The next Aegean Network Conference will be held on May 13th 2026 at the Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, London. The conference has been generously supported by the Mycenaean Seminar/the Institute of Classical Studies. The event will be followed by a presentation by James Whitley for the Mycenaean Seminar Series at 3.30pm.
An exciting line-up of speakers will be delivering a mixture of 5-and-20-minute presentations – please see the programme below.
All attendees of the conference and Mycenaean Seminar are also invited to attend a reception at a nearby pub to continue discussions.
If you have not yet signed up and would like to attend, please sign up via the ICS website. There is the option to attend either remotely or in-person. If you are planning to attend in-person, we ask that you register by May 4th at the latest.
This conference is to be the 4th in-person meeting of the network of Early Career Researchers and postgraduates with interests broadly embracing the archaeology of the Aegean region from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic Period. The network first met in 2021 on the initiative of James Whitley, Robin Osborne, and Irene Lemos, and aims to provide opportunities for postgraduate students and early-stage postdocs to make short presentations relating to their research interests and to receive helpful and constructive feedback from their peers.
This is the first Aegean Network event to be hosted and funded by the Institute of Classic Studies and aims to further broaden the inclusivity of the network. We would like to express our gratitude to the ICS for providing the space, catering (including lunch) and administrative support.
The event is being co-organised and co-chaired by Holly Winch (University of Oxford/British Museum), Lars Hofflin (University of Oxford), Sarah Lidwell-Durnin (University of Bristol), and Flo Lloyd James (University of Bristol/Cardiff University/BSA), with the assistance of Michael Loy (University of Durham) and Borja Legarra Herrero (UCL).
If you would like to sign up to the network mailing list, please email Michael Loy (michael.p.loy@durham.ac.uk).
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
Sarah.lidwell-durnin@bristol.ac.uk
INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AEGEAN NETWORK CONFERENCE
13th May 2026, Senate House, London
10.30 Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Session 1 – Mortuary Evidence
10.35 Sydney Patterson (Ghent University)
Resurrecting the Dead: Reassessment of Funerary Practices Through the Legacy
Data of Thorikos
10.55 Nikolas Athanasiadis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, online)
Bones in Context. Preliminary Insights from the Study of the Human Skeletal
Remains from the Graves of Geometric Argos
11.15 Oliver Turney (University of Oxford)
Thessalian Tholos Tombs (Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age)
11.20 Holly Winch (University of Oxford/British Museum)
Understanding Early Greek Children’s Lives Through Their Deaths
11.25 Discussion
BREAK: 11.35–11.50
Session 2 – Reception
11.50 Renee Trepagnier (University of Bristol/Ashmolean Museum)
Seismic Influences: The Development of Sir Arthur Evans’s ‘Great Earthquake of
MM IIIB’ Theory
12.10 Sarah Lidwell-Durnin (University of Bristol)
Sinewy Youths and Noble Mien: Anthropometric Masculinity at Knossos
12.30 Shu Susan Chai (University of Oxford)
Fragments and Ideals in the Architectural Documentation of Hisarlık, Site of
Ancient Troy
12.35 Discussion
LUNCH (provided): 12.45–13.30
Session 3 – Topography and Settlement
13.30 Alexander J. Heath (University of Cardiff)
The Sacred Landscape of Akraiphia: Constructing and Negotiating Religious
Geographies and Communal Identities in the Late-Eighth to Fifth Centuries B.C.E
13.50 Daniel D’Elia (Bryn Mawr College)
From Farm to Table, From Table to Tomb: Tracing Archaeological Change
Through Subsistence During the Late Bronze Age (LBA)–Early Iron Age (EIA)
Transition in the Corinthian Gulf
13.55 Igor Kutlešovski (University College Dublin)
Knossos Royal Road: The Early Historical Period
14.00 Dr Dominic Pollard (University of Cambridge)
Out the Trench and into the Field: Surveying the Ancient City of Lyktos, Crete
14.05 Discussion
BREAK: 14.15–14.35
Session 4 – Key Interventions
14.35 Dr Matt Thompson (University of Nottingham)
Beyond Thermopylai: Diplomatic and Cultural interaction between Sparta and the
Near East
14.55 Sasha Waller (University of Oxford)
Bronzes and Bureaucrats: Mapping and Cross-referencing Archaeological Finds
with Linear B Records from the Mycenaean City of Pylos
15.00 Lars Hofflin (University of Oxford)
The Early ‘Iron’ Age? Approaches to Early Iron in the Aegean.
15.05 Discussion
15.15 Closing remarks
BREAK: 15.20–15.30
15.30 The ICS Mycenaean Seminar – James Whitley
Homer and the New Materialism
Note: this is not a Classical Association event – please contact the organisers directly with any enquiries.