Archaeological Heritage as Palimpsest. The Multiple Layers of Contents of a Byzantine Tower and the Challenges of Sustainable Management Planning

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the multiple layers of contents of a Byzantine tower reconstructed as a contemporary museum-monument and to produce a discussion on the challenges of proposed sustainable planning strategies. The management of a Byzantine monument and its reconstruction and transformation into a museum could raise a number of challenges and con- tradictions which constitute thought-provoking stimuli for the development of a critical discussion on the sustainability of the built environment and the practices of successful management planning. The case study focuses on the potential of a variety of different approaches and especially on a more public-centred and locally-seen direction which could make the museum an institution and a place for making histories and meanings within modern societies.How might the interpretive approaches of past material have a strong impact on the formation of a multi-based and multi-sided strategic manage- ment policy? To what extent could a sustainable management plan include more ‘voices’ and not only those of the experts? How could the terms ‘locality’ and ‘community’ and their relationships introduce new methods and approaches in a well-established, officially and traditionally regulated heritage management system? These are some of the points that will be addressed in the paper to stimulate the development of a critical theorizing of the sustainability of archaeological heritage through multiple approaches to planning.