The Norwegian Institute At Athens

03/09/2026

The Nordic Library is delighted to welcome Karl Westergaard for his 11-week internship!

Karl has a Master’s degree in Intellectual History and recently finished a Bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages from the University of Oslo. His research focus rests predominately on political and economic history in ancient Greece, having focused in his master's thesis on the political discourse regarding Athenian citizenship and πολιτεία in the Classical period.

Karl is already a familiar figure at the library, having done his Erasmus-exchange in Athens during autumn 2024, and is thus already familiar with Athens, both ancient and modern. We are happy to welcome him back.

Καλή αρχή!

03/07/2026

Almost a week ago, on Thursday 25 June, we were all gathered in Karystos to celebrate something very special: the declaration of the site of Gourimadi as an official archaeological site under Greek law ensuring thereupon legal protection and future public accessibility. The Gourimadi Archaeological Project launched by its Director Dr. Zarko Tankosic/University of Bergen, in 2018, and co-directed by Dr. Paschalis Zafeiriadis/NIA and Dr. Fanis Mavridis/Hellenic Ministry of Culture, has inspired dozens of dedicated multidisciplinary specialists and hundreds of students and academics from Norway, Greece and abroad to work together for years. The excavation of the rocky prehistoric site with magnificent vistas over the bay of Karystos, the surrounding plains and the Aegean Sea has been unravelling impressive architectural remains and movable finds testifying to a long habitation and posing intriguing research questions for the Gourimadi team to tackle.

The Norwegian Institute at Athens would like to warmly thank the Ambassador of Norway to Greece H.E. Harriet Elisabeth Berg for honouring us with her presence and for sharing thoughts about mutual goals and collaborative paths, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, particularly the newly appointed Secretary General of Culture Olympia Vikatou for her festive greeting read on Thursday evening, the Mayor of Karystos Lefteris Raviolos for his enduring support and hospitality, and the Ephor of Antiquities of Euboea Dr. Demetrios Christodoulou for a thought-provoking lecture on Gourimadi and its Karystian historical context. Special thanks and gratitude go to the delegation coming from our owner institution, the University of Bergen, namely the Rector Dr. Margareth Hagen for her genuine enthusiasm and support expressed in her speech on the evening of the celebration, the Deputy Director of Finances and General Administrator of the Institute in Norway, Per Arne Foshaug, the Vice-Dean of Education at the Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Heming Gujord, the Director of the University Museum of Bergen Prof. Kari Loe Hjelle, the Head of the Archaeology Department/UiB Prof. Teemu Ryymin, the esteemed members of our advisory board in Norway, Prof. Hallvard Fossheim/UiB and Prof. Eirik Welo/UiO, the Head of the Cultural History Department/University Museum of Bergen Dr. Bjørn Nilsson and the Head of the Section for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Dr. Morten Ramstad.

We are utterly grateful to each and every one of the Norwegian academics, colleagues from the Ministry, the Embassy, members of the Karystos Museum and the local community who joined in person and actively contributed to a meaningful and successful mingling of all parties involved.
To the leadership of the Gourimadi team and all its members and volunteers throughout the years who took pride in revealing their tricks of the daily trade to us visiting the site and the storage / work space, a round of applause for your achievement! You should be very proud!

26/06/2026

11/06/2026

📚 Now Available in Open Access!

We are pleased to announce that Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations, edited by Paschalis Zafeiriadis, Markos Katsianis, and Søren Handberg, is now available through the Norwegian Research Information Repository.

The volume presents the proceedings of the international workshop Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations, held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens as part of the workshop series Exploring the Layers of Digital Archaeological Practice (2024–2027).

🔗 To access the volume, please follow the relevant link on our website: https://www.uib.no/en/nia/135169/publications-norwegian-institute-athens

11/06/2026

📚 Now Available in Open Access!

We are pleased to announce that Stylistic Innovation in Western Greek Ceramics: Western Archaic Polychrome Pottery in Context, edited by Signe Barfoed and Catherine Morgan, is now available through the Norwegian Research Information Repository.

