Greek Archaeology Current Projects

Shifting Identities Project

This international, multidisciplinary project is directed by Sofia Voutsaki and has received a Grant for Innovative Research by the Dutch National Research Foundation (NWO, € 618,000) as well as several research grants by different grant-giving bodies.
The aim of the project is to interpret the important social, political and cultural changes that took place in the southern Greek mainland during the Middle Bronze Age and the transition to the Late Bronze Age, or Mycenaean period (approx. 2000 - 1600 BC). The task is undertaken by means of an integrated analysis of settlement, funerary, skeletal and iconographic data from the Argolid, Northeastern Peloponnese. The central question of the project, the redefinition of personal, ethnic and cultural identities within wider processes of socio-political change, has a wider relevance beyond the Aegean and occupies a central position in current theoretical debates in archaeology.

The results of the project appear in a series of articles, three monographs and an edited volume.

Argos Tumuli Project

This international project is directed by Sofia Voutsaki. It is funded by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, USA and the Mediterranean Archaeology Trust (€ 57,645).

The main aim of the project is to re-examine and prepare for final publication the Middle and Late Helladic graves belonging to the so-called ‘Tumuli of Argos’. These graves were excavated by the late Dr. E. Deilaki during rescue excavations in Argos in the 1970s, and were presented in a preliminary fashion in her unpublished dissertation. This assemblage is significant as it allows us to reconstruct the social organisation of Argos, one of the most important settlements in the Argive plain during the MBA, but also to understand the processes underlying social change at the end of the period and the transition to the Late Bronze Age, or Mycenaean period.

The results of the project appear in a series of articles and a monograph.

Ayios Vasilios Northern Cemetery Project

The Ayios Vasilios Northern Cemetery Project is directed by Sofia Voutsaki and is funded by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (€ 35,785) and the Ammodo Foundation, Amsterdam (€ 78,866).

The project involves the prospection and excavation of the Northern Cemetery at Ayios Vasilios, the study and publication of the finds and the bioarchaeological analysis of the skeletal remains. The aim of the project is to reconstruct the social organization (age, gender, kin and status divisions) of the Ayios Vasilios community, and to understand social change in the early Mycenaean period as well as the emergence of Ayios Vasilios as an important regional centre.

The excavation of the Northern Cemetery is part of a wider project, the excavations of the palatial complex in Ayios Vasilios which is directed by Mrs A. Vasilogamvrou under the auspices of the Greek Archaeological Society. The project is funded by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, USA (€ 130,707) and other funding bodies.