Director of Research – Athena Research and Innovation Centre/ ILSP Xanthi’s Division
Head of the Culture & Creative IndustriesDpt Athena Research Center
tsiafaki[at]athenarc[dot]gr

Despoina Tsiafaki holds a BA, MA and a PhD from the Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She was a curator in the Antiquities Dpt. of the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu) and she collaborated with numerous Research and Academic Institutions in Greece and abroad. Since 2002 has joined Athena RC as Researcher with focus on Archaeology, Digital Culture and Archaeological Sciences. She took part in many archaeological excavations and since 1994 she participates in the Karabournaki excavation (Thessaloniki), which she co-directs since 2014. She participated in more than 35 European and national projects on Cultural Heritage and in the organization of several exhibitions, conferences & seminars on ancient Greek culture and art. She has supervised PhD and MA students and she has taught in various seminars and MA courses regarding Archaeology, Digital Archaeology, and Digital Culture. Recently she was Getty Villa Scholar of the Getty Scholars Program 2019/2020.

Website: https://www.ilsp.gr/en/members/tsiafaki-despoina-2/

Research interests

• Ancient Ceramics
• Aegean Archaeology
• Ancient Thrace, history and archaeology
• Classical Archaeology & History,
• Archaeological Sciences
• Digital Archaeology and Digital Humanities

Select publications

Most of her publications may be found on academia.edu.

• AtticPOT. Attic painted pottery in ancient Thrace (6th – 4th century BC). New approaches and digital tools, D. Tsiafaki, A. Avramidou, N. Michailidou, Y. Mourthos, M. Karta eds. Xanthi 2022
• D. Tsiafaki, V. Evangelidis, Exploring Rivers and Ancient Settlements in Aegean Thrace through Spatial Technology, in Kefalidou, E. (ed.) The Riverlands of Aegean Thrace: Production, Consumption and Exploitation of the Natural and Cultural Landscapes, | River Valleys and Regional Economies: Panel 2.4 | Panel 2.7. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World held in Cologne/Bonn 2018, Vol. 6. Heidelberg: Propylaeum 2022, 45-61. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.871.c11424
• D. Tsiafaki, M. Katsianis 2021. Stewardship of Digital Archaeological Data in Greece: a landscape of fragmentation, Internet Archaeology 58. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.58.8
• The Northern Aegean, in F. de Angelis (ed.), A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World, 2020, 409-430.
• CVA on Attic Red Figure Kraters (Column – Volute), The J. Paul Getty Museum 2019. 
• D. Tsiafaki, N. Michailidou, Ways to cope with the scientific ARENA: taking the results of archaeological research a step further, in Visual Heritage 2018 hosted by CHNT 23 2018, Digitize: Research – Record – Reactivate – Reconstruct, Vienna, Austria, November 12 – 15, 2018 (Vienna 2019) 
• M. Doerr, A. Felicetti, S. Hermon, G. Hiebel, A. Kritsotaki, A. Masur, K. May, P. Ronzino, W. Schmidle, M. Theodoridou, D. Tsiafaki, E. Christaki, et al., 2018, “Definition of the CRMarchaeo: An Extension of CIDOC CRM to support the archaeological excavation process.”
• D. Tsiafaki, A. Koutsoudis, N. Michailidou, F. Arnaoutoglou, From a Buried Fragment to the Virtual Artefact: A Case Study of Greek Pottery, in Digital Techniques for Documenting and Preserving Cultural Heritage, A. Bentkowska-Kafel, L. Macdonald eds., Arc Humanities Press, Kalamazoo and Bradford 2017, 17-34.
• D. Tsiafaki, N. Michailidou, Benefits and problems through the application of 3d technologies in archaeology: recording, visualisation, representation and reconstruction, Scientific Culture 1.3 (2015), 37-45.