Rues, boutiques et eau: la saison 2026 à Argilos / Streets, Shops, and Water: The 2026 Season at Argilos

De retour sur le terrain!

Back at it again!

Cette année, plus de 80 étudiants et étudiantes universitaires et collégiaux, ainsi que des membres de notre équipe, se sont réunis pour une nouvelle saison exceptionnelle à Argilos, dans le nord de la Grèce. La campagne de fouilles de 2026, codirigée par le Dr Zisis Bonias et le Dr Jacques Perreault, a été bien remplie, avec des équipes à l’œuvre dans l’ensemble de nos zones de fouille. Cette année, nous avons toutefois choisi de concentrer nos efforts sur un secteur en particulier : le secteur Koutloudis, qui regroupe plusieurs bâtiments associés à des activités domestiques et commerciales.

This year, over 80 university and CEGEP students and staff came together for another incredible season at Ancient Argilos in Northern Greece. The 2026 excavation, co-directed by Dr. Zisis Bonias and Dr. Jacques Perreault, was busy, with teams working across our excavation areas. This year, however, we focused on the Koutloudis sector, which contains a series of buildings associated with domestic and commercial activity.

L’excavation d’un Pithos / The excavation of a Pithos

Dans ce secteur, nos équipes ont minutieusement fouillé des espaces domestiques, d’anciennes boutiques et diverses infrastructures urbaines. Chaque découverte, des fragments de poterie du quotidien aux éléments architecturaux, nous a permis de mieux comprendre les marchands, les artisans et les habitants qui vivaient et travaillaient autrefois dans ces rues.

In this sector, our teams carefully excavated domestic spaces, ancient storefronts, and various elements of urban infrastructure. Every discovery, from everyday pottery fragments to architectural features, helped us better understand the merchants, craftsmen, and residents who once lived and worked along these streets.

Nous tenons à remercier Keven Ouellet, Shelby Vieira, Lola Baillet, Samuel Chaput, Ian House et Justine Buchler, qui ont supervisé les différentes équipes tout au long de la saison. Frédéric Lemyre-Corbeil a lui aussi joué un rôle essentiel sur le terrain en s’occupant de notre système de géolocalisation en temps réel, ce qui nous a permis de documenter avec précision nos fouilles au fur et à mesure de leur progression.

A special thank you goes to Keven Ouellet, Shelby Vieira, Lola Baillet, Samuel Chaput, Ian House, and Justine Buchler, who led our excavation teams throughout the season. Frédéric Lemyre-Corbeil also played an essential role in the field, overseeing our real-time geolocation system and helping us document the excavation with precision as it progressed.

Pause bien méritée pendant la fouille / A Well-Deserved Break mid-excavation of a Pithos Fill

Cette année, nous avons également porté une attention particulière à la gestion de l’eau. En plus d’étudier les systèmes de drainage de la ville, l’équipe a poursuivi le tracé de l’aqueduc découvert l’an dernier. Ces travaux ont été accompagnés d’une conférence locale sur la gestion de l’eau, organisée par l’Éphorie de Serres et l’Université de Grenade, qui a réuni des chercheurs et chercheuses autour de la question de l’approvisionnement et de la gestion de l’eau dans les communautés antiques.

This year, we also took a closer look at water management in the ancient city. Alongside investigating its drainage systems, the team continued tracing the aqueduct discovered last year. This work was complemented by a local conference on water management, hosted by the Ephorate and the University of Granada, which brought researchers together to discuss the challenges and importance of water management in ancient communities.

Découverte réussie de l’aqueduc par l’équipe du CÉGEP ! / The Successful Discovery of the Aqueduct by the CEGEP Team!

Le travail ne s’est évidemment pas arrêté une fois sortis des tranchées. Plusieurs journées ont été consacrées au musée, où les étudiants et étudiantes ont travaillé aux côtés du personnel pour laver, cataloguer et stabiliser les découvertes de la saison. Ce travail, parfois moins spectaculaire que la fouille elle-même, est essentiel : il permet de transformer les découvertes faites sur le terrain en données archéologiques durables et de préserver les artefacts pour les générations futures.

