Evi Margaritis studied Archaeology at the University of Athens in Greece, received her MSc in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy from the University of Sheffield in the UK and her PhD from the University of Cambridge. Her PhD is to date the only study in Greece exploring rural-urban relationships, economy and farming in the ancient world through extensive archaeobotanical analysis of material from systematically excavated samples.
In 2004 she returned to Greece as a Wiener Laboratory Environmental Fellow and since then has worked with many projects of the ASCSA such as Corinth, the Athenian Agora and Mt Lykaion. She also works on Crete with the INSTAP East Crete Study Centre and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture at the sites of Papadiokambos, Chryssi, A. Kephali, Petras, Mochlos and Gournia.
In 2009 she began a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the British School at Athens, funded by the Leventis Foundation. This project investigatd a key issue in Mediterranean prehistory, the time frame for the domestication and intensive cultivation of the vine and olive in Cyprus and the Aegean. It was founded on archaeobotanical data from well-stratified Early Bronze Age contexts in the Aegean, the result of targeted collection designed and executed by her.
In 2012 Evi joined STARC as an adjunct Professor and her research now involves collaborative projects with the Department of Antiquities and the University of Cyprus. Her current research focuses 1) on the history of the vine and the olive in the Mediterranean and beyond through DNA analysis; 2) on the integration of rural and urban research: houses, space and function during Iron Age and Classical periods; and 3) agriculture, landscape and economy of palatial centres in the Mycenaean World, through the study of the plant remains from Mycenae, Midea, and Tiryns. Currently, she is also developing an interdisciplinary project on ritual and funerary food deposits in Europe.
Assistant Professor
The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia
