Summer adventures for the classification of archives: a fifteen-year report

Abstract

FOR the last fifteen years, every August, 15-20 undergraduate students of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete participated in the classification of archives in Hermoupolis, Syros. This practice gave them the opportunity to approach primary sources, think about their historical dimension, realize the dynamism of collective work. They also discovered the wealth of an island full of historical memories. About 100 postgraduate students, most of them of this Department, have classified archives of different municipalities (Kea, Amorgos, Vilia, Aigio, Ano Syros, Hermoupolis, Oinousses, Symi). Their only reward was food and shelter. Students have examined, thus, hundreds of different historical documents of the 19th and 20th centuries, the variety and richness of which have generated fruitful insights on the ways to use them for better understanding societies to which these documents refer. Relevant discussions were frequent. The results of the above classifications are processed electronically and are or will be soon displayed on the Internet.