Dr Matthew Evans

I grew up in a small village called Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in mid Wales and first encountered the ancient world when I was 14, having chosen to study Classical Civilisations at GCSE. I’ve been hooked ever since. I studied Ancient History (BA) at Cardiff, Classical Archaeology (Mst) at Oxford, and completed a PhD about the history and archaeology of gymnasia at Warwick. I’m an ancient historian and classical archaeologist with a broad interest in the Hellenistic and Roman Aegean. As a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, my current research aims to identify patterns of short-distance mobility in a dynamic region of Ionia in western Turkey. Specifically, I am working with texts inscribed on stone and utilising machine learning tools to try to identify individual stone cutters and workshops. I hope to shed light on the people and processes responsible for creating inscriptions. I am also an active survey archaeologist and I currently work on projects on the Greek islands of Samos and Chios. I like to spend my spare time outside, whether that’s playing football, running, or hiking.

My current research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is titled Mobility and Multi-Scalar Power Dynamics in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor. Scholarly attention on mobility and migration often overlooks short-distance movements in favour of long-distance networks, creating a gap in knowledge. This interdisciplinary research project pioneers a multi-scalar ancient history of mobility, focusing on short-distance movements during the Hellenistic and early Roman period (3rd – 1st centuries BCE). Utilising innovative machine learning techniques, the project examines the handwriting of Greek inscriptions to reveal the regional mobilities of stonecutters within the Latmic Gulf, a contested region in ancient Ionia. By doing so, the project offers a new framework for understanding the intricacies of human mobility in the ancient world.

Books and edited volumes

The Senses in Ancient Greek Athletics: Exploring the Body, Society and Culture through a Sensory Lens (ed.) (Bloomsbury, forthcoming)

Articles and chapters

'Gymnasion Users and Group Identities: Exploring the Social Dynamics of Institutions on Late Hellenistic Delos', Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (forthcoming)

'Gymnasia, Ephebates, and Hellenic Cultural Identity in Imperial Achaea', in E. Bowie & C.A. Maciver (eds), The Fabric of Hellenism (University of Edinburgh Press, forthcoming)

'Pausanias and Gymnasia', in N. Kazakidi & G. Mouratidis (eds), Education In and Beyond the Greek Gymnasium (De Gruyter, forthcoming)

'Undefeated by Heat: Greek Athletes and Thermal Experience', in M.P. Evans (ed.), The Senses in Ancient Greek Athletics: Exploring the Body, Society and Culture through a Sensory Lens (Bloomsbury, forthcoming)

Evans, M.P. & Loy, M.L. (2024) 'The Samians on Ikaria: Communities, Power and Island Networks in the Hellenistic and Roman Aegean', Mediterranean Historical Review 39, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518967.2024.2319521

Evans, M.P. & Mouratidis, G. (2023) 'Archaeology in Greece 2022–2023. Newsround', Archaeological Reports 69, 33-84. doi:10.1017/S057060842300008X

Evans, M.P. (2020) 'Architectural and Spatial Features in Plato’s Gymnasia and Palaistrai', in H.L. Reid, M. Ralkowski, & C. Zoller (eds), Athletics, Gymnastics, and Agōn in Plato (Sioux City, Iowa: Parnassos Press) 31-49. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1fkgc3p.7

Reviews

Evans, M.P. (2024) 'THE RECEPTION AND LEGACY OF ANCIENT SPORT - (P.J.) Miller Sport. Antiquity and Its Legacy. Pp. x + 223, ills, maps. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. Paper, £19.99, US$26.95 (Cased, £65, US$90). ISBN: 978-1-350-14021-9 (978-1-350-14020-2 hbk)', Classical Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009840x24000659

I am the co-founder of the online blog Material Musings, hosted by the University of Warwick.

Digital publications

Evans, M.P. (2022) ‘A rather bould(er) claim: inscribed rocks and weightlifting in the ancient world’, Material Musings (University of Warwick)

Evans, M.P. (2021) ‘It’s all fun and games in the gymnasium of Ancient Messene’, Material Musings (University of Warwick)

PhD, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, 2023 

Master of Studies in Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Classics and Wolfson College, University of Oxford, 2019

BA Ancient History, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, 2018