Associate Professor Gocha Tsetskhladze

Biography

Qualifications: BA and MPhil (Kharkov), PhD (Moscow), DPhil (Oxford)

Gocha Tsetskhladze has two doctorates (from Moscow and Oxford) and has taught at the universities of London (latterly Reader in Classical Archaeology) and Copenhagen (as visiting Professor) and been Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Insititute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. He was recently Onassis Visiting Professor at the Universities of British Columbia, Chicago, Pennsylvania and Texas at Austin. He has excavated several Greek colonial sites around the Black Sea (Georgia, Russia, Ukraine) and has been Director of the University of London Phanagoria (South Russia) excavation and publication projects. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).

He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the academic periodical Ancient West & East, the publication series on the archaeology and ancient history of the Black Sea, Colloquia Pontica (now Colloquia Antiqua), and the Dictionary of Black Sea Antiquities among other series.

He has several honours including 'The Global Award of Accomplishment (Classical Archaeology and Ancient History)' from Who's Who Institute, Irvine, California, USA.

top of page

Research

Gocha's research areas are Greek archaeology and history of the Archaic and Classical periods; Greek colonisation; the archaeology of the Black Sea; the Caucasus; Anatolia and Europe in the 1st millennium BC.

Current Projects
Currently (and for another 3-5 years), the main emphasis is on my publication projects:

• The journal Ancient West & East and its monograph supplement Colloquia Antiqua

• Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, Vol. 2
• Society and Economy of Colchis in the 6th-1st Centuries BC
• Phanagoria Studies, Vols. 2 and 3
• Dictionary of Black Sea Antiquities
• Black Sea, Greece, Anatolia and Europe in the 1st Millennium BC
• English translation of L. Litvinskii, The Temple of the Oxus in Bactria (South Tajikistan) 3 vols. (Brill) (other editor: J. Boardman).

• The Black Sea in Antiquity
• Cultural History of Colchis.
• The Archaic Mediterranean and the Black Sea

top of page

Select publications (from 2001)

(Overall Gocha has over 250 publications)
Books

• Karadeniz’in Tarih Ve Arkeolojisi Üzerine,Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2005

Edited Books

• Greek Settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea (BAR International Series 1062, Oxford, 2002) (other Editor: A. Snodgrass)
• Phanagoria Studies, Issue 1: C. Morgan, Attic Fine Pottery of the Archaic to Hellenistic Periods in Phanagoria (Colloquia Pontica 10, Brill, 2004)
• Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, Vol. 1 (Brill, Leiden/Boston 2006)
• Ancient West & East, 1.1 (2002); 1.2 (2002); 2.1 (2003); 2.2 (2003); 3.1 (2004); 3.2 (2004); 4.1 (2005); 4.2 (2005), 5.1 (2006)

Book Chapters (from 2002)

• Revisiting Ancient Greek Colonisation, in G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Greek Colonisation. An Account of Greek Colonies and other Settlements Overseas, Vol. 1 (Mnemosyne Suppl. 193/1, Brill, Leiden/Boston, 2006), xxiii-lxxxiii
• More Finds of Early Greek Pottery in the Pontic Hinterland, in E. Herring, I. Lemos, F. Lo Schiavo, L. Vagnetti, R. Whitehouse and J. Wilkins (eds.), Across Frontiers: Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians and Cypriots. Studies in Honour of David Ridgway and Francesca Romana Serra Ridgway (Accordia Specialist Studies on the Mediterranean, Vol. 6, Accordia Research Institute, University of London, London 2006), 105-109
• Greeks and Locals in the Southern Black Sea Littoral: A Re-Examination, in G. Herman and I. Shatzman (eds.), Greeks between East and West. Essays in Greek Literature and History in Memory of David Asheri (The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Publications, Jerusalem, 2007), 160-195
• Phanagoria: Metropolis of Asiatic Bosporus, in Archaeology Without Frontiers, “Open Sciences” Lecture Series 18, The National Hellenic Research Foundation and A.G. Leventis Foundation (Athens, 2002), 129-150
• Black Sea Piracy, in G.R. Tsetskhladze and J.G. de Boer (eds.), The Black Sea Region in the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Periods (TALANTA XXXII-XXXIII, 2000-2001) (Amsterdam, 2002), 11-15.  
• Ionians Abroad, in G.R. Tsetskhladze and A.M. Snodgrass (eds.), Greek Settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea (BAR International Series 1062, Oxford, 2002), 81-96
• On the Earliest Greek Colonial Architecture in the Pontus, in C.J. Tuplin (ed.), Pontus and the Outside World. Studies in Black Sea History, Historiography and Archaeology (Colloquia Pontica 9) (Brill, 2004), 225-281
• The Black Sea Area, in M.H. Hansen and T.H. Nielsen (eds.), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation (Oxford, 2004), 924-973 (jointly with A. Avram and J. Hind)
• The City in the Colonial World, in A.P. Lagopoulos (ed.), The History of the Greek City  (Athens 2004), 183-204 (in Greek)

Journal Articles (from 2002)

• Notes on the Survey of the Submerged Remains of Phanagoria in the Taman Peninsula, 1998, Ancient West & East 1.1, 2002, 178-187 (with C. Brandon).
• The Caucasus and the Iranian World in the Early Iron Age: Two Graves from Treli, Iranica Antiquia XL, 2005, 438-446.

Other Publications (from 2002)
Conference Papers/Abstracts and Lectures

• The Ionian Colonies and their Territories in the Taman Peninsula in the Archaic Period, in J. Cobet, V. von Graeve, W.-D. Niemeier and K. Zimmermann (eds.), Frühes Ionien. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, Panionion-Symposion Güzelcamli, 26. September - 1. Oktober 1999 (Milesische Forschungen 5) (Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 2007), 551-565
• Thracians versus Phrygians: About the Origin of the Phrygians Once Again, in A. Cilingiroglu and A. Sagona (eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium (Peeters, Leuven 2007), 279-306
• Greeks beyond the Bosporus, in V. Karageorghis (ed.), The Greeks beyond the Aegean: from Marseilles to Bactria, Papers presented at an International Symposium held at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York, 12th October, 2002 (New York, 2003), 129-166.
• The Culture of Ancient Georgia in the First Millennium BC and Greater Anatolia: Diffusion or Migration?, in K. Rubinson and A. Smith (eds.), Archaeology in the Borderlands: Investigations in Caucasia and Beyond (Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2003), 224-240.
• Pontic Notes (without Notes), in J. Bouzek and L. Domaradzka (eds.), The Culture of Thracians and their Neighbours. Proceedings of the International Symposium in Memory of Prof. Mieczyslaw Domaradzki, with a Round Table “Archaeological Map of Bulgaria, British Archaeological Reports Int. Ser. 1350 (Oxford, 2005), 229-230.
• Gold-Rich Colchis: Myth and Reality, in Bulletin. The Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria Inc, 3, August (2005), 3-8.
• Early Iron Age Societies of the Black Sea Region and Anatolia: Some Observations, in A. Çilingiroglu and G. Darbyshire (ed.), Anatolian Iron Ages 5. Proceedings of the Fifth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium Held at Van, 6-10 August 2001, BIAA Monograph 31 (The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 2005), 211-216.
• Ancient West and East: Mtskheta, Capital of Caucasian Iberia, in The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, 25th Anniversary Symposium, Athens, October 10-12, 2005 (Athens, 2005), 13.

Dictionary and Encyclopaedia Articles and Entries

• "Alani", (p. 32) "Armenia and Armenians" (pp. 79-80), "Black Sea" (pp. 137-138), "Bosporan kingdom" (p. 143), "Hellespont and Propontis" (p. 418), "Nomads" (p. 614), "Scythia and Scythians" (p. 801), "Sinope" (p. 826), "Thrace and Thracians" (pp. 885-886), in G. Shipley, J. Vanderspoel, D. Mattingly and L. Foxhall (eds.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilization (CUP, Cambridge, 2006)
• Mediterranean: Greek Colonies, in D. Pearsall (ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Elsevier, San Diego/London 2007), 568-590.
• Greek Colonies in the East, in P. Bogucki and P.M. Crabtree (eds.), Ancient Europe 8000 BC-AD 1000. Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World vol. 2 (Farmington Hills MI, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 208-211.
• Iron Age Ukraine and European Russia, in P. Bogucki and P.M. Crabtree (eds.), Ancient Europe 8000 BC-AD 1000. Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World vol. 2 (Farmington Hills MI, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 289-295.

