Kommos Archaeological Park: Conservation, Education & Sustainable Job Creation in Greece

AHEPA flyer final 111712
Flyer Text:
Kommos was an inhabited site for 2000 years and it includes a Minoan emporium
and seaport town with a later Hellenistic Greek temple sanctuary. This
archaeological site adjacent to the beach and sea was excavated by Professors Joseph
and Maria Shaw of the University of Toronto from 1976 through 2006. Situated on
the south coast of Crete, it is considered by scholars to be the port of Minoan Phaistos
and Hagia Triada. Extensive research and publication has produced important
contribution to the corpus of knowledge for Bronze and Iron Age Eastern
Mediterranean studies. Maria and Joseph Shaw received the prestigious 2006 Gold
Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the
Archaeological Institute of America.
A conservation and development plan was created by Joseph Shaw and James Stratis
in 1998 and the Kommos Conservancy was established as a U.S. 501 c 3 nonprofit
organization in 2007. The organizational mission is centered on both conservation for
and educational outreach about – the Kommos archaeological site.
Job creation associated with conservation planning and physical conservation
treatments have continued from the cessation of the excavation in 2006 to the present
time. The thirty minute presentation provides an overview of the Cretan site’s
context, excavation and the archaeological park planning and it includes recent
collaboration with the University of Colorado post graduate architecture program
towards creating virtual reconstructions of some of the buildings and the overall
excavation at Kommos.
James Stratis served with the Colorado Historical Society for twenty seven years as
the Director of General Services, the State Historical Architect and the State
Historical Fund’s Preservation Projects Manager. His work as the project manager for
the development and construction of the Georgetown Loop railroad park and his
conservation work with the National Park Service at the UNESCO World Heritage
park at Mesa Verde, the U.S. Forest Service at the Chimney Rock archaeological
park/ National Monument and the Bureau of Land Management’s Canyons of the
Ancients, inform his planning and management for the Kommos Conservancy.

You can follow us on Twitter (@KommosAP) or join us on Facebook (Kommos Conservancy).

“Μπορείτε να μας ακολουθήσετε στο Twitter (@KommosAP) ή στο Facebook (Kommos Conservancy).”