Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Belgian School at Athens. We are primarily engaged in archaeological research in Greece, which especially includes excavation and survey but also material studies and the publication, presentation and preservation of results. Our main projects are the excavations at Thorikos in South Attica (Lavrion Attikis), and, on the island of Crete, at Sissi (Agiou Nikolaou) and at Itanos (Sitias), both in the Lasithi province.

Apart from these projects, we host a library with a large number of Belgian publications on Greek archaeology, we organise conferences, seminars, courses, and colloquia.

Through this website we hope to reach all those interested in Greek archaeology. Our calendar highlights not only our activities in Greece but also scientific activities related to Greek archaeology organized in Belgium. You can also find guidelines on excavation and research permits, Belgian academic institutions involved in research on Greek soil and heritage

The director
Jan Driessen

Activities in Greece

2020's Annual Meeting Postponed

It is something many of you suspected already but we can now make it official: considering the actual COVID-19 crisis, this year's Annual Lecture (Ergon) of the EBSA, originally planned for May 21st with Prof. Dr Didier Viviers (Royal Academy of Belgium/ULB) as our guest lecturer is postponed.

Stay tuned for updates on new date for the event, more likely next (academic) year!

Happy Easter - Καλό Πάσχα

The Director and the staff of the Belgian School at Athens wish you a Happy Easter και Καλό Πάσχα!

(R) Belgian School at Athens, Sissi Project, courtesy M. Anastasiadou

More activities in Greece

Activities in Belgium

Triste nouvelle

Nous apprenons avec une très grande tristesse le décès simultané de Françoise et Philippe Valentin, tous les deux décédés le 4 avril du Covid-19. Ensemble, ils avaient fondé et porté à bout de bras l’Association Alexandre le Grand à Charleroi (http://alexandrelegrand.be/) qui, placée sous le haut patronage de l’Ambassade de Grèce en Belgique, fait rayonner très haut depuis 30 ans l’humanisme et le philhellénisme à travers des conférences qui avaient su attirer un large public. C’est une lourde disparition pour tous les amis de la Grèce en Belgique.

Jean-Pierre Olivier 1939-2020

This post is to convey the news that Jean-Pierre Olivier has passed away in Brussels on 6 January. Until the end of 2019, despite serious health problems, he kept on working actively

on his projects, but in the new year his condition deteriorated very quickly.

Jean-Pierre (b. 1939) was a former member of the French School at Athens and an emeritus research director at the Belgian FNRS. A student of Claire Préaux at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, he belonged to the first generation of scholars who engaged from the 1960s onward with the study of Linear B, inspired by its then recent decipherment by Michael Ventris in collaboration with John Chadwick. He subsequently developed into one of the most prolific and significant researchers in the field of Aegean and Cypriot

syllabic scripts and edited or co-edited several corpora of texts in the Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A, Linear B and Cypro-Minoan. In the field of Linear B studies in particular, he was instrumental in the editing of corpora of texts from Pylos, Knossos, Tiryns, Thebes and Mycenae. He is also the author of a seminal study on the Mycenaean scribes from Knossos, as well as of numerous philological and historical contributions on the economy, administration and tax system of the Mycenaean kingdoms.

For all of those who knew him personally and have been taught by him his passing is a great loss. He was a unique scholar and a fiercely loyal friend and, although he will be greatly missed, he is certain not to be forgotten. He is survived by his long-time companion Frieda Vandenabeele and a small company of cats that descend from the proud generation of Pipituna, a Cretan cat adopted by him in Malia.

More activities in Belgium