Prefaces/Introductions to Books and other Volumes

• Preface, in D.L. Peterson, L.M. Popova and A.T. Smith (eds.), Beyond the Steppe and the Sown. Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology [Colloquia Pontica, Issue No. 13], (Brill, Leiden/Boston, 2006), xi
• Editorial, Ancient West & East 5, 2006, ix
• Opening Words of the General Secretary of the International Committee, Eirene XLII, 2006, 11-12
• Editorial, Ancient West & East 6 (2007), ix
• Discussion, in J. Cobet, V. von Graeve, W.-D. Niemeier and K. Zimmermann (eds.), Frühes Ionien. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, Panionion-Symposion Güzelcamli, 26. September - 1. Oktober 1999 (Milesische Forschungen 5) (Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 2007), 579
• Preface, in G.R. Tsetskhladze and J.G. de Boer (eds.), The Black Sea Region in the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Periods (TALANTA XXXII-XXXIII, 2000-2001) (Amsterdam, 2002), 7 (with J.G. de Boer).
• Editorial, Ancient West & East 1.1, 2002, 1-3.
• Introduction to the First Issue, Ancient West & East 1.1, 2002, 5-6.
• Preface, in G.R. Tsetskhladze and A.M. Snodgrass (eds.), Greek Settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea (BAR International Series 1062, Oxford, 2002), III-IV (with A.M. Snodgrass).
• Preface to the series, in Phanagoria Studies, Issue 1: C. Morgan, Attic Fine Pottery of the Archaic to Hellenistic Periods in Phanagoria (Colloquia Pontica 10) (Brill, 2004), V.
• Introduction, in Phanagoria Studies, Issue 1: C. Morgan, Attic Fine Pottery of the Archaic to Hellenistic Periods in Phanagoria (Colloquia Pontica 10) (Brill, 2004), VI-VIII.
• Editorial, Ancient West & East 4.1, 2005, VII.
• Preface, in A.I. Ronancuk, Studien zur Geschichte und Archäologie des byzantinischen Cherson  (Colloquia Pontica 11), (Brill, 2005), IX.
• Preface, in D. Burcu Erciyas, Wealth, Aristocracy and Royal Propaganda under the Hellenistic Kingdom of the Mithradatids in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey (Colloquia Pontica 12), (Brill, 2006), VII-VIII.

top of page

Other achievements

Grants and awards

• 2006 - University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Small Research Grant
• 2007 - University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Large Research Grant
• 2007-09 - Australian Research Council, for project to study ancient history and archaeology of Caucasian Iberia (with three other colleagues)
• 2006 - The Australian Academy of the Humanities, to bring two scholars under the Russia/Former USSR Visiting Scholars Programme
• 2005 - Buxton Foundation, Melbourne, for Mtskheta Excavation Project
• 2005 - Private donations, for Mtskheta Excavation Project
• 2005 - University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Small Research Grant
• 2004 - University of Melbourne, International Collaborative Grant (with A. Sagona)
• 2004 - University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Small Research Grant
• 2004 - University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts Research Grant (with A. Sagona)
• 2003 - Visit to Georgia for 4 weeks under the British Academy/Georgian Academy of Sciences Exchange Programme: to finish preparation of final version of my book Cultural History of Colchis
• 2003 - International Berezan Publication Project: 4 weeks at the Hermitage to continue the study of East Greek pottery for my monograph. University of London Central Research Fund
• 2003 - Thames & Hudson Ltd: to undertake research for my book Black Sea in Antiquity in the museums and libraries of Georgia, Turkey and Russia
• 2002 - International Berezan Publication Project: British Academy, Personal Research Grant
• 2002 - Phanagoria Publication Project: University of London Central Research Fund
• 2002 - Phanagoria Publication Project: Institute of Classical Studies, University of London
• 2002 - Phanagoria Publication Project: Craven Committee, University of Oxford

Membership of Institutes

• 1991-date Member, Institute of Classical Studies, London
• 1995-date Member, Archaeological Institute of America
• 1999-date Member, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
• 1999-date Member, Accordia Research Institute, University of London
• 2006-date Member, British School at Athens

Membership of Associations and Societies

• 1994-date Member, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London
• 1998-date Member of National Georgraphic Society
• 1998-date Foreign Member, Archaeological Society, University of Kharkov, Ukraine
• 1998-date Member, European Association of Archaeologists
• 2000-date Member, Association of Ancient Historians, USA
• 2004-date Member, Classical Association of Australia and New Zealand

top of page