by Andrew Wilson, Archaeologist and Database Specialist
representing Arts eResearch at the University of Sydney
with Irma Havlicek, Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
This has to be done systematically so that we can gain an understanding of the entire site. The best way to do that is to walk the entire site, using grids. In this post, I hope to explain how the grid system works at Zagora.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Hugh Thomas, videographer extraordinaire, has produced this (2 mins 26 secs, mostly time-lapse) video review of some of the work that was done in the first week of the Zagora Archaeological Project.
That work included site clearing to enable geophysical survey to be done, and work to the dig hut: creation of a doorway, placement of stones to build steps and also to construct a table inside the dig hut. There is also a dramatic moment when Hugh is hurt in pursuit of his art. And there is aerial vision Hugh shot from a helicopter over the site of Zagora in May 2012.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
I showed some photos in an earlier post about the site clearing we did in order to enable the geophysical work to be done.
Here are some before and after panoramas, taken by Hugh Thomas, which give a better idea of the scale of site clearing that was done in the first week of the project.
Before:
After:
by Hugh Thomas
Archaeologist
A few weeks ago I was in a classroom in the University of Sydney lecturing about ancient trepanation, the process of drilling into someone’s skull to relieve pressure caused by the brain swelling, whilst they are alive and likely conscious. A few minutes before I was flashing up images of mass graves found in Athens, full of unceremoniously dumped plague victims including men, women and children. The day before I had lectured about women who had torn out their hair in mourning or had scratched large cuts into their cheeks with their nails. My name is Hugh Thomas and I study dead people!
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Each team is assigned to a particular grid, and that grid has to be marked out with measuring tape or string, attached to stakes that have already been placed in the ground to mark the corners of the grids. The purpose of the tape or string, is to make clearly visible what is the boundary of the grid you are working on, so that any artefacts you find in that grid can be bagged and marked with which grid it came from. This means that as the findings of each grid are researched, clearer information about the whole site emerges.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Lydia Beaumont-Cankaya was keen to celebrate Halloween in some small way, so asked us to dress up in costumes for dinner. Some of the team took up the challenge, so I thought I’d share with you a few of the snaps I took over dinner.
Thanks to Lydia for organising a fun night. She had even hand-made and decorated cardboard cones which she filled with chocolate and treats, and gave one to each of us after dinner.
by Paul Donnelly
Powerhouse Museum Curator, Design and Society
and Archaeologist
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
In the Q&A with Archaeologists section of the website, archaeologists answer questions I’ve put to them – and also some questions they put to themselves – to give you an idea of what kinds of people become archaeologists. Their answers also reveal the different experiences and careers archaeologists can have.
If that’s not enough, they’re also really interesting to read, and they have great pictures!
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Now to the geophysical work which is the reason for the hard yakka (for those outside of Australia, ‘hard yakka’ means ‘hard work’) of site clearing I wrote about in an earlier post.
The main aims of this first phase of the Zagora Archaeological Project are to use the best technology available now, firstly, to try to give us a general overview of the layout of the whole site before we start excavating. And, secondly, also to determine where archaeological excavation is most likely to produce the best evidence about life in Zagora during the time of the settlement – from about 900 – 700 BCE.
The best techniques now available are those of archaeological surface survey (more about that later) and of geophysics – the study of the physics of the Earth. Over 3000 years, earth, stones and plants have covered the remains of the Zagora settlement. So what we are seeking is below the surface of what is visible above ground.
by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Much of the work of archaeology is detective work – trying to figure out from fragments of information more about objects or the time and place in which they were used, and how they influenced life.
In the following short (50 seconds) video, Dr Paul Donnelly, Powerhouse Curator of Decorative Arts, and also an archaeologist, explains how if you find only a sherd (a small section) of the rim of a pottery object, you can still tell much about the size and shape of that object.