Pylos Regional Archaeological Project

The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (or PRAP) is a diachronic and multi-disciplinary archaeological expedition established in 1990. Its purpose is to study the history of prehistoric and historic settlement in southwestern Greece (modern Messenia). The focus of the expedition entails surveying the Bronze Age administrative center known as the Palace of Nestor. Its directors were Professors Jack L. Davis, John Bennet, Susan E. Alcock, Cynthia Shelmerdine, and Yannis Lolos. *The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project Internet Edition. Retrieved on September 2, 2008. "The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP) is a multi-disciplinary, diachronic archaeological expedition formally organized in 1990 to investigate the history of prehistoric and historic settlement and land use in western Messenia in Greece, in an area centered on the Bronze Age administrative center known as the Palace of Nestor. The project has employed the techniques of archaeological surface survey, along with natural environmental investigations (geological, geomorphological, geophysical, and paleobotanical). In the summers of 1991-95, approximately 40 square kilometers in western Messenia were examined intensively. These included areas to the north, east, south, and west of the modern town of Hora, and the entirety of the Englianos Ridge (Upper and Lower) - the location of the Palace of Nestor. Fieldwork doubled the number of sites previously known in the area intensively surveyed. In addition, nearly all previously known sites in an additional 30 square kilometers have been reinvestigated; the spatial extent and chronological components of these have been defined with greater precision. Members of PRAP are committed to making the results of the project quickly available to the general public and scholars through the Internet. The table of contents contains links to existing publications and reports, some of which are available on-line. In addition we are making available a complete site gazetteer, with descriptions of all sites investigated by PRAP and preliminary catalogues of artifacts found at them. We encourage use of this gazetteer for scholarly purposes. The complete pottery catalog, small finds database, and photography database are also searchable on-line. Since 1990, the Minnesota Archaeological Researches in the Western Peloponnese (MARWP), a project sponsored by the University of Minnesota and directed by Professor Fred Cooper, has been engaged in the preparation of an actual state plan of the architectural remains excavated by Carl W. Blegen of the University of Cincinnati between 1939 and 1966. Preliminary reports on research sponsored by MARWP, including suggested reinterpretations of several of Blegen's conclusions and illustrations of two recently discovered fragments of Linear B tablets, are available on the WWW. PRAP has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the Louise Taft Semple Fund, the Department of Classics of the University of Cincinnati, the Department of Classics of the University of Illinois at Chicago and numerous private donors."