Dr. Eleftheria Pappa

© Eleftheria Pappa

Domplatz 6-7
48143 Münster

Research Project

Civic and Group Identities in Atlantic Iberia after the Phoenician colonization

The project sheds light on how the mass migration of Near Eastern peoples to Iberia in the early 1st millennium BCE affected indigenous civic identity formation and political organization on the Atlantic littoral of the peninsula. Iberia was profoundly transformed through the mass migration waves of Phoenician populations across the Mediterranean. While the settlement of eastern populations concerned mostly the southern-central Iberian coastal regions, their arrival nevertheless proved a key driver for urbanization and political organization across large swathes of the peninsula. On the Atlantic littoral, the archaeological evidence for ‘indigenous’ settlement patterns shows a degree of intra-site social differentiation but no organized central authority is visible on the regional scale, leaving open to interpretation issues of political organization: egalitarian societies, confederations, and independent city-states have all been envisaged. Forms of civic organization at the city level not only correspond to eastern Mediterranean types of socio-political organization, but are compatible with the Atlantic Iberian archaeological data for social and political fragmentation. How to test the hypothesis? The comparative methodology introduced here offers a cross-examination with the much-better numismatic documentation for political organization during later periods, which offer clear markers of civic identity. This allows a new understanding of the indigenous and colonial polities in the Iron Age, documenting the effect of diasporic communities from the Near East not only on identity formation, but also on every aspect that became pivotal for later historical civilizations in Europe, from urbanization to literacy and legal systems.

Research Interests

  • Phoenician colonization
  • Iron Age western Mediterranean (Africa and Europe)
  • Near Eastern History and Archaeology
  • Classical Art and Archaeology
  • Numismatics
  • Archaeological Methodology
  • Classical Reception Studies

CV (Academic Education; Positions; External Functions/Memberships)

Academic Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil), Archaeology, Hertford College, University of Oxford, 2010.
  •  Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Classical Archaeology, Hertford College, University of Oxford, 2006.
  • Bachelor of Arts, Archaeology, University of Bristol, 2004.

 

Positions

  • 12/9/2022– 16/12/2022: Scholar, Getty Scholar Program, Getty Villa, Los Angeles.
  • 1/9/2021–30/7/2022: Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
  • 1/7/2016–30/10/2018: Post-doctoral researcher, University of São Paulo/ São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
  • 25/2/2018–25/6/2018 : Post-doctoral guest researcher, University of Seville, funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
  • 16/9/2015–15/10/2015: Lecturer, University of Groningen.
  • 1/10/2013-1/8/2014: Lecturer, University of Groningen.
  • 1/10/2010–1/10/2013: Post-doctoral Researcher, VU University Amsterdam/ Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
  • 1/2007–8/2010: Tutor, University of Oxford (ad hoc tutorials for Christ Church College, St Hugh’s College, Merton College, St John’s College).

 

External Functions/Memberships

  • 1/11/2018-30/3/2019: Guest Post-doctoral researcher, University of São Paulo.
  • 1/10/2014–30/6/2014: Visiting Research Assistant, Department of History, University of California Santa Barbara (remotely-held, non-salaried position).
  • 1/10/2013–1/10/2014: Guest Researcher, VU University Amsterdam (non-salaried position).
  • 2012–2016: Executive editorial board member of the journal Talanta, Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society [http://www.talanta.nl/].
  • 2013­–2014: Committee member of the Stichting Archaeological Dialogues.
  • 1/10/2011–31/10/2011: Guest Scholar, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Central Department, Berlin.

Publications (Monographs; Edited Works; Journal Articles; Book Chapters; Handbooks and Encyclopaedias; Book Reviews)

Monographs

  • Pappa, E. 2015. The Phoenician Sanctuary of Palácio da Galeria in Tavira (Portugal): Overview, Selected Contexts and their Assemblages from the Excavations of the Campo Arqueológico de Tavira (Cuadernos de Arqueología Mediterránea 23). Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
  • Pappa, E. 2013. Early Iron Age Exchange in the West: Phoenicians in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic (Ancient Near East Supplement 43). Leuven; Paris; Walpole, MA: Peeters Publishers.  

