sol1 by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Web Producer
A model of a Geometric period settlement is being developed by Powerhouse web producer, Kate Lamerton, to complement the Zagora Archaeological Project (ZAP). It is primarily for children – but then everybody of all ages who’s seen it wants to play with it (including me!) – don’t you? You can see a photo of a detail of the work-in-progress at right.
by Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum
Here’s a video (2 mins 17 secs) showing how very windy it can be at Zagora. I can tell you from personal experience that the wind sometimes felt stronger than I was able to capture in the video.
by Dr Lesley Beaumont,
one of the three team leaders of the Zagora Archaeological Project
Last Friday, Meg Miller, another of the team leaders of the Zagora Archaeological Project, and I undertook a four-wheel drive training course at Eastern Creek in western Sydney. We undertook the training course so that this year we will be equipped and competent to take a 4WD vehicle down an unsealed track that will allow us to get a little closer to the Zagora site to deliver equipment at the beginning of the day and to transport heavy excavation finds to the Archaeological Museum at the end of the day.
This will obviate the need for our team members to carry heavy and bulky items along the rough donkey track that they will be walking every morning and afternoon for half-an-hour in each direction in order to access the site.
by Dr Lesley Beaumont
Acutely aware that safety is of vital importance at Zagora, Dr Meg Miller, Dr Archondia Thanos and I undertook Remote Area First Aid training with St John’s Ambulance Australia on Monday and Tuesday 15 and 16 July 2013. This is an example of the many skills (apart from archaeological ones) that archaeologists routinely develop in the planning and undertaking of archaeological projects.
We had one Remote Area Trained First Aider, Ivana Vetta, with our team last year. Ivana will be with us again this year as a Trench Supervisor – but also available to use her first aid skills.
by Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum
Ivana Vetta, who wrote the previous post about slag, is working on a Ph. D based on her research into metal at Zagora. Here’s what I found out from Ivana about why finding slag at Zagora is important.
Slag, which is a waste by-product of either metal-smelting or metal-smithing, has been found at Zagora in the past*.
Smelting is the process of heating the ore (metal in rock) to very high temperatures to separate out the iron and eliminate impurities (slag).
by Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum
We’ve been given approval by the Greek Ministry of Culture to return to Zagora for another archaeological season – from 23 September to 1 November 2013.
This is wonderful news for us all, and the team leaders, Professor Meg Miller, Dr Lesley Beaumont and Dr Stavros Paspalas, are busy arranging everything for a return this year.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
In my last post, I showed you photos of Blackie the mule who helped with carrying supplies – in particular the geophysical equipment – to and from Zagora.
In the last weeks of the 2012 season, building works began on the old dig hut which had no door, a dirt (sometimes mud) floor, and part of its corrugated iron roof missing. This work is being done to make the building secure and weatherproof. It will transform the dig hut into site headquarters for proposed future archaeological seasons at the site.
For this work, a team of horses, mules and men was required to bring building materials down to the site. As well as pictures of the horses and mules, there is short video (1 minute 29 seconds) of the simple but ingenious contraption which was used to deliver material for mixing up mortar – a wooden or metal box at each side of the mule or horse, which could be opened from the bottom, so the sand or other material poured out in a pile on each side of the creature. Scroll down to see the video.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
For all the current technologies that were used at Zagora during the 2012 archaeological season, such as the total station survey, geophysical analysis and archaeometry, it’s interesting that in some circumstances, age-old techniques still work pretty well.
As you’ll probably have seen from photos on this website, each of us carried our own gear and also sometimes other equipment down (and back up) the rocky, often steep and narrow path. But when it came to the geophysical equipment which had to be carried to and from the site most days for the first few weeks, Blackie the mule did the carrying, led by his owner, Niko. More photos follow….
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
We’ve just put the first of our free downloadable activities for children onto the website: Zagora dominos and Zagora colouring in and storytelling. These have been developed and produced by Powerhouse Museum Online Producer, Kate Lamerton, and are available now for you to download and print out. We recommend adult supervision and assistance for these activities, and adults may need to do the cutting out.
Zagora dominos use designs painted onto ancient Greek pottery, some of which was left at Zagora around 2,700 years ago.
We provide all you need to download and print the dominos, and give instructions for cutting out and glueing the dominos (and optionally laminating them), so that the game can be played. This game develops pattern recognition and matching skills, and introduces players to designs of the Geometric Period of ancient Greece.
Zagora colouring-in and storytelling has been inspired by designs on pottery objects which also date to the period when Zagora was a thriving settlement, some 2,700 years ago.
We provide designs to be downloaded and printed out which can be coloured in and stories composed about them. These activities encourage imagination and introduce ancient Greek history and mythology.
We are planning to add more activities for children but the next one probably won’t be available until late this year; they will be added to our Activities/games for children page.
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.