Demetrios Michaelides is Emeritus Professor of the University of Cyprus. He was born in Nicosia and studied History of Art and Archaeology at the University of London. He worked in Italy, primarily at the British School at Rome. In 1982, he returned to Cyprus and joined the Department of Antiquities as District Archaeological Officer of Paphos.
In 1992, he was appointed Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cyprus, and in 2000 he was promoted to the rank of Professor in the Department of History and Archaeology, from which he retired in 2014. He was the first Chair of the Department of History and Archaeology (1996–2000) and served as Director of the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus from 1996 until his retirement.
Professor Michaelides has directed excavations at ancient Berenike (Benghazi), Libya, at Otranto in southern Italy, and at the Abbey of San Clemente in Rome. On behalf of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, he directed systematic excavations at the House of Orpheus, the House of the Four Seasons, and the Triton Baths in Paphos, as well as numerous other systematic and rescue excavations in the Paphos district.
For the University of Cyprus, he co-directed the archaeological survey and excavation programme “Potamia–Agios Sozomenos” and continues to direct the excavation and research programmes at “Agioi Pente” in Geroskipou and at the House of Orpheus in Paphos.
He has presented his research at more than 150 international conferences and has delivered public lectures and seminars throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the United States and Australia. He has published approximately 170 scholarly articles and is the author or editor/co-editor of 20 books.
Professor Michaelides is Vice-President of the Association Internationale pour l’Étude de la Mosaïque Antique (AIEMA) and Honorary President of the International Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics (ICCM), of which he served as President from 1996 to 2014. From 2014 to 2018, he served as President of the Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation.
In 1988, he was elected Member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. In 2015, he was honoured by the President of the Italian Republic with the distinction of Grande Ufficiale dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia.
