Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the role of multiple kinds of tradition in the creation of a long-term and continuous yet constantly changing archaeological landscape in Greece, extending from the early Neolithic (7th millennium BC) through to Classical Greece and up until today.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the role of multiple kinds of tradition in the creation of a long-term and continuous yet constantly socially changing archaeological landscape in Greece, extending from the early Neolithic (7th millennium BC) through to Classical Greece and up until today. It aims to reveal that although spaces, scenes and memories from the great prehistoric cultures were preserved and transmitted over thousands of years through architecture, representational arts and oral tradition, giving way to claims for cultural origins and continuity, in reality little remained the same. Cultural, material, symbolical, oral and mythological tradition constituted primarily a powerful medium for establishing models for changing cultural and social ideals. The central argument of the paper is that cultural tradition and transmission always co-exist with social and ideological change. Tradition is not simply a passive continuation of notions, ideas, spaces and material things. It is socially, culturally, politically and historically contingent, and thus itself subject to change.