The Kingdom of Chelmis: Architecture, Material Culture, and the Modern Landscape of the Western Argolid

ABSTRACT

Fieldwork at the settlement of Chelmis in the Western Argolid provides a case study in the archaeological documentation of the Modern landscape of Greece. Over the last 40 years, archaeologists have recognized that the study of Modern assemblages contributes to our understanding of the formation processes that produce surface artifact scatters. This article combines conventional approaches to studying the Modern Greek landscape with insights from the developing field of historical archaeology in Greece. In addition to describing the methods we used to record Modern architecture and associated artifacts at Chelmis, our work demonstrates the value of Modern sites as windows into both site formation processes and the complexities of the Modern Greek material record.

KEYWORDS:

• Modern Greece
• archaeology of the contemporary
• survey methodology
• site formation processes

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributors

Grace Erny (MA 2014, University of Colorado at Bolder) is a PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology at Stanford University. Her dissertation is a multiscalar investigation of inequality and social differentiation in Iron Age Crete. Her other major research interests include archaeological survey, household archaeology, and the relationship between city and countryside in the ancient world.

William Caraher (Ph.D. 2003, The Ohio State University) is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Dakota. His professional interests range from archaeological methods to Late Roman and Byzantine history, ecclesiastical architecture, Hellenistic fortifications, and settlement archaeology in Greece and Cyprus.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (435-2015-0843).