This volume explores the ways local communities perceive, experience, and interact with archaeological sites in Greece, as well as the archaeologists and government officials who construct and study such places. In so doing, it reveals another, much more troubled, side to sites that have been revered as both birthplace of Western civilization and basis of the modern Greek nation.

This volume explores the ways local communities perceive, experience, and interact with archaeological sites in Greece, as well as with the archaeologists and government officials who construct and study such places. In so doing, it reveals another side to sites that have been revered as both birthplace of Western civilization and basis of the modern Greek nation. The conceptual terrain of those who live near such sites is complex and furrowed with ambivalence, confusion, and resentment. For many local residents, these sites are gated enclaves, unexplained and off limits, except when workers are needed.