The government's decision to merge the regional ephorate of antiquities in Serres – which is currently overseeing the excavation at Amphipolis – with that of Byzantine antiquities, by the end of this month, has sparked a war of words with archaeologists, who charge that one of the country oldest institutions is being dismantled in the name of cost-cutting measures dictated by the country’s lenders.
The decision – taken before the recent archaeological discoveries at Amphipolis that captured the world’s attention – was published in the official gazette on August 28, and concerns not only Amphipolis but the totality of ephorates across the country. Αccording to the ‘reform’, as of October 28, 40% of all public structures responsible for Greece’s cultural heritage and the arts are to be scrapped in order to meet the targets set by the troika.
As journalist Poly Krimnioti reported in Avgi, a Syriza-affiliated newspaper, the merger is linked to the government’s sweeping effort to meet a pressing Troika demand to streamline the civil service with “horizontal structural cuts” and, its effort to “hijack the results of archaeological research” by concentrating more decision-making powers into the hands of the culture minister ‘to serve its nationalist narrative’.
On August 12, prime minister Antonis Samaras had visited the Amphipolis excavation and made statements on camera. In an op-ed piece published by ThePressProject, Anastasia Lazaridou, the daughter of Dimitris Lazaridis, the first archaeologist to work on the Kasta hill in 1964, slammed the politicians and the media for showing nationalist fervour.surrounding Amphipolis.
The council of Greek archaeologists-CGA (in Greek) was equally unimpressed and accused the government of pushing through its political agenda at the expense of the country’s archaeology service.
“It’s being restructured to press the results of archaeological research, in an unacceptable manner, to serve the government’s designs,” the CGA said, adding that “ephorates are being merged, education programmes are being scrapped… department directors will be hand-picked by the minister”.
The Culture Ministry dismissed the newspaper report as ‘deceiving and a lie’ but did confirm the merger.
”It is true that the new ephorate of archaeology that is being created in the Serres region (in northern Greece) is expanding its responsibilities to include, not just the oversight of the prehistoric and classical antiquities, but also Byzantine monuments which, until now, were under the ephorate of the Kavala region,” it said.
Avgi said merging departments will overstretch already understaffed civil services. “The ephorate of prehistoric and classical antiquities in Serres which is responsible for sites stretching back to the 4th millenium BC has a staff of just four archaeologists! These four will now be responsible for the Byzantine monuments as well,” Avgi said. “The case of this ephorate is typical of what to expect.”
The new legislation regarding the structure of the country’s archaeology service, reportedly, mandates the creation of five new departments under the direct supervision of the culture ministry.
Archaeologists claim that one of these new departments – to promote the country’s archaeological legacy – will consist of government cronies – “at a time when public services are being shut down under Troika demands”.
CGA President Olga Sakali warned that the new legislation is a foretaste of what ‘to expect in cultural policy over the coming decades.’
“The new organogram has a clear political objective: to mutate the structure and responsibilities of the ministry in accordance with dictates of the memorandum calling for a ‘small flexible state’, in order to enforce neoliberal policies,” she said.