The Founding Director
Emeritus Professor Alexander Cambitoglou, AO
Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, DUniv h.c.
From his arrival in Australia the late Professor Alexander Cambitoglou worked tirelessly to promote Australian research in Greece, beginning in 1967 with the establishment of the first Australian excavation in Greece at the Early Iron Age settlement of Zagora on the Aegean island of Andros. This pioneering endeavour was a collaboration between the Archaeological Society at Athens and the University of Sydney.
He was appointed the Arthur and Renee George Professor of Classical Archaeology in 1978 and retired from his chair in 1989. Perhaps the greatest legacy Professor Cambitoglou provided Australian students and scholars of Greek and related studies was the establishment of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens in 1980.
He continued as the Curator of the Nicholson Museum until December 2000 and retired from the position of the Institute’s Director in 2016.
These two booklets, written by Alexander Cambitoglou, present a history of the foreign archaeological schools in Athens and the foundation of the AAIA: