# Conference on Rethinking Archaic Sculpture ## About the conference Key information Short biographical notes of the speakers ## Key information - **Topic:** Rethinking Archaic Sculpture - **Dates:** May 13-15, 2026 - **Location:** CHS Greece, Nafplio - **Organized by:** [Seth Estrin](https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/people/seth-estrin) (Harvard University), [Rebecca Levitan](https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/rebecca-levitan) (King's College London), CHS Greece, supported by [King's College London](https://www.kcl.ac.uk/) - **Open to:** All; registration required - **Participants (in alphabetical order):** [Gianfranco Adornato](https://www.sns.it/en/persona/gianfranco-adornato) (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa), [Vasiliki Barlou-Jäggi](https://antikenmuseumbasel.academia.edu/VasilikiBarlouJ%C3%A4ggi) (Antikenmuseum Basel), [Margherita Bonanno](https://uniroma2.academia.edu/MargheritaBonanno/CurriculumVitae) (Tor Vergata University of Rome), [Nikolaus Dietrich](https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/zaw/klarch/mitarbeiter/dietrich.html) (Heidelberg University), [Milette Gaifman](https://arthistory.yale.edu/people/milette-gaifman) (Yale University), [Raphaël Jacob](https://theacropolismuseum.academia.edu/raphaeljacob) (Acropolis Museum), [Eleni Kalavria](https://independent.academia.edu/%CE%95%CE%9B%CE%95%CE%9D%CE%97%CE%9A%CE%91%CE%9B%CE%91%CE%92%CE%A1%CE%99%CE%91) (Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, Greek Ministry of Culture), [Christian Kunze](https://www.uni-regensburg.de/philosophie-kunst-geschichte-gesellschaft/klassische-archaeologie/mitarbeiter/kunze/index.html) (University of Regensburg), [Caspar Meyer](https://www.bgc.bard.edu/people/207/caspar-meyer) (Bard Graduate Center), [Marion Meyer](https://univie.academia.edu/MarionMeyer) (University of Vienna), [Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier](https://grokipedia.com/page/Wolf_Dietrich_Niemeier) (Emeritus Director, DAI Excavations Kerameikos), [Zozi Papadopoulou](https://culture.academia.edu/ZoziPapadopoulou) (Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, Greek Ministry of Culture), [Nikolaos Papazarkadas](https://www.eie.gr/en/human-resources/nikolaos-papazarkadas/) (University of California, Berkeley/Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation), [Verity Platt](https://classics.cornell.edu/verity-platt) (Cornell University), [Elisavet Sioumpara](https://ypppo.academia.edu/ElisavetSioumpara) (Acropolis Restoration Service, Greek Ministry of Culture), [Michael Squire](https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/staff/professor-michael-squire) (University of Cambridge), [Elena Walter-Karydi](https://uniklinik-saarland.academia.edu/LelaWalterKarydi) (University of Saarland), and [Naomi Weiss](https://nweiss.scholars.harvard.edu/) (Harvard University) - **Language:** English - **Contact email for CHS Greece:** ### Overview The conference "Rethinking Archaic Sculpture" creates a forum to re-examine the corpus of sculpture from Archaic Greece, including how it is studied and the major questions that we ask of this material. Hosted in Nafplio at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece, the event brings together an international group of interdisciplinary researchers, including both archaeologists working directly with unpublished or little-known excavated materials and scholars who seek to interrogate the theoretical, conceptual, or historiographic foundations of the field. [Visit the Program and Abstracts page of the "Rethinking Archaic Sculpture" conference.](/events-conferences/rethinking-archaic-sculpture/program "Rethinking Archaic Sculpture – Program and Abstracts") ![Poster for the "Rethinking Archaic Sculpture" conference, held May 13-15, 2026 at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies in Nafplio, Greece, organized by Seth Estrin and Rebecca Levitan, with three black‑and‑white close‑up photos of ancient sculptures, a QR code, and logos for Harvard's CHS Greece and King's College London.](/sites/g/files/omnuum7151/files/2026-03/Archaic%20Sculpture%20Final%20Conference%20Poster.png) ## Short biographical notes of the speakers ### Gianfranco Adornato Gianfranco Adornato is a professor of Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, member of the scientific committee of the Royal Museums in Turin, Visiting Palevsky Professor at UCLA, scientific director of the field activities at Temple D and the ekklesiasterion at Agrigento, his main fields of interest are: Greek and Roman sculpture; the Western Greek World and the colonization; the reception of Greek Art in Roman contexts; aesthetics and technical terminology in literary sources. Publications include *Akragas arcaica. Modelli culturali e linguaggi artistici di una città greca d’Occidente* (LED, 2011), the co-edited volumes *Restating Greek Artworks in Roman Times* (LED, 2018), *Innovations and Inventions in Athens, c. 530 to 470 BCE: Two Crucial Generations* (Phoibos, 2020), *Beyond "Art Collections". Owning and Accumulating Objects from Greek and Roman Antiquity to the Early Modern Period* (De Gruyter, 2020), and the exhibition catalogue *Il Catalogo del Mondo: Plinio il Vecchio e la storia della Natura* (24Ore Cultura, 2024). ### Vasiliki Barlou-Jäggi Vasiliki Barlou-Jäggi is currently head of Provenance Research Projects at the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. She holds a degree in History and Classical Archaeology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed her PhD at Philipps-Universität Marburg with scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). In her dissertation (*Die archaische Bildhauerkunst von Paros. Untersuchungen zur stilistischen Entwicklung der anthropomorphen Rundplastik*, Reichert, 2014) she examined the evolution and stylistic diversity of Archaic Parian workshops. Her research focuses on Archaic Greek sculpture, particularly funerary sculpture and commemorative practices in the Archaic Kerameikos of Athens, alongside archaeological provenance studies and the antiquities market. She also works on the history of archaeological scholarship, forgeries and modern reproductions of ancient art. She has participated in several archaeological excavations in Greece, notably on Paros, in Athens, and at Messene, and has served as a research associate and lecturer at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. ### Margherita Bonanno Margherita Bonanno Aravantinos is a classical archaeologist. She was a professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," and director of the Master's Degree in "Museum Development, Protection, and Enhancement of Archaeological Heritage" (2002–2012) at the same university. Previously, she was a researcher of Classical Archaeology at the University "La Sapienza" of Rome, scholarship holder at Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, and honorary visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities – University of Wisconsin at Madison. She was director of the excavation at Rome (Villa delle Terme degli Stucchi dipinti) and co-director at Monte Porzio Catone (Villa of Matidia Minor) and has participated in numerous excavations and surveys both in Italy (Ostia) and in Greece (Haliartos, Thebes, Thespiai). Her research focuses on Greek and Roman archaeology, especially on sculpture (Rome, Ostia, Tivoli, Campania; Athens, Boeotia, Mytilene; Cyrenaica) and coroplastic studies (Boeotia). She is a member of the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, of the Athens Archaeological Society and a correspondent member of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. ### Nikolaus Dietrich Nikolaus Dietrich has studied Classical Archaeology, Greek Philology and Philosophy in Munich and Paris. His PhD on landscape elements and concepts of space in Attic vase-painting (under the co-direction of Luca Giuliani and François Lissarrague) was published in 2010 (*Figur ohne Raum? Bäume und Felsen in der attischen Vasenmalerei des 6. und 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.*). After several years as lecturer at the Berlin Humboldt University, he is a professor of Classical Archaeology at Heidelberg University and has held this position since 2015. His publications almost exclusively deal with image-related topics, Greek and Roman (with a very non-exclusive focus on sculpture \[especially Archaic\] and vase-painting). He has published a second monograph in 2018 (*Das Attribut als Problem. Eine bildwissenschaftliche Untersuchung zur griechischen Kunst*) which is currently being translated into English. ### Milette Gaifman [Milette Gaifman](//arthistory.yale.edu/people/milette-gaifman) is the Andrew Downey Orrick professor of Classics and History of Art at Yale University. A scholar of ancient art and archaeology, her work focuses primarily on Greek art of the Archaic and Classical periods. Her forthcoming book, *A Landmark Through Time: On Classifying Greek Art and Architecture* (University of Chicago Press, 2027), is the revised and expanded version of the Louise Smith Bross Lectures she delivered at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago in 2018. In this work, she examines how classifications and taxonomies shape our understanding of Greek art and architecture in the modern era. She is also the author of *Aniconism in Greek Antiquity* (Oxford University Press, 2012); *The Art of Libation in Classical Athens* (Yale University Press, 2018); and co-editor of *Exploring Aniconism*, thematic issue of *Religion* 47 (2017); *The Embodied Object in Classical Antiquity, special issue of Art History* (June 2018); and *Relief in Greek, Roman, and Late Antique Art*, *Yale Classical Studies* 40 (2025). Additionally, she was the co-editor-in-chief of the *The Art Bulletin,* 2020–2022. ### Raphaël Jacob A curator at the Acropolis Museum since 2008, Jacob received his PhD in 2007 from the University of Provence, Aix-Marseille on the subject of piecing technique in Greek marble sculpture from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 3rd century BCE. He has numerous publications on Greek sculpture and has conducted archaeological work at Thasos, Delphi, Delos, Marina di San Nicola (Ladispoli, Italy). ### Eleni Kalavria Eleni Kalavria, born in Athens, obtained a degree in Archaeology from the University of Athens in 1998. She holds a master's degree from the same university, specializing in Classical Archaeology and in 2014, she obtained a PhD from the University of Athens on Attic Roman Portraiture. In 2021, she received her degree in Theology, from the University of Athens, as well. She has worked under a contract in the Collection of Sculpture at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (2001–2004) and has been a permanent employee of the Ministry of Culture since 2005, firstly at the