Göttin. Frühägäische Repräsentationsstrategien anhand eines mykenischen Siegelbildes aus Pylos”

ASOR 2020

On 12-15 and 19-22 November 2020 the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR 2020) was held online. Further information is available at https://asor-virtual-meetings.secure-platform.com/a/organizations/main/home. Papers and posters of interest to Nestor readers included:
H. Herrick, F. Berna, R. Kulick, and K. Fisher, “Assessing the raw materials utilized in lime production: a case study of plasters and mortars from Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus”
R. Kulick, F. Berna, K. Fisher, C. Kearns, and S. Manning, “Analyzing socio-environmental processes in south-central Cyprus: Geoarchaeological case studies from the Vasilikos and Maroni Valleys”
E. Cline, “The Collapse of the Late Bronze Age and the Need for More Interdisciplinary Examinations of Climate Change in Antiquity”
C. Bergoffen, “What was the Significance of Cypriot miniature Base Ring Bowls Canaan?”
B. Davis, “The Pylos Combat Agate”
N. Shin, “Nutrition and Storage: Understanding Diet and Population in Bronze Age Western Anatolia”
J. Kramer, “‘The Amazons Arrived Today’ — The Women of the Cincinnati Troy Expedition”
J. Younger, “The Middle Bronze Age Sealstone Workshop at Malia, Crete: Its Seals and Their Role in the Development of Writing”
M. Anastasiadou, “Moments in Time in Kato Zakros: Tracing Actions in Minoan Neopalatial Sealing Administration”
K.-E. Jang, “The Problem of Classifying the Ekron Inscription: Philistine, Phoenician, Hebrew, or None of the Above?”
C. Bergoffen, “Manufacture - Motive - Morphology: A Capacity Study of Black Lustrous Wheelmade Juglets”
M. Artzy and R. Be’eri, “What did the Cypriot merchants/mariners know? Diversity of Late Bronze II Cypriote imports to Nahariya and Tell abu Hawam”
V. Matoïan, “Ugarit and Cyprus”
B. Clark, “Cypriot Materiality in the Southern Levant: Beyond Ceramics”
K. Fisher, “Beyond entertainment? Developing a Virtual Reality Application for a Late Bronze Age Cypriot City”
R. Be’eri and M. Artzy, “Late Bronze Cypriot Imports from the New Excavations at Tel Nahariya, Northern Israel”
C. M. Donnelly, “Cypro-Minoan Abroad, Cypriots Abroad?”
A. Papadopoulos, “Seeking the Cypriot merchant in LBA Mediterranean: Personal possessions as indicators of identity?”
J. S. Smith, “Cypriot Seals and Cypriots Overseas”
M. Harris-Schober, “Cracking The Philistine Ritual Code: Moving on from Misidentification”
I. Hill, “Experimental Reconstruction of a Bronze Age Malting Kiln, Cyprus”
L. Crewe, “Evidence for the beginning of the Bronze Age at Kissonerga-Skalia”
A. Simmons, L. Maher, D. Macdonald, and S. Stewart, “Cliffhangers of Cyprus: New Evidence for Epipaleolithic Explorers”
L. Lucas, “Shifting harvests and planting roots: connecting the archaeobotanical evidence with the rise of the Cypriot Bronze Age”
S. Shives, K. Grossman, T. Paulette, L. Graham, and A. McCarthy, “Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia, Cyprus: Recent Results and Zooarchaeological Research”
C. B. Scott, “Situating the Citadel: Explorations of the Fortified Landscape of the Gediz River Valley in the 2nd Millennium BCE”
D. Alberghina, “Before Croesus’s Gold: Metalworking in the Gediz River Valley during the Second Millennium BCE”
T. Kaner, “Dressing a Pot: Surfaces in the Marmara Lake Basin during the Second Millennium BCE”
T. Bürge, “Feasting and Its Remains in Late Bronze Age Cyprus”
M. Horowitz, “Middle Cypriot Bronze Age Social Development at Kalavasos-Laroumena”
C. S. Colburn, “Bodies in Motion: Toward a Reconstruction of Funerary Ritual in Prepalatial Crete”
S. Pilaar Birch, M. Metzger, E. Ridder, P. Fall, and S. Falconer, “Stable Isotope Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Animal Remains from Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus”
E. Ridder, S. Pilaar Birch, S. Porson, P. Fall, and S. Falconer, “Constructing Modern Stable Isotope Isoscapes for the Levant and Cyprus”
D. Adams, A. M. Büyükkarakaya, and M. Pilloud, “Social organization and community identity formation at Early Bronze Age Karataş- Semayük”
E. H. Cline, “After 1177 BC: Examining Resiliency and Rebirth Following the Late Bronze Age Collapse”
A. Papadopoulos, “Connections with the west? Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery from Tell el-Hesi”
F. Höflmayer, “Tel Nami, Cyprus, and Egypt: Radiocarbon Dates and Early Middle Bronze Age Chronology”
N. Papalexandrou, “The Heroics of Maritime Entrepreneurship in Early Iron Age Mediterranean Culture”
D. Luber, “A Moment of Restraint: New Considerations of the Mistress of the Animals Motif in an ‘Entangled’ Mediterranean”
M. Mitrovich, “Bulls vs. Rams: the Near Eastern Connections in the Iconography of the Inlayed Silver Cups from Enkomi, Cyprus and Midea, Dendra”
L. M. Campbell, “Human Iconographies in the Late Bronze Age: Conscious Representations of Interconnections”
L. A. Hitchcock, “The Deep State in the Ancient World: Bureaucracies as Constraining and Enabling Socio-Political Structures”
L. Pisanu, “A Bronze and Iron ages net across the West and East Mediterranean Sea: Sardinia and Cyprus inter-relations”
S. Wang, I. Zaslavsky, M. M. Burton, and P. S. Quinn, “Classifying archaeological ceramic photomicrographs using machine learning: experience with samples from the eastern Mediterranean”

