Press Releases
Contact: Prof. Michael Hoff, Professor of Art History, UNL, 472-5342What: Archaeological Institute of America, Public Lecture
Presenter: Dr. Effie Athanssopoulos, University of Nebraska
Lecture Title: "'Ancient' Landscape: Archaeology and Nation-Building in Greece, 17th - 19th Century"
Date: Sunday, April 1, 2007
Where: Abbott Lecture Hall, Joslyn Art Museum, 2201 Dodge Street, Omaha
Time: 2:00 PM
The Lincoln - Omaha Society of the Archaeological Institute of America announces its fifth lecture of the 2006 - 07 season. Dr. Effie Athanassopoulos, an archaeologist specializing in medieval archaeology and the history of archaeology in Greece, will deliver a lecture on her research involving the appropriation of ancient buildings in Greece for use as symbolic icons in the early years of independence.
Archaeology plays an important role in the process of nation-building. It creates symbols that affirm the national community's ties to the land. The most powerful Greek national symbol is the Acropolis, which acquired its current form in the course of the nineteenth century. This lecture explores the history of the Acropolis from the 17th to the 19th centuries, based on the accounts of Western travelers and Greek sources. It also examines the removal of medieval and post-medieval buildings, the so-called purification program, which took place between the 1830s-1880s. These actions are examined in their historical context. The European admiration for ancient Greece played an important role here. The modern state of Greece, formed in the 1830s, sought to establish continuity with the classical past and the ancient monuments of the Acropolis became its advocates in this effort.
Professor Athanassopoulos was educated at the University of Athens and received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Anthropology. Dr. Athanassopoulos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Geography and the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at UNL. She has participated in numerous archaeological surveys and excavations in Greece. Her forthcoming book presents results from the Nemea region, located in the northeast Peloponnese, and is titled: "Landscape Archaeology and the Medieval Countryside: Results of the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project."
Future AIA Lectures:
April 16 - Andrew Stewart, University of California, Berkeley
Mon., 7:30 PM Tel Dor: An Ancient Crossroads on the Coast of Israel
Room 15, Richards Hall, Stadium Drive, UNL
