Search

Irmah

Arriving at Andros

by

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

The Zagora team at a Rafina cafe
The Zagora team at a Rafina cafe awaiting the ferry to Andros; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On the afternoon of Tuesday 17 October, the Zagora team met at a sidewalk café at the port of Rafina, on the east coast of mainland Greece, to await the 5.30pm ferry to the island of Andros.

Most of us had arrived from Australia either that day, or the day before and had one night in Athens. However we all seemed remarkably jetlag-free – maybe it was due to the enthusiasm about the great adventure of discovery we felt we were all about to embark on.

We arrived at the port of Gavrio on Andros on schedule at 7.30pm, and Meg drove the van, with Stavros aboard, to where we will be staying for the period of the dig: the Kantouni Pensione and Café at Batsi. The rest of us took the bus to Batsi (which leaves shortly after the ferry docks).

We’d been told our accommodation was 50 metres from the beach which we thought was pretty good. However we arrived, to find the beach was actually about 20 metres from the beach – literally just across a narrow road. A thirty second walk to the beach! (However, this is a rarity in archaeological accommodation, which is more usually in a desert in rudimentary accommodation, or in tents.)

Preparing to load the van onto the ferry
Preparing to load the van onto the ferry; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Meg drove the van, loaded with gear, onto the ferry, and the rest of us walked aboard. We found out who we were rooming with, and took our luggage upstairs. The project has hired the whole first floor of a charming pensione for the accommodation of the team. Most of us were in rooms with either two or three single beds – so, sharing with one or two others. We all have ensuite bathrooms.

There is a large open air dining area at the front where you hear the wind through the trees and the sound of the ocean lapping the shore. We had a delicious dinner, provided by our Kantouni hosts (more posts about food on Andros later), and then headed up to bed around 10pm, knowing we had to get up early for breakfast at 6am, with departure in the team van scheduled for 7am. Would we, jet-lagged as we were, wake up and make it down in time for the van departure? You’ll have to read the next post to find out….

The beach - across the road from the Kantouni Pensione and Cafe
The beach – across the road from the Kantouni Pensione and Cafe; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
The Kantouni Pensione where we are staying at Batsi
The Kantouni Pensione where we are staying at Batsi; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

Welcome!

by

by Irma Havlicek,
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Hi there and welcome to this blog through which we hope you’ll get a sense of what it’s like to be on a real archaeological dig. Our heading says ‘for secondary students’ but really we hope it is also for teachers and for a wider public interested in archaeology and learning about our past.

There probably won’t be too much on this blog for a few weeks, until we start preparing in earnest for the excavation at Zagora, scheduled to start on 17 October and go through until 27 November. For background on Zagora, check out our pages under the ‘Learning about Zagora and archaeology’ section of this website. It will continue to have new pages and resources added, particularly during September and October – so keep checking back to see what’s new.

What you can do straight away, is give us your comments via this blog. Feel free to suggest content you would like to see, or topics you would like to know more about – and we will try to cover them, either via blog posts before or during the dig, or by developing pages for the website.

We’re excited about this journey of discovery we’re about to take, and we’d really love you to share it with us via this blog. We’d like to reach as many people as possible, especially secondary students and teachers. Please let your friends and colleagues know about this website and blog, and invite them to join us.

Looking forward to hearing from you….

Welcome to archaeologists

by

by Wayne Mullen, Chief Operating Officer,
Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens

Zagora has been part of my life for many years. I don’t really mean that it’s inhabited every waking moment, it is a much more subtle thing than that. Zagora has been a presence, a memory and a dream. I’ve been working here at the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens since 1997, and even back when I started this job the Zagora excavations were long over, having come to a conclusion twenty years before, in 1977.

But the dig was always there, in the corner of my mind. Legends about its importance to Australian archaeology abounded and the hope was always there that someday an Australian team could return. Zagora, for me, was a book about the excavations lying on a library shelf, a box of slides in the storeroom, a plan here, a drawing there, a photograph, a story told by old team members.

Zagora book on CANESSA bookshelf
Zagora book on AAIA bookshelf; photo by Wayne Mullen; © AAIA

And after so many years of dormancy and then behind-the-scenes work it has been wonderful to see the site and excavations side of the project slowly come back to life – first through my colleague Beatrice McLoughlin’s research about the large storage jars from Zagora, then with the plan to complete the publication of the original excavations…and now with the project to reopen the excavations on Andros themselves!

Zagora 16mm film spools
Zagora film spools; photo by Wayne Mullen; © AAIA
I can’t begin to tell you how much work this has involved on the part of the team. I’ve only witnessed a small part of what has been required, but it has shown to me how much archaeology is a labour of love as much as a profession! To have students and archaeologists back at the site will be a dream come true. Zagora is truly an important site – but more than that, it is a completely wonderful place to visit, a space that truly takes your breath away.

Quick Enquiry

Copyright

Unless otherwise stated, the images and text on this website are licensed under CC BY-NC. Images to be attributed according to the copyright acknowledgement in the caption.