Dodecanese

The study focuses on the monumental painting of the island of Rhodes, Greece, during the 13th century and specifically from the year 1204, when the Byzantine official Leo Gabalas took over the administration of the island, until the arrival of the Knights of Saint John in 1309. The remains of the artistic production are located in six churches in the town and the countryside of Rhodes. The monuments in question are presented in chronological order. After the detailed description and iconographic examination follows the stylistic analysis of the wall paintings along with the proposed dating. In particular, the study deals with the frescoes of Hagios Phanourios in the Medieval Town of Rhodes, of the monastery of the Archangel Michael at Thari, of Hagios Ioannes Theologos at Kouphas in Paradeisi, of Hagios Niketas in Damatria, of Hagios Georgios Vardas in Apolakkia (1289/90) and of Hagios Georgios Kounaras in Asklepeio. Two sub-chapters concerning the wall paintings of the church of Hagios Georgios Vardas were expanded because of their special interest: one concerns the rare inscription Akedioktene which accompanies the representation of the Virgin Glykophilousa and the other deals with the iconography and local cult of Saint Philemon, following his rare representation in the church. Given that the paintings of the church of Hagios Georgios Kounaras in Asklepeio is ascribed to the same hand as that of Hagios Georgios Vardas, the painter’s style in both monuments and the particularities of his art are examined in a special chapter. In the final part of the book, the overall consideration of the artistic production is developed: the structure and order of the iconographic programmes are assessed, some interesting issues of iconography are discussed, as well as matters concerning the donors of the churches. The stylistic trends are analysed, compared with monuments from other Dodecanese islands and within the artistic currents of the first and second half of the 13th century.

An order-of-battle of the German Assault Division 'Rhodes' (motorised) on the island of Rhodes, Greece, two weeks before its units disarmed the Italian garisson in the middle of September during the Italian Armistice. The Germans would remain in Rhodes until the end of the war, May 1945, because the Allies bypassed them, when the Germans evacuated some islands and all of mainland Greece in October 1944. Part five of, an occasional, series on the orders-of-battle and strengths of the various occupation forces (German, Italian and Bulgarian) in Greece during World War II, 1941-1944.

Το άρθρο πραγματεύεται τις περιστάσεις κάτω από τις οποίες εξελίχθηκε το Δωδεκανησιακό ζήτημα, σε συνάρτηση με την πολιτική της Τουρκίας επί αυτού, από την επαύριον της έναρξης του Β’ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου (1939) έως τη Συνδιάσκεψη Ειρήνης των Παρισίων (1946-1947) που αποτέλεσε το διπλωματικό επιστέγασμά του. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο αναλύονται το περιεχόμενο και οι επιπτώσεις της Συνθήκης Αμοιβαίας Βοήθειας, την οποία υπέγραψαν στις 19 Οκτωβρίου 1939 η Μεγάλη Βρετανία, η Γαλλία και η Τουρκία. Ακολούθως, επισημαίνεται η αναθέρμανση του τουρκικού ενδιαφέροντος για τα  Δωδεκάνησα ως αποτέλεσμα της έναρξης και της εξέλιξης του ελληνοϊταλικού πολέμου. Ακολούθως, περιγράφονται τα διαμειφθέντα ως προς τα Δωδεκάνησα στο πλαίσιο αφενός της συνάντησης Ήντεν-Στάλιν στη Μόσχα τον Δεκέμβριο του 1941, και αφετέρου στη Διάσκεψη των Αδάνων τον Ιανουάριο του 1943. Τέλος, επισκοπούνται οι εξελίξεις –πάντα με άξονα την τουρκική πολιτική στο Δωδεκανησιακό– προς το τέλος του Πολέμου αλλά και αμέσως μετά τη λήξη του, οι οποίες, παρά τα εμπόδια και τις παλινωδίες, οδήγησαν τον Φεβρουάριο στην υπογραφή της Συνθήκης Ειρήνης των Παρισίων με την Ιταλία, βάσει της οποίας τα Δωδεκάνησα αποδόθηκαν στην Ελλάδα.

