Migrant and Refugee Camp Catalog, Mainland, Greece

Archaeologists of the Greek landscape can deploy their analytical tools in studying settlements to document current migrant and refugee camps. Consider what Adrian Meyers did with the archaeology of Guantanamo Bay (World Archaeology 2010). The UNHCR has just made this easier through a cartographic portal (here and here) that also includes individual camp reports (not all current). Since the data is difficult to sort through, I have created a working list of locations for 56 current sites in Central Greece. I am interested in the mainland sites as planned constructed places (different from the emergency sites of Lesvos and the Aegean Islands).

I don't know if this is useful to anyone, but here is what I plan to do with all entries. Take the Lat/Lon coordinates (simply copy/paste) into Google Earth. This will give aerial view of the camp at varying resolution. Depending on when the last satellite image of that particular region had been taken, one may or may not yet see the camp. The precise location provides a starting point for further remote sensing and for the beginnings of an analysis of each camp's spatial particularities. For instance, we can see (in most cases) the development of the site since about 2004. With street view (if camp is located on central road) one can even monitor the current situation three-dimensionally. This is not easy. It will take lots and lots of cartographic analysis. But we must start somewhere. The numbers below are as follows. Site number, Site name (using UNCHR naming to avoid confusion), GPS Latitude, GPS Longitude, Capacity of inhabitants, Current number of inhabitants, Date that camp opened, and Province. The UNCHR makes it clear that these are numbers provided by the Greek government and have not been independently verified. The UNCHR keeps track of the population figures. The numbers in my list are from the mid-September update. 

NO	NAME	LAT	LONG	CAPACITY	CURRENT	OPENED	PROVINCE
1	Agios Andreas	38.0627	23.9877	200	176	3/8/16	Attica
2	Elefsina	38.0314	23.491	346	359		Attica
3	Eleonas	37.9841	23.6963	2500	2183	8/16/15	Attica
4	Elliniko I (Hockey)	37.8978	23.7219	1400	941	2/25/16	Attica
5	Elliniko II (West/Olympic Arrivals)	37.8998	23.7263	1400	802	9/28/15	Attica
6	Elliniko III (Baseball Stadium)	37.8974	23.7292	1300	739	2/29/16	Attica
7	Lavrio	37.7031	24.0335	400	320	3/14/16	Attica
8	Lavrio (Accomodation facility)	37.7128	24.0542	600	441		Attica
9	Malaksa	38.2393	23.7945	1500	905	3/8/16	Attica
10	Piraeus Port	37.9398	23.6243	0	0		Attica
11	Rafina	38.0087	23.9952	120	89		Attica
12	Schisto	37.9803	23.5936	2000	950	2/22/16	Attica
13	Skaramangas port	38.0048	23.5891	3200	3450	4/11/16	Attica
14	Victoria Square	37.9932	23.7298	0	0		Attica
15	Oionfyta	38.3236	23.6288	600	680	4/13/16	Central Greece
16	Ritsona	38.3869	23.5046	1000	665	3/13/16	Central Greece
17	Thermopiles	38.7972	22.5432	500	488	3/3/16	Central Greece
18	Koutsochero	39.6148	22.248	1500	0	3/20/26	Thessaly
19	Kipselochori	39.776	22.5129	600	126	6/23/16	Thessaly
20	Trikala (Atlantic)	39.5561	21.7949	360	277	7/28/16	Thessaly
21	Volos-Mosas	39.3816	22.8517	200	135	4/14/16	Thessaly
22	Alexandreia	40.6354	22.454	1200	610	3/25/16	Central Macedonia
23	Cherso	41.0945	22.772	4000	1767	2/28/16	Central Macedonia
24	Derveni (Dion-ABETE)	40.7642	22.9763	400	174	7/25/16	Central Macedonia
25	Derveni - Alexil	40.7244	22.9771	850	791	5/25/16	Central Macedonia
26	Diavata	40.7009	22.8639	2500	949	2/24/16	Central Macedonia
27	Giannitsa	40.7643	22.4467	900	0	3/21/16	Central Macedonia
28	Kalochori - Iliadi	40.6525	22.8527	500	487	5/21/16	Central Macedonia
29	Lagkadikia - UNHCR	40.6291	23.2453		787	3/21/16	Central Macedonia
30	Nea Kavala	40.9906	22.6248	4200	1975	2/28/16	Central Macedonia
31	Oreokastro	40.7009	22.9027	1500	1294	4/28/16	Central Macedonia
32	Pieria (Camping Nireas)	40.178	22.554	400	395	2/25/16	Central Macedonia
33	Pieria (Ktima Iraklis)	40.2559	22.3675	200	49	3/28/16	Central Macedonia
34	Pieria (Petra Olybou)	40.1953	22.3229	1400	1230	4/11/16	Central Macedonia
35	Serres (KEGE)	41.0724	23.5474	600	512	8/5/16	Central Macedonia
36	Sinatex - Kavalari	40.6733	23.0832	500	308	5/27/16	Central Macedonia
37	Sindos - Frakaport	40.6659	22.8337	600	550	5/25/16	Central Macedonia
38	Sindos - Karamanlis building	40.6452	22.8242	600	573	5/21/16	Central Macedonia
39	Softex	40.6701	22.8748	1900	1339	5/25/16	Central Macedonia
40	Thessaloniki Port	40.58	22.8835	0	0	3/17/16	Central Macedonia
41	Vagiohori	40.7131	23.3792	631	210	5/26/16	Central Macedonia
42	Vasilika	40.5016	23.0983	1500	1273	6/14/16	Central Macedonia
43	Veria (Armatolou-Kokkinou)	40.5154	22.2083	440	330	3/26/16	Central Macedonia
44	Chalkero	40.956	24.457	350	281	4/11/16	Eastern Macedonia Thrace
45	Drama	41.1714	24.069	550	200	3/1/16	Eastern Macedonia Thrace
46	Kavala (Perigiali)	40.9469	24.4294	270	119	8/5/16	Eastern Macedonia Thrace
47	Kozani (Leukovrisi Stadium)	40.299	21.794	400	215	2/22/16	Western Macedonia
48	Doliana	39.8985	20.5783	400	205	3/15/16	Epirus
49	Filipiada	39.2244	20.873	700	421	3/18/16	Epirus
50	Katsika Ioanninon	39.6077	20.9023	1500	739	3/16/16	Epirus
51	Katsika Ioanninon (EMAK)	39.6998	20.773	250	239		Epirus
54	Konitsa	40.0494	20.7493	200	167	3/15/16	Epirus
55	Tsepelovo	39.8849	20.8003	200	142	4/16/16	Epirus
56	Andravidas	37.9384	21.2069	300	246	3/31/16	Western Greece

