Institute for Mediterranean Studies

Research Projects

The Production and Exchange of Stone Tools: Recapturing Neolithic Cultural Heritage in Southern Balkans

The Production and Exchange of Stone Tools: Recapturing Neolithic Cultural Heritage in Southern Balkans

The proposed project aims towards the creation of a computerized tool for the integration and dissemination of knowledge concerning the technology and the exchange of stone tools in the southern Balkans (Bulgaria and the Aegean).

The Pediada survey project

The Pediada (Omphalion Pedion) survey project

The Pediada survey is an interdisciplinary project, based on fieldwork carried out between 1982 and 1989 by the archaeologist Nikos Panagiotakis, in the Pediada region in central Crete, , with permits by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Since 1999 the Project has been supported by a large team of experts in various fields.

Modernization and Greek Theatre: The reception of Realism and Naturalism in the Modern Greek Theatre

Modernization and Greek Theatre: The reception of Realism and Naturalism in the Modern Greek Theatre

The reception of the wider European realistic tradition, from conventional realism of the mid-19th century to the anti-reformist Naturalism, is a desideratum of the history of Modern Greek Theater. The subject has been identified in the past but has not yet been systematically studied, mainly because of the vastness of material. The issue is related to a number of serious issues that have arisen in the tradition of "urban drama" which was bequeathed by the Enlightenment; and concerns the thorny but crucial problem of the degree of assimilation of realistic artistic conventions into the Greek dramaturgy of 19th and first decades of 20th century. In short, the research project aims to examine the realistic representation of Modern Greek society, its qualities and its limitations.

Locating, transcribing, translating and commenting of Ottoman constitutional documents of the Principality of Samos

Locating, transcribing, translating and commenting of Ottoman constitutional documents of the Principality of Samos

The aim of the project, which forms part of a wider project of The Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy, directed by Sophia Laiou (Ionian University), is to contribute to a forthcoming volume on the constitutional documents of the Principality of Samos (1834-1912).

Priniatikos Pyrgos

Geophysical and Geoarchaeological Project at Priniatikos Pyrgos and within the Istron Area, Mirabello, Eastern Crete

A Geophysical and Geoarchaeological Project at Priniatikos Pyrgos and within the Istron Area, Mirabello, Eastern Crete

Marriage contracts in the Greek world 1500-1830

Marriage contracts in the Greek world 1500-1830

The project is a pilot scheme responding to the general need to consider as a historical source the surviving notarial documents from various regions in Greece from the end of the Middle Ages to the 20th century in toto. The objective will be to allow a quantitative analysis and subsequent interpretation of the documents and to chart significant issues of medieval and modern Greek history.

Record and study of the names of people in Greece in the post- Middle Ages and early modern times. Names of people of Thessaly and Eastern Macedonia.

Record and study of the names of people in Greece in the post- Middle Ages and early modern times. Names of people of Thessaly and Eastern Macedonia.

The aim of the project is to collect and organise a huge volume of data so as to facilitate utilization for further study. This data concerns material relating to the names of people which were used during the period on which the research focuses, and which constitute a partial aspect of the social reality of the time and can represent a starting point for the study of basic historical issues.

History of the Black Sea, 18th – 20th century

History of the Black Sea, 18th – 20th century

This ongoing project continues the work of the Black Sea Project. It still processes its archival material, statistical series and publications, and feeds its website with new information.

ByHeriNet

Byzantine Heritage Network: Rehabilitation, highlighting and management in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin - ByHeriNet

ByHeriNet aims to create a collaborative network for the preservation and promotion of Byzantine Cultural Heritage.

Digital Crete

Digital Crete: Mediterranean Cultural Itineraries

The Programme of Turkish Studies contributed in Digital Crete a system of cultural information concerning the Ottoman Centuries in Crete.

Avant-Garde Theatre and Modern Greek Theatre

Avant-Garde Theatre and Modern Greek Theatre

The program primarily focuses on the similarities between Modern Greek and European theatre avant-garde movements as well as on the inner difficulties that Greek society faced in its dialogue with the European developments from the 1890s up to WWII. It constitutes the first Greek project on the avant-garde theatre in relation to the problems of modernization and the westernization of the country; it aims at claiming a place in the international discussion on these subjects as well as on the study of the general cultural relations between Greek and European theatre. Modern Greek theatre cannot really escape from its isolationism unless it delimits its exact historical position in Modern European theatre.

Classification of the Turkish Archive of Chania

Classification of the Turkish Archive of Chania

The project aimed at classifying and cataloguing the archival material of the Ottoman Archive of Chania (Ottoman, Greek, bilingual registers and documents - dating mostly from the second half of the 19th century).

ELISTOKAINO

Greek History of Innovation: The Social Preconditions of Innovation. Aspects of the Greek Experience

The ELISTOKAINO project is part of the strategic development plan of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS) and the Foundation for Research and Technology. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it seeks to contribute to an understanding of innovation in Greece, by studying aspects of the Greek experience over time in this area. Research on innovation is a new field of social history and the IMS aims, with the completion of this research, to have made its mark on the international scholarly map in this field and thus increase the number of fields in which it has achieved academic and research excellence.

DI.MA.

Discovering "Magna Grecia" (DI.MA.)

The scope of the project is the creation of tools for the protection of the cultural heritage and of the network of I Parchi LetterariR both local and transnational, for the development of sustainable tourist activities.

French melodrama in the 19th-century Greek-speaking stage

French melodrama in the 19th-century Greek-speaking stage

The aim of the project is to locate and record Greek translations and adaptations of French melodramas which were performed by Greek repertory companies ad nauseam in the 19th century.

Translation and commentary of the 'Book of Sacrifices: The victims of the Revolution of 1821 in Crete'

Translation and commentary of the 'Book of Sacrifices: The victims of the Revolution of 1821 in Crete'

The project aimed at the commentated translation of the Ottoman register no. 120 of the Turkish Archive of Herakleio.

Mapping the Venetian Cadastro of Vostizza (1700): A pilot-project.

Mapping the Venetian Cadastro of Vostizza (1700): A pilot-project.

The Venetian Cadastro of Vostizza (1700), the first such cadastral survey in Greece, has been magnificently published by Dokos and Panayopoulos in 1993, but it has never been used in a GIS project. The aim of this project is to produce a full database, populated with the quantitative and geographical data from the initial Cadastro and to assess the precision of the cadastral survey of the Venetian engineers using a modern GIS system. The research (with the assistance of the “Laboratory of Geophysical-Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment”) has demonstrated the high quality and geographical precision of the Venetian engineers and has re-constructed the distribution of land both after and before the Venetian conquest of the town of Vostizza and its territorio.

Digital Crete

Digital Crete: Mediterranean Cultural Itineraries

Digital Crete aims towards the creation of a cultural information system, consisting of digitized documentation and information regarding the cultural heritage of the island of Crete, from prehistory to the modern periods.

Minoan Peak Sanctuaries

Minoan Peak Sanctuaries

The main goal of the project is to investigate the place, role and evolution of Minoan peak sanctuaries in their broader cultural and natural landscape.