The volume publishes the proceedings of the international workshop Archaic “Elian Style” Pottery in Western Greece, held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens in November 2022, and offers new perspectives on Western Greek ceramics and Archaic material culture.

🔗 To access the volume, please follow the relevant link on our website: https://www.uib.no/en/nia/135169/publications-norwegian-institute-athens

08/06/2026

Gourimadi in Thessaloniki!

Last week, on the occasion of the 1st International Hybrid Conference: The Research Work of the Department of Archaeology and History of Art of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dr. Paschalis Zafeiriadis, an MA alumnus of the Department of Archaeology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, presented the ongoing results of the Gourimadi Archaeological Project on behalf of the project team. Paschalis Zafeiriadis is Senior Advisor-Researcher at the Norwegian Institute at Athens and co-director of the Gourimadi excavation (Director: Dr. Zarko Tankosic, co-director Dr. F. Mavridis).

This marked the first presentation of the Institute’s excavations at Gourimadi to our colleagues in Thessaloniki and provided a wonderful opportunity to disseminate the results of this exciting research initiative to a wider academic audience.

We would like to express our gratitude to the organizers for this excellent initiative and for the kind invitation to participate.

05/06/2026

🎥 The Øivind Andersen Lecture Series - Lecture Recording Now Available

Coastal and High Sea Navigation in the Red Sea in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

The recording of the second lecture in the Øivind Andersen Lecture Series, delivered by Professor Eivind Heldaas Seland (Professor of Ancient History and Premodern Global History, Vice Dean for Research, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies, and Religion, University of Bergen), is now available on our YouTube channel.

📺 Watch the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5OlQX5Swg8

Thank you to everyone who joined us—both in person and online!

25/05/2026

On May 12 we were delighted and honoured to welcome at our premises the Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome (DNIR), Dr. Han Lamers, Professor of Classics at the University of Oslo, within the framework of our joint lecture series ENCOUNTERS. Prof. Han Lamers opened the festive evening by presenting DNIR to our audience including Embassy diplomats, colleagues from the community of the Foreign Archaeological Schools at Athens and the Nordic Library and friends of the NIA while Dr. Christina Videbech, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Bergen, delivered a stimulating lecture titled "Inventing the Martyrial Colosseum. Cultural Memory and the Fragility of Early Christian Heritage". ENCOUNTERS, launched in Rome in October 2025, is a series of alternating guest lectures by early-career scholars from Norway, Italy, and Greece on topics connecting cultures, histories, and academic traditions of the Mediterranean and Nordic countries. Twice a year, emerging researchers from all three countries take the floor in Rome and Athens to present their recent work. We would both like to warmly congratulate Christina for her ongoing research on the Colosseum's (hi)story, which aims to critically reassess common beliefs about the famous amphitheatre as quintessentially related to Christian martyrdom and early Christian suffering. All presentations are uploaded on the Institute's YouTube channel while our next ENCOUNTERS lecture will be held in Rome, in November 2026!

25/05/2026

International workshop in Rome on 19–20 November 2026, organized by Martin Lešák (DNIR), and with Sible de Blaauw (Radboud Universiteit) as keynote speaker.

21/05/2026

📚 New Volume in the Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens

The Norwegian Institute at Athens is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 16 in its Papers and Monographs series:

📖 Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations edited by Paschalis Zafeiriadis, Markos Katsianis, and Søren Handberg

The volume presents the proceedings of the international workshop Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations, held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens on 4–5 December 2024, as part of the four-year workshop series Exploring the Layers of Digital Archaeological Practice (2024–2027).

🌐 The volume will soon be available in open access through the Institute’s website and the Norwegian Research Information Repository, so stay tuned for further updates.

We extend our warm congratulations to the editors and contributors for their excellent work on this volume. We are equally grateful to the external reviewers, proofreader, and printer for their professionalism and commitment throughout the publication process.

The successful completion of this publication was truly a collective effort, and we sincerely appreciate everyone who contributed to making it possible.