17th PoCA

On 13-15 November 2020 the 17th Meeting on Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology (PoCA) meeting was held online. Further information is available at https://www.ucy.ac.cy/aru/en/poca/current-poca. Papers of interest to Nestor readers included:
M. Monaco, “New Insights into the “Bioarchaeology of the Everyday”: the Case of the Middle/Late Chalcolithic - Late Bronze Age Cypriot”
H. Lee, P. Christofi, and E. Nikita, “Parts of a New Whole: First Steps Towards a Bioarchaeological Investigation of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Attitudes on Death and the Body”
A. Reeve, “Mapping the Minor Collections: Tracing the Diaspora of Ancient Cypriot Material Culture in the UK”
C. M. Prévost, “Exhibiting Cyprus: a Comparative Study of the Collections Dispersed in Europe Nowadays”
R. Laoutari, “Village Life: Style, Shape and Practise in the Early Bronze Age Cypriot Society”
P. Mylona, “Occupation of Xeros Valley in Kofinou: Placing Sites in their Topographical Context”
M. Kozlakowska, “The Body and its Image in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Cyprus”
F. L. Spigno, “New Mycenaean and Cypriot Finds in Sardinia”
E. De Benedictis, “Weighing Trade: Function and Context of the Weights from Aghios Dhimitrios, Cyprus”

Resources and Transformation in Pre-modern Societies

On 19-21 November 2020 an international conference entitled Resources and Transformation in Pre-modern Societies was held online. Further information is available at https://resoc-conference.github.io/DBM/Home_conference.html. Papers and posters of interest to Nestor readers included:
S. Finlayson and J. Wild, “Knowledge is a Scarce Resource: a Comparative Exploration of Communities of Practice and the Transmission of Knowledge Amongst Small-scale Stone and Gem Workers in the Bronze Age Aegean and Idar-Oberstein, Germany, from Early Modern Times until the Present Day”
T. Giagkoulis, “The Wooden Structures of The Neolithic Wetland Habitation Anarghiri Ixb (Western Macedonia, Greece): Ways to do, Ways to be”
T. Valchev, “Spondylus Ornaments from Prehistoric Settlement Mound near Drama Village, Bulgaria”

The November 2020 issue of Nestor (47.8) is available as a free download.