Who is the author?

Ioannis Smyrnaios is an archaeologist currently living and working in Athens. He was born in Greece in 1976, and his difficult-to-pronounce last name bears the signature of his Asia Minor descent. To his friends, he is also known as Yiannis, Yanni and Yan.

His early years

Ioannis spent his early school years in Athens, where he attended the 52nd Gymnasium and Lyceum of Kolonos, the former neighbourhood of the great philosopher Plato and the famous playwright Sophocles. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the glamour of Kolonos had significantly declined from its glorious days in the 5th century BC. Just like many other contemporary teenagers of working-class background, Ioannis suffered hardships until he figured out what he wanted to do in life, but most of all, until he managed to find an opportunity to fulfil his dream.

Ioannis began working at 17 in a washing machine factory. He joined the military a year later to realise the brutality of human nature and his complete repulsion to following orders. After that, he spent almost a decade wandering through various professional fields, including catering, accounting, and trade. His early education included vocational training courses in computing, accounting and finance, after which he obtained a Vocational College degree and a State Certification of Professional Skills as an accountant in 1998. He worked in accounting and finance for 5 years but decided to make a career change after discovering how boring and underpaid this profession can be.

From an early age, Ioannis had two passions: martial arts and foreign languages. In relation to the former, he has studied Kyokushinkai, Aikido and Aikijutsu. In relation to the latter, he has studied English, German, French and Italian, and during his adventurous life, he has managed pretty well with Dutch, Welsh and Arabic, although he never studied them properly. In the late 1990s, he started learning to play the electric guitar and, soon after, became the guitarist of an infamous heavy metal band, which dissolved in the mid-2000s without releasing a single album.

Studies and early involvement in archaeology

Ioannis was always attracted by antiquities and archaeological sites. After all, this is one of the great advantages of having been born in Greece: antiquities are everywhere around you! During his vacations, Ioannis always enjoyed visiting old cities, archaeological sites, historical monuments and museums with collections of archaeological artefacts. To him, history and archaeology were always another passion. From 2000 onwards, Ioannis became involved in archaeological digs, first as a volunteer and later as a site assistant. Even though his early work was seasonal, he participated in a number of excavations in Crete, Peloponnese and Macedonia.

In 2002, Ioannis applied and was accepted to the Greek Open University for the BA course ‘Studies in Hellenic Culture’. There, he studied a wide variety of modules such as Introduction to Hellenic Culture Studies; Greek History; Ancient Greek and Byzantine Representational Arts and Architecture; Public and Private Life in Ancient Greece and the Byzantium; Ancient Greek Literature; Modern Greek literature; Ancient Greek theatre; Ancient Greek and Byzantine Philosophy; European Philosophy; Music and Dance in Ancient Greece and the Byzantium; Archaeology in Greece; and finally, Modern Greek Theatre and Cinema. During his six years of study at the Greek Open University, he continued working full-time and practised archaeology in his spare time. His BA studies were also challenged by the sudden loss of his entire family and by professional misfortunes that followed shortly thereafter. With the help and support of a few good friends, Ioannis graduated from the Open University in July 2008.

After his graduation, Ioannis decided to leave Greece. He had already been travelling and meeting people through various international projects in the Netherlands since 2006. After many discussions with his lecturer and first mentor in archaeology, Ioannis decided that it was time to move on and seek an archaeological career abroad.

IIn 2008, he moved to the UK and started his MA degree in Ceramic and Lithic Analysis for Archaeologists at the University of Southampton. There, he was trained in the analysis of excavated pottery and worked stone; ceramic petrography, thin section analysis and interpretation; archaeological illustration; theoretical approaches in the analysis of ceramics and lithics in context; analysis and practical training in large ceramic and lithic assemblages, coming from a variety of archaeological contexts and cultural groups; recording methods; data analysis, presentation and publication; use of advanced archaeological software; and statistics. During his spare time, he attended modules in Osteoarchaeology (Advanced Human Skeletal Studies and Bones in Context) and Maritime Archaeology (Ancient Mediterranean Seafaring). He graduated from his course in September 2009 after submitting his MA dissertation under the title “An Investigation of Ceramic Production in Meroitic Lower Nubia during the Period of Roman Occupation in Qasr Ibrim”.

