Olga Stavrakis

Olga Stavrakis holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Archaeology from the University of Minnesota (USA). An immigrant to the U.S. from Greece, she originally studied as a classicist in Greek history and ancient language. In graduate school she was offered an opportunity to explore and excavate the ancient Maya site of Tikal in the Guatemalan jungle, an offer that was too exciting to turn down.

There she met her future husband, archaeologist Dennis Puleston, and together they went on to map and excavate a number of previously unexplored Central American jungle sites, focusing on food production and population. They found evidence that these ancient cities were quite densely settled, counter to established belief. Modern archaeological surveys have confirmed their original conclusions, which Olga recently re-edited and published in the British Archaeological Reports.

Olga and her family spent the following eight years working in various parts of Central America, but returned to Minnesota following her husband’s untimely death in the field. While raising her two children she continued to work on issues of food security and resource distribution. She took on international development contracts with agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development as an extension of the work she and her late husband had begun.

During this time she also took on economic development projects in the Caribbean, Europe and in South America until in 2000 she closed her laboratory, retired, and went to sea. Without giving up her love of research Olga has been traveling and lecturing around the world, mostly on expedition ships. Her travels have taken her to West Africa, Mongolia, Russia, Polynesia, and other exotic places but she always returns to the Mediterranean.