Citizen and Monument. The Case of the Greek Island of Naxos

Abstract

Naxos, the largest island of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea in Greece, has been continuously inhabited from Neolithic times to the present and is full of architectural remains from all historical periods. Traditional settlements, castles, towers, numerous Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches, and several archaeological sites testify to its long and significant history.

The relationship between inhabitants and their archaeological heritage is multifaceted and of special interest. This article analyses the history of this relationship, the reasons that shaped its quality, the problems, and perspectives. It also explores the ways in which citizens, in this particular case the Naxians, participate in the protection of their monuments at a time when tourist development dominates the Naxian economy.     

MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE OF QUARTZ-TEMPERED CERAMICS: PART II,HERTZIAN STRENGTH,WEAR RESISTANCE AND APPLICATIONS TO ANCIENT CERAMICS*

Mechanical performance of ceramics can be measured by various techniques. Conventional testing usually requires multiple samples of large size and specific geometries and for this reason cannot be usually applied directly to ancient pottery. However, Hertzian strength and wear resistance can be measured on the same specimen, of small size, and it is shown that these tests can describe, to a good approximation, the basic ceramic mechanical propertics (strength and toughness). Therefore, these tests are proposed for use on archaeological specimens. An application on Punic amphorae found in Corinth is presented.     

ANALYSIS OF TILTING AT GOURNIA (CRETE) BY THE REPRESENTATIVE BLOCK METHOD: A GEOLOGICAL—ARCHAEOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE TO ANALYSE HISTORICAL TILTING*

The walls and floors of the Minoan settlement of Gournia (Crete) have retained a perpendicular relationship since their construction between 3650 and 2025 BC. Their present orientation indicates that they were tilted in unison in an east-south-east direction. This was established by the reconstruction of a representative block, of which the side planes and the base plane were defined by the present orientation of the wall and floor remnants respectively. Stereographic projection methods, derived from geological practice, were used to determine the geometric elements and the orientation of the representative block.     

INVESTIGATION OF ELECTRON PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE PEAKS IN SOME POWDERED GREEK WHITE MARBLES*

Within the context of white marble provenance research, 42 powdered white Greek marbles have been characterized using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Phase analysis was first carried out to separate calcitic and dolomitic marbles, then EPR spectra of Mnuc were studied. Investigation of other marble EPR spectra, especially around g — 2.00, led us to characterize five different signals. The intensities of Mn²⁺ lines permit the separatum of eight quarries into two groups, allowing a first discrimination, in the g = 2,00 region, only one signal has been found to be useful for provenance research objectives. The results are cheering and should lead to many other similar experiments.     

Casting Identity in the Cultural Tourism Industry: Greek Tourist Guides in a 'Mission' of Heritage Interpretation

Abstract

The focus of this article is on how identity on a local level is expressed through cultural heritage interpretation and negotiated in an environment of globalization, but also multiculturalism and promotion of locality, like the European Union (EU). Interpretation is public communication of perceptions and values attached to heritage, and a main component of cultural tourism. Tourist guides in Greece, where guiding is strictly regulated, have been confronted with the EU on several occasions. Through the examination of this conflict, issues such as rights of interpretation, the projected image and identity of place and people, otherness and identity realization, the role of education and especially archaeology in governing, as perceived by the Greek tourist guides, are examined and analysed in the contexts of audience, state and the EU.     

PROVENANCE OF MARBLES FROM NAXOS BASED ON MICROSTRUCTURAL AND GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION

A detailed quantitative microstructural study coupled with cathodoluminescence and geochemical analyses on marbles from Naxos demonstrates that the analysis of microstructures is the most sensitive method to define the origin of marbles within, and between, different regions. Microstructure examination can only be used as an accurate provenance tool if a correction for the second‐phase content is considered. If second phases are not considered, a large spread of different microstructures occurs within sample sites, making a separation between neighbouring outcrops difficult or impossible. Moreover, this study shows that the origin of a marble is defined more precisely if the microstructural observations are coupled with cathodoluminescence data.     

THE PETRALONA HOMINID SITE: URANIUM-SERIES RE-ANALYSIS OF ‘LAYER 10’CALCITE AND ASSSOCIATED PALAEOMAGNETIC ANALYSES

Separate sublayers of the ‘layer 10’calcite from the Mausoleum of Petralona Cave, Greece, have been re-analysed by Uranium-series and palaeomagnetic methods. The results confirm earlier findings that the whole of layer 10 represents a long time span, from about 160 ka to more than 350 ka, the latter being the dating limit of the U-series method using alpha-spectrometry. The minimum age refers to the upper brown sublayer that is now believed to correspond directly to the brown calcite that cemented the hominid skull to the adjacent cave wall; there was too little of the skull calcite to date directly by alpha-spectrometry. The age shifts caused by making corrections for the amount of detritus in the sublayer are effectively insensitive to assumed initial values of the amount of common ²³⁰Th present. Consequently, the minimum age estimate for the skull is about 160 ka, in approximate agreement with several earlier estimates. Palaeomagnetic analyses of ‘layer 10’and underlying sedimentary layers showed that the magnetization is unstable and cannot be used as a basis for age control in the Mausoleum.     

THE ORIGIN OF BLACK‐FIGURE GREEK CERAMICS FOUND IN NAUCRATIS (NILE DELTA)*

At the site of the Greek trading port of Naucratis, located on the Canopic mouth of the Nile inland from Alexandria, Flinders Petrie and later archaeologists encountered sherds of Classical Greek black‐figure pottery. We have characterized the pastes of 14 of these specimens, drawn from the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, by neutron activation analysis and numerical taxonomy. The ceramics agree in composition with a reference group centred on Athens. We also investigated a small number of additional black‐figure sherds from other sites. One specimen, from Ruvo di Puglia (Italy), actually originated in or near Marseilles. There was no evidence for local manufacture of black‐figure pottery at Naucratis.