More Extreme Sports: Aerial Dancing over the Corinth Canal

I missed this event last but it certainly deserves a place among my growing collection of extreme sports on the Isthmus of Corinth. Modern dancer Katerina Soldatou aerial dances over the Corinth Canal. The Greek Reporter noted that “dancer and yoga instructor Katerina Soldatou…carried out a breathtaking performance of extreme aerial dance suspended above the Corinth Canal, as part of the “Greece Has Soul” programme. The event was held in order to raise awareness of the environment and the need to respect the history of each place.” As Katerina says in her video, “Experiencing a place of great history throughout is a most fulfilling way of understanding its true value…Sometimes the time is now.”

 

Soldatou has continued her tour recently dangling from the Rio-Antirrio bridge.

If you’ve missed my earlier series on adventure sports at the Isthmus, check out the following:

Corinth and its Revolution

This recent piece at the Greek Reporter — War and a Greek City: Corinth and its Revolution — discusses Greece’s Independence Day on March 25 from the perspective of the battle between Ottomans and Greeks over and around Corinth in 1822, when “Corinth” was Ancient Corinth, not the modern city to its northeast. News pieces on the 19th century Corinthia are exceptional (in English, anyway), so this one is worth a read. What especially caught my eye was the description of the destruction of Corinth’s countryside in the 1820s:

The failure by the Greeks to hold the city — which would have required only a small force of men in the early stages of the war — had angered independence fighters.

Greek commanders, among them the legendary Theodoros Kolokotronis (called ‘Colocotroni’ by Green) approached from Patras in the west and saw small Ottoman detachments raiding now-abandoned villages on the plain of Corinth.

On July 22, a column of 7,000 Ottoman cavalry and 4,000 infantry rode out to find a scorched-earth landscape, where all edible produce had been destroyed by the Greeks, leaving their forces running out of food.

Between August 4-7, having waited for reinforcements, the Greek forces attacked as the Ottoman commander gave the order for his army to return to Corinth “in great disorder”.

In the narrow mountain passes between Mycene and Corinth the retreating Ottomans’ rear guard was attacked, suffering 5,000 casualties in a few hours.

Twelve-hundred were also killed at the head of the advancing army. Green reports how European volunteers fighting with the Greeks there “expressed astonishment at the tranquil manner in which the Turks, both the infantry and cavalry suffered themselves to be cut down without making the smallest resistance as if they had looked upon themselves as consigned to death by some supernatural power”.

You can read the rest here.

I’ve been working over the last year or so with colleague Kostis Kourelis to document the colony of Greek refugees established by American philanthropist Samuel Gridley Howe at a site known as “Washingtonia,” which was located in the modern village of Examilia on the Isthmus. Howe describes the insecurity and desolation of the countryside after the Greek war of independence and references the battle described above. At some point in the spring or summer, as I have time, I may write more about our work to investigate and locate Washingtonia. You can read more at the idea for the project at Kostis’ blog:

 

Collapse at the Corinth Canal

May you never find yourself along the Corinth Canal during a rainstorm.

Torrential rains last Monday led to massive collapse of stones and debris about the midpoint of the canal, just beyond an old pedestrian bridge and near the old German bunkers. The canal is scheduled to be out of service for fifteen days while crews clear the blockage of enormous limestone blocks and heaps of sediments and mud. Collapse occurred to the east of the location shown on the map below.

 

Thanks to drone footage by Up Drones, you can appreciate the bird’s eye view of the damage and the effort already underway to clean it up.

This is certainly not the first time we have seen collapse over the last 120 years. The German destruction of the canal’s bridges at the end of WWII led to massive blockage within. And if you ever sailed through or walked along the Canal, you can see the irregular walls that were at one time straighter than they are now.

 

For further coverage, check out:

Ancient Corinthia and the American School of Classical Studies

Kostas Pliakos, a video journalist at CNN Greece, has produced a little three minute clip on the work of the American School of Classical Studies in Corinth and Nemea. Some nice recent footage here from those sites along with interview clips of Ioulia Tzonou-Herbst and Steven Miller. Check out the video below.

Greece’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities Celebrates 40 Years

This short piece from the Greek Reporter caught my attention earlier this week. It includes a brief overview of a celebration of work of the ephoreia and includes mention of Lechaion. Here’s the opening and relevant section on Lechaion (read the full piece here):

“Greece’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities on Friday celebrated 40 years of documenting and protecting the country’s rich underwater heritage….Angeliki Simosi, head of the ephorate, gave an overview of the numerous projects across Greece in the past two years, which include expeditions in cooperation with foreign institutes at famous shipwrecks and sites, such as the Britannic — Titanic’s sister ship, off Kea island, as well as new discoveries…At Lechaion, ancient Corinth’s partially submerged harbor town, ongoing underwater excavations revealed the infrastructure of more than a thousand years of flourishing maritime trade.”

 

 

The Liberation of Corinth, October 10, 1944

Seventy-two years ago today, the city of Corinth was liberated from German occupation. Freelance journalist (and Corinthia resident) Damian Mac Con Uladh has done a little investigative work and posted to his blog an original news story (from the Sydney Morning Herald), footage of the liberation, and commentary. That story from the Sydney Morning Herald details the celebrations over the German withdrawal and a trip from Corinth to Patras to spread the word about the liberation. Damian’s post calls attention to the important role of 96-year old Mois Yussourum in resistance work in the Corinthia and liberation. Read the full story here.

liberationsydneyherald2.

New Management Plan for the Archaeological Site at Corinth

The Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA), a non-profit scientific organization based in Athens, Greece, has just issued this press release concerning its role in creating a new management plan for the archaeological site of ancient Corinth.

