Sharon (Shari) Stocker is an American
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
who is best known, along with her husband, archaeologist
Jack L. Davis, for leading an international team of researchers who discovered a previously undisturbed tomb of a Bronze Age warrior in southwest Greece. The 3500 year old intact grave was named the
Griffin Warrior Tomb by the research team during the initial excavation in May 2015.
Stocker is currently a senior research associate and the director of publications for the
University of Cincinnati's excavations at the
Palace of Nestor in Greece. She was a co-director of archaeological surveys in the ancient cities of
Epidamnos and
Apollonia, Albania. Her professional expertise "lies in the analysis of ceramics of the Middle Bronze Age and Early Greek colonization in the Western Mediterranean."
In 2021 Stocker was named a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the Hellenic Republic.
Education
Stocker majored in history and
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at
Denison University (BA 1981). She did post graduate study in Classics at the University of Cincinnati (1982–1984) and at the
University of Illinois at Chicago (1991–1993). From 1993 to 2009, Stocker furthered her studies at the University of Cincinnati, earning an MA in Classics in 1996 and a PhD in Greek Prehistory in 2009.
Griffin Warrior Tomb
The
Griffin Warrior Tomb was discovered in May 2015 by an international team of researchers, led by Stocker and Davis, and sponsored by the University of Cincinnati. In October, 2015, Greece's Ministry of Culture announced the discovery: "More than 1,400 artifacts were uncovered, including a three-foot long bronze sword with an ivory hilt, four solid gold rings -- more than found at any single burial elsewhere in Greece -- and ivory combs and carvings, depicting griffons and a lion".
Pylos Combat Agate
Two years after the initial excavation of the Griffin Warrior Tomb, the University of Cincinnati team made another remarkable discovery which has become the most significant find to date: an intricately carved sealstone about 1.4 inches in length with details of the artifact visible only under magnification. Known as the
Pylos Combat Agate
The Pylos Combat Agate is a Minoan sealstone of the Mycenaean era, likely manufactured in Late Minoan Crete. It depicts two warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with a third warrior lying on the ground. It was discovered in the Griffin Warrio ...
, the seal was encrusted in limestone, and it took researchers over a year to clean and restore it.
Selected publications
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See also
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Minoan seals
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stocker, Sharon
American women archaeologists
American archaeologists
Denison University alumni
University of Illinois Chicago alumni
University of Cincinnati alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Archaeologists of the Bronze Age Aegean
21st-century American women