The materiality of death: human relics and the ‘resurrection’ of the Greek maritime past in museum spaces

Abstract

This paper investigates three cases of preservation and exhibition of human relics in Greek museums and demonstrates the ways in which they actively commemorate the maritime past in contemporary Greece. These exhibits, widely perceived as ‘national heirlooms’, all date from the period of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830 AD): the embalmed heart of Admiral Andreas Miaoulis, exhibited in the Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra; the embalmed heart of Admiral Konstantinos Kanaris, exhibited in the National Historical Museum in Athens and the bones of the female Admiral Laskarina Bouboulina, exhibited in the Museum of Spetses. The display and the discourses associated with these relics are examined within the context of the significance of material culture for the preservation of national memory in general and maritime identity in particular. It is shown that the ‘power’ of these exhibits derives from the monumentalisation of otherwise complex life stories into bounded and concrete symbols of the past, which is analogous to an effort to counterpoise the immanence of death by the materiality of human remains. The materiality of these relics provides a locus for unique convergence of religious symbolism, maritime identity and national ideology. However, this paper attempts to go beyond an examination of such exhibits as symbols and treats them as objects in themselves, arguing that their purported sanctity and their profanity as material objects generate ambivalence which lies at the heart of nationalist and religious discourses.