Délos

The third workshop of the Delos Network will take place in Loughborough on May 4, 2019. This workshop builds upon the earlier ones (Delos Ideals and Delos Practices) to explore the legacy of Delos in contemporary environmental thinking and environmentally-conscious design, assessing its lessons – positive and negative – for now and the future, and will also explore the next stage of activities for the network. How do the preoccupations, themes and environmental solutions explored at the Delos Symposia relate to current discourses and practices on sustainable urban design and landscape urbanism? For more detail and registration: https://delosnetwork.com/workshop-3-delos-now/

The Delos Network is a collaborative research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council that brings together an international network of scholars, architects and planners to re-interrogate the history, legacy and impact of Constantinos Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia (1963-75). Full details of the project, including its events, organizers and contributors, can be found at: https://delosnetwork.com/

The Delos Network is an AHRC-funded collaborative project that brings together an international network of scholars, architects and planners to re-interrogate the history and legacy of the Delos symposia (1963-75), which were organised by the Greek architect-planner Contantinos Doxiadis in collaboration with the British planner Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. Urban design solutions were sought in the classical past, for example ancient Greek cities as prototypes for future cities, as well as in new construction, communication and machine technologies. They attracted the foremost intellectuals, scientists and practitioners of the day, laying the foundations for the United Nations 'Habitat' agenda. The Delos Network project will be an opportunity to not only better understand the significance of the symposia but also to address how the Delos debates compare with and feed into contemporary concerns about demographic pressures and environmental sustainability, and their relation to historical precedents by architects, planners and others. It will also connect researchers and practitioners in history, architecture and planning with key stakeholders from professional architecture, architectural education, built environment policy and grassroots organisations currently exploring the intersections of design, environmental concerns and historical continuity.

For more information visit the project's website: https://delosnetwork.com

Arrivé en Grèce en 1861 parmi les premières générations des membres d’une École d’Athènes aux objectifs encore définis de façon floue, Léon Terrier visite en 1864 l’île de Délos et rédige sur les vestiges qu’il y a observés un mémoire d’une centaine de pages. Terrier synthétise les caractéristiques des deux figures d’hellénistes qui coexistent dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle : se situant dans la continuité des voyageurs qui ont parcouru l’île depuis Cyriaque d’Ancône, il combine le romantisme d’une approche littéraire du site fondée sur les auteurs antiques à une observation systématique et critique des vestiges sous leurs aspects les plus techniques. Le mémoire de Terrier a entraîné le début des fouilles de Délos en 1873 ; dernier voyageur à Délos avant l’entreprise d’un dégagement général du site, Terrier est à la charnière de deux époques de l’archéologie, celle des philologues voyageurs et celle des archéologues de terrain.

This paper presents the results of the three-year Delos Underwater Survey Project (2014 - 2016), a synergasia between the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Institute of Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation under the direction of the Head of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities Dr. Aggeliki Simosi. The survey focused on the submerged areas of two Hellenistic neighborhoods that were created at the height of Delos’ urbanization period, the Stadion District and the Skardana District. The Cyclades have seen a relative rise in sea level of about 2 m over the last 2,000 years. Water has engulfed many areas of the once heavily urbanized island. By examining the submerged areas of these two neighborhoods, the project aimed to define their use and role in the commercial activity of the island in the Late Hellenistic period.

Over the course of three seasons, the survey project identified structures providing evidence for commercial activities in the submerged area of the Stadion District, changing the predominant assumption that this neighborhood did not have an instrumental role in the operation of the Delian emporion. The project also identified remains of harbor installations in the submerged area of the Skardana District, indicating that the bay of the Skardana was an anchorage. These finds are significant, as they clarify the function of the bays that were located next to the newly formed neighborhoods on the island. It seems that commercial harbors operated both in the bay of the Stadion District and in the bay of the Skardana District, complementing the activities of the central harbor. Whereas previous research focused on the main harbor area, assuming that the emporion of Delos depended solely on a single harbor, the Delos Underwater Survey Project—the first underwater survey to be conducted around Delos—provides a different picture of the ways in which the port city functioned. Although the mechanisms of trade were weighted toward direct preferential links between emporion ports, rather than toward random coastal tramping or cabotage, an emporion has several harbors, which could be used according to the weather conditions. The results of the survey project show that the bays of the Stadion District and the Skardana District served as anchorages around the island, allowing skippers to avoid crossings in difficult weather conditions, thus facilitating the busy emporion of Delos in the Late Hellenistic period.