Bridges in the Mountains

Abstract

A management ‘gap’ exists at some Greek sites excavated by foreign institutions in the early 20th century without conservation provision or detailed records. Karfi, in the mountainous Lasithi region of Crete, is one of the best-known settlements of the Aegean Early Iron Age. A recent study there shows how integrated projects can help develop sites’ value for local communities and visitors, while also pushing forward research. Currently, visitor attention to local archaeological sites is concentrated on the highly-managed Psychro Cave, nearby, to an extent compromising its sustainability. In contrast, Karfi’s low-key management has led to deterioration and obscuring of its remains, diminishing their research and educational potential, and serving to minimize local awareness and sense of ownership of the area’s broader archaeological heritage. This has created a negative cycle, discouraging new initiatives in management at the site. At the same time, vocal dissatisfaction with a perceived lack of ‘heritage’, and its associated cultural and economic benefits, is growing in the local community. A commercial venture—an ‘archaeological’ theme park—has recently appeared in the region. In providing an accessible substitute for authentic archaeological remains, I show that this theme park helps to perpetuate the low profile of Karfi and other under-managed sites nearby. The case highlights issues of responsibility and structure in archaeological management and research in Greece: I suggest that a long-established disjunction between the sectors, alongside other social, historical and economic factors operating at regional and national level, has contributed to the situation exemplified in Lasithi.