May 13, 2026 To celebrate our 2026 Fellowship recipients , we connected with this year’s awardees to learn more about their projects and the unique paths that led them into the field of archaeology. We’re thrilled to introduce Nicole Constantine, recipient of the prestigious 2026 Anna C. and Oliver C. Colburn Fellowship ! Maribelisa Gillespie (Agnes Scott College) Tell us about your project: When Heinrich Schliemann unearthed hundreds of small clay figurines at Mycenae in 1876, he assumed they were religious icons, humble representations of the goddess Hera. Nearly 150 years later, that interpretation still dictates how we approach them, despite the nuances and challenges several scholars have brought to bear. Rather than asking what figurines meant symbolically, my research asks what they did: who made them, how production was scaled to meet demand, where they traveled, and what new rituals, burial customs, or social arrangements arrived with them. With support from the Anna C. and Oliver C.…