Summary of the impact

Research by Irene Lemos and Robin Lane Fox on Euboean culture and its dissemination across the Mediterranean has provided cultural, pedagogical, and economic benefits to a range of users. Archaeological investigation by Lemos has contributed to a radical reconfiguring of views of the Iron Age of Greece and of links between Greece and the Near East. Lane Fox integrated this archaeological evidence with research into landscape and mythographic traditions in a monograph Travelling Heroes. The main beneficiaries of the research have been, internationally, readers of Lane Fox's book, viewers of the BBC television programme Greek Myths, and visitors to exhibitions in Athens and Switzerland; within Greece, the people of the village of Lefkandi; and in the UK, the BBC, which has gained revenue from the sale of the TV programme to other broadcasting corporations.

Underpinning research

A number of Oxford researchers have reconfigured scholarly understanding of cultural interactions between the Greeks and the Ancient Near East. Lemos undertook important archaeological work on cemeteries at the site of Lefkandi on the island of Euboea in 1993-4, and, in 2003, she re- launched excavations on Xeropolis, a peninsula to the east of the site. Lefkandi lies between two well-known ancient cities, Chalcis and Eretria, and was first excavated in 1964, with spectacular results. One of the aims of restarting excavation was to compare the funerary evidence from the Early Iron Age cemeteries at Lefkandi with domestic data from the settlement. Another important reason to go back to Xeropolis was to deploy systematically a series of interdisciplinary methods which were lacking from the earlier excavations. Lemos' recent excavations have added important information for the history of the site from the end of the palatial era to its abandonment - from 1200 to 700 BC. Among them is the discovery in the middle of the ancient tell of a city-wall and a ritual area located nearby. Continuity from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age has been also observed in the eastern part of Xeropolis where a large building was discovered. The rich results of Lemos' research into the building and the cemeteries have provided further evidence for contacts with the East and Egypt much earlier than previously thought, advertising the wide range of contacts that Euboea enjoyed. Lemos' research bolsters the argument of other Oxford researchers: the archaeological research of Sir John Boardman on the site of Al Mina in Syria, in particular his 2002 and 2005 articles based on the analysis of previously unpublished material, and the text-based analyses on intercultural links in M.L. West's major 1997 monograph The East Face of Helicon, have been fundamental in tracing on contacts between the Greek world and the Near East. The research of Lemos, Boardman, and West in turn supplied some of the archaeological and textual framework for Lane Fox's innovative attempt to place the Euboeans at the heart of eighth-century inter-cultural interactions in both the eastern and the western Mediterranean.

Lane Fox's research drew on a rich body of archaeological and textual evidence to analyse how particular Greeks from Euboea travelled east and west around the Mediterranean in the eighth century BC, and how their extraordinary journeys shaped their ideas of their gods and heroes. He gathered together stories and echoes from many other ancient cultures, including Assyrian, Egyptian, and Phoenician, and ranges from Mesopotamia to the Rio Tinto at Huelva in modern Portugal. He argued (in opposition to M. L. West) against the view of Homer and his near- contemporary Hesiod as poets who owed a direct debt to texts and poems from the near East; rather, by following the trail of the Greek travellers from Euboea, he argued that the poets were in debt to their own countrymen. More generally, he analysed how these early travellers understood the world before the beginnings of philosophy and western thought. The most important and original contribution of Lane Fox's research lies in his analysis of the links between myth, landscape, and travel, arguing for the importance of precise landscapes in the proximity of Al Mina in shaping myths, and for the appearance of the same myths elsewhere in the Mediterranean only at points of Euboean settlement. Research by Boardman and Lemos provided important support for this crucial aspect of Lane Fox's argument.

The key researchers are:
Mr Robin Lane Fox, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, New College, 1977-.
Professor Irene Lemos, Junior Research Fellow, St Peter's College, 1993-4; Reader in Classical
Archaeology, 2004-8; Professor of Classical Archaeology, 2008-
Professor Sir John Boardman, Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology 1978-1994;
Emeritus 1994-.
Dr M.L. West, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls, 1991-2004; Faculty Research Fellow, 2013.

