Athens University Professor Dimitirs Plantzos has been bestowed one of the highest honors of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and has been named as the 2024-2025 speaker for the Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship, the Greek institute announced.
The distinction, one of the highest awarded by AIA to distinguished archaeologists worldwide, highlights the international recognition of Professor Plantzos’ work and contributes significantly to the global promotion of Greek archaeological research.
The professor has already delivered a series of talks in various cities during his lecture tour across the United States. On March 17, he spoke on “Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt: Styling Social Identity Through Hellenistic Burial Practices,” at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University -a lecture he repeated in Lincoln, Nebraska and Charlotesville, Virginia.
On March 25, he presented the lecture “Out from Shadows: Painting the Human Face in Classical Greece,” at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. The following day, he presented “Eldorado on the Nile: The Art of Luxury in Ptolemaic Alexandria” at the University of Maryland (College Park).
At each institution, Professor Plantzos also engaged with students and faculty, offering additional seminars and discussions.
His “Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt” lecture is scheduled to be presented in Canada in October.
Dimitris Plantzos is a Professor of Classical Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as the co-director of the Argos Orestikon Excavation Project in Kastoria, Greece. He holds degrees from Athens and Oxford and specializes in Greek art and archaeology, archaeological theory and classical reception in the modern age.
He has authored many publications on Classical Greek archaeology, ancient Greek art and visual culture as well as the history of the archaeological discipline.
The Archaeological Institute of America that honors Greek Professor is the largest organization devoted to archaeology in North America
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is a nonprofit organization established in 1879, when Harvard Professor Charles Eliot Norton invited his colleagues and friends to form a society “for furthering and directing archaeological and artistic investigation and research.” Then, 108 people gathered in Boston, Massachusetts and formed AIA, making it the oldest and largest organizations devoted to the world of archaeology in North America. Norton became the Institute’s first president.
AIA counts professional archaeologists, students and interested individuals from all walks of life among its members. This diverse group is united by a shared passion for archaeology and its role in furthering human knowledge. AIA’s members are organized into over 100 Local Societies in the United States, Canada and Europe.
AIA’s professional members have conducted archaeological fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and North and South America.