Dr Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou

Dr Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou is Director of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. She graduated from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in 1980 and obtained her D.E.U.G. (1979), Licence (1980) and Maîtrise (1981) in Archaeology and Art History, while in 1984 she received her postgraduate title D.E.A. in Archaeology. In 2001 she received her PhD with honors in Medieval Archaeology from Sorbonne University (Paris I). She is a member of the Department of Antiquities since 1986. She was promoted to a Curator of Antiquities (Ancient Monuments Sector) in 2006, where she was responsible for the coordination of works in relation to the conservation, restoration, protection and promotion of all Ancient Monuments in Cyprus. In December 2014 she was appointed Director of the Department of Antiquities.

Since 1994, she is the director of the excavations of the medieval sugar-mills of Episkopi-Serayia and Kolossi. She is a member of the Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO, the National Committee of ICOM and was a founding member and Member of the Advisory Board of the National Committee of ICOMOS and a founding member and Member of the Advisory Board of the Cypriot Society of Byzantine Studies. Since 2017 she is Member of the board of the ICCM (International Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics). She participated in many scientific seminars, fora, radio and television programmes in Cyprus and abroad for the promotion of Cypriot archaeology and the cultural heritage of Cyprus in general and she is the author of more than 40 scientific publications on matters of Cypriot archaeology.

Dr. Solomidou-Ieronymidou participated as an expert of the Republic of Cyprus for the provision of Guidelines to facilitate the implementation of the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and became one of the 12 members of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (2005-2011) and one of the 6 members of the Bureau of this Committee (2005-2010). In December 2015 she was re-elected as a Member of the above Committee. Dr. Solomidou-Ieronymidou is the Focal Point of Cyprus for the Cypriot World Heritage Sites. Dr Solomidou-Ieronymidou is particularly concerned with the need to safeguard heritage and since 2020 is President of the National Committee for the Combating of Looting and the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Heritage, which was established in 2015 following a Ministerial Council decision. Within this framework she has contributed immensely in identifying and repatriating cultural objects illegally exported from Cyprus. She is also involved in actions aiming at combating the impacts of climate change on heritage and is member of the Cyprus Government Initiative for Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME). She is also a focal point of the initiative of the Hellenic Republic and the UN entitled “Addressing climate change impacts on cultural and natural heritage”.