Dr Beatrice Pestarino PhD, MA, BA

Through new readings and interpretation of Cypriot inscriptions, my first book Kypriōn Politeia, the Political and Administrative Systems of the Classical Cypriot City-Kingdoms', Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume: 459, Brill 2022. reconstructs in detail the political and administrative systems of the Classical city-kingdoms of Cyprus. The book investigates the bodies of government beyond the Cypriot kings and the roles played by magistrates and officials in local governments; it analyses accounts of the headquarters of the main administrative and economic activities – such as palace archives, and tax collection hubs –, and demonstrates that these systems had similarities in all the city-kingdoms. The monograph also shows how the Achaemenid Empire may have influenced the development of new bodies of government beyond the kings. My Leverhulme project ‘Rethinking regionalism and power in Hellenistic Cyprus’ (306-185 BC), analyses the role played by local elites in the administrations of Cypriot cities, continuity in local administrative practices, and how institutions in Ptolemaic Cyprus retained the form of Classical city-kingdoms, with features reaching as far back as the Iron Age. The project will also consider local administrative reactions to the imposition of Ptolemaic rule, comparing the particular case of Cyprus to a wider Hellenistic context.

As member of the cluster 'first encounters' (University of Haifa), I researched how the Mediterranean Sea acted as bridge among different populations and cultures becoming a medium for disseminating diverse knowledge and technologies, including purple production, and how movement of people has also facilitated the dissemination of innovative techniques. In this regard, I also compare socio-cultural developments on Mediterranean major islands such as Cyprus and Sicily. Ancient Mobility also arouse my interest in travellers' and pilgrims' graffiti in remote arid areas (Negev, Sinai, Sahara deserts) from Iron Age to Late Antiquity. I collaborate with the Mitzpe Shivta Archaeological Project (PI Dr. Sina Lehnig) which investigates a Byzantine monastery or 'xenodocheion' (6th cent. AD) in the Negev Desert on the Incense Route, where clusters of hitherto Greek graffiti were found. I also study graffiti engraved on Egyptian monuments, and compare their writings with contemporary graffiti practices, through socio-cognitive analyses.

My research also concerns the role of women in Cypriot society, their legal rights, and their participation in religious practices, analysed through gender perspectives and religio-anthropological view-points (e.g. A. Brelich's approach) with a major focus on inscriptions (scarab seals, dedications, epitaphs, legal documents). I usually compare these data with archaeological reports, literary sources from Levantine and Greek city-states.