Irmah, Author at Zagora Archaeological Project

Working in a chain gang – moving rocks in designer gloves

September 24, 2013 by Irmah

A stylish squad in glamorous gloves — A stylish squad – Paul’s team present their glamorous gloves. From left: Sue Jorgenson, Rehan Scharenguivel, Paul Donnelly, Marco Schugk, Alexandra Ribeny, Antonio Bianco and Elaine Lin

Yesterday, the first day of the 2013 Zagora fieldwork season, after the morning induction of the newbies, I decided to work at excavation area 5. My Powerhouse Museum colleague, Paul Donnelly, is the supervisor of that trench area, which is covered with rocks large and small. Lots and lots of rocks. And they’re almost all grey marble – which is about as heavy as rocks get. Paul decided this called for a chain gang approach, to pass the rocks down the slope and to create a spoil heap with the rocks removed from the trench area.

As each of his team members for this first day (the trench teams are not yet confirmed) brought out their gloves, I was amazed to find the high design element in most of the gloves. There were pink gloves, turquoise gloves, lime and blue. This screamed out ‘photo opportunity’. (Secretly, I’ll be watching out to see how their stylish gloves fare through the season compared with my drab but very sturdy grey workman’s gloves which I used last year and still have plenty of life in them yet.) Click the image at right for a closer view.

The first phase of work in this Zagora archaeological fieldwork season requires a lot of hard yakka (that’s Australian slang for ‘hard work’), including trench clearing and backfill and vegetation removal. That’s what most of the team was doing in the five excavation areas yesterday, the first day of the 2013 season.

The Zagora team leaders provide all the tools for excavation work except for a few personal items which we provide for ourselves: archaeological trowels, work gloves, anti-dust goggles and any extras some of us use, such as knee pads.

Induction of the newbies

September 28, 2013September 24, 2013 by Irmah

Stavros Paspalas (centre) led a tour of the Zagora site to introduce our ‘newbies’ to some of the key features of the site previously excavated and being excavated this season. Marco Schugk, one of this year’s volunteers, is at left.

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Web Producer

Finally, after all the planning and coordinating, yesterday arrived: 23 September 2013, and the first day of the 2013 Zagora archaeological fieldwork season.

The old hands (ie those who had been part of Zagora 2012) headed out to the site after breakfast while those who were new Zagora participants stayed back for an induction session at the Kantouni Cafe.

Meg Miller and Lesley Beaumont provided a briefing about the five excavation areas, and explained about some of the specialists we have on the team, such as Stavros Paspalas (pictured at right), a renowned expert in fine ware ceramics of the Geometric period.

First 2013 Zagora trench discussions on site

September 23, 2013 by Irmah

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Web Producer

Yesterday morning (Sunday 22 September 2013), some of us headed out to Zagora to have the first discussions at each of the five trenches selected for excavation this season.

All three team leaders were there: Meg Miller, Lesley Beaumont and Stavros Paspalas. Also there, of course, were the trench supervisors for this year: Excavation area 1 – Ivana Vetta; Excavation area 2 – Mel Melnyczek; Excavation area 3 – Hugh Thomas; Excavation area 4 – Kristen Mann; Excavation area 5 – Paul Donnelly.

Following are photographs of each of the trench sites in order we visited them:

Excavation area number 3. Trench supervisor - Hugh Thomas — Excavation area number 3. This is the site of one of the test trenches which were excavated in the final couple of weeks of the 2012 season. Ivana Vetta was trench supervisor last year but this year Hugh Thomas (who was in Ivana’s team last year) will be trench supervisor. The surface you can see is backfill placed there at the end of the season last year to protect the area. From left: Mel Melnyczek, Ivana Vetta, Hugh Thomas, Lesley Beaumont, Meg Miller, Andrew Wilson, Paul Donnelly, Kristen Mann (behind) and Stavros Paspalas.

Zagora team reunion at the Kantouni Restaurant

September 22, 2013September 21, 2013 by Irmah

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum web producer

The Kantouni Pensione and Restaurant at Batsi, Andros, is once again alive with the sounds of archaeologists, now planning the 2013 season of the Zagora Archaeological Project. The first of us to have arrived on Thursday and Friday 19 and 20 September, had dinner outside in the balmy night air of the Kantouni courtyard last night (Friday 20 September), just as we had done in the early days of the season last year, when it was warm enough to do so.

Our first dinner at the Kantouni Restaurant, 2013 — Dinner at the Kantouni Restaurant on Friday 20 September 2013 was like being reunited with old friends. Clockwise, from left: Steven Vasilakis, Andrew Wilson, Jane McMahon, Sami Beaumont-Cankaya, Hugh Thomas, Matthew Miller-Csapo, Meg Miller, Lea Alexopoulos, Aleksandra Moustakas, Beatrice McLoughlin, Lesley Beaumont, Lydia Beaumont-Cankaya, Kristen Mann, Paul Donnelly, Ivana Vetta and Mel Melnyczek.

