You are invited to our 2025-26 Seminar series on ‘Domestic Life in the Ancient World’. This will be an online event on Thursday 12th February, 2026 at 19.00 pm (Greece time), 17.00 pm (Ireland time), 12.00 pm (EST), by Dr Jami R. Baxley Craig (Florida State University), “Food Processing in Prehistoric Greece: A Perspective from Ground Stone Tool Studies”
Abstract: Ground stone tools is one of the largest and most prolific categories of objects that were involved in the production processes of many tasks essential to historic and prehistoric life across the world. The study of this artifact class can help us to answer questions concerning subsistence strategies, trade, craft production, and technology. In the Neolithic and BA Aegean, ground stone tool studies have been particularly integral to our understanding of prehistoric food-processing, especially of Neolithic Greece. Less emphasis, however, has been placed on their appearance at BA sites and their role in craft production activities. This seminar will explore the role of ground stone tools in the processing of foodstuffs and in craft production activities of the prehistoric Aegean using the BA town of Ayia Irini, Kea as a case study. I will especially stress the significant contribution that systematic studies of ground stone tools can provident only for our understanding of subsistence strategies, but also of other embedded social constructs and processes of the prehistoric Aegean.
Further information:
The IIHSA Seminar Series for 2025–2026 will explore various aspects of household life in the ancient world, including labour and production, gender roles, childhood, food practices, and broader issues of social structure and negotiation across different periods and regions. Designed for graduate students and anyone interested in engaging deeply with a topic beyond the traditional lecture format, the series offers participants an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas directly with experts in the field. Each seminar features a 30–40 minute presentation followed by an open discussion, co-led by the Assistant Director, to encourage active participation and dialogue. A brief bibliography is provided for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the seminar topic.
Bibliography
Adams, J.L. 2013. Ground Stone Analysis. A Technological Approach. Vol. 2.University of Utah Press.
Baxley Craig, J.R. 2025. “Ground Stone Tools Across Houses: A Preliminary Spatial and Contextual Analysis from Ayia Irini, Kea.” JAS: Reports: Anthropological Insights into Ground Stone Tool Technology.
Bekiaris, T., D. Chondrou, I. Ninou, and S.M. Valamoti. 2020. “Food-Processing Ground Stone Tools in the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age. A Synthesis of the Published Data.” Journal of Greek Archaeology5:135–95.
Georgiadis, M. 2017. “A Synthesis of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Ground Stone Tools from the Dodecanese.” In The Archaeological Work in the Aegean Islands, 17–30. Mytilene: Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Rowan, Y.M., and J.R. Ebeling, eds. 2008. New Approaches to Old Stones: Recent Studies of Ground Stone Artifacts. Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology. London; Oakville: Equinox Publishing Ltd.
For online attendance please register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/pcuxVCicSyynlf-2jW5T6A