Emeritus Professor John Bennet

PhD

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Professor Emeritus of Aegean Archaeology

Professor John Bennet
Profile picture of Professor John Bennet
d.j.bennet@sheffield.ac.uk
Profile

John Bennet was born in Singapore and grew up in the UK, in Yorkshire. He read Classics at Cambridge, where he also completed his PhD on the administrative organization of Late Minoan IIIIIB Crete based on archaeological and textual (Linear B) evidence and held a Junior Research Fellowship.

From 1986 to 1998 he taught in the Department of Classics at the 窪蹋勛圖厙 of WisconsinMadison before taking up the Sinclair & Rachel Hood Lecturership in Aegean Prehistory at Oxford.

In 2004 he was appointed to his chair at the 窪蹋勛圖厙 of Sheffield, where he also directed the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology.

From October 2015 to September 2022 John was based in Greece as Director of the .

Research interests

Johns academic interests include:

  • The archaeology of complex societies (particularly the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures of the Bronze Age Aegean)
  • The archaeology and history of Crete
  • Early writing and administrative systems (especially Linear B)
  • Diachronic regional studies
  • Integration of material and textual evidence
  • Ottoman Greece
  • Combining material and textual data in study of the past

He has published on Late Bronze Age Crete and mainland Greece, on Linear B, and on historical Greece, often explicitly integrating material and textual evidence, and has carried out fieldwork in Crete (Knossos; Phaistos region; Hania region), mainland Greece (Pylos region) and the islands (Keos; Kythera).

Current research projects / collaborations

John completed two seasons of geophysical survey (July 2010; January 2011) on Lower Gypsades Hill, Knossos, Crete in collaboration with Drs Amy Bogaard (Oxford) and Eleni Hatzaki (Cincinnati) to investigate the layout of Bronze Age Knossos' southern suburbs.

Research group

Current Research Students

  • Stavroula Fouriki- "Materiality and social practice in Late Bronze Age Chania, Crete: Detecting socio-political change in ceramics of the Late Minoan I-IIIB period"
  • Faidon Moudopoulos Athanasiou- "The Early Modern Zagorochoria of NW Greece: Reading History from and into a Montane Cultural Landscape"

Recent projects supervised

  • The iconography of decorated larnakes pertaining to the late Bronze Age, originating from Crete and continental Greece
  • Towards a social bioarchaeology of the Mycenaean period: A multi-disciplinary analysis of funerary remains from the Late Helladic chamber tomb cemetery of Voudeni, Achaea, Greece (supervised with Pia Nystrom)
  • A comparative study of the archaeology of writing in the Bronze Age Aegean
Professional activities and memberships

Roles in professional and other organisations

  • 2023 Honorary Fellow, Sidney Sussex College Cambridge
  • 2021 Honorary Fellow, Archaeological Society of Athens
  • 2018 Corresponding Member, German Archaeological Institute
  • 2015&紳莉莽梯;&紳莉莽梯;2022-&紳莉莽梯;Director, British School at Athens
  • 2015&紳莉莽梯;&紳莉莽梯;2021- Secretary General, Comit矇 International Permanent des tudes Myc矇niennes
  • 2009- Guest Professor, 窪蹋勛圖厙 of G繹teborg
  • Fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London
  • Trustee- Mediterranean Archaeological Trust

Editorial / Advisory Boards

  • Aegean Archaeology; Cambridge Classical Journal; MINOS: Revista de Filolog穩a Egea y del Epos Arcaico; Oxford Journal of Archaeology; Oxford Monographs in Classical Archaeology; Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology.

