The 5-year project is directed by Dr. Sofia Voutsaki, Groningen Institute of Archaeology. It is financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the University of Groningen. Additional grants have been received by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, Philadelphia.

The aim of the project is to interpret the important social, political and cultural changes that took place in the southern Greek mainland during the Middle Helladic period and the transition to the Late Helladic (approx. 2000 - 1500 BC). No satisfactory explanation of these changes has ever been given, and they remain one of the most pressing questions of Greek archaeology. The central question, the redefinition of personal, ethnic and cultural identities within wider processes of socio-political change, has a wider relevance and is one of the most debated question in current theoretical debates in archaeology.
The task is undertaken by means of an integrated analysis of settlement, funerary, skeletal and iconographic data from the Argolid, northeastern Peloponnese. The project employs both established and highly innovative archaeological techniques:

• The analysis of imagery;
• The analysis of funerary data;
• The analysis of settlement data;
• The analysis of osteological material;
• Radiocarbon analysis of human bones for absolute dating;
• DNA analysis (for the determination of age/sex as well as genetic affiliation of populations, i.e. biological kinship and ethnic divisions);
• Stable isotopes analysis for the reconstruction of dietary patterns.
• The publication of the Argos ‘tumuli’ assemblage is a separate sub-project, financed by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory.

The project also includes three conferences on the Middle Helladic period.
The first conference, MESOHELLADIKA, which was dedicated to recent discoveries from the MH mainland, was held in Athens in 2006. The conference was co-organised by Anna Philippa-Touchais (French School, Athens), Gilles Touchais (University of Paris), Sofia Voutsaki (University of Groningen) and James Wright (Bryn Mawr College).

The second meeting is a Round Table, to be held in Athens on 17-18 December 2007. This is a closed meeting, in which only the team members and the excavators of the sites we are studying will participate.
The third meeting, a One-Day Conference, will be held in Athens on 19 December 2007.

The project team consists of Dr. O. Dickinson (Durham), T. Hertig (Groningen), Dr. A. Ingvarsson-Sundström (Uppsala), Prof. S. Kouidou-Andreou (Thessaloniki), T. Kuper (Groningen), Dr. L. Kovatsi (Thessaloniki), Ms E. Milka (Groningen), Dr. A.J. Nijboer (Groningen), Dr. D. Nikou (Thessaloniki), Prof. M. Richards (Leipzig), Dr. K. Sarri (Athens), Dr. S. Triantaphyllou (Thessaloniki / Sheffield), and Dr. S. Voutsaki (Groningen).

The research is undertaken in close collaboration with scholars entrusted with the study of the material from the main MH sites in the Argolid: Dr. C. Zerner (Lerna), Prof. G. Nordquist and Dr S. Dietz (Asine), Prof. G. Touchais and Mrs A. Philippa-Touchais (Aspis, Argos).

Finally, our team works in collaboration with the 4th Ephorate of Classical and Prehistoric Antiquities, and the Museums of Argos and Nafplion.