Of course, the work did not stop when we left the trenches. We also spent several days at the museum, where students worked alongside museum staff to wash, catalogue, and stabilize the season's finds. While perhaps less exciting than uncovering an artifact in the ground, this work is essential to archaeology. It transforms field discoveries into lasting archaeological records and ensures that these artifacts are preserved for future generations of researchers.

Un grand merci à Saskia Deluy et Kozeta Mjeshtri, qui ont supervisé le travail au musée et en ont veillé au bon déroulement. Nous remercions également la directrice de l’Éphorie de Serres, Dimitra Malamidou, le chef de la garde Giorgos Galios et toute l’équipe du musée d’Amphipolis pour leur accueil chaleureux, leur générosité et leur soutien tout au long de la saison.

A big thank you to Saskia Deluy and Kozeta Mjeshtri, who supervised the museum work and kept everything running smoothly. We would also like to thank the director of the Ephorate, Dimitra Malamidou, head guard Giorgos Galios, and the entire Amphipolis Museum team for their continued warmth, generosity, and support throughout the season.

Une restauration réussie ! / A successful Restoration!

La saison 2026 nous a montré tout ce qu’une approche ciblée peut apporter. En concentrant nos efforts sur le secteur commercial, nous avons pu approfondir notre compréhension de la vie quotidienne à Argilos, des activités qui se déroulaient dans les boutiques et les résidences jusqu’aux infrastructures qui permettaient à la ville de fonctionner.

The 2026 season showed us how much we can gain from a more focused approach. By focusing on the commercial sector, we deepened our understanding of everyday life at Argilos, from the activities that took place in its shops and residences to the infrastructure that kept the city running.

Un immense merci à notre incroyable cohorte d’étudiants et d’étudiantes universitaires et collégiaux, ainsi qu’à toute notre équipe. Votre dévouement, votre travail acharné et votre enthousiasme ont fait de cette 34e saison à Argilos une saison inoubliable. Nous avons déjà hâte de voir ce que les prochaines campagnes nous permettront de découvrir!

A huge thank you to our incredible cohort of university and CEGEP students, as well as to our dedicated staff. Your hard work, enthusiasm, and willingness to get your hands dirty made this 34th season at Argilos one to remember. We are already looking forward to seeing what the next campaigns will reveal!

L’action sur le Koutloudis / Action on the Koutloudis

L’équipe d’Argilos / The Argilos team

Welcome, Jacob and Amanda!

The new academic year has begun at the Institute, and we welcome the Institute’s 2026-2027 Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellow, Jacob Engstrom, and University of Victoria intern, Amanda Swaile.

Jacob Engstrom is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Bronze Age archaeology in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. His dissertation project, “Marine Style: A Contextual Approach to Pottery Production, Distribution, and Consumption in the Late Bronze Age Aegean,” takes Marine Style pottery produced on Crete and the Greek mainland during the 15^th century BCE as a unit of analysis for pottery production, distribution, and consumption patterns at intra-site, inter-site, interregional, and transcultural scales.

Jacob has a decade of fieldwork and research experience in Greece, including participation in excavation, survey, and pottery study projects on the Greek mainland, Crete, the Cyclades, and the Dodecanese.

While at the CIG as Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellow, Jacob is writing his dissertation chapter focused on Crete, which will form the basis for subsequent comparative analysis of Marine Style as shared material culture integrating data from the mainland, Kythera, the Cyclades, and the east Aegean. He is also writing his theory and methodology chapter and continuing work on three related projects.

 

 

Amanda Swaile is a fourth-year undergraduate student in History and Greek & Roman Studies at the University of Victoria. She fell in love with Greek mythology in elementary school, and has since turned that passion towards her studies and the pursuit of a career in archaeology.

 

She hopes to use her time at the Canadian Institute to further her understanding of Canadian archaeological work in Greece, as well as to dive deeper into her own interest in ancient Greek statuary and architecture through the context of religion and mythology.

 

Jonathan Tomlinson

Assistant Director

The Southern Mani Archaeological Project 2026: The Matapan Peninsula

A portion of the SMAP survey area in Mani, Lakonia

In May-June 2026, under the auspices of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Lakonia, with a permit through the Canadian Institute in Greece, the Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP), directed by Drs. Chelsea Gardner (Acadia University) and William Parkinson (Field Museum / University of Illinois at Chicago), conducted pedestrian field survey in the southernmost portion of the Mani peninsula. The following is a blog post written by SMAP student participants Eliese Dziak, Cameryn Gateman, and Megan Earley.

