ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS

In 2011, the institute received a collection of casts of Minoan and Mycenaean seals, as a donation from Dr.Erik Hallager, former director of the Danish Institute.

The collection consists of 724 impressions in modeling wax of mainly the backs of Minoan and Mycenaean seals. The collection is a result of Dr.Hallager's research into Minoan and Mycenaean seal systems since the mid-1980s.

Most of the prints are collected in the archaeological museums of Heraklion, Ag.Nikolaos (Petras) and Khania but the collection also contains prints from the museum in Rethymnon, the National Museum in Athens, the Archaeological Museum in Thebes, the Pigorini Museum in Rome and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Two series of impressions are complete: the hieroglyphic archive at Petras and the packet nodules from Khania, while the remaining impressions form a representative collection of seals from all major sites where they have been found. The collection, which is arranged in trays according to the system indicated on the right and sub-divided according to localities, is available for study at the Institute.

Together with the collection, there are all relevant publications (apart from the CMS volumes) and a database in excel. A PDF version of the database can be downloaded here.

The collection consists of 724 prints:

• Backs of Mycenaean seals: 211
• Backs of Minoan seals: 202
• The hieroglyphic archive of Petras, Siteía 216
  • Seals: 76
  • Inscriptions: 2
  • Back sides: 138
• Impressions and casts of seals and seal impressions: 60
• Miscellaneous: 35

The Dimitris Christodoulou Archive

The Danish Institute at Athens has been entrusted with the complete personal archive of the Greek poet, lyricist, playwright, and author, Dimitris Christodoulou.

Dimitris Christodoulou was born in Athens in 1924 and passed away on 4 March 1991. He studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theatre and also studied Political Science at Panteion University in Athens. During the German occupation he became a member of EAM (The National Liberation Front), and in 1944-45 was held captive for three months by the English in the “El Daba” camp in Egypt.

His work first appeared publicly in 1952 in the magazine Makedonika Grammata (Macedonian Letters), where his poem Nychtofylakas (Night watch) was published.

In the period 1967-72, Dimitris Christodoulou lived in Paris. He published 27 collections of poetry, 15 novels and five short stories, and wrote 13 theatrical plays.

He also made a vast contribution to the Greek treasury of song as a lyricist, writing some of the most important songs in the Greek repertoire, put to music by great composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarchakos, Manos Loizos, Christos Leontis, Nikos Mamangakis, and Notis Mavroeidis, as well as Linos Kokkotos, Mimis Plessas, Giorgos Zampetas and Kostas Chatzis.

Source: Rizospastis (newspaper)

The archive and all its contents can be accessed at the Nordic Library

This catalogue is a guide to the contents of the archive. The catalogue, which is in Greek, is intended as a quick guide, and is divided into 13 categories:

• Poetry
• Prose
• Theatre
• Press (written and AV material)
• LPs
• Professional correspondence
• Private correspondence
• Songs
• Chronicles
• Published and unpublished articles
• Scores
• Musical events with songs or participation of Dimitris Christodoulou
• Theatrical activities – staged performances

The archive covers the years 1954-91, and is organized chronologically within each category. It consists of both typed (ΔΦ) and handwritten (ΧΦ) material (in bound books), photographs, LPs and electronic AV material.

The Archive is catalogued by Antonis Petrakos. The full catalogue is available here.

In 1999 the Danish Institute at Athens received 34 large parcels containing the material that was to become the Nicolas and Elena Calas Archive.

The parcels, containing material on the Greek-American surrealist poet and art historian Nicolas Calas, had been sent from the Lousiana Museum of Modern Art north of Copenhagen, where they had been stored for almost ten years.

The material, which consists of e.g. letters, essays, articles and photos, has been organised and catalogued and can now be consulted in the reading room of the Nordic Library.

Nicolas Calas (Νίκολας Κάλας) was a major contributor to the diffusion and evolution of the avant-garde, with essays on literature, politics, art and cinema. An active member of the French surrealist group since 1937, he settled in Paris and published his first collection of essays, encouraged by André Breton. His arrival in New York in 1940 plays an important role in the dissemination of surrealism in the United States.

A short catalogue of the Calas Archive is available at the Nordic Library website and the full Calas archive catalogue (in pdf format) can be downloaded by clicking here.