Dr Athena Trakadas
Athena is an archaeologist whose passion is investigating how past coastal communities lived and engaged with the marine environment, and how this can inform our present and future. She holds degrees in Classics & Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley (USA), MAs in Nautical Archaeology & Roman Archaeology from Texas A&M University (USA), and Aarhus University (Denmark), respectively, and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Southampton (UK). Athena has been a professor of maritime archaeology at the University of Southern Denmark, the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at Alexandria University (Egypt), and ARKAIA Institute, Aix-Marseille University (France) and works closely with UNESCO’s Culture Sector and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Largely focused on the Mediterranean, she has conducted fieldwork on land and under water in Morocco, Italy, Montenegro, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and Greece; other archaeology projects span from Iran to Abu Dhabi, Germany, and Denmark.
When not in the field, Athena is Senior Researcher at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, and Visiting Associate Professor of Classical and Maritime Archaeology at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen.
What previous guests have to say about Athena:
"Our guide, Athena, was really fabulous. She added huge value to our tour - and made our on-shore visits particularly interesting and rewarding. Our experience with Peter Sommer travel was fabulous. Every aspect from booking, to pre-tour information, the quality of the guides and crew, and the comfort of the boat was wonderful. We were sad when the tour came to an end!" Sarah Nicolson
"Our archeologist guide, Athena, was superb - extremely informative and always very helpful and patient. Truly great, a very engaging communicator." Arush Sarwar
"Dr Athena Trakadas was a powerful combination of high intelligence and competence in making our expedition rewarding. Dr Trakadas was very well prepared and knowledgeable but as an archeological scientist, researcher and University Professor she was absolutely ready to go. She was always helpful and amusing and very enthusiastic. Simply outstanding. The trip exceeded my expectations." Edward Michael Shumate
"Briefings by Athena were a major highlight of the tour. I have been on other ancient history tours who had good guides but Athena was very very good." Peter Chapman
