Amanda Kelly

Amanda Kelly is an archaeologist specialising in Roman aqueducts and baths (with a focus on Crete). She completed her PhD in the School of Classics at Trinity College Dublin. Dr Kelly directed the project "Aqueducts in the Greater Iraklio Area (AGIA)" which was generously funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation (2021–2024). She is now embarking on a second project "The Roman Aqueduct of Lyttos" with her colleague Calliope Gkalanaki.

Dr Kelly was the recipient of a Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University (Autumn 2023). At Princeton, Dr Kelly prepared her book manuscript “Francesco Morosini's Great Aqueduct Project, delivering water to the city of Candia (Iraklio), Crete”. Dr Kelly has held residential fellowships at the University of Cincinnati (Margo-Tytus Fellow 2013), Harvard University (Fulbright Fellow 2004–2005) and the British School at Athens (Macmillan-Rodewald Scholar 2001–2002). She has also received various research grants and awards including a Richard Bradford McConnell Fellowship for Landscape Studies, British School at Athens (2008), a Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award (2004), a Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies Award, Trinity College Dublin (2003–2004), a Trinity College Postgraduate Award (1998–2001), Greek Government Scholarships (2000–2001, 1996–1997), a Government of Ireland Scholarship (1998–2001), a Modern Greek Scholarship, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1999) and an Open Scholarship Award, University College Dublin (1996).

While Fulbright Fellow in the Department of the Classics at Harvard in 2005, Dr Kelly was awarded a CUE teaching distinction by the Derek Bok Center. She was Fulbright Ambassador for UCD from 2016 until 2019, and has been a member and chair of the Student Award interview panel since 2020.

As a licensed archaeologist, Dr Kelly has been active in the field for over thirty years and has directed large-scale excavations in both Ireland and Jordan, while consistently working on a range of archaeological projects in Greece (mainly in Crete, but also Karpathos) since 1993.

From 2016–2021, Dr Kelly ran weekly classes for asylum seekers in the Direct Provision centre at Balseskin, as facilitated by both her School and the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland.

PUBLICATIONS:
PEER REVIEWED EDITED BOOK
Day, J., Greenlaw, C., Hall, H., Kelly, A., Matassa, L., McAleese, K., Saunders, E. and Stritch, D. (ed.) 2006 "SOMA 2004". Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology. BAR International Series 1514. Oxford.

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Kelly, A. 2026 Mehmet Ali Pasha’s Aqueduct of Kandiye (modern Iraklio, Crete). In Nikolaos Magouliotis (ed.) "Classicisms": Special issue for Architectural Histories journal.

Kelly, A., Moles, A and K. Gkalanaki forthcoming The Roman Aqueduct of Lyttos; a masterclass in hydraulic engineering. In M. Romaniuk and H. Köpp-Junk (eds) Urban Water in Antiquity.

Kelly, A. 2025 The Recent (re)Discovery of the Venetian Aqueduct Tunnel through the Fortification Walls of Canea, Chania in West Crete. Medusa. Svensk tidskrift för antiken.

Kelly, A. 2025 A Roman Villa at Myrtos – The 1973 Season. 5 Παγκρήτια Επιστημονική Συνάντηση ’Αρχαιολογικό ’Εργο στην Κρήτη, 21–24 Νοεμβρίου 2019.

Kelly, A. and O’Neill, B. 2023 The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a model for 19th-century Aqueduct Design. Annual of the British School of Athens 118, 349–397.
Kelly, A. 2022 The Enduring Springs of the Venetian Aqueduct of Candia (Iraklio) Crete; From a Roman Stone Pipeline to Morosini’s Venetian Bridge. Schriftenreihe der Frontinus-Gesellschaft 33 (Bonn), 117–158.

Kelly, A. 2021 Staging Martyrdom in the Roman Amphitheater of Gortyna in Crete. Journal of Early Christian Studies 29.1., 121–158.

Kelly, A., Feely, M., Lynch, E.P. and Rollinson, G.K. 2020 An Imported Flanged Bowl discovered on the Early Medieval site of Kilree 3, Ireland: a study in archaeological deposition and provenance using automated SEM-EDS analysis (QEMSCAN). In M. Duggan, M. Jackson and S. Turner (eds.) Ceramics and Atlantic Connections: Late Roman and Early Medieval Imported Pottery to the Atlantic Seaboard. Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery (RLAMP) 15, 25–38.

Nelson, M.C., Kelly, A., Begg, I.D.J., and Brenningmeyer, T. 2018 The Leukos Survey Project (Canadian Institute at Athens). In J. Crow and D. Hill (ed.) Naxos and the Byzantine Aegean: Insular Responses to Regional Change. The Norwegian Institute at Athens 7, 157–176.
Kelly, A. 2018 A Roman Aqueduct through the Cretan Highlands - securing the water supply for elevated Lyttos. In G.A. Aristodemou and Th.P. Tassios (ed.) Great Waterworks in Roman Greece. Aqueducts and Monumental Fountain Structures: Function in Context. Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 35, 147–169.

Kelly, A. 2016 [Journal Series no. 2014] Giuseppe Gerola’s Strange Cretan Bagni. Creta Antica 15, 101–126.

Coutsinas, N., Kelly, A., and Guy, M. 2016 Kouphonisi (Greece): a briefly vibrant harbour between Crete and Africa. In M. Ghilardi et al. Géoarchéologie des îles de la Méditerranée, CNRS éditions Alpha, 333–344.
Nelson, M.C., Kelly, A., Begg, I.D.J., and Brenningmeyer, T. 2015 The Early Byzantine Port at Leukos, Karpathos (presenting and interpreting the results from The Leukos Survey). Annual of the British School at Athens, 1–46.

