About

Conor Trainor completed his BA (Hons) and MA in Classics at Queen’s University (Ontario), before moving to Dublin to undertake a PhD in Classics at Trinity College. His PhD was awarded in 2013 and focused on ceramics from Hellenistic and Roman Sikyon. In 2015 Conor received a National University of Ireland Publication Award for his book, The Ceramics Industry of Roman Sikyon (Åströms Förlag, 2015).

Since 2000 he has participated in over a dozen archaeological fieldwork projects in both Greece and Canada, with a current research focus on the Graeco-Roman city of Knossos (6th Cent BCE-7th Cent CE). During 2008-2009 Conor was the Assistant Director of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens, the archaeological and cultural representative of Irish universities in Greece. He has taught at Queen’s University (Ontario), Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens and the British School at Athens. Conor joined the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Warwick in 2016 as the Research Fellow in Hellenistic Culture & Society.

Conor’s main research interests include the visual and material culture of ancient Greece, production communities and resource ecosystems, ceramics and craft; ancient cities; ancient economies and exchange networks, and Digital Humanities.

At present, Conor is the Principal Investigator on two projects, one is aimed at studying and publishing the archaeological remains of a wine-making facility at Knossos, the other is aimed at studying and publishing Hellenistic and Roman material from the cult cave of Trypas Xerokambou (Crete). He is also currently a specialist researcher studying Archaic-Late Roman ceramics as part of the Knossos Urban Landscapes Project, and also on the Kenchreai Ancient Quarries Project.

Teaching

• Introduction to Greek and Roman History (with C. Rowan)
• Encounters with Material Culture: Objects and Archaeology
• The Hellenistic World

• The Archaeology of Athens and Attica

• Sanctuaries and Sacred Topographies of Ancient Greece

• Slaves, Gold and Fish Sauce: The Roman Economy

• Archaeological Fieldwork Module (Knossos)

Selected publications

Monograph

• 2015: The Ceramics Industry of Roman Sikyon (Åströms Editions Press).

Peer-Reviewed Papers and Articles

• Trainor, C. and P. Stone. 2023 ‘Tales of Two Cities: Urban Surveys of the Cities of Sikyon and Knossos.’ In Nazou, M., W. Van de Put and A. Meens (eds.), Fields, Sherds and Scholars: Recording and Interpreting Survey Ceramics. Proceedings from the Conference at the Danish Institute at Athens, February 24-25^th, 2017: 127-135. Sidestone Press.

• 2021: Trainor, C. The Late Hellenistic Wine Press Excavations from Knossos: The Early Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Early Roman Contexts. Annual of the British School at Athens 116, 2021.

• 2021: Trainor, C. and E. Kiriatzi. “The Ceramic Fabric Analysis of the Sikyon Survey Project.” In Lolos, Y. (ed.) Sikyon I: The Urban Survey: 227-244. Meletemata, Athens.
• 2019: Trainor, C. Polis, Colony and Beyond: Urban Knossos from Archaic to Late Antique Times, in G. Siphakis and A. Kalokairinos et al. (eds) Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Cretan Historical Studies. Heraklion.
• 2019: Trainor, C., E. Tzavella, D. Grigoropoulos and M. Maher. Early Roman Sikyon: Aspects of Urban Organization, Settlement and Economy. Grigoropoulos et al. (eds). What's New in Roman Greece? Athens.
• 2016: Trainor C. and P. Stone. Winners, Losers and Survivors of Roman Imperialism;. In Gauss W. et al. (eds.) The Distribution of Technological Knowledge in the Production of Ancient Mediterranean Pottery: 97-113. Vienna.
• 2014: Tzavella, E., C. Trainor and M. Maher. Late Roman pottery from the Sikyon Survey Project: local production, imports, and urban evolution (4th - 7th c. AD); Proceedings from the 4th Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae, Thessaloniki, 7-10 April 2011. Oxford: 91-102.
• 2013: Gauss, W., R. Smetana, J.B. Rutter, J. Dorner, P. Eitzinger, C. Klein, A. Kurz, A. Lätzer-Lasar, M. Leibetseder, C. Regner, H. Stümpel, A. Tanner, C. Trainor, and M. Trapichler. 2013. ‘Aigeira 2012. Bericht zu Aufarbeitung und Grabung.’ Jahreshefte des Österreichischen archäologischen Instituts in Wien 82: 69–91.
• 2011: Lolos, Y., B. Gourley, A. Sarris, C. Hayward, C. Trainor, E. Kiriatzi and N. Papadopoulos. Surveying The Sikyonian Plateau: Integrated Approach to the Study of an Ancient Cityscape. Fifth Symposium of the Hellenic Society of Archaeometry. Athens: 305-326. 

Book Reviews

• Trainor, C. ‘The Socio-Economics of Roman Storate. Agriculture, Trade, and Family&rsquo;, by A. Van Oyen. <em>Classical Review 71.1:</em> 152-154.
• 2018: Trainor, C. 'The Archaeology of Greece and Roman. Studies in Honour of Anthony Snodgrass, by J. Bintliff and K. Rutter (eds.) Classical Review 68.1.
• 2012: Trainor, C. Art and Identity in Dark Age Greece, 1100-700 B.C.E. by S. Langdon;. Hermathena 187: 105-107.

• 2017: Trainor, C. The Hellenistic Age, by P. Thonemann.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.06.36.
• In press: Trainor, C. ‘The Age of Conquests, the Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian’, by A. Chaniotis. History Today.

On-Going Projects

• 2019-Present: Trainor, C. Trypas Xerokambou. Hellenistic and Roman Ceramics from a East Cretan Cult Cave.
• 2016-Present: Trainor, C. and J. Day. Ancient Rome and the Classical Museum: Terra Sigillata. A study of the Roman ceramics housed in the collection of the UCD Classical Museum.
• 2014-Present: Findings from a First Century BC Wine Press at Knossos (the University of Warwick and the British School at Athens). Principle Investigator, responsible for the publication of the remains from an urban wine production facility at Knossos and their economic ramifications.
• 2014-Present: Knossos Urban Landscape Project (University College London/23rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities). Specialist researcher, on the Greek and Roman periods at Knossos.
• 2013-Present: The Kenchreai Quarries Survey (University of Edinburgh). Specialist, responsible for the study and publication of ceramics from the survey of the ancient and late antquie quarry complexes at Kenchrea, Greece.

Qualifications

• BA; MA Queen’s University (Ontario)
• PhD (Trinity College Dublin)