La région de Vathia/Amarynthos au miroir de ses premiers explorateurs. A propos d’une lettre inédite de P. Revelakis à L.-F.-S. Fauvel (1816). - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Antike Kunst Année : 2009

La région de Vathia/Amarynthos au miroir de ses premiers explorateurs. A propos d’une lettre inédite de P. Revelakis à L.-F.-S. Fauvel (1816).

Résumé

Despite its proximity to Eretria and the Attic-Boiotian coastline, the small valley of Vathia in central Euboia – with its old village inland and a much more recent town on the coast, renamed Amarynthos in the 20th century – does not appear to have been visited by any European traveler during the Ottoman period (1470–1829). Even the renowned W. M. Leake was content to observe it from the continent across the waterway, identifying it with the Old Eretria mentioned by Strabo (IX 2, 6 and X 1, 10). However, a letter in Italian preserved in the Fonds Fauvel of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France proves that in 1816 a Greek scholar and patriot, Petros Revelakis, had remarked important ruins in the vicinity of the small hill later known as Palaioekklisies (or Gerani). The document is of interest as well for its description of the insecurity prevalent on the island in those times, the impossibility of traveling as « dilettante » even under the protection of the Bey of Negroponte (Chalkis), a person of no little culture. Revelakis (whose archaeological activities in Athens and Attica around 1810–1820 are attested more than once in travel literature) is revealed as the first scholar to plan a study of Euboian antiquities – a project left incomplete at his death in 1821. The first part of the present article is concerned with the history of Vathia from the earliest mentions in Venetian documents of the early 13th century to the beginning of the War of Independence ; much use is made of cartographical sources, in particular an unpublished « plan of the golf of Negroponte » from the 18th century and a remarkably precise drawing by the English traveler W. Gell. The second part is devoted to the edition and commentary of the letter, including notes on the three persons involved, among them the well-known consul Fauvel. The third part contains testimony from archaeologists and epigraphists who toured the region from the 1830s to about 1900. They were relatively few, since most travelers did not venture further than Eretria or else passed on rapidly. In addition to printed narratives, cartographers are taken into account, in particular those connected with the Expédition de Morée (with the publication of a previously unknown note from 1835), as well as the work of Edward Lear, whose aquarells of Euboia, painted in June 1848, will be of capital importance when the complete series is found. The eight principal travelers (Ulrichs, Spratt, Rangabé, Girard, Baumeister, Bursian, Lolling and Wilhelm) focused their attention on the hillock of Palaioekklisies (sector 1), sometimes even neglecting the small Byzantine church of the Panayitsa, although it is completely constructed of pillaged blocks (2) ; but following Strabo’s text as transmitted, they sought traces of the sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia in the immediate neighborhood of Eretria, little suspecting that in fact it must lie at the very foot of the hill discovered 200 years ago by Petros Revelakis.
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hal-01443099 , version 1 (22-01-2017)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01443099 , version 1

Citer

Delphine Ackermann, Denis Knoepfler. La région de Vathia/Amarynthos au miroir de ses premiers explorateurs. A propos d’une lettre inédite de P. Revelakis à L.-F.-S. Fauvel (1816).. Antike Kunst, 2009, 52. ⟨hal-01443099⟩
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