Edita nell’ambito della rivista di archeologia e architettura antica Thiasos, recentemente varata, la monografia vuole inaugurare una collana di opere dedicate all’architettura di Kos e delle altre isole del Dodecaneso, di cui questo costituisce il primo volume, a cui seguirà l’edizione del Ginnasio e delle Terme Centrali a cura di Monica Livadiotti. Il volume è edito in forma di e-book, ma è in preparazione una traduzione in inglese, a cura di Rita Sassu, con edizione a stampa sempre per i tipi dell’editrice Quasar.
Lo studio della Stoà Meridionale dell’agorà si inserisce nell’ambito di una più generale analisi della topografia della città antica di Kos che l’équipe del Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ingegneria Civile e dell’Architettura del Politecnico di Bari, diretta da Giorgio Rocco, sta portando avanti ormai da molti anni in collaborazione con i colleghi delle Eforie del Dodecaneso e con l’Istituto Archeologico di Studi Egei di Rodi.
Frutto di una ricerca sul campo sempre attenta al dato proveniente dal rilievo delle strutture e dei frammenti architettonici, l’ipotesi di ricostruzione della Stoà fornisce un importante tassello per la conoscenza complessiva dell’agorà di Kos e dei suoi monumenti, argomento a cui l’Autore ha dedicato negli ultimi anni diversi contributi. L’esistenza stessa di questo lungo edificio porticato posto a delimitare il lato sud della piazza agorale ha risolto inoltre alcuni quesiti riguardo alla configurazione topografica dell’area centrale della città, rimasti insoluti dopo gli scavi di Luigi Morricone del tratto più occidentale della plateia ellenistica e di Charis Kanzia lungo la sua prosecuzione più ad Est. Inoltre, la descrizione della consistenza del monumento e della sua ricostruzione sono integrate da un serrato sistema di confronti con l’architettura del periodo di area microasiatica, arrivando ad inquadrare in modo più preciso la produzione architettonica dell’isola in età ellenistica e conferendole un rilievo maggiore di quanto finora sia stato supposto.
Il volume è poi completato dal Catalogo degli architettonici della Stoà Meridionale (a cura di F. Liuni e A. Ferrante), dal Catalogo delle Unità Stratigrafiche Murarie (a cura di M. Livadiotti e M. Messina) e da due brevi studi, posti in Appendice, riguardanti un inconsueto sistema di fissaggio verticale dei blocchi (A. Fino) e un particolare sistema di sollevamento che apparenta la produzione architettonica coa alla “Rinascenza ionica” del  mondo microasiatico ellenistico (M. Livadiotti).
L’apparato illustrativo, tutto di prima mano, è stato realizzato con l’apporto degli studenti, laureandi e dottorandi del DICAR di Bari, che dal 2004 partecipano alle missioni a Kos, sempre di più “cantiere scuola” per i futuri “Bauforscher” italiani.

Published in the context of the recently launched “Thiasos, journal of archaeology and ancient architecture”, the monograph inaugurates, being its first volume, a series of works dedicated to the architecture of Kos and other Dodecanese islands, that is going to include the edition of the Gymnasium and Central Baths by Monica Livadiotti. The volume is published in e-book form, but a translation in English, edited by Rita Sassu, is under preparation and will be shortly available in printed edition (always with Quasar publisher).
The study of the South Stoa of the agora is part of a more general analysis concerning the topography of the ancient city of Kos that the team of the Department of Sciences of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Bari, directed by Giorgio Rocco, has been carrying out for many years, in collaboration with colleagues of the Ephorates of Dodecanese and the Archaeological Institute of Aegean Studies of Rhodes.
The hypothesis of reconstruction of the Stoa results from a research paying special attention to data coming from the survey of structures as well as architectural fragments and turns out to be a relevant element for the overall knowledge of the agora of Kos and its monuments, a topic the author dealt with in several contributions during the last few years. The very existence of this long porch defining the south side of the agora also solved a number of questions regarding the topographical configuration of the city’s central area, that remained unanswered since Luigi Morricone’s  excavation in the westernmost sector of the Hellenistic plateia and Charis Kanzia’s archaeological investigations in its eastern extension.
In addition, the description of the consistency of the monument and its reconstruction are complemented by a comprehensive system of comparisons with the coeval micro-Asiatic architecture, hence contributing to the understanding of the architectural production of the island in the Hellenistic age, giving it a greater importance than has hitherto been supposed.
The volume is then completed by the Catalogue of Architectural Fragments of South Stoa (edited by F. Liuni and A. Ferrante), by the Catalogue of Structural Stratigraphic Units (edited by M. Livadiotti and M. Messina) and by two brief studies, in Appendix, the first one regarding an unusual system of vertical fixing (A. Fino) and the second one about a particular lifting system that connects Kos’ architectural production to the “Ionian Renaissance” of the Hellenistic Asia Minor (M. Livadiotti).
The illustrative apparatus, entirely original, has been realized with the contribution of undergraduate, graduate and PhD students of DICAR of Bari, who, since 2004 participated in missions in Kos, which is gradually assuming the role of  ”school yard” for future Italian “Bauforscher“.