Ephorate of Antiquities of Arcadia (2005–2009), then at the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (2009–2019) and currently she is employed at the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades. In 2026, she provides services on secondment to the National Archaeological Museum. She speaks English, French and German. She participates in archaeological projects on Kos (University of Athens), Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP), Rheneia survey and Arkesine excavation on Amorgos (Ephorate of Cyclades). Her articles focus mainly on Hellenistic and Roman sculpture and Cycladic Archaeology. ### Christian Kunze Prof. Dr. Christian Kunze researches and publishes widely on Greek and Roman sculpture and ancient iconography. Kunze studied Classical Archaeology, Art History, and Philosophy at the Universities of Bern and Berlin. He received his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 1994 with a dissertation titled "Sculptures of the High and Late Hellenistic Periods: Studies on Their Formal Development and Interpretation of Content." He completed his habilitation at the University of Bonn in 2005 with a thesis titled "Myth in Transition: Studies on the Evolution of Mythological Representation from the Archaic to the Classical Period." Since 2006, he has served as Chair of Classical Archaeology at the University of Regensburg and as editor of "Antiken Plastik" on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute. ### Caspar Meyer Caspar Meyer is a professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. His research focuses on the material, technical and social dimensions of craft production in the ancient world, with particular emphasis on the art and archaeology of Aegean Greece and the Eurasian steppe. He has published widely on ancient material practices, cross-cultural interaction and the historiography of Classical art, including work on visualization in archaeology. His forthcoming publications include an edited volume on the role of material culture in shaping past conceptions of the future and a monograph on the Scythians. He is also engaged in experimental and practice-based research on historical materials and techniques. He currently serves as co-editor of the *Annual of the British School at Athens* and of *West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture*. ### Marion Meyer Marion Meyer is a professor of Classical Archaeology. She studied in Bonn and Munich and defended her PhD thesis on Greek document reliefs in 1984 in Bonn and her habilitation thesis on the function and meaning of figures with mural crowns in Hellenistic times (the so-called city tychai) in 1997 in Hamburg. She taught at the universities of Munich, Hamburg, Gainesville/Florida, Bonn (1997–2003) and Vienna (2003–2020). Her main research interests are ancient Greek culture, ancient Athens, visual communication; the creation, tradition, use, function and significance of images; phenomena of acculturation in the Eastern Mediterranean. Among her publications are *Athena, Göttin von Athen. Kult und Mythos auf der Akropolis bis in klassische Zeit* (Phoibos, 2017) and (co-edited with Gianfranco Adornato), *Innovations and Inventions in Athens c. 530 to 470 BCE – Two Crucial Generations* (Phoibos, 2020). She currently works on memorials for the naval battle of Salamis, public and private commemoration of the dead in Classical Athens and on the iconography of royalty in Early Hellenistic Egypt. ### Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier The author of 161 publications, including five monographs, Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier is a graduate of the Universities of Göttingen, Mannheim, and Heidelberg. He has taught as a professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Freiburg (1986–1991) and Heidelberg University (1991–2001) and served as the Director of the Athens branch of the German Archaeological Institute (2001–2012). He has conducted excavations at Miletus (1994–2004), the Kerameikos (2001–2012), Kalapodi/Abai, Oracle Sanctuary of Apollo (2004–2013) and the Heraion on Samos (2006–2013). ### Zozi Papadopoulou Zozi Papadopoulou is head of the Department of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and Museums at the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades. She has directed or co-directed several research projects in the Cyclades and, since 2019, she has been leading the Rheneia Archaeological Project. Her primary research interests focus on the Cyclades, with particular emphasis on historical topography, epigraphy, and ancient Greek cult practices, especially in relation to music. ### Nikolaos Papazarkadas Nikolaos Papazarkadas is the director of the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), and a member and vice-president of the NHRF's Board of Directors. He also holds the Nicholas C. Petris Chair of Greek Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated with Honors from the Department of History and Archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1998) and completed his doctoral dissertation (DPhil) in Ancient History at the University of Oxford (2004). His academic interests focus on the political institutions, economy, and religion in antiquity, as reflected in his monograph *Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens* (Oxford University Press, 2011), as well as on the epigraphy of Attica, Boeotia and the Cyclades. He