The February 2023 issue of Nestor (50.2) is available as a free download.

31 January 2023

3rd Radiocarbon and Diet Conference

On 22 February 2023 abstracts (250 words maximum) are due for the 3rd Radiocarbon and Diet Conference, to be held at the University of Oxford on 20-23 June 2023. Further information is available at https://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/radiocarbon-and-diet-2023. The sessions will be:
• Reservoir effects: current challenges
• Diet reconstruction: from modelling to diet, chronology and mobility
• Compound specific approaches
• Diachronic change in subsistence practices and high resolution approaches
• Chronology of domestication
• Chronology of dietary practices
• Radiocarbon and diet in ecology and forensics

31 January 2023

Harbours, maritime networks, and infrastructures

A Classical Archaeology Seminar has been announced entitled Harbours, maritime networks, and infrastructures in ancient Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, to be held on Mondays at 5 pm at the Ioannou Centre, Oxford and accessible online (https://zoom.us/u/aelYxMUuQ1; Meeting ID: 958 9922 7597 Passcode: 306649). Further information is available at https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/files/classicalarchseminarsht23pdf. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
16 January 2023: L. Hulin, “A meeting of requirements: a mariner view of ports and trade in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean”
23 January 2023: S. Sherratt, “Pottery as tracers of maritime networks”
30 January 2023: S. Fournier, “The ancient harbour of Kition-Bamboula, Cyprus”
13 February 2023: D. Greger, “Euboean Trade in the Bigger Picture: Early Iron Age Pottery Exchange through Network Analysis”
27 February 2023: C. Sofianou and T. Brogan, “Maritime CoastScapes and Small Worlds in East Crete from the Middle Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period”

ASCS44

On 31 January - 3 February 2023 the 44th Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS44) will be held at the in Christchurch, New Zealand. Further information is available at https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/events/active/uc-events/the-44th-conference-of-the-australasian-society-for-classical-studies.html. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
V. Kerr-Harris, “Dread-Nots: Hairstyle, Revisionism, and (Mis)Appropriation in Aegean Art”

SOMA 2023

On 2-4 February 2023 the 24th annual Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA 2023): Ideas that travelled by the sea will be held in Udine, Italy. Further information is available at http://genama.info/soma/2023/Registration.html?fbclid=IwAR0UMR-GiTCXZD0xiO-UzDZja2ywT7CMdUYF8wuh_eQgRa276Eumzn6s7LM. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
M. Girtzi, N. Papadopoulou, and A. Bountidou, “‘The ‘Time-traveller’ visits Minoan Crete’: an innovative museological project”

The Golden Bough at 100

On 10-12 February 2023 a conference entitled Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: The Golden Bough at 100 will be held via Zoom, hosted by the University of Melbourne, Australia. Further information is available at https://www.facebook.com/JamesGFrazer/. Abstracts should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
C. Morris, “Rejecting the embrace of the Goddess? Minoan archaeology and the divine feminine”
B. Jones, “The Girl on the Mycenean Ivory Triad: Her Garment, Hairstyle and Identity”
L. Mazow, “Narrative Myth in Bronze-Age Aegean Wall Paintings and the Function of the Rooms They Decorate”
C. Eller, “How the Minoans Became Matriarchal”
S. O’Brien, “Guess Who’s Back? Graeber and Wengrow’s Resurrection of Matristic Minoans in ‘The Dawn of Everything’”
L. Tittl, “Frazer’s Minoan Religion, by way of Mary Renault”

MAARC 2023

On 13-15 February 2023 the third annual meeting of the Mediterranean Archaeology Australasian Research Community (MAARC 2023) will be hosted online by the University of Sydney. Further information is available at https://mediterraneanarcha.wixsite.com/maarc/annual-meeting. Papers of interest to Nestor readers will include:
L. Pisanu, “Mors tua vita mea. Perspective on the Late Bronze Age from the Sardinian shores”
M. Bowers, “Continuity and Change in the Aftermath of the LBA Collapse through the Aegean Textile Culture”
S. Lupak, “Did Everything Change in the Mediterranean Collapse? Signs of Religious Continuity from the Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age”
R. Merrillees, “Ethel Hunter and Kouklia: A Forgotten Episode of Australian Archaeological Activity in Cyprus”
L. Hitchcock, A. Maeir, and L. Pisanu, “Roll up for the Mystery Tour: Islands of the Transition and their Contribution to ‘Western’ Civilization”
E. H. Cline, “Resilience, Transformation, and Catastrophe: Looking at the Aftermath of the LBA Collapse through the Lens of the Adaptive Cycle, Resilience Theory, and Extreme Events”
V. Kerr-Harris, “A Dark Embrace: Darkness, Ritual Space, and the Senses”
Z. Tarhan, “Near Eastern Motifs on Cretan Metalwork: New Observations”
J. Webb, “Identifying violence within a Middle Bronze Age community in Cyprus”
J. K. Papadopoulos, “The Ancient Methone Archaeological Project”
E. Tour, “‘Pots don’t breed’: An exploration of the applications of phylogenetics in archaeology, and the debate around its suitability”
B. Casa, V. Vassallo, R. Orabi, S. Hermon, and P. M. Fischer, “Hand-held tools for rapid, detailed 3D documentation of archaeological sites and public outreach: A case study from Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus”
L. Tapinos, “Minoan Frescoes and Heterotopia: Creating Ritual Spaces and Visual Language at Mari, Alalakh, Tel Kabri”

