About

The Attica Regional IntegraTed Environmental and MaterIal Survey (ARTEMIS) is an archaeo-environmental survey of east Attica funded by the Arts and Humanities Council (UKRI 2591). It is an interdisciplinary research project involving collaborators from the University of Birmingham, Coventry University, Ephorate of Antiquities of East Attica, University of Patras, and University of Innsbruck. ARTEMIS aims to uncover the untold stories of Greek rural communities by generating an integrated human-environment narrative that brings the rural heart of ancient Greece to light. ARTEMIS employs an integrated methodology incorporating (i) archaeological survey, (ii) palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and (iii) palaeoclimatic analysis. The area around the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron, with its distinctive landscape, including fertile lowlands, wetlands, and the ancient Erasinos River, provides a unique setting for assessing the relationships between cultural practices and environmental conditions.

Our research questions are designed to bring these relationships to light:

  1. Rural communities and environmental change: how, and to what extent, did climatic fluctuation and environmental change influence settlement patterns, agricultural practices and daily lives of rural communities in eastern Attica?
  2. Community decision-making: how did social and cultural developments influence the ways in which rural communities modified and managed their natural and human environments over time?
  3. New narratives: how can we integrate archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data to provide a more accurate and inclusive narrative of life in ancient Greece, challenging the traditional focus on elite, urban-based voices?

Methodology

ARTEMIS combines archaeological pedestrian survey with palaeoenvironmental modelling and palaeoclimatic analyses. These synergistic methods will provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the region’s cultural landscape by contextualising artefact distributions and built features within their environmental and climatic settings, enabling a multidimensional understanding of ancient landscapes and human-environment interactions.

  1. Pedestrian archaeological survey of a 30km2 area around the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia operates under the aegis of the British School at Athens and is a collaborative synergesia project with the Ephorate of Antiquities of East Attica. The archaeological survey employs intensive fieldwalking of survey units with a team of surveyors walking at 10-metre spacing. Diagnostic finds, including worked stone, metal, glass, handles, rims, bases, and decorated sherds, are collected. All other material, including body sherds and tile are counted. The extensive survey is reserved for steeper, uncultivated slopes, using the same collection strategy with 20-metre surveyor spacing to accommodate the more challenging terrain and vegetation. The team will also document any built features and natural features with evidence of human intervention.
  2. Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic analyses will focus on proxies preserved within wetland sediment sequences. Appropriate sampling sites will be identified through an intensive hand auger survey, with sequences from the most promising sites recovered for laboratory analysis using a Vibracorer. Chronologies will be established through radiocarbon dating of organic materials. Analyses of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microscopic charcoal will shed light on vegetation history, land-use practices and fire history. Analyses of ostracods and foraminifera will clarify site evolution, crucial for interpreting pollen taphonomy and applying land-cover models, and for coastal sites will provide information on relative sea levels.
  3. ARTEMIS will augment the existing pollen records from the area and translate them into mapped and quantified reconstructions of land-cover via pollen dispersal and deposition modelling. To do so, we will also generate the first estimates of Relative Pollen Productivity (RPP) for Greece, which will increase the potential for pollen-based land-cover modelling across the Mediterranean region. The RPPs will be combined with the new pollen sequences generated by the project’s palaeoenvironmental work to produce mapped and quantified reconstructions of past land-cover and anthropogenic land-use.

Support

ARTEMIS is funded through the ARHC Standard Research Grant Scheme. The project is conducted in partnership with the British School at Athens, which facilitates the permits for archaeological fieldwork with the Ephorate of Antiquities of East Attica. All archaeological work is carried out under a synergesia permit held jointly with Ephorate colleagues. ARTMIES has also benefited from data and services provided by the Hellenic Positioning System (HEPOS), supplied free of charge by the Hellenic Cadastre.

ARTEMIS 2026 Team

Project Leadership

  • Dr Maeve McHugh (Birmingham)
  • Dr Michelle Farrell (Coventry)
  • Prof Henry Chapman (Birmingham)
  • Dr Eleni Andrikou (Ephorate of Antiquities)

Archaeology

  • Maria Christina Katsavou (Ephorate, survey, study of material from the historical period)
  • Dr Kerasia Douni (Ephorate, survey, study of prehistoric material)
  • Katerina Petrou (Ephorate, Brauron Archaeological Museum)
  • Dr Elpida Skerlou (Ephorate, survey, study of material from the historical period)
  • Irini Syrianou (Ephorate, survey, study of material from the historical period)
  • River Ramirez (Berkeley, apotheke manager, study of material)
  • Ginevra Miglierina (Michigan, survey team leader)
  • Ellen Durbin (Birmingham, survey team leader)
  • Anika Teresa Sosa (Berkeley, survey team member)
  • Carys Foulds (Toronto, survey team member)
  • Melissa Berghoffen (Crete, survey team member)
  • Isabelle Bullock (Birmingham, survey team member)
  • Lily Bea Mather-Deardon (Glasgow, survey team member)
  • Hazel Evans (Birmingham, survey team member)
  • Christy Paver (Birmingham, survey team member)
  • Solomon Whitehouse (London, survey team member)
  • Isabella deVito-Brown (Birmingham, survey team member)

Environment

  • Dr James Bendle (Birmingham, palaeoclimatology, geochemistry)
  • Dr Yorgos Iliopoulos (Patras, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction)
  • Dr Maria Panitsa (Patras, botany)
  • Panyotis Dimopoulos (Patras, botany)
  • Dr Laurent Marquer (Innsbruck, RPP estimation and pollen-based land-cover modelling)