POCA 2019

On 31 March 2019 abstracts are due for the Postgraduates in Cypriot Archaeology (POCA 2019) conference, to be held on 13-15 June 2019 in Berlin. Contributions on all aspects of Cypriot archaeology from postgraduate students and young scholars will be welcomed. Abstracts, including name, contact details, institutional affiliation (if any), title of paper and a short description (500 words) should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Papers presented at the meeting will be published as a volume of the series Studia Cyprologica Berolinensia.

12 ICAANE

On 15 June proposals (1000-1500 characters) are due for workshops are due for the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (12 ICAANE), to be held on 14-18 April 2020 in Bologna. On 31 July 2019 abstracts (400-1000 characters) for papers and posters are due. Further information is available at https://eventi.unibo.it/12icaane. The themes of the congress are:
Field Reports. Recent excavations, surveys and research
• Environmental Archaeology. Changing climate and exploitation strategies: impact on ecology, anthropized landscapes and material culture
• Hammering the material world. Characterization of material culture, processes and technologies
• Cognitive archaeology. Reading symbolic and visual communication networks and structures
• Modeling the past. Contemporary theoretical approaches to the archaeology of economies and societies
• Networked archaeology. Global challenges and collaborative research in the new millennium
• Endangered cultural heritage. Coordinated multilateral research, conservation and development strategies
• Islamic archaeology. Continuities and discontinuities between a deep past and modernity

Cycladic Seminar

The program of the Cycladic Seminar has been announced for 2019. Unless otherwise stated, all seminars begin at 7:00 pm at Archaeological Society at Athens. Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/230503754201416/.
15 January 2019: R. B. Koehl, “The 12th-century Aegean pottery from the Koukounaries Hill, Paros and Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh), Turkey: some social and historical implications and unexpected interconnections”
2 April 2019: Α. Παπαγιαννοπούλου, “Τελετουργίες και κεραμική στις Κυκλάδες της πρώιμης Ύστερης Εποχής του Χαλκού”
12 November 2019: Χ. Τελεβάντου, “Η μυκηναϊκή Ακρόπολη του Αγίου Ανδρέα Σίφνου: τα τελευταία δεδομένα”
10 December 2019: J. Rambach, “Evidence of contact between the Cyclades and Peloponnese in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC”

Πόλεμος στην αρχαιότητα

A program of archaeological lectures on Πόλεμος στην αρχαιότητα will be held at the Heraklion Museum. The lectures begin at 6:30 pm. Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/HerakleidonMuseum/posts/2502681329748870.
13 February 2019: Μ. Τσιποπούλου, “Ενδείξεις βίας και πολεμικής ετοιμότητης στην Μινωική Κρήτη”
3 March 2019: Κ. Βουτσά, “Ενδείξεις βίας και πολεμικής ετοιμότητης από τα αρχεία Γραμμικής Β΄ των μυκηναϊκών ανακτόρων”
27 March 2019: Κ. Πασχαλίδης, “Ταφοί πολεμιστών του μυκηναϊκού κόσμου”
3 April 2019: Κ. Νικολέντζος, “Οι οχυρώσεις του μυκηναϊκού κόσμου”

Minoan Seminar

The program of the Minoan Seminar has been announced for Spring 2019. All seminars begin at 6:30 pm at Athens Archaeological Society, Panepistimiou 22. Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/minoanseminar.gr/.
22 February 2019: M. Eaby, “ Creating new identities in Late Minoan IIIC East Crete: the case of House A.2 at Chalasmenos, Ierapetra”
24 May 2019: C. Langohr and I. Mathioudaki, “Comparing ceramic data – proposing synchronisms: Neopalatial pottery sequences from Malia (Quartier Pi) and Sissi and their relation to other Minoan sites”

The Creation of Landscapes VI 

On 11-16 March 2019 an international open workshop entitled Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 15,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes VI will be held at Kiel University, Germany. Further information is available at http://www.workshop-gshdl.uni-kiel.de/. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
C Knappett, “Deep histories of Mediterranean mobility and the role of network models”
H. Dawson, “Redefining the role of insular and marginal spaces in Mediterranean interaction networks from the Neolithic onwards”
K. Dudlik, “People, Ideas, and Things: A Theoretical Analysis of Koan Mycenaean Identity During the Late Bronze Age”
K. Spathmann, “Cyprus’ link to the Levant: The ancient city of Sidon and its relation to the island’s Early Iron Age pottery”
V. Matta, “Uncovering networks through the study of Nuragic sanctuaries”
L. Bernardo-Ciddio, “The Iron Age Adriatic World: Identity and Connectivity Beyond Borders”
R. Rivers, “The Mycenaean Aegean: Negotiating too much and too little data”
P. Zeman, “Aegean connections in context: appropriation of urban culture in the Mycenaean Greece”
J. Czebreszuk, “Sea routes of amber around Europe. The dynamics of Baltic amber distribution during the IInd millennium BC”
S. Stoddart, “Territoriality in Southern Europe in the Bronze and Iron Age”
H. Weiss, “Megadrought, Collapse and Resilience at 4.2 ka BP across West Asia”
L. Bowler, T. Hodos, H. Cheng, L. Edwards, O. Tüysüz, D. Fleitmann, “Evaluating the influence of climate on the Late Bronze Age collapse in the eastern Mediterranean”
T. Birndorfer, “Geoarchaeological analyses at Tiryns (Peloponnese, Greece)”

