Getty showcases UC’s astounding discovery of Griffin Warrior
Bronze Age artifacts go on display in North America for first time
Exquisite artifacts from the University of Cincinnati’s archaeological excavations in Greece will go on display in North America for the first time this month at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
UC Classics Professor Jack Davis and Senior Research Associate Sharon Stocker led excavations at Pylos, Greece, that revealed artifacts that are reshaping our understanding of ancient Greece. Photo/UC Classics
Sharon Stocker, a senior research associate in UC's Department of Classics, and Jack Davis, the university's Carl W. Blegen Professor in Greek Archaeology, made the startling discovery of a warrior’s tomb in Pylos, Greece, in 2015. It contained weapons, armor and jewelry, including a sealstone depicting mortal combat in such fine detail that Archaeology magazine hailed it as “a Bronze Age masterpiece.”
“The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece” features more than 230 works of art and artifacts from Messenia, an epicenter of the Mycenaean civilization that flourished 3,500 years ago in the Mediterranean. The museum highlights what has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds in Greece of the last 50 years, the tomb of a Mycenaean leader who lived around 1450 B.C.E.
Davis and Stocker called him the “Griffin Warrior” for the scene of a mythical griffin fighting a lion carved on an ivory container.
“Tension built the closer we got to the burial deposit. We hardly dared to hope that we had found an unplundered tomb,” said Stocker, co-director of the excavation.
The new exhibition will be the first at the reopening Getty Villa Museum since the devastating Palisades fire in January.
The J. Paul Getty Museum presents "The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior Princes of Ancient Greece," which features archaeological discoveries by UC Classics at Pylos, Greece. The exhibition runs from June 27 to Jan. 12, 2026. Photo/LPETTET/iStockPhoto
The two UC researchers spent the past 10 years recovering, documenting and conserving thousands of artifacts from the grave.
“The result was more than we could have imagined — discoveries that would rewrite the story of Mycenaean civilization,” Davis said.
“Kingdom of Pylos” opens June 27 in the Getty Villa Museum and runs through Jan. 12, 2026. It’s the first major exhibition in North America devoted to the Mycenaeans, who were named after the legendary citadel of Mycenae.
During the Late Bronze Age between 1700 and 1070 B.C.E., Messenia was a hub of Mycenaean culture. Settlements and the tombs of extended families buried with their weapons and wealth have been found throughout the region. Thriving communities led by warrior-princes set the stage for the rise of the powerful kingdom of Pylos, which encompassed a territory of 800 square miles at its peak.
The exhibition is a milestone for our department.
Daniel Markovich, UC Department of Classics
The centerpiece of the exhibition is the Pylos Combat Agate, likely made by a Minoan artisan and counted among the most exceptional works of prehistoric Aegean art. Engraved in minute detail on the face of a gold-capped sealstone, a long-haired warrior plunges a sword into the neck of an opponent wielding a spear as another soldier lay dying on the ground.
“The visual impact of the sealstone is amazing. It’s one of the objects that most vividly brings the world of Homeric poetry to our eyes,” said UC Professor and Classics Department Head Daniel Markovich.
“The exhibition is a milestone for our department,” Markovich said.
An agate dating between 1630 and 1440 B.C.E. depicts a man looming over a lion. Photo/Jeff Vanderpool/UC Classics
The exhibition documents UC Classics’ storied research at Pylos dating back to the 1930s.
In 1939, UC Classics Professor Carl Blegen and his Greek counterpart Konstantinos Kourouniotis discovered an imposing structure miles inland, with inscribed tablets that confirmed the location of ancient Pylos. Naming it the Palace of Nestor, they went on to unearth the best-preserved Mycenaean palace in mainland Greece.
In Homer’s epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” “sandy Pylos” was the homeland of King Nestor, hero of the Trojan War. Nineteenth-century explorers sought his abode on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese without success.
“We are delighted that the Getty Villa will be the first venue outside Europe to introduce audiences to the art and culture of the Mycenaeans, who represent the earliest known Greek-speaking culture of antiquity, and are responsible for some of the most spectacular tomb and palace monuments of the Late Bronze Age,” says Timothy Potts, the Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“This exhibition would not have been possible without the many generous loans and close collaboration of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia and the University of Cincinnati.”
UC Classics Senior Research Associate Sharon Stocker works at an excavation in Pylos, Greece. She and Professor Jack Davis co-led excavations near the Palace of Nestor that revealed startling discoveries about ancient Greece. Photo/Jack Davis/UC Classics
UC College of Arts and Sciences Dean James Mack said the exhibition is a reflection of the world-class faculty who teach and conduct research in the Department of Classics.
“Many people are fascinated by this time period, especially its people, culture and remarkable innovations,“ Mack said.
