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The Thesprotia Expedition
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THE THESPROTIA EXPEDITIONA Regional, Interdisciplinary Survey Projectin Northwestern GreeceMethods and relation to similar projects
Intensive field surveys generally have a diachronic approach, although some of the earlier projects did not include the periods later than the Byzantine. Recent projects, however, include the history of the study areas until the advent of the modern era. Thereby, the use of Venetian and Ottoman sources has developed into an important facet of the projects, which at the same time have, in a sense, been transformed into regional history projects aiming at writing an ideal histoire totale on the basis of an increasingly sophisticated interdisciplinary approach. This is also the case with the Thesprotia Expedition, where the intensive field survey constitutes only a part of the total project.
The Thesprotia
Expedition uses an intensive field survey methodology developed mainly by
previous survey teams working in
Furthermore, it is very important to combine survey findings with the results of archaeological excavations carried out in the region under study. In this connection, we are collaborating with the local Greek archaeological authorities to create a digital map and catalogue of all known sites in the valley of the Kokytos. We also put efforts on digging trial trenches of our own as well as applying geophysical methods in some areas of special interest in order to collect more information about subsurface strata.
Geo-archaeology
has become an important part of intensive surface surveys because it enables us
to reconstruct how an environment has changed diachronically. Concurrently with
the archaeological research of the
The Thesprotia Expedition aims at collecting all available information for the area until the nineteenth century, including ancient inscriptions as well as historical sources for the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Above all, this entails collecting previously unknown archival sources in Venice, on Kerkyra, and in Istanbul. This as well as all other parts of the project is always carried out with the possible benefits of interdisciplinarity in mind. The interdisciplinary approach creates synergy effects and will enable us to answer questions that otherwise would have remained at least partly unresolved.
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