Now two weeks ago today we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the
official recognition of the Institute by the Ministry of Culture. The
two-day Colloquium started by welcoming remarks from Prof. Angus Smith
(Brock University) as the President of the Board of Directors of the
Institute, then a video message from the Canadian Ambassador to the
Hellenic Republic, Mr. Kieth Morrill, and finally a succinct overview of
the Institute's many contributions to Greek archaeology by Dr. Maria
Vlasaki, the General Secretary of the Helenic Ministry of Culture and
Sport. Afterwards there were a long series of papers relating to the
results of the fieldwork since 1980. Our projects and researchers have
accomplished many things in the space of 36 years in the field. We
continue to support fieldwork that is changing the our understanding of
the "Archaeologies of Greece".
To see in person what our current archaeological projects with a
fieldwork permit from the Ministry of Culture and Sport are doing
Jonathan and I (together or separately) visit each one, usually every
summer. Last week on Tuesday we journeyed to the Argolid. In the Inochos
river valley to the northwest of Argos the Western Argolid Regional Project [WARP]
is in their third and final season of intensive pedestrian survey of a
30,000 ha research zone. Dimitri Nakassis (University of Toronto) took
us to three sites with good views of the surrounding valley and hilly
flanks to assist in explaining the variable distribution of the artifact
evidence and which concentrations probably represented "sites" and
their probable span of occupation. The recording, management, analysis
and display of the resulting large data sets would not be possible
without the use of GIS.
We then went to their
apotheke in Argos to see the finds. Scott
Gallimore (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Sarah James (University of
Colorado at Boulder) were working on analyzing the finds from this
summer and from the their first year in the field. We had an opportunity
to chat with the students assisting with the work. It appears that that
the closeness to the major settlement of the region over time, which
was always focused on/around Argos, has affected the level and nature of
occupation in the valley.
Ancient Eleon in eastern Boiotia was our next destination on Wednesday
the 15th. As the days were getting much hotter Brendan Burke (University
of Victoria) and Bryan Burns (Wellesley College) showed us around the
excavation of the hoped-for northern end of the Blue Stone Structure.
This was a rectangular enclosure constructed in LH I to delimit the area
where a series of burials in cist graves were inserted. After its use a
low tumulus of earth was formed over it to mark the location. Certainly
in the 14th through 12th centuries BC this area was respected and later
structures were not built on it. The number of new walls being revealed
around this enclosure is impressive. Their ongoing work at the site as
part of
the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project [EBAP] is a
synergasia with Dr. Alexandra Harami the Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boiotia.
Just below the akropolis at Eleon on the edge of the village of Arma
EBAP uses a building for the conservation, study and drawing of the
ceramics found in the excavation. Bartek Lis and Trevor Van Damme gave
us an indepth presentation of the different Mycenaean and imported
ceramics that have come from the Northwest and Southwest sectors as well
as the Archaic/Classical votive materials from the Southwest Sector.
The quality of these vessels from domestic contexts dating mainly to LH
IIIA2 and LH IIIC is impressive. I enjoyed seeing my former student at
Brock, Tina Ross, as she is the principal artifact illustrator for the
project.
Finally, this past Wednesday I made a "surgical strike" on
the Stelida-Naxos Archaeological Project's [SNAP]
excavations on the lovely island of Naxos. In the 3+ hours that I had
before boarding the boat back to Piraeus Tristan Carter (McMaster
University) showed me all of this year's and last year's test trenches
on the western side of the steep hill of Stelida along with the
fossilized dune deposits on the shoreline. In the walkabout I was, thus,
able to talk with all of the hardy diggers who are toiling away in the
hot sun. The excavation has documented the exploitation of the massive
quartzite outcrop that is the core of the hill from at least the end of
the Lower Palaeolithic through the Mesolithic periods. The excavation
phase of the project is a
synergasia with Dr. Demetrios Athanssoulis, the Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades.
The depth of the sediments on the hillside and the various
geomorphological processes that created the complex stratigraphy
revealed by the sondages is an eye-opener. The sheer quantity
of quarrying debris, cores and tool preforms that is spread all over the
slopes is amazing. The team is hoping to find in situ cultural
strata so they can employ various scientific dating techniques that
will give them absolute dates BP for the different cultural horizons
seen in the chipped stone material that has been recovered.
In early July I will fly up to Thessaloniki from Crete so that I can
visit our excavations at ancient Argilos near Amphipolis. Stay tuned for
my reactions to their very interesting finds!
Each of our fieldwork projects will submit a guest blog on aspects of
their summer's work for posting during our annual recess in August. CIG
is always close to you!
Cordially,
David Rupp
Director
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