Petrika Lera, Stavros Oikonomidis, Aris Papayiannis, Akis Tsonos, “The Greek-Albanian...

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© W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2013 DOI 10.1179/1350503313Z.00000000051

conservation and mgmt of arch. sites, Vol. 15 No. 1, February 2013, 121–34

The Greek-Albanian Archaeological Project on Maligrad: Shaping the Cultural Heritage in the Tri-National Zone of the Great Prespa LakePetrika LeraInstitute of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania

Stavros OikonomidisArcadia University, College for Global Studies, Arcadia Center, Athens, Greece

Aris PapayiannisUniversity of Crete, Greece

Akis TsonosUniversity of Ioannina, Greece

This paper aims to analyse the collaboration of the Greek-Albanian Archaeo-logical Expedition with the local community of the tri-national district (FYROM-Greece-Albania) of the Great Prespa Lake, in South-eastern Alba-nia, conducted by the Institute for the Transbalkanic Cultural Cooperation (Greece) and the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (Albania). It is argued that local cultural heritage, including the heritage of the archaeological past, can play a signifi cant reconciliatory role in an extremely delicate national and environmental landscape throughout the work of all the bipolar participants: locals and ‘foreign experts’.

keywords tri-national zone, Great Prespa Lake, multivocality, space-topos, local community engagement, inter Balkan heritage

Introduction

This paper argues for the social and reconciliatory role of archaeology through the

analysis of an excavation project undertaken by the Institute for the Transbalkanic

Cultural Cooperation (ITCC) and of the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (IAT) at

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122 PETRIKA LERA et al.

the islet of Maligrad — situated in the tri-national district (Former Yugoslav Repub-

lic of Macedonia, Greece, Albania) of the Great Prespa lake, in South-eastern Albani a.

It is our contention that in a Europe characterized by identity crisis, fi nancial instabil-

ity, and national misunderstandings, a collaborative archaeological project on a

politically sensitive area can play a signifi cant reconciliatory role as it can reveal and

foster common historical and cultural links that gave life to complicated systems of

cultural interaction, models of social structures and common identities (Glenny, 1999:

135–248). Furthermore, we also suggest that a contested place — such as the tri-

national border in Western Great Prespa — can be transformed into a ‘social topos’,

a space of social activities and daily human interaction as well as a cultural area, the

multicultural nature of which is revealed through this archaeological project. This

point will be illustrated through a demonstration of how the initial mistrust of a

local community towards the archaeological team was gradually converted into a

relationship of trust and mutual understanding.

This transformation of relationships between the ‘locals’ and the ‘foreigners-

intruders’, via the fi eld archaeology, points to the creation of a interdisciplinary

research which focuses not only on the archaeological results but on the management

of the social embodiment into the historical reality as well, when history is viewed

diachronically, from the most remote antiquity down to the present and the future.

It is the sociological and anthropological part of the research which will structurally

provide not only archaeological fi nds but a new ethnological database, as a starting

point or even as a ‘datum-factum’ for the identity of both ‘locals’ and ‘foreigners-

intruders’.

This paper draws from the experience of the authors as members of the Greek-

Albanian Archaeological Expedition, and will initially introduce the case study and

its surrounding landscape as well as the history of the excavations held by the ITCC.

It will then proceed with a wider analysis of the role of heritage as a means of

dialogue and reconciliation. This analysis sets the background for discussing in detail

how the archaeological team of ‘foreigners’ interacted with the local community high-

lighting the importance of a participatory approach in transforming the initial climate

of mistrust into a collaborative relationship. The paper concludes with outlining the

future prospects regarding the management of archaeological heritage in the Great

Prespa District.

The area of Western Great Prespa Lake

Background informationThe area of Great and Little Prespa (Figure 1), surrounded by inaccessible mountains,

has a rich fl ora with more than 1200 different species and constitutes a natural tri-

national park belonging to the NATURA 2000 network. Maligrad, which is the focus

of this paper (Figures 2, 3), is a tectonic islet of karstic formation, 800 m long and

200 m wide, with a trapezoidal upper plateau, 30 m above the lake level, known to

the international bibliography only for its late fourteenth-century Byzantine chapel,

dedicated to the Birth of Virgin Mary (Djurić, 1975).

