Belgian archaeologists have been working in Greece ever since the beginning of the 20th century, mostly in collaboration with the French School at Athens. In 1959, Professor Herman Mussche (Ghent University), then a member of the French School, investigated the Thorikos region (SE Attica). A year later, he began excavations on the Haghios Nikolaos peninsula at Thorikos funded by the Belgian “National Fund for Scientific Research” (NFWO-FNRS). At the end of 1961, Dr. Ioannis Papadimitriou, who was at the time director of the Greek Archaeological Service, proposed a joint excavation of Thorikos by Belgian and Greek archaeologists.
In 1962, three former Belgian members of the French School at Athens founded the “National centre for excavations abroad” in Belgium which was also going to supervise the Belgian excavations in Greece. The excavations at Thorikos started in the summer of 1963 with the support of the “National Fund for Fundamental Collective Scientific Research”, a ministerial initiative. Later on, they were also funded by the “National Fund for Scientific Research” and the Ministry of Education. The excavations were directed by Professor Mussche until the end of 1997. In 1970, Dr. Paule Spitaels (Ghent University) was appointed assistant director until 1992, the year she died. Mrs. Doris Vanhove (Ghent University) became the new director in 1998 until 2002.
In 1965, the “National centre for excavations abroad” was transformed into a non-profit association called “Comité des fouilles belges en Grèce a.s.b.l.” (CFBG). In the early ‘70’s, the excavation house was built at Kephalou Melathron, Thorikos (Lavrio). It became the base of the Belgian Archaeological Mission until 2003 and grew into a research centre with all necessary facilities for scholars. In 1985, however, the Greek Government granted the Belgian Mission the status of a permanent School, with the implication that its seat was to be in Athens.
From the end of the 80’s the Belgian School had to confront increasing problems. Finally, in 1999, the Belgian Government made an attempt to save the Belgian archaeological projects in Greece by granting an annual allowance for logistic support of the School. However, the foundation, in Belgium of a new non-profit association called “Belgian Archaeological School in Greece” could not change the situation. In 2002 a new attempt was more successful with the establishment in Belgium of the “Centre for archaeological research in Greece” (BCAOG-CBRAG). Members of all Belgian universities - most of them former members of the French School at Athens - are represented on the Board as well as a representative of the Belgian government and two delegates of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.
In 2003, conform to Greek law, the “Belgian School at Athens” (BSA-EBA) was founded, a Greek non-profit society which has its seat in Athens. Dr. Christiane Tytgat, former member of the French School and curator at the Royal Museums of Art and History, became the new director of the School.
On April 1st, 2007, Dr. Steven Soetens, former collaborator of the Institute of Meditteranean Studies, collaborator of the Topography of Power group at the UcL, Louvain la Neuve and assistant professor at the Institute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology, VU Amsterdam, was appointed new director of the School.
History of the Belgian School at Athens