Context: In March 2016, Greece's northern neighbors closed their borders to refugees and migrants. Approximately 57,000 individuals could not reach their intended destinations in Northern Europe and were effectively stuck in a country they did not want to be in, and a country that was not prepared to host them. A situation that had already escalated into a humanitarian crisis took an unusual turn towards long-term settlement rather than temporary passage. The closing of borders, exclusionary foreign policy, and a deal struck between the EU and Turkey on March 18, 2016 changed the spatial character of Greece’s migrants and refugee management. Before March, the humanitarian crisis was concentrated on the islands of the Aegean, where migrants and refugees landed in great number, and where they had to process their initial paperwork. The deal with Turkey gave control of those points of arrival to Frontex, EU’s coast guard. Frontex coordinates and control the Moria reception center in Lesvos and polices the waters between Greek and Turkey. The 57,000 refugees and migrants already trapped in Greece became de facto a Greek internal affair. Initially, the landlocked refugees created ad hoc camps with a large concentration at the rail depot and border control at Eidomeni. The Greek government’s solution to this new phase of the crisis was a strategy of decentralization. Greece’s incapacity to process even the minimum number of asylum seekers in the early 2000s was compounded by the 2009 debt crisis. Without the bureaucratic, logistical, or financial infrastructure to solve the humanitarian crisis in a centralized manner, the Greek government initiated a decentralized plan of dispersing its new migrant population across the provinces in newly erected camps. In March 2016, there were 26 camps, but in August that number had grown to 70.

