An archaeologist specializing in the Aegean Bronze Age, Maria's research focuses on some of the most important material evidence that has survived from ancient Aegean societies: seals and sealings. Her work approaches the objects as eloquent, albeit intricately complex, carriers of impressions of the Aegean world and attestations of the Aegean Bronze Age world view. Seals are crucial for understanding the societies in which they were produced and, by extension, for making sense of our own present. It's a way to better understand the material world then and now.
Maria's research interests include Aegean scripts and administration as well as the political and cultural geohistory of the Aegean. After years of work in Greece, Britain, Germany and Belgium, Maria is now directing the Minoan Glyptic project between Traditional Recording and 3D-Forensic Studies at the University of Heidelberg. She has been working at the archive for Aegean glyptic Corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean seals since 2003 and is the author of numerous publications related to seals. She is involved in several archaeological projects in the Aegean as an excavator and glyptic specialist and divides her time between Germany and Greece.