The Aetolian Studies Project is a multidisciplinary project which aims at shedding light on the history of habitation and the long term 'genre de vie' in Aetolia from prehistoric times to the end of the pre-modern (ca. 1950).
Research into the settlement history of this area has been undertaken since the early 1980s within the compass of the interdisciplinary Strouza Region Project (1981-1984) and the Aetolian Studies Project (1985-1990). The research originally concentrated on the palaiokastro near the almost ghost village of Strouza, which is presumed to be the first polis of Eastern Aetolia in classical antiquity: Aigition. Over the years the project developed into a longitudinal survey of human settlement, seeking to explain how human habitation interacted with the natural environment.
The dataset has a great variety in sources, data collection and data processing. For archiving purposes, all data collected over the years are ordered thematically with themes such as villages interviews, historical statistics, archaeological sites, reports, location analysis, land routes, map data, physical geography, etcetera.
At the moment this dataset for the electronic archiving system EASY comprises of files covering the first subject matter 'Village Interviews'. Interviews were conducted in 278 villages in Aetolia from 1981 up to and including 1990. They are an important source of information about many aspects of the project. A structured questionnaire was used which contains questions on various aspects of economic life in pre-war period (such as means of subsistence, transhumance, trades and crafts, village history, etc.). The interviews have covered most of the grounds of the eparchies of Evrytania, Trikhonis, Mesolongion, Navpaktia and Doris.
In the near future, this dataset will be extended gradually with the above mentioned themes.
The fieldwork of the Aetolian Studies Project was executed under the auspices and with the help of the Archaeological Survey School of Holland in Greece (1981-1983), later Archaeological School of the Netherlands at Athens (1983-1991), and since 1991 Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA).
This dataset is prepared for archiving by dr. P.K. (Peter) Doorn and I.F. (Ilona) von Stein MA.
