Nanno Marinatos was born in Athens in 1950; her parents were Aimila Loverdos and
Spyridon Marinatos, an archaeologist of the
Bronze Age Aegean.[1][2] Named Ourania after her grandmother, she was nicknamed "Nanno" by her father after a woman associated by ancient sources with the poet
Mimnermus.[2] Marinatos studied at the German School in Athens, from where she graduated in 1968.[3] She studied classical philology and archaeology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, receiving her PhD in 1979.[2][3][4]
Career
Marinatos is Professor Emerita of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she was previously Head of Department.[5][1][6] Prior to joining the University of Illinois Chicago in 2001, she taught at
Oberlin College, Ohio, the
University of Bergen, and the
University of Zurich.[2][3] She has excavated at the prehistoric site of
Akrotiri on
Santorini and at
Tell el Da'ba in Egypt.[3] She has published research on
Minoan religion, particularly on the roles of iconography and symbolism;[7][8][9][10][11] on Arthur Evans' excavations at
Knossos;[12] on the site of Akrotiri;[13] on the work of her father Spyridon;[14] and on
ancient Greek religion more widely.[15][16] She has been described as 'a leading figure in the area of interconnections between the ancient Aegean and the wider world of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and Egypt'.[2]