Research Team

Christina Papadaki is a Research Fellow at the University of the Aegean and coordinator -along with Prof. Kousoulis and Dr. Electra Apostola- in the EgyScarabAegean Project (HRDELL OP-European Social Fund). She holds a BA in Archaeology from the University of Crete and a MA in Prehistoric Archaeology from the same University. Her first PhD dissertation at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was on ceramic deposits and deposition in the 2nd Millennium BC in Crete. She is currently working on her postdoctoral research at the University of the Aegean, investigating aspects of magic in Minoan civilization and its potential connection with the ancient Egyptian magical materiality and symbolism. From 2001-2018 she worked as an archaeologist at the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion. She has participated in many excavations, research projects and surface explorations in Crete (e.g. Eleutherna, Tylissos, Knossos), in Mainland Greece and on Gavdos.

Dominique Barcat received her MA in Ancient History from the University of Angers (France) and her PhD from the university of Paris 13 (thesis: “Les contacts entre l’Égypte et le monde égéen aux époques géométrique et orientalisante (env. 900 – env. 600 avant J.C.): «question homérique» et modalités d’une rencontre de l’altérité” (dir. Jean-Yves Carrez Maratray). She has participated in various archaeological and research projects with the French School of Archaeology (Dreros, Anavlochos, Amathus). In 2016, she was awarded the Marc de Montalembert Foundation Prize for a project to contribute to the re-evaluation of Egypt's place in the history of the Mediterranean in the first millennium B.C. Then she worked at the university of Fribourg on the subject of the Egyptian amulets, comparing their uses in Aegean and Egyptian tombs (dir. Véronique Dasen). Thanks to the Onassis Foundation she participated in the Aegyptiaca Project: Ecumene and Economy in the Horizon of Religion, an International Collaborative Research Project under the aegis of the University of the Aegean and the University of Bonn. The Project focuses on the study of Egyptian and egyptianising objects from the archaic sanctuaries in the Aegean and mainland Greece. She is currently a scientific collaborator at the University of Fribourg. Her main research topic is the history of the reception of the Egyptian culture through the testimonies of popular devotions, religious art, confronted when possible to written sources.

Ronaldo G. Gurgel Pereira is a historian (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and archaeologist (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal). He holds a PhD degree in Egyptology from the University of Basel, Switzerland (Thesis: The Hermetic Logos: Reading the Corpus Hermeticum as a Reflection of Graeco-Egyptian Mentality”  - dir. Prof. Susanne Bickel). From 2012 to 2017, Ronaldo was a Post-Doctoral fellow at CHAM / FCSH – Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His project dealt with Late Period Egyptian collections from Portuguese and Spanish museums. In 2018 he became Onassis Fellow, hosted by the University of the Aegean - Department of Mediterranean Studies (Rhodes). He joined the “Aegyptiaca Project (AeP):  Ecumene and Economy in the Horizon of Religion”, and contributed to the project by working with Greek scarab amulets typologies from Archaic Rhodian sanctuaries. In 2019, Ronaldo became Auxiliary Researcher at CHAM / FCSH – Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His current project deals with aegyptiaca in the Atlantic façade of the Iberian Peninsula, following the Phoenician expansion towards what is nowadays Portuguese territory.  In 2021 he was awarded with a CAARI Scholar in Residence Fellowship. His project approaches the iconography of Phoenician typologies of scarab amulets produced in Cyprus (Archaic I – II). In Portugal he teaches Middle Egyptian grammar, Hieratic, and a comparative discipline regarding the History of Phoenician and Greek expansion in the Mediterranean basin. His main current interests lie on the relations between Egypt, Phoenicia and Greece during Iron Age I – II; Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarab amulets from archaic Greek and Phoenician contexts; Phoenician-Punic epigraphy; and the process of reception and adaptation of Egyptian iconography by non-Egyptian replicas.

Manos Lambrakis received his BA in Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and his MA in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: Greece, Egypt and Near East from the University of the Aegean. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of Mediterranean Studies University of the Aegean. The title of his PhD dissertation is "Sacrificing human lives: ritual sacrificial landscapes and politics in the prehistoric Aegean, Egypt and Eastern Mediterranean”. He has participated in excavation programs in Greece (Zominthos) and Cyprus (Kantou-Koufovounos). He is currently member of the “Pediada Survey Project”.

Eirini Skaroglou received her BA in Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and is currently finishing her MA in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: Greece, Egypt and Near East, from the University of the Aegean. The title of her MA thesis is “The Egyptian and Egyptianising Elements from Akrotiri, Thera: Adoption and Adaptation in the Prehistoric Aegean.” She has worked on several sites in Greece and for the last three years she is occupied as an archaeologist at the Bronze Age settlement in the Akrotiri excavations in Santorini. During her postgraduate internship, she participated in the International Program “The Aegyptiaca Project: Ecumene and Economy on the Horizon of Religion (University of the Aegean-University of Bonn)”. Her research interests focus on Aegean and Egyptian archaeology, the study of archaeobotanical material of the Eastern Mediterranean, cultural interconnections and relations between Egypt, the Near East and the Aegean during the Bronze Age.

Dimitris Garoufalis studied Pedagogy at the Marassleion Pedagogical Academy (1987), History, Archeology and History of Art at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1992), where he also received his Master's Degree (2010). He has served as Head of Education Department and continues to serve as a teacher and Director of a School Unit. In this context, he has organized and implemented a number of educational seminars as a lecturer in various Departments of Education of Attica, in order to familiarize teachers of Primary and Secondary Education with the history and archeology of Attica (mainly regarding the major archaeological sites of Attica, eg Athenean Agora, Kerameikos, but also regarding the local history in general). He has been involved in excavations and museum research in Crete (Archanes, Zominithos, Ierapetra, Chania, Rethymnon) and Ithaca. He is the author of books and articles of historical and archaeological content. As a staunch supporter of the dissemination of archaeological knowledge to the public, he has been the Editor-in-Chief (since founding) of the archaeological journal CORPUS. Archeology - History of Cultures (1999-2005). It is in the same spirit that he has founded in 2016 the digital archaeological journal Themes in Archaeology (www.themata-archaiologias.gr) which is published quarterly.

Dimitris Georgiou received his MA in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: Greece, Egypt and Near East from the University of the Aegean. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies. The title of his PhD dissertation is “Ancient Egyptian Learning Tool (A.E.L.T.), the digitization and interactive usage of the ancient Egyptian language and script”.The A.E.L.T. is a Project coordinated along with Prof. Panagiotis Kousoulis. His doctoral research focuses on the digitization and analysis of texts and scrips and the creation of a verbs and verbs structure database. As a postgraduate student, he has participated in various archaeological and research projects in Greece.

Maria Katsigianni received her BA in Political Science and Public Administration at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and her first MA in Business Administration at the University of Nicosia. Her second MA is in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: Greece, Egypt and the Near East, at the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies. Her master thesis deals with the recognition and utility of Egyptian blue color in various aspects of human societies, through non-destructive spectroscopy techniques. She is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate at the same University. The title of her PhD dissertation is “Fayum portraits of the National Archaeological Museum and the Benaki Museum: origin, historical context, structural treatment”.

Electra Apostola completed her doctoral dissertation in Egyptology at the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean in 2016 (Research Fellow of Program "HERAKLITOS II: Enhancing Human Research Potential through the Implementation of Doctoral Research"). Since then she has been teaching as a postdoctoral fellow the following undergraduate courses: Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age, Egyptian Art, Near Eastern Archaeology, Relations between peoples of the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age. Since 2019 she has been participating as a research fellow in the AEgySca Project: Aegyptiaca as indicators of religious and cultural interaction in the Southeastern Mediterranean: The multiple implications of Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs in the Aegean (8th-6th century BC), which is  co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020». Since 2014 she has been participating as a coordinator in the International Program The Aegyptiaca Project (AeP): Ecumene and Economy on the Horizon of Religion (University of the Aegean-University of Bonn). Her research interests and her publications focus on cultural interconnections in the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean during the LBA and the Iron Age, Egyptian and Egyptianizing artifacts in Archaic Greece, modes of adaptation and transformation of Egyptian religious motifs and ideas in the Mediterranean.

Anna Kalaitzaki received her BA in Archaeology at the University of the Aegean, and her MA in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: Greece, Egypt and Near East from the same University. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies. The title of her PhD dissertation is “Aspects of religion and ritual in the ancient Near East and Egypt: The introduction of foreign deities into the Egyptian pantheon in the Late Bronze Age”. Her research work is supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), under the HFRI PhD fellowship Grant (G.A. no. 65).She participated and was a member of the organizing committee in several workshops and conferences, including the Aegyptiaca Project (15-17 December 2016), the 3rd National Student Archaeology Congress of the Department of Mediterranean Studies, entitled “Mediterranean: Relationships from Prehistoric to Byzantine period” (13-15 March 2015) and Mare Nostrum VI, entitled ‘’Art and Science from Prehistoric to Byzantine period’’ (21-23 May 2015). She has participated as trainee in various archaeological and research projects (e.g. Geometric documentation of Vasilika, Kimisala (2014-2015), Survey research at Vasilika of Kimisala, Rhodes (2013-2014), trainee in the Laboratory of Archaeometry, Rhodes (2013) and in the excavations of Antikythera (2013) and Sarakenos Project, Boeotia (2012).

