Professor Irene S Lemos

Teaching

I supervise a large number of graduate students researching various topics related to the Late Bronze and the Early Iron Age Mediterranean. I teach the undergraduate options Greeks and the Mediterranean World and Cities, Sanctuaries, and Cemeteries during the Archaic and Classical periods. I am also involved in the teaching of first years' core classes for the degree of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History (CAAH). Over the years I have supervised dissertations by Greats finalists, and Sites and Museum reports for CAAH students.

Research

My research area is the archaeology of Early Greece from the 'collapse' of the Mycenaean culture to the Persian wars (from around 1200-480 BC). Excavating at the site of Lefkandi on the Greek island of Euboea has provided the opportunity to focus on the material culture of the island especially during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Lefkandi was an important hub in the exchange patterns of the period and thus I am interested in exploring interconnections with other communities within the Greek and the wider Mediterranean world and investigating the mechanisms of such activities. I am also interested in the introduction of alphabetic writing and new technologies such as iron that emerge during this particular period. My research mainly involves the excavations and the publications of the discoveries made at Lefkandi, which I have directed since 2003 (the excavation at Lefkandi - Xeropolis, Euboea).

Publications

2025: Livarda, A., Kotzamani, G., Diffey, C., Evely, D., Sabato, D., Lloyd, M., & Lemos, I. (2025). Agricultural Management and Culinary Culture in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Aegean: Archaeobotanical and Stable Isotope Insights from Region I, Xeropolis, Lefkandi. Environmental Archaeology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2025.2583561

2022: ‘Early Iron Age Economies’ in S. von Reden (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, CUP, 15-28.

2022: ‘Contributions to the Archaeology of Euboea’ in J. Driessen and C. Knappett, Megistos Kouros, Studies in honour of Hugh Sackett, Louvain, 169-180.

2020: ‘The transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age in Euboea’,  in T. E. Cinquantaquattro and M. D’Acunto (eds.) Euboica II, Pithekoussai and Euboea between East and West, Naples, 37-54.

2020: A. Mazarakis Ainian, I Lemos and V Vlachou, Ανασκαφές Ωρωπού. Πρωτογεωμετρική-Υποπρωτογεωμετρική Περίοδος (10ος - 9ος αι. π.Χ.), Volos.

2019: Lemos, I. S., & Tsingarida, A. (2019). Beyond the Polis. Rituals, Rites, and Cults in Early and Archaic Greece (12th-6th centuries BC). Brussels: CReA‑Patrimoine (Vol. 15).