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Zagora dig blog

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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Excavation begins – slow going

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Preparing for the day's work
Preparing for the day’s work; from left, Hugh Thomas, Paul Donnelly, Lesley Beaumont and Steve Vassilakis © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Before I worked on this project, I had no understanding of how much physical yakka (that’s Australian slang for ‘work’) there was in archaeology. First there was the site clearing so that the geophysical team could do their survey. Then there was laying out of the 217 grids with tape around each 20 metre square, then the total collection survey, then the transect survey.

We have now started excavating two trenches: test trench 1 on Thursday 15 November 2012 and test trench 2 yesterday, Friday 16 November 2012.

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Test trench excavation to begin

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

The test trench site before clearing
One of the test trench sites before clearing © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Tomorrow the excavation of the test trenches begins in earnest. We are all very excited about this. It has been a long haul of surveying to get to this point.

We will be excavating two test trenches. Following are photos of what the test trench sites looked like during clearing in preparation for excavation.

In coming days I will be able to show you some of the work of the excavation. However excavated artefacts may only be shown if we receive approval from the authorities to show them (or if they have been previously published).

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Archaeological transect survey

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Paul Donnelly, Jane McMahon and Taryn Gooley walking down the steep slope to do a transect survey
Paul Donnelly, Jane McMahon and Taryn Gooley walking down the steep slope to do a transect survey © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Over the last week, we started a new phase of the project – a transect survey.

The Zagora Archaeologcal Project team leaders, Professor Meg Miller, Dr Lesley Beaumont and Dr Stavros Paspalas, are doing their utmost to develop the most comprehensive possible picture of the site and also the area around it to find evidence of human use during the settlement period. This is necessary so they can plan the excavations for this season and potential future seasons.

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Geology of Zagora

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Dr Ioannis Basiakos
Dr Yannis Bassiakos outside the Kantouni Pensione, preparing for his third day in the field at Zagora; notice the magnifying eyepieces on a string around his neck © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Another of the scientists to help us in this inter-disciplinary research into the site of Zagora is Dr Yannis Bassiakos, a Geologist from the National Centre for Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’.

He has spent time at Zagora on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 12-14 November 2012.

He is looking broadly at anything of a geological nature that may have affected life at Zagora during the time of the settlement, around 900 – 700 BCE, and also for possible clues as to why the settlement was abandoned.

In particular, he is looking for evidence of Early Iron Age production (the Early Iron Age covers from about 1050 to 500 BCE).

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Another archaeologist Q&A: Camilla Norman

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Camilla NormanI’ve added another entry to our Q&A with archaeologists page – the answers of Camilla Norman, who conveys the same enthusiasm, thirst for knowledge and sense of adventure as the other archaeologists who have kindly contributed to this section of our website. Camilla has combined her visual skills in her archaeology work with both artefact drawing in the field, her work having run the University of Sydney Archaeology Department’s slide library and also production managing Mediterranean Archaeology.

Archaeophotography of a test trench site

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Hugh Thomas photographing from a bush
Hugh Thomas photographing from a spiky holme bush © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On Friday 9 November 2012, Hugh Thomas photographically documented the test trench site which we will begin to excavate this week. The purpose of the photography is so that there is a photographic record of how the site looked before it was cleared and excavation commenced.

He had as his able assistant in high wind, Rudy Alagich, who did a fine job wrangling fly-away pieces of paper – in particular the A4 sized arrow on paper in a plastic sleeve, which was to be placed in many of the photographs so that the direction of north was known.

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Archaeometry – surface luminescence dating of built structures

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Ioannis Liritzis
Ioannis Liritzis © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On Monday 12 November 2012, Ioannis Liritzis, Professor of Archaeometry from the University of the Aegean, Dept of Mediterranean Studies Laboratory of Archaeometry, visited the Zagora site to undertake surface luminescence dating to help us determine when a wall was built. This is a wall on a low portion at the south of the site where the slope is quite accessible up to the plateau. So it was wondered whether this wall may have been built in antiquity at the base of another access path to the settlement. The only way to determine this was with scientific testing.

Ioannis spoke to me after his work in the field on Monday and on Tuesday to explain the process.

Most people have heard of radiocarbon dating – a method for finding out how long since something organic (human, animal or plant, such as bones or wood) stopped living. This is done by finding out how much radioactivity of Carbon 14 remains in the organic material, which indicates how long since the material stopped exchanging carbon dioxide with the atmosphere, or how long since it died.

We are using a different a different method of dating at Zagora for a different purpose. Luminescence dating is a method to determine how long since something was exposed to sunlight. In the case of our enquiry at Zagora, we want to know when a wall was built.

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Archaeological reconnaissance

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Paul Donnelly surveying
Paul Donnelly walking a grid, looking for traces of ancient remains © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Prior to the commencement of excavation it is important that the team gains some understanding of the ancient site layout and use.

In order to do this, the site grid is being used to record all visible signs of ancient activity.

To get the most out of this post, you may want to read the posts about the grids, and also how the information gained is being digitally recorded onto tablets.

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Zagora goes digital

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by Irma Havlicek, Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
with Andrew Wilson, Archaeologist and Database Specialist
representing Arts eResearch at the University of Sydney

The team heading off to use tablets for the first time
The team heading off for their first ever use of tablets to digitally record the archaeological reconnaissance results on Thursday 25 October 2012. © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Until quite recently, information from the field for archaeological research was largely gathered by pen and paper. That’s how it would have been done during the first Australian excavations at Zagora in the 1960s and 70s.

Developments in technology are enabling huge advances in how we can record – and later easily filter and aggregate – information, and the Zagora team are taking advantage of the benefits of such technologies.

A new system is being developed by Arts eResearch at the University of Sydney to enable digital recording on the spot of all relevant information for each grid.

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