2026 Season in Southern Mani

The 2026 field season marked the second survey season of the Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP), and the first season under a new, 5-year permit. Directed by Dr. Chelsea Gardner (Acadia University) and Dr. William Parkinson (Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Illinois Chicago), the Southern Mani Archaeological Project is conducted under the auspices of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Lakonia and the Canadian Institute in Greece. The project brought together an international team of researchers and students from institutions across Canada, the United States, Greece, Germany, and France.

SMAP survey team during the first week of the 2026 field season

Our team of 21 gathered in Mani, Lakonia, from May-June 2026 to begin work. In addition to the two project directors, the team included Dr. Rebecca Seifried (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), GIS and database director; Dr. Shannon Dunn (University of Edinburgh), lab director; Dr. Mo Snyder (Acadia University), geologist; regional specialists Dr. Katerina Ragkou (Phillips University of Marburg), Dr. Anastasia Papathenasiou (Greek Ministry of Culture), Dr. Sarah Murray (University of Toronto), PhD candidate Adam Wiznura (University of Groningen); aerial imaging experts Dr. Simon Oiry (Université Nantes), Dr. Laurent Barillé (Université Nantes), Philippe Rosa (Université Nantes); and nine student assistants, Cameron Barnard (University of Waterloo), Gabe Davis (University of Illinois Chicago), Eliese Dziak (University of Illinois Chicago), Megan Earley (Acadia University), Cameryn Gateman (Trent University), Oliver Godelie (Acadia University), Aydaen Markowski (Conservation Corps New Mexico), Ifigenia Paschali (National Technical University of Athens), and Christos Zigoumis (Carleton University).

SMAP 2026 team photo at the Hotel Panorama

The goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of the interactions involving the communities of the area and the wider Eastern Mediterranean throughout history and to develop a diachronic and multi-temporal understanding of this dynamic region of Lakonia. Building off the pilot research we conducted in Porto Kagio bay in 2025-2026, this year our team conducted intensive pedestrian survey across the Matapan peninsula, integrating geological investigation, GIS mapping, drone-based photogrammetry, LiDAR, and in-field analysis of archaeological materials. We managed to cover approximately 1.7 sq km or 5.7% of our total permitted survey area! Survey teams systematically documented archaeological material visible on the ground surface while recording a wide range of cultural and landscape features, including agricultural terraces, cisterns, towers, quarries, lime kilns and settlement remains.

Despite the peninsula’s rugged terrain, characterized by steep slopes and dense vegetation, the 2026 season produced significant new data that will contribute to our understanding of settlement patterns, resource exploitation, and agricultural practices.

SMAP survey and lab team members on the last day of survey

Fieldwork

Fueled by a breakfast from our amazing hosts at the Hotel Panorama, our field and lab teams hit the road between 7:00-8:00 AM each morning to go to the day’s location(s) and try to beat the heat. The beautiful drive was often punctuated by local traffic of sunbathing dogs, herds of sheep/goats, car karaoke, and an unabating excitement that comes from the joy of working in such a historically rich and vibrant place. Upon reaching our destination and conducting our daily safety and wellness checks, we separated into lab and survey teams. Unlike excavation, pedestrian survey examines the broader archaeological landscape rather than only focusing on a single site. Surveyors systematically walk across the terrain, recording visible archaeological material and cultural features to better understand long term patterns of human activity within the region. Units were defined in the field based on the terrain and visibility of the area; some areas were unsurveyable due to heavy vegetation, construction, or slopes greater than 30 degrees.

(Left) Student assistants Ifigenia Paschali (front left) and Cameron Barnard (front right) conducting in-field lab analysis under guidance of Shannon Dunn (back left) and Adam Wiznura (back right). (Right) From left to right, student assistants Cameryn Gateman, Eliese Dziak, and Oliver Godelie measure a cistern with guidance from William Parkinson

In compliance with our permit, we conducted much of our lab work at our field locations. This is different from typical archaeological lab work where all finds are brought back to a controlled environment for analysis. Armed with all the essential field lab equipment (camera, notebook, scale bar, iPad, shower curtain, and a blue pirate bucket), under the direction of Shannon Dunn we developed a systematic way to document all of our material finds in the area they were found. The survey teams bagged and recorded their finds by unit and left them in the field for the lab team to conduct their analyses. The lab team categorized, photographed, and recorded all material in our databases before returning the finds to their original context. This meant that most days we were analyzing hundreds of materials (mostly ceramic and tile) in the field! In select cases, we were granted permission by the Ephorate of Antiquities to collect and analyze in a more formal lab setting. From this huge undertaking we gleaned valuable information regarding the interactions in the region and learned much about what it takes to have a mobile lab unit in the field. 

