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Erin Walcek Averett, PhD

Associate Director, Honors Program

Professor

Contact

ErinAverett@creighton.edu
College of Arts and Sciences
Classical and Near Eastern Studies
Fine & Performing Arts
Art History
Classics
Classical and Near Eastern Studies
LECA - Lied Education Center for the Arts - 114

Erin Walcek Averett, PhD

Associate Director, Honors Program

Professor

Erin Walcek Averett graduated with a B.A. in Latin and Classical Archaeology from the University of Georgia, and took her MA and Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology at the University of Missouri in the Department of Art History and Archaeology. She is Professor of Art History & Archaeology in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Creighton University, where she teaches classes in ancient Mediterranean art, archaeology, and history. She also serves as Associate Director of the Athienou Archaeological Project on Cyprus, as the President of the Omaha-Lincoln chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, and as adjunct curator of antiquities at the Joslyn Art Museum. Her research explores the archaeology of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean in the Iron Age, with particular focus on terracotta figurines, ancient ritual and religion, and digital archaeology. She recently co-edited Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology (2016) and co-authored Visualizing Votive Practice: Exploring Limestone and Terracotta Sculpture from Athienou-Malloura Through 3D Models (2020). She has published on Cypriot archaeology and the Athienou-Malloura site in the American Journal of Archaeology, Antiquity, the Journal of Field Archaeology, and World Archaeology.

Teaching Interests

  • The Archaeology of Cyprus

Research Focus

The archaeology of Cyprus, Mediterranean ritual and religion, terracotta figurines, digital archaeology

Department

Fine & Performing Arts

Position

Professor

Books

  • Ancient Art Revisited: Global Perspectives from Archaeology and Art History
    Erin Walcek Averett, , p. 170-198 2023
  • The Digital Press, University of North Dakota
    Derek B. Counts, Erin Walcek Averett Visualizing Votive Practice: Limestone and Terracotta Sculpture from Athienou-Malloura Through 3D Models 2019
  • The Digital Press, University of North Dakota
    Erin Walcek Averett, Jody Michael Gordon, and Derek B. Counts Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: the Potential of Digital Archaeology 2016

Articles

  • Erin Walcek Averett, “Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from Cyprus.” In Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Levant in Context, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 125, edited by Erin Darby and Izaak de Hulster., p. 292-332 2021
  • World Archaeology
    Erin Walcek Averett, Worked bucrania and figural representations of masked men dating from the 12th-5th centuries BCE provide striking evidence for ritual performances using animal masks in ancient Cyprus. This study flips the traditional approach to this rich body of material. Rather than focusing on the cult or the socio-political contexts of these performances, I instead explore the production of zoomorphic masks and the impact of masking on the wearer. Drawing on new approaches pioneered in social zooarchaeology and using New Materialities perspectives, this analysis delves deeper into the human-animal relationship in Cyprus and how that was expressed in masking ceremonies. Moving beyond simplistic associations of bull masks with a vaguely defined bull god, this study argues for a more complex and integrated relationship between humans and the natural world that was expressed in Cypriot religion through divine animal attributes, animal sacrifice and feasting, and zoomorphic masking rituals.
    52, p. 724-745 2021
  • Brill
    Erin Walcek Averett, 'Iron Age Terracotta Figurines in Cyprus.' In Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Levant in Context. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 125, edited by Erin Darby and Izaak de Hulster, p. 292332 2021
  • Near Eastern Archaeology
    Kevin Garstki, Derek B. Counts, Erin Walcek Averett, Sarah Kansa, Eric Kansa “A Square Peg in a Round Hole: Rethinking Archaeological Publication.”
    83, p. 264-269 2020
  • Brill
    Erin Walcek Averett, Theriomorphic Figures in Hellenistic and Roman Arcadia: Nostalgia and Ritual. In Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas. Monumenta Graeca et Romana 23, edited by Giorgos Papantoniou, Demetrios Michaelides, and Maria Dikomitou-Eliadou., p. 165-179 2019
  • Walter de Gruyter
    Erin Walcek Averett, Derek B. Counts Scaling Religious Practice from Landscape to Artifact: Digital Approaches to Ancient Cyprus.' in Digital Humanities and Research Methods in Religious Studies, edited by K. Petersen and C. Cantwell
    2, p. 167-196 2019
  • Mohr Siebeck
    Erin Walcek Averett, 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. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 27, edited by A. Berlejung and J. Filitz, p. 305-337 2018
  • The Digital Press, University of North Dakota
    Jody M. Gordon, Erin Walcek Averett, Derek B. Counts '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, J.M. Gordon, and D.B. Counts, p. 1-28 2016
  • The Digital Press, University of North Dakota
    Jody M. Gordon, Erin Walcek Averett, Derek B. Counts, Kyo Koo, Michael K. Toumazou '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, J.M. Gordon, and D.B. Counts., p. 111-141 2016
  • Academic Press
    Derek B. Counts, Erin Walcek Averett, Kevin Garstki A Fragmented Past: (Re)Constructing Antiquity Through 3D Artefact Modelling and Customised Structured Light Scanning at Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus [co-authored by Erin Walcek Averett, D.B. Counts, and K. Gartski].
    349, p. 206-218 2016
  • American Journal of Archaeology
    Erin Walcek Averett, “Masks and Ritual Performance on the Island of Cyprus,” American Journal of Archaeology
    119.1, p. 3-45 2015
  • Journal of Field Archaeology
    Michael K. Toumazou, Derek B. Counts, Erin Walcek Averett, Jody M. Gordon, and P.N. Kardulias 'Shedding Light on the Cypriot Rural Landscape: Investigations of the Athienou Archaeological Project in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, 2011-2013.'
    40:2, p. 204-220 2015
  • Journal of Hellenic Studies
    Erin Walcek Averett, Review of Papantoniou, G., Religion and Social Transformations in Cyprus. From the Cypriot Basileis to the Hellenistic Strategos (Mnemosyne Supplements 347). Leiden: Brill, 2012.
    134, p. 243-244 2014
  • Erin Walcek Averett, Brian Martens Antiquity Depicted: the Drawings of Katherine Schwab and the Tradition of Archaeological Illustration in Greece, in An Archaeologists Eye: the Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab, edited by G. Bucher and J. Deupy. Fairfield University Press. 2014
  • American Schools of Oriental Research
    Erin Walcek Averett, '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., p. 133-147 2011
  • MVSE. Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology
    Erin Walcek Averett, 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, p. 15-28 2004

