Det Danske Institut i Athen
Ινστιτούτο της Δανίας στην Αθήνα

The Danish Institute at Athens is both a research institution and a cultural institute. The Institute aims to promote research, education and culture in Greek and Mediterranean archaeology, history, language, literature, visual arts, architecture and cultural traditions.

We offer residencies to researchers, students, and artists among others and we organise conferences, concerts, exhibitions, seminars and courses. We also receive Danish school classes on excursion to Greece and help providing access to museums and archaeological sites.

Erik Hallager, 1945- 2024
Director of the Danish Institute at Athens 2004 – 2010

It is with great sadness that we received the news of Erik Hallager’s passing on 18 August 2024. Erik Hallager will be remembered for his significant research on Minoan culture and for his management of the Greek-Swedish-Danish archaeological project around Khania, Crete, including the excavations at Kastelli. His numerous publications on these matters constitute an important contribution to the field.
Erik Hallager was also important for outreach and communication of classics and archaeology in Denmark, as he, together with his colleague, Professor Poul Pedersen (University of Southern Denmark), in 1978 founded the popular science journal Sfinx, which he edited for five years.
Erik Hallager was educated as a historian at Aarhus University in 1972, was awarded the degree of lic. phil. in 1977 and became Dr.Phil. in 1996. The title of his doctoral thesis is: The Minoan Roundel and other sealed Documents in the Neopalatial Linear A. From 2004 -2010 he was an energetic director of the Danish Institute at Athens, and during the years 2002-2007 he was in addition adjunct professor at Aarhus University. During his directorship at DIA, Erik Hallager edited several volumes in the Institute’s monograph series.
Erik Hallager was a true Philhellene, valued and respected in Khania where he often spent his summers when working at the archaeological excavations that have yielded so much new and important information about Minoan culture. The project was originally a Swedish/Greek project, but at Erik Hallager’s initiative it also became a Danish one. He conducted the project in close collaboration with his wife, Birgitta Pålsson Hallager, who took part both in the excavations and in the subsequent publishing of the results.
The members of the Board for the Danish Institute recall with great pleasure a visit to Crete, where Erik enthusiastically gave a tour of the excavations and the archaeological finds there – all with his wry smile and a twinkle in his eye, accompanied by his indispensable pipe. We have lost a distinguished scholar, and our thoughts go out to his bereaved family.

Bodil Due and Per Kristian Madsen, former chairs of the Board for the Danish Institute at Athens