Journal Articles

  • Pappa, E. 2024. Fraud or Fiasco? Philo’s Phoenician History vis-à-vis Mediterranean archaeology and beyond: a reappraisal long overdue. Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia 42: 69-142.
  • Pappa, E. 2022. Herakles and the Gorgon in Athenian Black-Figure vase-painting: burlesque or civic theology? Acta Classica 65: 157–194.
  • Pappa, E. 2020. Tropicalismo in classics. Contemporary Brazilian approaches to the value of classical antiquity in research and education. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 18(2): 358–408.
  • Pappa, E. 2020. Greek magic on the Atlantic? Homeric potions and mystic cults beyond the Pillars of Herakles. Dossê: A Grécia em expansão: conectividade, mobilidade e migração no Mediterrâneo antigo, ed. M.G. Fonseca Soares.  Romanitas – Revista de Estudos Grecolatinos 15: 32–74
  • Pappa, E. 2019. The poster boys of antiquity’s ‘capitalism’ shunning money?  The spread of the alphabet in the Mediterranean as a function of a credit-based, maritime trade. Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia 33: 91–138.
  • Pappa, E. 2019. Near Eastern colonies and cultural influences from Morocco to Algeria before the Carthaginian expansion: a survey of the archaeological evidence. Dossiê Fenícios, ed. M. C. Kormikiari Passos. Hélade 5 (2) 57–82.
  • Pappa, E. 2019. Recent discoveries in Iberia and the application of post-colonial concepts: the modern making of a state, Tartessos. Athens Journal of History 3(5): 189–208.
  • Pappa, E. 2019. The metrological system of the Final Bronze Age balance weights and the pre-Roman coinage of Atlantic Iberia: a shared Syrian standard? Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology 6(1): 60–80.
  • Pappa, E. 2018. Depoliticizing archaeology for constructing pasts and presents: cultural heritage, war and the West. Radical History Review 130: 9–43.
  • Pappa, E. 2017. “You give me letters instead of money?” Commercial transactions in the Near East and the western Mediterranean ca. 1100-600 BCE: social innovation and institutional inhibition of Phoenician commerce. Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia 28: 1–30.
  • Pappa, E. 2017. A mere addition to someone else’s genealogy? Perceptions of ancient   cultural heritage, public policy and collective memory in Portugal. Special Issue: Public Archaeologies of the Ancient Mediterranean (ed. A. Dakouri-Hild). Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 5 (3–4): 287 –310.
  • Pappa, E. 2016. Endangered Humanities at a Time of Crisis in the EU and Beyond: Shrinking, Downsize and The Itinerant Academic.  Fast Capitalism 13(1): 67-96.
  • Pappa, E. 2013. Post-colonial baggage at the end of the road. How to put the genie back into its bottle and where to go from here. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 28(1): 28–49.
  • Pappa, E. 2012. Framing some aspects of the Early Iron Age ‘chronological mess’: Aegean synchronisms with the West and their significance for the Greek Geometric series. Kubaba 3: 2­–38.
  • Pappa, E. 2009. Reflections on the earliest Phoenician presence in north-west Africa. Talanta 40–41 (2008–2009): 53–72.

