Aegis - Maria Relaki

Maria Relaki

Honorary Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, UCLouvain (INCAL)

Anthropology and social theory, material culture, technology – Minoan pottery and stone vases, funerary archaeology, seals and sealing practices, gender.

Research and Teaching Posts

2019-2021 Teaching Associate in the Archaeology of Ancient Economy, Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield, UK.

2017-2019 Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Post-Doctoral ResearchFellow, Aegean Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), Centre d'Études du Monde Antique (CEMA), Institut des Civilisations, Arts et Lettres (INCAL), Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Project title: “House Poetics. An ‘assemblage’ approach to the production and transmission of value in Bronze Age Crete.”

2007-present Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University.

2007 (February-May),Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield, UK.

2007-2008 Post-Doctoral Research Associate – Interdisciplinary project Kastri Group Pottery. The transmission of style and technology in the Early Bronze II Aegean. Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield, UK,co-funded by The Archaeological Society of Athens, The University of Ankara, The University of Cyprus, and the Institute of Materials Science National Centre of Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’ Athens.

2000-2004 Graduate Tutor, Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield, UK.

Education

2004 : PhD thesis in Archaeology, University of Sheffield (England, UK). Title of the PhD dissertation: Social Arenas in Minoan Crete. A Regional History of the Mesara in south-central Crete from the Final Neolithic to the end of the Protopalatial Period (supervisors : Dr. Prof. Peter Day and Dr. Prof. John C. Barrett).

1997 : Master of Arts in Archaeology and Prehistory, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, (England, UK). Thesis title: Neopalatial Pottery from Mochlos: A Petrographic and Archaeological Approach.

1995 : Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and History of Art,Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece).

Field projects

I have taken part in a number of field projects in Crete, Attica and the Cyclades. Since 2010 I have been a senior member of the Field and Publication team at Petras, in East Crete. I study (in collaboration with Christina Tsoraki) the stone vases from the cemetery and the settlement. I have also studied the Prepalatial and Protopalatial Pottery from House I.1 and am currently studying (in collaboration with the Director, Metaxia Tsipopoulou) a number of Protopalatial pottery sets from the 2005 excavations at the settlement.

I also conduct ethnographic research on gender, kinship and collective practices in late 19^th -early 20^th century rural Crete.

Choice of publications/conferences

Relaki, M. 2020. Ecologies of care. Examining the practices of belonging in Bronze Age Crete. In M. Relaki and J. Driessen (eds.) OIKOS.Archaeological approaches to House societies in Aegean Prehistory, pp. 317-340. AEGIS Actes de colloques 19. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain.

M. Relaki and J. Driessen (eds.) 2020. OIKOS. Archaeological approaches to House societies in Aegean Prehistory. AEGIS Actes de colloques 19. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain.

Catapoti, D. and Relaki, M., 2020. Why the Neolithic is (r)evolutionary. Journal of Material Culture 25(3): 259-288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183519894012

Relaki, M. 2018. Roots and routes: Technologies of life, death, community and identity. In M. Relaki and Y. Papadatos (eds.), From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Society.Studies in honour of Professor K. Branigan, pp. 10-35. Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 12. Oxford: Oxbow.

Relaki, M.and Y. Papadatos (eds.) 2018. From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology. Studies in honour of Professor K. Branigan. Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 12. Oxford: Oxbow.

Relaki, M.and C. Tsoraki 2017. Variability and differentiation. A first look at the patterns of use and deposition of stone vases in the Petras cemetery. In M. Tsipopoulou (ed.),PetrasSitia: the Pre- and Proto-palatial cemetery in context, pp.159-178. Monographs of the Danish Institute of Athens, vol. 20.