Dr Anna Blomley

Academic Background

I came to Oxford as a postgraduate student in Classical Archaeology (Corpus Christi College) after completing a BA in Classical Archaeology and Greek Philology at the University of Heidelberg. I have worked on excavations in Switzerland, Germany and Greece (most recently at the Xobourgo necropolis on the island of Tinos and at the fortification of Kastro Velikas in Thessaly). Between 2018 and 2022, I was the Esmée Fairbairn Junior Research Fellow in Classics at New College, and I am now a Departmental Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics.

Research Interests

My research lies at the intersection of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, exploring political, social and economic structures through the study of ancient landscapes. This work combines traditional archaeological approaches with epigraphic studies and GIS-based methods of data collection and analyses. In my doctoral thesis, I investigate the role of Late Classical and Hellenistic fortifications in the Argolid (Greece), while my current project focuses on the interaction between human activity and the natural environment in ancient Thessaly (Greece). In addition, I am interested in Greek numismatics, especially the role of bronze coinages in Classical and Hellenistic Thessaly.

Research Keywords

Landscape archaeology, ancient Greek economy, ancient Greek fortifications, Greek numismatics, Argolid, Thessaly

Teaching

I tutor in Greek archaeology (e.g. for the papers “Greek Vases”, “Greek Sculpture” and “Greek Art and Archaeology”) and teach classes for the papers  “Aristocracy and Democracy in the Greek World, 550–450 BC” and “Texts and Contexts”.

Publications

Full Publications:

Selected Publications:
Forthcoming: The Bronze Coins of Eastern Mount Ossa in the Thessalian Perioikic Region of Magnesia: Homolion, Eureai, Eurymenai, and Meliboia. New York: American Numismatic Society.

2023 'Going to see the Nymphs. Landscape and religious experience at the Zar Trypa Cave (Mount Ossa, Thessaly).' ABSA 118.

2022. A Landscape of Conflict? Rural Fortifications in the Argolid (400–146 BC). Oxford: Archaeopress.

2022. 'Review of J. Forsén (ed.), Agios Elias of Asea, Arcadia. From early sanctuary to Medieval village (Stockholm 2021).' JHS 142: 429–30.