Seminar on scientific and sports speleology May 2003

Άρθρο: Γιώργος Πέτρου

Φωτο: Αρχείο Hellas Underwater Explorers

Πληροφορίες: Wikipedia, https://www.gargalianoionline.gr, www.arcadiantrails.gr

HUE has greatly developed cave diving and exploration, either in land or in underwater lake caves in our Homeland. However, we considered that a primary and necessary element for each of our Cave Diver members is to have an infrastructure of basic knowledge on Speleology. With the best instructors, we traveled to the Peloponnese and experienced from a scientific and athletic point of view the beauty, history and value of this primitive and invisible world. The seminar was held and certified by the NAFPLIO SPELEOLOGY. The school's instructors were:

• Vasilis Giannopoulos / Dr. Geology
• Χρήστος Αγουρίδης / Αρχαιολόγος Μ.Α
• Stamatis Kirdis / Geologist
• Kontrolazos Theologian / Cave Diver
• Χριστίνα Κονταξή / Αρχαιολόγος

We would like to thank Mr. Vasilis Giannopoulos who essentially organized the seminar for us at HUE and always supports our activities. The training took place mainly in the Selinitsa cave in Messinia.

Με τον όρο σπηλαιολογία εννοείται η επιστημονική έρευνα των σπηλαίων και άλλων Καρστικών χαρακτηριστικών, η διαμόρφωση, η δομή, οι φυσικές ιδιότητες, η ιστορία, οι ιδιαίτερες μορφές ζωής και οι φυσικές διαδικασίες μέσω των οποίων σχηματίζονται (σπηλαιογένεση) και αλλάζουν με την πάροδο του χρόνου (σπηλαιομορφολογία).

In general, the methodical and systematic study of caves emerged as an independent science in the 19th century from Geology and Physical Geography. The father of this new science is considered to be the Frenchman E. Martel, who, through his numerous researches in French caves, gathered the first evidence of speleogenesis and the laws of underground hydrology.

The term speleology is sometimes applied today - in Greece the two concepts are almost identical - to the sporting activity of cave exploration. The two activities - scientific and sporting - are effectively combined in situ. The first speleological society seems to have been founded in France in 1895, while the first international speleological conference took place in Paris in 1953

As an interdisciplinary field, speleology combines in its modern form the knowledge fields of various sciences, such as geology, paleontology, anthropology, hydrology, topography, biology and archaeology, depending on the type of research being conducted.

The oldest cave painting was discovered in Indonesia, in a cave on the island of Sulawesi, and depicts two wild boars that are partially preserved. It is the world's oldest animal figure, was researched in a cave and dates back 45,500 years.

Η σπηλαιολογία στην Ελλάδα

The first speleological research in Greece was carried out on a private initiative in 1891 by the then law engineer of Arcadia N. Sideridis. They were repeated in 1928 by the Austrian speleologist A. Markowitz with the sponsorship of Emm. Benaki. Since then, they were continued by speleological excursion groups of the associations "Outdoor Life", "Pan" and "EOS" until 1949. The culmination of this initial activity was the establishment of the Hellenic Speleological Society (HSE) in 1951 with Yannis and Anna Petrocheilou as leaders[3]. According to the history of the Hellenic Speleological Federation, the history of speleological research begins with the research of the German Fedler in Kythnos and the Frenchman Martel in Tripoli in 1841. The research of the paleoanthropologist A. Markovitz in Attica until 1928 is also considered historically important.

The establishment of the speleological group of the Chania Caves Society in 1956, the establishment of the Greek Caves Society in 1960 and branches of the Hellenic Caves Society gradually led to large-scale explorations of Greek caves, as well as to the spread of the idea of speleology. Important associations for speleological activities such as SPELEO, SPINA and AETOS were founded in the 1980s, while a significant development was the competent Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, which was founded by the Ministry of Culture. The culmination of the activities of the associations, beyond the extensive explorations, was the creation of the Hellenic Speleological Federation (SOE) in 2001.