Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies
Description of the section
The section of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies at the Department of Classics in research and teaching covers the Eastern Mediterranean (Aegean, Cyprus, Anatolia, the Levant and Mesopotamia) from the late 4th millennium to the early 1st millennium BC. During this extremely exciting period of human history, we can observe the emergence and establishment of early complex societies, including the first surviving evidence of written records, mainly for administrative purposes.
During these millennia, a decisive change took place in social structures and in the way people interacted with their environment. Furthermore, continuous and diverse relationships between the different regions in the eastern Mediterranean can be observed and described, both in terms of material culture and the dissemination of ideas.
Main research areas
The research focus of the section of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies includes the following areas
- Ceramics and glyptics
- human-animal relationships
- ritual and religious practices
- interaction and exchange networks
- Languages and cultures (Sumerian, Akkadian, Mycenaean, Anatolian with Hittite, Luwian and other Anatolian languages, Hurrian)
- Digital archaeology
Current research projects
AEMS project (LR) with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw (since 2022)
Project management: Lærke Recht, Katarzyna Zeman-Wisniewska
Since 2022, the University of Graz has been conducting archaeological excavations at the Erimi-Pitharka site in southern Cyprus in cooperation with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. The site is dated to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1400-1200 BC) and is a regional center for production, storage and administration. The project aims to better understand the role of the site within the Kouris Valley localization and the processes of building and production in the Late Bronze Age in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean.