The task of the Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens is to promote Polish scientific achievements and culture and to coordinate the activities of Polish researchers in Greece. The new centre has just been officially inaugurated.
Scientists have been trying to establish the Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens (PAIA) for over a quarter of a century. Until now, Poles could not conduct excavations in this country on their own.
When it comes to research projects in Greece, Polish researchers have so far been only participants – not initiators and main contractors.
PAIA was established thanks to an agreement signed by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, the University of Rzeszów, the University of Warsaw and the University of Wrocław. In terms of organization, PAIA is a unit of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (university centre).
“A key institution for Polish scientific research in the Aegean zone begins to operate. The Polish Archaeological Institute in Athens has included Polish science among the exclusive group of researchers who create knowledge about the cradle of our civilization, which is undoubtedly Hellada,” said the representative of the chancellor of AMU Prof. Bogumiła Kaniewska.