Director

Sanne Hoffmann (From February 1 2024)

Sanne Hoffmann holds a MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen (2011) and a PhD from Aarhus University (2019). She has held positions as project researcher and postdoctoral researcher at the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities in the National Museum of Denmark, and as a external lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. She has participated in several archaeological field projects, primarily in Greece on the Danish projects in Piraeus and Kalydon, but also in Cyprus, Italy, Ukraine, and Denmark – both above and below water. Sanne´s primary field of research is Greek cult, in particular rituals, dedicatory practices, and the structure and use of the sacred space. She has just published her PhD-thesis: Between Deity and Dedicator: The Life and Agency of Greek Votive Terracotta Figurines. Sanne is also part of the project In the House of the Goddess, which is recreating the Athana Lindia Sanctuary on Rhodes in a virtual reconstruction.

Assistant Director

Assistant Director

The position is currently open

Archaeological advisor & Enbom Fellow

John Lund (from 1st July 2021)

M.A. in Classical Archaeology (1978), and B.A in Modern Greek Studies (2013) at the University of Copenhagen, where he was awarded the Dr. phil. degree in 2016. – John Lund has since 1997 been Senior Researcher at the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities in the Danish National Museum, and has taken part in archaeological field projects in Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia and Turkey.

Carlsberg Fellow

Panagiotis Athanasopoulos, Carlsberg Fellow (From 1 February 2020)

BA in Archaeology from the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology at University of Thessaly (Volos, 2005); MA in Maritime Archaeology at University of Southampton (Southampton, 2008) as a scholar of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).

From 2005, he has been a senior staff archaeologist and acting assistant director of the Zea Harbour Project in Piraeus (Danish Institute at Athens) and since 2012 he has been a digital archivist for the Agora Excavations in Athens (ASCSA). Since 2013, he is the assistant director of Lechaion Harbour Project, collaboration between the Department of Underwater Antiquities, The Danish Institute at Athens and the University of Copenhagen, directed by Dr. B. Loven and Dr. D. Kourkoumelis. Over the years he has also worked in several maritime and land projects in Greece and abroad.

His main research interests focus on ancient harbours in the Eastern Mediterranean, the interactions between landscapes and seascapes, and harbour construction/architecture. Panagiotis Athanasopoulos is currently working on an interdisciplinary volume of publications related to the results of the Danish-Greek excavations in Lechaion, Corinth focusing on the use of timber in harbour building.

Carlsberg Fellow

Benjamin Pedersen, Carlsberg Fellow (From 1 February 2024)

Benjamin Pedersen is MA (2013) and Ph.D. (2018) from University of Southern Denmark on a dissertation on Hellenistic historiography (Universal Historiography: A Study in the Advent, Nature, and Development of Ancient Universal History).

In the following years, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark and University of Glasgow funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Polis Histories and Local Identities: Historiographical and Philosophical Innovations in the Age of Glocalization, c. 400-200 BCE). The project investigated ancient Greek local history, aiming to explain how the concept of localism was applied to historiography and to what extent this type of writing was grounded in the wider intellectual framework of Classical and Hellenistic thought.

In 2024 and 2025, he is working at the Danish Institute in Athens on a project funded by the Carlsberg foundation which aims to re-evaluate historical writing in the Hellenistic period through the lens of the intellectual achievements of Aristotle and his followers (Philosophizing History: The Impact of Aristotelian Thought on Hellenistic Historiography). The project will be the first to trace how Aristotelian ideas migrated into subsequent writing and how the interlinkage of philosophical innovations and historical developments changed the way history was organized and written in this crucial phase of intellectual history.

Former members of staff

Dr Søren Dietz, former director of the Calydon excavations, Director 1992-1997
Associate Professor Mogens Pelt, University of Copenhagen, Senior research fellow 1993-96
Dr Sanne Houby-Nielsen, curator, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Senior research fellow 1994-95
Emeritus Lecturer Signe Isager, Director 1997-2001
Professor Inge Nielsen, Universität Hamburg, Senior research fellow (the Carlsberg Foundation) 1998-2000
Dr Peter Vejleskov, teacher and translator, University of Copenhagen, Senior research fellow (The Carlsberg Foundation) 2000-2002
Dr Jørgen Mejer, † Lecturer, University of Copenhagen, Director 2001-2003
Dr Jonas Eiring, former senior research fellow (Calydon investigations), Assistant Director 2002-2004
Panagiota Goula, Cultural Attaché, Danish Embassy in Athens, (Eleni Nakou Foundation), Director of Cultural Affairs 2004-2005
Jesper Tae Jensen (doctoral candidate), Assistant Director 2004-2007
Professor Erik Hallager, Director 2004-2010
M.A. Sine Riisager, Assistant Director 2008-2012
Associate Professor Søren Handberg, University of Oslo, Assistant Director 2012-2015
Mag.art., PhD Rune Frederiksen, † Director 2010 – 2015
Phd Birgit Olsen, Assistant Director 2016-2019.
Nicolai von Eggers Mariegaard, Carlsberg Fellow 2017-2020.
Ph.d Kristina Winther-Jacobsen, Director 2015-2020
Antonia Pilarinos Communications and Cultural Liaison 2019-2022.
Ph.d. Kaspar Thormod, Assistant Director & Carlsberg Fellow 2019-2022.
Christos Tsakas, Carlsberg Fellow 2019-2022
Associate Professor Mogens Pelt, University of Copenhagen, Director 2020-2024