Topographies of tension: institutional remains and the politics of ruination in 20th century Greek border transformations

Summary

Recent works (Gourgouris 1996, Calotychos 2003, Hamilakis 2008) have addressed the institutional apparatuses of Greek nation-state building, including official archaeology, through a dual critique of the colonialist/nationalist project. The Greek case features complexities that relate to both the ‘crypto-colonial’ status (Herzfeld 2002) of the Greek state and the internal colonization process targeting ethnic otherness in annexed territories such as Macedonia (1913). This paper explores the remains of official place-making in Northwest Greece from early 20th century ‘border engineering’ and military posts to archaeological interventions and public monuments and memorials. It also addresses the post-civil war state politics of controlled evacuation and abandonment and its impact on local communities. My aim is to make visible the tensions created at the interface of state imposed spatial transformations and the lived space of the locals as traced in co-existent material layers. To this end, deserted village ruins (‘ereipiones’ in Greek) are a focal point as both the outcome of state policies and the object of affection and nostalgia for dislocated communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Institutions and Their Enduring Material Aftermaths   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-12,12