Dissertation committee:
Δημήτρης Πλάντζος, καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας-Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ, Όλγα Παλαγγιά, ομότιμη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας-Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ, Αντώνιος Κοτσώνας, αναπληρωτής καθηγητής, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, Γεώργιος Βαβουρανάκης, αναπληρωτής καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας-Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ, Μαριλένα Παπαχριστοφόρου, αναπληρώτρια καθηγήτρια Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων, Βύρων Αντωνιάδης, ερευνητής Γ΄ βαθμίδος Ινστιτούτου Ιστορικών Ερευνών, ΕΙΕ, Δέσποινα Τσιαφάκη, διευθύντρια ερευνών Ινστιτούτου Επεξεργασίας Λόγου, Ερευνητικό Κέντρο «ΑΘΗΝΑ»
Summary:
This dissertation examines the archaeological sources from three islands of the North Aegean, Thasos, Samothrace and Lemnos, in order to document how material remains from these areas contributed in the formation and strengthening of both social memory and cultural identities.
The dissertation is structured in four parts. The first part (chapter 1) is about the different forms of social memory that have been "identified" by researchers in various fields of humanities. A brief history of research is followed by an attempt to answer the fundamental question concerning memory research: what is social memory and how is it related to other types of memory? The author does not intend to give an original answer to the question, but to clarify his attitude towards a concept that is his main research tool regardless of the cases chosen to be studied. The first part is based mainly on the cardinal works of Maurice Halbwachs, Paul Connerton and Jan Assmann. There are also references to Paul Ricoeur, Pierre Nora and Amos Funkenstein. Susan Alcock's work is a useful guide on how analytical tools, developed by the scholars above, combined with the archaeological material can give fruitful results, while the interconnection of the archeological record with the theory of sensoriality, suggested by Giannis Chamilakis, is also very interesting.
The second part consists of two chapters. Chapter 2 deals with certain aspects of the ancient Greek city, the structure that often constitutes the political and cultural context for research in classical archaeology. One part is dedicated to asty and the other to chora. The author concludes discussing briefly two theories of spatial analysis related to memory: the theories of Halbwachs and Nora. Chapter 3 focuses on two cases showing the interrelationship between memory and topography: ancient Thasos and the Sanctuary of the Great Gods in Samothrace. The analysis includes brief overviews of the topography of the Thasian city (archaic-early Christian times), the sanctuary of Aliki (archaic-early Christian times) and the Sanctuary of the Great Gods (end of the 5th century BC- AD), along with subchapters on aspects of memory related to representations, mainly ritual, as well as power. The theoretical analysis of the third chapter complements the theoretical framework, formulated in chapter 1. Two subchapters (3.1.6 and 3.2.6) are of a conclusive nature.
The third part is about ethnic memory. Chapter 4 is purely theoretical and sets out the links between memory, time and aspects of identity (social and ethnic). Based largely on Hall's seminal work, the author closes the chapter discussing briefly the role of ethnic identity in classical studies (4.7), as well as the role of oblivion in group formation. Chapter 5 deals with the cases of three ethnic groups, of which the presence in Northern Aegean remains largely problematic: Phoenicians in pre-colonial Thasos, Tyrrhenians / Etruscans in pre-Greek Lemnos and Aeolian settlers in Samothrace. Despite the fact that two cases (Phoenicians, Tyrrhenians) are about non-Greek ethnic groups, the narratives concerning them were part of the official past of the Greek colonists (Thasos) and settlers / cleruchs (Hephaistia).
The last chapter of this section (chapter 6) aims to enrich the discussion on memory and identities, using terms that come from ancient history and classical archeology. The chapter begins with the subject of multiple identities and ends with the concept of insularity. In between, the author analyzes mystai, theoroi and cleruchs as distinct identities that can coexist with others (ethnic, gender, class, cultural), widespread in the ancient world and more familiar to modern experience. The initiates of the Samothracian mysteries, as well as the theoroi, sent by the cities to the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, and the Athenian cleruchs of Lemnos are concepts emerged and developed within very specific cultural contexts. Moreover, in the case of cleruchy, scholars are unable to agree even on the content of the term. An attempt to combine the above identities with the concept of insularity is made just before the conclusions of the chapter. Insularity is also a distinct identity, which, although a modern construction, finds its place in the ancient world, thanks to the work of K. Kostantakopoulou. Two subchapters (6.2.2 and 6.3.6) set out the conclusions for each case study.
In the fourth and final part, the author presents his final conclusions. There are some concerns about the nature of archaeological material and our capacity to have definitive answers about the past. It is, of course, certain that the answers to this kind of questions have been given in more detail and depth by others, well known scholars. The questions themselves may be the subject of various texts, based on a bibliography that is simply impossible to tame here. For this reason, the conclusions in the fourth part are not discussed in general but on the bases of the two key-concepts of the dissertation, social memory and identity.
Keywords:
social memory, identity, mysteries, North Aegean, Thasos, Samothrace, Lemnos, Hephaistia, Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Phoenicians, Tyrrhenians, Etruscans