Getting to Andros for the 2013 Zagora season

September 22, 2013September 21, 2013 by Irmah

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum web producer

Travel is an important part of the life and work of an archaeologist. They must go where the archaeological sites are – and those are spread throughout the world.

Paul Donnelly, Powerhouse Museum Curator (as well as archaeologist) and I set out for the Greek Aegean island of Andros from Sydney Airport on Thursday 19 September. We had a 15-hour flight to Abu Dhabi, a couple of hours stopover there, then a 5-hour flight to Athens.

Our flight to Athens was in daylight and Paul spent much of the time looking out the plane window (pictured, above, right), and pointing out features of the land and waterways below. “Look,” he said as we flew over Iraq, “there’s the River Tigris…. and the Euphrates – so important in ancient Mesopotamia.” (A view from the aircraft is pictured at right.)

Exploring the mines of Andros

July 12, 2013 by Irmah

Ivana Vetta on a scree slope; © AAIA; photo by Hugh Thomas

by Ivana Vetta
Archaeologist

[Note: Ivana Vetta will be returning to Andros with the Zagora team in September 2013, and would now like to share with you this post that she wrote in her time at Zagora during the 2012 field season. Another post, ‘Why slag matters’ (and it does!) will follow shortly.]

“I found it!!!” Hugh yelled from down below, the top of his head barely visible down in the deep crevice, “I have found the entrance to the mine!”

The plan had been hatched weeks ago when Archondia (archaeologist, Dr Archondia Thanos) was reading her guide book of the island and found that there were ancient iron mines near the Hellenistic Tower at Agios Petros (St Peters).

Exploring the potential iron sources on Andros is particularly important for my research on metalworking at Zagora. The previous excavations at the site, 1967-1974, and the 2012 season’s investigations noted significant evidence of iron working on and around the site. This evidence is mostly in the form of slag, the waste product produced from the smelting of metal ore and smithing of metal objects.

Archaeologists dig the Lagoudera restaurant

June 27, 2013June 24, 2013 by Irmah

by Irma Havlicek, Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
with Steve Vasilakis, Archaeologist and Mariner

Partners in life and in the restaurant, Thanasis and Angeliki. — Partners in life and in Lagoudera restaurant, Thanassis Schinas and Angeliki Marinaki. © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

On Saturday nights when we didn’t have dinner at the Kantouni restaurant, we tended to head to one of the other Batsi restaurants only a few minutes walk away. One of these dinners was at the Lagoudera restaurant (‘lagoudera’ means ‘steering tiller – the wooden bar found on the head of a boat’s rudder), run by Thanassis Schinas and his wife, Angeliki Marinaki.

Early in the 2012 dig season, Steve Vasilakis, one of the archaeologists in the Zagora 2012 team (whose special interest is archaeology from a mariner’s perspective) began exploring the small port of Batsi, and befriended some of the fishermen there. One of these was Thanassis, who became a dear friend with Steve over shared interests of fishing, the sea, archaeology, history, adventure, music, poetry and philosophy, not to mention fine food and wine!

Kantouni for feasting and friendliness

May 3, 2013May 3, 2013 by Irmah

A smiling Alexandra serves our dinner at the Kantouni © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

by Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum

One of the things that made the whole experience of the 2012 Zagora Archaeological Project season so enjoyable was the generosity and warmth of our hosts at the Kantouni Pensione and Restaurant (and also their friends…. continue reading further down for more).

Strawberry heaven – traditional specialties of Andros

January 25, 2013 by Irmah

by Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum

A selection of goodies available at Rodozachari — A selection of traditional Andriote specialties available at Rodozachari, in Chora; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

One day, my Andros room-mate at the Kantouni Pensione, Meg Dains, invited me to try some treats she had in a small clear plastic container. I couldn’t tell what they were. They were small jubey lumps, dark red in colour.

I put one of the chewy lumps into my mouth and experienced one of the most intense flavour burst sensations I’ve ever had: fragrant, sweet and delicious!

Strangely, I couldn’t identify what I was eating. I think the flavour was simply too intense. Eventually, Meg told me that they were dried strawberries. And of course, once I knew, it seemed perfectly obvious what they were.

Working as an archaeologist in Australia

January 16, 2013 by Irmah

Guadalupe aboard a helicopter for survey work in Western Australia, 2010; © Guadalupe Cincunegui

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Just published in our Archaeology Q&A section is a new entry by Guadalupe Cincunegui providing a perspective of someone who works as a consulting archaeologist in Australia.

For any of you in Australia contemplating archaeology as a future profession, Guadalupe’s story may give you some idea about job possibilities in Australia.

Like all the other archaeologists who tell their stories in our Q&A section, Guadalupe’s passion for archaeology shines through – so much so that she still spends her holidays volunteering on a dig at Pella in Jordan.