Annual CIG Open Meeting; Welcome Theo!

It is mid-May already and our annual Open Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18^th at 7 PM at the Danish Institute in Athens on Aikaterini Square in Plaka. I will regale the audience with the many activities and accomplishments of the Institute since last May before reviewing the discoveries of our four archaeological fieldwork projects from last summer. My remarks will cover the excavations at ancient Argilos in Macedonia (Archaic and Classical periods), at ancient Eleon in Boiotia (Late Bronze and Archaic/Classical periods) and at Stelida on the island of Naxos (Palaeolithic period). Our pedestrian survey in the western Argolid (all periods) will complete the overview. Once again our fieldwork projects with permits from the Ministry under the auspices of the Institute had very successful seasons.

Professor Margriet Haagsma (Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta) will give the annual Invited Lecture at the Open Meeting. Her topic, “Dwelling in Contested Lands: the Classical / Hellenistic Settlement at Kastro Kallithea “ relates to her long standing fieldwork at the site of Kastro Kallithea in southern Thessaly as part of the synergasia with Sofia Karapanou of the Ephorate of Larissa.

2016 York University Summer undergraduate intern

The Institute is honored every summer to have an undergraduate intern from York University’s International Internship Program come to Athens to work with us for three months. This year the student is Theodore Tsilfidis. He is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Law and Society program at York, and a current pilot who plans to pursue a law degree and specialize in the field of aviation law. He is of Hellenic decent and apart from his long interest in aviation, his interests lie in Modern Greek language, literature, and culture, as well as Greek history. With his Greek language skills he will work with us on the organization and the digitization of documents in Greek in the Archive.

Theo was recently the recipient of the Chris Tarnaris Memorial Scholarship, provided by the Hellenic Heritage Foundation (HHF), which recognizes the student with the highest GPA in the Hellenic Studies program at York. He is looking forward to joining the Institute as the summer intern to learn and gaining a deeper understanding of Classical studies and archeology as well as expanding his knowledge of Greek history, and he plans to use this summer experience as an opportunity to explore the ancient sites and museums in Athens and in other places in Greece.

You will have an opportunity to meet Theo at our Open Meeting and welcome him to our Athenian community .

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director