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Zagora dig blog

Mules and horses – some traditional techniques at Zagora

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Pack mule wearing a beaded bridle
One of the pack mules wearing a beaded bridle; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

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.

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Blackie the mule helps out

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Blackie the muleFor 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….

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Zagora-themed activities for children

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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

Zagora dominos game laid outZagora 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

Zagora colouring in and storytelling imagesZagora 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.

More to come

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.

Working as an archaeologist in Australia

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Guadalupe aboard a helicopter for survey work in Western Australia
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.

Congratulations: a book and a doctor

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Dr Lesley Beaumont at the launch of her book, 'Childhood in Ancient Athens'
Dr Lesley Beaumont at the launch of her book, ‘Childhood in Ancient Athens’; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
by Irma Havlicek
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.

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Knowing exact locations on site – Total Station survey

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Richard Anderson surveying at Zagora
Richard Anderson using a Total Station (the green device on the yellow tripod) for surveying at Zagora © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
by Irma Havlicek
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.

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From A to Z (Australia to Zagora) and back again – what now?

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By Irma Havlicek
Online Producer, Powerhouse Museum

Aegean aqua
Aegean aqua © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
The 2012 Zagora archaeological season finished just over a week ago. Much remains to be done in terms of reviewing the finds of this season and also planning for future potential work.

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.

The heavenly Aegean from Zagora
The heavenly Aegean from Zagora © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

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.

Digging, digging

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Kristen uses a Munsell colour chart to check soil colour
Kristen Mann uses a Munsell colour chart to check soil colour © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On Wednesday, there was heavy rain, so work on site was cancelled. This meant Wednesday was this week’s day off, and those of the team who remain will have to work on Sunday.

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.

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In the brine of ancient mariners

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by Steve Vasilakis
and Hugh Thomas

Thanasi points out a recent rockfall to Steve that ruined another landing site
Thanasi points out a recent rockfall to Steve that ruined another landing site © AAIA; photo by Hugh Thomas
On a cold, windy and rainy day (Saturday 17 November 2012), Steve Vasilakis and Hugh Thomas boarded a small Greek fishing boat to try document Zagora from the sea. In the 1980s, Steve worked as a fisherman on similarly sized boats across the Mediterranean and his PhD thesis focuses on ancient seafaring. On the other hand, Hugh studies dead people on pots, sometimes suffers from sea sickness and does not eat seafood. This is their story:

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).

Looking south down the coast of Andros
Looking south down the coast of Andros © AAIA; photo by Hugh Thomas

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Making use of a rainy Saturday

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

The completed drawing frame
The completed drawing frame (see below) © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

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).

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