Our team this year numbered 31 people, including staff, volunteers and field school students and thus things were busy in Narthaki, the village which we call home for the five weeks in May and June.
Colette Beestman-Kruijshaar, a specialist in Hellenistic pottery from Thessaly, oversees all work done on the ceramics from the site. She does this in close consultation with Sophia Karapanou, herself a specialist in Hellenistic ceramics, who spent considerable time in Narthaki.
One of the goals this year was to finalize the quantification of all pottery found in Building 10. All sherds (including roof tile fragments) found in Building 10 have now been checked to see whether any fits could be found with other vessels. In addition, all ceramics have been sorted, counted and weighed according to ware, pot form and fragment type. This laborious process has helped us to obtain better insight into the formation of stratigraphies in Building 10 and into establishing the character and extent of the different habitation phases. We concluded that the distribution of the ceramics clearly supports our earlier hypothesis, which we initially based on the distribution of coins and household tool kits and the character and quantity of rooftiles. In its second phase, Building 10 was only partially reused. The second occupation and building was thus built within the ruins of the first whereby a large part of the debris and contents was discarded in the southern part of the building, most notably in the original storage area (units K and L).
The artifact assemblage was divided into categories, which were studied in detail by members of the KKAP team. PhD candidates Gino Canlas,Tristan Ellenberger and Amber Latimer made great progress with their studies of the pithoi, stone finds and mould-made wares respectively. MA students Karey Thomson, Adam Wiznura and Edward Middleton all finalized their individual studies of the cooking pottery, unguentaria, and lamps found at Kallithea.
Alex Garcia and Emily Heaton (undergraduate students at the UofA) worked tirelessly on the metal finds discovered in Building 10. Of the 701 metal objects (excluding coins) 458 were drawn and described.
Katherine Bishop (PhD student in Anthropology at the UofA) took up the pastoralism project reported on last year. She was able to transport some samples taken last year back to Edmonton for an analysis of various Stable Isotopes, including Carbon, Oxygen and Strontium. The goal of this project, which has now become her fully-fledged PhD project for which she received a SSHRC grant, is to examine whether these methods can give us some insight into seasonal mobility and of animals and people at the Hellenistic sites of Kastro Kallithea and ancient Pharsalos.
The 17 field school students, who came from Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, were trained in sorting, counting, drawing and describing Hellenistic ceramics in addition to being introduced to the history of the site and its surroundings. This was done under the guidance of Colette Beestman-Kruijshaar and Margriet Haagsma. Laura Surtees educated the students in photographing archaeological objects and Gino Canlas in drawing them. In addition, the students were taught techniques in pottery restoration and 3D modelling using photogrammetry, the latter by John Manderscheid. Katherine Bishop taught the students the merits of faunal analysis at archaeological sites.
Excursions were made to Almiros, Halos, Volos, Dimini, Paleoskala, Tserli and Velika (Meliboia). Dr. Roula Sdrolia, Head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Larissa, and Dr. Georgos Toufexis, archaeologist at the same Ephorate, graciously guided us around the last three sites.
The team gave a successful presentation in the cultural centre at Pharsala. All of those mentioned above gave a brief report on their progress to about 150 Pharsalians, who were very appreciative that the presentation was completely given in modern Greek! Mayor Aris Karachalios was a graceful host at the dinner that followed.
Prior to the field season Margriet Haagsma, Sophia Karapanou and Laura Surtees gave successful presentations on the merits of the micro-historical approach we use in Kastro Kallithea at the University of Oxford, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Institute in Greece (CIG), and at the conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of CIG.
KKAP’s project website has been renewed! View the new website at: www.greekarchaeology.org
KKAP would like to thank the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Canadian Institute in Greece, the Municipality of Pharsala and the Department of History and Classics of the University of Alberta for their unwavering support. We are especially grateful to Pharsala’s mayor Aris Karachalios and to municipal archaeologist Vasso Noula for letting us use the old school in Narthaki as our work space on a more permanent basis, and for their friendship and interest. A special thank you goes to Elias Papadopoulos who always makes our stay in Narthaki unforgettable.
Margriet Haagsma, Sophia Karapanou and Laura Surtees
Why Evans and Not Schliemann as the excavator of Knossos?
The hill called Kephala tou Tselevi on the western bank of the Krateros river to the south of the city of Candia (modern Herakleio) on the island of Crete has come to be known world-wide as Knossos. Here at the beginning of the 20th century Arthur Evans began the excavations of a massive structure and portions of the surrounding settlement that we know today as the Palace of Minos. Evans was not the first to excavate here, however. Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), an olive merchant and antiquities collector from Candia, initiated the first test trenches on the hill for three weeks in December, 1878. He uncovered a portion of the West Magazines with their storage jars (pithoi) in situ and reached as far as the Throne Room. Given the political sensitivities of the time, as Crete was still under Ottoman rule, the Christian General Administrator of Crete, Fotiades Pashas, decided in 1879 that the excavations should stop. In 1880 he also refused the request of the French School in Athens to continue the excavations for the same reasons. Heinrich Schliemann of Troy and Mycenae fame entered the picture in 1886 seeking to dig at Knossos as well. Evans did not arrive on the scene until 1894. What happened to deny Schliemann access to Knossos?
Aimee Michelle Genova (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History - Ancient Mediterranean World, University of Chicago; Associate Member, American School of Classical Studies at Athens) is investigating this aspect of the history of archaeology on the island of Crete for her doctoral dissertation. Her lecture for the Syllogos Filon tou Istorikou Archeiou tis Archaiologikis Yperesias on Monday, September 19th entitled “Knossos Before Arthur Evans: Archival Remnants of Heinrich Schliemann’s Bid for Kephala Hill” will reveal the results of her research.
Knossos is synonymous with the accomplishments of Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, but the site’s history and reputation was a crucial part of the Cretan social fabric much earlier. Heinrich Schliemann is primarily regarded for his excavations at Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns in the late 19th century, but his failed attempt to secure the site of Crete’s Knossos is perhaps a lesser known aspect to his archaeological narrative. The archaeological process for excavating Knossos extends beyond Schliemann’s firsthand commentary, and this presentation discusses the context of unpublished documents from Iosif Hatzidakis to Heinrich Schliemann between June 1886 and May 1889 that were collected from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens through the Gennadius Library Archives.
This lecture is the first in the 2016/2017 Lecture Program of the Syllogos Filon tou Istorikou Archeiou tis Archaiologikis Yperesias. It should be noted carefully that it will be held at the Library of the Canadian Institute in Greece (Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, Ilisia) at 19:00. Both the venue location and the time are new for this lecture series. The Megaron Mousikis metro station is at the end of Dionysiou Aiginitou street. The public, as always, is most welcome.
Cordially,
David Rupp
Director
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