Professions

Manolis Andronikos was a Greek archaeologist and a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He was born on October 23, 1919 at Bursa. Later, his family moved to Thessaloniki.

He studied philosophy at the University of Athens and in 1952 became a professor of Classical Archeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Later he continued his studies at Oxford University with the famous professor Sir John D. Beazley (1954-1955). He came back to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1957 where he taught Archeology first as instructor and later (1964) as professor.

He was married to Olympia Kakoulidou and loved reading poetry, especially Palamas, Seferis and Elitis. He was the founder of a cultural group named The Art (Greek: Ç ôÝ÷íç).

Manolis Andronikos conducted archaeological research in Veroia, Naousa, Kilkis, Chalkidiki and Thessaloniki, but his main research was done in Vergina. The greatest moment of his life took place on November 8, 1977, when he made one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century: he found the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina in the prefecture of Imathia. The tomb was unopened and contained many invaluable items, such as the Golden Larnax .

The finds from this tomb were later included in the travelling exhibit “The Search for Alexander” displayed at four cities in the United States from 1980 to 1982. While the discovery is of great archeological importance, the identification of the tomb with Philip has been disputed.