Dr Lisa Bendall

Research Interests

Aegean Prehistory; Linear B and other Bronze Age Aegean Scripts; anthropological approaches to Mycenaean religion, festivals and banqueting; archives, ancient and modern; history of decipherment; economic history.

Current Activities

Recently completed book manuscript (2007): Economics of Religion in the Mycenaean World. Resources Dedicated to Religion in the Mycenaean Palatial Economy. School of Archaeology Monograph Series 67.

Am beginning work on a new book: Reading Linear B, intended as a new source and introduction, replacing Hooker’s now much dated work.

Teaching:

Graduate: supervision in Aegean Prehistory and Linear B; dedicated annual course on Linear B.

Undergraduate and graduate lecture series include: Aegean Prehistory; Aegean Bronze Age Scripts; Urbanisation and Change in Complex Societies; Introduction to World Archaeology.

Undergraduate teaching includes tutorials for:

• The Aegean in the Bronze and Early Iron Age (aka ‘Homeric Archaeology’; Option Paper)
• Urbanisation and Change in Complex Societies (A&A FHS Core Paper 4)
• Early Greece and the Mediterranean (CAAH FHS Core Paper)
• Introduction to World Archaeology (A&A Mods 1)
• Archaeological Methods and Techniques (A&A Mods 4)
• Language support in Attic Greek

Director of Studies for ca. 20 undergraduates in A&A and CAAH, and College Advisor for ca. 12 graduate students at Keble College.

Linear B tablet from Knossos in the Ashmolean Museum recording bull's head rhyta and golden Vapheio cups (photo courtesy of I. Galanakis)

Publications

• Forthcoming: ‘Does Linear B ideogram *211^vas+PO indicate a rhyton?.’ Minos 39-40.
• Forthcoming: ‘How much makes a feast at Knossos? Banqueting in Crete at the time of the Linear B administration.’ in M. Vlasaki, (ed.) Proceedings of the 10^th International Cretological Congress, Chania, Crete, October 2006. (Conference homepage here; Paper abstracts here)
• In press: ‘How much makes a feast? Amounts of banqueting foodstuffs in the Linear B records of Pylos’, in A. Sacconi, L. Godart, M. Negri (eds.) Proceedings of the XIIth International Colloquium of Mycenology, Rome, February 2006. Rome, Biblioteca di Pasiphae. (Conference homepage here; for paper abstracts click on ‘Relatori’ and the pdf next to name)
• In press: ‘The Aegean Bronze Age scripts’, in S. Walker, & Y. Galanakis, (eds.) Discovering the Greek Bronze Age. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum.
• Review article of Studies in Mycenaean Inscriptions and Dialect, 1980-1997. American Journal of Archaeology 109 (2005), 91-94. (Available here)
• Review of The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris, by A. Robinson. Journal of Hellenic Studies 125 (2005), 203-5
• "Fit for a king? Exclusion, hierarchy, aspiration and desire in the social structure of Mycenaean banqueting", in P. Halstead & B. Barrett (eds.) Food, Cuisine and Society in Prehistoric Greece (Sheffield University Press, 2004) (Book featured here)
• Website Linear B at Cambridge (Reviewed here)
• ‘A reconsideration of the Northeastern Building at Pylos: Evidence for a Mycenaean redistributive centre’, American Journal of Archaeology 107 (2003), 181-231. (Abstract and full text available here)
• The Decipherment of Linear B and the Ventris-Chadwick Correspondence, Exhibition Catalogue (Cambridge, 2003). (Reviewed in The Times Higher, 02 April 2004, Books section, by J. Bennet; see here)

• ‘The economics of Potnia in the Linear B tablets: Palatial support for a Mycenaean deity’, in R. Laffineur & R. Hägg (eds.) Potnia: Deities and Religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, Aegaeum 22 (2001), 445-452. (Full text in pdf here)

• ‘A time for offerings: dedications of perfumed oil at Pylian festivals’, in J. Bennet & J. Driessen (eds.) A-NA-QO-TA: Studies Presented to J.T. Killen, Minos 33-34 (1998-9), 1-9.

In preparation: ‘Into the Labyrinth: the Department of Perfumery and Offerings at Mycenaean Knossos’; Reading Linear B (a new introduction and reference source); Mycenaean Religion (drawing together the archaeological and Linear B evidence).