Zagora dig blog

by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Work day 1 – Wednesday 18 October 2012

Breakfast was served at 6am, as planned, on our first full day on Andros – Wednesday 18 October 2012. My room-mate (Kristen Mann – take a look at Kristen’s Q&A to find out more about her) and I agreed on the tactic of setting an alarm for 6.20am (for those extra minutes of precious sleep), and heading down with our gear, ready to get straight into the van. We packed the gear we’d need the night before, so we just had to grab it and go.

But the first day, things took a little longer than we expected as we weren’t yet in the groove of preparing ourselves for departure. We each have slightly different things we have to carry. We all have at least a pack, and we were each given a 2-litre plastic bottle of water to take with us. That seemed like a lot to me. We’d been told to bring our own water bottles, and I’d bought a 1-litre water bottle, thinking that would be enough. Little did I know then how hard we would work physically, and how we would each easily get through 2 litres of water – and more! Most of us carry extra clothes – long-sleeved shirt, wind/rainproof jacket, scarf, hat (with elastic strap so it doesn’t blow off in the legendary Zagora wind), goggles (against dust storms), tough work/gardening gloves. Some also carry our food and extra water.

So, the first day, we departed at 7.25am – a bit later than our scheduled 7am departure.

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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.

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!

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.