The area is mainly inhabited by Slav Macedonians, recognized by the Albanian

state as a separate ethnic minority. This population consists of around 5000 people

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123THE GREEK-ALBANIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT ON MALIGRAD

fi gure 1 The geography of the tri-national zone between FYROM, Greece, and Albania.

fi gure 2 The islet of Maligrad as viewed from the Zvezdes passage.Photograph by Stavros Oikonomidis

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that inhabit nine villages in the proximity of FYROM and Greece, in an area extend-

ing from the northern to the south-western limits of the Great Prespa.1 No Albanian

or Greek populations live in the area. The capital is the village of Liqenas (Pustec),

with 1000 inhabitants. The local people use, in both their oral and written commu-

nication, the Slavic dialect (the language of FYROM), whereas the Albanian language

is used only in their offi cial documents dealing with the Albanian state. Furthermore,

teaching at school is conducted in Slavic and the totality of the population adheres

to the Christian Orthodox dogma and to the ecclesiastic diocese of the Metropolis

of Korçë. It is remarkable that in this particular area the Albanian political parties

endeavour to integrate the local community into the Albanian political network

system, as demonstrated by the participation of local parties in governmental

coalitions.

The Western Great Prespa Lake has functioned historically as a crossroad in the

Balkan area, rendering it a strategic, commercial centre from the fi rst millennium bc

to the Late Ottoman period and the early twentieth century (Moutsopoulos, 2004:

97–104). To the south of the Roman Via Egnatia and to the east of the Epirotic

lands the territory was used as an advanced military post of ancient Macedonians

(Hammond, 1972), a character maintained in the Late Roman times, when a Bulgarian-

Byzantine struggle for the domination of the area turned it into the headquarters

of Tsar Samuel and a contested province in the eleventh and twelfth centuries

(Touratsoglou, 1999: 34–47). Byzantines, Normans, and Venetians dominated the

area for limited periods of time after the thirteenth century. With the arrival of

fi gure 3 The islet of Maligrad as viewed from the north-western side. Photograph by Stavros Oikonomidis

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Evrenos Gazi (1288–1417) the district was embodied to the Sanjak of Monastir and

became part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912 (Lowry, 2008: 16–17). During the First

World War the region became the homeland of partisans of the Vatrisna Makedonsk a

Odrinska Revoluciona (VRMO), of the Greek Communist Army in the Second World

War, and a tragic territory of exile, fi ghts, and contests between the three neighbours

during the Greek Civil War (1946–49).

The history of the archaeological research in the area and the Greek-Albanian Archaeological ProjectThe tri-national front between Albania, Greece, and FYROM was developed through-

out the twentieth century after the formation of the late and post-Ottoman national-

ism in the Balkans. Pockets of Greek communities lived around the Monastir area

until the late 1910s (Gounaris, 1998); Valachian Greek-speaking populations were

established in south-eastern Albania before the times of Scanderbeg2 (Falo, 2010:

7–35) and Albanians had their homes all over southern Macedonia (Ladas, 1932;

Pentzopoulos, 1962; Manta, 2004: 25–132; Margaritis, 2005). The history of the wide r

area has presented common national heroes as well as ferocious enemies (Tsonos,

2009: 30–32).3 As a result, the area has been marked by the coexistence of Greeks,

Albanians, and Slav Macedonians which shaped their common history of battles,

antagonisms, but also harmonious coexistence (Sonnischen, 1909; Londres, 1932;

Mazower, 2004: 307; Stefanidis, 2007: 26–45; Doyiamas, 2009: 8).

The archaeological research focusing on the hinterland of the Western Great Prespa

and near Little Prespa started in 1968 in the area of Tren by the Albanian Academy

of Science (Korkuti, 1968: 89–97; 1969; 2008: 79–105). The fortifi ed settlements of

Tren, Ventrok, and Trajan mark the strategic position of the area between the Little

and the Great Prespa, indicative of the new social organization model which prevails

in the Early Iron Age (Karaiskaj and Lera, 1973; Karaiskaj, 1976; Korkuti, 1971, 1973;

Lera et al., 2009: 325–35). The KOBAS Project (Bejko et al., 2004) collected precious

data from all the area of the Korçë plain and the Prespa, both Great and Little, pro-

ducing a plethora of maps and establishing new standards for the local archaeological

research, since 2005.4 Meanwhile, the French Archaeological Expedition, active in the

Korce Basin since 1990, has moved in the summer of 2011 from the settlement

of Sovjan near Maliq to the frontier between Albania and FYROM, studying the

perilacustrian settlement of Kallamas (Lera et al., 2011a: 690–709).

