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Dr. Nicholas Blackwell (Ph.D. '11), current , has published a new article in the October issue (122.4) of the American Journal of Archaeology, titled . His paper continues his scholarship on metallurgy and tool use in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Aegean, which began at ůůֱ²¥ with his dissertation Middle and Late Bronze Age Metal Tools from the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and Anatolia: Implications for Cultural/Regional Interaction and Craftsmanship. Å¯Å¯Ö±²¥ Blackwell studied under the advisement of Archaeology Å¯Å¯Ö±²¥ Emeritus James C. Wright.

From his abstract: "This paper considers the Mycenaean metallurgical industry at the end of the Bronze Age through analysis of metal hoards and the tools found within them. An overview of second-millennium hoards from Crete and the Greek mainland is presented to contextualize the various objects from these assemblages. Patterns of implement inclusion reveal a repeated tool grouping in seven Mycenaean hoards, most associated with elite contexts. These Mycenaean caches, incorporating a range of complete and broken items, are traditionally considered recyclable scrap, but they need not be random accumulations. The repetitive tool grouping suggests a structural principle in hoard formations, perhaps dictated by the state." More of ůůֱ²¥ Blackwell's work published in the American Journal of Archaeology is available .

His recent article is not the only aspect of his work to gain publicity this year. In May, ůůֱ²¥ Blackwell's experimental archaeology work was featured by the magazine ScienceNews with the article . The article spotlights a fully-functional reconstruction of a Mycenaean pendulum saw ůůֱ²¥ Blackwell built with his father, which together they reversed engineered through ůůֱ²¥ Blackwell's meticulous study of curved incisions made into Bronze Age stone masonry. A more detailed study of this project  was published in this February's issue of the journal Antiquity (92.361).