Talia Neelis, Graduate Student, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Talia Neelis is pursuing a Ph.D. at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA with a focus in prehistoric Cypriot archaeology. Her fieldwork in Cyprus and Greece has inspired her to pursue an interdisciplinary research focus, investigating craftwork as a relational process across regions, landscapes, and social networks during the 3^rd and 2^nd millenniums BCE. This research examines object materiality through archaeometric methodologies which center the ontological relationships between humans and earthly matter. The George and Cleola Gavalas Fund for Archaeology Fellowship provided support for Neelis to participate in the Ceramic Petrology Course at the British School of Athens’ Fitch Laboratory in spring 2026. Learning the fundamentals of ceramic petrology is integral to her research into the longue durée of human-environment interactions within culturally-specific crafting traditions. Residence in Athens this summer, with access to libraries and nearby archaeological sites, helped to expand her geographic, scientific, and social focus across the broader Greek world to understand relationships between Cypriot craftspeople and their Aegean neighbors. The Gavalas Fund also gave Neelis the opportunity to meet with Greek scholars who take archaeometric approaches to crafting technologies, and local craftspeople whose experiential knowledge is an integral resource for research into communities of practice and human-material relationships.

Katrina Kuxhausen-DeRose, Ph.D. Candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

As a recipient of a George and Cleola Gavalas Fund for Archaeology Fellowship, Katrina Kuxhausen-DeRose continued her study of the “wandering” buildings of the Athenian Agora. Five sacred monuments and their component parts traveled from near and far: the Altar of Zeus Agoraios, the Southwest Temple, the Temple of Ares, the Altar of Ares (likely moved c. 27 BCE-14 CE), and the Southeast Temple (likely moved c. 100-150 CE). After the Herulian Invasion of 267 CE, many blocks of these now-destroyed monuments were repurposed once again in the construction of the post-Herulian Wall. In an effort to examine the movement, reuse, and reinterpretation of sacred architecture in Greece during the Roman Empire (c. 1st century BCE – 3rd century CE), Kuxhausen-DeRose’s research project documents the physical modifications on reused blocks, visualizes the networks that they traveled, develops a model for conceptualizing itinerant reuse, and analyzes the high-stakes negotiations between ritual, identity, memory, and authority. During the summer, she conducted archival research on excavation notebooks, completed the literature review, scanned documents at the Blegen Library, and compiled a block inventory with the help of undergraduate research assistants. She also conducted on-site documentation of the blocks, finds, and secondary foundations at the Agora. Finally, she assembled reference data of the original foundations (Pnyx, Acharnai, Sounion, Thorikos, Pallene) and comparative Greek sites flourishing during the Roman era (Calydon/Patras, Corinth, and Actium/Nicopolis). 

Christine Muron, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Art History

Christine Muron’s dissertation investigates the visual and material culture of the cult of St. Demetrios, patron saint of the Palaiologoi, from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Drawing on written, visual, architectural, and archaeological evidence, she examines how imperial veneration of the saint, reflected in the expansion of his cult across Byzantine cities, resonated among communities in the Byzantine provinces and rural villages of Lakonia. The George and Cleola Gavalas Fund for Archaeology has enabled Muron to conduct primary research and on-site analyses of churches dedicated to St. Demetrios or decorated with scenes from his Life. These churches also reveal visual relationships between St. Demetrios and portraits of prominent healers, including St. Nikon Metanoeite, the patron saint of Lakedaimon (Sparta), whose legacy was rooted in religious authority and healing knowledge. Like St. Demetrios, St. Nikon was associated with therapeutic oil and miraculous cures. Written sources confirm that his monastery, a major foundation built in the heart of Lakedaimon in the tenth century, remained active into the Late Byzantine period. Muron demonstrates that the widespread presence of his portrait in Lakonian churches, together with the reuse of building materials (spolia) in areas affiliated with his monastery, preserved and reinforced his memory within the landscape. This fellowship has allowed her to draw meaningful connections between provincial and local healing cults, whose rituals and veneration contributed to the consolidation of Byzantine power in the region. 

Luis Rodríguez-Pérez is a 2023 recipient of a fellowship from the George and Cleola Gavalas Fund for Archaeology. Rodríguez-Pérez is currently in his first year in the PhD program of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Although his research is centered on the archaeology of Greece, he is continuously exploring the different ways of digitizing antiquity and community engagement in the field. This summer, he will be involved in both the archaeological excavations at the Athenian Agora and the Vamvakou Ethnography project. At the agora, he will digitize excavation materials as they are stratigraphically excavated, creating a digital record that could be published for the wider public. Incorporating digital methods into an archaeological excavation, especially in Greece, is critical to the future engagement and preservation of material heritage. At the same time, engaging with the Greek community who allow us to excavate and publish our findings, is critical for building rapport between our two communities. Examining this collaboration and the legacy (and construction) of the classical heritage in Greece will be a critical first step toward his research while at UCLA.