Events Calendar – British School at Athens

View of the Staphylos peninsula, Skopelos, credit: ASkoS Project

Upper House Seminar

Professor Peter Pavúk (Charles University), “Central Greece at the dawn of the Mycenaean Age and the role of contacts to the North”

Abstract: The transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age in the Argolid is commonly defined by the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, the emergence of Mycenaean decorated pottery, soon followed by the rise of tholos and rock-cut chamber tombs. Central Greece followed a contrasting trajectory: Middle Helladic practices persisted, built chamber tombs remained in use, burnished and matt-painted wares continued, and Mycenaean traits appeared only gradually. This changes almost suddenly in LH IIIA2, when the full Mycenaean repertoire arrives with remarkable speed.
This lecture examines the distinct developmental pathways of early LBA Central Greece, focusing primarily on pottery, alongside settlement and funerary evidence. It will consider inland–coastal differences and revisit northward connections, a topic rather neglected in recent scholarship. New evidence from Staphylos (Skopelos) and the first results of the ASkoS project will be presented.
Rather than resolving the complexities of Mycenaeanisation, the aim is to highlight the key issues that should shape future narratives of Central Greece, including parallels with the East Aegean.

Bio: Peter Pavúk is a Full Professor at the Institute of Classical Archaeology, Charles University, Prague. He studied prehistoric, medieval, and classical archaeology at Charles University before completing his PhD magna cum laude at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He subsequently held an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Heidelberg and earned his habilitation at Comenius University in Bratislava. From 2013 to 2022, he served as Director of the Institute of Classical Archaeology at Charles University.
Professor Pavúk specialises in the archaeology of the Aegean and Anatolian Bronze Age, with further interests in the Balkans and Central Europe. His research centres on ceramic studies, chronological questions, and patterns of cultural interaction across wider regional networks. He has participated in projects at Troy, on Samothrace, at Pergamon, as well as more recently at Kaymakçı and Sardis in western Turkey and has led several major grant-funded projects.
Currently, he is a co-director of the ASkoS project, Ancient Skopelos Survey, a synergasia with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Magnesia of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Universities of Warsaw, the Charles University, and Heidelberg, under the auspices and research permit of the Polish Archaeological Institute at Athens (PAIA).

Hybrid lecture