Undocumented Greek Migrants

European ethnic groups in the U.S. have not been uniformly supportive of the 11 million (mostly Hispanic and Latino) illegal immigrants, since most of them arrived when more liberal immigration policies were in place. Greek Americans see their story as a narrative of legal migration. But is this entirely true? Alexander Kitroeff raised that question in his editorial "Greek-American History and Unauthorized Immigration" in The National Herald (Oct. 15, 2015, p. 15). He notes that if you scratch the surface below the official story, you will find evidence for Greeks arriving to the US illegally, primarily by jumping ship. This is well-known among the Greek community but rarely stated in public or in the official histories.

Over the summer, I spent some time at Temple University's Urban Archives that includes the records of the Nationalities Service Center (NSC), an NGO founded in 1923 to assist new immigrants in Philadelphia. Among the Greek papers, I found the very evidence alluded to by Kitroeff. It is a type-written report of a meeting that took place on June 20, 1942, called "Greek Seamen."

The NSC had a meeting with members of Philadelphia's Greek community to discuss the crisis of Greek asylum seeker in the ports of Philadelphia, Boston and New York. The NSC wanted to discuss the crisis and see what the Greek community was doing about it. At that point 200 Greeks had been interned at the port of New York, and another 110 at the port of Boston. The report presented solutions to the Greek refugee crisis, as well as a report on the causes of the defections. I reprint the first page above, courtesy of Special Collections, Temple University Libraries (Record Group 625, Box 58, Folder 41) and Kitroeff's (hard to find online) editorial below.

Washingtonia

During this last year, I have been energized by the conversations over archaeological responses to the recent refugee and migrant camps in Greece. There is a rich tradition of an archaeological discipline, from Janet Okely's Roma camps in England (1975) to Jason De León s Undocumented Migration Project  in the Arizona-Mexico desert (2009). The conversation in Greece began in April, with the Archaeological Dialogues plenary session in Lesvos (see, The Nation). It will continue at the American Anthropological Association meetings in Minneapolis this November with two panels devoted to the Contemporary Archaeologies of Forced and Undocumented Migration as well as in January at the annual meetings of the Society of Historical Archaeology at Fort Worth. 

Struggling to organize my own thoughts and practices around this topic has resulted into a number of ideas. One of them, has been the realization that we need to do a lot more fieldwork-based archaeology (as opposed to the theoretical-based archaeology that also needs to be done in tandem). 

Few countries have the quantity of refugee settlements that Greece has historically had. Anthoula Karamouzi (1999) drafted a catalog of refugee sites in Greece and it numbers to the 3,000s. We tend to think of the Asia Minor refugees because of their demographic impact (2,089 new villages built by the Refugee Resettlement Commission) but we forget the refugees of earlier centuries like the encampment of African slaves under the Acropolis in the 18th century. In spite of the great quantity of refugee sites in the history of Greece, few of them have been approached archaeologically (as far as I know). I would argue that in order to build a hefty archaeology of the contemporary crisis, we also need to work on the foundations of historical crises.

So, I ask myself this question. What is the one refugee camp of historical significance that I would excavate first. This last summer, I had a wonderful conversation with Thomas Gallant to discuss our two projects on deserted villages (his in Kefalonia and Andros; mine in Lidoriki). The conversation also centered around the 1897 Greek-Turkish war and its archaeology. Tom has argued in his Edinburgh History of the Greeks 1768-1913 and elsewhere that we need consider the 1893 Greek bankruptcy and the 1897 failed war with Turkey as watershed moments in modern history. Tom has called for a carefully study of the 1897 battle lines in Thessaly.

In this thrilling conversation (over delicious fresh fish and wine in Pangrati), we started talking about the site of Washingtonia, in the Corinthia, as another ideal place to excavate. And this brings me back to the question of refugee sites. The first documented refugee site in Greece was built by the American activist Samuel Gridley Howe in 1829 at modern day Hexamilia. He named it Washingtonia. In his letters, we have a clear and detailed description of the architectural character of this site. During the 1990s, Timothy E. Gregory surveyed the area during the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, finding no overground elements (see discussion here). Guy Sanders, director of the Ancient Corinth Excavations has also explored the site (see discussion here). Between Gallant, Gregory, Sanders, as well as Lita Gregory, Bill Caraher, David Pettergrew, and Dimitri Nakassis, I am sure the boundaries of a trench would easily emerge.

