As the Chair of the Board of Directors at The Danish Institute for Mediterranean Studies (abbreviated DIOMEDES), it is a great pleasure to be able to present the collaboration between Acta Archaeologica and DIOMEDES, namely the first volume of The Monographs of The Danish Institute for Mediterranean Studies, which is published as Acta Archaeologica 93.1.
Since the founding of DIOMEDES in 1999 by Jesper Tae Jensen, the institute has co-organized two international conferences. The first conference Religion and Material Culture: Defining Religion, Religious Elements and Cultural Memory on the Basis of Objects, Architecture, and Space was held in Copenhagen, 4–6 May, 2011. The conference was hosted by BiCuM (Centre for Bible and Cultural Memory), University of Copenhagen and took place at BiCuM and the National Museum, Copenhagen. The proceedings with the title Religion and Material Culture: Studying Religion and Religious Elements on the Basis of Objects, Architecture, and Space were published in 2017 in Brepol’s series Antiquité et Sciences Humaines, and the volume was edited by Lisbeth Bredholt Christensen and Jesper Tae Jensen, who also organized the conference together with Pernille Carstens (BiCuM).
The second international conference, where my wife Lisbeth Kroer and I had the pleasure to participate, was hosted by the SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen, 4–6 May, 2012. The conference was held in honor of Prof. Emeritus Erik Hansen on the occasion of his 85th birthday a week later (on the 13 May 2012). It was a sheer pleasure to meet Erik Hansen as well as his life-long friend and assistant and successor as Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Prof. Emeritus Gregers Algreen-Ussing – both have dedicated their lives to architectural studies.
The conference was organized by Kristine Winter Jacobsen (Associate Professor, Classical Archaeology, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen), Peter Schultz (Scholar in Residence, Department of Visual Art, North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA), Spencer Pope (Associate Professor & Director of the Metaponto Archaeological Project, Department of Classics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada), and Jesper Tae Jensen. Kristine Winter Jacobsen, Peter Schultz and Spencer Pope are all members of DIOMEDES’ Advisory Board.
Many years have passed since the conference was held, and as everybody in academia knows, it takes hard work to organize and find funding for these academic events and the following publication process. It is therefore – due to all the hardship getting these proceedings of this conference published – a great pleasure for me on behalf of DIOMEDES to be able to thank the editor-in-chief, Inga Merkyte, and editors Søren Albek and Thomas Roland from Acta Archaeologica for all their incredible work in getting this volume published.
As a former member of the Danish Institute at Athens in 2004, my passion for the Classical world began as an exchange student studying International Law at the National and Kapadistrian University of Athens. What better place to study law than surrounded by the ancient law courts like the Areopagos, the Palladion, the Delphinion, and the Prytaneion! Now, 18 years later, being part of DIOMEDES, the institute has a small library at my Law Firm, Kroer/Fink Advokater, here in Copenhagen, where students can visit during office hours. Finally, DIOMEDES also has a monograph series thanks to our collaboration with the staff of Acta Archaeologica.
Søren Kroer