(Left) Portion of terraces surveyed. (Right) From left to right, Katerina Ragkou, Shannon Dunn, and Adam Wiznura conducting in-field lab analysis

Gabe Davis (left) and Shannon Dunn (right) measuring a lime kiln discovered during survey

Landscape

The landscape posed unique challenges to our brave SMAP surveyors! From mountains, to beaches, and maquis forests, we traversed it all this summer. Slips, trips, and falls were common hazards encountered by all, but morale remained high as ankles stayed intact and humour always overrode pride. Of the 390 field units recorded this season, two-thirds of them had 25% or less visibility. Scrub and spiny broom were the most frequent culprits, followed by other types of surface vegetation, all of which ranged in height from ankle- to waist-high. The majority of the units surveyed contained intact and dilapidated terraces, and/or unmodified slopes with compact soil, bedrock, or rubble. Despite some of the challenges, traversing this beautiful landscape was well worth the effort. 

Aydaen Markowski (left) and Rebecca Seifried (right) measuring structure walls engulfed in vegetation

Notable Discoveries

A sudden yell by a student on a remote mountain is generally cause for concern, but for us this meant excitement as we had stumbled across something significant. Throughout the 2026 season, SMAP surveyors documented a diverse range of archaeological remains, including pottery scatters, architectural blocks, agricultural terraces, cisterns, towers, quarries and lime kilns! The majority of materials found fell into the category of ceramics or tile fragments but there were a few small finds that were collected with the permission of the local archaeological service. The items collected include six (!) loom weights, one coin, two glass fragments, one bronze sheet, and fragments of four terracotta figurines. Many of these materials were found (with much excitement) by our student researchers! There were also many notable features, including pre-modern structures, cisterns, and spolia. Surprisingly, we found very few lithic remains; only three small chipped stone fragments were found and no whole stone tools. The team found this puzzling but we are hopefully curious for more to be uncovered in the following seasons!

There were also several interesting structures uncovered. With only a few days left of survey we discovered foundation stones and a high concentration of ceramic materials on top of a mountain. The seemingly unusual configuration and makeup of the structural remains drew the intrigue of our team. After clearing the vegetation immediately surrounding the structure we were able to get a better idea of its layout but are still unsure on the function. The ceramics at this location appear to date to the Hellenistic, further study is needed on both the materials and structural remains however for a definitive date and site function.

(Left) Discovered figurine heads. (Right) One of the six loom weights found

We also cleared a series of circular architectural features discovered during the survey. After some initial confusion, further research coupled with the clearing of the vegetation showed that these were saltpans, used for drying and collecting salt - an important economic driver in the region! The entire area was not able to be cleared due to a chukar bird nest in the surrounding vegetation (it should be known that SMAP will always break/brake for wildlife!).

Aerial view orthomosaic (left) and scaled plan (right) of the salt pans in Site 022 (Matapan - Katergo - Salt Pans)

Photogrammetry

SMAP took to the skies this season as we were joined by Dr. Laurent Barillé, Dr. Simon Oiry, and Philippe Rosa, a team of aerial imaging experts from the Université Nantes in France, to capture some of the unique features we came across. They used drone LiDAR and photogrammetry to further map and document some areas of interest; by conducting different resolution flights to create a detailed 3D map of the areas. From this process we received high resolution mapping of several quarries and of the structure “Frankoklisi”. Photogrammetry like this is extremely beneficial for the documentation and further study of buildings, architectural members, and landscape because it provides additional data that further contextualizes our finds in the region allowing us to gain insights that we otherwise may not have!

