The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion is holding a lecture on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, as part of the archaeological exhibition EKATOMPOLIS: The World of Archaic Crete.

The speaker will be Professor Dr. Katja Sporn, Director of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens.

The lecture will be delivered in English.

Since the late 19th century, Crete has been at the center of archaeological interest. Arthur Evans’ excavations at Knossos revealed a whole new world, the Minoan civilization, and fueled international enthusiasm for the island. At the same time, English, Italian, French, American, and German archaeologists were also seeking a place in the excavation landscape of Crete, attempting to map the origins of Aegean civilization.

The lecture will present the persistent but fruitless efforts of Heinrich Schliemann, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, and Georg Karo to carry out a major excavation on the island.

Long before Evans, Schliemann had attempted to buy land in Knossos, Dörpfeld organized expeditions and designed the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, while Karo, enchanted by Crete, came close to starting his work twice before historical circumstances, World War I, and later the 1930s and World War II, put a definitive end to any plans due to the participation of German scholars of antiquity in illegal excavations in Crete in 1942, putting a long-term end to these efforts.

Their story is a fascinating tale of desire, hope, and disappointment, set against a backdrop of international competition and scientific passion, which shaped the course of archaeological research in Crete.

Katja Sporn
(a short bio)

She studied Classical Archaeology, Philosophy, and Ancient History in Heidelberg, Athens, and London (1989-1998). She received her doctorate from the University of Heidelberg (1998), with a thesis on sanctuaries and cults in Crete during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. She worked as a research associate at the German Archaeological Institute in Athens (2000-2002). She was a lecturer at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne (2002-2007) and then as an assistant professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (2007-2010), where she was also curator of the Archaeological Collection. At the same university, she was awarded a doctorate (2009) with a thesis on the tomb reliefs of the 5th and 4th centuries BC outside Attica and their social dimension. She was a professor of Classical Archaeology at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg (2010-2014) and since 2014 she has been director of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens. Since 2015, she has been professor honoris causa of Classical Archaeology at the University of Munich, and in 2016 she was a visiting professor at various universities in Australia. Since 2015, she has been organizing the German-Greek doctoral student meeting and the educational program in ancient topography at the German Archaeological Institute in Athens, teaching postdoctoral students.