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Home Page > Events > 02/23/2006 - Lecture by Despina Margomenou at the Kelsey Museum Printer Version02/23/2006 - Lecture by Despina Margomenou at the Kelsey Museum "Northern Greece in Later Prehistory: Food storage, Inequality, and Local Politics at the 'Margins' of the Mycenaean World," by Despina Margomenou What was taking place in Northern Greece during the Mycenaean times? The prehistory of this northernmost part of Greece is a very little known, despite its much later “fame” as the homeland of Alexander the Great. In prehistoric times, it is often seen as a “marginal”, backward region that owes most of its political development to the influence and even colonization by “enterprising” southerners. Recent systematic regional surveys and excavations, however, have revealed a picture that is significantly different, and in turn make us question not only the traditional scenarios proposed for the end of prehistory in Northern Greece, but also the process of archaeological interpretation itself. FAST lectures are meant to provide a “how to” for the practice of archaeology. Besides discussing recent archaeological projects in Northern Greece and the analysis of archaeological evidence in an effort to outline how local communities were organized in the Late Bronze Age, this lecture also discusses how archaeological narratives may be implicated in contemporary national and nationalist politics and ethnic conflicts, and how the practice of archaeology is not merely a scholarly or academic pursuit, but also a political act of interpreting and appropriating the past in the present. |
