Amphissa Interdisciplinary Diachronic Defence Analysis (6c. BC-21 c. AD) – AIDDA

The art of fortification is evolving through a series of assumed heritages and sought-after ruptures linked to changes in attack and defense techniques, but also to political contexts, in particular to the relations established between powers and urban communities. The project that we are submitting to the ANR aims to analyze the mutations of a defense system in its technical and political dimensions over the long term, but also to apprehend the modes of transformation of the architecture and notably the destruction or the reuse of structures that have become unsuitable. The Greek city of Amphissa (Phocis), which occupies a strategic position as an obligatory crossing point between the Peloponnese and central Greece, offers, thanks to its eight successive defensive phases, a unique laboratory for a transdisciplinary and trans-period study of defense issues. Exceptional for the continuity of its occupation and the stability of its position in the hierarchy of urban sites in its region, it offers an example of a dynamic evolution of the relationship between a city and its defenses in its urbanistic, social and symbolic dimensions.