(Left) Drone flight. (Right) Dr. Simon Oiry (left), Philippe Rosa (middle) and Dr. Laurent Barillé (right) preparing drone for flight and recording

Drone photograph of Frankoklisi after vegetation cleaning

Geology

The geology team from Acadia University (Dr. Mo Snyder and Honours student Megan Earley) continued upon last season’s field work, exploring coloured marble and limestone outcrops of the Southern Mani Peninsula. Samples were taken at various sites in Matapan, including samples from red, green, black, and white marble outcrops.

(Left) Dr. Chelsea Gardner at the black marble quarry. (Right) Dr. Mo Snyder at a white marble outcrop

This year, the geology team noted regional faults and brecciated material observed alongside coloured marbles and limestones. With the help of the SMAP archaeology team, it was identified that a series of faults, running through the white marble outcrop at Tainaron, travelled directly underneath the historic temple of Poseidon. While the geology team identified the structural features, the archaeology team connected the dots between Poseidon and his association with earthquakes. This unique observation highlighted the uses of working in a multidisciplinary team to piece together records of human activity on and within the natural landscape.

          

(Left) Breccia containing clasts of previously brecciated material, a helpful tool for understanding the geologic history of the area. (Right) Megan preparing to measure the orientation of the white marble at Tainaron

Back at the Acadia Petrographic Laboratory, rock samples from the current and previous field season are being processed for research purposes and for the archival collection at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Samples include representative material from each of the coloured-stone quarries, brecciated material from adjacent and nearby formations, unconsolidated material, and gastropod fossils.

Samples of white (upper left), red (upper right), green (lower left), and black (lower right) marbles back in the lab at Acadia University

Looking Ahead

The 2026 field season demonstrated how much the landscape of Matapan and southern Mani can reveal when archaeological survey is combined with geological investigation, material analysis, GIS, LiDAR, and photogrammetry. Across steep slopes, dense vegetation, terraces, coastlines, and mountain ridges, the team documented new evidence for settlement, agriculture, water management, craft production, quarrying, and the use of local resources through time. These discoveries provide important new points of reference for understanding how communities in southern Mani shaped, occupied, and moved through this landscape while remaining connected to the wider eastern Mediterranean.

Although the walking has ended, the work of the season continues. Ceramic analysis, spatial interpretation, geological research, and the processing of aerial imagery will further refine our understanding of the features and materials recorded in the field. The results of this work will guide future survey seasons and help determine where more focused investigation may be most productive.

Most importantly, the season reflected the collaborative nature of archaeological research. Students, specialists, project directors, local communities, partner institutions, the Ephorate of antiquities of Lakonia, and the Canadian Institute in Greece all contributed to the success of the project. SMAP leaves the 2026 season with new questions, new data, and an even stronger foundation for continuing to explore the long-term relationship between people and the landscape in southern Mani.

The 2026 SMAP team at Hotel Panorama in Pyrgos Dirou, Mani

From My Time as a CIG Intern

When I got the news that I would be spending my summer in Greece, I was ecstatic. Originally, I impulsively submitted an application to my university’s international program because I had become very engrossed in Greco-Roman classics and ancient philosophy during my first year of university. However, I thought my chances were slim when my program coordinator told me it was the university’s most competitive position, so imagine my surprise in December when I received an acceptance email.

On Lycabettus Hill 

Before my internship at the CIG, I had never even done my own laundry, let alone lived independently. Even as I watched my mom weep beside my stepfather and little sister while I walked through the security line—leaving for the next three months—I couldn’t believe it. I had gotten so used to plans falling through that, even as I landed at the Athens airport and walked out with my massive luggage, I thought I was hallucinating. Clearly, I wasn’t hallucinating, because as soon as I left the airport, reality—and the cold May wind—hit me. My first month took a lot of getting used to: living with flatmates, taking care of myself while working, and living in a country whose language I couldn’t speak were all quite difficult.

The Parthenon 

Working at the CIG made acclimating to Greece easier by giving me a routine. Most weeks, I would explore Athens’ museums, art galleries, and archaeological sites during the weekend. Then, during the week, I would be in the intern office by 9 a.m., where I helped with chores, library work, setting up for events and lectures, and researching sites I had seen over the weekend to post about them on the CIG’s social media. It was during this time that I decided to help restructure responsibilities of the intern position by modernizing the manuals used to pass wisdom obtained by previous interns, as well as our approach to communication through social media. I especially enjoyed experimenting with different types of media and formatting to deduce what people statistically responded to best. Still, I found watching my art bring the CIG more attention the most rewarding.

