Alyssa D Mendez

The small Cretan village of Gonies Malevyziou has been the host and subject of the international field school Engaging Local Communities in Heritage Management through Archaeological Ethnography, run by the Heritage Management Organization (Athens, Greece), since 2014. Initially visited in 2010 for the excavation of the Minoan peak sanctuary of Philioremos (University of Kent, dir. Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis, see Kyriakidis forthcoming) which is situated on the mountain behind the village, Gonies itself rapidly became a place of ethnographic interest. Not only is it replete with historical and traditional buildings and objects, but it also hosts a population rich in, and proud of, local historical and cultural stories (see Kyriakidis and Anagnostopoulos 2016).
The 2017 field school research topic was material culture, and what its use and distribution can reveal about local practices, traditions, beliefs and gender roles. This paper presents the processes and results of this season as experienced by its participants. Below is an account by the four international students in archaeology, anthropology and heritage management who, under the guidance of a small team of professionals, received training in archaeological ethnography whilst residing in Gonies and undertaking month-long fieldwork research through direct engagement with the local population. The outcome of the 2017 season was a small exhibition - located within the village but advertised throughout the region and in the city of Heraklion - of objects which the team and its interlocutors together selected as most expressive of life past and present in the village of Gonies.

The small Cretan village of Gonies Malevyziou has been the host and subject of the international field school Engaging Local Communities in Heritage Management through Archaeological Ethnography, run by the Heritage Management Organization (Athens, Greece), since 2014. Initially visited in 2010 for the excavation of the Minoan peak sanctuary of Philioremos (University of Kent, dir. Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis) (KYRIAKIDIS, forthcoming), which is situated on the mountain behind the village, Gonies itself rapidly became a place of ethnographic interest. Not only is it replete with historical and traditional buildings and objects, but it also hosts a population rich in, and proud of, local historical and cultural stories (KYRIAKIDIS and ANAGNOSTOPOULOS, 2016).
The 2017 field school research topic was material culture, and what its use and distribution can reveal about local practices, traditions, beliefs and gender roles. This paper presents the processes and results of this season as experienced by its participants. Below is an account by the four international students in archaeology, anthropology and heritage management who, under the guidance of a small team of professionals, received training in archaeological ethnography whilst residing in Gonies and undertaking month-long fieldwork research through direct engagement with the local population. The outcome of the 2017 season was a small exhibition -located within the village but advertised throughout the region and in the city of Heraklion- of objects
which the team and its interlocutors together selected as most expressive of life past and present in the village of Gonies.