Ioannis Liritzis


Ioannis Liritzis is a professor of physics in archaeology and his field of specialization is the application of natural sciences to archaeology and cultural heritage. He studied physics at the University of Patras and continued at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1980. Since then, he undertook postgraduate work at the University of Oxford, Université Bordeaux III, University of Edinburgh and the Academy of Athens.

Academic career

Liritzis is professor of archaeometry-Natural Sciences at the Henan University, Kaifeng, China and was professor in Archaeometry & Natural Sciences at the University of the Aegean. He directed and founded the Laboratory of Archaeometry and Lab of Environmental Archaeology. Director and initiator of the Masters course Applied Archaeological Sciences. In the past he served as Head of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at the University of the Aegean, Member of the Senate of University of the Aegean and Member of the Executive Committee of National Recognition of Foreign Academic Diplomas. His prior career includes work at the Greek Ministry of Culture for five years and the Academy of Athens for 10 years.
He has made major contributions to several interdisciplinary research fields and his work has been published in scientific journals such as Nature.
Liritzis is a member of the Academia Europaea. He is also vice-president of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and a member of the World Academy of Art and Science.

Work

Liritzis is known for developing two novel dating methods. In 1994, he introduced surface luminescence dating, which extended the principles of optical dating and thermoluminescence dating to apply to carved rock surfaces from ancient monuments and artifacts. In 2002, he introduced a new approach to obsidian hydration dating based on the surface saturation layer and the SIMS profile of hydrogen. Both methods have since been refined and extended by other scientists including Liritzis and his PhD students.
Contributions in archaeoastronomy, in geophysics are also worth mentioning.
Initiator of Delphi4Delphi International Project.
He has written over 300 original papers in internationally cited journals and 9 books.
Many Greek and international magazines and newspapers have referred to his work, as has the Discovery Channel.
Liritzis has been elected as Membre Correspondant de l'Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon and Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, while since January 2021 is Dean of Class IV Natural Sciences in EASA. He was awarded the Prize of Academy of Athens for his Book Archaeometry: Dating Methods in Archaeology. Recently he was awarded the Costa Navarino International Archeometry Award Issued by the University of Peloponesse. He is a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Henan University Visiting Scholar at the University of California San Diego. He has been awarded the title of Honorary Fellow from the Edinburgh University, Scotland; Honorary Professor at Rhodes University, Dept of Physics & Electronics, South Africa; Honorary & Guest Professor at the Samara State Institute of Culture, Russia. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Northwestern Polytechnic University, Xian, China, a Guest Professor at the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou and a Distinguished Professor at Alma Mater Europaea University. He has been appointed as a member of the Yellow River Cultural Heritage Laboratory of Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
Liritzis is an editorial member of more than thirty International ICI Journals and is Editor-in-Chief of three
He is the principal investigator and initiator and coordinates the Aegean University Archaeological excavation project in Delphi & Kastrouli, regarding the Late Mycenaean site near Delphi, Greece.
The archaeology and history of Egypt was first officially introduced in Greek university curricula in the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean. It was back in 1999 and Prof. Ioannis Liritzis approved by Temporary Academic Committee of the DMS, that Egyptology was inaugurated as an academic discipline in Greek academia. Prof. Ioannis Liritzis established the Chair and in 2003, and managed the appointment of the first lecturer in Egyptology. Since 1998 official contacts between the Department of Mediterranean Studies, essentially formed by Prof Liritzis, and the Egyptian authorities, were encouraged in research, fieldwork, and education, through Greek and European funding. Through Prof Liritzis the Hellenic-Egyptian relationship in Egyptological studies in University curricula took off and has since then credited in plethora of publications and interactions. Prof. Liritzis has initiated many projects and Protocols of Collaboration between Egyptian Universities and the University of the Aegean. The Heritage journal has published an Honorary Volume upon Liritzi's retirement, highlighting his major contributions and establishment of the Egyptology chair in Greece, and his collaboration with Egyptian researchers on the study of cultural heritage in Egypt, with three internationally renowned Guest Editors.

