The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion invites you on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, to a lecture on the temporary archaeological exhibition EKATOMPOLIS: The World of Archaic Crete.

The speaker will be Mr. Brice Erickson, professor of Classical Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and one of the archaeologists whose research marked the shift towards the promotion of archaic Crete at the beginning of the 21st century.

The lecture will be given in English.

The end of the Archaic period, in the early 5th century BC, marked a decisive turning point for Crete and its overseas connections. The glorious maritime power of the Cretans in the eastern Mediterranean was now a thing of the past, and the sea routes, which had always played a decisive role in the island’s economy and identity, had changed. Caught between Athenian naval supremacy and the powerful Persian Empire, Cretan merchants sought new markets in the Near East.

How did Cretan cities manage to adapt to the new reality? How did they forge an identity based on austerity, and how did this identity ultimately evolve into a unique Cretan version of prosperity?

Date: Wednesday 24 September 2025

Time: 18:30

Venue: Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου – Αίθουσα Διαλέξεων

Admission Free

Brice Erickson

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Brice Erickson is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an archaeologist specializing in Archaic and Classical Greece and has published numerous studies, including the book Crete in Transition and a volume in the Lerna series of publications on the village of the historical period at that location.