Director
Dr. Lindy Crewe is a leading scholar of Bronze Age Cyprus and studied under Professor Edgar (“Eddie”) Peltenburg at the University of Edinburgh, and excavates in western Cyprus. She is the author of two books and 35 articles and is currently working with Dr. Diane Bolger on the publication of the remarkable Chalcolithic cemetery and settlement at Souskiou-Laona. “It is the site Eddie was most passionate about,” she says, and its publication was left unfinished at his recent death.
Dr. Crewe grew up in Sydney, Australia. Art and ancient history were her two greatest fascinations for as long as she can remember. Success as a graphic designer in Melbourne left her unsatisfied, and she enrolled instead at La Trobe University. Here she found archaeology, the perfect conjunction of her two main interests. Eight muddy, winter weeks of excavation at her Professors David Frankel and Jenny Webb’s site at Marki-Alonia introduced her to Cyprus. Those who dig in Cyprus’ summer heat will chuckle at her recollection of coming in to CAARI to get warm. She stayed on afterward at CAARI to pursue her undergrad Honors thesis on spindle whorls, and speaks warmly of the wonderful support she received from then-Director, Dr. Nancy Serwint.
After publishing her thesis as her first book, she went on to a Ph.D. in Europe under Professor Peltenburg. He introduced her to western Cyprus, and to summertime excavation, at Souskiou-Laona, where she served as Field Director from 2001 to 2006. In 2005-2006 she served as the Cyprus Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, and in 2007 her second book, on Enkomi, was published. This allowed her to extend onto a far larger canvas her interest in the way pottery and its changing technology reveal patterns of social interactions and trade relations.
In 2007 Dr. Crewe assumed the directorship of the excavations of Kissonerga-Skalia, a post she still holds. A powerful Bronze Age site that also offers rich insights into the relation of Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age developments, Kissonerga has given ample scope to her keen interest in archaeology as a record of social change, and to her expertise in the technologies and transmission of ceramic forms both within and outside of Cyprus. It also yielded a remarkably well-preserved Bronze Age brewery for producing beer, depicted here, a discovery gleefully reported all around globe. Continuing relations as a visiting academic with the British Museum also allowed her to unite her archaeological expertise with her interest in public dissemination of finds through the creation of on-line presentations on Kissonerga, and she has plans for a far larger digital project ahead.
Executive Assistant
Our Executive Assistant is Katerina Mavromichalou. Katerina is an archaeologist with a BA in History and Archeology from the University of Cyprus an MA in Maritime Archeology from the University of Southampton in the UK. She has worked as a Research Assistant at Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus and has participated in a number of underwater and terrestrial excavations in Cyprus and abroad.
Katerina has been at CAARI since the beginning of 2013 and was previously employed as Librarian. In January 2021, following the retirement of Executive Assistant Vathoulla Moustoukki, she moved on to the role of Executive Assistant.
Librarian
Anthoulla Vassiliades has been the CAARI Librarian since March 2021. Anthoulla has a BA. Hons in Archaeology and an MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Sydney, Australia. She is a scholar of Medieval Cyprus, currently researching the medieval sugar industry and is a senior team member of the Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project, having worked on the project from 1995.
Anthoulla is a Cypriot-Australian, growing up in Sydney, Australia. Trips from Australia to Cyprus, visiting family always included excursions to various archaeological sites on the island, which developed into a lifelong love of archaeology and the history of Cyprus.
She was previously the Administrative Officer and Hostel Manager at the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, in Greece and the Knossos Curatorial Fellow for the British School Athens. She has worked on various archaeological projects in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Romania and Jordan.
Executive Assistant Emerita
The Executive Assistant is Vathoulla Moustoukki, a Cypriot who has been with CAARI for over twenty-five years and who provides important continuity, personal commitment, and institutional memory.
