Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Antropology (IAKA) of the University of Thessaly. Director of the Laboratory of Archaeology. General supervisor of the project.Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Antropology (IAKA) of the University of Thessaly. Director of the Laboratory of Archaeology. General supervisor of the project.
Alexander Mazarakis Ainian was born in Athens in 1959. He studied History of Art and Archaeology at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” (1980-1983) and continued his postgraduate studies in London (UCL), with a grant of the “Alexander Onassis Benefit Foundation” and obtained his Ph.D. degree at University College London in 1987, under the supervision of Professor J.N. Coldstream.
Between 1991 and 1996 he worked on a part time basis at the Greek Archaeological Service and conducted rescue excavations in northern Attica (Oropos, Marathon, Nea Makri). Between 1992 and 1999 he taught Archaeology at the Department of History of the Ionian University (Corfu). In 1999 he was elected Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at the History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology Department of the University of Thessaly (Volos), and in 2005 Professor of Classical Archaeology. For two consecutive terms, from September 2002 until August 2006 he was elected Head of the Department, and more recently he was elected for two terms as Director of the Postgraduate Programme of the Department (2008 onwards). He also teaches in the Postgraduate Programs of the University of Athens and the Polytechnic University of Athens. During the academic year 2007/08 he taught for two months at the university of “Paris I - Pantheon/Sorbonne” as an invited professor and during the academic year 2009/10 he was invited researcher for one month at the “Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales”, in Paris. He has supervised several Ph.D. dissertations, four of which were in co-direction with European universities, and has been invited as external examiner of Ph.D.’s at European universities (Edinburgh, Lausanne, Paris). In 2009 he was external evaluator of the UMR 8167 (+ EA 125) “Orient et Méditerranée” [Paris I, Paris IV, EPHE].
He founded and directs the Archaeological Laboratory at the University of Thessaly, and the Departmental Archaeological Museum. Since 2009 he is the President of the Scientific Committee of the University of Thessaly publications (“University of Thessaly Press”). He is or was the Scientific Director of several European Union Research Programs, including the programmes EPEAEK I and II of the IAKA Department, Practical Training I, Pythagoras I, Herakleitos I and II (see Research Committee of the University of Thessaly).
As an undergraduate and postgraduate student he participated in excavations at Makronissos, Kallipolis, Eretria and Minoa on Amorgos. Between 1990 and 1995, and in 2001, he directed an archaeological survey on the Cycladic island of Kythnos (mainly in the area of the ancient capital of the island). From 1996 until 2003, and again from 2006 up to the present day, he directs the excavation at Skala Oropou, in northern Attica (Early Iron Age metalworking site), under the auspices of the Greek Archaeological Society. Since 2002 he is also directing the excavation of the University of Thessaly at the ancient capital of Kythnos (Archaic-Hellenistic sanctuary). Since 2004 he also directed on behalf of the University of Thessaly the excavation at Soros (ancient Amphanai or Pagasai), in Thessaly (Late Archaic-Classical sanctuary). In 2004 he also conducted a Geophysical Survey at Oropos, and since 2009 he directs a survey at the Early Iron Age site of Kefala on Skiathos. Lastly, from 2005 up to the present day he directs the underwater excavation of the ancient harbour of Kythnos.
His main field of specialisation is the archaeology and architecture of Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece. He has offered 65 papers at International Symposia and 85 lectures, in Greece, Europe (Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Sweden) and the USA (Boston University, Ann Arbor, Cornell, New York [Columbia, NYU-Institute of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum], Princeton, Los Angeles, Stanford, University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bryn Mawr), the latter through the “G. Papamarkou Fellowship” of the “Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art” and the University Seminars Program of the “Alexander Onassis Benefit Foundation”.
He has published four book reviews, 30 excavation reports, and ca. 50 articles and studies in Greek, English, French, Italian and German, and two books entitled From Rulers' Dwellings to Temples: Architecture, Religion and Society in Early Iron Age Greece (1100-700 B.C.) (Jonsered 1997) and Homer and Archaeology (Athens 2000) (the latter in Greek). A third book is in press (Oropos I. The Protogeometric and Subprotogeometric Periods [in collaboration with I.S. Lemos], to be published in the series of the Greek Archaeological Society). Together with M. Mouliou he published the catalogue of the exhibition Archaeological Quests: Excavations at Homeric Graia (Volos 2008). He was also the editor of the Acts of the 1994 Kea-Kythnos Symposium (Kea-Kythnos: History and Archaeology, Athens 1998), and of the acts of the other five International Symposia that he organized (The “1st, 2nd and 3rd Archaeological Work of Thessaly and Central Greece” held in Volos in 2003 [publ. 2006], 2006 [2009] and 2009 [in press], respectively), as well as Oropos and Euboea in the Early Iron Age, held in Volos in 2004 [publ. 2007]). He is currently editing the Acts of the International Symposium in the memory of W. Coulson (“The Dark Ages Revisited”, June 2007 [in press]). He was also co-organizer and President of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference on the Numismatics of Thessaly (2001) and co-organizer of the Congress on the History and Archaeology of the Black Sea area (2004), both held at the University of Thessaly in Volos, while he has also organized or co-organized a series of smaller scientific Colloquia (for all the above click here). He has also been appointed member of the Scientific Committee of several International Congresses. He also participates in international research projects, including “CIRCE: Constructions, Interprétations et Représentations Cultuelles de l’Espace dans les sociétés anciennes”, directed by Prof. Fr. De Polignac (EPHE) and “ΕΜΑ: L’enfant et la mort dans l’Antiquité: des pratiques funéraires à l’identité sociale” directed by Prof. A. Hermary.
In 2004 he set up an archaeological exhibition at the University of Thessaly entitled: “Archaeological Quests: Excavations at Homeric Graia” (18 June - 26 Sept. 2004), with 141 finds from ancient Oropos. He has also organised five exhibitions of drawings and photographs dealing with the archaeology of Kythnos (at Kythnos, the Ionian University, the Universities of Thessaly and Athens).
He is a member of the Greek Archaeological Society, the Historical and Ethnological Society, the German Archaeological Institute and ICOM-Greece. He is also member of the advisory board of Greek and foreign scienticic periodicals, including the Journal of the ASCSA, Hesperia.
He speaks fluently English and French, and has adequate knowledge of German and Italian.