Howe described Washingtonia in his letters (edited posthumously by his daughter). The description provides clear parameters of what this excavation should look for. Definitely not traditional masonry walls, but obviously the shadows of ephemeral architecture, huts made of wood.

"I selected twenty-six families from Sico, Aivali, and Athens brought the men herewith me, in a few days put up some huts, and then transported their families here. They were all then employed in cultivating the earth. I procured about two hundred of the poor who were wandering about Corinth in idleness, and began building huts for the colonists. I determined to give each family a house, or hut as you would call it and as the foundations and the fallen walls [of a former village] remained, and since the earth mixed with water makes mortar, there was little that could not be done by the poor. They make the mortar, ring the stones, cut and bring the wood, and are paid [p. 354] merely as much bread as they can live up… When I say ‘doors,’ however, you must not imagine panels, hinges, latches,, locks, etc. There is not a particle of iron about them except nails, and perhaps I cannot give you a more correct idea of the economy and even saving we use than by describing one of them. It is composed of three boards, six feet in length, nailed together, and having an upright stanchion attached. Each end of this stanchion is pointed, and it is set into a hole mortised in the door-frame above and below. This serves for hinge. This door stands open in summer, and when closed is fastened by a wooden bar which shoves into a hole in the wall by its side. [p. 355]"

In 2015, Todd Brenningmeyer and I had the pleasure of surveying the deserted village of Penteskouphi with James Herbst and a gropu of wonderful undergraduate students from F&M and Maryville (picture above). Sanders presented his ongoing analysis of this mud-brick village at the Deserted Village panel of the Archaeological Institute of American 2016 meetings in San Francicso. While presenting this survey at a conference on the Ludlow Massacre at San Francisco State, I had the most amazing experience. A gentleman in the audience came to me after my talk and told me that his father was assassinated during the Greek Civil War. His father was abducted from Hexamilia (the site of Washingtonia), killed, and the body was dumped in Penteskouphi, but has never been found. Could the work in Penteskouphi be integrated with Hexamilia? 

Over the summer, I have been doing more research on the archaeology of Greek immigration. In the 1820s, Greek Philhellenism was centered in Boston (e.g. Howe) and Philadelphia. What I only recently discovered was that Howe went to Brown University in Rhode Island (where Yannis Hamilakis is now teaching). Brown's flagpole is dedicated to Howe and most amazingly, it was paid by the American Hellenic. The base of the flagpole has the shape of a Doric capital (see here). Also note that there is a brand new biography of Julia Howe (Samuel's wife) by Elaine Showalter that should nicely complement the 2012 Howe biography by James Trent. Howe's Papers are not at Brown, unfortunately, but at Harvard.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gallant, Thomas. 2015. The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1768 to 1913: The Long Nineteenth Century, Edingurgh: Edinburgh University

Gregory, Timothy E. 2007. “Contrasting Impressions of Land Use in Early Modern Greece: The Eastern Corinthia and Kythera,” in Between Venice and Istanbul: Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece (Hesperia Supplements 40), ed. Syriol Davies and Jack Davis, pp. 173-198, Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Howe, Samuel Gridley. 1906. Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe: The Greek Revolution, ed. Laura E. Richards, Boston: Dunn, Estes, and Co.

Sanders, Guy D. R. 2013. “Landlords and Tenants: Sharecroppers and Subsistence Farming in Corinthian Historical Context,” in Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality, ed. Steven J. Friesen, Sarah James, Daniel Schowalter, pp. 103-125, Leiden: Brill

Showalter, Elaine. 2016. The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe: A Biography, New York: Simon Schuster.

Trent, James W., Jr. 2012. The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Greek Philadelphia 1908-1919: Baptismal Records

Over the summer, I had the privilege of working with my students at the Greek American Heritage Society of Philadelphia as part of our exploratory research on the city's Greektown around the year 1920. It was a season of great labor and discovery. Among other things, we digitized the entire 1920 US census of a sixteen-block area, catalogued archival photos, studied the architectural fabric of the houses, and transcribed interviews.

The Greek American Society of Philadelphia is a communal archival project that has been collecting visual and textual sources. Its collections vary and include historical photographs, books, records, and all kinds of publications. The most artifacts in the collection are a dozen ledger books that contain the records of the early community. Those books include the community's charter, minutes from its early meetings, lists of subscriptions and donations, and records of birth, marriage, and funeral services. The books are fragile and we hope will find a home that will guarantee their conservation and survival. 