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Like many other European countries, at the end of the 19th century Italy occupied a number of territories around the  world, though most of these colonies were located in Africa. In those where the Italian presence has been longer and more pervading, Italian language is still spoken as a second language (e.g. in the Dodecanese, now part of Greece) or in a corrupt form (Simplified Italian of Ethiopia). Nevertheless, given that many years have passed since Italy’s colonizing mission, today the number of speakers of Italian is steadily decreasing. However it is also noted that many loanwords still remain, phonetically adapted and incorporated in languages such as Libyan Arabic, Amharic, Oromo, Gawwada, Saho, Tigrinya and Somali (among others). The goal of this work is to give an overall view of these languages, by collecting Italian loanwords found in previous literature as well as in dictionaries, thus making it possible to draw a comparison and find continuities and breaks between them. An historic introduction is outlined so that the reader may better comprehend the background of this linguistic heritage.

Grecia e Italia: 1821-2021, due secoli di storie condivise
Invito a partecipare
La casa editrice ETP Books di Atene, in collaborazione con la Società Filellenica Italiana, l’Associazione AIAL e con il patrocinio di Università “Tor Vergata” di Roma, Università “Capodistria” di Atene, Università Roma Tre, Università di Torino, Ambasciata d’Italia ad Atene,Istituto italiano di Cultura di Atene, la AICC Sezione Antico e Moderno, la ICHRPI (sezione
greca e italiana) e l’Associazione italiana di studi del Sud-est europeo, invita a partecipare al convegno Grecia e Italia: 1821-2021, due secoli di storie condivise, che si terrà ad Atene dal 31 maggio al 4 giugno 2023.
La partecipazione al progetto prevede:
- la redazione scritta di uno studio originale che ogni relatore fornirà entro la fine di febbraio 2023; una comunicazione orale in sede di convegno (maggio-giugno 2023) della durata di 10-15 minuti circa. Le proposte dovranno giungere entro il 15 aprile 2022 via e-mail alla casa editrice ETP
Books: etpbooks@gmail.com

Ανάλυση της καταδρομής ενός τμήματος του Ιερού Λόχου στη Νίσυρο, τον Φεβρουάριο του 1945, η οποία είχε ως κατάληξη την εξουδετέρωση της γερμανικής φρουράς της και την απελευθέρωση του νησιού. Επρόκειτο για μια από τις τελευταίες πολεμικές επιχειρήσειςτου Ιερού Λόχου (ενόψει της λήξης του Β' Παγκοσμίου Πολέμυ τον Μάιο του 1945) και μια από τις ελάχιστες κατά τις οποίες είχε ανθρώπινες απώλειες (δημοσιεύτηκε στα TA NEA THΣ ΛEΣXHΣ KATAΔPOMEΩN & IEPOΛOXITΩN, φύλλο 86, Ιανουάριος-Φεβρυάριος-Μάρτιος 2018)

The Dodecanese Islands became a subject of diplomatic negotiations both during and after World War II. This article examines the position of Turkish foreign policy on the sovereignty of the islands. It argues that the analysis of the subject necessitates a multi-faceted approach which takes both the concerned parties’ stance and Turkey’s post-war international status into consideration. This study shows that Britain and the US frankly favoured the Greek claims after 1940. Accordingly, it asserts that in the post-war period, Turkey constituted its diplomacy over the Dodecanese based on the rising Soviet threat against which it sought support from the Western powers. It also shows that Ankara sometimes made attempts to intervene in the process regarding the Dodecanese although they were short-lived and inconclusive.

L’architettura di età ellenistica è improntata a nuove concezioni compositive – come la maggiore articolazione dei corpi di fabbrica, ora veri e propri organismi compositi, con una maggiore attenzione per i rapporti reciproci tra i volumi – che determinano un significativo spostamento di interesse dal singolo edificio al complesso urbano. Il tratto peculiare delle trasformazioni architettoniche dell’età ellenistica è quindi costituito dalla monumentalizzazione degli spazi urbani, la cui composizione sembra seguire concetti scenografici in buona parte estranei alla cultura architettonica dell’età precedente.
La consistenza stessa degli impianti, con la realizzazione di complessi con centinaia di colonne, ad esempio, determina inevitabilmente un salto di scala corrispondente al passaggio dalla dimensione architettonica a quella urbana; tale incremento quantitativo, che deve aver comportato profonde trasformazioni nell’organizzazione del lavoro, sia sotto l’aspetto architettonico-morfologico, sia sotto quelli tecnologico ed economico, appare essersi tradotto nell’introduzione di processi di standardizzazione che, attraverso la progressiva semplificazione delle forme e dei profili, hanno permesso la riproducibilità delle stesse componenti nelle quantità e nei tempi richiesti.
La città di Kos vede, nel periodo tra la fine del III secolo a.C. e gli inizi del secolo successivo, un momento di grande espansione, con l’apertura simultanea di grandi cantieri a scala urbana: il rifacimento dell’agora e dell’Aphrodision, la costruzione del ginnasio occidentale e la monumentalizzazione dell’Asklepieion; il loro studio permette di verificare l’apparizione di processi di standardizzazione - articolati lungo l’intero processo di produzione, dalla cava e sino agli interventi di finitura - finalizzati alla definizione di elementi seriali utilizzabili indifferentemente nei diversi contesti monumentali. Si viene così ad introdurre un vero e proprio processo di industrializzazione della produzione che sembra aver demandato alle officine più qualificate la sola lavorazione dei monumenti d’eccellenza.