References to the research

Key research grants:
Lemos has received grants from Packard Humanities Institute (2003-2008); INSTAP (2009-);
Stavros Niarchos Foundation (2011); Leventis Foundation (2011).

Details of the impact

Enriching cultural life and expanding public understanding:
The main cultural and pedagogical benefit of the Oxford research on Euboea lies in the increased historical understanding of a formative period of Greek history and of the complexity of intercultural relations between Greece and the Near East. User groups that have enjoyed the cultural and pedagogical benefits of this research on Euboea include: the people of Lefkandi; museum visitors; readers of accessible academic history; audiences at public lectures; and viewers of history programmes on television.

Lefkandi^[1]
Lemos' research has had strong reach and significance at a local level through its effect on the local population at Lefkandi. Her work has made the local population understand better the importance of the site and their local history. Lemos collaborates with the Lefkandi cultural society in organising lectures and exhibitions on the history of the area to raise awareness of the local history and protect the archaeological site. In September 2010, the local community was invited to an open day with a guided tour of the site and a lecture attended by at least 600 people; at this event Lemos was awarded a medal by the local authorities for her contribution to the conservation and the history of the area. The popular Greek novelist Christos Chomenidis, whose 2010 novel Logia ptera (Flying Words) features Lefkandi, has also appeared at these local events. In 2011, Lemos displayed in the village of Lefkandi an exhibition of photographs of the excavations that had previously been on display in the outreach room at the Stelios Ioannou School for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies in Oxford. Lemos' large-scale excavation also includes the participation of many students, including students from outside Oxford who have gained pedagogical benefits from her study seasons.

Museums
Finds from Lefkandi are on display at the Museum of Eretria, which in 2012 had 8832 adult and 5472 school visitors. Lemos displayed her Lefkandi research at a major exhibition on Eretria, held first in Athens at the National Museum and later in Switzerland.^[i] Lefkandi finds and text by Lemos were published in the catalogues produced for the exhibition in Greek, French and German.^[ii] Lane Fox also wrote a major review of the Athens exhibition for the Financial Times (3/6/2010). There is also a section on Al Mina at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (1.2 million visitors per year) that puts pottery finds from the site in the context of Mediterranean networks. Other exhibitions to which items from the Lefkandi excavations have been loaned include: `Greeks and Phoenicians in the Crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea', Museum of Thessaloniki (December 2011-September 2012); `Princesses of the Mediterranean Sea in the Dawn of History', Museum of Cycladic Art (December 2012-May 2013).

Books
In Travelling Heroes (first published in 2008), Lane Fox built on the successes of his earlier books (most recently the popular general history The Classical World) to present in a way accessible to the general public a scholarly analysis of the results of recent archaeological investigations. Evidence of the impact of his research lies in the success of both the book and the TV programme. The UK [text removed for publication] edition received reviews in major serious newspapers and magazines:^[iv] Paul Cartledge in The Independent called Lane Fox `one of our most original, daring and arguably life-enhancing' historians of ancient Greece,^[v] and Tom Holland in the Spectator wrote that it 'reads as grippingly as any thriller'.^[vi] The US edition, published by Knopf in 2010 (paperback 2011), was also widely reviewed [text removed for publication]. The book has also been translated into three European languages. [text removed for publication]. It again received major reviews;^[ix] the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung listed the book as 4th choice for non-fiction.^[x]

Lectures
Lane Fox has given a number of public lectures on the research treated in the book, e.g. an Irish Academy Lecture, Dublin, November 2009 (150 capacity) and a British Museum Public Lecture combined with the Annual Lecture for the British School at Ankara, December 2009 (250 audience).