Articles (selection)

  • Liritzis, I, P. Volonakis, S. Vosinakis, G. Pavlidis.G Cyber-archaeometry from Cyber-archaeology: New dynamic trends in archaeometric training and research. In Virtual Archaeology, Daria Hokk, Proceedings of the Second International Conference held at the State Hermitage Museum 1–3 June 2015 Saint Petersburg The State Hermitage Publishers, 38-40
  • Liritzis, I, Panagiota Preka-Papadema, Panagiotis Antonopoulos, Konstantinos Kalachanis and Chris G.Tzanis Does astronomical and geographical information of Plutarch's De Facie describe a trip beyond the north Atlantic ocean?. Journal of Coastal Research, 34, 3, 651-674 https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-17-00105.1
  • Thomas E. Levy, T. Sideris, M. Howland, B. Liss, G. Tsokas, A. Stambolidis, E. Fikos, G. Vargemezis, P. Tsourlos, A. Georgopoulos, G. Papatheodorou, M. Garaga, D. Christodoulou, R. Norris, I. Rivera-Collazo, and I. Liritzis At-Risk World Heritage, Cyber, and Marine Archaeology: The Kastrouli–Antikyra Bay Land and Sea Project, Phokis, Greece. In T.E. Levy, I.W.N. Jones, Cyber-Archaeology and Grand Narratives, One World Archaeology, Springer International Publishing AG.
  • Liritzis, I, George Pavlidis, Spyros Vosinakis, Anestis Koutsoudis, Pantelis Volonakis, Matthew D. Howland, Brady Liss, Thomas E. Levy Delphi4Delphi - Acquisition of Spatial Cultural Heritage Data for Ancient Delphi, Greece. Ιn Matthew Vincent, Victor Manuel Lopez-Menchero Bendicho, Marinos Ioannides and Thomas E. Levy Heritage and Archaeology in the Digital Age: Acquisition, Curation, and Dissemination of Spatial Cultural Heritage Data. Publisher: Springer, 151-166.
  • Tianjiao Zhang, Jiangsu Li, Junxin Song, Jikun Huang & Ioannis Liritzis Spatial pattern and correlation of archaeological sites and cultural tourism resources in Shanxi Province, China. Heritage Science, 13:290.
  • Georgios S. Polymeris, Maria Geraga, George Papatheodorou, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Tomáš Pluháček, Karel Lemr, Zhen Qin, Spyros Sergiou, Xenophon Dimas and Ioannis Liritzis Climate-driven versus anthropogenic induced erosion of the last 3000 years from an ancient lake in the Southern Phokis Plain, Greece. The Holocene, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836241275024.
  • Ioannis Liritzis, Sophie Cazottes, Thierry Douillard, Muriel Véron, Josep Roqué-Rosell, Carlo Marini, Partha Pratim Das, Alejandro Gomez-Perez, Athanassios S. Galanis, Stavros Nicolopoulos, Panagiota Manti, Junchang Yang and Xiangyu Zhang Nano–microcrystals revealed on Tang dynasty gilded bronze using advanced TEM–SEM and synchrotron methods. Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 15758. DOI: 10.1039/d4nr02030h
  • Liritzis I Advances in Geoarchaeology and Cultural Heritage: Editorial. Quaternary 2024, 7, 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat7040059.
  • Liritzis I Is Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Able to Foster Peace in a Turmoiled World? Herança – History, Heritage and Culture Journal 7.
  • Liritzis I and Andronache I A first use of the power law and growth rate of experimentally aged obsidian hydration for dating purposes: Part I. SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 101-134, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14274519.
  • Liritzis I and Andronache I Investigation of the power law dependence of obsidian diffusion temperature with hydration thickness and its obsidian hydration dating implications: part ii. SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1-24. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14369342.
  • I. Liritzis and I. Andronache Further investigation of calibration for obsidian hydration dating using aged high temperature and long‑term low temperature hydrated samples. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 17:164.
  • Jiquan Shan a, Junxiao Wang a, Lifeng Zhao a, Liang Cai a, Hongyuan Zhang, Ioannis Liritzis AnchorFormer: Differentiable anchor attention for efficient vision transformer. Pattern Recognition Letters 197, 124–131.
  • Liritzis, I Global ethics: self-critique and dialectics on unchangeable morality principles. Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences & Arts 2025; volume 4:63.
  • Liritzis, I Ioannis Capodistrias: a brilliant personality of modern Greek and European history. Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences & Arts 2025; volume 4:60.
  • Liritzis, I Critical issues in education and innovation. Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences & Arts 2025; volume 4:67.
  • Nedelcu, I.D.; Andronache, I.; Liritzis, I.; Ahammer, H.; Jelinek, H.F.; Gruia, A.K.; Peptenatu, D.; Radulovic, M. Spatial Epidemiology of Pediatric Cancer in Romania: A Decade of Persistence, Continuity, and Localized Hotspots. Pediatr. Rep. 2025, 17, 121.
  • Liritzis, I Thoughts on repeated past major climatic events, Cadmus Journal, Vol.5, issue 5.