AIA-3D: Restoration, Conservation and Enhancement of Archaeological Sites and Monuments in Greece in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (Colloquium)

Sponsored by:

Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

Organizers

Anastasia Gadolou, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

Discussants

John K. Papadopoulos, University of California, Los Angeles; and Vicky Vlachou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Overview Statement

Culture is the fourth pillar of sustainable development since the triple-bottom-line dimensions of economic, environmental, and social do not seem to be enough to reflect the complexity of contemporary society.

Furthermore, the preservation, protection, and enhancement of the cultural heritage supports the protection of the environment and the development of the society in an economic and ethical scale. A basic issue of the world’s sustainability in general is the safeguard of the tangible and intangible cultural characteristics of a society. The nexus between culture and development was studied in particular during the UNESCO Decade of Culture and Development (1988–1997), resulting in the WCCD Report “Our Creative Diversity.” The Helsinki Declaration of 1996 on the political dimension of cultural heritage conservation recognized cultural heritage as an economic factor for local development. A landmark event in this process has been the integration of culture in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015 (Agenda 2030, Target 11.4).

For the fulfillment of the above a proper management plan is a prerequisite with the main task to propose the measures that the application of which will contribute to the preservation of the tangible and intangible characteristics and values of each archaeological site and monument. Cultural heritage management is about striking a balance between developing the tourism industry, generating revenue while still conserving the physical integrity of sites, promoting and celebrating their educational, historic and cultural values. The main limit of cultural management of an archaeological site is the effects of time on monuments.

In Greece there is a well-articulated administrative organization in the national as well as the regional level (first and second level local government) that offers the possibility for all stakeholders to collaborate in programs for the protection and enhancement of the archaeological sites and monuments according to the legislation governing the protection of antiquities: Law 4858/2021 “Ratification of the Code for Legislation on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General.”

Various actions, such as scientific documentation, conservation, and consolidation works, are being conducted on a regular basis to prevent future degradation, always in accordance with approved research mainly organized and managed by the Ephorates of Antiquities, the regional services of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, under the auspices of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage. Interventions, some of which are preventative (shelters), and others which aim to preserve the monuments’ integrity (restoration and consolidation projects, maintenance-conservation work, etc.), are a prerequisite for the consolidation of the state of preservation of the monuments and of course a prerequisite in order for archaeological sites to become open to the public.

The Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments, a very specialized service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, is charged with preparing, approving and executing studies for the conservation, prevention, cleaning, restoration and aesthetic presentation of monuments. They, along with the Directorate for the Restoration of Ancient Monuments, who is responsible also for their architectural investigation and documentation, are both responsible for applying preventive conservation according to the international conventions on restoration, especially the Venice Charter (https://www.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf).

The improvement of the archaeological sites and monuments, the enhancement of their character as a social good, and the protection of their existing monumental values, so that they may be transferred to future generations, are some of the main objectives that should be put forward when forming a strategy for securing the role of cultural heritage in achieving sustainable development.

Thankfully, in Greece, all scientific studies for the protection of monuments (according to article 40 of the archaeological law) that are drawn up, are financed on a regular basis. NSRF, the program’s community funds, have in a regular base and since the 1990s been allocated to cofinanced projects for the protection, promotion, and enhancement of cultural heritage (http://ep.culture.gr). Thus, making a significant contribution toward the sustainable growth of the country, the employment of a large number of scientific and technical personnel, and the improvement of the quality of life. Upon completion of each NSRF (http://ep.culture.gr/en/Pages/NewsFS.aspx?item=177), major museums, archaeological sites, monuments, contemporary culture events, and centers are being delivered to the public as the common property of society and a valuable gift to community.

In the above theoretical frame, the first paper presents the recent archaeological evidence that has been derived during a large restoration and enhancement project that was implemented by the Operational Program of the North Aegean 2014–2020, at the archaic and late Roman Telesterion at the archaeological site of the Kabeirion sanctuary on Lemnos island, in northeastern Aegean Sea.

The monument of Episkopi on Sikinos, one of the smallest Cycladic islands, a Roman Heroon dating from the third century B.C.E.—converted to a Byzantine church—offers an incomparable palimpsest of archaeological periods that is rarely preserved in ancient monuments. The second paper introduces to the scientific community the archaeological research that took place during its restoration that significantly increased knowledge of funerary monuments of the Roman period in the eastern Mediterranean region as well as of Cycladic Byzantine churches. The restoration of Episkopi has been awarded with the 2022 European Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award 2022, funded by the EU Creative Europe program.

Τhe third paper presents and comments on the new archaeological data that have come to light during the excavations conducted in the framework of the restoration of the theater of Nicopolis (Augustus’s city of victory), in the region where the epoch-making events of 31 B.C.E. had taken place, that belongs to the original Augustan building program and was meant to serve as the venue of the musical contests of the festival of the Actia. The excavation, restoration, and conservation project of the monument was based on the standards set by the master plan for the enhancement of the archaeological site of Nicopolis and was financed by the NSRF 2007–2014 and NSRF 2014–2020 EU programs.

The data that have emerged from the intensive archaeological investigation of this impressive monument were used to conduct special studies for its conservation and restoration, according to the international conventions on restoration, especially the Venice Charter. After the completion of the restoration works, the theater of Nicopolis will be delivered to the public as the common property of the society and a valuable gift to community, promoting and celebrating its educational, historic, and cultural values.

The gymnasium of ancient Olympia, an emblematic monument of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the west wing of which has been washed away by the Kladeos River, will be presented in the fourth paper. The excavations carried out in the frame of two consecutive projects financed by the European Union, NSRF 2007–2013 and NSRF 2014–2020 correspondingly brought to light a 70 m-long section of the monument’s east portico and a large part of its central courtyard, as well as an area, approximately 328 m², east of the building, where a late Roman building was uncovered. The research carried out in the years 2013–2025 and 2021–2023 has contributed significantly to a better understanding of both the size and the form of the gymnasium, while it brought forward new data regarding the configuration of the sanctuary of Olympia in the years of late antiquity.

A scientific program aiming to contribute to a holistic management of cultural heritage that would respect the environmental integrity of archeological sites is presented in the fifth paper. Biodiversity loss is considered one of the major problems of our times, and the first step to conserve it is to get to know it. Greece represents a global biodiversity hotspot, hosting thousands of animal and plant species, many of which are endemic. For the past 30 years, the European Union network of protected areas, Natura 2000, is the effective umbrella conserving Greek wildlife. However, there is strong evidence from literature that archaeological sites served as an alternative (and certainly unexpected) protective network for biodiversity. In 2022, the Ministry of Culture together with the Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency collaborated with the national and Kapodistrian University of Athens in an innovative program to record the biodiversity of 20 iconic archaeological sites.

The basic aim of the sixth paper is to present the dynamic of site-specific performances in archaeological sites in Greece, a framework, that would possibly be used for the rise of the number of visitors to not-very-popular archaeological sites. Site-specific performances have long been used and studied as unique creative cultural products, a kind of creative performance that combines multiple tools of expression, activates different levels of perception, and explores seen and unseen realms of reality in coexistence with an archeological site or a monument. Every site has its own biography, the tangible and intangible characteristics of which can become source for unlimited inspiration toward the formation of unique and innovative creative cultural products, which along with knowledge can contribute to the preservation of the history of the site and the cognitive prosperity of the community. The archaeological sites of Delos, Zakros, and the archaeological site of Kabeirion in Lemnos will be used as case studies, as in these three sites, site-specific performances have been presented, the two of them within the program “All of Greece, One Culture.”