Book Chapters

  • Pappa, E. 2023. Picking up letters quite quickly: the first literacy in western Europe during the early 1st millennium BC vis-à-vis the international setting of its origins and its local uses. In M.B. Borba Florenzano (ed.), Ocupação territorial e definição de fronteiras no Mediterrâneo antigo. São Paulo: Intermeios, 137–198.
  • Pappa, E. 2022. Divination and necromancy from the Near East to Andalusia: religious transmutations on the move In V. Sossau; K. Riehle (eds), Mistaken Identities. Identities as resources in the central Mediterranean’.Tübingen: Tübingen University Press, 157–178.
  • Pappa, E. 2019. The Far Western Mediterranean. In I.S. Lemos and A. Kotsonas (eds), Companion to Early Greece and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1325–1348.
  • Pappa, E. 2017. Social histories of the early Greek presence in the 'Far West': commodities, traders and their impact. In A. Mazarakis Ainian; A. Alexandridou; X. Charalambidou (eds), Regional Stories Towards a New Perception of the Early Greek World, Acts of an International Symposium in honour of Professor Jan Bouzek, Volos 18–21 June 2015. Volos: University of Thessaly Press, 597–694.
  • Pappa, E. 2015. Changing responses to changing environments: Documenting socio-cultural change and demographic evolution through the built environment in Phoenician-period Iberia, ca. 900–600 BC. In B.E. Parr; A.A di Castro; C.A Hope (eds), Housing and Habitat in the Ancient Mediterranean. Cultural and Environmental Responses (BABESCH Supplements 26). Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 15–30.
  • Pappa, E. 2015. Oriental gods but domestic elites? Religious symbolism and economic functions of Phoenician-period cult loci in south Iberia. In E. Kistler; B. Öhlinger; M. Mohr; M. Hoernes (eds), Sanctuaries and the Power of Consumption. Networking and the formation of Elites in the Archaic Western Mediterranean World. Proceedings of the International Conference in Innsbruck, 20th–23rd March 2012 (Philippika - Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen/ Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures 92). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 43–62.
  • Pappa, E. 2015. Representation of Phoenician eschatology: funerary art, ritual and the belief in an after-life. In Z. Theodoropoulou-Polychroniades; D. Evely (eds.), Aegis: Essays in Mediterranean Archaeology presented to Matti Egon by Scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Oxford: Archaeopress, 117–130.
  • Pappa, E. 2015. Who’s the Phoenician on the Atlantic? Disentangling seafaring from colonisation in western Iberia and Morocco. In R. Pedersen (ed), On Sea and Ocean: New Research in Phoenician Seafaring, 23–25 June 2011, Archäologisches Seminar der Philipps Universität Marburg (Marburger Beiträge zur Archäologie 2). Marburg:  Eigenverlag des Archäologischen Seminars der Philipps-Universität Marburg, 71–94.
  • Pappa, E. 2013. Looking out to the sea and away from it: multi-cultural maritime communities of the coast and inland isolationism in Early Iron Age Atlantic Iberia. In Μ. Υ. Daire; C. Dupont; A. Baudry; C. Billard; J.M. Large; L. Lespez; E. Normand; C. Scarre (eds), Ancient Maritime Communities and the Relationship between People and Environment along the European Atlantic Coasts/ Anciens peuplements littoraux et relations home/milieu sur les côtes de l’ Europe atlantique. HOMER 2011, Vannes, 28 septembre-1er octobre 2011 (BAR International Series). Oxford: Archaeopress, 349–359.
  • Pappa, E. 2011. From sea-faring men to travelling images: the Phoenician commercial expansion in south-eastern Spain as a stimulus for artistic interactions in Iberia. In K. Duistermaat; I. Regulski; G. Jennes; L. Weiss (eds.), Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean: Proceedings of the International Congress at The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 25th to 29th October 2008 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 202). Leuven; Walpole, MA: Peeters, 161–178.
  • Pappa, E. 2009. Phoenicians in the West: remarks on some western Phoenician ceramic assemblages from Atlantic Iberia. In Interconnections in the Eastern Mediterranean – Lebanon in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Proceedings of the International Symposium Beirut 2008 (Bulletin d’ Archeologie et d’Architecture Libanaises Hors-Série VI). Beirut: Ministère de la Culture, Direction Géneral des Antiquitès, 489–498.

Book Reviews

  • Pappa, E. 2024/in press. Review of Byblos in the Late Bronze Age. Interactions between the Levantine and Egyptian Worlds. (Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant, 9). Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden-Boston, 2019. (24 cm, XV, 324). ISBN 978-90-04-41659-8. Bibliotheca Orientalis 81 (3-4): 174-179.
  • Pappa, E. 2018. Review of Tal, O.; Z. Weiss (eds), Expressions of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period. Manifestations in Text and Material Culture (Contextualising the Sacred 6). Brepols, Turnhout, 2017 (28 cm, XXIII, 288), ISBN: 978-2-503-55335-1, 120. Bibliotheca Orientalis 74 (1–2): 177–183.
  • Pappa, E. 2012. Review of Ancient Phoenicia: An Introduction. Classical World series. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.02.42.
  • Pappa, E. 2011. Review of The Archaeology of Fazzān. Vol. 3, Excavations of C. M. Daniels. Society for Libyan Studies monograph 8. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.09.52.