The Greek-Albanian Archaeological Project on Maligrad constitutes part of a

wide r investigation taking place in south-eastern Albania (Lera et al., 2011b) and

constitutes a collaborative effort of the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (IAT) and

the Institute for the Transbalkanic Cultural Cooperation (ITCC). The IAT is the

responsible stakeholder on behalf of the Academy of Science as far as the archaeo-

logical activity in the entire country is concerned.5 ITCC, on the other hand, is a

non-profi t, non-governmental organization, founded in Athens, with the aim to study

the archaeology and the history of the local Balkan societies through interdisciplinary

research and with the fi nal goal to foster mutual understanding of the national-ethnic-

cultural-sociological identity of the participants, including ‘locals and ‘foreigners’.

This bi-partite project started in 2006 and is still active on the islet of Maligrad and

around the Albanian coastline of the lake (Figure 1). The project aims to create

a detailed archaeological map of the area through fi eld surveys and excavations in

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order to enhance further understanding of the local settlement organization. The

programme does not only have an archaeological character but it also focuses on the

social and cultural interrelations of the relevant populations in both the past and the

present through and beyond the border line, with an emphasis on anthropological/

ethnological similarities and differences that are responsible for the creation of the

explosive amalgamation known in the international bibliography as the ‘Macedonian

salad’.6

The fi rst discoveries and the ‘living documents’ of the tri-national borderThe recent discoveries of ITCC all over the western basin of the Great Prespa Lake

(Lera, 2007; Lera et al., 2008; 2011b), the archaeological excavations on Maligrad,

and the surveys along the south-western coastline of the lake contributed to the

cultural stimulation of the local population. As will be demonstrated in the following

sections, local people in the area between Liqenas and Cerie gradually appreciated

the value of every single sherd and spolio of the rubble walls as part of the cultural

heritage of the entire district and as particles of a precious mosaic that merits to be

respected.

The archaeological surveys have uncovered for the fi rst time a well-informed strati-

graphic sequence from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Medieval period. The

discovery of different layers of red ochre paintings belonging to various periods (rang-

ing from the Late Neolithic to the Late Medieval period) on Maligrad, in the Marica

and Gollomboç caves is of primary importance as they provide the possibility of a

substantial corpus of diachronic fi gurative art, with daily life scenes of hunting,

fi shing, and fi ghting. The identifi cation of technological similarities between the Late

Bronze Age handmade pottery and the traditional pottery of the last two centuries

revealed to the local population the signifi cance of archaeological research in foster-

ing cultural continuity. Looking at the past as a means to understand the life styles

of the prehistoric, ancient, and medieval inhabitants of the same area can provide an

incomparable method of self-identifi cation into the human landscape, or into the

social topos.

The archaeological heritage has been manipulated by several dictatorial regimes in

the world (Galaty and Watkinson, 2004) and in the past Albania has been no excep-

tion to this tendency.7 It is due to the previously mentioned political sensitivity and

complexity of this particular geographical area that ITCC together with the Albanian

partner has been keeping records of the ‘living documents’, creating a database

of social behaviour, reactions, relationships, and other communication modes. The

‘living documents’ of the Great Prespa Lake are its people, with their traditional

habits, their daily works and their cultural images as products of their history within

which they were developed, throughout the remote and the recent past. This project

studies people as communities, satellite ethnic minorities, and as individuals. How-

ever, as the history of south-eastern Albanian minorities needs to be investigated by

the minorities themselves, individuals of these communities need to express their

voices. The formation of a new generation of historians dealing with (and ideally

coming from) the local communities of south-eastern Albania should be a national

prerogative for the development of a vigorous cultural interaction in the Balkans,

stimulating the interest for recording every possible oral document of the local

tradition.