The records are handwritten and in Greek and impossible for the students to transcribe. So, we photographed some of the books, and I am now evaluating their research potential. During the last week, I have started reading the ledgers. I have decided that I will start transcribing the birth/baptism records (Ληξιαρχικόν Βιβλίον Βαπτίσεων). For the period 1908-1919, we have some 750 records. The transcription cannot be streamlined because the writing is hard to decipher. It requires a working knowledge of Greek but also some sense of Greek topography. Although time consuming, I feel a great sense of scholarly responsibility to get this done, as it will for the first time make available primary demographic material.

Our research project this summer targeted the spatial transformation from Greek village house to American city rowhouse. We collected as much information as possible to start a study of Philadelphia's domestic material fabric. The birth records of the ledgers provide information that the US census or Ellis Island do not contain. They note the village of origin of the parents and godparents. By the end of the transcription, we should have a complete geographical network of the points of origin (at village specificity) for the first 750 American-born Greeks of the Philadelphia area (births include distant towns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to which the Orthodox priest of Philadelphia ministered to)

Even after the slow process of transcription, I am also faced by the perennial problems of Greek toponyms. As I've already discussed back in 2008, working with Greek village toponyms is a nightmare. In order to purify the countryside from foreign-sounding influence, the central government carried out a campaign of renaming all villages with Slavic or Turkish toponyms. This was most aggressive after the ethnic cleansing of the Balkan Wars. This was received by great resistance from some places, which guaranteed that the new names never take root. We have encountered this already in the Lidoriki Project, as we traced the Greek emigres who built the now-deserted houses of Aigition. Consider this interesting scenario. Greeks of village called "X" migrate to the US in 1908 and create the national society of "Xans" to maintain links throughout their new country and to support their compatriots back home. The central government renames village "X" into "Y" in 1920. But this does not affect the "Xans" of the US. Do they all of a sudden become "Yans"? This will be interesting to quantify.

Rather than quickly plowing through the 750 birth records into a database of places and names, I have decided to carefully transcribe the entire textual entry. This will make the work ten times more laborious, but I feel that this is the most responsible scholarly thing to do. I have only completed the first dozen births, which cover the first year, 1908. I have not yet decided how I will make this data available at the end, but I wanted to give a taste of the transcription. See below what the records look like. Each entry contains the following information.

• Date of birth
• Date of baptism
• Name of individual
• Name and origin of father
• Name and origin of godparent

For the non-Greek reader, I provide a translation of the first entry. It would be great if we could crowdsource the transcription, but I understand how difficult this would be given the necessary skills. At any rate, it is exciting to present here the first Greek newborns following the legal establishment of the community in 1906.

1. Athanasia. Pan. D. Loume. (Born Sept., 3, 1907). Baptized by the parish priest of the Community, Demetrios Petrides, on March 22, 1908, serving witness [godparent] Michael Theophilas from Argos. The father of the baptized is from the Island of Spetses. Record Number 1.

1. Αθανασιά Παν. Δ. Λούμη. (Γέννησις 3 Σεπτ. 1907.) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του Εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Δήμ. Πετρίδου, τη 22α Μαρτίου του έτους 1908, παραστάντος Αναδόχου, του εξ Άργους καταγομένου κ. Μιχαήλ Θεοφιλά. Ο πατήρ της βαπτισθήσης κατάγεται εκ Σπετσών. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (1) [p. 113]

2. Βασιλική Χρήστου Ζαβάκου. (Γ. 27 Ιουνίου 1907 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του Εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου τη 5η Απριλίου 1908, παραστάντος ως Αναδόχου, του εκ Τριπόλεως καταγομένου κ. Θεοδώρου Αγγελετοπουλού. Ο πατήρ της βαπτισθήσης κατάγεται από το Χατίπη της Λακωνίας. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (2) [p. 113]

3. Γεώργιος Νικολάου Κεφαλοπούλου. (7 Ιανουαρ. 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου εν τη πόλει Cotsvile, Pa, τη 6η Μαΐου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του εκ του χωριού Λελέτου δήμου Σπάρτης καταγομένου κ. Παναγιώτου Γ. Ηλιοπούλου. Ο πατήρ του βαπτισθέντος κατάγεται εκ Σπάρτης. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (3) [p. 113]

