
Rank:Associate Professor
Sector:Archaeology
Telephone: 2310997310
Fax: 2310997775
Email: sval@hist.auth.gr
Cooperation Hours: TU 9:00-10:30 WE 9:00-10:30
Office: 304
Short CV:
I was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in January 1965. My career at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki began as a lecturer in 2002 and since December 2018 I am Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology. Since 2017 I am the director of LIRA (EDAE), the Departmental Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology (http://edae.hist.auth.gr/). I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at my University as well as at universities abroad such as the University of Sheffield, the University of Nottingham in the UK, the Autonoma University in Barcelona, Spain, the University of Sorbonne (Paris I) in France and the university of Berkeley in U.S.A.
I completed my undergraduate studies in Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1987 and then my Master of Science (1989) and my PhD (2001) at the University of Sheffield under the supervision of Professor Glynis Jones. I have studied cultivation and grazing practices in prehistoric northern Greece, the relationship of neolithic people with their natural environment and built space, prehistoric cuisine with special emphasis on the plant food ingredients as well as with the use of special foods such as alcohol and medicinal plants. In the context of my university teaching as well as before that, I have trained a large number of students from Greece and abroad in Archaeobotany and in techniques for the retrieval of bioarchaeological remains in the field. I am responsible for the study and publication of archaeobotanical assemblages from a large number of archaeological sites in Greece and abroad (see full CV).
In 2016 I succeeded in being awarded funding for research by the European Research Council (ERC) for implementing my research project PlantCult with a total budget for AUTh of 1.689.000 euros. The project investigates the food cultures of ancient Europe (http://plantcult.web.auth.gr/index.php/en/). In 2013 I organised at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki the 16th Conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany with 300 participants from all over the world (http://iwgp-2013.web.auth.gr/). I have published two books, one monograph and I have edited three volumes. I have authored more than a hundred scientific papers in peer review journals and edited books, I have participated in international and national conferences with more than a hundred papers, often in collaboration with my students. I particularly enjoy connecting current culinary practices with those of the past as the latter are revealed through the charred plant food remains contained in archaeological debris.
My scientific career has run parallel to the birth of my two children and as a result I am fully aware of the multiple difficulties that women researchers encounter. I am active on issues on gender equality and sexual harassment as representative of the School of History and Archaeology at the committee of the Faculty of Philosophy.
http://plantcult.web.auth.gr
Excavations Research:
Εξωτερικό: Σελινούντας, Σικελία, Πανεπιστήμιο Νέας Υόρκης, Ινστιτούτο Καλών Τεχνών, Uğurlu, Ίμβρος, Πανεπιστήμιο Αδριανούπολης, Τμήμα Αρχαιολογίας./Ελλάδα: Άγιος Βασίλειος, Ανάργυροι, Αξός, Αρκαδικός Δράμας, Αρχοντικό Γιαννιτσών, Άψαλος, Βεργίνα, Γαλήνη, Γιαννιτσά Β, Θέρμη Β, Κρεμαστή Κοζάνης, Κλείτος Κοζάνης, Μακεδονία, Λιμενάρια, Μάκρη, Μακρύγιαλος, Μαυροπηγή-Φυλλοτσαΐρι, Μήτρου, Ντικιλί Τας, Πάνακτον, Προμαχώνας-Topolnitsa, Σκάλα Σωτήρος, Σκάρκος, Τούμπα Θεσσαλονίκης
Εξωτερικό: Σελινούντας, Σικελία, Πανεπιστήμιο Νέας Υόρκης, Ινστιτούτο Καλών Τεχνών, Uğurlu, Ίμβρος, Πανεπιστήμιο Αδριανούπολης, Τμήμα Αρχαιολογίας./Ελλάδα: Άγιος Βασίλειος, Ανάργυροι, Αξός, Αρκαδικός Δράμας, Αρχοντικό Γιαννιτσών, Άψαλος, Βεργίνα, Γαλήνη, Γιαννιτσά Β, Θέρμη Β, Κρεμαστή Κοζάνης, Κλείτος Κοζάνης, Μακεδονία, Λιμενάρια, Μάκρη, Μακρύγιαλος, Μαυροπηγή-Φυλλοτσαΐρι, Μήτρου, Ντικιλί Τας, Πάνακτον, Προμαχώνας-Topolnitsa, Σκάλα Σωτήρος, Σκάρκος, Τούμπα Θεσσαλονίκης
Selected Publications:
- Valamoti, S.M. 2011. Ground cereal food preparations from Greece: the prehistory and modern survival of traditional Mediterranean ‘fast foods’. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 3 (1): 19-39)
- Valamoti, S.M., Moniaki, A., Karathanou, A. 2011. An investigation of processing and consumption of pulses among prehistoric societies: archaeobotanical, experimental and ethnographic evidence from Greece. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20,5, 381-396.
- Valamoti, S.M., Samuel, D., Bayram, M., Marinova, E. 2008. Prehistoric cereal foods from Greece and Bulgaria: Investigation of starch microstructure in experimental and archaeological charred remains. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17, suppl. 1, 265-276.
- Valamoti, S.M. 2007. Detecting seasonal movement from animal dung. An investigation in Neolithic northern Greece. Antiquity 81, 1053-1064.
- Valamoti, S.M., Mangafa, M., Koukouli-Chrysanthaki, Ch., Malamidou, D. 2007. Grape-pressings from northern Greece: the earliest wine in the Aegean? Antiquity 81, 54-61.
- Valamoti, S.M. and Charles, M. 2005. Distinguishing food from fodder through the study of charred plant remains: an experimental approach to dung-derived chaff. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14, 528-533.
- Valamoti, S.M. 2002. Food remains from Bronze Age Archondiko and Mesimeriani Toumba in northern Greece? Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 11, 17-22