Recent years have seen an increasing application of models derived from the cognitive sciences to the study of ancient religious experience. In particular, specific models are being drawn from the theoretically pluralist field of the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in order…
Colin Renfrew, professor at the University of Cambridge, famed internationally as an archaeologist with a special interest in Greek prehistory and a profound affection for Greece, died in Cambridge on 24 November 2024. A former Chair of the British School at Athens…
This lecture presents some reflections stemming from current research on the Royal Road excavations that were carried out by Sinclair Hood at Knossos between 1957 and 1961. The focus is on the rich Hood Archive, which was recently moved from his home in Oxford…
Can we talk of ’empire’ when studying the behaviour of Greek states in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE? Does using this terminology clarify or obscure our understanding of how states and individuals behaved, and how they understood their behaviour? These questions…
There are numerous references to plants used by goddesses and gods to heal or enchant, within Greek Myth, and the names of many of these plants have been incorporated into the Latin binomials that are used to identify them. The first physicians…
Neither Julian Hoffman nor Sofka Zinovieff are originally from Greece and yet they’ve both devoted a large part of their careers to writing and thinking about this country. Between them, they’ve explored it in novels, nonfiction, short stories, podcasts and essays. One lives in Athens, the other in Prespa…
Based on the ancient technique of mosaics, the conversation between the Director of the BSA Prof Rebecca Sweetman (expert on ancient mosaics) and Visual Artist Christina Nakou approaches concepts such as making, wear, durability, corporeality and transformation to highlight the importance of the inclusion…
The BSA is delighted to host the Michael Marks Awards and its winning poets who stay at the BSA for a week as part of the programme. This year’s poets in residence are Ben Verinder, the Environmental Poet of the Year 2024, and Professor Paul O’Prey, winner of the Publisher Award 2024 (Dare- Gale press), who will give readings at the BSA Upper House.
Cleon’s dramatic victory at Sphacteria in 425 – with its unprecedented capture of 292 Spartan hoplites – was a transformative moment for Athens’ fortunes in the Archidamian War. In addition to extraordinary personal honours for Cleon…
We know from archaeological studies that occupied caves diachronically held prominent positions as visible landmarks or as nodal points in exchange networks and mobility routes. The lecture discusses the case of Daskalio Cave on Kalymnos as a site where Minoan ritual practices were performed outside Crete, and as a context where maritime identities were played out through an eclectic use of material culture.