Professor Athena Tsingarida

Professor Tsingarida
Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art
Lincoln College
athena.tsingarida@classics.ox.ac.uk

Qualifications: BA, MPhil (Universite libre de Bruxelles, ULB), DPhil (Oxon)

Former Rhodes Scholar, and alumna of the Wiener-Anspach-Foundation

Link to college page: Professor Athena Tsingarida | Lincoln College Oxford

 

Academic Background

I hold degrees in Classical Archaeology and Byzantine Studies from the ULB  (Université libre de Bruxelles) and a DPhil in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History from the University of Oxford (Wolfson College) where I studied as a Rhodes Scholar (1992 -1995) and Ph. Wiener-M. Anspach Fellow (1995 -1996).

I was Senior Associate Member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2006-2007), a T.B.L. Webster Fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies, University College London (2014-2015), and a Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College, University of Oxford, during Hilary Term 2023.

Before joining Oxford as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art, I was Professor Ordinarius of Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology at ULB, and Director of the Belgian School of Archaeology at Athens, a leading institution that coordinates all Belgian academic field research in Greece. I was further engaged in Heritage and Museum Matters in the role of Chair of Scientific Council of the Museum of Arts and  Archaeology in Brussels.

 

Research Interests

My research focuses on the archaeology and art of the Archaic and Classical Mediterranean World (7th – 4th centuries BC) with a special interest in social and economic aspects of craft production, while it also covers questions of cultural and economic interactions in the Mediterranean and the East, symposium practices, funerary archaeology and rituals, and the reception of Classical Art in 19th and early 20th century Europe.

I have published and lectured widely on these topics, edited and co-edited Proceedings of international symposia and research seminars, and directed or co-directed several international research programs in these fields, supported by national and European research funds.  Also a field archaeologist, I undertook excavations in Greece (Crete) and Syria (Apamea) and studied the material from the old excavations of the British School at Athens from the sanctuary of Apollo at Kastro, Sifnos.  I am currently co-directing (with Didier Viviers, ULB & Royal Academy of Belgium) the excavations and restoration works at the necropolis of Itanos (Crete).

Research Keywords

Ancient Greek Pottery, Cretan Archaeology, Funerary Archaeology, Ancient trade and cultural interactions, Collection practices and social identities, Reception of Classical Art, and History of Collections.

Publications

Full Publications: Professor Athena Tsingarida: Publications 2026

Selected Publications:

  • Tsingarida, L’éternelle modernité de l’art grec. Archaïsmes et avant-gardes européennes (1880 – 1920), Bruxelles, l’Académie en Poche, 2025
  • Tsingarida, “Ch. 43. Greek Vases in Pre-Roman Italy”, in M. Maiuro with J. Botsford Johnson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Pre-roman Italy (ca 1000 – 49 B.C.E.), Oxford (OUP), 2024, 741 – 762
  • Tsingarida, “Oversized Athenian Drinking Vessels in Context: Their Role in Etruscan Ritual Performances”, in American Journal of Archaeology 124.2 (2020), 245 – 274.
  • Tsingarida, “Ch. 8. Drawing as an instrument of Connoisseurship: J.D. Beazley and his Late Nineteenth – Century Forerunners”, in C. Meyer & A. Petsalis-Diomidis (eds), Drawing the Greek Vase, Oxford (OUP), 2023, 187 – 213.
  • Tsingarida & D. Viviers, “Signing in the frame. Potters and Painter’s Signatures on Attic Figured-decorated Vases (550 – 510 BC)”, in D. Yatromanolakis (ed.), Epigraphy of Art II: Inscriptions and Representations on Athenian Vases, Athens (Eurasia Publications), 2025,  97 -143.
  • Tsingarida & S. Schmidt with the collaboration of A. Coulié (eds), The Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (1922 – 2022). A Century of exploring Greek Vases: Typologies, Readings and Debates, Brussels, Union Académique Internationale, 2024 [CVA Belgium Supplement I]
  • Tsingarida & D. Viviers, “’No more Gap’: Some New Evidence of Collective Practices in Itanos during the 6th and 5th Centuries BC”, in I. Lemos & A. Tsingarida (eds.), Beyond the Polis. Rituals, Rites and Cults in Early and Archaic Greece (12th – 6th Centuries BC), Bruxelles, 2019, 213 – 246.
Teaching

I teach topics in Archaic and Classical Greek Archaeology and Art related to the fields of research listed under my Research Interests. My lectures are aimed at both Undergraduates and Graduates, while I also teach Classes at a PGT level.