The Hellenistic architecture is characterized by new compositive conceptions – like the greater articulation of buildings, now real composed organisms, with a greater attention in mutual relationships between volumes – which determine a meaningful shift of interest from the single structure into the urban complex. The peculiar feature of the architectonic transformations in the Hellenistic period is characterized by the monumentalization of the urban spaces, whose composition seems to follow scenographics concepts alien to the previous architectonic culture.
The very consistency of the buildings, with hundreds of columns, inevitably determines a difference in scale coinciding with an evolution from architectonic to urban dimension; such quantitative increment, which must have implied deep transformations in the yard organization, in regard of the technological, economic and the architectonic-morphologic aspects, appears to have introduced standardization processes that, through progressive simplification of shapes and profiles, made possible the realization of the architectonical members in the required quantities and time.
The city of Kos, in the period between the end of the III century BC and the beginning of the following century, enjoyed a period of great expansion, with simultaneous opening of great yards: the rebuilding of agora and Aphrodision, the construction of the western gymnasium and the monumentalization of the Asklepieion. The study of these monuments allows to verify the introduction of standardization processes - developed during the entire production process, from the quarry to the ultimate finishing - aimed to the production of elements indifferently employable in the various monuments. However this standardized architectonical production in hardly found in the realization of the monuments of prestige, where the quality of execution was still essential

Απόσπασμα συνέντευξης του Γεωργίου Χαροκόπου, ιστορικού συγγραφέα και τελευταίου επιζώντα της ομάδας ανταρτών του Πάτρικ Λη Φέρμορ που απήγαγε τον Γερμανό στρατηγό Κράιπε από την Κρήτη (1944) στον Ν. Νικολούδη (26 Απριλίου 2013). Σε αυτό ο Χαροκόπος περιγράφει τη δράση του στον Ιερό Λόχο στον οποίο κατατάχθηκε μετά την αναγκαστική αποχώρησή του από την Κρήτη (δημοσιεύτηκε στα ΤΑ ΝΕΑ ΤΗΣ ΛΕΣΧΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΤΑΔΡΟΜΕΩΝ & ΙΕΡΟΛΟΧΙΤΩΝ, φ. 91, Απρίλιος-Μάιος-Ιούνιος 2019).
Extract of an interview to the author (26 April 2013) by George Harokopos, last surviving member of the guerilla group that kidnapped General Heinrich Kreipe in Crete (1944). In it Harokopos describes his subsequent participation in the Greek Sacred Squadron, including the liberation of Kythera and Athens; Operation TENT (May 1945, the last battle of WW2 in the Aegean); and the German surrender at Symi. Sadly, Harokops died (aged 100) on 21 March 2019 (published in the NEWS OF THE CLUB OF RAIDERS AND MEMBERS OF THE SACRED SQUADRON, issue 91, April-May-June 2019).

The intensive survey which carried out recently in the acropolis of Lindos brought to light an important number of unpublished inscriptions, among them three signatures of artists, and specifically these of Λυσίας Χίος, Πρώτος Λυκάων and Χαρμόλας Αρτεμιδώρου. These new epigraphic testimonies and two other signatures with the names of Πλούταρχος Ηλιοδώρου and Πυθόκριτος Τιμοχάριος, which are incised in two parts of two different exedras, are represented in this article.

The city of Rhodes was an important harbour in the Hellenistic period, and although its political role in the Roman period was significantly diminished, it never ceased to be a key hub for trade. The catastrophic earthquake of AD 515 marked the transition from the Late Roman to the Early Byzantine period in Rhodes. The glorious ancient city shrunk in size; its streets, which had been laid out according to the Hippodamian grid, were encroached upon and large basilicas were founded on the sites of ancient sanctuaries. A significant portion of the city has been uncovered over the past few years by rescue excavation, revealing houses, mansions, streets and extensive cemeteries, all yielding a large quantity of finds. This study focuses on the recording, study and publication of the corpus of the Late Antique lamps dating from the 3rd to the 7th centuries as found in these rescue excavations in the town of Rhodes. The lamps of this period from Rhodes and the other Dodecanesian islands are almost unknown in the published literature. The aim here is to present the diachronic changes in the artistic sensibility and preferences of this particular market. An integral component in this process are topographical observations regarding the Early Byzantine town of Rhodes, giving some details about the extent of the building remains. In addition, facets of the economic and commercial activities of the island during Late Antiquity are highlighted. Subjects such as the transformation/adaptation of the ancient city to new circumstances are also debated. For some lamps, analyses of the clay have been undertaken and the results are presented.