Oldest European written text returned to Greece

Professor Cosmopoulos specializes in Greek Culture, with particular emphasis on archaeology and history. At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Professor Cosmopoulos teaches courses on Greek history, culture, religion, technology, archaeology, art, language, and mythology.   His teaching extends beyond the classroom and into the field, where he has trained several hundred undergraduate and tens of graduate students.

Mr. Cosmopoulos found the tablet in the summer of 2010. His discovery of the ceramic tablet in Linear B writing, about 3,500 years old, has changed the educational and bureaucratic history in the western part of the world.

According to Greekreporter.com and National Geographic, the tablet was found in an ancient trash-can in which used to burn some garbage. The fragment, saved by accident from the fire, constitutes the greater surprise of this long-lasting program.

Tablets in Linear B writing were mostly used in Mycenaean palaces as accounting archives. This fact raises questions as to the usage of the ceramic plate which have yet to be answered.

Currently, Cosmopoulos directs two major excavations in Greece.  At the Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis he is researching the famous Eleusinian Mysteries.  At the Mycenaean palace of Iklaina, near Pylos, he is investigating the origins of states and social complexity in Greece.   Both projects have had a significant impact on the field.  More recently, the discovery at Iklaina of the earliest bureaucratic record in Europe was  included in the top ten archaeological discoveries in Greece and was covered extensively by the national and international press. 

In recognition of Michael Cosmopoulos'  teaching, the University of Manitoba has awarded him a Merit Award for Teaching (1991) and the prestigious Olive Beatrice Stanton Award for Excellence in Teaching (1999). In 2001 he was nominated for the national “Canadian Professor of the Year Award” and in 2003 he was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America Award for Excellence in Teaching.