Mark Lawall

My early love of history came to focus on Archaeology late in high school and through my undergraduate studies thanks to opportunities to participate in excavations in Virginia, Wales, Sicily and Crete. Coursework in Anthropology, Classics, and Classical Archaeology, as well as two years of study at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens eventually resulted in my research focus on ancient economies and particularly the value of archaeology for that field. Much of my work focuses on transport amphoras, the plain clay jars that were used to store and transport wine, olive oil, and other commodities around the Mediterranean. I have studied these jars at numerous sites on land including the Athenian Agora, Corinth, Isthmia, Lerna, Argilos, the Molyvoti peninsula, Troy, Ephesos, Gordion, Olbia (Ukraine), and Coptos (Egypt). I have also studied finds fro m shipwreck sites, including Kyrenia (Cyprus) as well as Pabuç Burnu, Tektas Burnu and Kizilburun (Turkey). I am fortunate to have received research support from SSHRC, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the NEH, the M. Aylwin Cotton foundation, the Solow Foundation, and the American Research Institute in Turkey. 

I often teach undergraduate courses on Ancient Greek Culture, Art and Archaeology, and History. Upper level undergraduate courses, sometimes paired with graduate seminars include Aegean and Mediterranean Prehistory, Hellenistic History and Archaeology, Ancient Economies, and Archaeological Ceramics. 

I have served as Associate Dean in both the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and I am currently chair of the Advisory Board of the University of Manitoba Press. 

• PhD (Classical Art and Archaeology), University of Michigan, 1995
• MA (Classical Art and Archaeology), University of Michigan, 1991
• BA (Classical Studies-Greek), College of William and Mary, 1988

Research interests

• Greek archaeology and history
• Ancient economies
• Archaeology of ancient trade and shipping
• Archaeological ceramics

Research summary

Ancient Mediterranean shipping and trade depended heavily on the use of plain, clay containers known as transport amphoras. These jars, often of roughly 20-30 liters, were used for the transportation and storage of wine, oil, and other goods. As archaeological remains, they are ubiquitous. Different shapes of amphora were used by different regions. As a result, transport amphoras provide excellent, long-term, widespread evidence for intensities of agricultural production and shipping. Beyond matters of quantity, however, amphoras also provide evidence for the management of exchange or trade. Some early jar types often carry personal names incised on the surface after the jar was fired, perhaps indicating a personal element to the use of these jars that later disappeared. Some later jars carry official stamped impressions indicating civic involvement in the amphora trade. Studies of transport amphoras provide insights into many different aspects of ancient economic practices.

• 2023. “The transport amphoras,” in S. W. Katzev and H. W. Swiny (eds.), The Kyrenia Ship Final Excavation Report, volume 1: History of Excavation, Amphoras, Ceramics, Coins and Evidence for Dating, Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 135-212 (the chapter’s bibliography is pp. 248-264) 
• 2022. “Virginia Grace and Joseph Brashinsky on Samian Amphoras,” in От Кавказа до Дуная: Северное Причерноморье в античную эпоху. Сборник научных трудов к 70-летию профессора С.Ю. Монахова [From the Caucasus to the Don. The Northern Black Sea in Antiquity. Scientific studies dedicated to the 70th birthday of Professor S. Yu. Monachov], ed. A. P. Medvedev, Saratov, pp. 252-267.
• 2022 M. Lawall (ed.), Assemblages of Transport Amphoras: From Chronology to Economics and Society: Panel 6.6 (Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World 36. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne and Bonn, 22-26 May 2018), Heidelberg: Propylaeum.
• 2021 “Markings on Greek Transport Amphoras, 8th through 1st centuries BC,” in W. Brokaert, A. Delattre, E. Dupraz, and M. J. Estarán Tolosa, L’épigraphie sur céramique. L’instrumentum domesticum, ses genres textuels et ses fonctions dans les sociétés antiques (Hautes études du monde Gréco-Romain 60), Geneva: Droz, pp. 71-116.
• 2021. “Aegean Transport Amphoras (Sixth to First Centuries BCE): Exploring Social Tension in a Path Dependency Model,” in S. Gimatzidis and R. Jung (eds.), The Critique of Archaeological Economy, Cham, Swiz., pp. 205-222.
• 2020. Co-author with C. Tzochev, “New research on Aegean and Pontic transport amphoras of the ninth–first centuries BC, 2010–2020,” Archaeology in Greece 2019-2020, Archaeological Reports 66, pp. 117-144.
• 2019. “External influence and local agency: deconstructing the history and organization of Knidian amphora production and trade,” HEROM Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture 8, pp. 383-420.
• 2018. “Transport amphoras: Archaic and Classical, ca. 600-300 BC,” in C.B. Rose and K.M. Lynch (eds.) The West Sanctuary at Ilion, I. Early Iron Age, Archaic and Classical Periods (Studia Troica Monograph), Mainz, pp. 496-543.
• 2014. P. Guldager Bilde & M. Lawall (eds.), Pottery, People and Places: Study and Interpretation of Late Hellenistic Pottery, Black Sea Studies 16, Aarhus. 
• 2013. M. Lawall and J. Lund (eds.) Transport amphorae and trade of Cyprus. Gösta Enbom monograph series 3, Aarhus.

• 2009 - President's Annual Outreach Award, with Lea Stirling and John Tamm, University of Manitoba
• 2008 - Excellence in Teaching Award, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba
• 2006 - Professor of the Year, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba
• 2002 - Rh Foundation Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Humanities, University of Manitoba

• Chair, Managing Committee, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2017-2026)
• President, Archaeological Institute of America - Winnipeg Society
• Representative to the Board of Directors, Canadian Institute in Greece