The Fred Winter Collection

Side, landwalls, pier supporting extension of lower alure, and observation window in curtain (Professor Fred Winter, 1957)

Vive la différence!!!

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting two of our 2015 fieldwork projects. On Tuesday the 16^th and Wednesday the 17th, Gerry Schaus (President of the Institute’s Board of Directors), Jonathan Tomlinson (the Institute's Assistant Director) and his wife, Amelie Tyler, joined me.  On Wednesday the merry band was accompanied also by my wife, Metaxia Tsipopoulou.

Our first visit was to the survey crews of the Western Argolid Regional Project (WARP). We met up with Dimitri Nakassis (University of Toronto) and a gaggle of their surveyors at a church on the southern border of their 2015 research zone of 10,000 stremmata. Last year was their first year in the field when they surveyed a 10,000 stremmata zone immediately to the NW.  Despite the hot weather the crews had covered the surrounding hilly landscape to collect sherds, roof tile fragments, chipped stone material and other artifacts from specific fields in this intensive “site-less” survey.  In many places the density of vegetation made it challenging to see the ground surface to say the least!

We then proceeded to Argos to visit their workspace and apotheke. There Scott Gallimore (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Sarah James (University of Colorado at Boulder), Dimitri’s co-directors and fellow researchers showed us the material that they had collected over the past two years. Classical and Hellenistic period ceramics dominated the collections. While there is limited evidence for earlier material, so far the Imperial Roman and Ottoman periods are better represented. As they move closer to Argos this pattern may change.

Afterwards at their base “camp” at Myloi on the NW end of the Gulf of Argos we saw CIG Board member Alexis Young (Wilfrid Laurier University) who had joined the project for a few weeks to help out in the processing of the finds. Then over a tasty, fishy lunch on the shore we discussed the results to date and their plans for the future. I for one was happy that I was not out there in the field with them with temperatures in the mid-30s C with a strong wind, having retired my worn Cypriot survey boots back in 1994.

On Wednesday the excavation on the akropolis at ancient Eleon in eastern Boiotia was our destination.  The Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project (EBAP) is a synergasia between co-directors Dr. Alexandra Harami of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boiotia, and Brendan Burke (University of Victoria) and Bryan Burns (Wellesley College). This field season is the last year of their present five-year permit.  The principal focus of the work this summer is to determine the northern extent of the so-called “Blue Stone Structure” discovered last year in the Southeast Sector. The use of bluish limestone slabs in its construct is the origin of the appellation. The finds of this enigmatic building (?) continue to suggest a date in Late Helladic I for its construction and eventual covering by a low tumulus. This area does not seem to have been disturbed by later buildings in the LH IIIB and C periods.

In the Northwest Sector the team was excavating the fill of a large Ottoman period pit which was suffering from the erosional effects of the winter rains.  Other excavators were attempting to delineate the history of the sequence of Archaic period and later gates in the defensive walls immediately to the south of the ”Blue Stone Structure” as well as the nature of the entranceway in the Mycenaean period.  Further to the south against the eastern face of a section of the curving defensive wall they continued to dig down to find the lowest courses of the foundations which rest on bedrock. The wall now appears to have been erected in the 6^th century BC.

We then were given a tour of their work space in the village of Arma immediately below the akropolis. The pottery is being read, joins found, vessels conserved and drawn. The quality and range of shapes of the Late Helladic ceramic material is impressive with clear connections with Lefkandi on Euboia to the east as well as to other regions of the Mycenaean world and even eastern Crete according to Metaxia! An old friend Susan Lupack (editor of Hesperia and a co-director of the EBAP survey was there studying the Archaic and Classical votive material found around the gates and the ramp. Gerry had to be pried away from this material so we could return to Athens!

In less than 18 hours we were able to see the current work and the finds of a survey and an excavation in the field under the aegis of the Institute and with permits from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religion. Each data recovery technique has its important place in our endless quest for more information to assist us in answering various research questions and in crafting narratives to describe how ancient cultures operated and interacted with other societies. Vive la différence!!!

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Side, inner face of landwalls, with lower alure extended inward on arches or piers, at second level partial roof of alure supported on piers against epalxis with windows and shutters (Professor Fred Winter, 1957)

We're Turning 40 in 2016!!!

There are seventeen foreign archaeological schools and institutes that are recognized by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture which can conduct archaeological fieldwork and related research in Greece. The Canadian Institute in Greece is proud to be a member of this important international community of researchers and scholars. In 1976 the then Canadian Archaeological Institute in Athens (CAIA) was granted official foreign school status by the Ministry. Our first fieldwork project at Khostia in western Boeotia started in 1980 under the direction of Professor John Fossey at McGill University. In 1981 we opened the doors of CAIA in Athens at Odos Gennadiou 2a with Hector Williams as the Director.  And the rest as they say is, archaeology……………….!!!