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Politics, heritage, and dialogue on a common past

Similar projects in the area were not common in Albania until recently, due to the

political seclusion of the country during Enver Hoxha’s regime (1944–85) which

did not allow its citizens to leave the country. It is only after his death that Albania

managed to coexist and collaborate with the rest of the Balkans and the world. It

was only then that the Academy of Science initially and subsequently the Archaeo-

logical Institute of Tirana started inviting European scholars with the aim to initiate

archaeological projects in Albania (Cabanes, 1986; Tsonos, 2009: 87–103). At that

stage, the local minority of the Prespa district welcomed this type of inter-generational

interactions as they viewed it as a means to alter their previous life conditions. It was

only older members of the local community who initially expressed hostile feelings

towards the Greek archaeologists of the team, partly due to the fact that the

Slav-Macedonian Orthodox Church is not offi cially recognized by the Patriarchate of

Constantinople and the Church of Greece, and partly because of the long-lasting,

unresolved ‘Macedonian issue’ regarding the name of the FYROM (Brown, 1994;

2002; Danforth, 1995). It was within this context that older members of the commu-

nity kept asking whether the Greek archaeologists were looking for their ‘Macedonia n

ancestors’. For instance, some community members asked: ‘Are you going to take

away from us the treasures of our ancestor, Alexander the Great?’.8 The archaeo-

logical team honestly expressed its opinion based on the available historical informa-

tion and evidence, stressing at the same time that the archaeological fi nds from

Maligrad indicate a much longer lifespan of the area, which extends from the

Prehistoric period until the Ottoman times. The period of Alexander the Great was

just a short period of the long local history. Therefore, although the team did not

attempt to alter the perception of the locals about their origins by deconstructing their

national myth, it was explained to them that, with or without Alexander, their topos

and past was equally important, and that the archaeological activity can provide

suffi cient evidence for this.

It soon became apparent to them that the Greek-Albanian project did not aim at

discovering golden treasures but at uncovering pottery fragments or other fi ndings

indicative of human presence in the past, such as stratigraphic, paleoanthropological,

and geological data. Gradually, several members from the community, including

workers, women, children, and middle-aged people, started visiting the archaeologi-

cal team working in the storerooms at Liqenas. Interacting and engaging with the

locals was a long-lasting process which took almost two years, a fact that is revealing

of the time that is required for building a relationship of trust with local people,

especially in politically sensitive geographical areas. The archaeological project pro-

vided a ‘social topos’ open to everyone: scholars, technicians, workers, boatmen,

owners of tavernas and coffee shops, peasants, and fi shermen of the district.

Interactions with the local community: towards a participatory approach

We fi rmly believe in the social role of archaeology and its potential for fostering

civic engagement (Little and Shackel, 2007; Sabloff, 2008) and therefore have strived

to take an approach that leads to this direction. It is within this context that we have

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endeavoured to engage with the local community during the archaeological survey

and excavation phase at the very early stages of the project. Local people served as

scouts guiding us through the mountain paths, they provided us with boats and cars,

and all this cooperation created a bond. The archaeological team and the locals

shared memories and stories from the historic past, which, although initially created

a ‘strange’ close-up between the two parts, still constituted the fi rst attempt for

rapprochement after several decades of ambivalent and equivocal state patronizing.

It was surprising to discover that this approach taking place in 2006 was the fi rst

direct communication between civilians in the tri-national zone of the Prespa Lake.

Previously, the locals, particularly the older ones, would have an almost vague

memory of the Greek army during the First and Second World War.

This fi rst interaction with the local community was marked by questions on behalf

of the locals that aimed to unveil the expectations and real aims of the archaeological

research project. Gradually, they kept asking the Greek team members about their

origins and lives in Greece. These preliminary conversations led to the identifi cation

of language, and social, behavioural, and cultural similarities. In a way, these interac-

tions helped the team to rediscover its own cultural roots, recollecting a common

cultural background. It is worth noting that a few individuals from the local com-

munity demonstrated a negative attitude towards the archaeological team upon its

arrival as they attempted to prevent the transportation of the team into the islet by

‘destroying’ the boat engines. Gradually, these initial attitudes of hostility and mis-

trust were converted into collaborative experiences. The local community was invited

to visit the lab and their visits became frequent, partly due to their curiosity. The aim

of the invitation was to make the community feel part of this scientifi c procedure by

explaining in a simple manner the importance and meaning of the fi ndings and by

answering their questions concerning the use and value of the latter. Communication

was facilitated by the fact that some Greek members of the expedition spoke

Albanian or understood Slavic. The temporary lab was located in an old traditional

house that was used as a storeroom by the owners and was easily accessible to

anyone. The same people who owned the building also offered accommodation to

the expedition members. In this way, interactions with the local community did not

focus solely on the archaeological activity but moved beyond this into their everyday

life. Living in this family house provided the bridge for contacting the rest of the

local community and gaining their trust. Interestingly, the son of the family who was

visiting the lab on a daily basis announced a few days before the end of the expedition

his decision to study archaeology. As a result, the lab was used as a ‘contact zone’

