This article presents a community project developed through the Three Peak Sanctuaries of Central Crete archaeological project in the village of Gonies in Crete, Greece. We propose that archaeological research should include community projects and involve locals in decision-making. We examine the limitations put on such community programs by state institutions and networks of power. We argue that archaeologists should be involved as experts through engaged long-term ethnographic research that precedes any archaeological or heritage investigation and enables them to understand the position of their research within instituted networks of power and knowledge. We make a case for local engagement that can alter the course of research towards more ethical and sustainable forms. And finally, we discuss the development of public outreach programs in collaboration with the communities themselves.
Engaging Local Communities in Heritage Decision-Making: The Case of Gonies, Crete, Greece
evangelos kyriakidis is a Senior Lecturer in Aegean Prehistory at the University of Kent and Director of the Initiative for Heritage Conservation (www.inherity.org). He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Archaeological Society of Athens. Evangelos excavated the Philioremos Peak Sanctuary in 2011–2012 and has from 2011 instigated the Three Peak Sanctuaries ethnographic archaeological project. (Classical & Archaeological Studies, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF, UK; e.kyriakidis@kent.ac.uk)
aris anagnostopoulos is a social anthropologist and historian. He has published extensively on public space, gender, and ethnic identities in early twentieth-century Crete. He has done fieldwork in a number of archaeological projects in Greece, and has developed a number of community projects. He has served as assistant director of the Irish Institute at Athens and is currently a fellow of the Initiative of Heritage Conservation and an honorary lecturer at the University of Kent, UK. (Classical & Archaeological Studies, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF, UK; a.anagnostopoulos@kent.ac.uk)
Evangelos Kyriakidis, Aris Anagnostopoulos; Engaging Local Communities in Heritage Decision-Making: The Case of Gonies, Crete, Greece. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 1 October 2017; 5 (3-4): 334–348. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.5.3-4.0334
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