4. Ελένη Αθανασίου Δαμάσκου. (1 Φεβρουαρ. 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου, εν Holly Mount N.J. (Νέας Υερσέης), τη 11η Μαΐου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του εκ Τζιτζίνα [Πολύδροσο] της Σπάρτης καταγομένου κ. Παναγιώτου Ν. Βουρνάκη. Ο πατήρ του βαπτισθήσης κατάγεται εκ της νήσου Σκιάθου. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (4) [p. 113]

5. ´Αννα Δημητρίου Ασιμοπούλου. (6η Μαρτίου 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου, εν Φιλαδελφεία, τη 1η Αυγούστου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του κυρίου Πέτρου Χ. Χαρίση, καταγομένου εκ Βελβενδού της Μακεδονίας. Ο πατήρ του βαπτισθήσης κατάγεται επίσης εκ Βελβενδού της Μακεδονίας. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (5) [p. 113]

6. Καλλιόπη Νικολάους Ζαβάκα. (Γ. 26 Φεβρουαρίου 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου, εν Φιλαδελφεία, τη 9η Αυγού. 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του εκ Χατίπι της Λακωνίας καταγόμενου κ. Ανδρέα Ζαβάνου. Ο πατήρ της βαπτισθήσης κατάγεται επίσης εκ του αυτού μέρους. Αριθμός πίστοποιητικού (6). [p. 113] Ο γραμματέυς της Κοινότητας Ιωάννης Κρητικός [p. 113]

7. Σταμάτα Γεωργίου Μαράκη. (Γ. 6 Μαΐου 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου, εν Φιλαδελφεία, τη 9η Αυγούστου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του εκ Σπάρτης καταγομένου κ. Νιλολάου Ζαβάκα. Ο πατήρ του παιδιού εδήλωσε πατρίδα την Πελοπόννησον. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (7). Ο Γραμ. Ι. Κρητικός. [p. 114]

8. Νικόλαος Αντωνίου Μαρίνου. (Γ. 3 Φεβρουαρίου 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου, εν Wilkes Barre Pa τη 12η Αυγούστου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του εκ Ξυροκάμπου Σπάρτης καταγομένου κ. Ηλία Κομνηνού. Ο πατήρ του παιδιού, κατάγεται εκ Γεράνου της Σπάρτης. Αριθ. Πίστοποιητικού (8). Ο Γραμματεύς Ι. Κρητικός [p. 114]

9. Βασιλική Παναγιώτου Αργύρη. (Γ. 17 Ιουνίου1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου εν Φιλαδελφεία τη 24η Αυγούστου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου, του εκ Αγίας Παρασκευής της Μακεδονίας καταγμένου κ. Εμμανουήλ Γεώρ. Καλαμπάκα. Ο πατήρ του παιδιού εδήλωσε πατρίδα την Μακεδονίαν. Αριθ. πίστοποιητικού (9). Ο Γραμματεύς Ι. Κρητικός. [p. 114] [cross in front suggests that she might have died]

10. Χρηστίτσα Γεώρ. Ζαγκάκη. (Γ. 24 Αυγούστου 1908 ) Εβαπτίσθη υπό του Εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου εν Φιλαδελφεία τη 25η Οκτωβρίου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του εκ του δήμου Σπάρτης καταγομένου κ. Παν. Γ. Ηλιοπούλου. Ο πατήρ του παιδιού κατάγεται εκ της νήσου Κώου. Αριθ. Πίστοποιητικού (10). Ο Γραμμ. Ι. Κρητικός [p. 114]

11. Αγγελική Ι. Α. Γεωργίτσα. Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερία της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου εν Φιλαδελφεία τη 30 του μηνός Αυγούστου 1908, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου εκ Σπάρτης καταγομένης κ. Ευαγγελίας Ι. Κωτσοβίτου. Ο πατήρ του παιδιού κατάγεται εκ Τζιτζίνα [Πολύδροσο]. (Αριθ. πίστ. 14). [p. 114]