Handbooks/ Encyclopaedias/ Popularisation of Research

  • Pappa, E. 2024. Phoenicians in Iberia and Tartessos. Ancient History 53: 28–35.
  • Pappa, E. 2015. Phoenicians in Sicily. In D. Burdersdijk; R. Calis; J. Kelder; A. Sofroniew; R. van Beek; S. Tusa (eds), Sicily and the Sea (Allard Pierson Museum Series 6). Zwolle: W Books, 32–37.
  • Pappa, E. 2012. Retracting the divisions? Fresh perspectives on Phoenician settlement in Iberia from Tavira, Portugal. Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie 47: 7–13.

Scientific Talks

  •  “Religious syncretism in the Early Iron Age Mediterranean: new contributions to the iconography of travelling gods”, Getty Villa Scholar Seminar, 7 December 2022, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  • “The so-called phlyax vases and their users: images of mocking the divine for whose eyes?”. Ancient Studies Seminar, Institute for Advanced Study, 12 April 2022, Princeton, NJ, USA.
  • “Theologies of dissent in the Hellenic polis: war, epidemic and the ludic deity on stage”.  Friends of the IAS Lunchtime Talk, Institute for Advanced Study, 11 February 2022, Princeton, NJ, USA.
  • “Role models to inspire? The tainted links of archaeologists and imperialism in the Middle East, then and now”, 17th Annual International Conference of History & Archaeology: From Ancient to Modern, 3-6 June 2019, Athens, Greece.
  • “Harnessing identities through a feedback loop: the impact of maritime colonial networks on 1st millennium BCE Levantine Identities”, Helsinki Summer Symposium for the Construction of Identity in the Ancient Near East, University of Helsinki, 24-25 August 2017, Helsinki, Finland.
  • “Commercial mechanisms, monetisation and literacy in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East: social innovation and institutional inhibition of Phoenician commerce”, Seminários de Pesquisa do Labeca, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, University of São Paulo, 5 October 2016, São Paulo.
  • “Residual customs, new fashions or ancestral roots? Aspects of continuity and disruption in the 6th -5th century BCE threshold of south-western Iberia”, DFG Network - Meeting Tübingen, University of Tübingen, 3–5 March 2016, Tübingen, Germany.
  • “Early Greek presence in the 'Far West': commodities, traders and their impact”, Regional Stories Towards a New Perception of the Early Greek World, an International Symposium in honour of Professor Jan Bouzek, University of Thessaly, 18–21 June 2015, Volos, Greece.
  • “Globalisation paradigms and the Aegean –Iberian connections in the Late Bronze – Early Iron Age transition”, Dialogos Seminars, Netherlands Institute at Athens, 2 December 2014, Athens, Greece.
  • “Mapping identity formation through consumption practices: case-studies from 7th—5th c. BC south-central Atlantic Iberia”, Interdisziplinäre Kolloquium zur Griechischen Antike Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 3 June 2014, Bochum, Germany.
  • “Taking a stance in armed conflict: ethical obligations vs. the alleged legitimacy of ‘expertise’ in archaeological practice”, 21st Archaeological Dialogues Symposium, Archaeology Today: Challenges, Approaches, Ethics, 22 April 2014, Amersfoort, Netherlands.
  • “Spatio-temporal trends in the consumption of eastern Mediterranean commodities from the Guadiana to the Mondego, ca. 900–500 BCE:  latest research, interpretations and problems”, Capita Selecta, Groningen Institute of Archaeology Research Seminars, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, 19 November 2013, Groningen, Netherlands.
  • “Reconstructing spatially and socio-culturally the Phoenician sanctuary of Tavira (Portugal): results on the contextual analysis of the finds, comparanda and interpretations”, VIII Congresso Internazionale di Studi Fenici, 21–27 October 2013, Sant’ Antioco-Carbonia, Sardinia, Italy.
  • “Near Eastern religious itineraries in the Early Iron Age Mediterranean Sea: from Cyprus to Portugal”, Pilgrimage, Travel and Cult, Hekhal, the Irish Society for Near Eastern Studies, 24–26 May 2013, Dublin, Ireland.
