October 31, 2008
Tales of pottery and ancient Greece subject of
ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Lecture Series
Much of Peggy Mook's recent professional career has been spent on a major excavation on the Greek island of Crete.
The associate professor of classical studies in Iowa State University’s Department of World Languages and Cultures, will speak on those experiences during the fall 2008 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Lecture Series. Mook will present “Excavating the Ancient Greek City” Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.
Mook has worked as field director and pottery specialist since 2002 for the Azoria Project, the excavation of an Early Iron Age and Archaic (ca. 1200-480 B.C.) site on the island of Crete, in the Greek Aegean. At Azoria, excavation was undertaken to recover evidence for changing patterns in social and political structure and shifts in the nature of agricultural production that can be associated with city-state formation in early Greece.
While some city-states such as Athens developed complex political economies, others were smaller in size and shorter lived, representing fascinating regional variations of state-structure. The Azoria Project focuses on a single small-scale polis, as a test case for culture change during a period of urbanization in the ancient Mediterranean.
This lecture series is coordinated by Iowa State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is funded by the University Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB). A reception will follow the lecture.
