The AAIA regularly hosts events in Sydney and in Athens.
We have an exciting events program for Semester 1 of 2023. Please follow us on Facebook or Twitter for regular updates. Past events that have been recorded can be watched via our YouTube channel.
To be notified about our upcoming events join our mailing list:
Upcoming Events
Our events are frequently advertised on Eventbrite
Upcoming events in Athens are advertised via our Facebook page. Please be sure to follow us there for updates.
March Events
‘Οι Παραθεριστές της Ιστορίας (Inhabiting Summers of History)’ Screening
Thurs, 16 March, 2023
6:30pm AEDT
Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place
Camperdown NSW 2006
Register via Eventbrite – THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED
Sunday, 19 March, 2023
11:30am AEST
University of Queensland
St Lucia Campus
Contact Dr Amelia Brown for details
Tuesday 21 March,
7pm AEDT
Auditorium 1
Michael Spence Building (F23)
University of Sydney
Register via Eventbrite
Thurs, 23 March, 2023
8pm AEDT
Hellenic Club
Woden ACT
Contact Prof Elizabeth Minchin for details
The Chau Chak Wing Museum and the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens invite you to travel to Kythera, the birthplace of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, with this special film screening.
This award winning documentary, an initiative of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and the Islands, follows the journey of the return of antiquities from the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus to the newly renovated Archaeological Museum of Kythera. At the same time, the film invites us to another “journey” of personal reflection and existential search filled with questions about our own relationship with history and the past and our place within a continuously transforming historical context.
Country: Greece
Year: 2018
Duration of Film: 50 mins
Language: Greek with English subtitles.
About the Filmmakers
Kyriaki Psaraki holds a doctorate from the University of Thessalonike in prehistoric archaeology. Her research focuses on the pottery of the 2nd millennium BC in central Macedonia and the 3rd millennium BC in Boeotia. She is currently serving in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and the Islands overseeing the archaeology on the islands of Kythera and Antikythera. She has been instrumental in coordinating the work for the re-opening of the archaeological Museum of Kythera between 2013-2015.
Giorgos Didymiotis is from Kythera and lives and works on the island. He studied cinema and media studies in England and, since 1999, has been working as a film director and editor for the big screen and television. He also teaches film directing and editing in cinema workshops, seminars, and popular education programs. His films have been shown in Greek and international film festivals and many of them have received awards.
Also showing at this event is
I am the Lion of Kythera (English version) 10’
A mixed media documentary focusing on the Archaic marble lion of Kythera and recounting the adventures of this emblematic sculpture, starting from the 19th century when it was located on the ramparts of the castle in Chora until its placement in the current exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Kythera.
April Events
The Monuments of the Athenian Acropolis in the First Century of the Modern Greek State
Dr Stavros Paspalas, AAIA Director
Dr Stavros A. Paspalas (Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens), explores how the Athenian Acropolis was transformed from an Ottoman garrison village to an archaeological park.
Wednesday, 5 April
7pm AEST
CCANESA Boardroom
Madsen Building
University of Sydney
There is no doubt that when most of us think of ancient Greece our mind will immediately present us with a mental image of the Athenian Acropolis with its four fifth-century buildings –the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion. Buildings which, although in ruins, have assumed the status of potent cultural icons. However, at the end of the Greek Revolution the Acropolis was totally different. Preserved upon it were the remains of nigh on 1,500 years of human occupation and activities since the construction of the surviving ancient buildings, testaments to the Acropolis’, and wider Athenian, history. The story of how the Acropolis was transformed from a garrison village to an archaeological park is a fascinating one which offers us insights into the history of modern Greece and its relationship to antiquity all the while set against a backdrop of the Ottoman past and the Greeks’ relationship with western Europe.
About the Speaker
Dr Stavros A. Paspalas has held various positions at the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens since 1996. He has undertaken fieldwork at Zagora on Andros, Torone in the Chalkidike and on the island of Kythera. His major research interests range from the Early Iron Age Aegean, through to ancient Greek ceramics, and onto Greek-Achaemenid (ancient Persian) relations. His interests in ancient and modern Athens stem from his many years of residence in the city and questions posed by many students.
This event is part of the Greek Festival of Sydney.
Other Events
AAIA 40th Anniversary Conference “Mobility and Settlement in the Eastern Mediterranean”
***Postponed indefinitely: Please check back for details***
University of Sydney, Camperdown Campus
Confirmed key-note speakers to address the conference are:
- Christina Ioannou (University of Nicosia), on the Connections between Cyprus and the Near East,
- Antonis Kotsonas (New York University), on Mobility and Interaction in the Northern Aegean,
- Nicholas Stampolidis (University of Crete), on Crete’s External Contacts between 1000 and 600 BC.
The full program and information for delegates will be available on our website: https://aaia.sydney.edu.au/40th-anniversary-conference/
Past Events
2023 Events
Ancient Piraeus: The fortified harbour and cornerstone of Athenian democracy
Dr Kyriaki Psaraki (Director of Excavations at Piraeus)
Tuesday, 14 March, 2023, AAIA, University of Sydney
Friday, March 17, 2023, University of Queensland
Myths and Dreamings: Cross Hatchings between Ancient Greece and Indigenous Australia by Dr. Vassilis Adrahtas (Western Sydney University)
Wed, March 8, 2023,
6pm for 6:30pm AEDT
CCANESA Boardroom (and via Zoom)
AGAPI & Other Kinds of Love – BOOK LAUNCH with Luka Lesson
Thu, March 2, 2023,
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM AEDT
Chau Chak Wing Museum
A Tale of Two Cities? Athens after the Classical Era by Professor Ian Worthington (Macquarie University)
Wed, March 1 2023
6:30pm AEDT
CCANESA Boardroom
MAARC 2023 Annual Meeting
13-15 February, 2023
Online, co-hosted by the AAIA, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney
Aspects of Beauty: Hellenistic Gold Jewellery in the Benaki Museum Collections by Dr Monica Jackson
Thursday 2 February, 2023
6:00pm, CCANESA Boardroom (fully booked) /Zoom
Register via Eventbrite
2022 Events
Oxi Day Commemoration, in collaboration with the Inner West Council
Sunday 30 from 1:00 for 1:30 start – 4:00pm
Marrickville Town Hall
303 Marrickville Road, Marrickville.
Photo: Anzacs in front of the Parthenon (© Australian War Memorial), courtesy of the Joint Committee of the Battle of Crete.
Motion and Emotion: The movement toward theatricality and drama in Late Byzantine painting
Olympia Nelson (University of Sydney)
Tuesday 13 September, 7pm Athens time
AAIA Hostel, Fourth Floor, Promachou 2 Makriyianni, Athens
Image: Nativity Scene. Fresco in Peribleptos Church, Mystras. Wikicommons.
The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Annual Report Event
Thursday 16 June, 7pm Athens time, Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, 14-16 Parthenonos Street, Makriyianni.
Speakers: Dr. Stavros A. Paspalas “The Activities of the Institute in 2020 and 2021” followed by Dr. Kristen P. Mann (AAIA Postdoctoral Researcher and Center for Hellenic Studies Early Career Fellow) “The Material Home in Geometric Greece: A Social Archaeology of Zagora on Andros.”
The Social Structure of Democratic Athens
Professor David Pritchard (Uni of Qld)
Thursday 19 May, 2022, 6pm AEST
Online via Zoom
The Plataea Survey – Update on Archaeological Fieldwork
Dr Robert Jones
Wednesday 4 May, 2022, 6pm AEST
Online via Zoom
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
Style and agency of erotic art on Roman lamps
Dr Sanja Vucetic
Thursday 28 April, 2022, 6pm AEST
This event was recorded. To access the recording link please email Yvonne Inall
Feature image: oil lamp, 200-300AD from Knidos, Turkey, NM98.129 , held in the Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney
The Antiquities of Greece and World War II
Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA Director)
Thursday 7 April, 6:30pm (AEST)
Chau Chak Wing Museum
Professor Alexander Cambitoglou: A celebration of a life
Public memorial in honour of our founding director
31 March, 2022
MacLaurin Hall (A14D), University of Sydney
You can read a review of the memorial via The Greek Herald
The Battle for Aphrodite presented by the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens
Thursday 27 January, 2022 at 6.30pm
This event was recorded, and you can watch it here
2021 Events
Ancient Greek migration and diaspora: what new pottery research tells us
Xenia Charalambidou (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Tuesday 23 November, 2021
10:30am Athens time/ 7:30pm Sydney/ 8:30am UK
Online via Zoom
Innovative Burial Practices in a Persistent Memory Landscape: House Tomb 2 in the Pre- and Protopalatial Cemetery of Petras-Kephala, Siteia, Crete
Dr Metaxia Tsipopoulou (National Archive of Monuments of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
Monday 18 October, 2021: 11:30am Athens/ 7:30pm Sydney/ 9:30am UK
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here.
Zagora: The Foundations of Greek Community Life
Speakers: Rudy Alagich, Dr Kristen Mann, Beatrice McLoughlin and Dr Ivana Vetta
Thursday 14 October, 6:30pm AEDT/10:30am Athens/8:30am UK
Online, via Zoom
The Monuments of the Athenian Acropolis in the first century of the Modern Greek State
Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA Director)
30 September, 2021, 6:30pm AEST/ 11:30am Athens/ 9:30am UK
Online, via Zoom
This event was recorded and you can watch it here
This event wass co-hosted by St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church Mascot and The Department of Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies at the University of Sydney.
The House of Eustolios at Ancient Kourion, Cyprus: An elite “Mega Mansion” of the Late Roman Period
Emeritus Professor David W. Rupp (Brock University)
Monday 20 September 12:30pm Athens/ 7:30pm Sydney/ 10:30am UK
Remembering Marathon
Estelle Strazdins (University of Queensland)
Wednesday 16 June, 2021, 6:30pm AEST
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
Wine and the vine: A walk through the beginnings, middle, and end of ancient Greek viticulture
Dr Emlyn Dodd (British School at Rome)
Wednesday 2 June, 2021, 6:30pm AEST
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
Migration Narratives: Human Mobility and the End of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean
Professor A. Bernard Knapp (University of Glasgow; Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute)
Wednesday 12 May , 2021 12:30pm Athens/ 7:30pm Sydney/ 10:30am UK
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
Ancient Greeks on Persians: Wishful thinking in Imagery?
Professor Margaret Miller (University of Sydney)
Tuesday, 4 May, 2021, 6:30pm AEST.
(Feature image: Antikenmuseum, Basel BS 480, unattributed red-figure calyx krater, c. 460 B.C.)
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
A Succession of Communities: from Kythera to a Victorian goldfield
Richard McNeill (La Trobe University)
Tuesday 20 April 12:30pm Athens/ 7:30pm Sydney/ 10:30am GMT
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
The Zagora Archaeological Project: new discoveries
Lesley Beaumont, Paul Donnelly, Stavros Paspalas & Hugh Thomas
Thursday 15 April, 2021, 6:30pm AEST
Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney & streamed via Zoom
Image: Zagora dig hut. Photo: Paul Donnelly
Board games in the ancient greek world: a matter of life and death
Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA Director)
Sunday 11 April, 2021
Chau Chak Wing Museum & online via Zoom
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
Finds Stories: Can creative biographies write an inclusive history of the Balkans?
Dr. Konstantinos P. Trimmis, (Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol)
Tuesday 16 March, 2021
This lecture was recorded and you can watch it here
‘Modern’ Women of the Past? Unearthing Gender and Antiquity
An International Conference
5 – 6 March, 2021
Online via Zoom
2020 Events
From Chariot Racing to a Christian Church: Olympia and the last Olympic Games of Late Antiquity
Dr Amelia R. Brown (University of Queensland)
Wednesday 11 November
Online via Zoom (Free)
The Antiquities of Greece and World War II
Dr Stavros Paspalas (Acting Director of the AAIA)
Wednesday, 30 September, 2020
Online via Zoom
A Tale of Five Villages: Glimpses of Bronze Age Cyprus
Emeritus Professor David Frankel (La Trobe University)
Tuesday, 1 September, 2020
Online via Zoom
University of Sydney Classical Archaeology Seminar Program:
‘Mobility of ceramicists in southern Italy’
Dr Ted Robinson (University of Sydney)
Tuesday 5 May, 2020
Online via Zoom
2019 Events
The Poet’s Aesop: appropriating fable
Dr Graeme Miles (University of Tasmania)
Wednesday, 11 September, 2019
AAIA Lecture Series. Ancient Warfare in the Greek and Roman World
Dr Yvonne Inall and Adam Carr
Saturdays, 7-28 September, 2019
Picasso and the Minotaur: A chapter in modern mythmaking
Professor Clemente Marconi (AAIA 2019 Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York)
Wednesday, 28 August, 2019
Toward an Archaeology of Cult in a Greek Colony in the West: new excavations in the main urban sanctuary of Selinunte
Professor Clemente Marconi (AAIA 2019 Visiting Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York)
Wednesday, 7 August, 2019
Of Beasts and Men. Iconography and tales in the eighth-century BC Aegean
Dr Stavros Paspalas
Wednesday, 17 April, 2019
The Tomb of the Diver: death, drinking and living it up in the Ancient Greek World
Dr Gillian Shepherd (La Trobe University)
Wednesday, 27 March, 2019
AAIA Guided tour for Athens Friends of the AAIA: of the Pyrgos Vasilissis, Athens
Dr Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory
Sunday 17 March, 2019
Ancient Andros Revealed: Zagora in Context
Dr Stavros Paspalas
Thursday, 7 March, 2019 (Hobart)
Thursday, 14 March, 2019 (Canberra)
AAIA Workshop, in conjunction with Archaeopolis: “Experiencing the Music of Ancient Greece”
Antonios Ktenas (Ancient Greek music composer, performer and researcher) and Konstantinos Fragkis (National and Kapodistrian University-Hermēs: Music Archaeology Project),
Wednesday, 13 February, 2019
AAIA Guided tour for Athens Friends of the AAIA: “Crete: Emerging Cities” Exhibition (Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art)
Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA)
Sunday, 10 February, 2019.
AAIA Lecture Series. Pompeii Revisited: the life and death of a Roman town
Professor Jean-Paul Descœudres
Saturdays, 9 February to 2 March, 2019
AAIA Guided tour for Athens Friends of the AAIA: “Forbidden City” Exhibition (Acropolis Museum)
Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA)
Sunday, 27 January, 2019
AAIA, University of Sydney Summer School in Athens
Co-ordinated by Dr Lesley Beaumont (University of Sydney) & Dr Stavros Paspalas (AAIA)
January 4-25, 2019