Traditional Greek wedding attire (Museum Of Modern Greek Culture) 

As a student of political science, most of the archaeological information I now had to interact with was completely foreign to me aside from my basic understanding of classical art, philosophy, and literature. It was very interesting to learn about different aspects of the field, my favourite being the use of archaeology to trace how civilizations developed over time and how war and imperialism in Greece explain its formation as a modern state. I was equally curious and frequently inquired about why the archaeologists I met had decided to pursue their specialties, as well as the reality of living in Athens from locals, as my greatest motivation for coming to Greece had been to familiarize myself with people raised in a culture different from my own.

Socrates & Confucius (Agora) 

The more I learned about Greek history beyond its ancient past as the Athenian city-state that bore elements of modern liberal democracy, the more curious I became about the rest of Europe, and by mid-May, I had planned another trip. This one was to Austria, another state previously ruled by an imperial power that was ousted after WWI and replaced by a—then—collapsing democracy. Though I would be lying if I said I visited Vienna only for its political significance, as I also have a great love of Mozart and Klimt—whose many works are displayed on my bedroom walls.

 

Emperor Charles VI (State Hall of the Austrian National Library) 

 

“Mother with Children” by Gustav Klimt 

 

“Apotheosis of the Renaissance” by Mihály Munkácsy

Travelling to Athens, Vienna, and Rome, and discovering lush greenery and insignificant buildings held up by pillars shaped into classical statues was a massive shock for me, especially as someone accustomed to the GTA, where every suburban house and skyscraper looks limp and lifeless. As for Europe as a whole, I was so satisfied by its walkability that I renounced public transit. As expected, this didn’t pan out well for my feet during my long-weekend trips, when I walked around 50 kilometres in each of the cities I visited—especially Rome, which I also mistakenly visited in mid-July.

Rome was stunning: around—and within—every corner stood heaps of monuments, fountains, and statues. Although I was a melting sardine packed beside hundreds of other tourists, I don’t know whether any interior can measure up to the sublimity of the papal apartments and chapels in the Vatican or St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

 

St. Peter’s Basilica 

Gallery of Maps (Vatican Museums) 

But culture isn’t much without history, and history isn’t much without the religions that shaped it. I have always written religion off as a generalized “Other” whose principles I can commend but whose instrumentalization I condemn. However, living in and visiting places where monarchs ruled by divine right, and religion both shaped and was shaped by the conquest and the integration of foreign religions, piqued my interest. This interest grew when I finally decided to read the only physical book I had brought with me: Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”, which I would highly recommend to anybody.

“The Bishop of Old Patras Germanos Blesses the Flag of the Revolution” by Theodoros Vryzakis 

Ultimately, it is this interest that tied together my experience working at the CIG and living in Athens. Most of the time, I prefer to consume the world with only my eyes, but—as with the active love preached in Christianity—one must act within the world if one wants to make any impact upon it. For the first time in my independent life, I have shown myself that if I give myself to the world, I can change my circumstances, stoking my ambition to care for those within it.

Nicole Kulova, York University intern, summer 2026

The Odyssey in Boeotia? Connecting ancient Eleon with Homer

The biggest news from Hollywood this summer has been about the newest blockbuster film from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey. In addition to its huge success and popularity, discussion focuses on the historical accuracy of various elements of the movie, sometimes with informed insight and other times with only strong opinion. Often, these discussions fail to recognize that the ‘history’ of Homer’s epic poems is a highly fraught question that scholars, philologists and archaeologists, have been struggling with since antiquity and something that can never be satisfactorily answered because the poems we associate with Homer are creative, evolving works of fiction that are adapted to their audiences. The film and the discussions it has generated provide an opportunity for our archaeological project at ancient Eleon to highlight some of the material connections with have excavated with the ‘worlds’ of Homer.

Publicity photo for Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey (2026)

Ancient Eleon, located in central Greece about 14 km east of Thebes, has been under study by members from the Canadian Institute since 2007 when a regional survey was conducted. The Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project (EBAP), as we are called, started excavations in 2011 as a synergasia (collaboration) of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia and the CIG and is currently directed by Dr. Alexandra Charami of the Ephorate and Brendan Burke (University of Victoria), Bryan Burns (Wellesley College) and Trevor Van Damme (University of Warwick). In 2026, the team returned to the elevated limestone ridge on the western edge of the village of Arma, about 14 km east of Thebes, for six weeks of excavations and we found further connections between Eleon and ‘Homer’s world’.

