Greece

As early as the sixth century BC, human physiology and medicine were fields that had drawn the interest of philosophers and practitioners such as Democedes, Alkmaeon and Hippocrates. During the Roman era Galen of Pergamum was the scientist whose work influenced anatomy for a number of centuries to come. What sets Galen apart from others were his dissections on monkeys, a practice that gave him the power to correct and redefine many aspects of anatomy, neurology, osteology and pathology (Nutton 1973). In Modern Greece, the father of physical anthropology is considered to be Klon Stephanos

(1854-1915), a medical doctor educated in France. His work, and his friendship with Paul Broca, the famous French surgeon and physical anthropologist, had been very important in his research interests. After coming to Greece in 1885 to study archaeological skeletons from Arcadia, he established the Anthropological Museum at the University of Athens a year later. Along with his contemporaries Michael Apostolides and Georgios Neophytos, also physicians by training, he was engaged in analysing skeletons recovered from archaeological excavations (Agelarakis 1995). After the death of Stephanos in 1915, Ioannis Koumaris became the director of the Anthropological Museum and the first professor of physical anthropology in Greece, at the University of Athens. As a medical doctor, Koumaris had been trained for a short period in Berlin. In the 1960s he invited back to Greece Aris Poulianos, who conducted palaeontological studies at the Petralona cave in northern Greece (Agelarakis 1997; Poulianos 1983). Poulianos was an anthropologist educated in the USA and the Soviet Union, and served on the Directing Committee of the newly founded University of Patra. After the fall of the dictatorship in Greece (1967-74), Poulianos was able to establish the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture (Poulianou 2006). Until that time, anthropology in Greece had focused on providing evidence of the biological continuity between the ancient Greeks and the modern inhabitants of the country (Roberts et al. 2005). Among the international scholars, J.L. Angel, an academic with an interest in the history of

the eastern Mediterranean, undertook a number of studies in the middle of the 20th century on Greek skeletal collections. His interest initially was on population movement, but this was later replaced by work on palaeopathology (Angel 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967). Another very important

work on palaeopathology is that of Grmek (1983), who combined information from written sources with skeletal data in an attempt to reconstruct the health profile of the ancient Greeks. In the past 40 years, other anthropologists have emerged in Greek academia, some educated

locally and some who have been trained abroad, mainly in Germany and North America. The vast majority of these scholars have a background in either medicine or biology. They include Konstantinos Zafeiratos, Theodoros Pitsios, Nikolaos Xirotiris, Paris Pavlakis, Antonios Bartsiokas and Sotiris Manolis. Currently, there are many students who are conducting doctoral studies in anthropology in Greece, in addition to those who are educated in other countries. It is also noteworthy to mention that there are anthropologists of Greek descent who live and work abroad. Among them are two of the better known physical anthropologists in the USA: Anagnosti Agelarakis and George Armelagos. Largely due to the fact that a number of scholars have been trained abroad, thus creating a

link for collaborations between institutions from Greece and other countries (see, e.g., Lagia 1993; Triantaphyllou 1998, 2000; Tsaliki 2003, 2004; Vanna 2005, 2007), research in physical anthropology in Greece has grown significantly in recent years. Another important factor is the increasing awareness among archaeologists in the country of the value of information that can be obtained through anthropology. In addition, foreign archaeological schools have been established in Greece and, along with universities from a number of different countries, they conduct excavations every year at sites throughout the country. Greek institutions are also actively involved in the Global History of Health Project, led by

Ohio State University in the USA. This project is aimed at documenting and interpreting the history of human health in Europe from the late Palaeolithic period to the 20th century (Steckel et al. 2009). Another contribution of Greek physical anthropology is the hosting of the 16th Paleopathology Association Meeting which took place in 2006 in Santorini, Greece. Today, some of the most important research units in Greece include:

Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace The Laboratory of Anthropology of the Department of History and Ethnology was established in 1993 and its facilities are located on the campus in the city of Komotini. Its present director is Professor Dr N. Xirotiris, a medical doctor. The laboratory is mainly oriented to physical anthropology in areas such as human evolution, dermatoglyphics, biochemical genetic markers and anthropometric traits (Xirotiris 1980; Chlorokosta et al. 2006). However, the laboratory has close ties with socio-cultural anthropology, human ecology and demography, in an effort to follow the North American model of a holistic approach. Indicative of the scope of the laboratory is the fact that it includes research groups in biochemistry, osteology, dermatoglyphics, demography and genealogy.