Dr. Grigorios Kontopoulos received his BA in Archaeology at the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies (Rhodes, Greece) and his MA in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, School of Classics, Archaeology and Egyptology (Liverpool, UK). He holds a PhD  in Egyptology from the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies (Rhodes, Greece). His Doctorate research was supported by the University of the Aegean PhD Candidate scholarships program YPATIA. The title of his PhD dissertation is “The Egyptian Diplomatic system in the Late Bronze Age beyond the terms of “Brotherhood” and “Equality”: The Egyptian “abandonment” of power and aspects of Pharaonic identity and Kingship”.
His research interests include epigraphy, Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs, aspects of social life in New Kingdom Egypt,  the relations between Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, the perception and acculturation of foreigners as ethnicity and the problem of otherness in New Kingdom Egypt. He participated and was member of the organizing committee in several workshops and conferences, including the Aegyptiaca Project (December 15-17 2016), the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists (Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008) etc. He is one of the Greek members at the International Association of Egyptologists (2008-til today) and founding and research member of the University of the Aegean Egyptological Research Group. He was commended by the Prehistorical and Classical antiquities Inspection Bureau in Rhodes, Greece for the discovery and delivery of an inscribed stone ossuary. He has participated as trainee in various archaeological and research projects (e.g, Helwan Archaeological Survey and Mapping Project; departmental excavations at Kimisala, Rhodes, Greece; documentation and digitalization process of pottery sherds from several periods (Prehistoric to Hellenistic) at the Institute of the Aegean studies, Rhodes, Greece etc.) as trainee in the laboratory of archaeometry at the University of the Aegean, Department of Mediterranean Studies.

Panagiotis Kousoulis is Associate Professor of Egyptology at the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece. He studied Archaeology and History of Art at the National and Capodistrian University of Athens and Egyptology at the University of Birmingham and University of Liverpool (United Kingdom). He was a State Scholarship’s Foundation of Greece Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Aegean and the University of Liverpool (2001-2002), and Visiting Scholar at the University of Liverpool (2008). He is the representative of Greece at the Council of the International Association of Egyptologists (2008 till today), scientific partner of the Cultural Center of the Embassy of the Arabic Republic of Egypt, Athens (2005 till today) and member in many egyptological societies: American Academy of Religion (2010-2011, invited scholar in the 49th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 19-22/11/2011, panel: The Mediterranean Material Cultures and the Study of Religion – Understanding the Past), American Research Center in Egypt (2003 till today), Egypt Exploration Society (1997 till today).
He is the scientific coordinator of several international egyptological  projects funded by the EU and Greek resources in cooperation with scholars from Greek and foreign Institutions: Aegyptiaka Project: Ecumene and Economy in the Horizon of Religion (2006 till today), Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project (2011 till today), Helwan Archaeological Survey and Mapping Project (2005-2007), Project HERAKLITUS ΙΙ (2010-2015), Project Pythagoras, meter 2.2: Egypt and Greece in Antiquity: Historical and Archaeological Approach with the aid of the natural sciences (2003-2007), Aegean Summer School on Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Religions and Religious Language (2014), E-learning Programmes of Continuing Education in Egyptology and the Ancient Egyptian Language (2012 till today). He has published books and articles on important aspects of ancient Egyptian religion and ritual, demonology and anti-god entities, funerary ideology and practice, archaeology of death, egyptian language and script (hieroglyphics, hieratic, Ptolemaic inscriptions), cross-cultural interactions between Egypt, Greece and the Near East in the first millennium BC, and has organized international conferences on Rhodes and Athens: Ancient Egyptian Theology and Demonology (2003), Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in the Ancient World: Egypt, Greece, Near East (2004), First Egyptological Seminar in Greece (2005), Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists (2008), Εx Oriente Lux Ι (2011),Religion, Politics and Culture in the Mediterranean from the 8th to 6th c. BC: Egyptian and Near Eastern Objects in the Archaic Greek Sanctuaries and their Socio-political Implications (2014).
His books / edited volumes include: Magic and Religion as Performative Theological Union: the Apotropaic Ritual of Overthrowing Apophis (Liverpool, 1999), In Search of the Afterlife: Death and Mummification in ancient Egypt (Thessaloniki: Archetypo-Metekdotiki, 2004) [in Greek], Moving Across Borders: Foreign Relations, Religion and Cultural Interactions in Ancient Mediterranean, OLA 159 (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2007, with Κ. Maglivera), Studies on the Ancient Egyptian Culture and Foreign Relations, Egyptological Series 1 (Rhodes: University of the Aegean, 2007), Ancient Egyptian Demonology: Studies on the boundaries between the Demonic and the Divine in Egyptian Magic, OLA 175 (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2011),Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008 (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2014, with N. Lazaridis), Egyptian Hieroglyphics: Morphology and Syntax of Middle Egyptian (Athens: Papazisi, 2014).

Pavlos P. Antonatos studied history, archaeology, history of art, Egyptology, social anthropology and architecture at the Universities of Rhodes, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Sofia, Crete and Athens, and since 1997 has worked as an archaeologist in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.  He is a permanent member of the Association of Greek Archaeologists. His special interests include world prehistory, Aegean archaeology, Egyptology (in particular, Coptic textiles and Egyptian tomb masks), the archaeology of body movement, landscape archaeology, and the evaluation and photography of ancient Greek and Egyptian artefacts.

Christos Kekes studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Crete. From the same university he received his M.A. in Prehistoric Archaeology. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean. The title of his PhD thesis is “Speaking bodies: An approach to the Egyptian and Aegean ritual gestures during the Bronze Age”. This research work is supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), under the HFRI PhD fellowship Grant (G.A. no. 867). His research interests include the relations between Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East in the Bronze Age, the archaeology of bodily communication and the practice of damnatio memoriae in ancient Egypt. He has participated in several archaeological projects in Greece.