The program of the Minoan Seminar has been announced for Spring 2014, to be held at the Archaeological Society at Athens, 22 Panepistimiou Street.

21 February 2014: Κ. Παπαδόπουλος, "Η συμβολή των Ψηφιακών Αναπαραστάσεων στη Μελέτη Αρχαιολογικών Δεδομένων από τη Μινωική Κρήτη: Μελέτες Περιπτώσεων από το Φουρνί Αρχανών και τη Ζώμινθο. The Contribution of Digital Reconstructions to the Study of Archaeological Data from Minoan Crete: Case Studies from Phourni, Archanes and Zominthos"

13 March 2014: G. Cadogan, "Myrtos–Pyrgos: Minoan monuments and memories by the Libyan Sea? Μύρτος – Πύργος: Μινωικά μνημεία και μνήμες στο Λιβυκό πέλαγος." Special seminar on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Minoan Seminar series, chaired by E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki and E. Hallager, with a keynote address by M. Vlazaki.

4 April 2014: V. Isaakidou, "Animals as food, capital and symbols: The contribution of zooarchaeology to the investigation of Cretan prehistory. Τα ζώα ως τροφή, κεφάλαιο και σύμβολo: Η συμβολή της ζωοαρχαιολογίας στη διερεύνηση της Κρητικής προϊστορίας"

30 May 2014: I. Caloi, "Phaistos and the Western Mesara plain in the Protopalatial Period: rethinking settlement and funerary data. Η Φαιστός και η πεδιάδα της δυτικής Μεσαράς κατά την Παλαιοανακτορική περίοδο: επανεξετάζοντας τα οικιστικά και ταφικά δεδομένα"

Why Things Matter

On 6-8 March 2014 a conference entitled Why Things Matter will be held at California State University Fullerton. Further information is available at http://lbst.fullerton.edu/. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:

N. Abell and E. Gorogianni, "Material Naturalization: On the Impact of Craftspeople and Their Products in Encouraging Culture Change at Ayia Irini, Kea, Greece"

H. Landenius Enegren, "The Secret life of loom weights: artefact agency and tacit knowledge"

10th Annual UChicago OI Seminar

On 7-8 March 2014 the Tenth Annual University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminar entitled The Early/Middle Bronze Age Transition in the Ancient Near East: Chronology, C14, and Climate Change will be held at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Further information is available at https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/2014.html. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:

S. Manning, "The Chronology and Complications of Climate-related Change ca. 2200 BC in the East Mediterranean/Southwest Asia"

B. Weninger, "Archaeological and Palaeoclimatological Data to Evaluate the Potential Impact of the 4.2 ka calBP event in the Aegean and Southeast Europe"

METAPHYSIS

On 22-25 April 2014 the AEGAEUM conference entitled METAPHYSIS. Ritual, Myth and Symbolism in the Aegean Bronze Age, 15ème Rencontre égéenne internationale will be held at the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology (OREA), Department Aegean and Anatolia, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and at the Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Austria. Further information is available at http://metaphysis-aegaeum-15.univie.ac.at/. The (preliminary) program will be:

N. Marinatos, "Myth, Ritual, Symbolism and the Solar Goddess"

E. Alram, "Men with Caps: Chalcolithic Figurines from Aegina-Kolonna and their Ritual Use"

F. Gaignerot-Driessen, "The Lady of the House: Trying to Define the Meaning and Role of Ritual Figures with Upraised Arms in Late Minoan III Crete"

11 February 2014

Read more …

The January 2014 (41.1) issue of Nestor is now available as a free download.

13 January 2014

Michael Ventris Memorial Award

On 15 February 2014 applications are due for the Michael Ventris Memorial Award for Mycenaean Studies of 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 to the Deputy Director, Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom or via email (pdf or compatible with Word 2003) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Applications should include age, qualifications, academic record, an outline and projected budget of the proposed work (which is not intended to be Ph.D. research), and the names and addresses of two referees, who should at the same time be asked to write independently in support of the application. Further information, including detailed application instructions, is available at http://www.icls.sas.ac.uk/awards/awards-prizes.

13 January 2014

TAG-US 2014

On 17 January 2014 session proposals are due for the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG-US) 2014: Convergence, to be held at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana on 23-25 May 2014. On 7 March 2014 paper abstracts (300 words max) will be due to the session organizers. Further information, including already accepted conference sessions, is available at https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1195202.

New Antiquities

On 31 January 2014 abstracts are due for a conference entitled New Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond, to be held in Berlin on 26-28 June 2014. Critical, scientific papers are sought that take an historical, philological, and/or sociological approach towards transformations and constructions of the past in the literature and cultural discourse of the New Age and beyond, extending into movements such as Neo-Paganism and Neo-Gnosticism. Abstracts and a CV (both 500 words maximum) should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; further inquiries can be directed to the co-organizers of the workshop: Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger, Freie Universität Berlin, Department of History and Cultural Studies Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion Gosslerstr. 2-4 D - 14195 Berlin, Germany; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Dr. Dylan M. Burns, Universität Leipzig, Ägyptologisches Institut, DDGLC-Projekt, Ritterstr. 12 / 3.02, 04109 Leipzig, Germany; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Crafting Textiles

On 31 January 2014 abstracts are due for a conference entitled Crafting Textiles from the Bronze Age to AD 1600: A Tribute to Peter Collingwood, to be held at Franks Room, Wellcome Collection, London, Euston Road NW1 2BE on 10-11 October 2014 by the Early Textiles Study Group (ETSG). Proposals are welcomed from academics, research students, museum curators, practitioners, and independent scholars investigating ancient techniques, including tablet-weaving, braiding, sprang, and rug-making. Abstracts (1 page, plus a brief cv) should be sent to Frances Pritchard, Textiles Department, Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER; Fax: +44(0)161 275 7471; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

LAC 2014

On 1 April 2014 abstracts are due for the 3rd International Landscape Archaeology Conference 2014 (LAC 2014), to be held in Rome on 17-20 September 2014 for archaeologists, cultural and earth scientists and researchers from neighbouring disciplines to present and discuss results from the broad field of geo- and landscape archaeology. Abstracts (300-500 words) may be submitted via on-line form or in WORD document along with name and surname, academic affiliation, contact information, session number, and the first three words of the title. Further information, submission forms, and the list of sessions are available at http://www.let.vu.nl/en/research/conferences/lac-2014/index.asp.

Archaeology for the People

On 1 September 2014 submissions are due for the Archaeology for the People Competition, with a prize of $5,000 to the winner, whose article, together with those by eight to ten other runners-up, will be published in Spring 2015 in a volume of the Joukowsky Institute Publication series (published and distributed by Oxbow Books). Articles (5000-6000 words in length, with no references, notes, or other scholarly apparatus, and accompanied by a single piece of artwork) should be submitted as a double-spaced Word document with the author's name, address, and e-mail on the first page to joukowsky_This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Submissions must be solely the work of their authors and must not have been published elsewhere; they should be accessible and exciting to non-specialists, but at the same time should avoid excessive simplification, speculation, mystification, or romanticization, conveying some of the fascinating and astonishing results that archaeology, as a discipline, has to report, which impact our entire understanding of who we are as a species, and how we have come to be as we are now. Further information is available at http://proteus.brown.edu/archforthepeoplecompetition/Home; questions concerning the competition should be directed to Prof. John Cherry (john_This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Prof. Felipe Rojas (felipe_This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

13 January 2014