has edited or co-edited seven volumes on diverse topics, including the history and epigraphy of Boeotia, Athenian hegemony, the Post-classical city-state, and the intersection of epigraphy and religious studies. Since 2007, he has been a collaborator, and since 2012, a chief editor of the *Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum*, the world's leading epigraphic publication, overseeing the regions of Athens, the Peloponnese, and Boeotia. ### Verity Platt Verity Platt is a professor of Classics and History of Art at Cornell University, where she also curates the plaster cast collection. She is the author of *Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion* (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and *Epistemic Impressions: Making and Mediating Classical Art and Text* (Oxford University Press, 2025). She is also the co-editor of *The Frame in Classical Art: A Cultural History* (2017, with Michael Squire) and *The Embodied Object in Greek and Roman Art* (2018, with Milette Gaifman and Michael Squire). She is currently writing a book on Pliny the Elder's *Natural History*, developing a new project on *The Folds of Classical Sculpture*, and serves as editor of the *Classical Receptions Journal*. ### Elisavet Sioumpara Elisavet P. Sioumpara is an archaeologist and architectural historian specialising in the monuments, topography, and material history of the Athenian Acropolis. She is head of the Membra Disiecta Project at the Acropolis Restoration Service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, where, for the past fifteen years, she has combined archaeological research with the practical documentation, interpretation, and management of one of the most complex architectural corpora of Classical antiquity. She received her PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2006 and is the author of the monograph on the Temple of Asklepios at Messene, which inaugurated the *Athenaia* series of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens. Her research ranges from ancient architecture, urbanism, epigraphy, architectural sculpture, sanctuaries and cult to reuse, memory, reception, and cultural heritage management. She has published more than thirty studies on these subjects, has co-edited several major volumes, like *From Hippias to Kallias. Greek Art in Athens and Beyond from 527 to 449 BC* and *Identität aus Stein. Die Athener Akropolis und ihre Stadt*. She has held fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, and is a member of international scientific committees, including the 25-year-long Mainz Academy program on "Membra Disiecta of the Roman Germania." She is also a member of the scientific committees of the series *MAC – Mediterranean Architecture in Context* and *MAPA – Material Appropriation Processes in Antiquity*. The international impact of her work is further reflected in more than fifty invited lectures across Europe, the United States, and Japan. These activities underline her strong presence in the international scholarly community and her close collaborations with researchers and academic institutions abroad. ### Michael Squire Michael Squire is the Laurence professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, where he is senior research fellow at Trinity College and a member of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. His most recent book, co-written with Jaś Elsner, is forthcoming this year with Cambridge University Press: *How to Describe a Painting? Philostratus and Art Criticism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity*. ### Elena Walter-Karydi Born in Athens, Elena Walter-Karydi studied at the University of Athens and at the University of Munich. She held an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for 27 months and participated in German excavations in Greece (Kerameikos in Athens, Samos, Naxos, and Aigina/Kolonna). She is a member of the German Archaeological Institute and of the Archaeological Society at Athens, and a retired professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Saarbrücken. Formerly a guest scholar in the Getty Museum, Malibu (1993) and the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (2017), she has also worked as a guest professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus (2001), as Prof. h. c. of the University of Athens (2009), and a member of the *Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum* committee (Academy of Athens) since 1989. ### Naomi Weiss Naomi Weiss is a professor of the Classics at Harvard University. Primarily a scholar of Archaic and Classical Greek literature and culture, she is the author of *The Music of Tragedy: Performance and Imagination in Euripidean Tragedy* (University of California Press, 2018) and *Seeing Theater: The Phenomenology of Classical Greek Drama* (University of California Press, 2023), which was awarded the 2024 Goodwin Award of Merit from the Society for Classical Studies. She has co-edited *Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry: Theories and Models* (Brill, 2019) and *Music and Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds* (Cambridge University Press, 2021). She is co-editor of the series *Cambridge Elements in Greek and Roman Drama and Performance*. See also:- [ Events & Conferences ](/activities-type/events-conferences) - [ Ancient Greece ](/activities-field/ancient-greece) - [ Open to all ](/target-audience/open-to-all)