Professor Philipp Stockhammer (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) ‘Athenian Society in the 1st Millennium BCE from a Bioarchaeological Perspective’

Professor Stockhammer is the Visiting Professor of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens in 2024.

To date, our knowledge about the development of Athenian society during the 1^st millennium BCE has largely been based on literary and archaeological sources, which have often been difficult to combine. Archaeologists have paid great attention to the spatial organisation of cemeteries, grave typology, burial practices and rituals of each period, grave marker style and iconography, etc. The study of differences among regions and changes in the demographic composition of cemeteries in Athens and Attica through time have led to a more nuanced understanding of social developments. Nevertheless, several questions remain open: What social groupings do burial plots correspond to? How did biological relatedness affect the organisation of cemeteries? What was the relation among individuals buried in the same grave plot, in different plots or neighbouring cemeteries? Recently, the Ephorates of Attica and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have initiated the Attic Archaeogenetic Project Collaboration. In this framework, we have generated archaeogenetic data for more than 100 human bone samples from 1^st millennium BCE cemeteries from all over Attica, with a particular focus on the famous cemetery of Phaleron. I will present the current state of our research and the novel insights achieved so far in social belonging, mobility and marital practices in Early Iron Age Attica.

Image: Grabbezirk des Stratonides und des Eudemos (via wikicommons)

About Classics and Ancient History Seminars

The seminars of UQ's Discipline of Classics and Ancient History are held on Fridays at 4 pm.

Their format is in person and live on online.

The physical venue for all seminars is room E302 of the historic Forgan-Smith Building (building no. 1) on UQ's St Lucia campus in Brisbane.

For the online link please contact the seminar convenor Associate Professor David M. Pritchard (d.pritchard@uq.edu.au).

Seminars 2-3 and 6-7 will be recorded for subsequent publication as open-access podcasts.

Professor Maria Wyke (Seminar 2) is the 2026 Visiting Professor of UQ's Centre for Western Civilisation.

Dr Roslyne Bell comes to Brisbane as a guest of UQ's Friends of Antiquity. She will be delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Ancient History Day on Saturday 21 March.

Venue

Room 01–E302 Forgan Smith East Wing. For zoom link, contact David Pritchard d.pritchard@uq.edu.au