Petros Themelis was born in
Thessaloniki, the son of philologist and
surrealist poet , and brother of Dimitrios Themelis, who was a
violist and director of the . He completed his primary and secondary education at the
Experimental School of Thessaloniki. Themelis studied classical archaeology and
classical philology at the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 1955 to 1959. He carried out his military service between 1960 and 1962 and then became an academic assistant at the
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. During this period, he participated in excavations at Thessaloniki,
Pella,
Lefkandi on
Euboea,
Stratoni in the
Chalcidice, and the palace at
Vergina. In 1962, as a supervisor of the excavations in the funerary site of
Derveni, some twelve kilometers northwest of Thessaloniki, he saved the almost charred
Derveni Papyrus from being mistaken for a burnt log and lost forever. From 1963 until 1969, he was an
epimeletes for the archaeological service at
Olympia,
Attica, and Euboea. In 1972, Themelis received a doctorate from
LMU Munich for his thesis on
Frühgriechische Grabbauten (Early Greek funerary structures). The next year he was appointed
ephor of antiquities for the regions of
Phocis,
West Locris, and
Aetolia/
Acarnania. From 1977 until 1980, he was director of the
Delphi Archaeological Museum. In 1980, he was transferred to the newly created post of director of
paleoanthropology and
cave research. In 1984, Themelis became professor of classical archaeology at the
University of Crete, based at
Rethymno. As professor, he led the university's excavations of sector I at
Eleutherna in
Crete. From 1987 onwards, he undertook extensive excavations and restoration works at ancient
Messene. In this role, he published several books and articles, including studies of the works of the sculptor
Damophon of Messene that were found in the excavations. He was chairman of the "Society for Messenian Studies" and a corresponding member of the
German and . On 18 January 2005, Themelis was appointed a commander of the Greek
Order of the Phoenix by
president Konstantinos Stephanopoulos. Petros Themelis died at a hospital in
Kalamata on 27 October 2023, at the age of 87. He was buried at the archaeological site of Messene on 2 November 2023. == Selected publications ==