Paliohora -THE AUSTRALIAN PALIOCHORA-KYTHERA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY - Questions, or the Mission Statement

QUESTIONS

A thoughtful visitor meandering through the lanes of Paliochora stopping at one of the twenty-two churches identified within the town walls may ask: "Why does there appear to be more churches than houses in this town?" Standing on the edge of the precipice over looking Kako Lagadi, gazing over a landscape of twisted gullies, cliffs and derelict stone terraces the question asked is: "Who chose to build a town in a comer of the island, hidden from the sea, and why?".

These are the questions that the Australian Paliochora - Kythera Archaeological Survey intends to investigate. They can be summarized in the following way:

1. Why was Paliochora settled?

2. Why was Paliochora abandoned?


On the surface it would appear that these questions could be answered quite easily. Let’s briefly examine them in reverse order. 'Paliochora was abandoned because it was sacked by Barbarossa' would be a reasonable answer. However, if every city in history that was brutally sacked was permanently abandoned then cities such Athens and Rome would have ceased to exist a long time ago. Therefore, the question of why Paliochora was abandoned remains open.

The site of Paliochora was settled because its location is impregnable to attack'. Apart from the obvious response that the town eventually succumbed to an attack by a determined aggressor, this is also reasonable answer as the physical environment around Paliochora is definitely imposing. The question of the siting of the town should be seen in the context of what the Monemvasians discovered when they began visiting the deserted island of Kythera in the 11th century. They would have seen the remains of the Classical city of Kythera on the imposing peak of Paliokastro which overlooks the ancient harbours of Classical Paliopolis and Minoan Kastri. They may have investigated the top of the steep hill of Agios Georgios where they would have found the remains of an early Byzantine church and perhaps some Minoan bronze statuettes associated with a peak top sanctuary. Yet they chose Paliochora. When the Venetians arrived in 1207 they built their castle at the Island's capital, Chora, on the spectacular rock outcrop overlooking the harbour of Kapsali.

What these three settlements have in common, apart from excellent defensive qualities, was that they had easy access natural harbours and agricultural land. Paliochora had neither, or that is how it appears today.

Why would those who founded Paliochora have forgone the great natural advantages of Paliokastro, Agios Georgios settle a site that had neither access to a harbour or good agricultural land nearby? This question assumes of course that the land surrounding Paliochora was the same 1,000 years ago as it is today.

Before the questions set out above can be answered it is first necessary to understand what Paliochora and its environs looked like 1,000 years ago.

This undertaking is the basis of the Australian Paliochora – Kythera Archaeological Survey.


Thanks to Professor Timothy Gregory, his team, and associates, for permission to re-publish the questions which initiated his research efforts at Paliohora. These questions can also be understood as the Mission Statement of the Survey.

For further information, go to,

http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/research/kythera/questions.htm