EBAP/Eleon excavation team 2026

Although far from the Troad, the site of ancient Eleon in Boeotia is connected to Troy through two passages in the Iliad that name the site. The first is Eleon’s inclusion in the Catalogue of Ships (appearing in Book 2.500) as one of cities among the Boeotian contingent the leads the Greek forces to Troy at the start of the war. The second passage (10.266–267) offers more specific heroic connections between Eleon and the Homeric heroes, specifically, Odysseus: The boar’s tusk helmet worn by Odysseus is given an elaborate genealogy that connects three generations through a series of exchanges back to Odysseus’ own grandfather, Autolykos, who visited Eleon. At Eleon, Autolykos stole the helmet from the well-built house of Amyntor, the son of Ormenos. This line of Odysseus’ family was also featured in a lost play of Euripides, the Phoenix, with action unfolding in front of the palace of Amyntor at Eleon, according to some commentators. That follows the third mention of Eleon in the Iliad, when Phoenix recounts the dispute with his father, which led him to run away and eventually become part of Achilles’s contingent. He describes the strongly-built courtyard house of Amyntor and the wealth of the family as relatives tried to smooth tensions through feasting:

They singed the hides of many pigs and stretched

the carcasses, that shone with fat, across

the fire for cooking, sacred to Hephaestus.

They drank enormous quantities of wine

from huge wine-jars belonging to my father.

                                                Iliad 9.466-69, Emily Wilson, translator

With this background, we can ask, what are the archaeological indicators that might connect the literary imagination of Homer with the material world we were excavating at ancient Eleon? The site of ancient Eleon has three major periods of Bronze Age activity: pre-Palatial (ca. 17^th-16^th c. BCE), connected to the elaborate burials complex we call the Blue Stone Structure; the Palatial period (15^th to 13^th c BCE), the age contemporary with the elaborate administrative complexes at Mycenae, Pylos and Tiryns and the age of Linear B records (12^th c BCE); and the post-Palatial period, referred in ceramic terms as the LH IIIC period, (12^th-11^th c BCE). The post-Palatial period was relatively short, and a period of resilience in aftermath of wide-spread destructions of major palace centers. At Eleon, it’s the levels dating to the LH IIIC early and middle that provide evidence for the endurance of Mycenaean culture at secondary centers. Elements of all these ages are preserved in the epic poems of Homer.

Excavations in the Northwest quadrant of Eleon has uncovered a multi-room complex dating to the LH IIIC periods (early and middle). The northern section is divided into two large rooms, each of which features a centrally positioned hearth. In the central room we have four post supports surrounding the hearth, in form comparable to, though much simpler than, a Mycenaean palatial megaron. This complex in the Northwest and comparable structures in the further southwest were roofed with large clay tiles, flat pan tiles, covered with half-cylindrical cover tiles. The fired clay roof tiles demonstrate that these were buildings of some significance, requiring a great deal of organized labor for their construction. The buildings likely had a public function, rather than a domestic one. We might even imagine stories of Troy being retold here around the multiple hearths.

NW quadrant Eleon 2019 and roof tile fragments from the SW 2026

In the Southwest quadrant of ancient Eleon, we have architecture at a different orientation than the Northwest and finds which suggest religious activity. Here people may have made offerings of prized possessions, perhaps in gratitude for success in war or hunting. One find in particular suggests this and it is a section of a boar’s tooth with small drill holes in three locations. Two of the drill holes are through raised portions of the tooth, which were likely intended to hold the tusk fragment, fixing it onto a helmet, like the one described by Homer in book 10 of the Iliad. We have a second fragment of a boar’s tusk from nearby as well. While two tusks do not make a whole helmet (it is estimated that thirty boars would be needed for one complete helmet) the fragments we have are evocative.

We thus have tantalizing indications of Homer’s world: large, tile roofed public structures with hearths inside for banquets and story telling and boars tusks likely from a hero’s helmet.

Boar’s tusk helmet from Zafer Papoura Knossos (Heraklion Museum) and boar’s tusk from Eleon showing drill holes