— borrowing the concept of museums as ‘contact zones’ (Clifford, 1997: 188–219)

— between the archaeological team and the local community. Gradually they were

frequently visiting the lab and were encouraged by the team to narrate stories about

their ancestors and their land. They soon realized that the ‘humble, muddy’ archaeo-

logical stuff is very signifi cant for uncovering our common Balkan past, the local

myths, the stories about past use of the islet, and so on.

Continuous discussions led to the conclusion that science can unify communities

and archaeology can be used as the beginning of a new era, where development

should be based on the ‘promotion’ of the local ecosystem, the natural beauty, the

history, and the archaeology of the region. The aim of the Greek-Albanian project is

therefore to create knowledge that results from a social and collective activity rather

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than from an isolated scientifi c procedure. Knowledge in this way provided the powe r

for overcoming false and stereotypical mentalities about the past and could provide

the basis for developing a plan for heritage protection and the formulation of deci-

sions with regard to the conduction of mild interventions on the cultural and natural

environment of the area.

Prospects for the management of the archaeological heritage in the Great Prespa district

The aforementioned analysis has demonstrated that the right approach towards

researching and managing archaeological heritage in a politically delicate area, such

as the islet of Maligrad in the Great Prespa district, requires fi rst an in-depth observa-

tion of visible remnants in the landscape as well as an in-depth knowledge of the

local community and the ways in which they construct their relationships with their

past and present topos. The collection and study of fi ndings from the past should then

proceed in partnership with the local community. In addition, the authors of this

paper consider certain interventions as a priority for the present and future manage-

ment of the cultural heritage of the region. These interventions include: the develop-

ment of appropriate infrastructure including easy access to the coastline and to the

islet of Maligrad; the opening up of pathways and the development of historical and

ecological routes, which will connect the village of Liqenas to the remote caves or

churches. Due to the limited availability of funding attempts are being made for gen-

erating funds through EU programmes, the collaboration between the state services

— which have the responsibility for any scientifi c activity that involves antiquities,

according to Albanian law — and private initiatives and institutions, such as the

ITCC.

Due to the feeling of mutual partnership described in the previous sections the

archaeological team was approached by the local authority in order to discuss the

possibility for building a museum that could display the archaeological fi nds so that

they are accessible by the wider public. The idea of a museum was considered by the

local community, for the fi rst time, as a priority rather than a luxury, and this was

because ‘their own’ heritage could be displayed.

A temporary solution — that was not easily accepted by the local community as

they envisioned the display of the fi nds in their village — was to transfer the fi nds in

the Museum of Korce. Meanwhile, it was agreed that procedures would be initiated

for materializing the construction of a local museum within the Prespa Lake district

which would be managed by the Ministry of Tourism and would be under the scien-

tifi c auspices of the Ministry of Education. Although a challenging task, because

necessary funds and the collaboration of various stakeholders and a multidisciplinary

team would be required, the creation of this local museum would have the potential

to transform this remote land to an alternative Balkan corner combining a rich

cultural heritage with a unique ecosystem. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that

creating such a museum would require overcoming several additional obstacles.

Unfortunately, the absence of specialized personnel, the political instability, and the

diffi culties of the national economy have not so far allowed the plan to go forward.

At the same time, however, the proposal has not met any bureaucratic obstacles or

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any offi cial negative response. Overall, our own expedition has not met any obvious

suspicion in terms of its legitimacy, and throughout all the stages of our work the

stakeholders have not created any confl ict or disagreement towards our project or our

approaches to the management of the place.

The creation of a permanent, publicly accessible local museum would be a means

to contribute towards a substantial heritage development in the tri-national border

area. The possibility of acquiring their own archaeological museum has led the local

community at the village of Liqenas to believe that their own existence in the area as

a minority group could be supported and preserved and therefore they, themselves,

could be better qualifi ed as a special community of the country.