Located in North-East Peloponnese, Ancient Corinth is an unparalleled world heritage site. Overseeing two regions and two seas, and endowed with a wealth of natural resources, it was one of the largest and most important cities of Archaic and Roman times and experienced continuous habitation over the centuries. The sequence of peoples and cultures that ruled the land – Greeks, Romans, Franks, Ottomans, and Venetians – left their mark in the history but also on the natural and built environment of the area.

The impressive acropolis, the Acrocorinth, stands as an impressive fortress landmark not far from Ancient Corinth, where the extended Roman forum is located at the centre of the modern-day settlement. Further to the north, the Roman harbour is now an abandoned wetland, located in a dynamic rural seashore that faces enormous urban sprawl pressures. These three sites, along with an extensive network of monuments that are scattered in the fertile plain, constitute the unique archaeological area of Ancient Corinth.

In 2014 the Greek Ministry of Culture set up a Working Group with members from the Corinth Archaeological Ephorate, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA) and the Ministry to work on a plan for the sustainable management of the natural and cultural heritage of the area. Med-INA and specifically Mr. Yorgos Mellisourgos, a member of the scientific secretariat specialised in architecture and planning, is jointly working with TPA, which was commissioned by ASCSA for leading the plan development and for providing expert consultation to the Working Group.

The development of the management plan evolves in two phases (analysis and synthesis). The first step of Phase 1 is a multi-themed inventory and assessment of current conditions which was completed in 2015. The second step, currently in progress, is the development of a strategic vision for the area of Ancient Corinth.  This will be followed by a round of consultations with key stakeholders in order to move on to Phase 2, which is the design of the management plan.

Few details here about what the plan will involve but it sounds like a promising start for developing the management of the archaeological site.

On the Eutychia Mosaic Conservation

EutychiaMosaicThe American School of Classical Studies at Athens posted this update yesterday about the conservation work surrounding the Eutychia Mosaic, which has been the focus of the Corinth excavation and conservation teams in recent years. The piece by Katherine M. Petrole discusses the excavation below the mosaic last summer, continued conservation, recent presentations about the work, and educational outreach programs designed to link the mosaic to culture and life in the Roman world. The article update also includes links to videos.

Here’s a taste:

In June 2015 Corinth Excavations hit something better than gold—bedrock! The soil underneath the Eutychia mosaic was removed to bedrock thanks to the careful work of Dr. Sarah James and Corinth Excavations workmen. Keep an eye out for her publication to learn about some of the fascinating finds and their potential implications for the South Stoa…Fun Fact: Did you know that Corinth Excavations now has an outreach program all about the Eutychia mosaic? It’s highlighted in a lesson plan about the cultural achievements of the Roman Empire. From a classroom in America, students can examine how this mosaic helps us learn about the Roman Empire, and their teacher can show current conservation work at Corinth Excavations. A variety of videos showing a behind-the-scenes look at the process of conservation will be available to teachers, and is linked below. With this case study of the Eutychia mosaic, we are looking at its connection to the Roman Empire and its connection to us today as an object of art:  a masterpiece laden with many meanings that affected the function of the space it decorated. It puts Corinth on the “Learning about the Roman Empire” map.

Read the full article here:

See related stories:

More (Corinthian) Perspective on the Greek Crisis

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More local perspective from the Corinthia. This piece in today’s issue of The Irish Times considers the effects of the current uncertainties about the currency and economy on one of the farmers’ markets in New Corinth.

The amount of produce left on her stall by midday meant it was easy to understand why Piga Siachra wasn’t happy after a bad day’s trade at a farmers market in Corinth, a city about an hour from Athens.

“Today was terrible. Sales are down 50 per cent on last week alone. We saw all our usual customers but everyone is buying less,” said Siachra, a woman in her 70s who, as a widow, dresses in black as tradition in rural Greece.

Soon, she and Periklis Roukis, a neighbour who has been helping out in recent months, would have to pack up the honey melon, long and round courgettes, bunches of untopped carrots, herbs and various other vegetables – all certified organic – and return home….

You can read the rest here.

Travels among the New Greek Ruins

In the lead-up to the Greek referendum on Sunday, Corinth made a solid showing in news articles, blogs, and commentary. The Guardian called the Corinthia a weather vane of Greek politics and a predictor for the outcome of the referendum, and archaeologist Stephen Miller suggested polling the customers of a local bar in Nemea to gage public opinion on the matter. MSN UK painted the Corinth Canal as a metaphor for the feeling of division in Greece (which, as the vote showed, was less divided on the European Commission agreement than initial polls predicted). Then there was a range of articles that interviewed Corinthians from different villages – to get some perspective outside of the Athens metropolitan area.

This piece (“How Greece Got to No”) yesterday in The Wall Street Journal caught my attention. Christopher Bakken reviews a new book by James Angelos on how the Greek crisis has affected ordinary people and why a “No” vote was so significant. Here’s a taste of the article:

As a Greek-American boy, James Angelos spent summers in his grandmother’s village in Greece. That village was Corinth, which he remembers as a “humble and largely agrarian” backwater that also happened to be situated across the road from the ruins of an ancient city. Push back the soil from any patch of Greek land and you’re likely to reveal something. Mr. Angelos’s timely book, “The Full Catastrophe,” does just that in famous and less well-known sites across the country.

Mr. Angelos, a former Journal correspondent, travels through Greece as a journalist first, and a native son second, to conduct a mostly unpleasant archaeology….

Mr. Angelos’s book allows us to see how these problems play out, sometimes farcically, in the lives of actual people.

Read the rest of the essay here.

Two other interesting pieces caught my eye :