Elena Kountouri

She studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens (1985-1990). She holds an M.A. (1995) and a PhD (2003) from the same educational institution (area of specialisation: Prehistoric Archaeology).
She entered the Hellenic Archaeological Service in 1993 and, since then, she has served successively at the Epigraphic Museum (1994), the Ephorates of Antiquities of Sparta (1994-1996) and Thebes (1996-2006), as Head at the Secretariat of the Central Archaeological Council
(2006-2011), and as Director at the Directorate of the National Archive of Monuments (2011-2014). In 2014 she was appointed Director at the Directorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities, a position that she still holds.
She has designed, organised and implemented projects within the framework of the European Development Funding Programmes. She has organised educational programmes, scientific meetings and archaeological conferences. She has participated in international and national conferences, co-authored archaeological guides for the area of Copaida and published studies on the Middle Helladic and Mycenaean period of Messinia and Boeotia, as well as on particular subjects of the ancient Boeotia during the Geometric, Hellenistic and Roman times.
She has conducted excavations in Sparta, Thebes, Orchomenos, Chaeronea, Distomo and Antikyra.
During the period 2011-2014, in cooperation with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia, the National Technical University of Athens and the University of Mainz, she implemented an interdisciplinary programme for the documentation of Mycenaean drainage projects in the northern Copaida area.
In addition, from 2016 to 2018, she conducted an excavation at the acropolises of Ayios Ioannis and Ayia Marina in northeast Copaida.
Since 2018, she has been overseeing an interdisciplinary programme for the excavation and enhancement of the Mycenaean Acropolis of Gla, under the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society, with the financial support of the Region of Central Greece and the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Foundation.