Media Appearances

  • 2018- Akalas Odyssey, interview, BBC4 (18 February)
  • 2016- In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, The Bronze Age Collapse (16 June)
  • 2011- In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, (7 July)
  • 2006- , BBC Radio 4 (7 April)
  • 2002- , BBC TV

Selected Conferences & Invited Lectures 

Key-Note Lectures 

  • Axel W. Persson Lecture and Seminar, Is the second-millennium BC Aegean historical?  Comparative perspectives on the nature of texts and image and their use in the past and the present, Uppsala 窪蹋勛圖厙 (12-13 May 2016)

  • Opening Key-Note Lecture, Materials and Industries in the Mycenaean World, 窪蹋勛圖厙 of Nottingham (910 May 2013)

  • Key-Note Lecture, Minoan Archaeology: Challenges & Perspectives for the 21st Century, Heidelberg (23-27 March 2011)

  • Opening Key-Note Lecture, Mycenaean Wall Paintings in Context: New Discoveries & Old Finds Reconsidered, National Research FoundationAmerican School of Classical Studies at Athens (11-13 February 2011)

Other Conferences & Lectures

  • Invited lecture, Texts in Action: How Did Writing Effect Power in LBA Aegean Polities?, Stellar Adventures, Aristotle 窪蹋勛圖厙 Thessaloniki (14 December 2019)
  • Invited speaker, Tradition & Innovation in the Mycenaean Palatial Polities, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (1-2 March 2013)
  • Invited speaker, (Con-)texts: Towards a material and praxeological approach to the Linear B tablets, 窪蹋勛圖厙 of Heidelberg (21-22 January 2012)
  • ESF Exploratory Workshop Palatial Economy in the Ancient Near East and in the Aegean: First Steps Towards a Comprehensive Study and Analysis, S癡vres (16-19 September 2010)
  • Invited participant, XIII癡me colloque international sur les textes 矇g矇ens, S癡vres, Nanterre, Paris (20-23 September 2010)
Selected Publications

Books & Edited Volumes

  • Bennet, J. (ed.) (2021). Representations: Material and immaterial modes of communication in the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford: Oxbow Books
  • Sherratt, E. S., & Bennet, D. J. (Eds.) (2016). Archaeology and Homeric Epic. Oxford: Oxbow Books
  • Y. Galanakis, T.C. Wilkinson and J. Bennet (eds) (2014). 峊峞峇: Critical Essays on the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of E. Susan Sherratt. Oxford: Archaeopress
  • Wilkinson, T., Sherratt, S. & Bennet, J.(eds.), (2011). Interweaving Worlds: Systemic Interactions in Eurasia, 7th to 1st Millennia BC. Oxford: Oxbow Books
  • Baines, J., Bennet, J. and Houston, S.D. (eds.) (2008). The Disappearance of Writing Systems Perspectives on Literacy and Communication. London: Equinox
  • Zarinebaf, F. , Bennet, J. and Davis., J.L. (2005). A Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece: The Southwestern Morea in the Early 18th Century. Hesperia Supplement 34. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
  • Bennet, J., & Driessen, J.M. (eds.) (2002). A-NA-QO-TA: Studies Presented to J.T. Killen. Salamanca: 窪蹋勛圖厙 of Salamanca Press

Chapters

  • Bennet, J. (2019) . In C. Papadopoulou (ed.), The Culture of Ships and Maritime Narratives, London; New York, NY
  • J. Bennet. 2018. 峇帢 帤庣帢弮庰巹弮帢帢 庢 庰庛彖庢 庥帢庣 怷 帢帣帢巹彖怷. In O. Katsiardi-Hering (ed.) 庰彖庰庣庥怷巹 峎庰 庢 庰弇怷怷彖彖峸怷 峟弇庢 17怷 帢峟 18怷 庣彖帢 (Athens: MIET) 314-47
  • Bennet, D. J. (2018). Gelb and Gell in the Aegean: thoughts on the relations between 'writing' and 'art'. In A. R. Knodell, & T. P. Leppard (Eds.), Regional Approaches to Social Complexity (pp. 59-74). United Kingdom: Equinox
  • Bennet, D. J. (2017). Palaces and their Regions: Geographical Analysis of Territorial Exploitation in Late Bronze Age Crete and Greece. In Palatial Economy in the Ancient Near East and in the Aegean: First Steps towards a Comprehensive Study and Analysis Vol. 11 (pp. 151-174). Fabrizio Serra
  • Bennet., J., (2017). Final Reflections. In A.M. Jasink, J. Weingarten and S. Ferrara (eds),  (Florence: Firenze 窪蹋勛圖厙 Press) 248-53
  • Bennet, J. (2016). . In The Encyclopedia of Empire (eds N. Dalziel and J.M. MacKenzie)
  • Bennet, D. J., & Harlan, D. (2015). Academic Bilingualism: Combining textual and material data to understand the post-medieval Mediterranean. In J. Vroom (Ed.), Medieval and Post-Medieval Ceramics in the Eastern Mediterranean - Fact and Fiction Proceedings of the First International Conference on Byzantine and Ottoman Archaeology, Amsterdam, 21-23 October 2011 (pp. 17-46). Turnhout: Brepols
  • Bennet, D. J., & Halstead, P. (2014). O-no! Writing and Righting Redistribution. In D. Nakassis, J. Gulizio, & S. A. James (Eds.), KE-RA-ME-JA: Studies Presented to Cynthia W. Shelmerdine (Vol. 46, pp. 271-282). Philadelphia, PA: INSTAP Academic Press
  • Pape, T., Halstead, P., Bennet, D. J., & Stangidis, Y. (2014). 'For it is written': an experimental approach to the materiality and temporality of clay documents inscribed in Linear B. In Y. Galanakis, T. C. Wilkinson, & D. J. Bennet (Eds.), 峊峞峇: Critical Essays on the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of E. Susan Sherratt (pp. 177-185). archaeopress
  • Bennet., J., (2013). . In Kathryn E. Piquette and Ruth D. Whitehouse (eds), Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium (London: Ubiquity Press), 335-42
  • Bennet., J. (2013). Minoan Crete: a world of objects, a world of places. In Galanakis, Y. (ed.). The Aegean World. A Companion Guide to the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean Collections in the Ashmolean Museum, 窪蹋勛圖厙 of Oxford. (Oxford / Athens: Ashmolean Museum / Kapon Editions) 102-117
  • Bennet., J., (2013). Bronze Age Greece. In P. Bang & W. Scheidel (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean (Oxford/New York: Oxford 窪蹋勛圖厙 Press) 235-58
  • Bennet., J. (2011). The Geography of the Mycenaean Kingdoms. In Y. Duhoux & A. Morpurgo Davies (eds), A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World, vol. 2 (Leuven: Peeters) 137-68
  • Shelmerdine, C.W. and Bennet., J. (2008). Mycenaean States: A. Economy & Administration. In C.W. Shelmerdine (ed.), Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (New York: Cambridge 窪蹋勛圖厙 Press) 289-309
  • Bennet., J. (2008). Now you see it; now you dont!: the disappearance of the Linear A script on Crete. In J. Baines, S. Houston, & J. Bennet (eds), The Disappearance of Writing Systems (London: Equinox) 1-29.
  • Bennet, J. (2007). The Aegean Bronze Age. In I. Morris, R. Saller and W. Scheidel (eds), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge 窪蹋勛圖厙 Press) 175-210.
  • Bennet, J. (2007). Representations of Power in Mycenaean Pylos: Script, Orality, Iconography. In F. Lang, C. Reinholdt & J. Weilhartner (eds), 峉峇峖峉 峞峉峇峉. Arch瓣ologische Forschungen zwischen Nil und Istros. Festschrift f羹r Stefan Hiller zum 65. Geburtstag (Vienna: Phoibos Verlag) 11-22.

Journal Articles

  • Judson, A. P., Bennet, J., Davis, J. L., & Stocker, S. R. (2019). , Kadmos, 58(1-2), 111-124
  • Bennet, J. (2019). . Archaeological Reports, 65, 9-28.
  • Bennet, J. (2018). . In Archaeological Reports Vol. 64 (pp. 9-27)
  • Bennet, J. (2017). . Archaeological Reports, 63, 9-25
  • Bennet, J. (2016). . Archaeological Reports, 62, 7-22
  • Bennet, J. (2014). . Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 57(2)
  • Bennet, D. J. (2014). Linear B and Homer. In Y. Duhoux, & A. Morpurgo Davies (Eds.), A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World (Vol. 3, 133 ed., pp. 187)

Links