Unlocking Historic Landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean

Byron's evocation of the 'Isles of Greece' in his epic poem Don Juan contrasted their plight under Ottoman oppression with the glories of an ancient Hellenic past. This perspective, partly derived from the study of the Classics, has determined how the landscapes of the Aegean and western Turkey have often been studied as the settings for historical events rather than as a source for the lives and activities of past societies. Although field survey and research overt he past thirty years have transformed our understanding of many Mediterranean landscapes, there is still a tendency to focus on the classical and earlier periods. By contrast, the lives of medieval and post-medieval people (Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman) and the rural landscapes they created have been sadly neglected. If we are to achieve a proper understanding of the Mediterranean past we must address these periods, not least because it was during then that the vast majority of surviving monuments and landscape features were created.
The frequent political tensions between Greece and Turkey over the past 70 years have not encouraged comparative archaeological studies, especially for the post-classical periods. Our research programme provides the opportunity ot foster new academic links and collaborations. More importantly, by studying these two regions we aim to focus on the experiences of a common Byzantine and Ottoman past reflected in their landscapes. We have chosen to compare two quite different landscapes, one in the hinterland of a small Byzantine and Ottoman city now in western Turkey (Silivri) and the other a rural Greek island (Naxos). Both study areas possess in rich monumental evidence including roads, fortifications, monasteries and churches. This has the potential both to help understand the patterns we identify in the landscape, and also to allow us to engage with themes such as memory and belief, further enriching our understanding of the social context.
Our research will adapt and use a new technique developed in Britian (Historic Landscape Characterisation - HLC) for the first time in the eastern Mediterranean. HLC is a method for mapping the landscape that reveals how and when the different elements of it were created. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) we will integrate data from historical, archaeological and other sources to create detailed, long-term landscape histories of our two case studies, before comparing them with one another.

We will investigate:
- How we can use cost-effective new methods to understand Mediterranean landscapes
on a large scale.
- How the rural landscapes of the Aegean have been shaped by social and economic
life over the last 1500 years.
- Whether the pace of change has been comparable in two study areas, or whether there
have been periods when people have changed some rural landscapes much faster
than others.

Understanding the development of the cultural landscape is a crucial issue for historians. Its importance goes far beyond us, however. Cultural landscapes form the backdrop to our lives and provide a key element in our sense of place and identity. It is essential that we understand them so that we can manage them effectively and develop them substainably. By revealing the value in regional landscapes and the rela nature of similarities and differences between regions, this research will have implications for ordinary people, planners and policy-makers from the local to the international level. The results of our research will be accessible to all of them through publications and our website.