Vogeikoff-Brogan, N. (with contributions by Amanda Kelly and David S. Reese) 2014 Ceramics, Glass, Metal, and Shell Objects. Mochlos III: The Late Hellenistic Settlement: The Beam-Press Complex. Prehistory Monographs 48. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
Kelly, A. 2013 Roman Bathhouses on Crete as Indicators of Cultural Transition; the dynamics of Roman influence. In A. Gardner, E. Herring and K. Lomas (eds), Creating Ethnicities and Identities in the Roman World. BICS Supplement 120, 129–164.
Kelly, A. 2012 The Cretan Slinger at War: a weighty exchange. Annual of the British School of Athens 107, 273–311.
Kelly, A. 2012 A Neo-Assyrian Relief in the Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities, Trinity College Dublin; a case study in artefact acquisition. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 112C, 61–93.
Rupp, D.W., Aravantinos, V., Burke, B., Burns, B., Begg, I., Nelson, M., Brenningmeyer, T., Kelly, A., Bonias, Z., Perreault, J., Karapanou, S., Haagsma, M. 2012 The Fieldwork of the Canadian Institute in Greece 2011. Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 12.1. LVI, Series III, University of Toronto Press, 129–141.
Kelly, A. 2010 The Discovery of Phocaean Red Slip Ware (PRSW) Form 3 and Bii ware (LR1 amphorae) at Collierstown in County Meath - an analysis within a broader framework. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 110C, 35–88.
Kelly, A., Politis, K. D., Hull, D. and Foote, R. 2005 Survey and Excavations at Ghawr as-Safi 2004. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49, 313–326.
Kelly, A., Politis, K. D. and Usman, L. 2005 Survey and Excavations at Khirbat Kazūn 2004. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49, 327–337.
Kelly, A. 2004–2005 In Search of a Roman Bathhouse in the Malia Area. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 128–129 (2.1), 607–627.

PUBLISHED PEER REVIEWED CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS 
Kelly, A. 2021 pre-publication editor and translator for Jérémy Lamaze and Maguelone Bastide (ed.) Around the Hearth: Ritual and Commensal Practices in the Mediterranean of the Iron Age, from the Aegean World to the Iberian Peninsula (Autour du foyer: pratiques rituelles et modes de commensalité dans la Méditerranée de l’Âge du fer, de l’Égée à la péninsule Ibérique). De Gruyter.
Kelly, A. 2019 Member of the Scientific Board for Aquam Ducere 3. Proceedings of the Third International Summer School, Water and the City. University of Padova, edited by Eugenio Tamburrino.
Kelly, A. 2012 Roman Finewares from Sector II Pyrgi, Eleutherna. Β΄ Παγκρήτια Επιστημονική Συνάντηση ’Αρχαιολογικό ’Εργο στην Κρήτη, 26-28 Νοεμβρίου 2010, 453–463.
Kelly, A. 2011 Occide, verbera, ure! “Kill him, Flog him, Burn him Alive!” (Seneca Epistles 7); The popularity, extent and duration of Roman Spectacula on Crete. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Cretan Studies 1–6th October 2006. Vol. 5A. Chania, 77–94.
Kelly, A. 2006 The Roman Baths of Mylopotamos: a distribution study. International Conference for Mylopotamos, Rethymno. October 2003, 239–252.
Kelly, A. 2006 Distributions of Cretan Aqueducts; a window onto Romanization. The 9th International Congress of Cretan Studies 1-6th October 2001. Heraklion, 391–405.
Kelly, A. 2006 The Impact of Aqueduct Construction on the Demographic Patterns of Crete. Cura Aquarum in Ephesus. The 12th International Conference on the History of Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering in the Mediterranean Region. Ephesus. October 2-10, 2004. Volume II. Leuven, 303–310.

PUBLISHED ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORTS
Kelly, A. 2022 Aqueducts of the Greater Iraklio Area (AGIA). Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens Newsletter 3.9, 2020-2021, 8-10.
Kelly, A. 2011 Archaeological Excavations at Grange 2, M3 Clonee–North of Kells motorway scheme, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. National Roads Authority. Final Report, 1–171.
Kelly, A. 2010 Archaeological Excavations at Grange 3, M3 Clonee–North of Kells motorway scheme, IAC Ltd. National Roads Authority. Final Report, 1–369.
Kelly, A. 2010 Archaeological Excavations at Grange 5, M3 Clonee–North of Kells motorway scheme, IAC Ltd. National Roads Authority. Final Report, 1–68.
Kelly, A. 2010 (Specialist Report) An imported Red Slip Rimsherd from Kilree 3, Co. Kilkenny (AR093, E3643) (N9/N10 Rathclogh to Powerstown), IAC Ltd. National Roads Authority.
Kelly, A. 2009 Imported Pottery (PRSW/ Bii ware): APPENDIX 10a. In R. O’Hara 2009 Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Collierstown 1, Co. Meath. A008/015, E3068. Final Report. M3 Clonee–Kells Motorway Collierstown 1. Contract 2 Dunshaughlin-Navan.
Kelly, A. 2008 Archaeological Assessment of the Castlewarden to Ballygoran Pipeline. Kildare County Council and Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. Final Report.