About The Lecture

University of Cincinnati archaeological excavations at Pylos resumed in 2015, and there has followed a remarkable series of unanticipated discoveries: the grave of the Griffin Warrior in 2015; two new tholos tombs in 2018; and two monumental early Mycenaean buildings in 2021. It has also been possible to document a detailed ceramic stratigraphy for pre-palatial Pylos that will be essential for determining the chronology of finds elsewhere in the Peloponnese. We provide an overview of the results of our recent excavations, and discuss how our understanding of the origins of Mycenaean civilization is being refined through the results of our recent excavations at Pylos.

About The Speakers

Bonna D. Wescoat is the Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History at Emory University, and Director of American Excavations Samothrace. Her research interests center on architecture and sacred experience in ancient Greece, investigated through excavation, 3D digital modeling, architectural reconstruction, and experimental archaeology.

Sharon Stocker received her doctorate in Greek prehistory from the University of Cincinnati, where she is Senior Research Associate. She is co-director of the current University of Cincinnati excavations at the Palace of Nestor. Stocker has also directed archaeological projects, surveys and excavations, in Albania in the territories of the ancient Greek colonies of Apollonia and Dyrrachium.

Jack Davis received his doctorate in Greek prehistory from the University of Cincinnati, where he is Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology. He is co-director of the current excavations at the Palace of Nestor, and has directed archaeological projects on the island of Kea, at Nemea, and in Albania.

Stocker and Davis have published four reports on their excavations of the grave of the Griffin Warrior in the journal Hesperia, their most recent being “The Grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos: Construction, Burial, and Aftermath,” Hesperia 91 (2022) 211-250. Davis and Stocker have recently published two books: A Sanctuary in the Chora of Illyrian Apollonia: Excavations at the Bonjakët Site. 2004-2006 (Lockwood Press, 2022) and A Greek State in Formation: The Origins of Civilization in Mycenaean Pylos (Oakland: University of California). The latter will be published in Greek translation this spring by Crete University Press.

Stocker and Davis have both been honored by the President of Greece as commanders of the Order of the Phoenix.