NIA's history

Left to right: Erik Østby, Knut Ødegård and the Institute's founder Øivind Andersen

The Norwegian institute at Athens for classical studies, archaeology and cultural history, inaugurated the 8th of May 1989, became the fourteenth “foreign archaeological school” in Athens.

The Institute was founded under the protection of the Norwegian Council for Higher Education, and is financed and directed in collaboration between the Norwegian Universities in Bergen, Oslo, Tromsø and Trondheim.

The main focus of the Institute’s activities has been the ancient cultural heritage, Greek culture, history, archaeology and language, but the Modern Greek culture plays a great part of our everyday work.

The Norwegian Institute at Athens is a resource in Greece for Norwegian academics. It also has as a goal, in cooperation with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Greece, to support and encourage contact on a cultural level between Norway and Greece.

To date the Institute has been under the successive directorship of five university professors, each choosing an aspect of the overall activities upon which to place a particular emphasis. 

One of the most important tasks for the Institute’s fifth director, professor in philosophy Panos Dimas (2007 - ) is to strengthen the scholarly side of the institute's activities by increasing the course portfolio, extending research to more areas and focusing on dissemination.
The latter involves spreading knowledge about the institute in Norway, but also highlighting the institute's scholarly and cultural presence in the host country.
At the same time Panos Dimas will try to make it possible for more scholarly areas from Norway to take advantage of the institute's facilities and expertise.

The research portfolio of the institute expands as the present director’s subject area ancient philosophy will now be part of the institute’s research activities. An important focus for Panos Dimas is also to revive the institute’s archeological activity in Tegea and a new program of excavations there is now under way.

The fourth director, the archaeologist and historian Knut Ødegård (2003-2007), faced the challenge of redesigning the role of the Institute in a Norwegian system of higher education that has been undergoing profound changes, with shorter and more intensive courses of study and new forms of evaluation. Educational collaboration on Bachellors- and Master levels with the Norwegian Universities was established, as well as continuing education seminar for Norwegian teachers

Ødegård also continued the Norwegian commitment to the archaeology of Arcadia. After the Cultural Scenery Project in Arcadia (1998-2001) succeeded in separating the old city in Tegea. Ødegård collaborated with physician Professor Tatiana Smekalova on research with the use of magnometer in the centre of Tegea (2003-2006).
Knowledge of urban planning dating back to around 550 BC, and new information of the city’s agora and strongholds were some of the major results of the project.

The third director, the philologist Synnøve des Bouvrie (1999-2002), received a mandate to consolidate and widen the Institute’s activities. This has found its expression in the hosting of international symposia and seminars on topics outside a narrow definition of the Classics, but inside the commitment of the Institute, for instance on myths and symbols, on myth motifs, and on the interaction between the Mediterranean countries.

During des Bouvrie’s tenure the Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary. The archaeological activity has been enriched by the "Greek-Norwegian Deep-Water Archaeological Survey" at Ithaki, jointly directed by Katerina Delaporta and Marek Jasinski. In 2000 the inaugural intensive Modern Greek language course was organized for a small group of Norwegian students.
 
The second director, the archaeologist Erik Østby (1994-1998), shifted the main emphasis onto archaeological excavation.
Active at Tegea in Arkadia since 1990, Østby continued his research there, now approaching publication.
The excavation at Petropigi continued. In his final year as director he brought a more extensive Norwegian involvement with Arkadia to fruition, the "Norwegian Arcadia Survey", under the leadership of Knut Ødegård.

A major event of the second period was the 1995 inauguration of the "Nordic Context.Scope.Library", the joint Context.Scope.Library of the four Nordic countries, created on the foundations of the substantial holdings of the Swedish Institute at Athens.
 
Upon the first director, the philologist Øivind Andersen (1989-1993), fell the load of physically establishing the Institute as a functioning institution, with premises, staff, and equipment.
He was able to purchase an important collection of books, known as "The Professor Johannes Triantaphyllopoulos Context.Scope.Library". Andersen emphasized the continued discourse with the Norwegian public on the desirability of a classic-humanistic component in Norwegian education and on the necessity and the prestige of a strong and active Institute.
This found its expression in a series of books containing contributions by leading Norwegian and Nordic scholars on classical themes (ancient Greek religion, the travels of Pausanias, life in classical Athens, and the historical and literary contact between Greece and Norway).

Parallel to this, the Institute organized lectures and symposia in Athens as within the framework of the customary scholarly offering to the wider public.
Under Andersen’s directorship two archaeological projects were initiated, at Tegea in Arkadia (led by Erik Østby), and at Petropigi near Kavala (led by Siri Sande).
 

The institute will always be a home for students and researchers from Norway and other countries, who would need to be in Greece in connection with their research and studies.