Professor Ergün Laflı is a classical archaeologist at the Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, chairs the Division for Medieval Archaeology and is the founding director of the Center of the Archaeology of Western Anatolia (EKVAM). He was born in 1975 in Mersin, Turkey. He attended to the Sainte-Pulchérie French School in Istanbul and Tarsus American College, both in Turkey. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Ankara (1996), a M.A. from the University of Tübingen (1999) and a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne (2003), all in classical archaeology. Since 2006 he edited or co-authored seven books on Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine terracottas, ceramics, metal figurines, glass finds and inscriptions from Asia Minor. Between 2005 and 2009 he directed an archaeological field project in Hadrianopolis, a Roman and Early Byzantine site in north-central Turkey and the main focus of this book. He organized numerous archaeological congresses in Izmir and published various material groups from Classical Anatolia. 

Prof. Dr. Paolo Di Benedetto is Teaching Assistant in Ancient History and holds a PhD in Ancient Greek History achieved at University of Basilicata, with a thesis entitled ‘Foundation Accounts of Aeolian cities in Asia Minor’. Subject expert in SSD L-ANT/02 (Greek History and Epigraphy), L-ANT/03 (Roman History) and L-FIL-LET/02 (Classical Philology), his research interests are traditions and foundation myths (archaiologiai) of the Ionian and Aeolian cities of Asia; traditions and accounts of Aeolian migration; political-institutional aspects and archaology of Aeolian Kyme and Mytilene in Archaic and Classical times; Representation and reconstruction of Aeolian borders in Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman times; identity, historical, geographical and institutional definition of Aeolian territory; relations between the Greeks of Asia and the frontier Greeks, as well as with non-Greek populations (Lydians, Persians, Carians); reconstruction of the evanescent Aeolian League; traditions on the Pelasgians and Amazons; historiography and rhetoric on commendation and the founding of cities in the imperial age; Memory Studies and the perception of identity in relation to the Ionian and Aeolian cities of Asia; Ethnicity and Intentionale Geschichte studies applied to the Aeolian world of Asia; fragmentary historiography (Hecataeus of Miletus, Ephorus of Cumae); archaeology of ancient Asia Minor; formation of the Roman province of Asia, with reference to the Aeolis of Asia. He is currently attending a second PhD in Historical Studies at the University of Naples ‘Federico II’, with a project on the Aeolis of Asia in the Roman Age.

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Anna Paule is a Bronze/Iron Age archaeologist from Linz, Austria (postdoc; independent researcher). 

Her research interests are centred on the archaeology of the Near East, Cyprus, and Central Europe; long-distance contacts; gold jewellery and small finds, such as weighing tools; early (Neolithic) dairy farming; (solar) iconography; and clues for early astronomy. The latter includes the application of the Stellarium astronomy software. Anna Paule is the author of ten academic (peer-reviewed) articles. Five more articles are in print or accepted for publication (2024).

She graduated from the University of Salzburg, Austria, with a master’s degree with distinction in Classical Archaeology in 2007 (subject of the Master’s thesis: Roman equestrian statues). This was followed by doctoral studies at the Université Aix-Marseille I, Aix-en-Provence, France, where she graduated with a doctoral degree in Archaeology (PhD) with First Class honours in 2013 (subject of the Master’s thesis: gold jewellery from protohistoric Cyprus). After returning home, she passed a period of protracted illness but continued research on Cypriot and Near Eastern archaeology, with a special focus on gold jewellery, small finds, and ancient iconography (2013‒2018).

Research activities during this time as an independent researcher in Austria led to an employment at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where she supported the closure phase of a local research project on Bronze Age weighing instruments and gold jewellery (2018‒2020). This was followed by the Covid-19-break and another period as an independent researcher and job seeker in Austria. During this time, she focused on new research topics (e.g., dairy farming; archaeoastronomy) and developed an interdisciplinary approach to solar iconography and early evidence of solar astronomy, combining data obtained from traditional archaeological and natural scientific methods (astronomy software, etc.). The latter also made it possible to extend research into more recent history; e.g., the 18th century. 

born in Venice 8.11.1952 Graduate at the University of Venice, Faculty of Humanities
1975-1976: post-graduate fellowship at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Naples 
1978-1981: fellowship of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche 1981-1987: Researcher of Ancient History at the University of Venice, Faculty of Humanities Since 1992-: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung research fellow, at different times, at the Universities of Cologne, Aachen, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Heidelberg
1993: invited professor at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) 1987-1995: associate professor of Greek History at the University of Trento 1995-2002: associate professor of Greek History at the University of Verona 2002-: Full professor of Roman History at the University of Verona 2007: invited professor (“director of the studies”) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – Ve section des sciences religieuses (Paris)
2008-2010 President of the Courses of Cultural Heritage at the University of Verona
2012-2023 vice-president of the Società Italiana di Storia delle Religioni
2011- president of the Courses of Cultural Heritage at the University of Verona
2017 coordinator of the international Doctorate (Verona Gent) in Arts and Archaeology
2015 - Erasmus delegate of the Dept Culture e Civiltà
2005-2014 Director of the archaeological excavations at Grumentum (Lucania)
2016-2023  Director of the archaeological excavations at Tarquinia
2017- member of the editorial board of Acta Antiqua
2018- member of the editorial board of Diritto e Storia
Actual position: retired