Historical Analysis

Despite the huge amount of information provided by territorial analysis, it is hard to attain a complete picture of the physiognomy of the territory. According to Eric Hirsch, from an anthropological perspective, ‘there is no “absolute” landscape’ (1995:23). Spatiality and time are inseparable sides of the same coin. The tangible and intangible heritage is interwoven with its historical context. The passage of time is evident through the transformations in the landscape, the built environment and the collective memory of the people. However, the historical context only -‘considered as carrie[r] of historic information’- can illuminate and strengthen the most important values that are identified in a diachronic basis. The history as a social construction often is perceived as an objective reality, and although this perspective is ambiguous, the fact that ‘knowledge can be transmitted as a systematic body of thought’ provides the opportunity to describe ‘the relations between the present and the past’ that leads to a thorough and meaningful understanding of the existing values. As professor Vassilis Ganiatsas argues ‘the historic context is the sole criterion of the appropriateness [...] of any projected interpretation in it’. Therefore the Historical Analyses contributes to the qualitative and quantitative identification of the values. The aesthetic, spiritual, economic, historical, social and political values identified in the historical context of the Mastorochoria area are of great importance and, in UNESCOS’ terms, represent ‘an outstanding example of a [...] landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history’, that confirms also the importance of this territory and its universality. The local communities formed their collective identities according to their historical past and continue to identify themselves in relation to ‘the others’ in our globalized era. But above all, these ‘socially shared identities’ revealed and established the local knowledge and the significant culture of the craftsmen during the historical procedures (Ganiatsas 2011a:7-9; 2011b:23; 1996:105; UNESCO 2005; Hirsch & O’Hanlon 1995:17,23).