The Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Embassy of Mexico in Athens co-organize the Workshop entitled “Mexican Culture meets Modern Greece: Archaeology, History, Art and Food”, on Wednesday 17 January 2024, from 12.00 to 14.30, at the Museum of Byzantine Culture (Stefanos Dragoumis Hall), in Thessaloniki.

According to the organisers, the event launches the programme of cultural activities to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Greece and Mexico, which will be commemorated in 2024. “In the commemorative programme, the Embassy has dedicated a special place to archaeology, as Greece and Mexico are cradles of millennia-old civilisations, whose monuments continue to fascinate the world to this day,” the organisers underline.

The keynote speaker at the event is the Mexican archaeologist and architect Diego De Santiago, who has recently been involved in the research of archaeological sites discovered during the construction of the Maya railway in the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatan. The speech of the Mexican archaeologist Diego de Santiago will be accompanied at the beginning of the event by faculty members of the Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with short presentations in Greek. Professor Tania Valamoti, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, will speak about the plant foods that were domesticated in Mexico and are nowadays ingredients of dishes that one can find in modern Greece, presenting the contribution of Archaeobotany to the research of the domestication of these plants in Mexico. Plants such as corn, avocado, cacao tree, prickly pear are the cultural contribution of Mexico to the culinary universe of modern Greece. The title of her talk is “The archaeobotany of Mexico and modern Greek cuisine: a delicious dialogue”.

Art historians Mr. Pericles-Nicolaos Mykoniatis and Ms. Iliana Zarra will speak about mural painting in Mexico, the tradition and the contemporary artistic expression of this art, while Professor of Modern History Mr. Lucianos Hasiotis will speak about the historical course of Mexico from independence to the Zapatista uprising. Mr. Hasiotis will examine the four defining factors that shaped Mexico’s modern history: the legacy of colonialism, the revolutionary experience, the competition between centralization and local particularities, and the influence of the United States.

The event will be broadcast live, via zoom, from the link: https://authgr.zoom.us/j/97590323573?pwd=TjVnRjJ4M2FqUUpuZWpJV2g5aDArZz09