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This is a short autobiographical piece written for this website fifteen years ago. Now it may seem out of place, but I keep it here as something I once wrote about myself and do not wish to remove. After all, my connection with archaeology was emotional from the very beginning\u2014and that bond only deepened over the years.<\/p>\n
In 1988, I \u201cgot in,\u201d as we used to say, with excitement, to the Department of Archaeology at the University of Athens. In the summer of 1989, I went on my first excavation, at the Skoteini cave in Tharrounia, Euboea. There, to my surprise, I discovered prehistory. In the afternoons, at the village school where we carried out documentation work, I began my first ceramic study. In 1990, I joined a surface survey on the island of Y<\/em>ali near Nisyros, where I would continue working for about a decade. That same year, I also participated in the excavation of an Early Helladic site, Kalogerovrysi in Euboea, and in ceramic documentation from Nestor\u2019s Cave in Pylos.<\/em><\/p>\n In 1991, I got my first job at the Ministry of Culture, at the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology\u2013Speleology\u2014a defining moment, the beginning of a path that continues to this day. In the following years of the 1990s, I participated in the Ephorate\u2019s Neolithic excavations at the Cyclops cave in the Northern Sporades and the Cave of the Lakes at Kalavryta\u2014two research projects from which I learned so many things, and continue to learn. The excavation at Cyclops cave, in particular, was a unique experience also in terms of archaeological adventure: the entire team lived for nearly a month on a deserted islet.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n This is how my interest in Neolithic pottery took shape. During the same years, I also participated in surface surveys for Paleolithic sites in Mani and Kefalonia. In 1994, I began working at the Ephorate of Cyclades and joined the excavation at the Neolithic site of Ftelia on Mykonos, and later that same year the excavation of the Neolithic Sarakinos cave in the Kopais basin. At both sites, we worked as a core team of three to four people, coordinating the sorting and initial processing of pottery using a shared methodological approach. We were a close-knit group that later dispersed after a few years\u2014each of us continuing archaeology from a different position and place.<\/em><\/p>\n Around that time, Theopetra entered my life\u2014initially through documentation work and later through the study of Neolithic pottery. Within those sherds, I began to discover Neolithic craftspeople and the micro-histories that pottery tells. In 1993, I saw my name in a publication for the first time. In 1996, I participated in my first academic conference. At the same time, I worked on editorial corrections for archaeological publications\u2014an invaluable experience. I also worked briefly on rescue excavations and gradually became involved in Bronze Age sites.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n In 2000, I undertook an archaeological journey to Guatemala, and later to Cyprus. In 2001, I married Spyros Tzevelekis, and we brought our children into the world: Nefeli (2002), Orfeas (2004), and Elektra (2006). While the previous decade had been intensely excavation-focused, a new period began\u2014more oriented toward study and writing. Teaching at the University of the Aegean in Rhodes was a revitalizing and creative experience, and a strong motivation for further exploration and learning. Each return to Athens left me exhausted\u2014but full.<\/em><\/p>\n With the beginning of the new decade, that cycle closed and a new one began: more interdisciplinary collaboration, greater outward engagement through fellowships abroad, and a more mature perspective on archaeology. I perceive a steady turn toward the broader picture\u2014toward a space where the distinction between prehistory and antiquity begins to dissolve.<\/em><\/p>\n These are notes of reflection that remind me I have lived an archaeological life that has taken me across many different landscapes, collaborators, and intellectual encounters. And, in a strange way, none of these places or experiences feel past\u2014they remain present, returning, renewing themselves, and continuing to shape the way I think, work, and see.<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_gallery interval=”3″ images=”34″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text] This is a short autobiographical piece written for this website fifteen years ago. Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-pagebuilder.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-336","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n