Between September 2009 and April 2010, Ioannis travelled to various countries and participated in a range of international projects that broadened his personal and professional horizons. He lived for a short period in Belfast; he joined a medical expedition of Médecins du Monde at the island of Crete and worked as a coordinator in the organisation’s mobile dental unit; he participated in British and German excavations in Sudan; and finally, he was chosen to lead the Greek expedition of Médecins Sans Frontières in Haiti, at the time when earthquakes had inflicted severe damages to the island and its population.

Academic research and international projects

In April 2010, Ioannis moved to Cardiff, where he started his PhD on Greek Early Iron Age pottery. His project focused on the technological study of Athenian Geometric and Orientalising finewares (c. 900-600 BC), in relation to the broader social transformations of the Attic Early Iron Age and the rise of the Athenian Polis. During his PhD studies, Ioannis engaged with archaeological theory, specifically behavioural analysis and the chaîne opératoire approach. He conducted ceramic analyses using advanced statistics and sophisticated microscopic techniques, including Thin Section Microscopy (TSM), Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF). He conducted extensive field research at the Athenian Agora in collaboration with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens; at the Kerameikos Museum in collaboration with the Greek Antiquities’ Services and the German Archaeological Institute at Athens; at the Museum of the British School at Athens and the Fitch Laboratory under the broader supervision of the British School; and finally, at the British Museum in London. He has three years of postgraduate teaching experience in modules such as the Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean Societies, Aegean Bronze Age, Classical Greece, Ceramics, Discovering Archaeology, Introduction to Greece and Rome, Great Discoveries in Archaeology, and Archaeological Illustration. Furthermore, he gained three years of valuable experience in community engagement as a coordinator in the SHARE with Schools outreach project; in archaeological excavations for volunteers and the broader public; in the CAER Heritage Project and the excavation of the Iron Age Caerau hillfort; in experimental archaeology workshops; and in laboratory-based archaeological demonstrations.

Ioannis’s PhD project was self-founded through personal hard work, while part of his tuition fees were covered by a bursary from the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. During his stay at Cardiff, he was employed in a number of part-time jobs offered by his Institution. More specifically, in 2010, he worked for the International Students Office, and between 2013 and 2016, he was simultaneously employed by the library services and the invigilation team. During his last two years with the Invigilation Office, he was promoted to Senior Invigilator Supervisor. When not in Wales, Ioannis continued being involved in international archaeological projects. In 2011, he conducted ethnographic research on contemporary Cappadocian pottery production at Avanos, Turkey. In 2012, he worked as a ceramics specialist in Egypt, and more specifically at the Bubastis excavation, conducted jointly by the Universities of Potsdam and Würzburg, and the Tuna el-Gebel excavation, conducted by the University of Munich.

On Guy Fawkes Day, 5th November 2015, Ioannis submitted his PhD thesis under the title “The Correlation of Technological and Stylistic Changes, and Society, in the production of Attic Geometric and Orientalising finewares (c. 900 – 600 BC)”. He passed his PhD viva on 29th February 2016, a day that is remembered once every four years. On the day of the British Referendum, 23rd June 2016, he moved to Ipswich, where he began his career in British Commercial Archaeology. He worked as a Senior Finds Officer for Suffolk Archaeology CIC for two years and was involved in the analysis and publication of a variety of archaeological artefacts, such as prehistoric and Roman pottery, fired clay, ceramic building material, worked and heat-altered lithics, shell, animal bone, iron, and ceramic and lithic small finds. Furthermore, he became actively involved in public engagement activities in Suffolk and Essex. On the day of the French victory against Croatia in the World Cup’s final, 15th July 2018, Ioannis moved to Milton Keynes, where he worked as a Finds Manager for Cotswold Archaeology for one year. His work included the analysis and publication of archaeological artefacts from East Anglia, the South and Central Midlands, and further West; the training of staff on archaeological finds and the reviewing of the company’s training methodologies; the development of new communication protocols and programming systems across the company’s offices; and finally, a variety of outreach activities in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. In 2019, he was offered a Teaching Fellowship at the Open University of Cyprus, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, for the programme ‘Studies in Hellenic Culture’. On 8th October 2019, 250 years after the discovery of New Zealand by Captain James Cook, Ioannis returned to his homeland, Greece, to reconnect with his past, continue his archaeological activities and expand his knowledge in new research areas.