Conclusions

This paper showed how an archaeological project taking place in a particularly chal-

lenging area can provide the right tools for connecting ethnic communities that have

traditionally been regarded as ‘antagonistic’. The history of the tri-national border

area that divides Albania from the FYROM and Greece proved to change from a no

man’s land to everyone’s land, a cultural area with more similarities than differences.

The human contact through the scientifi c research that aims to overcome recent

confl ictual misunderstandings and state propagandas shall provide a social topos,

taken for what it is: a social place (topos) of cultural coexistence.

Based on our experience of working in the Great Prespa district so far, the success

of every scientifi c effort should be based on equal collaboration with all involved

parties and on balancing different viewpoints. It is not only the scholars or the local

authorities who should be empowered to make decisions in such projects but equally

members of the wider local community. We would argue that the role of the latter is

actually more important as a factor of a syn-topos (where syn and topos express

the desire of coexistence in the same cultural — historical — archaeological —

sociological frame), otherwise any experiment, specialized research, or fi nal discovery

becomes nonsensical.

Acknowledgements

The Administrative Board of the ITCC would like to address its warmest thanks to

all the Institutions and persons that have offered their help for the realization of the

Project on Maligrad. First of all, we should thank our Albanian colleagues for their

excellent cooperation, and in particular Professor Shpresa Gjongeçaj, Director of the

Institute of Archaeology at Tirana (IAT), Professor Petrika Lera, Director of

the Prehistoric Sector of IAT, and Dr Faik Drini, Director of the Classical Sector of

IAT, for their all-out contribution. We would like to express our gratitude to the

academic authorities of the University Fan Noli of Korçë for their precious support

in the years 2006–11. We also thank our valuable collaborators on the fi eld, the

archaeologists Miss Eleni Mitraki, Mr Giannis Giannakakis, Dr Maja Gori, Mr

Karim Fayez, Mr Spyros Triados, Mr Nikiforos Tounousidis, and Miss Foteini

Anthanasiadou for their faultless and voluntary cooperation. Without the help of the

Greek volunteers in the dig, the entire project would not have had these rich results.

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Very helpful were the students of the Universities of Korçë and Ioannina: Daniel

Shkodrani, Besmira Kodrasi, Mamitsa Ekonomi, Yllka and Isabela Papa, Dimitra

Pantazi, Maria Siampli, Eleni Sepka. We are particularly grateful to the specialists

Dr Artemis Oikonomou (Physicist of the Center of Archaeometry, University of

Ioannina), Dr Dimitrios Katsinis (geologist), Mr Angelos Gkotsinas (MSc Zooarchae-

ologist), Dr Argiro Nafplioti (paleoanthropologist), the Wiener Laboratory (America n

School of Classical Studies at Athens), Mr Stelios Mouzakis (byzantinologist), Miss

Anna Karlighioti (archaeologist), Mr Alexander Poulakis and Miss Androniki Kefal-

lianou (cavers), and Mr Stelios Alevras (attorney) for his innumerable suggestions and

essential help in every step ITCC has taken in all these years.

We also thank our workers-boatmen, Gjergi Ago, Aleks Postolicini, Todi Jano, and

Mr Trajan Vangelofski’s family for their warm welcome and for accommodating

some of the expedition members in their house at the lakeside village of Liqenas, as

well as to the local people of Korçë and Liqenas for their collaboration. Steady and

valuable contributors of the Project are the Orthodox Cathedral of Korçë and His

Eminency, the Bishop of Korçë, Joan Pellushi, who with paternal affection has been

offering for the last six years free of charge the hostel of the Orthodox Church. We

are also grateful to the Greek Consulate of Korçë, which, through the former Consul

Mr Constantinos Moatsos, supported fi nancially the fi rst steps of the project.

To them and to Mr Ch. S. and N. P. we address our deepest thanks. Last but not

least we wish to express our gratitude to our families for their patience and their

tolerance.

Notes1

These are the villages of: Cerje, Djellas, Gollomboç,

Goriçë e Madhe, Goriçë e Vogël, Kallamas,

Lajthize, Liqenas, and Zaroshke.2

Scanderberg for the Albanians, Kastriotis for the

Greeks (1405–68) is a hero for both the nations

and the symbol of resistance against the Ottoman

conquest throughout the Balkans. According to the

most neutral opinion, Scanderbeg/Kastriotis was an

Epirot. 3

The slavophone warrior of the Macedonian Strug-

gle Kottas or Konstantinos Chrystou (1863–1905) is

an almost archetypical fi gure of the Balkan rivalry.

