Members

Until 2010 the head of the Southern Greece Programme was Prof. A. Rizakis. From  January 2011 the programme is headed by Anna Michailidou, Director of Research. Since December 2011 the programme is headed by Ch. Papageorgiadou, Director of Research.

Anna Michailidou, Director of Research
Charikleia Papageorgiadou, Director of Research
Styliani Mendoni, Senior Researcher
Sophia Zoumbaki, Senior Researcher
Franceso Camia, Assistant Researcher

Director of Research, Emeritus:

Athanasios D. Rizakis

External Collaborators:

V. Petrakis, PhD in Archaeology, Ministry of Education
A. Voutsa, MA in Archaeology, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Greece
C.  Lepenioti, MA in Archaeology

The objectives and research activities of the Southern Greece programme, founded in 1984, are centred upon two main aspects:

I. The first, geographical aspect includes areas of South Greece and the Aegean, such as the Peloponnese, the Cyclades and Samos. Epigraphic, archaeological, numismatic and historical projects are carried out with the principal aim of the creation of archives and the publication of monographs on the political, social and economic history of these areas.

II. As for the second, thematic aspect, the research projects here have a more specific thematic and chronological orientation. Since 1990,  in particular, the emphasis has been chiefly upon topics relating to a) technology and economy during the Bronze Age, and b)  numismatics, financial and social organization, institutions and Roman colonization during the Roman period.

Academic  goals

After the completion of many of the projects (see below: Activities and Publications) the academic goals of the programme have become more specialized, although they continue to be related to the  geographical areas and chronological periods mentioned above:

The first period is the Bronze Age in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean  (A. Michailidou).

Here the area of research is "Economy and  Script in the Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean",  supervised by Dr. Anna Michailidou, Director of Research. Certain projects are underway, such as the role of metals and their products in Late Bronze Age urban societies, and the management of metals and man-power in Mycenaean palace administration, as documented by material and textual evidence from the Aegean (e.g. the Linear B sources) and the Near East.

The second period is the historical period in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean (Ch. Papageorgiadou).
 
Two research areas, with projects underway, are as follows:

I." Numismatics and Economy", supervised by Dr. Charikleia Papageorgiadou, Director of Research. Within this field, there are two specialized on-going projects. The first involves more theoretical approach to money as an answer to the needs faced by pre-coinage societies, as a factor in the rise of great political forces and empires, as a crucial parameter in crises and inflation in peace and war. The second project involves the study of coinage minted under Roman control, either during the Republic or under the Empire, and its role in eastern Mediterranean economies, as shown by such factors as minting activities, numismatic circulation and policies emanating from central authority.

II."Polis and Chora: Social and Economic organization, Institutions and Administration", supervised by Dr. Sophia Zoumbaki and Dr. Lina Mendoni, Senior Researchers. Here there are several ongoing projects, such as those concerning social mobility and the role of wealth in Roman Greece, the economic and social role of foreigners in Greek poleis, economic and social aspects of cults in Roman Greece, public works and building programs and the relations between poleis and the Roman power in the Roman province of Achaia, organization of rural space and landscape history.

Activities and  Publications

1. Epigraphic research for the programme has been carried out  and is being carried out in the Peloponnese (Achaea), the Cyclades (Kea) and the eastern Aegean (Samos). Three volumes for the inscriptions of Achaea (Meletemata 20, 25, 55) have already been published and two more for Kea and Samos are in preparation.
2. Prosopographical and Onomastic research. The prosopography of Eleia has already been published (Meletemata 32 and 40) and a prosopographical study of Kea and Achaea will follow. The onomastic research deals mainly with the Roman period. So far, the following monographs have been published: the proceedings of the international conference on Roman onomastics in the Greek East (Meletemata 21), two volumes for the Roman names in the Peloponnese (Meletemata 31, 36) and a third volume on synthetic studies on the region (Meletemata 63), as well as the first volume for the diffusion of Roman names in the Cyclades (Meletemata 56).
3. Numismatic studies. The following studies have been published: the numismatics of Kea (Meletemata 24), the iconography of Roman colonies in Greece (Meletemata 39), and the Zarifi numismatic collection (with the collaboration of the Numismatic Museum of Athens) (Athens 2006). A study of the numismatics of Roman Patras will follow.
4. Technology and Economy in the Bronze Age. Three monographs have already been published (Meletemata 33, 42, 61): one monograph on the measurement and recording of craft items  in early Aegean societies and two volumes on weights and values in pre-coinage societies of the Aegean and the Orient.
5. Social, political and economic organization of poleis: Here, our published studies deal with Roman colonization, its results in the political, economic and social sphere (Meletemata 39) on the one hand, and the relations between the cities and Imperial power, the ambitions of the ruling class and the expectations of the lower strata of society, social mobility and cults (Meletemata 50 ), the structure of the economy in the Greek world (Meletemata 53), the organization of  the urban and rural world (Meletemata 15) on the other. As part of this activity, two conferences have been organized, one at Aigion (2009) on the topic "The economy of the poleis in Roman Greece" and the international congress "Subsistence and large-scale agriculture in the Roman province of Achaia: the evidence of farms in the Greek countryside" (Patras, April 2010).

Educational work

The members of the Program often participate in courses at various universities, offering lectures and seminars, whilst also undertaking supervision of doctoral dissertations.

International collaborations

The Southern Greece Programme employs a large network of collaboration, both at a national level, including such bodies as archaeological ephorates of the Greek Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Society of Athens, Archaeological Institute of Aegean Studies in Rhodes and the Democritus Research Centre,  and at an international level, with the Universities of Bordeaux III, Besancon, Paris I, Nancy 2, Salerno, Padova, Lecce, Nottingham, the Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo-anatolici in Rome and the Annee Epigraphique. Members of the Southern Greece Program have participated in projects involving bilateral or international research collaboration (with Bordeaux III, Annee Epigraphique, University of Lubliana, Archaeological Institute of Tirana) as well as in Programmes financed by the European Community (Populus, Cost G2, Human Capital and Mobility, ΠΕΝΕΔ, ΑΡΙΣΤΕΙΑ).

Articles, conference communications, etc.

See curricula  and lists of publications by individual members of Southern Greece programme and events and editions in the home page of the Institute

Web publications  (in progress, in collaboration with the National Documentation Centre, funded by the Information Society EU program)