Irmah by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
I mentioned this to our Zagora team members and Kantouni Cafe staff after dinner, and we all trooped outside the Cafe to take a look, the waters of the Aegean lapping quietly just metres away. I think most people were surprised and quite awed to know they were looking at Jupiter. There was a lovely connection about it all – Australian archaeologists and locals, Earth and sky, Australia and Greece.
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Yesterday evening, some of us from the Zagora team attended the launch of the book, ‘Childhood in Ancient Athens: Iconography and Social History’, by Dr Lesley Beaumont (one of the three leaders, with Professor Margaret Miller and Dr Stavros Paspalas, of the Zagora Archaeological Project).
Professor Matthew Dillon from the University of New England said in his launch speech that this book will undoubtedly become a key reference for many years to come on the iconography of children in ancient Athens. He praised the book for being not only an authoritative academic work but also a ‘page-turner’, and also for the large number of photographs reproduced in the book.
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
A Total Station is an electronic/optical device that uses laser signals to determine precise locations (to within about half a centimetre).
In the application at Zagora, it enables the archaeologists to establish a precise frame of reference on the land, and is also being used to confirm the exact location of our test trenches. This means that if any architectural structures or artefacts are located in the trenches, their exact location will be known.
Until the Total Station was developed, surveying was done with theodolites which measured angles only, and three-dimensional surveying was only possible within the very limited range of traditional distance measurement which meant hand measurement with surveying tapes.
By Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum
As I’ve mentioned before, we need to wait until findings are officially published before we can post about the findings on this blog. However, there are still stories about the process of archaeology and the different specialisations and perspectives which are being applied at Zagora which we would like to share with you. Among these are posts about the importance of slag, what animal bones can tell us and more about what we hope to learn about how the buildings were used.
I took a great many photographs of this amazing place and the work done there, as did other members of the Zagora team. Some of the posts in coming months may be photo essays of different aspects of Zagora, and also elsewhere on and around Andros.
So I hope you’ll stay tuned, and feel free to make comments or ask questions which I can pass on to the experts who can best answer them.
The team has been excavating two test trenches for about a week now. Progress is slow because the archaeologists are being careful to document the process carefully, noting changes in soil colour and condition, stone and rock placement, etc, as they go slowly down, level by level.
In particular the extensive root systems in the soil are making work slow and difficult.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Quite early on in our stay in Batsi, we started sussing out the food options nearby – both for dinner on Saturday nights and breakfast and lunch on Sundays (the Kantouni Pensione/Cafe prepares our other meals) and also to buy treats to bring back to the pensione for snacks after a hard day in the field.
One of our early discoveries was the Tountas Bakery, and we haven’t looked back. Their spanakopita (cheese and spinach pie) has become particularly popular with our team.
I took the following photos to give you an idea of the kinds of things the bakery offers.
by Steve Vasilakis
and Hugh Thomas
Steve: One of the many questions we have been trying to answer here at the Geometric site of Zagora, is the role of the maritime cultural landscape. In antiquity, Zagora’s coastal position would have been ideal for the provision of both local and regional supplies possibly provided by a variety of vessels involved in a network of small scale cabotage (coastal trade).
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Yesterday, Saturday 17 November 2012, we received the news at breakfast that, due to heavy rain overnight, and with further rain forecast, yesterday’s work on site for most of us was cancelled. However, there were still tasks for all of us.
Steve Vassilakis and Hugh Thomas headed out on a fishing boat to the coast below the site of Zagora to investigate potential landing sites around Zagora. This was to inform considerations about how ancient mariners may have landed here in the past. Steve had been liaising with fishermen at Batsi over recent weeks to arrange this trip, and used his extensive fishing (including commercial fishing) experience to help with this project. Hugh photographed the venture from the boat (and succeeded in keeping sea-sickness at bay).
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Well, we are having the time of our lives, that is true. But most of the time, we are working very very hard. Sometimes we feel so exhausted, it is difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Last weekend we had the only full weekend we will have off during the six weeks of this field season. All the other weeks, we work all day Monday to Friday and a half day on Saturday.
We have now started excavating two trenches: test trench 1 on Thursday 15 November 2012 and test trench 2 yesterday, Friday 16 November 2012.