Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology

Dr Sergios Menelaou

British School at Athens
52 Souedias Street
Athens, 10676

s.menelaou@bsa.ac.uk

Research

I am an archaeologist specialising in prehistoric Aegean archaeology, with a particular focus on ceramic technologies, island connectivity, and patterns of mobility from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. My research integrates traditional ceramic analysis with scientific approaches, especially ceramic petrography and geochemical techniques, to reconstruct pottery production practices, technological choices, and networks of circulation across the eastern Aegean, western Anatolia, and Cyprus.

I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Cyprus and received my MSc in Archaeological Materials and PhD from the University of Sheffield. I have held postdoctoral fellowships at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilisations (ANAMED) and the University of Cyprus. Since 2022, I have been Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology at the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens, and in 2024–2025 I was an Early Career Fellow in Hellenic Studies at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. Between 2020 and 2022, I served as Principal Investigator of the project Borderlands as areas of mobility and connectivity during the third millennium BCE (BORDER), which examined regional ceramic technologies and interaction networks in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

In my current post at the Fitch Laboratory, I have expanded my earlier research in the eastern Aegean to investigate the ceramic traditions of major Early Bronze Age sites on Lemnos, Lesbos, and Chios. This work aims to trace shifting mechanisms of interaction between the islands themselves and with neighbouring island regions, as well as the Helladic and Anatolian mainlands. By combining targeted petrographic analysis with comparative regional datasets, the project reassesses the role of islands as active hubs within wider networks of exchange.

My research is closely grounded in fieldwork and material-based studies. Since 2009, I have been a member of The Prehistoric Settlement at Heraion on Samos project, directed by the University of Cyprus in collaboration with the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, where my work has focused on the multi-scalar analysis of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age pottery. More recently, I have been involved in field- and laboratory-based analytical projects on ceramics from the Samos Archaeological Survey (University of Cyprus, Prof. Ourania Kouka), the Emporio Hinterland Survey project on southern Chios (with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chios and UCL, under Prof. Andrew Bevan, as part of a British Academy/Leverhulme-funded project), and from northern Syros, where I am conducting petrographic analysis of prehistoric ceramics and geological samples from the Kampos Survey (in collaboration with Dr Lasse Sørensen, National Museum of Denmark).

In parallel, I collaborate on the study of ceramic assemblages from a wide range of sites in Greece and Cyprus, including Epirus-Ioannina (with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina), ancient Phokis and Lokris (with the German Archaeological Institute), and multiple Cypriot contexts spanning from the Ceramic Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Through these joint projects, my broader aim is to develop comparative, cross-regional perspectives on ceramic technology, mobility, and connectivity in the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean.

 

Select publications
  • Menelaou, S. 2025. Crafting choices for pottery-making in prehistoric Thermi-Lesbos, northeast Aegean: manufacturing strategies, emerging complexity and, connectivity. Annual of the British School at Athens 120, 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245425100233
  • Menelaou, S. 2024b. Multifaceted borders: historical contingencies and archaeological perspectives in modern Cyprus and the Greek-Turkish interface. In: O. Lytovka (ed.), Navigating Borders: Perspectives on Migration and Identity. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses, pp. 68-91.
  • Menelaou, S. 2024a. Bounded by the sea: Concepts of connectivity and mobility across the border zone of the eastern Aegean Islands and western Anatolia during the third millennium BC. In: M. Brunner, J. Menne and A. Hafner (eds.), Borders and Interaction: Concepts of Frontiers in Archaeological Perspectives. Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie 398. Bonn: Dr Rudolf Habelt GmbH, pp. 89-99. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10498095
  • Menelaou, S., Kouka, O., Müller, N.S. and Kiriatzi, E. 2024. Longevity, creativity, and mobility at the “oldest city in Europe”: ceramic traditions and cultural interactions at Poliochni-Lemnos, northeast Aegean. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16: 179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02080-8
  • Menelaou, S., Marzec, E., Georgiadis, F., Katsarou, S., Siros, A. and Darlas, A. 2024. Ritual use, consumption, and depositional practices at Agriomernos Cave, northwest Samos (Greece): a ceramic analytical approach. Advances in Archaeomaterials 5, 100041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aia.2024.100041
  • Menelaou, S. 2023. Early and Middle Bronze Age. In: E. Poyiadji-Richter (ed.), Alexander Malios Collection: Cypriote Antiquities. Leipzig, pp. 51-155.
  • Menelaou, S. and Kouka, O. 2022. Tracing interaction on Samos Island: Pottery traditions and connectivity at Kastro-Tigani and Heraion during the Aegean Late-Final Neolithic/western Anatolian Middle-Late Chalcolithic. Annual of the British School at Athens 117, 1-52. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245422000041
  • Menelaou, S. 2021. Insular, marginal or multiconnected? Maritime interaction and connectivity in the East Aegean Islands during the Early Bronze Age through ceramic evidence. In: Dierksmeier, L., Schön, F., Kouremenos, A., Condit, A. and Palmowski, V. (eds.), European Islands Between Isolated and Interconnected Life Worlds. Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives. RessourcenKulturen 16. Tübingen: Tübingen University Press, pp. 131-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.15496/publikation-62813
  • Menelaou, S. and Kouka, O. 2021. “Cooking up” pottery recipes: A diachronic technological and provenance analysis of cooking ware ceramics from prehistoric Heraion on Samos, Greece (ca. 4500-1700 BCE). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 35, 102716. doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102716
  • Menelaou, S. and Day, P.M. 2020. Between East and West: Amorgian pottery in Early Bronze Age Heraion (Samos). Oxford Journal of Archaeology 39(1), 41-66. doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12186
  • Kouka, O and Menelaou, S. 2018. Settlement and society in the Early Bronze Age Heraion: Exploring stratigraphy, architecture and ceramic innovation after mid–3rd millennium BC. In: E. Alram-Stern and B. Horejs (eds.), Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connections between the Aegean and Anatolia during the 3rd millennium BC. Oriental and European Archaeology 10. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 119-142.
  • Menelaou, S., Kouka, P. and Day, P.M. 2016. Pottery production and exchange at the Heraion, Samos during the late third millennium BC: First Steps in the Study of Technology and Provenance. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, 480-488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.01.014
Submitted and in press publications
  • Menelaou, S. and Marzec, E. (eds.) forthcoming. Multidisciplinary Approaches and Research Advances on Ancient and Preindustrial Ceramics from Cyprus (Global Perspectives on Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology Series). Routledge (under contract, expected in 2026).
  • Menelaou, S. submitted. Modern pottery-making traditions and implications for understanding ancient practices on Samos, Eastern Aegean: an ethnoarchaeological and ceramic landscape approach. In: C. Nuttall (ed.), Spatial analytical approaches to Greek and Cypriot landscapes. Swedish Institute at Athens and Rome.
  • Amadio, M., Bombardieri, L., Menelaou, S., Rellini, I. and Ghislandi, S. submitted. Environment, ecology and material engagement in the Bronze Age Kouris Valley. In: S. Menelaou and E. Marzec (eds), Multidisciplinary Approaches and Research Advances on Ancient and Preindustrial Ceramics from Cyprus. Routledge.
  • Menelaou, S. submitted. Compositional and provenance characterisation of pottery from Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou with thin-section petrography. In: L. Bombardieri (ed.), Excavations at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou, Limassol, 2016-2023, Vol. II (SIMA). Nicosia: Astrom Editions.