A flying visit to ancient Argilos

It is hard to believe that it has been three years since I last visited the Greek/Canadian excavations at ancient Argilos on the shore of the northern Aegean Sea. Last Friday I flew from Herakleio to Thessaloniki and then drove eastward on the Egnata autostrada towards Asprovalta, the nearest town to the site, and then on the old National Highway along the coast. My efforts were well-rewarded when Zisis Bonias (Director Emeritus, Hellenic Ministry of Culture) and Jacques Perreault (Université de Montréal) greeted me at the excavations on the Koutloudis’ plots which are along the northern side of the road. When I was last at the site they had just uncovered Building H. Since then they have completely excavated Building L and this year parts of Buildings P and Q. What is most impressive is the large size of each building which are made up of a long line of rooms (12 in the case of Building L) with common walls dividing them. The buildings are separated by a narrow paved alleys on each long side and apparently on each end. Based on present evidence there were three parallel lines of these buildings on the lower slope of the main hill of the ancient city. It is quite possible that the ancient east/west road ran in front of Buildings L and P, under the present road.

Zizis and Jacques showed me various rooms where the excavations had revealed evidence for the dating of the construction, use and destruction of the buildings. The various built-in features such as terracotta bathtubs, an oil press base and other installations provide evidence for how these rooms were used. The crew was hard at work with only a week to go before the end of the field season.

We then went to Amphipolis where the regional Archaeological Museum is located and where the team stores and studies their finds. The study crew was hard at work conserving the artifacts and studying the pottery. This is particularly important as they are preparing material for an exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki to open late next spring as part of the celebrations of the 25^th anniversary of their research at Argilos. They are organizing as well a two-day conference in Thessaloniki on the site and its wider interconnections to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. Over lunch we discussed these plans and their importance for both the Argilos project and for the Institute. This will be the first such conference focused on the research at a site excavated under the aegis of the Institute. Along with the exhibition catalogue the papers of the conference will be published. We very much look forward to both! We also discussed the possibilities for developing the site so that it could be visited by the public.

After the flying visit I drove back to Thessaloniki and then flew back to Herakleio. By evening I was back in Siteia, tired but very enthusiastic about what I saw and learned at Argilos. In August there will be a guest blog on the project by Jacques. In the course of three weeks I was able to visit our four current fieldwork projects and to see firsthand what they are accomplishing. You will have a chance to learn about all of this at our next annual Open Meeting in Athens in mid-May 2017.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director