The Team
The DeMaEL project brings together researchers from the Aegean Egyptology Research Group of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean and collaborators from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
DMS – Aegean Egyptology
Aegean Egyptology Research Group, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean
PhotoPanagiotis Kousoulis
Panagiotis Kousoulis
Principal Researcher
Prof. Panagiotis Kousoulis is the Principal Researcher of the DeMaEL Project. He is Professor of Egyptology at the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean, where he has also served as Vice Head of Department, Director of Studies of the M.A. Programme “Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean from Prehistoric Period to Late Antiquity: Greece, Egypt, Near East”, and Founder/Director of the Laboratory for the Ancient World of the Eastern Mediterranean.
He holds a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Liverpool and has been active in numerous Egyptological and archaeological societies and international research collaborations. His research interests include Egyptian belief systems, theology, demonology, ritual, magic, Egyptian language and scripts, funerary ideology and practice, social history, cross-cultural interactions between Egypt, Greece and the Near East, Aegyptiaca, and the academic study of magic and demonology.
He currently coordinates or participates in several international Egyptological projects, including MAG.I.A.M, the Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project, the Aegyptiaca Project, the AEgySca Project, and Egyptian Magic and the Afterlife in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
PhotoElectra Apostola
Electra Apostola
Researcher
Dr Electra Apostola holds a BA in Archaeology and History of Art and an M.A. in Prehistoric Archaeology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She completed her doctoral dissertation in Egyptology at the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean, focusing on hybrid and theriomorphic entities of Egyptian origin in the Aegean during the 8th–6th centuries BC.
She is currently conducting postdoctoral research on amulets and figurines from the Third Intermediate Period at the University of the Aegean. Her research interests and publications focus on Egyptian and Egyptianising artefacts in Archaic Greece, Egyptian funerary art, the adaptation and transformation of Egyptian religious motifs and ideas in the Mediterranean, and Egyptian medicine.
PhotoChristina Papadaki
Christina Papadaki
Researcher
Dr Christina Papadaki studied Archaeology at the University of Crete and completed postgraduate studies in Prehistoric Archaeology. She completed her doctoral dissertation at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Since 2019, she has served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean under the supervision of Professor Panagiotis Kousoulis. Her recent research work focuses on Egyptian and Egyptianising scarabs in the Aegean, as well as the Aegean and Mediterranean worlds of the Bronze Age, with particular emphasis on Minoan civilisation.
PhotoChristos Kekes
Christos Kekes
Researcher
Dr Christos Kekes studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Crete, where he also completed an M.A. in Prehistoric Archaeology with distinction. He completed his doctoral thesis at the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean on Egyptian and Aegean ritual gestures during the Bronze Age.
His research interests include ancient Egyptian and Aegean societies, religions and arts; relations between Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages; damnatio memoriae in ancient Egypt; the archaeology of bodily communication; and Roman history and archaeology.
PhotoErato-Maria Deratsa
Erato-Maria Deratsa
Researcher
Erato-Maria Deratsa is an archaeologist and PhD candidate in the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean. She holds an M.A., awarded with distinction, in the Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Prehistoric Era to Late Antiquity: Greece, Egypt and the Near East, and a BA in History and Archaeology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Her doctoral research focuses on anthropomorphic coffins from Thebes during the Third Intermediate Period, with special attention to their iconography and funerary symbolism, including representative objects from the Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
PhotoAnastasios Akridas
Anastasios – Gr. Th. Akridas
Researcher
Dr Anastasios – Gr. Th. Akridas studied Theology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and received an M.A. in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature with distinction. He completed his doctoral thesis in Ancient Jewish Mysticism, with research stays at the universities of Tübingen and Munich.
Since October 2023, he has been conducting postdoctoral research in Egyptology at the Department of Mediterranean Studies, studying disability in ancient Egypt from sociological and theological perspectives, with reference to textual sources and pictorial art of the Middle and New Kingdom.
National Archaeological Museum
Department of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Near Eastern Antiquities Collections
PhotoKonstantinos Nikolentzos
Konstantinos Nikolentzos
Head of the Department of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Near Eastern Antiquities Collections
Dr Konstantinos Nikolentzos studied Archaeology and History of Art at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he also completed his doctoral thesis on Mycenaean Elis after postgraduate studies in Prehistoric Archaeology.
He has worked as an archaeologist in several regional and central administrative bodies of the Ministry of Culture. Since 2015, he has served as Head of the Department of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Oriental Antiquities Collections at the National Archaeological Museum. His scientific interests focus on the Late Bronze Age in mainland Greece, as well as the history of archaeology and its reception in modern Greece.
PhotoArgyro Grigoraki
Argyro Grigoraki
Archaeologist (MA), Department of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Near Eastern Antiquities Collections
Argyro Grigoraki is a graduate of the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Department of Art History and Archaeology of the University of Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne. She also holds a DEA in Prehistory, Ethnology and Anthropology, with a specialisation in Aegean Prehistory.
Since May 2021, she has been Curator of Antiquities in the Department of the Collection of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Oriental Antiquities, working on the Egyptian Collection. She has written articles, essays and exhibition catalogue entries and has participated in excavations in Ilia, Laconia, Chania and Rethymnon.
PhotoPanagiotis Lazaris
Panagiotis Lazaris
Conservator of Antiquities and Works of Art (MA), Organic Materials, Paper and Photo Negatives Conservation Laboratory
Panagiotis Lazaris holds a BA Honours degree in Conservation and Restoration of Artworks and Craftsmanship from Brunel University and an MA in Conservation of Historic Objects from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom.
He has been working at the Ministry of Culture since 2002 and at the National Archaeological Museum since 2011, in the Conservation Laboratory of Organic Materials. He is responsible for the preventive and active conservation of the Museum’s organic materials, particularly wooden objects from the Egyptian Collection. His interests include new technologies and their applications in cultural heritage, including 3D scanning and 3D printing of models.
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