Professional Summary
Jacob Engstrom is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Prehistory with a focus on the Greek mainland and Cycladic islands. For the 2024-25 academic year he is the Heinrich Schliemann Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Jacob's research focuses on social change, cultural resilience, regional variation, and transcultural interactions and cultural entanglement in Aegean prehistory. He is especially interested in processes of social and cultural change throughout the Aegean during Late Helladic IIIC and the transition to the Early Iron Age, which is the subject of his dissertation. He holds further research interests in the intellectual and political history of archaeology in the Aegean, archives, Hellenism and Philhellenism, and archaeological theory, especially concerning human-thing relations.
Jacob has worked as an excavation supervisor with UC's Palace of Nestor Excavations at Pylos, the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project at Ancient Eleon, and the Olynthos Project.
Before coming to Cincinnati, Jacob earned a BA Honours with Distinction from the University of Victoria. He defended his MA thesis at UC in 2022, offering a critical and integrative historiographical analysis of Carl Blegen's excavations at Troy (1932-38) based on research in the Department's archives.
Publications
Peer Reviewed Publications
(with G. C. Braun) (2022. ) Lead Figurines from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Canada): Problems of Typology and Collections History .Annual of the British School at Athens, , 117, ,pp. 195-228
Book Chapter
Engstrom, Jacob M. Archive Archaeology and Critical Disciplinary Histories: A Case Study on the Origins of the University of Cincinnati Expedition to the Troad (1932-1938) Trends in Archive Archaeology: Current Research on Fieldwork Archival Material and Its Implications for the Practice of Archaeology .Turnhout, Brepols
Presentations
Paper Presentations
Engstrom, Jacob M. and Nicholas P. Herrmann (2020. ) Tomb 11 at Ancient Eleon (Boeotia): An Early Mycenaean Ossuary in a Built Funerary Environment .121st AIA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Conference. Level:International
Engstrom, Jacob M. (2023. ) Carl Blegen and Homeric Troy: An Archival History of the Origins and Objectives of the University of Cincinnati Troy Expedition .124th AIA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. Conference. Level:International
Engstrom, Jacob M. (2023. ) 'The Royal Bridge': Carl Blegen and the Hellenization of Troy in the Interwar Aegean .ASOR Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Conference. Level:International