Vathoulla Moustoukki

Vathoulla Moustoukki began at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia in 1978 by answering the telephone. Stuart Swiny described her career in remarks made when he presented her with the W.F. Albright Service Award of the American Schools of Oriental Research at the 2004 annual meeting in San Antonio¹.

According to Swiny, she rose from answering the phone to the posts of Secretary and Administrative Assistant, and acted as de facto Director when the Director was away. He said that she had worked for six Directors and two Assistant Directors since 1978¹. He also reported that a Director of the Department of Antiquities had told him she was the first person he would ask about the whereabouts of a foreign researcher working on a Cypriot topic¹.

Swiny said that she is not an archaeologist, but that from the 1980s she periodically worked with him in the field; he did not name the sites¹. James Muhly wrote of her service in a letter read out at the presentation, and friends of the institute raised a fund in her honour¹. The issue that printed the remarks gave the award as one for 25 years of service on its contents page, while Swiny's speech dates her service from 1978¹.

CAARI's own publications name her by title. The newsletter for autumn 2002 names her as Administrator during the directorship of Robert Merrillees². In 2010 she led the planning committee for the institute's conference on Byzantine Cyprus, held in Nicosia, with Evi Karyda, and the published volume thanks her for it³. The same acknowledgements thank Andrew McCarthy as the institute's director³.