Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: Paupers and Peasants and Princes and Kings: Reconstructing Society in Late Bronze Age Greece

It is very exciting to announce that this year’s Cyprus Research Fund Lecture is Professor Dimitri Nakassis from the University of Toronto. Prof. Nakassis will present some of his cutting edge research on Late Bronze Age social organization in Greece.

For those who don’t know, I’ve had the good fortune of working in the field with Prof. Nakassis for over a decade, first on the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Project and then when he stepped in as an expect excavator and critical contributor to the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus. He is a rare breed of scholar who is capable of presenting complex ideas in direct and easily comprehended ways.

His talk for the 4th Annual Cyprus Research Fund Lecture is titled: Paupers and Peasants and Princes and Kings: Reconstructing Society in Late Bronze Age Greece. The talk will be in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library on Thursday, October 25th at 4 pm. A reception will follow. 

Here’s a précis of the talk:

Studies of Mycenaean Greece often focus on the vast divide between the most powerful and the least powerful individuals: the king and the officials of the palace on the one hand, and lowly laborers on the other.  Between those extremes, however, were local leaders, administrators, and skilled craftsmen whose activities we can document through texts and the archaeological record.  This paper proposes a new model of Mycenaean culture that incorporates evidence about kings, slaves, and the middling ranks of society.

Here’s the flyer for the talk: