Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens
Encyclopedia
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
General information, mission
The IIHSA was officially founded in 1995 and has been fully operational since 2002. It aims to promote, coordinate, and assist Irish or Irish-based researchers who are active in Greece, to develop Irish-based archaeological projects in Greece, to raise the awareness and profile of Hellenic StudiesHellenic studies
Hellenic Studies is an interdisciplinary scholarly field that focuses on the study of Greek culture, ancient, Medieval and modern, including Hellenic diaspora communities around the world....
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and to promote Irish culture in Greece.
Activities
Apart from its archaeological fieldwork (below), the IIHSA runs a lecture series, hosts occasional seminars and exhibitions, organises annual archaeological study tours for Irish students and operates a programme of bursaries enabling Irish students to undertake research in Greece. It also provides accommodation for Irish and international scholars active in Athens. Since 2007, the IIHSA organises annual conferences on changing (normally archaeological) topics. It has also been involved in Irish-themed cultural events outside Athens.Archaeological Projects
Since 2003, the IIHSA has been conducting an archeological surveyArchaeological field survey
Archaeological field survey is the method by which archaeologists search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human cultures across a large area...
at Leivathos
Leivathos
Leivathos is a former municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kefalonia, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies south of Argostoli, on the central south coast of the island, and has a land area of...
(Kefalonia
Kefalonia
The island of Cephalonia, also known as Kefalonia, Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia , is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of . It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit...
); in 2007, it began an excavation at Priniatikos Pyrgos
Priniatikos Pyrgos
Priniatikos Pyrgos is an archaeological site near Istron, in the eastern Cretan prefecture of Lasithi, . The site is on a coastal promontory. It appears to have been first settled in the Final Neolithic, circa 3000 BC. Activity on the site continued throughout the Minoan Bronze Age and the...
(East Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
).