Laboratory of the Ancient World of Eastern Mediterranean
Α) Egyptology primarily focuses on the ancient Egyptian language belief system (ontology, ritual, magic, demonology, religious language and texts, foreign elements, personal piety), language and script (hieroglyphic, hieratic, Coptic, Ptolemaic inscriptions), funerary ideology and archaeology of death, Egyptian interconnections and cross-cultural interactions in the southeastern Mediterranean region, archaic Aegyptiaca in continental and insular Greece and social networking in Eastern Mediterranean antiquity.
The target is to to familiarize students with important aspects of archaeology and classic studies of the cultures of Eastern Mediterranean and the promotion of contemporary approaches and methods regarding the studying of the ancient Egyptian culture emphasizing on the support and serving of the following inter-faculty programmes:
– Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project, in collaboration with the Universities of Swansea (Kasia Szpakowska) and Berkeley (Rita Lucarelli)
– Aegyptiaca Project: ecumene and economy in the horizon of religion, in collaboration with the Universities of Bonn (Ludwig Morenz) and Thessaly (Dimitris Palaeothodoros)
– Magic and the Afterlife in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, in collaboration with the the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (Eleni Tourna, Panagiotis Lazaris, Pavlos Antonatos)
Β) Field Archaeology (from the Prehistoric Age to the Late Antiquity) emphasizing on the disciplines of: Field Archaeology; Theory of Archaeology and Excavation Methods; Experimental Archaeology emphasizing on art and technology of palatial and historic societies in Eastern Mediterranean, Prehistoric Archaeology in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean emphasizing on emphasizing on art and technology of palatial societies in Eastern Mediterranean; Cross-Cultural Relations of Peoples in Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age; Classical Archaeology; the auxliliary role of Archaeology (Numismatics, Inscriptions), as well as Conservation of Antiquities and Geometric Documentation of Monuments..
The overall aim of the Laboratory of the Ancient World of Eastern Mediterranean is to promote methods and practices of research and documentation of Field Archaeology (pre-excavational, excavational, post-excavational), focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean Prehistoric and Historic Age and especially:
on the research support of the Systematic Excavation of the University of the Aegean in Kymisala, Rhodes and the publication of the finds of the excavation and of the whole project in general, regarding the Bronze Age in the Aegean and the Near East, focusing on cross-cultural interactions of palatial societies, the study of vitreous materials in the Bronze Age in the Aegean, in Egypt and the Near East, emphasizing on cross-cultural interactions among palatial societies, the study of vitreous materials from the Aegean, Egypt and Israel and their experimental structure, the historical and cultural evolution of the Province of Pediada of central Crete from the Neolithic Age until the 20th century emphasizing on field research, topography, geomorphology, fauna, flora and the study of archaeological matter, as well as of evident architectural remains.
C) Ancient Greek and History, emphasizing on Historiography, mainly in the Hellenistic Age, regarding ancient literary sources of economic, political and cultural relations of the peoples of the Mediterranean from the archaic until the hellenistic age and the political readings of ancient Greek literature of theatre.
The target is to to familiarize students with current trends of literature source research concerning the political, cultural and economic aspect of the history of the Mediterranean and the presentation of the said research findings by any means (conferences, workshops, creating databases e.t.c.).
The Laboratory Director
Syropoulos Spyridon, Professor