  • “A Near Eastern sanctuary in an Atlantic town? Reconstructing the sanctuary and cults of Tavira in their social and geographical context”, Dutch Symposium of the Ancient Near East (DUSANE VIII), 13 April 2013, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • “Consuming other people’s ‘life-styles’ but remaining ‘local’? Appropriation, function and symbolism in cultural material uses in the Phoenician ‘Far West’”, in panel session “Local variations of a Mediterranean tune: Phoenicians, Greeks and indigenous communities in the Early Iron Age”, co-organised with Dr. Giulia Saltini-Semerari (Netherlands Institute at Rome/ VU University Amsterdam), Domino Effects and Hybridization of the Mediterranean, 4th International Conference of Mediterranean Worlds, 29 Mayis University in collaboration with the Eastern Mediterranean University, 5–9 September 2012, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • “Greek trade in the West? New finds and chronologies in the Iberian Peninsula”, Prehistoric & Early Greece Graduate Seminar, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 21 February 2012, Oxford, United Kingdom.
  • “Oriental gods but domestic elites? Religious symbolism and economic functions of Phoenician-period cult loci in south Iberia”, International Conference: Sanctuaries and the Power of Consumption. Networking and the Formation of Elites in the western Mediterranean World, Universität Innsbruck, 20–23 March 2012, Innsbruck, Austria.
  • “Looking out to the sea and away from it: multi-cultural maritime communities of the coast and isolationism in Early Iron Age Atlantic Iberia”, HOMER 2011 International Conference, Ancient Maritime Communities and the Relationship between People and Environment along the European Atlantic coasts, 27 September–1 October 2011, Vannes (Bretagne), France.
  • “Who’s the Phoenician on the Atlantic? Disentangling seafaring from colonization in western Iberia and Morocco”, Archäologisches Seminar, On Sea and Ocean: New Research in Phoenician Seafaring, Philipps Universität Marburg, 23–25 June 2011, Marburg, Germany.
  • “Phoenician cultural heritage in Portugal: the modern role of ancient people”, International Conference on Materiality, Memory and Cultural Heritage, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Istanbul Technical University and the Department of Anthropology, Yeditepe University, 25–29 May 2011, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • “Use of ceramics and group identity in Phoenician-period Portugal: tracing the birth of nascent communities”, Centre de Recherches Archéologique Seminar, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 15 March 2011, Brussels, Belgium.
  • “Phoenicians and locals in south Spain in the Early Iron Age: state of research and methodological challenges”, Research Seminar, VU University Amsterdam, 2 February 2011, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
  • “Fortification walls at Phoenician sites in Iberia and theories of conflict: a reappraisal,” Punic Workshop, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, 19 May 2009, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
  • “Levantine connections in the West in the Early Iron Age: nature and spheres of interactions”, Symposium on Interconnections in the Eastern Mediterranean: Lebanon in the Bronze and Iron Ages, The Lebanese British Friends of the National Museum, under the Patronage of the Directorate General of Antiquities and the Ministry of Culture, 4–9 November 2008, Beirut, Lebanon.
  • “From sea-faring men to travelling images: the Phoenician commercial expansion in south-eastern Spain as a stimulus for artistic interactions in Iberia”, International Congress on Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean, Nederlands-Vlaams Instituut in Cairo, 26–29 October 2008, Cairo, Egypt.
  • “The realms of the beyond: ephemeral settings in a timeless background? Reflections on the earliest Phoenician presence in north-west Africa”, Graduate Archaeology Organisation Conference, Challenging Frontiers: Mobility, Transition and Change, University of Oxford, 4–5 April 2008, Oxford, United Kingdom. 
  • “Trading posts, colonies and indigenous selectivity: the shifting identity of the Phoenician presence in Iberia”, Ancient Borderlands: A Graduate Conference on the Creation of Frontiers in the Ancient World, University of California at Santa Barbara, 22–23 March 2008, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
  • “A tale from the West. Phoenicians on the Spanish coast: A survey of Phoenician sites and material culture in the 8th–6th c. B.C.E”, Graduate Work in Progress Seminar, University of Oxford, 21 November 2007, Oxford, United Kingdom.