“While archaeological digs uncover priceless artifacts, what truly enriches our understanding is the ability of these scholars to use these items to tell the stories of the people and their culture,“ he said. “As we learn more, new discoveries are revealed, which adds to the rich history of this ancient world. Because of the dedication and passion of our faculty and students we are able to relive some of the stories that would have been lost otherwise.“
Presented in four sections, visitors will encounter a sophisticated, literate culture that became the preeminent power in the eastern Aegean. Beyond palatial and funerary architecture, the Mycenaeans developed advanced engineering, refined arts and developed a system of written administrative records. Close connections with the Minoans on the island of Crete are reflected in several objects on view, which were made by Minoan artists but found in Mycenaean graves.
The first section, The Palace of Nestor, displays finds from the palace and adjacent burials. A complex of four buildings, the ancient palace consisted of 105 ground-floor rooms serving ceremonial, commercial and residential functions. Near the entry, an extensive archive of clay tablets emerged on UC’s Blegen’s first day of digging, each inscribed in the Linear B script, the earliest written form of the Greek language. Among the five examples on view in the exhibit, the famous Tripod Tablet bears a pictogram and syllables of the Greek word “tripod,” which gave scholars an early clue to deciphering Linear B.
“Within the Palace of Nestor, a trove of artifacts marks the last year in the life of a Mycenaean state,” said Claire Lyons, curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa Museum. “This groundbreaking exhibition invites visitors to experience the art and science of archaeology in context, through the eyes of the excavators.”
Pendants made of gold, lapis lazuli, glass and semiprecious stones depict the Egyptian goddess Hathor from excavations at the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, Greece. Photo/Jeff Vanderpool/UC Classics
UC’s Davis and Stocker conducted additional excavations near the Palace of Nestor in 2018 that uncovered two gold-lined tombs. The exhibit introduces a pair of domed funerary monuments built of stone slabs and masonry blocks, which served as grand memorials of elite families interred over several generations.
Ornaments decorated with the head of the Egyptian goddess Hathor and the star symbol of Ishtar, a Mesopotamian divinity, are evidence of the long-distance trade networks that Pylos contributed to between Crete and the Near East.
The last section of the exhibition focuses on 10 sites in the Pylian realm, which, owing to intensive exploration by Greek and American archaeologists, is the best understood area of the Mycenaean world.
Most finds come from beehive-shaped tholos tombs and include two daggers inlaid with silver and gold figures and a crown from Routsi, as well as burial goods recently excavated at Psari, complete with a boar’s tusk helmet like one described by Homer. By the late 1300s B.C.E., these prosperous settlements were gradually incorporated under the centralized rule of the Palace of Nestor, which endured until its destruction by fire around 1180 B.C.E.
The exhibition tells of the scholarship that Davis and Stocker and their research collaborators have invested in the project. In 2016, Davis and Stocker turned to former UC anthropology professor Lynne Schepartz, now at the University of Arizona, to conduct a digital reconstruction of the warrior’s facial features.
“He was a young man, and wealthy, who served different functions: a religious or sacred function, as an outstanding warrior and as leader of his people,” Stocker said at the time.
A subsequent analysis of ancient DNA confirmed their suspicions that the Griffin Warrior was from the area he would come to rule.
UC Classics Professor Carl Blegen uncovered tablets including this one from approximately 1180 B.C.E. featuring the early Greek script called Linear B while excavating the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, Greece. Photo/UC Classics
Davis and Stocker published a book in 2022 titled “A Greek State in Formation” examining Mycenaean civilization through the prism of their discoveries and scholarship. This year they will publish another book, “The Kingdom of Pylos,” taking a closer look at the exquisite craftsmanship and artistry behind the artifacts they discovered.
In the years since their discoveries, Davis and Stocker have been recognized around the world for their contributions to the study of ancient civilizations.
Davis was named this year to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, the president of Greece bestowed the Commander of the Order of the Phoenix upon Davis and Stocker. The award is given to foreigners who contribute to enhancing the stature of Greece in fields such as science, the arts and industry.
The Archaeological Institute of America in 2020 also bestowed its highest honor upon Davis, a Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement. And UC’s Blegen, Davis and Stocker all were named honorary citizens of Pylos.
The exhibition is organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture of Greece.
Once the exhibit closes next January, it will be on display at the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, in 2026.
Featured image at top: The J. Paul Getty Museum will feature artifacts discovered by UC Classics Professor Jack Davis and Senior Research Associate Sharon Stocker in a new exhibition titled "The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior Princes of Ancient Greece" featuring a sealstone depicting mortal combat. Photo/Jeff Vanderpool/UC Classics
A signet ring depicts an ancient ritual. Photo/Jeff Vanderpool/UC Classics
UC scholarship and discovery in Greece
An ivory Pyxis lid features a lion attacking a griffin. Photo/Jeff Vanderpool/UC Classics
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