Considered to be a Macedonian by the Slavs and a

slavophone of Greek national extraction by the

Greeks, he is the epitome of a Balkan hero/traitor;

his original pro-Slavic participation into the local

confl icts turned to be pro-Greek later, and after his

death he became a symbol of the liberation of the

Greek Macedonia by the Greeks. On the other

hand, Basil the ‘Bulgaroktone’ (ad 958–1025), or

‘Bulgar Slayer’, was an illustrious emperor of the

Eastern Roman Empire, but his legendary deeds in

the area were largely used in the Greek national

propaganda during the Macedonian Struggle and

the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 as a basic ingredient

for the formation of a new nation-state character

in southern Macedonia and western Thrace

(Stephenson, 2003).4

KOBAS: Korça Basin Archaeological Survey Project,

organized by the International Centre for Albanian

Archaeology and the Albanian Rescue Archaeologi-

cal Unit.5

The Academy of Science is attached to the Ministry

of Education and Science and is the main scientifi c

public institution in Albania. There is one offi cial

representative for Korce region, Professor Petrika

Lera, who is also Director of the Prehistoric Sector

of the Institute and responsible for the storerooms

of the Museums of the region and for archaeological

excavations. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and

New Generation is responsible for the management

of cultural heritage through the establishment of

the Directorate of Tourism and Culture with the

attached Institute of the Cultural Monuments, the

eight archaeological parks of the country (among

them the tri-national park of Prespa Lakes) and the

autonomous institutions of the bigger Museums.

For example, the Local sub-directorate of Culture

in Korce provides fi ve separate sectors: Sector of

Architecture, Art, and Conservation, Sector of

Archaeology, Sector of Archives, Sector of Adminis-

trative Management and Local Control, and Sector

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of Management of the Historical Centre of Vosko-

poje. Unfortunately, so far the absence of special-

ized personnel as well as the political and economic

instability means that only one person must cover

all above duties. It is fair to say, however, that

the Greek-Albanian archaeological project has not

encountered bureaucratic obstacles to obtain an

offi cial permit for this expedition.6

La Macedoine is a mixed fruit or vegetable salad. As

a term, it became popular at the early nineteenth

century, alluding to the multinational mixture of the

Ottoman Macedonia.

7 After a tough totalitarian regime that reduced the

country into a secluded nationalistic morphoma

in the Balkans, the cultural continuity has been

interrupted for about half a century. During Enver

Hoxha’s regime (1944–90) the mosaic of cultural

heritages of the different districts of Albania was

substituted by the homogeneous state propaganda

(Bejko, 2000: 207–08; Gilkes, 2004: 40–44; Tsonos,

2009: 89–95).8

On the importance of Alexander the Great for the

interpretation of the past in Greece and FYROM,

see Brown (2002: 68–86) and Kotsakis (2002: 44–67).

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Notes on contributors

Petrika Lera is Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University Fan S. Noli of

Korçë, Director of the Prehistoric Sector of the Albanian Institute of Archaeology,

Tirana and Co-director of the Greek-Albanian Archaeological Project in Great

Prespa.

Correspondence to: Petrika Lera. Email: [email protected]

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Stavros Oikonomidis is Adjunct Professor of Archaeology at the Arcadia University,

College for Global Studies, Arcadia Center, Athens, and Co-director of the Greek-

Albanian Archaeological Project in Great Prespa. He is also the President of the

ITCC.

Correspondence to: Stavros Oikonomidis. Email: [email protected]

Aris Papayiannis has graduated from the University of Crete and is working as an

Archaeologist at the 5th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, in Sparta,

Laconia. He is the Treasurer of ITCC.

Correspondence to: Aris Papayiannis. Email: [email protected]

Akis Tsonos is a PhD candidate at the University of Ioannina, Greece, and the

General Secretary of ITCC.

Correspondence to: Akis Tsonos. Email: [email protected]

Petrika Lera, Stavros Oikonomidis, Aris Papayiannis, Akis Tsonos, “The Greek-Albanian...

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