Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology

Dr Sergios Menelaou

British School at Athens
52 Souedias Street
Athens, 10676

s.menelaou@bsa.ac.uk

Research

I undertook my undergraduate studies at the University of Cyprus (2008-2012) and received my MSc in Archaeological Materials (2013) and PhD (2018) from the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield. During 2018-2019 I held a postdoctoral fellowship at Koç University, ANAMED (Research Center for Anatolian Civilisations) in Istanbul (Turkey) and in 2019-2020 I spent three months at the Fitch Laboratory (British School at Athens), holding a Fitch Bursary Award. Before my current position I held a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cyprus (2020-2022) and I acted as the Coordinator/Principal Investigator of the project entitled ‘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 (BORDER)’, and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation.

My research interests concern prehistoric Aegean and Anatolian archaeology, particularly between the Neolithic and the Middle Bronze Age periods. I am particularly interested in the application of an integrated methodology that combines the traditional study of ceramics and the application of scientific analytical techniques, with a special concern for recovering technological information of pottery production, usage, and circulation. I have been a member of the project “The Prehistoric Settlement at Heraion on Samos (Sacred Road)” since 2009, led by the University of Cyprus (Dr O. Kouka) and the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, where my research was focused on the multi-scalar analysis of Early Bronze Age pottery from the new and older excavations at the same site. My broader research is focused on the ceramic developments and technological mobility and connectivity in the eastern Aegean, western Anatolia, and Cyprus during the third millennium BC.

As the Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology, I will expand my work in the eastern Aegean through investigating the ceramic traditions of the main Early Bronze Age sites on the islands of Lemnos, Lesbos, and Chios with the aim to establish an understanding of the shifting mechanisms of interaction networks between these islands and their Anatolian peraiai.

 

 

Publications

Edited volumes:

  • Menelaou, S., Oğuzhanoğlu, U. and Kouka, O. (eds) forthcoming. Borderlands, Interaction Zones, and Bounded Spaces in the Eastern Mediterranean: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Reconstruction of Connectivity. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies. The Pennsylvania State University Press (Special Issue).

Peer-reviewed articles:

Chapters in edited volumes:

  • Menelaou, S. 2024b. Multifaceted Borders: Historical Contingencies and Archaeological Perspectives in Modern Cyprus and the Greek-Turkish Interface. In: O. Lytovka (ed.), Navigating Borders: Perspectives on Migration and Identity. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses, 69-92.
  • Menelaou, S. 2024a. Bounded by the sea: Concepts of connectivity and mobility across the border zone of the eastern Aegean Islands and western Anatolia during the third millennium BC. In: M. Brunner, J. Menne and A. Hafner (eds.), Borders and Interaction: Concepts of Frontiers in Archaeological Perspectives. Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie 398, Bonn: Dr Rudolf Habelt GmbH, 89-99. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10498095 
  • Menelaou, S. 2023. Early and Middle Bronze Age. In: E. Poyiadji-Richter (ed.), Alexander Malios Collection: Cypriote Antiquities. Leipzig, 51-155.
  • Menelaou, S. 2021. ‘Insular, marginal or multiconnected? Maritime interaction and connectivity in the East Aegean Islands during the Early Bronze Age through ceramic evidence’, in L. Dierksmeier, F. Schön, A. Kouremenos, A. Condit and V. Palmowski (eds), European Islands Between Isolated and Interconnected Life Worlds. Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives. RessourcenKulturen 16. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press, 131-161. 
  • Kouka, O and Menelaou, S. 2018. ‘Settlement and society in the Early Bronze Age Heraion: Exploring stratigraphy, architecture and ceramic innovation after mid–3rd millennium BC’ in E. Alram-Stern and B. Horejs (eds), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd millennium BC. OREA 10, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften-Philosophisch-historische Klasse. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 119-142. 
  • Menelaou, S. 2015. ‘The Heraion of Samos under the microscope: A preliminary technological and provenance assessment of the Early Bronze Age II late-III (ca. 2500-2000 BC) pottery’, in Z. Theodoropoulou-Polychroniadis and E. Doniert (eds), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology Presented to Matti Egon by the Scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Oxford: Archaeopress, 25-34.

Conference proceedings

  • Menelaou, S. 2020. ‘Beyond networks and macro-scale analysis: Unravelling micro-histories of pottery at Early Bronze Age Samos, Greece through an integrated approach’, in I. Miloglav (ed), Proceedings from the 6th International Scientific Conference Methodology and Archaeometry, Zagreb, 6-7 December 2018. University of Zagreb: FF-Open Press, 57-73.
  • Menelaou, S. 2017. ‘Πετρογραφική ανάλυση της ύστερης Πρωτοχαλκής ΙΙ-ΙΙΙ κεραμικής από το Ηραίον Σάμου: πρώτη προσπάθεια κατανόησης της σύστασης, της τεχνολογίας και της προέλευσης’ in P. Triantaphyllides, (ed.), The Archaeological Work of the Aegean Islands. International Conference, Rhodes 27 November – 1 December 2013. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, 181-194.