Cynthia Shelmerdine is the Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. A scholar of Aegean Bronze Age archaeology and Myceneaen Greek language, history, and society, she has worked in the field with the University of Minnesota Messenia Expedition, the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, and currently the Iklaina Archaeological Project. She is the author of many publications on Mycenaean culture.