Ever since, Ioannis has been actively involved in teaching, research and publications, in both Classical Archaeology and other disciplines. At the same time, he offers his services as a freelance archaeologist, artefact specialist, archaeological illustrator and archaeological consultant in Greece and abroad. He is actively involved in the study of 19th and early 20th-century material culture in Greece and beyond, with particular interest in the archaeology of World Wars I and II. He is engaged in the promotion, study and preservation of recent material culture in Greece, and the study of artefacts that fall under the broader umbrella of ethnography. These include post-Ottoman ceramics, building materials, furniture, early electromechanical devices, textiles, jewellery, ecclesiastical artefacts and recent works of representational art. Furthermore, he specialises in the study of early 20th-century military equipment and related materials that do not fall under the Greek Weapons and Ammunition Act.

During the subsequent quarantines of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ioannis experimented and expanded his knowledge and operations in other commercial fields. In 2021 and early 2022, he followed vocational courses and training seminars in freehand sketching, computer illustration, architectural design and photography. In February 2021, he founded the Greek Real Estate Investments Group, an online platform for property agencies and private landlords active in Athens’ real estate market. His involvement in real estate and property investments led him to a different appreciation of modern architecture and city planning, areas in which he has developed teaching materials and educational tours. In May 2021, he published his first book in Greek, titled “The Frappé Generation”. In July 2022, he published his second book in Greek, titled “The Meat Grinder”. Both books are social fiction comedies inspired by real historical events that satirise the life and experiences of a convicted senior submarine officer.

As if his studies were not enough, in September 2022, Ioannis enrolled in the Sivitanidios Public School of Arts and Vocations, where he studied Mechanical Engineering part-time for three years. In June 2025, he graduated with two specialisations: (a) plumbing and hydraulic heating systems, and (b) refrigeration, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Although his studies were fuelled by his curiosity and personal interest in engineering, his first specialisation proved useful in archaeology, an outcome that Ioannis never expected.

Recent years

From July 2022, Ioannis has been active in commercial archaeology, publications and business. He offers his services as a freelance archaeologist on housing and infrastructure projects in Greece and abroad, including a number of international projects, both academic and commercial. In October 2023, Ioannis became a consulting partner of the Ilisos Archaeology Group, which is the very first commercial archaeology unit in Greece. In April 2024, he was involved in the systematic excavation of three medieval kilns in Andalusia, Spain. In May 2025, during his encounter with Greek archaeology, he discovered and excavated, under extreme pressure, a Late Roman aqueduct site in Vrilissia, associated with a later extension of the Hadrianic Aqueduct of Athens. After personal effort and overcoming many institutional obstacles, the site was declared protected after its excavation. The same year, Ioannis undertook a solo archaeological rescue survey of one of Attica’s oldest prehistoric defence sites, covering a total area of 3.2 acres, where, despite his efforts, the site was de-characterised for development.

Just as many archaeological mercenaries do, during his involvement in commercial archaeology between 2022 and 2025, Ioannis suffered various injuries. During an excavation at a waterlogged site in 2022, he was nearly electrocuted due to a malfunctioning water pump. Today, he lacks two fingers, he suffers from elbow epicondylitis and shoulder bursitis, and has lost part of his hearing after prolonged exposure to machining noise. Disappointed by the Greek Antiquities Service and Greek developers in general, Ioannis terminated his involvement in Greek commercial archaeology in early 2026; however, he still offers his services as an archaeological consultant, illustrator and finds specialist abroad. Nowadays, he focuses on publishing his findings from past excavations and works seasonally as a tour operator and tour leader.