blog, archived

I decided to officially archive this blog on the day my DPhil was confirmed. But I have waited for the electronic publication of my thesis, Interrogating Archaeological Ethics in Conflict Zones: Cultural Heritage Work in Cyprus, to announce the archiving. From now on, I will blog at Conflict Antiquities.

bones, screams, and theses

I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'sometimes a scream is better than a thesis'; but I can't submit a scream. And as Ogden Nash observed, 'progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long'; I just want it to be over and done with.

Blogging had been interesting and enjoyable, and helpful in my work (even if I'd never done it very regularly); but I don't have either the time or the attention span to do it (at all) at the moment. I've got to submit my thesis by the end of September.

J. Frank Dobie said that 'the average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another'. I was just about to finish creating a beautiful ceremonial cemetery; now I'm hurriedly disinterring the remains and dumping the disarticulated bones in a shallow grave.

[Also posted over on Cultural Heritage in Conflict.]

homophobes crossed-out gay graffiti in Davlos/Kaplıca?

There are romantic pink graffiti on the walls of the Chapel of Agios Sozomenos, outside Davlos/Kaplıca. I think they may be gay graffiti, crossed-out by homophobes; I explain over on Cultural Heritage in Conflict.

summary: September Events, 1955, 2005

Over on Cultural Heritage in Conflict, I've blogged two things I couldn't fit into my thesis: a summary of the Events of September 1955 in Greece and Turkey (also known as ta Septemvriana (τα Σεπτεμβριανά), or Eylül Olayları); and a note on the Events of September 2005, Istanbul.

Molotov bombing of Thessaloniki Jewish Cemetery (επίθεση με Μολότοφ στο Εβραϊκό Νεκροταφείο Θεσσαλονίκης)

On his excellent (if often inevitably depressing) dual-language blog on Jewish life in Greece, Abravanel has detailed an Incendiary Attack Against the Jewish Cemetery of Salonica [Επίθεση με Μολότοφ στο Εβραϊκό Νεκροταφείο Θεσσαλονίκης], a Molotov bombing:

At dawn on Friday the 14th of May 2010, people who belong to nationalist/neo-Nazi space (1), attacked the new Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki in the Stavropoli area (2).

Apart from the spraying of graffiti with stock antisemitic slogans like Juden Raus, Burn the Jews, Sieg Heil, Hitler and the depiction of the nazi swastika and the number 88 which is linked to the Es Es [H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, thus 88 is HH, which stands for "Heil Hitler"], they attempted to destroy the Jewish tombs using molotov cocktails as incendiary devices.

[Τα ξημερώματα της Παρασκευής 14ης Μαϊου 2010 άτομα που ανήκουν στον εθνικιστικό/νεοναζιστικό χώρο, επιτέθηκαν στο νέο Εβραϊκό Νεκροταφείο της Θεσσαλονίκης στην περιοχή της Σταυρούπολης.

Πέρα από την αναγραφή γκραφίτι με κλασικά αντισημιτικά συνθήματα όπως Juden Raus, Φωτιά στους Εβραίους, Sieg Heil, Hitler και των συμβόλων της ναζιστικής σβάστικας και του αριθμού 88 που συνδέονται με τα Ες Ες [H είναι το όγδοο γράμμα της αλφαβήτας, άρα 88 είναι HH, που αντικαθιστεί "Heil Hitler"], επιτέθηκαν με βόμβες μολότωφ στους εβραϊκούς τάφους.]

(I have tweaked some of Abravanel's translation to make it read more easily; but I have honoured Abravanel's choices of words, such as his translation of "classic antisemitic slogans" as 'stock antisemitic slogans'.)

1. That sentence still doesn't read fluidly; but the original idea of someone "belonging to the nationalist/neo-Nazi space" (a geographical image of a political community) doesn't translate really.
2. I've left that phrase as it is (rather than translating it as "the new Jewish Cemetery in the Stavropoli area of Thessaloniki"), because the site's name is the Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki. It also serves to remind that the old Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki is destroyed and invisible underneath the campus of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.