Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Upper House Seminar

Dr Sergios Menelaou (BSA Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology), “From ceramic islandscapes to mobility dynamics in the Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age northeast Aegean”

Abstract: The geo-cultural region of the northeast Aegean, encompassing the Greek islands and the western Anatolian coast, is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA), a period characterised by extensive cultural, social, and technological interactions and transformations. This lecture presents a systematic analysis of ceramics from key sites in the region, including Poliochni (Lemnos), Thermi (Lesbos), Emborio (Chios), and the Heraion (Samos), aiming both to characterize the local pottery-making traditions and to investigate the role of cross-regional connectivity of these sites with the wider Aegean island- and coastscapes. By taking a diachronic approach, this research explores ceramic production, specialisation, and circulation, as well as the exchange of craft knowledge across the northeast Aegean during the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Despite extensive excavations and publications since the mid-20th century, these sites have been largely overlooked in the broader context of Aegean-Anatolian prehistory. Our research challenges this oversight by proposing that this region was a central hub for cultural and technological transmission, with communities that were far more interconnected and socially complex than previously assumed.

Bio: Sergios Menelaou, currently the Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology at the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens (BSA), is an archaeologist specializing in the integrated analysis of pottery from the Aegean and Cyprus. His research focuses primarily on prehistoric Aegean, Anatolian, and Cypriot archaeology, with a particular emphasis on island societies and their interconnectedness.
Having pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Cyprus (2008-2012), Sergios earned his MSc in Archaeological Materials from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in 2013. He completed his PhD at the same institution in 2018, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Koç University (ANAMED (Research Center for Anatolian Civilisations) in Istanbul from 2018 to 2019. Between 2020 and 2022 he acted as the Principal Investigator of the project titled ‘Borderlands as areas of mobility and connectivity during the third millennium BC: Examining regional ceramic technologies between the east Aegean islands, western Anatolia and Cyprus’ at the University of Cyprus.
Working mostly on Bronze Age pottery assemblages, Sergios employs a multifaceted methodology that integrates traditional morphostylistic approaches with laboratory-based analytical techniques, with a particular focus on recovering technological insights into pottery production, usage, and circulation. His current research project at the BSA builds upon his previous work in the eastern Aegean, through the investigation of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age ceramic traditions of legacy island-sites such as Poliochni-Lemnos, Thermi-Lesbos, and Emporio-Chios. The overarching goal is to reconstruct the shifting mechanisms of interaction networks between these islands and their Anatolian peraiai.

To attend in person please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1041867422507?aff=oddtdtcreator

To attend via zoom, please register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UAX8s9AKS_WzOhEPYu7BMg

image: The geographical focus and methodological approach of the project, courtesy of Sergios Menelaou (base image from Google Earth)