19/01/2007

The Hellenic World Encyclopaedia, an innovative online project that collects, records, documents, presents and promotes historical data on the presence of Hellenic culture throughout the entire area in which it developed and spread has been implemented recently by the Foundation of the Hellenic World (FHW). As an initial step, it was decided to examine the Hellenic presence in Asia Minor, an area in modern-day Turkey.

This is a reference work, with around 3,500 entries which have been prepared by academics from various areas of specialisation. The objective of the project is to provide substantiated information about all aspects of the Hellenic presence in Asia Minor from antiquity until the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s. The issues examined are not dealt with individually, cut off from the context within which they occurred, but in relation to the history of the region and other non-Greek cultural traditions.

The Encyclopaedia includes entries covering all aspects of life and social activity of the Greeks of Asia Minor in the following sections: Place Names (villages, administrative units and geographical regions), People (individuals, families and dynasties), Works (buildings, building complexes, urban complexes, road networks), Facts (natural disasters, wars, political and religious events), and General Issues (organisation of society, institutions, economic structures, aspects of cultural expression such as religion, art and folk culture).

The main text for each entry is accompanied by bibliographical references and explanatory footnotes, suggested further reading, a choice of written sources and a glossary. Lists, statistics and timelines as well as captions accompanying visual materials complement each entry. The visual information includes photographs, drawings and sketches, original architectural plans, static and dynamic maps, numerous icons useful for navigating the encyclopaedia, a visual glossary and digital models of urban landscapes terrains.

After Volume 1 on Asia Minor, the FHW plans to develop similar volumes for all areas where Greeks lived and worked, from ancient Greek colonies to present-day Greek communities in places such as Istanbul and around the Black Sea.

The new FHW online encyclopaedia fully utilises the potential of new digital technologies for designing easy-to-use ways of incorporating, structuring and managing large volumes of text and audiovisual material, and can also be updated and supplemented at any time with new information.

Source: Foundation of the Hellenic World