12. Ελένη Ευαγγέλου Μαυρομμάτη. (Γεν. 8 Ιανουαρίου 1909). Εβαπτίσθη υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου το παιδίον του έξ Ιωαννίνων της Ηπείρου καταγομένου Ευαγγέλου Μαυρομμάτη, ονομασθέν Ελένη, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του Σταύρου Κατσούρη εξ Ηπειρωτικού καταγομένου τη 21 Φεβρουαρίου 1909. (Αριθ. πίστ. 15). [p. 114]

13. Σταύρος Γεωργίου Σταύρος. (Γ. 6 Μαρτίου 1909). Εβαπτίσθη εν Φιλαδελφεία υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου το παιδίον του έξ Νεγοβάνης [Φλάμπουρο] της Μακεδονίας καταγομένου παραστάντος ως αναδόχου εκ Νεγοβάνης Καζά-Φλωρίνης της Μακεδονίας καταγομένου Δημητρίου Ν. Κέλλη ονομασθέν Σταύρος τη 21 Φεβρουαρίου 1909. (Αριθ. πίστ. 16). [p. 116]

14. Δημήτριος Εμμανουήλ Χαραλάμπους. (Γενν. 6 Μαρτίου 1909). Εβαπτίσθη εν Φιλαδελφεία τη 12 Απριλίου 1909 υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημητρίου Πετρίδου το τέκνον του έκ Βελβινίου της Μακεδονίας καταγομένου Εμ. Χαραλάμπους ονομασθέν Δημήτριος, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του εκ Βελβινίου καταγομένου Δημητρίου Ασμοπούλου (Αριθ. πίστ. 18). [p. 116]

15. Γεώργιος Αναστασίου Κυριάκου. (Γενν. 14 Ιουνίου 1909). Εβαπτίσθη εν Φιλαδελφεία τη 13 Απριλίου 1909 υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος Αιδ. Δημ. Πετρίδου, το τέκνον του εξ Αθηνών καταγομένου Αναστασίου Κυριάκου και ονομάσθει Γεώργιος, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του εκ Ρεβίδους Σπάρτης καταγομένου Παναγιώτη Νικολατσιου (Αριθ. πίστ. 18). [p. 116]

15. Γεώργιος Αθαν. Ηλ. Σπυροπούλου. (Γεν. 4 Ιανουαρίου 1909). Εβαπτίσθη εν Πότσβιλ Ρα, υπό του εφημερίου της Κοινότητος ταύτης Αιδ. Δημ. Πετρίδου, το τέκνον του εκ Τριπόλεως καταγομένου Αθανασίου Ηλ. Σπυροπούλου και ονομάσθει Γεώργιος, παραστάντος ως αναδόχου του εκ Σπάρτης καταγομένου Γεωργίου Μινακάκη Απριλίου 18, 1909 (Αριθ. πίστ. 20). [p. 116]

The Archaeology of Refugee Crises in Greece: Diachronic Cultural Landscapes

Since we returned from the field in the summer of 2015, a number of archaeologists have been brainstorming on the appropriate response to the refugee crisis in Greece. Since March 2016, when the northern borders closed, Greece has been creating camps scattered throughout abandoned sites. Effectively, we have the transformation of archaeological sites of abandoned modernity converted into residential camps of postmodernity. Survey archaeologists have been studying Greece's contingent countryside through a variety of methods (remote sensing, surface survey, ethnography, etc.) Greece's new camps should now be submitted under the scrutiny of this cultural geography. In my little sketch, for example, you see the juxtaposition of Camp Koutshochero and Mandra, a village built in 1922 to house Greek refugees from Cappadocia. Koutsochero is being evacuated as we speak, as the United Emirates have committed to building 200 permanent houses. There has been a lot of unrest (once again) with the relocation of the 1,000 current residents. Although a moving target, shifting day-to-day, I have been trying to apply remote sensing and some rudimentary research to document some of these sites. I am not sure if this is going to work. 