To mark the auspicious occasion of the 40^th anniversary of our official recognition as a foreign archaeological institute we are organizing a two-day Colloquium in Athens for June 10^th and 11^th, 2016. Entitled, “From Maple to Olive: A Colloquium to Celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of the Canadian Institute in Greece”, the Colloquium will highlight the many important contributions that our twenty Institute fieldwork projects have made in advancing our knowledge of Greek archaeology and historical studies throughout Greece, ranging from the Paleolithic period to Early Modern Greece.

We have announced a “Call for Papers” for submitting paper proposals for inclusion on the Program. The deadline for the submission of the paper title and the abstract is September 30^th.The papers given at the Colloquium will be published in the Publications of the Canadian Institute in Greece series.

Areas of primary interest for the papers:

1. Topics and studies relating to the archaeological fieldwork conducted under the aegis of the Canadian Archaeological Institute in Athens / Canadian Institute in Greece with permits from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture;
2. Research achievements resulting from study permits conducted under the aegis of the Canadian Archaeological Institute in Athens / Canadian Institute in Greece and issued by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture;

Other potential areas of interest for the papers include:

1. Topics and studies relating to Greek archaeology and architecture, sculpture, epigraphy, Aegean basin ceramics, numismatics, physical anthropology, ecofactual studies, scientific analyses, Byzantine studies and Post-Byzantine studies by scholars based at Canadian universities as well as by Canadian researchers with positions at universities outside of Canada.
2. Studies relating to the life and professional work of Canadian archaeologists, classicists and/or early travelers who were pioneers in Canada in the study of Greek culture in its broadest sense;
3. Studies relating to the founding and to the early years of the Canadian Archaeological Institute in Athens.
   

   We are honored to announce that a generous donation from Thracean Gold will cover the cost of the Colloquium. Last month Mr. Eduardo Moura of Eldorado Gold Corporation of Vancouver, BC and President of their Greek operations presented the Institute with the donation. Canadian Ambassador Robert Peck facilitated this positive interaction.  We will be seeking charitable donations for the expenses related to the publication of the papers.

   Our 40^th anniversary Colloquium next June will be a significant occasion in the Institute’s ongoing development.  We are seeking as a broad spectrum of papers as possible to showcase the amazing breadth and depth of the research that has been conducted under the aegis of the Institute over only four decades. The work of Canadian scholars pursuing research in Greece will also be celebrated. 

   So now is the time for potential paper presenters to start crafting their proposals. Who will be the first to submit? Who will be the last???

   Cordially,
   David Rupp
   Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Perge, Corinthian pilaster- or pier-capital (in N Basilica) (Professor Fred Winter, 1957)

The Fred Winter Collection

Hierapolis, near and distant views of Late Antique gate with lintel-under-arch (Professor Fred Winter, 1957)

Hi ho! Hi ho! It's off to our field season we go!!!

Kalo Mina! Now that we have arrived at June it’s time for our archaeological projects to take the field. This summer from Makedonia to the Kyklades to the Argolida and points in between there are Canadians who are conducting surveys, excavating sites and studying the finds from previous field seasons.

At ancient Argilos on the coast in Makedonia Dr. Zisis Bonias and Professor Jacques Perreault have started fieldwork relating to a new five-year research plan in their long-running synergasia. They have purchased a new plot immediately to the east of the Koutloudis Sector bordering the old National Road. Here they will continue uncovering the many-roomed Building L as well as probably other structures dating from the late 6^th through mid-4^th centuries BC.

At Kastro Kallithea in southern Thessalia Dr. Sofia Karapanou and Professor Margriet Haagsma are in the second year of a program of study and analysis of the artifacts and the ecofacts as well as the architecture that they recovered in the course of the excavations of Building 10 and of the Stoa in the Agora as part of their synergasia.

In eastern Boiotia the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project [EBAP] is completing their first five-year research program involving the excavation of ancient Eleon (modern Arma). This synergasia between Dr. Alexandra Harami, and Professors Brendan Burke and Bryan Burns will excavate the other portion of the so-called LH I/II “Blue Stone Structure” revealed last summer in the Southeast Sector on the acropolis.

In the northwestern Argolida the Western Argolid Research Project [WARP] is conducting the second of three years of intensive “site-less” survey in the Inachos river valley. Professors Dimitri Nakassis, Scott Gallimore and Sarah James are seeking to find evidence of occupation and resource exploitation from the Neolithic period through the 20^th century of our era. Their research zone covers what was, on and off, part of the hinterland of ancient Argos.

Finally, at Stelida on Naxos in the Kyklades a new five-year project began late last month as a synergasia between Dr. Dimitris Athanasoulis and Professor Tristan Carter. This is a continuation of the research at the site which began as an intensive survey in 2013 and 2014. In their test trenches they are attempting to uncover undisturbed archaeological strata so that they can find suitable organic and stone materials to date, using various chronometric techniques, what are probably Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artifacts, tool production debitage and quarrying debris that cover the slopes of this hill.

If you wish to see in person one or more of the 2014 fieldwork projects carried out under the aegis of the Institute contact directly the Canadian co-directors/directors for details on how and when you could arrange a visit.

Kala kai polla evremata vre paidia!!!

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Herakleia, still-standing arch of a minor gate in SE sector (Professor Fred Winter, 1957)