Washington University 
      Campus Box 1189 
      One Brookings Dr. 
      St. Louis, MO. 63130 
      ssymeono@artsci.wustl.edu 

Research Focus 

      I began my archaeological career at Olympia in 1959.  While a senior in college, I participated in the excavations at the site of the new museum.  I received my B.A. degree in History and Archaeology in 1960.  After serving in the army for two years, I joined the Greek Archaeological Service in 1963.  This was a prestigious position attained in those days—this is no longer the case—by successfully completing a week-long exam.  My very first task was a salvage excavation at the ancient city of Medeon, near Delphi, where I was in charge of the Greek team in the joint French and Greek project.  Subsequently, I worked as a curator at the museum of Delphi and the National Archaeological museum.  In the spring of 1964, I was sent to Thebes to supervise the extensive salvage operations during a period of intense construction.  I stayed there until July 1966, when I left for graduate work at Columbia University. My experiences in Thebes had a decisive impact on my career, changing my original specialty from Classical sculpture to that of a prehistorian of the Eastern Mediterranean.  I devoted a good deal of the next twenty years in sorting out the huge quantities of material collected at Thebes and published two books on this city.  My research has been interrupted for political reasons and at least two volumes of planned publications remain unfinished. 
      I received the Ph.D. degree in 1971, but began teaching at Washington University already in 1969 and have been here ever since.  My teaching evolves around the art and archaeology of Greece in the prehistoric and Classical periods, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, and to a lesser degree Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine.  For many years, I taught ancient architecture for the School of Architecture.  Since coming to Washington University, I participated in the excavations of Columbia University on Cyprus (1970-1974) conducted research in Thebes, and founded the Odyssey Project (1984 -) which aims at solving one of the oldest, most troublesome problems in Greek archaeology, namely the relationship between the Odyssey and the remains on the island of Ithaka.  In 1998 I received a major grant from the Packard Humanities Institute to continue research and excavation on Ithaka, and I am currently working on the excavation in the Cave of Nymphs.  Recently, I returned to my first specialty (Classical sculpture) and to my first site (Olympia) by completing an innovative study on the sculptures of the Temple of Zeus.  I am currently preparing two new books, The Masters of Olympia and Odysseus at Home.  In addition to my teaching duties, I am the curator of the extensive Wulfing collection of ancient coins, Gallery of Art, Washington University. 

Courses 

World Archaeology, Myths and Monuments, Homeric Archaeology, Greek Art and Archaeology, Art in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. 

Selected Publications 
 

1971	Recent Mycenaean Finds from Thebes:  Mycenaean Pottery, Ivories and a Workshop for Jewelry.  Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York.
1973	Catalogue of the Ancient Collections at Washington University (co-authored with Kevin Herbert and Zola Packman).  St. Louis: Washington University Press.
1973	Kadmeia I: Mycenaean Finds from Thebes.  Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 35. Goteborg: P. Astrom.
1985	The Topography of Thebes from the Bronze Age to Modern Times.  Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton University Press.