The conversation over camps will continue at the 2017 Annual Conference of the Society of Historical Archaeology in a session organized by Chris Mathews, "The Archaeology of Care: Rethinking Priorities in Archaeological Engagement." I have submitted this abstract: 

The Archaeology of Refugee Crises in Greece: Diachronic Cultural Landscapes

The escalation of the Syrian Civil War caused a refugee crisis in Greece as thousands of people crossed the Aegean, leading to tragic loss of life. When Balkan neighbors closed their borders in 2016, some 50,000 migrants and refugees were trapped in Greece. The country responded by a dispersing this population throughout the country in new camps over abandoned sites like army camps, tourist resorts, commercial spaces, gymnasia, fair grounds, and even archaeological sites. Using lessons from the archaeology of the contemporary world, we apply remote sensing, media analysis, and limited field observation to document camps in real time and to address ephemeral urbanism. Refugee camps have been a permanent reality in Greece for a century. The paper also considers camps from the 1912-14 Balkan Wars, the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe, World War II, and the Greek Civil War and outlines a comparative archaeology of crisis.

Philadelphia Greektown

Greektown is an interesting term. It seems to have come into usage when Greeks were beginning to abandon their urban neighborhoods on their way out to the suburbs. A few Greektowns--most notably Chicago and Toronto--used the designation to create a marketable commercial area promoting a Greek experience (culinary, etc.) If you ask anyone in Philadelphia were was its Greektown, they will look at you like you're crazy. Urban redevelopment wiped out Philadelphia's Greektown in the 1960s. White flight coupled by the expansion of medical centers encouraged Greeks to leave their original neighborhood and found new communities at Elkins Park, Broomall, and Cherry Hill. Saint George, one of the two original churches, remained in its original location mostly because it served as the Cathedral of the Bishop of New Jersey. A Greek retirement home right behind the church also guaranteed the maintenance of an elderly community. 

What were the limits of Greektown in the 1920s? Well, that's one of the things we hope to establish in our research this summer. We begin with a provisional demarcation of Greektown as it was defined by oral histories in the 1960s, an area between Walnut and Lombard and Twelfth and Eighth streets. 

Greek Philadelphia. Stephano Residence

If you have ever seen a pack of Camel cigarettes, you would have undoubtedly noticed the Egyptian iconography. Egyptian tobacco was considered most elite and coveted as superior to Virginia tobacco. Few appreciate that Egyptian cigarettes were actually manufactured by the Greeks of Egypt who brought the product to the United States. Stephano Brothers was one of the best known manufacturers of Egyptian cigarettes and major players in the Greek community of Philadelphia. The company's Rameses II cigarette brand was so successful that they built a grand Beaux Arts factory on 1014-16 Walnut Street, designed by Ballinger. The photo below shows Stephano Bros (demolished in the 1960s), courtesy of Temple University Urban Archives. More photos of the building can be found at the Athenaeum in the Ballinger Archives (see here).

The Stephano family is one of the subjects of this summer's Hackman research that I am conducting with two undergraduate students. We will be studying the materialities of ethnic communities, particularly through buildings, spaces, and objects. Preliminary archival research has lead me to Constantine Stephano's naturalization papers of 1904, ten years after his arrival from Greece. He lists 317 S 12th Street as his residence. 

According to oral tradition, the Stephano Brothers began their cigarette empire at the basement of their house. If this is correct, we have established a locus of domestic manufacturing. We have written to the owners of the property and hope to gain access inside. The house belongs to a development stretching from 309 to 323 S 12th and sandwiched between older townhouses. The block is best known by two 1970s landmarks of gay life, Giovanni's Room to the south and the Alexander Inn to the north. With some further research, we will establish the construction date of this house and add it to the architectural narrative of Greektown. Although this part of the research might not be possible, I would like to compare this post-immigration residence in Philadelphia with the pre-emigration residence in village Dikorfo, Epirus, where the Stephanos originated.

The Stephano Bros. introduced their most successful brand, Rameses II, in 1895. Its early packaging (see here) featured images of Ramses II and Amenhotep. In the 1910s, the company highlighted aristocracy; this 1918 print ad deploys Washington's Mount Vernon residence up on a hill. By connecting the architectural dots, we hope to articulate an important modality of trans-nationalism in the early 20th century mitigated by the Greek diaspora. There has been little scholarship on the Stephano Brothers cigarette empire. But I suspect that their source of tobacco might have been Thrace and Macedonia. In Kavala, for instance, the American Tobacco Company had established an outpost in 1901.