About

Erin Walcek Averett is Professor of Art History & Archaeology at Creighton University and Associate Director of the Athienou Archaeological Project on Cyprus. She earned her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology at the University of Missouri in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 2007.  She specializes in early Greek art and archaeology and the archaeology of Cyprus, focusing on terracotta figurines in the Geometric and Archaic periods in the Eastern Mediterranean. Dr. Averett has traveled and excavated throughout the Mediterranean and was a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in Greece from 2002-2004.  Other areas of interest include Greek and Cypriot religion, points of contact between the Near East and the Aegean, gender in the ancient world, and digital archaeology.  She also serves as Adjunct Curator of Antiquities at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, NE, and President of the Omaha-Lincoln Archaeological Institute of America chapter.

Education

B.A., Latin and Classical Archaeology, University of Georgia (1998)

M.A., Art History and Archaeology, University of Missouri (2000)

Ph.D., Art History and Archaeology, University of Missouri (2007)

Other Publications

Books

Counts, D.B., Averett, E.A., Garstki, K., and M. K. Toumazou. 2020. Visualizing Votive Practice: Limestone and Terracotta Sculpture from Athienou-Malloura Through 3D Models. Grand Forks: Digital Press of University of North Dakota. DOI: https://commons.und.edu/press-books/11/

Averett, E.W., Gordon, J.M., and D.B. Counts, eds. 2016. Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital ArchaeologyGrand Forks: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota.

Articles and Book Chapters

Averett, E.W., Forthcoming. “Beyond Representation: Cypriot Rural Sanctuaries as Vibrant Assemblages,” in Ancient Art Revisited: Global Perspectives from Archaeology and Art History, ed. by C. Watts and C. Knappett. Routledge.

Averett, E.W., 2021. “Blurred Boundaries: Zoomorphic Masking Rituals and the Human-Animal Relationship in Ancient Cyprus,” World Archaeology 52(2): 724-45.

Averett E.W. 2021. “Iron Age Terracotta Figurines in Cyprus,” in Iron Age Figurines from the Levant in Context, edited by E. D. Darby and I.J. de Hulster, 292-332. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 125. Leiden: Brill.

 

Averett, E.W. and D.B. Counts. 2021. “Scaling Religious Practice from Landscape to Artifact: Digital Approaches to Ancient Cyprus.” In Introduction to Digital Humanities: Research Methods for the Study of Ancient Religion, edited by K. Petersen and C. Cantwell. Berlin: DeGruyter.

Garstki, K., Counts, D.B., Averett, E.W, Kansa, S., and E. Kansa. 2020. “A Square Peg in a Round Hole: Rethinking Archaeological Publication.” Near Eastern Archaeology 83(4): 264-69.

Averett, E.W. 2019. “Theriomorphic Figures in Hellenistic and Roman Arcadia: Nostalgia and Ritual,” in Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas. Monumenta Graeca et Romana 23, edited by G. Papantoniou, D. Michaelides, and M. Dikomitou-Eliadou. Brill. 165-79.

Averett, E.W. 2018. “Playing the Part: Masks and Ritual Performance in Rural Sanctuaries in Iron Age Cyprus,” in The Physicality of the Other. Masks from the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by A. Berlejung and J. Filitz. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike. RA. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 305-37.

D.B. Counts, E.W. Averett, and K. Garstki. 2016. “3D Artifact Modeling and Customized Structured Light Scanning at Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus,” Antiquity 349: 206-18.

Gordon, J., Averett, E.W., and D.B. Counts. 2016. “Mobile Computing in Archaeology: Exploring and Interpreting Current Practices,” in Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: the Potential of Digital Archaeology, edited by E.W. Averett et al. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 1-28.

Gordon, J., Averett, E.W. Counts, D.B., Koo, K., and M.K. Toumazou. 2016. “DIY Digital Workflows on the Athienou Archaeological Project, Cyprus,” in Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: the Potential of Digital Archaeology, edited by E.W. Averett et al. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 111-41.

Averett, E. W. 2015.  “Masks and Ritual Performance on the Island of Cyprus,” American Journal of Archaeology 119.1: 3-45.

M.K. Toumazou, D.B. Counts, E.W. Averett, J.Gordon, and N. Kardulias. 2015. “Shedding Light on the Cypriot Rural Landscape: Investigations of the Athienou Archaeological Project in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, 2011-2013.” Journal of Field Archaeology 40(2): 204-20.

Averett, E.W. and B. Martens. 2014. “Antiquity Depicted: The Drawings of Katherine Schwab and the Tradition of Archaeological Illustration in Greece,” in An Archaeologist’s Eye: the Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab, edited by G. Bucher and J. Deupy. Fairfield University Press.

Averett, E.W. 2011. “The Ritual Context of the Malloura Terracotta Figurines,” in Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, edited by M. K. Toumazou, P.N. Kardulias, and D. B. Counts. American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Series 65. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. 133-47.

Averett, E.W. 2002-04 (2008).  “Drumming for the Divine: a Female Tympanon Player in the Museum of Art and Archaeology,” MVSE. Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology 36-39: 15-28.

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