Television
The reach of the cultural and educational impact of Lane Fox's research was increased by a 90- minute TV programme Greek Myths: Tales of Travelling Heroes.^[3] Lane Fox was approached by the BBC to make and present this programme as a result of his standing as a widely-read ancient historian and, in particular, of the success of the book: Richard Klein, Director of BBC4, read the book in hardback in early 2009 and sent a Producer, Susan Jones, to discuss with Lane Fox whether it could be filmed as a coherent documentary. The book was then used for the filming in autumn 2009 without a separately commissioned script: Lane Fox is credited as both writer and presenter. The programme included a discussion between Lane Fox and Lemos filmed at Lefkandi. The first showing in November 2010 on BBC4 had an audience of 436,000, well above average for a 9 pm documentary on that channel; the fact that the audience increased rather than declining during the course of the programme is further evidence that it was seen as a positive benefit by those watching it. Together with five repeats in the following two weeks, it had an audience of 1.3 million with an audience appreciation of 81/100, again well above average. The programme has been repeated in the UK since then (e.g. BBC4, 24 May 2012) and sold to many international broadcasting companies (see below). The success led to Lane Fox' being commissioned by the BBC to write a 1400-word introduction to the Online Archive of BBC Archaeology Programmes for their Website (April 2013). Lane Fox also received numerous messages from viewers in many countries attesting to how their understanding had been transformed: for instance, Yuliya Yurchenko, a student at Lviv National University, Ukraine, wrote in an email on 20 November 2010 that `I just would like to say "Thank you" for your work and incredible video about Greek myths. ... A lot of things became clearer for me in history, literature and religion. That's a great support in my studies.'^[2]

Increasing economic prosperity
The economic beneficiaries of the Oxford research on Euboea include: the people of Lefkandi; the publishing industry; the television industry. The people of Lefkandi have benefited from visitors to the site and from students spending a study season at Lefkandi. The publishing industry, both in the UK and in those countries where it has been translated, has benefited from the profits generated by Travelling Heroes; employment provided to translators is another economic benefit. The BBC has benefited from the profit generated through the sale of the TV programme Greek Myths. The countries that have bought Greek Myths are as follows: Austria; Cyprus; United Arab Emirates; Italy; Japan; Kazakhstan; Poland; Russian; South Africa; Serbia; South Korea; Sweden; Taiwan; Ukraine; as well as the Scandinavian broadcasting service^[4]. Lane Fox and Lemos also both spoke about their research on Lefkandi in the worldwide version of the BBC2 series Ancient Worlds, episode 2: The Age of Iron, in a scene specifically added to the original UK version to boost foreign sales of the series. The economic benefit is also shown by the fact that, owing to the success of Greek Myths, the BBC has commissioned from Lane Fox a new series on the legends about the dispersal of the Trojans; it is planned to film this in time for screening in late 2013.

Sources to corroborate the impact

Testimony
[1] Corroboration on Lemos' work with the local population at Lefkandi: Deputy Director of the 11^thEphorate/Superintendency of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities.

[2] Feedback email from Lviv National University student

[3] Details of `Greek Myths' TV programme: Producer, BBC

[4] Email confirmation of syndication and foreign DVD sales from Director, BBC

Other evidence sources
[i] Eretria: Looks at an ancient city, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, 26/4/10-24/8/10; Antikenmuseum, Basel, 22/9/10-30/1/11; I. Lemos, `Lefkandi' in Cité sous terre. Des archéologues suisses explorent la cité grecque d' Eretrie (2010), 56-64; 88; 89.

[ii] Zeit der Helden - Die "dunklen Jahrhunderte" Griechenlands 1200 bis 700 v. Chr., Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, 25/10/08-15/2/09; I. Lemos, 'Lefkandi auf Euböa. Licht in den dunklen Jahrhunderten' in Zeit der Helden. Die `dunklen Jahrhunderte' Griechenlands 1200-700v. Chr, Karlsrure Badisches Landesmuseum (2009), pp. 180-89

[iii] [text removed for publication]

[iv] Sunday Telegraph, 20/9/2008; Financial Times, 22/9/2008 (M. Beard)

[v] The Independent, 31/10/2008 (P. Cartledge)

[vi] Spectator, 6/9/2008 (T. Holland)

[vii] [text removed for publication]

[viii] [text removed for publication]

[ix] German edition: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24/10/2011; Kultur Spiegel, September 2011;
Frankfurter Rundschau, 11/10/2011; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 08/10/2011; Mannheimer Morgen, 17/10/2011

[x] Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10/10/2011