The Lord of the Gold Rings: The Griffin Warrior of Pylos

Lecture at 6 pm in Witherspoon Hall | Cash bar at 5 pm in The Fountain Court

A partnership program with the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) Lincoln/Omaha Society. This is a free program, with no pre-registration required.

Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker, of the University of Cincinnati, will speak about their excavations of the Tomb of the Griffin Warrior from Pylos (www.griffinwarrior.org) as part of the AIA’s National Lecture Program. Since 2015, excavations at the Palace of Nestor in southwestern Greece have uncovered significant components of the ancient cemeteries associated with the Mycenaean town. Most fascinating among these is the grave of the Griffin Warrior, in which a single man was buried at about 1450 BCE in a small, unprepossessing, stone-lined shaft, but accompanied by several thousand artifacts of gold, silver, bronze, ivory, and semi-precious gems. The grave of the Griffin Warrior from Pylos, together with two previously unknown, monumental Mycenaean beehive tombs found nearby in 2018, promises to redefine scholarly views on the emergence of the Mycenaean Civilization and the formation of the earliest states in Europe.  

This event is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Creighton University, Creighton University Committee on Lectures, Films, and Concerts, the Department of Art History and the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Program at University of Nebraska at Omaha, and by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series. 

About the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)

The AIA is North America’s largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world. The AIA Lincoln/Omaha Society was chartered in 1995.  

About the Speakers

Jack L. Davis, Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology, University of Cincinnati
Davis has directed or co-directed archaeological projects in the Nemea Valley, on the island of Keos (Greece), at the Palace of Nestor (Greece), and in Albania, in the hinterlands of the ancient Greek colonies of Durrachium/Epidamnos and Apollonia. Major archaeological discoveries include the grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos, two new Mycenaean tholos tombs at Pylos, and previously unknown Greek temples at Apollonia and Dyrrachium in Albania. Davis directed the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2007-2012), has received the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America, and is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and of the Archaeological Society of Athens. He has been honored by the presidents of both Greece and Albania.

Sharon R. Stocker, Senior Research Associate, University of Cincinnati
Stocker, in addition to co-directing current excavations at Pylos, has been American director of rescue excavations at the Palace of Nestor and at the Bronze Age site of Romanou in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. She also serves as director for publications of finds from the excavations of Carl W. Blegen. In Albania, she co-directed research in the hinterlands of the ancient Greek colonies of Durrachium/Epidamnos and Apollonia. Major archaeological discoveries include the grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos, two new Mycenaean tholos tombs at Pylos, and previously unknown Greek temples at Apollonia and Dyrrachium in Albania. Her accomplishments have been recognized by the president of Greece and by the Giuseppe Sciacca Foundation of Vatican City.