Eleni Mentesidou

Born in 1981 in Kozani, she is a postgraduate student in the Department of Classical Archaeology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She spent her childhood in the village of Agios Dimitrios, where both of her parents are from. In 1999, she was admitted to the Faculty of Philosophy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in the Department of History and Archaeology. During her studies at the university, she conducted research on the history and folklore of Pontus. She is proficient in Turkish, English, French, Italian, and German. Throughout her student life, she was a member of the Association of Pontian Students and Scholars of Thessaloniki, serving as secretary and vice president on the board. From 2001 to 2002, she hosted a radio show focusing on the culture, folklore, and history of Pontus. In 2004, she earned her degree with a specialization in Archaeology and that same year, she entered the postgraduate program in Classical Archaeology. As a postgraduate student, she focuses on the region of Pontus in both her secondary and primary research, with her main thesis titled "The Archaeological Remains on the Southern Coast of the Black Sea from the Campaign of Alexander the Great to the Roman Conquest." Since the summer of 2005, she has been working as an archaeologist at the 30th Ephorate of Classical and Prehistoric Antiquities, while continuing her studies on the archaeology of Pontus. Finally, since May 2006, she has been a member of the newly established Youth Coordinating Committee of the Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece.