Nanno Marinatos

Ourania "Nanno" Marinatos, born in 1950, is a Greek archaeologist. She studied the ancient Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete.

Marinatos worked as a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. She taught about Classics and the history of the Ancient Mediterranean world. She had a special interest in Minoan religion, learning about how people in old times thought about gods and spirits.

Her research made her an expert on the Minoans. Her work helps us learn more about the lives and traditions of these ancient people.

Early life and education

Nanno Marinatos was born in Athens in 1950. Her parents were Aimila Loverdos and Spyridon Marinatos, an archaeologist who studied the Bronze Age Aegean. Her father gave her the nickname "Nanno" after a woman linked to the poet Mimnermus. She went to school at the German School in Athens and later studied classical philology and archaeology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She earned her PhD in 1979.

Career

Ourania "Nanno" Marinatos is a retired professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. Before this, she taught at Oberlin College, Ohio, the University of Bergen, and the University of Zurich.

She has worked at important ancient sites like Akrotiri on Santorini and Tell el Da'ba in Egypt. Her research focuses on Minoan religion. She studies symbols and images, the excavations at Knossos led by Arthur Evans, the site of Akrotiri, and ancient Greek religion. She is known for her work on connections between the ancient Aegean world and areas like the Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and Egypt.