About

Antonis Kotsonas is an Associate Professor of Mediterranean History and Archaeology at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from the University of Crete. His research focuses on the material culture and socio-economic history of Greece and the Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age, Archaic, and Classical periods, with broader interests extending from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period. Kotsonas has conducted fieldwork and finds research across Crete, the Cyclades, Euboea, Macedonia, and Latium, and engages in comparative studies across the Aegean, Italy, and Cyprus. He co-directs the excavation of the ancient Greek and Roman city Lyktos in Crete. His work engages with issues related to pottery and sculpture production and consumption, state formation, trade, identity, memory, and the materiality of writing, as well as the history of Greek and Mediterranean archaeology. Kotsonas has authored and edited several publications on these topics and has held academic positions at various institutions prior to his current role at NYU.

Research topics

• Archaeology
• History
• Literature
• Ancient history
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Art
• Visual arts
• Psychology
• Aesthetics
• Geography
• Law
• Philosophy
• Engineering
• Linguistics
• Mathematics
• Art history
• Classics

Selected publications

• Blackwashing the Greek Past: The Engagement of the Trans-Saharan Africans of Ottoman Crete with a Roman Marble Statue

  Journal of modern Greek studies · 2026-04-28

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract: In Ottoman Heraklion, Crete, a Roman statue made of white marble and embedded in a Venetian fountain was painted black and became the object of veneration by the trans-Saharan African community of the city. Criticized as "superstitious" by both bewildered foreign antiquarians and Christian Cretans of the time, and overlooked by historians and archaeologists until recently, the blackwashing of the statue and the associated African religiosity are indicative of alternative engagements with monuments of classical antiquity. The engagement in this case was not shaped by the dogmatic antiquarianism of white elite Europeans; instead, it was developed by Black people who were typically marginalized and often remain invisible and silenced in the textual record of previous centuries. This case highlights the politicized dynamics of whitewashing and blackwashing in constructions of the Greek past and classical antiquity; it also underscores the role of trans-Saharan African communities within the broader context of the Black Mediterranean.

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• <i>The World of Homer: Archaeology, Social Memory, and the Emergence of Greek Epic Poetry</i> . Michael B. Cosmopoulos. 2025. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. xix + 350 pp. $44.99 (hardcover), ISBN 9781009582889. $44.99 (e-book), ISBN 9781009582865.

  American Antiquity · 2026-04-14

  article1st authorCorresponding
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• BEYOND DAIDALOS: SCULPTURE FROM EARLY IRON AGE AND ARCHAIC KNOSSOS AND ITS REGION

  The Annual of the British School at Athens · 2025-05-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Crete has long been celebrated as the cradle of Greek sculpture. This acknowledgement relies partly on the literary ‘phantom’ of Daidalos and partly on the copious finds of early, especially seventh-century BC, sculpture from the island. Although Knossos and its region are prominent in the literary tradition on the works of Daidalos and have produced numerous early sculptures, this has largely been ignored. My paper addresses the problem and argues for the significance of the evidence from Knossos for the study of early Greek sculpture. The argument is grounded on the publication of three sculptures from the site: two mid to late seventh-century BC fragments of architectural sculpture and a head of a probably free-standing work of the mid sixth century BC, the last piece falling within the alleged Archaic Gap. By integrating art-historical, archaeological and archival perspectives, I study the character, style, dating and findspot of these works, and situate them within their spatial context and their Knossian and broader Cretan and Greek artistic context. The analysis establishes that Knossos and its region boast the fullest sequence of Early Iron Age to Archaic sculpture from Crete, hence they deserve a prominent place in discussions of early Greek sculpture for reasons extending beyond the textual tradition for Daidalos.

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• Social Change across the End of the Aegean Bronze Age

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-12-10

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  For a long time, scholarship on the end of the Aegean Bronze Age has been preoccupied with political, ethnic/racial, economic, environmental, and other change; however, it has rarely centered the discussion on social change. Drawing from anthropological and sociological critiques of social change, the Element compares the Greek archaeological record before and after the collapse of 1200 BCE, focusing on developments in the 12th to early 10th centuries, which are examined against the background of the Mycenaean palatial system of the 14th and 13th centuries. The seven sections of the Element cover the reasons for the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces; socio-political, demographic, and socio-economic change after the collapse; and the manifestation of this change in settlements, burials, and sanctuaries. The Appendix offers a discussion of the relative and absolute chronologies of the period, with emphasis on recent important but debatable suggestions for revisions.

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• 1.5. The Scope and the Methodology of the Present Study

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-15

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• 1.3. Previous Work on the Greek and Roman Pottery from Syme Viannou

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-15

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• Table of Contents

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-15

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Table of Contents

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-15

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme Viannou VII, Vol. 1

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-08 · 1 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  New insights from the archaeology and pottery of the sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme Viannou, Crete The Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme Viannou VII: The Greek and Roman Pottery presents in two volumes the Greek and Roman pottery recovered from the excavation of the sanctuary of Syme Viannou, one of the most long-lived and important cult sites of ancient Crete and the Aegean. The site, which is known as the Cretan Delphi, was dedicated to Hermes and Aphrodite for much of its history. The present study analyzes and catalogs 865 pieces, dating from across the early first millennium BCE to the mid-first millennium CE. Kotsonas integrates traditional typological and chronological inquiries with contextual considerations, macroscopic and petrographic analyses of ceramic fabrics, and quantitative studies. The resulting work provides detailed documentation of the pottery from Syme Viannou and explores its ritual and other roles within the diachronic panorama of cultic and other activities at the site. It also supports a broader understanding of the role of ceramics in sanctuary contexts by introducing systematically comparative perspectives on the evidence of pottery from other Cretan and Greek sanctuaries. Volume 1 provides an introduction to the site of the sanctuary of Syme Viannou and its history, and contains an analytical catalog of the ceramic remains.

  PublisherDOI

• 6. Appendix: Petrographic Analysis of Greek and Roman Pottery from Syme Viannou (by Eleni Nodarou)

  New York University Press eBooks · 2024-02-15

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
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Frequent coauthors

• Manthos Bessios

  5 shared

• Evangelia Kiriatzi

  British School at Athens

  2 shared

• Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos

  Université Grenoble Alpes

  2 shared

• Noémi S. Müller

  British School at Athens

  2 shared

• Xénia Charalambidou

  Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité

  2 shared

• Maria Roumpou

  University of Crete

  2 shared

• Jaime Vives‐Ferrándiz Sánchez

  Museu de Prehistòria de València

  2 shared

• Matthaios Bessios

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Classics

  University of California, Berkeley

  2003

• M.A., Classics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1999

• B.A., Classics

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1997

Awards & honors

• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship (2017-2018)
• Rising Star Award from the College of Arts and Sciences of t…
• Visiting Professor of the Australian Archaeological Institut…