At the mid-way point of the project, we have successfully established the core team of the PI, three PDRAs, two PhDs, and an Administrative Assistant. We have also established the central operating framework, as laid out in Work Package 1, meeting the milestones of setting up a project website and a bespoke online database capable of combining archaeological and historical data (M1). We have also established regular monthly meetings of the MIGMAG reading group to facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge (M2).
As part of Work Package 2, team members have prepared initial literature reviews about each of the five study regions (M3). The population of the database with archaeological data is at an advanced stage, with core data from partner survey projects as well as the majority of published data about settlement patterns already inputted (M4). A baseline dataset of environmental evidence for landscape use has also been inputted (M5). In Work Package 3, claims made about origins and identity known from literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence have been inputted into the database, with data entry complete for Ionia, Cilicia, and Calabria, and well advanced for central Greece and Sardinia (M6).
As part of Work Package 4, two annual workshops for the project team and partners have been held - in Oxford in June 2022, and in Malta in May 2023 (M7). Planning is currently underway for the international conference in Year 4 of the project (M8), which will be held in Vienna in June 2024. The preparation of publications stemming from the project will begin in earnest in the coming months, with submission of most publications expected in the final year of the project (i.e. 2025).
