Department of History and Archaeology

Extended CV: Click here

Maria Spathi is a classical field archaeologist. She specialises in material evidence from sacred sites and discusses its interpretation in relation to archaeological contexts, specific rituals and textual evidence.

She obtained her first degree in History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2000), followed by a doctorate in Classical Archaeology at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany (2006). She has worked on numerous excavation and research projects in Greece and beyond in various departments of the Archaeological Service at the Ministry of Culture, the Acropolis Museum and the German Archaeological Institute. She has also worked as a research assistant in Würzburg, a lecturer at the University of Crete and an assistant professor at the University of Rostock in Germany. She has obtained substantial grants and fellowships for her research, most recently a fellowship at the Center of Hellenic Studies at Princeton (2023) and a Margo Tytus Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati (2024). She regularly participates in conferences and workshops and has organised and published several international conferences, including Apotropaia and Phylacteria: Confronting Evil in Ancient Greece (Archaeopress, 2024).

Her latest book is entitled The sanctuary of Demeter on Mount Ithome in ancient Messene. Votive assemblages and ritual practices in the city during the Hellenistic and Roman periods (forthcoming). She is currently working on material from the sanctuary of Artemis Limnatis in ancient Messene.