31 January 2023

Borders in first millennium BC Crete

On 20-21 January 2023 an international interdisciplinary workshop entitled Borders in first millennium BC Crete was held in hybrid format in Athens, hosted by the Italian and Belgian Schools at Athens. Further information is available at https://www.ugent.be/lw/archeologie/en/news-events/events/borders-in-crete-2023. Papers of interest to Nestor readers included:
V. Antoniadis, “Harbours, Roads, Satellite Data and the Borders of the Harbour at Heraklion”
D. Pollard and T. Whitelaw, “Settlement, Demography and Subsistence at First Millennium BCE Knossos in its Central Cretan Context”
A. Kotsonas, “Borders, Territories, and Archaeological Regions in Ancient Crete”
J. Bonetto and A. Bertelli, “Borders and focal points in Gortyn at the beginning of the first millennium BC”
E. Pappalardo, “Non-material borders in Iron Age Crete”

2nd MAGG

On 26-27 January 2023 the 2nd Meeting of the Archaeobotany in Greece Group (2nd MAGG) was held in hybrid format in Thessaloniki. Further information is available at https://edae.hist.auth.gr/index.php/diaxysi/archaeobotany-group-2nd-meeting. The program was:
M. Ergun, E. Gkatzogla, M. Ntinou, M. Charles, and A. Bogaard, “The recent archaeobotanical results from the Neolithic lakeside settlement of Dispilio (Kastoria): Insights from Uncharred and Charred Plant MacroRemains”
M. Kokkidou, “Charred plant remains from the fifth millennium B.C. at Dikili Tash (sector V)”
E. Gkatzogia and A. Karathanou, “Subsistence and dietary habits in Late Bronze and Iron Age central Macedonia: an archaeobotanical approach”
T. Maltas, “New archaeobotanical research in Aegean Turkey: initial insights into agrarian lifeways and urbanisation over the longue durée”
E. Margaritis and C. Henkel, “Cyprus and Crete in the Bronze Age”
E. Gkatzogia, “Archaeobotanical and ethnographical research in Therasia, Cyclades”
K. Tsirtsi, C. Henkel, J. J. García-Granero, E. Margaritis, E. Elston Alphas, and D. Pilides, “Macro- and micro- botanical remains hand in hand: the cases of two Bronze Age Cypriot sites”
G. Kasapidou, G. Tsartsidou, C. McNamee, and S. M. Valamoti, “A microbotanical approach to crop processing practices: evidence from Neolithic settlements in northern Greece”
T. Papadakou and G. Tsartsidou, “Using phytoliths to talk about potters”
S. M. Valamoti, S. Michou, and C. Petridou, “Exploring the plant foods of ancient Greece in the context of PlantCult: Integrative approaches”
S. M. Valamoti, “Presentation of PlantCult book: Food Crops of Ancient Greece”
G. Tsartsidou, “Roofs under the microscope: Identifying the organic materials through phytolith analysis”
P. Theodosaki, “Τhe structural use of wood in the Late Bronze Age site of Rema Xydias of Pieria, Greece: an anthracological study”
M. Ntinou, “Woodlands and wood use around the Thermaic Gulf in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages”
A. Mavromati, “Wood charcoal macroremains from the Heraion on Samos”
L. Picornell-Gelabert and A. Livarda, “Trees, fuel and forests at Palaikastro: an anthracological and archaeobotanical approach”
C. Pagnoux, V. Bonhomme, L. Bouby, S. Ivorra, S. E. Allen, and S. M. Valamoti, “How to distinguish wild and domesticated grape pips: comparison of morphometric methods and insights into early viticulture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Greece”
A. Livarda, H. Orengo, P. Aliende, T. Baniou, C. Diffey, A. Kriti, I. Mylonas, E. Ninou, F. Riso, and P. Vandorpe, “Archaeobotany and computational archaeology synergies: from prehistoric Aegean to Roman Europe”
A. Kriti, A. Livarda, and H. Orengo, “3D GMM Applications on Modern Experimental Cultivations’ Botanical Assemblage”
C. Diffey, “DarkSeeds: Investigating the nature of Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age agricultural economies in the Aegean through the use of stable isotope analyses and 3D morphometrics”

31 January 2023