Marina Panagiotaki is an assistant professor at the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean. She teaches the Aegean civilizations of the Bronze Age and the relations that developed between the Aegean and the Near East.
She has had all her university education in England. She studied Classical Studies, English Literature and Scientific Archaeology. She specialized on the Minoan Civilization, with her PhD covering the area known as ‘The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos’ (UCL, with prof. J.N. Coldstream).
Her main interests and publications extend beyond the Aegean to Egypt and the Near East. She deals with subjects such as art and technology, religion, architecture as well as the relationships between the Aegean and the Near East traced, especially, through high tech technologies.
She has published 46 papers in international scientific magazines and the monograph: The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos (1999, BSA suppl. Vol. 31). She has been working towards completion for publication of two volumes – the final publication of the results of her two main projects on Vitreous Materials and the Pediada Survey – entitled: (α) Bronze Age Aegean Vitreous Materials: Manufacturing techniques. (with contributions from M.S. Tite, Y. Maniatis, E. Mangou, D. Anglos, A. Melessanaki, Ch. Sklavenitis, S. Chlouveraki). (β) Pediada IIIA: Settlement Buildings and Single Structures from the Neolithic Period to the End of the Bronze Age (with N. Panagiotakis).
She has been directing the Programme: Aegean Vitreous Materials (supported by the Archaeometric Laboratory NCSR Demokritos with Dr Y. Maniatis and the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, at Oxford with Prof. M.S.Tite).
She has been co-directing the Programme: The Pediada Survey Project (co-director N. Panagiotakis, and 28 participants/contributors, from universities in Greece and abroad). She is also participating in other Programmes, studying vitreous materials for publication among which: 1. Akrotiri Theras (under the direction of Prof. C. Doumas). 2. Protodynastic Hierakonpolis (under the direction of Prof. E. Walters, University of Pennsylvania). 3. The Tel Sera Project (under the direction of Prof. E. Oren, University of Beersheba). 4. Vitreous materials from Israel (collaboration with Mrs O. Misch-Brandle and Mr B. Brandle, Israel Museum and Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem).
Excavations: she participated in the excavation Programmes of the British School at Athens at Knossos (in 1987 under the direction of Mr M.S.F. Hood); between 1991 and 1993 (under the direction of C.F. Macdonald). (β) she excavated as the assistant director (with the director Dr Y. Sakellarakis) at Zominthos in 1994. She directed a stratigraphic excavation at the area of the Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos in 1995, while in 2012/2013 she excavated (with Dr A. Kanta and Mr N. Panagiotakis) at the Peak Sanctuary Koutsoura, near Amnissos; Koutsoura was one of the Peak Sanctuaries identified and published by N. Panagiotakis (through the Pediada Survey Project).
Scholarships and financial support from: the London University Research Fund; the British School at Athens; the Leventis Foundation; the Institute for Aegean Prehistory; the Psycha Foundation; The Shelby White-Leon Levy Program; the Mediterranean Archaeological Trust.