Exploring the Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Systems

On 14-16 March 2019 the 2019 CREWS Project (Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems) conference, Exploring the Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Systems, will be held in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. Further information is available at https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/social-and-cultural-contexts-of-writing/. Registration is now open. Attendance is free but places are limited; contact Dr. Philip Boyes (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
Y. Duhoux, “Scripts’ secondary purposes”
T. Nash, “Cultures of Writing: The Invention and Re-Invention of Greek Writing in Context”
M.-L. Nosch and A. Ulanowska, “Materiality of the Cretan Hieroglyphic Script”
S. Finlayson, “Writing and elite status in the Bronze Age Aegean”

No (e)scape? Society, Environment and Artifacts Entrapped

On 29-30 March 2019 an International Conference of Masters Students and PhD Candidates entitled No (e)scape? Society, Environment and Artifacts Entrapped – Relational Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age will be held at the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, Poland. Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=298432390790706&set=pcb.2571679476206581&type=3&theater. The program will be:
A. V. Pantelaios, “The Minoan Court-Centered Buildings as “labor-scapes” of communal co-operation”
P. Zeman, “Urbanization in the Late Bronze Age Aegean: towards a model of Mycenaean palatial town”
S. Müller, “Burial rituals at palatial sites of the Argive Plain during Late Helladic times (c. 1600 - 1080 BC)”
E. Oikonomou, “The Vapheio Cups: An Anthropological Approach”
D. Borowka, “In search of a structure. The influence of Egyptian stone vessels on Minoan elite groups in the Middle Minoan period”
A. Filipek, “The Concept of the Great Mother Goddess in the Study of the Minoan Religious System in the Bronze Age. Anthropomorphic Figurines – Typology, Archaeological Contexts, New Interpretations”
D. Olah, “Marble figurines entrapped by the archaeological contexts”
E. Chreiazomenou, “Cultural Reflections on Technology and Production: Thoughts on the Ground Stone Tools from Bronze Age Gavdos”
D. Markaki, “Decolonizing Cretan prehistory: From Minoan seal stones to folkloric milkstones”
C. Bahyrycz, “Central Macedonia in Relation to the North and South. Northern Aegean in the Light of Ceramic Evidences”
W. Jenerałek, “Gold Extraction on Amalara Archaeological Site in the European Context”
P. Vlachou, “Moving unidentified between the Aegean and the Syro- Anatolian region: the long term interactive context of Early Bronze Age combed/scored ware distribution”
J. Fatyga, “Aegean remains in Egypt based on archaeological sites Tell el-Dab’a, Tell el-Farah (south), Tell el-Ajjul, Tel Heror”
S. Vitale, I. B. Camici, and K. Dudlik, “Entanglements and Burial Assemblages: the Case of Eleona and Langada on Kos”
Y. van den Beld, “The Griffin is a composite beast”
I. Rom, “Connected in death: Interpreting networks of interaction by looking at mortuary practices of West-Greece (2200-1600 BC)”
E. Angeli, “Bull worship and Bull-leaping in Minoan Crete: a dual relationship between the human and the nature”
D. Wolf, “Times of Change? From Hetero- to Homosomatic Human-Animal Relations”
M. S. McGrath, “Preliminary Strontium Isotope results from Nichoria Bronze Age and Iron Age Equid Teeth”
F. G. Slim, “Pig husbandry in Late Bronze Age of Anatolia and the Aegean exemplified with the case study of Kaymakçı, Manisa, Western Anatolia”

The January 2019 issue of Nestor (46.1) is available as a free download.

It gives us great pleasure to congratulate Professor Curtis Runnels on his receipt of the Gold Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America, presented at the annual meetings on 4 January 2019 in San Diego. The AIA gives out one such award yearly for work in archaeology. The editors of Nestor join the AIA in saluting Professor Runnels.