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Faculty of Classics

 

The project consists of a team of 3 Postdoctoral Researchers: Jason Lucas, Sara Owen and Carrie Roth-Murray. It is directed by Martin Millett, with the active involvement of other Cambridge-based scholars, including Robin Osborne, Simon Stoddart, Henry Hurst, Anthony Snodgrass and John Patterson.

Project Advisors: Robin Osborne, Simon Stoddart, Henry Hurst, Anthony Snodgrass, John Patterson, Irad Malkin and Carla Antonaccio.

Jason Lucas completed his PhD entitled 'Cultural Change on the Frontiers of the Roman Empire: Case Studies in Britannia and Germania Inferior', (supervised by Professors Martin Millett and Simon Keay), at the University of Southampton in 2003. This research examined the nature of cultural change in frontier areas of the Roman Empire, comparing the evidence from western Britain and the Rhine Frontier during the Principate and sought to develop methodologies to investigate archaeological distributions in terms of structure and agency.
Research interests include the processes of cultural change, the nature of the Roman frontier, the Roman military, archaeological applications of GIS, and the use of agency theory within archaeology.

Publications:

  • 2002 "Material Culture Patterns and Cultural Change in South-West Britain." In Carruthers, Martin, Carol van Driel-Murray, Andrew Gardner, Jason Lucas, Louise Revell, and Ellen Swift (eds.), TRAC 2001: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Glasgow 2001, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 51- 72.

Sara Owen did her PhD, entitled 'A Theory of Greek Colonization: EIA Thrace and initial Greek contacts', at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge under the supervision of Anthony Snodgrass. After gaining her PhD in 2000, she was Henry Lumley Research Fellow in Classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge. She is currently Director of Studies in Classics for Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Affiliated Lecturer to the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge.
Her research interests include the archaeology of culture-contact (particularly Greek 'colonization'), exchange, technology (especially relating to the adoption of iron) and landscape. Her work has mainly focussed upon Early Iron Age Thrace.

Publications:

Articles

  • S. Owen 'New light on Thracian Thasos: a reinterpretation of the 'cave of Pan'' JHS 120 (2000), 139-143.
  • S. Owen 'Of Dogs and Men: Archilochos, archaeology and the Greek settlement of Thasos' PCPS 49 (2003), 1-18.
  • S. Owen 'Ancient Greek 'Colonization' and Modern Colonialism' (forthcoming in Omnibus 2005).
  • S. Owen 'Archaeology, analogy and Archaic Greek colonization' in H. Hurst & S. Owen (eds) Ancient Colonizations: analogy, similarity and difference (in press, Duckworth)
  • S. Owen 'People and Places: a megalithic landscape in southern Thrace' (undergoing revisions for Antiquity).

Books

  • H. Hurst & S. Owen (eds) Ancient Colonizations: analogy, similarity and difference (in press, Duckworth)
  • An edited volume, S. Owen & L. Preston (eds) Inside the Greek City: Studies in Urbanism in the Greek World from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period is in preparation for publication by Oxbow in December 2005, and will include my article 'The Thracian landscape of Archaic Thasos' and an introduction co-authored with Laura Preston.
  • A monograph, A Theory of Greek Colonisation: EIA Thrace and initial Greek contacts is in preparation for publication by CUP.

Carrie Roth-Murray recently completed her doctoral thesis entitled "The Construction of Power: An Investigation into the Nature and Representation of Authority for the Etruscans, during the Orientalising and Archaic Periods", at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, under the supervision of Prof Ruth Whitehouse and Dr Todd Whitelaw. This project combines evidence from ritual, funerary and settlement contexts to investigate the development of social hierarchies and ideologies across the central Italy over two centuries.

Publications:

  • 2005   "A Disclosure of Power: Elite Etruscan Iconography During the 8th-6th Centuries" in the Papers in Italian Archaeology VI, vol I. University of Groningen, the Netherlands, BAR International Series 1452.
  • Forthcoming   "Developments of Authority through Ritual Structures: Reconsidering State Formation in Iron Age Etruria" in the Proceedings of the State Formation in the Mediterranean Conference, held at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Cambridge University Press.
  • In Preparation   "The Politics of Ritual Iconography: Considering the Archaic Figured Frieze Plaques from Central Italy".

Latest news

Senior Curator: Mediterranean Antiquities

28 April 2025

The Faculty and the Fitzwilliam Museum and are seeking to appoint a Senior Curator of Mediterranean Antiquities. The post-holder will be the curatorial and research lead for the Fitzwilliam's substantial collection of Mediterranean antiquities, and will also be a senior member of the Faculty of Classics: 20% of the role...

Ralegh Radford Rome Award

3 April 2025

The Faculty is delighted to report that Jonathan Steward has been awarded the Ralegh Radford Rome Award, BSR, for Lent Term 2026.

Pat Story

2 April 2025

We are very sad to pass on the news of the death of Pat Story on 25th March, after a short illness. Pat has been the single most important figure in classics education for the last 50 years and her passing marks the end of an era. There will be a celebration of her life in Hughes Hall at 2pm on Saturday 17 May. All are...

VIEWS Visiting Fellowships and Remote Inclusivity Fellowships

31 March 2025

The Faculty is pleased to announce that the UKRI funded VIEWS project has launched this year’s visiting fellowship competition, with a new virtual fellowship aimed at tackling inequalities in academia alongside the usual competition. For more information see here . The deadline for both competitions is Friday 23rd May 2025...