Petros Themelis, one of Greece's best-known archaeologists, died on Friday 27 October 2023 at the age of 87. Themelis had been in charge of the excavation and conservation of the ancient city of Messene since 1987. Petros Themelis was born in Thessaloniki in 1936 and studied Classical Archaeology and Classical Philology at the University of Thessaloniki from 1955 to 1959. He received his doctorate from the LMU Munich in 1972 with the thesis »Early Greek Funerary Monuments«.
Petros Themelis carried out excavations in Akovitika in Messinia (1969), Epitalio in Ileia (1966–1968), Kallio in Fokida (1976–1980) and in Eretria (1974–1985). From 1980 to 1984 he was head of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology, and from 1984 to 2004 Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Crete in Rethymno. In 1986, the Archaeological Society at Athens assigned him the excavations and conservation of the site of Ancient Messene in the Peloponnese, a work that continued until his death. Themelis has written numerous monographs and articles on the city.
In January 2005, he was awarded the golden Commander of the Order of Phoenix medal by President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos for his teaching, scientific and excavation work. He was chairman of the Society for Messenian Studies and a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and the Austrian Archaeological Institute.