This was the decision of Yiannis Sturnaras: The Bank of Greece must acquire extraversion while at the same time projecting its cultural profile beyond the – given – economic work dictated by its mission. Exhibitions, publications, archival research, coverage of art collections were among its activities, with the Center for Culture, Research and Documentation of the Ministry of Culture, under the leadership of the active Panagiotis Panagakis, being at the forefront. Added to all this five years ago was the institution “Deposits of Culture” with outstanding speakers invited to its historic building in the heart of Athens. These events, such as, for example, with Maria Efthymiou, were so successful that queues literally lined up. The emergence of the coronavirus has changed the situation and a temporary pause has come.

Climate writes history

However, a few days ago, the fifth cycle of this year began, covering three areas: environment, history and archeology. The first of three debates between the General Secretary of the Academy of Athens, Professor Christos Zerefu and the journalist Vicky Flessa on the topic “How does the climate write history?” have already taken place. With liveliness and expressiveness of speech, the professor gave many examples confirming that climate change has affected the rune of history, as well as art from ancient times to the present day, and once again sounded the alarm about the current conditions that have formed. climate change.

There were two most typical examples: the first was that at the end of the Mycenaean era, a shortage of water caused a crisis in olive production (equivalent, by modern standards, to an oil crisis) and led to the fall of Mycenae. . The second concerned the Greek victory in the naval battle of Salamis, which, according to Mr. Zeref’s own research, owed much to the Greeks’ good knowledge of the local climate and the peculiar wind system in the area, so as to embarrass the Persian fleet and ram it.

The speaker, who is also our national spokesman for climate change, stressed the need for our country to make better use of renewable energy sources (solar and wind) and pointed out that we should all become “stingy” in our consumption of energy and natural resources. to prevent the worst. The next of the culture deposits will take place on Thursday, March 9, 2023, with a discussion that Oxford University Political Science Professor Stathis Kalivas will have with journalist Pavlos Tzimas on the topic “Political Violence and Interpretations of History”. And this year the cycle will end on Thursday, March 30 2023, with the honorary professor of classical archeology Petros Temelis, who will discuss with journalist Maria Adamopoulou his beloved Ancient Messina.