Evi Touloupa

Paraskevi "Evi" Touloupa (née Stasinopoulou; Greek Έβη (Παρασκευή) Στασινοπούλου-Τουλούπα; 8 July 1924 - 10 October 2021 ) was a Greek archaeologist and Curator of Antiquities of the Acropolis.

Early life and education Evi Stasinopoulou-Touloupa was born in Athens on July 8, 1924; her full first name was Paraskevi, abbreviated to Evi by her mother. She attended primary school in the neighbourhood of Kypseli, where she lived with her parents, and then attended the German School of Athens from 1936 to 1942: her father, an optician, chose this school because he travelled to Germany for work. She recalled later how, during the occupation of Greece in World War II, her father tried to withdraw her from the school to attend the free public school instead, but the director insisted that she continue to attend the German school for free. After her studies, she began working in 1950 as a teacher in the private 'Athinaion' school, as women were not allowed in the Greek Archaeological Service at this period. She then attended the Pontifico Istituto di Archaeologia Christiana in Rome for postgraduate study from 1953 to 1954, thanks to an Italian scholarship.

Career Touloupa's first archaeological job, which she began in 1955 after the removal of the prohibition of women working in the Archaeological Service, was as a research associate in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, where she worked unpacking and cataloguing antiquities which had been crated up and in some cases even buried for protection during World War II. She was given this job by curator Semni Karouzou, who noticed that she was an enthusiastic regular attendee of archaeological lectures, and, worked first of all with Agni Sakellariou in the prehistoric collection and later with Karouzou and her husband Christos on the bronze collection. In the 1960s and 70s, she held a range of positions in various archaeological Ephorates and museums around Greece, serving as a curator in the Ephorate of the Ionian Islands, Corfu (1960–63); head of the prefectures of Boeotia and Phthiotis, based in Thebes (1963–65); curator of the National Archaeological Museum's bronze collection (1965-1973); head of the Ephorate of Epirus (1973–75), where she was sent by the military Junta; in the Archaeological Museum of Eleusis and the Ministry of Culture and Sports (1975); and head of the Ephorate of Euboea (1976–79). After her retirement in 1989, she remained involved in the Council of the Acropolis Monuments Preservation Committee and the Council of the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum.

From 1990 to 2000, Touloupa wrote columns for the newspaper 'Ta Nea', which were collected in the books "From Pnyx to Pagrati" (2004) and "Past but not forgotten" (2008). An obituary in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini described her as "the great lady of archaeology... a truly heroic figure of the Greek 20th century".

Publications

Selected academic publications Τouloupa, Evi. "Bericht über die neuen Ausgrabungen in Theben (Report on the new excavations in Thebes)", Kadmos 3.1 (1964): 25–27.

Touloupa, Evi. "Une Gorgone en bronze de l'Acropole (A bronze Gorgon from the Acropolis)", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 93.2 (1969): 862–884.

Popham, Mervyn, Evi Touloupa, and L. Hugh Sackett. "The hero of Lefkandi", Antiquity 56.218 (1982): 169–174.

Vlassopoulou, Christina, and Evi Touloupa. "Decorated Architectural Terracottas from the Athenian Acropolis: Catalogue of Exhibition", Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 59.1 (1990): i-xxxi.

Touloupa, Evi. "RECHERCHES ARCHÉOLOGIQUES SUR L'ACROPOLE: BILAN DES CINQ DERNIÈRES ANNÉES (Archaeological research on the Acropolis: review of the last five years)", Revue Archéologique Fasc. 1 (1991): 210–218.

Touloupa, Evi. "RÉFLEXIONS SUR LES ANASTYLOSES EN COURS A L'ACROPOLE D'ATHÈNES (Reflections on the restoration in progress on the Acropolis of Athens)", Revue Archéologique (1994): 243–252.

Touloupa, Evi. Τα εναέτια γλυπτά του ναού του Απόλλωνος Δαφνηφόρου στην Ερέτρια (The pediment statues of the temple of Apollo Daphnephoros in Eretria). Archaeological Society of Athens (2002).

Collections of newspaper articles Από την Πνύκα στο Παγκράτι (From the Pnyx to Pagrati), Acropolis Friends Association, Athens (2004).

Περασμένα και όχι ξεχασμένα (Past but not forgotten). Oceanida publications, Athens (2008).

Memoirs Η ζωή στην Κέρκυρα, 1961-1962 (Life in Corfu, 1961-1962). Archive Publications (2014).