Catherine Pratt

Catherine Pratt (PhD UCLA) is an Assistant Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the development of socioeconomic complexity in the pre-Classical Mediterranean, with special attention to issues of value construction, commodification, and cultural interaction. Her recent fieldwork involves excavations at the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Greece, and the Minoan town of Palaikastro on Crete. She has published articles on the Minoan political economy, Early Iron Age cultural interaction, and archaic Greek amphorae. In addition, she has recently completed a monograph-length project on the role of olive oil and wine in the pre-Classical Greek cultural economy. While at the CHS, she worked on a new project titled, Gift of Athena: Olive Oil and the Making of Athens. This project incorporates archaeological, literary, and epigraphic evidence, including an interdisciplinary approach to the Panathenaic amphora, to understand better the changing roles of olive oil within the socio-economic identity of ancient Athens.