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Book Review - Making a Landscape Sacred by Lucia Nixon

Category: Book Reviews Author: Aikaterini-Illiana Rassia | Comment | GetCited Entry | Google Scholar Entry |

Lucia Nixon, Making a Landscape Sacred. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2006. Pp. 196. ISBN 1-84217-206-9. GB £24.00

The blossoming of landscape studies was noticed since 1980s, when archaeologists began to look more carefully at the role of space in the constitution of past societies. In particular, landscape archaeology has provided archaeologists with a framework for contextualizing their observations and at the same time, establishing relations and parallels between sites of a specific period. foo¹ Specifically, in the reviewed book “Making a Landscape Sacred” by Lucia Nixon, the results of an ongoing survey-research at Sphakia-a district in Southwestern Crete- are presented. The aim of this book is to provide a starting point for further reading and research concerning the landscape of Sphakia during the time-course (AD 1000-2000). In this book, Lucia Nixon (hereafter N.) writes with the authority of the co-director of the Sphakia Survey at Crete. foo²

Nevertheless, N’s methodological approach is not itself new, as the author admits (pp.4-6). Her methodology is traced in Tilley’s (1994) influential study foo³ Phenomenology of Landscape where Tilley is concerned explicitly with the phenomenology of landscape as social experience through the selection of specific monuments, which played an active role in socializing the landscape and creating meaning in it. In particular, N. discusses the results of an ongoing survey-research she conducted for two types of religious monuments in the area: the exokklisia (churches outlying villages) and the eikonostasia (icon stands). In this intensive study, N. offers a careful evaluation of Sphakia’s sacred space through the architectural and decorative structures of the region incorporated within the physical setting in which these monuments were placed. Hence, N. delineates her intention that her phenomenological approach is to rationalize the construction of these structures and more importantly to provide “a symbolic” function behind the physical setting in which they were placed (p.4). On the one hand, they serve as landmarks and on the other hand as reminders to “local inhabitants of their immediate ancestors” (p.4). In Chapter 2, “Intellectual Background”, N. meticulously provides the reader with the necessary literature review concerning the sacred landscapes.

In Chapter 3, ‘Individual Churches and Icon Stands: Description, Location, Explanation’ (14-31), N’s rationale is that the phenomenology of exokklisia and eikonostasia is underlined by their functionality as landmarks: “icon stands are usually found closer to settlements, and normally mark human rather than natural features of the landscape” (p.22). What is significant is that “all outlying churches and icon stands are on routes” (p.22). This also implies that their construction was intended to enable travelers to find their way. In other words, the organization of the sacred landscape through religious monuments objectifies an intention and rationality for the constitution of a social landscape.

It would be very interesting if N. had discussed the issue of pilgrimage at Sphakia’s landscape, since we know that “symbolic landscapes” are an important aspect of pilgrimage. foo⁴ Instead, N. emphasizes that the strategy behind the construction of these religious monuments was their intending visibility “ they are built to be seen” (p.25) and this visibility is equally traced both by land and sea “landmarks for navigation” and “landmarks for identifying the harbour” (p.25). Striking is , N’s insightful remark that “what is new and different in Byzantine-Venetian-Turkish Greece is the use of churches to make such boundaries visible over long distances” (p.29). As a conclusion in this chapter, N gives also emphasis to two significant building factors of the churches and the icon stands: icon stands function as protective markers, namely, as dedications by humans commemorating their healing by accidents (p.31) and the churches function as “declaratory markers”, namely, humans’ boundaries.

In Chapter 4, ‘Landscape Study of Anopoli and Frangokastello’ (32-59) N. illustrates the results of her investigation in the two regions: Anopoli and Frangokastello. She begins with the neighborhood churches in Anopoli, where she argues that the churches are built between “slope” and “edge” locations, (p.36) while the location of the icon stands is carefully selected since they mark the larger perimeter of the village or in case they stand inside the village, they mark the intersection between individual house plots and public thoroughfares (p.42). After Anopoli, N. continues with Frangokastello plain to the east of Anopoli. Despite the fact that Anopoli and Frangokastello use the same kind of sacred markers they are different in terms of “priorities for marking” (p.53). N. suggests that during the course of the 19th and 20th c. “there was a change in the marking function of icon stands in Anopoli from marking wider areas (villages) they became protectors of smaller areas (neighborhoods or outside peoples’ houses). In contrast, in Frangokastello, icon stands constitute a late addition to the local sacred landscape, beginning in the 1980’s (p.59).

In Chapter 5, “Chronological Evolution of the Sacred Landscape of Sphakia, Late Roman-20th Century’ (60-91), N. investigates in chronological order the layout of both religious markers. The domination of basilicas in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. resonates Cretans’ adoption of Byzantine Christianity (p.60). N. moves afterwards to the contribution of the 7th and 12th centuries A.D., an intense period that is characterized by iconoclasm, namely, the opposition towards peoples’ attribution of supernatural powers to icons (p.62-65). In “Conclusions” (pp.92-116), the author pinpoints the discrepancy which she faced into her research between her own rationale behind the location of sacred structures and that of the local inhabitants’ reasoning of the selection of the space of these religious monuments (p.99 and 103).

It must be emphasized, however that there are several geographic considerations that can be very useful for further study. For instance, a limitation of this book is that it extensively covers only the areas of Anopolis and Fragokastello. For further purposes, it would be particularly interesting to see the results from the main chora and the so-called “ local tradition of the 100 churches”. In spite of these few shortcomings, one could say that the book is well surrounded by informative appendices and catalogue of outlying churches and icon stands and it is illustrated by 21 color plates, including diagrams, informative tables integrated into the main text and black and white photos.

Finally, given the poor state of our knowledge concerning the Greco-Roman landscape, N’s contribution is highly significant, especially when new publications tend to develop earlier hypotheses. It is essential to remember that the landscape approach tracks people’s experiences of space to define and understand space as an important and universal process. I would therefore conclude that this book is a well-appraised opportunity for those archaeologists who express an interest in having a first-hand understanding of the Sphakia landscape and also for those readers who in general would like to know how the sacred monuments worked in a varied and often surprising context in order to formulate a sacred landscape within the sequence of time.

¹ For an introduction to landscape archaeology, see Casey, Edwards (2008): “ Place in Landscape Archaeology: A Western Philosophical Thought” in Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, Bruno David and Julian Thomas (eds.), Left Coast Press, Inc., U.S.A, especially pp.36-38.

² For up-to-date information concerning the research carried out at Sphakia: http://sphakia.classics.ox.ac.uk.

³ Tiller, C. (1994): A Phenomenology of Landscape. Places, Paths and Monuments, Berg (ed.), Oxford.

⁴ Stopford, J. (1994): “Some Approaches to the Archaeology of Christian Pilgrimage”, World Archaeology, 26, Archaeology of Pilgrimage (Jun. 1994), pp.57-72.