UWTSD alumnus awarded prestigious international research fund
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is delighted to announce that Thomas Humphrey, who was awarded his PhD from the University last year, has been granted the prestigious Vronwy Hankey Memorial Fund for Aegean Studies by the British School at Athens.
This highly competitive international award supports postgraduate research in the field of Aegean archaeology. Recent recipients have included scholars from universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and the University of Athens, highlighting the fund’s reputation for fostering outstanding academic talent worldwide.
Thomas’s doctoral thesis, “Examining the Social Lives of Cylinder Seals in Late Cypriot Society”, explored the significance of these small but powerful artefacts in the context of Late Bronze Age Cyprus. His new research, supported by the Vronwy Hankey Fund, will extend this innovative study to the Aegean world, focusing on cylinder seals from Mycenaean contexts - a class of artefact rarely considered in the broader scholarship of Mycenaean Greece.
“This work will fill a notable gap in our understanding of the Bronze Age Aegean,” said Thomas. “I’ll be examining around 50 cylinder seals held in the collections of the Thebes, Nafplion, and National Archaeology Museums, while also drawing on the excellent resources of the British School at Athens. My aim is to investigate how or indeed whether cylinder seals were integrated into the existing seal traditions of Mycenaean Greece. This builds directly on my PhD research into how these objects were adopted and adapted in Late Bronze Age Cyprus, which followed a markedly different path.”
Thomas will apply methodologies such as use-wear analysis and proxemics in his hands-on study, further enhancing scholarly understanding of the social role and meaning of cylinder seals during this period.
UWTSD’s Professor Louise Steel commented: “We’re incredibly proud of Thomas’s achievements. This award is testament to the quality of research our students produce and the impact it can have on international scholarship. His work is helping reshape how we understand object use and identity in the ancient world.”
This recognition not only underscores the calibre of UWTSD’s postgraduate research environment but also highlights the exciting opportunities available to students who choose to study archaeology and history at the university.
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