University of Gothenburg
  2. About
  3. Find staff
  4. Helene Whittaker

Helene Whittaker

Professor

Department of Historical Studies
Telephone
+46 31-786 45 14
+46 733-10 14 23
Mail
helene.whittaker@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
J656B
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Helene Whittaker

My research is mainly concerned with the Greek Bronze Age, in particular Mycenaean and Minoan religion. My doctoral dissertation dealt with Mycenaean cult buildings (published in a revised form as Mycenaean Cult Buildings. A Study of their Architecture and Function in the Context of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, The Norwegian Institute at Athens 1997). Much of my later research has concentrated on social and ideological aspects of religious beliefs and practice. In my book Religion and Society in the Middle Bronze Age and Early Mycenaean Periods (Cambridge University Press 2014), I review and discuss the evidence for religion in the Middle Helladic and early Mycenaean periods. A major premise is that religion should not be discussed in isolation from its social, political, and cultural context.

I have also published on the Aegean in the wider European context during the Bronze Age, with a particular focus on the ways in which Aegean material and research are used in interpretations of material found in Scandinavia and central Europe (eg. The Aegean Bronze Age in Relation to the Wider European Context. Papers from a Session at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Cork, 5-11 September 2005, Archaeopress 2008).

My educational background is in Classical philology and I have also published on a variety of topics within different areas of Greek and Roman history, literature, and culture. My publications on the Imperial Cult and on Greece in the Roman period reflect my interest in combining archaeological and textual evidence. I also have strong research interests in Neoplatonism and in pagan and early Christian asceticism. At present, I am working on a monograph on the transition from the Greek Bronze Age to the Iron Age.