2026 Colburn Fellowship Spotlight: Nicole Constantine
Nicole Constantine (Stanford University)
Tell us about your project:
With support from the Colburn Fellowship, Nicole will travel to Greece to study the material from two Hellenistic-era Aegean shipwrecks as part of her dissertation research. Her dissertation centers ancient Mediterranean sailors as its subject, considering the lives, labor and knowledge of these figures who were central to the story of Mediterranean connectivity but are largely absent from its textual records. Her research project in Greece, "Sailing the Hellenistic Aegean: A Social Archaeology of Shipwrecks," focuses on the galley assemblages from the two wrecks—one from the 3rd century BCE and the other from the 1st century BCE—to investigate the patterns of daily life onboard. A stay at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens will allow Nicole to access the assemblages of metal and ceramic vessels housed in museum collections.
How did you get your start in archaeology?
I took my first archaeology class during my undergraduate studies at Loyola University in Chicago, and developed an interest in the way even very humble objects can tell us human stories about the past. The first archaeological research I conducted as an undergraduate was a study of an assemblage of cans, bottles and cooking pots from an early-20th century Chicago dump as evidence for shifts towards the consumption of shelf-stable packaged foods.
Where in the world has archaeology brought you?
As a maritime archaeologist, I have been lucky to spend as much time in the Mediterranean Sea as I have around it. I have been a part of maritime and land-based archaeological projects in the U.S., Sicily, Israel and Türkiye. Most recently, I have joined a collaborative project with scholars from Dokuz Eylül University in Türkiye to survey the maritime archaeological record of the Bozburun Peninsula, which was an important intersection of maritime exchange networks between the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas.
What is one of the most memorable things that has happened to you in the field?
Last year, participating in maritime archaeological survey in Türkiye meant that I got to experience life onboard a ship firsthand! Since my dissertation is focused on the experience of shipboard life, spending two weeks on a ship, navigating the Aegean coast was an invaluable experience—both for the archaeological sites we were able to access and the opportunity to make observations about daily life at sea. While on the ship, between dives, I kept a notebook of my experiences and observations which I will draw on as I think about the ancient evidence for shipboard life.
How has the AIA contributed to your success/professional goals?
The AIA has been formative in my development as a scholar, an academic and a member of a professional community. I gave my first conference paper as an MA student at the AIA's Annual Meeting in 2018. This experience afforded me an early opportunity to encounter the work of a wide variety of scholars and receive feedback on my own. Participation in successive Annual Meetings also gave me opportunities to hear from advanced graduate students and academic faculty members about educational and career paths and professional development.
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