Professor Christofilis Maggidis is a leading Mycenaean and Aegean Bronze Age archaeologist who has personally excavated at Mycenae for over two decades, work that places him among the small number of scholars who have spent their careers physically uncovering the world he now brings to life for travelers. He holds a PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania, earned with the support of Fulbright and other distinguished fellowships, and for nearly four decades has combined large-scale fieldwork with academic teaching and public-facing storytelling.
Christofilis’s classical formation began early, at the Classical Lyceum of the Anavryta School in Greece, before he went on to earn his first degree in History and Archaeology from the University of Athens. His research centers on Mycenaean and Minoan society, including pottery, architecture, religion, and the diplomatic networks that connected the palatial centers of the Late Bronze Age. He has directed and participated in excavations at some of Greece’s most significant sites, including Thera, the Idaean Cave, Archanes in Crete, and Glas, and currently serves as Field Director of two major active projects: the Lower Town Excavation at Mycenae, which he has led since 2001, and the Spercheios Valley Archaeological Project, underway since 2018. He has shared this research widely, presenting dozens of papers at international conferences and lecturing at institutions such as Columbia, Brown, UCLA, and the University of York, with further findings forthcoming in The Palatial Workshops of Mycenae.
Alongside his fieldwork, Christofilis built a parallel career as an educator, founding and chairing the Department of Archaeology at Dickinson College, where he established the Keck Archaeology Lab, complete with a hands-on dig simulator, and ran a celebrated field school at Mycenae for sixteen years. He now teaches graduate courses on ancient democracy, warfare, and diplomacy at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and leads a study abroad program that brings students directly to the sites and landscapes he has spent his career excavating, a perspective that shapes how he guides travelers through Athens today.
As President of the Mycenaean Foundation, Christofilis has spent over a decade building the institutions that support Greek archaeology for the next generation, from establishing a research center at Mycenae to forging partnerships with universities and cultural organizations around the world. But ask anyone who has walked the Acropolis or the Agora with him, and they’ll tell you it never feels like a lecture. He has a gift for turning the stones beneath your feet into stories, weaving the politics, the personalities, and the everyday lives behind the birth of democracy into conversations that are as warm and engaging as they are knowledgeable, the kind of guide who makes you feel like you’re exploring Athens with a brilliant, generous friend rather than touring it.
Our tours are physically active! Clambering around archaeological sites, castles, acropoli, and fortresses is an essential part of the Take Me To Europe tour experience, and stairs are everywhere in Europe! That said, this is one of our least demanding tours.
On our Cradle of Democracy: Ancient Athens Tour, you will need to be able to:
