Dr Caspar Meyer

Contact details

Birkbeck, University of London
Room 3.09, 28 Russell Square, Bloomsbury
London WC1B 5DQ

Email: h.meyer@bbk.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 (0)207 079 0601

I am specialising in Greek archaeology of the Aegean and Black Sea regions and have a strong interest in the discovery, collection and historiography of classical antiquities in Europe from the eighteenth century.
I study classical art with special reference to the human relationships and cultural expectations of its audience groups, both ancient and modern. In so doing, my aim is to bring out the ideals and pre-conceptions that determined how images were displayed and engaged with in their various historical settings, including Greek sanctuaries and market places, Hellenistic palaces and tombs, Roman villas and temples, as well as princely and public museums in modern Europe.
I am currently working on a book which places the dissemination and reception of Greco-Scythian metalwork in the context of ruler representation from ancient Scythia to Romanov Russia.
I participated in several archaeological excavations in the northern Black Sea region led by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. My fieldwork focuses in particular on the Greek and indigenous sites of the eastern Crimea (Ukraine) and the Taman peninsula (Russia), a region subsumed in antiquity into a multi-ethnic state known as the Bosporan Kingdom.

Greek art and archaeology
If you are interested in pursuing research in any of these areas, you should first read our advice on how to apply for MPhil/PhD research before submitting an application.

Greek art and archaeology; Methods and practice in archaeology; Classical art historiography and collecting; Power and self-representation in the Greco-Roman world.

‘The Scythian sacrament’, Etudes de Lettres, forthcoming.
‘Iranians and Greeks after ninety years’, Ancient West & East, forthcoming.
‘Rostovtzeff and the classical origins of Eurasianism’, Anabases. Traditions et réception de l'Antiquité 9 (2009) 183-195.
Co-edited with D.C. Kurtz, D. Saunders and A. Tsingarida (eds.), Studies in the memory of Eleni Hatzivassiliou. Beazley Archive Studies in Classical Archaeology IV, Oxford, 2008.
'A collection of ancient market weights from Histria, Callatis and Tomis in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Catalogue with introductory essay', Il Mar Nero 5 (2007) 41-76.
Co-authored with A. Moreno, 'A Greek metrological koine: a lead weight from the western Black Sea region in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford', Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23 (2004) 209-216.

I have written shorter notes and reviews for Ancient West & East, The Ashmolean, caa.online, Classical Review, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Journal of the History of Collections, Numismatic Chronicle, Slavonic and East European Review, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Theory.