Publications

  • National Endowment for the Humantiies
    Erin Walcek Averett, Jody M. Gordon, Derek B. Counts “Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology,” National Endowment for the Humanities White Paper, Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant #HD-51851-14. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:12289/ 2016
  • The Association for Coroplastic Studies News and Notes
    Erin Walcek Averett, Derek B. Counts (Re)Constructing Antiquity: 3D Modeling the Terracotta Figurines from Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus, The Association for Coroplastic Studies News and Notes
    12, p. 15-17 2014

Editing and Reviews

  • American Journal of Archaeology
    Review of Smith, J. 2009. Art and Society in Cyprus from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age. Cambridge UP. http://ajaonline.org/online-review-book/883.
    115 2011

State

  • Consultant: Terracotta Domain Expert, Research Grant Initiative, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
    Project Title: "From Scanner to Scholar: The Publication of 3D Models in the Digital Age."

  • Collaborator, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, FRACAS Grant.
    Project Title: "Developing Custom Structured Light Scanning Scanning and Modeling the Votives of Athienou-Malloura."

Federal

  • Principal Investigator, National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Level I Start-Up Grant (# HD-51851-14).
    Project Title: "Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: the Potential of Digital Archaeology."

  • Senior Personnel, National Science Foundation Grant - Research Experiences for Undergraduates (# SMA-1156968).
    Project Title: "REU Site: The Athienou Archaeological Project, Cyprus."

  • Fulbright Fellowship to Greece (declined)

  • National Science Foundation, Research Experiences for Undergraduates Grant

Foundation/Association

  • Oscar Bronzer Travel Grant, American School of Classical Studies, Athens.

  • Brunilde Ridgway Fellowship, American School of Classical Studies, Athens.

Other

  • Summer Faculty Fellowship Research Grant, Creighton University Graduate School.
    Project Title: "A Fragmented Past: (Re)Constructing Antiquity Through 3D Modeling Phase II."

  • Dean’s Award for Tenure Track Teaching, Creighton University.

  • George F. Haddix President’s Faculty Research Fund.
    Project Title: A Fragmented Past: (Re)Constructing Antiquity through 3D Modelling.

  • Summer Faculty Fellowship Research Grant, Creighton University Graduate School.
    Project Title: "The Monstrous and the Uncanny: a Re-evaluation of Apotropaic Objects in Iron Age Cyprus."

  • Principal Investigator, Kripke Center for the Study for Religion & Society Research Grant, Creighton University.
    Project Title: Publication Grant for the Votive Figurines from the Sanctuary of Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus

  • Principal Investigator, Kripke Center for the Study of Religion & Society Research Grant, Creighton University.
    Project Title: "Masks and the Performance of Identity in Iron Age Cyprus."

  • George F. Haddix Research Incubator Award: Sabbatical Salary Replacement
    Project Title: “Cypriot Sanctuaries: Ritual and Sacred Space in Ancient Cyprus, ca. 1200-300 BCE”

  • Scheerer Research Grant, Department of Fine and Performing Arts, Creighton University
    Project Title: “From Scanner to Scholar: The Publication of 3D Models in the Digital Age”

Awards

  • Dean’s Award for Tenure Track Teaching
    Creighton University
  • Phi Beta Kappa
    University of Georgia
  • Eta Sigma Phi, zeta iota chapter
    National Classics Honors Society
    University of Georgia
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