Annual scientific lecture in memory of the academician Manolis Chatzidakis (1909-1998), Monday, May 8th, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. at the Academy of Athens

Research Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art

at the Academy of Athens

PRESS RELEASE

The Research Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art at the Academy of Athens, honouring its founder, the academician Manolis Chatzidakis (1909-1998), eminent Byzantinist, General Director of Antiquities,

Director of the Byzantine Museum and the Benaki Museum,

organizes its annual scientific lecture in his memory,

on Monday, May 8th, 2023, at 7:00 p.m.

at the Academy of Athens, 28 Panepistimiou Str., Athens.

The speaker this year is the Director of Antiquities of Cyclades

Dr Demetrios Athanasoulis,

who will lecture on “The Cycladic Archipelago

during the Transitional Centuries (641-843)”.

(in Greek)

From the mid-7th century until the mid-9th century, the Empire of Constantinople began to gradually evolve and take on its medieval characteristics. As, at this time, the advance of the Arabs made the Aegean vital to the survival of the Empire, Constantinople turned its attention to the islands of the Archipelago. Thus, the Cyclades emerge as a privileged field to follow significant aspects of the quests and policies applied in all fields, through important material evidence, uncovered during the recent investigations of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades. Unknown archaeological sites, re-dating of iconic churches and castles, pre-iconoclast and aniconic wall-paintings document the pivotal role of Archipelagos for the Empire during this period. The lecture will present a first synthesis of this new material.